CAMILLE BECKSTRAND: CREATING A HEALTHY FAMILY WORK BALANCE | SIX SISTERS’ STUFF

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CAMILLE WALKER [0:02]

I have been counting down the days for this episode to go live because it is so good. Grab your pen and paper wherever you are. If you're looking for inspiration for content, avoiding burnout, how to run a successful business from home as a mom, as a married couple to an entrepreneur and also running a business with family. We're going all through that with Camille from Six Sisters Stuff.

Now, Camille and I actually went to Utah State together years and years ago and I just love her. She has a heart of goal. She's so willing to share her wisdom and knowledge. She does it in such a humble way and yet behind the scenes, she is running this huge million-dollar company with her family and just so down to earth, truly one of the best people ever. Camille has four kids, is crazy in love with her husband. They've been married for almost 17 years. They really make such a dynamic duo. They love to get together and talk business, but they also talk about creating really hard stops for focusing on their family.

She owns a company with her sister, Six Sisters Stuff, that has over three and a half million followers on social media. It was started in 2007, so she really is an OG blogger. Together, they have published ten cook books that have just done amazingly well. If you don't know who Six Sisters Stuff is, you get it because they're all about helping you as a busy mom or a busy parent help put dinner on the table because dinner is at the center of what their business is all about, keeping families close. They've launched a course on how to cook with an instant pot, grown to be one of the biggest and largest recipe websites in the United States and her passion for helping others start and grow their businesses is helping to lead her in a new direction that we talk about later in this podcast. She loves listening to True Crime podcasts, finding the best nachos in every city and spending time with her family. Let's dive in.

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CAMILLE WALKER [2:09]

So, you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business, sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

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CAMILLE WALKER [2:28]

Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO. I am Camille, your host and I am so thrilled because I am talking to the best Camille I know. Camille Beckstrand from Six Sisters Stuff who helped create this program and this blog and this movement more than 14 years ago. That just sounds insane. We really dig in deep today. I am so excited, Camille to have you here today. Thank you so much.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [2:54]

Thanks for having me. It's just something about the name Camille. I've never met a Camille I don't like.

CAMILLE WALKER [3:01]

I can agree to that. I feel like it's a really good name and it's not that common, so when you meet one, you're like, "Okay. Are you upholding the standard? Because it's a thing."

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [3:11]

Right? It's like a kindred spirit type of thing. All the Camilles, we just feel each other.

CAMILLE WALKER [3:16]

I agree. What's really funny, Camille and I actually met at Utah State years and years ago and I was actually able to watch from the sidelines a little bit, her and Jared fall in love. So, how many years have you been married now?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [3:31]

We are coming up on number 17.

CAMILLE WALKER [3:33]

Wow.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [3:33]

Yeah. This summer, we'll be 17 years. So, it's been a long time. It's been a fun ride.

CAMILLE WALKER [3:38]

That's so cool. You two as a couple hold so much power, so much love and so much intelligence. You guys are truly a power couple.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [3:48]

You are so sweet. Thank you.

CAMILLE WALKER [3:52]

Well, it's true. So, how many kids do you have? Tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up and how you're a spontaneous yet always entrepreneurial spirit. I was just dying reading over your beginnings. Tell our audience about it.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [4:07]

I guess you could call me a serial entrepreneur and it's something that started so young. So, I'm the oldest of 6 kids, 6 girls and being the oldest, you could be deemed the bossy one, I guess. I would come up with all these great ideas of things we could do together as sisters to make money, and then I just make them do my dirty work.

So, for example, we had a ton of salamanders one summer that fell into our window wall. I got the great idea to pull them out of our window well and sell them on the corner as pets like pet salamanders. I never touched a salamander. I never did any of the work of pulling them out or even selling them on the corner, but I just gave my sisters the idea and had them carry it out. Always, even from such a young age, I would always have this entrepreneur spirit where I loved being my own boss, I loved the creativeness behind it. I love just executing it and watching it grow into something bigger and something more than what it started us.

