Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Something inside of me, like, there was this fire burning that was like, no, you have to go. You have to do it. I normally always listen to my intuition, so I decided I need to take action. If you're feeling misaligned with your current path, it's okay to make big, bold moves and follow what resonates. Just do it. Because even if it doesn't make sense now, it probably will at a later point. I noticed that some potential clients didn't count themselves into those categories, but they would have been dream clients of mine because they shared the same values. They shared the same idea of creating a brand that is purposeful and authentic. Start small, but professionally. If you look at the three big elements of brand identity, it's your colors, your fonts, and your logo. If you have these three, you're off to a very good start.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Welcome to the Society Gal podcast, where trailblazing female entrepreneurs and creatives come together to spark change and build their dreams. This is where your path passion meets purpose. And together we're crafting a future where everyone has the tools to succeed.
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Society Gal podcast. We are so excited to have Lara here with us today to talk all about niching, really navigating entrepreneurship with peace, with intention, with awareness. And so we're gonna break down those things in this podcast today. And so we're gonna get started by having Laura, you can introduce yourself. Excited to have you here, but tell us a little bit about you and how you got to this place today.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Great. Yeah. Thank you so much, Dana. I'm super happy to be on the podcast as well. My name is Lara. I'm originally German. I'm living in Lisbon now in Portugal. So I'm very excited to be part of this international community.
I recently started my own business called Studio Oax. It's a branding and rep design studio. I am on this creative journey trying to help entrepreneurs and people that are building their own businesses to create brands and websites that they are really proud of when they're just starting out, basically building up their brands. So that's my mission, my passion. It's actually really interesting journey to get to that point. I think many aspiring entrepreneurs might be able to relate to this because I was working in corporate marketing for seven years in the beginning, I really loved it. I gained a lot of work experience, but at some point, I felt something was missing and some not right. I missed the freedom of working times that I could choose for myself. Basically building something that is really dear to my heart. I was not super passionate about the industries I was in was mostly retail focused. Luckily it was in creative industries, which always has been a passion of mine. But there was just something missing. I felt it after working there for seven years and really feeling like I need to make some changes. At the end of 2022, there was a shift in my focus and I got more and more into yoga, into mindfulness, well being. And I discovered that there's more to life than just working a 9 to 5 job.
So I wanted to explore that more. Exploring that more for me looked like enrolling in yoga teacher training. End of 22, I quit my job and it was extremely scary because I had a really well paying job, a beautiful house in Amsterdam, a boyfriend looking at my life from an outside point of view was like, everything's great, everything's fine. Like, why is she not happy? I didn't really know it myself, and I almost questioned, am I crazy? What is going on? But something inside of me, there was this fire burning, like, no, you have to go, you have to do it. I normally always listen to my intuition. So I decided I need to take action. I quit all of that, the job, the boyfriend, the house, and left. It sounds really brave. Everyone was telling me in the beginning, you're so brave for doing this. And in the beginning I shrugged it off. I was like, that's not brave. Anyone could do that. But then the first two months, I suffered from extreme anxiety, like I've never had it before.
So yeah, but pulled through that and then got into that yoga teacher training. And there I think I really learned, like, listening more to my, myself, my deepest desires, my fears, like going through that. And I did a lot of work on myself to get to a point where I could understand what it is that I'm actually wanting and that I need in life. I think there were two major events that made a big change in my personal opinion and the way I was moving forward after that. The first one was a session with the yoga group about our sole purpose. It was basically a quiz that everyone had to answer online. I can share the link with the listeners if they're interested in doing that later on. But it's basically about finding your dharma. And dharma is a concept in yoga that is linked to your sole purpose.
