Friday Closing Thoughts

Hi, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. I'm delighted to have not one, but two friends joining me today. I have Jessie Cohn, who is my neighbor here in Massachusetts. She's a brilliant marketer who works with a lot of solopreneurs. And of course, Kelsey Letko, who's been on with me a fair amount, who's in the life coaching space. She's also a coactive coach like myself, and she does some really beautiful programs for recovering. What is it? Recovering good girls, recovering people pleasers, all.

Things good girls, shy girls, people pleasers.

Welcome. Thank you guys for joining me.

Thanks for having us. Yeah.

And I would love. I just introduced you, but please introduce yourself the way that you want to be known.

Do you want me to go first? Yeah, I'll go first. I'll go for it. I do. I'm a former.

Former.

That's not. I'm gonna start over. Ready? Okay. We're gonna try it again. I do love. Yeah, repeat. It's Friday afternoon where we are anyway, so that's, you know, brain a little brain dead. But I had a marketing strategy combined with actual execution is the best way that I can describe it. I help level up marketing so well. I work. Katie, you and I have talked a lot about solopreneurs and entrepreneurs and people who are tired of the DIY and getting to the next level. I also work with a lot of startups and B2B businesses, agencies, all of the things. You know. My background has been working in corporate marketing for years and years and years. And then going out on my own, I was like, it's just more fun. It's different. I needed a new challenge. I wanted to work with a lot of different types of people. So that's been a. That in itself has been a fun roller coaster. We can get into it if you want, but we can absolutely go there.

Thank you.

Jesse. Hi.

Hi.

And Jesse, it's nice to learn more about you and meet you.

You too.

Who am I? I am a coactive coach. I work more in the life coaching space, and I work mostly with people who are ready to set themselves free from old patterns of behavior, from old situations, from just old, like, ways of being beliefs, like the cage, if you will, to break free of that and then move forward, designing a life that feels really in alignment to who you are now. So in that process, there's lots of uncovering, like, what do I actually value when I don't listen to what others tell me to value? And it's kind of a process of remembering who you are and then designing like a really kick ass life around that.

Yeah.

Awesome.

And you got a heart while you were, while you were describing all that. Just want to let you know someone.

Out there, like appreciate that.

And just for those of you watching, I am doing this through Streamyard to LinkedIn and YouTube and the Facebook. So if you want to comment and ask a question, please do. Otherwise, we're just going to chat and you guys are welcome to hang out with us. So, Kelsey and Jesse, I would love to hear all three of us say something that went really, really well this.

Week.

Because we're all solopreneurs. We're doing it on our own. And it can feel like you're doing all these amazing things in a vacuum by yourself. Should I go first?

Yeah. Kick us off.

Yeah, yeah, you go first. Yeah. So a couple things that went really well this week. I'm getting booked for events. You guys know that I'm doing a virtual speaking tour this year, right? So I have a few events that I've been booked for. I'm really excited about it. My signature talk is all about pressure, free profits. Because when you're starting a business and you're trying to sell those high ticket items, you can feel like the only way to get them sold is by doing those high pressure sales tactics, which is gross. No one wants that. And then another thing is one of my clients just got three more clients this week and I'm so excited for that. It's just, I know my, I mean their success is my success. So that just. I'm over the moon for her.

So that's awesome. Yeah, so that's really awesome.

Thank you. So what's going on in your world.

Kelsey, you go first this time.

I'll jump in. Sure.

So I had kind of a big.

Week in the life of Kelsey. I moved. I moved from the Bay Area to San Diego. And so I think, and in that I took some solid days off really to just focus on creating my new environment, which I don't do that often. So that's actually, I think my win. That went really, really well. Just to be able to unplug, to be really present with my new space. I'm a big believer in cultivating a really lovely space and I hadn't done it in a while. I'd lived on my boat for six years and I have like space, a little office now. Oh, man. So it was a pretty big week. So, yeah, I think what went really well now that I'm Kind of stepping back and observing. It was taking that time to be really intentional about, like, okay, like, I got big goals this quarter, but first, like, let's get my foundation settled. And. And I feel like I. I did that. Um, and now as a result, I just have, like, so much more energy going into this quarter and going into some of the things that I've got coming up. So it feels like a win to have been able to do that and just kind of settle here in my new space.

Yeah. And I. I want to underline how you're talking about this. Cause you're so in your business and it's really easy for life coaches to just be like, oh, cool, like, things are going well, but you're in your quarter. You're eating your business like a business. Right, Right.

