CEO Stories: Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, and Online Marketing

Have you struggled to trust yourself? Have others told you that your gut instinct was wrong? It happened for Kate Crocco too. And her biggest challenge last year was learning to tune back in and listen to herself. Get her best advice for doing the same thing in today's episode.

• Kate has been processing through 2017, and her number one fail was not trusting herself enough.
• She had this feeling that while she was pregnant that her baby would come early.  She kept having this fear, but Kate listened to everyone else telling her it was ok.  
• Everyone kept telling her that she had plenty of time.  She knew that she needed to slow down work sooner. She kept telling the doctor that she thought the baby was coming, but the doctor insisted she was fine and should keep working.
• Kate ended up going into labor and all she was worried about was getting work done.  After her water broke, she was finishing her taxes and making client calls. All of this chaos caused a very tough first few months of motherhood.
• She had a hard time trying to manage wrapping up clients and taking care of a tiny human.  
• Trying to learn to trust herself has still been a process even after such a dramatic event.
• Every time she does not listen to herself and should have, it is just reassurance that she was right.  Every woman will still have some doubt, but you need to found your balance to have the courage.
• Kate's biggest advice it to pray about it and then sleep on it.  
• Do not rush a decision.  A lot of times you have more time than you allow yourself.  Remember to ask when the hard deadline is.
• After having self-trust, Kate feels more freedom and light.  She saves herself so much time by just not worrying.
• To step away when she had her baby, Kate came up with a maternity plan and had all of her launches ready.  She had the nanny picked out and everything was "perfect". Then, the baby came and the plan went out the window.
• Her advice on the things to actually plan for:  1. Be open to surrendering a lot to practice healthy boundaries. 2. Give yourself lots of grace because you will mess up and get frustrated with yourself.
• To help others tap into self-trusting:  Keep a journal. Make the mistake. Go back and review and see that you were right all along.  Next time, trust yourself a little more. Eventually, failing and seeing you really were right.  It is a process to learn that you really can trust yourself.

Kate Crocco learned entrepreneurship from her family. So when her job as a therapist became draining, starting her own practice made perfect sense. Today she shares her story of going from burned out therapist to private practice to booked out mindset coach online.

• Kate had entrepreneur parents who flipped houses and a dad who was a pastor.  She knew that she wanted a job, but she wanted to have a business on the side.
• Even today her parents do not see themselves as entrepreneurs.  It is just what they do.
• Early on her and her husband purchased an income property while she was working her social work job.  The property was just to bring in some side money.
• When they first started, they had one building that they were renting out to her husband's brothers and one tenant.
• They are now on their 5th property.  Her husband is still working his corporate job while trying to achieve this dream in property management.
• Kate originally wanted to be a teacher but after student teaching she knew that it was not for her.  She traded to phycology and went on to graduate school after being pushed by a teacher. Her first job was working with children in foster care doing home visits in the Bronx.  She liked it, but she knew if she continued this she would not be able to have kids. She moved to working with adults because she felt less responsibility.
• On the side, she would see clients.  She filled her practice and was able to quit her job.
• When you are early on, it is normal to have to be doing things that are not in your realm of genius.  Kate almost quit her business many times because she seconded guessed herself many times.
• Kate's advice is JUST START.  She just started googling. She built everything from nothing.  She was self-taught and found all of the free resources that she could.  She would listen to pod casts.
• Her first investment was a $59 a month website.  It was scary to her as little as it sounds.
• Once you find that return, invest a little more.  She found a place to sublet on a Saturday for $30 a month.  
• Kate next built a website, that she was even scared to tell people about.  Within a few months she started making good money on the weekends. She felt like she was doing good, was not rushed like at the clinic, and could actually help people.  
• In those few months she matched her 9-5 income just on the weekends, so she took the leap of faith and left her job.  
• She built a successful in person business, and then Kate decided to transition some into the online world.  
• Once she took the leap, everyone wanted to talk about how she did this.  Kate had the thought that she did not have time to help everyone.
• She saw that she could charge for coaching these ladies how to build their own business.  She followed Mareen Moore, she took a class, and felt very pulled to share her story and make money from it.  
• She realized she could start coaching women instead of just having therapy sessions.
• To Kate, starting an online business was actually much more difficult than starting a local business.  In her location and private practice, she had a special niche that no one around her actually had. In the online space, everyone is nailed down and very specific to their niche.
• She started by seeing clients for free and just called herself a life coach.  She realized that most of the ladies were struggling with growing a business. This was just natural for her to help.  She knew that she needed to help women get the right mindset. She did not want to be a business coach. She wanted to be a mindset coach.
• In her business, Kate just follows what feels good and what is in her zone of genius.  
• Today, she no longer has the in person private practice.  She only does online coaching classes. She is now a mom and only works 20 hours a week.
• She truly believed that to be successful you had to work all the time.  Kate has learned to be comfortable in her space. The growth and inspiration comes when you give yourself some fun.  
• You do have to hustle at some point to grow your business, but eventually getting to the point where you have time and space is huge.