So we all did that, Chris. And while I was in the room with aspiring yoga teachers, all of my fellow people around me had results like the teacher, the nurturer, and these are archetypes that are basically the result of the test. And I was one of the only ones that Had a very different result, which was the artist and the entrepreneur. Now, looking back at that and seeing the results of that test and where I am now and the business that I've built, it all kind of started to make sense. So, like, from back in the days where I couldn't understand my result and why am I here now trying to become a yoga teacher, but I actually have a result that doesn't really fit with becoming a yoga teacher. Being at this point where I build a business that is all about creativity, about being an artist, being a designer and an entrepreneur at the same time, building this business from the ground up makes sense. Looking back at it, there was one really important moment, and I think for everyone who's a little bit lost and, like, don't really know where to go and, like, they know a change must be coming, but they're not sure exactly where to start or what exactly their passion is, I think getting an idea of what your sole purpose actually is is a very good start.
So that's one point. And then the other one is a point that really made a change in my life is meeting my mentor, as I would call her. It's a girl that I met while I was in Bali, and she has built a branding and web design business four years ago.
So she was a huge inspiration to me, has built something that I aspire to build as well. By getting to know her and speaking to her about her experience, I found a friend and mentor that helped me along the way and could help me out with getting the first steps done. Learning about how to build a business, like, she recommended courses, she guided me into the right direction. She pointed out things that I should keep in mind when building a business, which platforms to use, how to decide your target group, like how to build an audience, like, all these kind of things. She really, really helped me with that. I'm super grateful to have her in my life. She's still a really good friend, and I talk to her at least, least once every two weeks to check in and see how things are going. The main takeaway for the audience is if you're feeling misaligned with your current path, it's okay to make big, bold moves and follow what resonates with your soul. So I think that's like, what I want the listeners to not be scared and just do it. Because even if it doesn't make sense now, it probably will at a later point. Yeah.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: And be patient with yourself. It sounds like you are feeling very lost at one point, but then you became so curious like, you always had that curiosity. That's why I love your story. Always that curiosity and that openness for the next step. But. But not pressuring yourself to find that next step right there in that moment, which is a really beautiful thing to move forward with, is you have the intention. You had the intention in your story, but you're never like, I need it right now. I need the answer right now. You were just very open to what's next. You know, this is. Here's a sign or here's a little bite into my next chapter. But I'm just gonna let it lead me instead of you trying to force yourself down a certain path. That's what I really love about your story.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And thank you for saying that. It's interesting that you analyze it like that because it didn't always feel like that. Like, some days I was really like, how can I still not know what I want? But at some point, and I think that's also really what I learned through the whole yoga education, is that sometimes you just gotta let things flow and you can't force things. Things are coming to you at the point when they are meant to come at.
Up until now, going with this strategy has really worked out. So let's see how it goes in the future. But for now, it's all good.
We're on track.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: It doesn't mean you weren't proactive either. Patience and proactivity can be in the same thing. Right. That's a really great mix. Right. You can be patient with your path, but also proactive in it and still put your hands in different things and different doors and be open to those things. I think so often a lot of us feel like we see other people online and we feel like, okay, I have be in that path. And why does that person look so sure?
They look so sure, like they know what they're doing. But it's really cool to hear your story. It shows that there's always this inner working within you that no one else sees. Someone on the outside may see you have it all together, but on the inside, there's always this good struggle, this good fight that you're fighting with yourself to find your soul's purpose. Which I love how that test got you on the right direction later down the road.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: I also think, especially with social media being such a big thing and being used by so many upcoming entrepreneurs to promote their services and promote what they're doing, it's also being used in a way that is celebrating successes a lot, which I'm not Saying is wrong. It's great, and we should be doing that. If you are in that same boat and looking at other entrepreneurs, it almost seems like they have it all together all the time. How can they make that amount of money in that month? How can they have been so far in their career after four months of launching? Or how can they have been featured in that magazine? They put the successes online, but not that often. People share their struggles online, and I think that's also something very important. Like, we already see the tip of the iceberg where we don't see the huge thing that's lingering underwater. Yes.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: And before we get into some fun topics, I would love to hear more about what you do and your favorite part of what you do with your clients.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: I think it basically starts at the very start when I sit down with my client to understand their vision and their outlook on how their brands should help others. That's something really important in my business. I want to help people build authentic and meaningful brands, and that's really something I stand behind. So I want to make sure that the person I work with, and that would also be a dream client of mine, is someone who is setting up something that is purposeful, that is helping others around them, and that is very close to their heart. Because when I started my business, I did it out of passion. I had a conversation with a friend the other day. You often attract people, and in that case, clients as well, that are very similar to yourself.
