Authenticity and Emotion: Building a Thriving Online Presence with Martha Krejci

Welcome to the Amberly Lago Show, stories of true grit and grace.

Hi there.

Thank you so much for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. I have someone truly inspiring, and I can't wait to share her story with you and all that she does because it's going to change your life, especially if you're a mom and you want to build a business and you want to make more money, because I have the one and only Martha Creachy here with us. Y'all, she's a digital marketer. She's the co-founder of Martha Creachy, and she is a social media strategist. She is a business strategist. She is a bestselling author. She's got courses. You name it, she speaks all over the place. I can't wait to hear you share your secrets. So Martha, thank you for coming and being on the show.

You got it. Thank you. This is so much fun.

This is fun. And you know what? I have so many people that they, they want to make money and they're really hurting right now because they're like, what do I do? You have developed a strategy for Not only what you have been able to do, and we've got your lovely daughter sitting in the audience with us.

We do.

But just for like moms, for even if you're not a mom, if you want to work from home to get through this. But first of all, I want to know what I heard. A little birdie told me that you used to be an introvert.

I still am.

Brian Galky told me you're an introvert and I'm like, yeah, you are a YouTube phenomenon. Like, like, so how did you go from introvert to this huge business and doing these YouTube videos that go viral and Instagram that goes viral? How did you get through that?

Well, I mean, being an introvert really is about how you fuel back up, right? So, like, the introvert versus extrovert, an introvert's gonna fuel back up in a way that, like, for me, if I've had too much, like, I can go people and I love peopling, but if I have too much, I kind of hit this wall and then I need to go fill back up. But the way that I fill back up is I go in a room by myself and I stare at the wall for a little while, you know, like, I just get really quiet. And so, that's just my way of filling back up. But to, to be able to build a business as an introvert is actually, in my opinion, not really much different than an extrovert because I'm just at home in a room with a camera anyway. I'm still in a room by myself. And so like, it's, it really is just the same as anything else. And whenever you go, you know, whenever you go speak on stage, It's not like you're really interacting with the thousands of people in the audience. It's really you sharing your gift, you sharing your thing.

Yeah.

And then, you know, you can go meet people and that sort of thing. But as long as I have time to be able to get away and fill back up again, I think sometimes people hear introvert and they're like, oh, she doesn't like people. She doesn't wanna be around people. And that's like not the thing at all. I love people. I just get exhausted. That's the thing.

So— I know for me, when I love speaking at events, my favorite thing is connecting with people.

Yeah, yeah.

But I also know I need to go back to my room and have my quiet time. And my husband will always— he'll come stay and he goes, who are you? Because I'll be on the bed with like chicken wings and soup and like, I need to like fuel because I don't eat like— I'm so busy throughout the day, the speaking event that I don't usually eat. And then he comes to my hotel room. He's like, who are you? You're eating chicken wings? Like, who are you? You know what I mean? Yeah. But I do need that time to just reflect and breathe and stare at a wall. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But I want to know what, what made you go into an online business or working from home versus your traditional— so many people are in the corporate world, so many people are at a 9-to-5 job. What led you down this path of doing your own business? Yeah.

Well, I worked at— I was on the 9-to-5 path. I was in corporate America and I was just working my way up the ladder like everybody tells you you should do. Like, that's what I kind of just thought that was my lot in life. And I worked at— excuse me— I worked at GoDaddy, and I started off on the phones, like entry-level position, and then quickly started moving up and moved up into leadership pretty darn quickly and was there for about 5 years. And then one day, It's always one day that changes everything, right? And one day I was sitting at my carpeted cubicle. It smelled like the '60s. I think we all know the one. My little, right? I don't think we should be inhaling that stuff. Another conversation for another day. But I had my little quotes pinned up around me, my family's pictures and everything. And I got a video from my husband. He doesn't usually text me at work. So getting a video from him was really bizarre. And you know how when You know, whenever anybody sends you a video, you see the first frame of it.

