How to Turn Your Side Hustle into your Full Time Job with Becca Wood
This week I sat down with Becca & talked about what it takes to turn your side hustle into your full-time hustle. Becca shares her story of how she built her business from the start to be efficient and manageable as a side gig, but all of that changed when she turned it into a full time business. She shares the corporate mindsets she had to shift out of, how to effectively network as an entrepreneur and what she WISHES she knew sooner to get a head start on building her successful business.
About Becca
Becca Wood believes in your big picture. As an expert web designer and strategist for service-business owners, Becca’s known for working quickly through her signature week-long solution for getting a beautiful, strategic website built in just one carefree VIP week. With powerful insight, technical know-how, and genuine excitement, she creates the right website you need right now to grow your business and proudly market the work you do. Backed by two master’s degrees, including an MBA, and years spent working in non-profit organizations and startups, Becca is a strategist and speaker who teaches business owners on how to create smart, savvy, and quality websites and businesses that are set up for lasting success.
She currently lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, Danny, and the best boy ever, her dog, Huxley. When Becca’s not guiding clients, she’s putting her quick-learning energy into exploring a new, creative venture – like macramé or attempting a Rothko-style painting. To discover her latest project and get great website tips along the way, follow her everywhere at @iambeccasimone.
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Episode Transcript
Becca Wood 00:00
blog I feel like it's a little bit different than the rest of your website. And if you guys aren't blogging, this is your reminder.
Christy Bowie 00:06
This is your sign are you looking at me?
Christy Bowie 00:18
Hey, CEOs Welcome back to the CEO wing woman show. I am here today with Becca and so excited for this conversation that we're about to have. Becca is an expert web design web designer and strategist for service based business owners. Becca is known for quickly working through her signature week long solution for getting a beautiful strategic website built in just one carefree VIP week. With powerful insight technical know how and genuine excitement she creates the right website, you need to grow your business and probably market the work you do. Backed by two master's degrees, including an MBA and years spent working in nonprofit organisations and startups. Becca is a strategist and speaker who teaches business owners on how to create smart savvy and quality websites and businesses that are set up for lasting success. And on a personal note, Becca also did my website. So for all the compliments that I've been getting for those, those should be geared towards her. So Becca, I'm so excited to welcome you today.
Becca Wood 01:21
I'm so excited to be here, this is going to be such a great conversation.
Christy Bowie 01:25
I can't wait. So first, I kind of want to give our listeners a little bit of insight into you and your journey here. So I personally know that you found yourself in a situation where before you were planning on you had to dive headfirst into your business and figure out how you could scale it into something profitable, sustainable and actually, to create an income for you. So can you give us a little bit of background on how you found yourself in this situation of wanting to build exponential growth in your business? Absolutely.
Becca Wood 01:59
I think before we even get to that point of pivot, we've got to rewind the clock, probably about three years when I started my business. And I started a business on accident, I had a full time job. I was just freshly graduated from grad school. And I had made a website that I liked a friend liked it, I helped her with hers, she paid me and suddenly I had a job business without meaning to and I thought it was really just such a great way to be able to expand my skills and apply some of that MBA knowledge that I didn't always feel like I was applying in my nine to five. I'm trying to be PC here. That's like exactly what I wanted it to be, I wanted it to be a side hustle, I wanted it to be a place where I could learn and I could grow and kind of discover what it means to be an entrepreneur. And I created a model that worked really, really well as a side hustle model. And then suddenly fast forward a couple of years, and I found myself full time in my business, my position was eliminated at my nine to five. And I made the decision to kind of jump in full force with my husband. And this was two weeks before a wedding by the way.
Christy Bowie 03:13
So happy early wedding friends it was it
Becca Wood 03:17
was a Hi Honey, do you still want to marry me? I might not be able to pay the mortgage next month. No, that's not true. But I think there was a really big transition that had to happen in my brain at that point in time to say, this isn't really a hobby. And that's kind of how I was treating my business at the time was a hobby, a learning place to just like experiment and have fun. And I probably spent just as much of like what I made on courses as I you know, because I didn't because it wasn't important. Yeah. So then transitioning into full time in my business, I had to really figure out quickly, how do we make this a sustainable business and how to make it something that can pay them work?
