291: Leading Without Losing Yourself: One Working Mom’s Story

[00:00:00] Rachel Downey: I played out all the scenarios of like, what's the worst that could happen? And at the end of the day, thinking about that idea, if I take care of myself, the business will take care of itself. I wanted to be somebody I wanted to come back to. If everything, you know, fell apart,

[00:00:14] Tiffany Sauder: I'm Tiffany Sauder, entrepreneur, wife, mom to four girls, and a woman figuring it out just like you.

[00:00:20] Tiffany Sauder: If you're tired of living a life of have to and finally ready to build a life of want to, then you're in the right place. Come on, let's go build your life. Of and

[00:00:38] Tiffany Sauder: hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of The Life of And Podcast. I am your host, Tiffany Sauder. And today I have a guest on I've had before. Her name is Rachel Downey. And you know, you hear a lot of my own stories of, I don't know, transformation, pushing through kind of the before and after.

[00:00:57] Tiffany Sauder: And I think it's always encouraging to hear someone else's. And I would say Rachel is like. Three millimeters into the after. Is that fair Rachel? We're kind of still in the process. Um, but it's daily choice. It's, what'd you say? It's a daily choice. It's a daily choice to be in the after. Yeah. So yeah.

[00:01:15] Tiffany Sauder: Rachel is the founder and CEO of Share Your Genius, a podcast production company. They're sponsor of the show. They do my production work. Rachel and I are, do a lot of work together. Can I say I'm your mentor? You can say whatever you want. Sounds better if you say I mentor you. But anyways, we solve a lot of business challenges together and this has been a massive breakthrough year for her.

[00:01:38] Tiffany Sauder: And, uh, no surprise, um, oftentimes when we have big personal breakthroughs, our businesses have big breakthroughs too. So we're talk about some of that stuff today. Rachel, thanks for joining me and let's do the thing. Let's do it. I kind of wanna go back to like a year ago, um, I think we'll start at the beginning.

[00:01:56] Tiffany Sauder: We were closing out 2024, and 2024 was a year of a lot of, I would say like major movements, like a lot of big personnel changes, some big Strat, like it was, it was like, like seismic shifts in choices. I think we look back and say all of those were good, but coming to the end of the year, you got to a very specific point.

[00:02:18] Tiffany Sauder: So I'll kind of let you pick up from there.

[00:02:21] Rachel Downey: End of 2024. Um. I, I was feeling like a, there was a stronger sense of confidence, I would say, but I was very tired and we looked at kind of the performance of the business and oftentimes I think in who I am, and I think in the role that I play, a, a lot of my personal success is tied to the business's success.

[00:02:46] Rachel Downey: Like if the business fails. Then I am I, I am not a failure, but I have failed in that effort. Right? And so I was coming into, look at the books, if you will, or just, I kinda look at the year and I was feeling like I did some good things, but the scoreboard wasn't in my favor. And so it was kind of like this moment of like, man, I've been running at this for a while.

[00:03:11] Rachel Downey: Am I just not cut out to like do the thing? But the fight in me is like. You can do this, but I just like didn't have the proof, I guess, other than I had some more confidence in who I am. And so that's kinda where I was at, at the end of 2024.

[00:03:27] Tiffany Sauder: But you were pretty pissed and pretty tired. Like you're, you're telling it in a pretty neat and tidy package right now, but you were like, it was very emotional.

[00:03:35] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah, it was. It was a hairy, and I don't mean that to like be like, you are a mess, but it's like. You were like, I am figuring this out or I'm done was like your energy

[00:03:46] Rachel Downey: and it wasn't like, yeah, that was my energy. And honestly like there were like a few meetings and a few conversations and like I had a couple like dark Night of the Soul moments, I would say at the end of last year where I was sort of just like, I'm not the right person.

[00:04:01] Rachel Downey: Like, I was like, I'm not who I think I am. And even though I felt so good about myself for other things, mm-hmm. Um, but when it came to like business specifically, and then I was like. You know, you kind of do like a weird grieve moment where you're like angry and you're blaming people and then you finally go all the way back and you're like, no, I'm the problem.

