Celebration of Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE WALKER [0:08]

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.

[MUSIC]

Hey, what’s up everyone? It’s Camille Walker here with Call Me CEO podcast and this is episode 100. I cannot believe it. It has happened and I am so proud to be here with all of you. I wanted to have a special celebration of highlights from episodes past and guests that we all love so dearly.

If you are already not a part of this community and you’re hearing this for the first time, Call Me CEO was all built upon this idea that as moms, we have all these cute names as being business owners whether it’s mom boss, mompreneur, mommy blogger, mom whatever. There are so many titles that are given to us. And to me, at the end of the day, it was Call Me CEO. As a business owner, you don’t need a cutesy title to know who you are and what you bring to the table.

So, as you’re listening to these inspiring women, I hope that you too can embrace the power of who you are to know that you are a boss. And I mean that both in the way of your life, your business, and the pursuit of whatever passion you have in your life. So, let’s dive into this episode and listen to what our fabulous females have to say.

[MUSIC]

Now, this show is going to be all across the board. I’m going to be sharing stories of women who are mothers that are doctors in New York City, product specialists, inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs, and also those who are doing side hustles. So, if you’re not quite sure what it is that you want in this part of your journey, that’s okay. This is just a part to allow you to be introduced to something different that you may not have thought of in the past.

Now, who am I? My name is Camille. I’ve already mentioned that. I’m a mother of four and their ages are 4, 7, almost 10, and 12. I now have a junior high kid, which is totally freaking me out and equally amazing because I now have a babysitter in the house. And I think it's this transition of having older children that has allowed me to take my journey a little further.

And I have been building a business from home for almost 9 years. www.mymommystyle.com was started as a passion project, a hobby actually. I never imagined it would grow to a six-figure income, but it did. And I’m so grateful and I want that for everyone. Being a mother is my greatest, my most fondest mission and calling in this life, but I found that I am an even better mother and a greater empathizer when I have experience outside of the four walls of my home.

So, let’s take a step back and do a little rewind into my own story. I was raised in Utah, the youngest of five, with educators for parents, which is such a gift. My father was a principal and superintendent and my mother was a stay-at-home entrepreneur, although she wouldn’t call herself that, and eventually became a teacher. So, by the time I went into 3rd grade and was the youngest of five, she was out of the house for the majority of the day.

And I believe it was because of that that I was allowed and afforded the opportunity to become more independent earlier on than maybe I would have and I developed a lot of traits that you typically wouldn’t see in a youngest child or so they say.

And it’s really in that journey that I developed more about who I was and who I wanted to become, but I always knew that education and the process of teaching was important to me. I love learning from others. I love giving and sharing stories. I love connecting with people. And so, a podcast to me is the perfect trifecta of all of that. I love the idea of sharing these women’s stories to inspire you and give you tools of how you can manage both home and family as you go apart in your journey.

So, I graduated in family and consumer science education. Now, let me tell you that I come from a conservative Christian background and I pretty much believed that there were maybe three to five jobs that were mother-approved. Those were to be a teacher, a nurse, an assistant, preschool teacher, maybe a part-time dental hygienist. And that was pretty much it because for me, I had the understanding that my place was in the home, which is my favorite place. I love being with my children.

However, when I became a mother, I also realized that I couldn’t be the best version of myself as a mother for my children when I was only primarily focused on them all of the time. For some, that’s a great fit. For others, they find more fulfillment having hours outside of the home. For me, I wanted to find space where I could work from inside the home.

And what I think is so amazing about this environment that we’re in now is that there are so many opportunities and ways that you can build a fortune in your own home and at home with your babies in the in-between hours. And yes, sometimes it does require hustle and some less than preferable or desirable hours that you put into that shift, but I think there is so much out there that we, as women, can now take on.

And that is why Call Me CEO, the name, was built. It’s because in my experience, I haven’t always been treated as though I should be considered a CEO, even though I built a pretty incredible business on my own right if I do say so myself.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [6:36]

What I love about HIGH Fitness so much is that it is an awesome outlet for people who have had a dance history like myself, but it’s not so choreographed that others can’t pick it up and do it and be able to be just as capable as someone who has danced in the past. So, I’m curious what has been one of the biggest benefits of merging those two so that it applies to everyone?