So a client that would be very similar to myself is someone who started a business out of a passion to help others achieving a certain thing. And that doesn't mean that they need to be from a certain industry or sell a certain product or service. It just means that they do the thing that they do with passion and that they have some kind of, like, idea where they're heading with their brand, want it to look professional and credible from the start. And that's where a lot of people have the problem. They don't know how to do that. Like, how do I make my brand look professional, chic, beautiful and recognizable, and how can I stay consistent across different platforms? And that's where I come in and try to help them. I think my favorite part is understanding what the client actually wants and then transforming it into something that really resonates with their vision. The biggest compliment I could get from a client is always, oh, my God, you understood exactly what we wanted to achieve without getting too much into the details. So I think that's probably my favorite.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Part of the work. Let's go into talking about dream clients. Since we're talking about your favorite part of working with your clients.
What is a dream client for you and how did you find your dream client? And I really like hearing this because before we talked and when we prepped for this, I loved hearing this story. So what is a dream client for you and how did you, how did you niche down to your dream client?
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, funny enough, when I first started I thought I need to niche down. And with niching down, I basically mean like focus on an industry because that's one way of niching. There are several ways, but that's one. And why did I do that? Because I listened to courses, I read things online and there was a lot of talk about niching to find your right clients and be effective with your marketing and to know where to look, focus on a niche. And definitely there's like a lot of arguments that speak for that. And I'm, I'm not saying that that's the wrong strategy, don't get me wrong.
But what I realized very early on is when I started focusing on a niche, which back in the days I said was well being and travel slash hospitality, because that was like my background. I really related to that. I noticed that some potential clients didn't count themselves into those categories, but they would have been dream clients of mine because they shared the same values, they shared the same esthetics, they shared the same idea of like creating a brand that is purposeful and authentic. I excluded them by saying, I'm focusing on this industry.
By realizing that, I shifted my focus and said, no, I'm not going to focus on an industry anymore. What I actually want to do is looking at the end go and saying I want to work with people that want to create authentic, meaningful brands that have a purpose, that help the people they're serving. And that can be someone who is a mental health coach, a yoga teacher, a teacher for children, a sports or yoga studio, someone who is a community build builder in their local area. It can be all kinds of people, but they kind of all have the same end goal in mind. So I think that's how I would define my niching right now.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: I love that and I love how you kind of stepped away from niching in an industry and more. In a value based niching, you really based your dream client off of values and what they value, what you value. I think it's easy to get stuck in a niche of like, oh, this is what they buy and this is where they live. Sometimes we focus on the wrong thing when it comes to niching. For those who are listening. How does somebody find the right clients by niching intentionally? What do they look for and what do you recommend when really digging into that and find that rewarding experience to have with those, like, just right clients?
[00:14:45] Speaker A: Yeah. I think it's probably very important that you first get clear, like, what your strategy is, like, what's your journey been like, like, what is your main goal? What are the things you're struggling with? I had a business session with a friend the other day, and by getting very clear on what I'm looking for in a cl, it's very easy to find those people. Oftentimes it's people that are very similar to yourself. So you can also ask yourself, where would I be looking if I was looking for a service like that? Where would I be engaging with people around me if I was trying to buy a product or to look for a service? You can turn it around and make yourself your own target group. I think from that point of view. Instead, maybe they are on Instagram or LinkedIn or maybe they would appreciate a nicely written message on a newsletter first. It depends on what kind of person you're after looking at yourself and how you would like to be approached as a helpful step in that way.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Awesome. Any other steps or recommendations? What's the next step after this? What's the next step after they kind of figure out, okay, who would I want? What are my values? And then what's kind of the next few steps after that?
