In Between Business Edition: Exploring New Opportunities and Making Natural Pivots

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

And I'm Alexis. And we're 2 best friends on a journey to living a fun, intentional life.

We know it's easier to share on a season of life once it's behind you, but what about when you're in the middle of the growth, confusion, and decision-making?

This lifestyle podcast is for the everyday gal who loves to travel, talk about business, relationships, fashion, and everything in between.

Hello friends, and welcome back to another episode of The In Between Podcast. This is Astrid.

And this is Alexis. And today we're going to be talking about things that we are in between in our businesses. And I am a coach, business consultant. Astrid is a marketing consultant and a luxury boutique wedding photographer, brand photographer, all the things. And we are both kind of in different transition phases of our business. And we thought it might be fun to actually coach each other through the in-betweens that we're experiencing in our businesses, get some advice, ask each other some clarifying questions, and go a bit deeper together in these like question marks that we feel in our business. And I also think that one of the reasons I'm excited about this episode is Oftentimes when it comes to business and when it comes to entrepreneurship, it can be really easy to hold these in-betweens, these question marks, these uncertainties really close to our chests. And Astrid and I wanted to just like have a transparent episode of here are 2, you know, I'm a side hustler. I have a full-time job in tech. Um, Astrid being a full-time entrepreneur, but it's like, these are real things that you If you're an entrepreneur or you have a side business, these are real things that you might experience. And so we just want to be transparent as we walk through these instead of only kind of sharing things once they're already resolved or once we're ready to launch something. Oftentimes you don't really see kind of the decision process and the, the big, the big like uncertainty and sometimes insecurities in business. So I'm really looking forward to this discussion.

Yeah. Oh my gosh, me too. I feel like this has been an area that we constantly catch up on in our friendships and even within our mastermind group, but it's been a hot minute since we've caught up on the side of business in our lives. So it's, you're really going to hear an authentic conversation of when we are catching up on the side of our careers, of our businesses, and being able to speak life into each other and be like, okay, have you considered this? Have you considered that? And having that discussion where, hey, I want your input. Like, what do you see? And I think that also speaks to, like, the importance of having a really solid community that can bring that life into you. Because sometimes we can get so tunnel visioned into a specific topic, or like, oh, I'm not good at this, or this is not working, and what do I do because this is not working? And the people around us can see all the other ways things are working, and perhaps you can bring things together to create something new. So, um, I'm very, very excited for this conversation and yeah, just being able to be transparent of the in-between that can be so messy as an entrepreneur.

Agreed. I am really looking forward to this. Before we jump in, let's do some quick life updates. Do you want to go first? Yeah.

Yeah. So I have been home, which has felt so good. Um, I just genuinely miss my house and I have been loving it. So I have been, Just really fixing things around the house, organizing, and in a way nesting before leaving to Europe. And then this past week my sister came into town, which was super exciting, uh, for my nephew's, uh, high school graduation. So I feel old.

High school.

I know, I know. He is officially 18 and graduating. And yeah, we just had a really sweet time this weekend together, all as a family and celebrating him and being spontaneous. And I feel like when all of us kids come together— kids, right? We're all like almost 30 and up— we just bring that kid side of us out. And it's so fun because I don't know about you, but I get nostalgic about like the time being at home and how just chaotic and fun that also was growing up together.

Yeah.

And those like Sunday morning, Saturday morning vibes. So it's just been fun to tap into that. So yeah, I've been working on that and working on a new rebrand and website and just wrapping up work before heading off to Europe.

Oh, that's so exciting. The rebrand already, you've sent me a few things. It looks really good. I can't wait to see this next evolution of you and your business. And I totally know what you mean about the nostalgic feelings being with family. I tend to get that because it was just my brother and I growing up. And so I tend to get that chaotic, fun nostalgia when I'm with my cousins because we would all be down at my Nana's and there were 6 of us. And it's just like whenever we're now as adults, we're together, you kind of still tap in that inner child and you're joking with each other.

I love it.

It's like there's no other relationship really that you can do that with and that you have that long history with. And it's so special. So I'm so glad that you got to have that time with your sister. Congrats to your nephew too. That's amazing.

Thank you, love. Thank you so much. Catch us up on what's been going on on your side of things.