EMILY NELSON [7:04]

Yeah. I guess we didn’t even say what HIGH was, did we? We haven’t said that yet.

CAMILLE [7:08]

Okay. That’s okay.

EMILY [7:11]

So, basically when we joined forces and we’re like we’re doing this, our goal was we had taught all these different formats. We’ve been down the really dance-y route, we’ve done the bootcamp, we’ve done this, that. We were like we want to take the best of the things that we love and is the best workout, but it has to be fun. We want this workout to be as fun as it is a good workout. We knew what we wanted it to be body weight because you don’t want to deal with the equipment and things like that.

But at the end of the day, we were like what’s the most effective thing, but what will bring people coming back for more? And that’s what it is. It’s number one, pushing yourself out of a comfort zone. You have to get uncomfortable in order to get those happy endorphins, which is what you were saying. It’s such an outlet for women, men, people who are going through hard times. Talk about this quarantine, which I’m sure we’ll get to, people were literally living for it because they needed those endorphins. We live for those.

So, we needed to create a workout with those high endorphins, make you that high feeling. At the same time, we wanted to scale it back. So, we would go to all these fitness conventions and we’re like why is nobody simplifying the choreography? You had your extremes. You had your bootcamps, your CrossFit, things like that, and then you had your super, your Bollywood, your Zumba, your Latin, all these things.

And we’re like why is nobody simplifying it? This is key because we always said if we had a dime for everybody that said, “I can’t dance,” even coming to HIGH, we’re like we’d be rich already. We’d have to be because people, it is such a barrier.

So, while these big grand names are so much bigger than us and have this reach, people felt a barrier because of the complexity of the movement. They’re like they just want to have a good time, but also get a good workout. And as mothers, we’re like get in, get out, 1 hour. I don’t have 3 hours for the gym. I don’t want to deal with all this stuff. And you can elaborate on that, Amber.

AMBER ZENITH [9:10]

I was basically the bottom of the barrel. So, if I can’t do it, we’re not doing it because I have no dancing.

CAMILLE [9:17]

Which is good to have that yin and yang. Yeah, that’s great.

AMBER [9:21]

It is. I’d be like heck, no. I can’t, my brain. So, that was the thing is she’d add the flair and I’d take it down to the worst-case scenario participant basically. It’s like if I can do it, pretty much anyone. Of course, I’ve gotten more and more rhythm as we’ve done this for 10 years, but I didn’t dance. I was more of an athlete.

So, it’s great. It is great. It is so fun, and even music choices. And we are the yin and yang. We really, really are. It’s so different, but it works together so well that that’s how we blended the two together, plus our aerobics background. So, we’ve taught at this gym with this 80s aerobics icon. We did Zumba forever.

There are so many great things about Zumba. We think it’s awesome, but we’re a completely different format. But they’re the most amazing Latin dance format there is. We did learn a lot about the community and different things from them. So, just different pockets of these different elements. It really was the perfect storm.

I believe in the universe or whatever, things coming together. I do believe that it was something that was meant to happen just based on all these little things coming together like Emily moving to Calgary, my dad being from Utah. It is some crazy things that brought it together, a bit of luck as well as skill I’d say. We can’t take all the credit. The timing was impeccable. It really was.

EMILY [10:56]

Yeah. And also, along with just being a different workout and bringing a new workout to the fitness thing, we wanted to create it as a community. So, from day 1, we call us the anti-fitness fitness format. We’re like, yeah, just come as you are. You don’t need to lose weight. It doesn’t matter what you look like. Honestly, since day 1 six years ago.

And that was when Instagram was very much, look this way, be this way, six pack. We’re like no one’s allowed to post ab shots. If you’re a part of our brand, you don’t post ab shots. Our befores and afters are about your mental health.

We really wanted to just create a community where everybody felt like they belonged, felt like they could have a part in it. And yes, you scare away people a little bit along the line because the name HIGH and it can be high-intensity and we’ve evolved and things like that, but we truly want to create that brand. And also, we came up with some really fun new things like we were the first format to do song of the week, which lots of people have done that since. Yeah, we were the first one.

