Katie McManus

Tim Melanson: Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of the work at home rockstar podcast, excited for today’s guest, she’s a business strategist and a leadership coach.

And what she does is she helps people to get over the weenie inside and start their business already. I’m just trying to say that the way you’d think very excited to be rocking out today with Katie McManus. Hey Katie, are you ready to.

Katie McManus: I am ready to rock Tim. Thank you. And you, you did great. channeling channeling my voice about the inner

Tim Melanson: well, you know what?

I feel the same way. Start the business already. so now we always start off here in a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by.

Katie McManus: Yeah. Um, well, my success story is very tied to my failure story. Um, I basically jumped too soon, um, was not set up for success when I first went full time in my business.

And I, uh, rebounded from about $50,000 in debt, uh, during a pan, well, before the pandemic, but leading into it, um, and have built my business to multiple six figure. Um, only using organic, uh, marketing techniques posting to LinkedIn primarily. Um, and by really honing in on who it is that I serve and not getting what I call can doit, which I think a lot of people get, cuz they’re like, oh yeah, I can do that.

And I can do that and I can do that. And it just makes their marketing super messy.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah. Wow. That, that’s amazing. That’s, that’s amazing. Especially in this climate, cuz there’s a lot of people that are going the opposite direction and you know, for you to jump right out of that. That’s that’s awesome.

What, what would you say was the secret to that?

Katie McManus: The secret to that I think, um, was. Realizing where I had gaps. So I’m, you know, I come from a background in sales and so running sales calls, enrolling clients was never a problem for me, but getting people to the call was like the missing element. And so I invested in myself.

Um, I signed up for coaches. I signed up for, um, LinkedIn trainers. I, I really found, um, the people who are doing stuff that fit my personality and. Like invested in sessions with them. Did every single damn thing that they told me to do. And I just kept doing it, even when it didn’t give me automatic returns.

And then I kept doing it. Wow. Even though we’re three months in and it still hadn’t given me anything. Um, and five months in, you know, it, it just started working. It just started working and, um, I, I really also paid attention to what was going on in the world. You know, we, we’re not building businesses in a vacuum.

We have to look towards the outside world and see what is necessary here. Um, when I, when I started my business, I, I actually was a dating coach for men in San Francisco bay area. Um, I was convinced cuz I was a single woman there. I was like, I’m gonna go out and fix these guys. You know, we really need this.

I’m gonna do this for the good of all woman kind in San Francisco. And I got primarily all women clients. And that taught me. I know. So I got one dude and eight women in my, in my practice, and this is on the side of my dis my one, my nine to five job. Um, but what was funny about that is I was like, oh, cool.

That, that universe does not want me just working with men. The universe wants me working with women on this topic. And what was funny is only one of my female clients actually stuck with the dating topic. Everyone else. We ended up talking about how they were showing up at work and what their executive presence was like and how they were at setting boundaries with their boss and their coworkers and their, um, direct reports because how they were showing up at work and, and being really sloppy with all that was getting directly in the way of how they could even have a personal.

And, and so I, I actually started a, a fairly successful leadership, um, consulting and, and coaching business, um, with that base. And it was funny cuz I, I was out to dinner, I think with some coach friends of mine, we’d gone to the same training program and I’m telling them about, you know, how well things are going and they’re like, wait a minute.

How did you do that? Because we’re still giving out free. We’re still like trying to get people just to be interested in what we’re doing. And here you have like a bustling practice on top of your nine to five. How does, how did that happen? And so I start kinda laying it out for them. And it was, it was one of those moments where you just, you don’t realize that you have all the puzzle pieces that other people are missing.

Know, I come from sales. I am an avid marketing book reader. Um, I, you know, just had figured out how to do this in person Mar uh, networking thing to get clients and I’m laying it out for them. And I got calls like the next week saying, oh my God, I just landed my first hi paying client. And then a month later it’s like, oh my God, I’m up to three.

Like what you teach really works. You need to start ch charging for this. And so I started listening. I was like, okay, cool. Maybe I’ll just add this to my, my list of offerings. And what happened was, you know, my, my leadership business was still growing. This part of my business was still growing. By the time the pandemic hit, it was really 50 50 of, of income from either side.

And of course we know what you can imagine. What happened to my leadership side of my business when the pandemic hit, a lot of companies freaked out and were like, we can’t spend money on this anymore. And a lot of my clients were getting it subsidized from their job so they couldn’t pay for it. Yeah.

Cause they were also panicking that they might get laid off. Yeah. And a lot of them did, unfortunately. Um, but so I had a moment of freaking out thinking like, oh my God, am I gonna have to sell pictures of my feet on the internet? You know, to make ends meet. Thankfully, I never had to because you know, all these people who were getting laid off or who were at least afraid of it, it was that real kick in the ass that they really needed to go and start their business already.