Christy Bowie 03:56
And how do you grow it from a side hustle to like, this is the real thing now exactly. Because
Becca Wood 04:02
the model that I set up not only income wise, but also time wise and marketing effort wise, I was fitting that into about 10 hours a week. So then the question becomes when you have 40 hours a week, theoretically, and I will tell you right now, I don't work 40 hours. But when you have the potential to have 40 hours a week, what do you do with all of that time? And where can you make the biggest impact when your time has like grown exponentially.
Christy Bowie 04:29
So I think something that you kind of shared that you set up your business to be efficient from the start, you had to fit a side hustle in with your normal 40 hours a week plus workday. So that really allowed you to build something that actually would be scalable because it was already built incredibly efficiently and at this point, not even require you to work 40 hours a week. So what were some of those things that you feel like you did that really allowed you to build that business so efficiently and scalable? I, I have a huge
Becca Wood 05:01
emphasis on systems in my business. And I don't I don't know, are you a fan of like, the tests like personalities? Oh, yeah. Oh yes. So I've taken StrengthsFinder three times and my top strength every time is strategic. So that's kind of the lens that I approached life and my business and everything in between through. So I realised, if I, you know, going back to when it was a side hustle, if I only have a couple of hours a week, and then maybe a solid day on the weekend to work on this thing, then I have to be really strategic with my time. So I figured out what my process looks like just serve a client from start to finish. And then I automated as much of that process as I could. And I use a tool called dubsado. I know Christy uses it to love it, saving grace and my business seriously, because it's like your second brain, all of the things that you need to remember, you no longer have to remember. And it just like, does them.
Christy Bowie 05:59
So if you guys listened to the episode with k m. Robinson, just a few episodes ago, this is exactly the same thing that we talked about in terms of leveraging systems in your business. And I'll be sure to link that in the show notes below. But Becca has actually created this in a model that like she shares allows her to work less than 40 hours a week, which, honestly is probably the dream for most of us. It feels really unattainable. So Becca, when you start to look at scaling, and how you're going to grow this business, and how you are actually going to continue to incur massive growth, but not eat up more of your time. What are you looking to do? Most people kind of look to start hiring employees at your point and growing? What I know you have an interesting take on this. What are you doing? Yeah,
Becca Wood 06:49
I think there are, there are a couple of things that come to mind when you ask this question. I think the first thing that's important is to look at what does scaling mean to you. And I know we've had this conversation in the past about kind of reframing things away from the corporate mindset in your brain. And so one of the things that I realised was, I needed to start looking at things a little bit differently, specifically when it comes to income. Because at a certain point, you can think, okay, I can work more hours, and I can make more money. And it's really, really easy to get like stuck in that cycle of like work, make more work make more. But then you also have to look at why are you in this business to begin with? Why do you own your own business? And it's probably if
Christy Bowie 07:33
you just want a paycheck. I think I said this a few weeks ago, if you just want a paycheck, you might as well have someone give it to you, right?
Becca Wood 07:39
Absolutely. So if you reframe also, this is something that I had to kind of adjust. If you reframe that, like say that your your goal is to make $1,000 a week, I'm just using bogus numbers at this point. I could, I could sit here and say, I'm working four hours a week. So my hourly rate is 250 an hour, that's a pretty darn good hourly rate. And it's a pretty darn good ROI. Or you could look at it and say, Okay, do I hustle 40 hours a week to make that $1,000. So I think that's one way to kind of reframe scaling is how much time are you putting in for the ROI that you're receiving. And so I think that there's a balance and every entrepreneurs mind of how much time you're willing to put in versus how much money you want to make. And that's a really important piece of this conversation. And I'm not sitting here trying to tell you guys what that should look like, I think that that's completely an individual thing that you need to think through on your own and kind of come to terms with and I've done that in my own business. But then you also mentioned in terms of growing a team. And I also think this is a little bit of a corporate mindset. I'm gonna I'm gonna call you out on this one. Because I've worked for a couple of companies that were more of like the startup B vibe. And one of the things that I noticed was, a lot of times there's like an old school mindset that growing a team equals growth equals success. And I don't know that those are inherently linked, they're not inherently linked in my mind. And one of the things that I'm really passionate about is creating a system or supporting a system where we're supporting other women in business. And when I sat there and looked at, okay, I could bring on, you know, another designer or I could bring a graphic designer on to my team because I'm not a branding person. I'm a website person, and there's a really big difference. Then I thought, okay, so what would I be willing to pay this person it's probably significantly less than what they make on their own right? Because it would be a sub contracting situation, and it would need to make sense for my business. And I didn't really like the way that felt. I didn't really like asking people to work for less money than they would ask for for themselves. So then, my brain kind of kept going.
