Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kate The Socialite. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kate, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, folks often look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight – but that often obscures all the nitty, gritty details of everything that went into the growth phase of your business. We’d love to hear about your scaling story and how you scaled up?

I launched my business as a solopreneur in 2014. I was fresh out of college, newly married, and knew nothing about running a business. I only knew that I had a skill, writing, and that I hated marketing. However, two years into business I found myself drawn to marketing because I kept seeing so many ways in which it could be simplified, both financially and strategically.

The specific industry I served, and still serve alongside my team to this day, includes interior designers, home stagers, professional organizers, and window treatment specialists. When I dove deep into exactly which marketing tactics were most effective for the home industry, I was able to create hyper-specific service packages around their needs and map out a detailed workflow for each one.

For example, we’ve discovered that our ideal clients’ businesses rarely benefit from having a social media presence, but they highly profit from email marketing. As you may have guessed, that means my marketing agency doesn’t offer social media management and instead offers a wealth of resources (online shop, monthly membership, custom services) around website design, lead magnets and sales funnels, email newsletters, and blogging. Our methods don’t work for every business in every industry. They are working beautifully within the home industry, which is our niche, and that is what matters.

Once I had ironed out exactly what my clients ACTUALLY needed and created services and workflows around each need, I brought on a specialized team member for each service. I require all my team members to act as subcontracted freelancers rather than employees, as this gives them more ownership of their work (better results for my clients) and complete flexibility (better quality of life for them).

Today, we are an entirely female team made up of wives and mothers who are professionals in our unique skill sets and who want to have balance in our lives without needing to choose between our careers and our families. We are spread across the globe (Switzerland, midwestern, southern, and eastern coast USA, and Philippines), and we all set our own schedules. The only requirements I give my team members are that they 1) meet every deadline and 2) serve our clients well.

Because I chose to hire women who already had experience doing what I needed them to do, my agency pays them a premium for their services – and that is a decision I’ll never regret. You get what you pay for, and good help shouldn’t be cheap. Investing in my team has grown the bottom line of my business, not just my revenue, year over year since the day I started hiring.

In short, to scale my agency, I had to niche down, understand my ideal client, map out what they needed and how I would deliver it in a repeatable fashion, then find the right team members for each position.

I couldn’t run my business without my team….or Asana. ;) I went from working 50+ hours per week by myself and earning very little in revenue to working only 24 hours per week, taking time off pretty much whenever I want, and watching my business grow exponentially. For example, I was able to take a full 12 week maternity leave with my first baby and am about to do the same with my second baby without experiencing a dip in gross or net income.

Just over eight years after launching my business, I never thought this would be my life. Case in point: The annual income I thought would be deemed decent based on where I came from has become my MONTHLY income. I grew up in the poorest county in Wisconsin, surrounded by an Amish community, and haunted by domestic abuse until I was finally able to move out. I didn’t have much confidence in myself for a long time, but my husband and my business coach certainly did.

The success of my business and the ability to hire so many other women who want to live life on their own terms is one of the biggest blessings God could have given me, and one that I never expected. I’m quite vocal about my faith and personal beliefs in my own marketing, and that has earned the respect of clients, even those who would disagree.

If you are trying to scale your business, you need to know your client, know yourself, build your team, work your butt off, and say a prayer that you won’t give up right before it gets really, really good.

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

I chose to specialize in the home industry after struggling to “be all things to all people” for the first two years. It was miserable, and I wanted to quit. However, I invested in B School by Marie Forleo, learned how to identify and attract my ideal client, and everything clicked.

My agency, Socialite, works exclusively with the home industry to provide those hardworking entrepreneurs with the stellar website presence, sales funnel, and content marketing (email and blog) they desperately need.

What I’m most proud of – and also what sets us apart – is our divorce from the social media obsession. Social media is over-hyped and doesn’t provide marketing value to an interior designer, home stager, organizer, or window treatment professional who offers customized services.

Everything we offer, to quote our clients, is refreshingly simple and highly effective. Our clients have reported earning hundreds of thousands of dollars in projects due directly to working with us, and others have reported tripling their business overall. Plus, they end up feeling confident about their marketing, which spills into other areas of their business. There is nothing more beautiful in the entrepreneurial landscape than a businesswoman who feels good about her decisions and proud of the empire that she is building. This is what we help them do.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Emails don’t often make me cry, but this one did. The year was 2016. I was standing in my living room, about to leave for dinner out with my husband. I had the urge to check my work email “one last time” (nice lack of boundaries, former self) and received the email I was dreading.

