← Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
95. EP: Building Systems, Structures & Freedom: How to Design a Business That Supports Your Life with Holly Haynes
00:25:48
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- [00:00]
A
All right, welcome back to another episode of Call Her Creator, the show where we talk about building a business in a life you love by turning your passions and your creativity into profit. Today's guest is someone who truly practices what she preaches. I'm joined by Holly Haynes, business strategist, founder of Crush the Rush podcast, which I was on the other week. And you guys really need to go listen to our episode. She's a mom of twins and she's built a thriving life first business helping women simplify, systemize and scale without burning out. So Holly and I both share a true passion for helping entrepreneurs work smarter, not harder. And I'm really excited to unpack how she builds freedom through structure and teaches others to do the same. Now, before we jump into today's episode, I just have to tell you guys real quick about the creator tool I'm obsessed with right now. And it's called Stanley AI. It's basically just going to scrape your socials up and send you content ideas. No more endless scrolling on Instagram and just viral worthy content ideas sent straight to your inbox. I'll link it for you guys in the show notes and when you use the code, Call her creator. You'll get $10 off. Hey friend. Welcome back to Call Her Creator. Powered by your all in One Creator Store, Stan. Stan is the easiest way for you to make money online. All of your courses, digital products and bookings are hosted within your link in bio. If you're ready to start your free trial, visit my show notes and click my affiliate link to get started today. All right, Holly, welcome.
- [01:35]
B
Yay. Thank you so much for having me.
- [01:37]
A
Yay. You're so welcome. I so look up to you. So Holly has two twin. Two. I guess you can't really say twins. And we were just talking about from like 3pm to 10pm it's just balls to the walls. Like you are going, girlfriend, going, going. Yeah, so I guess I want to. We'll get into all that. But first let's start by just talking about how you went. A lot of you here listening are still stuck in corporate or you're like on the cusp of starting your own thing. So I kind of want to ask Holly, what sparked your decision to leave your 9 to 5 and build something of your own?
- [02:14]
B
Yeah, I had no intention of leaving my 9 to 5 like ever. And I always, I joke that so I'm almost 47. I started my business when I was 41. I like when I went to college, entrepreneurship was not a major. It was not Talked about Facebook wasn't even a thing when I was in college. So it's like, it just wasn't ever in my repertoire. Like, people didn't. I didn't know anyone that had their own business. Like, it just wasn't a thing. And so I had, like, no vision that this would actually happen. What did sort of change my path, though, was, and I think a lot of people can relate to this, is this was actually before I had kids. And I was sitting in my MBA class. I'm from Columbus, Ohio. I went to Ohio State. I'm. My job is paying for my graduate degree. And I'm sitting there, it's in a finance class. I hate finances. And I'm just like, oh, my God, like, what am I doing? Like, why am I doing this? And now I have to work, like, even longer because I have to pay off this debt from this degree. Right? And I don't know if you're familiar with Jenny's ice cream. It's super popular. She's from Columbus, Ohio. She's a great founder, It's a great entrepreneur to follow. And she came to speak in our class, and at the time, like, she had three or four ice cream shops. Like, it wasn't what it is now. And I was like, oh, I mean, what are we going to learn from this, right? And she started talking about how her whole mission in building her ice cream was to. To, like, serve the community and make a bigger difference. And I remember sitting there like, oh, I'm on the wrong path. Like, it was just that moment where I'm like, well, I can go make ice cream too. And I was so against it, like, when she was talking. And so I had this, like, huh, I don't know if I want to keep doing what I'm doing. But I had no idea, like, what that would look like. And if you follow her now, she very much followed through with what she said. Like, she is huge in philanthropy and has, like, multiple businesses. And it's. She's. It's a great story to follow. Long story short, I kept working, had twins. And I remember driving to work and, like, it hit me again. And I was like, I can't keep doing this. Like, I have to do something that actually, like, I'm excited about. I. I liked my job. I liked the people I worked with. I had, like, worked my way up to the C suite, but I was like, can I keep doing this for 10 plus years? So that's always my question that I ask myself. No matter what I'm Doing, like, do I like it enough where I could, like, live each day? Like, I'm living for 10 plus years. And my answer was like, a hard no. I was like, no way. I have to do something different. And so I leaned into volunteering. Cause I was like, well, I'm not gonna quit my job. I didn't really know what entrepreneurship was or had no intention of building my business. So I'm like, well, I'm just gonna, like, volunteer. And so I started these, like, women's groups in the career that I was in. And I really loved mentoring. And so, long story short, I was like, oh, well, maybe I'll start a podcast. Because at the time this was in, podcasts were like, you know, the thing. The thing to do. They still are the thing. And so I had no vision at all. Like, none. I have 22 years of corporate strategy experience. I had no vision. I had no business plan, nothing. And I was like, well, I'm just gonna start a podcast. The podcast aired the first day that Covid hit the United States. And so here I am like, oh, I'm gonna talk about morning routine and productivity, which was my first episode. And the world is like, literally shutting down. And I was like, what do I. Like, what do I do? And so our entire business model has been built on, well, I'm just gonna share as I go. I'm just gonna share, like, what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and it will just evolve. And so it evolved to. People really liked the podcast. It's done very well. I created a course out of it. Courses are not really my thing. It did okay. I had four people in it. It wasn't great. And it since evolved to, like, the product suite that we have now where we really lean deep into strategy and help you SC can put your kids on the bus and you can do things that you want to do for the next 10 years. And so I had. I had no plans to do what I'm doing right now. So it's. It's really a crazy, crazy origin story.