[00:04:19] Rachel Downey: Mm-hmm. Uh, and so I definitely had that like full, almost like hero's journey in trying to figure out what path I needed to take next so that I could go into 2025, the year we are in and sort of bet on myself again. Mm-hmm.

[00:04:35] Tiffany Sauder: So you came into this, so talk about just your planning process coming into 2025.

[00:04:40] Tiffany Sauder: And if you can take yourself back, what some of the, like, almost like flags that you planted for yourself

[00:04:47] Rachel Downey: along the way. I think we just, I'm trying to, I'm, this is like so hard to remember sometimes, like the details of how we got there. I think it was, you know, encouragement to be like, Hey, you, you need to grow this thing.

[00:04:59] Rachel Downey: Like you're, you're thinking too small about some things and what the opportunity is, so like this is really what you need to go do. Are you prepared to go do that? And because I like to fight, I was like, yeah, like, okay, I can do that. You know, a little edge in my mentality anyway. And so I think we just came to a, a goal that was like bigger than what was maintainable, I guess.

[00:05:21] Rachel Downey: Like that would be like a stretch. And then the planning around that was. Kind of the, the mantra I was starting to take on in my own mentality was just like simple over anything. Like what's simple. And so I just kind of anchored on that of like, what do I already know to be true? What are some things I can do right now that'll just help confirm that what I believe to be true is actually true?

[00:05:44] Rachel Downey: And then I think the other thing that I sort of started planting myself in was. I need to just pay for the things that I can't do. Mm-hmm. And that was like a new thinking for me of just like, no, just pay for the people who already knew how to do the thing. Mm-hmm. And then also make the decision quicker.

[00:06:01] Rachel Downey: Um, because I trusted my gut way more going into this year than I had before, which was where that confidence I think was coming from. So I was leaning into that way more and just like the second I knew something was off as a is really the second I would just pull the trigger on things changing. 'cause I wasn't willing to wait it out anymore.

[00:06:20] Rachel Downey: I wasn't willing to have the same year. I really needed this to be the the year that proved to myself and to the people that support me that like you've invested in something real. Like we can do this. You know what I mean? It kind of felt like a year of integrity, if that makes sense. You say more about that.

[00:06:38] Rachel Downey: I want to be somebody of integrity, so like if I say something is going to happen, it needs to happen. And I sort of felt like this was that year for me of just being like. Do you have integrity and like I do, but it's like I needed my action. I needed the proof that like who I said I was, I was. And for me, that manifested very specifically into some business outcomes that I was looking to achieve.

[00:07:08] Tiffany Sauder: Well, I think there's two things I've observed. I wanna also anchor back to this, like trusting my instincts. I think when we're, like in our early entrepreneurial journey or early business journey, we aren't really. Taught that instincts are a huge part of being a leader. 'cause it doesn't actually sound very confident, scalable, or like empirical.

[00:07:31] Tiffany Sauder: It's like, what do you mean your intuition tells you this? Or your instincts are saying this. But I think as you start to get actually in leadership and you've seen a bunch of reps and you know what a good client meeting feels like, and you know what the chemistry between. A client and a producer looks like, and all of those kinds of things that are like the X factor of just the business working or not working.

[00:07:53] Tiffany Sauder: You start to realize your instincts are a massive part of it. And I think you have had all of these like adjacent roads into this idea of being a leader in an entrepreneur. It wasn't like finance, econ, it wasn't like the Xs and Os part of business. It was like more marketing. Theater and performance and experience and visioning and brands and like all of those things are a huge part of what you're doing, but you had less confidence in the other side, and so to see that your instincts in the same way that they play such a massive role in your ability to be able to tell a story, capture an audience, grow a brand, it's a very instinctive kind of thing to know how to feel and navigate that.

[00:08:37] Tiffany Sauder: That superpower also plays well. Even in the business side of what you do every day. Does that make sense?

