How One Woman Built a Thriving Online Business During a Pandemic

Okay ladies, so this episode I am super excited about because it brings me back to my beginning days of figuring out how to take all the things that I've learned in my life as an entrepreneur, an employee, and all of that kind of stuff, and working with small businesses, um, how I was able to grow a business online through learning about digital marketing and putting all those pieces together. And that's why I'm so excited about the guest that we're having on the show today. Her name is Kirsten Roldan. She is an amazing, um, agency founder, an educational business that's helping businesses reach million plus in their businesses, right? And she has a multi-six-figure business that she's basically built in a pandemic and doing it sometimes from her RV. And I mentioned the RV because as our conversation is being recorded in the RV and we have a little hiccup, but it's called nature. So because they're in our RV, her and her husband and her puppy, um, there was a little rain in the background that we were unable to like not record with. So please bear with the audio in this episode. You can definitely hear so many gems in her stories, and you will love her accent and her realness in the show.

But you definitely want to just—

I just want to give you guys a little caveat there that there is some background noise that we were unable to edit out. But what we will talk about is how to build your business, um, intentionally through connecting with who you are as a person, what your core values and your mission is. And we'll also tap into some of Kirsten's about why she is building a business that's very collaborative in nature and how that's helped her build this multi-six-figure business and how you can use some of the tools in her business to help you and your maker and coaching experience as you grow your business. So I cannot wait for you guys to join us in this conversation. We have a lot of fun and I'm super excited. All right, stay tuned. Welcome to She's Crafted to Thrive.

I'm your host Nikita Williams, and this show is for all the ladies who making and creating things that they love.

You will hear conversations about the real everyday struggles of juggling life and business while trying to maintain passion and harmony. As women, we have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here where you'll see that you're not alone. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection. Fear and negative thoughts and challenges are all a part of the journey. And on this podcast, you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business Death thrives. Real quick, I want to shout out one of our listeners who left a review. Her name is Shauna, and she says, the power of one voice. Nikita Williams has an authenticity to her that you don't always see. She shares stories of real women that we can all relate to. Well, thank you so very much. I really do try to be real, keep it on the real real here on the show, and I'm glad that the women that have said yes for being on the show have been so open with sharing their with us, and I, I'm just so honored by that. If you are looking for a way to find your story so that you can create the kind of success that you want in your business and in your life, you want to join us inside of my membership called She's Crafted Insiders, where we talk about all of the things from mindset to marketing when it comes to building a business that thrives. You can go to sheescrafted.com and hit that join the tribe button and you can join our membership and use the code podcast for 15% off. Okay. Now let's hop right into this conversation with Kirsten. I'm so excited to have Kirsten on the show.

You guys, she is like boss. Like when, as soon as you came on the scene of Instagram and everything else, like girl is blowing it up. You were like, just like, I don't know. I don't know what it is.

I just like, remember, like, I don't even know how we connected.

I just somehow ended up following you and I was just like, this girl is killing it in the digital marketing world. Like that's huge. So please introduce yourself, tell us who you are, what you do. And I'm like so excited to have you on.

Wow.

High praise. I always feel like I always am thankful, but also like so cringy when I hear someone talk about myself. I'm one of those people where I'm like, uh, I freeze up, but I do appreciate that.

Yeah.

My name is Kirsten. I am the owner of a digital marketing agency and I also do consulting. I like, I'm very much a serial entrepreneur, so I'm kind of in everything. I also have a startup e-commerce brand with my husband, and I have another collaborative project on the works. So I'm 4 businesses deep. I'm like 7 cups of coffee deep. Born and raised. I think that whole like hustler mentality comes from the fact that I'm like a Latina New Yorker. And so that's just like, it's in my blood. That's what I attribute all my strengths and flaws too. So that's me. That's me.

I love it. So I love that. I mean, what, how did you come into this world? Like, how did this begin? Like I, when I say, okay, so a lot of people know my story is that I started in the digital marketing. I didn't know what to do when I first started online. Cause it was just like, I know a lot of this stuff and then now what am I putting together? But I feel like you came on the scene, which is like, I know what I'm doing. Bye, y'all. Like, it was so awesome to see. So tell us a little bit how you started on this journey.