AMBER [12:02]

No one was doing that.

EMILY [12:03]

No one was doing it. So, usually it came out in chunks, so either a month or a 3-month chunk of choreography you just have to learn from. And we were like I don’t know how we’re going to pull this off because that’s a lot of work. How do you film for every week and things like that? But since day 1, we had our chunk of songs and then every week, we do at least 1 HIGH song of the week. And so, that was one of our things that we paved the way for in the fitness industry. And yeah, it’s been fun. It’s more than just the fitness. It’s just like a whole new culture.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [12:41]

So, Rach, please introduce yourself and tell us more about you and your business.

RACHEL BARKER [12:47]

Thank you so much. I love podcasts. I listen to them all the time. I think they’re an encyclopedia of trying to find where you’re able to search what you need at that time in your life. And I think that a lot of people are like me where they don’t really know what they’re going to do and they don’t know what to do. And it would have been really, really nice about 18 years ago to have podcasts that could have guided me through maybe a how to do what I was doing.

So, my Instagram name is @dear.rach and I started an advice column like Dear Abby. I loved Dear Abby when I was growing up. My grandma would read it. And I loved Dear Abby and how her advice was not always what the reader wanted to hear, but it was so to the point.

And I think that that’s just in a nutshell to describe who I am. I am to the point and I’m pretty candid. And I’ve learned over time that that is not always well-received. A lot of people really want the cushion. They really want it to be fluffed up. And so, when I do that and when I try to make that better, it’s so inauthentic to me.

And I don’t know. Maybe it’s just not a life skill of mine to make things a little rosier than they are, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come across with kindness and wanting you to be better in certain aspects, but I know that in any job that I’ve ever had, it’s hard for me to sit back and be quiet because I think that that goes along with my past is that when we’re unable to use our voice, first of all, we feel like this, “I should have said that. I should have said that.”

And sometimes, when we don’t speak up for ourselves, then we have resentment that nobody spoke up for us. And people aren’t mind readers, especially in anything like any organization you’re in, a lot of people don’t know what you’re thinking and don’t know. And if you do not say what it is that maybe your ideas are or what you’re thinking, they’re not going to know what it is. And so, providing your own voice and not expecting someone to stick up or stand up for you has been one of those things that I’ve had to learn over time.

CAMILLE [15:10]

Yeah. I feel like that’s a skill that so many of us struggle with because especially as women, we’re trying to make everyone happy or we’re trying not to rock the boat or perhaps we don’t know how to go to or how to feel safe. So, how is that a skill that you’ve developed and been able to share over time?

RACHEL [15:30]

I think that when I very first started speaking, to provide context, my dad was a football coach and he had multiple sclerosis. And so, he coached from a wheelchair. And so, all he could do is speak. He could only use his voice. He couldn’t show a player how to tackle someone.

And so, in watching him with this illness, I learned a lot of stuff from him, but I also felt very, very helpless because a lot of times, his physical ailments outweighed so many other things. And as a child, I just grew this fear of just one day coming home and he has fallen and/or on the ice sometimes his wheelchair would fall and there was nothing he could do. And so, I think that I just established this fear of people leaving or dying when I was younger.

And so, as I started speaking, he died when I was almost 18. And so, he had a lot of these motivational speaking gigs that he had all over. And so, when he passed away and give or take a few years, I started taking over some of his contracts. And what I would do is I would speak for high school audiences during homecoming and I would share his story.

And in the late 70s, NFL Films did a biography on him. And it was a short little film that they showed in between the Bowl games just as entertainment instead of them watching the half-time show. And so, I would show that video with kids during homecoming week. It really was applicable to football.

And so, that’s how I started my speaking career is I started speaking and telling his story. I never put my story into his story until I think a midlife crisis is really what happened. I think that one day, I just thought, you know what? This is not your story. You need to tell your story.

And in the midst of his story was I had a neighbor and I was 14 and he was almost 22. I think he was 22. I didn’t know. And he sexually molested me and raped me when I was younger and I never told anybody. When it happened, I walked to a convenience store which had payphones and I called one friend that I knew was not really connected with anybody else, but I also knew that she was close to that quick stop. So, I called her and she came and got me.