So, started at such a young age. I grew up in Layton Utah, so not too far. Like you said, I went to Utah State along with you, amazing school, go Aggies, met Jared up there. He went on to become a physical therapist, got his doctorate degree in that, and then we have four sweet kiddos that we just love so, so much. So, life is busy and crazy and fun. But yeah, I just always had this entrepreneur mindset even since graduating from Utah State. I went into elementary education, which was such a great program, but after the four years, I realized that wasn't where my passion was. It was in business and it was in marketing. And so, I did a complete 180. I never taught school, even after I got my degree and started my very first company shortly after we got married and had our first kid.

CAMILLE WALKER [6:18]

Well, that's amazing. It's funny because we actually shared that in common. I actually have an education degree as well from Utah State, but beyond student teaching, never taught in the classroom. But I feel like blogging in a way, it translated that education spirit but also the entrepreneurial spirit. Had blogging been around as a course, I think we would have taken it.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [6:46]

Oh my gosh. Yes. All the classes that they have at Utah State now and other colleges I'm sure they got women in social media, social communications, all these things. I'm like, "Oh. I would have loved to have that class." But it's fun to watch the world evolve and for these new jobs and these new opportunities for not just entrepreneurs, but all businesses to join this social media and online movement, so pretty incredible.

CAMILLE WALKER [7:15]

Yeah. I agree with that. Yeah. What I love so much too that you tapped into and what this podcast is all about is the opportunities for women and there's so much available online now where we can have a flexible lifestyle and still be creative and pursue those dreams. But you truly are a pioneer when you started with the blog. How did that all start and where did you get the inspiration?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [7:42]

It really was an accident. It started as a way for my sisters and I to stay in touch. So, we started the blog Six Sisters Stuff there really are just six of us no brothers. We're all biological sisters and we used it as a way to stay in touch with each other. 2011 is when Six Sisters officially started. I had dabbled into other online businesses before, but 2011 is when Six Sisters Stuff started.

That was at the time when cellphone plans where you could only talk to people who had your same phone provider like T-Mobile could only talk to T-Mobile unless it was after nine o'clock. Text messages were a quarter. And so, to stay in touch with each other, us sisters, was really difficult. It was just different. And so, we started the blog as just another way to stay in touch with each other. From there, we started sharing recipes. From there, it really was just at the same time, Pinterest was taking off and we just happened to start at the right moment at the right place at the right time and we kind of grew right with Pinterest.

CAMILLE WALKER [8:54]

Good timing.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [8:55]

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Talk about just little miracles and tender mercies that just everything worked out the way it was supposed to.

CAMILLE WALKER [9:04]

That's incredible. What's funny to think about is, first of all, you had the idea to do it, and then I love that it came from a place of love to be connected to your family and to really provide resources for each other and recipes and "Hey, try this. What about that?" I think it was this natural attraction because people can sense that that this is a place where I can come for resources and ideas, but also love. There's just so much about your brand is about family and traditions that you have together and ways to stay connected and to love each other. How are you able to create such a cohesive workforce with a family? Even your dad is involved and uncle, how do you do that? That's just incredible.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [9:52]

It has its challenges for sure, but as does any business.

CAMILLE WALKER [9:58]

Sure.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [9:58]

But sometimes, if you mix in family, it makes it a little bit more difficult. And so, we've had our ups and down for sure over the years. But I would say for the most part, communication is key. It has to happen and it has to be open and it has to be raw and honest, which is really hard to do sometimes. That's something we are still learning and still working on, but I think what it came down to for us and what has helped us so much is just the foundation that we have when we started.

Family was so important when we were growing up. Family dinner was something that happened every night at our house. We were all so busy and super involved in sports and other extracurricular activities, but we always knew my mom would have family dinner at the table at 5:30 or 6 o'clock and we always knew that was the one time our family would be together. And so, we just had this really solid foundation of family.

I feel like that's carried on to our business. When we started this business and started really putting the emphasis on family dinner, I did not realize that there were people who didn't have family dinner every day. I just thought that was what you did. That was what everyone in the world did and I didn't realize that it was such a dying trend, a dying tradition. And so, we decided to make that our focus because we want to share everything that's going to help a busy mom or a busy dad get dinner on the table so they have that time to connect with their kids and their family and build those strong bonds and have that strong relationship. So, everything we do is based on that.