I appreciate that. But if you knew how much I was winging it, like, if only you knew the struggle. I was very much winging it. So to make a really long story short, my college education is actually in the medical field and I specialize in cardiac pathology. That's like a whole other life. It literally feels like a whole other life that I had. For almost a decade, but I was always just an avid side hustler. So anything I could do to make extra money, I did. I had a housekeeping business. Like I just have always been an entrepreneurial person. My whole fam, I actually come from a line of entrepreneurs, but they were side hustler entrepreneurs. So they had like these successful, like really successful side hustles along with their 9 to 5 jobs. So I think that's just where I learned it from. I never thought full-time entrepreneurship was safe. Never thought it made sense. My family didn't do it, so why would I do it? Like, you just always have to have the stable 401k and then the side hustle. So with all that, I'm also a millennial, like true blue millennial, like hardcore grew up with internet, obsessed with social media, was on every wave, the MySpace, every single thing. And I've always been just so obsessed with social media and so, and what it can do and the way it connects. And I just found even on my personal Instagram page, my friends would make fun of me for writing like essays. I'm the like essay comment, like the essay post writer. I write essays and essays because I just want to express myself on social media. And so that led me into the world of blogging. But even on my social media page, my friends would joke with me like, you're Miss Popular on social media. But really what it was was that I knew how to build a loyal community, which I figured out later. So that moved into blogging. And in every endeavor, I realized that because I had multiple blogs, I had a poetry blog, a hair and makeup blog, like all these kinds of blogs, obsessed with social media, like I said, like 10 WordPress accounts. But anyway, as a result, I just found this common denominator. And it's that Kirsten knows how to rally people around her community. Like, I just know how to build loyal followers, engaged followers. And what I found was that I tried to make blogging a business, something profitable. I had zero idea. And everybody that I was, you know, I bought mini courses and products to try to figure it out. And I just never saw it as a viable option ever. Like just the rational in me never did. And so I think it's because of that, that I didn't give it its full chance. But finally, when I was looking at things, I realized that of all the times I started a new page or started a new blog or a new venture, it always tied back to my absolute love and adoration of marketing the page. I love marketing the page. Like, I loved like bragging to all my friends about it and being like, look at this awesome page. Trust me, you'll love it. Even if you don't like poetry, you'll like my blog. I just loved marketing.. And so, and I was really good at it. And so that's what I found was that common denominator. So next thing I knew, as Facebook started targeting me in all my social media glory and started showing me social media management things of that nature. And I was like, is that a thing? Do people do social media management? Cause that sounds like my kind of job. And I had my mom, is actually also in marketing. However, she's in a totally different sector. She's in like brick and mortar medical facility marketing. But she was like, oh yeah, girl, like I have people manage my social media. I was like, you never told me. Like, how did you never tell me? She was my first client. I was like, first of all, why are you hiring other people? First of all, you need to hire me. So I started making her stories, my mom's stories. And then I literally, what's the first thing I did? I started marketing myself online. I started joining Facebook groups. And next thing I knew, I was a social media manager with a pretty thriving side hustle to my 9 to 5. And I ended up, that was in November 2019, and I was full-time by April 2020. But there's been a lot of pivots along the way. However, that's how I broke into the space. And it's just, Yeah, I think it all ties back to just everything I did always had a marketing mindset behind it. And that's how I ended up here eventually.

I love that story. Oh my gosh. I feel like it's a unique story, but it's also like a lot of digital marketers that I've talked to, they're like, I did not know this was a thing because I would have been doing it my whole life.

Oh, I wish I knew. I would have loved it. Yep. It's so true.

That is so awesome. So what part, like, What part of it was in your head during the whole process? Did you like feel like this is the thing? Like, why haven't I been doing this? Like, what is— when was that point in your journey of like learning all that and being like, I'm definitely going to make this my whole gig? Yeah.

So I mean, without diving too deep into my trauma, I come from a background of a lot of fear and scarcity around money. And that's why my family always had side hustles on top of thriving careers. And, you know, anything that didn't— wasn't the classic stereotypical safety net literally looked like danger to me. And so for me, when I realized that I had a lot of power in entrepreneurship was when I realized, wait a second, you have always taught yourself to make money in some way., right? So you have always taught yourself to have a side hustle, to monetize your skillset, whatever it was, you've always done that. And what I realized was what's gonna change? Nothing's gonna change except you're gonna not have to work a 40-hour-a-week 9-to-5. So your life is actually going to get better, right? And so that's what it was for me where it was like, wait, I've already taught myself how to make money consistently, no matter what I do. The only difference is that I'm letting a 9-to-5 hold me back. I'm not anti-9 to 5. However, my personality does not thrive in a 9 to 5. I'm a bad employee. I am not a good employee. So for me, that's what it really was.

Gotcha. I mean, there's a lot of power. And you guys, okay, so Kirsten has a puppy. I have a puppy too, but she's at daycare, so she would be doing the same thing to me right now.

