Surviving the Side Hustle

From Corporate Executive to Creative Entrepreneur: Lorraine's Journey of Strategic Success and Business Transformation

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 81

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Lorraine Ball joins us to share her remarkable transition from the corporate world to the thrilling realm of entrepreneurship. Ever wondered how a project tracking system could become your business’s secret weapon? Lorraine reveals how this simple tool not only organized her growing consulting and design business but also became a key asset when she decided to sell it. Her story begins in an insurance company, where her creative endeavors sparked a passion that would later fuel her own successful enterprise. From mastering multitasking to pricing, Lorraine’s journey offers a treasure trove of insights for those looking to build a sustainable business through creativity and organization.

We also explore how aligning your business personality with your work can dramatically influence your success. Lorraine’s anecdotes of teaching marketing to non-business majors will have you reconsidering how you communicate complex ideas. Whether it’s forming partnerships through shared laughter or the art of letting go when delegating tasks, Lorraine’s experiences are a testament to the power of strategic planning and effective communication. Tune in to learn the networking strategies that could propel your side hustle into a flourishing venture, and discover why understanding your goals is crucial for any aspiring entrepreneur.

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody and welcome back to another episode. Today on the show We've got Lorraine Ball. Lorraine, how are you doing and how's it going out there? You said right before we started recording that you've got your first snow. So that's exciting. A little sad, but exciting.

Speaker 2:

Okay, when I was 10 years old, my first snow was exciting. Would I have to drive in this? Not so much, but no, it is pretty. I'm in Indianapolis and just enough snow that it's still pretty and the roads are clear, so I can work with that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that too. Once it gets to the point where it's slushy and dirty and it's like yucky, then that's too much for me. But I'm excited to have you here and I'm excited to kind of dive in and hear a little bit about your story. I was reading through a bit of your bio so I would love to just kind of dive in, have you take it where where you seem feels best fit.

Speaker 2:

So let's roll so, um, you know, one of the questions I always get asked is you know, did you know that you were going to do that?

Speaker 2:

And I always laugh because most of the things that I've done along the way are not like, wow, yeah, that's what I want to grow up and do. But I think, being kind of open to possibilities and paying attention to what I really enjoyed along the way. I had this corporate career and I figured out that I was at my happiest when I could kind of do these little skunk work projects and these little side hustles, even within my corporate gig. So eventually I thought, well, let's give it a shot, and I went from corporate to doing a few things on the side, to to growing a business, to selling a business, and I'm kind of full circle. I'm back in the stage that I really think of it more as a side it's kind of a side hustle, it doesn't control my full day anymore and kind of like that and picked up a few lessons along the way on what works and what doesn't, and so that's kind of what I was hoping we'd talk about.

Speaker 1:

Sure, sure. Yeah, let's kind of dive in there, because I'm interested to hear, like, what were some of these lessons you learned? What was that first project that you kind of separated with, and I want to hear more about what you've got going on now too. So let's kind of dive in here on now too.

Speaker 2:

So let's kind of dive in here. So one of the things that early on I had an opportunity. I was working for an insurance company and I was running their creative services team and we were doing all of the brochures and literature for the insurance company and oh, to put it mildly, it was dull. And I had these amazing designers and these really talented writers that were working for me and I came up with this idea because we also had a little bit of extra time, and I pitched it to our management. I said, okay, so I think we should do a side hustle. And they're like you have a job. I'm like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But trust me on this, what I want to do is I want to take on some outside design work. I want to work for some other companies. We won't do any other insurance companies but what it'll do is it'll push the team creatively, it'll challenge us, it'll be fun, it'll be interesting, and then we'll bring some of that creativity back to the boring insurance brochures.

Speaker 2:

So for a little while we did design work for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where they run the Indy 500. We did design work for the zoo, which was way fun, and our local newspaper was running a special series and they didn't have designers and writers to handle that piece of it. And that was one of my first tastes of you know I can do this, and because we were selling services, it really gave me an opportunity to sort of learn okay, how do you price this and how do we make money and how do we keep track of these projects, while we're trying to balance all the other work, and it was a fabulous learning experience. So when I started spinning out on my own and doing a little bit of consulting and then ultimately doing design projects, I could look back and go okay, how did we do that, how did we manage that? And it really boiled down to some very simple systems.

