In episode 58, I chat with Miranda Marshal, the founder of Occipital Media. In this episode, we talk about how to overcome being intimidated by the online world and social media and how to harness it as a tool, the myth that is “work/life balance”, how, as business owners we can be both emotional AND professional, how to gracefully quit a job you like when you’re ready to go out on your own and more.
Katie: 00:01 Hi Everyone, and thank you for tuning into the Hustlenomics Podcast. I’m your host Katie. And today I’m talking with Miranda Marshall, the owner and founder of occipital media. Miranda, thank you so much for being on the show.
Miranda: 00:13 Thank you for having me, Katie. I’m excited to be here.
Katie: 00:16 Awesome. So do you mind telling the listeners a little bit about yourself and occipital media?
Miranda: 00:21 Yeah, of course. So my name is Miranda Marshall. I graduated from Georgia Southern University with a PR degree in 2014 and from there I kind of jumped into the corporate world of marketing and was able to work with a, a great company for two years, taking different employees and building that customer relationship outside of the office and running their social platforms. And from there I just kind of had this fire to work with multiple different businesses and I felt like I needed more of a challenge than just kind of the rhythm of one business. So I started to freelance under in Marshall Media for two years and as of this year I have rebranded to occipital media. And the goal is just to assist small businesses and achieving growth in whatever industry they feel their passion for. And it’s been a really fun adventure so far.
Katie: 01:14 That’s awesome. My sister went to Georgia southern actually.
Miranda: 01:17 Oh cool. Yes, I really enjoyed my time there. You know, I grew up in Cumming, so I think that the small town feel was really kind of like home for me.
Katie: 01:27 Yes. So tell me a little bit, you studied marketing and all that in school right when you were in college, right?
Miranda: 01:32 Georgia southern, yeah. So my degree was public relations, so I did a lot of public speaking classes that really changed my life as far as getting up in front of people and realizing that people are just people, you know, everyone is just as nervous to talk to anybody else. And then towards the end of the term, you know, you get to kind of choose your elective classes that are really diving deeper into the field that you’re in. So I was able to take web design classes, social media classes, and more like further public relations, you know, writing like press release classes. And from there when I graduated, I really just didn’t understand how much my mind had been molded from those experiences because they continue to come out time and time again in my work.
Katie: 02:19 Right. That’s cool. So you graduated from Georgia southern and did you immediately go into the job market? What happened after you graduated?
Miranda: 02:27 Yeah, so I worked with an infertility clinic in Atlanta, Georgia in their marketing department and I was in charge of taking the doctors to different doctor’s visits with and build that customer referral kind of relationship with other individuals. We took them to TV segments, radio interviews, we held seminars for our patients and did multiple different events and were a part of a lot of different things. So in my mind, I almost kind of compartmentalize that as the traditional tactics, far as marketing is concerned. And once I kind of really wasn’t comfortable with that, I started inquiring about who was running our social channels and how we could, you know, update our website and things such as that nature. And that kind of just spiraled me to where I am today because I am always on my computer. And I’m loving it. You know, the generating of the content and helping people get their message out there and kind of let them understand that social media and the digital marketing world, it’s just a science and they’re just tools that you can use and although they may be uncomfortable with them, it’s just because it’s that newness, you know, once you know where to kind of click around, it doesn’t seem so intimidating and people are really more apt to share their passion further with the world.
Katie: 03:45 Absolutely. So what drew you to like PR and marketing and the digital world in the first place?
Miranda: 03:50 I have no idea. Even when I was in college, I was not that person that was like, this is what I’m going to do. I was just kind of like, it’ll all just happen how it’s supposed to. I think that ultimately marketing came into my mind with school because there’s not a whole lot of math. Math is definitely not my strong suit. I’m never like, I’m going to be a doctor or I’m going to come up with the next cure. Science and math in that aspect in numbers was not my thing.
Katie: 04:17 But it’s funny you referred to marketing as a science. So I mean it kind of is, you know, I like how you kind of put it into those terms.
Miranda: 04:26 I think at the end of the day, the most fun that I have is learning the patterns within all of the different industries and how you can apply social media as a science in that manner. It’s all testing to begin with for sure. You don’t know what your audience is gonna want most out of you and you don’t necessarily know what you want to give your audience, especially when you’re getting started. So it’s kind of like putting those tests out there and once you get that feedback, you’ve got to get back to the lab. You’ve got to know more. So I would definitely say the curiosity is what fuels the passion overall.
Katie: 04:59 So you were in the corporate world for a little while working for this infertility business. So what was that like? Did you have these feelings of like maybe wanting to work for yourself or were you pretty happy in the corporate world? What was that like?
