The Business Millennials Podcast

Is MRR A Scam, Lifetime Income Marketing, And TikTok Updates [Part 2]

• Ashley Dreager & Safa Harris • Season 1 • Episode 12

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In this episode of the Business Millennials Podcast, hosts Safa Harris and Ashley Dreager engage in a lively discussion covering a wide range of topics, from personal anecdotes about their favorite snacks to valuable insights on building a sustainable business. Throughout the conversation, they share their expertise on the power of influencer marketing, the importance of brand building, and the realities of growing a business while navigating the challenges of parenthood. Safa and Ashley also delve into the harmful effects of misleading income claims in the coaching industry and emphasize the significance of focusing on long-term, sustainable business strategies rather than chasing quick cash or short-term gains.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Building a strong brand takes time and consistent effort, but it lays the foundation for sustainable business growth and long-term success.
  2. Influencer marketing can be highly effective because influencers have already established trust and engagement with their audience before promoting products or services.
  3. Misleading income claims and "get rich quick" messaging in the coaching industry can be harmful and set unrealistic expectations for new entrepreneurs.
  4. Growing a business while raising children presents unique challenges, but it can also lead to personal growth, resilience, and adaptability.
  5. Focusing on sustainable, long-term business strategies is more valuable than chasing quick cash or short-term gains.
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome to the Business Millennials Podcast
00:58 Getting Personal: Snack Talks and Spicy Challenges
02:14 Exploring the World of Ramen: From Spicy Chicken to Prison Meals
05:56 The Creative Side of Prison Cuisine and Entrepreneurship
11:58 Martha Stewart's Brand Evolution: From Homemaker to Influencer
18:53 Leveraging Personal Brand for Business Success
19:57 The Power of Influencer Brands: Huda Beauty's Journey
22:45 Exploring Influencer Marketing and Brand Building
23:46 The Reality of Marketing: Time and Trust
25:21 Navigating the Hype: Realistic Expectations in Business
27:21 The Myth of Overnight Success
30:49 Building a Sustainable Business: Strategies and Realities
32:39 The Challenges of Business in a Changing Economic Landscape
38:56 The Impact of Parenthood on Business Growth
45:28 Concluding Thoughts on Business Growth and Sustainability

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Welcome to the business millennials podcast. This show brings you strategic insights through raw and unfiltered real world advice to accelerate your business growth for longterm success. I'm Safa Harris, and I'm Ashley Drager. We're the founders of scale and thrive co a full service marketing and business development firm, helping visionary companies scale sustainably. Expect us to have the uncomfortable conversations that no one else is having. We'll break down what it really takes to grow and scale your business beyond six Seven or even eight figures, as well as inspiring interviews with diverse leaders across marketing, product development, sales, and more via fly on the wall as we conduct strategy sessions with business owners, experiencing issues such as plateaued income, burnout, and generally dropping the ball, giving you the tools and resources to break through your own roadblocks, but also personal development methods to grow you as a balanced conscious leader amidst business growth. Let's jump into this week's episode.

Ashley Dreager:

We isn't, we didn't talk about anything personal in our last episode. Should we, uh, jump, should we talk about like, what's current? What, what's going on in your world?

Safa Harris:

I don't know, but I ordered those Prime Bites that you were talking about.

Ashley Dreager:

Oh my God.

Safa Harris:

I should get them.

Ashley Dreager:

Did you?

Safa Harris:

today. Yes, I did. I

Ashley Dreager:

Oh my gosh. No way. Couple months late TikTok, but that's fine.

Safa Harris:

I think it's, I think it's because they got sold out. So now they're pushing them again.

Ashley Dreager:

Oh,

Safa Harris:

the Bulldog Ramen, I had ordered them before and they were so good. And now I'm going to get the variety pack.

Ashley Dreager:

I think I just saw one. Didn't Keith Lee just do a video with Cardi B? With, was that the, the,

Safa Harris:

yes, yes. It

Ashley Dreager:

oh my gosh. It's so funny. So, uh,

Safa Harris:

spicy.

Ashley Dreager:

is it? Okay.

Safa Harris:

Like, I eat spicy food. Like, I'm brown. We're eating, like, spicy food, like, on the regular here. And I can't put the full packet in there.

Ashley Dreager:

No way. It's that spice? What kind of spice, like what kind of pepper or spice is it?

Safa Harris:

I have no idea. I didn't read the ingredients. Cause I Oh. Oh, you know what's really, really cool? The chicken flavor, it's halal certified.

Ashley Dreager:

okay. Alright.

Safa Harris:

Yeah, which I was like, oh, okay, look at that. Thinking about us Muslims.

Ashley Dreager:

Is this like a spicy chicken? Or just like regular chicken?