Video is a key opportunity to build trust quickly with your audience, and Jereshia Hawk has leveraged the power of Facebook Live to build a multiple six figure business. She's sharing her best tips to attract, nurture, and convert with livestreams in today's episode.

• Jereshia's favorite strategy has been facebook live streams.  This is where she tests out ideas, can see what is sticking, cultivate a community, and then convert that community to money and customers.   
• She knew that blogging was not her strength, so she felt like she would be better with videos.
• She realized she already had a large facebook community that could be reached.  It was a success so she never left.
• The closest to human interaction, aside from being in person, is a live video.  She knew she thrived in person and this was the next best thing.
• She also leverages facebook as the internal hub.  She uses captivating titles to get people to stop scrolling and start watching.  Once they watch, you need to make it easy for them to connect to move to the next step.  Have a url link in the title so they know easily where to go with a clear call to action.  
• She then has a private facebook group where she asks 3 questions when they join.  Jereshia now has direct content on what the people in the group need. She uses this to create offerings and other facebook live streams.
• She plans her launches 1 year in advance.  
• She is going to be launching a mastermind program.  Right now, she is posting facebook live videos on how do you pick a mastermind, or where to even begin with finding a coach.  These things are preparing her audience for the upcoming launch.
• Most people are terrified of live videos.  What is the true issue of why you are scared?  Most people's concerns are due to ego and looking stupid.  Just go back to why do you have this business. Most people want to help other people.  If you do not go live, how many people are you missing out on helping and is it worth it.  
• The more prepared you are, the more confident you will feel.  
• Maybe creating a mini-script before going live can help you eliminate the barrier of worrying about what to say.  
• Jereshia has a friend that has a picture of her best friend by the camera, so she just feels like she is talking to her BFF.  
• The research says that people like the unpolished and bloopers.  It allows you to be more human.
• Have a small group that you could do a test or trial run.
• Facebook algorithms give you the highest engagement on live video.  You get 6-8 times more engagement from your audience in a video than a post.  
• Facebook live allowed Jereshia to quit her job.  When she launched her high level master mind group the only marketing she did was Facebook live videos.  She made $40k on this launch. Ladies who did not even follow her enrolled in this program just because of her videos.  
• Her recommendation of going live is to just do what you can commit to consistently.
• When she started she was doing 2-3 times a month, then in original launch mode jumped to 2-3 times a week while following up with the emails, and now on a new launch she is doing it once a week at the same time with random ones that just come to her.
• When you are consistent you build in a layer of trust, so do not over commit.

Being a CEO requires a radical shift in your business mindset. And it's one that often requires that we let go. So how do you detach, look at your business strategically, and shift into growth mode? Jereshia Hawk shares her insights in this episode.