I got quarterly goals. It's happening. Yeah. And it was a change for me. I used to be like, woo, it's gonna stick. But it was a big change and being. And really treating it like a business and asking my business what she needs. And she needed quarterly goals, so she got them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Love it. Thank you. Thank you.

Congratulations.

I want to. Yeah. And I want to hear more about living on a boat. We can, you know, that's another conversation.

Yeah.

Maybe not today, but maybe, you know, after. After Hours with Katie McManus.

Kelsey.

You know, so I wanted. Yeah, I had. I had a lot of little small wins that were good this week. There were a lot of, you know, nothing super major. I'm in the middle of a, you know, taking on more for one particular client. So there's been some good movement there. A lot of mine are, like, solidifying relationships is a good way to describe it. I've got a client that's close to the finish line in terms of launching their new website. There's a lot of components that we need to figure out, but we had a really great working meeting this morning about it, so I'm happy. This is a new business venture for them and it's just cool to kind of see when it comes together, you know, that's. That's really fun. And honestly, I just got off the phone for those of you in the. Listen at me. So I. Amerson College is a. Is a. I've the words today, like, this is not. I'm so brain dead right now.

Welcome to Friday. Right. Like, this is.

Seriously.

We're all burned out. We've been talking all week.

I get it.

Yeah. It's. So I went to Emerson College for grad school. Long ish. Time ago. Some time ago. But I've been in contact with a lot of my professors and one of the things that I've really loved doing over the past year is having space to do some mentoring. And that looks like a couple different things. I have two interns that are both from the Emerson College undergrad program who are phenomenal. But the one I want to highlight is there's, there's a year long class that you take called. It's an entrepreneurship class at one of my favorite professors, Professors teaches. And so she's brought me in a couple of times to listen to the classes pitches and to do some judging and give some feedback. And there's a couple of students who've reached out to me and I just got off the phone with one of them and she has a really unique business idea in a particular space that I know pretty well. I'm not going to share the details here because that's not my news to share, but it was just, I just love talking to people like that and being like, tell me. You know, and being like, look, use me as a mentor, Call me, email me, who can I introduce you to? And I've hooked her up. I happen to know somebody who's pretty senior in their business who started where she started. And I just introduced them. I'm like, I am one of them being like, hey, do you want to mentor someone? Hey, are you okay with being mentored? Let me make this love connection here, you know? So like that's a lot of little wins, a lot of aha moments this week. It's just beautiful weather out. So I am like itching to get off the computer at some point and take the fat dog for a walk. Wherever she decided to end up, she may bust in here. You've all been warned.

And I know you guys probably can't see the comments, but Austin Effort, who's a friend out of New Mexico, just said words don't always work.

Yes.

Nay. Yeah, for real. Hashtag yes.

Well, and I want to, I want to underline, everything you just said is like, you know, the wins when you're working in your own business is often just feeding back into the community and being generous. And that's actually how you and I met, through a networking event.

I love to call it the hey, wanna be friends? You know, and it's. Or hey, you can just email. Hey, you wanna have a coffee chat? I'd love to hear about your business. Yeah, no expectations, no nothing, no anything. And you know, and then it's like, hey, I Like, you. Do you like me? Yeah. It's like junior high dating. Like, want to be friends in real life? Sure. You know, let's take this from colleague to, you know, friendship. So it's. Yeah, that's our love story. There you go. It's out there in public.

That's our little. We used to meet for, like, walks.

We live two hours away.

We used to meet for walks last spring. Social distance with mast.

No touching.

No touching, no hugging. But it's like, it's so necessary when you work by yourself to have people you can call, because I know I call both of you when I have, like, oh, my God. I think I just screwed it up royally. Or, oh, my God, something exciting just happened or I don't know how to deal with this problem. And it's. Honestly, it is a lifeline to me, and I hope it's a lifeline to you guys as well.

Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Interesting. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

I was just on the power of community and people who kind of, like, get what you're going through as you're doing. Entrepreneur life. My sister is a marketer, and she's hosting a sales bootcamp, and I'm like, that's what I'm doing. So I signed up for a sales bootcamp, and we started last night, and it was really cool. It was just this community of. It was all women. That wasn't intentional. It's just who was called, which is really fun to be in a community of badass female entrepreneurs. And, yeah, just, like, that power of being connected with so many people who get it and, like, who get tiny little wins that some folks who aren't on this path really understand. So just to be able to have folks in our net, like, that just makes such a big difference.