Well, Houston was hit with a tornado and a crazy storm last week. So I don't know when you're listening to this, but it was like May 16th and it was so intense. It came up so quickly. We got a tornado warning alert on our phones. Um, and then literally 10 minutes later, like, it was, it was upon us. Um, we even, like, Matthew pulled up his map on his phone, and it's so interesting, Google Maps actually had, like, a tornado symbol of where it was in Houston, which was so crazy that technology can show you that. Um, but it was about, like, 3 miles west of us and a little bit south, and then, like, moved through the city.

Wow.

But it ended up kind of dipping down and hitting Like the city itself, like downtown Houston. Um, so we kind of got a lot of the like residual tornadic winds up near us. But yeah, it was honestly so intense and scary. And Matthew and Piper and I were hiding underneath the, uh, the stairs. So a lot of houses in Houston are built for hurricanes, not built for tornadoes. And so no one has basements because of the flooding here.

Oh wow.

And like new builds and construction won't even build basements because of flooding. And so there's really nowhere to like go a lot of times if you are experiencing something like a tornado in, in like Texas. So, or like at least Southern Texas. So we were hiding in this little cubby underneath our stairs. I was like holding Piper. I was texting my mom being like, I'm, I just want to let you know this is what's happening. Like, I love you. And she's like, oh my gosh. And yeah, there was like that, that like And Matthew was standing right outside the cubby like watching. And it got— it happened at 6:30, so it was still light out. It got completely pitch black, Astrid. Like it was dark out.

Oh, wow.

And then the wind started going and like Matthew got really quiet. And when Matthew gets quiet, you know that he's like nervous. So then I was like feeding off of that energy and our power went out and it was out for 72 hours. And a lot of the city, about a million people were without power for a long time. Some people are still without power in areas that were hit really, really bad. But yeah, it was very scary. Yeah, just very grateful to be fine and our house is fine and our friends and family are fine. So it's all okay. But those little moments like make you kind of think so much about how quickly things can change that are completely out of your control that you have to take like, you have to go into control mode of like, what can you control? What resources do we have? What do we need to get? How long do we think we're going to be without power? So thankfully, um, Matthew's colleague had an extra generator and gave it to us. And so—

Wow.

We could plug in our fridges. Matthew ended up buying 2, um, AC window units, um, and we were able to run those and power the house. So the house Even though the house did get hot, it didn't get as hot as it could have. And we just kind of chilled in front of the AC units for the majority of the time.

So we didn't have to throw out any food.

We were able to like keep the house relatively comfortable. And, you know, we did what we could. And I'm just grateful for that because some people didn't have access to a generator and a lot of them ended up being sold out very quickly because of the storm. So yeah, that has honestly taken up a lot of my brain space.

Mm-hmm.

Um, the last couple of days, but just like getting back into the swing of things, power came back on late Sunday night and I'm so grateful that it did not have to impact my work week. Um, because all the places I would go to work didn't have Wi-Fi or power. So I was literally like, Matthew and I last night before the power came on, I was like, gonna go work at one of his friend's houses in The Woodlands who was not affected by the storm. And like bring Piper with me because today's high is like 94. I'm like, Piper, I don't want to sit in this house and like, or even if I were to go work somewhere, then Piper would be here. And I'm like, I just, I don't know. That makes me nervous. So all is well. Just grateful to have power. We're back. We're back, baby. And we're just trying to like stay positive and, uh, just be grateful for what we have and. And all that. So yeah, that's where I am. And then on a very light note, very, very light note, I planted our herb garden in the front, which is so cute, and picked out paint colors for my office. So fun life updates.

Girl, I am so sorry that happened. I of course knew that the tornado had occurred and we've been chatting about it, but I hadn't heard the specifics of how Like you both experienced it. I had chills just hearing you say that of like when it goes pitch dark outside and you just know and you're like, okay, this is real, real. And also thank God in a sense it happened at the time of day it did. Because if it would've been like during commute time and like, thank God Matthew was home with you.

It was, but it was at 6:30. Both of our good friends were in their cars when it happened. Like so many people we knew were driving and like, it was so scary. Like they took videos of it because they're just sitting in their car and they've got like stuff there. My friend Danielle, her car was literally shaking. And I, I don't know, I would just be, I would just be like liquid at that point. I would just be so nervous.

Yeah.

So thankfully, you know, they were okay, but I could not imagine being in my car. The other thing that like really tipped us off was hail. It started hailing.

Mm-hmm.

