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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, I'm Austin Hankwitz, host of the Rich Habits
Speaker 2: podcast and co founder of Wits Ventures, but you may
Speaker 2: instead recognize me from my short form videos about personal
Speaker 2: finance and investing on TikTok.
Speaker 1: And I'm Jennise Torres, the creator and host of the
Speaker 1: award winning personal finance podcast Yokierro de Neetro and author
Speaker 1: of financially Lit, the Modern Latina's guide to level up
Speaker 1: your de netto and become financially And we are back
Speaker 1: for season two of Mine the Business Small Business Success Stories,
Speaker 1: a podcast brought to you by Into It QuickBooks and
Speaker 1: Iheart's Ruby Studio. Austin and I are picking up where
Speaker 1: we left off last season, chatting with small business owners
Speaker 1: as they shared their stories about the ups and downs
Speaker 1: of owning a small business. And this season is special
Speaker 1: because we'll be hearing from solopreneurs, people who run their
Speaker 1: business completely on their own. But Austin, what have you
Speaker 1: been up to since we last spoke?
Speaker 2: Ooh okay, So the Rich Habits podcast hit number one
Speaker 2: on Spotify's Business Charts. I got to ring the opening
Speaker 2: bell at the New York Stock Exchange alongside I Shares,
Speaker 2: which is a ETF division that Blackrock has, and I
Speaker 2: had an incredible holiday with my dad and my girlfriend.
Speaker 2: I got to make my famous sweet potato casse role.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's not famous, but it does taste really good
Speaker 2: and I got to make it, and I was really.
Speaker 3: Excited about it.
Speaker 1: Oh that's fantastic, Austin. I'm so excited for everything that
Speaker 1: you're a comp wishing as a creator solopreneur. I feel
Speaker 1: like we've evolved so much in just this short time
Speaker 1: that we've been together on the show and I think
Speaker 1: my biggest thing is I'm an author, y'all.
Speaker 3: Like, let's get this, this.
Speaker 1: Is actually happening. I spent the better part of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three writing my very first book, and a personal
Speaker 1: finance book that is geared specifically towards the Latino community
Speaker 1: because a lot of us just don't learn about money.
Speaker 1: And so I'm really excited to have that book launch
Speaker 1: next year and you know, have everybody talking about it.
Speaker 2: I cannot wait to read it. I can't wait to
Speaker 2: gift it to my friends. Really really excited for you. So,
Speaker 2: before we jump into this conversation, Denis, what do you
Speaker 2: think was the most exciting part about starting your own business?
Speaker 2: What was the most exciting part about being a solo
Speaker 2: preneur to you?
Speaker 1: I think for me it was honestly just making my
Speaker 1: first dollar all on my own and just getting that
Speaker 1: check for some thing that I had created out of
Speaker 1: ideas and thoughts in my brain. I'm just like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this feels a lot different than just getting a paycheck.
Speaker 1: I was hooked from that very moment. What about you, Austin?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think for me and this is something that
Speaker 2: keeps me going on just a weekly, monthly basis new challenges, right,
Speaker 2: I see people if it's launching a new course. You know,
Speaker 2: launching a podcast like that was a new challenge for
Speaker 2: me in twenty twenty three, and that's been a lot
Speaker 2: of fun. So I think just having these new challenges
Speaker 2: come out of nowhere and hopefully overcome them and then
Speaker 2: be able to teach and share what I learned about
Speaker 2: them to not only my creator friends and other solopreneurs,
Speaker 2: but also on this podcast. So I'm really really excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the journey through solopreneurship is absolutely a journey into
Speaker 1: personal development.
Speaker 3: I couldn't have said it better myself.
Speaker 1: But enough about us, Let's go ahead and introduce our guest.
Speaker 1: Grace Wells was just having fun with her camera in
Speaker 1: her college apartment when she decided to upload a series
Speaker 1: of videos she called making epic commercials for random objects.