Wow.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Amazing. Amazing. It was fun. Yeah. Well, and, and, uh, like there’s so many things to take outta that. Like, so number one is that I, I’m not surprised that you men are really bad at asking for help and taking help. And it’s something that we really need to change. Cause I mean, or, or maybe not, I mean, it’s, it’s a great opportunity for women really, because you guys are willing to, to ask for help and to go get coaching and you’re crushing it in business right now.

So this is great. Uh, but like, uh, the other, the other part of it is that, uh, it is, it is really easy now days to find help, to get to where you need to go because of the fact that so many people are now moving to zoom to do coaching meetings. And so you don’t have to, it’s not hard to find a coach and not only that, but it’s not hard to find a coach that matches your style.

The pool is everywhere, right? It’s it. It’s, it’s not just in your local market right now. You, you don’t have to go to a business meeting down the street, and that’s the only guy that you can hire. Totally. If you can get anybody from anywhere in the world now. .

Katie McManus: Yeah, no, it’s crazy. I mean, when I was getting clients in San Francisco in 2018, 2019, I would literally go to, there were three bars in the financial district where I would just go and like with a couple friends and we’d just make friends.

And when they asked what I did, I’d say, oh, I’m a dating coach for men, or I’m a leadership coach as I evolved. Um, and that’s essentially how I would get clients. Is that, that networking, cuz you build that friendship, you build that trust and then, you know, you continue the conversation after. Um, when everything moved online, like that was a jump for me.

Yeah. But once, once you hack that, once you figure out a style for yourself, um, that works like there’s no stopping you, it’s like alchemy. You can, you can basically turn a, a LinkedIn post into, into gold in 24 hours.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Love it. Okay. So now let’s bring it down a little bit because not everything goes as planned in, in anything, but now what was the bad note?

Like what, what was, what was something that didn’t go as planned and how can we recover from that?

Katie McManus: Yeah, well, we have to go before I started my business to get to this point. So in 2017, October 22nd, my mother’s birthday, um, I actually was in a really serious car accident and it wasn’t my fault, but I was T-boned.

Um, the other driver was going 50 miles an hour, um, with six inches from basically like being paralyzed or dead. Um, but I had a massive concussion, like a mild traumatic brain injury. And so I actually had to be on disability from my job for about eight. because I, part of, part of the concussion was I couldn’t read for, for like, I had a very hard time.

My brain couldn’t process, what my eyes were seeing on a screen. And I don’t know if you’ve ever had a concussion. I hope not. Have you. Don’t re no, I haven’t. I highly don’t recommend it. And if anyone’s listening, if you’re thinking about getting one, please just abstain from it. Um, it was miserable, but in the same, in the same period of time, I managed to get myself into five months of an abusive relationship, um, with a man who ran through a lot of my savings, used up a lot of my money.

Some with me knowing and some with me, not know. And so by the time I was healed and recovered and, and away from him, um, I was going back to work and just struggling a great deal from everything that I’d been through. And this is like, I had literally just started my business in this time period as well.

So I was basically starting with like no cushion. Going back to work and, and going back to work in a job that had already bored me to tears before the concussion. And before I discovered this magical thing that I love doing, cuz I also got trained as a coach in that time. Um, and so I just, it, it was so much harder to stay invested in my days.

When I was going back to my, my regular sales job. Yeah. Um, and so I, I, I, you know, I was a little too optimistic. I jumped before I really had the bandwidth and like had the, the solid income coming in and I was good for about a month. And then I panicked, I absolutely panicked. Like I had no savings at that point.

I was trying to make it work. I’d rented an office, which I don’t recommend to new business owners. I made all the mistakes, um, that are classic to new business owners. Um, So I tried to go back and get another job to carry me through starting this business. And I got to the final interviews with three different companies and I have never not been hired for a job that I’ve interviewed for.

Um, I interviewed really well and I kept getting the same feedback. Like, you know, we think you’re, you’re an amazing coach and we think you should just go do that. And I was like, I’m trying, but I need someone to pay me in the meantime. and so, um, I ended up, um, You know, getting myself into a fair amount of debt.

Some of that was from the past relationship. Some of that was from me just being bad with money. And, uh, there was a point in December, um, 2019 where I, you know, was making money in my business, but I was also on the verge of bankruptcy. And I remember sitting in an alleyway in Brooklyn, New York, I was at this money relationship workshop, which I desperately needed and was like hitting all of the pain points in my life.

