January 25, 2024 • 30 mins
For many, starting a business starts with a spark of inspiration, an idea that you just can’t shake and grows from a “side hustle” to a full-time job. While navigating the transition from employee to self-employed can be exciting, it can also be filled with challenges and self-doubt. Hosts Austin and Jannese discuss those crucial first steps with our Season 2 premiere guest, Grace Wells. Grace is the founder of Grace Wells Photo and no stranger to the transition from working for a company to working for yourself. She shares her inspirational story of turning her ability to make creative videos for fun into a successful filmmaking and photography career.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views, information, or opinions express during this podcast are
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the information presented is for general information purposes only. Into
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(00:22):
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Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hey everyone, I'm Austin Hankwitz, host of the Rich Habits
podcast and co founder of Wits Ventures, but you may
instead recognize me from my short form videos about personal
finance and investing on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I'm Jennise Torres, the creator and host of the
award winning personal finance podcast Yokierro de Neetro and author
of financially Lit, the Modern Latina's guide to level up
your de netto and become financially And we are back
for season two of Mine the Business Small Business Success Stories,
a podcast brought to you by Into It QuickBooks and
(01:08):
Iheart's Ruby Studio. Austin and I are picking up where
we left off last season, chatting with small business owners
as they shared their stories about the ups and downs
of owning a small business. And this season is special
because we'll be hearing from solopreneurs, people who run their
business completely on their own. But Austin, what have you
been up to since we last spoke?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Ooh okay, So the Rich Habits podcast hit number one
on Spotify's Business Charts. I got to ring the opening
bell at the New York Stock Exchange alongside I Shares,
which is a ETF division that Blackrock has, and I
had an incredible holiday with my dad and my girlfriend.
I got to make my famous sweet potato casse role.
(01:51):
Maybe it's not famous, but it does taste really good
and I got to make it, and I was really.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Excited about it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh that's fantastic, Austin. I'm so excited for everything that
you're a comp wishing as a creator solopreneur. I feel
like we've evolved so much in just this short time
that we've been together on the show and I think
my biggest thing is I'm an author, y'all.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Like, let's get this, this.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Is actually happening. I spent the better part of twenty
twenty three writing my very first book, and a personal
finance book that is geared specifically towards the Latino community
because a lot of us just don't learn about money.
And so I'm really excited to have that book launch
next year and you know, have everybody talking about it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I cannot wait to read it. I can't wait to
gift it to my friends. Really really excited for you. So,
before we jump into this conversation, Denis, what do you
think was the most exciting part about starting your own business?
What was the most exciting part about being a solo
preneur to you?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I think for me it was honestly just making my
first dollar all on my own and just getting that
check for some thing that I had created out of
ideas and thoughts in my brain. I'm just like, Wow,
this feels a lot different than just getting a paycheck.
I was hooked from that very moment. What about you, Austin?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Absolutely, I think for me and this is something that
keeps me going on just a weekly, monthly basis new challenges, right,
I see people if it's launching a new course. You know,
launching a podcast like that was a new challenge for
me in twenty twenty three, and that's been a lot
of fun. So I think just having these new challenges
come out of nowhere and hopefully overcome them and then
(03:30):
be able to teach and share what I learned about
them to not only my creator friends and other solopreneurs,
but also on this podcast. So I'm really really excited.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, the journey through solopreneurship is absolutely a journey into
personal development.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
But enough about us, Let's go ahead and introduce our guest.
Grace Wells was just having fun with her camera in
her college apartment when she decided to upload a series
of videos she called making epic commercials for random objects.
One video featuring a four went viral on TikTok with
over two million views, and she was soon approached by
(04:11):
businesses for their social media ads. After one ad for
a soda company garnered a whopping eight million views, Grace
attracted even more brand deals and found the confidence to
leave her job and make videos full time. She now
runs her own business as a filmmaker and photographer, where
she creates content for major brands while also showcasing her
(04:31):
creative techniques on social media. Grace, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Me, Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Absolutely so Grace. I am so excited right now.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I've seriously been following you on TikTok for over two years,
and when I found out that we were having you
on the show, I literally went and rewatched like forty
of your videos.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Oh it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's so fascinating to me to watch someone go from
making unique short form video content on the Internet to
directing films and creating real commercials for major brands. We're
going to get into all that, don't worry, but I
wanted to sort of kick off this interview at the beginning.
You were on a very different path to begin with,
studying linguistics with a post grad job lined up at
(05:15):
Grand Cosmetics. So, before your videos were going viral, did
you ever consider a career in commercial filmmaking.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
So it was right around my junior year of college
that I bought my first camera and the idea growing
of pursuing videography or photography as my career postgrad. It
was a very gradual process. At the beginning, this was
very much just a creative outlet because I found myself
(05:43):
feeling very creatively unfulfilled. So it just kind of was like, Oh,
I'm going to buy a camera and I'm going to
It started with photography. I'm going to take some portrait
photos just my friends. Like it's going to be this
fun little thing. And I don't know where it came from,
but this drive kicked in where I was like, Okay,
what's the next thing, What's the next goal? Like where's
the next milestone? And so I think I would be
(06:05):
on this path even if this stuff was not blowing
up on social I think that it gave me a
big boost of confidence as well as like, Okay, even
though I don't have a formal education in this field
and I just did my degree in something totally different,
I can actually do this.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Absolutely right, starting with taking some portraits, filming some forks
and potatoes and books, and now you're doing the cool stuff.
So let's talk about that, right. Epic Commercials for Random
Objects Part one that was a video you had published.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
How did you come up with it, so it really
it was from necessity pretty much. That was the moment
where the pandemic really was in full swing. And I
think this was kind of like a very interesting turning
point for a lot of creatives that our workflow thus
far doesn't really work anymore in this kind of new world.
(06:56):
And for me, that meant, okay, I can no longer
go out and work with models the way that I
had been before. So this idea for making a commercial
for a random object, it was just sort of like, Okay,
what can I do in my house that I don't
eat anyone else? I can do this one hundred percent
all on my own. I thought that that would be
(07:16):
a fun creative challenge. The idea of making a commercial
for a fork, something that you would never ever ever
see a commercial for, would really push me creatively a
lot more, and I would kind of force me to
not rely on references that I'd seen in the past.