Like, like a soccer ball. Get out of here!

So I think it's pretty cool that you figured out what it is that you're good at at an earlier time, like in the earlier time of your life, because I don't know about you, I feel like there are generations before us where like my mom and my grandmother, like they didn't necessarily have the luxury, and I consider it a luxury to like, you know, discover what it is that you're really good at, like to know and be okay with that. And there's some kind of safety net for you. I feel like our parents didn't have a safety net. They had the grind, the hustle. You do what you gotta do. There is no time to discover your artsy nuts, whatever it is that you do. They don't have that time. And so growing up like that, you might be like, that mentality can get into your head. But now I feel like we all have a little bit more freedom because of the internet, because of social media to kind of discover all that kind of stuff where our generations before us, like our parents, they didn't have that. They didn't, they didn't get that opportunity. So I think it's really cool.

I think also what I actually love about this generation is that we are questioning a lot of things. So what appeared to be a luxury before actually feels more like a right, you know, nowadays, like, no, like mompreneurs have a right to have their thriving business, right? It's not— I think there's a lot of that as well. I definitely feel privileged in that I didn't have children, that I was married and had support in in terms of emotionally from my husband to be able to pursue this. And so for me, that alone felt like a privilege in itself. I will say I don't think I would have done it single, if I'm being honest. I don't think I would have. I was too scared single. I was so terrified of life as a single person.

I really was.

Like, I was just like, no, everything can go wrong and I'll be alone.

Oh my goodness. I don't know. I don't—

that's my personality.

I was going to say, like, is that a thing that you've carried on into Yeah, like the world of your business now, like why you—

100%.

Okay.

I'm so— that's why I have a huge team. It's why I thrive in collaboration. I thrive in collaboration. I don't thrive in solopreneurship or solo anything. I'm definitely like a two is better than one girl, for sure.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I think that is like— I think what you said is right. I do think we just have some things that we question now. Like there are things that my mom can tell me and she'll say, and I know it's just because she doesn't— the mindset of how she grew up in the world that she grew up in, she wouldn't think the way that I think about something because she never had that necessarily opportunity to do that. So in the world of now, it's like, well, why not?

You know?

And I think, I think too, as female entrepreneurs in the world right now, man, there's so much There's so much power in just owning your stuff. Like, now's the time. Power, owning what you're good at. How has that been? I feel like when you own it, you just— something happens. Like, I don't know what it is, like a magic button or something. If there was one, like, what is it that is like, you know what, I am going to do this no matter what, and I, I know I can. Like, what is that for you, your mindset that's kind of giving you that confidence?

Yeah, I mean, for me, I always talk about like marketing yourself like you're the only one in the room.

Yeah.

So for me, that requires putting blinders on a lot of the time. I'm actually as involved on social media as I am. I'm actually not a heavy social media engager, like in terms of like, I should say consumer, maybe I guess you should say. I'm a marketer more than I am a consumer, if that makes sense. And that to me, Putting my blinders up for one thing gives me confidence because if nobody's in my bubble, then there's no competition.

Yeah.

So there's that. And there are definitely different schools of thought I've found with that. I've just found that that's what works for me. And then also realizing too that even the people that do exactly what I do, they still don't have what I have because we're different. And this internet here is a big old place. And I cannot serve everybody. They can't serve everybody. So at the end of the day, that's why it's funny, because I found that as collaborative as I am, not everybody is that way. And, and I am just like, but how though? Like, I can't imagine it. I literally can't imagine it. So it's just funny to me, but I've always been that way. And so I've just carried that into business where I'm like, at the end of the day, like, I can't do everything, you know what I mean? So that helps me with my mindset too. To have the confidence, you know, to own my gifts and to also, what's the word, uplift other people's gifts as well.

So what inspires you? Like, what's the thing that inspires you?

Oh, for me, okay, that's a loaded question. In what? In business? In business?

It's in business. It can be, I know, I feel like a lot of questions like what makes you wake up in the morning and say, yeah, I'm gonna keep doing this? Like, 'cause you know, we all like have, those days sometimes where you're like, you know what? Yeah. Like, please, like, this is for the birds. You know what I'm saying? Like, what is the thing that motivates you or inspires you in the hard times? Like, what's the thing?