Christy Bowie 09:58
It's a weird always looking For a new solution, exactly.
Becca Wood 10:02
So then I thought, Okay, well, what if I can create an agency model that fully supports my clients and their needs, and specifically the needs that are directly related to websites being copywriting and graphic design, and do it in a way that's a little bit non traditional, meaning I'm not hiring subcontractors. So I've basically partnered with two really great graphic designers and an amazing copywriter. And they're my team, and we work collaboratively on projects. But they're their own business. And I think that that's a pretty unique model. I know, I'm not the first to do it. But I also think that more often than not, we see people hiring subcontractors, instead of kind of building that collaborative experience. And I think that it's really the best of all worlds for the clients, because they're getting the A game every single time from these experts that really know what they're doing, as opposed to me saying, Okay, go work with, you know, this person that I've subcontracted who maybe that's like a side project for them, because they've got like, full budget clients that they're working with, it just kind of changes the dynamics of the entire strategy of the relationship of the client, to the team and everything in between.
Christy Bowie 11:18
Yeah, that's so interesting. But it's also a really good perspective to have when you say, you know, I want my clients to be able to have this full service offering, but I am not prepared to do it myself, you know, for me, that's something I went through I, I want my clients to be able to have, you know, financial planning options, and financial advisors who can help them, you know, invest their money that I saved for them, but obviously, you know, that's not my expertise. And so I think that shows, you know, the ability to go above and beyond to serve clients, to look out for them. And I have found time and time again, that that comes back to me in the form of returns, when my clients are like, I am so grateful that you helped me deliver the final product that it was, because you cared about me as a person, instead of saying, I'm going to subcontract someone and I may be making more money, because I'm gonna get the profits from this. But getting subpar work or getting somebody you know, lower quality, having the ability to provide your clients with the absolute best service, it does come back to you. And I know that sounds so cheesy, but truly putting your client's needs first ahead of your own and your business. And I don't want to say ahead of your business's profitability because I preach that day in and day out. But really putting that, you know, on the forefront, I guess, of thinking about caring for your client, I think is something that you've strongly shown us there. Yeah. Well, I
Becca Wood 12:43
think there's also another conversation to be had about the role of the entrepreneur and we have very much come up. That's not we're existing in this age, where we expect people to be experts and so many things. Like if you look at a social media manager, when people hire them, they're, they're hiring them for copywriting. They're hiring them for Google ads, and Facebook ads and strategy and actually managing all of the accounts. And, and, and, and, and, and, and so if we can take a step back and really say, I know where my zone of genius is, and that is where I need to exist in my business and where I serve my clients best and where they get the best experience, and allow other people to exist in their zone of genius. It's kind of like a little way of pushing back against this the societal expectation that entrepreneurs can do it all because people just assume that they want the money and they want the bigger sale like that. That idea just doesn't equate in my brain.
Christy Bowie 13:41
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And even, you know, when I think about it, my rates or it's something, you know, that I charged for something that I truly am a genius, I don't want to genius, but in my zone of genius in my zone of genius at that's gonna be very different than something I feel adequate charging about, you know, something I'm not as good at. So thinking about it from that perspective, you really are, you know, in a sense, providing the most profit for your business, because you were able to charge the things that you were actually truly an expert at. Absolutely. So I kind of want to pivot a little bit, obviously, you are a web designer and an absolute expert at that. So I would love for you to share with us a little bit of your insight on why having that for why having a good website is so pivotal for a business and as business owners are growing and scaling how that can help them really attract the right consumer. Yeah.
Becca Wood 14:38
So this is the age old question, right? Because people look at me and they say, Do I really need a website? And the answer is no. And most website designers probably wouldn't say that. But like you could theoretically have a business without a website.