But even though I did think at the time, oh,
this might be a series, I thought maybe, like, you know,
(07:38):
three videos, and it turned into so much more than that.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So you're into video maybe three or two here. When
did you realize that your creative abilities, though, were strong
enough to begin to monetize, right, What for you was
that big breakthrough moment like wait a second, this is real,
I can do this. And was there any like maybe
imposter syndrome along the way.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Oh, I mean, they're still imposter syndrome.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
I would say that the monetization aspect really kicked in
towards the beginning of twenty twenty one, so I'd been
doing this for a little over six months, I would say,
and that's when the brand Celsius reached out to create
a commercial for them, And that was really my second
interaction with a brand. Very few brands reached out at
(08:23):
the very beginning, and I think that part of that
was TikTok was still foreign territory for a lot of
brands at that point in time. So that was kind
of the first video that really was like, oh, like,
first of all, someone wants to hire me.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
That's cool.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
And then that video actually ended up performing incredibly well,
so I was like, not only does someone want to
hire me, but people actually want to watch it, which
to me, I wouldn't have thought. I would have been like, oh, well,
if it's branded, like, no one's going to watch this video, right,
And that was really what got the ball rolling on
other brands reaching out to me, and then me eventually
leaving my job a little bit later that year.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
That is fascinating stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I talked to a lot lot of people who want
to start a side hustle, and one of the pieces
of advice I tell them is, you know, you need
to find your people, You need to find your target audience.
Was that the approach that you took. Did you go
and find your target audience or do you think they
found you?
Speaker 5 (09:14):
I think it was a little bit of both. I
know a lot of creators always emphasize the importance of
niching down, and honestly, that's not really been my approach.
I've always approached it with the mindset of I would
like this to appeal not only to people who are
really interested in videography, but I also wanted to be entertaining,
(09:34):
even for people who are maybe not really wanting to
do this, but just think that this kind of a
video is a fun thing to watch. So I think
I've kind of struck that balance between maintaining a core
audience of people who are really interested in the technical
aspect of what I'm doing, but then people are also
just there to be entertained. That sort of breath is
what has helped me attract brands as well, because that
(09:57):
opens up my demographics a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Has there been any sort of refinement that you've done
to continue to reach viewers after you figured out kind
of what works?
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Yeah? I think that what works is a constantly evolving thing,
particularly on these short form video platforms. And so even
though the crux of what I do has remained the same,
there are little changes that I've made along the way
to keep the content fresh and relevant and sort of grabby.
(10:29):
I guess if you look back at the you know,
the very first couple videos I did, like the Fork video,
the format is quite different in just the way that
I present the content and the tone and the comedy
of it as well. So yeah, I think I think
that it's constantly evolving.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And when you were balancing your day job and this passion,
how how did that work? Is there such a thing
as balance?
Speaker 5 (10:56):
I mean, I was working all the time, although I
also I work all the time now too, so it's
not totally different. I actually negotiated a contract with my
employer when I started, which was I'm going to do
my forty hours, but I'm going to do them eight
to six Monday through Thursday, and then Friday is going
to be my day to do my own thing. So
(11:16):
luckily they were gracious enough to accept those terms. So
I was working on my social media content Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
But you know, as I got further and further into it,
and I got more invested in the content that I
was creating and the videography business that I was building,
each project required a little bit more of my time
(11:37):
and energy because it was no longer just this kind
of like, oh, this is like this little thing that
I'm doing for fun. It was like, okay, no, now
I have clients and I need to make sure that
the clients are happy. I need to deliver things in
a timely fashion. And so it got more and more
difficult to balance over time as those side projects became
paying jobs.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, I can absolutely relate to that. It's almost like
when you're getting to the point where you have to
take PTO to work on your business, it's like, what
are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So what were the events that led you up to
making the decision to leave your job and start making
content full time, right, because some folks could just stay
in that sort of side hustle world forever because of
things like fear and even the finances. So can you
talk us through kind of what the decision was like.
Was it an instant decision? Was it something that you
(12:30):
decided over time?
Speaker 5 (12:33):
To be honest, it was a very fast decision. I
had been hired by a client to make this commercial
that were multiple deliverables, and I took pto to do
that job. And you know, everyone at work was like,
enjoy your vacation, and I would. I didn't have the
heart to be like actually, so I was like, I
(12:57):
think this might be that moment where had enough inquiries
coming in. I've been doing enough business, and at that
point I was starting to actually make more, you know,
if you thought about it, like in an hourly kind
of a way on the side gig than on the
real gig. So at the beginning of the week, I
wouldn't have thought I was leaving my job. By the
end of the week, I was handing in my notice.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Oh my gosh, yeah, I love that energy, and.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
My boss was like, pardon yeah. Coming up after the break,
it was one hundred percent new. I had no idea
what I was doing. It was a lot of me
just like googling how do I write an invoice.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We'll be right back with Mine the Business. Welcome back
to Mind the Business, small business success stories from iHeartMedia's
Ruby Studio, and into It Quick books. So let's dive
(14:01):
a little bit more into the numbers, because a lot
of folks can have sort of this threshold in their
minds where it's like, once I'm making X amount of money,
I'm going to feel comfortable taking the leap. Was there
a target for you, were you trying to just replace
your income, or what was the financial indicator for you
that it was time to make the switch.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
For me, it was simply if I can make just
as much or a little bit more that I'm making
in my full time job, then I will pursue my
solopreneurship full time. I think that the hang up for
a lot of people who are trying to make that
leap is not just the income threshold, but it's this
idea of sustaining that income and then you know, can
(14:41):
I do this now over an extended period of time.
I had the advantage in the sense that I hadn't
been in the workforce for super long, so I didn't
feel like I had invested a ton into my current position.
I think that probably helped me a little bit. My
corporate job felt unstable to me almost as much or
more than me relying on myself and being independent and
(15:04):
finding the work where I could.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And you know, I feel
like a lot of solopreneurs fall into owning a business, right,
this would have fall into running a business. It's like,
you know, when I started creating videos on TikTok, I
had no idea that this was going to happen, right,
it was like, Oh, I just want to share something
on the internet. And I'm sure you kind of felt
the same way here. So is running a business new
territory for you? Do you have any background in it?
