- In today's video, I've decided to do something
a little different and share with you my business story,
so everything that I've gone through in the past two years
when I first started my business.
So the ups, the downs, the mistakes, the wins,
the ugly and the pretty,
I'm gonna share it all with you today.
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Just The Tips.
My name is Trena if you are new here
and I help creative business owners like you
get started on YouTube.
Typically here on my channel, I'll go through, you know,
tips, strategies, advice on how to use YouTube
in your creative business
but I wanted to share with you my business story.
I get asked this quite frequently,
and I feel it's so important for us to be transparent
with our business journey because a lot of the times
we see people being successful, right?
Maybe they have been in business five, six years
and maybe they caught a great break
but we really don't get to hear what goes on
behind scenes and how they got there.
So just a brief recap of my education.
I went to college straight out of high school.
I got a Bachelor's of Science in business
with a concentration in marketing
and a minor in public relations.
I got my full-time gig about six months after that.
I did a few side jobs in radio and I forget where else I was
but I got started working for the Department of Defense
doing some human resource stuff.
It wasn't typical human resource stuff
and it just was not my thing.
It was not a healthy environment.
One good thing that came out of that job though
is they paid for me to get my master's degree in business,
so I also have that as well.
In 2015, after working at my job for five years,
I had my daughter, and while I was off on maternity leave
for four months, I started to realize how unhappy
I really was at that job.
I mean, I knew I was unhappy but having that time off
and dreading going back,
not only because they leaving your baby at home,
or at daycare, not home alone,
but knowing you have to go back.
I somehow fell into the online world of creating courses
and this whole new world that I've never known
and I started to drink the Kool-Aid.
I watched a webinar.
I convinced my husband, "Guess what?
"I'm gonna make the same amount of money
"that I'm making in my current job
"by starting my own business online."
I knew I could do it, just follow the steps.
In December of 2015, I quit my job, walked out the door,
and started trenalittle.com January 1st.
I instantly dug into creating a course
because that's what you're supposed to do.
You're supposed to have a course, create passive income,
followed all of the steps.
I did joint venture webinars.
I did my own webinars.
I did everything they say you should do.
I released my first course in May of 2016
and (crickets chirping)
I think I had six people sign up
and one of them was a friend of mine.
Instantly, I became crushed.
I had spent five months up late working,
creating this content, like really following these steps
and it was a flop.
Also, during that time, I got my first client.
She reached out to me on Facebook
and she wanted to get started right away.
We had our first call, she was excited,
and then dropped off the face of the earth.
Not really, but she couldn't make the next call.
She didn't want to reschedule.
She'd already paid.
All of a sudden she wanted her money back.
I didn't a have a contract in place,
so one mistake that I want you to learn from,
always have a contract in place.
So, after some dispute back and forth,
we dealt through PayPal, that's how she paid.
She ultimately got her money back.
So that was really a learning experience for me.
So then the first six months of my business,
two major fails, right?
Enough to make you question what are you doing.
So in June of that year, I took time off.
We were going to the beach.
It had been a dream of my husband's to go the beach
for two weeks, so we went to the Outer Banks
in North Carolina for two weeks, and during that two weeks,
I had another potential client reach out to me.
We talked on the phone,
we thought about how we were gonna work together,
and she ended up being the lifesaver of trenalittle.com,
not only getting the chance to work with her,
but learning from her,
learning more about the online business world from her,
and really getting in contact with a lot of connections
that she had for me.
So one of my big takeaways for you during that time
is connect with people, whether it's coffee dates
or whether it's through Facebook,
or any way you can connect with other business owners
that are doing online stuff or doing things similar to you
because you're not, you're going to feel alone.
You going to have times where you feel like a failure.
Trust me, there's times every single day
I feel like a failure, but having those people
that I connected with, having those people
that I can reach out to definitely helps keep me motivated.
So after that summer, I really spent time working with her.
Like I said, she got me in contact with some other people
as well to start working with,
and I just kept pivoting my business.
I knew my first course didn't work
so I decided to change it a little bit,
tried to launch it again at the end of the summer,
so in September.
No biters, no bites at all.
So I didn't even forth with the complete launch.
I just scrapped it instantly.
The third launch that I had,
I was getting ready for Black Friday,
and I had a mini-course that I just pulled out
of the full course that I created
at the beginning of the year and pitched that
with I think it was a video idea package,
and that got some traction.
That got me some clients as well, but nothing big,
no big break.
