034. My Story of Why Simplicity in My Business is So Critical

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast, where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello there, my friends, and welcome to the podcast. I hope you're having a fabulous day. And I am as well as usual. Well, not as usual, but today is a Friday, and it's a Friday before a holiday weekend, so getting ready to head out. And the kids are now out of school, so they finished up their school year this week, and so we're all excited about that. And it comes with some transition, though, right? We are transitioning schedules, and that's always a little bit of a challenge. So. But we're working our way through it. And that really kind of relates to what I want to talk about today. I want to really tell you a story and tell you a little bit about my story of why having a simple business has been so important to me and really where that started. And I think it will really help you to understand why I do what I do and that you have the option to create a business and a life the way you want it to look. And I am living proof of that. So a little bit about my story. So this came up for me a few weeks ago when I was at my mastermind meeting with my coach. And I was invited as part of that event to record a video interview, which I was so honored to do. It's a video testimonial, I guess. Interviews. Not it was an interview, but it was a testimonial. And I was so honored to do it. But as I was thinking and preparing for that interview, I really realized I hadn't shared the part of my story that I'm going to share with you today as really the root of why I do what I do and why I created the business that I created and why I created it to be simple and why I teach that. And so it all goes back to 9 11. I was living and working in the New York area at that time. I had just graduated from my master's in business administration. I got my MBA in marketing at Hofstra University. And I was just starting out in my career, and a lot of my colleagues, my classmates, my friends had gotten jobs in big fancy investment banks or consulting firms. They were traveling all over the country, all over the world, and they were all working like dogs. I, on the other hand, chose a little bit of A different path. I was much more of an entrepreneurial spirit. I tried to do the corporate thing and the thought of working in a cubicle just made me want to vomit. And I knew that I couldn't go that way. And so I knew I had to invent something a little bit different. And fortunately, it was the beginning of the Internet boom. And so there was all kinds of businesses and companies starting up, all kinds of new ideas, and there was so much opportunity. And so I just wanted to jump into that realm. And so I did. So I was working for lots of various startups and Internet companies and helping them with their marketing and sales, and it was just such an invigorating time. And it was so fun, but I was working a lot and I feel like I didn't have much balance in my life. It was just all about work. And I loved the work I was doing, but I knew that it wasn't going to last. That pace couldn't last forever. And I remember hearing stories about my colleagues and classmates that were like working over 80 hours a week and they would basically be sleeping under their desks or living in these tiny shoebox apartments where they basically just had a bed and were living with five other people just so they could afford to live in Manhattan. And obviously we were all young, and so it was part of just being young and hungry. And that was fun. But I am always a planner and thinking ahead, and I knew that that wasn't like a long term thing for me. And then 9, 11 happened. And that really for all of us, really shook me and really obviously shook all of us. And so that day I saw neighbors and friends and classmates go to work and never come home. And it was very deeply disturbing to me that we could just, you know, I guess I was confronted with my mortality. Right? Like you could just go to work today and not come home. And that had happened for thousands of people that day. And so that really changed the way I looked at my life, at the work I was doing and how I wanted to go forward. And so let's see, I was 30 years old, and so that was also part of it too. Like the big three zero, right? Like, it was kind of a turning point in my life. And I knew that I needed to make a change. And so the change that I decided to make, I made a geographic change. I moved from the New York area back to my home state of Colorado. And I also decided at that time that I would never be a slave to my work or to my job, that I wanted to Create a life where I could have extremely fulfilling, profitable work, but also have friends, have a family. I wanted to get married and have children. And so I decided I was going to create that vision that the work life that I had seen and experienced in New York was not for me. And so that really kicked off my journey of creating something completely new. And in 2005, I founded my company, Avanti Creative Group. And I did it differently than I had seen others do it, create their and build their businesses. It was completely different and counterintuitive to what I had learned in my education, my master's degree. I invented something completely unique to me in the way that I did business. And I wanted it to be very simple. So I created my company and my business to. To be very focused on the service that I provided. So very simple services, right? And I didn't work all the time. I had very specific work hours. And at that point I had a puppy. And so I was taking my new puppy on a walk or a hike twice a day and living in the mountains of Colorado, up near Vail in the Vail Valley. And that's how I started my business. And so I did that. And I wanted to create the life and the simplicity, because that was my tribute to all that perished on 9 11. All my friends, my neighbors, my colleagues, and all the people I didn't know. I feel like that the best way to serve their memory was to go out and create a life that would be lived to the fullest. And so that was my tribute and was to figure out how I could make the money I wanted and enjoy my life. And so that when my final day came that I. I knew that I had created and lived a life of intention, not perfection, but created my life on purpose. And so I