“Sorry, but we need to cancel our project with you.”

I felt the tears burning against my eyelids. I tried to tell myself it was okay, but it just WASN’T. I looked up and saw my husband eyeing me protectively.

“Katie,” he said softly, “it’s okay. There will be other clients.”

With tears now pouring down my face, I choked out the truth word-by-word, “But this was the client whose project had moved my income into something real. I was really somebody and actually about to make full-time pay.”

Until that point, business had been very difficult for me and growth had been so painfully slow. This new client had come out of nowhere and was a perfect fit. While their reason for ending the project had nothing to do with me, I still felt rejected.

That’s when I realized something awful had happened in my business: I had placed 100% of my worth on my revenue, and the object of my peace was the number in my bank account.

After losing that big client, I hung my head in shame the following Monday, trying to convert my fear into anger (always my go-to) and get back to conquering the world. But, I was a timid warrior. I was serving clients to the utmost, all while feeling stuck and insignificant. It seemed like nothing was taking off the way it should. I knew other female entrepreneurs who had launched their businesses around the same time I did. They were making six figures a year. I was making maybe a few grand per month ⁠— and that was before overhead and taxes.

I felt physically ill every time I checked my email or my bank account. Neither were empty, but I irrationally expected them to be. I clung to negative feedback and almost instantly forgot about the new leads and happy clients that I already had. My perspective was warped.

I thought, “Someday when I’m making x amount per year, I will feel happier and more confident.”

Well, “someday” showed up both slowly and abruptly, nothing and then all at once. Just a few months after that tear-filled evening, the hard work and the lessons learned from many mistakes started to pay off. And to be honest, God blessed my business. He made the strategy side of marketing suddenly click in my brain. One morning, I woke up and actually felt like a light switch had been flipped.

When my business hit, and then exceeded, the revenue markers that I’d only hoped for, I realized it was oddly underwhelming. I didn’t feel any differently about myself. I still struggled with confidence and with placing my worth on things that changed all too easily, and that resulted in my fear-based perspective remaining firmly implanted in my business.

When I really started to unpack this, I realized that my worry around my business, and my paranoia around not being seen as valuable to my clients, all boiled down to one very inconvenient truth: I thought I was a goddess in my own right, which would put a ridiculous amount of pressure on anyone. Behind the curtain of my humility sat a very prideful version of myself who thought she could MAKE herself valuable and FORCE success into her business (as though it were all completely under my control). I wasn’t chasing the dollar. I was chasing value.

When I operated my business from a place of paranoia, I did things that wasted so much money. I ran ads on social media and Google without the slightest bit of a sales funnel in place. I took every client who came my way. I signed advertising contracts that left me paying out money every month for things that were clearly not bringing me any new clients. Basically, I was just guessing and not thinking.

Fear is an emotion that clouds judgment, all while parading itself around as logic and reason. As you make decisions in your business, whether you are trying to determine how to market yourself or how to manage your money, you have to step away from this emotion or it will cripple you.

If your life’s calling includes running your business and you don’t hold yourself back, your business will be successful. It won’t be easy. It won’t be instant, but it will succeed. And that’s a fact you can count on, sister.

Now that I’ve had a little more experience on the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship, I’m actually thankful my business didn’t explode right away. I didn’t have the wisdom of experience, and I could have easily trashed a good thing without realizing it.

I often think about what my business coach said to me during one of our video meetings. “Be blessable,” she said. It’s easy to say, and difficult to do, but if we can have fear without reason, can’t we also trust without evidence ⁠— at least for a little while?

I’m not sure which of you needs to hear this, but here it is: Don’t give up on your business just yet. I know you’re discouraged. I know there are many things beyond your control. Focus on what you can control, namely taking responsibility for your own emotions. Once you’ve gotten those reigned in, you might be surprised what new responsibilities head your way. Be ready by taking care of the tasks in front of you right now and don’t worry about what is coming.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Using both email marketing (we send only 1-2 emails per month to our list of contacts – shocking I know) and podcasting (2-4 episodes per month for the last 4 years) has been crucial to growing our client base, nurturing a community, and establishing that coveted brand loyalty.

Word-of-mouth referrals from past and current clients has also been an excellent source of new clients while reaffirming that our brand strategy is working.

At the end of the day, we just want to help people build great businesses in the home industry – and our tribe has certainly received that message.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.katethesocialite.com
• Instagram: @kate.the.socialite
• Other: The Kate Show Podcast can be found anywhere you get your podcasts.

Image Credits
All lifestyle photography, excluding mock ups, has been provided by Amy Lynn Creative.