Oh, okay. So I feel like for me, it all boils down to legacy. And I don't mean legacy— I do, but this isn't the whole bit of it. So there's legacy in the sense of like building generational wealth and making sure if you choose to have kids, you have something to leave them and things like that. But for me, it's more than It's also like breaking generational thought patterns and building a legacy within my own small 3-person— well, 2-person and 1-dog family, breaking generational patterns that have potentially held, you know, the people before me back. So for me, I'm driven by my faith and the way that it impacts my, my life and my household that I didn't have when I was a child. I'm driven by the way my husband treats me as opposed to how I saw I saw other husbands in my family treat people. You know, I'm driven by the legacy that I'm building forward, and that includes entrepreneurship. So for me, in entrepreneurship, I'm driven by the fact that what I'm making is no one else's but my own. No one can take it from me. A 401 doesn't define it. And if it is taken away, I have learned so many skills to where at the end of the day, nothing can be— like, my spirit can't be broken, if that makes sense. Because at the end of the day, like, I don't live under a rock. Anything can be ripped from you. Anything can be ripped from you, right? However, I tell my husband all the time, I'm like, well, he asked me, he said, what would you do if you didn't have a business anymore? And whatever, you had to go back to a 9 to 5, would you go back to medical? And I said, I do marketing because now I have a whole plethora, a huge resume, right? Whereas before I didn't. So that alone, to me, entrepreneurship has given me my outlet Yeah, my out, out of my, what, what I considered a dreadful 9 to 5.

So yeah, you know what, you just hit on something that I feel like not everyone feels or says so often, like just being like, I feel like there's this little bit of judgment, like in the world of entrepreneurship, when you say your inspiration is the fact that you can just basically be able to morph into whatever it is you want to. That's what I feel like marketing allows you to do. Yeah, it does. It just allows you to kind of, I don't know what's the word, like I'm moving my hands in waves, guys. Like it just lets you like kind of swim in and out of things and learn because marketing is not stagnant. It doesn't just stay still. It's constantly moving. It's constantly changing. I mean, Instagram on a daily, you're like, what the heck is going on? Right? So like all the different things you're learning, you have to start thinking a little bit differently. It's almost like kind of learning a new language. I feel like you have to think differently. And as a marketer, tend to, you're not boxed in. You just have this freeness of thinking, what if? And it doesn't freak you out. Like it doesn't like take you down the rabbit hole of being like, that's too much. It's just like, ooh, what else can I do?

I think entrepreneurship in general, like even if you're not a marketer, teaches you to wear all hats and learn how to learn new skills. So for me, just recently with our e-commerce brand, we had to build out a Shopify site. And my husband was like beating his head. He got it done. It looks amazing. But I told him, look, now you know how to build Shopify sites. You know, it's like there's so many things that you learn that can be used in other ways in entrepreneurship as a whole. And that's what I love so much about it. While I found with— it also allows you to express who you truly are and what you truly enjoy, because what I found with medical, I wasn't actually good at what I was doing. As much as I was taught to do what I had to do.

Gotcha.

So for me, even though I had a lot of success in my medical career over the span of almost a decade, it's funny when I look back, I'm like, but I wasn't that good at it though, right? Like, I wasn't like that good at it. It's just that I learned how to check off the boxes and move through while entrepreneurship, there's no box.

Gotcha.

Very much like you move, you know what I mean? Does that make sense?

Yeah, no, it totally does. Like, yes, I've been around the block when it comes to digital marketing. Like, people will be like, how do you know? I'm like, it's because I've been doing it for almost 10 years at this point. So like when a new app comes out or something new happens, it's like, oh, it's just like a different version of something that was already out there. They've just made it better. So it makes it easier for your brain to fall in place, if you will.

100%. Yeah.

So during this journey, because you have like, did you say 4 businesses?

I have 4 now. I've started like probably like 6 or 7 total.

It's like, I think she said 4, but yeah. How are you managing life like with 4 running businesses that aren't necessarily connected?

Yeah, they're all different.

Oh my goodness.

Yeah. So, well, for one thing, you all might be shocked to hear I actually only work 24 hours a week on average. I outsource extensively. I am like the queen of outsourcing. There is nothing that I will touch if it messes with my part-time schedule, like at all. I, I try to keep it to where heavy weeks are like between 30 and 35. But what I found is I still love it so much because it's at the times that I want it to be. So if I wake up really late or do something in the morning, all morning, and then have to work in the afternoon, that's fine. You know what I mean? Who cares? So for me, it's that flexibility of schedule. Regardless. But heavy outsourcing, I have a team of 10, even just saying it, I'm like, that's a lot of people. I have a team of 10 in my agency alone. And then I have 2 people for the CEO Box. And then I have nobody, just myself and my partner Margie for DFY Dreamers. So the only like solopreneurship that I'm involved in quote unquote, would be my collaboration with Margie. Everything else has a team attached to it. And in terms of like what I do in my business is I'm really just focusing on the strategic side of things and marketing, like 100% marketing. So for me, a lot of times I get asked this a lot, like, how are you so active on social media? That's my job. That's my job in my business is marketing. And everybody else is taking care of everything else. So when we have a client win, I'm in the Slack channel screenshotting it and marketing it. Right? So that's me and what I focus on and really just growing my team to be better at what they do, to be happy in what they do, and to like hold the vision for the, what I call the Roalden legacy, which is all of our assets, like all of our businesses. And so, yeah, that's the biggest thing I could say. It's, it's outsourcing, heavy outsourcing.