And I’m sitting on this, this staircase that goes to like a back door of a, of a office building. And there are people walking back, like to lunch and here I am just. Sobbing and I have snot and it’s December, so it’s cold and it’s windy. And like, I have my big puffer jacket and I’m just like wiping my nose with the inside.

And I’m thinking like, oh my God, am I gonna be able to afford to like dry, clean this afterwards? And I’m on FaceTime with my coach just sobbing and just. Completely melting down inside. And I felt like such a huge failure. And I just, I couldn’t imagine like life could go on from this because I had never dug myself into this deep of a hole and not seen a way out.

And my coach at the time, Rick was, um, was so pivotal in me getting through this moment. He’s like, great. Let’s just be with you being a failure. You you’ve ruined your life like this. Is it like, just let that out. Let that be true for, for just a. Grieve grieve what needs to be grieved right here right now.

And once I got that out, you know, we, I was able to get back into what’s the next thing I can do, you know, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t go from I’m, I’m carrying all this weight. I’m carrying all this, this feeling of, of, of sadness and, and disappointment in myself and also create a business that was super successful.

I had to actually be in that moment and go through, like, I’ve done the worst. And, um, I hate to say this to some of my clients, but you know, we all have to have some version of that moment before we get over the fear of just going out and putting ourselves out there, you know, of, um, of asking for something and having someone say no, because once you face the worst, like I’m not afraid of anything right now.

Well, that’s not, that’s not true. I’m terrified of spiders, but , other than that. Yeah. Other than that, you know, if you know, if I have a low month, I’m not terrified of the next month, you know? And, and when you’re a business owner, you just have to be build this skin or this tolerance to that roller coaster of emotions.

Because in the beginning stages, the first few years, things are very unpredictable. Yeah. Wow. So that’s, that’s my failure.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Wow. Okay. Wow. there’s so much there. uh, but I mean, I, I, I, I totally get it. I mean, when you, when you get to the point, it, it is messed up really that we have to hit a rock bottom in order to, and whatever that rock bottom is.

I mean, some people go way further down into a rock bottom, but whatever that point. Where you feel like it can’t get any worse for you. That’s when things start to, to move around the other direction. Yeah. And you know, a lot of people, uh, stay in a comfort zone forever and maybe that’s, you know, the reason why they never really hit those, uh, those, those, those high points is because they’ve never hit a low point.

Right. Right. Right. So sometimes taking those risks and falling down. Is the best thing that can happen to you because then you can only go up from there, right? yeah.

Katie McManus: You know, it’s funny, I saw this study a few years ago about how like, you know, childless people like the happiness levels of childless people versus parents.

And it’s funny, they were saying that, um, childless people over have a higher rate of happiness, but they don’t reach the peak that people who are parents reach. right. But the reason like parents have a lower level of happiness is that it’s like this huge, like jump up down all around, based on, you know, things that are going right and wrong with their kids’ lives.

Tim Melanson: Yep. Yep. I totally get it. I totally get it. It’s probably like a similar, a similar average, but they, they get those, those, those ex ecstasy moments, whereas you don’t ne normally get those. Yeah. And, and, uh, and for, for me, in my story, like, I, I, uh, I used to work for a large company as a programmer and. In it, I graduated in 2000 and that’s when really the bubble burst.

So I went through eight years with that company of layoffs and layoffs and layoffs. And so I never really got an opportunity to understand what it’s like to be comfortable like with, with money. Right. Like, I mean, it was just like, I, I, I remember distinctly going like, okay, here’s my pay for the, for, for these two weeks.

Got another one. Let’s hope like the next one comes in. Like just, I I like, and, and I know that like a lot of people talk about stable job. You don’t get the stable job. I don’t even know what that means. right. and, and so when it came to being self-employed after that, I think that’s probably why I never really worried too much about the next two weeks, because well, as a job, I was in the same boat, at least this time, I’m a little bit more.

I’ve got more control over it before it was like, the employer could just say, okay, you’re done at least this time. I was like, okay, well I can go out and hustle and I can make another two weeks worth of money. And so I think that that is, uh, kind of good in my end, my point. And I think a lot of people are probably, maybe.

Thinking the same thing, especially now in the world. Cuz I think a lot of jobs are not stable as they once were. Right. So, you know, maybe that can be, uh, something like, hopefully someone’s listening to that and going like, yeah, I don’t feel stable. Well that’s what it’s like to be. Self-employed

Katie McManus: yeah. So, well, and have you read the book?

The psychology of money?

Tim Melanson: No, I’m gonna write

Katie McManus: that down. So I highly recommend this to you and to anyone who’s listening. So one of the things that I really had to reckon with through all of this is that I had the worst relationship with money. You know, I, I used to joke with, um, with a roommate that we were still paying off margaritas that we’d bought seven years before, because we had this fear that if we admitted that we couldn’t afford something, that our friends would actually.