Miranda: 05:12 So at first I loved it, you know, I was all about it. I just loved being able to be somewhere at seven and leave at three 30 and put my all into it because I’ve been raised to value work, you know, everyone has to work. So I was just really excited and I totally dove into it. And up until the moment I decided that it wasn’t necessarily challenging me the way that I wanted to be challenged, I still enjoyed it and all of the people that I learned from while I was there. But there was a time when my dad’s friend owns a automotive shop and he asked if I could help him with his Facebook and I was working at this clinic. But then I would also just in my free time, help this man kind of generate content and go into the shop on Saturdays and take some pictures know, and was just playing with the idea of basically running his Facebook.
Miranda: 06:01 And once that happened I was like, why am I not doing this for more people? Why am I not helping more people just create the content for their Facebooks. And so in Marshall Media was essentially born. I continued to work at the clinic for six months before I realized I can’t answer these phone calls for the people that are interested in my services because I’m at this desk. I valued so much where the desk had gotten me to the point where I almost didn’t take the leap because I was like, you know, you give yourself all of those thoughts of well what are they going to do without me? Or she’ll be disappointed that I’m leaving or you know, things such as that nature. There was just one day where I went to my parents and I said, I think I want to quit my job and start working for myself. And my dad is a police officer. He’s very safe and all of the ways. And so I was expecting him to just shut it down. You know what I mean? Like you’re crazy. And he was just like, well then do it. So calm, cool, collected, casual. And I was like, okay. You know? And once you think of it as a reality, I was almost hoping maybe he would tell me, no, looking back on it now with you, I’m like, wait, what? Okay.
Katie: 07:11 Yeah. It’s funny. It’s like you say it to yourself and it doesn’t feel real, but when somebody else is like acknowledging it, it makes it really real.
Miranda: 07:19 Right. You’ve been, you know, I’m just kind of reflecting back on everything in a way that I haven’t before.
Katie: 07:24 That’s incredible though. And it has to be hard because like you, you had a job that you sounds like you liked it and you’re doing really well and being successful, that has to be really hard to leave that situation because if you’re in a position that you really hate, your boss is horrible, blah, blah, blah. Easy to leave. Right? But like you’re in a situation where you’re making decent money, you’re enjoying it. You like the people you work with. That has to be a little bit more difficult.
Miranda: 07:48 Yeah. It was very personal along with you know, the career. I think I’ve gotten to a point ever since that experience. I don’t believe in necessarily a work life balance. I think that work is part of your life. I think that life is everything that you’ve got going and that includes work. So I’ve kind of created this life that, you know, working on a Saturday is nothing to me because I enjoy it and I scheduled that time, you know? But maybe that means Thursday of that week I just decide to not answer my emails past noon and enjoy the afternoon with my mom. Like that kind of a freedom is definitely what keeps me going in the freelance world as far as that specific experience is concerned. There were a lot of emotions, you know, and I had to learn how to act professional as well as emotional because when I had to sit down and tell my boss that I wanted to leave, it feels very personal, especially you have been working together on so many great projects and it’s been, you know, two years when someone young enters the workforce like that too.
Miranda: 08:52 I was among people that were 2030 years than me for the majority, you know, this is a company that everyone had worked for for 1520 years. It was me and maybe two other younger girls in the crowd. So the mindset there is why would you want to leave? You’ve got all of these things, you know, you graduated college and here you are with your salary and your retirement plan and here you go. Like this is set. So I really had to kind of peel back some layers and I mean even talking to you and reflecting on this now, I literally cannot pinpoint like what it was that made me have to walk out that door. But I could not be more thankful that I did.
Katie: 09:34 So I’m curious, you said you were pretty close with your boss or like you guys worked really well together. So do you have any advice on like how to quit gracefully from a job that you want to leave to go do your own thing? Do you have any advice on that? I know it’s an awkward situation sometimes.
Miranda: 09:50 Honesty, you know, just completely respect that person as you have been respecting them all along. I think that it gets tricky when you want to explore other avenues and that person necessarily is obviously, you know she’s your boss but she’s also your friend. So I just was honest with her. I just sat down and I, you know, I wasn’t a two week thing. I said let’s give it a month. Like this is what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to work for myself. I don’t necessarily have to be somewhere else at a certain time or a certain date. I said, what works for you? What’s a good timeframe for you so that this doesn’t put, you know, all of my responsibility on your plate and make the next person come in. Seemed like a negative experience. Right. I sat down with the person that was taking my role for a week and trained her and help that transition be easy for everybody. You know? It was almost like no one wanted me to leave and I’m so fortunate for that. But at the same time, you know, reflecting with you, it did definitely make it harder. I did not walk out that door with my arms in the air and like the wrong song in the background that was like I’m really excited but also like what am I doing right now?