And like when you've got wind and the storm and then hail starts coming, it just shows you like temperature change, um, which is like indicative of a tornado. And so when the, when the hail started, I told Matthew, I was like, okay, like we need to, we need to like prepare for this because that's a sign. And anyways, it was just so scary and creepy. And, um, I— it also has in a way made us Start thinking about how to prep for hurricanes because we've been in Houston the last 2 years and there haven't been any hurricane, like there've been storms, but nothing like what we experienced last week. And it was scary. And I told him, I was like, we need to buy a generator. We need to have like an emergency kit. Like, because I guess a lot of the news reports said that this, this like storm pop-up is indicative of like a bad hurricane season to come. Mm-hmm. Which is like July, August, September, October. And so I was like, oh my gosh. So we were just like last night we were talking through like how to prep for hurricanes and what we're going to do and what our plan is. So it's interesting. It's very interesting.

Yeah, girl, that's, that's crazy. And I'm glad that you guys are starting to prep for that kind of scenario because once hurricane season comes about and like it's in the radar, everything sells out so quickly. So being able to have that stocked up will help. But I'm glad that you guys are okay. I'm glad that the house is okay and that you were able to have resources for it. But I know that was still a very hard situation. And just knowing so many people in your area, in your city have gone through, through it in general, um, has to be heavy. So my heart goes out to all of you and I'm glad that you're okay. Yeah.

Thank you so much. We're just, grateful, looking for ways to like help, help our neighbors. And I feel like it was really cool to see the city spring into action and like so many people were helping each other and people that had generators set up charging stations in front of their houses so people could charge their phones. And yeah, like we— the linemen that fixed our electricity 2 blocks north of us were from St. Louis. So we like brought them ice and a bunch of like packs of Gatorade and just like trying to do do things for people. Like when you're in a place where so much is put into perspective, I think you can either shift into like, woe is me, which yes, we definitely feel that, but also like that's the time to lean in and serve and it's the time to lean in and like try to help people with whatever you do have. And so we were just like very cognizant of that, of like how do we take what we have and the comfortability of having a generator and like we have ice. Okay, let's go like give it to people. Let's go do stuff with it. Um, which was, which was an interesting perspective shift to like get out of, you know, what's happening in your world and like focus on what's happening in, in other people's lives. So yeah.

Yeah, that's beautiful. I think like in the midst of tragedy can also bring out the beautiful side of community where it's like, okay, let me help you out. And how can we all step in and, and and be a light for each other. And here's what I have. What do you have? All that good stuff. And so I'm proud of you all for in the midst of that, being able to shift your mindset to it, which is not easy when you're in technically survival mode and how do we just breathe fresh air? So proud to be your friend.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, with that, let's shift into our topic for today, coaching each other through the in-betweens of business. So I would love for you to go first if you're game.

Yes.

I love the directness. You're going to go first and then I'm going to go second.

Okay.

I can definitely go first. Okay, great. Okay.

So if you are new around here, you haven't caught up with the most recent episodes, there was our real talk episode where I shared that I just didn't really know which direction I wanted my business to go in. Do I want to go back to corporate? Do I want to stay where I'm at? Do I just want to shift where the business overall is headed? And so that was a really tough space to be in.

Mm-hmm.

And ultimately, I just went back to my roots of like, okay, if I am able to basically put in solid content into my brain that stimulates like, okay, this feels aligned or this doesn't feel aligned, this feels like really lean into my intuition and not just add things to my to-do list. I was able to really realize, okay, I want to shift into the luxury wedding market and it's a whole new ballgame. So I've been doing so much research, taking courses on what does that all look like? Like your target audience is completely different. You're, yes, you're targeting brides and grooms, but primarily wedding planners. And there's just a lot of like ins and outs of it, learning pricing. I like, I like had not updated some of my pricing in a while. And I did some market research. I was, I've been charging like $1K under like St. Louis, Chicago market for the same service, if not more, because my packages included more things. And I was like, okay, so the market shifted up with inflation and everything. And I only shifted a few hundred bucks.

Mm-hmm.

And so. Anyway, so that helped out to get some clarity. So long story short, where I'm at right now on the business side is I still very much want to continue my photography business. I love it. I love my team. And now it's shifting to a more luxury market. Just someone that just very much values those fun editorial shots mixed with just lots of candid cinematic, I'm a fly on the wall kind of kind of hybrid. And so, um, I'm very excited about that. Very excited about that clarity. And then once I got that clarity, I was like, okay, my website needs to be redone. Like my logo doesn't align with it. Like this does not hit with the target market. Like no matter how hard I try, like this does not align. So that part of the business is like, I feel like on a good direction.

Okay.