Totally. The fat dog just busted. I got distracted. The fat dog just busted in here. So she will paw at me at some point for all of your viewing pleasure. You know, it's. It's an interesting thing to that point. The finding of community. That was the one thing that I struggled coming from a corporate environment, coming from where I had a team of people that I worked with and who worked for me and having, you know, I am a collaborator. I like to think things out verbally with other people. Surprisingly enough, I can talk sometimes, but it's the idea of coming and being, like, sitting in this room by myself, you know, with the dog. Like, she knows all of the intimate details of everything because there's nobody else to talk to sometimes.

Right.

And so finding Those people that you can connect with and even, you know, Katie, you and I have had various different ways that we tried to structure our time. And, you know, we used to have. We called an accountability call, you know.

Every month, like Monday mornings, like, me.

Still waking up session. Yeah, I'm not awake yet. And I'm like, I don't feel like talking to you. I just want to check my email. But for the few months that we did have it, it was nice because it was needed. It was one of those things where it's like you were going through some shit. Some stuff. Yeah. I'll keep it clean.

Swearing is allowed. Actually, when you swear here, like, I'm gonna say fuck right now. It auto captions, but it exits out words, so really already exit out of.

Welcome.

Excellent. Well, when we would talk about some, you know, it was like, it's funny. And then we. At one point, you really. I think I said it. I was like, I love you, but I don't want to talk to you at nine o' clock in the morning on Monday anymore. Like, I'm good. And you were like, good, me too.

I know.

And we've actually, since we've canceled those calls, I've talked to you more.

I know, I know. Instead of us just being like, oh, like, I'm busy. Can we reschedule that? Yeah, well. And it's funny. I think that's. That's actually very symbolic of what happens when you start a business. It's like you set up systems that get you to a certain point and they work up until that point, but then it doesn't really. It's kind of like like the safety wheels on a bike. You know, the wheels on a bike. It's like, okay, cool, this no longer serves and getting comfortable with letting it go and saying, hey, I don't. I don't want this anymore. Can we stop that? Really important.

Totally. Yeah.

I know Kelsey and I, early on tried to collaborate, and I think it was because I really, like, felt insecure doing something on my own, and I wanted a bike, and it never turned into anything.

Yeah.

But it was a beautiful practice in creating and seeing what we could design.

And I think in looking back now at where we both were in our businesses at the time, I think it both helped us solidify which direction we wanted to go, and they were very different directions. So it was a really important learning opportunity for both of us to be like, whoa, this is the content I'm really gravitated towards, and it's fine if it doesn't end up in a program together.

Totally. Well, what's funny is that if you look at it. What was it called? It was called something.

Incubator. Action. Incubator.

Action Incubator.

Yeah.

You look at the shared document that we have, you can see, like, where we've taken portions of it and created it again in our programs. So it was such a fertile creative.

It really was.

Yeah. But it's like, okay, cool. It didn't turn into something. And I think that's the fear when people start a business and, like, they create partnerships. They're worried about creating partnerships because they're worried that it won't go well. Here are two beautiful examples of how. Okay, it didn't go well, but it didn't go bad. The result was not what you anticipated. It was just, okay, cool. It was enough. Enough of a boost to both of our confidences that we could go and start our own things.

Right, Right.

A lot of it, too, is. I think people, when it comes to that, they don't realize that that can spur clarity. You know, what I'm hearing from both of you say is this collaboration that didn't work out actually spurred a lot of good clarity in terms of the directions of your own businesses, which is individually beneficial, but also mutually beneficial because you both know each other's businesses. So you can refer.

Yeah, yeah. Which we do all the time. It's great.

Which is. It's. It's an interesting thing coming. You know, one of the things that I was nervous about coming into, it's driving me crazy that the camera is swapped. Like the habit. I'm sorry, it's disaster central over here. But one of the things that I noticed is, like, coming into the marketing consulting space in particular is crowded, and it's not competitive. I mean, there are people who are competitive. It is a competitive space. Like, let me just say that outright agencies, finding the right person, you know, all of that stuff that goes with it is competitive. But there's one of my favorite calls that I have during the week, during the month, actually, we do it once a month, is with a group of other fellow consultants. And on Friday mornings, we just get on and chitchat with each other. And we're honest. We ask questions, we bring challenges. Like, it's just kind of grown organically, and some of us do compete for the same people. But we talk about some of the chat. It's like, so it's like you found your own little community, even though they're not employees or collaborators or colleagues. But it's like, how do you solve that? Tell me how you got, you know, how did you deal with that particular element for that client? Or do you have a good solution for this? Or what kind of project management software do you guys use? And you can just be like your authentic self too.

Yeah.

Um, which is nice.