Katie: 11:02 Right. So I’m sure everyone has that feeling when they start their own business. Even if they had like, you know, I had been doing it for 10 years already and they’re deciding to go full time. That feeling of like, what the hell did I just do? Like yeah. So walk me through that a little bit. Like, so you quit your job and you decided to go freelance and so what does freelance mean to you? Can you define that for people? Cause I feel like it’s kind of an ambiguous term.
Miranda: 11:27 It is. So my business starting off, I knew I wanted to do marketing and I knew I wanted to do social media marketing. That is something that I have always preached from the beginning. But I think learning how to manage my time and understanding that social media takes a lot of time. I’ve had to kind of reinvent as I go, what freelance even means to me because in the beginning, anybody that was interested in talking me, I was like, all right, let’s do this. Like, what do you need? I’ll make it happen. You know? Because I had come from this marketing department where I was working full time and I was doing so many different other things, so that realization that you can’t work full time for. Everyone definitely came to me and I feel like I learned that it’s quality over quantity. So freelance to me essentially means being able to work with various different small business owners in fulfilling the needs that they want or that they need to reach their audience and where I’m at right now, I specifically help generate that content and manage those content calendars for social media. I love creating Squarespace websites, MailChimp, email marketing and creating those templates. It’s really fun for me. Those three things are like, if you need those three things, let’s talk, because those are where my wheels are really happy.
Katie: 12:48 I love that kind of stuff. That’s exactly what I do. I’m on wix. I’m a wix expert, but I worked a little bit with Squarespace, but you’re right up my alley girl talking about my things.
Miranda: 12:58 I saw that I saw too that you’re a photographer and that’s something that I’ve picked up over the past couple of years just because of the generating content aspect.
Katie: 13:07 Well, it’s so important. You know, it’s so funny, people don’t even think about, photography is a part of their branding and all that stuff, but it’s so important,
Miranda: 13:14 So important. I had been collaborating with a great friend recently. She’s a photographer for weddings and headshots for seniors and Dustin corporate events. You have come together to kind of keep each other in check every couple of weeks and generate content for our own platforms because we’re consistently working for other people. Look at our own Instagram and we’re like, but wait, what do we post today? I mean, even for me like a social media preacher over here, you know, I just made my calendar for the rest of the year two weeks ago because I was like, you keep socking on yourself, but when you’re sitting at the table talking to your clients, you’re telling them that they need to be doing this to get this sort of a reach. So why aren’t you doing that for yourself?
Katie: 13:54 No, it’s so true. It happens all the time. It’s like the nutritionist, it’s overweight. It’s like it happens all the time. You forget about yourself when you’re helping other people, but so like doing all this stuff for other people. Did you have clients when you were leaving your job? Were you just leaving your job? I’m looking to explore gaining clients.
Miranda: 14:14 No, I definitely left my job because I had clients and was feeling the wave from me expressing that I could service this need. People were calling phone and they were wanting to talk more about what it was that I was doing and I was at this job and felt so guilty to even pick up the phone, you know? And that work,
Katie: 14:36 Like your nine to five was taking away from it. So you knew it was time.
Miranda: 14:39 I knew it was time. I felt that pool, I felt that I was in that situation where I was like, you either need to completely scale back this side hustle and maybe work with two to three people and even that would have been a lot or you need to quit your job and see if this will take you somewhere. Right.
Katie: 14:57 Well we’d like to kind of go back a little bit. How did you find your clients when you were first starting this side hustle?
Miranda: 15:03 So at the time I was living with a friend who loves graphic design and playing around with Canva. And when I was kind of talking with her about working with the car automotive shop, she created me a little logo on Canva and I just took that and got business cards printed from it off this to print, you know, gave my parents a handful, gave whoever else a handful and just started passing them out along the way. And I was also serving at restaurant in Brookhaven. So I was actually working at the fertility clinic and serving there at the time that I was thinking of doing this side hustle. So when I was able to quit my job I continued to waitress and I continued to just pass out my business cards. Any chance that I could. I really enjoyed the aspect of serving honestly the social aspect of it, you know, just being able to work all day on creating my business and then caulking out about four and just going and talking to people and having a good time until about 10 11 going to bed and doing it again. That was pretty much my schedule.
Katie: 16:09 Nice. That actually sounds pretty great cards where the thing like, I’m actually a little bit surprised cause I thought business cards were on the way out, but like it worked for you.