[00:08:46] Rachel Downey: Yeah, totally. And I think, you know, we've like recently been working with um, somebody who is good at the math, like, and it's funny 'cause I've had most good at the math. Yeah. And there's like a couple times where.

[00:09:00] Rachel Downey: He'll like say stuff and I just am like laughing. I'm like, you probably think I'm just such an idiot because I'm just like, I don't know. I just, I know it's gonna work out. Or like, I didn't know. I just was like, I just assumed that I would, it'd be fine. And it's like, part of it is like I personally am okay with a lot of risk.

[00:09:16] Rachel Downey: Not that I have like a lot to give, but like. It doesn't bother me. And so there's a piece of me that's like, that's okay with that. So this idea of you being comfortable

[00:09:25] Tiffany Sauder: with a lot of risk, I also wanna talk about, there's a lot of amazing things about that. 'cause you'll shed your skin very fast. You're like very quick to turn on a dime.

[00:09:34] Tiffany Sauder: But I think you've also learned there's some like places that really serves you and there's some places it doesn't. So do you wanna

[00:09:41] Rachel Downey: double click into that a little bit? Well, yeah, I mean, I've had to make a conscious choice to stay in things longer than I want to. I like to get in and get out, like especially if it's like conflict or anything like that.

[00:09:54] Rachel Downey: I like to make a quick decision and the decision's made so I can move on to the next thing. Like that's just like kind of my personality and that has served me well. As we've grown the company because we'll bring on the clients, we'll figure out what we're doing and like we'll sell before we're ready.

[00:10:05] Rachel Downey: Like all of those things, which I think is really important. But I made some conscious choices to stay in things longer. I even like went and bought some books on like. How to do those things and just commit to some of the practice of doing things as opposed to feeling like I had to have already mastered it or have had to make a pivot because of it.

[00:10:26] Rachel Downey: And so that has been something that I feel like I've had to really like slow myself down on, which has been at conflict with my natural energy, which is like move, move, move. And I think that's also where this year I struggled in a way that I hadn't before with anxiety in a big way. And some of the things I've learned about anxiety is like it is energy and it's like, it's like bent up in my system and if I can't get it out, if I can't move as fast as I want to, it can manifest itself for me in a way that's like very not productive.

[00:10:57] Rachel Downey: And so I've just had to look for different practices to like make sure that my body feels like it's moving and doing things, even if it's not as fast as I would like to historically. Interesting. So like do you mind sharing like, what does that practically look like? One thing I'll say, and then I'll answer your question directly is like, you know, as I was, I was reflecting on 2024 and coming into 20 25, 1 of the things that intuitively came to me was this idea of like, if you take care of yourself, the business will take care of itself.

[00:11:27] Rachel Downey: And I had basically spent. You know, since 2017 in the business, obviously I had had a different priority depending on the seasonality of the team. But going back 2017, like I had, my first kid was like running at, it was in law school, had my second kid, like I was basically in survival mode and I've been in survival mode.

[00:11:46] Rachel Downey: If I were to peel back all the layers, like pretty much my whole life. Mm-hmm. And so to have that idea of like, if you take care of yourself, the business will take its itself was actually like foreign to me. Because I was like, well, I am taking care of myself like I eat, I like you, swear I, you know, I like still get my hair done.

[00:12:03] Rachel Downey: Or you know, like those silly things like that. But it hit me differently in the sense of like, my body, my body, my mind, everything was forcing me to take a step back and go, what? Where are you not actually taking care of yourself? Where you feel like you are? Where I almost felt like I was living in a check the box mode of what it means to take care of myself, which could look like.

[00:12:22] Rachel Downey: Very, um, unproductive habits. Like I needed to veg out, you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. And like do nothing. And that actually didn't fill me. And like, I don't know if it's rer my brain, but I reimagined my entire like way of being as like just a human. And so like what used to feel like awful, which would be like getting up at five 30, which I'm not saying everyone needs to get up early.

[00:12:43] Rachel Downey: But that was something that I craved because it was the only time in my house where it was like quiet. Nobody bugged me. And it was just that moment. And now I get up at five 30 and I don't even think about it. You know what I mean? It's like it's easy. And so practically what that looks like for me is. I have a book typically that I'm u like reading that's like, that I'm studying.