That we wouldn’t be able to hang. And we were living in San Francisco, which is one of the most expensive cities in the world. Um, and we were making six figures, but barely, and that’s like, that’s really, I mean, the poverty level living in San Francisco, you barely afford to live. Um, You know, and we also, I had this, um, this optimism, like it’ll always come through, but there’s, um, this model that I kind of made up these different archetypes, you know, it’s like the, the nail biting, trusting manifestor, you know, cuz it’s like things always work out, but you’re still paying interest.

And the last thing that worked out. You know, um, and I really had to realize, okay, cool. This is no longer working for me. How I’m treating money right now is not healthy and it’s not serving. But this book really, really underlines, like, you know, it depends on when you were born. It depends on what your family talked about at dinner table.

You know, you getting clean on, on your site, your relationship with money is so pivotal in being able to actually start a business that’s that’s successful.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and, and I think, I, I don’t know if it’s programming or whatever it is, but most people. Probably 99% of people have a bad relationship with money, whether you have a lot of it or not because, oh yeah, because I know just as many people who are massive savers, that when you think about what they.

Sacrifice, you know, in terms of like living life in order to, to keep that money is crazy, you know? And then on the opposite side of it, the spenders too, like it’s just, you know, it’s really difficult to find somebody who has a really good relationship with money and including myself. I, I don’t, I don’t either.

Right? Like, it’s one of those things where we really have to. I, I think that’s why coaches and mentors come into play, cuz you really need somebody else outside of you. That’s not gonna like, not one of those comforting friends. Who’s gonna say, oh no, everything’s fine. You’re you’re doing great. You need somebody, who’s gonna call you out on some bad decisions.

Right? Totally,

Katie McManus: absolutely. Well, and, and I love that you brought up the word friends, cuz if we think of, of money as a friend in the. You know, if you’re, if you’re really stingy and you’re saving, I want you to imagine you have this friend, but you’re terrified they’re gonna go away. So you kinda lock them in your basement and you go down and you hang out with them sometimes.

But otherwise you’re like, no, you’re not allowed to leave. Like, you’re my only friend, if you leave, I have nothing. Yep. You know, think of like how that friend would you, you, are they gonna wanna hang out around you? Likewise. A lot of people are terrified of being seen as like the evil money scrubbing.

Like, I, I love money. I want, I want more of it. You know, we have this archetype in our mind of like Scrooge McDuck. Who’s doing like the backstroke through his piles of gold. Yeah. Which by the way, can we just pause and imagine how defined his back muscles must be from doing that every day? Like I just, I aspire to having muscles that defined anyway, um, But instead of, instead of being open about, you know, loving money and wanting more of it and inviting into your world, it’s kind of like being in high school, um, and having, um, you know, you have a crush on someone, so money has a crush on you, and then you, you catch yourself.

They, um, walking down the friends and talk or down the hallway and talking to a friend and you’re saying, oh, money. I don’t care about. I don’t care about it. Like it can go, it can go do whatever. Like, I don’t care. I don’t care if it lives or dies. Yeah. And imagine money, your friend is right behind you.

Yeah. And they have a crush on you and they’ve just been completely depleted because you know, or defeated because you just said that thing that, you know, they care so much about you and you’re saying you don’t care at all about them. Like, are they gonna wanna hang out with you? Wow. Yeah. And if we think about money, it’s essentially energy, you know, just like love is energy.

Tim Melanson: Yep. It’s energy and it’s a tool, right? I mean, I, I think that, that’s the thing is that, yeah, we’ve, we’ve been, we’ve been programmed to be one or the O one or the other. Either. You hate your, you know, you hate money. You, you, you think that it’s evil and that it corrupts, which it sometimes does. Yeah. Uh, or you.

Want to keep all of it, in your right. You know, and, and it’s, it’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s neither of those two things. It is just a tool it’s energy, right? Yeah.

Katie McManus: Well, money, money essentially just makes you more of who you are. Yeah. If you’re an evil scumbag, great. You’re gonna be like a massive evil scumbag.

And if you’re a really good person, it’s gonna make you an amazing person, cuz you’re gonna be able to do so much good with.

Tim Melanson: Yep. Exactly.

Marc Mawhinney: Hi, it’s mark. Guiney from natural born coaches and I want to give two very big thumbs up to Tim Lanson and his creative crew agency. I have been using them for a long time and I am 100% happy.