Speaker 1: One video featuring a four went viral on TikTok with
Speaker 1: over two million views, and she was soon approached by
Speaker 1: businesses for their social media ads. After one ad for
Speaker 1: a soda company garnered a whopping eight million views, Grace
Speaker 1: attracted even more brand deals and found the confidence to
Speaker 1: leave her job and make videos full time. She now
Speaker 1: runs her own business as a filmmaker and photographer, where
Speaker 1: she creates content for major brands while also showcasing her
Speaker 1: creative techniques on social media. Grace, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 1: Me, Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3: Absolutely so Grace. I am so excited right now.
Speaker 2: I've seriously been following you on TikTok for over two years,
Speaker 2: and when I found out that we were having you
Speaker 2: on the show, I literally went and rewatched like forty
Speaker 2: of your videos.
Speaker 3: Oh it's awesome.
Speaker 2: It's so fascinating to me to watch someone go from
Speaker 2: making unique short form video content on the Internet to
Speaker 2: directing films and creating real commercials for major brands. We're
Speaker 2: going to get into all that, don't worry, but I
Speaker 2: wanted to sort of kick off this interview at the beginning.
Speaker 2: You were on a very different path to begin with,
Speaker 2: studying linguistics with a post grad job lined up at
Speaker 2: Grand Cosmetics. So, before your videos were going viral, did
Speaker 2: you ever consider a career in commercial filmmaking.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So it was right around my junior year of college
Speaker 5: that I bought my first camera and the idea growing
Speaker 5: of pursuing videography or photography as my career postgrad. It
Speaker 5: was a very gradual process. At the beginning, this was
Speaker 5: very much just a creative outlet because I found myself
Speaker 5: feeling very creatively unfulfilled. So it just kind of was like, Oh,
Speaker 5: I'm going to buy a camera and I'm going to
Speaker 5: It started with photography. I'm going to take some portrait
Speaker 5: photos just my friends. Like it's going to be this
Speaker 5: fun little thing. And I don't know where it came from,
Speaker 5: but this drive kicked in where I was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: what's the next thing, What's the next goal? Like where's
Speaker 5: the next milestone? And so I think I would be
Speaker 5: on this path even if this stuff was not blowing
Speaker 5: up on social I think that it gave me a
Speaker 5: big boost of confidence as well as like, Okay, even
Speaker 5: though I don't have a formal education in this field
Speaker 5: and I just did my degree in something totally different,
Speaker 5: I can actually do this.
Speaker 2: Absolutely right, starting with taking some portraits, filming some forks
Speaker 2: and potatoes and books, and now you're doing the cool stuff.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about that, right. Epic Commercials for Random
Speaker 2: Objects Part one that was a video you had published.
Speaker 5: How did you come up with it, so it really
Speaker 5: it was from necessity pretty much. That was the moment
Speaker 5: where the pandemic really was in full swing. And I
Speaker 5: think this was kind of like a very interesting turning
Speaker 5: point for a lot of creatives that our workflow thus
Speaker 5: far doesn't really work anymore in this kind of new world.
Speaker 5: And for me, that meant, okay, I can no longer
Speaker 5: go out and work with models the way that I
Speaker 5: had been before. So this idea for making a commercial
Speaker 5: for a random object, it was just sort of like, Okay,
Speaker 5: what can I do in my house that I don't
Speaker 5: eat anyone else? I can do this one hundred percent
Speaker 5: all on my own. I thought that that would be
Speaker 5: a fun creative challenge. The idea of making a commercial
Speaker 5: for a fork, something that you would never ever ever
Speaker 5: see a commercial for, would really push me creatively a
Speaker 5: lot more, and I would kind of force me to
Speaker 5: not rely on references that I'd seen in the past.
Speaker 5: But even though I did think at the time, oh,
Speaker 5: this might be a series, I thought maybe, like, you know,
Speaker 5: three videos, and it turned into so much more than that.
Speaker 2: So you're into video maybe three or two here. When
Speaker 2: did you realize that your creative abilities, though, were strong
Speaker 2: enough to begin to monetize, right, What for you was
Speaker 2: that big breakthrough moment like wait a second, this is real,
Speaker 2: I can do this. And was there any like maybe
Speaker 2: imposter syndrome along the way.
Speaker 4: Oh, I mean, they're still imposter syndrome.