[00:13:02] Rachel Downey: Typically it's, it is like faith-based book that's like just helping me deepen like my understanding of my faith. And then I'm like journaling about it and like praying about it and just like honestly being in silence and like listening for what I'm supposed to be paying attention to. You know, I start my day asking myself like, who am I supposed to serve?

[00:13:22] Rachel Downey: This is silly. You might, I don't know, you'll, you'll appreciate it, but I'll write down silly stuff like. Yes, I am entitled the founder, CEO, but like, this is not my company, like this is like God's company and I'm just like a steward of it and like I just like try and anchor myself in some of that stuff because it, it actually removes the pressure off of me.

[00:13:43] Rachel Downey: Yeah. And that has helped a lot and there's a few other things, but that's like been the. I think that's like the biggest game changer that I've experienced.

[00:13:50] Tiffany Sauder: Well, such a powerful step to, to begin separating the role you play inside of that company from your identity as a human being and like practicing that so that as you're faced with surprises, with clients that are upset with just the stuff that happens, the stuff that comes into your inbox and like ah, kind of like gives you that moment of like, ah, you've already set your.

[00:14:14] Tiffany Sauder: Beliefs and intention going into those moments to say like, we can get through this. I'm holding this loosely. I'm gonna show up in my best. I'm gonna trust the outcome. Like I'm gonna be a steward of the time, money, and energy available like, and the outcomes are what they are. That doesn't mean we can't impact them by changing our time, money, and resources, like a hundred percent, but ultimately you have to trust.

[00:14:39] Tiffany Sauder: Like the evidence to sort of prove and to be like, to have confidence. I'm smart enough to make adjustments as I get information and keep moving forward. Like that's how, what my job is not to be right a hundred percent of the time. And I think you've like relieved yourself of that burden this year.

[00:14:55] Rachel Downey: Yeah, I have.

[00:14:56] Rachel Downey: I have. And I wanna be right. But yeah, I feel like I have relieved myself of that burden and like I played out all the scenarios of like, what's the worst that could happen? And at the end of the day. Thinking about that idea, if I, if I take care of myself, the business will take care of itself. I wanted to be somebody I wanted to come back to.

[00:15:14] Rachel Downey: If everything, you know, fell apart, you know, there's so many things outside of our control, right? And so that was kind of my mantra this year, coming into the year, was just asking myself this question of like, who am I becoming? And making sure that who I was becoming was who I wanted to be. And that required me to do a lot of like mental work.

[00:15:33] Rachel Downey: I did spend a lot of time jotting down all the beliefs I have about money, about relationships, about people like. Stuff that's like, not always fun, but I just did it and like I did it on my own by reading books and all these things. And then I had a couple conversations with different people as well.

[00:15:49] Rachel Downey: But that's like the biggest thing I would say that this year showed me was just like, is focusing on that so I could show up better in my role and lead the company better?

[00:15:59] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm. It's incredibly powerful. Well, let me say this. You've also told me, I feel like I literally shed my skin this year. That like you're a, a different person, like your biological makeup feels different.

[00:16:12] Tiffany Sauder: Anything you wanna, I dunno, just like opine on or talk about as it relates to that.

[00:16:16] Rachel Downey: I think I have, like, I feel like I was on a hero's journey for like 18 to two to 18 months, like two years. And like, I kept going back to like this question of who am I becoming by also looking at what about myself have, have I always liked or like loved.

[00:16:34] Rachel Downey: Mm-hmm. And like. Uh, naturally I'm a pretty joyful person, but I felt like I was losing her like that, like energy of just like being happy and being joyful and like life, just feeling like I was going through it, even though I was excited about it, but it wasn't like the joy that comes from like just childlike love for like what you're doing and what you like to do and like even just like how I show up with my kids, just started to feel like.

