Stop Playing Small—It’s Time for Your CEO Era

Welcome to the In Between Podcast, a show for women navigating the space between where they are and where they want to be.

This is your go-to holistic business podcast where we dive into strategies, mindset, habits, and of course, making a meaningful income so you can live your dream life.

I'm Astrid, a multi-six-figure luxury wedding photographer and a former corporate marketing girly.

And I'm Alexis with 10+ years in tech as a senior brand partnerships manager and business coach. Think of us as your business besties cheering you on as you level up. Let's get into it. Welcome back to another episode of The In Between. It is one half of the pod, Alexis, and the other half, Astrid.

And today we are talking about how to step into your CEO era. And I am so excited for this because if you listened to our last episode, we rebranded and now we are shifting over more to holistic business topics on the podcast. And so we're kicking things off nice and strong. And if you have a business right now that you're wanting to shift your mindset from offering the service, from providing the service to your clients and more CEO mindset, which is how to grow your business, how to set very strategic goals, like that kind of mindset, we're going to talk about it. On today's episode.

Yeah, I am ready to dive in. I think this is a great first topic to kick off the new era of the pod. And this is also for someone who maybe started a side hustle and you've been thinking of it like a hobby and you want to start taking yourself more seriously and maybe even become aware of ways that you self-sabotage and really like stepping into a CEO mindset. Regardless of even the size of your business. And when you get that clarity around what mindset you really want to have with your business, it's then like leveling up from there and realizing that there are no limitations to what you can achieve. A lot of it is mindset and what we believe to be possible. So I'm really looking forward for, for Astrid and I to share our tips and, um, get into the nitty gritty. But before we do, You know, we're keeping life updates. Um, so do you want to go first?

Yes.

Yes.

So life has been really nice and busy on this side of things, but really, really good on the fun side of things. I have been planning a trip to Mallorca with some of my closest friends, which I'm really excited for, and getting ready for my second round of Eurosummer. So I have the opportunity to shoot a wedding out in Tuscany. Then we'll go to Mallorca and then still trying to figure out what to do after Mallorca, but definitely wanting to stay a little bit longer in Europe. And besides that, on the goal setting side of things, but on my personal life, my boyfriend and I have started this fun thing that we do on Sundays where it's called Tea and Talk and we run through our highs and lows of the week and our goals Like the goals that we set the previous week, how we did in them, and then we set new goals for the coming week. And it's just been so fun because it's more of a light structure that he has just been setting up for us. And I just get to show up for, which I just set a lot of goals in my own business. So it's nice to show up and just a fun bonding activity together where we get to cheer each other on in our goals. support each other, to hold each other accountable, and just have a very intentional time to debrief on the week and have conversations. So I am loving that. And yeah, getting ready to go to Miami for a wedding this coming weekend. What about you?

You are booked and busy, and I love that you and your boyfriend do that. I think it's beautiful. I think it's also those weekly rituals. Where you're having such intentional conversations and challenging each other, encouraging each other. Matthew and I actually spent our date night last week going through our personal goals and getting clarity on them and really getting clear on what we wanted to happen this year. And I think there's nothing better than having your partner in your corner. And I think sometimes when we set personal goals or even business goals, we don't tend to share them a lot because I think there's like an aspect of it that can be really vulnerable. But when you can let somebody in And even ask you questions, it really does help you refine and speak to the goal more clearly than if it's just rolling around in your head. So I think that's a really cool ritual that you guys do. On this side, it snowed in Houston, which is so exciting. If you have listened to the podcast for a while, you know my Midwest heart loves the cold and loves snow. I have such a cabin-y personality. And so we got out with Piper and Matt and I, like we got all bundled up and went to the park. Oh, that's so fun. Because also it's Houston, which means the snow's already melting this afternoon. So we went to the park and played in the snow. It was so much fun. And then on the business side, I kicked off my January ritual. I've done this the last 3 years and did our Deep Reset Challenge. So it's a little bit different than the last couple of years. In the last couple of years, it's been more of a workbook and more self-led. But this year we're doing a challenge similar to like a 75 Hard. And I knew that because of the challenge format and it's 30 days of committing to daily habits and showing up for yourself, I knew that we would have less women than like, hey, here's a workbook, more of a freebie, and then there's a community to kind of support it. So my goal for this was 50 women and I got 52 women to join the challenge.