CAMILLE WALKER [11:44]

I love it. I think I have found the same thing. We have a lot of recipes on our blog at My Mommy Style and I shared quite a few of our recipes on TikTok and you wouldn’t believe the number of kids that I had messaging and saying, "You actually do a family dinner? You guys actually sit down together and eat?" And I thought, "Man." It made me so sad that that really is such a dying art of family life. It does take effort and it does take some planning, but I think that that's what your brand and your family has really helped so many families across the world really to keep that tradition alive.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [12:25]

Oh, thank you. That really means a lot because that really has been such a big part and a big focus of what we do is just trying to bring that tradition back and reintroduce it into homes that maybe haven't done it for a long time or maybe haven't in this generation done it. There are so many pros and so many positives that come from sitting down together as a family, talking and eating together. I love that it's including food because food is such a way to bring people together. I love food. I love good food. So, you combine that with sitting down and talking with your family and it's the perfect combination.

CAMILLE WALKER [13:04]

It really is. Okay. So, let's get the nitty gritty because you guys have been running this for years and you've done so many incredible things. But take me back to the beginning. You started this blog. When did it start to monetize and when did you know that, "Okay. We were on to something?"

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [13:21]

Really, we had one recipe back in 2011. It was our slow cooker honey sesame chicken, just a simple recipe. You throw some chicken in. You throw some sauce in. Let it cook all day. It went viral. It wasn't even that great of a picture. I took the picture with my phone.

CAMILLE WALKER [13:42]

That's okay back then.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [13:43]

It was okay back then. We didn't have to edit pictures. We didn't have to use Photoshop. It just exploded and we had so much traffic coming to our site that it shut our site down and we had to keep paying for upgrades so more people could come to our site. I think that's when realized, "We are on to something here."

And then, we started researching ways to monetize traffic and we started figuring out how to take this from a hobby to a business, because we thought, "How great would this be if we as sisters and as a family could all kind of have this be like a side hustle or a side gig or a side job?" And bringing a little bit of extra income for our family. All of our husbands were going to school or working and it was such a great way as a stay-at-home mom of these young kids to be able to help provide and help contribute to your family's finances.

So, we started getting more serious about it. I would say by 2013, we really had caught our stride and it was incredible. It was such a game changer for all of us that we could turn this fun hobby into really a career that was making us pretty decent money. And so, from there, we decided to launch a blog conference. It was called Build Your Blog Conference because we really wanted to help other women especially, but men came too, and teach them how to turn their hobbies and their passions into a business. So, that's where that came from.

From there, we've just tried so many different things. We've branched into fashion and style so much to the point where we even had our own clothing line for a little bit and got involved with all that goes with that. I know you have had experience in that world too. We've launched into fitness and dabbled in that for a couple of years. We launched into a meal planning program to help get dinner on the table. We had so much going on.

CAMILLE WALKER [15:52]

And cookbooks. Don't forget your cookbooks.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [15:52]

We didn't. We just barely published our tenth cookbook. 10 cookbooks in 10 years. We basically haven't stopped in 10 years, just going a hundred miles per hour. But there's been a lot of failures and there's been a lot of successes. But the thing is those failures, I don't even like to call them failures, really, they were more like lessons learned and made us re-evaluate. Okay. What went wrong and why it didn't work? What can we do better in the future?

And it was all those failures added up together that helped us move past that and move on to something greater and move on and apply what we learned into the next part of our business. I feel like in any kind of business, you are going to have a lot of failures and you can't let those pull you down. You can take a day or whatever you need to, to kind of wallow and feel bad for yourself that it didn't go as you'd hope. But then, really look at the lessons that can be learned from that failure and apply them to the next thing that you do. That would make all the difference.