Safa Harris:

it's a spicy chicken carbonara. So it's like cheesy.

Ashley Dreager:

Oh, Oh, weird. Okay.

Safa Harris:

but it's like really really good and Because I was watching because so from there I went down like a Korean ramen rabbit hole on tik tok and they have these like self serve ramen corner stores And so they'll get, you'll get like the pouch off the wall, and then you put the hot water in, and then they have like condiments to add to your ramen at these corner stores. And I guess something they do in Korea is add, cheese to their ramen.

Ashley Dreager:

Oh, okay.

Safa Harris:

Yeah,

Ashley Dreager:

I didn't know that was a thing. Okay. That's

Safa Harris:

my apartment. If anybody is from the Boston area, I'm talking about super 88. Everybody will know what a super 88 is if they're from Boston. So. This, it's, uh, Spicy Chicken Carbonara, and people have been doing a lot of, like, upgrades on them. People will add, like, heavy cream, and they'll put, like, more of their own shredded cheese in there, and all that. It's like a whole TikTok You This is the side of TikTok you need to be on.

Ashley Dreager:

interesting. I would have never thought to put dairy products into ramen though. Like my mind is still blown.

Safa Harris:

Yeah, and it's like super creamy and stuff. It's really good. And then I guess they have all these other flavors, too. There's like a curry flavor I want to try and they have Quattro cheese, so it's like a four cheese that's not supposed to be spicy. And then they have just like a, just a spicy chicken one, too, without the cheese in it. But people have been like doctoring it. I'll be like, this is how I like to eat it,

Ashley Dreager:

Oh, that's okay. Okay. So that, that video that I saw then makes, has a lot more. Context to it now because they doctored it up and I was like

Safa Harris:

Yeah,

Ashley Dreager:

What do you you don't just eat Robin just like regular like just?

Safa Harris:

this is like a

Ashley Dreager:

like brothy

Safa Harris:

of TikTok.

Ashley Dreager:

Okay, oh that's interesting now I'm gonna now I want to try it because I I've been on a ramen kick lately I mean,

Safa Harris:

Ooh,

Ashley Dreager:

I want I still need to figure out a really good way to add more protein to it I hate that there's like I tried putting egg whites in there and it just like, it never looked like it fully cooked. Like I cooked it for like 30 minutes it seems like, so the noodles were super soggy, but like it's

Safa Harris:

what So I got this from Kylie Jenner, like eight years ago. So the way she makes her ramen, she'll boil the ramen and it'll be like soupy, and then she'll put butter in it, garlic powder, and then like crack a full egg in there, and then you just kind of like whisk it around, and it makes it it's like it's really good.

Ashley Dreager:

like an egg drop soup

Safa Harris:

Yeah, kind

Ashley Dreager:

where it's got like, okay, all right. I was kind of, that's what I was expecting with the egg whites for it to kind of form like the like chunks of eggs in it, but it just stayed looking like raw egg whites with the broth. And I was like,

Safa Harris:

to be, that has to be like the egg white situation.

Ashley Dreager:

Hmm, I'll try it with a regular egg and see how that goes.

Safa Harris:

so what, how it happens. Um, and then, so this is, so, do you know the prison cookbook thing?

Ashley Dreager:

Ah, I've seen a few videos on it. I haven't seen like an actual cookbook.

Safa Harris:

There's this prison meal where they'll take ramen and they'll put, like, Cheez Whiz in it. So you take, yeah, like, you take, take, like, the cup of noodles then you cook the cup of noodles, you drain all the soup out, and you put, like, Mrs. Dash and then, um, Cheez Whiz and, like, tuna and

Ashley Dreager:

Oh, oh, tuna? Really?

Safa Harris:

the tuna! Because of

Ashley Dreager:

can't taste the tuna?

Safa Harris:

Because of the Cheez

Ashley Dreager:

Well, see like Justin used to, he would put tuna in like mac and cheese. And they would, I don't know, just like warm canned tuna. Like I don't, if you give me like a filet of tuna or salmon, like totally different, but just like the canned tuna, just, I can't do it warm. It's, it just is weird. But if you can't taste it, I wouldn't think that the Cheez Whiz would dissolve well though.

Safa Harris:

cause it's warm, I guess it melts. No,

Ashley Dreager:

Oh, okay. I'm just, I'm picturing like chunks of Cheez Whiz, just like.

Safa Harris:

no, no, no, it like incorporates, I'm sure you could use like, queso, so it's like meltier.

Ashley Dreager:

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

Safa Harris:

guessing in like prison they only have Cheez Whiz. I doubt they have like, queso.

Ashley Dreager:

They don't have all this variety? They don't have choice? What?

