It’s so fun when we have our guests back on Rocky Mountain Marketing.
In this week’s episode, we are joined by Francie Hinrichsen whom we also spoke with in episode 46 about all things analytics, data, and marketing. She’s been doing a lot of amazing things recently including writing her own book entitled Dream, Build, Grow. It aims to help female entrepreneurs learn step-by-step on how to grow their businesses.
This episode is a wealth of knowledge for all entrepreneurs at any stage, as we deep dive on:
1. How do you help business owners know what to do next? Just take one step forward. Regardless. Build a strong foundation in the beginning.
2. Getting a conversation with other entrepreneurs. Find a business mentor.
3. Runs and Repeat. Give yourself time to work on your learning curve.
4. Giving it the time and the space to grow something beautiful.
5. Building a genuine relationship can happen online.
6. Committing to a long-term vision. I embrace transformation in mind, body, and spirit.
7. Approaching entrepreneurship with flexibility.
8. Being able to lean into a community and learn from others. Community over competition.
9. Ask the question – What Can I Do For You?
If you’re one of those struggling in their entrepreneurial journey, this might just be a sign that you got this! Make sure to tune in and enjoy this amazing conversation!
Visit Francie’s website: https://foundingfemalesco.com/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciemuellerhinrichsen/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/startyourbusinessin2021
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundingfemalesco/
Katie Brinkley 0:02
Hi friends. I’m Katie Brinkley and you’re listening to Rocky Mountain marketing. This podcast is all about helping Colorado based small business owners, entrepreneurs, realtors and professionals discover the strategies and systems that take their marketing to all new heights. Let’s dive into today’s episode. Welcome back to this week’s episode of Rocky Mountain marketing. My guest this week. You’ve heard her on this podcast before her name is Francie Heinrichs. And she was episode number 46. So if you haven’t listened to that episode, when you’re done with this one, be sure to go back and listen to that one because we have a lot to talk about. And before I hit record here, she and I were talking about how much can change over the course of a couple years because we were talking all about marketing and analytics and data on her last episode. And today, we are going to be talking a little bit more about being an entrepreneurship, what it’s like to be an own business owner, and what she learned over the past 10 years of a corporate career and business ownership that helped her teach women modern strategies for starting and growing their successful businesses. Francie, thank you so much for joining me on the show again.
Francie Hinrichsen 1:14
Oh, you’re so fun. So thank you for having me.
Katie Brinkley 1:17
Well, tell us what again, for those who have not listened to the last episode, just tell us a quick a little bit about you so that people can get to know what it is that you do and kind of what brought you to this point. Yeah, you
Francie Hinrichsen 1:30
bet. So I went and did my grad program did an MBA in thought I was going into the high end spa industry and got some experience hard pivot, I hard pivoted into business ownership, because I realized very quickly that managing people wasn’t what I wanted to do with my career. And that business started as a virtual assistant business and evolved into data and analytics. So last time, we talked a lot about what are some things and practical tips that business owners can apply to their online presence in order to be found by their audience more easily. And that became my real job. You know, my moneymaker for my family my where I was pouring into. And along the way, I was around these women, just these groups of women who are running businesses, and I was picking up things here and there. And in addition to that, I’m the daughter of an entrepreneur, like I said, went to school, picked up a few business tips there and felt like I had a lot of information and love and encouragement to pour into female entrepreneurs. And so since I’ve talked with you, I started a second company called founding females, where we just rally around women who are starting and growing businesses.
Katie Brinkley 2:47
While in Francie, you’ve also done something else since the last time we talked, you wrote a book and I shouldn’t just say a book you wrote like a textbook, you hold that thing up for people who are watching on YouTube, they can see this book. And it looks amazing. Just quickly tell us about this book that you wrote over the past 18 months since the last time we talked. Yeah,
Francie Hinrichsen 3:06
thank you. So it’s called Dream build grow a female’s step by step guide for how to start a business. So it takes readers through six steps from ideation all the way to profiting and scaling. And my goal for this book was to not just tell what to do, because I think there can still be a lot of confusion, even if you know what to do. My goal was to also tell how to do it and why to do it. So it’s actually a journal, it’s a written journal, there’s space for women to pour into the pages, write their ideas, thoughts dreams down as they’re going through the process of starting or improving this business. And what I wanted to do was teach them, why we make the decisions that we make along the way, so that they weren’t just memorizing answers, but they were actually able to apply the knowledge and become more competent as a business owner making decisions in this dream of theirs.