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CAMILLE WALKER [17:06]

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CAMILLE WALKER [17:57]

Can you think of a time specifically that you had a perceived failure that then worked into something that became a breakthrough?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [18:07]

Sure. I would say one of our really big failures was when we decided to launch Six Sisters Style. That was what we called it and we started its own Instagram account. It was a couple of years ago, just this whole slew of women started these Instagram accounts where it was all about fashion and where they got their clothes from. It was so fun and we loved it and we were following all these people. We thought, "We could totally do that."

Instead of linking to other things, we thought we should just sell our own clothes. We have a big enough audience that this would be great. It would be so easy. So, we found and worked with people in China to get some inexpensive clothing, and then get it shipped over here to America. Well, it got stuck at Customs for I don't know, I want to say, two months. We had a booth at Pinners Conference where we were going to be selling all our clothing and do this big official launch and we literally had nothing to sell. And the clothes, when they did finally come, reeked of fish and were so stinky. We just thought, "We cannot sell these." We had purchased winter clothes to sell. By that point, winter was done and we were moving in spring and the styles were going to be out of fashion. We just thought, "This is a hot mess."

We just threw away thousands of dollars and we learned a lot. We learned that you've really got to do your research before you jump into something as big as that. You need to think about all the things that could go wrong, so that you're prepared for those things in case they really do happen. We just jumped in so blindly and thought, "What could go wrong? Nothing. This is going to be so easy." It wasn't. It was a lot of hard work.

So, going forward from there, as we've launched other things and done other projects, we've really walked through the things that could go wrong and try to prepare for that. I just feel like we just are so much more prepared when we do these big launches and when we come out with new products. We just really look at it from all angles. It's helped so much. So, every failure has definitely taught us something.

CAMILLE WALKER [30:33]

Yeah. That's a really good example. Yes, I did have a similar experience. It got stuck. It was awful. I thought, "Man. That part of business is not for me." Customer service and letting people down. Ugh, I hated that.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [20:51]

Yes. There's just so many missed expectations.

CAMILLE WALKER [20:53]

That's the worst because you want to really provide what your customers or clients or audience are looking for. I know that that's something you really believe in is digging in to what it is that your people need and want and connecting with your audience that way. What do you think is a good way for those who are listening to really tap into what your audience needs and wants so that you can serve them rather than trying to sell them? I know that that's the big motto for you. You truly believe in serving your audience.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [21:29]

Yeah. This is something that we have implemented, I would say, in the last year or so. I wish it's something we would have done sooner. We always just looked at our audience as, "Okay. We know that it's about 90% female. She's somewhere between the ages of 18 and 44. She probably has some kids." That was kind of just what we would think whenever we thought of our audience. In the last year or so, we have really honed in on exactly who it is that is our customer and exactly who it is that we want to serve.

And so, we have even given her a name. Her name's Susan. Susan is 35 and she's got three kids and she works part time. She went to college and got her degree. She loves easy recipes. She's addicted to her Instant Pot and is always looking for a new recipe to use in her Instant Pot. She's happily married, but is always looking for fun things to do with her spouse. She loves her kids, but gets easily overwhelmed. We have all these things about Susan. Susan's not a real person but she's somebody we completely made up. We even have a picture of what she looks like, what we think Susan looks like.

Suddenly, Susan is so real to us and we think about with every post that goes on, "Would Susan make this recipe?" If the answer is no, then why are we sharing it? Why are we posting it? And so, as sponsors have reached out to us in the last year, we always think, "Okay. Is this something Susan would buy? Is this something Susan would use?" And if the answer is no, we just tell them straight up, "We're not interested. Thank you so much, but we're not interested. It's not going to work for us." Because we've really honed in on Susan and what she needs.

By doing that, we know exactly how to serve her and that's what it comes down to. Every Instagram story, every YouTube video, every post that goes out on Facebook, we think about Susan and think about, "How is this helping Susan? How are we serving Susan?" It's made it so much easier because we know exactly what it is we need to post and we know exactly what's going to help her.