Well, and what year was this?

This was 2016.

2016.

February of 2016. And the first frame that I saw of this video was my little one who's here right now, was her on her feet, unassisted. And she had never done that before. And I already knew, you know, you know what you're about to see. You already know that you missed something.

Yeah.

And I couldn't play the video on the culinary floor, so I had to go to the bathroom to watch this video. And so I go in there, push play, and there it was. Nora had taken her very first clompy, sort of like pigeon-toed, her first steps.

Yeah.

I just love telling the story and that she's here with me right now. Like, there is something so cathartic and full circle. Um, not gonna cry this early in the podcast, but, uh, hmm, there's something so special about her literally being here as I get to tell this story, right? Um, but, uh, when I saw that video come through It's not a right or wrong thing. It was just, I kept thinking through my mind, are you okay with this? You know?

Yeah.

Again, not right or wrong, but am I okay with it? Am I okay with continuously missing things like this? And it took us a really long time to even be able to have her in the first place. And then I was just like, gosh, I'm just, I'm gonna miss everything. And that day, That moment, actually, I decided I was gonna quit my job.

Really?

Yeah, except on paper, it sounds very easy to say, but on paper, I look like an idiot because my in-laws had just moved in with us. We had just bought a really expensive house because my in-laws moved. We needed to have a kitchen on both levels, 2 families to be able to live in the same home sort of thing. My husband— I had already brought my husband home from work, which is why he took the video of her taking her first steps. I held the insurance on the family. Basically, I was—

A lot on your shoulders.

I was carrying a lot. Yeah. And so, for me to say—

A lot on your shoulders.

Yeah. So, for me to say like, I'm going to quit my job was very, what? And my husband is like the guy— I call it, he's like the guy that holds the string to my balloon. I'm the like, okay, let's do this crazy thing. And he's like, okay, but we have a mortgage and we have, you know, now we'd have to get new insurance and how are we going to pay these bills and what are you even going to do, you know? And, um, and so I don't—

I like that analogy though. I feel like our, our husbands are very similar.

Yeah, that's— I think we all do that. I think opposites attract. Right. And so the sort of visionary, charismatic types are attracted to, and vice versa, to the ones that are gonna keep us together. And we give them entertainment, I think.

Oh, yes.

I think that's really it.

Yeah.

For them.

I'm telling my husband, well, I, I, you, my nickname is Crazy. And I'm like, well, I always keep you entertained.

See, that's it.

Big wild dreams, gonna do it. Let's go.

That's it. You're welcome. And so I, I don't know if you're like this, but whenever I was driving home from work, because I still had to sit there for the rest of my day, right? Because I didn't have any sick time because I'm a mom, and that's— you don't have sick time typically because you use it all the time. And, uh, I was driving home on, you know, on my way home, I was thinking, how am I gonna tell Mike, my husband? How am I gonna tell him that I'm gonna quit my job? Because he's gonna loses his mind because of all of this stuff on paper.

Yeah.

That's bonkers, right? And, uh, I was like, okay. I started working out conditional logic. I was like, if he says this, then I'm gonna say this. And then if he says this, I'm gonna say this. If he says this, I'm gonna— and so I had it all plotted and mapped out, right, in my mind. I get home, I walk up the stairs, I put down my purse and my keys, and I look over at him and I'm like, I'm going to quit my job. And then I followed it up immediately with what I planned on doing because I knew a solution was going to have to happen real quick.

Yeah.

And he said the most bizarre— it was not in my conditional logic mapping. I was not ready for this. But he said, Martha, if you don't do this, you're not only doing yourself but everybody around you a disservice. And I was like, where'd that come from?

Yeah.

That's not my husband. Like, that's not what he would say. My husband, I would have to pick up off the floor, right? Like, he would be hyperventilating. He would be like, you're gonna do what? Instead, he said that. And it would— in that very moment, that's where I was like, I really am going to do this. I have no idea what I'm going to do or how I'm going to do it, how it's going to be accomplished.

