We caught up with the brilliant and insightful MK Ferguson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

MK, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

I started as a photographer 8 or so years ago. When I took my photography business full time right out of college, I had a lot of ambition, but NO idea what I was doing business-wise. For years I used trial and error to figure out what worked best for me in my business. I learned a lot of hard lessons. Some months I had no idea how I would pay rent that month – but then magically a job would come through that would make ends meet. Throughout it all, I was always super interested in the idea of manifestation as well as utilizing business coaches/folks who had been in my shoes. Eventually, things started to click. Everything started to change when I started doing more of what I actually wanted to do, and less of what people were telling me to do. I took my photography business from taking any clients I could get, to picking and choosing who I ACTUALLY wanted to work with. This completely changed my business, because I looked forward to the work I was doing.

I was doing a lot of branding and commercial photography with other small business owners who were turning their passions into businesses and I LOVED doing that. A lot of times, these folks were working on their biz solo. Some were killing it, and some were not. After spending a lot of time with my clients, I started to realize the gaps in their businesses – where they were struggling and where they needed an extra push. I’ve always been business oriented (I started making good money off my photography at 16), so I just started helping them where I could. Some of them would call me up randomly just to ask me general business questions about stuff not even related to photography. And I loved it. That’s when I realized I have a passion for business + helping people recognize their full potential, their options, and the route they want to take to get to where they want to be. I made the transition to business coach by doing both photography and coaching for a little bit. I opened up spots for 1:1 coaching and sold out within a week.

So now that brings us to where I’m at now! I recently transitioned into a full time business coach, so that I can teach solopreneurs how to find that success in their business like I did. What I realized along the way in my biz, is that success has very little to do with your actual skills or service or product, and more to do with how you FEEL about it. You HAVE to feel completely and totally magnetic about what you are putting out into the world and the right people, your people, will gravitate towards it.

My coaching approach is energetics focused with both tactical steps. It’s a mix of consulting and manifestation work. I focus on educating business owners on growing your business online through social media such as Instagram and TikTok. I like to tell people that I teach soloprenerurs how to “get over themselves and into their business.” Meaning, I use a ton of perspective shifters to switch peoples mindset around certain ideas, and let them see their next step in a magnetic way.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a business coach for solopreneurs. Simply put, I teach folks how to get over themselves and into their business. I work with those who have a small business (minimum 6 months) to scale their online business and show up in their business in a way that feels simple, fun, passionate, and authentic to them.

My approach includes the practice of manifestation, perspective shifters, actionable steps, and consulting work to coach folks through up-leveling their businesses and completely aligning their approach to their core essence. What that means is, I coach them through recognizing what they ACTUALLY want and then working through anything standing in the way of getting to where they want to be.

I do 1:1 coaching, sell courses, masterminds, and resources, and business retreats are in the works as well. Everything I put out has the purpose of helping you up-level your approach to your business to reach the places you want to be.

I often coach folks through things like :
– recognizing their limiting beliefs / blocks (aka feelings of scarcity, over saturation, “cringeness” , etc)
– creating offers that people are drawn to
– using social media to monetize their business
– completely aligning their business model with their core values
– stepping into their power and realizing what they are capable of
– nitty gritty logistics like how to post on Instagram, how to price their services/products, etc

I don’t believe there is a set formula to being a business owner, and I am going to teach you how to make money doing exactly what you WANT to be doing.

I don’t really give a shit about what other people think, because I am sure-footed in my approach, my intuition, and what I feel called to do. I don’t believe there’s a certain way we need to go about running our business – that’s why we chose to be a biz owner anyway, right? To have freedom. I teach people how to manifest freedom while simultaneously building out their dream business selling their dream products or services to their dream clients and customers.

I know how hard it is to be an artist, creative, or even just a human being who KNOWS they have something they want to share with the world, but doesn’t know where to go or feels like they are failing. I have honestly been where they are at and I have seen so many others be where they are at as well. And I want to show people that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it starts with being “unfuckwithable” AKA being so confident in themselves that they can’t help but want to shout their business/offerings from the rooftop because they believe in it and themselves so wholeheartedly.

I help people find their groove and integrate their core values with their income streams – ultimately finding freedom in all areas of their life. Finding true freedom in your business, that is what I’m about.

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

So many things. But I’ll choose one. I had to unlearn that to be a successful business owner, there are certain rules you need to follow.

TRUTH: There is not a right or wrong formula in building and scaling your business.

I used to think that as an artist, you had to struggle. I thought you had to put your work out there over and over and just hope that the right person would see it, connect with it, and hire you. I used to think that selling on Instagram is cringe and if you do it you are a sell out.

The truth is, to be a successful business owner and artist, you have to do more than just put your work out there and hope for the best – but that gets to look like HOWEVER you want it to! If posting videos of yourself to instagram stories feels wrong, then don’t do it. Because your energy in doing that and not feeling good about it is going to carry over and your audience probably won’t resonate with it anyway.

Instead, I reprogrammed my mind to recognize that your business will function best when you approach it in a way that you feel confident in. It will take serious hustle to make it thrive, but that hustle gets to look however you want it to.

No matter what you are doing in your business – if you are a photographer, painter, yogi, boutique owner, etc – you hold all of the power and that means you get to choose how your business runs and how it scales.

The more you feel energized by and connected to your approach to running your business, the more your ideal customer is going to recognize your magnetism and want MORE of what you have to offer. When you force something that doesn’t feel right because you feel like you have to or someone told you its “the right thing to do” – you are setting yourself up for burnout.

Being a business owner can look like however you want it to, you just have to understand what you truly want and then take aligned actions to get there. And that is what I do as a coach, I help you recognize that you actually want, and then I give you the tools to help you get there.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I want to be a source of light for folks to realize that they aren’t tied to one thing, and they certainly DO have the power to be or have anything they want at all. There are options and you can always shift when you want or need to.

When I was in the thick of struggling in my photography business, not knowing which direction to turn in, I could have stayed on that hamster wheel and used the excuse of “its working okay so I’ll just settle for this” – but I didn’t, because I felt something deep inside that was telling me there was more out there for me.

I have friends who do their corporate jobs and they hate it – they can’t wait for 5 pm everyday so they can log off work. Or even worse, they feel nothing towards it and just go through the motions.
That, IMO is wasted time. You are hitting a glass ceiling. You are settling. You are playing small. When really, you were born to do some really f*cking great things. The first step, is to just start recognizing what lights you up – everything else will flow from there. And you can ALWAYS pivot – there are no rules in this life, and it gets to look like whatever you want it to. :)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mkferg.com
• Instagram: @mkxferg
• Other: TikTok: @mkxferg Threads: @mkxferg