I feel like making your audience, make her or him a person, make them come alive, give them these characteristics that suddenly make them a real person. You can go print off a picture of somebody you find on the Internet and keep that in your office or by your computer or somewhere, so that you can remember exactly who it is you are serving. And then, serve them. Do those things that are going to help them. Make their life easier by what you share. And then, by doing that, Susan will trust you or your audience will trust you.

Once that trust is there and those sincere feelings of them knowing that you are really there for them and to help them, selling becomes so natural. In fact, selling becomes part of serving. Because you serve, serve, serve, get them all these things for free, and then say, "If you want to take it up a notch or if you want extra help with your meal planning or if you really need help learning how to use your Instant Pot, sign up for our course or download our app of meal planning." It just makes selling so easy and natural and it's not that foreign scary thing of, "Ugh, I feel like I'm just pushing on people." No, it's helping Susan and it's a natural progression of how to offer to your audience.

CAMILLE WALKER [25:16]

I love that perspective of the serving becomes part of what you offer, and then it's really that mind shift. Because I know a lot of times with content creation or even course creation, and then selling the course or the product or whatever it is that you're trying to sell is that, oftentimes, people say, "Oh, but I don't want to come off spammy or I don't want to talk about it too much." But I think really switching your perspective of, "No. You would be harming this person by not sharing what it is that you're doing and how you're helping them."

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [25:47]

Yes. I love that. Yes. That's exactly it.

CAMILLE WALKER [25:50]

That's so cool. So, I want to talk to you a little bit about content creation and avoiding that burnout. Because I am sure any business owner or someone who is thinking about starting a business right now that's listening and thinking, "Man. Content creation is not a sprint." It is absolutely a marathon and consistency is so much a part of that. What would you say to that person who is feeling that burnout or overwhelm with creating every day?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [26:18]

Going back to the serving, whatever it is, whatever your niche is, think about all of the questions and all of the problems that your audience has in your niche. So, for us, it's family dinner. That's our big focus, and so the problems that Susan or our audience would have are that there's just not enough time in the day. I need easy recipes that I can throw together fast. I need recipes for picky eaters. I need recipes that I can throw in my Instant Pot at the end of a long workday.

So, we have all of these problems that we know our audience would have and in content creation, it actually becomes pretty easy because we just give them the solutions. And so, every once in a while, we'll do kind of the big brainstorm session or brain dump of just, "What are the problems that Susan is having right now?"

At the beginning of COVID, when we all went into quarantine, we kind of thought about, "Okay. Our audience is having this major shift of kids are now at home, and they've got to get creative with meals." They're doing breakfast, lunch and dinner for all the kids, plus being a school teacher, plus all the things that we knew our audience was so overwhelmed. We knew Susan was probably feeling a lot of stress and anxiety. So, we thought about, "How can we help her? How can we make life easier?"

And so, we focused on three ingredient dinners. We focused on dinners that could be ready in 30 minutes or less. We focused on quick snacks that you could give your kids, quick and easy freezer meals and just tried to find ways to help Susan survive the pandemic. It made all the difference. Our numbers doubled during quarantine because we focused on serving our audience right then, right there, what they needed right now.

CAMILLE WALKER [28:27]

That's brilliant. I love that so much. When you're creating content and creating course consent calendar, how do you keep everything straight between you and your entire family? Do you have tools that you use to help you all stay on the same page on what's happening? How do you keep that straight?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [28:47]

Totally. So, we do a lot of communication through email and then we use a tool called InfluenceKit. It's just a great group calendar that everyone could be a part of because we've got people that help us with our photography and people that help us with recipes. And so, we all have to have access to this huge calendar, so we can see who will do what by when. It's a great tool because it holds everybody accountable. You can see who has done their jobs and who hasn't. We found that that's the tool and I know there's a lot out there. I've heard really good things about Trello. There's a couple of other ones out there, but InfluenceKit is what we use to keep our life organized and beautiful.