Speaker 2:

And that's probably my biggest takeaway is that even when it's just you and for several years it was really just me I had this project system that I used, where I tracked all of my projects, where they came from, who the customers were, and fast forward, 19 years later, when I sold the business, any one of the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of clients that we worked with could pick up the phone and say hey, lorraine, back 15 years ago you designed a logo for me. Yes, yes, I did. You wouldn't still have those files, would you? And I did, and I could find them in five minutes or less. And that system, that database, was a marketable asset when it was time to sell my business, because somebody else could take over the company and those customers could call and they could make money doing work for people they had never met, based on everything that we had built into that system originally.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's pretty cool, pretty cool. So where did you get the idea for all this in the first place? Was it just like boom? I'm collecting all these different files and information and such?

Speaker 2:

So it was actually a scaled down version of what we ran when I was working for the insurance company. We were operating like an advertising agency inside a larger company and it was a really simple idea that every project, everything we did, got a number. It was a unique number and everything was filed based on that number. Because I would refer to clients, because I knew the business owners, I'd refer to them as, oh, that's Harry's project or that's David's project, and my employees would think of it as oh, that's Tisch Flooring or that's Randall Beans. And so by assigning a number to the client, to the project, it didn't matter, we could always find it based on the number.

Speaker 2:

Now the search functions today on file management is so much better, but back then if you didn't have an organized structure and a master list that could help you sort of navigate through that, you'd be looking through a lot of stuff very needlessly. So that was the first thing that really made a lot of sense. And then the second thing was when I think about processes, you know, when it was just me, I knew exactly, I knew all the steps I had to take and I always you know, oh okay, I'm starting a new project, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this. And then I hired my first person and you know it's funny. Um, people don't read your mind.

Speaker 2:

It's good you know, and I was like okay no, you know they don't, and your mind it's good, you know, and I was like okay, Be nice.

Speaker 2:

No, you know they don't, and it's really annoying. So I had to start writing down kind of okay, so when we get a new client, you have to do this and then we have to do this and don't forget to do this. And that was also something that added value when we sold Because, again, we built out the systems. It got to the point where when we would do a web design and it was a 12 to 16 week project and we knew you did this on week one, you did this on week two, you did this on week three. But if I switched project managers halfway through or somebody was out of town for a week, we never missed a step because we were using at that time. We were using Insightly, and I think Insightly has now been bought by, oh, mondaycom and I don't like what they've done with it.

Speaker 2:

But Asana works really well. Also, you build out a standard process. Every time you get a new customer whether it's something I still use Todoist for me, that's for small companies it's T-O-D-I-S-T. I have a list of tasks and every time I have a new project, I can set it up and I get reminders tasks and every time I have a new project, I can set it up and I get reminders. Hey, no-transcript, that allows you to create a standard experience for everybody who works with you, and particularly like when you're still doing this as a side hustle and you have a day job and you have a family and you have all sorts of other things. Stuff falls through the cracks and you forget. And if when I get up in the morning and I look at my little to-do list and it's got remember to do this for this client, this for this client, remember to do this, um, things don't fall through the cracks yeah, I agree with that 100 because that's been a huge accelerator for me.

Speaker 1:

Um, over the last year or two was I started using click up? I don't know if you're familiar with that one, but that made it really easy for me to kind of start to create processes and then hiring some virtual assistants to kind of handle a couple of different things and just like it just made everything a lot easier following up with, like not even just clients, but friends, like reminders, like everybody uses Facebook for birthdays, but like now I have other things too, like okay, well, it's been six months since me and my buddy Mike have gotten dinner. Let's let me call him up and see what we can do.

Speaker 2:

When are we getting sushi again, kind of thing Absolutely, and you're a man after my own heart with sushi and you're a man after my own heart with sushi. But you know, that was also when I was trying to grow the business. I, when I first started, I had a lot of friends scattered all over the US because my company had been national. I'd worked throughout the US. I wanted my side hustle to be something that would allow me to stay home more, that I could be here. And so I'm like, okay, I need to find more clients in Indianapolis, and kind of started getting out and networking and meeting a lot of people and dumped everybody into again contact management systems so that I could keep track of oh I haven't talked to this person in X amount of time.

