Coach Me, Coach You

✍️ Real Talk: Coach Me, Coach You

I’ve built a business before, and I know I can do it again. But I’ll admit…I’m tired. I love the flexibility of building my own schedule and designing my own workflow…but sometimes it gets tiring to make up a job for yourself everyday. And after getting laid off from this last role, I am craving some love and support in my day to day.

So as I start building out my Startup Consulting & Leadership coaching business, I think I need to be real with myself: can I do this alone? And do I want to?

I probably could do it alone…but I definitely don’t want to. After a ton of research and sales calls, I came across an organization called Growth Tools that supports people like me in building out our coaching/consulting businesses over 3-6 months. I like the model because the company offers 1:1 coaching support and acts as an advisor to my business. It’s not a “do it for you” kind of thing, but it offers tools, training, playbooks and support to help me scale my business fast. I like it because it kind of feels like school - and while I am working toward business outcomes - I also want this journey to be one where I learn new skills and impact people’s lives positively.

So: I’m in week 1 of a 4 week “strategy trial” period in which the Growth Tools team works with me to build a revenue roadmap. We’ll be refining my ideal customer, offering, and co-building a revenue roadmap together. I’m excited take you along on the journey of being coached so that I can better coach you. Pumped for week 2.

📈 One Thing I Learned This Week

Paid media won’t save your brand.

Paid media…what even is that? Paid media = marketing dollars companies spend on ads to reach new and existing customers on platforms like Facebook (now Meta), Google, TikTok, etc. So yup, you know all those targeted ads you get because you clicked on one thing on your Instagram explore page? Yup, companies pay platforms like Facebook to optimize their algorithms to find more people like you. (More people click, more people think “oooo I like that”, more people impulse buy the product they never knew existed 2 days ago!)

One of my e-commerce clients is trying to liquidate a big chunk of inventory that came in super delayed because of Covid delays. The brand pretty much “lapsed” - meaning the team went and got full time jobs and stopped driving traffic to their brand website. They reached out to me this summer to see if I could support in putting a marketing strategy in place to liquidate their remaining inventory while they figure out the future of the brand.

My instinct was to put some $$ behind paid ads and liquidate as quickly as possible. As we’ve been activating our ad budget, I re-remembered how important it is to drive traffic to your website from non-paid sources.

So if you own/are growing a brand: paid media is the best way to scale a brand quickly, but in order to actually make profit, brands must also invest in diverse channels to build brand awareness and community around your product (posting on IG/TikTok, email, foster community in other places on/offline). Paid media alone won’t save your brand.

And in case you missed it ⬇️

Thinking / dreaming of joining a super start-upy startup? Here’s 3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Joining A 10-Person Startup

📚 Currently Reading

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: I’ll be honest in that my therapist recommended this book, and it took me a minute to overcome my brown girl guilt to even get past the front cover. How could I possibly look at the people who love me most through this lens? But, this is one of the most important books I’ve read in my adult life.

As promised in the title, the book predictably dives deep into parental and family dynamics - but it also defines something I always used to think was intangible: what are the characteristics of an emotionally mature person - anywhere in your life? (I literally couldn’t put this book down - but I am working on a little write up for next week about this read in case you want some highlights without the emotional journey of this deep dive 🙃)

Food for thought: what relationships in your life feel like this? ^^^

Welcome Home by Najwa Zebian - I haven’t made much progress here but it’s still on my radar haha. I think I need some light reading to offset this week’s other read lolll…got any fun fiction reads you’re into lately? Respond to this email with recs 😀 

🔥 Want To Vent?

I got an overwhelming # of DMs from people who are going through career transitions since my post last week. Jobs can really suck…so if you want to chat, vent, work through a problem…whatever, grab 30 minutes of complimentary coaching with me. I’d love to listen, validate, and offer perspective.

✨ Feel Good Moment

Let’s end this on a happy note, ey? Checkout this beautiful reel on loving our cultures and storytelling by Nadir Nahdi ❤️ 

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend ✨

Arshiya