CAMILLE WALKER [29:32]

I love that. So, another interesting fact is that your husband also has his own blog and very successful YouTube account and courses. Talk to me a little bit about how you worked together as a couple and how you keep things running with your own businesses and your family. How are you able to maintain all of that? Because that is a lot.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [29:53]

It's crazy and it's so funny. Had you told me 10 years ago that my husband would stop practicing as a physical therapist at a clinic and would be at home, I would have been so confused. But like we've talked about before, there are so many opportunities now to change your business and to expand your business in ways that weren't available 10 years ago. But my husband kind of shifted his physical therapy business to treating his patients one on one in a clinic to taking it online. He did start a blog, but his main thing has been YouTube.

What's so crazy is during this pandemic over the past year, physical therapy clinics closed and had he still been working in a clinic, we would have been in such a different situation. And so, the path that he did make that shift online was just, once again, this tender mercy and just a little miracle that just showed us that God has a plan for everybody and has His hand in everything.

But, yeah, YouTube has been his focus. He's kind of this online physical therapist and gives you different ways that you can that your neck pain or back pain or knee pain through his YouTube channel. It's incredible because it's really something that you wouldn't think that a physical therapist would do. You see them more as somebody in a clinic treating people one on one, but there's so many opportunities online through YouTube, through blogs, through Instagram. You name it and you can do it. It's crazy.

So, with him owning his business and me in this business with my sisters, two entrepreneurs in one house gets a little crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. One thing we've really had to implement because we didn't want to have work take over everything. It very easily could. The great thing about being an entrepreneur is you can pick your own hours. The bad thing is you still have to work 60 to 80 hours a week to make your business successful. And so, we really have just had to implement what we call hard stops of dinner time is every night at 6 o'clock and that time we're done working. Both he and I will just, what's the word?

CAMILLE WALKER [32:22]

Unplug?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [32:22]

Unplug, that's what I was going for. Unplug from our computers. Unplug from phones and just be present as a family. Every Sunday night, he and I sit down and plan out our week so we know, "Okay. I’m going to be filming a YouTube video at this time and you're going to be doing a TV segment at that time, whatever it is." We plan out our week and we just really had to work together as a team to work around each other's schedules, but it's been really good and we've made it work. It takes a lot of teamwork and that comes through a lot of communication and openness that we work through a lot of things, but it's been awesome.

CAMILLE WALKER [33:07]

Well, you two are so inspiring and we didn't mention your husband's name of his site. It's Tone and Tighten and they also offer a Mummy Tummy Fix program that's incredible for correcting diastasis recti. Did I say that right?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [33:21]

Yup.

CAMILLE WALKER [33:21]

Yeah. That's incredible.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [33:24]

After mommas have babies.

CAMILLE WALKER [33:27]

That is such an awesome program. You guys have so much going on. Now, you're looking forward to creating a course for business owners who want to take blogging into the YouTube space as it has been so successful for your family. Tell us a little bit about that. What is that going to look like?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [33:43]

So, we've come to realize how important video is and we jumped feet first into YouTube, I would say, about three years ago. My sister Kristen really just took it and ran with it. We've seen a lot of success. And then, it's just because so many people, that's where they go to learn. So, we thought, "Well, let's be there and teach them how to make recipes and how to use their Instant Pot and how to get dinner on the table."

It's just another place where you can share content and it's such a great place because it's totally different than blogging. Of course, you do have to show your face. That means you have to get ready and put makeup on and take your jammies off, but for the most part, it's been amazing. We reached a totally different audience and it's a really good supportive place to be. And so, we have come to realize what an important part of our business that YouTube is and we wanted to be able to teach that to other people.

So, we're getting ready to launch a course that teaches influencers, especially bloggers, how to go just from being a blogger or an Instagrammer and to take that on to YouTube because it is such an incredible platform that people need to be using. If you want to be an influencer, the world is shifting to video. And so, we've got to get on now. That's kind of the direction that we are headed and we're super excited about it.

CAMILLE WALKER [35:09]

So smart. I feel like I need that course because video is where influencing is going right now. Even the last few years with TikTok and everything else and it is weeding out some bloggers that were on the fence of, "Am I going to keep going with this? Am I going to pivot?" Because influencing and content creation is all about pivoting and changing. You have to be comfortable with video now. It really is part of the way that it's going.

