(00:00):
I saw the two people that I worked with that were sitting in the audience and they just looked at me and laughed. When I started this podcast, it was to share best practices for online marketing, what to do, what, not to do the things, to pay attention to the pitfalls, to avoid. But recording episodes felt like walking through molasses. They were so boring that I just wanted to take a ballpoint pen and poke my eyes out. But here's the thing. I still wanna help people get past the hard stuff because promoting your business is not easy. So let's make the hard stuff funny with a sense of humor and a good old belly laugh. You can get up again and again and again, and each time with a smile on your face. This is exponential marketing bloopers and I'm Sally Hendrick. Your hostess with the mostest.
(00:56):
Okay. Don't think I've gone off the deep end y'all but after several years of building my business, I've run into so many obstacles, so many roadblocks and it's frustrating and you get tired and it's hard to pick yourself back up again. And for the last couple of years, it's been hard to laugh because we've had so much stress in the world and I left corporate for a reason. And it wasn't so I could come into this entrepreneurial world so that I could then be another corporate representation of the world that I'm living in. Now with all of these people who have made amazing businesses out of practically, just any idea they could think of, would you rather work or would you rather play? If we're going to go through all of this business building stuff, it better be for something that we love doing, right. Take a moment to do this quick life purpose challenge to discover what makes you truly happy. It's free visit SallyHendrick.com/lifepurpose.
(02:15):
I mean, I remember when I first joined a group in 2015, it was with Kimra Luna. She's completely changed her brand these days, really coming into her own as well, but Kimra was always really raw and real about how she felt about things. And I thought that that was pretty neat, but it wasn't for me this proper polite Southern girl. But I took note and I started working on my business trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it. At that time, I was still working as an actuarial consultant. Now a lot of people are like, what the heck is that if you're ever in the insurance world or in the risk area of business, an actuary is a statistician who looks at the economic impact of the behaviors of employees, guests, patients, and hospitals, whatever that is, uh, related to lawsuits and liabilities that the corporation ends up becoming responsible for.
(03:25):
So it was a very high tech, highly analytical and strategic career, if you will. And I did that for 25 years and I really, really like solving puzzles, the complicated puzzles that, uh, came him to my desk every day. But over time I grew weary of the seasonal work that we had to do. The summers would be pretty easy and that was nice, cuz I always traveled. I went overseas a lot and I would stay and live in other countries for a time, as much as possible. But during the end of the year, and then during the tax season, it was brutal. It got to the point where I had so many projects during the month of January. And then that would bleed over into February, sometimes a little bit into March. Then after April, may, June, July, August, those would be pretty light. So a normal month would be working on anywhere between five and eight projects.
(04:30):
If you averaged it out over time, that's probably what I did. And a project was an actuarial analysis of all of the years of a corporations, workers compensation claims or their healthcare liability claims or something like that. And we would put all of these spreadsheets together and I mean dozens and dozens of spreadsheets, but we had a way of doing it. We had a way of making it easy and simple and um, systematized, if you will, but it was lot to check and review. And if anything looked off, you had to go and investigate and research further to find out what was going on. And it's a lot of brain work, a lot of thinking, a lot of critical thinking and that takes a lot of energy
(05:20):
Turn what you know, in, into what you do, join the platform with the
(05:24):
Most ways to
(05:25):
Monetize what you know,
(05:27):
Whether it's online courses,
(05:30):
Coaching memberships, podcasts, newsletters, communities, or more Kajabi gives you all the tools you need to build market and sell it with just a few clicks sign up at SallyHendrick.com/kajabi. That's K a J a B. I,
(05:52):
I remember once when I was on this health kick, I was like always exercising and watching my food and being real careful about things. And I was doing really well with that, except that I was a little bit obsessed and uh, and I would get really bored and I didn't understand. I just thought that maybe it was just too much work, but I needed to take a break every once in a while. And so what I would do is I would pick up, uh, a big, you know, uh, ream of paper and I would do lunges holding the paper back and forth, like a weight on the way to the copy room or on the way to the kitchenette. And then when I would get to the kitchenette, I would play with the star wars dolls, so that were there and I would put them in different positions so that whoever came in next would be able to laugh and they would think it was funny. And you know, I don't know, not everybody got my jokes and I was a little bit different. I didn't really wear the proper clothing necessarily. And sometimes I would take my dog to work and without permit, I was kind of one of those, but it was a stress reliever and it made me feel like I could get through the day.
(07:07):
Do you have a dog learn unleashed potential dog training secrets with duke Ferguson, this free video series will get you training tips so you can get your dog's attention, eliminate behavioral problems and enhance your relationship in just 20 minutes a day, sign up at sallyhendrick.com/dogtraining.