So here's the thing, you start this back back like earlier this year. Like, I feel like this is like, this is, this is new. So this is the part that I really want to get to. I'm like, you guys, this isn't like a business that's just been like doing this for like 4 or 5 years and they're just building a team of 10. Like, this is like less than 2 years. Like, this is just going into your 2-year mark. Like, if you were to count like the whole social media marketing for your mom into 2020 into what you're doing now. So So how did that happen? What did that look like? What fears and crazy things happened during this process?

Do you have a book? I need a book.

What crazy things?

Okay, so one thing, quarantine happened. Quarantine, COVID-19. I feel very blessed to say that as much as people were losing jobs and struggling, my business happened to grow exponentially in quarantine. I feel proud to say that we were able to pay it forward by providing jobs. And our jobs, actually, much of the people on our team were from COVID-19, they lost their corporate jobs. So that to me was like, man, why is it growing so exponentially when the world is struggling right now? And it was all part of my goal for my business, my mission, which was to create jobs. And that's what it did. So anyway, COVID-19 happened, everything blew up. I mean, I went from making $700 a month to hitting just— I can't— it's like unbelievable. I think we sold— it ended up being $300,000 in revenue sold from Q2 to Q4, which is just like insane. That's, that's 6 figures 3 times. Doesn't make sense, right? So for me, what I found was with that growth, it 100,000% when I was making $700, you know, even when I was hitting like 5-figure, just like low 5-figure months, I was able to manage it with like myself and a VA, like a virtual assistant. But when I started getting above that and hitting those 90-hour weeks, you know, it felt fine at first in quarantine because everything was halted. But I had to have this honest conversation with myself where if everything lifted tomorrow, would I be able to be the person that I was prior to my business? 100% no. I would be stuck to my computer. I would be— I would just fall off of everything that is a priority in my life. And that's when I started a heavy hiring initiative in my business. And this has been a 6-month initiative, literally, where I have been— I created a formula for every client. This is how many team members I need. So now I have a whole system system where if there's a client, all right, let's start the hiring, right, to make sure we keep up with the workload so that I can keep my sanity. The crazy stuff that happened with that is that because I had nobody teaching me, nobody knows really, a lot of people don't know how to build a virtual team, how to build it profitably, how to not lose all your money while you're doing it, and how to manage a team virtually and really at all. And so even though I had team management experience from corporate, it's very different when it's a virtual office. And so Yeah, I think the biggest challenges were team training, spending a lot of money and losing profit from just overhiring in a lot of ways, overhiring, and then losing time and sanity from underhiring. So there was a whole balance and I ended up, what really did it for me is I ended up hiring an agency-specific coach and her name is Tatiana O'Hara. I would recommend her to anyone. But I hired her and she was the one that helped me like, hey, okay, this is how an agency should be built and all of that. And she helped me tremendously with that. After that one VIP day, it all changed for me because then I was able to have a system in place and perfect it from there. Yeah, it didn't happen overnight. It feels like it's been happening for so long, for years, but at the same time, I know that 6 months is actually not that long. So it's okay.

I was like, I guess it's a piece of yogurt.

It feels like a long time.

It didn't happen overnight, but—

Yeah, it didn't happen overnight, but no, it's hard because I have to say, for me, running an agency, that's considered a done-for-you business, not a done-with-you. And so everything is different. And this, it seems like this whole industry is dedicated to the coaching and consulting side of things, which is a, I'm sorry to say it, but it's a cakewalk. It's a cakewalk compared to hiring a team for a done-for-you business because you don't just have a backend team to help you with your own things, but you have a client fulfillment team. So there's a whole like other aspect to it that makes it really challenging. And I think that was, I honestly think that was the biggest thing was I was like paying for so much help and looking for help and how do I do this? How do I do this? How do I do this? When really I was looking to the people that didn't necessarily, no regrets, however, they just didn't necessarily have, I needed done for you business experience. That was the biggest thing for me. And that was the biggest challenge for sure. But now, yeah, my team just continues to amaze me.

