June 12, 2025 • 28 mins
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What if your greatest business opportunity isn't something new, but something you already possess? In this eye-opening conversation with business growth expert Ann Carden, we explore how entrepreneurs can transform their expertise into thriving, profitable businesses.
Cardens journey from teaching neighborhood craft classes at age eight to building and selling five successful companies offers a masterclass in business evolution. Rather than chasing the next shiny opportunity, she reveals how staying three steps ahead of market trends allowed her to pivot seamlessly from a global doll business to health clubs to high-ticket coaching—all while maintaining profitability.
For creative professionals who struggle with the business side of their operations, Carden offers refreshingly practical advice. "The creative side is where you can really expand and grow the business," she explains, "but you have to treat it like a business. Otherwise, what you love is not going to be fun." Her approach balances creative fulfillment with sound business strategy, ensuring entrepreneurs don't burn out on their passions.
Perhaps most valuable is Carden's concept of "growing money trees"—developing multiple revenue streams rather than relying on a single business model. This orchard approach provides stability even during market disruptions, as evidenced by how she weathered changes in both the craft and fitness industries.
Carden's "Expert in You" methodology helps entrepreneurs package their brilliance for premium pricing, often uncovering blind spots where they can't recognize their most valuable skil
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Manning (00:02):
Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast, the
photo imaging industry'sleading news source.
Here's your host, Gary Pageau.
The Dead Pixels Society podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:18):
Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
I'm your host, Gary Pageau, andtoday we're joined by Ann
Carden, who's a business growthexpert and CEO of the Expert in
You marketing company.
She's coming to us fromMissouri today.
Hi Ann, how are you today?
Ann Carden (00:34):
Hey Gary, I'm doing great.
Thanks so much for having me.
Gary Pageau (00:37):
So you've got a wide range of experiences.
You've run seven companies.
Tell us about that first, wereyou always in business, or did
you grow into it?
Or what happened?
Ann Carden (00:50):
Yeah, my first business was when I was about
eight years old, I think, and.
I said okay craft classes to theneighborhood kids and had craft
classes in my basement.
So that was my first business.
That actually came out on apodcast one day.
I had forgot about that.
But no, I actually went intoretail management.
I was in retail management forabout 13 years, working in
(01:11):
really high end departmentstores running high million
dollar departments, learnedabout business and marketing and
sales and I had.
I went to school for businessmanagement.
So after that my I had kids andI wanted to be a stay-at-home
mom and raise my kids.
I didn't want them raised bydaycare.
So my husband and I we wereliving in California at the time
(01:31):
I was working in retail and wemoved back to Missouri and there
wasn't a lot of opportunity andI started my first business and
that was 35 years ago.
So since then I'm in my sixthand seventh and I've sold the
five previous businesses.
Gary Pageau (01:47):
And just so the listeners know what are some of
the businesses, where they're inthe same industry.
Are they the same type ofbusiness?
Were they spread acrossdifferent categories?
Or where, what were those at?
Ann Carden (01:57):
No.
So my first business I was likewhat can I do to make some
money?
There wasn't any opportunityand the craft industry was
exploding across the country atthat time and this was in the
nineties, and I I was creativeand so I thought I'm going to
make something and I startedmaking some craft things that
didn't sell.
And I said to the woman at thestore it was a little
(02:18):
consignment store and she said,yeah, you can come pick these
things up.
They're not selling.
And I said what's selling?
She said these rabbit dolls.
Long story short, that turnedinto a global doll business,
like a craft doll business.
Gary Pageau (02:31):
Okay.
Ann Carden (02:32):
All over the world.
I was in multiple stores acrossthe country.
That was before the internet.
Gary Pageau (02:36):
I was going to say you weren't selling online then,
so you bought a global business.
Ann Carden (02:40):
Print ads the old yes, I was in the old school way
, right, that's the old way.
I was in internationalmagazines and there were, you
know, there were a lot of craftstores all across the country,
so it was in different States.
I had a space in differentStates that I rented and I was
shipping dolls every day and andI that became global.
I remember the first time I gota call from Iceland.
(03:03):
A woman was collecting my dolls.
They were all signed andnumbered.
I had a lot of employees.
I had multiple moms coming inand out of my home that were
helping me with different thingsand that was a really
successful business.
I did it for seven years andthen I started doing my designs
for the pattern side of mybusiness, where people could buy
(03:24):
the patterns and they couldmake my dolls so that whole
leather revenue stream.
And then when I sold, I actuallysold my designs and I sold out
to that pattern company startedbusiness and fitness, two health
clubs.
Well, one was a high-endwomen's training center, one was
a health club, huge health cluband then I had two weight loss
centers and those were forbusinesses, and now I have my
(03:47):
coaching and consulting and thenI have my agency.
So yeah, it's been quite a run.
Gary Pageau (03:52):
So how do you square the circle with a
creative person in business?
Because a lot of times peoplestruggle with that because
they've got the creative energyof and I think you know that's a
lot of our audience.
You know photographers,printers, people like that.
You know that's a lot of ouraudience.
You know photographers,printers, people like that,
people who are maybe got intothe business for creative
reasons but then you got to dothe business side of it.
How did you grow in that area?
Ann Carden (04:15):
I really just had to learn that skill set.
To be honest, when you thething that the thing that I try
to get people to understand whenI'm coaching them or working
with them is that the creativeside is where you can really
expand and grow the business.
But you do have to treat itlike a business and have to
think of it like a business.
Otherwise what you love is notgoing to be fun.
(04:37):
I mean, you're going toprobably burn out on it.
So most people get intobusiness because they want to
make money, not just becausethey love what they do, but they
want to make money.
That's why they turn it into abusiness.
But then so many people nevergo that direction and it's
because they're not excellent atbusiness their ideas.
I don't want to take the timeto learn it.
I was actually even that way,like I hate the business side.
(04:58):
I love what I'm doing, buteventually I had to really make
that shift Like I'm not going tolove this if I don't really do
something with it.
Gary Pageau (05:08):
Well, not a lot of people love failure either.
Ann Carden (05:10):
Exactly the freedom comes.
I always say get yourself tosuch a great place in your
business that now you get to dowhat you love when you want to
do it, but you don't have to doit all the time.
That, to me, that's the beautyof a real business.
Gary Pageau (05:24):
Because that's one of the things that you know.
A friend of mine once said wasyou know, nothing kills the joy
of photography faster thanowning a photography business.
Ann Carden (05:32):
It's that way with everything.
It's kind of like, you know,when I was building my health
clubs, I was training clients.
I was coaching clients onweight loss thousands of people
and I was teaching fitnessclasses.
I was teaching fitness classes.
I was teaching a lot.