Christy Bowie 14:50
I mean, I tell people, they can file their taxes on TurboTax all the time. So like the same thing. Sure, you could
Becca Wood 14:56
it's possible that doesn't mean that you would be be able to make the best impression to your potential future clients. Okay, I saw a tech talk the other day. And this is not my tech talk. And this is not my thought. And I wish that I could tell you the username, but I can't remember right now. But this person compared they were an artist, and they compare their website visits when they had a social media presence, aka this year versus when they did not have a social media presence, the two or so years prior. And a lot of people think if I do social media, that's fine, and makes up for not having a website. And what she discovered was when she didn't have a social media presence, she got about, like 4000 viewers a year on her website, when she did it was something like 20 to 30,000. And this year, that hasn't ended yet. And so I think we, we have a very unilateral view of what websites are supposed to do for us, because we've all heard how important SEO is in organic search. And we think of a website as a marketing tool. But the way that I approach websites is so much different. And like yes, I'm not doing a disservice, of course, they are a marketing tool. And of course, SEO can be important. But I think we forget to look at websites as a form of customer experience and as a form of long form content. And in this world, where we have 15 second videos for everything you can't possibly say in 15 seconds, what it's like to work with you. And even if you could, you wouldn't be able to differentiate yourself or share all of the ins and outs and the details of, you know, why me over somebody else and why that process would look so different. So I think if we span the gamut of a website, we need to look beyond the sole purpose of marketing. So that it makes sense is a tool throughout the full scope of your business and your clients journey.
Christy Bowie 16:53
I think that makes a lot of sense. And I know for me, when I decided to, you know, invest in a professional website, for me, that was the one thing I owned, in terms of my marketing, right? I mean, we look to tick tock to hopefully push us to the for you page, or we look to Instagram to you know, maybe show my video or photo to one person today. If you know what Instagrams been like lately, but we don't really own anything on those. And we can't push out content to our consumers in a way we would like. But having our website really shows them. Here's exactly what I want you to know about me. And it's very, to the point, right, here's my about me, here's what I need to tell you. And here are my services, versus someone would literally have to like scroll on my tic tock or Instagram for ever to try to figure out what exactly I do.
Becca Wood 17:47
Yeah, that's another really important point too. Because the way that we use our tic TOCs. In our social media nowadays, it's so much of a personal brand as much as it is you know about your business and what people can expect when they work with you. So I know for me, sometimes I kind of get caught up in life on my tick tock and clean out my closet and do random things. And if you had to scroll back, you know, 20 videos to figure out how to work with me. At what point do you get tired of scrolling and you just kind of give up because you can't find the information you want. If I didn't have a website supporting it, people would leave, they would leave. That's friction in the sales process. Right? So websites remove friction. And I like that.
Christy Bowie 18:27
That's awesome. And I know you've done a lot of research into the customer journey, and really where the website comes into play. Right? You are so intentional about not just creating the website, but creating it to really be a funnel into the sales process. Can you kind of give us some insight into that as what entrepreneurs should be thinking about the role of the website in their sales process?
Becca Wood 18:51
Oh, yeah. So I think there are two answers when you think about like your website, core pages versus how you would use your blog. So I think when you look at the client experience journey, first of all, you kind of have the I kind of know what I want, but I don't really know who can help me what I'm I don't know
Christy Bowie 19:08
what how to verbalise it. I know something's wrong, but I don't know what that's me all the time. Like, I need something. But I don't even know like their name or their title or anything, right. So at that
Becca Wood 19:19
point, your personal website probably isn't coming into play, right? Because they haven't figured out oh, I need a fractional CFO, or oh, I need a website designer. It's kind of like the generic articles at that point. But once they are kind of more aware of what their problem is, and who can help, that's where your website comes into play. And I think being able to clearly articulate what the process of working with you is, which is why you'll see on a lot of websites like 123 steps where it's like, book, your submit your form, and we'll have a call and I'll send you a custom proposal. It makes it so easy for them to realise Oh, okay, this person said ultimate problem, this is how they solve my problem. And this is how I go about working with them so that my problem can be solved. So that's a really great use for your kind of core pages is the problem aware kind of transitioning into I'm probably picking this person to work with specifically on this specific problem. But also, your blog, I feel like is a little bit different than the rest of your website. And if you guys aren't logging, this is your reminder,
Christy Bowie 20:27
this is your sign, are you looking at me.