Well, I think that's great that you found the people, right? You found the people that you needed in order to grow. I think sometimes we are afraid, like I think entrepreneurs are afraid to outsource to people because they, one, don't want to lose the control. And two, they're like, I don't know what I don't know. So I'm really afraid to let someone come in and tell me what I don't know. And I don't know if I— like, I don't know if I should trust them, you know what I'm saying? So I think that's pretty cool that you kind of didn't allow the bumps in the road to kind of like just deter you and be like, you know what, I'm going to stay in this hermit ball right here. And we'll just, you know, so I think that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

I think one of the things I always like to ask people is like, how did this growth affect your health or maybe your family in a sense? Of what's going on because a lot of the women that I coach are creative entrepreneurs who have chronic illness. And so it's like a really big thing. Even if you're a caregiver, it's a big thing. And it's like, if you're growing your business, this is one of the biggest fears a lot of my clients have, which is what if I grow so fast and I can't handle it and then my business crashes and I have this health issue or I have this family member So what— has there been something like that in your journey that's kind of been— Yeah.

So for me specifically, I don't have a chronic illness. Actually, my husband and all of his side of the family do have chronic illnesses. And— but for me, it was definitely mental health, 100%. I do struggle with anxiety and depression. I have since I was a kid. And so for me, I found that entrepreneurship relationship brought up a lot of wounds that went unhealed, untalked about. And it was a challenge scaling and having to be like, you know, at the start of this podcast, you're like, you're such a boss, you're this, you're that. And I appreciate that. But stepping into that position in my life, in my business and forward facing, it was a lot of pressure for me. It was a lot of pressure and having people— I did— the visibility was freaking me out over on Instagram specifically. I started to get messages that made me so uncomfortable. Uncomfortable. But messages like, you're my inspiration, and like, you're this and you're that, and I just want to like learn from you. Like, just very kind, loving, like, yeah, just great messages. But for me, I was like, uh, don't look at me as anything. Like, it was a lot of pressure. And I started to find that as I was building my brand, it was doing what it was supposed to. It was growing as a brand. And as a result, I started to feel the anxiety around that level of visibility and that level of what does that actually mean for me? Like, that's a lot of responsibility. What can I handle that? What does that mean? And so for me, I definitely dipped into the anxious side and then couple that with COVID-19. I think we were all depressed. Yeah, girl. We're all depressed. But if you add the fact that, you know, we had a lot of restrictions now in our lives that I was not used to as an extrovert. Also, I had just moved across the country. Yeah, into a total— I just moved from New York to Utah. I didn't know anybody there. We were just getting to know the local people, and next thing we know, it was, you know, quarantine, right? So I think for me, that's what really agitated the growth, the move, all of it on top of each other. I am— it was just a unique time to grow a business. Yeah, it's a very unique time.

I totally agree with you and I feel the same way as what you're saying. Like just from a standpoint of this year just being crazy, you are not the only agency or business or even coaches this year. They have had the most growth in this unfortunate, like where a lot of people are not because like you said, people are leaving their jobs, they're getting left. You know, some people are choosing to leave because it's not safe. Some people are getting let go because it's not safe. It's too much. Like, and so to have a business like that, as well as from a mental health sense, like, I mean, without COVID, like without COVID being an entrepreneur is like crazy.

Okay.

Like it's, it's its own journey, but then to have it with COVID it's like a whole nother thing. So I really appreciate you for sharing that. Cause I do know that a lot of women specifically too deal with that, like the self-talk, what we're saying to ourselves, the stress that's on our, like in our heads, how it affects us. So I really, Appreciate that. So kind of starting to wrap things up, but I have to ask you because you're like the funnel queen.

Oh yeah.

I love me some funnels. That was kind of where I first started into the world of digital marketing. I love funnels.

Awesome.

They are so cool. But whenever I try to teach my clients about funnels, they are looking at me like, what? What is that? And it's like a whole untalked about world of marketing, but we all experience it. Even if you're not you're experiencing it, I guarantee you, you're in somebody's funnel. I guarantee it. Yeah.

Everything is a funnel. Yeah. Everything is a funnel.

So what kind of like, if you were to give 3 tips to a creative, maybe someone that's trying to figure out how to grow their email list or how to really nurture an audience that they, you know, that they're building, what would be 3 things that they have to do to really help them see the most engagement and growth?