Miranda: 16:18 It totally works for me and, but I think also I believe in it. You know what it is that I am saying that can help these small businesses grow. I believe in what I’m selling and I think that that has a lot to do with it. I think it has to do with your person, you know, it has to do with how it is that you’re even just having a conversation. Something that I’ve learned is just by being myself, likeminded people are continuously, you know, attracted to me and it could be my Uber driver, it could be the person in line in front of me at the coffee shop, whatever it may be. They’ll just turn around and we’ll just start having these big conversations about what it’s like to just be a human being sometimes. And that will then lead to them telling me about this small business that they have.
Miranda: 17:07 And I’m like, well I have this small business that can help your small business and not just makes my heart like burst in a way because the conversation doesn’t have to be over, you know, like I have something to offer that can help their dreams come true in a sense. You know, back to social media, being a science, like it takes a lot of hard work and there’s no easy answer and no like follower that you can buy that’s going to significantly blow up your business. You know, it takes a lot of hard work as you know with Hustlenomics. I mean you have been just consistently pushing out that content and that takes a lot of time.
Katie: 17:44 Yeah, it definitely does. But I love that idea of like connecting with people just in regular life and then making that conversation bigger, you know, moving it forward. I love that. So freelance work, I feel like the hardest part of it is pricing. Figuring out your pricing, what you’re going to charge. It’s an awkward conversation. Nobody likes to have it, but how did you go about pricing yourself and figuring out what was right for you and how to have that conversation with your clients.
Miranda: 18:10 So this is definitely something I even struggle with today. Sometimes I’m like, I want to work on something so bad that I’m just like, I’ll do whatever you want to do. And then it’s three months later and I’m like, why would you do that to yourself? You know? So when I first started, I started as anybody else does, you know, you go to Google and you’re like, what are people charging? And from there I just tried to be open in the conversation with people who have been doing this a lot longer than me. That’s something that I’ve always found is helpful. And in my way of learning is looking up to the people who are doing what it is that I want to be doing. Or even just creatives in the field in general. You know, there’s so much information out there to us these days with different blogs that people are writing different magazines that have been publishing for years.
Miranda: 18:59 Documentaries. I love to watch documentaries even in the form of, I think that Jerry Seinfeld his cars with comedians in a sense is like a documentary you just learned from those people and their experiences and how it is that they got to be so successful today. So when it comes to the pay, I just take all of that and I sit down and I write out every little thing that I will be doing for that person. And I make sure that my brain understands the time that that’s gonna take in comparison to everything else that I’ve already committed to. Because if I don’t take the time to have that specific conversation with myself, then every time I’ll end up going lower or working with someone, that may be my gut was telling me that wasn’t the right fit for me for the wrong reason.
Katie: 19:48 Right. Have you found that it’s easier to like set things up in an hourly rate or like a package or what have you found like one’s easier than the other?
Miranda: 19:57 I think that packages are always easier when it comes to creatives because we could, you know, for me, I work out of my home, so for two hours I could be slaving over a project and then for 30 minutes I go and walk my dog. But I’m still thinking of that same project and then coming back and working on it some more. So it’s like, how do I stay fair to that person? Because no, I wasn’t sitting at the computer for that 30 minutes, but I was thinking about them the entire time and that’s part of what they’re paying me for. So I find that for me it’s easier to do a package even if it’s like a weekly package, you know what I mean? Just something that overall covers you and gives that person a fair understanding of what they’re going to be paying hourly anyways because when I’m sitting down I’m not trying to account for more than I think will happen.
Katie: 22:18 So starting out as a freelancer, what has surprised you the most about like working for yourself and being your own boss?
Miranda: 22:23 I would say that, back to the work life balance, learning that it can all be one cohesive happy thing has been really cool for me. Learning that I can mesh all of the areas of my life that make me happy together. You know, I value my work just as much as I value my family and my friend time just as much as I value eating a healthy lifestyle and getting enough sleep. So I think that each area of your life kind of affects the other one and freelancing to me by putting all of their responsibility on me and being like, if this doesn’t work it’s because you’re not making it work essentially made me look at everything else and see how much it all kind of pieces. Everything else back together.
Katie: 23:08 Yeah. I love your perspective on like the work life balance. It’s so different and refreshing. You know like cause most people would really separate those things. They find that work is one thing. The rest of my life is another thing. But I like how you kind of don’t separate that. It’s really interesting. So like how do you balance everything in a way that it doesn’t feel like you need to separate it?