Now what I would like your input in is I also equally feel Pun intended, in between. Because I, of course, had a corporate marketing career for quite a bit of time, like almost 10 years. And while I have loved being a full-time photographer, I very, very much also miss the extremely challenging situations I was put in in corporate that grew me so much of leadership and projects and like thinking strategically and like communication and like, how do we, we have this PR thing, like crisis, like how do we communicate well to all these people and like all of that challenge of things. I really miss it and I feel like I'm really good at it.

Mm-hmm.

And so I really, really miss all of that side. And so the way I'm trying to figure out how to do that is there is the education space within entrepreneurship in general of like, being able to coach photographers and coach other creatives. And I've been doing that this past month or this past year, not so actively, like mostly just people that reach out and I'm like, yeah, I'll take you on. I'll coach you through 3 months and we'll deep dive into your processes or your strategy or whatever. And I love that. Like, I feel like that gives me— that scratches my itch of like the challenging part because it's different industries. Like it'll be like a wedding dress designer, or it'll be a florist, or it'll be a hair salon, like just different things. And it makes me push— it pushes, pushes me into a different industry. So anyway, I don't know what that all looks like, but I think that right now I almost want to have like a hybrid business or 2 sides of me, of like continue to develop the wedding photography side, but then the other side, I just don't know what that could all look like. And then the other part that I find challenging is that it feels like in the photography space, everyone wants to be a coach. And so it feels overly saturated in the photography realm. So I don't necessarily want to just be like a photographer coach. And I genuinely like to work with multiple businesses. So I don't, I don't know. So I would love your input on what you see from me. You know more of my background too, and like marketing and all of that, and what possibilities that could bring.

Okay. So exciting. I, first off, I'm really proud of you for recognizing that tension that you felt a couple of months ago. You recognized that you were wanting a shift and you leaned in and you explored it and you got that clarity of wanting to be in the luxury wedding market. And now you're like taking action, which I love that about you. You like notice, you investigate, you get clarity, and then you take action. So right now I feel like you've already noticed this and you're already in the investigative part of this process. Is that correct?

Correct.

Yeah. Okay. So with the coaching, When you say this scratches an itch and it feels challenging, is that something that from a frequency perspective, how often do you want that or need that on, let's say, a weekly and then monthly basis? Because this is separate from photography.

Yeah. I mean, great question. I think that in an ideal scenario where both sides have grown, right, I would probably Scale back a little bit on how many sessions overall I'm taking on the photography realm. So if I scale back on certain things on photography, still keep the amount that I ideally want, then ideally, I mean, I think like at least one a day of a session of like, let's deep dive, let's create your strategy. Let's like go all in.

Okay. That's very clarifying. What, what, when you say that you want to do that daily. What kind of clients would you be working with or what kind of packages would you put together where the output of that would then be meeting with, let's say, a client a day during the work week?

Yeah, great question. I think that so far what I've really loved is whenever a business owner is running into Hey, I'm going to do a launch, or I don't really know what to do in my marketing. Like, will you just evaluate all of it right now? So being able to grab some kind of project, some kind of area, and then be like, okay, now you and I are going to sit together once a week for the next 4 weeks or 6 weeks or 8. And then like each meeting has a purpose of like, okay, say it's your marketing. Well, the next 2 weeks, let's do brand identity. Then we'll do social media. Then we'll do like your email. Then we'll do your workflows to actually execute. execute all of this? Like, what does it look like to actually implement all of that? Um, so I love that part of it. So it would be honestly any kind of business because even like the, the realms where I feel like I'm— I don't feel as quote unquote maybe excited about the industry itself, I'm excited about the strategy challenge of like, we don't know how to reach our customers. How can you help us come up with—

Yeah.

Okay.

I love this because you're zeroing in on a specific time when a business owner is going to reach out to you. So you're almost like doing triage and then you're going in for surgery where they, they have recognized like, I need help. You come in, you help us assess what kind of help they need. Then you make a plan, whether that's 4, 6, 8 weeks. So it's custom. Based on what they need. And then you go deeper into like the surgical aspect and you start to like really pick things apart and rebuild and restructure whatever their problem is. So I think what I'm hearing is that you are almost like a strategic marketing consultant. Like, do you want to implement or do you want to tell them how to implement and then they go do the work? Because I also think those are 2 different kinds of services. Whereas if you are implementing, you're almost teetering into agency work. And if you are doing consulting and they are implementing, that's more like, you know, you're kind of putting more boundaries around. You are a consultant and they are the ones that are implementing whatever strategy that you both agree upon.