[00:15:58] Speaker A: I think once you found that client that you think could be a potential dream client, it's very important to start building community and start building conversations with them. It's not like, hey, these are my services. Are you interested in it? No. I think because you want to build something with them that is very authentic and meaningful. It's important to understand where they're coming from and maybe even build a deeper relationship. Almost getting to that level where you feel like you're engaging with. In the conversation with a friend, you really understand why they started their business, what their struggles are, what they need help with. Based on that, you can offer them more targeted advice or customized offers.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah, like, it's an endless study. And just like a friendship or relationship, you should have a relationship with your potential clients. Always learn about them and get updates on them by researching more about your market and what's relevant to that ideal client continually. There's never just like a aha moment and then you find that one niche person and that's what it is. And you don't progress at all after that. It's really continually studying and getting to know that person and how they're feeling at certain times, what they're struggling with. Like you can build a really strong connection to someone that's not an actual person, but a crown of people that fit into that section that you focus on that really relates to you and your values.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Very true. And I also think what's very important is to stay in flexible because it could be that you start now, like me for example, saying I'm not focusing on one industry, I'm going after value based businesses. But maybe along the way, while you do that and work with people from different industries and backgrounds, you start to notice that people from a certain background are actually the people you relate with the most and the work you do for them is the one you enjoy the most. Let's say for some reason you work with a lot of photographers to build their online portfolio and realize, oh, this is the target group I'm really connected with because I love their creative way of thinking. I love to build websites where there's a lot of rizzle stuff going on. Maybe you change your strategy along the way and say, oh, because I've done so much work for photographers, I'm going to focus only on photographers. That's also a way forward. Right. So I think about like niching versus non niching.
Start somewhere, see how that goes for you. But stay flexible to change the strategy if that's that works for you and makes your business thrive.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Continual awareness. There's a reason why you niche. There's a lot of debate out there like don't niche niche. A lot of people think you niche to market better to people. Yeah, but it's also about you gotta, you gotta think about yourself. Right. How do you feel serving that person?
When you feel excited to serve a certain person, it's because they're a type of person you relate to that you know, you work the best with, that you can just be the most creative with with. And so it's you do your best work with that person. So niching isn't just about marketing. Well, niching is also about having an amazing client experience because you choose to work with that certain person. So think about yourself and what that client means as well as marketing. Think of both. Right. We don't want to just think of how many clients can I get with this great marketing. No, it's how do I feel working with this person?
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Exactly. And I think especially like when you Keep your target group a bit more broad. It's also very inspiring, very motivating because it's not like that you're creating the same kind of branding and the same kind of website again and again and again. You're learning a lot from different industries. You're learning a lot from different viewpoints, from different people, from different characters. And that's also something that like personally it motivates me to be inspired by so many different kinds of people that in the end share the same values and goals. Yeah.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: And that feeds your creativity.
[00:19:41] Speaker A: Right?
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Right. I love that. So I hope you guys got some good takeaways from niching. Just some good reflection, thinking and questions to ask yourself when you are choosing who you work with and what does that mean to you in your life, in your business, in your goals, in your mindset, in your body, how you feel, think about all those things and be really aware of how it feels to work with certain types of clients. And so we're going to go into and talk a little bit more about staying motivated as an entrepreneur because wow, that's really hard to do as an entrepreneur is to stay motivated, stay creative.
So let's first talk about in the beginning, especially a lot of you who are listening or starting your business, who there's just so many things piling up starting your business. So what do you do to really stay motivated in the beginning and give examples from your own story too?
Hey, this is Dana from Society Gal and I wanted to take a quick break to tell you about the Society Gal Academy, the exclusive membership that helps entrepreneurs like you launch, grow and scale your business. Join weekly expert led workshops, access on demand courses and connect with a supportive network of go getters just like you. Are you ready to elevate your business? Visit Society Gal Academy today.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah, so I think one really important thing is start small. But professionally starting is very overwhelming and you feel like you need to set up so many different things. There are so many aspects about being a solopreneur and entrepreneur and like it's about the taxes and setting up your company and once, once you have that milestone done, how am I going to set up the brand, how am I going to do the marketing? There are so many things coming together and I could give advice on many things of course, but I'm not a tech expert or anything like that. So I let that to other people. But what I can say in terms of a branding point of view, what I think is very important early on from the start is to create a solid brand strategy. And brand identity. There's actually a free brand guide that is like a 12 step guide on how to ask yourself the right questions to set up a brand. I'm very happy to share that link later on for the listeners if they feel like they need some help getting started.