Speaker 2:

And whenever I hit a slow point, what I learned was I needed to make five phone calls, and it didn't matter who I call, I just needed to have five phone calls because in those conversations I'd find out what was going on in their businesses. I could talk about projects I was working on, and invariably one of those five conversations would turn into you know, I just talked to and you need to meet, and so that was always my rule of thumb. Whenever it got slow. I needed five phone calls and I would just open that up and go. Who haven't I talked to in a while?

Speaker 1:

That is, that is gold, and that's something I just started to kind of sort of implement. I I've realized, going back to just out of the professional setting, personal setting, a lot of friends, that I wasn't keeping up with as much getting lost in like networking events and professional things. So I made a commitment that I'm going to start to reach out to a lot more of my friends and I created a score system for myself. So I send a text message, I get one point. If I have a phone call, I get five. If I have dinner, I get 15. So I was sharing this with somebody and they were like well, that's a great idea, I want to do the same thing. So then that grew into like a 20 person challenge and now we're competing to see who can hang out with their friends more. And now they're like, oh well, so-and-so is supposed to come meet with me and like, oh well, I had lunch with them earlier this week, kind of thing. So it's pretty fun, but so true with that.

Speaker 2:

But you know what I mean. But you did something where you took it and gamified it and really kind of made it. Initially it was just a competition with yourself and now it's the competition with your friends. And I think a lot of times when we're doing side hustles and it's just us and it's very isolating. Forcing yourself to have those interactions and to create a little bit of fun keeps you kind of engaged and interested in doing it a bit more.

Speaker 1:

Oh, yeah, definitely that's. I mean my girlfriend jokes. She's like oh, why you always turn everything into a game, like when we're driving in the car. It's a license plate game, we're doing this, it's that, and I'm like yeah, I'm an adversity drive, so I thrive with challenges. It motivates me when there's a challenge.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. You know, and I think that's part of it is figuring out what gets you energized and what what what piques your curiosity. I had somebody else on the podcast not too long ago and she was talking about the fact that you have a business personality and a lot of times people get into situations where they create these hustles or these businesses that don't really fit who they are and they have to keep doing it because they're making money at it and they just hate it and finding out. Okay, you like a challenge.

Speaker 2:

What I know about myself is I can get work done early in the morning, late at night and in between. In that middle part of the day, I got to be out with the people. I got to be out talking to people. I have to be, because if I'm sitting by myself in the middle of the day, nothing gets done, I can't concentrate. But then if I've been out all day, I can sit down for an hour or two at the end of the day and that energy is going to fuel me through to finish what I'm working on. So you got to figure out, you know how do you work and once I did that it was great. I scheduled all my meetings for 11 to 3, because I knew I wasn't going to get any work done between 11 and 3. Might as well be out selling networking and oh yeah, lunch is in between there. Cool, I can do that too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it sounds like you're a unity drive and getting around people and helping others and just being part of a community, and you've figured out a way to leverage that so that you can motivate yourself to get your work done, so you can get back into that and then it just feeds into itself some more. It sounds like.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and that kind of ties with, yes, kind of some of the things I'm doing now, On and off. Over the years I've always taught. So I've taught at a bunch of different universities, you know, class here, class there, and so I'm doing that. Now I've got one class a semester and it's fun and it feeds that part of me that is the teacher that likes to kind of get out and I love to see the light bulbs go on and and, uh, you know, get that moment where somebody actually says, oh, okay, I get it, I understand how that works. Cool, All right On to the next thing. But you know, figuring out that that creating that time to do that was it was good for the business, it gave me credibility. It certainly helped people go oh well, she's a professor, yeah, okay, whatever. But it also fed that part of me that really liked to do that kind of work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and are you still teaching now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I teach this semester. I'm doing intro to marketing for non-business majors, which is fascinating because I spent a bunch of semesters in the business school and so those students come in with, you know, being grounded in economics and in statistics, and now I have the communication majors and the biologists and it's a same subject, totally different conversation. So it's, it's a same subject, totally different conversation. So it's kind of been fun. It's really been fun to kind of back it up and go okay, I can't make the assumption that you know this, because you don't. How do I step that down?