For years I would teach fiveand six classes a day.
That's insane to people.
And eventually I said, ok, thisthing can't really grow if I'm
in the middle of everything.
(05:53):
Right?
It was hard to let go of that.
That's one thing.
It's just hard for people tolet go of that, and you think
nobody can do it like I can,because I'm the face of this
business, but the reality isthat isn't true, and I learned
that, and when I did, though,the thing that was so great
about that is not only did Ilearn other skill sets, that
became fun as well, but now Igot to actually mentor people up
(06:17):
to also be doing great things,which was very rewarding in
itself, and I was able to stillteach and train when I wanted to
, but I didn't have to, and thatwas the difference, so I had a
lot more freedom.
I was able, then, to go to mykids games, and I was able to be
involved in their schoolactivities and the things that
(06:38):
were really and my family andreally important to me, and I
can't I couldn't do that if Iwas in the midst of everything,
like nothing's going to grow, ifyou're it.
Gary Pageau (06:47):
Yeah, cause, cause it's hard to scale people and
and you know, I mean like anowner right, and that's really
one of the things I think a lotof people in the industry and
photo industry struggle with isbecause maybe they're the, the
son of the founder or thedaughter of the founder who
founded the camera store 40years ago and then they took it
over and now they've got to kindof put it in a position to pass
(07:07):
on.
Yeah, it's a struggle becauseso much of it is in their head.
Ann Carden (07:12):
Yeah, well, and not only that, gary.
That's kind of the old way ofdoing business.
It's not the new way of doingbusiness.
Now we have the internet.
Now you can create products.
Now you can get products done.
Now there's so many other waysnow to make money.
Or you can just create anotherlike invest in other businesses
and bring in money other ways.
(07:32):
I learned that all along the wayand so I my main thing always
expanded into otheropportunities and other things
that were also making money.
So then you're not so tied to Idon't mean to say have a whole
bunch of businesses, that's notmy point you get your core
business successful and then youstart looking for ways.
(07:53):
I say grow your money trees.
So most people think, okay, mybusiness is a money tree, I can
grow it however big I want.
But I say grow your orchardright.
So now you grow another moneytree and another money tree.
And when you start thinkinglike that, now you're really
thinking like someone inbusiness and you're not tied.
(08:13):
If something happens over hereit's not gonna matter.
It's like when the craftindustry was starting to shift,
I was doing patterns.
I had already gone that route.
I saw the shifts in the market.
I still had a business.
I wasn't out of businessbecause of all the imports and
things coming in.
Same thing with the healthclubs.
You know, the weight losscenters came in because I saw
(08:36):
shifts in gyms and in what wasgoing on in gyms and the pricing
and all of those kinds ofthings and I knew that I still
wanted to make an impact andwork at a higher level with
people.
And that's where the wholeweight loss thing kind of came
in.
So it was part of the core,like they fed each other, but it
was a whole nother business butit wasn't disconnected.
(08:57):
And so those to me that's thebest way to grow and scale if
you do still love what you do,but there's other ways to make
money and that's what you couldbe.
Gary Pageau (09:07):
So one of the things you kind of touched on
there is, you know, identifyingtrends, right, and you know the
Internet's out there now, andmaybe in the 1990s there was a
craft industry association or anewsletter or something you
could read.
But you know there's a lot ofterrible information out there
and misleading information,especially on the Internet.
You know I hate to be the firstone to inform you but not
(09:28):
everything on the Internet istruthful.
That's true, right you, but noteverything on the internet is
truthful.
So so you know, when you havesomebody who's maybe looking at
that let's say they built asuccessful camera store or
whatever and they're looking forlike going to where the puck is
going to be, I think is youknow.
If I was to use a sportsanalogy, that's what you're
talking about.
You know, don't be laggingbehind, but be where the puck is
going to be.
What are some of the things youcan look at to identify future
(09:51):
growth opportunities?
Ann Carden (09:53):
Yeah, you always really do have to stay ahead of
everybody else.
That's one thing I always didwas I was always looking for
what's the new thing I thinkabout in my health clubs.
You know what's the new thingcoming out now, and I stayed on
top of those things.
Now you can do it so easy.
Now you can easily research.
(10:13):
You can see who's leading theindustry, who's running the
conferences, who's doing the bigstuff and follow them and
you'll be able to kind of seewhere the trends are going,
because there are those peoplethat they live that.
But if you can stay with thosepeople and you can start, you
can figure out who do I follow,who's got the inside track, who
(10:34):
knows things, and you can stayreally in tuned.
You can always be ahead, youcan always be steps ahead of
your competition and you canalways get to market with things
that other people are.
They're just lagging so farbehind.
I did that in all of mybusinesses.
I was always the first to geteverything my competition used
to knock me off.
(10:54):
They would knock off my ads,they would knock off my ideas
and I used to get so mad.
But looking back now I say hey,they were chasing me, I wasn't
chasing them.
I was three steps ahead, andthat's what you have to do if
you're going to stay relevant.
Gary Pageau (11:07):
But isn't there a danger, though, to kind of just
being too trendy and justfollowing trends that maybe just
there, maybe they're more of afad than a trend, right, and
that's that's really a problemfor some people who, you know,
maybe can't afford to do toomany, maybe not radical shifts.
But you know, let's say, forexample, you know a certain type
of thing gets hot on Instagramor TikTok and you decide you
(11:30):
want to follow that trend, butthen it peters out in two weeks
and you're kind of out of luck.
Ann Carden (11:35):
Well, I mean, what kind of trends are we talking
about?
Gary Pageau (11:37):
That's what you, I guess that's where I'm getting
to is how do you identify atrend right, A growth trend?
Ann Carden (11:42):
I think you have to look at is this something that's
viable?
So I don't when I say a trend,it has to have a little bit of
juice behind it.
So, for example, right now,podcasting, we're on here, right
, it's exploding.
I mean, I've had a podcast forfour years and I, at the time I
had my podcast, it was not it,there were a lot out there, but
(12:03):
it was just starting to kind ofget right.
Now I'm hundreds of episodes inand other people are just
getting started.
Now I we help people launch one.
And so my next thing camebecause I saw that, hey, this
isn't going away, this is okay.
How can I now help peoplelaunch their podcast if they
(12:24):
want to launch their show?
I picked up on the trend, butin a different way.
So sometimes you can test thewaters, but I think you have to
look at way.
So sometimes you can test thewaters, but I think you have to
look at is this a viable?
I mean some of it's gutinstinct, to be quite honest.
Gary Pageau (12:36):
Yeah, well, that's it.
Ann Carden (12:37):
It is.
It's like do I really see afuture in this?
But if you really sit down andlook at things, you can usually
tell this is going to take off,this is going to do well.