- [06:22]
A
Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah. So it's really funny. Holly has anti social.
- [06:28]
B
Yes. We're like the opposite. But I love it because I'm like, Caitlin, can you imagine if, like, our signature program is called Antisocial School? And it was basically how I did scale my business while I was working without using social. I'm like, can you imagine if, like, they learned from both of us and you had, like, a kick in social media and you had, like, the systems behind the scenes, like, how amazing would that be?
- [06:50]
A
Yeah, we're getting together for that, for sure. The best of both worlds. And, you know, maybe people can take a little from mine, a little from yours, but. Yeah, so funny. So what about, like, did your. Did you have any, like, mindset shifts when you did make that step into entrepreneurship?
- [07:08]
B
Well, the first thing is, is I knew that I knew how to run a business, and I knew that I knew, like, how to present and sort of how to do the things behind the scenes, but I did not know the online space. And so I think the first thing is it's like, get people that know, like, where you want to go. And so I hired a business coach before I even created anything. Like, we were, like, six, you know, five figures in debt before I was like, oh, okay, now I know what I want to do. And I say that, like, jokingly, but I knew that I needed somebody to, like, show me the way if I wanted to build it the right way. And I also knew, and I still teach this today, that whatever I do, like, I'm not chasing the trends. Like, I want something that's gonna last three years, five years, 10 years, so that it's, like, a solid foundation of a business that allows me to have the flexibility that I want. So I knew, like, this is not going to be the, like, quick win, right? Like, this is something that is going to take a minute to build. So I think those were, like, two of the biggest shifts. And then the third one is actually, I didn't really talk about it because I wasn't really on social, because I couldn't be. And I didn't even, like, tell my husband or my family or my friends what I was doing. And so I would just, like, work in this, like, box. And when I started talking about it more specifically, sharing more with my husband, like, that's when I really saw the biggest growth. Because what I saw was, like, people giving me feedback and then, like, believing in me, which gave me confidence, which then was like, okay, like, let's keep going. And so those were probably my biggest shifts in terms of, like, what it took to build to where we are now.
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A
When you say you invested in a coach, did you take any courses first? Or you were just like, nope, I need a coach?
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B
No, I went straight into, like, put me in a mastermind. Like, I want to be in the room with people that know what they're doing. And I was, like, an A plus student. I showed up to every call, I did every single thing they told me to do. I followed up with every single person that ever presented. I mean, some of my, like, best networking connections came from that, like, original, like, I, I'm going all in. But also it was expensive for me because I wasn't making money. But I think that's also a benefit of having a corporate career while building your business is I wasn't reliant on my income to survive, and so I was able to use that to our advantage.
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A
That's true. Yeah. Same with me. When I left corporate, I had saved, I had tucked a little bit of money back, and then I had my husband's support, too. I do tell people, like, you know, make sure you have a little bit of money saved so you're not. But also, even if you don't, though, that could also be the fire on your ass that lights you up to be like, I can't quit. Which was.