(15:28):
How did you learn about it? Was it just kind
of like a you know, baptism by fire, Like what
was that type of experience?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Like? For you?
Speaker 5 (15:36):
It was one hundred percent new. I had no idea
what I was doing. I think that it's all been
a very gradual baby steps process in me building to
the point where I am now. It was a lot
of me just like googling how do I write an invoice,
how do I do this? What's my template for this?
Finding a really good accountant who could help me figure out, Okay,
(15:59):
you need to this form in this form to the
irs because you don't want them coming after you for whatever.
So yeah, I think it was just a very gradual
process of me, you know, leaning on the people in
my life that I could, even my parents, you know,
who've been in the workforce a lot longer than I have.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
It was all very much trial by fire.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
It was definitely and I feel like you're definitely in
the boat of all the other solopreneurs out there who
are figuring out for the first time. Right Google, Professor, Google,
like I like to call them, is my best friend
as a solopreneur. I'm googling everything I possibly can, and
you know, trying to surround myself with other solopreneurs who
know more than I do, like Genise here. So with
that being said, though, I think that my view of
(16:40):
money has really switched and changed from you know, before
we both had the salary jobs, we had the maybe
the flour O one K, maybe we had the health
insurance stuff like that. But now to your point, I
have to be thinking about sending out the invoice. We
have to think about following up to make sure we
get paid and you know, making sure that we file
the right tax forms with our accountants. So did your
mindset also switch with money when you became a solopreneur.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
Yes, I became a lot more meticulous about everything. You know,
when you have a paycheck, it's like, Okay, the taxes
are going to be taken out. I don't have to
think about that. This amount's going to go into my
retirement plan. I don't really have to think about that.
And I'm going to get this stable a mount and
I can budget it. And now when all of a
sudden the income becomes very erratic, now there's a lot
more decisions to make about like, Okay, what amount of
(17:26):
this income am I going to reinvest into the business,
how much am I going to take out for myself?
How much am I going to use to put into
a retirement plan. So it's a very good thing because
you've become a lot more aware of every dollar, what's
happening to it and where it's going and if it's
being used wisely. Definitely, maybe think about money in a
lot more meticulous.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Way well, kind of reflecting upon what you've learned so far,
do you have any maybe strategies to share with how
you're able to keep these invoices, the paperwork? You know,
maybe it's Quick Books Money, Like, how are you thinking
about utilizing different tools and resources out there to ensure
that you're as meticulous now and will continue to be
meticulous going forward.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Just having really great record keeping. I do think Quick
Books Money comes in handy for that because they have
a great system for keeping track of payments going in,
payment's going out. Another really great thing, but Quick Books
Money is making sure that the money that you do
have is not just sitting in an account that's not
working for you. Putting it in a high yield savings
or investing it. Those have all been things that have
(18:29):
helped me, and I think obviously that goes for everyone,
not just solopreneurs, but it really helps when you start
a business and you have an LLC to create those
kind of separate business accounts and invest that money in
the same way that you would your own personal savings.
I think the biggest thing is just the record keeping
and also not being afraid to follow up with people.
I think at the beginning, I had a little bit
(18:50):
of fear of, oh, they haven't paid this yet, but
they probably just forgot. They'll probably do it next week.
I won't worry about it yet. But it's people aren't
annoyed when you just kind of say, hey, just friendly nudge,
just letting you know this invoice hasn't been paid yet.
Just things like that have also helped me keep everything
in line.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Okay, So do you distinguish your finances from your personal
life with your business life? Are you, you know, keeping
separate bank accounts and things like that, because I know
one of the mistakes I made the first time I
filed taxes as a solopreneur was just not acknowledging that
I had created this whole other entity and then getting
like a six seven thousand dollars tax bill. I'm like,
(19:30):
what what do you mean? I'm supposed to pay estimated taxes?
So what's that journey been like for you of keeping
your business and personal finances separate?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
So, yes, I absolutely keep them separate, but I will
say it's a development that happened this year. It got
to a point where when it came to taxes that
was not working in my favor. At all, and I
really needed to start separating the two out. So I did,
finally this year create my business accounts and start having
my clients pay my invoices into those accounts instead of
(20:03):
my personal accounts. But the waters were muddy there for
a little while, and that's a very uncomfortable feeling. It
gets very confusing. It's like, was this a business expense?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Can I write it off? Can I not write it off?
Speaker 5 (20:15):
I have a million receipts in my you know, and
my file cabinets and such, so I definitely do recommend
keeping them separate, but it can be kind of difficult
at the beginning to sort of untangle the web that
you've woven.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's funny how we all sort of become amateur accountants
in this process of becoming soliber nors. Yeah, it's not
necessarily something I thought I knew I was signing up.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
For, but here we are. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Okay, So let's pivot a little bit in talk about
your strategy, because you've been able to stand out in
a very very competitive media market. So I want to
know what do you think that is about what you
do that separates your content from the rest.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
A couple of things something I've always emphasized from the
very beginning is quality over quantity, and I think that's
something that's not really stressed enough in this world that
we have, where it's just about putting out a new
piece of content almost every single day, and I think
there's sort of this fear that if you're not constantly producing,
(21:17):
you're going to fall behind, or the algorithm whatever that is,
is not going to be treating you favorably. And I
hope that I can kind of be a little bit
of an example to people that you know, I could
not post a video for two months, and then I'll
come back with a video and it will perform as
well as my other content. As long as you are
proud of what you're making and you feel that you've
(21:40):
given your one hundred percent in making that piece of content,
then I feel like you can rest easy knowing that
people are going to react positively to it. The other
thing is I've been very conscious about mixing the high
fi and the low fi in everything that I do.
So I have these pieces of these digital ads that
(22:04):
are I think polished and professional and could live on
their own as an ad piece or you know, as
a paid ad, but then I also try to incorporate
these behind the scenes pieces of content and the voiceovers
and the intros, and I think that that's really what
bridges the gap between the consumer and the brand, is
(22:25):
this is how this was made, this is how this
was done, not just showing this is the final product.