Oh, wow.

Which is really exciting. So we had our first call last night and I got to meet some of the women and talk through their goals. And nothing lights me up more than hearing women's goals and helping them get more specific on how are we going to make it happen, what's the plan. And so that was really fun. And yeah, just really leaning into how much that brings me joy. And then on the work side of things at Circle, crazy busy launching a bunch of campaigns, working on a bunch of fun things I can't talk about yet, but when they are launched, I will tell you. And then we're having our next offsite retreat in Spain actually.

Nice.

So I'm going to get to go to Spain twice this year. I feel so grateful. And so me and 2 of my girlfriends are planning on going in a couple of days early that work at Circle, and we're going to cowork. And we found some really cute Airbnbs. So we've just been planning and booking that. And you'd be so proud of me. We're going to be in Spain 6 days prior to the offsite starting, and we are only paying $390. US per person for 6 days. So my budget, like my budget-conscious self, we are saving money this year. Um, and so we still were able to find amazing places at such a great discount on Airbnb. So slay.

I love it. I am so proud of you. You're already crushing your goals.

Thank you.

And finding new ways to do things, like it sometimes doesn't mean you can't travel or can't do something, but how can you modify it to meet your goals? So I'm proud of you. I love seeing all the Deep Reset content as well. It's so motivating. And seeing all the girls post about it too and hear their stories and what goals they're setting. And there's nothing better than a community of women that decide to go after their goals and truly take action. And I love, love, love to hear that. So I am so excited for today's episode.

Thank you.

Before we jump in though, shall we do our in-betweens?

Yes. This is a ritual that we are keeping in this new era of the pod. So yeah, do you want to go first?

Sure. Yeah, I almost forgot, which is so sad because this is the core of our podcast.

The name.

I was like ready to dive in. Okay, what am I currently in between? So yeah, if you're new around here, we do this every episode and just sharing very honestly of where we find ourselves in. Right now I feel like I am in between a growth spurt and it's both really exciting and also it feels like it's stretching me in a lot of different ways. And yeah, it's one of those things where you have to just recommit every day and it almost feels like a really hard workout where you're holding a plank and you have to go longer. And I just kind of want to give in sometimes and I'm like, oh, but it's just too much. And I know I can hold it longer. And so that's what life feels like right now, but also feels aligned. It doesn't feel like this big hustle culture. It just feels like what I need to do to get stronger. And so I have brought on a few different contractors to help me optimize my workflows because the business has grown and I've created lots of workflows for myself. But then bringing on a team was a whole different level of workflows. And so I brought that person on. I brought someone on to help me reorganize my Asana, which if you've been here for a while, you know that I am crazy about like project management and all of that. But again, like the business just took its own shape this past year. And then I'm investing in a social media manager as well that I'm really excited for. So just really leaning into contractors in this season. And that also requires a lot of like Setup, implementation, reviewing, giving content, creating content, like all of that. Um, so yeah, I am in a season of learning, reevaluating, letting things go that don't serve the business anymore and just really trimming that fat around, um, the things that eat up my time. So growing pains, but they're good ones.

It's so cool to see you stepping back, analyzing the business and actually hiring people and hiring contractors to come in and Help you refine, help you optimize. And it also just goes back to sometimes that can feel like a financial sacrifice in the short term. And and while it is like while it is an investment in the short term, you're also investing in the long-term growth of your company. And so I'm really proud of you for like doubling down, focusing on that even though it can sometimes be financially uncomfortable. You in six, eight, twelve months are going to be so freaking glad that you did. So. That's a good in-between. I know that it can sometimes be overwhelming, but it's a good one.

Thank you.