Katie Brinkley 4:08
Well, that’s such a good point. I mean, it leads me right into my first question, if you because as business owners as entrepreneurs, one of the biggest struggles that was at least for me was what to do next, because not necessarily everyone’s gone through like, Okay, you first do that you’ve been dragged out a business plan. And then after that, you’re gonna go out and seek investors. And I mean, like, a lot of it’s kind of learning on the fly. So how do you help these female entrepreneurs or just any entrepreneur figure out what to do next?
Francie Hinrichsen 4:37
Yes, good question. So it always it’s simple. The answer is simple. Take one step forward, even when you feel confused, even when you feel blindfolded, really force yourself to get up in the morning and do something that’s going to push your business forward in the next 24 hours. So obvious ideas are reaching out building relationships batching your content, writing that now? next blog post, those are examples of ways to take that one step forward in your business to make some kind of momentum or forward movement. But specifically, the book is divided into six sections, because it starts with the clarifying stage where this is where you get clear on what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for. So that you, you have that clarity in the beginning, a lot of women start in the middle, right, they dive straight into the brand, they dive straight into the social media, the things that they’ve heard that they’re supposed to do, they dive straight into that. And so we take a step back, and we build a strong foundation from the beginning. So that we can build on that foundation through research through building up a business plan is simulating the team moving on to launch moving on to profit, and scale. And so I think the simple answer to your question is something just do something, right, like, reach out to LinkedIn contacts, or show up to a networking event, or practice your elevator speech, do something that’s going to move you forward. And that is what’s going to get us out of the before it works stage or maybe even a plateau in our business that before it works stages, that stage of business where you feel like you’re pushing and you’re moving. And you’re you know, you’re trying so hard to get things going in your business, and it just doesn’t feel like it’s working. And then of course, everyone’s familiar with the plateau, where you know, just kind of everything just kind of levels out, you’re looking for growth, and it’s not happening. And so the simple answer there is just take some kind of action. That is what separates the people who hope it happens from the people who actually make it happen. Well, and frankly,
Katie Brinkley 6:44
I think that that’s you brought up so many good points here. And I didn’t want to cut you off. But that was one of the things that I struggled with. And looking back on how I started my business, I was like, Alright, first thing I got to do is have a I need to have a website first and then think of a name. I’ll figure out the rest as I grow. And looking back, I’m like, Well, I probably shouldn’t have built my website on Squarespace. I should have built it on WordPress. And was it super important for me to have the name of the business? Kind of but at the same time, like, I wish I would have taken a step back and really looked at like, okay, is this the right name for the whole name of the business going forward? Because once you choose the name, it’s really hard to um, change it. So I think that taking that step back is a great first step. I tell people when I’m working with them on social media, a lot of times the the coaching clients that I have, they have like they’re posting on every single social media platform known to mankind, whether it’s Pinterest, and Reddit and Twitter, and I’m like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I mean, let’s take a giant step back, where’s your audience, let’s just focus in on one, maybe two and just knock it out of the park on those platforms. So I’m 100% with you on taking a step back. I also think that talking to people around you is a central people that are one to 1015 steps ahead of you is everything that I know that’s what helped me with my business is just hearing people’s stories of entrepreneurship mistakes that they made, you know, things if they could have a do over what would they do over? Do you find that having those type of conversations with a lot of the people that you work with and clients that you help really makes a difference and just having them slow down and find that business mentor, I would
Francie Hinrichsen 8:31
1,000% agree with what you said, the thing that I try to help new entrepreneurs understand is that you cannot build your business from behind your computer, you have to get out and build those relationships. And the relationships are what will open the doors that you wouldn’t walk through otherwise. And so yes, I think there’s a lot of value in having relationships with all kinds of people in all different walks of life and different stages in growing a business. But specifically, it’s important to know, and to intentionally build circles with peers, and also with people who are several steps ahead of you. And to be aware of the types of information that you’re getting from both of those groups, your peers are going to go through the process with you. Your peers are facing similar challenges, they can help you understand and have a more relatable view of how to move through those very real challenges in that stage of business. I think it’s also helpful to have that group of people who are steps ahead of you, because they can help you paint the vision for where you’re headed. But the hard part is and it’s very important that new entrepreneurs realize this and they cannot compare their situation to The group who’s several steps ahead, because it can become very intimidating, it can become a little demotivating. And so we want to keep in perspective, I didn’t see those peoples before it worked stage, right, like everybody has it before work stage. And just because I didn’t see it doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.