Yeah. When it comes to building your email list as a creative, I'd say find unique ways. So for example, if you are a photographer and you're building a photography business, you should be collecting emails from every customer, from all the wedding venues, right? When you put, you know, you could put a sheet down or whatever it is. If you'd like to learn more about my services, if you wanna learn more about photography, Hey, tip, whatever it is, or you can even have it as a part of your offboarding email where you can say, hey, can you please send this sheet to whoever you think would benefit? Like all that to say, that's not specific just to photographers, be unique, right? Like find unique ways to grow your list. There's absolutely no reasons why you can't grow your list. So starting there in terms of most engagement, as you know, as a fellow marketer, like it really just depends on the trend, right? Yeah. So what I found is creating lead magnets or free offers that attract people to your email list, creating lead magnets that are trending and that also answer the buyer's biggest question. So for example, if you're a social media strategist and Reels just dropped and you're like, you're like, oh my gosh, now I gotta do Reels. I just figured out everything else, right? Or guides just dropped, all these things which are amazing and super useful. Be the first one. I don't care if you stay up until 12 AM that night, be the first one to drop the how-to-use guides freebie, right? Or free offer so that you can get that email list built up. So staying on top of marketing trends will be good in whatever industry you're in. Another example, and I like using photographers as an example because I find— It's their fault.

Yeah. They're so good. Like they have so many things.

But they're also so resistant, I find. Because they think that, no, No, like, it's not like an online business.

You're exactly right.

And it's not true. So photographers, as an example, there's so many— if you're a photographer for entrepreneurs and you want to shoot, you know, headshot shoots or whatever it is, right? There are so many poses that I look up on Pinterest and I'm like, how do I pose in my brand shoot? You know what I mean? Where you could have a guide on how to pose on, on 5 power poses for female entrepreneurs, for women entrepreneurs. Like that alone is an incredible lead magnet that will grow your list, that will boost your engagement because it's relevant as opposed to keeping the same lead magnet that you made 3 years ago. Here's the number one thing, whether it is, you know, when it comes to social media marketing, those that make it are the ones that can surf the wave, right? So you have to be the one to surf the wave. And so when I had moments like, you know, I just grew my business in a year and it's like, oh my gosh, like, was it a COVID-19 fluke? Like all these mindset things come up. All I kept thinking about was as long as I can ride the wave, I can replicate the results, right? So if you can just ride the wave, that will boost your engagement with whatever you do. And in terms of your funnel, just make sure your lead magnet leads to a relatable offer, right? Like an offer that makes sense to them. Them, you just gave them a micro win that they can achieve right away. Now what's the next step to work with you at that point? And that's like the most simple way.

Yeah.

To build a funnel. But I do wanna note that everybody has a sales funnel.

Mm-hmm.

It's just a matter of if it's optimized and if you're actually using it to the best of your ability, but also if it's automated.

Mm-hmm.

That's another thing. So, but everybody's got a sales funnel. If you're on Instagram or if you have booked a client, you have a sales funnel. It's just a matter of how you're using it.

I totally agree with you. And I'm going to ask you one question because I get this often all the time. You know, I have this thing. I'm like, all we need to do is get 100 people on your list. Like, this is what I tell my clients. Just get 100 people on your list and you're good. And they're like, but that's not— that's not going to do anything. I'm like, honey, let me tell you, if you have 100 people on your list that are your ideal customer, facts, that's, that's the money. Like, that's the money. Not only is it the money, it's also the referrals. It's the marketing behind you that you don't even know that's happening because they're telling all their friends, all the people in their circle. So 100 people is what you need. And when you came onto the crowd, Miss Kirsten, I'm like, this girl has not even been on social media this way in like less than 6 months. And I know she ain't got no 100,000 email people on her list. I know this. So it just tells you, like, you just need to know that who you get— don't just do something just because you want people. Do it because you want one person. To come on your list. And I love how you do that because I'm like, you have positioned yourself in that way where it's like you don't have to have all these huge numbers to make 6 and 7 and 8 figures in your business. So tell us like what that looks like for you.