Okay. On this end, things I'm in between right now, I would say, let's see, there's several. I would say on the more tactical, practical side, I'm still getting my bearings around planning, shooting, editing content. I feel like I've definitely instilled more tools and more systems, like actually planning out my month and planning out ideas. But then the actual filming and editing, I don't know about you, if you're listening, how much content you might film but never actually edit and then never actually post. And that's the thing is I'm realizing that creating content, filming, taking photos, very easy for me. But actually sitting down and working up enough skill to be really good at editing and getting quick at it, that has been the part where my system kind of breaks down. And so I filmed a vlog yesterday, but now I need to edit like 20 minutes of content down to 60 seconds or less, add captions and all of that. And so I know this is a a, um, I would say probably a common in-between or a common pain point, but I think it's something that I can sometimes get frustrated at myself because I have this goal of growing my social media community and then there's this like hangup. And so I'm really working to refine it and hey, I'm already farther along than I was 3 months ago. And so I'm glad and proud of the progress and also I'm ready to kind of Break through this next blocker and get to the point where it feels more consistent.

Hmm. Thank you. She's like, "Yes, yes, yes." No, seriously. Thank you for sharing that. I feel like that is the most relatable entrepreneurial thing you could have said because I don't know about you all listening, but I feel like. Social media content is always one that is in the forefront of New Year's goals for a lot of entrepreneurs. And yeah, there's so many aspects to it. It's like such a big aspect to it of creating content, very time consuming, lots of editing, like plus the caption plus the sound. I had a girlfriend share yesterday. She's like, I literally just spent 3 hours trying to find a sound for this like wedding reel. And she's like, it's just so important. Like, I would rather not post it than post it with the wrong sound. And so the struggle is real, but you are doing amazing. We love the content that you've been posting. It'll be so worth it. And I'm just sad I can't see the 20-minute version. It's like your Taylor Swift 10-minute version of the vlog.

Literally. And actually the thing that I've been ruminating on and I've, I'm, I'm tossing it back and forth in my mind. So this is not me committing to it. But something I've been really curious about is getting on YouTube because I do like more long form. But I think if I did that, I would have to hire an editor from the beginning. Like, here's all my content, I'm uploading it, and then they produce it and edit it and make it pretty. I think that would be amazing. Um, but I need to look into how much that costs and all that because I'm already filming so much of it on my iPhone. Um, and I know that with the TikTok ban, there's been a big move away from the platform. Um, I think a lot of people are kind of upset and frustrated, and I don't know, the vibes and the aura on TikTok lately are just different post-ban. I don't know if you've felt it, but I have.

Absolutely.

And a lot of people are like, I'm done, and they're moving over to YouTube, actually YouTube and YouTube Shorts, not even Instagram. So yeah, potentially diversifying the social platforms. But with that said, um, and decision-making and mindset and experimentation, let's talk about stepping into your CEO era. Do you want to kick us off with your first tip on how can we do this?

Yes, absolutely. I think before we start to like, what is the CEO mindset? Um, because it can be so different for everyone and in my journey, I have had the business since 2017, but I feel like I didn't really step into my CEO era until I went full-time because mentally when I was still in a corporate job, it still felt like my side hustle. So this is your encouragement that if you have a side hustle, you can still step into the CEO mindset while it's a side hustle. And so when I went full-time, I realized I was thinking too much of it like an employee, like I have to start at this time and then I have to get this done. And then there was no big picture thinking and it felt like a gap because before I used to get that from leadership that led me. And so stepping into your CEO era means where are you driving your business or else your business and your clients are going to drive you into where they want the business to go. So it's really taking ownership of that. And so we're just going to share some tips today of what it means to each of us to step into our CEO era. And hopefully that will encourage you to create your own little menu of how to become the best CEO for your business. And so the first one for me is having vision into what is the business that you want to create 3 to 5 years from now. And I think that as entrepreneurs, sometimes we take on this role to be free and have this freedom and create what we want to create. And then we accidentally end up in the same box that we used to be in. We feel like we're not good enough, whether it's a mindset box, whether it's a financial box, whether it's a goals box. And so I think that part of the role of the CEO is consistently be pushing, almost like a coach of what's that next growth muscle and where do you want to be from now? And Not just copy paste from other people because what you want for your life is different than what I want from my life. We have had some guests on the podcast that are incredible moms and have built businesses that are very successful and they don't work an 80-hour week like one would think in that case. Maybe for you, you want to travel and have that freedom. Like, what is it that you want to be doing 3 to 5 years from now? And how can you backtrack into what you're doing today? to set it up that way. And so in my case, whenever I went full-time, I realized, okay, I want to have kids at some point in the next 5 to 10 years. And so it's going to take some time to build a team. And I realized, I don't think I want to part with my business, but realistically, I don't want to be super 80 hours, 60 hours a week at the pace I'm going now. in the business when I have kids and I want to be intentional with them. And so that's really what triggered me starting my team and pouring into others and diversifying where my income is coming from. It's thinking long-term. And while what's this wedding photography serves me now, it may not serve me later. And maybe it will, but maybe not as many weddings as I do now. So Yeah, I think this is like a really, um, a good exercise to brainstorm on and not put a lot of pressure on it. And if it doesn't come to you naturally, just think on this for literally the next year. Like, as you're doing business, like, just be like, okay, this project, would I want to be doing something like this a year from now? Would I want to be doing this when I'm 35? And just let it ebb and flow, but continue to develop that. Because I truly believe if you have no vision of where you're going in your business, It's going to end up running you in a certain direction. So you might as well choose what direction it is.