Speaker 5: I would say that the monetization aspect really kicked in
Speaker 5: towards the beginning of twenty twenty one, so I'd been
Speaker 5: doing this for a little over six months, I would say,
Speaker 5: and that's when the brand Celsius reached out to create
Speaker 5: a commercial for them, And that was really my second
Speaker 5: interaction with a brand. Very few brands reached out at
Speaker 5: the very beginning, and I think that part of that
Speaker 5: was TikTok was still foreign territory for a lot of
Speaker 5: brands at that point in time. So that was kind
Speaker 5: of the first video that really was like, oh, like,
Speaker 5: first of all, someone wants to hire me.
Speaker 4: That's cool.
Speaker 5: And then that video actually ended up performing incredibly well,
Speaker 5: so I was like, not only does someone want to
Speaker 5: hire me, but people actually want to watch it, which
Speaker 5: to me, I wouldn't have thought. I would have been like, oh, well,
Speaker 5: if it's branded, like, no one's going to watch this video, right,
Speaker 5: And that was really what got the ball rolling on
Speaker 5: other brands reaching out to me, and then me eventually
Speaker 5: leaving my job a little bit later that year.
Speaker 4: That is fascinating stuff.
Speaker 1: I talked to a lot lot of people who want
Speaker 1: to start a side hustle, and one of the pieces
Speaker 1: of advice I tell them is, you know, you need
Speaker 1: to find your people, You need to find your target audience.
Speaker 1: Was that the approach that you took. Did you go
Speaker 1: and find your target audience or do you think they
Speaker 1: found you?
Speaker 5: I think it was a little bit of both. I
Speaker 5: know a lot of creators always emphasize the importance of
Speaker 5: niching down, and honestly, that's not really been my approach.
Speaker 5: I've always approached it with the mindset of I would
Speaker 5: like this to appeal not only to people who are
Speaker 5: really interested in videography, but I also wanted to be entertaining,
Speaker 5: even for people who are maybe not really wanting to
Speaker 5: do this, but just think that this kind of a
Speaker 5: video is a fun thing to watch. So I think
Speaker 5: I've kind of struck that balance between maintaining a core
Speaker 5: audience of people who are really interested in the technical
Speaker 5: aspect of what I'm doing, but then people are also
Speaker 5: just there to be entertained. That sort of breath is
Speaker 5: what has helped me attract brands as well, because that
Speaker 5: opens up my demographics a little bit.
Speaker 1: Has there been any sort of refinement that you've done
Speaker 1: to continue to reach viewers after you figured out kind
Speaker 1: of what works?
Speaker 5: Yeah? I think that what works is a constantly evolving thing,
Speaker 5: particularly on these short form video platforms. And so even
Speaker 5: though the crux of what I do has remained the same,
Speaker 5: there are little changes that I've made along the way
Speaker 5: to keep the content fresh and relevant and sort of grabby.
Speaker 5: I guess if you look back at the you know,
Speaker 5: the very first couple videos I did, like the Fork video,
Speaker 5: the format is quite different in just the way that
Speaker 5: I present the content and the tone and the comedy
Speaker 5: of it as well. So yeah, I think I think
Speaker 5: that it's constantly evolving.
Speaker 1: And when you were balancing your day job and this passion,
Speaker 1: how how did that work? Is there such a thing
Speaker 1: as balance?
Speaker 5: I mean, I was working all the time, although I
Speaker 5: also I work all the time now too, so it's
Speaker 5: not totally different. I actually negotiated a contract with my
Speaker 5: employer when I started, which was I'm going to do
Speaker 5: my forty hours, but I'm going to do them eight
Speaker 5: to six Monday through Thursday, and then Friday is going
Speaker 5: to be my day to do my own thing. So
Speaker 5: luckily they were gracious enough to accept those terms. So
Speaker 5: I was working on my social media content Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Speaker 5: But you know, as I got further and further into it,
Speaker 5: and I got more invested in the content that I
Speaker 5: was creating and the videography business that I was building,
Speaker 5: each project required a little bit more of my time
Speaker 5: and energy because it was no longer just this kind
Speaker 5: of like, oh, this is like this little thing that
Speaker 5: I'm doing for fun. It was like, okay, no, now
Speaker 5: I have clients and I need to make sure that
Speaker 5: the clients are happy. I need to deliver things in
Speaker 5: a timely fashion. And so it got more and more
Speaker 5: difficult to balance over time as those side projects became
Speaker 5: paying jobs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can absolutely relate to that. It's almost like
Speaker 1: when you're getting to the point where you have to
Speaker 1: take PTO to work on your business, it's like, what
Speaker 1: are we doing here?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1: So what were the events that led you up to
Speaker 1: making the decision to leave your job and start making
Speaker 1: content full time, right, because some folks could just stay
Speaker 1: in that sort of side hustle world forever because of
Speaker 1: things like fear and even the finances. So can you
Speaker 1: talk us through kind of what the decision was like.
Speaker 1: Was it an instant decision? Was it something that you
Speaker 1: decided over time?
Speaker 5: To be honest, it was a very fast decision. I
Speaker 5: had been hired by a client to make this commercial
Speaker 5: that were multiple deliverables, and I took pto to do
Speaker 5: that job. And you know, everyone at work was like,
Speaker 5: enjoy your vacation, and I would. I didn't have the
Speaker 5: heart to be like actually, so I was like, I
Speaker 5: think this might be that moment where had enough inquiries
Speaker 5: coming in. I've been doing enough business, and at that
Speaker 5: point I was starting to actually make more, you know,
Speaker 5: if you thought about it, like in an hourly kind
Speaker 5: of a way on the side gig than on the
Speaker 5: real gig. So at the beginning of the week, I
Speaker 5: wouldn't have thought I was leaving my job. By the
Speaker 5: end of the week, I was handing in my notice.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yeah, I love that energy, and.
Speaker 5: My boss was like, pardon yeah. Coming up after the break,
Speaker 5: it was one hundred percent new. I had no idea
Speaker 5: what I was doing. It was a lot of me
Speaker 5: just like googling how do I write an invoice.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with Mine the Business. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Mind the Business, small business success stories from iHeartMedia's
Speaker 1: Ruby Studio, and into It Quick books. So let's dive
Speaker 1: a little bit more into the numbers, because a lot
Speaker 1: of folks can have sort of this threshold in their
Speaker 1: minds where it's like, once I'm making X amount of money,
Speaker 1: I'm going to feel comfortable taking the leap. Was there
Speaker 1: a target for you, were you trying to just replace
Speaker 1: your income, or what was the financial indicator for you
Speaker 1: that it was time to make the switch.
Speaker 5: For me, it was simply if I can make just
Speaker 5: as much or a little bit more that I'm making
Speaker 5: in my full time job, then I will pursue my
Speaker 5: solopreneurship full time. I think that the hang up for
Speaker 5: a lot of people who are trying to make that
Speaker 5: leap is not just the income threshold, but it's this
Speaker 5: idea of sustaining that income and then you know, can
Speaker 5: I do this now over an extended period of time.
Speaker 5: I had the advantage in the sense that I hadn't
Speaker 5: been in the workforce for super long, so I didn't
Speaker 5: feel like I had invested a ton into my current position.
Speaker 5: I think that probably helped me a little bit. My
Speaker 5: corporate job felt unstable to me almost as much or
Speaker 5: more than me relying on myself and being independent and
Speaker 5: finding the work where I could.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And you know, I feel
Speaker 2: like a lot of solopreneurs fall into owning a business, right,
Speaker 2: this would have fall into running a business. It's like,
Speaker 2: you know, when I started creating videos on TikTok, I
Speaker 2: had no idea that this was going to happen, right,
Speaker 2: it was like, Oh, I just want to share something
Speaker 2: on the internet. And I'm sure you kind of felt
Speaker 2: the same way here. So is running a business new
Speaker 2: territory for you? Do you have any background in it?
Speaker 2: How did you learn about it? Was it just kind
Speaker 2: of like a you know, baptism by fire, Like what
Speaker 2: was that type of experience?
Speaker 3: Like? For you?
Speaker 5: It was one hundred percent new. I had no idea
Speaker 5: what I was doing. I think that it's all been
Speaker 5: a very gradual baby steps process in me building to
Speaker 5: the point where I am now. It was a lot
Speaker 5: of me just like googling how do I write an invoice,
Speaker 5: how do I do this? What's my template for this?
Speaker 5: Finding a really good accountant who could help me figure out, Okay,
Speaker 5: you need to this form in this form to the
Speaker 5: irs because you don't want them coming after you for whatever.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I think it was just a very gradual
Speaker 5: process of me, you know, leaning on the people in
Speaker 5: my life that I could, even my parents, you know,
Speaker 5: who've been in the workforce a lot longer than I have.
Speaker 4: It was all very much trial by fire.
Speaker 2: It was definitely and I feel like you're definitely in
Speaker 2: the boat of all the other solopreneurs out there who
Speaker 2: are figuring out for the first time. Right Google, Professor, Google,
Speaker 2: like I like to call them, is my best friend
Speaker 2: as a solopreneur. I'm googling everything I possibly can, and
Speaker 2: you know, trying to surround myself with other solopreneurs who
Speaker 2: know more than I do, like Genise here. So with
Speaker 2: that being said, though, I think that my view of
Speaker 2: money has really switched and changed from you know, before
Speaker 2: we both had the salary jobs, we had the maybe
Speaker 2: the flour O one K, maybe we had the health
Speaker 2: insurance stuff like that. But now to your point, I
Speaker 2: have to be thinking about sending out the invoice. We
Speaker 2: have to think about following up to make sure we
Speaker 2: get paid and you know, making sure that we file
Speaker 2: the right tax forms with our accountants. So did your
Speaker 2: mindset also switch with money when you became a solopreneur.
Speaker 5: Yes, I became a lot more meticulous about everything. You know,
Speaker 5: when you have a paycheck, it's like, Okay, the taxes
Speaker 5: are going to be taken out. I don't have to
Speaker 5: think about that. This amount's going to go into my
Speaker 5: retirement plan. I don't really have to think about that.
Speaker 5: And I'm going to get this stable a mount and
Speaker 5: I can budget it. And now when all of a
Speaker 5: sudden the income becomes very erratic, now there's a lot
Speaker 5: more decisions to make about like, Okay, what amount of
Speaker 5: this income am I going to reinvest into the business,
Speaker 5: how much am I going to take out for myself?
Speaker 5: How much am I going to use to put into
Speaker 5: a retirement plan. So it's a very good thing because
Speaker 5: you've become a lot more aware of every dollar, what's
Speaker 5: happening to it and where it's going and if it's
Speaker 5: being used wisely. Definitely, maybe think about money in a
Speaker 5: lot more meticulous.
Speaker 2: Way well, kind of reflecting upon what you've learned so far,
Speaker 2: do you have any maybe strategies to share with how
Speaker 2: you're able to keep these invoices, the paperwork? You know,
Speaker 2: maybe it's Quick Books Money, Like, how are you thinking
Speaker 2: about utilizing different tools and resources out there to ensure
Speaker 2: that you're as meticulous now and will continue to be
Speaker 2: meticulous going forward.
Speaker 5: Just having really great record keeping. I do think Quick
Speaker 5: Books Money comes in handy for that because they have
Speaker 5: a great system for keeping track of payments going in,
Speaker 5: payment's going out. Another really great thing, but Quick Books
Speaker 5: Money is making sure that the money that you do
Speaker 5: have is not just sitting in an account that's not
Speaker 5: working for you. Putting it in a high yield savings
Speaker 5: or investing it. Those have all been things that have
Speaker 5: helped me, and I think obviously that goes for everyone,
Speaker 5: not just solopreneurs, but it really helps when you start
Speaker 5: a business and you have an LLC to create those
Speaker 5: kind of separate business accounts and invest that money in
Speaker 5: the same way that you would your own personal savings.
Speaker 5: I think the biggest thing is just the record keeping
Speaker 5: and also not being afraid to follow up with people.
Speaker 5: I think at the beginning, I had a little bit
Speaker 5: of fear of, oh, they haven't paid this yet, but
Speaker 5: they probably just forgot. They'll probably do it next week.
Speaker 5: I won't worry about it yet. But it's people aren't
Speaker 5: annoyed when you just kind of say, hey, just friendly nudge,
Speaker 5: just letting you know this invoice hasn't been paid yet.
Speaker 5: Just things like that have also helped me keep everything
Speaker 5: in line.
Speaker 1: Okay, So do you distinguish your finances from your personal
Speaker 1: life with your business life? Are you, you know, keeping
Speaker 1: separate bank accounts and things like that, because I know
Speaker 1: one of the mistakes I made the first time I
Speaker 1: filed taxes as a solopreneur was just not acknowledging that
Speaker 1: I had created this whole other entity and then getting
Speaker 1: like a six seven thousand dollars tax bill. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what what do you mean? I'm supposed to pay estimated taxes?
Speaker 1: So what's that journey been like for you of keeping
Speaker 1: your business and personal finances separate?
Speaker 5: So, yes, I absolutely keep them separate, but I will
Speaker 5: say it's a development that happened this year. It got
Speaker 5: to a point where when it came to taxes that
Speaker 5: was not working in my favor. At all, and I
Speaker 5: really needed to start separating the two out. So I did,
Speaker 5: finally this year create my business accounts and start having
Speaker 5: my clients pay my invoices into those accounts instead of
Speaker 5: my personal accounts. But the waters were muddy there for
Speaker 5: a little while, and that's a very uncomfortable feeling. It
Speaker 5: gets very confusing. It's like, was this a business expense?
Speaker 4: Can I write it off? Can I not write it off?
Speaker 5: I have a million receipts in my you know, and
Speaker 5: my file cabinets and such, so I definitely do recommend
Speaker 5: keeping them separate, but it can be kind of difficult
Speaker 5: at the beginning to sort of untangle the web that
Speaker 5: you've woven.
Speaker 1: It's funny how we all sort of become amateur accountants
Speaker 1: in this process of becoming soliber nors. Yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: necessarily something I thought I knew I was signing up.
Speaker 4: For, but here we are. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's pivot a little bit in talk about
Speaker 1: your strategy, because you've been able to stand out in
Speaker 1: a very very competitive media market. So I want to
Speaker 1: know what do you think that is about what you
Speaker 1: do that separates your content from the rest.
Speaker 5: A couple of things something I've always emphasized from the
Speaker 5: very beginning is quality over quantity, and I think that's
Speaker 5: something that's not really stressed enough in this world that
Speaker 5: we have, where it's just about putting out a new
Speaker 5: piece of content almost every single day, and I think
Speaker 5: there's sort of this fear that if you're not constantly producing,
Speaker 5: you're going to fall behind, or the algorithm whatever that is,
Speaker 5: is not going to be treating you favorably. And I
Speaker 5: hope that I can kind of be a little bit
Speaker 5: of an example to people that you know, I could
Speaker 5: not post a video for two months, and then I'll
Speaker 5: come back with a video and it will perform as
Speaker 5: well as my other content. As long as you are
Speaker 5: proud of what you're making and you feel that you've
Speaker 5: given your one hundred percent in making that piece of content,
Speaker 5: then I feel like you can rest easy knowing that
Speaker 5: people are going to react positively to it. The other
Speaker 5: thing is I've been very conscious about mixing the high
Speaker 5: fi and the low fi in everything that I do.
Speaker 5: So I have these pieces of these digital ads that
Speaker 5: are I think polished and professional and could live on
Speaker 5: their own as an ad piece or you know, as
Speaker 5: a paid ad, but then I also try to incorporate
Speaker 5: these behind the scenes pieces of content and the voiceovers
Speaker 5: and the intros, and I think that that's really what
Speaker 5: bridges the gap between the consumer and the brand, is
Speaker 5: this is how this was made, this is how this
Speaker 5: was done, not just showing this is the final product.