[00:17:00] Rachel Downey: Not that I'm not a good mom, but just like, not like I was not like in the moment. I wasn't like running around and playing with them and like all that stuff that's like just comes from joy, you know what I mean? Right. Totally. And I feel like I got back to her and like that has been what has been cool while still shedding some of the stuff that wasn't serving me anymore.

[00:17:17] Rachel Downey: Mm-hmm. And so that idea of just like waking up and I'm like, I'm ready to go and like the kids come home and yeah, I've got like a crap ton of work to do still, but like, it's fine. Like I don't have the same. Stress that I had before. I think it's because of all of the work, obviously that has to be done, but that's been like probably the biggest unexpected thing that's happened outside of just some of the good signals that were on the right path.

[00:17:42] Rachel Downey: Again,

[00:17:45] Tiffany Sauder: I wanna take a quick moment to thank my partners at Share Your Genius. For the past four years, they have been an incredible part of my journey behind the microphone. Share Your Genius is a content and podcast production agency that helps leaders and brands bring their message to life. So whether you're trying to find your voice, develop a content strategy, or get your leader behind a microphone, they're gonna help you make it simple, strategic and impactful.

[00:18:09] Tiffany Sauder: If somebody's listening to this saying like, I need to go on this journey. Are there any books in particular that you picked up this year that like helped

[00:18:17] Rachel Downey: push you through? Yes. And that's the other thing I'm reading one or two books a week. Like, it's like crazy just 'cause like I can absorb it. And also I've not been on that level of like being able to read and consume in a very long time.

[00:18:29] Rachel Downey: Um, that's

[00:18:29] Tiffany Sauder: insane. Just by your morning reading time.

[00:18:32] Rachel Downey: Well, I read in the morning and I read at night like I cut my tv. Like I don't have any desire for it. Like, like are you, do I cut

[00:18:39] Tiffany Sauder: TV outta my life? It's so, isn't it a game changer?

[00:18:42] Rachel Downey: I mean I still watch it 'cause I love to consume content, but like. But not in the way that I was.

[00:18:47] Rachel Downey: Like I was watching TV to like cope with the fact that I was stressed out. Oh yeah. And like I'm not like a big drinker and all that kind of stuff. So like that was what I would do, Uhhuh. But now I'm like, I have a book and I like go in my room and I'm like, this is lovely. You know what I mean? Uhhuh. But yes, like it, part of it is just like, because I'm reading in the morning and I'm reading at night books though, that I feel like really helped me.

[00:19:08] Rachel Downey: Specifically John Mark Comer is like Game Changer. So he's got two books that I literally just read. One is Practicing The Way, one is The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And then the other book that I feel like has been really interesting is called, oh, there's two more. One is The Mountain Is You, and then the other one is Success Code.

[00:19:28] Rachel Downey: And those were, those have been pretty helpful for me.

[00:19:30] Tiffany Sauder: Sometimes when we change, there are people or places around us that dunno how to accept the new version of us. Have you felt that anywhere in your life?

[00:19:41] Rachel Downey: I think I, I have felt it more for myself than probably for other people and I was talking about that experience of joy.

[00:19:50] Rachel Downey: I feel like I have entered rooms that I used to love going into. And it lacks that spark for me completely. And that has been interesting for me. And so I don't feel like I'm showing up in a way that is like positive, honestly. And if I can't provide value anymore, I feel like it's not the place for me.

[00:20:09] Rachel Downey: So the answer to that is yes. And then I also just think about my time way differently than I did before. And so that also has been like eye-opening of just like, is this what you really wanna do right now? Mm-hmm. And then the other piece of it, this is another book actually I would recommend, it's called Worthy.

[00:20:28] Rachel Downey: And I used to fight against people saying things like, like I used to fight against this idea of like being told you are enough. Like, I'd be like, no shit, I'm enough. Like I, I used to like, when people would say that, I'd be like, this is not like extraordinary for me. But when I read the book Worthy, it hit me differently where I was like, oh, and it was more of this idea of like.

