Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Casey Taylor. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Casey, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry
A huuuuge shift is coming to the online coaching and education community. Like, HUGE. Don’t have my head for saying this but I just think business focused offerings are dead. They are dying and if you’re still creating programs around “How to Get to $10k Months” or “The Program to Six Figures” you’re behind. Creatives and entrepreneurs are so over it. Right now our industry is like this: increase your income > improve your business > improve your life. But the way the industry is moving, the new focus will be: improve yourSELF > improve your life > improve your business and income. I’m predicting programs that have a goal of being more fulfilled within yourself just totally taking over the space. So you heard it here first. Especially after 2020 and 2021 – people are just ready to start enjoying life to the fullest again. We’ve had no choice but the show up and do hard things for two years and that’s why I think business courses and programs focused on business goals only are fizzling out. So, what can you do if you’re in this space? Start incorporating things like meditations, journaling work and conversations around hobbies and activities that make people feel expressive. Start backing away from things like intensive strategies and step-by-step plans. I really see entrepreneurs wanting to have more space for their own interpretation and just having fun with programs versus checking off to do lists. And please for the love of all things, stop doing webinars. The jig is up! It’s so old school now. Live 3-5 trainings are the new webinar and are just so much more fun and expressive to participate in!
Casey, 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?
To understand my journey, we need to go wayyy back to April of 2016. The origin of my business started months before the $200 photography class. You see, the seed of my business was planted in darkness when I miscarried my first pregnancy. In the wake of my grief, I was desperate for distraction, desperate for something to be fun again and because I’d always loved taking pictures, I did a Google search for “affordable photography class”. After some digging, I found an in-person, 3 month class for $200 promising to teach me to shoot in manual. The cherry on top? I could walk there from my apartment. Talk about a sign from the universe. Honestly, I was only looking to up my instagram game.
I had no idea when I SAT down for my first class that it would be the first step I took to quit my 9-5, match my corporate salary one year later and lead to a six figure business. One of my favorite parts of ditching my 9-5 is that I get to make my own rules, my own schedule and call my own shots. Oh, and donating my blazers is a feeling I’ll never forget. Now, I want to help people breakthrough their limiting beliefs and create the path to living their dream life – whatever that might look like for you. For me? My dream life is making my own schedule, 4PM happy hours, traveling when we want and spending more time with my Baby Margs and Aussie husband.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Podcasts! Both my own podcast that I host and being a guest on other podcasts. There is just something so connective about listening to someone speak and hearing their personality come through that to me, converts so much better than social media. AND, I also think that it attracts better clients because your ideal clients will connect with your voice.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think being an entrepreneur is a pretty pure act of resilience. There is a reason not everyone can do it. You have to be constantly resilient when you think about it. All that to say that it’s really hard to pick one story because there are so many. My entrepreneurial story actually started in grief. I sought out an art class to help me get out of my grieving mind after I miscarried my first pregnancy in 2016. I turned a $200 summer photography class into a six figure business in 18 months. I think in devastating moments when we are broken open so raw, there is a unique beauty in it. Because when you are broken open like that, you get to rebuild yourself into whoever you want to be. And when I went through miscarriage, it just felt like I no longer had time to waste doing shit I didn’t love. And so I was so determined to build something for myself so that I never had to answer to “the man” again. And that’s just the beginning of my resilience story because along the way the last six years I’ve applied to be an Uber driver when clients weren’t booking and by the end of that week, 3 bookings came through. I wound up losing $50,000 in March 2020 in my wedding photography business due to COVID-19 restrictions. And then I made that $50k back in coaching in the last half of 2020. The spirit of the entrepreneur is to constantly seek new paths, innovation and opportunities – it’s constant resilience.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://caseycrowetaylor.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caseycrowetaylor/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-crowe-taylor-13b8392b/
- Other: The Rulebreaker Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6exoo8zKd2nqUsHka37s9c The Rulebreaker Podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rulebreaker-podcast/id1530244395
Image Credits
Margaret Wroblewski Photography