Safa Harris:

I, I don't know. We can talk about the prison industrial complex if you want, but

Ashley Dreager:

no, they get really creative with those, uh,

Safa Harris:

so

Ashley Dreager:

stuff in prison, though. Okay, alright.

Safa Harris:

think it's just because there was more cheese because it's no different than like a tuna helper.

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah, I could see that.

Safa Harris:

Yeah

Ashley Dreager:

I would, I would try it. I would have to, I don't know that I would eat the entire serving. He would take it. He'll take it to work. Oh my gosh.

Safa Harris:

meal But apparently prison meals are insane that you can like make a whole pizza out of Doritos or something I don't know.

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah. I've seen that, that like makeup. I seen them make like, uh, like candy to resell and like lollipops or something like that. Like, Yeah. I was like, that is so creative.

Safa Harris:

This is you know what? This is why a bunch of people get out of prison and become entrepreneurs

Ashley Dreager:

I mean, they,

Safa Harris:

they can't get jobs, but then two,

Ashley Dreager:

my assumption would be that they would probably just do better as their own boss

Safa Harris:

yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

anyways, versus working for someone else.

Safa Harris:

Exactly. That, they're, it's probably their personality type. Two, it's like they have all the cards stacked against them. And three, apparently they're very creative and like, Resourceful, so. And that's what you need to be to be a successful business owner. And resilient. If they

Ashley Dreager:

Resilient.

Safa Harris:

years in like, prison, I'm sure they're resilient.

Ashley Dreager:

Sometimes I get over onto prison talk and it's just wild there's, I wish I remembered his name, but he talks about all the stories, like, uh, about what, like things that happened to him in prison or like now, like current criminal situations that are going on or stories like, Oh, what's going to happen to this person when they go into prison? because of like their crimes or the things that they did. It's usually like, you know, kid related or, you know, like that kind of thing. I had, don't get me wrong. Like I actively tried to stay away from like the criminal system myself, but like hearing those stories, I don't know that I would survive.

Safa Harris:

Oh, I don't

Ashley Dreager:

It's brutal. It's brutal in there.

Safa Harris:

Yeah,

Ashley Dreager:

From what I hear, I have no first hand experience.

Safa Harris:

experience, but I bet it's bad.

Ashley Dreager:

You've never seen, you haven't come across his videos? I'm sure they're played up, like, for drama, but

Safa Harris:

that, I'm not that, that much on prison TikTok. But when I first heard that prison talk existed, I was like, Oh yeah, they totally sneak cell phones in there and they're recording TikToks in prison. But there's also people just talking about. TikTok, but like, are there actual videos of inside, from inside the prison?

Ashley Dreager:

I've seen, well, I've, I mean, I've seen some. Like, he's like making the lollipops and stuff like that. Oh,

Safa Harris:

in prison. This is my nostal prison

Ashley Dreager:

yeah.

Safa Harris:

meal.

Ashley Dreager:

Now I get, well, I mean, it looked like a prison cell. I mean, I don't,

Safa Harris:

You

Ashley Dreager:

I,

Safa Harris:

it's actually an elaborate, like, set to go along with the creator theme.

Ashley Dreager:

Well, I mean, we've, we've talked about how gullible it can be, so

Safa Harris:

I

Ashley Dreager:

I was just like, oh, they're in prison right now.

Safa Harris:

there. So

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Cause

Safa Harris:

way to get money to buy the ramen in prison.

Ashley Dreager:

no, I think that they come up. Um, I think they come up in my feed. Cause I, I, I engaged quite a bit with killer B tactical, uh, in his videos and stuff like that. And then there's like the, like. The police body cam stuff. And I'll go down like whole rabbit holes on like part one, part two, part three. So

Safa Harris:

because like, you know, I can always connect everything to business. The Martha Stewart documentary on HBO, or on Max, it's Max now, but they obviously, they had an episode on like her prison stint and how she completely like rebranded when she came out. And is now, like, she pivoted into a new audience for herself, um, because she was like, Oh, jolly, basic homemaker, all of that. And then she came out and she's like, done hard time. And they like showed like what it was like in prison for her. And I'm sure it was easier for her than anybody else. And all of that, just given privilege, all of that kind of stuff. She's Martha Stewart, right? then now, both her and Snoop Dogg really needed, like, an image rehab. Like, he needed to bring her into, like, his audience and, like, Snoop Dogg needed to not be seen as, like, a murderer. Which, he's the only one that's never had a felony the two of them.

Ashley Dreager:

I've said, okay. Yeah, that's this, I didn't follow this, these stories too much. So, um, I wish that I had seen the HBO documentary now before this

Safa Harris:

yeah, and then, oh, I didn't know we were gonna be going here. I would have told you to.