And then in December, it was time to have the baby,
but what was really great is through the connections
from that first client that I had,
not the nightmare client but the dream client,
through her, the connections that I made,
they made other connections
and those people were signing contracts to work with me
as I was having a baby.
So I started 2017 with clients
excited for what was to come, but I had a newborn, right?
So the first three months of 2017 were tough.
Figuring out this new life with a newborn
and a two-year-old, plus we were living in a tiny apartment
since we had sold our house really fast unexpectedly.
So the beginning of 2017 was really tough.
I had clients, but honestly, I probably wasn't working
as hard as I should on those clients.
Just having a baby doesn't mean, you know,
to eat, sleep, and poop.
There's a lot going on.
And in 2016, when it all broke down,
I basically broke even with my business.
Luckily, I wasn't in debt with my business
but I didn't make much money.
So I started to think a lot.
Do I go back to work?
Do I apply for jobs?
What am I gonna do?
Where is this business going?
But one thing that I did know
is that I was willing to change, I was willing to evolve.
And so as you are working with your business
and something is not working, change it up a bit.
Don't get stuck in one thing.
Keep evolving your business.
Keep pivoting.
I love that scene from Friends
where Ross is yelling for Chandler to pivot.
- [Ross] Pivot!
Pivot!
Pivot!
- You just gotta keep pivoting.
Keep seeing what works.
Now here we are at the end of 2017.
I revamped my course that I created in 2016
that I thought I was gonna make lots of money on.
I released it to a select few beta people.
So I reached out to some people
that I knew wanted to do YouTube
that I thought would give me great feedback
and asked them to take part in this course, you know,
for free, as long as they gave me testimonials
and feedbacks.
I reached out to them.
They really helped me craft my content, evolve my content.
So then in the summer, I released that beta program
as the first time, the introductory price of my new program
YouTube Boot Camp, and through that program,
I had some amazing girls.
I was able to really get great feedback from them.
I was able to see some of them release YouTube channels
and they are doing so amazing,
and I would not have gotten to this program idea
had I not gone through all those failures in the beginning
and I wouldn't have got there if I just quit,
if I just went back to work.
It takes a lot of persistence in this online world
and it's tough.
There are days where you are going to struggle.
There are days where you're gonna feel like
you're not doing something right,
and I still have those days, right?
But you need to have people to reach out to.
You need to keep growing and keep learning.
Then in October I took everything that I learned
from those two launches that I had, the beta,
and the introductory course and had my best launch yet.
I've reached my goal number.
It was a five-figure launch and it really made me feel good,
but with that, you also have that quick dip again,
and you think, "Okay. What could I have done better?
"How could I make more money? What's next on the list?
"What's next? What do I gotta do?"
As I continue to grow and evolve my business,
I just want you to understand that
it's not always rainbows and butterflies and unicorns here.
I have bad days.
I have days where I don't want to get out of bed.
I have days where I feel like what am I doing,
scrap this whole thing, I'm gonna go work at a coffee shop.
So as you are growing your business,
as you are figuring out your path
in this entrepreneurial world,
just understand you're not alone,
that sense of failure or that feeling of failure
that you're having, it happens.
The best way you can combat it is find some friends.
I loved doing my weekly accountability
with my business friends.
I have a mastermind that I talk to every month.
Having those people that understand
what you're going through and can give you that support
and can give you, you know, that confidence and say,
"Hey. Here's maybe what you need to change.
"Here's what I think you're doing well."
That is key in succeeding here on business.
And so, I just wanted to share with you my journey.
I want you to know that it's not an easy road.
A lot of people you see being successful,
you're seeing them at step 10 and 11,
whereas you may be at step two and three.
So don't get discouraged,
and don't think you're doing something wrong.
If something's not working, change it up a bit.
Pivot it.
- Pivot!
- Just a little bit to see if a slight tweak can change it
'cause that's really been able to make changes
in my business.
And constantly educate yourself.
You're never going to become an expert in something
because it's constantly changing.
How many times has Facebook changed?
How many times has YouTube changed?
Find other experts to learn from.
As they're learning, you can learn from them as well.
Keep up to date on your field of expertise.
You can't just say, "Hey, I learned everything
"there is about Pinterest," and quit learning.
Pinterest is always changing.
This online world is always changing.
So continue to educate yourself.
My question of the day for you is,
"Where are you having a hard time with your business?
"Is that feeling like a failure, feeling like an imposter?"
Let me know down in the comment section below.
If you like this type of video,
make sure you give it a thumbs-up
and you click that circled subscribe button
because every week I'm posting new videos here
to help you create a YouTube strategy for your business.
Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next week.
Bye.
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