And look at you. Look at you.

Yeah.

I mean, I saw the video of you getting the YouTube package in the mail. I mean, people go nuts over all that you share and all that you do. But there are so many people— okay, first of all, multilevel marketing companies have a bad rap.

Yeah, they do.

And I remember long time ago, I had a speaker agent for a while and I take Plexus. I don't know if you know what Plexus is, but I love it just because I take it every day and it works for me. Yeah. Now, I haven't promoted it a lot just because I got all these other things going on and I should— and I was— in fact, I was just talking to my friend Scott, who loves the products too. Yeah. And he coaches a lot of athletic, like teams and stuff. And I was like, yeah, you know, if we really worked on this as a business together, we could really build it up. I just, I just haven't. But this agent that I had said, do not share that you are with any sort of MLM. That's so crazy. And I, first of all, I didn't know what MLM was. I was like, what is that? What do you mean by that? What is that? But she's like, because you will tarnish your name as a speaker. I mean, there's a lot of people that think that MLM and stuff like that, that they get a bad rap. How did you start to build a business from like, okay, I quit my job because I got a lot of people out there that they're like, I need to make money.

Yeah.

How can I make money from home?

Yeah.

What can they do first?

Yeah, I think, well, the first thing that they need to do— excuse me— the first thing that they need to do is they need to think of the person that they're going to serve, right? So like, who do they actually want to serve? And then we move on from there into the monetization of it. But if we start with monetization and we don't start with service, we're starting on the wrong foot.

Powerful.

It's not going to be sustainable. It won't be sustainable for our spirit because if we're just like, well, how do I get the next dollar? How do I get the next dollar? That's not going to work you through the bad days.

Yeah. And that's the thing. Like, I can only promote something that genuinely works for me, that I love. And I remember the first time I ever shared Plexus on my story because I don't promote a lot of stuff. I don't promote products. And I was like, hey, this has really helped with my brain fog. It blew up. I think I got over 1,000 comments on that one post. And somebody even said, this must be good if you're actually sharing about this.

Yes.

Because it's important to believe in what you're Yes, 100%.

That's what— and I love that you touched on the MLM thing. I think, in my opinion, MLM and affiliate marketing both are probably one of the most brilliant business models that there is because they don't pay out if you don't bring in. And that's just from a business perspective. It's not like you're putting a billboard out and you're paying for a billboard and you're paying for marketing that you don't know what it's going to do. And frankly, usually, you can't even track it. But I mean, those business models from a business standpoint are perfect because you don't pay unless a sale has actually been made, right? Now, from the builder side of things on network marketing, the reason that I think that network marketing and MLM has gotten such a bad rap is because, unfortunately, They don't necessarily teach business very well. And so they have a bunch of people that are trying to make money doing this thing, right? And, uh, and then they see that there are some people that do make big paychecks.

They make some big paychecks. Huge, huge, right? I'm blown away. Like, 6 figures a month.

Yeah, right. And then whenever they can't do it themselves, then they feel like the whole thing was a sham, the whole thing was a lie. And I understand that. I mean, it makes sense for them to believe that. But what they don't realize is that if you're not— if you don't have a business training or a strategy going into it, we can't expect the same results as somebody who does.

Yeah.

Right? And so like, that's Whenever we look at the strategy of home-based business, like for the way that I approach home-based business, we have like a core unified strategy once we know who we're serving. And then what we do is we can just tack on the different income streams onto that base strategy, if that makes sense. So, then network marketing all of a sudden makes sense and is very easy to do. All of a sudden, you can make a course, you can do coaching, you can do all of these things because you have a core deliverable, a core thing.

Yeah.

that you're wanting to actually help people with.