Katie Brinkley 10:20
So yeah, it was just it was really fast. It’s so true. And especially with social media, we are only seeing the highlight reels, we are not seeing the bloopers, we’re not seeing the failed launches, the lead magnets that didn’t really generate any leads. And it’s really hard to not just look at what is happening on social media, because you don’t know what they tried. And that didn’t work or how long that they’ve been in the game.
Francie Hinrichsen 10:47
Exactly. Rachel Hollis said it best when she was called an overnight success. Girl wash her face was her sixth book. And her response was Don’t call me an overnight success. And I’ve been doing this for 10 years. And so I love her response. Because it’s like, that’s not a compliment. You did not see how much blood sweat and tears I put in to get to where I am now. And same with even real life. People who aren’t Instagram famous are Rachel Hollis facing very real challenges in their business. But they put in the hard work to be able to get to that point
Katie Brinkley 11:21
exactly. Well, and I think that that’s one of the biggest misconceptions about being an entrepreneur is a hobby or an entrepreneur, and you can, you know, work from anywhere, and you can choose your hours, which is definitely a huge selling was huge, huge selling point to wanting to start your own business. But girl, I’ll be honest with you, I have never worked harder than when I started my own business. And I think that it is a big misconception. How do you kind of help bring people in, if they’re like, I’m gonna start my own business so that I can, you know, just work 20 hours a week and be a stay at home mom and still make you know, six figures? Well, I
Francie Hinrichsen 11:58
am very adamant about building a business around your life and not a life or on your business. So I think some of those things are very true benefits of starting your own business. But I just told my husband, I was doing some work before this. And I said, Babe, I’m gonna have my first $10,000 month and next month, and he was like, really grow. I’ve been in business for seven years. So people who are getting in business, I mean, yeah, you have some people who have quick success, and they’re able to make those milestones. But this is my seven year anniversary is going to be on June 1. And so it is trial and error and trial and error, don’t quit take a break, right? When things get overwhelming. Just take a break. And remember, I think also having your why clear, why am I doing this? What legacy do I want to create? How do I want to vote with my time, money and influence? So having those things in mind and very clear about what we’re working toward is so much more powerful than simply working for a $10,000 month? Right? There’s a lot of meaning behind a $10,000 month, once you have gotten to the point where you can get, you know, figure it out. There’s so many failures behind that. front of the other.
Katie Brinkley 13:26
Yeah, exactly. Well, and this is one of the things that I do love about owning my own business is I can choose to like to in the summers, I choose to make less I have less coaching clients, I kind of block out my schedule, and I’m at home with my kids during the day. And me and right now they’re four and seven, in 10 years, they are not going to care if I’m at home with them during the day, they aren’t going to care if their friends are at home with them during the day during the summer. So I think that you know, as your business evolves, knowing what is important to you, and what matters for your business so that you can craft the life that you want to lead is everything.
Francie Hinrichsen 14:03
Yeah, you can have that you get to decide, hey, I want to pull back on client work because I’m going to prioritize the summers with my kiddos, I want to be there. I want to go to the pool, I want to have the freedom and you get to choose that. And that’s the beautiful thing about entrepreneurship, but you don’t get all of it. Right. You don’t. You’re often sacrificing still something for the thing that you prioritize more
Katie Brinkley 14:28
well and Francie to you know, I want to make sure that you people understand that what you and I have done like it is very common. It’s just like what you said with Rachel Hollis like 10 overnight successes are not common. It is common to have those struggles to have those failures, but knowing what your priorities are is everything. So if someone’s sitting right now and they’re like alright, so I still haven’t hit those 10k months. I feel like I’m still just trying to figure out what’s working. What’s not working What is your advice to them?