But yeah, I think doing that very early on is very important to build consistency around your brand, also to build credibility. Because once you have something set up that looks solid, that looks professional, it's also creating a certain image in the market. And I think that's a very important thing to do. If I would have to give a little bit more, like detailed, like easy to follow advice is focused on two things, focus on simplicity and consistency. And then if you look at the three big elements of brand identity, it's your colors, your fonts and your logo. If you have these three set up from the start and communicate them consistently, you're off to a very good start. When it comes to colors, choose five to six colors that you really keep using consistently in all terms of communication on your website, your newsletters and your social media.
If you're planning a photo shoot fairly early on, make sure that whatever you're wearing or the background colors match with these colors so you have a really rounded 360 brand image just by focusing on colors. Then when it comes to fonts, don't overdo it. Like I would recommend from this for the start, choose two, one header font and one body font. And then if you choose to do uppercase letters, stick to the uppercase letters. Like don't use uppercase here and then change to like, like normal font after that. Like really create a consistent image and make sure it's really readable. There's many beautiful fonts out there that might be beautiful to look at, but if it's not readable and your viewers get lost on your website or open their mobile phone and can't see what you're communicating, it's a problem. So readability, very important thing as well. And then when it comes to the logo, don't overdo it. Like don't try to put everything into your logo because your logo is just a logo. If you have of, let's say opening a bakery, don't try to put the bakery name in the location where it is, the year it was founded. Maybe a little croissant symbol to indicate it's a bakery. No, maybe just use the brand name, a simple logo, like something that creates a certain feeling. Just keep it simple, consistent. And I think that's the key to getting Started.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Yes. Can we highlight the importance of this?
Because there is a lot of us that I see that, like we have Canva now. We have all these different things that we can just play with all day with the font. And I think a lot of us approach this basic branding as, okay, I'm going to choose this cool font and this cool image because I want to stand out down the road. You're going to be able to stand out in different ways visually. Right. When you get an actual branded website and it's designed other visual aspects, what Lara is saying is really keeping it simple can help you in your next step and move on.
Because a lot of people stay here and don't move on or skip over this whole part. Every post is a different font and a different color and a different design and it makes a huge difference in your presence. You can get paid higher, quicker with higher quality clients just because of your brand consistency. Do you feel like that's something that contributes to that?
[00:25:06] Speaker A: Oh, definitely. I think it's also because if you're going to shop, for example, look at the most most expensive shop. Let's look at fashion shops, boutiques. Think about how they look. Normally they're very clean, very bright. There is mostly one color going on. They have a certain color palette in store. Everything looks very chic, almost like toned down, mature, mute. And these brands are often asking the highest prices because, well, you just have the feeling it's very luxurious once you step in there. Whereas when there's like everything going on and it's messy and chaotic and you don't know where to look first, that's mostly the brands that are fast, fashion, quick, quick, quick. Like just trying to sell as much as they can in a very short amount of time. It's a very different approach. Like you can still get things sold. Yes. But like to a way lower price. So I think it's interesting to look at this kind of metaphor for what you just said and compare that, right.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: Like how you said start small but professionally, right. Start small with clean brand, simple open sans font and you know, like a simplified.
And show up with clean colors. Just choose it and move on. As your brand develops, you'll start putting more of your personality, more of yourself into your brand and then understanding your client, understanding what you offer. And that's when you can start talking to a brand strategist and a web designer and they can put that into a visual, present that in a website and things like that, and that's when you can go to the next level. But Starting out, you don't need all that until later, until you actually understand how that can translate into a visual.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Is that good knowledge?
