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

Alright, Lyndsay thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.

I started my business, TMB Digital Den, about a year and a half ago. As a mom of four, with a firefighter husband who works crazy shifts, I was brainstorming business ideas that would allow me to work from home and be more available for the kids, especially on the days that my husband was working 24-hour shifts.

Prior to going all out with my Creative Design & Marketing Assistant services, I had a small photography business for 15 years. When COVID hit I ended up packing up my camera and all of my business stuff and storing it away. Taking pictures of a 7-day-old newborn was absolutely impossible when it came to keeping a 6-foot from them.

As we were coming back out of the chaos of quarantine, I realized how helpful it was to work from home every day, be available for my kids, and their appointments, and still work full-time, yet with flexibility in my schedule. It was so hard to return to the 9-5 life in the office and balance it all again.

I have two medically challenging kids who have regular appointments, sometimes several per week. Being back in the office meant juggling my work, spending extra time running to and from appointments, feeling guilty as an employee for leaving my team to handle the office, and feeling that mom guilt because I couldn’t physically take my kids to all of their appointments.

At that point I had been doing little tasks for a couple of friends who had small businesses and needed help once in a while. Then I saw an online summit for Virtual Assistants and knew I had to do it. By the end of the summit I was determined to start a new small business. I had truly missed running my own business with my photography business closed, and I knew I had skills to offer. So, off I went! I submerged myself in all things related to my new business.

It wasn’t until a couple of months later that I reached out to my local Entrepreneur Fund group. They put me in contact with a free business coach out of their office – who ended up being the best connection for my new, little business. I met with Sandi once a month for several months as we worked through my business plan, projections, budgeting, my mission and values, and so much more. I am beyond thankful for the time she spent with me. It was so helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of who truly knew the ropes of starting a new business. After our final coaching session, it wasn’t even a week before she referred my first contracted client!

I had been working with clients on a project basis for a few months when I got a message through my “Contact Me” page on my website, and the referral was Sandi, I was overjoyed! While I was excited to meet a new potential client, I was actually more stoked about the referral! I knew that Sandi would only refer clients to me if she truly believed in what I can and will do for my clients! That potential client became a contracted client during the Discovery Call, and Sandi continues to send more potential clients my way!

I’m thankful for all of the amazing people I’ve been able to network with over the past year, and for all the fantastic, female entrepreneurs I have had the honor of working with as well. There’s just something about that first referral that makes you feel like you’ve truly “made it” and I make sure to pay it forward as often as I can.

If I could give any words of wisdom to those who are in the early stages of starting their new business, it would be to look into all of the possible networking opportunities in your area. From your local Chamber of Commerce, to local colleges, and business centers – sometimes it just takes a simple email to change the trajectory of your business, or find help you never knew you needed.

Lyndsay, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Lyndsay and I’m the owner of TMB Digital Den. TMB actually stands for The Mama Blog because I originally began blogging under that name 12 years ago and it has just stuck! I am a mom of four teenagers and a wife to a career firefighter and Marine veteran.

TMB Digital Den currently offers Creative Design & Marketing Assistant services. This covers a wide opportunity of assistance for other small businesses. I virtually assist with social media needs; creative designs for web, social media, email, and more; project management; and marketing assistance.

I started TMB Digital Den in February 2021 and have had the honor of helping clients in a variety of fields, including: architecture, proposal management, skincare, travel, parenting blogs, coaching, and more. In all honesty, I have learned so much from each of my clients while helping them do what they do, which is why I love what I do!

TMB Digital Den is able to provide reliable, professional and knowledgeable service that helps clients grow, scale, and reach their goals. Working with me allows my clients to do what they do best and delegate the rest!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

While word of mouth has been awesome, my second source for new clients has been LinkedIn. I was someone who avoided LinkedIn, thinking it was not for “people like me”. But since I’m a small business owner who helps other small business, and there are a lot of people who run businesses on LinkedIn, it was time to ditch my preconceived fears. And I did! Over half of my clients have come from networking on LinkedIn and checking out the job posts for other small businesses looking for the services I provide.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My #1 business goal is to grow and scale my business to a point where I can add team members. I want to hire a group of awesome virtual assistants who can work with me on client projects, choosing assistants who can focus in specialty areas, ultimately allowing me to focus on more business growth to meet the needs of the ever-changing business world.

Contact Info:

• Website: tmbdigitalden.com
• Instagram: @tmbdigitalden
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmbdigitalden/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndsay-beck-tmbdigitalden/
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tmbdigitalden_businesservices/