Becca Wood 20:30
But I'm also looking at myself because I blogged but very inconsistently. So
Christy Bowie 20:34
my podcast pages are set up as a blog. There you go,
Becca Wood 20:38
there you go. Mine too. But your blog kind of comes into play a little bit earlier than the rest of your website. A lot of times when you think of a funnel on your website, your when your target audience is becoming aware of their problem and looking into information. A lot of times your blog will contain that information that supports them that says, Hey, I see your problem, I can help you solve it, here's the basic information that you need in order to solve that problem. So a lot of times, that's why like pinning blog posts is so important kind of funnelling people through your blog onto your main pages is a good it's a good funnel like it was trying to not say funnel again. But that's what it is. It's a good funnel.
Christy Bowie 21:19
Okay, so the website really comes into play. After that initial, you know, awareness stage. I also know you've talked a lot about how we can leverage SEO in our website, if maybe we're not on social media. So a couple weeks ago, we talked with Kate and Kate was kind of sharing. You don't have to be on social media in order to develop a personal brand. But how can people really find us if we aren't on social media, if we're saying the funnel is, you know, awareness from an Instagram or tick tock to the website? How do we build up our presence, if we just don't want to be on social media?
Becca Wood 21:54
If I didn't want to be on social media, I would do two things. The first would be network like crazy, which has nothing to do with websites. It's just something that I've realised three years into my business, if I could change things and rewind the clock, I would focus on relationships far earlier than I really started to in the process. So I would not work like crazy, and I would blog. And it's not a be all end all failsafe, of course, because you still have to do things to get your blog out into the world still has to be a good blog. Yeah, you've got to do your keyword research, you've got to answer questions. I mean, if you guys have noticed Google has started having like FAQ questions right in the search results, like formatting things as questions and answers. Google loves that. So answering questions, keyword research and pinning the heck out of it. Because Pinterest isn't it's not social media. It's a search engine. So I think those would be kind of the two things that I would really, really focus on. And then the other piece of SEO that is easier said than done is backlinks. So for instance, I'm making an assumption here, but I'm I know Christy well enough. So I feel like that's okay. But when I come on to her podcast as a guest, she's probably going to put together an episode page. And it's going to have a little blog. And it'll be a blog post. But it'll link from her website to my website. And that's a backlink that's the link from somewhere else saying go to Becca's website. And Google loves that, especially if it's a high ranking website. So focusing on getting backlinks. And you can do that by like blog swapping, by being on podcast by paying to be listed in certain directories if you wanted to go that route. But that those are kind of the three things I'd focus on.
Christy Bowie 23:38
So from my limited experience, and training on SEO, that almost promotes you as an authority in your industry, right? Is that kind of what it's doing for us? Yeah.
Becca Wood 23:48
And when you look actually at the different SEO tools, it will tell you domain authority, so it'll tell you like how much authority your actual website has.
Christy Bowie 23:57
That's super interesting. Um, so I wanted to loop back to something you kind of mentioned earlier, and networking and building a community, that's really something that I've found to be incredibly useful, both on the side of, you know, gaining more customers and building my business, but also just for like, my mental capacity as an entrepreneur and building a community of other entrepreneurs who can relate to the same place I'm at in life. Can you kind of speak to that how that impacts you?
Becca Wood 24:25
Absolutely. So I think this is one of those going back to the beginning of our conversation and that kind of transitional moment from side hustle to full time in my business that I really, that I really underestimated. I keep getting too far from the mic, you guys. It's something that I really underestimated because when I started my business as a side hustle, I was going into the office I was surrounded by co workers. And I like I mentioned I kind of treated my business like a hobby. So when I was full time on my business, I think took me a couple of months for it to catch up and realise, oh my gosh, I've been sitting here alone,
Christy Bowie 25:05
oh my gosh, I'm lonely. That happened to me too. I was like, wait a minute, I only had coworkers, I don't have friends.