[00:20:51] Rachel Downey: You inherently as a human, like are worthy of every dream, everything, whatever that you desire. Like there's no agenda expectation. Like there's nothing that you need to do. And that was what I was like, oh, that's what people mean when they say that you are enough. And I bring that to a head because I used to subconsciously, I was carrying so much weight.

[00:21:15] Rachel Downey: Of like, I need to prove myself or I need to validate myself. I need to show people that I, I am who I say I am. And then I was like, no, I don't like, I actually don't. And that was like very freeing for me. And it also allowed me to evaluate like whether or not I was gonna go to the happy hour event or whether or not I wanted to go back and actually just read my freaking book and like.

[00:21:38] Rachel Downey: Calm my nervous system down and like chill out. Like, just like stuff like that. I just like removed the pressure and I didn't do it at the, at the sacrifice of like the commitments I made, but I did do it at the commitments I made to myself, if that makes sense. Totally. Like I didn't choose that.

[00:21:54] Tiffany Sauder: So to the extent that saying yes to outside things, compromised the things that you had said yes to, that were imperative for you to be whole.

[00:22:02] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah. Because we can get into this place where. Yeah, we pursue our priorities at the sacrifice of our values, which is like when we get out of balance and we start to resent the very things that we started loving, which is like where you were a year ago, where it's like, I wanted to start this business. I wanted this family, I wanted these, like I, I chose all this stuff.

[00:22:23] Tiffany Sauder: Like I think that's what's so ironic about the place we can get to when we're like high functioning adults who have jobs that generally we chose. Who are living in homes and neighborhoods and kids that we dream, like with families that we dreamed of our whole, and like it turns into this thing that then we spend 15 years being mad at or resenting, or having this like kind of dreaded embarrassed energy towards, you know?

[00:22:50] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm. It's like so wild. And I think that you've clearly done a lot of really powerful work around getting clear on your own values, devoid of other people's expectations of. Where you are and how it looks for you, and I think both what you said, like pruning and having patience for your priorities.

[00:23:12] Tiffany Sauder: It's like when the business is small and it's 150 grand in revenue, you can change hourly, like boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, and you like you're a great effective pin. But the business got to the place where now you have a team around you and you need, they need to be able to follow you and know how to get in line and how to support the priorities.

[00:23:32] Tiffany Sauder: And I think that translation was a new behavior for you to go from this like empirical knower to be able to say explicitly, this is where we're going. And then to hold the line long enough that. They could assemble behind it and you could figure out whether it worked or not. 'cause you used to be able to figure out in like three conversations or three hours.

[00:23:55] Tiffany Sauder: And so I think you started to see the iterating is quote slower, but more can get done when you get it going.

[00:24:05] Rachel Downey: Well that, and one of the things I thought a lot about recently was when I think about sort of the, the run up to where we are now. My day used to look like. And I still have a very, very back to back meeting like cadence.

[00:24:19] Rachel Downey: It's just like what we do and I'm okay with it. But the difference is I used to run, I mean, I'm like, and you probably relate to this, like driving all over town, like sweating, like doing calls in the thing and like just like the constant going, going, going where I'd be like almost like a semi going like 65 miles down the road and then I'd have to stop.

[00:24:38] Rachel Downey: And it's like, you know, I'm not a physics queen, but I know that like that's a lot of stuff moving that has to stop something bigger, has to stop it. And I kind of feel like that's what happened to me is like, I feel like God gave me like some grace. 'cause he was like, look homie, your anxiety is telling you something right now.

[00:24:56] Rachel Downey: Mm-hmm. And like if you don't get it under control, like you're gonna burn yourself out and you're gonna burn some people along the way. And so I just like that for me was kind of what I. Really anchored myself on was like, I don't want to do that. I don't wanna live like that. Like, and so to your point too, 'cause logically I've heard you say things a million times where it's like, choose your heart.

[00:25:16] Rachel Downey: Choose your heart. I'm like, yeah, I'm choosing my heart. Like, and but then it's like to actually go, okay, the heart is actually easy now because it's like, I'm okay. I like the choice and like mm-hmm. These are the things that make me love the choice. You know what I mean? And so it's like a journey. I feel like everyone has to go on.