Ashley Dreager:

do your homework.

Safa Harris:

If you guys can't tell, we don't script our episodes. So, um, she needed the rehab because all the moms she was catering to and like housewives were like She was a criminal and then Snoop Dogg was just like, Oh, he's a murderer. And then they both, um, it was like the Justin Bieber roast episode or something. And they connected from there and they both were able to open up these avenues for new audience with collaborations with themselves. And now they're like, BFFs and Stewart has this whole new brand and new audience She's talking to and she's creating things like CBD gummies and all of that now from like before being like, here's a perfect turkey

Ashley Dreager:

No way.

Safa Harris:

Mm hmm.

Ashley Dreager:

picture her doing that.

Safa Harris:

Yeah,

Ashley Dreager:

Like,

Safa Harris:

and the whole was like, which I thought was really, really cool was Martha Stewart like paved the path for all the current influencers. She was the first influencer. She was doing the first brand deals and then she took that and made it into a whole business by doing her magazine, building out her other brands, building all of that, and then also finding a way when her Current audience was not buying, buying to do a collaboration and open up another pathway of income. Isn't that crazy?

Ashley Dreager:

I would have never guessed like in my mind, she's still like, like a homemaker in the kitchen with like cooking stuff.

Safa Harris:

cover of sports illustrated before the swimsuit

Ashley Dreager:

What?

Safa Harris:

Yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

No way. I did not see that.

Safa Harris:

Everybody go Google Martha Stewart sports illustrated. Her Instagram feed is now very like scandalous.

Ashley Dreager:

Take this as like a testament of how important it is to diversify.

Safa Harris:

Mm

Ashley Dreager:

Your business. And that. Even if you feel pigeonholed or like stuck in a corner. That you still have options.

Safa Harris:

Yeah. So when she, like, wish I had watched the documentary more recently because I don't remember the exact progression of, um, what her, like the evolution of her business was. But she started off one way and then she added on other things to expand one her brand to be able to pull in more essentially what were brand deals. And then she added in her own products from there to increase and add revenue streams. But what she did first is she leaned really heavy into her brand awareness which didn't necessarily make her all of that money because she was like featured and did collaborations with other products and things like that and then her Martha magazine came out all of that stuff and yeah obviously she was generating money from like ads and things like that but that really wasn't Like revenue streams necessarily wasn't like products and things like that She was making a name for herselves And yeah, she was working for networks and things like that and getting paid to be a creator Of that day, she was the first influencer and she built up such a brand and then had the magazine and made money and did all of that and then she was able to take that money and like Invested into revenue streams and things like that and then diversify from there and then this woman Went to killed her entire brand. They ousted her from being the CEO of her entire brand. She was one of like the first, I don't remember what the category was to be on the New York stock exchange because it was a public company. She had to like pull off of that and she just couldn't just legally be the CEO of the company anymore while she was going through all of this. And then I want to say but I could be wrong is that they made the company private again and then like bought back stuff when she got out of prison and then she collaborated with Stoopdog to be able to do that pivot because she just wasn't getting that traction and now like Her and Snoop Dogg, man. They got it going on. Cause I, I honestly, I love Snoop Dogg. It's not even just his music, just him as like a person. Where he's just like, yeah, I'm like, really, really, like, Street rough, but I'm also a really good person. Like the most gangster image you can have of a person, but he's just like, Oh, look at my puppy.

Ashley Dreager:

Golden retriever energy.

Safa Harris:

Exactly. Major golden retriever energy, but also a pit bull on appearance.

Ashley Dreager:

The only thing that comes to my mind for him is that I think he just came out so that he stops smoking weed.

Safa Harris:

Oh yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

That was like, extent of my pop culture knowledge on, on him. But that's so interesting as far as on the topic of collaborations and just how beneficial that could be for your personal brand. One. And two, the other thing that I wanted to mention is that this is something that we see all the time with influencers now, as far as they build up and they establish themselves before pushing for sales. The no like and trust factor is already there. They're already known for something. They already see the demand from their audience for something before they're like, okay, here's how you can pay me money.