They get the job done, right. They’re fast. And they let me focus on my business. I don’t have to worry about anything. So again, I want to give them two very big thumbs up. I have no problem recommending them. I don’t give testimonials for everyone because my name is attached to it, but I gladly do so for Tim and the creative crew agency.

So use them. You won’t regret it. And

Tim Melanson: good luck. Now on the other hand, I think the, the, the major differences is we all want, well, we all would be probably better off. We, we all would be better off if we had more money I think that’s pretty obvious. Uh, but now what you do to get that money is different, cuz I, I think that that’s where.

I know, I know my journey changed drastically when I started a career that, uh, made great money. However, I hated every moment of

that’s like, and, and. And so, you know, it’s one of those things where you okay, take a step back here. Okay. What do I really want to do? Because you know, in, in, uh, especially in today’s world and we, when we talk about this every week on this podcast, for sure about people that are doing things that they really like to do and still making ends meet, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And, and maybe even more than that. So, you know, I think that that’s really. You know, if you’re just doing it for money. Well then maybe your heart’s not in the right space. Maybe do something that you love doing. And that is helping people and providing value to people cuz that’s where money gets exchanged is through value, right?

Katie McManus: Yeah. A hundred percent, you know, it’s funny you point there because I have a lot of clients and I talk to a lot of people who actually feel so guilty asking for money. For doing something that they would do for free anyway. Totally, totally. There’s so many coaches out there who are just so passionate about helping people that when it comes to asking for money, it’s like, well, no, like I can’t ask for, I can’t ask for someone to pay me to do something that I love.

You know, it’s like, it’s like getting paid to like play video games or to like, do your hobby now as a musician. Yeah, exactly. Playing music. Could you imagine you love doing that? Like, are you allowed to be paid for doing something that you love? Like are, are the model that we’ve been taught is like, you have to go and suffer at work and then you get to retire in 40 years.

Mm-hmm. And that’s that now

Tim Melanson: work’s supposed to be hard. It’s supposed to be grueling. That’s why you get paid for it type thing. Right? Mm-hmm . Yeah, but that’s not necessarily true. no, not at all. It’s it’s a matter what kind of value you’re you’re you’re you’re giving to somebody, if you love providing value to people, then of course you should be compensated for it.

Right. Exactly. Yep. We got a lot of messed up programming that we need to work through. Right.

so let’s talk a little bit about getting fans and, and, you know, finding people that are, you know, looking at you and, and, and actually wanting to follow you. What is your approach to that?

Katie McManus: So, The biggest mistake I see done out there, and this is something I did myself. When I first started is people going out and trying to be the expert, right.

They’re going out and they’re posting on social media. And what they’re basically trying to do is prove to people who really don’t give a damn that, Hey, I’m an expert. I know everything about this topic. You should trust me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you have this problem, come and talk to me. Um, and sometimes that works, like if you’re hyper relevant.

So like Anthony FAU. During the pandemic, you know, he got hyper relevant. People really cared about what he had to say. You know, whether you agreed with him or didn’t agree with him personally, I agreed with him. But, um, anyway, but he, his expertise is kind of boring besides, you know, there being a massive pandemic that affects everyone, like who, you know, who really wants to hear about the statistics of this and the numbers.

Right. If he goes on social media, when there’s not a massive pandemic happening and is sharing about it, it’s only gonna be relevant to a very, very small group of people. So, so my approach to marketing is really like letting myself be seen and, uh, relating very empathically with my ideal clients. So this can look like sharing my personal story, sharing something funny that happened to me the other day with my dog, um, you know, sharing.

Uh, something that’s kind of personal to me about my, my, you know, my learning and how I started my business and then saying, Hey you, I see you. You know? So my ideal clients typically are struggling with this idea of, I wanna start a business. I know exactly what I wanna do, but how do I even get clients?

And how do I charge them and what should I, what should I price my offering at? And what is my offer and how do I tell people about it and how do I get on social media and brag about, and like tell people how good I am without bragging about me, you know? And, and really people just need to hear that you see those problems and, and hear that you’re normalizing them.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. I. And so once you do that, because ultimately when you’re, when you’re posting on social media to get clients, like once you tell them, Hey, I get you so well that I know the fears and the frustrations that you haven’t even voiced your closest friends yet. I’m naming them in this post.

They don’t need to know that you got this training that you have this experience. Like if you know them that well, they know deep down inside that you can help them get out of it.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And, and I mean, people. Uh, people don’t necessarily know what they’re looking for. They just know what their problem is.

Well, maybe they don’t even know what their problem is. Uh, exactly. Yeah. Right, right. But they, but they know that they feel the same way that you’re saying, like, if, if you’re describing what the, what the issue is or what it is that you’re helping with, then they know that they align with. And so, you know, and then the next part of it, I, I, I agree with you is that really it’s a matter of just staying top of mind so that when they are feeling a certain thing, they’re like, oh yeah, Katie was talking about that.