Yeah. I think as of right now, it would just be the consulting side, just because I wouldn't be able to take on the workload of implementing. And I think if I were to take on the workload of implementing, then I think I would narrow down which industries I feel like I would feel confident leading and creating content for, creating things like that. So it just depends because even some implementation work wouldn't be social media work, right? Like it might be, hey, we want to create this magazine that can educate our customers on it. It's a one-time project, but I'm implementing it on an education onboarding, uh, process. Or like, okay, Astrid, um, I want— we've identified that my workflows need help. Um, and then the workflows, like I've taught them how important being strategic with your email is so you can actually catch their attention and all that good stuff. So Astrid, can you jump in and update all my Onboarding emails and then I'm out basically at that point. So I think I would just à la carte take those on depending on the industry that I feel confident doing that. But perhaps at the beginning, just a consulting.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think too, and you're very good at this, but I think the more clear that you can get on that, it will give you the margin that you need for your photography business. Whereas like when that scope starts to creep and like you start to do more of the implementation on top of the one-on-one meetings, on top of like managing your team of photographers, it's just like managing your time, your mental health, and like your capacity to a place that, you know, it feels really good. So in terms of like packages, I'm kind of, I'm hearing 3 different consulting packages.

Yeah.

I'm hearing brand identity and like knowing my customer, using language to attract that customer and just helping them get clarity on like who they are and who they serve so that they can communicate correctly to the right audience. Then I'm hearing processes. So you're kind of doing a big business audit and you're helping them redefine their entire systems and processes for their business. So that can look like pricing, that can look like implement— sorry, that can look like onboarding, that can look like, um, helping them with like fulfillment, um, maybe even their like social media process and how they create content. And then I'm hearing this third package, which is really interesting. And that's around like specific product launches. So they're launching a rebrand, they're launching, you know, some sort of creative project, but they're launching something. And so you're helping them like Get clear on maybe what that launch process is, and then you're breaking down the different steps of the launch. Do you feel like that articulately captures the different kinds of clients you're working with now and the different kind of clients you want to work with?

Yeah. Yeah. I would also add maybe a 4th one. Because I've had this type of business before where they've gotten clear on their brand identity. They know who they are, they know who they want to market. And then they just, as we all do, get stuck. Like, okay, how do I— like, I'm not getting enough client workflow now. Like, everything's aligned. My feed looks aesthetic. My website's on point. I'm doing all the marketing things, but it's just not working.

Yeah.

So what do you do when you're doing— you're checking the boxes and it's just not working? So like there's that audit where I go in and it's like I come up with new ideas or I do, uh, this thing where it's like I will look at other industries that are not the same or complementary. They're actually completely opposite. But then how can we draw some ideas from an opposite industry and turn it into for you? So you are like a pioneer in your industry with that idea.

Yeah.

And so it's more like, I guess, idea creation of just like, We're sitting down for an hour, you're telling me your pain points, and then I am spitballing new, or I come with like new ideas for, uh, for the business in that realm.

Yeah. Maybe that fits under the business audit and the business audit actually has like 2 prongs that come out of it. One is like process and one is ideation and like marketing strategy.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. I love that so much. From your perspective, what do you think would be most— what do you see me most in? When you see Asher, you're like, I feel like you thrive the most in X or Y thing.

Yeah. You mean of those categories we've outlined?

No, just taking a whole step back.

Okay. Like, oh yeah, okay.

Career-wise.

Career-wise, yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, I know the answer to that. Oh my God. I think at your core, you love helping people and you love helping people feel seen. You love helping people communicate. You see people really well and you do this in your luxury photography clients and weddings through the client experience, through getting to know the couple. Like that lights you up in that way. And then you really get to be incredibly creative. Um, and then on the business consulting side, you love getting in and investigating and you love like kind of turning every stone over and trying to understand like what's not working. And this is where you get to like I think lean into your analytical brain, whereas the photography side, not that it's not analytical in its own way, but it's more creative. And I feel like with the business consulting, you get to tap more into your kind of like that structure and the organization and the like strategy that a lot of times you aren't necessarily doing in the photography business. So I feel like At a whole, like both of them make sense. I think that as you investigate this rebrand, it might make sense at some point to split these into 2 different businesses, um, or find an umbrella name like Astra Johanna Creative or something like that where you can fit both businesses underneath the same umbrella or strategically separate them. Um, because as you mentioned, right now the consulting has been more passive in the way that it's just coming to you. Um, and I think at some point you may want to strategically make a decision to like have that be its own company and have that be its own name and brand. Or again, like I said, you know, have an umbrella company name where both photography and consulting fit underneath the same thing, if that feels more aligned.