And a lot of times brands will run those behind
the scenes pieces of content on their platforms alongside the
ads as well, so it's not just living on my pages.
So yeah, I think it's kind of about just striking
that balance between creating a really high quality piece of
(22:47):
content for the brand it's going to appeal to the brand,
and then also creating those kind of more low fi
moments that will appeal to viewers.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I love that strategy.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, they definitely actually do run those as the ads.
I remember seeing video of you. I think you are
pushing a dishwasher up a hill to your parents' house.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yes, Cascade, that was so funny. Thanks. So we talk
about differentiating yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Now, let's talk about how you got these awesome clients
to begin with and how you continue to attract new clients. Obviously,
you're publishing awesome, awesome content and they see that, what
do you think it was about your content that got
Celsius to reach out, that got Poppy to you want
to work with You are now Cascade and Don and
these awesome, cool, cool brands that are so recognizable. What
(23:32):
about what you're publishing now is specifically attracting new companies
to want to work with you.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I think that.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
The main appeal is that it's a very different type
of UGC. You know, we're at a moment now where
quote unquote influencer content, and UGC has been on the
scene for probably almost a decade at this point, if
we're thinking back to like the beginning of beginnings of
YouTube and such, and I think that brands are always
trying to look for fresh ways to connect with audiences
(24:02):
with you GC and with this kind of influencer style content.
So I think that that is why my content has
struck a chord with a lot of brands, is because
it managed just to be incredibly brand heavy and incredibly
branded while still feeling authentic. And I think that's a
really hard balance to strike, and it's a hard media
to find. So yeah, I've kind of managed to find
(24:24):
this sort of hybrid spot where I'm able to really
highlight these key brand messages and key product benefits without
feeling like I'm pandering.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
So before we wrap things up here, let's talk just
a little bit about maybe some biggest learnings from little
setbacks you might have experienced.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Pitfalls you narrowly avoided.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Like, was there anything that like randomly happened that that
completely took you off guard? Here that was a little
bit of a setback, but you learned from it. Now
you're doing something specific to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
My biggest challenge that I kind of am actively face
saying that I'm trying to strategize ways of overcoming is
this sense that now that I've been on social media
for a little while and I've been successful on social media,
I feel like everything I do needs to be bigger
and better than the last thing I did, And it's
(25:18):
this kind of constant need to always top myself.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And always right yes.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Yes, And that can be a really hard beast to
fight in a sense because absolutely I think that I'm
always learning and always growing and always improving, but it's
slow and it's gradual and it's incremental, and it's not
always going to be that the next thing I do
is miles above the last thing I did. It might
even be worse, you know. So I think that it's
just sort of coming to terms with that and not
(25:48):
letting that hold me back from creating. I've found that
in the last maybe like six months, I've felt a
little bit more trepidation around creating content and posting content
because I'm like, how is this going to be perceived?
Are people going to like it better? Are they going
to think it's not as good? So it's just that
internal monologue that I'm fighting. But this is part of
(26:09):
the process, and I wouldn't be where I am now
if I hadn't put myself out on a limb many,
many many times and ab tested many many many things
to kind of create what I've created so well.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I'll be the first to say I'm a huge fan
of the content. Janie feels the same way. I'm sure
after everyone listens to this, they're going to want to
go to TikTok and Instagram. I'm going to type in
Grace Wells to see the incredible commercials you're creating. So
before we sign off here, where can the people go
watch your content? If they want to hire you? Like
Amazon did? How can they go find you? Like, where
can they learn all about Grace?
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Absolutely?
Speaker 5 (26:42):
So my handles on all social are Grace Ball's photo
and in terms of reaching out, I'm represented by Whaler,
so that's my talent management. I'm also represented as a
director by Tool of North America and that's where I
do the larger scale commercials.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
So that's where you can find me.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Thank you so much, Grace for hanging out with us
on this episode.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Thanks for being here. Thank you guys so much fun.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Okay, Jenias, I hope you couldn't tell too bad, but
I definitely was fanbooring like crazy during that interview. I've
been following Grace for like two years now on TikTok.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
It's so wild to.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Me that we get to interview these incredible creators and
solopreneurs through this podcast. Grace was so inspiring. So what
stuck out with you most about that conversation.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Well, you know, I think it's fascinating that Grace is
doing something completely different than what she was doing in
her career, and so I think that's a really important
point to note that the thing that you do as
a business does not need to be the thing that
you do as a career, and it's perfectly okay to
have these multiple identities and sort of evolve as a person.
(27:48):
You know, Like we mentioned, personal development is a big
part of this whole journey as a solopreneur, and you're
just going to discover talents and skills that you didn't
even know you had throughout this process. What about you.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
It was wild to me that she was taking PTO
so she could do this passion like that was so
crazy that she was doing that. Oh my goodness. You know,
I think for me was not to feel the need
to constantly improve. I think a lot of solopreneurs we
get trapped in this sort of tunnel vision of like,
wait a second, I saw this solopreneur on Instagram or
(28:22):
this one on Twitter saying how they're making millions of
dollars and they're selling all these services and products, and
take a step back for a second. You are one
human being and you are crushing it, right. I think
it's called, especially in content, right, the mister beastification of output,
always having to do more and more and more, when
in actuality, it is totally okay to be, you know,
(28:42):
posting the content once in a while that grace is
doing or feel happy about the services and the products
you're offering in the sales and everything that you're doing
right now is a solopreneur. You don't need to turn
into a Fortune five hundred company to be a happy,
successful solopreneur.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, Nor do you need to be like mister Beast
and bury yourself for seven days just to say that
you did it.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
You know, like, I'm like, I'm gonna opt out of that.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I don't need that about I'm opting out.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
I will eat the chocolate bars, but I'm not bearing myself.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
That's why I draw the line.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Well, that's it for today's episode. You can find me
on social media at jocquierro Dineto podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
And you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can
follow into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
To get the tools you need to start, run and
grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
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Speaker 2 (29:35):
And we also want to hear from you, so be
sure to leave a rating and review.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
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Our executive producer is Malay Sosha, Our supervising producer is
Nikia Swinton, and our writer is Eric Leja.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Our Head of post production is James Foster.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
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(00:22):
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Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hey everyone, I'm Austin Hankwitz, host of the Rich Habits
podcast and co founder of Wits Ventures, but you may
instead recognize me from my short form videos about personal
finance and investing on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I'm Jennise Torres, the creator and host of the
award winning personal finance podcast Yokierro de Neetro and author
of financially Lit, the Modern Latina's guide to level up
your de netto and become financially And we are back
for season two of Mine the Business Small Business Success Stories,
a podcast brought to you by Into It QuickBooks and
(01:08):
Iheart's Ruby Studio. Austin and I are picking up where
we left off last season, chatting with small business owners
as they shared their stories about the ups and downs
of owning a small business. And this season is special
because we'll be hearing from solopreneurs, people who run their
business completely on their own. But Austin, what have you
been up to since we last spoke?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Ooh okay, So the Rich Habits podcast hit number one
on Spotify's Business Charts. I got to ring the opening
bell at the New York Stock Exchange alongside I Shares,
which is a ETF division that Blackrock has, and I
had an incredible holiday with my dad and my girlfriend.
