We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tracy Cole a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tracy, thanks for joining us today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?
I feel that I have always been a connector – I love to connect people with what they are looking for to fulfill a need. I have never been one to read reviews for products because I wanted to form my own opinion, but when I did, I loved sharing it with my friends and family.
In 2013, I wanted to make a little extra income and support my jewelry habit, so I signed up to be a Brand Ambassador (it was called a Stylist at the time I started) for Stella & Dot. I loved the jewelry, I loved the mission, and I enjoyed getting to meet new people while getting to try on amazing jewelry. I kept that going for eight years, until I finally decided that I was spending more money (buying jewelry) than I was making and I would make a better customer than I would the person selling it.
Fast forward to 2020, full-time I am a Secondary Educator and when 2020 closed the school buildings, I knew I had to do something to supplement my income. I began writing resumes and then created a “Reading Camp” to help kids to find their joy and love of reading over the summer to prepare for the upcoming school year. I was also going around to businesses in town and posting on Social Media about the products and services that they were offering and any restrictions they had with re-opening. Can we just take a moment and give kudos to one of the best things that came out of 2020 was to-go pre-mixed drinks in Texas.
I kept posting and sharing everything from clothing, to events, and then began to get a great response on posting about food that I had at local restaurants.
My goal has always been to be published in a magazine, so Freelance writing blogs and articles was something I was trying to get in to. February 2021, I wrote my “review” of the Super Bowl LV halftime show and within 12hrs, I was getting word that my post had went viral. Here I was trying to get these long articles and a 220-some-odd word post with a picture of all of the performers at the end of the show was being read around the world. I had watched a TikTok in which someone was reading my post. My words were being read by someone else, with such emotion and the comment section it was well received!! It was then that I knew that my writing, my style of writing was what I wanted to present to others.
Within a year of my “viral” writing, I started losing friends and making “transactional friends,” I had talked to a close confidante about how I was getting tired of people saying they were inclusive and not truly being inclusive. I remember saying, “Don’t just say there is a seat at the table and pull up another chair or make seating requirement higher, but instead build a table big enough that people actually feel welcomed to sit.”
By December 2022, that same friend told me about this organization called “Gals that Brunch” that strictly focuses on women being given the opportunity to make friends. In January 2023, I introduced Gals that Brunch – Lubbock Chapter. I was given the freedom to market and promote the group as I saw fit, because everyone’s needs are different, the only catch was that I had to host 6-brunch themed events in a 12-month period.
I added my own spin, because through our deepest hurt comes our greatest ministry, and the rule was that it was not a business networking group. No talking about work accomplishments, no talk about what product you have available to sell, we were creating genuine connections with women in our community.
The first brunch had 50 women in attendance and the latest brunch in May 2023 had 70. We have done everything that anyone would want to do with their girlfriends from brunch, to painting, to axe throwing, to pole fitness classes. It is truly a space that everyone, who wants one, has a seat at the table.
My next step is called just that, “Next Step,” it is my version of an employment expo that breaks down all of the pieces of employment for young adults aged 18 – 22 who have a high school diploma or GED and decided not to attend college. The goal of Next Step is to “teach all the things they didn’t teach” in school about employment, taxes, insurance, etc. in a mutual environment. That will debut in June 2023 and be a monthly expo every month beginning August 2023.
Going back to what I said about helping businesses, I plan to launch Professional Learning Communities that allows me to utilize my experience in teaching to help businesses managers and owners to create communities within their workplace. The goal is to help them to understand that a happy employee is your Brand Ambassador and will stay where they feel valued.
How am I going to move it beyond my notebook and actually into the conference rooms of businesses?
I’m going to ask.
I have, thankfully, built a well-known reputation in my community and I will directly ask if they would be interested in a mentor-type program for their business. I have learned over time, that Wayne Gretzky’s quote is true in all aspects of life, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
It took a lot of self-reflection to heal and understand that I am my biggest cheerleader, greatest investor, and the only one who can stop me from making my ideas a reality. I have also learned that the worst someone can say is, “No,” and there is a great chance that they will say yes.