Becca Wood 25:13
That is very, very true, very true. And I think about like the 10th time of me going into my husband's office, which he stole from me, the way it used to be my office and saying, are you busy? And him saying, Yeah, I've gotten a lot of calls made me realise that I needed to be a little bit more proactive about my network. And I think that we, we can really underestimate the mental health aspect, whether your business is just getting started, whether you're in the growth phase, whether everything is going amazing, and you only work five hours a week, because you've hired everything out, like, whatever the state of your business is, you you need a community who understands where you're at. And a lot of times somebody who's on a similar level to you, especially because I have also noticed, you know, I've made friends who have been in business from anywhere from 10 years to Christie when she started with us, right. So, I think, I don't know where I'm going with that. Oh, um, I think you can have support and feel supported throughout any of those relationships. But my conversations with my friends who have been in business 10 years are very significantly different than my conversations with people who have been in business under three years. And so kind of finding the people who are at a similar level to you and also in like, tangential is that the right word field, I'm like, looking at Christie, because it's semi math related, even though it's geometry and not have anything to do with accounting. That was really fast talking. Yeah. But like, if they're in a tangential field, then I can look at like other graphic designers or copywriters, and say, Hey, you do VIP days or VIP weeks to like, Are you experiencing this? Are you having that problem? And really workshop what's going on in my business in a way that I just I can't think, in my brain, you know, like, I can't think of, Oh, my goodness, gracious. I like to process things out loud. That's what I'm trying to say. So yeah, that was a rambling answer. Did that answer your question?
Christy Bowie 27:24
Yes, no, for sure. And that's really something that I've been through lately, you know, hitting, we're just about at probably at six months, by the time this episode is released, which is absolutely insane to think that six months ago, I did not have a business. And now I have a business and clients and a podcast, and wow, while so crazy. But just thinking about, you know, all those things that I've personally been through, and realising you know, it is important to have a community even if just for the fact that I want to get lunch with a friend on Tuesday, noon, and nobody can do it. And it's, it's this weird thing when you start to be in charge of your own schedule, and none of your friends are, and none of your friends relate. And nobody can understand why you don't want to go hang out with them on a Friday night when you want to edit your podcast instead. And I've had this conversation before about how there are people in our lives, who will almost like pity us for having to work so hard on our business. And like, why are you doing that you're like, because I'm building a business like people just don't understand. And like, can I say like, bless their hearts. That sounds terrible. But like, like, it's just so hard for someone not in the situation of I am literally relying on this income to support me, I will not get a paycheck if I don't do this work. But also I don't always have to be working like, like you said, just transferring out of that corporate mindset. And that's something that I think I had a lot of trouble with, at first, you know, moving from thinking that I'm only being valuable. If I'm working more, I'm only getting something done. If I'm doing something, you know, quote unquote, productive, right? Like I have to remind myself right now, rest is productive, going to get lunch in the middle of the day is productive. Networking is productive, and it's not just client work. And so really reframing your whole life to be about, you know, what can I do to further my business, but not every single thing in it is actually doing business work.
Becca Wood 29:35
Absolutely. And I think the other thing that is difficult for me and like the networking span and relating it to corporate is realising that there's an element of safety that these people are your friends, and I think sometimes we feel like coworkers or friends, but I think that that's a difficult place to be in from my experience. So, you know, I think realising that Not only are our people understanding you on a deep level, they're entrepreneurs because they get all of those things that Christy just mentioned. But I also feel like the people that I've met this past year, are truly truly friends. Like, I'm talking about going to Austin with someone that I've met in person one time, but like we talk every single day. That's wild.
Christy Bowie 30:22
Yeah. And definitely, you know, having people that are supporting you and understand what support to you means, I think is so important in this world, and really, you know, finding those people. So when talking about networking and building this community, do you have any recommendations for people? Because I feel like I'm always like, I don't know where to find friends.
Becca Wood 30:43
I think it is putting yourself out there in the sense of, no, it's hard when you haven't gotten like the first networking meeting, if you guys want to make friends. just message me on Instagram, and we can have a network and
Christy Bowie 30:56
there's your friend, number one, number one, here we go.
Becca Wood 31:00
But then I think it's just kind of being being brazen in your ask, you know, when I meet someone, I say, here's what's going on in my business, here's how you can help me and I would love to meet more people, like if you if there's somebody that you think would you know, get along or relate or whatever, that I could support in their own business to being sure to like, leverage each person to meet someone else that's been really successful for me this past year. And to the point that there's there's one group that I think I've met this entire group, they pay to be a part of it. And I have not joined, but I think I've met a lot of the members joined by proxy join by proxy, because each time I say, Hey, I'd love to meet someone else. Like, is there anyone else that comes to mind? And they send a quick intro email and off to the races?