And the only other person that ever knew that was my husband. And it was when I was dating him. We had watched a show and it triggered me and I literally was a mess. I fell apart and he was like, “What is wrong with you?” And he and this other friend was the only one that ever knew besides me.

And ironically, I did not say anything until we had gotten into quarantine. It was a little bit before that, but we had gotten into quarantine. And I don’t know if I just had so much anxiety and all of the stuff and I felt like what if something happens and I never really say my true story? Because I felt it and I started helping women find their voice, but nobody knew why.

They always thought, it’s because this was just who you are, but it was always this underlying this is why I do it. And so, during the pandemic, the lady that owns Cents of Style, her name is Courtney Brown, and she did this “I’m a warrior because” and that was the t-shirt that I picked out to promo for her company. And she was getting all these people’s stories of why they chose that and what that shirt meant to them.

And so, I used that shirt. I literally propped my camera up on a bench, took my own picture, and told my story. I didn’t tell my mom. My sister still doesn’t know. She’s not really a fan of any of my work or anything. So, literally, my family knew. I told my kids. I told my husband. I said, “Hey, I just got to do this.” And they were super supportive.

And so, I shared it and I was flooded, flooded, flooded with people that’s like, “Oh my gosh, this happened to me” or “I think this happened to my daughter. I don’t know how to help. What are resources?” And it was overwhelming that the people that said that. And so, what’s hard about my story is that I’ve done the other stuff, the retreats, the events, the speaking engagements for years, but the reason why was never ever disclosed.

And so, now that people hear my why, they’re just like, “Gosh, it makes sense.” So, I spoke for OUR for years. I speak for a lot of people in providing a voice. One of my events was be The Perfect You Nobody Knows and that means it had the acronym PYNK.

And before the pandemic, I had all these cities planned to have their own PYNK event where they would show up in pink. And it was all about them. It was the story that nobody knows, but to be proud of your story in all parts of your story. Because we all have a story. And especially with social media is there’s a lot of your story you don’t really reveal a lot of the time. And so, I had that event and people just loved that, but there was a reason why. And I had never, ever declared my reason why. I just helped other people find theirs.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [21:22]

Okay. So, if you were to be my coach and help because you do coach people and help them understand where their strengths lie, how do you go about walking someone through that process?

MARY CLAVIERES [21:33]

Yeah. So, first, they take the assessment. So, it’s about a 15, 20-minute assessment online. And then, I go through their results with them for how they work and how they prefer to think under their steady state. And I also take them through how things change from an emotional standpoint like when they’re under stress.

And then, it really depends on the person. It’s really customized to, okay, what are their thinking preferences? Are they seeing certain challenges and struggles that show up in the way that their thinking preferences are? So, if they’re not seeing traction, if they’re not able to take action and they’re really missing that how quadrant, that lines up. So, it depends on the person, but we look at where they are and then how we can make a whole brain plan for them so that they can really see the success they want in their business, whatever it might look like for them.

CAMILLE [22:33]

Is that a vehicle for you to be able to open up the coaching and the membership group that you have and how does that work in with this assessment?

MARY [22:44]

Yeah. So, it depends. I use the assessment as a tool for all things really. For one-on-one work, it’s obviously very powerful because everyone gets individualized instruction for where they are and where they want to go. That’s how they can see perhaps the fastest results and the ones that are most unique to them.

It’s also built into my group program. So, I do a group program for mom business owners. It’s a 12-week group experience. And one of the first things we do in there is people also take the assessment and I teach them about the assessment. And then, we apply that in both life and in their business.

And then, the membership community is a place where everyone can convene and get together and network and I have different programming in there. Sometimes, I cover some things related to whole brain thinking or I have other experts come in on other topics as well.

CAMILLE [23:41]

And what program do you use for that membership site? What facility do you use for that?

MARY [23:47]

So, you mean in terms of technically? Web-wise?

CAMILLE [23:52]

Yeah.

