SDH 001: Executing Entrepreneurship with Shauna Mackenzie
She Did It Her Way Podcast interviews Shauna Mackenzie, the owner of Best Kept Self, an online platform for self-starting women. The company publishes content, daily, and offers online and one-on-one consulting programs. A lifestyle brand for women full of quality information on beauty, style, health; oh, and our favorite, the #bestkeptselfie campaign promoting positive self-talk <- we’ve signed the petition to stop the madness, have you?!
The company began (when Shauna was 22 – get it girl!) as an image consulting agency, and it has since evolved into an all-inclusive resource for entrepreneurial women and their self-started businesses. Shauna and her collective of experts are total rockstars!
Shauna also founded and co-owns The Studio for Image Professionals, a training and certificate program to educate other individuals on becoming image consultants.
Not to mention – her and her hubs owns a vacation rental company… umm what?! An airbnb houseboat(!!!) – This girl knows business! [And we may be vacationing on a houseboat soon…]
“Once you discover what you really want to be doing, it makes your day job absolutely miserable.”
Getting Started Meeting with clients | blogging | networking | refining marketing verbiage | building the brand | keeping an eye on competitors | staying up to date with education
Year 1: The perfect mixture of taking the risk to do something that you love blended with your skillsets and you’re work – things will just happen and it will be easy. I was all-in with this and so passionate about it that the things that I wanted were so easy to retain.
Year 2 and 3: The excitement wears off and it starts to not become easy because you have to face the reality of making money.
I wish: I was thinking about scale from day one. Mapping out ideal numbers and starting the process of revenue goals and what it was going to take throughout the year for me to hit those goals.
Inspiration I celebrate every single tiny tiny win!
“Be gracious that your work is paying off - even if it doesn’t feel like it.”
Advice #1 Surround yourself with the right people - making sure you’re held accountable to get stuff done. The right kinds of people are going to make or break your business. Be extremely deliberate with your time and where you’re spending your time – including with whom.
SDIHW Advice Nugget: You are the average of your FIVE closest friends!
Advice #2 Take the initiative to solicit feedback – personally and professionally. You have to ask for it and be prepared to hear the positive and the negative.
Shauna’s Biggest Fear: “I get so close to myself, or so involved with myself, that I don’t have the ability to see outside of myself and make the changes I need to make.”
New Obsession: Morning Pages (we’ve googled it for you!) -- Theory of total stream of conscious thoughts in free-writing, every single morning when you wake up. Grab a notebook and write exactly three pages worth of notes.
Phases of Entrepreneurship Excitement seeps into Stress which transitions into Fear and inevitably becomes Frustration.
“And that’s where you’re going to change. That’s where you’re going to get the drive because you’re so frustrated that things aren’t coming together.”
Mentality Shift: Celebrate and realize that it’s going to come together. // Don’t self-sabotage by not being grateful for everything you’re doing // Have complete trust in your work and yourself.
Book Rec: "Busting Loose from The Money Game" - Robert Scheinfeld The strategy and the 'way of doing' that will help bring abundance to your life.
“Execution: the more you start launching and putting things out there – You get over the fear of being judged or the fear of failure. Whatever it is that makes you hesitate before you launch something, you get over and it’s just exciting. You realize that it’s not that big of a deal if you fail.”
Related Episodes:
