Today we have our little country soul sister, Jessica Stansberry, from Oh Hey Jessica on the show. We are super excited for you to dive into this episode. Pre-warning: grab your sweet tea, grab some lemonade, grab a biscuit, and kick your feet up on a porch because her accent is going to want to make you go all Sweet Home Alabama.

In today’s episode we are talking about niching down and what it can do for your business, how exactly Jessica went about doing this, and how it helped her business to grow. We also dive into some of the things she was able to accomplish because of it, what you might be able to do as a newbie, and what you can do if you’ve already started your business. Finally, we find out how you might build and see success, and whether or not it is possible to niche down too far. We definitely get a little crazy in this episode, so get ready to dive right in!

Today on the podcast we are getting into a little inception. We are talking about podcasting whilst podcast, which is going deep, you guys. In today’s episode we are revealing the truth behind podcasting, why we even started, how much all this should cost, and our entire process of how we go from idea to getting it uploaded to iTunes, on the blog, and all of that good stuff.

Whether you are looking for fast growth, or whether you are looking to build a foundation by starting a podcasting, keep in mind, it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg to make it happen. So if this is something that you’ve been mulling around in your head, maybe we can be the voice of reason to tell you everything that is in store and whether or not this is the right move for you and your business.

We hope you have some pink on, because we have Melissa Johnson of Best Friends for Frosting on the podcast today. This woman is bubbly and sparkly, and she loves all things sugarcoated and confetti covered.  Melissa started her blog after realizing the earning potential of the industry, and found herself best-suited to the role of creative director of this lifestyle business. With Melissa, you will get a peek inside a successful lifestyle brand. We’re talking four straight years of making six figures! She doesn’t mess around. She is working on sponsor content, surveying her audience, expanding her team, and we’re talking about all those things in today’s episode.  

For those of you who think that a money generating lifestyle blog or brand is out of your reach, we would love for you to sit down and give this one a listen and maybe learn that with some strategy and the right tools, you can actually make it happen.

Today on the podcast, we are getting a little “woo-woo”. We’re connecting to the universe, checking in with ourselves, and getting right into talking about affirmations today and specifically how affirmations can be integrated as part of your everyday routines. We show you just how simple and easy it is, as well as the impacts that they have had on us personally as business owners in regards to growth, stats, and all the good feelings.

We break down how we use them and how we integrate them into our routines so you can start to do it too. Specifically, we identify how affirmations can start to kind of tap in and shift and change that icky imposter syndrome that a lot of us, especially as creatives, deal with. There are some days you just wake up and you don’t feel like you deserve what you have been given in this world or you feel like you are not as good as the way other people treat you. That’s icky and you don’t deserve to feel that way, ever. So we are going to help do the mindset work that is going to help you to create a daily routine, to help you have a better mindset and a better outlook on your business.

Today on the podcast we get to chat with Lauren Taylor of Letter Magazine — and she is such a sweetheart! We have known her for almost a year now, and have been following her and everything she does with her magazine. We are absolutely thrilled to see her growth and all of the amazing accomplishments she has had in such a short time. We dive into the super sexy topic of becoming an Instagram influencer. We get a ton of questions about this from many people wanting to incorporate being an influencer into their brands.  

Ever wonder how to go about growing your business and which strategy to pursue? Maybe you feel stuck and you are at the breaking point where something’s got to give? Well, today on the podcast we jump into exactly how to scale and grow your team. We tackle all the questions you need to be asking yourself before you even decide whether a team is the right move for you. Because for some of you, a team might not be the answer; it just might be what you think is the answer.

We first discovered Jeff on Instagram. Jeff is a photographer who loves to take a lot of architectural images, and so, naturally, we fell in love with his work. Not long after, we discovered his wife, Kelly, and we just absolutely had to follow them both! We followed their work for a year and a half before reaching out to them, and it’s been such a fun journey getting know them on a more personal level, and getting the inside scoop on how their business actually runs.

If you know of Studio DIY, you know that they have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, and that their DIY blog is pretty outstanding. In our talk with them, we discover more about their journey, what the early days of Studio DIY looked like, how they built sponsorship and affiliate relationships, and how they decided what to charge for those sponsorships (everyone’s burning question!). They also share what it was like branching out and creating their own physical product line.

Since then, they’ve grown a lot and implemented tons of incredible strategies in their business to make it what it is today. So, if you are a DIY’er yourself, you absolutely have to give this one and listen!

As a two woman team, we get a lot of questions about how we make a partnership work. We always get asked how we met, how we work as a team inside TCC, and what gave us the idea to make the leap from collaborators to business partners. We know it’s not necessarily super common, but it seems like everyone is always interested in seeing how this works. So we figured we would share some of the actual tools and mindsets that we went through when we barely knew each other at first and started the business, like normal people do of course.

When we first met we were each running our own businesses at the time, yet serving a similar clientele. We quickly learned that we had a lot in common and it was not long before we decided to work together, instead of doing the same things separately. We became really fast friends and we were talking literally every day. We realized that with every sentence that we spoke, it was the exact same dream and hope and goal that the other person had.

We are super excited to bring our friend Amber Housley onto the podcast today. We had the opportunity to meet Amber last year at the Savvy Experience and it was so wonderful getting to know her, getting to hang out with her, and learning more about what she does. Because, if you all didn’t know, she does a lot!

Amber has her hands in a lot of creative businesses. She is rocking it at her own brand and along with that, she also has the Inspired Retreat, the Joyful Garden Planner, and her brand new course, Blooming Business Kits. In addition, she’s also the marketing director for Lara Casey Media, which means she’s involved in Southern Weddings, PowerSheets, and everything Lara Casey.

Together we dive into talking about taking a support role and what it’s like to not always play boss. We discuss the benefits, the challenges, what she’d love to change, and what it is truly like to resist a support role and then embrace it completely. We also talk a little bit about balance and what it means to run a lot of creative businesses and have your hands in a lot of different pots. Amber is an amazing example, role model, and a very humble human being, so you definitely have to listen in!