I got to make my famous sweet potato casse role.
(01:51):
Maybe it's not famous, but it does taste really good
and I got to make it, and I was really.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Excited about it.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh that's fantastic, Austin. I'm so excited for everything that
you're a comp wishing as a creator solopreneur. I feel
like we've evolved so much in just this short time
that we've been together on the show and I think
my biggest thing is I'm an author, y'all.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Like, let's get this, this.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Is actually happening. I spent the better part of twenty
twenty three writing my very first book, and a personal
finance book that is geared specifically towards the Latino community
because a lot of us just don't learn about money.
And so I'm really excited to have that book launch
next year and you know, have everybody talking about it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I cannot wait to read it. I can't wait to
gift it to my friends. Really really excited for you. So,
before we jump into this conversation, Denis, what do you
think was the most exciting part about starting your own business?
What was the most exciting part about being a solo
preneur to you?
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I think for me it was honestly just making my
first dollar all on my own and just getting that
check for some thing that I had created out of
ideas and thoughts in my brain. I'm just like, Wow,
this feels a lot different than just getting a paycheck.
I was hooked from that very moment. What about you, Austin?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Absolutely, I think for me and this is something that
keeps me going on just a weekly, monthly basis new challenges, right,
I see people if it's launching a new course. You know,
launching a podcast like that was a new challenge for
me in twenty twenty three, and that's been a lot
of fun. So I think just having these new challenges
come out of nowhere and hopefully overcome them and then
(03:30):
be able to teach and share what I learned about
them to not only my creator friends and other solopreneurs,
but also on this podcast. So I'm really really excited.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, the journey through solopreneurship is absolutely a journey into
personal development.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
But enough about us, Let's go ahead and introduce our guest.
Grace Wells was just having fun with her camera in
her college apartment when she decided to upload a series
of videos she called making epic commercials for random objects.
One video featuring a four went viral on TikTok with
over two million views, and she was soon approached by
(04:11):
businesses for their social media ads. After one ad for
a soda company garnered a whopping eight million views, Grace
attracted even more brand deals and found the confidence to
leave her job and make videos full time. She now
runs her own business as a filmmaker and photographer, where
she creates content for major brands while also showcasing her
(04:31):
creative techniques on social media. Grace, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Me, Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Absolutely so Grace. I am so excited right now.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I've seriously been following you on TikTok for over two years,
and when I found out that we were having you
on the show, I literally went and rewatched like forty
of your videos.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Oh it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's so fascinating to me to watch someone go from
making unique short form video content on the Internet to
directing films and creating real commercials for major brands. We're
going to get into all that, don't worry, but I
wanted to sort of kick off this interview at the beginning.
You were on a very different path to begin with,
studying linguistics with a post grad job lined up at
(05:15):
Grand Cosmetics. So, before your videos were going viral, did
you ever consider a career in commercial filmmaking.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
So it was right around my junior year of college
that I bought my first camera and the idea growing
of pursuing videography or photography as my career postgrad. It
was a very gradual process. At the beginning, this was
very much just a creative outlet because I found myself
(05:43):
feeling very creatively unfulfilled. So it just kind of was like, Oh,
I'm going to buy a camera and I'm going to
It started with photography. I'm going to take some portrait
photos just my friends. Like it's going to be this
fun little thing. And I don't know where it came from,
but this drive kicked in where I was like, Okay,
what's the next thing, What's the next goal? Like where's
the next milestone? And so I think I would be
(06:05):
on this path even if this stuff was not blowing
up on social I think that it gave me a
big boost of confidence as well as like, Okay, even
though I don't have a formal education in this field
and I just did my degree in something totally different,
I can actually do this.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Absolutely right, starting with taking some portraits, filming some forks
and potatoes and books, and now you're doing the cool stuff.
So let's talk about that, right. Epic Commercials for Random
Objects Part one that was a video you had published.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
How did you come up with it, so it really
it was from necessity pretty much. That was the moment
where the pandemic really was in full swing. And I
think this was kind of like a very interesting turning
point for a lot of creatives that our workflow thus
far doesn't really work anymore in this kind of new world.
(06:56):
And for me, that meant, okay, I can no longer
go out and work with models the way that I
had been before. So this idea for making a commercial
for a random object, it was just sort of like, Okay,
what can I do in my house that I don't
eat anyone else? I can do this one hundred percent
all on my own. I thought that that would be
(07:16):
a fun creative challenge. The idea of making a commercial
for a fork, something that you would never ever ever
see a commercial for, would really push me creatively a
lot more, and I would kind of force me to
not rely on references that I'd seen in the past.