Speaker 1:

And uh. So how did you, how did you like, bridge the gap there? And how do you, how do you pivot and be able to deliver the same message?

Speaker 2:

So, um, remember, I said that you know that my early training is in education. I started as an elementary school teacher, and so I'm going to tell you. If I have to list my superpowers, one of my superpowers has always been translating complex ideas into simple ones. It served me well in a lot of working with clients. It also serves me really well when I have a client who has a technical product and helping them break it down so that their customers actually understand what they're selling. So I rely a lot on metaphors. I rely a lot on finding something in somebody's experience and say okay, so imagine that you're going on a road trip and you need fuel. Okay, you got gas in your car. Well, your marketing has got to have fuel. And where does that come from? And kind of. I'm always relying on the analogies and the metaphors because for me, that's how people grasp ideas.

Speaker 1:

And that's powerful too, because I know, when you were talking earlier, how you say one thing, the team references different projects one way, and you created the number system, and most of the time when you're communicating with somebody, that's the quickest way is using analogy.

Speaker 2:

So then you have similar terminology, so then communication can flow much smoother yourself to whether you're hiring virtual you know, va is halfway around the world or you're actually hiring somebody to sit next to you, is getting comfortable with the idea. I mean, it's your baby, you've been doing it and you've been doing it yourself for. However, so long that they're not going to do it the way you do it, they're not going to see it the way you see it and getting comfortable with, well you know what. I wouldn't have done it that way, but that's actually okay. I can work with that because I don't have to do it if I give it to you.

Speaker 1:

So you know learning to let go and learning to be able to define the outcome and let someone else manage the process. So you mentioned you've got a history and experience in a lot of different networking events and I go to a ton myself. I often run into a lot of individuals who go to these events and they just kind of dive in and they're like who can I sell to? Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. They just dive right in who are you, what do you do and who cares Because I'm here to talk about me sort of thing. Can you share a little bit on some positive and helpful strategies on how to be successful in networking events?

Speaker 2:

So I always tell people OK, warning, this is a metaphor, but here's the thing. Imagine you're playing a game of tennis. Okay, your goal when you're playing tennis is the ball comes at you. You need to make contact and knock the ball back over the fence. If the ball stays on your side too long, it's going to dribble off to the side and you lose the point. That's a networking conversation. Your objective is to share a little bit of information and knock the ball back over to the other person. Get them talking. If you're talking too long, what's going on in the head of the other person is for a moment, they're listening politely, then they're thinking about the three other things they need to do when they get home and then they're looking over your shoulder trying to find a way to get away from you. So if you want to be successful at networking, you need to be a good tennis player. You need to learn the art of a little information and asking the next question. I used to teach a course in this and it's so funny to watch people struggle with something that I think is like simple interaction. You're good at it, you're good at asking that next question, and people who just think that if they're talking, they're winning, if you're talking, you're losing. I'm going to say one other thing about that.

Speaker 2:

I was at a networking event and it was there were a bunch of VCs and investors in the room. There were a bunch of scientists in the room who were pitching their ideas, and then there were some of us that were more service providers, marketing consultants, business. At that point I was doing a lot of pitch decks and stuff for investors and this guy came up to me and he started talking and he did not come up for air and after about 10 minutes I put my hand up and I physically touched him and said I need you to stop. And he was taken aback. I said you're wasting your time. I'm not an investor and you need to find the investors because you need money and I have none. And he was just so stunned and he was really like well, how do I do that?