Can I tell a quick story?
Gary Pageau (12:49):
Absolutely.
Ann Carden (12:50):
Okay, please.
Gary Pageau (12:51):
Tell me a story.
Ann Carden (12:53):
Yeah, so I remember back when I had my health club
and spinning came onto the scene.
Everybody knows spinning now,right, right, but it was new and
I was following what was goingon in the fitness industry, and
so this is a way for people tothink too to get very innovative
and spin bikes at that time Idon't know they were going to be
(13:13):
25 or 30 grand to put into myhealth club and I didn't really
know if people were even goingto love it, and I wasn't.
I didn't want to just go buy thebikes and stick them into my
gym and okay, here you go,because people don't appreciate
stuff like that, right, it'sjust 30 grand out of my profits.
So what I did is I gotinnovative and I put together a
game plan and I said I'm goingto have these bikes paid for
(13:36):
before I buy them or I'm notgoing to do it, right?
So I put packages together andI went out into my club and I
marketed and sold those and Isaid this is what it is and this
is what we're going to do.
And if you want to be in onthis, this is how many spots we
have per class and going to do.
And if you want to be in onthis, this is how many spots we
have per class and this is howmany.
And so people bought thepackages and I said if I don't
(13:56):
get the interest, I'm not goingto buy the bikes and I'll refund
your money.
Gary Pageau (14:00):
Right.
Ann Carden (14:00):
And bought into that , and before I put in the spin
bikes I had the bikes paid for.
So you can do things like thatand it's a great way to test the
market too.
So market research in some wayshape or form.
I teach people that now I'mlike don't go out and build a
course, or don't go out andbuild a product, Go sell the
product and then build theproduct.
(14:21):
And that will tell you whenpeople have to pay instead of
when they have to pay with moneyinstead of their words.
You will find out if there'sreally a market for something.
Gary Pageau (14:31):
You know it's interesting.
You say that because that issort of the way GoFundMe works,
right?
I mean, it's sort of like I'veseen several photo manufacturers
come out with products and theylaunch them on GoFundMe.
I mean even companies as big asCanon, right, you know?
Because they just want to seeis this a real product or is
this something that people inour R&D department just dreamt
(14:53):
up?
Will people actually buy it,right?
Ann Carden (14:55):
Absolutely.
You know I'm getting ready todo another book.
I have a speaking engagementcoming up.
It's around a topic I haven'treleased a book around like
specifically for that topic, andI said, ok, I need to write a
book for this.
And I thought, well, if I don'tget the book done in time, I'm
going to pre-sell the book atthe speaking engagement.
People can buy the book andthen I'll ship it to them when
(15:19):
the book is done, and so you cando things like that.
You can.
Now that's just a matter of I'mnot sure I'm going to have the
book done.
Gary Pageau (15:27):
That's not a money thing, that's a you thing.
Ann Carden (15:29):
But you can, because I'm real close to having it
done, but I don't know if itwill get done in time.
So you can do things like thatas well, but you know it keeps
me from having to go out and buy, you know, hundreds of books.
Gary Pageau (15:43):
Right.
Ann Carden (15:44):
Just sell it with a nice marketing card and my
speaking engagement and peoplecan buy it and then from there
I'll be able to, you know, putit on Amazon and get to
bestseller or whatever.
So so a lot of people don'tthink like this and I try to get
people to sort of think outsidethe box and innovate what
(16:04):
they're doing.
Gary Pageau (16:05):
I've done a lot of bootstrapping so I got really
good at it, but yeah, Well, itsounds like it and that's
actually kind of exciting,because I think that's one of
the things that I like to seewith people is, you know, the
thing about bootstrapping is youtend to make more informed
decisions because you have to.
You're spending your own money,not the bank's money.
Ann Carden (16:22):
Exactly, and you know, it's really interesting
too.
I I actually and I don't wantthis to sound bad because I
believe that there aresituations where you need
investors, there are certainbusinesses or certain investors,
but one of the things thatreally bugs me and I think, just
because I didn't come from thisand I didn't do that, do it
(16:43):
this way One of the things thatreally bugs me is when I see
people wanting to get intobusiness and the first thing
they go out and do is try tofind investors.
I'm like you know what you needto put a little skin in the
game.
I mean, because you're just.
I I've watched, uh, so my sonis in it and he's worked for
companies where they were fundedby investors, and when he would
tell me the millions of dollarsthey would lose a month that
(17:05):
they would just there's no care,there's no concern.
You don't learn how to doanything.
No care, there's no concern,you don't learn how to do
anything.
People are just throwing moneyat you, and I just feel like
that's why a lot of businessesfail because people don't really
learn the skill sets they need.
So maybe I'm old school in thatway, but I just don't think it
benefits people.
(17:26):
Now, again, I think there aresome businesses you have
investors for.
But even if you watch Sharktank I love shark tank you
probably watch it too, and youknow you'll even see them say
well, how much have you gone outand tried to market this
business?
How much have you done?
What have you done so far?
And if they haven't doneanything, they're like yeah,
we're not vesting in you becausenot putting in the time or the
(17:48):
work.
So I think that's a reallyimportant thing.
Gary Pageau (17:50):
Yeah, because that's one of one of the things
that, again, if you watch theshark tank one of the things I
mean they talk about you knowthey talk about the financials,
but they also want to know theperson's story who came up with
the idea?
And, again, what their skin inthe game was right.
Were they an early investorwhere they just or, like you
said, are they just one of manypeople working on this thing and
they're not as interested in it?
(18:10):
Or, as they say, I'm out?
Ann Carden (18:13):
Right, here's the thing about business.
It's not just about thebusiness.
It's about the person but thebusiness, because you can have
the best product in the world,but if the person trying to
build the business isn't goingto put in the work and they're
just not committed, they're justnot willing to go all in on it,
that business is going to fail.
(18:34):
It doesn't matter.
So it doesn't matter even thebest product.
And when you know, when I lookback to whether it was in
fitness or whether it wascoaching people in their
businesses, the only people thatfailed ever because they had
guidance, they had support fromme and I knew how to help them
and I knew what, what to showthem to do.
(18:54):
The only people that everfailed or didn't have results
were people that just wouldn'tdo it.
That's it.
The people that did it, thepeople that would do the thing
and be committed to theirsuccess, would have success.
And I, I used to get frustratedwith some of the coaching
clients I would work withbecause at the when I first
(19:15):
started coaching, I didn'treally know to look to not work
with these people and gotfrustrated.
I actually almost quit mycoaching because all the a lot
of the clients I was workingwith, it's like I wanted their
success more than them.
Yeah, that doesn't work and Isaid this is not a business I'm
loving.
Yeah, figure out how to figureout.