Speaker 5: And a lot of times brands will run those behind
Speaker 5: the scenes pieces of content on their platforms alongside the
Speaker 5: ads as well, so it's not just living on my pages.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I think it's kind of about just striking
Speaker 5: that balance between creating a really high quality piece of
Speaker 5: content for the brand it's going to appeal to the brand,
Speaker 5: and then also creating those kind of more low fi
Speaker 5: moments that will appeal to viewers.
Speaker 1: I love that strategy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they definitely actually do run those as the ads.
Speaker 2: I remember seeing video of you. I think you are
Speaker 2: pushing a dishwasher up a hill to your parents' house.
Speaker 3: Yes, Cascade, that was so funny. Thanks. So we talk
Speaker 3: about differentiating yourself.
Speaker 2: Now, let's talk about how you got these awesome clients
Speaker 2: to begin with and how you continue to attract new clients. Obviously,
Speaker 2: you're publishing awesome, awesome content and they see that, what
Speaker 2: do you think it was about your content that got
Speaker 2: Celsius to reach out, that got Poppy to you want
Speaker 2: to work with You are now Cascade and Don and
Speaker 2: these awesome, cool, cool brands that are so recognizable. What
Speaker 2: about what you're publishing now is specifically attracting new companies
Speaker 2: to want to work with you.
Speaker 4: I think that.
Speaker 5: The main appeal is that it's a very different type
Speaker 5: of UGC. You know, we're at a moment now where
Speaker 5: quote unquote influencer content, and UGC has been on the
Speaker 5: scene for probably almost a decade at this point, if
Speaker 5: we're thinking back to like the beginning of beginnings of
Speaker 5: YouTube and such, and I think that brands are always
Speaker 5: trying to look for fresh ways to connect with audiences
Speaker 5: with you GC and with this kind of influencer style content.
Speaker 5: So I think that that is why my content has
Speaker 5: struck a chord with a lot of brands, is because
Speaker 5: it managed just to be incredibly brand heavy and incredibly
Speaker 5: branded while still feeling authentic. And I think that's a
Speaker 5: really hard balance to strike, and it's a hard media
Speaker 5: to find. So yeah, I've kind of managed to find
Speaker 5: this sort of hybrid spot where I'm able to really
Speaker 5: highlight these key brand messages and key product benefits without
Speaker 5: feeling like I'm pandering.
Speaker 2: So before we wrap things up here, let's talk just
Speaker 2: a little bit about maybe some biggest learnings from little
Speaker 2: setbacks you might have experienced.
Speaker 3: Pitfalls you narrowly avoided.
Speaker 2: Like, was there anything that like randomly happened that that
Speaker 2: completely took you off guard? Here that was a little
Speaker 2: bit of a setback, but you learned from it. Now
Speaker 2: you're doing something specific to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Speaker 5: My biggest challenge that I kind of am actively face
Speaker 5: saying that I'm trying to strategize ways of overcoming is
Speaker 5: this sense that now that I've been on social media
Speaker 5: for a little while and I've been successful on social media,
Speaker 5: I feel like everything I do needs to be bigger
Speaker 5: and better than the last thing I did, And it's
Speaker 5: this kind of constant need to always top myself.
Speaker 3: And always right yes.
Speaker 5: Yes, And that can be a really hard beast to
Speaker 5: fight in a sense because absolutely I think that I'm
Speaker 5: always learning and always growing and always improving, but it's
Speaker 5: slow and it's gradual and it's incremental, and it's not
Speaker 5: always going to be that the next thing I do
Speaker 5: is miles above the last thing I did. It might
Speaker 5: even be worse, you know. So I think that it's
Speaker 5: just sort of coming to terms with that and not
Speaker 5: letting that hold me back from creating. I've found that
Speaker 5: in the last maybe like six months, I've felt a
Speaker 5: little bit more trepidation around creating content and posting content
Speaker 5: because I'm like, how is this going to be perceived?
Speaker 5: Are people going to like it better? Are they going
Speaker 5: to think it's not as good? So it's just that
Speaker 5: internal monologue that I'm fighting. But this is part of
Speaker 5: the process, and I wouldn't be where I am now
Speaker 5: if I hadn't put myself out on a limb many,
Speaker 5: many many times and ab tested many many many things
Speaker 5: to kind of create what I've created so well.