Safa Harris:

which is something business owners can learn from Cause. what happens with influencers and content creators, they just go into it for like They don't go into it like wanting to make a sale. They're just like, oh, like I enjoy taking pictures. I enjoy doing all of these things. Like, and they build up that brand awareness and have that established brand. Then they create influencer brands. This leads me to Huda Beauty. I am obsessed with Huda Beauty. I don't even like makeup, but her as like a businesswoman, like Huda Kedan, I just like, obsessed. so she started off like, she's like beauty YouTube. And then she borrowed like 6, 000 from her sister and put out lashes. That was her first product line was lashes because she already had this beauty Following because she was a beauty influencers She just like sold these lashes and now she has like this huge multi million dollar Corporation with multiple product lines and all of that kind of things like she's in I think she got pulled from Sephora, but she's like in Sephora and all those big things, yada, yada, yada. And so at one point, she had stepped down from CEO based on advice of other people being like, Oh, you don't have the expertise. You don't know anything to do this. Like you're not qualified to be the CEO. she stepped down and it was actually very detrimental to her brand. Like they weren't putting things out that were, you know, For her audience what they were doing because they didn't build the brand They didn't know the things and they weren't developing the product because they weren't linked in to the connection that she had with the audience So then she stepped back into it and she made this whole announcement and she was talking about the reason it didn't work for us to for us for me to step away as CEO Is because I am still a very much an influencer brand Because guys are literally buying For me and I am talking to you one on one So I know specifically exactly what you want So just being like this business that's putting out products and things like that that may just still be Right. Along what we need, but I need to be involved in that product development because I know what my audience is looking for. Cause I'm actually talking like she's doing all the market research, no market research company can do market research, like you straight up in the DMS. Right. So stepped back in and she's like, we were one of the first influencers brands. We're still one of the influencer brands. But what. I'm noticing now is that these influencer brands are like nothing like they used to be back in the day We just put something out and we're like, oh cool. It worked But now it's very strategically thought out and I don't think any of those influencer brands really go in With the strategy of being like, oh i'm gonna create this brand i'm gonna do all of that And then i'm gonna monetize it they go in And then they see, they start making just money off of the app and things like that. And then they see an opportunity, well, one of two things can happen. They see an opportunity, they go figure it out, make it happen, do all of that. Or two, they see a dip in their income that they're getting from their influencer brand deals from the platforms, things like that. And then they're like, I need to diversify. And And then they build, bring in their revenue streams and things like that. And I think this is where business owners kind of miss out. Is they go in straight with like, quick to market right now. Here is what I'm selling. And build everything, excuse me, build everything around that. But they don't build up that brand. And so it's kind of like a, tug and pull and things like that and that's why you see influencer brands take off and do so well because they've spent that time building that foundation and that brand to be able to sell.

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah. So that's, and that's something that I've been wanting to touch on is just how long it takes for marketing to work because, and I know we've talked about this before in the past that, you know, marketing isn't this magic pill to your sales issues. Um, but it like, it truly does take time. Because you have to establish that trust and trust isn't instant, right? There's like, yeah, there's a, there are spontaneous purchases that people could make, but brand awareness is not a, okay, we've talked about this for, you know, three or four weeks. Now it's time to move on to sales. We're just going to have this really big, successful launch. There needs to be momentum that comes to it. And influencers do really well with that because they, they've spent months or even years.

Safa Harris:

yeah,

Ashley Dreager:

Of truly just establishing the relationships, establishing that brand awareness, positioning themselves in this certain light or in this niche. And then they open it up into the lead generation, into the sales campaigns, the conversion campaigns, even if they're not talking about it, like, you know, in that type of industry jargon, um, like that, that's what's happening. It takes, because they already have an engaged audience. that are ready to buy that want to support this person that want to buy whatever they're putting out for whatever reason, you know, whatever they're selling or

Safa Harris:

in the agency But we are doing like revenue projections and we're mapping out these marketing strategies. If a client's like hey, I want to launch this new because that's that's kind of our thing, right? Like oh we develop a new product and then we bring it to market and then we ramp up the marketing Um To scale so sometimes it's like a whole new startup and sometimes it's just like a vertical for a business So even then if usually recommend like no, we're going to Map out six months to a year of ramp up and then go into launch And then from there Then we start doing revenue projections. So there is this big investment up front In your marketing in your brand and I think this all comes from oh just like brute strap it You can make money this quickly. You can do all of that. it's coming from that, oh, like six months to six figures. Like, oh, I was able to quit my job by doing this. Like you can bootstrap it, all of that kind of stuff. Yes, there is a time and place for that, but there are other factors that you need to think about in the amount of time it takes. And this is not 2014 Instagram anymore. This is 20, this isn't even 2020. If you started your business in 2020 and like you did really well, guess what? That was a fluke. That just happened to be in the pandemic everything was going on like cannot base your business success about what how what you did in 2019 2020. Sorry

Ashley Dreager:

what your coach did then.

Safa Harris:

Or what your coach did then or whatever she put is posting about anybody says like oh in 2020, I made this much i'm like, because it was 2020 Like I did too

Ashley Dreager:

You already had your system set up in 2020 to launch and capture all these people that were flooding the online space.