Well, you have a strategy. You've laid it out on exactly how to do this. Can you give us some tips on how to start? Like, let's take, for instance, somebody who is like, they want to start their coaching business, but they are not quite— they haven't got clients and they're like, well, I need to make some money on the side, so I need to make a home business where I'm going to maybe do network marketing or something. Where would they start first?

Yeah. So, the very first thing is I call it bat signal. That's to determine who your person is. But I'm going to do a quick thing so people that are listening or watching can think to themselves, okay, this is what I think mine would be, because I don't want you to come away from this and be like, that was awesome sounding, but we didn't anchor into anything. Right? For Bat Signal, the reason that it's even called Bat Signal—

Yeah, what is Bat Signal?

Yeah, it's, it's essentially niche and customer avatar. But really what it is is a thing that you, that you've been through, which I'll go through the exercise. But whenever you determine what it is, then you put that out into the world and everybody that's just like you or that is going through that same thing sees you and is able to run to you and say, she's the one for me, she's the one that can help me. That's the whole point of it. And so to be able to determine what your BAT Signal is, usually I have a notepad with me when I do this.

I love notepads, by the way.

Yeah, I can tell.

I love my notepads. I love it. I got so many questions, I haven't even looked.

Oh my word.

But yeah. Well, we'll do this.

It'll be very, very quick. So if you have a notepad, you would turn it sideways, landscape style. And so you would turn it sideways. I always do this on my arm. So you turn it sideways, you make a line from left to right. And then you put an, uh, arrow at the end of the line. Uh, the line represents your life. The arrow represents the fact that it ain't over yet. And so along the line, what I want you to think of, cuz this is a timeline, right? So what I want you to think of are the different times in your life where you felt like your back was, was against the wall. And in modern times, this can even look like you know, a Google search into 2 or 3 in the morning. When you're Googling something until 2 or 3 in the morning, you have to figure something out. You're not just doing it because you want to be doing it. You're doing it for a set purpose. You have got to figure it out. And so whenever you, uh, think of these different times— like for me, it was whenever I quit my job, right? It was whenever I was I quit my job and I started doing the Google search of how do you start a business from home, which is like maybe the scariest Google search you could ever do. I don't know. That's where you end up with a bunch of dude bros sitting on the front of rented Ferraris saying like, you make a million bucks this way. And you're like, but that's not how this works.

Yeah, I'm not so sure about that. That's not how this works.

But as you, as you go through that line, I want you to set a timer because I don't want you guys to do it for more than an hour. Past an hour, you move into paralysis because you're going to— your brain's going to keep saying, but there's more, there's more. There were other times, there were other times. And that's true, but you've already got the big ones already, right?

Yeah.

And so I want you to, after an hour, setting the timer, right after the hour, I want you to look at the different lines on your timeline, and then I want you to pick one. I want you to, to think of which of these versions of myself— because it's yourself, it's a former version of yourself that you're serving— which version of myself do I want to wake up every morning and serve?

Hmm.

What person can I literally wake up in the morning and think, What does she need today? It feeds your soul to serve that version of you. It's that important. And that's the, the sort of like mission and impact-driven state that we need to come from first.

Mm-hmm.

And then once we know who that person is, we— then you write down, who was I? Where was I in that space? What were my fears? What were my goals? What were, you know, what were the things I had tried before? What, what didn't work, what did work. And, and once you really color in that version of yourself, you know exactly what your person needs because you've been there, but you also know what's ahead of them.

Mm-hmm.

And so that's, that's the important thing in being a mentor or being a leader for somebody. You don't, you know, you've heard, you've heard this a million times. You only need to be a couple steps ahead, but you need to be able to say, hey, watch out for that. Watch out for this because this is going to happen. This is the next thing, right? That's as being a mentor or a leader, it's continuously happening. And so, you're always like— excuse me— you're always kind of leaning back and saying, hey guys, watch out for this thing. It just happened to me. I know it's probably going to happen to you too. That is what creates that level of trust, but validated trust.

Yeah.