Speaker 2:

I said well, you know, instead of launching into your pitch, start the conversation with hi, this is who I am, what do you do? And then listen. If the person is another scientist, chat briefly and walk away. If the person is a service provider, chat briefly and walk away. If the person is an investor, start your pitch, but if 90% of the people at a networking event are not going to be your customers, and so if you can take two or three minutes at the beginning of the conversation to find that out and then gracefully exit and talk to someone else, it's like sales. You need nine no's to get a yes. You need eight or nine conversations that are not a great fit before you find the right person. But also in those conversations, I mean, you meet some great people that may never buy from you but may send you a ton of business, and I'm okay with that.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, that's exactly what I was going to bring up next. I was going to say, whenever I go and if I connect with somebody and they might even be a competitor of mine, they might be doing the same exact thing. But I'm totally open to the whole idea that collaboration is a new form of currency and there's no real competition outside of myself. So I can always collaborate, work with other coaches and different things, and you never know Like I work with other trainers, even when I was a personal trainer, and a lot of times when I was, if I was working with a client that was handed to me we might not have been the best fit, but like, if I knew like Susie over here would have been a much better fit, it was easy for me to just kind of develop that relationship with her.

Speaker 1:

And then I was like, hey, you know you guys would do a lot better together than you and I. So then it just goes that way and the whole idea when I go into networking events I don't try to just sell, I try to make genuine connections Like, hey, who's here is cool, who do I want to help grow their business, who do I want to go have coffee with afterwards, like I'm looking at this opportunity to grow well, and the other side of it is when you know everybody in the room, who do you introduce people to?

Speaker 2:

because when you introduce bob to mary and that becomes the match made in heaven and I'm not even talking romantic here, I'm talking and it could be but they have a great business connection. Every time they get together you are implicitly in the room. They're thinking about you because you brought them together. I have folks where I recognize that Doug needed to hire somebody, jen needed a job. I put them together. They worked together for five years and I got more business referrals from them because every time they would run into a project that wasn't a good fit for them, I was the first person they thought of because I was the commonality between them. So introducing people, my best referral sources were always people who owned companies just like mine but didn't work in the industry I worked in or didn't handle the kind of projects I handled, and vice versa. I'd rather give away five projects I don't really want to do because I'll get one that'll be a perfect fit want to do because I'll get one that'll be a perfect fit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you know, kind of like going to like networking itself is. Is it technically a form of marketing? Because, like you, if you go into it and you're you're desperate, like, oh, buy from me, buy from me, buy from me. I feel like that kind of says something about your business and like it would be the same thing as me, just like blasting all over like buy from me now, buy from me now. Like buy for me now, buy for me now, buy for me now and I don't think that's gonna work.

Speaker 2:

I mean, maybe it works I don't know, I've never tried it, but I don't know, I I don't think, I don't think it works. And you know it's so interesting because you see that behavior on, uh, social media also, where somebody you reach out, you have a connection request, you're chit-chat, and the very next direct message you get is oh, and by the way, sign up for my course. No, no, no, really don't want, no, no. I guess there's a law of averages and I guess at some point that works. I just find that exhausting. I would rather go be at a networking event, meet interesting people, have some fun conversations and, like you said, find a couple of people I want to have coffee with.

Speaker 2:

I ran into a guy. There was absolutely no reason for us to really continue the conversation. He was running a remodeling business. I had a marketing company, but we just really laughed and we thought you know what, this will be fun, let's go have coffee. And the friendship developed we ended up when both of us were looking for a place, an office space, to move out of our houses. We bought a building together All because we made each other laugh in that first conversation and from there built a relationship that allowed us to trust each other enough to go into business wow, a building too.

Speaker 2:

That's insane, that is crazy yeah it was a little, um, it was a little house and it was perfect. I ended up ultimately buying out his side of it because my company grew and he was going in a different direction with his. But I probably would never have made the leap out of my home if it hadn't been for that relationship and he was like no, no, we can afford it. We could buy a little house together. Here's a great location and, um, you know, having that other person kind of pushing me a little bit and then making it possible, and all because of a networking conversation.

Speaker 1:

Wow, crazy. Um well, so, laurie, tell me a little bit more about what you're doing specifically now, because you said it was more of like a side hustle, where it's not necessarily taking over your entire day.

Speaker 2:

uh, but fill me in on a little bit about that so um 15 years ago, uh, somebody walked into my office and said, you know you like to talk, and I went, yeah, kind of yeah, that's for me. Um, and he was like, well, you should have a podcast. And I had no idea really what a podcast was. And I'm like, well, let's give it a shot. And when I sold the business, that was a piece I kept. So today, more than a few words, it's a marketing conversation for business owners and coming up on the beginning of year 16. So that'll be kind of fun And-.