But even though I did think at the time, oh,
this might be a series, I thought maybe, like, you know,
(07:38):
three videos, and it turned into so much more than that.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So you're into video maybe three or two here. When
did you realize that your creative abilities, though, were strong
enough to begin to monetize, right, What for you was
that big breakthrough moment like wait a second, this is real,
I can do this. And was there any like maybe
imposter syndrome along the way.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Oh, I mean, they're still imposter syndrome.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
I would say that the monetization aspect really kicked in
towards the beginning of twenty twenty one, so I'd been
doing this for a little over six months, I would say,
and that's when the brand Celsius reached out to create
a commercial for them, And that was really my second
interaction with a brand. Very few brands reached out at
(08:23):
the very beginning, and I think that part of that
was TikTok was still foreign territory for a lot of
brands at that point in time. So that was kind
of the first video that really was like, oh, like,
first of all, someone wants to hire me.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
That's cool.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
And then that video actually ended up performing incredibly well,
so I was like, not only does someone want to
hire me, but people actually want to watch it, which
to me, I wouldn't have thought. I would have been like, oh, well,
if it's branded, like, no one's going to watch this video, right,
And that was really what got the ball rolling on
other brands reaching out to me, and then me eventually
leaving my job a little bit later that year.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
That is fascinating stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I talked to a lot lot of people who want
to start a side hustle, and one of the pieces
of advice I tell them is, you know, you need
to find your people, You need to find your target audience.
Was that the approach that you took. Did you go
and find your target audience or do you think they
found you?
Speaker 5 (09:14):
I think it was a little bit of both. I
know a lot of creators always emphasize the importance of
niching down, and honestly, that's not really been my approach.
I've always approached it with the mindset of I would
like this to appeal not only to people who are
really interested in videography, but I also wanted to be entertaining,
(09:34):
even for people who are maybe not really wanting to
do this, but just think that this kind of a
video is a fun thing to watch. So I think
I've kind of struck that balance between maintaining a core
audience of people who are really interested in the technical
aspect of what I'm doing, but then people are also
just there to be entertained. That sort of breath is
what has helped me attract brands as well, because that
(09:57):
opens up my demographics a little bit.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Has there been any sort of refinement that you've done
to continue to reach viewers after you figured out kind
of what works?
Speaker 5 (10:07):
Yeah? I think that what works is a constantly evolving thing,
particularly on these short form video platforms. And so even
though the crux of what I do has remained the same,
there are little changes that I've made along the way
to keep the content fresh and relevant and sort of grabby.
(10:29):
I guess if you look back at the you know,
the very first couple videos I did, like the Fork video,
the format is quite different in just the way that
I present the content and the tone and the comedy
of it as well. So yeah, I think I think
that it's constantly evolving.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And when you were balancing your day job and this passion,
how how did that work? Is there such a thing
as balance?
Speaker 5 (10:56):
I mean, I was working all the time, although I
also I work all the time now too, so it's
not totally different. I actually negotiated a contract with my
employer when I started, which was I'm going to do
my forty hours, but I'm going to do them eight
to six Monday through Thursday, and then Friday is going
to be my day to do my own thing. So
(11:16):
luckily they were gracious enough to accept those terms. So
I was working on my social media content Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
But you know, as I got further and further into it,
and I got more invested in the content that I
was creating and the videography business that I was building,
each project required a little bit more of my time
(11:37):
and energy because it was no longer just this kind
of like, oh, this is like this little thing that
I'm doing for fun. It was like, okay, no, now
I have clients and I need to make sure that
the clients are happy. I need to deliver things in
a timely fashion. And so it got more and more
difficult to balance over time as those side projects became
paying jobs.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, I can absolutely relate to that. It's almost like
when you're getting to the point where you have to
take PTO to work on your business, it's like, what
are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
So what were the events that led you up to
making the decision to leave your job and start making
content full time, right, because some folks could just stay
in that sort of side hustle world forever because of
things like fear and even the finances. So can you
talk us through kind of what the decision was like.
Was it an instant decision? Was it something that you
(12:30):
decided over time?
Speaker 5 (12:33):
To be honest, it was a very fast decision. I
had been hired by a client to make this commercial
that were multiple deliverables, and I took pto to do
that job. And you know, everyone at work was like,
enjoy your vacation, and I would. I didn't have the
heart to be like actually, so I was like, I
(12:57):
think this might be that moment where had enough inquiries
coming in. I've been doing enough business, and at that
point I was starting to actually make more, you know,
if you thought about it, like in an hourly kind
of a way on the side gig than on the
real gig. So at the beginning of the week, I
wouldn't have thought I was leaving my job. By the
end of the week, I was handing in my notice.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Oh my gosh, yeah, I love that energy, and.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
My boss was like, pardon yeah. Coming up after the break,
it was one hundred percent new. I had no idea
what I was doing. It was a lot of me
just like googling how do I write an invoice.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We'll be right back with Mine the Business. Welcome back
to Mind the Business, small business success stories from iHeartMedia's
Ruby Studio, and into It Quick books. So let's dive
(14:01):
a little bit more into the numbers, because a lot
of folks can have sort of this threshold in their
minds where it's like, once I'm making X amount of money,
I'm going to feel comfortable taking the leap. Was there
a target for you, were you trying to just replace
your income, or what was the financial indicator for you
that it was time to make the switch.
Speaker 5 (14:19):
For me, it was simply if I can make just
as much or a little bit more that I'm making
in my full time job, then I will pursue my
solopreneurship full time. I think that the hang up for
a lot of people who are trying to make that
leap is not just the income threshold, but it's this
idea of sustaining that income and then you know, can
(14:41):
I do this now over an extended period of time.
I had the advantage in the sense that I hadn't
been in the workforce for super long, so I didn't
feel like I had invested a ton into my current position.
I think that probably helped me a little bit. My
corporate job felt unstable to me almost as much or
more than me relying on myself and being independent and
(15:04):
finding the work where I could.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And you know, I feel
like a lot of solopreneurs fall into owning a business, right,
this would have fall into running a business. It's like,
you know, when I started creating videos on TikTok, I
had no idea that this was going to happen, right,
it was like, Oh, I just want to share something
on the internet. And I'm sure you kind of felt
the same way here. So is running a business new
territory for you? Do you have any background in it?
(15:28):
How did you learn about it? Was it just kind
of like a you know, baptism by fire, Like what
was that type of experience?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Like? For you?
Speaker 5 (15:36):
It was one hundred percent new. I had no idea
what I was doing. I think that it's all been
a very gradual baby steps process in me building to
the point where I am now. It was a lot
of me just like googling how do I write an invoice,
how do I do this? What's my template for this?