Hmm. Right.

Katie McManus: Exactly. Well, and here’s my other philosophy is that small businesses do not have a marketing problem. They don’t like you and I are not sitting around and thinking about how we’re gonna spend our next billion on the super bowl ad that we’re gonna like get Beyonce. Right. Well, maybe you are, I don’t know anything about the back end of your business.

Nope. I’m not, but we don’t have a marketing problem. We have a memorability problem. You know, if, if people don’t remember that we exist, there’s no way that they can give us their money for our service bottom line. So if we can just, if, even if they remember us, because like a lot of people remember me because I’m a major Harry Potter nerd, and I love my dog Luna and she’s named after Harry Potter charact.

You know, and if they just happen to like, remember that I’m a business strategist and I help people start their businesses and they have a cousin who is start starting a law office or something, they may say, Hey, I know this lady, Katie. She talks about her dog a lot, but she’s really good at helping people start businesses.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And, and that’s what people wanna see too. They wanna see that you’re a person. And I like I’ve recently been working harder on trying to, you know, create stories for Instagram and for, uh, Facebook. And it is really hard to keep on. Trying to come up with new ways to talk about your business. right.

Cause like, once you say it, once it’s, you’ve said it once, like, do you keep on posting that same thing over and over again? And I found that very difficult and I ended up just not doing it. Right. And, and then it kind of like, uh, it came to me through many of my guests that maybe I should just post lifestyle mostly.

right. Mm-hmm just, you know, here’s what I’m doing. Here’s what I’m eating. Here’s what I’m. And, and those are the things that annoyed me. I remember, uh, when, you know, people post pictures of their food and all that stuff, but then I noticed that I keep looking at them myself. Right. And so. It works, obviously.

Katie McManus: Absolutely. Yeah. So on Instagram, you know, and my philosophy here is, you know, there are three different modalities. People get to connect with you. There’s the grid post, which really people go to, to find out more about you. And what you’re offering. There’s the reals now where they go to see themselves, they wanna really see that, that empathic marketing understand that you understand them on a super deep level.

And then there’s the stories where that, that like friendship trust is built, you know, where you’re sharing pictures about your dog or, you know, this French toast that you had. It’s this amazing breakfast place on vacation. , you know, cause it’s like, oh cool. They, they get to react to that in a, in a, in a low pressure way where they don’t have to sound smart.

They don’t have to act like they already know what you’re talking about. Like they would, if they’re, you know, reacting to something in your grid. Right. You know, it’s that difference of, you know, I don’t know anything about cars. So when my check engine light goes on, um, I just have to go to the mechanic and say, you deal with.

You know, if I had to know the problem before I went to the mechanic, that would create a, an insane amount of pressure and, um, and burden on me before I even went to the mechanic, I would probably just like, run the car into the ground and then have to buy a new one. Hmm.

Tim Melanson: Interesting. Yeah, no, you’re right.

You’re right. You you’d try to figure it out. Right. Right, right. Whereas check engine. I’m the same way. Checking. I don’t know much about cars, either. Check engine light comes on. I call my mechanic immediately. I’m like, do you think I should bring it in? Yeah, you should bring it in OK. Fine.

Katie McManus: Half, honestly, half the time.

It’s that I haven’t gotten an oil change in way too long. And my car’s just like, please, please. I’m so thirsty. yeah.

Tim Melanson: So now what about the jam room? So where do you jam?

Katie McManus: Yeah. So I, uh, have a really nice apartment in Philadelphia and I’ve kind of made each room, um, its own little workspace. So in my bedroom I have like this comfy chair that’s right by my bookshelf where I go and do a lot of my writing.

Um, I also do a lot of like my research reading there. And I just find it like really comf comfy and, and, um, quiet. And it’s in the back of my apartment. So it’s away from the street sounds and it’s just where I do a lot of really deep thinking. Um, I do, I also have a desk in my guest room, which, um, I haven’t gotten a completely organized cause I just moved in, in like January.

Um, I know that’s like eight months ago, but we’re just gonna. And it was just recently, um, where I will be doing a lot of my recording. Um, a lot of my lives, I actually have this big neon sign that says stop being a weenie. That will be my ground for all of my lives going forward. Uh, really excited about that.

And then I do a lot of my work, honestly, in my, in my living space. So I’m a Walker and talker and I do most of my client calls on the phone. And so I will just do laps around my kitchen island. You know, as I’m coaching clients. Yeah. And I just, I love working from my couch. Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Isn’t it great to be able to work from multiple places in your house?