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CAMILLE WALKER [35:39]

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CAMILLE WALKER [36:16]

How would you suggest to others who might feel uncomfortable on camera to feel more comfortable with it? Do you have tips for that?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [36:24]

It was super scary for me starting out because I loved hiding behind the computer screen. I loved that I could put these recipes on our blog, and then not worry. I wore pajamas for five years and nobody knew. Like you said, being in this world of social media and influencers, it's constant evolution and you have to be willing to change. You have to be willing to try new things. Otherwise, your business won't last. Across the board, that's how it is with all businesses. You have to evolve. Things change fast, so you have to stay on top of those things.

For me, the biggest thing has just been being totally genuine to myself. I didn't change who I was when I was on video. If you go to YouTube, I'm just in my kitchen. I'm wearing just normal clothes. I do have my hair done, but it's just me doing it and I feel like it's a really god way to show up for your audience as yourself and don't be afraid to be yourself because there is somebody that needs you exactly the way you are.

That's kind of been something we think about and keep in mind like we're there for that one person. We're there for Susan. There's going to be people who leave mean comments about the way you look or what you're sharing or making, but as long as you help Susan, that's all that matters. And so, we just really try and focus on the one and show up for the one. That's really helped me to having to do so much video now and show my face so much now, just keeping that one person in mind. If I can reach her and help her, then it's worth it.

CAMILLE WALKER [38:08]

That's really good advice. It's interesting when you focus on the one and identifying who that person is, it makes it more personal. It makes it more like, "Okay. If Susan was my best girlfriend and she needs help with XYZ, how would I show up for her? How would I talk to her? What would it look like?" I think that that focus on the one makes it so that you connect with the masses. It becomes so much more personal and you can show up more as yourself because you're thinking of Susan instead of everyone else.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [38:41]

Yeah. Exactly.

CAMILLE WALKER [38:42]

Well, that's brilliant. Is there a time that you felt like you looked back at this journey and you thought, "I wish I would have done that differently?" Maybe advice you would give to yourself looking back. For those listening, is there a lesson you've learned that you want to pass along?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [39:02]

I wish I would have jumped into YouTube sooner.

CAMILLE WALKER [39:06]

Me too.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [39:07]

I wish that as these new things came out, I wish we would have implemented them sooner. It's so hard because you just don't know what trends are going to stay and which ones are going to be like a flash in the pan.

CAMILLE WALKER [39:22]

Right.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [39:22]

But just for some of these trends that did stick around, video, all things video, we really drug our feet because we just thought, "No, no, no. We're not ready for that. We're good where we're at." But things kept evolving and changing and it got to the point where we thought, "If we're not doing video, we're going to be left behind in the dust." So, we did this huge business pivot and made video such a big part of our strategy and changed everything. We thought, "What if we had done this two years ago when it came out, when it first started? It would have been a game changer."

And so, it's okay to be hesitant about these new trends and these new things that come along, but also don't be afraid to try them. You just never know what's going to take and what's going to work and what's going to send something from your business or a send a piece of content completely viral because you did implement these new things. So, don't be afraid of change. Don't be afraid of evolution, just be open to it and it could be the biggest game changer in your business.

CAMILLE WALKER [40:25]

That's good advice. It's scary. It can be so scary. I think one of the things that I try to remind yourself in the process of evolving and creating new content is that others are new to it too, so what is the worst that could happen? It doesn't go viral. Okay. What about the next one? To keep plugging away with it because it can be something so random that you think isn't a great whatever, but then that's the thing that takes off. You're like, "Oh. That was a surprise, but I’m so glad that I did it."

We have a lot of moms that are listening to this podcast and I know they're listening too, thinking, "How does she do it? How is she creating these incredibly successful businesses? She's happily married. She's getting dinner on the table every night." What would you say to them for creating special time with your family, your kids, your husband? What is some advice that you have for managing time and also creating time for what matters most to you?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [41:22]

I get that because I remember thinking that about other women who were being a mom and being a wife and working. I just used to be so overwhelmed by all of it. I just don't think there is such a thing as a work life balance. It's always going to ebb and flow. There will be times when you have to work a lot more and you see your family a lot less. But then, there will be times where your family takes priority and work kind of goes down. And so, it's a constant ebb and flow and you just try your best to keep everything as balanced as possible.