never have had fancy branding, I have never had a professional logo designed. I kept everything very simple. I knew how business was created, how to get clients, and so that's what I focused on. And everything else was just kind of if I had time or if I wanted to do it. So I built my own basic website. My first website I built myself. And in those days, my friends, you had to do a little HTML programming, which is very old school, like basic programming. Before the days of drag and drop like we have now, you had to actually write computer code to make your website run. And so I did that. I ran my finances from a spreadsheet. I didn't have fancy systems and software other than what I absolutely needed that were simple and made sense to me. That's how the foundation of where I built my business from. And yes, things have gotten more professional and a little more complex as the years have gone by. But what I have found is that every time I created or tried, attempted to create unneeded complexity in my business by having a whole bunch of offers or by trying to do all kinds of various marketing things and spreading myself too thin, it just resulted in me overworking, not earning any more money and not having more joy. And so then I would have to have awareness of that, dial that back, connect back with the simplicity that I wanted to have and then cut out what needed to be cut out, right? And really remember that simplicity is the way that I want to start my business, grow my business. And it's the way that I have scaled my business and the way I am scaling my business. I wanted to just share that story. And that's why the teaching that I do, the clients that I have and the way that I coach is all around having a simple business so that you can have profitability and also so that you can have joy, joy in your business and joy in your life. And I have never felt that it is necessary to put your life on hold for your business or put your business on hold for your life. So I don't think that we as women, if we want to have a business and a family or a career and a family, I think we can have both. And I have done that myself. It's definitely not been perfect, but it's definitely possible. And so that's the way I coach my clients and teach around creating simplicity and creating a life and a business that is completely unique to you, that we can create a simple business, we can create simple marketing that's fun, we can create a business model that's profitable and create a business in life that's joyful. And I believe that that's possible for anyone. That there's nothing special about me. I didn't have any special knowledge or special anything. I just made a decision and I was determined that I was not going to be a slave to my work really where for me, what the secret has been and where it all comes together when. Where it's all come together with me. And for me, since I made this decision, I guess 21 years ago, that it's been since 9 11, is that simplicity is created in maximizing value. And that creates money more simply rather than more effort and doing more things. And so that has been my journey of learning that and learning how to maximize my value and my value density and in service of my clients, in service of you, in service of the women that I want to help to do the same thing. You really only need to do the bare minimum and I'm having air quotes here, stuff tech, et cetera, to make money. When you're focusing on value and so you can do the things that are fun, that create joy. Creating clients can be simple and fun and joyful. And the more you simplify and focus on value, the more money you will make. I share this all with you because it really is the basis for why I do what I do. And so if you'd like to learn more about how and and what I teach, I am hosting a free online training on June 15th at 9:00am Mountain Time, which is 11:00am Eastern Time. And it's all about seeing simple marketing that creates big results. And so in this training I will be teaching the timeless principles of marketing that I have seen and used in my business and with my clients that have worked for 20 years, the 20 years I've been in the marketing industry. And we're also talk about what really creates clients and money. And I talked a little bit about that today, but go into much more detail in teaching you how to create your own value and to maximize your value and how and where to increase your visibility that we'll also be covering that. And then finally in the training we'll be covering how to create your irresistible message and offer and so how to do all of these simply with what you already have with the business you already have. And so this is part of my mission to really offer this to you so that you can make all the money that you want in the time that you have so that you can be the fullest expression of yourself, do work that you love and work with the clients that you love working with. And so if that's intriguing to you, I invite you to join me for the training. We will have a link to that in the show notes. You can also it's also on my website, melissamkellog.com and I hope to see you there. I would love to have you as part of the training and we will be having plenty of time for question and answer and coaching because if you're going to invest the time that day with me, I want to make sure that you get everything you need to create the simple marketing that will give you great results and have a fabulous summer and get to enjoy your family and friends. And just as I'm going to be doing this summer as well. So that's what I have for you today and I hope this is inspiring to you. And if you want to create a simple, profitable and joyful business, I can help you. It is 100% possible for you if you're willing to entertain the possibility and the determination and willingness to create it right. I know it's possible for you. I believe in you 100% and with that, I hope you have a fabulous rest of your day and I will see you next time and see you at the training. Bye. If you like this podcast, then you have got to sign up for my free on demand video training Grow youw Sales Doing what you love where I teach you in depth my simple process that you can implement right away to harness your mindset and your skills to grow your sales to whatever level you want. So go grab that now. The link is in the show notes and I'll see you next time.