Awesome. And then how do you stay accountable when it comes to staying motivated as a solopreneur?
[00:26:47] Speaker A: Well, I think one of the most important things for me is connection building, community. And I think that's so important because you are a solopreneur often or an entrepreneur starting small, probably not having many people work for you or review so. And as humans we need meet other human connections. So it's important we have that aspect when working for ourselves. Earlier on I mentioned that having a mentor was helpful in my career and that is definitely one aspect. But also having a mentor can sometimes make you feel like you are not yet where you want to be because they are obviously way ahead in their career most likely than you are. So finding people that are a bit more like minded and maybe a little bit more on their same career path, maybe also starting entrepreneurs or people in their first or second year of business is very helpful and it doesn't need to be someone who is in the same industry can be helpful because you can share the same struggles or ask them for advice on certain things and be a bit more detailed. But it can also be someone who is an entrepreneur in a different field because that opens your horizon and helps you stay on track. One of my best friends, she's a business coach and she's in business now for I think two or three years. Having strategies sessions with her is really helpful for me because she's much better at that than I am. I'm the creative brain, good at working things out creatively and making things look good. But then sometimes she says things like I created this beautiful guide and I send it over to her and I was like, hey, look at my guide. Isn't it? Do you like it? And she's like, yeah, it looks beautiful, but have you thought about this, this and this? And I was like, oh yeah, actually I forgot about these things because I was so focused on making it look nice. But like I may have forgotten some other things along the way. So it's just very good to have people that can relate but that might come from different backgrounds to brainstorm and to help each other out because it's kind of a win win situation from both sides. Like now she helped me, but then on the other hand I could help her in the future with her branding or looking at her website and giving suggestions on that could be done better. So yeah, I think that's like a Super important thing for me to have like community around you.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: Yes. And as representing society gal, you know we're a big proponent because we're in online business. You can easily be so isolated and alone and it's really easy to do everything on your own, be on your own path. Just put your head down and go, we are better together. Right? We go higher together. That's just as humans in general, we can't do it alone. We are meant to be here together as families, husband and wife, relationships, friends. We all strive when we're together. And so it's not different for business. It can't be different for business. I love how you talked about your accountability group, your mentor and here at side again, we have networking calls every single week. They're beautiful relationships that build just from someone showing up on a one hour call. Even in my business at the beginning, it's very hard. Right. I created a group of five girls and we showed up on this call for months every single week together. That was just insanely helpful. We would talk about our woes, we would talk about our struggles, we would talk about our goals, we would give each other feedback.
And it's not that hard to create a group like that. You just say, I want to meet up with two or three people every single week. Who's in it? Those are invaluable friendships. I really challenge everyone to get in the calendar, partner like Lara, or go into even our societal group and say, hey, anybody want to start an accountability group? Let's go. And just be proactive in doing it and show up because you can grow so much from that, from other people and, and feeling not so alone and, and it's, it's really great to have that. That's awesome that you shared that.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: I agree. Thank you for sharing that as well. Beautiful. I think that's so strong that you did that in the beginning of your career. It's really great. And I think also what you're doing there with connecting with these people is kind of building an ecosystem around you. Right. Because in the end you might benefit from them in a professional way. So let's say I have that client that needs branding and the website, but they also need photos professionally done. If I had connected with a photographer before, I can link them to that photographer or if they need help setting up their business strategy, I can refer them to my friend who's a business strategist. So building that ecosystem around you and having that network of people that can of work hand in hand with you, just very valuable.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Really who, you know, that can get you to a whole other level. I. I love that you said that, because in our group, we passed around referrals just in a circle. We weren't available. Okay, here you go. I'm going to pass it on to you. It's free to do it, right. It takes your time to do it. The amount of opportunities and even inquiries and clients come from that that are thousands and tens of thousands of dollars just in your pocket because you connected with somebody. So I think there's. I mean, I can go all day out networking and why it's important because, I mean, we're talking about mentally keeping us going and motivated. You get a lot of motivation from getting a client from one of your friends or collaborating on a cool project that's really exciting and really fun to do it with somebody else.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Yeah, because it's also about trust in the end. Like, you want to work with people that you trust, and if you build.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: Like, people you trust.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Right, exactly.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: So how do you refresh your energy? You know, a lot of us are feeling like, ooh, sometimes you're just like, going, going, going, and your creative energy is not flowing, or you have a bad experience with the client. We've all had that. Or you're seeing inquiries becoming really low. You're getting discouraged. So how do you refresh your energy and keep yourself going in your business?