Gary Pageau (19:34):
You just need different clients yeah, well,
you gotta, you gotta always beable to fire bad customers,
right.
So let's talk a little bit,because you kind of touched on
something which I think is thetheme of one of your books,
which is like the expert in you,right, can you talk a little
bit about that concept of youknow where you're, the product,
essentially?
Yeah.
Ann Carden (19:55):
Yeah, so expert in you was really that whole idea
and that model came out of.
I was part of a coachingorganization and they were
trying to teach people how to bebusiness coaches and a lot of
these business coaches werefailing and I was not doing well
in their system, in theirprogram, and I took a step back
and I said what's wrong?
(20:15):
I'm bringing in clients.
I'm not like I said.
I wanted their success morethan they did.
I wasn't getting paid what Ifelt like.
I wasn't even getting to use myexpertise and my experience
with them.
And I was very frustrated and Itook a step back and I said
what's wrong here?
And I realized two things Iwasn't working in my expertise,
in the thing that I was reallygood at, and those were not the
(20:36):
clients I was working with.
And the second thing is Iwasn't working at in a premium
model, which is what I alwaysdid in all of my other
businesses.
I knew that was where the realprofitability was.
So I redesigned my business andthen I implemented it and it
blew up and then I startedhelping other people do that and
(20:56):
it expanded.
And so then I would thiscompany kind of kept promoting
me and putting me on the callsand saying, hey, you know, look
what Ann's doing, and I realizedI was starting to build their
business.
So I had these coaches comingto me saying okay, show me what
to do, how do you do this?
And I would say to them whatwas your background and they
would say oh, I was a musicteacher and you're trying to be
(21:20):
a business coach.
Like I'm not getting that.
Why don't we take what you'rereally great at, let's take all
the things you're really greatat, let's build a business
around that.
That's how the whole philosophyaround that started.
Gary Pageau (21:30):
I've seen your brilliance, your expertise your
skills your experience you knowthat takes a lot of uh, I want
to say gumption orself-awareness, though I mean,
because there are people whohave natural tendencies, right,
they're good at certain things,or not good at other things, or
whatever, and some people haveblind spots, right.
So who should they be listeningto?
Ann Carden (21:49):
People like me that know what they're doing.
Okay, let's just be real.
You know it's really funny.
You say that, gary, becauseit's also one of the things I do
with people.
They think they know what theirthing is and they'll start down
that path, but what they'rereally incredible at doing, they
don't even see it, becausethey're too good, and so one of
(22:10):
the things I do is help peoplereally level up their business
and so if they're already likecoaching or consulting.
I've taken people from making$1,500 a client to $50,000 a
client.
I helped an agency owner whowas making like $30,000 get a
$400,000 client because shecouldn't even see how to package
(22:31):
her brilliance her real, truebrilliance.
Gary Pageau (22:33):
Right.
Ann Carden (22:34):
Most people can't see that, but here's the thing
I'll tell you.
Most people can't see that, buthere's the thing I'll tell you
Everyone has amazing opportunityinside of them, but they might
need to work with someone tofigure out what that looks like
Like.
I help people strategize.
You know a million dollarbusiness around a book, so you
can do a book around yourexpertise and then build a whole
business around that.
So there's opportunity.
(22:56):
If you've done anything at allin life, you've got opportunity.
So there's opportunity.
Gary Pageau (22:59):
If you've done anything at all in life, you've
got opportunity.
Who is the typical customer foryour agency?
Because he says it's a mediaagency and marketing.
What does that mean in thecontext of your business?
Ann Carden (23:09):
Yeah, so I have kind of two sides to my business.
So I help business growth.
And the agency actually cameout of that core expert in you
business where I was helpingpeople elevate their brand, get
you know, speak, launch theirpodcast, write their best
selling book.
We were doing all those thingswith them and all of their high
(23:31):
level, what I call high impactmarketing strategies, and so I
was sending them other places togo get those things done and I
thought, and so this is anotherway to innovate, right?
Well, why would I do this Likethis doesn't make sense.
Let me just build my own teamand now they can buy those
services from me.
And I've already vetted thesepeople.
I already know these people aregreat.
Gary Pageau (23:52):
They've already been pre-selected.
Ann Carden (23:54):
Exactly, I became like this one-stop shop and this
resource for my clients.
So now I'm not just helpingthem build their business, but I
have all the different thingsthey need and I can help them
with all the different pieces.
And so now the agency we'regetting ready to actually expand
that and really build it out,because it's kind of been hidden
(24:15):
within my coaching business.
Now we're actually expandingthat because that will be an
exit strategy for me.
I will sell that at some point,but I've already got the team.
So we'll do their best sellingbook.
We'll write it for them in 90days we can get it written.
We will launch, help themlaunch their podcast.
We'll strat.
We do strategy with them.
So, tell me what you want toaccomplish in your business.
(24:36):
I'll help you strategize thatwhole game plan.
What do you want to accomplishin your business?
I'll help you strategize thatwhole game plan.
What do you want to make?
How do you want to work?
Here are my ideas.
This is what it looks like andwe can help them.
So it's more than just amarketing and media agency.
I also I don't know if you cansee it I have my magazine back
here that I launched because Iwanted to be able to give my
(24:56):
clients an opportunity to be inthe media for credibility.
So I launched that reallyhigh-end magazine and I can
feature my clients in there in abeautiful featured section.
So those are all products andthings that and I also monetize
my magazine.
So those are things that haveexpanded off of my core business
, but now it's become a wholenother business.
Gary Pageau (25:17):
When does someone realize they need a coach?
I guess the question because Ithink some people either think
it's too late or they don't needone, right?
So?
Ann Carden (25:27):
well, if they think they don't need one, they're not
ready for one.
Gary Pageau (25:31):
Okay, there, that's a good, that's a good response.
Ann Carden (25:34):
Seven businesses.
I've had incredible success.
I've sold five businesses and Istill hire coaches and mentors.
Why?
Because there are always peoplethat know things I don't know
and we only know so much.
That's it.
You will only go as far as whatyou know.
You cannot see beyond that.
(25:54):
You can't go beyond that.
And the other thing is I'molder and I don't have years to
keep bootstrapping.
I now I realized a long timeago actually the speed comes
when you find the people thathave already done it and they
know what they're doing and theycan just give you the plan,
like they can just help you.
And so, in my opinion, ifpeople don't have a coach they
(26:18):
are, they have no clue whatthey're missing, no clue at all.
It will change their world.
Gary Pageau (26:24):
Speaking of which, where can people go to get more
information about the variousthings that you do?
Ann Carden (26:29):
Yeah, so you can go to annlcardincom.
That's my website and you can.
My books are on there.