Miranda: 23:29 Totally. I think that I stick to that traditional, the traditional hours that I learned from when I first started working. Everyone is up by seven in that world and everyone is, you know, essentially out four to five. So I make sure that I’m checking my emails when I know that everyone is sending emails and I kind of structure my work time to mirror when I know other people are going to be working and then I’ll structure my creative time for when I know that everyone else is kind of, you know, clocking out and enjoying their time because I know I’m not going to be getting those phone calls and things such as that nature. But that’s just with my industry, you know, with marketing and with working with small businesses, people as they’re working during their day, they’re calling me thinking of that marketing plan that they, you know, wanna see or this brand new idea that they have and this, that and the other. And those are the conversations that I love. So I have to make sure that I’m open to receiving those conversations and to have those coffee meetings and to do this, that, and the other.
Katie: 24:37 But I’m also curious like have you had to set boundaries with clients who maybe didn’t respect that nine to five, seven to four kind of boundary of that this is work time. And after this. I’m like having my own life.
Miranda: 24:49 Always, you know? But I think that back to that feeling of your gut, when you start working with someone that you kind of knew maybe it wasn’t the perfect fit, but you’re doing it because that paycheck would be nice or you’re doing it because you know you don’t want to let this person down. There are so many different reasons for taking on different clients, but I find whenever I ignore that gut feeling, it’s that client that is not valuing my time essentially at the end of the day. Because anybody across any spectrum, when you get a phone call at seven or eight at night from business, it’s kind of that feeling of pressure on the person to answer. But then it’s also like, could I not be sleeping right now? Right, right. Totally. I think to answer this question, I would just say that I try and respect human beings as a whole, and so when I see that certain people kind of go outside of that norm of respect, then you just have to kind of address it in certain ways.
Miranda: 25:49 One way that I tackle it. Say I have a client that calls me at eight and I’m making dinner and I don’t want to stop, you know, or I can’t stop, or whatever the case may be. I will call them back first thing in the morning, 8:00 AM in the morning to get, you know, just to be say, hey, you know, I apologize for Mr Call last night. I’ll even tell them, you know, I was making dinner or I was sleeping, or I was, whatever the case may be. Just to kind of put that realness to it because I also think that people get stressed out in business and they kind of lose sight of all of that themselves, so I’m not taking it personally, you know? I’m not trying to put that on them as a person on nature, but it’s just one of those kind of like reset things. It’s like, no, you’re working at eight, nine o’clock doesn’t mean that everyone has to answer your needs.
Katie: 26:39 Totally. Yeah. I mean, I’ve struggled with that so much. Just like boundaries and not answering the phone at 11 o’clock on a Saturday night, which I have done.
Miranda: 26:48 Right.
Katie: 26:50 Why should I do that? You know? It’s like insane.
Miranda: 26:52 I definitely didn’t start off with that perspective. You know at first I was like, client is everything. You are every client and that’s kind of the period that I was talking about where I just totally spread myself so thin that I felt like I wasn’t making an impact really anywhere.
Katie: 27:08 Because I was currently just trying to please the people. Something I’ve learned in the freelance world is you know what you can do best. No one else they’re calling you because they have questions and they know that you have a higher knowledge. So it’s also just learning how to guide that conversation. You know that that panic call at 11 at night. It could be because they don’t understand. It would take you 10 minutes the next day to set what they need to do to set up.
Katie: 27:35 Right. I mean that’s what I kind of love about marketing and design and all that stuff. PR is a little different, but with this field, nothing is really an emergency. You know, like it can wait a couple of hours, no one’s gonna die. Nothing’s, you know, gonna go that wrong. So yeah, to like that about this field, it’s like, alright, well I can not answer that call and everything will still be okay.
Miranda: 28:00 And you know, back to the human behavior aspect of it, it’s just that it’s people needing what they need from you in that moment, but then realizing that they have 18 other things to think about too. Taking that pressure off of yourself and realizing that as many things as you think of during a day, they’re thinking of two and they’re not just sitting there thinking like, why didn’t they get back to that email? Or why did you not blah, blah, blah, blah. And should they be talking to you? I’ve got, it’s from my perspective, one or two reasons. One, they’re annoyed because it’s been an unreasonable amount of time or two, they’re being unreasonable.
Katie: 28:35 Yeah, I mean, you’re very right. It’s sometimes people are unreasonable and you just got to deal with it. But sometimes, or I’d say most of the time we need to Kinda like set those boundaries and figure out what works for everybody.
Miranda: 28:46 And it’s all about what works for you. Actually, you know, in this freelance world it’s like you are creating your work life balance. So you need to surround yourself with people that understand you, know that that’s what you got going on.
Katie: 28:59 So speaking of that, what does a typical day look like for you?