Well, and I have. I have my being Brave call on Fridays, which, you know, you're watching and you haven't come. It's an awesome place. If you're working on your business, just ask for advice. Shameless plug. But what's beautiful is that, like, there can be two people, like, in your group, two people who serve the same type of client, but then you're on a call with someone, you're like, this is just not a personality fit for me. You know, not a personality fit, but great project. Let me hand this over to someone who's going to be a better personality fit for.

Totally.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking about just the abundance. Like, it's so easy to get into scarcity mindset when you're starting a business. And like, oh, my God, there's like two clients out there and I need them to be mine. It's, whoa, there is so many humans on this planet. There are more than enough clients for everyone to go around. And I think once we went, for me, once I really recognized that and just kind of like exhaled into the abundance of things, then their clients were suddenly like, they're everywhere. It's. It's all good. So I think. And it's way more fun to be a coach and not be competing with the people in your space. Like, no, people are drawn to you for you. So, yeah, I like that abundance mindset.

That's the biggest thing that I think I did in my, like, when you're pitching people, you know, there's pitches and then there's like, for a lot of the solopreneurs, I'm like, let's see if we're a fit. You know, I changed my language with that sales component of it, which is, hey, I get tagged in things on the Facebook all the, you know, all the time, or I do a lot of squarespace design. And so I'm known for that a little bit in that entrepreneur space. And so when I get tagged, I'll say, hey, let's book a meeting. Here's a link to my calendar. Let's see if we're a fit. Which takes that pressure off that you guys are talking about to see if, like, to the personality wise, there are people who I'm not A fit for. And there are people who are. I don't want to work with them, and that's okay. But that's where that abundance comes, because I think, look, I'm not a fit for you, but so. And so is a perfect fit for you. Let me hook you up with them. So it's. It's. I don't know where my end point is there, but that's. Yeah, there you go.

Well, it's funny because I refer people to both of you because sometimes people want to work with me and they actually need marketing help or someone, you know, inquires with me because I'm a coach and they actually want a life coach. And I don't really do traditional life coaching. I bastardized the hell out of it with business strategy shit. So I send people both of your ways because that's. You shine.

Yeah, well. And even like the. The people that you've sent my way, it's so great because by the time they get to me, I. The selling is done. You know, it's easy enough to be like, they, you know, let me tell you about me. Let me show you my work. And they go, oh, yeah, good, I'm in. Katie trusts you. Those are some of the best relationships.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah. I wanted to. I. Tea. When I teased this, I wrote up this, like, whole little thing that I just made up right on the spot. And I wanted to talk also because, you know, it's not always sunshine and daisies and perfect. So I'd love to just go around, like, what's something that you struggled with this week? And I can go first.

Yeah, you go first.

So I'm struggling with learning how to run a team, how to utilize other resources and manage, you know, just different humans, you know, in something mine instead of. I've managed in the past for a company, so I, like, I had a set. A set of rules that I was following. And it's different here. And then also time management. I'm having the hardest time management right now. I have so many big, juicy projects that I'm working on, and it's hard to find big chunks of time to really dive into it. Mm, yeah.

Yeah. I have the opposite problem in terms of, like, I need to stop. You know, that's like, when you're getting into it, there's. You can spend your whole day in email. You know, I have some. Because of the nature of what I do, clients will give me emails for within their businesses. And so you're checking email, you lose the day. And so, like, struggling with time blocking, meeting management, like, time to actually do work. Like web design stuff. A couple of these, like, really creative, fun, exciting projects I don't do until after dinner, which isn't ideal from a mental health standpoint because you need a chunk. Like, I. So I struggle with some of that. I struggle. And that leads back into bandwidth. How much bandwidth do I have? Understanding what that looks like, setting the right expectations and stuff like that. That's a big one. Pervasive. Pervasive issue in Jesse Cohen world.

Yeah.

Learn to say no.

Yeah, that's a big one. For me this week it was interesting. I. When I'm really working and like in my zone, I don't worry about comparison. But since I wasn't. My thing I struggled with was comparison and kind of like business fomo, like, seeing people launch things and having the feeling of like, oh, like, I should be, I should be, I should be. And there's that should. So, yeah, for me this week, I struggled. I'm a big believer in the sacred lane. Like, stay in your sacred lane. Not to limit yourself, but to, like, do the work you're supposed to do. And I found myself wandering outside of my lane a little bit since I wasn't as in my work as I normally am. And I did catch myself a few times and go like, whoa, that's not a behavior that's going to serve you very well. Like, get back in your lane. So that was a big one for me this week.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And oh, my God, that happens to me, too. I see all these other people doing incredible things. They have their ads all set. They're killing it on LinkedIn. They're also on Instagram and also like Clubhouse. I've been trying to be on Clubhouse and it's just like, oh, my God, one more thing that I have to.