And then, you can move forward in service. Any which way you want.

Yeah, I love that. And that's what I love out of all the things I do. What I love the most is actually my mastermind. And I get to share all the mistakes that I made and say, hey, this might just happen. Let me tell you, let me save you a lot of money and just share. This is what not to do and this is what to do based on my experience.

Yes.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

So if there's somebody out there that's like, well, I don't— I do want to work from home, but I don't necessarily know what my home business would be. Where would they start first as far as like, okay, I want to— would it be coaching? Would it be an MLM? What would it be?

Yeah.

And I know it's— I love that you said it has to be connected to your purpose, which is great. But I got some people that are in fear right now because they're freaking out about money. And so where—

There's a lot of people in that space right now. Right now specifically.

Yeah.

Like even in the last 24 hours. Yeah. Affiliate marketing or network marketing should be your very first stream.

I think so too.

Yeah.

And that's what I don't understand is You know, I've had people that are just like, oh, an MLM, but I have to pay $100 to buy the product. But do you know how much money you could make if you believe in the product and it helps you and you promote it?

Well, then don't join it if you don't want the product.

Yeah.

You know, like, you're not going to be able to sell it if you don't want the product anyway, right? You should probably join one where, where you have tried the product and you got good results.

That's the only reason I have mine. And like I said, I don't I don't even share it. I mean, I should. Hey, yeah, I should share it.

It's great.

It's great. I'll put the link in the show notes. There you go. There you go. Well, I know you have a lot of resources from everything from Instagram. You have like a calendar that somebody can print out on what to post.

Yes.

So what is a resource that you would like to share today? Would it be for your calendar? Would it be for your online courses? What would that look like?

Yeah, I actually just created a new resource. It's brand spanking new, hot off the presses, and it is the 7 income streams that I actually do myself that have grown to beyond 6 figures a month that any mom can do or any person can do, quite frankly. But I just talk a lot to moms because I am a mom. But again, bat signal, right? But yeah, the 7 income streams and why. So, like, what they are, why they're good, and then you can have an educated understanding of these different income streams so you can do your own thing. And then there's a training on how to be able to start them.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

How do you overcome the fear of doing videos? Because let me tell you, I see you're a freaking rock star on your YouTube, on your Instagram. But there's a lot of people that actually are even in my mastermind that are like, they're scared to video themselves.

Yeah.

How did you start to overcome that fear of making videos? Because look, we all have to put ourselves out there and actually be on video. And I have to tell you, I still get a little, I'm gonna be real with you, I still get a little intimidated with, oh, I gotta put my phone up and video me talking about something. How do you, how did you get over the fear of videoing yourself and putting yourself out there more?

Yeah, I love these days, and then I'm gonna address the specific question in a second, but these days, like there was a year ago, I think I did a training for some of my people, and my chair literally broke off the legs. I was in this, this big, like, fancy chair. The chair, I, I didn't realize it, but it was attached instead of by 4 bolts, it was attached by 1 bolt.

Oh.

A single bolt. And I went to lean back, the chair— Nora's laughing because she remembers this— the chair fell off its legs. I rolled backwards and had— and was— ended up facing the other direction just laughing. And I think I said something like, oh my word. And, um, and then I just, I kept going with the training. I came back, I was like, I think my chair broke, you guys. Brought over another chair and finished out the training. Never cut it out or anything. And I think, um, the reason that I say that is because We're always so concerned about what if this happens, what if that happens. The cool thing is, is if that thing that happens that you're so scared of happening, it's a blessing and it's great because people see who you are in those moments.

Yeah.

And there's a reason people love behind-the-scenes things, and there's a reason people love bloopers.

I love that you have behind the scenes on your Instagram stories too. Yeah.

