We recently connected with Alicia Shumaker and have shared our conversation below.

Alicia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I think every entrepreneur thinks about this from time to time! There’s a running joke around the business owner world: I became a business owner so instead of working 8 hours a day, I could work 24 hours a day.

These ideas seem to surface, at least for me, in a deep stage of growth. When things feel mountainous and overwhelming – as something big is being built or a big change is rolling through. For me, it’s happened when I took a big leap and brought in new hires, when I hired a business coach and scaled really quickly – and even when my life outside of my business has been particularly chaotic. I’ve had moments where I thought “It must be really nice to be able to just clock out from this right now.” Especially as an Enneagram 8 perfectionist – it’s REALLY hard to disengage, especially when things feel out of control or moving quickly.

That said, those moments, at least for me, fade quickly. It’s more of a frustration-release – the back-up plan if all else fails. Knowing that I can take these skills that I’ve honed to work for myself and bring my value to someone else, if I had to. But I don’t want to – not really.

Being a business owner lets me be the PERSON I want to be. The friend that can drop everything to make a casserole to deliver to a sick neighbor. The mom that can go on every field trip or stay home with a sick kiddo when they have the most recent plague that rolled through the classroom. The wife that can (try to) catch up on all the laundry in between conference calls.

I was reminded most recently about the power I have over my own life when we had a crazy family medical drama. I was able to lightly fill my calendar and only manage the things that HAD to be managed. I was able to meet with my business partner in the hospital cafe. I was able work from the hospital bedside when I needed to take care of something my incredible team didn’t have the ability or time to finish and still care for and oversee the care for a family member. And when the nurse asked if I needed documents or paperwork to bring to work? I was able to laugh and say my boss understands. Because I AM MY BOSS. I don’t need to ask permission to leave or take a break or walk away. I don’t need to justify staying home with my kids or swinging by the hospital to meet with a surgical team or medical staff. I owe no one and explanation for my time – and I’m not valued by the number of hours I spend or the amount someone else decides that I’m worth for the time I’m giving up.

Do I wish I could unplug sometimes? Sure. Would it be nice some days to carry less of the responsibility for my team? Of course. Would I give up my entrepreneurial ways for less freedom over my own day? Not in a million years.

Alicia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

This is always such a hard question for me to answer!

I’m, essentially, a serial entrepreneur. I think a lot of business owners end up where I am – you naturally start to see opportunities to improve something and accidentally end up building your own solution!

I’m the owner and founder of Flamingo Consulting LLC – a digital marketing agency based in West Michigan. We help businesses around the country grow and scale their digital footprint through web, social, ads, apps – basically, in every way that shows up on a small screen! We were founded in 2014 when I decided that the corporate world did not accommodate the kind of mom I wanted to be, so I went out on my own and worked in the nooks and crannies of motherhood until we started to really scale in 2020. Since then, we’ve BOOMED!

I’m also the co-founder of an organization called Kaleidoscope Affect – We connect & develop female leaders to live and lead authentically and holistically. From my experience, there are not a ton of organizations that allow and embrace women to lead *as they are* rather than as they are “supposed to.” We live and lead differently than men – and that’s wonderful! We’re creating new connections and communities that support those differences and embrace the women that are leading authentically.

I *myself* am my own brand – and I’m moving into more coaching and speaking roles in the near future. Very exciting for someone who LOVES to share!

Finally, I have another start-up in the early stages that I can’t WAIT to release, because I think it’s going to change the way that people co-work – but the details are still hush-hush for now!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

**YOU ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE – and everyone is not your ideal client**

Oof – this one was a hard one to sink in. Especially in the early days, I wanted to accommodate every special request and every need. As a marketing and social media expert, I wanted to help everyone do it themselves – give everyone my expertise – and even give everyone my tools. I’d throw in extra work, extra coaching and consulting time, and even lower my pricing to meet every budget concern. I was afraid to ask for more or to say no because that might mean they left – and took their money with them.