You can get some free resources, but you can find me all over
social.
I have a huge YouTube channel,my Facebook groups, I mean.
All those things are on my site.
Gary Pageau (26:47):
So so they just had to find Ann Cardin, and there
you are.
Ann Carden (26:51):
Yeah, you can Google me, but my my website does have
my middle initial, so it'sannlcardincom.
Gary Pageau (26:58):
Great and listen.
It's been great talking to youand learning a lot about
business coaching and I'velearned a couple of things, so I
appreciate that and thank youso much.
Ann Carden (27:07):
Thank you so much, it's been fun.
Erin Manning (27:10):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.
Welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast, the
photo imaging industry'sleading news source.
Here's your host, Gary Pageau.
The Dead Pixels Society podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:18):
Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
I'm your host, Gary Pageau, andtoday we're joined by Ann
Carden, who's a business growthexpert and CEO of the Expert in
You marketing company.
She's coming to us fromMissouri today.
Hi Ann, how are you today?
Ann Carden (00:34):
Hey Gary, I'm doing great.
Thanks so much for having me.
Gary Pageau (00:37):
So you've got a wide range of experiences.
You've run seven companies.
Tell us about that first, wereyou always in business, or did
you grow into it?
Or what happened?
Ann Carden (00:50):
Yeah, my first business was when I was about
eight years old, I think, and.
I said okay craft classes to theneighborhood kids and had craft
classes in my basement.
So that was my first business.
That actually came out on apodcast one day.
I had forgot about that.
But no, I actually went intoretail management.
I was in retail management forabout 13 years, working in
(01:11):
really high end departmentstores running high million
dollar departments, learnedabout business and marketing and
sales and I had.
I went to school for businessmanagement.
So after that my I had kids andI wanted to be a stay-at-home
mom and raise my kids.
I didn't want them raised bydaycare.
So my husband and I we wereliving in California at the time
(01:31):
I was working in retail and wemoved back to Missouri and there
wasn't a lot of opportunity andI started my first business and
that was 35 years ago.
So since then I'm in my sixthand seventh and I've sold the
five previous businesses.
Gary Pageau (01:47):
And just so the listeners know what are some of
the businesses, where they're inthe same industry.
Are they the same type ofbusiness?
Were they spread acrossdifferent categories?
Or where, what were those at?
Ann Carden (01:57):
No.
So my first business I was likewhat can I do to make some
money?
There wasn't any opportunityand the craft industry was
exploding across the country atthat time and this was in the
nineties, and I I was creativeand so I thought I'm going to
make something and I startedmaking some craft things that
didn't sell.
And I said to the woman at thestore it was a little
(02:18):
consignment store and she said,yeah, you can come pick these
things up.
They're not selling.
And I said what's selling?
She said these rabbit dolls.
Long story short, that turnedinto a global doll business,
like a craft doll business.
Gary Pageau (02:31):
Okay.
Ann Carden (02:32):
All over the world.
I was in multiple stores acrossthe country.
That was before the internet.
Gary Pageau (02:36):
I was going to say you weren't selling online then,
so you bought a global business.
Ann Carden (02:40):
Print ads the old yes, I was in the old school way
, right, that's the old way.
I was in internationalmagazines and there were, you
know, there were a lot of craftstores all across the country,
so it was in different States.
I had a space in differentStates that I rented and I was
shipping dolls every day and andI that became global.
I remember the first time I gota call from Iceland.
(03:03):
A woman was collecting my dolls.
They were all signed andnumbered.
I had a lot of employees.
I had multiple moms coming inand out of my home that were
helping me with different thingsand that was a really
successful business.
I did it for seven years andthen I started doing my designs
for the pattern side of mybusiness, where people could buy
(03:24):
the patterns and they couldmake my dolls so that whole
leather revenue stream.
And then when I sold, I actuallysold my designs and I sold out
to that pattern company startedbusiness and fitness, two health
clubs.
Well, one was a high-endwomen's training center, one was
a health club, huge health cluband then I had two weight loss
centers and those were forbusinesses, and now I have my
(03:47):
coaching and consulting and thenI have my agency.
So yeah, it's been quite a run.
Gary Pageau (03:52):
So how do you square the circle with a
creative person in business?
Because a lot of times peoplestruggle with that because
they've got the creative energyof and I think you know that's a
lot of our audience.
You know photographers,printers, people like that.
You know that's a lot of ouraudience.
You know photographers,printers, people like that,
people who are maybe got intothe business for creative
reasons but then you got to dothe business side of it.
How did you grow in that area?
Ann Carden (04:15):
I really just had to learn that skill set.
To be honest, when you thething that the thing that I try
to get people to understand whenI'm coaching them or working
with them is that the creativeside is where you can really
expand and grow the business.
But you do have to treat itlike a business and have to
think of it like a business.
Otherwise what you love is notgoing to be fun.
(04:37):
I mean, you're going toprobably burn out on it.
So most people get intobusiness because they want to
make money, not just becausethey love what they do, but they
want to make money.
That's why they turn it into abusiness.
But then so many people nevergo that direction and it's
because they're not excellent atbusiness their ideas.
I don't want to take the timeto learn it.
I was actually even that way,like I hate the business side.
(04:58):
I love what I'm doing, buteventually I had to really make
that shift Like I'm not going tolove this if I don't really do
something with it.
Gary Pageau (05:08):
Well, not a lot of people love failure either.
Ann Carden (05:10):
Exactly the freedom comes.
I always say get yourself tosuch a great place in your
business that now you get to dowhat you love when you want to
do it, but you don't have to doit all the time.
That, to me, that's the beautyof a real business.
Gary Pageau (05:24):
Because that's one of the things that you know.
A friend of mine once said wasyou know, nothing kills the joy
of photography faster thanowning a photography business.
Ann Carden (05:32):
It's that way with everything.
It's kind of like, you know,when I was building my health
clubs, I was training clients.
I was coaching clients onweight loss thousands of people
and I was teaching fitnessclasses.
I was teaching fitness classes.
I was teaching a lot.
For years I would teach fiveand six classes a day.
That's insane to people.
And eventually I said, ok, thisthing can't really grow if I'm
in the middle of everything.
(05:53):
Right?
It was hard to let go of that.
That's one thing.
It's just hard for people tolet go of that, and you think
nobody can do it like I can,because I'm the face of this
business, but the reality isthat isn't true, and I learned
that, and when I did, though,the thing that was so great
about that is not only did Ilearn other skill sets, that
became fun as well, but now Igot to actually mentor people up
(06:17):
to also be doing great things,which was very rewarding in
itself, and I was able to stillteach and train when I wanted to
, but I didn't have to, and thatwas the difference, so I had a
lot more freedom.
