Stop feeling bad for wanting to be the best. (You are).”
Taylor Manning is a marketing strategist for badass women ready to scale their business to six and multiple six figures. She created her first six-figure year in business by 21 in less than 12 months, and this year, she scaled her business to multiple six figures. Her Facebook group, Ambitious Badass Entrepreneurs, is home to more than 5,500 business owners ready to massively scale their business and experience tremendous growth. She currently lives in Coventry, Connecticut with her partner and their two pups, Tucker and Jax. You can learn more at taylormanningcreative.com.
Where did the idea for Badass Women come from?
When I was in college, I actually watched a YouTube video about making money online. From there, I discovered the site UpWork (actually it was still called ODesk at the time) where I started offering my freelance services. I started doing things like social media management, graphic design, web design, etc – all things I was learning in school and was teaching myself based off of what people wanted. As my skill sets grew, I started doing higher level marketing like launch management, sales funnels, Facebook advertising, etc. After graduation, I discovered online coaching and consulting and realized I was already doing that for my clients for free and saw how I could scale my business by offering coaching instead of services and loved it. The rest is history.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
What I love about my business is there is a lot of flexibility. The only thing on my calendar are calls (usually 1-2 per day) and I keep my calendar closed until at least 11 am. My mornings are really important to me. I use them to journal (this is how I get clearer on my next level of success and how to get there), workout and take care of myself. I think as a high-level coach it’s important to put myself first so I can show up 110% for my clients. My evenings are a bit lazy. I am a total introvert so being a personality online, sharing my life and talking with people during the day I like to spend my evenings cooking a yummy meal with my boyfriend and then Netflix binging and cuddling one of my dogs.
How do you bring ideas to life?
In my business, my creativity happens in my marketing. Since my business is really just me, my job (how I bring in the money) is to share as much of myself online as possible. My clients hire me because they know I’m good at what I do and they love who I am as a person. So my ideas flow around experiences I am going through, new ways to share stories around growing my business and thoughts I have around things that are different. I have to make it a point to stand out and be seen so people want to follow me and stick around. To be honest – I have made it a habit to post online or do a video anytime I think of an idea so I don’t lose the “spark” around it.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Just one?! I’m loving the idea of Facebook Bots. I have far from mastered them but I do use Many Chat to run live trainings now and they are converting fantastic.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I have a daily to do list (I use to keep it with me everywhere and now it’s just ingrained in my mind) of 5 things I need to do each day to feel really productive and to move my business forward. Put simply it looks something like – mindset work (journaling!), sharing online, growing my following, selling my offer and taking great care of my clients.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Stop feeling bad for wanting to be the best. (You are)
Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on?
I don’t believe in professionalism when marketing your business. I believe it would actually be immoral if I filtered myself because the people investing in me wouldn’t be able to know the real me before making that decision.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Journal “what is it that I really want”. Because 1. So many people think about what they should want or what others think they should want. And 2. Because of this, so many people reach someone else’s version of “success” and even with all the money in the world still aren’t happy.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
Livestreaming and really just being on video has been huge for my business. Video builds trust unlike any other marketing strategy. And live video is even better because it’s unedited, unfiltered and it allows you to have an actual conversation with your audience. My livestreams are where most of my high-end clients discover me and realize they need to work with me. I always joke, why is anyone going to pay thousands for a coach when they don’t even know if they like their voice.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Luckily I haven’t experienced anything I really look at as a failure. I would say my biggest regret is being such a people pleaser for most of my business so far. It’s only been recently I finally fully let go of that. I held onto clients who were paying me $15/hour when I had others paying $250/hr. Out of guilt/wanting to be a good person. It slowed me down and it really didn’t benefit either of us. I’ve also said yes to collaborations and partnerships with other’s that I didn’t actually want to go into simply because I didn’t want to offend them. Let’s just say that definitely blew up in my face.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
My friends and I on a business trip recently were really wishing for an Uber-like service where you get picked up WITH your coffee order. Perfect when you’re on the way to work and/or meetings… or really, just in general.
What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?
I just bought a Ninja blender and am LOVING it. Kind of lame, I know. I’m smoothie obssesed right now.
What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
I love Slack – it’s like instant messenger with my team. Only my team members (assistants, accountant, bookkeeper, business manager) are in there and it gives us a very focused place (unlike via email/text/Facebook) to discuss team related things.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
My dad (also an entrepreneur) gave me the book, The Highest Calling by Lawrence Janesky. Such a different spin compared to the other personal development and business books out there. I highly reccomend it.
What is your favorite quote?
“If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.”
Connect:
Taylor Manning on Facebook:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.