Mm-hmm.

But I do think that you are kind of craving growth. And I think it makes sense for you to push your marketing brain. It's also a way for you to like keep the relevancy up. Like, you know what's happening in the market because you're working with clients in that way, similar to like what you were able to tap into with corporate. So I think they both make sense.

Yeah.

I think that with some structure and maybe Applying some of the own, your own strategies to like, how do you want to market and put some structure around the, the business consulting side of the business? I think that may be like your next step. What do you think?

Yeah. Oh my gosh. I think you absolutely nailed it. Thank you for that. I feel like hearing it in a full statement feels Very, very much in alignment, and I 1000% agree. I as I was working through the website, I created like a whole tab on it, and I was I deep dived into putting those services in there. But I was thinking through that of well should I turn this into a separate page or not? And so I think that right now it's going to live within the same because my my URL is just astrojohanna.com.

Perfect.

So it'll be like. Ashleyanna.com/businesses, right?

Or whatever.

And so as it grows, hopefully then it'll just become like maybe its own website. So maybe that's a 2025 or 2024.

What year are we in again?

Next year. Yeah. For next year thing. But yeah, that helps a lot and it helps a lot to just— I respect you a lot from your career and like your expertise and the fact that you See that as something like yes, you should pursue both things, and it doesn't feel like squirrel. I'm gonna go pursue this other crazy thing, and it feels in alignment. Yeah, not at all. It's great to have that like support as well. So yeah, you heard it here first.

Thank you so much for that business consulting.

I mean, even you guys taking on clients. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for that. I am excited to hear about you now.

Okay. So I am in a really big in-between in my business. I started the year with 7 clients. One was a business consulting client and 6 were one-on-one coaching. So now it's end of May going into June. I have now offboarded so many of my amazing clients. Their contracts have ended. Very natural progressions, and now I'm down to one client. And I am in this interesting place where I'm trying to figure out: Do I want to take on more one-on-one clients? You know, I haven't marketed that. It's not something that I have gone out and said, "Hey, I'm taking on new clients." So it's okay that we're here. But there's also this piece of me that. Recognizes, as much as I love doing one-on-one work, and I think that I will continue doing one-on-one work, there's a part of me that wants to use this pause to build something beyond myself. And so right now, the one-on-one, like, you know, I work with clients for 6 months, specifically on their business confidence or life confidence. And so in business confidence, we're talking about how they market themselves, how they communicate, how they price, how they get new clients. Um, we're digging into their processes, really similar to some of the things that you work on your consulting clients with. And then on the life confidence, we're talking through habits, we're talking through self-talk. Um, how are they taking action? What beliefs do they have about themselves that we need to up-earth and write new narratives around? And so a lot of my clients are business clients, but I'm doing the life confidence work as well. So it's a really beautiful blend and I love the holistic approach. And there's an aspect of me, and I know that this is because I work at Circle. Okay? And Circle is a community platform for brands and entrepreneurs and creators. And I have done different projects in the past where like I did my big deep reset in January. We got 200 women in. It was awesome. We had a great 2 weeks together. And then I was like, okay. And I just, I get overwhelmed, I think, with the idea of being the facilitator and the leader of something where I have to like go manage it every single day. There's something about that that feels a little overwhelming to me. And so at the same time, I think that's actually what I want. Like, I want to build a community and I want to build programs that go beyond one-on-one work. So it would allow me to help more people, serve more women. And I think at my core, the more that I've thought about it over the last month or two, I want to help women have more fun in their lives and their careers. Careers. And that's through fashion, that's through confidence, that's through habits, that's through knowing their values, that's through just having fun together. And like, I don't know what it looks like yet, but I'm just trying to figure out what that is. And does it start as a newsletter? Does it turn into a community? Do I launch a free community and then there's a paid aspect of it? Like, do I focus on building a small program first for 4 weeks? And just like serve those women first. Like there's so many different things I could be doing. And I, I think that what I'm realizing as my career ramps up in tech, one-on-one work is not sustainable for me. And so I need to find a way to scratch this creative entrepreneurial itch I've always had. And I think I will always have while also not creating something that becomes Um, distracting from the important work I do at Circle. So that's where I'm at right now. I know that's a lot. That's— and I don't think that we can solve this in one conversation, but I'm very open to what you see in me and what direction you think I could go in.