• To Jereshia being able to detach yourself from your business is when you shift to a CEO.  It is when you see it grow, evolve and have an identity. It no longer relies on you because it has its own identity and you can release some of it.  
• She feels like she is in the middle of becoming this in her business right now.  
• If you can't detach yourself, you cannot always grow as big as you want.  
• The thing that started the freedom for Jereshia was the member group.  She knew that the member group was only bringing in 8% of the business, and it was draining her.  The strategic coaching courses and online sessions were the parts bringing in the most money. She had to close "the baby" side of the business, the member group, and let the business transition to a more automated business.
• She had to think of what the actual goal was of the business.  Is it to grow it and sell it? To grow it and let it be automatic?  To keep it at a certain size so it can stay your baby?
• Her mastermind and mentors were the ones that really helped her reach this goal.  She feels that entrepreneurial business is 20% strategy and 80% mental.
• She realized a lot of her fears of stepping into this role were the issues she had with her mother.  She did not want to cut the member side because she did now want to feel like she abandoned her clients, like her mother abandoned her.  Dealing with the emotional side of felling worthy and enough is bigger than the strategy side.
• Her next fear was hiring.  She drug her feet because she knew that hiring meant being a real CEO.  She waited until she made $140k to hire someone and this made for a huge struggle doing all of this on her own.
• Meeting with an accountant really made it feel real.  Talking about all of these things was scary for her.
• Jereshia's Calendar:  Monday- "Me" Day; Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday- in and on the business,  group coaching calls; Friday- "Follow Up Fridays" to catch up, free and flexible; Sundays Afternoon- Planning for the week
• She does not wake up to alarm clocks.  Nothing starts until 11, so the creative part can start the day.  She has no problem working super late nights. She will put in some time on the weekend if it happens.
• Space gives you good ideas.  Always doing things does not give you time to come up with new ideas.
• God forced Jereshia to actually sit down and rest via sickness or other things.  She realizes that every 3-4 months she needs a staycation. She just needs time to sit.
• She has bi-weekly "Me Dates" that are planned and paid for ahead of time.
• After hiring a virtual assistant, she has all of this mental capacity to come up with the brilliant ideas.  
• Jereshia has a 3 year rolling forecast to get to a space where she can give away $1 million dollars by the time she is 30 (3 years from now.)  Her goal for the business is to increase the amount of colored women that are CEO's, and teach women of color the techniques and skills to negotiate themselves to be in these high levels of business.
• She wants the $1 million to help pay off student loan debt while they are in a program learning how to become sustainable and independent.  
• Factor God in for the impossible.  You do not need to be responsible for doing it all.  He can make stuff happen!!!

We've all got failed launches under our belts, and Jereshia is no exception. But since her failure, she's learned some lessons that will you to position yourself to get paid what you deserve by getting the clients who need your help into your programs.