Speaker 1:

Congratulations. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, thank you. And from that, the other thing that I kept that I really enjoyed doing is strategy consulting. So I like working with businesses that have spent a little money on marketing and are not happy with the results and they're looking for someone to give them some unbiased opinions. Because one of the challenges when you're looking for somebody to help you with your marketing, if they have a service or an expertise, it's kind of like if you have a hammer, the entire world is a nail. So if you're a web designer and you're helping somebody with the marketing, sooner or later you're like you know you need a website.

Speaker 2:

And if you're an SEO person or a social media person, you know you can solve a lot of your problems with. I don't have that side project, I don't have that product that I'm selling, so I can really evaluate businesses just based on here's the strategy, here's what you're doing, here's what's working, here's what's not working and here's a plan. Now go back to your web designer, go back to your content. People have them, do the legwork. So I really like just doing the strategy work again.

Speaker 1:

Nice, I love that. And um are you? Are you currently taking on new clients or are you keeping it to like a small thing? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

I um, uh, I have some clients that, uh, I have some clients that I'm enjoying working with. I have room to take on a few more and I always like to start with like a one hour conversation and I don't do the oh, get your first hour free. No, you want free here? Here's a link to my webinar. Go watch the webinar, take notes and bring your questions, but at a buck 50, it's a pretty reasonable investment for an hour and to get a sense of, here are some very easy things you can do to improve. Does it make sense for you to have? Does it make sense for us to have a sense of? Here are some very easy things you can do to improve. Does it make sense for you to have? Does it make sense for us to have a longer conversation? Some people it does, some people it doesn't. I'm okay either way.

Speaker 1:

Love that, and how do people find or book a call with you? Find you, where are you at?

Speaker 2:

One place for everything morethanafewwordscom. You'll find podcast episodes, you'll find a link to office hours, you'll find my tools page, which is an exhausting list of all of my favorite software products, as well as all of the worksheets and white papers that I created over 19 years of running an agency, and probably 35 or 40 different webinars and videos on marketing topics. So you find the podcast book, an office hour, watch a video. Do it all in one place.

Speaker 1:

Boom morethanafewwordscom. Nice and easy to get to Love it. Love that, lauren. I appreciate you. I know we're kind of getting here a little bit on the time, so I want to just show some some some gratitude and appreciation for you for taking the time to kind of hop on here today, chat with me, share some powerful insights, a little bit about your story, and it was great to kind of dive in and learn a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

So thank you this was really great, I love this.

Speaker 1:

This is awesome, but before I let you roll, I got to ask you if you were to throw it all out and if you were to give one piece of advice to those young side hustlers, those early entrepreneurs who are just getting out there on their journey. They turn to you and they say, hey, what is one thing that I should be focusing on, or one thing that I should do? What would be your advice to them?

Speaker 2:

I think that this you know. Everybody says, oh, you have to know your why, your why, blah, blah, blah. It's not that, I think that's not important. You got to know why you're doing it, but you got to know who your customer is. It's great that you have a why, but if nobody will pay you for your why, you have a hobby. So who is your customer? And please don't tell me everyone. They aren't, they're not. You know what? I'm going to work with small to mid-sized businesses. No, you're working with small businesses, you're working with mid-sized businesses. They have different problems, they have different pain points. So who is it really? And don't be afraid to be really specific. Other people will find you, but if you want a business that you love, that lets you live your why, figure out who you want to take care of who they really are and build a business around that.

Speaker 1:

Wow, some powerful, powerful insights right there. Thank you so much for that. That is awesome. I know a bunch of people are going to really appreciate this episode Not more than me, of course but they'll definitely find a lot of nuggets in here. This was great, so thank you again. Thank you for taking the time. This was awesome. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2:

I had fun.

Speaker 1:

All right, We'll have to talk again soon. That's it for us today, guys. So remember, go check out more than a few wordscom, reach out, book an office hour, watch those webinars and then come to her with your questions so she can help you answer them. And until next time, guys, peace, peace, peace, peace.