Christy Bowie 31:46
Yeah. And I think that's a good point that you make that we kind of have to step into as a rule of entrepreneur, like asking for what we want. And knowing that we it's up to us to get us there, right? Like, there's nobody sitting there saying, Oh, if you do well enough, you'll get a promotion this year, like, No, you aren't working for, you know, the next step, you are creating the next step for yourself, and really figuring out that, you have to ask for what you want. I know for me, I have never been the kind of person that's like, I need you to help me with this. I've had the attitude, I think a lot of entrepreneurs are very, I don't want to say like, self created because that, you know, I don't That phrase is weird, but you know, they're very people who want to do it for themselves. They don't want to ask for help, because they think they can do it all. But understanding that, like you said earlier, we don't have the capacity to do it all. And we do need to ask for what we want is so important. Is there a way that you really started to feel confident enough to do that with other people?
Becca Wood 32:51
You know, I think I'm a pretty extroverted personality. But here this is, this is where the tides changed. For me, I actually have a networking connection, friend, and whatever your friend, friend and colleague, I think that's what my friend Devin says, because you don't have coworkers. So her name is Christy. And she hosts networking calls. And so I joined one of her networking calls. And she literally says, how we're gonna run this call is a 62nd, elevator pitch about you and an ask. So everybody comes and says, this is about me, this is how I need help. And from that moment on, I just kind of realised, we can undo what networking means in the corporate world to right, because in the corporate world, it's like everybody wants something, but they're all kind of afraid to say it, but they're all trying to like use relationships to get ahead. These are very general statements, by
Christy Bowie 33:46
the way, like, but that's every corporate job is bad. No. And I
Becca Wood 33:50
don't even mean like a corporate job. I mean, like, if you go to like a chamber event, or like, you know what I mean, you meet a random person at a random corporate networking event, it all kind of feels like that.
Christy Bowie 33:59
So like, just tell me what you want from me. Exactly.
Becca Wood 34:02
So that's what I love about networking with entrepreneurs is I literally just like, tell them what I want from them. And they do the same back and we can help support each other. And it, it makes it feel more genuine, even though you're blatantly saying what you want, but it's because you're blatantly saying what you want. So, I think that that experience, like flipped the script in my mind to realise, oh, okay, everybody does want something and it's okay to say what you
Christy Bowie 34:31
want. And I think that's such a personality trait of entrepreneurs, right? None of us would be business owners if we were afraid to admit what we want and go after it. Right. We think about the inherent personality of an entrepreneur. It is someone who said, Yeah, I want freedom or I want money, like that's fine to admit, which I can go on all day about. But entrepreneurs have that innate ability to say, you know, this is what I want, and I'm the personality who can go after it. And so I think that's a very distinctive trait of entrepreneurs that really makes networking a little bit easier when we say, you know, this is who I am, this is what I do, and this is what I want from you. But you kind of have to step into that role of like, I'm confident enough to say this and really embody this person as an entrepreneur.
Becca Wood 35:20
Yeah. But also the flip side of it is if you are willing to blatantly ask for what you want, you also have to be willing to brazenly support somebody that you probably hardly know at that point, and whatever way they ask as well. And it kind of goes both ways. But that's what makes
Christy Bowie 35:36
it work. That's such an interesting viewpoint. And I really appreciate you sharing with us today. Before we leave, I want to talk a little bit also about your podcast and what you share on there. So can you tell our listeners if they're interested in hearing a little bit more from you and about your business viewpoints? You know, where can they find you on your podcast and on your socials? Perfect, so
Becca Wood 35:58
my podcast is called probably bothered. And it is where we talk about everything that bothers me,
Christy Bowie 36:04
in a business son, and really specifically
Becca Wood 36:07
about the online business space and some of those tropes that we tend to hear that people have kind of gone along with, but we got to sometimes stop and ask questions as to why we're going along with them and if they make sense for us, so yeah, if you guys would love to listen, it's called probably bothered and I'd love to hear your thoughts if you listened to an episode. And then as far as social media, my handle is, I am Becca Simone, everywhere, so and I love Tik Tok. I'm probably mostly on Tik Tok.
Christy Bowie 36:37
And those will of course be linked in the show notes below. So, thank you guys so much for listening today. I hope you've gotten a lot out of Becca every single time I have a conversation with her. It's so enlightening, so I highly recommend you go listen to her podcast, and go follow her on Tik Tok where we kind of just banter back and forth. So you'll find me there too. And of course, don't forget if you've enjoyed this podcast to go ahead and rate and share with a friend if you've appreciated it. Don't forget we'll be back again next week. See then