- [09:57]
B
I know the interesting thing is, is, like, I never thought that I could leave my career because I'd been working a long time, and my husband was one, was like, I think this has legs, Holly. Like, I think you should, like, pay more attention to this. And so that's why I'm saying, like, having the conversations and people that you can talk to. But our plan as a family was, like, I put my notice in, in November, and so I went, like, to the end of the year, and like, January 1st was my first, like, okay, I'm here. But we had a year of where, like, if I didn't bring in any money, like, nothing happened, we would be okay. And that was really important to me because I didn't want to be in a scenario where, like, I wake up January 1st and be like, oh, my God, I have to sell 17,000 things. And I just feel like that's a horrible way to live. And so I wanted to make sure that we were set up so that we had some things in place where. I mean, I don't think you could go an entire year with, like, not selling one thing. But I was like, in case that happens, this is our plan.
- [10:58]
A
Yeah, you over prepped. I like that. Your whole brand, it centers around building simple scalable systems. What does that look like in your own business?
- [11:07]
B
The first thing is really, really simple. And that is my schedule. I am like a schedule nazi. Like, I am. Anytime that I feel stressed, it's always, go to your calendar. What does your calendar look like? How much free space do you have? How free time do you have? And I knew I did not leave my corporate job so that I could sit in front of a computer all day. So we have like really strong boundaries. Some of them are really fun. Like we travel as a family once a quarter and I joke that, like, it can't be to grandma's house. So we've been able to take my girls to 11 different countries in the last three years. But it's just like a family rule. So we've got these rules. Um, and then I'm really, really strict about what I do on each day. So I, I call them theme days. There's. It's super basic, but it's like on Monday, it's very much me leaning into my team and my clients. On Tuesdays, it's much more of a content day. Wednesdays are podcast days because if I have to like get up and look decent, like I want to make sure that I'm doing the things that I need to do. But then there are other days where I'm in sweats and I like celebrate that because I can do that. So we're. I'm really protective of my schedule, but then I also have things behind the scenes and this wasn't like all at once, but the schedule came first. The second thing that we did was build a team before we're ready. And I don't have a large team, but I have help. And help can be whatever you want it to be. It can be, you know, my husband stays at home now and, and like he does the laundry, he goes to the grocery store. He is like the, the go to parent for a lot of things. And that's just like our. How we have it set up. But I have team members that. My number one rule with a team is that they need to be doing income producing activities and if they're not, it has to be giving me time back. And I really leaned into that this year because I mean, I could. You can have amazing team members and they're the nicest people in the world, but if they're not saving you time and they're not making you money, then it's like, are they the right person? So I really leaned into who can I have on my team to help me the most. And then we have very specific systems that we follow. Everything from like funnels to follow ups to client experience of, you know, once you're in our world, like most of our clients stay, I think the average was like 3.7 years and we've been in business for five, so I feel like that's pretty good. So those are, that's like high level what we have. I mean, I can Go really deep.
- [13:47]
A
But this all makes sense, too. And I'll tell you guys, too, like, full transparency. We were supposed to meet, I think it was either last week or the week before, but my schedule was jammed pack, and I was, like, freaking out. Anxiety attack, panicking, emailed Holly, and she's like, hey, it's totally fine. Like, and now this makes sense because you are protective of your schedule. So you get it.
- [14:06]
B
You get home, and it helps you adjust for emergencies. Like, when you have white space. My twins are 11. They're both. Well, one's getting braces tomorrow, one already has them. Like, we've had more broken brackets and, like, orthodontist appointments than I'm like, what the heck? Like, how are we going to do this for three years? But because I have white space, like, I'm able to move things around a lot easier. And so, I mean, the calendar is everything. And if you're feeling stressed or you're listening to this and you're like, I can't do that. Like, look at your calendar. That's what will tell you what's going on.
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A
I love that. Now, is there anything that you tried that didn't work? Or maybe it looked good on paper, but it just didn't fit. Real life.
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B
Yeah, it's. Well, you know, I'll give you a real life. Well, I'll give you two examples. One, the first course that I taught, because at the time it was like, everyone does courses. You should totally do a course, right? It's 2020. I think courses were selling pretty well. And it just, like, it never really, like, felt right to me because I don't watch courses. Like, I don't have time to watch thing. Like, I need somebody to tell me or want to listen to it. Like, I just. I have a really hard time, like, sitting down and watching a video. There are very few things that I will, like, do that for. So it wasn't really in alignment with, like, what I did. And so I think that's, like, a really important question of, like, how do you learn? How do you consume? What are you doing? And then are you creating something that's in alignment with that, or is it the complete opposite? So on the flip side, I was like, well, if I do want to leave my corporate job, it's not going to be from four people paying $100 for a course. So, like, let's think about this. And I actually launched our mastermind, which is now called the Collective Co op. The very first year I was in business, after I did this course, Because I was like, I have the experience. I've worked with Fortune 500 companies. I have five degrees. Like, why am I not doing this? And so I think if you're listening from a corporate perspective, like, you have so much experience. And so when I leaned into that and I leaned into, like, what I was consuming and what helped me, that's when I really saw the biggest change. So that was, like, a really big lesson. The second thing is ads, which we could have a whole podcast on. And ironically, we just started running ads again for the first time in, like, four years this week. And I think my advice is, unless you have money to, like, light on fire, like, don't run them. But. And we're doing it. But I'm doing it in a very different way this time. Like, I have. I have learned a lot. We've tested a lot. Like, we're going in it with a different perspective so we can have a part two. I'll tell you how it goes.