I was able, then, to go to mykids games, and I was able to be
involved in their schoolactivities and the things that
(06:38):
were really and my family andreally important to me, and I
can't I couldn't do that if Iwas in the midst of everything,
like nothing's going to grow, ifyou're it.
Gary Pageau (06:47):
Yeah, cause, cause it's hard to scale people and
and you know, I mean like anowner right, and that's really
one of the things I think a lotof people in the industry and
photo industry struggle with isbecause maybe they're the, the
son of the founder or thedaughter of the founder who
founded the camera store 40years ago and then they took it
over and now they've got to kindof put it in a position to pass
(07:07):
on.
Yeah, it's a struggle becauseso much of it is in their head.
Ann Carden (07:12):
Yeah, well, and not only that, gary.
That's kind of the old way ofdoing business.
It's not the new way of doingbusiness.
Now we have the internet.
Now you can create products.
Now you can get products done.
Now there's so many other waysnow to make money.
Or you can just create anotherlike invest in other businesses
and bring in money other ways.
(07:32):
I learned that all along the wayand so I my main thing always
expanded into otheropportunities and other things
that were also making money.
So then you're not so tied to Idon't mean to say have a whole
bunch of businesses, that's notmy point you get your core
business successful and then youstart looking for ways.
(07:53):
I say grow your money trees.
So most people think, okay, mybusiness is a money tree, I can
grow it however big I want.
But I say grow your orchardright.
So now you grow another moneytree and another money tree.
And when you start thinkinglike that, now you're really
thinking like someone inbusiness and you're not tied.
(08:13):
If something happens over hereit's not gonna matter.
It's like when the craftindustry was starting to shift,
I was doing patterns.
I had already gone that route.
I saw the shifts in the market.
I still had a business.
I wasn't out of businessbecause of all the imports and
things coming in.
Same thing with the healthclubs.
You know, the weight losscenters came in because I saw
(08:36):
shifts in gyms and in what wasgoing on in gyms and the pricing
and all of those kinds ofthings and I knew that I still
wanted to make an impact andwork at a higher level with
people.
And that's where the wholeweight loss thing kind of came
in.
So it was part of the core,like they fed each other, but it
was a whole nother business butit wasn't disconnected.
(08:57):
And so those to me that's thebest way to grow and scale if
you do still love what you do,but there's other ways to make
money and that's what you couldbe.
Gary Pageau (09:07):
So one of the things you kind of touched on
there is, you know, identifyingtrends, right, and you know the
Internet's out there now, andmaybe in the 1990s there was a
craft industry association or anewsletter or something you
could read.
But you know there's a lot ofterrible information out there
and misleading information,especially on the Internet.
You know I hate to be the firstone to inform you but not
(09:28):
everything on the Internet istruthful.
That's true, right you, but noteverything on the internet is
truthful.
So so you know, when you havesomebody who's maybe looking at
that let's say they built asuccessful camera store or
whatever and they're looking forlike going to where the puck is
going to be, I think is youknow.
If I was to use a sportsanalogy, that's what you're
talking about.
You know, don't be laggingbehind, but be where the puck is
going to be.
What are some of the things youcan look at to identify future
(09:51):
growth opportunities?
Ann Carden (09:53):
Yeah, you always really do have to stay ahead of
everybody else.
That's one thing I always didwas I was always looking for
what's the new thing I thinkabout in my health clubs.
You know what's the new thingcoming out now, and I stayed on
top of those things.
Now you can do it so easy.
Now you can easily research.
(10:13):
You can see who's leading theindustry, who's running the
conferences, who's doing the bigstuff and follow them and
you'll be able to kind of seewhere the trends are going,
because there are those peoplethat they live that.
But if you can stay with thosepeople and you can start, you
can figure out who do I follow,who's got the inside track, who
(10:34):
knows things, and you can stayreally in tuned.
You can always be ahead, youcan always be steps ahead of
your competition and you canalways get to market with things
that other people are.
They're just lagging so farbehind.
I did that in all of mybusinesses.
I was always the first to geteverything my competition used
to knock me off.
(10:54):
They would knock off my ads,they would knock off my ideas
and I used to get so mad.
But looking back now I say hey,they were chasing me, I wasn't
chasing them.
I was three steps ahead, andthat's what you have to do if
you're going to stay relevant.
Gary Pageau (11:07):
But isn't there a danger, though, to kind of just
being too trendy and justfollowing trends that maybe just
there, maybe they're more of afad than a trend, right, and
that's that's really a problemfor some people who, you know,
maybe can't afford to do toomany, maybe not radical shifts.
But you know, let's say, forexample, you know a certain type
of thing gets hot on Instagramor TikTok and you decide you
(11:30):
want to follow that trend, butthen it peters out in two weeks
and you're kind of out of luck.
Ann Carden (11:35):
Well, I mean, what kind of trends are we talking
about?
Gary Pageau (11:37):
That's what you, I guess that's where I'm getting
to is how do you identify atrend right, A growth trend?
Ann Carden (11:42):
I think you have to look at is this something that's
viable?
So I don't when I say a trend,it has to have a little bit of
juice behind it.
So, for example, right now,podcasting, we're on here, right
, it's exploding.
I mean, I've had a podcast forfour years and I, at the time I
had my podcast, it was not it,there were a lot out there, but
(12:03):
it was just starting to kind ofget right.
Now I'm hundreds of episodes inand other people are just
getting started.
Now I we help people launch one.
And so my next thing camebecause I saw that, hey, this
isn't going away, this is okay.
How can I now help peoplelaunch their podcast if they
(12:24):
want to launch their show?
I picked up on the trend, butin a different way.
So sometimes you can test thewaters, but I think you have to
look at way.
So sometimes you can test thewaters, but I think you have to
look at is this a viable?
I mean some of it's gutinstinct, to be quite honest.
Gary Pageau (12:36):
Yeah, well, that's it.
Ann Carden (12:37):
It is.
It's like do I really see afuture in this?
But if you really sit down andlook at things, you can usually
tell this is going to take off,this is going to do well.
Can I tell a quick story?
Gary Pageau (12:49):
Absolutely.
Ann Carden (12:50):
Okay, please.
Gary Pageau (12:51):
Tell me a story.
Ann Carden (12:53):
Yeah, so I remember back when I had my health club
and spinning came onto the scene.
Everybody knows spinning now,right, right, but it was new and
I was following what was goingon in the fitness industry, and
so this is a way for people tothink too to get very innovative
and spin bikes at that time Idon't know they were going to be
(13:13):
25 or 30 grand to put into myhealth club and I didn't really
know if people were even goingto love it, and I wasn't.