MARY [23:54]

I use WordPress for the website for the membership community for all the recordings and all the tools and resources, PDFs and templates and things like that. And then, we have a Facebook group for the connecting piece of it.

CAMILLE [24:09]

Okay. So, let’s walk through a problem. I’m curious and I’m putting you on the spot. So, I don’t know if this might be a little difficult to do. But let’s imagine a problem that someone has and how that person might solve that problem depending on the dominance of their thinking.

MARY [24:29]

Okay. I can give you an example. So, I had a client once that was really struggling with process. It goes with what we were talking about before. She was really struggling with process and really feeling disorganized and like a hamster on a wheel like a little bit of okay, what am I doing? But always not feeling like she really had it all together. And she didn’t have any help. It was just her.

So, in her thinking preferences, it showed that she’s very strong in the vision, mission, purpose, the why quadrant, the yellow, and not so strong in how, it was the third-level preference for her. So, no preference for it at all. And I should also say the why and the how quadrants are diagonally across from each other. They can also be in conflict with each other.

And same goes for the data and the emotion. So, if you think of a CEO and their admin, the CEO might have all of these ideas and the admin’s like, “Okay, but how do we actually execute on those things?” Because they’re thinking tactically from the how quadrant.

So, since she was so high in the vision and she had all of these ideas of what she wanted to do next and try in her business, but she didn’t have the execution piece ironed it out so well, we had to spend time working on her planning and how can we put a plan together that links back? Because it’s really important. You want to pick the ideas that you want to work with and link back to them so that you’re not just picking.

People do this all the time like chasing squirrels. You get so excited like this is a new idea or this is a new opportunity. That’s great. Does it fit into what your strategies are? It’s okay if you need to revise your strategies as long as you’re not doing that every day, but how can you get it to all work together?

So, we worked with her. We worked on putting plans together and putting implementation plans together for which ideas she wanted to prioritize and really work on first for what was going to move the needle in her business.

Then she eventually, this was a really exciting part, grew to a place where then she wanted to hire someone. And so, her hire was someone to help her with the tactical piece, to help her with the administrative stuff. I share that one because it’s a pretty common one for entrepreneurs and a pretty common one for moms.

And sometimes, we’re great at all that practical stuff. I’m great at that stuff. The planning and whatever, although for myself, it’s harder. It’s always harder for yourself. But there comes a point where you need the help where it’s not worth your time to be doing that if that’s not where your money-making activities are. And she grew to a place where then she was able to bring on support.

And, of course, there’s a whole other thing that goes into that. What kind of support are you bringing on? What types of responsibilities do you want them to have? How are they helping and supporting your business? And it looks different for different people.

My first hire actually for Brief Transitions was to get a bookkeeping service because there are so many just different tasks related to all different costs and everything related to whatever, buying product and inventory and just all these different kinds of things, packing materials. And it was getting to be too much for me to just track in a spreadsheet.

So, I had to go to that blue quadrant, that what quadrant, and say, okay, I need support with the actual financial piece of my business so that I’m not saying I’m disappearing from the financials, but I can look at it and not spending hours in a spreadsheet myself first.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [28:35]

One of the most intense things I’ve ever seen is when you found out what TikTok was. We found out about this at the same time together, but then it was about six months later that you’re like, “No, I’m really going for this. And I am posting three or four times a day and I’m just creating, creating, creating.” There was this gleam in your eyes. You’re the most focused person I’ve ever seen.

MY NGUYEN [29:03]

Tunnel vision.

CAMILLE [29:04]

You do. It’s like sure, there’s other things going on, but I’m creating content. What is that that drives you in such a strong way?

MY [29:16]

Yeah. I remember that conversation. I remember calling you like, “Okay. I think I got it.” Because I’ve been playing around with TikTok. I think I know what I’m going to do with it. For months and months trying to figure out this app and I’m like, “I think I know it.”

And I was like I think I’ll make this guacamole video and the secret of chipotle, whatever, and actually that was one of my first viral videos I was talking to you about. I was like I think I know how I’m going to approach TikTok.