- [16:41]
A
I swear, we're just like, the same person so much. I feel you.
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B
Yeah.
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A
For someone. Gosh, this. This question. Actually, it might be my own question. For someone who's feeling busy but not free, where should they start when designing a schedule or system that actually supports their life? Like, I still want my business to run, but I also. This is the time of my life. I have two young children. I have a husband. Like, how do you decide how to design a school that fits everything?
- [17:11]
B
I mean, the first thing that I do. And you can do this, like, right now, as you're listening, go into your calendar and just block it out. So, like, I block. I just blocked out the whole month of January a couple days ago. My husband's like, what are you doing? And I was like, last year, I blocked out the first week of January and we went on vacation, and I was like, this is the most amazing thing we've ever done. Now I'm like, well, I'm going to do the whole month. You can always unblock it. But it's so much easier when it is blocked. So I just go in and I just, like, have a field day of, like, okay, I'm not doing this. I'm not. I'm blocking out all Friday. I'm blocking out the other day. I put, like, every Wednesday, I wrote personal day on the calendar. My husband's like, what is this? And I was like, I don't know. I just blocked it out.
- [17:52]
A
So I just sent my aunt my schedule because we're trying to plan a vacation, and it says self Care, like every morning from 7, 8:30. And she's like, what self care? And I was like, just ignore that. That's. So I remind myself to go home.
- [18:05]
B
It's time, right? So it's like you. And intentionally you have to unblock it to, like, do something. And so I've been really strict with that and that's helped a lot. And then I also lean into seasons. And so for us, summer is a little bit of a slower season. And so strategically, I'll plan, like, okay, maybe we'll do a sale in July. There's a reason Amazon prime days happen in July. And I know fall for us is actually a very busy time personally, but it's also strategically a great time to sell. And so all strategically plan, like, okay, what's the one focus for the quarter? What's one thing that I can focus on? Like, I'm not interested in doing 17 launches a year. Like, I just want to know, like, what's our focus for the quarter? How do I, like, backtrack into that? And then looking at our calendar, what is the best time frame to do that? And that's. That usually gets me pretty far.
- [19:01]
A
I love that you've. I. I'm. I'm writing notes right now like, okay, block out December, put up a Black Friday sales. And I. Because we're slower too, in the summertime as well. So that's sm, like, run sales during that time. What about when opportunities come? Like, I'm so bad at wanting to say yes to everything. So how do you decide what's a yes versus what's a distraction?
- [19:23]
B
Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I'm also a yes person. And so I think it just. It deter. It depends what season I'm in. But I will tell you one thing that's helped me a lot is knowing your human design. Do you know your human design?
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A
Yes, I just learned it.
- [19:39]
B
Yeah. What are you.
- [19:40]
A
I mean, now I can't remember. It's written down.
- [19:43]
B
So I am a. I'm a manifesting generator, which means I have a lot of ideas at all times. So that tells me that I need a team that can, like, they have to be freaky fast to implement it or I will just go do it myself. And then that's not good because that takes up all the time that I blocked out on my calendar. I'm also a 2 4, and a 24 means community and hermit. And so for me, there are times. And now that I'm aware of it, I'm like, oh, this is so true. Like, we just had clients. They come to our house once a year in the fall, and we have a retreat at our house. And I have to. I will go into, like, full hermit mode here in a couple weeks. Like, you really won't hear much from me until, like, January, because I know that I need, like, to recharge. And so my answer depends on, well, what season am I in? And then going back to what we talked about, well, what season is my business in? Like, are we launching this quarter? Are we not launching? Like, do. Does it make sense to do the thing based on where I'm at? And then, you know, if it's an amazing opportunity, then you just adjust?