Amen. Great advice. I think similar, but almost opposite. So you're talking about like vision forward. I think that my tip is digging into the beliefs attached to your business. So when you look at your past and you look at the narrative that you've built around who you are as a business owner and you say, I could never launch that. I can never make 6 figures. I could never make half a million dollars. I could never work with that kind of client. I could never travel and live in Europe for 2 months and still run my business. Like, what beliefs have we attached to our business and how could those be limiting What's capable for us, and so when if you're constantly believing, especially for my side hustlers, if you're constantly believing I could never go full time, I could never go full time. Like that's just never going to happen for me. I have to keep the W two. And hey, I'm not. I am in no way demeaning the W two. I love my job. Like I think it's all around the narrative of it. I like having. My full-time job and I also love my, my business. And if you don't want to have a W-2 long-term, but your belief around that is I have to have it to survive, my business can't quote unquote make what I need it to make so that I can leave. A lot of that will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And so as you're stepping into your CEO era, If you can pay attention to your thoughts and your beliefs around what you think is possible, start writing them down. Don't even do anything with them yet. Just start writing them down, start noticing them and seeing, okay, is this belief productive? Does it match the vision like Astrid said? Or does this belief actually fall into the category of like negative, not helping me, dragging me down, I'm being my own worst enemy? And I think that's where you can decide, okay, what beliefs do I need to change here so that that can inform my thoughts and then that can inform the action I take based on that.

So powerful. And I genuinely feel like that is foundational to any goal you'll set in your business because no matter the goal, if your belief system is upside down and it tells you that you can't, then unfortunately you're kind of treading, going against the flow of things. And I don't know if this has happened to you or if you've encountered this in your circle, but one limiting belief that I see often in the creative industry is, I'm a creative. And so I don't, I don't do finances. Oh, I, I just like ebb and flow with my goals. Or yeah, my time is just like ebbs and flows. And then suddenly you have no profit left at the end of the year. Suddenly your accountant is like knocking down your door and like, what the heck? And then your clients are like, you're not responding to me. Or You're not turning around your work at a good time because you're just being creative with it. And I think sometimes, hot take, in the creative industry, we use the creative title as a crutch to, and like to hide some of those limiting beliefs. Because I genuinely think it's just, it's just fear. Fear that you don't understand your finances. Fear that you might not be able to deliver what the client wants. You're being a perfectionist with it. And so I love that you brought this on because it is so prevalent in the entrepreneurial space.

Yeah, big time. And sometimes that can even be an excuse. Like we, the age-old, well, that's just the way that I am. Like, I think that, that we can like self-perpetuate. Okay. If that's just the way that we are, then we aren't opening up doors for change. And so, yeah, I think just building a muscle of awareness. And then you can dismantle each one of those unproductive beliefs bit by bit. Okay.

Yeah.

Your turn.