• Jereshia had a hard lesson when she was launching a few small group coaching sessions.  The prices were very low to start with. She kept increasing and increasing to get the price where she felt she was worth and not one person signed up.
• In the beginning, she just wanted to serve her clients and did not worry about the money.  After a little while, she switched to a very selfish mentality on what does she need to get out of this business.  This was a huge problem because she did not market the reason her clients needed her. She even became bitter towards the business and clients.
• She needed to get back to the purpose of why she was doing what she was doing.
• "You do not get paid what you are worth; you get paid what you negotiate."  If you think you deserve more, then ask yourself, have you positioned yourself to get paid more.
• Even in the entrepreneurial business you are negotiating all the time.  Your headlines, your emails, your facebook posts are negotiation techniques to get people to read your email or open your link.  You are negotiating a client to choose you and pay for your service over pay for something else in their life.
• She constantly goes back to why she is in business.  She uses her goal board with people's actual names. She personalizes her clients and knows that she is helping them achieve their purpose and passion.   
• Every time she publishes anything, she asks herself, "Why should the person on the other end care?"  We are constantly being marketed at. She asks, "How is this going to benefit to someone else if they do say yes?"  
• Two things that make or break your launch:  1. Audience and 2. Positioning
• Relationships even in business take time.  You have to get people to trust you. You need consistent touch points (email, posts, facebook live).  People need to go through the process of getting to know you.
• After a failed launch, the general temptation is to over correct.  Look back and figure out why it happened, but it does not mean you need a total overhaul of the business.  Just like a relationship, it can be a hiccup that you can work through and move forward.
• Jereshia now tracks her metrics more religiously, as she learned from the corporate world.  She maps out the launch visually on the wall. She tracks the numbers from the very beginning.  Percentages of responses and where in the process.
• Key metrics in a launch:  past launch conversion rates for a baseline, number of people reached, earnings per lead (this helps you know how much you can afford to spend to get leads), conversions in each step, email open rate, email click through rate, what is the email opt in rate on the landing, how is the conversion tracking daily from the launches.
• Social media is a tool that allows you to touch leads much cheaper than in previous years, but you can't just click automatic buttons.  
• When a facebook add fails, ask:  Did you validate your offer? Did you make custom audiences?  

Jereshia Hawk was a born entrepreneur, but at first she chose the corporate path and rose quickly. Until one day she realized that she wouldn't be able to make the income or the impact she desired by climbing the ladder. So she started a business, and the rest is history.

• Jereshia always had a hustler mentality with selling lemonade and then knock off jeans.  
• The real businesses started out of true need.  In college she ran out of financial aid and needed about $13k quickly to get her engineering degree.
• She started an online boutique to quickly fill this need.  Other thoughts had come in about selling drugs, striping, day trading…  Instead she started a business.
• Within 7 days she had an LLC and wholesalers out of California.  She was up and running!
• She kept the business for 14 months, and the company made $50k.  She just shut down shop one day and started working in her engineer career.  
• She planned on staying in corporate until her late 40's until she could retire to an entrepreneurial business.
• As a female, African American engineer, she was in the 1% in her career.  This became very frustrating the higher up in business she went. Her goal was to be a VP and chart this path for other women of color to get there too.
• Business, finance, and strategy acumen was the key to getting to the top.  
• She wanted to help branch this gap for other women of color.
• Empower You Daily was the original business that Jereshia created.  The plan was to be a hybrid non-profit. Her mentor quickly told her this was a bad idea.
• She started by filling out a Daily Action Plan and offering to share it with people.
• Eventually she started small group coaching about how to plan out your goals.  She ran this class for 2 sessions and then things started to go downhill when she raised the price for the second time.
• "By Regina" was a blog she tried to compare herself to and decided she was better at online videos.      
• She loved her job and had the freedom to do both.  Being a full time entrepreneur was never a real thought.   
• God gave her the words of encouragement from a former client and she knew she would push through.
• She decided to get her Master's and get a business coach.  She wanted a business model with passive income so she started small sales funnels.  It was making money, but she was burnt out. Passive income does still require a lot of work!
• Jereshia changed to selling one on one support and small group programs.  She changed mentors to one focused on the foundation, changed her process, and started focusing on the things that she was good at.  The money started to sky rocket at this point.
• There is a shift in business culture currently with passive sales funnels going back to direct service.  
• There needs to be a healthy transition to grow but still keep the integrity.  
• She had her first 5 figure month.  She realized the business was making more money than her corporate job was paying her.
• She talked to God about going full time if that continued.
• He showed up to tell her that it was time and that was why she jumped from the full time job to Empower You Daily.  
• She has moved from Empower You Daily to JereshiaHawk.com to teach the fundamentals of business.  
• • Step One: How do you connect with an audience and see if the idea you have can actually work?  If it does, then how do I make it make a profit?
  • Step Two: How do you develop the confidence and build a community?  Honing in on what is unique about what you do. Testing and tweaking.
  • Step Three:  How do you gain consistency with your income? How do you start doing more high ticket sales?  
• Jereshia had no idea that making money so quickly was not normal for startup businesses.  Once she started attending conferences and things she realized how right she was doing things.  Her accountant had to explain all the things she needed to start doing now that she had grown so much.
• She thought that you had to work your way up the chain for 15 years and get to VP before you started making 6 figures.  She had no idea it was possible to create a business that makes 6 figures after 6 months.