Yeah, well, I am excited to hear this because I think if there's one thing that I always think about when it's comes to Alexis Teichmiller, it's community. I think for the past 10 years or more, whether it was you moving to Nashville and bringing girls together down there, where it was you creating a podcast just for people to be seen, whether it's within your workspace where you're like, hey, let's do something together so that we can bring people together, whether it's online or not, you're a community builder. And so I think that it's very natural for you to be leaning into that. And I think that is exactly where What you said at the beginning of you want to build something that is evergreen, or I can't remember what the word you said, but like the out—

Yeah, like it's beyond you.

Beyond you. Yeah. And I think that heart goes along with building community because it goes beyond you. You'll facilitate, but these women, if you decide to focus on women, sounds like it is, will build relationships with each other too. And then they will read stories about each other that will be like, okay, I feel I'm not alone. I'm depressed. I am going through this breakup. I'm going through all these things. I need to work on my body image. And like, okay, I feel seen because they have gone through it too. And we're in this together and we can rally and move forward. And so I think that being able— I feel like there's a few things that I heard that may create some unnecessary blocks. So perhaps adding too much of a high expectation in the beginning is one of them that wouldn't make it as sustainable long-term. So how can you make it— what would you need to do at a bare minimum to still move forward in this goal and make it sustainable where you're still enjoying it every week and creating community? Because I think that sometimes the entrepreneurial side of us is like, do the most, bring the most, do all the things, and I need to post every single day. What would it look like if you just posed a question once a week and then maybe you did a reflective day, another day of the week, and then the women interact with each other? So there's so many different ways you could do that, right? But how can you keep it to a one interaction or 2 maximum for you? to manage every week, but you're just facilitating. And then maybe once a month or something, you bring them all together in a call or whatever feels digestible. So I would challenge you to just maybe meditate on what feels the most digestible, and even then tone it down a little bit more.

Mm-hmm.

Because you can always add onto it. You can always increase the frequency, but starting high, I wouldn't— I think it'd be hard to It might get too close to a burnout scenario.

Totally.

And then the other part of it too would be perhaps consider not charging at first just to eliminate the block of the entrepreneurial side of transactional, right? Because if you're wanting to build something beyond you, it doesn't mean that it won't be something that will become an income source. And perhaps within a month you turn it into an income source. But I would love to see your brain fully create all these ideas without the numbers and the pricing part of it first. Let your soul just thrive on all those ideas and then create the structure part that is necessary to— maybe you sell a PDF. Maybe you're like, here's my workbook, my journal, my goals habit journal with the little circles. There's so many ways to monetize after that. But I think sometimes when we are wanting to build something beyond us that starts with heart, and then we add the structure of money, we limit ourselves because we're like, well, would people pay for this? Well, no. Well, then I'd have to print this. Well, then the hassle of having to ship it. And then we bring ourselves back. So I think the full-on ideation step, let yourself dream really big. What would this look like 5 years from now? What would this look like 10 years from now? you have a community with you that's supporting you and leading this on beyond you. Maybe you'll just be the founder 10 years from now and you're not fully involved in it, but you kickstarted something that is transformational for women. So how does that sound? How does that feel?

Yeah, I like that. I like the idea of doing something that is free first. The Deep Reset has been free. It's always been free. And it always has a lot of engagement and it really resonates with women. So I think that there's definitely something there. And I also think that there can be pressure, especially working in tech and working with entrepreneurs every day. It's always like, what are you charging? And it's very price-focused because it's about how much money they're making. And that's okay because that's a part of being a business owner. I do like the idea of doing something for free for a certain set period of time to test different ideas, test different structures, different topics and themes to see what really resonates, and then build something that people are asking for and then maybe charge for that. And then people that really want it and have the resources for it can invest in it. I like the idea of like using the community as a way to like build a playground of ideas to find what's the most valuable for someone and then build something that they're really asking for versus I'm over here building something on my own and everyone's like, I'm like, I get like, I want to keep it private and then launch it and then like, yay, which I feel like the community would allow me to build in public. And I also want to build something with them, not for them. And I think that's another like big mental shift I'm going through right now is I don't want to be the end-all be-all expert of whatever it is that I build. I want it to be like Alexis is learning this too. She's figuring this out too. She's testing too. She's going to get things wrong. And like we can do that together instead of A lot of times you see entrepreneurs, they are the expert and they're teaching that specific formula on how to do something. And it does kind of create this separation from them and their community, if that makes sense. And so I—

Absolutely.