Okay. Speaking of awareness, um, my next tip is awareness around your time as, um, as a CEO. And so being able to, let me backtrack. Whenever you're running your business, you wear a lot of different hats. You're doing the finances, you're doing the marketing, you're doing the client management. You're doing a lot of things. And so just taking time, even if it's just one full week where you're becoming aware, okay, how much time did I spend sending emails? How much time did I spend responding to clients? How much time did I spend creating content and doing marketing? And then out of all of that time, being able to measure what of what I actually did move the needle and being, you being able to decide, okay, well, actually all of it was pretty much maintaining the business and the flow of it. And there was nothing that moved the needle. I didn't post this week. I didn't market. I didn't invest in the business. So, okay, that wasn't— there wasn't any CEO showing up this week, which is okay. How can you show up more next time? And so I think this exercise just really helped me because one, it helped me decide when I needed to hire an assistant back then because I was spending so much time just keeping the business running that I had no time to do all the other stuff, which ironically is where I find myself now in the next growth. I'm like, I have to invest in these resources to clean it all up so that I have more time to do what I know that I can do, what I want to do as well. And so track your time. I know it doesn't sound glamorous or anything, but it'll take just a few seconds. So every time that you maybe a 4-hour sprint, okay, what did you do? How much time did you spend on those things? And hot, like not hot take, but pro tip. There's a lot of those admin things too that you can include AI or workflows to do for you. And so a lot of entrepreneurs will spend their time responding to so many emails that you're repeating yourself and it could have just been a template and it could have saved you so much time. So awareness of your time is my second tip.

Love this tip. This is something I work on. With my clients a lot, especially the women that come to me and they're very overwhelmed and they're on the brink of burnout. We immediately go to their calendar and I'm like, let's open it up, share your screen. Like, I want to see how you're spending your time and being able to actually, you know, usually Monday we make a CEO day like you mentioned. So it's like, okay, this is the day where you're doing admin and then saying, I'm only doing calls on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And then I'm working on this kind of work on Thursdays. And them being able to even attach certain types of work or certain types of ways that they're showing up energetically throughout their week really helps with energy management as well as time management.

Yes, absolutely. I love that. What's your next tip?

Next tip is around self-sabotage. At a subconscious level, we self-sabotage because we don't think that we deserve the business, the life, the income that we really want. And so when we start to take action and we build momentum towards what we say we want and what we— I think at a deep level, what we do want— self-sabotage comes in and is like, ooh, I'm uncomfortable. And I'm going to need you to go back to your old patterns because I don't really think that this is worth the risk of change. And so a big way that this can show up with self-sabotage is the way that we talk about our business. And so this is something I've worked on with a handful of my clients. I had a client specifically that really struggled to talk about her business and she wanted her business to grow. And a big aspect of her client portfolio was local. And so when she would be out in her local environment, she struggled to talk about what she did and claim it and say, this is my title, this is my business. And as a result, she would tend to kind of downplay it or even her energy, her tone, and her body language when she was talking about her business wasn't as confident as she wanted it to be. And so the energy that she was putting off wasn't attracting new business. And so we really worked on the mindset around how we talk about our business, how we show up. We don't use words like little, tiny, you know, small project. Like we really want to embody the power of being a business owner and not necessarily like inflating it, right? But we do want to show up and posture ourselves as someone who's trustworthy, someone that will do good work, someone who's excited about the work that they're doing. And you can really feel energetically when someone's like not quite believing in themselves. And I think that it can show up in the way that we sell and the way that we talk about what we do. And so Roxy Nafusi, I'm reading her book right now called Manifest: The 7 Steps to Building Your Dream Life. Highly recommend. She says, fake it until you become it. And I think that's a big aspect of self-sabotage and the words that we use towards our business is we need to speak and become the business owner and almost fake it in a way of like, this is who I'm becoming. I am manifesting this. This is my business. And in a way that we bring it to the table when we're talking with other people. So That's something I know I've worked on a lot with myself and not downplaying myself as a coach or even the expertise I have in my industry. I noticed a couple of years ago I really struggled with how to talk about myself in a way that was approachable, but also I'm proud versus like, I kind of do this and I kind of worked with them and then I kind of did this. And it's just not authoritative and confident and secure in the way that I wanted to show up. So I think that's a big thing that we can work on as we're stepping into our CEO era.