Miranda: 29:03 I like to honestly be asleep by 10 so that I can get up between six and seven and start my day. I feel like if I can wake up early and I can get what I need to get done by the clock, I don’t feel guilty for vacuuming and doing the dishes and the laundry and playing with my dog for a couple of hours because I’ve had an eight hour work day.
Katie: 29:28 Yeah, I love it. I think that’s awesome. Totally would not be able to do it myself. But I did a respect that you can. I think that’s great. So what is the rest of your day look like?
Miranda: 29:37 I’ll do the emails. I’ll do the breakfast I to just get set up and make sure that all of our content calendars are set for the day. I like to set things up as much as I can in advance, but I believe with social media you’ve got to use the tools the way that they were built to be used. So I don’t schedule too many things. I like to live posts.
Katie: 29:59 Yeah, I was gonna ask if you schedule anything. So I kind of agree. I think the spontaneity of these things is what makes them special.
Miranda: 30:06 Yeah. So I mean I scheduled things in the sense of all of my clients and myself now has a calendar, so every day it’s there. I don’t have to do the thinking other than making it happen. It’s like you picture, here’s your content, here’s your hashtags. Now kind of put that altogether. And something that I’ve found in my, in my own self and in my own work is that procrastination piece really. I always at the finish line in up, coming up with that catchy caption that brings it all together in a way that I hadn’t even written down before. So from doing that I will eat lunch. You know, sometimes I will have a meeting at 10 I like to have my meetings at 10 o’clock if I have a meeting that day, I try to do it at that time just because I feel like I can still have that morning email in time and not be at that meeting and be like, Oh, who needs me?
Miranda: 30:59 What’s going on? I can really be present with that person, but if I don’t, I’m just working at home or a coffee shop honestly, and then around three o’clock my brain seems to kind of need that time, that away from the screen time I will just get into this node. Since I work in social media, sometimes I’ll find myself just scrolling through Facebook, which needs to happen in order to catch, you know, certain opportunities to react to certain content at the same time. Sometimes it’s like your brain is just mush right now. Like you need to step away from the computer.
Katie: 31:34 Completely understand. So I’m like on my computer, on my desktop, on my phone watching TV. So it’s like eighth grades in one room. It’s insane.
Miranda: 31:44 And sometimes for me, I get this feeling of like I’m in a cage almost and I get frustrated and my work starts to kind of reflect and I have to consciously be like, just step away for a minute. This is not a big deal. Like what you’re freaking out about is not a big deal. And I just think it has to do with all of the diff, all of the information that you’re consuming from those different screens. Your brain kind of needs that minute to just like digest it out.
Katie: 32:13 Yeah. So like what are some things that you do to kind of help you recharge? Refresh. Just get away for a second.
Miranda: 32:20 Yeah. Love my husky baby. His name is Kona and he is precious. I would spend all of my free time with him. Walking him around everywhere he would want to go is something that really helps me. Something else is reading because it turns all of those other voices off and puts my focus somewhere else. And then also cleaning. I love to clean, like it’s work for your body. You know, you’re vacuuming, you’re carrying the towels to the laundry, but you’re also stretching out and not sitting down. So I just kind of alternate between those things. I guess it’s back to that, you know, my work is my life, so when I need a break from work, I do the laundry. Are you reading anything right now that’s really good that you like? Yes, I am. It’s called how to be brilliant at a moment’s notice.
Miranda: 33:09 Oh, sounds interesting. It’s by Todd Henry. It’s called the accidental creative, how to be brilliant at a moment’s notice. And it’s really kind of talking about what I’ve been talking about today with your relationships and how to balance as a creative, your work and your life and all of the different things. Because people who don’t have that creative bone in their body as far as like the hustle, you know the want of the hustle, they don’t necessarily understand that when they call you and tell you to create something really quick that it can’t be done in that fashion. So he, he tells you how to work with that. Or at least that’s the chapter that I’m in right now. It’s kind of how to break down the personal and the work and the relationship and all of those aspects and make them all work for yourself.
Katie: 33:57 Definitely. I’ll have to look up the book. Does he have a podcast by the same name? Is that the same person? Accidental. Creative, yes. Okay. I’ve listened to that podcast before. It’s really good. Yes. Yes. Cool. Okay, so I’ll link to all of that in the show notes so people can find it. So like you’re a content creation queen obviously, like that’s what to do day in, day out, but it’s obviously a little bit harder for some people. You know, some people are really good at it, some people are not. So what are some strategies that you use to keep turning out all this content daily?
Miranda: 34:43So when it comes to my business, you know, and creating content for me and for the people that I work for. But just to give like a specific example, when I’m thinking about pushing out content for occipital media, I’m thinking, who am I trying to serve?