By June 2024, I will be a published author on the Art of Making (Female) Friendships and creating a community within your community.
By September 2024, I will host my first Entrepreneur Conference – title/subject undecided, but I already have a few locations in mind.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a 39-year-old happily divorced single mother of two young men, living in the great state of Texas. I say “happily divorced” because for me personally, my divorce was the most pivotal thing that happened to me in my adult life. It happened after I had kids, so I don’t have to be cliche and say that having my kids changed my life because that would be a lie. My kids, their needs, and a lot of my wants are my motivation, but my divorce pushed me. I was ready to be content and just stay. Without that happening, I would have never known the value in therapy – you don’t have to need therapy to get therapy, and honestly we all need it, some are just able to be proactive with therapy instead of reactive. I wouldn’t have known the power of my own thoughts and putting those to paper to have a visual of goals. In short, to date, my divorce (which I paid for myself) was the most expensive and valuable lesson I have learned.
I have been in public education since 2008, my Dad retired from the United States Air Force with 25-years of service – I always say that the difference that some see in me is that I was raised in the military …and those who were raised that way know, it’s different.
I am a Christian by practice and not by tattoo’d Bible verse (even though I do have one I want to get tattooed). I genuinely love people and have my moments when I’m people’d out and just need to be myself. When I’m stressed I get a Big Mac and Dr Pepper Freeze from McDonald’s and when I’m leveled out, I’ll get a salad and fries from Chik-Fil-A …it’s all about balance.
Writing is my primary source of communication and I absolutely love being able to express my thoughts, heart, and general opinion on things through writing.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I’m a silent competitor, it’s not a competition until it is. One thing that I would get a lot of is, “You and so-and-so are doing the exact same thing.”
Wrong.
We may be doing the same thing, but the delivery is different, the end result is different, the effort that went into what is being presented is different.
Being authentic is what has helped me to build my reputation. When I struggle, I show resilience. When I’m proud of myself, I share it. When I’m proud of a friend or other community member, I give them the spotlight.
My reputation has and always will be that you can’t compete with me because I want you to win in your own way. I don’t view things as, “Well they are getting xyz, why can’t I?” instead it is, “They are getting xyz, what can I add or learn to be able to offer that, but with my own spin on it.”
I have too many people in my corner who want me to win, who will help me win, so it is a constant competition – to prove them right!
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
My advice for team management – don’t ask them to do anything you haven’t or could not do.
When I was an Athletic Coach, there was a mom who was the President of our Booster Club, a successful attorney-turned County Judge and I never forget her saying, “I am a Servant Leader.” She never asked someone to do something that she wouldn’t or hadn’t done, and at times she just did it herself. She was never above any task that needed to be done and to me that’s the epitome of a leader.
I think sometimes people get caught up in “titles,” that they forget it can be taken away.
I recently talked to someone and she said that she got her degree, but she knew she never had the desire to work under anyone and she would be a business owner, but she would be one that would continually build up her employees to be able to go out on their own and be successful. She is currently on her 9th boutique and said that it came from a lot of failing and she could write a book on what NOT to do, but it would never compare to the insight given from learning yourself.
Another piece of advice – know your staff! Their favorite food or drink is surface level, but find out about them at least one layer deeper, appropriately of course. For instance, going back to when I was a coach, I would sit have team dinners and sit and talk to them about something other than our sport. I would find out about other activities that they were into and I would show up, even the non-school related activities, because it was important to them. A person will be loyal to and work harder for someone who they believe cares about them as a person and not as a payroll number.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.smorecreative.com
- Instagram: @tcole145
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/tracy.cole.9421
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-cole-b1651b225/
- Twitter: @coachcole02
Image Credits
Pink Blazer Headshot: Alicea Jare Photography Navy Blue Headshot: Jessica Sanchez Photography