I love that so much. I think that a lot of times we don't communicate that because we feel scared that we're being egotistical or coming off as cocky or anything like that. And this is your full permission to just be proud of the work that you do and it is not cocky, it's just facts. You're amazing. Period. That's the fact. You're great at what you do. If anybody asks to say that in between, Pod Girls told you.

It's not being cocky, it's facts, she says.

I love it.

I love it.

But it's so true. And I love that you brought that up, that you brought that up and that it's something that we can all practice. And as we grow in our business, We'll find new things and new levels that are intimidating to us. And we're like, all right, we're launching this new offer. This feels prickly. I'm nervous. Like, are people going to think that blah, blah, blah. But it's like, yes, let's look at the proof. I think that's always like something that can help too, is like, what is the proof? How long have you done it? Have your clients been satisfied? Is this knowledge that you do have that you practice yourself in your own life? Like, there's so many ways to validate it, but. I love that you work with your clients on that. My next one, you touched base on it a little bit ago, but I'm going to dive a little bit deeper just into how I do it, which is scheduling your time. And so a lot of times, well, let me backtrack. I developed this whenever I went full-time and I just suddenly found myself with a blank calendar and not sure how to structure my days. And part of that mindset part that you were mentioning too is like calling myself a CEO and being like, okay, if I set up CEO days on my calendar, then I'm going to show up as a CEO and not just be reactive to it too. And so a lot of times in your business, you can find like, okay, I'm not creating enough content or I need, for example, as a photographer, I should be submitting to publications, but I'm not doing it. Okay, it's January, so let's choose 4 days, one every quarter that we're going to block off and we're going to add it to our Google Calendar where you're going to submit to publications. It's in a way automated for you of when you're going to do it. You don't have to think about it so much. And as long as you stick to the plan that you created, it's going to work really, really well. The other thing that I would say is in the last tip that I shared, it was having awareness around your time. So after you have awareness, how can you funnel things in that make sense together and bulk that together? So for example, for me, Thursdays are my meeting days and I have a bit of like ADHD tendencies. So if I have, say, a meeting at 10:00 AM and then another one at 1:00 and then another one at 4:00, my brain sometimes like doesn't let me fully like do the other things I want to do leading up to that 10 AM, and then suddenly I'm done at 11, but I have a 1 hour, but lunch is coming, and it just feels like my whole day evaporated and I did not get anything done. So my solution for that is, one, I try to filter all my meetings to Thursdays, or 2, I know that my most productive creative time is in the morning, so I try to protect that at all costs, and I'll try to do meetings towards the end of the day where I'm still going to be present, but it's not going to steal away from my focus. So be aware of your time. How can you bulk some tasks in? I also had a previous client who had a lot of fittings. She, she's a, she creates custom bridal gowns. And so she was similarly with the meetings she was having all throughout the week, different fittings at different times. So we set up Tuesdays and Thursdays. That's only when clients can do that. And she would go from the morning to super late. But guess what? Now we freed up time for the other days where she could create content, where she could like dream up new designs too. And so anything that you wish, you should schedule it, in my opinion. Like if it's not on the calendar, it's going to be a little bit harder for it to occur. Um, but yeah, if you're struggling with feeling overwhelmed, if you're struggling with keeping up with things, just look at what are your routine tasks and assign days for it. And that has been super, super helpful for me.