(07:34):
So eventually it got to the point where January, you know, I kept up with all of my work. I kept up with how many hours I spent on each account. I didn't have to bill by the hour, but I liked to see how long I worked on things because I wanted to be able to keep track, to make sure I wasn't working too too much. And if anybody asked, I wanted to be able to show what I'd been working on as well, that, that nobody asked it was a very laid back relaxed place. Cuz we all had autonomy in our projects. However, I was getting so bogged down with so much work at the, uh, beginning of the year that I counted my projects. One time I went back and looked and I had touched 45 pro in the month of January alone. And I was like, well, no wonder.
(08:25):
I'm so stressed out. I'm breaking down, I'm getting sick, I'm getting anxious. And I just really was not enjoying it anymore. After this happened a couple of years in a row where January would come and that season would start to get too much. For me, it actually started to bleed back into December and November and even October because we were getting so busy and corporations were getting so demanding, excuse my dog. He was rolling a bone across the floor, but corporations were getting so demanding and they were so rude about everything that it, it was like, I loved the work that I had to do, but I was not liking the people I had to work with. Maybe if I met them in a personal situation, it would be fine. But their personalities at work were just, well, they just sucked.
(09:26):
Hey, it's me. I wanna make sure you realize I'm talking about the clients that I had, not the people I worked with. I loved them. I'm talking about the clients. And at the same time my mother started getting sick and things were just happening and I was having to go tend to her. I would drive a couple hours away where she lived and see what was going on. And I could see the signs of aging and see the signs of deterioration in. And I would start to get to the month of October, which is probably my favorite month of the year. And it would, I would feel this sense of overwhelm, this sense of anxiety, this worry and anticipation for what was to come. And I was like, you know what, it's bad enough for me to go through this January, February, March, every year, but for this to start now and then to continue for five or six months, I just don't know if I wanna do that anymore.
(10:31):
Do you want to stand out from the crowd with your content? Come discover how to market yourself as an expert, as a change maker, as a positive influence on other people's lives with the exponential marketing club, you will learn the ins and outs of content marketing. That makes a difference in the world. Visit Sallyhendrick.com/club. Plus I kind of worried that my boss really wouldn't send me to some of the more interesting meetings, you know, cuz there was that day when I showed up at the state of Tennessee workers compensation review, which was a big deal because it was like all the people that worked with the state and the higher upper levels, they had expert it's come from all around the country to talk about different things like how the opioid crisis was started with uh, workers, compensation and doctors prescribing opioids on mass to workers that had been injured.
(11:32):
And it was a big concern cuz we were having to do all of the figures for that to show what the economic impact was for the corporation. So I show up to the meeting and it's mostly attorneys, actuaries, accountants, and other kind of people that would be interested in that kind of thing. And um, and, and everybody had on a suit, you know, like a nice suit that was all stuffy and I'm just not that kind of person. Now our office was very laid back. We were a very small group. I was actually the first employee at that particular group and they wore khakis in a nice top or whatever. And you know, the women would wear, you know, either slacks or, and a nice top or a dress or whatever. And I walk in and I've got on Cal print pants. They're like tight jeans and a black top.
(12:27):
That's really cute. And some boots. And I don't know, that was just my, and I could tell when I walked in the door, I saw the two people that I worked with that were sitting in the audience and they just looked at me and laughed and I, and not laughed in a bad way, but laughed in a like, oh my God, there's Sally. Look at what she's wearing today. And it was kind of in an endearing type of laugh. So I didn't take it in a bad way, but I don't know. I guess that's just, it, I'm kind of like my mom in that way. And so it just was something that I needed to do to dress the way that I wanted to dress. And I really didn't give a what anybody thought. So there's obviously more to my corporate exit story because I obvious left and started a business, but I'm gonna save that for another time. And I'm gonna bring in some of the funny moments and share it with you. So I hope you enjoy this and I hope you enjoy the season that's coming. And I'll be honest with you. I have no fricking idea what I'm gonna say. See you soon.
(13:31):
Oh, I almost forgot if you've made it this far less listening to this episode and you have something you want to share with me a story, maybe something that's funny that you do to get through your marketing hiccups, cuz this is a marketing podcast. Uh, let me know, send me a message. Just head over to, uh, SallyHendrick.com and in the bottom right corner. There's a chat bubble and just send me something there. If you've got like a funny story to share and I will, you know, read some of these things out on the air. Okay. Thanks. That's all folks. Please hit that subscribe button and head over to SallyHendrick.com/clubhouse, where we make the hard stuff. Funny. See you next time.