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A
Yeah. No, and that kind of. That kind of brings me to the next question, but how do you keep your energy in check? Like, rituals or rhythm? I mean, that kind of sounds like. Know when you need to recharge.
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B
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my dream when I left corporate was to have a schedule that I could control. And so it started. It's funny how it's, like, morphed. But it started out of, like, well, I'm not having meetings on Friday because that felt like a dream. And then it's like, okay, well, I'm not gonna have meetings on Monday and Friday because that feels even better. And then I'm like, okay, well, I'm not gonna start calls until 10am which is, like, the biggest gift in the whole world because my kids go to school, right? Really, like, they're on the bus at 7am So I have from 7 to 10. I mean, it's like a whole day where I can, like, knock things out. And so, you know, it's keeping those. Those boundaries. But also because of my human design, I know that I like to work. Work for me is fun. And, like, I could just sit all day and, like, build funnels. And it probably like, how you are with, you know, social media. And I'm just like, I can't, because I will tire out. And so I have, like, apps on my phone that, like, block things. I have, like, we'll put things in the other room so I'm not on my computer. I'm really bad at hobbies. Like, I need one. I don't have one.
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A
You're so smart, though, too, with all of this stuff. Like, you don't. You don't really understand when you get it.
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B
Like.
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A
Like me with social media people, people will be like, wow, you have such an eye for this. Blah, blah. And, like, I don't get it. But, like, yeah, Holly, you were. I want. I want to be you.
- [22:28]
B
Yeah, I'm very intentional. Like, I have to, like, I'll. I sit down the night before and I'm like, what does my day look like? And like, even today, like, I have this call, I'm teaching a call after this, and I have a one on one that's like three hours of calls. Like, I will not really have time to do anything else today. And so it's like knowing that and like, not feeling guilty about that and knowing that, like, okay, at 3 o', clock, like, I'm done for the day and that's okay. I did things that I needed to do, but I have to adjust then the next day for what we have going on.
- [23:00]
A
Oh, I love to hear that because I feel the same way. I have a call after this too. And it kind of takes all your brain power when you're having to talk to people and teach people and all that stuff. You make it feel okay. Wrapping up. What's like, the biggest mistake you see entrepreneurs make when trying to scale too quickly or just trying to build something too fast?
- [23:19]
B
Trying everything at one time and not giving it enough time to, like, cook. And I say that because I have a couple clients who are doing very well. Like, they've built the audience and they've done very, very well. And they're like, well, I only had, you know, four course sales or whatever they're selling. And I was like, well, what if you did it for 30 days? Like, report back to me then. Because I think we are in this, like, era of things are changing so fast. Like, so fast. And, you know, what worked yesterday might not work tomorrow or the next day. And so it's like, you have to be consistent with what feels good for you. Going back to that, like, alignment, but also, like, let's track it. Like, is it really not working or are you just having a bad day? Because at least once a month I'm having, like, I call it the business meltdown, where I'm like, yeah, things working, it's not happening. But when I look at the data, it's like, oh, well, wait, like, maybe it's not that bad. And so I'm a big proponent of, like, tracking your data and understanding, like, why things are happening the way that they're happening. To use that as motivation. But also going back to my calendar, like, a day of no social and a day of white space and a day of being outside and a day of doing something really creative, like, cures all things for me usually, oh, love.
- [24:40]
A
This I love this. I love this. Holly, you're amazing. What are some ways that people can get in touch with you? What are you pushing right now?
- [24:47]
B
Yeah, so you need to. You need to combine Caitlin's social methods with my antisocial methods, because that's basically how we've been able to grow and scale is through speaking, SEO, organic conversations. And so that's what I teach. And I have a free workshop and private podcast where it goes through that, but it also goes through my schedule. And, like, what does it look like to create this? Maybe when you are working full time or maybe when you don't have a lot of time? And so it's hollymariehanes.comworkshop, and then you can come listen to the Crush the Rush podcast. And we do two episodes a week, so we have almost, I think, 600 episodes. I don't know. It's a lot, but we got every topic you could ever think of there.
- [25:28]
A
You're literally incredible. Like, I don't know. It's really great to know that someone can be as successful as you, but also put their life first. Like, you are so inspiring, and I'm so appreciative of you getting your time.
- [25:40]
B
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
- [25:42]
A
Right, cool. I will link all of Holly's handles into the show notes. But, Holly, thank you so much. We're gonna have to do a part two one day.