Safa Harris:

So all of these six months of six figures, I did a million dollars in this long whatever is making it sound like it doesn't take time to build your brand to then be able to sell to these people. It takes, it's either going to take time if you're doing it yourself. If you want to bootstrap it, just, you're going to be in it for the long haul. Now, if you want it done quickly and ramp up quicker, then you need to up the volume of what you're putting out for your brand awareness and that will shorten the timeline because of volume. But guess what? You can only do so much volume by yourself unless you have like nothing else going on in your life. it's just you and all you do is like, create content. I put

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah.

Safa Harris:

awareness thing. It's like, I'm on TikTok! Like, you see those people that are like, Oh yeah, I grew my TikTok in like three months to this, whatever. I put out seven videos a day! And this was my posting schedule.

Ashley Dreager:

Takes so much time. Like, if you're trying to do quality content, that takes time. Like, even if you're one of those people that can just, like, spew out a video really quick, like, the editing time, writing the caption, your two minute video is not a two minute turnaround time. Like, I don't care what anybody has to say about that. Like it's, it is not possible for it to be

Safa Harris:

sent

Ashley Dreager:

a one to one.

Safa Harris:

this is Or if it was just on my for you page and someone, someone was like, yeah, I clock into tick tock, like it's my nine to five,

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah.

Safa Harris:

I clock in and I'm on it all day. And then I clock out because it is that much work and like, Hey, you want it quick and you want that brand awareness to build up and you want to put all that out there. If, if you literally have all, you've got eight, 10 hour days available to you. To do it, do that, build a brand, do all of that. And then like launch a business. Or if you have the money, then we can launch it for you.

Ashley Dreager:

We can shorten the timeline

Safa Harris:

yeah, just because it would be like all the things and everything we're doing

Ashley Dreager:

because we're, you're no longer just one person trying to do it all.

Safa Harris:

exactly. We're

Ashley Dreager:

And

Safa Harris:

your efforts.

Ashley Dreager:

you're no longer the only person trying to learn how to do it all at the same time.

Safa Harris:

Yep, we cut down the, the knowledge gap with the

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah. I mean,

Safa Harris:

just tell you what to do on some

Ashley Dreager:

I

Safa Harris:

or implement it for you depending on how much money you have.

Ashley Dreager:

mean, that's where a lot of the value comes in though, about with consulting and strategy development and management,

Safa Harris:

Oh yeah,

Ashley Dreager:

because you're, you're not spending the time learning and figuring it out and doing the research and testing it, and then taking that, that feedback and refining it. It's yeah.

Safa Harris:

This is where the value, especially like, so if you are on a lower budget, but you still want that shortcut of what it, that's where like the done with you, Offers are really, really great because it's like, Oh, you'll tell me exactly what to do in my situation. And I just need to spend the time and effort, like sweat equity to go plug it in versus being, let me go learn all of those, the, all of these things, and then go plug it in and spend all that time there. So there's like different ways to shorten it. But point is like you got to build up that brand awareness and everything like that. And all of these. people are putting out there about six figures in six months is not Okay. Yeah, maybe but did they how long have they been in business? How long have they been building up their brand?

Ashley Dreager:

Oh, for sure.

Safa Harris:

spend in there? And this brings me to something that grinds my gears because it's not a real metric. People are like, Oh, my I've, I've made million dollars lifetime in my business and lifetime is five years. Like, hold on. I'm going to

Ashley Dreager:

The eyeball.

Safa Harris:

out the, I I'm 1 million. Divided by five. 200, 000 a year.

Ashley Dreager:

A million sounds a lot better, doesn't it?

Safa Harris:

like a seven figure business. Like, no, it took you five years to get a million, which like great. Not knocking the accomplishment. Yes. Like 200, 000 a year. Like great. Especially if you did it solo or just one team, that's still a lot. Like you have room in

Ashley Dreager:

It is an accomplishment,

Safa Harris:

but you saying online, like, Hey, this is I have a 1, 000, 000 business that I made over 5 years and you can do it too by coming into my group coaching program? No, you're just making it sound better than it is and you should be like, Hey, I can help you get to 200k. Because that's more honest and that's what you're actually going to do because doing this messaging that money comes easy in business and it doesn't take time, you're hurting people. You're

Ashley Dreager:

right. Especially with the context of what the landscape has looked like over the last four years.

Safa Harris:

Yeah. Because there was a big boom and now it's corrected and it's slower. So there was a big boom. It came down. It normalized and now business is very slow for people because of our economic state. I got like 20 things and it was like 200 for groceries this week. Like, I don't know.

Ashley Dreager:

Oh my gosh, you hit me on the topic of groceries.

Safa Harris:

It had to be like those stimulus checks in 2020 that people were just spending to invest into their businesses. Like the disposable income is not there. So it's slower and you just pushing this like toxic messaging is predatory.