But if you go backwards, TikTok started during the pandemic, again, these moments where we slow down, these moments where we have to pause, just like when I lost my job. And so, when the pandemic hit in April 2020, literally that was when I really started focusing on TikTok because before I was just playing around with it, filming here and there and not growing. I can’t figure it out. I had 60,000 followers and I was doing it since November. I’m like, “Ah.”

And then in April, when everything shut down, we weren’t travelling anymore. A lot of my contracts were on hold because no one knew. So, everything was just paused. I’m like this is a good moment to dive deep into TikTok and just all this extra time that I didn’t have. So, I’m like, okay. I’m going to film two or three videos a day every day.

Every day, it was spaghetti to the wall. I just felt like there was something there. And I was still growing slowly, but it wasn’t until that conversation that lightbulb moment that I told you about. I was like, okay, I think I figured it out. And that was when everything exploded. It was I think at that time maybe 100,000 followers. And then, I think I hit 1 million within 2 or 3 months because it was this I had the secret sauce. I finally figured it out.

And I think that’s with any social media that you play around for 6 months to a year, really testing things out. And I call it the spaghetti to the wall theory and learning from each one and getting to this aha moment where that’s it. That’s the secret sauce. And that’s what I’m doing and that’s what happened. I finally just lightbulb, and that same thing with TikTok.

Instagram, TikTok, and now YouTube, it was just like, I finally figured it out. And then, I just hit the ground and went running like, okay, filming all day. But I neglect everyone else. I neglect my children, my husband and my other socials, my friends. And now, we’re at 3.4 million.

CAMILLE [32:02]

It’s incredible. Your amount of dedication and focus is so unique. Because I too was like I’m going to try maybe and I got burned out with doing so many videos. And I wasn’t even doing as many as you were. I was doing 5 a week and that alone was like, ugh.

MY [32:25]

Yeah. It’s torturous.

CAMILLE [32:25]

For those who are listening right now and they’re thinking maybe they want to create on TikTok, do you think it’s too late and what is that secret sauce? Is that something you share or is that something you have to discover?

MY [32:41]

It’s a little bit of both. I don’t think it’s too late to grow on any social media channel. I think now it’s time that all four, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are all competing against each other to have creative say on board. So, they’re giving you a lot of incentives. So, they’re giving you money and creative fund or I think Instagram’s paying bonuses and whatever and live IG TV, they’re giving you money for everything. YouTube is now having a creator academy.

But really the big value here is if you really are neck deep into it is that there’s such an opportunity to grow on any channel. Whatever your hands touch, it seems like it’s just going to grow if you’re consistent because they want you there. They’re competing for your content.

And this is what I find amazing about TikTok is that they led the way and they cut the shift from putting the users first on their platform. Instagram has their user-first. Everything was for the users. And then, TikTok flipped it and put it as the creators first. You guys are important to us. They’re giving swag bags and having zoom calls and questionnaires and events and just appreciation things and monetizing, giving you money, and a marketplace to get campaigns. They were just like creator, creator, creator.

And guess what? A lot of people left Instagram to go to TikTok because they were making money. And they were growing where they were still stagnant on Instagram. So, then, what happened was Reels came and now this and now YouTube has Shorts and Facebook, they moved the like button to a follow button, which is giving you more views. It’s just like slowly everywhere you post, you’re getting more engagement, more views.

So, I think it’s just a great opportunity in this. Part of the reason why I’m so busy and driving myself nuts is that I don’t know where to put my hand because where do I go? Because oh my God, this is this and this is this. And so, no, it’s not too late.

In the forms of content, I think this is also amazing. If you have all four platforms open and you create one video and it bombed on Instagram. I’m like, okay, let’s see if it’s going to go well on TikTok. It bombed on TikTok. Okay. Let’s go into YouTube Shorts. Surprise, it went viral on YouTube Shorts, and then it did okay on Facebook or you might hit the lottery and get to do well on all four. But you have an opportunity to film one video and at least you have four opportunities for it to grow you on one channel if not all four. So, that’s what I like is that you can do one thing and you can grow it on all four channels. And that’s what I’ve been seeing.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [36:02]

So, take me to that space where you start formulating these ideas of what you want to eat and how you’re going to do it. How did that turn and transition into creating a business?