Yeah. So it was funny because I started email marketing right when I started my business because I knew that social media was not something that I owned and I got email marketing certified and all of that stuff. So I had like a firm love and understanding of email marketing. Now, with that being said, for contacts, I mentioned earlier in the pod that I brought in $300K in revenue, right? I have a list of 300 subscribers like right now, 300. That's the max I've ever gotten. And that's because I have like a lead magnet, you know, being promoted like on the backend via ads. Before that, like before this month, literally I've only like dabbled in 150 to 200 subscribers. Now here's another thing. My email marketing strategy is my primary strategy. I've converted high ticket clients from my email marketing. I've converted course clients, you know, like low ticket, mid ticket, high ticket courses. My email marketing is where I sell. And a lot of that came from training my audience. To learn how to buy from me. You have to teach your audience how to buy from you. So I actually disagree with the meet your clients where you're at idea as a standalone strategy, right? I think you do need to meet clients where they're at in your messaging, but you need to teach your clients how to buy from you. And the way I've taught people to buy from me is through my email. Now that's like for a whole other podcast, but But if you can do that, if you can do that, it does not matter how small your list is. It really doesn't. And what's interesting is I have students in my email marketing courses and my funnel courses that are on my email list. And I'm like, why'd you join? And they're like, well, I saw how simple you do things.

Like you did.

You don't do anything crazy. I'm like, no, my email is, it's quote unquote basic. Like I don't do any, there's no frills. Right? It's just a matter of marketing properly in email, right? So, so that's what it is. And, and I always say like people overcomplicate email marketing so much and they get so scared of it when it's like, oh my goodness, it's a gold mine.

Yeah.

For every dollar you spend, you have a $42 potential return. That's insane.

Yeah. You know, that's what I think what you said too is like, meet people where they're at, like that's not the only method. I always tell people, I also think that's true, but not the whole thing. You also have to grow with people. Like you have to know where they're going next. So always, even, even in all my ladies who are in like product, physical products, I always tell them you should have a ladder, a ladder of steps that each person's going to do. And this is the same thing for any service-based or coach business, whatever, is that you want your clients to go through a ladder of things. Like you want them to be like, if they're just starting out here, you need to be in their mind knowing exactly what the next step they're going to need for their business because they're not there yet, but they will be. And you want them to be there with you. And so I totally love that you said that because there are so many big gurus who are not teaching this. Like they are not saying this. They're just like, oh, you just keep throwing people where they're at. I'm like, yeah, that's a really hard sell because now you have to— it's like you have to warm up these people over and over and over and over again. But what if you are able to be the lifelong— and again, back to the photographers— if you are the photographer that did the, you know, um, senior pictures, and then you're also the photographer who does the wedding engagement, and you're also the photographer that does the maternity, it's all in this one family. Yeah, you just have a legacy client forever. And it's the same concept for your marketing, no matter what you're doing, no matter what. I, I love that. That's probably why, you know, I, I heart you so much.

I appreciate that. No, it's so true. Like with our physical product, we have a gifting service called the CEO Box and we already are planning, it hasn't launched yet, but we're already planning like there's the gifting aspect, like the custom gifting, and then there's the CEO Box membership and then there's the branded box, right? And all of that and how that works with people. So we already have a funnel for that because we're trying to think, okay, when people start to love our products and our service, this, where are they going to want to go next? They're going to want one for themselves. Then what? They're going to want one— they're going to want to brand it for their program. Like, that's how you start. Like you said, that's how you grow with your client. Yeah.

So I am so excited you came on because I love— one, I love just having people that I think are awesome on my show. And then two, I just think you can give so much value. I know you have so much coming up in your your business and you want to tell us a little bit more about how people can either connect with you or work with you, because I know that has shifted.

It's always shifting.

Yeah, I know. So let us know. It might have changed for this episode in 2021, but I'm just saying, right?

It probably will. It probably will. I'm just gonna say, honestly, just follow me @KirstenRoldan, and you can also follow me @roldan.comarketing for my agency page and just see See what happens when you follow me, just see where I'm at. And I have a few things down the pipeline in 2020. If everything is totally different, DM me and be like, this is totally different so we can laugh together and you can realize. But technically, technically I have a sales funnel template shop being built as we speak for people to have high converting sales funnel templates at, you know, a non-agency price point, which is great because my agency, you know, we will have to high ticket. We're high ticket over here. So we're trying to make it more accessible to have really great sales funnel templates. And then we have the CEO Box launching. That's a gifting service for entrepreneurs. And then yeah, just see, just see, just see when you get there. But that's what's on deck. And yeah, can't wait. Can't wait to hopefully touch base with you all.

Well, thank you so much, Kirsten, for being on. I just, I just love this. This is so awesome.

This was perfect.

Thank you so All right, ladies, that's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Kirsten and I. If you want to connect with her outside of the show, go to she'scrafted.com and visit our show notes to connect with her on all of the platforms where she's connecting and sharing all of her amazing story and her services. And in the meantime, remember that yes, you are crafted to thrive.