Finding a really good accountant who could help me figure out, Okay,
(15:59):
you need to this form in this form to the
irs because you don't want them coming after you for whatever.
So yeah, I think it was just a very gradual
process of me, you know, leaning on the people in
my life that I could, even my parents, you know,
who've been in the workforce a lot longer than I have.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
It was all very much trial by fire.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
It was definitely and I feel like you're definitely in
the boat of all the other solopreneurs out there who
are figuring out for the first time. Right Google, Professor, Google,
like I like to call them, is my best friend
as a solopreneur. I'm googling everything I possibly can, and
you know, trying to surround myself with other solopreneurs who
know more than I do, like Genise here. So with
that being said, though, I think that my view of
(16:40):
money has really switched and changed from you know, before
we both had the salary jobs, we had the maybe
the flour O one K, maybe we had the health
insurance stuff like that. But now to your point, I
have to be thinking about sending out the invoice. We
have to think about following up to make sure we
get paid and you know, making sure that we file
the right tax forms with our accountants. So did your
mindset also switch with money when you became a solopreneur.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
Yes, I became a lot more meticulous about everything. You know,
when you have a paycheck, it's like, Okay, the taxes
are going to be taken out. I don't have to
think about that. This amount's going to go into my
retirement plan. I don't really have to think about that.
And I'm going to get this stable a mount and
I can budget it. And now when all of a
sudden the income becomes very erratic, now there's a lot
more decisions to make about like, Okay, what amount of
(17:26):
this income am I going to reinvest into the business,
how much am I going to take out for myself?
How much am I going to use to put into
a retirement plan. So it's a very good thing because
you've become a lot more aware of every dollar, what's
happening to it and where it's going and if it's
being used wisely. Definitely, maybe think about money in a
lot more meticulous.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Way well, kind of reflecting upon what you've learned so far,
do you have any maybe strategies to share with how
you're able to keep these invoices, the paperwork? You know,
maybe it's Quick Books Money, Like, how are you thinking
about utilizing different tools and resources out there to ensure
that you're as meticulous now and will continue to be
meticulous going forward.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Just having really great record keeping. I do think Quick
Books Money comes in handy for that because they have
a great system for keeping track of payments going in,
payment's going out. Another really great thing, but Quick Books
Money is making sure that the money that you do
have is not just sitting in an account that's not
working for you. Putting it in a high yield savings
or investing it. Those have all been things that have
(18:29):
helped me, and I think obviously that goes for everyone,
not just solopreneurs, but it really helps when you start
a business and you have an LLC to create those
kind of separate business accounts and invest that money in
the same way that you would your own personal savings.
I think the biggest thing is just the record keeping
and also not being afraid to follow up with people.
I think at the beginning, I had a little bit
(18:50):
of fear of, oh, they haven't paid this yet, but
they probably just forgot. They'll probably do it next week.
I won't worry about it yet. But it's people aren't
annoyed when you just kind of say, hey, just friendly nudge,
just letting you know this invoice hasn't been paid yet.
Just things like that have also helped me keep everything
in line.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Okay, So do you distinguish your finances from your personal
life with your business life? Are you, you know, keeping
separate bank accounts and things like that, because I know
one of the mistakes I made the first time I
filed taxes as a solopreneur was just not acknowledging that
I had created this whole other entity and then getting
like a six seven thousand dollars tax bill. I'm like,
(19:30):
what what do you mean? I'm supposed to pay estimated taxes?
So what's that journey been like for you of keeping
your business and personal finances separate?
Speaker 5 (19:39):
So, yes, I absolutely keep them separate, but I will
say it's a development that happened this year. It got
to a point where when it came to taxes that
was not working in my favor. At all, and I
really needed to start separating the two out. So I did,
finally this year create my business accounts and start having
my clients pay my invoices into those accounts instead of
(20:03):
my personal accounts. But the waters were muddy there for
a little while, and that's a very uncomfortable feeling. It
gets very confusing. It's like, was this a business expense?
Speaker 4 (20:12):
Can I write it off? Can I not write it off?
Speaker 5 (20:15):
I have a million receipts in my you know, and
my file cabinets and such, so I definitely do recommend
keeping them separate, but it can be kind of difficult
at the beginning to sort of untangle the web that
you've woven.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
It's funny how we all sort of become amateur accountants
in this process of becoming soliber nors. Yeah, it's not
necessarily something I thought I knew I was signing up.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
For, but here we are. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Okay, So let's pivot a little bit in talk about
your strategy, because you've been able to stand out in
a very very competitive media market. So I want to
know what do you think that is about what you
do that separates your content from the rest.
Speaker 5 (20:53):
A couple of things something I've always emphasized from the
very beginning is quality over quantity, and I think that's
something that's not really stressed enough in this world that
we have, where it's just about putting out a new
piece of content almost every single day, and I think
there's sort of this fear that if you're not constantly producing,
(21:17):
you're going to fall behind, or the algorithm whatever that is,
is not going to be treating you favorably. And I
hope that I can kind of be a little bit
of an example to people that you know, I could
not post a video for two months, and then I'll
come back with a video and it will perform as
well as my other content. As long as you are
proud of what you're making and you feel that you've
(21:40):
given your one hundred percent in making that piece of content,
then I feel like you can rest easy knowing that
people are going to react positively to it. The other
thing is I've been very conscious about mixing the high
fi and the low fi in everything that I do.
So I have these pieces of these digital ads that
(22:04):
are I think polished and professional and could live on
their own as an ad piece or you know, as
a paid ad, but then I also try to incorporate
these behind the scenes pieces of content and the voiceovers
and the intros, and I think that that's really what
bridges the gap between the consumer and the brand, is
(22:25):
this is how this was made, this is how this
was done, not just showing this is the final product.
And a lot of times brands will run those behind
the scenes pieces of content on their platforms alongside the
ads as well, so it's not just living on my pages.
So yeah, I think it's kind of about just striking
that balance between creating a really high quality piece of
(22:47):
content for the brand it's going to appeal to the brand,
and then also creating those kind of more low fi
moments that will appeal to viewers.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I love that strategy.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, they definitely actually do run those as the ads.