Do, I can't do. It's such, like, social media. I can't believe I'm going to say this publicly. I hate social media. I hate it. I understand the benefit of it. I understand how it fits in. I understand. I mean, I do it for people, I do it for myself. But to exactly what you were talking about, Kelsey, that FOMO is. It's like. And it like, oh, my God. I run a marketing agency. I have not updated my portfolio online in a year because it takes the backseat to all the client work I post. I didn't post on Instagram. My personal account. Once the dog does get posted, that's a different animal. But it's like all of those things, like social media is that it's such a. It just propagates all of these, like, anxiety and negative feelings and comparisons. Is not real life. Like, let me like. And I, I'm saying I'm like, coaching myself. Dear Jesse, social media is not real life. It's funny, when I sit down in the evening to like, relax, the last thing I do like is look at social media anymore. Although I do watch TikTok videos because there's a lot of cute dogs. But I think Katie sends me lots of TikTok videos. But outside of that, you know.

Well, it's so funny. That's your perspective. Like, mine is like, I can't hate on social media ever again because it has honestly been such a lifeline to me during the pandemic and feeling so alone, like, being able to just tune in and, and write something that I then get to connect with other humans on. Yeah, you know that, that's the, that's.

The gold side that, like, it's so, it's so good. I mean, I wouldn't have met. I wouldn't have met either of you if social media didn't exist.

I wouldn't have a business without social media. But it is, like, I think it should come with guidelines like, use this when it serves you and when you feel yourself sliding down that toxic path, then, like, it should have a, like an automatic. An eject button to like shoot you out of the seat or something. But yeah, I am so grateful for it and need to be mindful of my usage. Yeah.

Well, also that's the benefit of having business BFF is saying, hey, I'm going into a dark spiral where I'm playing the compare game. Can you pull me out of it for five minutes?

Yeah, totally. It's the idea too. I think what's been amazing over the year of 2020, which has unfueled my hatred of social, is people are forced to be authentic. We're forced in people's. I mean, all three of us. You're seeing a little piece of our homes. I mean, they're curated, but you know, my dog is literally sleeping on the floor snoring. You can probably hear her through my earphones. It's things you can't control. You've seen people, kids. I think about that CNN with that, like, analyst was on this little kid. I mean, I just love that. Like, that's such like a defining moment for how we decide to portray ourselves. And like, when you texted me earlier, usually on Friday, I look like a gremlin. Like, I don't do you know by this point in the day, I'm. I'm like, full gremlin mode. You were like, want to do a live? I'm like, I look like a human. Sure, I'll do a live. That's good. You know, and it's. But it's so. I kind of. That's the piece that I love about it, is you're getting authentic selves more so than we were getting a couple years ago.

Yeah, I love it. I love what you just said. When Katie texted me, I was literally in therapy. I. Virtual therapy. I've always had virtual therapy. They love my therapist. But I have therapy on one o' clock on Fridays, and I was in therapy, and, like, a past version of me never in a million years would have rolled from therapy onto alive to put my, like, physical body in, like, where someone could see me. Like, no way. But I think 2020, it's just that, like, authenticity is. It's what's up. It's like, what we got to do. So it's just life, and it's kind of integrating it all in from therapy to lives. Here we are.

Good job, buddy. That's a lot of work.

Thank you.

Some miracle words are coming out of your mouth.

From therapy.

My eyes would be all poofy.

I took 10. I took 10. It's cool. Yeah.

Well, I just wanted to thank you guys both so much for joining me on this live. I know it was super last minute. Literally, I texted you Both within, like, 10 minutes of this starting. So for those of you in the crowd, like, it seems like we haven't prepared. We haven't at all. And I'm actually getting texts right now. Real life is barging in. I have a puppy play date, and the puppy is about to show up, so I have to go get my dogs ready. So they're. They're, you know, behaving. But this has been lovely.

Let's do it again.

Sometimes prepared. Yeah. Thank you.

Or maybe not.

If anyone is interested in touching base with Jesse or Kelsey, if you're looking for marketing for your business, if you are looking for transformation in your life, these are their names. And actually, guys, do you mind wherever we're connected, just popping in a link so people can get in touch with you?

Yeah, absolutely.

Or tag me and all the things.

Yeah, all the things.

Kelsey, you and I should chat at some point.

We should chat. I look forward to it.

Sounds good.

All right, everyone, thank you so much for joining us. And I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach and soon to be player with puppies. I hope you all have a great weekend. That's all.

Bye. Bye.