ERIKA PETERSON [36:10]

Yeah. So, let’s see. I was so passionate about healthy eating. I started an Instagram account and this was 10 years ago. We were all just sharing pictures of us doing whatever with the weird filters. You know what I mean?

CAMILLE [36:28]

Yeah.

ERIKA [36:26]

Yeah, Sepia Tone. And no one was really running a business at the time on Instagram. I think influencers, I don’t even know if that was a thing 10 years ago, but maybe it was like groundbreaking. So, when I started my Instagram, it was really just a creative outlet for me to share recipes with other people.

And I was amazed when I would run into family or friends. They would be like, “Your food, your recipes look so good. I screenshot them all the time, but I haven’t had the chance to make any of them.” So, I was like, “Awesome, I’m sharing it and it looks good, but I’m not really making an impact because you’re screenshotting them and not actually making the food.”

Actually, I got certified as a health and wellness coach and I was coaching a handful of women at the time. So, I was also frustrated because I could only help a handful women at once because I was also a mother of three. So, I decided to make a digital product, put all the recipes into a meal plan. I’ll tell you what to buy at the grocery store. I’ll tell you when to eat what, what meals to eat throughout the week and it will be full of variety and balance. And every meal will have its own macro ratio balance so then you don’t have to be behind the scenes tracking either. It’s just all the work done for you.

And so, that’s really where the start of the business happened. And because it was a digitally native product, I was able to make revenue right away. I didn’t have to really put money into it. It was really just time, started digital. And so I think when I first launched my fist meal plan, it was in 2015, I made $2,000 pretty much overnight and it was amazing.

That was one of my greatest victories just being like I can make money making an impact changing lives and doing what I love. And so, from there, I went on to then create a fall meal plan, a winter meal plan, a spring meal plan, and then we created challenges around that to build up our community and really create that accountability since we weren’t working face-to-face with people anymore. It was an online thing. And that’s really where the fire started and the business stook off, really on accident.

CAMILLE [38:44]

Yeah. And I love your books. Your meal plans, they’re a really unique size like the coil of it and the size of it, the pictures are beautiful. How did you source that and figure out how you wanted it printed and how you wanted it to look and did you take your own photography or did you hire people? What was the breakdown?

ERIKA [39:02]

That’s a good question. So, I do all my own photography, but I was not a photographer. I started out with a very janky little camera and still some of those pictures, they’re in my books. They make me crazy because I look back, I’m like I need to retake all those.

We started with printing at Office Depot. So, we were doing the digital thing. And then, people were requesting hard copies so we would go take those in there. We would print off 500 copies from Home Depot. It cost us so much money. We were making no money on them and we were shipping them ourselves out of our house. So, that was a crazy time. My kids were stuffing envelopes and it was really just this family affair taking it to the post office, sending it off.

And then, we found a company here locally. Paragon Press does all of our printing in Salt Lake and they’ve been doing it for us for years. They’re really great to work with. And we started out with the big 8” by 10” spiral bound and I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know why we changed to the smaller or why we changed the coil. I have no idea. It’s all a blur to me now, yeah.

And then, we hired our very first team member and she was like, “You are shipping these from your house? No, you can’t do that anymore. You need to hire someone. I promise it’ll pay for itself.” And so, we got a warehouse and we started shipping from a warehouse and that was really a gamechanger for us.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [40:42]

Thank you everyone for listening to this episode and for your support of this podcast. Every share, every DM, every message and guest has meant so much to me in helping this show to grow and through it, I’ve been able to build and share a course of helping mothers build their own successful virtual assistant businesses. I’ve also taken on coaching clients, helping people to find growth in their business as well as a healthier balance in their lives. And now, I’m actually matching up a lot of entrepreneurs with my virtual assistants who graduate from my program. And this is all due to you.

Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for supporting this show. And please leave a comment, like, rate and review. Reach out to me because I love hearing from you. You can find me on Instagram @callmeceopodacast or @camillewalker.co and I hope that you will tune in next week and see what’s in store for you then. See you all later. Bye.

Hey, CEOs. Thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment and a 5-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram @callmeceopodcast. And remember, you are the boss.

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