Francie Hinrichsen 15:01
Yeah, so recently, I had a lot of clarity about this question specifically, I think a lot of times we try something, and then it doesn’t work. And so we throw in the towel, and we move on to the next thing. And so we try something else. And maybe we found a little bit of a success, but not as much as we want. So we move on to the next thing. I’m a big fan right now of rinse and repeat, give yourself time to work out the kinks to ride that learning curve. So if it’s a new style of reel, that you’re going to try out, try it 10 times, right, or enough times to be able to see trends and patterns, and to be able to rinse and repeat that process so that you can get good at it. I think we have really high expectations for results when we try something for the first time. But the reality is we figure out what works and what doesn’t work by doing it by moving through and going through that process. And surrounding ourselves. Katy with people who are lighting flames, right, I just saw a quote today about being somebody who lets others like the flames from our candle, you are one of those people by pouring out knowledge and pouring into business owners in your community. And when we surround ourselves, we pick up these little seeds, right, we plant seeds, and maybe that plant doesn’t come to fruition right away. But over time in the right environment, the right nurturing, it becomes something beautiful. And I think that’s one of the things that we’re really missing is giving it the time and the space to grow into something beautiful.
Katie Brinkley 16:39
Well, in France, you two, I think that what I learned a lot from COVID, is that you can find your people online, going to networking events is still phenomenal, you know, now that the world has started opening up again, you know, I’ve been doing a lot of in person speaking and going to in person networking events. And it’s great. But it’s not to say that you still can’t have those type of relationships formed online. And with zoom with just different social audio apps, you can really grow and nurture relationships, just online. So I’m curious what you think about trying to, I guess, make friends with strangers on the internet?
Francie Hinrichsen 17:18
Yeah, I’m a big fan of marketing channels. I know we speak the same language here. And I think there is space for in person networking, there’s a lot more space since COVID, for online networking. So building those relationships, and the common thread is being genuine reaching out and saying, How can I help you? Who can I connect you with? You know, what are you trying to do? It’s not just what message do I want to get out? But how can I be in your corner. And I think when you approach it in a way of community, that glue is still there in the same way that we build in person relationships, it can also happen online, I would agree with you.
Katie Brinkley 17:58
Now for those people who maybe are just in the conception phase of starting a new business, what is your biggest advice to them? I know that you have, you know, the take a step back mentality. But what is step one, in your opinion?
Francie Hinrichsen 18:15
Sure, I think committing for the long haul. And having a long term vision of knowing it’s not always going to be easy. Your business is going to change immensely. In the first year, you alluded to that earlier in being ready to change your mindset. And to transform as a person I have this mantra that I repeat often is that I embrace transformation in mind, body and spirit. So I don’t think it was very good at change. In the early years of my business, a change would come unnecessary pivot, and it would completely wreck me. And then it would take me time to get back up on my feet. And what I’ve learned over the years, is being able to be moldable, to change your mind to change your strategy with data is really important to build a business that delivers value to the people that you’re trying to reach. And so I think approaching entrepreneurship and saying, This is the idea that I have in my head. And I’m gonna run with this idea, because that’s how you gain momentum. But I’m gonna allow it to change and mold along the way is really important
Katie Brinkley 19:24
1,000% And if we learned anything from 2020, it is that you have to be moldable you have to be willing to pivot and you have to be willing to learn new things because you never know when you might need to suddenly pivot. So Francie, I have a follow up question for you with all these women that you have been helping grow their businesses and then you’ve been guiding them along through the journey of entrepreneurship. What is the one thing you think makes so many of these women successful with their business?
Francie Hinrichsen 19:59
I We’ve touched on that a couple of times community is huge, being able to lean into community and learn from other people.
Katie Brinkley 20:05
I’m a big fan of collaboration over competition. In fact, I liked that phrase so much I had a shirt made with it. And I think that that’s what’s really changed with building a business. Since the pandemic, I feel like there’s so many more people that are willing to build that community and find networking partners and find, you know, business besties accountability partners that can just help them grow, you might be in the same field, but how can you grow together?