Katie McManus: It’s so nice. And it’s just, I, I’m kind of thinking about getting like a shared workspace for one day a week when I, when I’m, you know, back in Philadelphia. Cause I’m summering on Cape Cod right now. Yeah. Um, but just cuz I miss I’m an extrovert and I miss that human experience. Of being at the office and being around people.

Yep. But I, I, I honestly, I love I’m a homebody also, and I just love being at home and getting to serve my clients in really profound ways, you know, from the comfort of my couch.

Tim Melanson: Well, I, I looked into the, the shared workspaces as well. I know my partner had one for a while. Uh, when I first met her. uh, the thing is, is that if you are gonna get a shared workspace, really a coffee shop works just as well.

Right? Because you don’t pay for it. And also you can meet new people all the time. Yeah. Whereas the shared workspace is the same people over and over again. And in that case, I mean, I think that the shared workspace is useful. If you don’t have a place where you can concent. Uh, at, at your house mm-hmm uh, but other than that, I, I love coffee shops though.

Those are great for me.

Katie McManus: um, yeah, I find coffee shops. I get there and I get excited about socializing. This is the problem with being an extrovert. As I get excited about socializing and there’s this chance I may never talk to this person again. So I really wanna, you know, be in the moment and talk to them.

Whereas if I’m going to a shared workspace, like I know I’m gonna bump into them again. So it’s not like now or never to talk to them. Gotcha.

Tim Melanson: That’s cool. Okay. Well, speaking of people around you, like, what about your band? Like, so who do you have that, uh, is helping you make things

Katie McManus: happen? Yeah. So I have this amazing, uh, marketing ops guy named Tyler Cook he’s out of Arizona.

Um, he and I have worked together literally since I started my business and he has been, um, one of the biggest supporters of, of my success in growing this. Um, I, you know, I can figure out some tech stuff. I, you know, any, any like marketing sequence or email sequence or setting up that backend is just absolutely beyond me.

And he just makes it so simple to break it down. Um, and he he’ll advise me, like, if I have an idea for something, you know, he’ll say, you know, hold on. Like, what you’re talking about is a great idea, but you need to slow it down. Because we’re talking about four weeks of prep work before you can launch this.

And I know I’m talking to a lot of serial entrepreneurs out there who are really used to, uh, laying track as the train is coming. And he’s been integral in training me to stop doing that. because when you, you can’t do that at scale. No, I know he’s gonna be supporting me to my first seven figures and, and he’s absolutely phenomenal.

Um, Another member of my team is re re Pierce. Um, she’s actually out of the UK, which I absolutely love working with someone who’s five hours ahead of me, because one of the benefits is that, you know, late at night, if I have a thought of this needs to be done, or if I drop up a lead magnet that I want done for the next day, send it off to her.

By the time I wake up in the morning, it’s already her afternoon. Oh, wow. Yeah. So she’s more than likely already gotten. Or, or farmed it out to one of her VAs who, who supports her? Yeah. I’m,

Tim Melanson: I’ve got the unfortunate, so I’m at the very far, uh, east of Canada and the state I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m that person that you’re looking for really right.

So it’s really hard for me to find somebody who’s ahead of me. I’d have to go into, uh, Europe, right. right. Or for that to happen. Yeah,

Katie McManus: no, I highly recommend it. Um, likewise I have Jess Bruno who helps me with my Instagram. We’re actually doing a whole revamp right now. Um, she, she’s an incredible Instagram strategist, you know, just really customizes her experience for each client based on their personality and everything that they wanna accomplish.

And then of course, um, Helen Marino, who is my Booker and she gets me books booked on podcast. She’s also, um, just recently gotten trained as an SEO copywriter and I utilize her services. She’s incredible. Like my, my website, um, ranking has climbed dramatically nice for the keywords that I need. Um, in the time that she’s been writing my blog.

Wow.

Tim Melanson: How’d you find all these people?

Katie McManus: Um, Helen, Helen and I have known each other since 2016. And do you know the, the author, Jen Centro? She wrote, um, you are a bad. No, I don’t, but I’m gonna write that down. I highly recommend that book. She also has a money book. You’re a bad asset making money. Um, so anyway, she had this accountability group that she launched and Helen and I were like two of a couple thousand who signed up for it.

And in that group, another woman organized like a smaller, um, mastermind group. And it was five women. And we literally met every week for two years. And the, the pandemic kind of got in the way of it because, you know, there was just so much going on and everyone was virtual the whole time, but Helen and I just really hit it off.