[00:25:32] Rachel Downey: Totally. Like it took me a very long time.

[00:25:35] Tiffany Sauder: Not really though. You're, I mean, you're, so anyway, it did. It didn't, but I know it can feel that way. It happens when it's supposed to. How old are you actually? 36, actually. 36. So my, I mean, my year of transformation was 38. So I, I, that's why I was asking you. It was like the, like it similar season.

[00:26:00] Tiffany Sauder: I mean, it was like, uh, this is clearly unsustainable. And so we've got some choices to make. Like life just starts screaming. I was, I did a workshop yesterday and somebody, I was like, raise their hand, like, how do I get my spouse, co colleague, like, enter the noun to change, you know, based on what I'm like, you can't, you can't make a grownup change until they're ready.

[00:26:21] Tiffany Sauder: You have to let the pain get bad enough that they, it gets their attention. Like you just can't, you can't make grownups do things they don't wanna do. It doesn't work that way. Um, or kids. So maybe just people. Yeah, it's true. The kids, you can put Yeah, I get it. So, okay. As you look forward into next year, what do you hope Rachel's saying in October of 2026, what do you hope you're saying about what life looks like?

[00:26:43] Tiffany Sauder: What happened in the business?

[00:26:45] Rachel Downey: Mm-hmm. I mean, I definitely want to grow profitably, like that's my goal. I think there's so much good that can come from that. So that's exciting to me. I feel like I am ready to dream again, and that's like where I love to live, so that is cool. I'm just hoping that, like I continue anchoring myself on that question of who am I becoming and every year I like her more and more.

[00:27:11] Rachel Downey: Yeah,

[00:27:12] Tiffany Sauder: so cool. I, I think one more point I wanna pull out is this idea of moving from fix and triage to being able to have the time and capacity and the business can afford you to dream again is another pivot point that I think as entrepreneurs we can sometimes forget. We sometimes there it is the season to put.

[00:27:34] Tiffany Sauder: The dreaming on the shelf. This is a season of performing, of triage, of doing simple things over and over and over again to create stability so that it can handle the weight of innovation. Mm-hmm. You know, and I think that's the fun. That was the fun part at the beginning of it, was the sort of weight of innovation and when it was small and nimble and all the things.

[00:27:57] Tiffany Sauder: And I think you've been incredibly disciplined this year at editing. Your idea is at editing change. At editing, the capacity that that creates for the, that takes from the team when there's a constant new coming down the pipe and that's created a ton of confidence in the team that you can execute, that you can onboard 10 new clients a month that you can't, like, that you can do things that 18 months ago you'd have been like, I have no idea how we're gonna keep sales velocity and onboarding velocity and.

[00:28:29] Tiffany Sauder: Hire these kinds of people like you figured out some of those models. And I think that's a good reminder because the dreaming part I think is really publicized in this entrepreneurial journey. But there are seasons when it is little, it's triaged and it's fixing and it's performing so that you can then add back in that ingredient.

[00:28:48] Tiffany Sauder: Dreaming and yeah, where does the brand go and how does this, how do the services expand? And where's the market going? And how do you stay alive for the next 20 years instead of just figuring out how to get to the end of the fiscal year, which is, those are two different kinds of questions. So anyway, did you have something to say?

[00:29:05] Rachel Downey: Well, I was, I was just gonna say like, I love how you articulated that, because it's not like dreaming in a land that doesn't exist anymore. It's like dreaming in a land that I can now see. Mm-hmm. And so it's like. Yeah, like next year has to be another year of extreme discipline, to be honest. It has to be like, this is what we're doing.

[00:29:21] Rachel Downey: This is why we're doing, and like just stay the course. That feels encouraging to me, not draining. Mm-hmm. And it used to feel the other way. And so I feel like that's a big shift.

[00:29:30] Tiffany Sauder: I feel like this word picture would come to me at Element Three when I was like. I feel like I'm traversing the same road. I'm just going back over it and like filling in the potholes and adding in the quarter mile that we of like pavement that we never laid because we moved the equipment to an like, I sometimes have to have a physical picture in my head of what we did in this sort of abstract operational world of a services business.