How do I want to serve them? So is it, you know, there’s so many different mediums that you can do it through. I can just post a picture. And so if I would just want to post a picture, it’s like, well, what are you trying to say? And so I think that breaking down, I think starting with the actual content that you’re trying to serve your audience. And then from there just brainstorming on ways that you can push it out to them. So, for example, today I released my first blog post and I’m really excited about it the way that that is because I found I was going, I was in Michael’s looking for props to take pictures with the friend that I was speaking of earlier for our content creation days. And it was this journal with blue and purple colors and it says, let the adventure begin and I’ve got shades of blue and purple and my logo and I was feeling this new fire, you know, like letting the adventure begin.
Miranda: 35:40 And from there, just from that journal, I created a blog post for other people to inspire them on letting their adventure begin. So I think when it comes to creating content for your specific brand, you have to start with what’s important to you and just start writing down everything that genuinely comes to your mind and excites you. And just focus on those things because you can’t do everything that you, you can do anything you want to do, but you can’t do everything that you want to do. You know, you can, you just got to focus in on certain aspects. And just run with that and whatever will be will be from there.
Katie: 36:18 Yeah, I like that. And it’s so true. Like you have all these amazing, brilliant thoughts throughout the day and then they, you don’t write them down, but it’s like they could actually be great blog posts. Great. You know, Instagram posts, anything. It’s a very good piece of advice. I like that.
Miranda: 36:31 I always tell my clients to just dive into their own day when they’re thinking about content because we all operate underneath this kind of automatic sense and we don’t take the time to think about every little step we’re taking. I mean, even, you know, with this podcast, for example, if, if I were, if we were to switch places right now, you would have had to sit me down and show me 20 different steps before even getting to where we are right now. So it’s like break down those steps because that is what you know and that is what you do that no one else knows and no one else is doing.
Katie: 37:05 Well. Yeah, I think we all assume there were are like uninteresting, but we’re, you know, other people will find it interesting, but it’s just like we’re all surprised that other people are interested in what we’re doing.
Miranda: 37:16 And that is exactly what my blog is about. Letting go of that fear of people, you know, not caring because at the day everyone is trying to accomplish the same thing. We all want to be our own degree of successful and happy, you know, but at the end of the day, we have to understand that that is different for everyone. Not One person’s journey was meant to be the same. So to look at those three bloggers that you admire and say, you know, I can’t put out anything like that. It’s like, no you can’t, but you can put out something that you’ve created. And that might be in a sense, quote unquote better, you know? But really it’s just different. We’re all just different. So you have to get comfortable with your different and just push that out to the world.
Katie: 38:01 Absolutely. And I feel like, especially millennial women who are starting businesses and trying to be really authentic and open, it’s kind of a catch 22 because millennials get labeled as like vain and so into themselves and blah, blah blah and all that stuff. And it’s like how do we show up authentically in our business and be open about who we are and we’re still dealing with that feeling of it’s not about you, it’s not all about you all the time, you know? Do kind of see where I’m at. See what I’m saying? It’s like a cashflow.
Miranda: 38:29 I deal with this on a very personal level. If you go to my personal Instagram, there is not one picture of my face from like the past years because I, you know, I picked up photography, so I’m taking all these pictures of all of these other things. Kind of become that person that likes to kind of hide behind everything. Through listening to different podcasts and taking different webinars, I’m learning that people do want to know who’s behind the scenes and that who’s making it happen and that helps. That helps push your brand in a way that people start to understand what it is that you’re doing and that you’re not just another account trying to do another thing. Right. They have that personal connection to you. So I’m having to step in front of the Cara and I’m like, I don’t know about all of this guys. Yeah, it can be awkward.
Miranda: 39:21 Yeah. We’ll enter touch on the millennial thing. I, you know, that’s such a broad group of people. Millennials are considered people, some who were born in the 1980s you know, some of them are 30 and it’s like for everyone to not just embrace the change that’s happening and kind of talk about it in that negative sense I think is disturbing to the industry because that’s all it is. It’s just different. You know, if you, you can look on different accounts and see the people who are very much about themselves and it’s very clear that that is in a sense their passion and you see on different accounts the people who are just trying to play the game and test the science and be vulnerable and learn from others who gets misinterpreted. Absolutely. I think that it’s all perspective and I think that if you’re on social media looking for people who are all about themselves, that’s all you’re going to find.