Ashley Dreager:

It's,

Safa Harris:

And then

Ashley Dreager:

uh,

Safa Harris:

hires someone else, they don't get the results. Then they're like, Oh, I got scammed. Well, yeah, because they sold you the wrong thing,

Ashley Dreager:

yeah, I mean, this

Safa Harris:

honest.

Ashley Dreager:

is, I mean, this is one of the reasons why we don't use income in our messaging.

Safa Harris:

Oh, yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

don't use in complaints in our messaging and our marketing. Gosh, this is like probably a whole other episode that we could get into, but it's, I mean, we see it. I see it a lot in my ads on Facebook. Now, as far as, you know, this is, you can make this much money. I'll teach you exactly how to do it. And it's just like, it's just not the full picture. It's just not the truth. Like all those people that said, Oh, I built my, my six figure business in within six months, guaranteed they didn't start from scratch.

Safa Harris:

They

Ashley Dreager:

Maybe that business they did, but not, they already, they already had connections. They had already been networking for years prior before that. They already had an audience. They, they already had all these other things that just truly take time. Mm hmm.

Safa Harris:

into the agency, we didn't start the agency from scratch. We both brought our personal brands. Into it and like networking we had already been doing and expertise and things that we had already learned So even now with quickly we were able to get shop off the ground Was because we brought uh assets from our other businesses Into that and our expertise to be able to do it. So yeah, now if we were like, oh yeah, our shop made six figures in three months. Yeah, like, no, because it was like, it already had a foundation to launch off of. We weren't building the foundation and building that brand awareness. Like, we were able to channel all these other things into a concentrated area. That was already established.

Ashley Dreager:

I mean, between the two of us, years and years and years of knowledge and testing and strategy went into that launch, like even just talking about the tech side of it, that alone will take people so many hours to research and learn if this is their first exposure. To it.

Safa Harris:

I think this is why MRR has been so appealing because it's like, Oh, here's the shortcut. Yeah. But it's just the shortcut on just the tech on just the information piece of it. And we, last episode, we already talked about that of like, why that's such a gap. But that's what it is. It's like, Oh, I'm going to give you this shortcut. You're going to make money real quick, like immediately, but it's not reality. It's not real because it, it does take time to establish these brands to get long term sustainable sales and business.

Ashley Dreager:

I'm going to go into sustainability.

Safa Harris:

That's where we always go.

Ashley Dreager:

Uh, it's such a core value for us though.

Safa Harris:

It is

Ashley Dreager:

Like sustainability is so important. Oh

Safa Harris:

longer term growth is going to be better for you than quick cash now Like if you are willing to put in the foundational work and effort sustainability long term is going to that's going to be your retain Retirement plan versus like I can make money now Like and I get it. I get it. Sometimes you're in such a situation you're like, I can't pay my bills. I need to do something that's going to give me money right now. And there's a time and place for that. There's things you can do, but that's not going to give you your larger, bigger goals in the long term. That's not going to give you your 30k months home. That's not going to give you your, whatever your goals might be. Like retire my husband. That's not gonna give you that's gonna give you money to catch up on like, pay off your debt.

Ashley Dreager:

my gosh. I remember when that was like the big marketing phrase to be able to retire my husband.

Safa Harris:

Oh, yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

I forgot that that was like a, a thing.

Safa Harris:

My husband would

Ashley Dreager:

That.

Safa Harris:

to be retired.

Ashley Dreager:

I feel like you'd get so bored.

Safa Harris:

He mine would, for sure. I

Ashley Dreager:

I would get bored. Yeah, I mean it's, it's just, business is not easy. There are things that you can do to make it easier. Oh my gosh, it'd be the full DIYer.

Safa Harris:

Yeah. Yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

Ship laugh everywhere. No, but seriously, like a business is not easy and it really bothers me when people make content and they try to sell their stuff that it is just easy and it's not, especially if you were a mom, like

Safa Harris:

Yeah, I

Ashley Dreager:

that's been a conversation as far as like what business would be like to, to have grown these businesses.

Safa Harris:

Before

Ashley Dreager:

Pre kid versus post kid. And I was telling you that I think I'm, it is the hardest thing to grow a business with kids at home, but I don't know that I would have wanted to start a business before kids and then have kids afterwards. I think that knowing what I know now, yeah. And the transition would just be so hard. And I think it's similar to the conversation that we had. This is a while ago about having like these wildly successful high income earning businesses, pre economic drop,

Safa Harris:

Mm

Ashley Dreager:

and then having to relearn actually what it would be like to build a business and to manage this business when sales don't come super easy, when you have to actually look at your budget and be strategic about your next move because You're not just increasing 300 percent month over month.