Kerry Sheppard found herself on the verge of burnout in her coaching business, but she found freedom by creating new income streams and using them strategically to create lifetime clients. Today she's sharing when and how to successfully add funnels to your business.

• Her biggest strategy in the last two years has been diversification.
• For instance, she was only working with one on one intense client coaching.  She got to where the hustle was getting a little old.
• She was then introduced to funnels.
• Being able to get clients into your business in on a lower end product and then stair stepping upwards to higher end more expensive products.
• Not everybody wants the high end expensive program, but there are small steps or parts of their business that they would like to learn about.  This helps reach a larger audience.
• Kerry was then able to show her clients how to use funnels.
• Funnels can be used at any point in the business, from the start up or adding them in at any time.  It is just a matter of meeting the vision.
• Find your core and then really start diversifying once you get an actual audience.
• In the online space, there is no black and white.  Do not listen to messages that say there is only one way to do business.  
• Example of a Funnel:
• • A no commitment piece- an article, a video, webinar, checklist.  (They do still have to give you their name and email address, so you get something.)
  • A trip wire- Mini course, a training video, a manual.
  • A passive- Video course
  • Core Offer- Group coaching
  • Premium Level- Mastermind mentor
• Each time they are getting more and more of you.  Spending more money for more of you time.
• On the trip wire, there is usually an incentive. Depending on their action, it will take direct the next steps.
• If they take it, they will go to the next funnel email sequence.
• If they do not, later they will get another offer at the normal price.
• The ones who stop going down the funnel will eventually jump to the weekly email list and not the selling funnel lists.
• Personalization and segmentation!!!
• Once the CEO gives the vision and the road map, you can delegate the technical parts.  You do not have to know how to put together all of the technical side of funnels or email chains.  
• You can build a simple funnel that fits your business.  It does not have to be complicated.
• As you grow and bring on offers, you can add them to your funnel.  Start simple and grow as you launch new products.
• Launch before you automate.
• Another idea is to give to your private client the product to get someone else's opinion on it before automating it into the funnel.

As a CEO, one skill you have to master is surrender. As a solopreneur building a team, Kerry learned how to shift responsibility and let go of control to find more freedom and growth in her business.

• Being a CEO is the driver of the business.  The one looking at the big picture.
• Remember that you can't do it all, and you should work in your zone of genius.  Get a team around you to do the rest.
• She was often doing things in her dad's small business that were not in her zone.  She could have been utilized better, but that sometimes comes with being in a small partnership.  You have to take care of things you don't really love.
• When moving into CEO, you figure out what you are good at and what you are not good at.  Let go and delegate the things that you are not good at.
• When you let go and let someone else do these tasks, do not go back and redo it or worry that they are not doing it as good as you would do.
• To combat the need to control, she tries to focus on managing her calendar.  Kerry really focuses on what each time block is set for and not trying to do something else in that time block.  
• If you are paying someone to do things, make sure you leave things for them to do.
• Don't always cram everything in because you can.  If you have some free time, use it. Take the dog for a walk or go outside.  
• If you try to do it all and do not rest, then things will just crumble.  You will get burnt out by all the work.
• Measurements:  List size, social media stats, engagements, what are you sending versus bringing in, emotional feelings about what you like to do and what direction to head.  
• Ask yourself if you are loving what you do and if you are jumping out of bed to go to work every day.
• As an entrepreneur you get to make sure you are having fun every day.
• You have the say so to take on new clients or not.  You get to make sure that the fit is correct. If it is not, you do not want to waste either person's time.
• As the CEO, Kerry get to determine what time her day starts.  Her morning time is for her to journal, walk, take quiet time, or record thoughts and dreams.  Kick off the day right with the quiet time that you will not get the rest of the day.
• For her, she does want to live a nice lifestyle with financial freedom that lets her give and help others have freedom too.  The more money and time she has, the more she will be able to give.
• She wants to give the women that she works with the same freedom.  Kerry wants to coach their businesses to grow to where they also can have the time to spend with their families and money to help others.   