Yeah, that's the thing is the worst thing that's going to happen is the best thing that's going to happen. And it doesn't— and that's great. That's great. But how I practiced it to begin with, because these are veneers, I used to have really jacked up teeth. Whenever I— for real, whenever I started—

Yeah, your smile is beautiful. I noticed that my mom worked for an orthodontist. when I was growing up. So I am so like, I laser in on the teeth. Yeah.

Thank you.

Your smile is gorgeous.

Thank you. The dentist is fabulous. Deb Joyner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I'm gonna plug her. But she— my teeth were jacked up before that, but I started video while my teeth were still jacked up. And so I would— My daughter's laughing.

Nora's laughing.

I, I would, in order to practice, um, I would go into a Zoom meeting by myself and I would just speak.

Okay.

And I would do that and then I would kind of get used to it. And I ended up going, I ended up actually, I think breaking the seal really, um, whenever we had a really bad flood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, whenever I lived there. And my husband and I and somebody else, we actually went out to help sandbag. But then I started using— because it was when Facebook Live first started. And so I was like, oh, we can use this to help, right? And so I went, I did Facebook Live to tell the local community, here's where the sandbags are. This place ran out, so go get them over here instead. And so like, we were mobilized and taking sandbags.

What year was this? What year was this?

I think it was 2018.

Yeah.

I'm pretty sure.

I'm still not great with Facebook, by the way. I feel like I can barely work it.

I mean, it's— everything changes so much.

It does. It does. Yeah. So you started using Facebook and just getting on there actually to, again, to be of service.

Yeah.

And that, I think, is where you find your success is when you're out there just trying to be of service however you can.

Yes.

And it shows even in your YouTube. YouTube videos. You did one YouTube video where you were like, I'm really emotional. Like, and—

Oh yeah.

And I was like, I love that. I think people want to have that authenticity. They want the real deal.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah.

That's—

we shouldn't hold back from— I remember when I was in corporate America and they, you know, I think at one point somebody said, don't cry in meetings and don't, you know, whatever. I don't know. There were just, there were rules around behavior and how to react and that sort of thing. And even in that moment, I was like, but if it warrants emotion, emotion is what drives people. And so, if we're cutting emotion out of decision-making processes, especially at a corporate level, I think we're really missing the boat completely.

Yeah.

Not that everybody needs to walk around crying. crying all day. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying if we can't be our true selves, if we're feeling a moment of something, then I think we've got bigger problems. I'm just saying.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, I want people to learn more from you and how to set up their online businesses. And so tell us the best way for people to reach you and to find out more about Yeah, withmartha.com is my website.

We made it easy by not putting my last name on it.

Yeah, I was like, I had to— you know what, I'm glad on Facebook it tells me how to pronounce your last name. Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So withmartha is my website. You're gonna find everything on withmartha.com. I also have Instagram, YouTube, blah blah blah, all of the places, right? But But With Martha is going to be the best hub to see everything.

And the brand new, brand spanking new course that you've just come out with, is that on there?

The 7 Income Streams is on there, but then I'll also give you the link. It's so new, it's not published yet. It's getting published tomorrow.

Oh, wow. So, I'll give you the link for it so you can put it in show notes. I feel so special that we get to share this. Thank you so much for coming on. And I just, you know, I really want people to know that they can have a business at home and thrive and, you know, have their family life too. So thank you so much for being on the show. It's so awesome. I was going to have Nora come up here and—

Oh, she's going to hop on us.

But she just walked out.

She's done.

She's done.

She's taking the car and leaving. She's 9, guys.

So thank you so much for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. Please take a screenshot of this and tag me @AmberlyLagoMotivation and tag Martha. And you know what? Spell it so people can—

Spell it.

Spell it.

It's @themarthacrecy. And it's not because I think I'm a big deal. It's because there's literally another Martha Crecy. So the, and then Martha, M-A-R-T-H-A, Crecy.

K-R-E-J-C-I. Yeah, that's why. Yeah, I wanted you to spell it because it's, it's easier said. But anyway, thank you so much for tuning in, and we will see you next week.