I want to be like a practitioner with my gals instead of like, oh yeah, Alexis knows everything. And I think that's something that really stands in my way mentally because I get in my head about Like the ego and the imposter syndrome says, well, we've built something and now we can't be vulnerable with them because we can't let them see that we are still figuring our shit out. And I think that's a huge lie that I've told myself a lot. So yeah, I love the idea of keeping it simple, lowering the expectation, keeping it free For a certain set period of time until clarity arises of what something could be that might be a paid offering. But I think that that feels really good. I still have this cyclical pattern of wanting to do all the things and then getting paralyzed and overwhelmed by the work.

Mm-hmm.

that it's going to take to do it. And so I, I think my biggest takeaway from this discussion is I need to start small and keep it small until my mindset opens up so that I can like take on more capacity instead of like starting and being like, it's got to be the biggest, most meaningful, most transformative. Like, yeah.

Yeah.

So much expectation. And I I get freaked out by the work of it all and I'm like, oh, that just sounds stressful, or whatever the excuse is, honestly. So yeah, this was really helpful.

Well, I'm glad. I'm glad. I do have one more thing as you were chatting about the community aspect of it. I think having that shift from Alexis Teichmiller publishes to this What if you did something where like the community is publishing something? So say it's a goals-oriented habit tracker, or it's how to have more fun as a woman in your 20s, 30s, et cetera. And you're like, hey community, this is something that we all have been leaning towards, whatever. Each week you are asking questions, they're chiming in to give you that information, and you're building it along with them.

Mm-hmm.

But then the the launch first happens within the community. They test it all out, and then you do a launch from like the community itself is launching this product. So say the reset community is launching this, not Alexis Teichmiller. And then you have all these stories and testimonials plugged into there of like, okay, here's my story of my habits journey, and then here's Maria's story of their habits and journeys, and here is like so and so's, and there's like. multiple people that are launching it.

Yeah.

And also because of that sense of community, that could also help split the workload that it might take to like launch something like this too. Um, and so I think that's such a beautiful way to put those resources out into the world where it's also been tested by the community. Here's what our community is saying, here's our community used it, we're, we're excited to invite you in. And then it's an Yeah. So yeah, so I think you're very much on the right path. I feel like bringing all those little pieces together and doing a trial version of that might be really fun to bring it all together and also reduce the aspect of I need to do all the things. Myself.

Yeah, yeah. Like inviting them and giving them responsibility to like be an active participant in instead of like me being the, the person that is creating all the content. And I think even like the best communities that I'm seeing, it's, it's people that are in there asking questions, sharing wins, like sharing a challenge, asking for advice. It's like where the community's talking to each other, you know. It's not just the the person that started the community is asking all the questions and answering all the questions.

Yes.

It's where there's truly this symbiotic relationship where it's incredibly collaborative. And I think that's what I'm looking for. And I think that's all about how you set it up and how you introduce it. So yeah, this has been really helpful. I want to spend a couple hours with my whiteboard and just figure out what this can look like, V1, and not stress myself out that it needs to be like version 7 of it, um, from the start. So thank you, this was really helpful.

Good, I'm glad that was helpful. I'm excited to see it all come together and be a part of that community. And yeah, just being able to have fun with it, I think like that you are such a great example of that. And so being able to bring that into this as well and like Let yourself just dream big and remove those blocks first and then execute after. So I'm so excited. Thank you so much for hearing me out, for seeing me, for being able to speak those words of life into me too, of what you see that I could be doing. And this was so, so fun. We need to do this once a quarter at least.

I was going to say monthly.

Monthly, yes.

You need to bring a business problem up And because there's so many things that come up that I think this is another way that we're showing community, like we're, we're working in public or like creating in public.

Yeah.

So, um, if you liked this episode, you resonated with this, you want more of this, please let us know in the DMs. Um, we love seeing like what of our topics and what we share of our lives really connects with you. And if you want more of it, we can do it monthly. And if we hear nothing, We may still do it monthly. But yeah, if you're loving the pod and you haven't rated us yet, rate us on iTunes, Spotify, or whatever podcast player you're listening to. Thank you for being here and listening every week. We're so thankful for this community. You can connect with us on Instagram @inbetween.pod, or you can connect with me personally @AlexisTeichmiller.

And you can connect with me @astrojohannaphoto. Thank you all so, so much for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time.