We’ve met once she lives in Austin, Texas. She’s, she’s the most lovely human being you’ll ever meet. Um, Tyler I met, um, he was working for, uh, a bigger company that was terrible. Uh when I first met him. Um, but he and I really hit it off. Um, Jess Bruno was, uh, introduced to me by Leah Turner, um, who is an Instagram, uh, trainer and coach.

And I highly recommend her as well. Um, and then Jess actually introduced me to. Love it.

Tim Melanson: So your networking pays off

Katie McManus: yeah, exactly.

Tim Melanson: right on. Well, I’m excited to hear your solo. So it’s time for your solo. What’s exciting in your business.

Katie McManus: Yeah, so, I mean, um, I’ve really moved my business from just offering one on one coaching and strategy to doing a group offering.

Cuz one of the things that I value highly in my business is accessibility. And I know dropping a couple thousand dollars a month on a one on one. Coach is not accessible to a lot of people who are just starting out. And so in my group program, B Y O B uh, build your own business. Um, I am very intentional about training on the basic business building skills like holistic selling, empathetic marketing, your relationship with money, how to do your market research.

And I do so in a way, that’s no fluff. Because one of the ways that we get to be more accessible to people is we don’t take up a ton of their time. So I don’t know about you, but I have this major pet hate about online courses, where it’s like they have 40 hours of videos and each video is 40 minutes.

And in each 40 minute video, there’s only about five minutes of something useful. So you have to listen to 35 minutes of fricking fluff. Yep. And that’s exhausting. I don’t have time for that. My clients don’t have time for. So my videos in this training program are the no fluff promise. It’s straight into the point.

Um, and then I offer group coaching and in my group coaching, I keep it a small group because I wanna be able to turn to you Tim, and be like, okay, cool. So you wanna run a webinar? This is how you should do it. And Amanda, if you’re gonna run a webinar, here’s how you should do it. And mark, if you wanna run a webinar that you’re gonna do it kind of similar to both of them, but you’re gonna do it with this energy.

Yeah. Behind it. Yeah, because I really wanna give that custom element. And my goal with this group is really to get people from making $0. Like they have an idea, they kind of know what they wanna do, um, to making their first 5k. And then from there, if they wanna scale beyond that, then I would graduate them into my one-on-one work.

But this B BYOB group is really what I’m so passionate about right now, because I think especially we’re, you know, going into an economic downturn currently. Um, and, but people still wanna start their businesses. Let’s make it easy for them.

Tim Melanson: Well, historically, uh, some of the biggest businesses out there have all gotten started during downturns.

So a downturn is a great time to start a business. Really? Absolutely.

Katie McManus: Absolutely. Especially, especially if you’re supporting people. Yeah. If you’re supporting people, coaching is one of the, um, the best industries to get into in a downturn because people are freaking out. They need the support

Tim Melanson: yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

And I mean, with, uh, UN we talked about it earlier with uncertainty in the job markets. I mean, you’re gonna feel that uncertainty, no matter what you do, so why not? If you are the type that likes to take control now would be a great time to take control.

Katie McManus: a hundred percent, a hundred percent. Yeah. So

Tim Melanson: now, like, so the ideal person for, for you that would get the most value out of your, your programs would be

Katie McManus: who, someone who knows what they wanna do.

You know, they know the kind of service that they wanna do, but they’re just, they have no idea what questions to even ask to put it. You know, for, so for instance, one of my clients in B, Y O B is a journaling coach. You know, she, she knew that she wanted to help people journal, but there’s no one else doing something like that.

So what we’ve put together is her offer we’ve actually put together two offers, a group program and a one-on-one program, um, and helped her price. It helped her figure out, you know, how to do, um, her ideal client marketing for it. Um, so that she can go and do empathetic marketing where she’s saying, Hey, you.

I see you and here’s what you’re stressed out about, and here’s what you want to have in your life, but here’s where you’re getting stuck, you know? And so you really, it’s, it’s really a bumper to bumper program. The only thing I don’t cover is accounting, cuz I don’t like that part. I’m also not like certified or trained at all in it, so

Tim Melanson: that’s okay.

I mean, Hey, you can hire somebody for accounting for sure. Awesome. So how do we find out more?

Katie McManus: So if, uh, anyone wants to find out more, they can go to Katie mcmanus.com and that’s K a T I E MCM, uh, a N s.com. Um, and then also, if, if they, if there’s any listeners out there who are working a full-time job and want to start a coaching business on this side, I have this really fun seven step guide about how to build that business up to 5k a month, um, while you’re still working your nine to five.

And I am happy to share the link here also.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for rocking out with me today. Katie I’ll make sure I put that link in the show notes so that people can get, get ahold of that. And, uh, yeah, this was a lot of

Katie McManus: fun. This was so much fun. Thank you so much for having me