Safa Harris:

Which we've seen a lot of people that did great skyrocketed go back to work

Ashley Dreager:

Yep.

Safa Harris:

because they could just couldn't sustain it because it was just like sales were just coming in. They did a clubhouse room and they had a three, a six figure lunch.

Ashley Dreager:

my gosh. Clubhouse.

Safa Harris:

And. That was it. Like they were good. And now they're like, Oh, all of these things I used to do aren't working. Like I can't pay my bills. And like. here you're at. So it's one buyer beware, don't fall for the messaging. If you're using that messaging, be honest. Like it is I'm not trying to like attack anybody or say anything because I know people are like, Oh, this is what gets them. But like, you may not be realizing that that's harmful. So just like, warning there. Three, there is something to be said about building of the brand, taking time, building a sustainable business for longterm, learning real business strategies to know what to do when you hit roadblocks, when the market changes, when all these things happen, for you to continuously still have a business that's there for longevity and for the long run. And then the I would have loved to grow my business without kids. Like I, because I think about this all the time. It's like, Oh my gosh, I could do so much if I just had like eight hours a day to work. If I had 10 hour days, like I don't have a problem with the amount of hours I work. It's just like, how many hours are available to me to be able to also like be a mom, be a wife, like not trash my house, all of that. And then like also like the trade off of like, Child care for work versus just work type of thing and I'm like so over trying to work in the pockets and all of that kind of stuff. So I would have loved to be in a position where I had built this, had been able to put in a max amount of hours into work, build it up, have something sustainable. But yeah, no, I would never want to be. In a position where I have to learn to like work in the pockets Where I have to learn to navigate nap time. I have to learn how to like deal with like an issue or whatever while someone's like screaming behind me and trying to climb on a kitchen counter and i'm Like on the laptop trying to do that but if I had been able to grow my business to a point where I have like A house manager and a full time nanny that just like hangs out with me the entire time. Yeah, like no problem

Ashley Dreager:

Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, different story.

Safa Harris:

Yeah, but

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah.

Safa Harris:

Like yeah,

Ashley Dreager:

to learn how to multitask it

Safa Harris:

Oh my

Ashley Dreager:

afterwards would be. Insane. I mean, there's just so much. I was reflecting on this the other day. just as far as like how much growth there has been over the last four years, because I started my business after kids. Addison was already born when I started freelancing.

Safa Harris:

Well, it was like three or four when I started

Ashley Dreager:

Yeah. So Addison was like, she was just about one. when I started freelancing and then like pretty much instantly stayed home. That's like a whole thing. But, um, yeah, it was, and just the learning and the confidence and the, lack of caring what other people think, I think that came along with being a work at home mom, because it got to the point where it's like, I have to, I have to take calls with my kids here. I don't have another option. And so it was just like, that was a huge, there was a lot of mindset growth, I think that came along with that. And

Safa Harris:

you would have

Ashley Dreager:

yeah, so now yep.

Safa Harris:

resilient, which is really hard um, I think this the last point on this is You I was talking to someone that's a new mom, built a successful business, all of that. And she's like, how do you get, how did you get the work done? I was like, baby carrier. Like I, every time I have to gift someone something for their like baby shower or anything like that or girl, baby carrier. So it's just like, how do you do it? I was like, yeah, just. Put them in there and they like, they nap and they hang out, whatever. It's great until they start moving. And both my kids started crawling super early and started walking at nine months. So it was like a disaster. But like in the carrier, like Zed's almost two and I still back carry him to get work done. Um, she's like, how do you, it's like T Rex arms. I was like, that's just, it's always just been the case of like trying to work with a kid in my lap. So like, I was used to that and now she's having to learn the typing

Ashley Dreager:

All the back pain

Safa Harris:

Yes,

Ashley Dreager:

come along with it.

Safa Harris:

so hard. It's like, oh, forget your ergonomic chair.

Ashley Dreager:

Uh, that's where a standing desk would come in handy.

Safa Harris:

Yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

A standing desk

Safa Harris:

Yeah.

Ashley Dreager:

would be.

Safa Harris:

stand and have them on and then you can rock and things like that.

And that wraps up another episode of the business millennials podcast. We hope you found this conversation, thought provoking, inspirational, and helps you make a larger impact with your business. Growth is not just about profits or revenue. It's a journey of personal development, contribution, and bettering ourselves in society. Our challenge for you take at least one key lesson from our time together today that you can apply not just to your business. But your relationships, creative expression, wellbeing, and personal evolution to, we appreciate you tuning in. If you enjoyed this show, we invite you to pay it forward, share it with an entrepreneur, creative student, or community leader who needs an infusion of insight or inspiration right now. And make sure to subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. So you never miss a single episode. And if you like what you heard, leave us a five star review. See you next week.