In reality, I cheapened my product (and my expertise) because the clients I had either weren’t ready for my services or weren’t appreciating my expertise. And I allowed it to be so. I couldn’t have processes in place to streamline and bring in new team members to help me because *every* project was completely unique and nothing followed a pattern. Some clients paid a retainer, some had a program, some paid hourly…and some paid before work, during work, after work – heck, some didn’t pay AT ALL and I still did the work for them.

The day that I realized I couldn’t translate my work over to another person was the day I realized I was making a huge misstep in my business. I couldn’t have anyone help me – and really grow – because each “sure, I’ll throw that in” was more I gave away – and more I’d have to pay someone else to do for the client for free.

The more I reigned in my clients’ expectations, the more I realized I was also giving away my emotional labor: carrying the concerns of the clients, hunting down parts and pieces I needed for my work to be successful, constantly tracking down invoices…all of it was completely draining. I realized that not every client was able and willing to work with me – and that there are clients that aren’t compatible with my working style. Those clients ran me ragged – and they felt frustrated that I wasn’t able to deliver the attention they were looking for. We both felt burned – and I realized that in those cases, it’s better to bless-and-release those clients than try to conform either side in order to continue to work together.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

For me, the culture of an organization is **everything.** When planning to really grow from a side-hustle to a full-blown agency, I spent more time considering how I wanted my team and clients to FEEL working with me than I did any other metric or measurable item.

I knew the reason I got into business was to allow myself flexibility – and I needed that to translate to my team. I set my expectations on deliverables, not on time. I lay out deadlines, not working hours. So if a team member wants to work from 11pm to 3am – awesome! Need to take Friday off for a long weekend – cool! Have fun! Going on vacation to Europe – don’t ask me permission, just tell me when you’re back so I don’t bug you while you’re enjoying your trip.

The fact is, I can teach and coach almost anyone to be a successful content writer or web developer, if they have the drive to learn it. But it’s finding the right personalities, drive, and community that I can’t teach. So, when hiring for new team members, I focus more on dreams more than realities:

1) What kind of work do they WANT to do? What kind of clients do they want to work for? What kind of work makes you EXCITED to do it? What kind of work do you want to be doing in 5 years?

2) What kind of community do you want to be a part of? Do you want super-professional (because that will NEVER be our style) or a little more casual? What do you like to do in your free time? Do you like daily banter with your team or more of a silo-style to work without interruption? Bonus points – do you like true crime podcasts? Who is your favorite serial killer?

3) What kind of leader do you need? Do you want to grow into something new? Do you want development on the team or from trainings? How do you like to communicate with leadership?

All of these things matter more to me than how many blogs you’ve written or what you majored in or what school you went to. I also care that my team feels comfortable with a new hire: I offer the team the chance to meet a potential new hire on a group interview. More importantly, I offer to LEAVE. The interviewee is welcome to ask them any question about me or my agency they see fit. And my team has the option to tear me apart and bash me if they wish. And I have no idea if it’s ever happened – because I never ask. I only ever ask my team their perspective on the hire and if they could see working together – it’s none of my business on the other part.

All of this boils down to one simple idea: I TRUST my team. I trust them to do the work. I trust them to meet their deadlines. I trust them to bill me accordingly. I trust them to come to me with issues. I trust them to know the type of team they want.

And because I trust them – they trust me. They trust me to bring in their dream clients and give them work they love. They trust me to protect them from overbearing clients or being abused by vendors. They trust me to build this business WITH and FOR them – and I trust them to build it WITH and FOR me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aliciashumaker.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/flockherway
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlockHerWay
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-shumaker/
• Other: Flamingo Consulting: www.flamingoconsultingllc.com https://www.facebook.com/FlamingoConsultingLLC Kaleidoscope Affect: https://kaleidoscope-affect.com/ https://www.facebook.com/KaleidoscopeAffect

Image Credits
Photos by Deb Oliviara of FemPro Business Society