[00:32:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I think for me, it's definitely physical exercise. Like, I need that. Like, especially, like, for me, like, like, basically staring on the screen the whole day. At some point, you feel like you can't see clearly anymore. What helps me is scheduling my workouts during the day. I often do it at 12pm or 1pm so really like to make a break in your day and really force yourself to go out there. Go to a yoga session, spinning class, a hike, or a run, just to clear your head, reset, recharge, and start again fresh after you've done that. The nice thing about being an entrepreneur and working for yourself is that you don't have to follow the nine to five work hours. So that's a huge benefit that we have as entrepreneurs that we should really make use of. That's personally working for me. There might be people who love to work out in the morning or who say, I need my workout in the evening. So it depends on what kind of person you are and what works for your body type. Physical exercise, eating, clean eating, healthy meditation. I come from a yoga background, so for me, that really, really helps. Like, even before the podcast, I told Dana, it's my first podcast, so I was a bit nervous. But what helped me before is I had five minutes left. So I googled very quickly three minute meditation. I was like, okay, three minute meditation. Then I have two more minutes to set up the camera and the microphone. So that's what I did. I just meditated. I did this exercise where you breathe in for four, breathe out for six. And then after I've done that, I felt like I can speak in a way that people can follow me, that I'm not rushing my thoughts. That feels natural to me. So, yeah, I think that's, that's things that really helped me.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: I mean, it's a physical break. I think a lot of us have that mindset, like, okay, if I keep working, more, more will happen.
And that's such a misconception when it comes to work.
Like, it's not more work, it's more work where you are in your genius zone. If things start blurring together and things aren't clear anymore, you can keep working for the next three hours and probably not get anything done unless you take a break. Go move your body.
It's so underrated to go move your body.
And it's so at your desk. I love that. I like how you also said doing what you feel is good for your body to move. Could be yoga, spinning class, walking outside. If we're just sitting in the sun. Getting away from a computer is, is so essential for every day, daily thing. And not to wait for a three week vacation for you to get refreshed. Like, you shouldn't have to wait for a three week vacation to refresh yourself. It should be a daily thing. We should implement it every single day. I love that.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: That right? Exactly. If you do that, maybe you don't even need that fe.
I mean, we all want it, but I don't want that.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: Sounds horrible to me.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: It's very long. It will not get to a point where, okay, that's the difference between wanting it and needing it. Right? So, like, you don't want to get to a point where you need it. So, yeah, I think these things really help.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: You want it where you enjoy it, where you're like, this is feeding me, right? Like I am being fed. I like how you said your nutrition and that's what I'm trying to work on right now. I'm feeling so tired. I'm like, okay, well, it's probably the food. And literally you change just a little thing in your nutrition or your meals and your energy is like this. We so rely on energy drinks and coffee and, and those are great. But we rely on those things to give us energy.
And so, you know, I like how you kind of work backwards. Your physical health and then your nutrition really are all internal. Right. And then they, they bring you energy.
So we're gonna go to the next part of the podcast, which is always my favorite, which is talking about learning lessons. I think it's always great. It's a great vulnerable thing to share. Great for people to learn from mistakes or things that all of us have made to get to where we are. There's no entrepreneur out there that has just gone straight to success without failing or without making mistakes or regrets. So what is a learning lesson that has helped you shape your business or get you to where you are today?
[00:36:09] Speaker A: No one got to a point without having failures and all of that. I think that's also the beauty of being an entrepreneur. Trying things, failing.