[00:29:56] Tiffany Sauder: You know what I mean? I was like, if we're building highways, we have places where the highway is not complete, where there's some. Potholes that we have to go, you know, fill, there's some tollways that need to be rebuilt and so we would kind of be in these making what we already had better and maturing it and that was just less exciting for me.

[00:30:15] Tiffany Sauder: Mm-hmm. Then when you're at the end of the road and you're like, hot dog, we've got complete like green field in front of us and we get to lay new pavement, we get to decide where the road goes. And I would just have to manage my own energy about where we were in that so that I wasn't bringing new frontier ideas to pothole filling tasks.

[00:30:39] Tiffany Sauder: And you know, I love new frontier ideas as it relates to Pot Hill, you know? And I would just have to be like, this is not what that is. We are making this what exists better. We are not laying new track. And that word picture would help my. Yeah, just orientation of not making easy things hard. It just don't make it hard.

[00:31:01] Tiffany Sauder: Yeah, it's just easy. Don't make it all hard. It's allowed to be easy. It's allowed to be easy. But anyway, Rachel, excited, love being on this journey with you. Excited for this growth. You feel lighter, you know, and it's really cool. I'm super proud of you, so thanks for sharing the resources and your story with my audience and.

[00:31:21] Tiffany Sauder: Excited to see where Share Your Genius continues to go. And if you are thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign that you should start it with She Genius. Do you wanna maybe give 90 seconds on the role you see content playing in B2B brand development? I'll let you do a little overview on that.

[00:31:37] Rachel Downey: It's

[00:31:38] Tiffany Sauder: the whole role. It's your passion,

[00:31:39] Rachel Downey: it's the whole role. And when it comes to B2B marketing, your biggest competition is gonna be the robots. And so it's your job to bring your brand to life, using your stories through your people. And so content has to come from people first, and then you have to use Media Smart so that you can scale it to build trust with the people that ultimately can buy from you.

[00:32:01] Rachel Downey: So if you haven't started a podcast or you don't have a media strategy like you need to.

[00:32:07] Tiffany Sauder: And you guys are, I mean, you we're seeing this, the places that podcasts are consumed is way bigger than just a podcast feed. YouTube is second largest consumption channel, and then with reels and shorts all over the internet, through social, it really does become about being a media strategy.

[00:32:24] Tiffany Sauder: So a plug for Share Your Genius, certainly, but I see this in my own. Like exercise of building the Life of And Project. It's about sharing my own story as a professional woman who has a gajillion kids supporting a husband who has a great big dream. That's the X factor of the whole thing. It's my own lived experience and story and willing to be vulnerable about it.

[00:32:46] Tiffany Sauder: And then the agency, it's exact same way. Right. Leaders are creating personal brands. It's totally been a key part of differentiating. So we don't need to talk marketing strategy on this podcast, but we're all trying to figure out how to grow something and how to make money around it, and how to build a moat of strategic like.

[00:33:07] Tiffany Sauder: I don't know, a strategic goal that we can really, really own. And you're right, this sort of advent of the ai, it's incredible and it's so powerful and it's changing the game really quickly. So anyway, love the work you guys are doing. It is like a wild frontier being in new media in the B2B space, so changing a lot.

[00:33:25] Tiffany Sauder: You guys are doing awesome and thanks for joining me. Thanks. Okay, thanks you guys for joining us on another episode of The Life of And Podcast. If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. It's the fastest way that we grow the show. We have invited quite a few new people over the last month, and so thanks for joining me here and go crush your day.

[00:33:45] Tiffany Sauder: Thanks for listening to the Life of And this is your weekly reminder to keep making bold choices, saying clear yeses and holding space for what matters most. As always, if you like this episode, I'd love for you to drop a review and share it with your friend. It's the fastest way that we can grow the show.

[00:34:01] Tiffany Sauder: Thanks for joining us. I'll see you next time.