Francie Hinrichsen 20:32
Agreed, I just threw an event in person back in March in the level of community over competition blew my mind. And I started hearing this phrase that I used to disagree with, which is I don’t have competition. And I would speak up and I would say, Well, surely you do. You know, if it’s not another business, it’s an alternative way of getting the goal achieved, right, a treadmill versus running outside, for example. But then as I started to lean into community and see women rewrite the playbook for themselves, what I realized I think women are leading the way in this, Katie, is that I want you to succeed, I want to succeed, but we can do it together. And there’s enough space for all of us. And if that means a florist, in the same community as another florist team up for an event, great, right, we’re bringing awareness to the fact that we have this valuable offer in a community. And it’s the same reason why you see Walgreens and CVS on the same corner. Right? A lot of times, it’s not because they’re aggressively trying to compete necessarily, it’s because when you take two businesses and you draw it in one area, both of them can benefit, both of them can succeed because you draw more people to use that solution in that area. And I would agree with you 1,000%. It’s such a beautiful thing, the way entrepreneurship is evolving, and it is inclusive, it is supportive. It’s encouraging, and I am an onboard 1,000%.
Katie Brinkley 22:12
I think that one of the things that we’ve really talked about a lot today on this episode is how important a community is to your business, how having those cheerleaders in your corner, having the strategy in place, knowing not to put you know, Step C before step a and paying attention to step a are all part of being a successful business owner. And there’s people along the way that are willing to help lift you up and support you. Final Thoughts that our listeners should walk away with from today’s episode.
Francie Hinrichsen 22:50
Lean into people. You know, Katie, I’m an introvert. And people don’t believe it a lot of times, but really, I get my energy from journaling and quiet time. And it’s not always my first inclination to lean into people, whether that’s in person networking, or jumping on a just a zoom coffee date with people. But it is the key that has propelled me forward in 1000 different situations. And I would encourage them, if it’s somebody who’s just starting their business to lean into a group of people who are just starting their business, or if your target audiences, moms, go to a moms meet up and build those relationships and genuinely care, get their number, reach out, follow up with an email, send an article that you thought that they would be interested in. And I tell you, I asked the question, What can I do for you, because it it blows people’s minds to realize that you’re genuine, and you care, and you want them to succeed too. Well, Francie,
Katie Brinkley 23:46
thank you so much for joining me on the podcast once again. And for those of you that did not check out Episode 46, be sure to go back and listen to that episode with Francie because she drops a lot of great tips on data and analytics. But right now you have that new book. So hold it up again, for those who are watching on YouTube. And for those of us listening, Dream build grow, where can they find that dream build grow?
Francie Hinrichsen 24:11
It’s available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Walmart thing be sure to
Katie Brinkley 24:16
be sure to connect with Francie on LinkedIn, I follow Francie on LinkedIn and see all of her great tips and she’s always posting on there. Where else can we get in touch with you? Francie?
Francie Hinrichsen 24:25
LinkedIn would be great. I love Instagram or my email is yes, she can abounding females co.com. I’d love to hear from
Katie Brinkley 24:34
them. Love it. Thank you again so much for joining me today.
Francie Hinrichsen 24:37
In queue Katie.
Katie Brinkley 24:39
I love having the opportunity to bring on past guests for you to listen to here on Rocky Mountain marketing. And Francie and I talked about a lot about what we talked about on today’s episode last time but we wasn’t I didn’t hit record. We share so many similar thoughts and opinions about entrepreneurship and I’m so glad that she I literally wrote the book on how to become an entrepreneur how to grow your business, how to become that small business owner that focuses in on what their priorities are. Because let’s be real, that is why we decided to start our own business is because we’re passionate about what we do. And we want to, we are the most driven people out there with our businesses. We want our businesses to succeed and it is so hard to not have the imposter syndrome to not do the comparison game and to not see what other people are doing and compare your journey to theirs. My biggest piece of advice is to just put on the blinders focus in on your own business journey. And like Francie said, Your journey is not going to be like everyone else’s. Surround yourself with people that are going to lift you up and support you. Community over competition collaboration over competition. That is the key to success as an entrepreneur. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Rocky Mountain marketing. As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can visit my website at www.nextstepsocialcommunications.com. Connect with me on LinkedIn or check me out on Instagram. Let’s keep taking your marketing to new heights.