Miranda: 40:20 But I think that if you’re on social media looking for people to learn from, then that’s all you’re going to find. You know? Absolutely what you’re looking for. Right. I agree. So are there any things coming up in the future? Any projects or big goals or anything like that that you’re really excited about? So I am, I have this, I had this idea of starting workshops for small business owners to better learn how to manage their own platforms. Something that I’m learning is that I genuinely have a bigger fire when I’m working with someone who has to know the hustle, who has learned the hustle and who is currently hustling because that’s the brainwave that I’m on and that I enjoy to be on. So this idea that I came from kind of came from, there’s this need of people who need, there’s this need for business owners to unders better understand their platforms and better manage their own platforms.
Miranda: 41:21 And I think that I can offer this in an affordable manner that can also not only help them grow, but in a sense create a community, a local community out of it. Because there would be four different facets to it. So Facebook, Squarespace, Instagram, MailChimp would, once that I would start off with, you know, so email marketing, your social marketing and your website. So come to one of them. You could essentially come to all four, right? And by coming to all four, you meet different small business owners that are also valuing the same thing that you’re valuing. So not only can they come together and kind of help keep each other in check like me and my friend do, but they can come together and learn from one another and create this just great community of people that are always learning and growing with one another.
Miranda: 42:12 And I know that there are so many wonderful opportunities for that to already happen, but this just kind of feels like an idea that it would just happen on a more genuine basis. Kind of how I was talking about the person in front of me at the coffee shop turning around, you know, just by being in that same place with like minded people. I think that great things can come from that. And again, I just, I genuinely have a desire to see other people grow and I think that that’s one way that I can help is by teaching what it is that I know.
Katie: 42:43 I love, love, love that idea. And if you need anybody to collaborate with you, just give me a call.
Miranda: 42:50 Yes, I will. Absolutely.
Katie: 42:52 Absolutely. I love that idea. And you know, the whole background and idea of this podcast is to build a community and to help people who are first starting out and just lift as we climb. And I love that and I want to support that in any way possible. So I think that’s great.
Miranda: 43:07 Thank you. I mean that’s ultimately what drew me to your podcast. I can feel that from your messaging. You know what I mean? You just appreciate the hustle, the hustle, and you want to highlight people who are hustling well, who are hustling or people that I want to work with.
Katie: 43:25 I love it. Yeah. And there’s like so much too well, I kind of always want to have that balance of like really believing in myself and my abilities, but also having the grace to know that I have so much more to learn. So you know, that’s kind of always the balance that I’m trying to get. And I’m so glad to know that it’s coming across that that makes me happy.
Miranda: 43:45 It is. Absolutely. And I love the way that you put that because that is something that I consistently try to remind myself is that there’s always so much more to learn, get stuck in operating in the same ways that you know, keep, keep pushing yourself forward.
Katie: 44:02 Definitely. So are there any resources out there like books or courses or other podcasts that you found helpful that you would recommend to people?
Miranda: 44:09 I have recently been loving the gold digger podcast by Jenna Kutcher, my favorite. She’s like my guru. He is, yes. I mean just the way that she talks to me, you know, I’m like, she’s not talking to anybody else right now. We’re sitting in my living room and she’s changing my world. I love her quizzes. They always give me such perspective that make me kind of step out of my shell. She is the one that’s making me take pictures in front of the Lens just so we’re all clear. I’m like, okay, Jenna, fine. I’ll be vulnerable.
Katie: 44:42 Right? Nope. Same. I’m so inspired by her. I took one of her courses actually invested in that when I first started my business, which is the best decision I ever made. Invest in your education people. Well yeah, but like it was the best decision ever made. And if I could actually had, you know, one of the guests that was on her podcast on my podcast, it was episode three, so I kind of fan girl.
Miranda: 45:02 Oh that is way cool.
Katie: 45:05 Yeah, she spoke at the, this girl’s retreat and the Lume retreat and she was there in Waco, Texas speaking at her retreat. And so I was like, I got to get her on the podcast. So that was super exciting. But I love Jenna forever and I forever.
Miranda: 45:18 Yes. Yeah, she’s great. She is my she’s definitely feeling my inspiration as of right now.
Katie: 45:23 Awesome. Okay, so I’m going to link to everything that you mentioned in the podcast on the show notes so people can find them. And do you mind letting the audience know how they can find you? Cause I know they’re going to want to check out everything that you’re doing.
Miranda: 45:36 Yeah. They can find me at occipital media on everything. Really. It’s just at https://www.occipitalmedia.com/, Instagram, Facebook connect with me. I’m looking forward to it. I love it.
Katie: 45:50 Well, thank you so much. I’ve had the best time talking to you. This was so fun.
Miranda: 45:54 Great. We should definitely get coffee sometime. Absolutely. Thank you so much.
Resource List:
The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice
The Goal Digger Podcast – Jenna Kutcher