It's taken me ten years to get here. There was a point where I was in every single part of my business. I knew how to run everything. I was doing all of social media. I was doing the emails. I was doing the marketing. I was doing the posts. That goes that way for all my sisters. And we've learned as we've grown and as our business has grown, we do have to invest back in your company. The best way to invest is to get some of your time back. So, hire people to do those jobs that eat up your time so that you do have time.

Time is your most valuable asset. So, any way that you can buy back your time, it's amazing there's so many great people out there who can help you really inexpensively and you pay them money per hour to do these jobs that are eating up all your time, so that you can move on to the next thing and make more money for your company. It's a constant reinvestment back into your company to buy your time back, so that you can have a little bit more time to spend time on family and your marriage and just all those other parts of your life that are super important too.

CAMILLE WALKER [43:05]

Yeah. That's amazing advice. This has been full of so much wisdom. I cannot tell you how much I have loved this interview. Please tell us, our audience, where we can find you, connect with you and also look forward to this course that you have coming up.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [43:20]

Okay. So, Six Sisters Stuff is on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. Our blog, our website, sixsistersstuff.com, that's where you can find me and the recipes we're making and all of that. If you're on Clubhouse, I'm on over there just as myself Camille Beckstrand, so you can look me up. I usually get on Wednesday afternoons or Wednesday nights and share something business related with my sisters. So, jump on there if you're on Clubhouse. And then, this new venture is called Start Up Spark because we just want to help you take that spark, that idea that you have for your business and make it into something big and turn that passion and turn that hobby into something bigger. That's where we will launch our YouTube course to teach people how to use YouTube for business. So, that's where you can find all the things.

CAMILLE WALKER [44:16]

So smart. You were thinking summer that that's when this will be?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [44:19]

Yeah. It should be done late spring early summer, sometime around there. We're in the phases of filming and getting it all set up.

CAMILLE WALKER [44:30]

For those listening, I'm curious for running your courses, where do you like to house those as far as that course?

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [44:35]

Right now, we use Teachable. We have another course that teaches people how to use their instant pots for cooking and so we just do that through Teachable. We love it. It's such a great platform. It's simple to use on the back-end as a course creator. But then, it's also so user-friendly for people who purchase your course, so I recommend Teachable hands-down. It's fantastic.

CAMILLE WALKER [45:03]

Awesome. That's so cool. Well, I’m excited about that. By the time this episode comes out, I think it will be in April, so it won't be too far. So, for everyone listening, we will have resources linked to that where you can connect with Camille, you can hear about this Spark program. Everything else you have going on, you are so awesome.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [45:19]

Thank you.

CAMILLE WALKER [45:19]

I'm so grateful to call you a friend and thank you so much for being on our show today.

CAMILLE BECKSTRAND [45:24]

Thanks for having me, Camille. I had a great day.

CAMILLE WALKER [45:27]

You are welcome. Well, thank you for tuning in and we will see you next week with another episode.

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CAMILLE WALKER [45:33]

If you have listened to this episode and thought, "Man, I need more help in getting dinner on the table", well, look no further because Six Sisters Stuff actually has weekly recipes delivered just to you that include nine to ten new recipes, six main dishes, two side dishes, two desserts or one snack. It also includes a shopping list and grocery list, scalable recipes, so you know exactly what to buy. You can check it out right here with the link below in the show description. It has saved me so much sanity and time having a meal plan that comes right to my inbox. If you need special combinations, you're looking for healthy meals, specifically gluten free or family friendly, they have those specific plans available as well. So, check that out. You will not regret it.

If you're looking for a cool place to hang out online, look no further than callmeceopodcast on Instagram. You can also join the Call Me CEO community on Facebook to join with more likeminded mommas who are making it happen. I would love to see you there. Please say hi. I'd love to connect with you one on one. Thank you so much for your support.

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[46:44]