I love this because it's so practical, like just sitting down and actually planning out your time and setting boundaries with your time. I, I think another aspect of this is If you have your calendar open and anyone can schedule a call with you at any time, like it's really difficult to feel in control of your schedule. And then you kind of feel like life and business and clients are happening to you instead of you feeling like you're in charge. And granted, there are a lot of things outside of our control, but I do think an aspect of this and stepping into your CEO era in general is taking ownership over your time, over your mind, and over your environment. And like, what boundaries do you need to put in place to protect that? So big yes to that. Um, my last one, speaking of boundaries, is saying no, and specifically saying no to work that's not worth the income. So I had a client recently, um, towards in Q4. And I'm so excited because in Q1, like, she's totally redoing so many things and it's as a result of her getting clarity on this. So she had this new revenue stream pop up in her business. She was really excited about it and she wanted to basically change the direction of her business and only focus on taking clients with this new offer. But she had all these retainer clients and contract clients where she was doing this other kind of very, very time-consuming work, and it was pulling her away from a higher-ticket offer and an offer that brought her more joy and more energy and something that she was just really, really excited to work on. And so when we reviewed her time, the amount of time that she was spending, similar to what Astrid was just saying, on why is she feeling burnt out— okay, well, these retainer clients are taking up Like 90% of her time, and then she's trying to jam all these dreams into 10% of her schedule. And so when we looked at her finances and said, okay, if we're able to bring in X more clients at this higher ticket offer that you're really excited about, you'd be able to cover your retainer clients with like two of these other deals. And so when we started doing the math and looking at her time, and also the kind of energy and life she wanted to build. She was able to let go and fire her, you know, quote unquote fire. She was able to let go of her retainer clients and everything ended wonderfully and like it was all good vibes. And now she has freed up her schedule and her business to really go after this whole new area that she feels lit up by. And she's starting the new year with a completely different energy and excitement towards what she can build in 2025. And what do you need to say no to? What is time-consuming to you where it's actually becoming more of a detriment to your energy or even the growth of your business? Because maybe you have some other revenue streams that you want to open up or things you want to offer, but because you're so bogged down by things that require a lot of time and maybe aren't making you the most income, you don't actually give yourself the freedom to walk down that new path. And your business could take a completely different direction. So where could you potentially be blocking your growth? And what do you need to let go of this year to make room, um, to receive your next level of growth?

I love that. What a powerful story. If she listens to the podcast, shout out to her because we are so proud of her. Um, and yeah, a lot of times too, we don't realize if we move things around, we can step into what we want to do and the income is going to be greater. Or that if we're able to sacrifice something on one area, then you're able to really have what you want. So I absolutely love that tip and being able to say no. Um, my last tip is actually around growth or like, I guess like the CEO mindset. And whenever I've had CEOs and picture what they do is like they make executive decisions, they make hard decisions. Where it's like, okay, we got to cut the budget. We got to shift in this direction. We got to add somebody else here. And so I think creating space during your week for those growth expanding things that are actually going to move your business forward is huge. So for example, having one day a month where you're going to do this and then you choose one topic. So for example, maybe in January, We're going to look at our pricing. So if we're charging X amount, how much are you actually spending on it? And I don't mean just the tangible things that like bring your profit down, but how much time are you spending to deliver this product start to finish? This is something that I do whenever I coach my photography friends as well. It's like, okay, now that when we break it all down from prepping and having the client call and doing the shoot and driving to the shoot and then coming back and then you call and then you edit and all those touch-ups, then great, you're making $10 an hour. And so suddenly they don't feel so guilty to increase their prices because, well, if you're taking the extra mile, you're going the extra step to deliver a very high quality product, then you should really be charging according to that and for being very detail-oriented. And so That would be something that I would highly recommend is like evaluate your time because that's what CEOs do. They evaluate their employees' time and like, does it make sense for them to be checking the mail if they, if, if I'm paying my employee $100K a year, let's say, or $80K a year and they're spending time checking the mail, does that make sense? Because how much is that costing me per hour? No, I should hire an assistant or maybe an intern that does that every week. And then now I'm making much like more money profit, and then I'm able to have them do what they do best. And a lot of times in our business, we do that to ourselves. We're checking the mail. We're doing the things that we shouldn't have to do. So check some of that stuff and then look for growth opportunities. Like I think the best CEOs are in the lookout of like what's happening in the market. They're looking at trends. They're looking at where social media is shifting to. They're looking at pricing and being able to invest in resources or mentors too that can help you get there is huge. And I think like that's truly what's going to set you apart and be able to make your business like withstand time as well. So just have fun with it too. I think CEOs like should have fun with their business.