I remember seeing video of you. I think you are
pushing a dishwasher up a hill to your parents' house.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yes, Cascade, that was so funny. Thanks. So we talk
about differentiating yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Now, let's talk about how you got these awesome clients
to begin with and how you continue to attract new clients. Obviously,
you're publishing awesome, awesome content and they see that, what
do you think it was about your content that got
Celsius to reach out, that got Poppy to you want
to work with You are now Cascade and Don and
these awesome, cool, cool brands that are so recognizable. What
(23:32):
about what you're publishing now is specifically attracting new companies
to want to work with you.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
I think that.
Speaker 5 (23:40):
The main appeal is that it's a very different type
of UGC. You know, we're at a moment now where
quote unquote influencer content, and UGC has been on the
scene for probably almost a decade at this point, if
we're thinking back to like the beginning of beginnings of
YouTube and such, and I think that brands are always
trying to look for fresh ways to connect with audiences
(24:02):
with you GC and with this kind of influencer style content.
So I think that that is why my content has
struck a chord with a lot of brands, is because
it managed just to be incredibly brand heavy and incredibly
branded while still feeling authentic. And I think that's a
really hard balance to strike, and it's a hard media
to find. So yeah, I've kind of managed to find
(24:24):
this sort of hybrid spot where I'm able to really
highlight these key brand messages and key product benefits without
feeling like I'm pandering.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
So before we wrap things up here, let's talk just
a little bit about maybe some biggest learnings from little
setbacks you might have experienced.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Pitfalls you narrowly avoided.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Like, was there anything that like randomly happened that that
completely took you off guard? Here that was a little
bit of a setback, but you learned from it. Now
you're doing something specific to make sure that doesn't happen again.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
My biggest challenge that I kind of am actively face
saying that I'm trying to strategize ways of overcoming is
this sense that now that I've been on social media
for a little while and I've been successful on social media,
I feel like everything I do needs to be bigger
and better than the last thing I did, And it's
(25:18):
this kind of constant need to always top myself.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
And always right yes.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Yes, And that can be a really hard beast to
fight in a sense because absolutely I think that I'm
always learning and always growing and always improving, but it's
slow and it's gradual and it's incremental, and it's not
always going to be that the next thing I do
is miles above the last thing I did. It might
even be worse, you know. So I think that it's
just sort of coming to terms with that and not
(25:48):
letting that hold me back from creating. I've found that
in the last maybe like six months, I've felt a
little bit more trepidation around creating content and posting content
because I'm like, how is this going to be perceived?
Are people going to like it better? Are they going
to think it's not as good? So it's just that
internal monologue that I'm fighting. But this is part of
(26:09):
the process, and I wouldn't be where I am now
if I hadn't put myself out on a limb many,
many many times and ab tested many many many things
to kind of create what I've created so well.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
I'll be the first to say I'm a huge fan
of the content. Janie feels the same way. I'm sure
after everyone listens to this, they're going to want to
go to TikTok and Instagram. I'm going to type in
Grace Wells to see the incredible commercials you're creating. So
before we sign off here, where can the people go
watch your content? If they want to hire you? Like
Amazon did? How can they go find you? Like, where
can they learn all about Grace?
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Absolutely?
Speaker 5 (26:42):
So my handles on all social are Grace Ball's photo
and in terms of reaching out, I'm represented by Whaler,
so that's my talent management. I'm also represented as a
director by Tool of North America and that's where I
do the larger scale commercials.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
So that's where you can find me.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Thank you so much, Grace for hanging out with us
on this episode.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Thanks for being here. Thank you guys so much fun.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Okay, Jenias, I hope you couldn't tell too bad, but
I definitely was fanbooring like crazy during that interview. I've
been following Grace for like two years now on TikTok.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
It's so wild to.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Me that we get to interview these incredible creators and
solopreneurs through this podcast. Grace was so inspiring. So what
stuck out with you most about that conversation.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Well, you know, I think it's fascinating that Grace is
doing something completely different than what she was doing in
her career, and so I think that's a really important
point to note that the thing that you do as
a business does not need to be the thing that
you do as a career, and it's perfectly okay to
have these multiple identities and sort of evolve as a person.
(27:48):
You know, Like we mentioned, personal development is a big
part of this whole journey as a solopreneur, and you're
just going to discover talents and skills that you didn't
even know you had throughout this process. What about you.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
It was wild to me that she was taking PTO
so she could do this passion like that was so
crazy that she was doing that. Oh my goodness. You know,
I think for me was not to feel the need
to constantly improve. I think a lot of solopreneurs we
get trapped in this sort of tunnel vision of like,
wait a second, I saw this solopreneur on Instagram or
(28:22):
this one on Twitter saying how they're making millions of
dollars and they're selling all these services and products, and
take a step back for a second. You are one
human being and you are crushing it, right. I think
it's called, especially in content, right, the mister beastification of output,
always having to do more and more and more, when
in actuality, it is totally okay to be, you know,
(28:42):
posting the content once in a while that grace is
doing or feel happy about the services and the products
you're offering in the sales and everything that you're doing
right now is a solopreneur. You don't need to turn
into a Fortune five hundred company to be a happy,
successful solopreneur.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Yeah, Nor do you need to be like mister Beast
and bury yourself for seven days just to say that
you did it.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
You know, like, I'm like, I'm gonna opt out of that.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
I don't need that about I'm opting out.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
I will eat the chocolate bars, but I'm not bearing myself.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
That's why I draw the line.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Well, that's it for today's episode. You can find me
on social media at jocquierro Dineto podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
And you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can
follow into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
To get the tools you need to start, run and
grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Don't forget to follow this show wherever you listen to
podcasts so you can stay up to date on future episodes.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And we also want to hear from you, so be
sure to leave a rating and review.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
See you next time.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
This podcast is a production of iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks.
Our executive producer is Malay Sosha, Our supervising producer is
Nikia Swinton, and our writer is Eric Leja.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Our Head of post production is James Foster.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
QuickBooks.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
Money is a stand on the loan Intoit offering banking
services provided by Greendop Bank member FDIC only. Funds and
envelopes earn annual percentage yield apy can change at any time.
Money movement services provided by Intuit Payments, Inc. Licensed as
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Financial Services.
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