Sometimes when things look like they're too good to be true -- they are. Kerry Sheppard learned this the hard way and her businesses suffered from a bad decision. But she bounced back, learned some lessons, and now she's sharing them with us.

• It's all about failing forward.
• She had the opportunity to take over a struggling business.  It seemed like it was just being handed to her on a silver platter.  
• She did not do the due diligence on the business.  They didn't go down and actually see the company or meet the employees.
• It ended up being way messier than they thought.  It was never able to get fixed. The problem was bigger than them, and they ended up in a huge lawsuit.  
• The main business actually suffered due to this buying of the other company.
• The biggest advice…. Do the research.  Do not make decisions based on emotions. You must weigh everything and make an educated decision.  
• You can't just lose money, but you can lose time, emotions, and the effects on your wellbeing.  
• Look at these things as opportunities rather than failures.  
• As a creative, she comes up with creative ideas for the business all the time.  She must regularly weigh out, "does this provide value and is it appropriate now?"
• Kerry likes to plan 90 days at a time.  Focusing on different pieces in each quarter and getting those pieces solid before moving on to a new topic.  
• Getting an outside perspective is huge.  People are always so into the business, they do not always step out and look from a general perspective.
• Focusing on the simplicity.  Keep from trying to launch to many things and just throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks.  
• With your ideas that are in your head, but not ready, write them out.  Get them on paper and out of your head so that they do not keep taking up space and take over.  
• You have to invest in your business.  Invest in coaching, programs, or even just money.  If you want to make money, you have to invest the money.
• Have people that you can talk to and bounce ideas off of.  

Kerry Sheppard grew up an entrepreneur and helped grow the family business early in her career. When opportunity knocked to do something different, she found coaching and the rest unfolded from there.

• She was raised by a nurse mom and a job hopper dad who eventually started his own business.  She got to see both the corporate and entrepreneurial side of working, but Kerry leaned towards the entrepreneur side.  
• In college she started in psychology with a business minor; then switched.
• Eventually, she started working in her dad's small business.  This gave her a view as an employee in a small business.
• She took over her territory and worked from her apartment while going to school.
• A year out of school, she opened a business with her father.  This was much sooner than anticipated.
• She worked in her business at night and her dad's business during the day.  
• As the years progressed, she ended up with 12 cell phone retailers.  The retail stores took a toll on her with the hours.
• She started looking to something new, and she was introduced to a network marketing company.  She knew this was the future.
• She decided to go to a Business School for network marketing and hired a coach.  She ended up deciding that she wanted to become a coach.
• All of the sudden they got an offer and in 10 days all the retail stores were sold.
• She went to interview with the buyer and knew immediately that was not for her.
• She knew that it was time to step into her coaching business, and it started!
• Her background was in sales so her strength was in sales coaching.  She did dabble into the business startup coaching, but there was nowhere to scale the business upward.  She pivoted into more passive income strategies and diversification. She has actually just brought back on a network marketing line.
• She felt like every month was just a hustle and there was not a lot of freedom in that.  That was the motivation to create residual income and passive income. This was her way to scale instead of building more and more employees and coaches under her.  
• She watched her friend launch a business with the values she agreed on.  The process of just sharing the product with people, giving them the value, and offering them to take the next step. She just knew watching her that this was the perfect next step to get in.