Absolutely. To your point too, like making it last, hopefully you're looking at building a sustainable career as an entrepreneur. And so all of this is rooted in sustainability. How do we not burn out? How do we believe in ourselves? How do we build systems that support the growth that we want? How do we scale? How do we hire so that we can keep doing this, right? At its core. I love this conversation. I think it's a great one to kick off the new year with. With that said, do we want to talk about the mastermind? Because you're talking about investing in ways to level up. Um, if you listened to last week's episode, uh, around just the new era of the pod and the new direction that we're taking things, we also launched, um, the In Between Mastermind.

Yes, I am so excited about this. I feel like you and I have both invested in masterminds for so long and we've grown our businesses and now we get to give back and bring women along. So this mastermind is specifically for women business owners. You can be having a full-time entrepreneurship right now, or you are a side hustler, but overall you're sure and you're ready to just lock in on those goals this year and you're ready to also have somebody help you with that and be able to hold you accountable in a community aspect, but then also having that one-on-one accountability. And so within the group and within the mastermind, we're only going to have 10 women attend just because we're only 2 people and we want to make sure that we're able to give every person in the mastermind the attention that they deserve. And it's going to be a 6-month-long mastermind. So really truly going deep into those goals that you set, those— it's going to be 3 goals that you're going to set and we're going to help you crank those out, make sure that you're successful with them. And then we'll have the monthly calls as well as you'll get to have a one-on-one with myself and one-on-one with Alexis. And then we will have a trip at the end of it where we'll get to, as a group, do a Retreat and then plan out your next 6 months in the business.

Yeah. I have dreamt of doing something like this. And the fact that we get to do it together and we get to put our heads together and serve women, when I step back and think of this is so meaningful to be able to do this for the podcast community. So We're really looking forward to serving you. And with both of Astrid and I's experience, I have 10+ years of experience in email funnels and memberships, and we both bring so much to the table. And whenever we stepped back and asked ourselves, what do we want to build on the backside of this podcast? It's really the ability to mentor and to serve and to show up and to give you everything that we know about what we've seen inside people's businesses, what has worked for our own businesses. And so that's at the core of this mastermind is to just get into the weeds with you, help you grow. And a big part of the mastermind is not even just access and, and spending time with us, which we love, but it's also being with women who are pursuing their goals and they're ambitious and they're focused. And What you'll learn from each other and the emotional connection that you'll have with them is amazing. And so we're really excited about this opportunity, about this experience. And yeah, I really believe in it. I believe in the power of community and the power of intimate community over an extended period of time. And so this isn't transactional. Like, we're going really deep. And I hope that you join the waitlist. So there will be a link in the show notes. Of this episode where you can join the waitlist. Um, there's a very short application where you'll input some information around your business, what your goals are, some of your challenges, where you're wanting to grow in, in 2025. And then the actual waitlist opens February 10th. So we'll email you on February 10th and open cart, first come, first serve, baby. Um, 10 spots. And then We'll kick off our very first mastermind call the week of February 17th and it'll run through August.

Oh my gosh.

So really excited. I know that's like some nuanced details, but I do think it's helpful to talk through it. And if you have any questions, please send us a DM at inbetween.pod or you can DM either of us individually if you have any questions about the mastermind. We did want the pricing to be super accessible. And that's on the waitlist page. And that the pricing does also include the accommodations and the retreat as well. So it's not just an investment for the next 6 months, it's also into the retreat mastermind opportunity too. So really looking forward to this. And yeah, just lit. I'm so excited about this.

I have chills literally as I heard you talking about it. I'm like, that's us. We're doing that. And yeah, I, I'm so excited for this. I think the, the core of this new era of the podcast is really seeing you all win. Like entrepreneurship has been such a beautiful journey for both of us. And there's also been a lot of painful points and the community aspect has held both of us through it all too, and being able to lean into those people. And so I think just being able to bring high achieving women together, and it's not always accessible. Like sometimes your, your friend group might not be into having their own business and that's totally fine. Well, this is a space for you with women who actually get where you're at. They understand the goals that you're after. They're going to cheer you on on that. So I am beyond stoked to see who the women are going to be and get to spend the next 6 months with them. So sign up on the waitlist, share it with your entrepreneurial friends as well. And like Alexis said, you can always reach out to us on our socials. So. We love you all so much, and we will catch you next time.