Speaker 2: I'll be the first to say I'm a huge fan
Speaker 2: of the content. Janie feels the same way. I'm sure
Speaker 2: after everyone listens to this, they're going to want to
Speaker 2: go to TikTok and Instagram. I'm going to type in
Speaker 2: Grace Wells to see the incredible commercials you're creating. So
Speaker 2: before we sign off here, where can the people go
Speaker 2: watch your content? If they want to hire you? Like
Speaker 2: Amazon did? How can they go find you? Like, where
Speaker 2: can they learn all about Grace?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 5: So my handles on all social are Grace Ball's photo
Speaker 5: and in terms of reaching out, I'm represented by Whaler,
Speaker 5: so that's my talent management. I'm also represented as a
Speaker 5: director by Tool of North America and that's where I
Speaker 5: do the larger scale commercials.
Speaker 4: So that's where you can find me.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Grace for hanging out with us
Speaker 2: on this episode.
Speaker 4: Thanks for being here. Thank you guys so much fun.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Okay, Jenias, I hope you couldn't tell too bad, but
Speaker 2: I definitely was fanbooring like crazy during that interview. I've
Speaker 2: been following Grace for like two years now on TikTok.
Speaker 3: It's so wild to.
Speaker 2: Me that we get to interview these incredible creators and
Speaker 2: solopreneurs through this podcast. Grace was so inspiring. So what
Speaker 2: stuck out with you most about that conversation.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I think it's fascinating that Grace is
Speaker 1: doing something completely different than what she was doing in
Speaker 1: her career, and so I think that's a really important
Speaker 1: point to note that the thing that you do as
Speaker 1: a business does not need to be the thing that
Speaker 1: you do as a career, and it's perfectly okay to
Speaker 1: have these multiple identities and sort of evolve as a person.
Speaker 1: You know, Like we mentioned, personal development is a big
Speaker 1: part of this whole journey as a solopreneur, and you're
Speaker 1: just going to discover talents and skills that you didn't
Speaker 1: even know you had throughout this process. What about you.
Speaker 2: It was wild to me that she was taking PTO
Speaker 2: so she could do this passion like that was so
Speaker 2: crazy that she was doing that. Oh my goodness. You know,
Speaker 2: I think for me was not to feel the need
Speaker 2: to constantly improve. I think a lot of solopreneurs we
Speaker 2: get trapped in this sort of tunnel vision of like,
Speaker 2: wait a second, I saw this solopreneur on Instagram or
Speaker 2: this one on Twitter saying how they're making millions of
Speaker 2: dollars and they're selling all these services and products, and
Speaker 2: take a step back for a second. You are one
Speaker 2: human being and you are crushing it, right. I think
Speaker 2: it's called, especially in content, right, the mister beastification of output,
Speaker 2: always having to do more and more and more, when
Speaker 2: in actuality, it is totally okay to be, you know,
Speaker 2: posting the content once in a while that grace is
Speaker 2: doing or feel happy about the services and the products
Speaker 2: you're offering in the sales and everything that you're doing
Speaker 2: right now is a solopreneur. You don't need to turn
Speaker 2: into a Fortune five hundred company to be a happy,
Speaker 2: successful solopreneur.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Nor do you need to be like mister Beast
Speaker 1: and bury yourself for seven days just to say that
Speaker 1: you did it.
Speaker 4: You know, like, I'm like, I'm gonna opt out of that.
Speaker 3: I don't need that about I'm opting out.
Speaker 2: I will eat the chocolate bars, but I'm not bearing myself.
Speaker 3: That's why I draw the line.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Well, that's it for today's episode. You can find me
Speaker 1: on social media at jocquierro Dineto podcast.
Speaker 2: And you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can
Speaker 2: follow into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
Speaker 2: To get the tools you need to start, run and
Speaker 2: grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
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Speaker 3: See you next time.
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Speaker 2: Our executive producer is Malay Sosha, Our supervising producer is
Speaker 2: Nikia Swinton, and our writer is Eric Leja.
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