Exactly. Because that's like, it makes you grow so much. And I think like, and again, I'm not against the corporate career, but the amount that I've learned in the last six months being an entrepreneur versus seven years in corporate business is massive. Because in the end you have to figure out everything by yourself. There's not that many people constantly there to help you you out because you have a huge team and everyone has their own responsibilities. You're doing it by yourself and you're googling or watching YouTube videos or doing whatever it takes to figure out what you need to know. But I think that's very much the beauty of being an entrepreneur. The biggest learnings I had so far, I think one is probably what I said earlier about the clients and how to define who your dream client is. I think in order to get a better understanding of who your dream client is, you should ask yourself what is is the problem that I want to solve. That's the starting point to how you find your clients. And for me, the problem I want to solve is that I wanted to help starting entrepreneurs and people like just coming up with a business to create a top notch branding and a beautiful brand identity from the start that will help them create credibility in the market to create that brand image where they seem like a very high value new provider of services or products also seem more credible to charge higher prices early on in their careers. So I think that's something that is very important to define very early on. Like what is the problem I want to solve with my business? And then based on that, trying to find the people that have these problems and show them what you can offer to solve that problem. I think that's something very important to work on early on your career and a great learning because I felt like, like I defined my target group not in the right way from the start. I feel like I'm on the right track now. So, yeah, that's definitely a big learning for me.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: Well, Laura, thank you so much for sharing your learning lesson. Is there anything else you want to say to our listeners before we share how we can connect with you?
[00:38:21] Speaker A: What I would say to people starting out in their careers, like starting entrepreneurs, people just setting up their own business, is. Is if you have that fire burning inside of you, that passion, that thing that makes you want to go after, go for it. Keep believing in yourself. Find clients that align with your vision, with your passion. Don't give up when it feels overwhelming because everyone's always preaching that. But it is so true. There were so many days in my early stages where I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. I feel like it's not working the way it should be working. I have put so much effort into it, and I can't really see, see what's coming back from that. There were days where I questioned myself, like, how can I give up a corporate job where I have a proper income every single month, to struggling almost every day to get new clients on board or finding the right people, like, how? How could I have made that decision? Those are certain days where you really question everything, where you feel like you made wrong choices or wrong decisions. But there will also be days, and that's the beauty of fluctuations within entrepreneurship where, for example, you get invited to record a podcast or where your client reaches out to you and says, really love the work that you're doing for them. And that happened recently for me. One of my client designs got featured in the Elle magazine. Those are really big successes. And I was just so happy to see that it was a Dutch client. So she's going to send over the magazine, have it physically in my hands, and probably going to frame it and hang it somewhere in the room. But yeah, it's just like, when they are bad days, let them be bad days. Sometimes you need to get out and do something else. Sometimes on bad days, you're just not going to do great work. And that's something you need to accept. Let the bad days be bad days and say, hey, I'm taking a break today and I'm going to pick up work tomorrow. Because I know when I take some time for myself and do something that is really nurturing my soul. Tomorrow I will have the strength and motivation again to put out the work that I actually know I can do. So, yeah, I think that's the closing thoughts that I have.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: Thank you so much for being on today. You really shared so much amazing insight and knowledge for people who are starting their business and starting their brand. You really simplified it. You really made it sound a lot easier to take the next step. Next steps. I hope a lot of you reflect on your brand from this podcast and really look at it with a different eye. Thank you so much for being on here today. How can everyone connect with you online? Social media.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: Yeah. On social media, you can find me under Studio Oax. That's the handle. And the website is studio.com. and then if you want to send me an email, it's hello, studio.com.
i'd be super happy for people to reach out, be it for business inquiries or just to chat. If it's fellow designers or people starting to build a business, please reach out. I would love to hear from you. Thank you, Dana, for hosting the chat. I really love talking to you. I really liked our conversation. And also again, to you and the whole society girl community, the community builders, you're doing great work. It's a nice mission to connect such a a big group of female entrepreneurs and bringing us closer together and supporting each other on the journey. Thank you.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: Thank you for being on today.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Of course. Thank you.