I didn't want to just go buy thebikes and stick them into my
gym and okay, here you go,because people don't appreciate
stuff like that, right, it'sjust 30 grand out of my profits.
So what I did is I gotinnovative and I put together a
game plan and I said I'm goingto have these bikes paid for
(13:36):
before I buy them or I'm notgoing to do it, right?
So I put packages together andI went out into my club and I
marketed and sold those and Isaid this is what it is and this
is what we're going to do.
And if you want to be in onthis, this is how many spots we
have per class and going to do.
And if you want to be in onthis, this is how many spots we
have per class and this is howmany.
And so people bought thepackages and I said if I don't
(13:56):
get the interest, I'm not goingto buy the bikes and I'll refund
your money.
Gary Pageau (14:00):
Right.
Ann Carden (14:00):
And bought into that , and before I put in the spin
bikes I had the bikes paid for.
So you can do things like thatand it's a great way to test the
market too.
So market research in some wayshape or form.
I teach people that now I'mlike don't go out and build a
course, or don't go out andbuild a product, Go sell the
product and then build theproduct.
(14:21):
And that will tell you whenpeople have to pay instead of
when they have to pay with moneyinstead of their words.
You will find out if there'sreally a market for something.
Gary Pageau (14:31):
You know it's interesting.
You say that because that issort of the way GoFundMe works,
right?
I mean, it's sort of like I'veseen several photo manufacturers
come out with products and theylaunch them on GoFundMe.
I mean even companies as big asCanon, right, you know?
Because they just want to seeis this a real product or is
this something that people inour R&D department just dreamt
(14:53):
up?
Will people actually buy it,right?
Ann Carden (14:55):
Absolutely.
You know I'm getting ready todo another book.
I have a speaking engagementcoming up.
It's around a topic I haven'treleased a book around like
specifically for that topic, andI said, ok, I need to write a
book for this.
And I thought, well, if I don'tget the book done in time, I'm
going to pre-sell the book atthe speaking engagement.
People can buy the book andthen I'll ship it to them when
(15:19):
the book is done, and so you cando things like that.
You can.
Now that's just a matter of I'mnot sure I'm going to have the
book done.
Gary Pageau (15:27):
That's not a money thing, that's a you thing.
Ann Carden (15:29):
But you can, because I'm real close to having it
done, but I don't know if itwill get done in time.
So you can do things like thatas well, but you know it keeps
me from having to go out and buy, you know, hundreds of books.
Gary Pageau (15:43):
Right.
Ann Carden (15:44):
Just sell it with a nice marketing card and my
speaking engagement and peoplecan buy it and then from there
I'll be able to, you know, putit on Amazon and get to
bestseller or whatever.
So so a lot of people don'tthink like this and I try to get
people to sort of think outsidethe box and innovate what
(16:04):
they're doing.
Gary Pageau (16:05):
I've done a lot of bootstrapping so I got really
good at it, but yeah, Well, itsounds like it and that's
actually kind of exciting,because I think that's one of
the things that I like to seewith people is, you know, the
thing about bootstrapping is youtend to make more informed
decisions because you have to.
You're spending your own money,not the bank's money.
Ann Carden (16:22):
Exactly, and you know, it's really interesting
too.
I I actually and I don't wantthis to sound bad because I
believe that there aresituations where you need
investors, there are certainbusinesses or certain investors,
but one of the things thatreally bugs me and I think, just
because I didn't come from thisand I didn't do that, do it
(16:43):
this way One of the things thatreally bugs me is when I see
people wanting to get intobusiness and the first thing
they go out and do is try tofind investors.
I'm like you know what you needto put a little skin in the
game.
I mean, because you're just.
I I've watched, uh, so my sonis in it and he's worked for
companies where they were fundedby investors, and when he would
tell me the millions of dollarsthey would lose a month that
(17:05):
they would just there's no care,there's no concern.
You don't learn how to doanything.
No care, there's no concern,you don't learn how to do
anything.
People are just throwing moneyat you, and I just feel like
that's why a lot of businessesfail because people don't really
learn the skill sets they need.
So maybe I'm old school in thatway, but I just don't think it
benefits people.
(17:26):
Now, again, I think there aresome businesses you have
investors for.
But even if you watch Sharktank I love shark tank you
probably watch it too, and youknow you'll even see them say
well, how much have you gone outand tried to market this
business?
How much have you done?
What have you done so far?
And if they haven't doneanything, they're like yeah,
we're not vesting in you becausenot putting in the time or the
(17:48):
work.
So I think that's a reallyimportant thing.
Gary Pageau (17:50):
Yeah, because that's one of one of the things
that, again, if you watch theshark tank one of the things I
mean they talk about you knowthey talk about the financials,
but they also want to know theperson's story who came up with
the idea?
And, again, what their skin inthe game was right.
Were they an early investorwhere they just or, like you
said, are they just one of manypeople working on this thing and
they're not as interested in it?
(18:10):
Or, as they say, I'm out?
Ann Carden (18:13):
Right, here's the thing about business.
It's not just about thebusiness.
It's about the person but thebusiness, because you can have
the best product in the world,but if the person trying to
build the business isn't goingto put in the work and they're
just not committed, they're justnot willing to go all in on it,
that business is going to fail.
(18:34):
It doesn't matter.
So it doesn't matter even thebest product.
And when you know, when I lookback to whether it was in
fitness or whether it wascoaching people in their
businesses, the only people thatfailed ever because they had
guidance, they had support fromme and I knew how to help them
and I knew what, what to showthem to do.
(18:54):
The only people that everfailed or didn't have results
were people that just wouldn'tdo it.
That's it.
The people that did it, thepeople that would do the thing
and be committed to theirsuccess, would have success.
And I, I used to get frustratedwith some of the coaching
clients I would work withbecause at the when I first
(19:15):
started coaching, I didn'treally know to look to not work
with these people and gotfrustrated.
I actually almost quit mycoaching because all the a lot
of the clients I was workingwith, it's like I wanted their
success more than them.
Yeah, that doesn't work and Isaid this is not a business I'm
loving.
Yeah, figure out how to figureout.
Gary Pageau (19:34):
You just need different clients yeah, well,
you gotta, you gotta always beable to fire bad customers,
right.
So let's talk a little bit,because you kind of touched on
something which I think is thetheme of one of your books,
which is like the expert in you,right, can you talk a little
bit about that concept of youknow where you're, the product,
essentially?
Yeah.
Ann Carden (19:55):
Yeah, so expert in you was really that whole idea
and that model came out of.
I was part of a coachingorganization and they were
trying to teach people how to bebusiness coaches and a lot of
these business coaches werefailing and I was not doing well
in their system, in theirprogram, and I took a step back
and I said what's wrong?
(20:15):
I'm bringing in clients.
I'm not like I said.
I wanted their success morethan they did.
I wasn't getting paid what Ifelt like.
I wasn't even getting to use myexpertise and my experience
with them.
And I was very frustrated and Itook a step back and I said
what's wrong here?
And I realized two things Iwasn't working in my expertise,
in the thing that I was reallygood at, and those were not the
(20:36):
clients I was working with.
And the second thing is Iwasn't working at in a premium
model, which is what I alwaysdid in all of my other
businesses.
I knew that was where the realprofitability was.
So I redesigned my business andthen I implemented it and it
blew up and then I startedhelping other people do that and
(20:56):
it expanded.
And so then I would thiscompany kind of kept promoting
me and putting me on the callsand saying, hey, you know, look
what Ann's doing, and I realizedI was starting to build their
business.
So I had these coaches comingto me saying okay, show me what
to do, how do you do this?
And I would say to them whatwas your background and they
would say oh, I was a musicteacher and you're trying to be
(21:20):
a business coach.
Like I'm not getting that.
Why don't we take what you'rereally great at, let's take all
the things you're really greatat, let's build a business
around that.
That's how the whole philosophyaround that started.
Gary Pageau (21:30):
I've seen your brilliance, your expertise your
skills your experience you knowthat takes a lot of uh, I want
to say gumption orself-awareness, though I mean,
because there are people whohave natural tendencies, right,
they're good at certain things,or not good at other things, or
whatever, and some people haveblind spots, right.
So who should they be listeningto?
Ann Carden (21:49):
People like me that know what they're doing.
Okay, let's just be real.
You know it's really funny.
You say that, gary, becauseit's also one of the things I do
with people.
They think they know what theirthing is and they'll start down
that path, but what they'rereally incredible at doing, they
don't even see it, becausethey're too good, and so one of
(22:10):
the things I do is help peoplereally level up their business
and so if they're already likecoaching or consulting.
I've taken people from making$1,500 a client to $50,000 a
client.
I helped an agency owner whowas making like $30,000 get a
$400,000 client because shecouldn't even see how to package
(22:31):
her brilliance her real, truebrilliance.
Gary Pageau (22:33):
Right.
Ann Carden (22:34):
Most people can't see that, but here's the thing
I'll tell you.
Most people can't see that, buthere's the thing I'll tell you
Everyone has amazing opportunityinside of them, but they might
need to work with someone tofigure out what that looks like
Like.
I help people strategize.
You know a million dollarbusiness around a book, so you
can do a book around yourexpertise and then build a whole
business around that.
So there's opportunity.
(22:56):
If you've done anything at allin life, you've got opportunity.
So there's opportunity.
Gary Pageau (22:59):
If you've done anything at all in life, you've
got opportunity.
Who is the typical customer foryour agency?
Because he says it's a mediaagency and marketing.
What does that mean in thecontext of your business?
Ann Carden (23:09):
Yeah, so I have kind of two sides to my business.
So I help business growth.
And the agency actually cameout of that core expert in you
business where I was helpingpeople elevate their brand, get
you know, speak, launch theirpodcast, write their best
selling book.
We were doing all those thingswith them and all of their high
(23:31):
level, what I call high impactmarketing strategies, and so I
was sending them other places togo get those things done and I
thought, and so this is anotherway to innovate, right?
Well, why would I do this Likethis doesn't make sense.
Let me just build my own teamand now they can buy those
services from me.
And I've already vetted thesepeople.
I already know these people aregreat.
Gary Pageau (23:52):
They've already been pre-selected.
Ann Carden (23:54):
Exactly, I became like this one-stop shop and this
resource for my clients.
So now I'm not just helpingthem build their business, but I
have all the different thingsthey need and I can help them
with all the different pieces.
And so now the agency we'regetting ready to actually expand
that and really build it out,because it's kind of been hidden
(24:15):
within my coaching business.
Now we're actually expandingthat because that will be an
exit strategy for me.
I will sell that at some point,but I've already got the team.
So we'll do their best sellingbook.
We'll write it for them in 90days we can get it written.
We will launch, help themlaunch their podcast.
We'll strat.
We do strategy with them.
So, tell me what you want toaccomplish in your business.
(24:36):
I'll help you strategize thatwhole game plan.
What do you want to accomplishin your business?
I'll help you strategize thatwhole game plan.
What do you want to make?
How do you want to work?
Here are my ideas.
This is what it looks like andwe can help them.
So it's more than just amarketing and media agency.
I also I don't know if you cansee it I have my magazine back
here that I launched because Iwanted to be able to give my
(24:56):
clients an opportunity to be inthe media for credibility.
So I launched that reallyhigh-end magazine and I can
feature my clients in there in abeautiful featured section.
So those are all products andthings that and I also monetize
my magazine.
So those are things that haveexpanded off of my core business
, but now it's become a wholenother business.
Gary Pageau (25:17):
When does someone realize they need a coach?
I guess the question because Ithink some people either think
it's too late or they don't needone, right?
So?
Ann Carden (25:27):
well, if they think they don't need one, they're not
ready for one.
Gary Pageau (25:31):
Okay, there, that's a good, that's a good response.
Ann Carden (25:34):
Seven businesses.
I've had incredible success.
I've sold five businesses and Istill hire coaches and mentors.
Why?
Because there are always peoplethat know things I don't know
and we only know so much.
That's it.
You will only go as far as whatyou know.
You cannot see beyond that.
(25:54):
You can't go beyond that.
And the other thing is I'molder and I don't have years to
keep bootstrapping.
I now I realized a long timeago actually the speed comes
when you find the people thathave already done it and they
know what they're doing and theycan just give you the plan,
like they can just help you.
And so, in my opinion, ifpeople don't have a coach they
(26:18):
are, they have no clue whatthey're missing, no clue at all.
It will change their world.
Gary Pageau (26:24):
Speaking of which, where can people go to get more
information about the variousthings that you do?
Ann Carden (26:29):
Yeah, so you can go to annlcardincom.
That's my website and you can.
My books are on there.
You can get some free resources, but you can find me all over
social.
I have a huge YouTube channel,my Facebook groups, I mean.
All those things are on my site.
Gary Pageau (26:47):
So so they just had to find Ann Cardin, and there
you are.
Ann Carden (26:51):
Yeah, you can Google me, but my my website does have
my middle initial, so it'sannlcardincom.
Gary Pageau (26:58):
Great and listen.
It's been great talking to youand learning a lot about
business coaching and I'velearned a couple of things, so I
appreciate that and thank youso much.
Ann Carden (27:07):
Thank you so much, it's been fun.
Erin Manning (27:10):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
wwwthedeadpixelssocietycom.
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