Reflections on Launching My Marketing Agency

During this time I was still running a mastermind program for coaches and healers, launching a membership, and supporting 1:1 coaching clients. It all felt like such a herculean effort. Because we needed the money I was making, but I literally did not have the capacity to be working. I constantly felt depleted, was in chronic pain, and experiencing brain fog and poor short term memory.

I feel like the next 2 years were just a blur of me chasing pockets of time to protect for work, for creating content, for healing, for finding myself and my energy / vigor again. While also supporting a toddler going through his own detox and big emotions around having lost most of his belongings as well.

But we moved back into our house. Pivoting. Growing. Showing up online. Serving the clients who were in my world. And holding the vision that we were all going to be OK.

Fast forward to June 2023 - I was so stressed about managing our very variable income. We were in a constant chase of finding childcare options that felt right for us. Nannyshares falling through, childcare at the coworking space closing, just trying to find a flow that would allow me to keep working.

We found an aligned outdoor learning center that we felt great about for our son. I literally signed him up as the first student there, and locked in some consistent childcare we all felt great about. I signed up for an intuitive development program and began tapping back into my own intuition. I was working more closely with my own Human Design, and also exploring a new self-diagnosis of AuDHD and unmasking.

And I started hearing a whisper that it was time for me to launch something new.

But I was terrified. I was nervous that if I launched something new I would not have the capacity. I wasn’t healed enough to hold space for more. It would be a lot of effort with no return. But I kept listening and exploring.

So many avenues were leading me to the idea of launching a marketing agency.

- Coaching clients who asked me if I could do some website / back end work for them on the side.

- Women’s groups spontaneously commenting on my gifts and how they would be well suited to run a large organization that helps women

- Practice readings in my intuitive development program affirming what I was daydreaming about.

- SO many conversations of coaches and healers coming to me out of the blue, to share how they had been taken for a ride by coaches or marketing programs that did not deliver and took their money.

I started getting curious about conversations that were coming into my field. And I began to really get curious and open myself up to the people that would need to be a part of this to grow it bigger than what I could personally support.

- I met Meg O’Neill on social media. We started following each other and got on a networking call.

- I reconnected with a copywriter I had hired previously, and we talked about her taking copywriting work if my clients had the need.

- I met 2 amazing designers through Facebook groups who were both open to learning about working with me when the time came.

- I reached out to a woman whose VA agency had run my previous mastermind launch, to ask if she would be willing to chat with me about what it looks like to launch an agency.

Elements

I started toying with software I would need, setting up a budget, hiring a consultant to help me, getting introduced to a VA I hired to help with systems set-up. And I started posting that I would be taking some initial clients.

I had some dark nights of the soul, some autistic meltdowns, and some big emotional breakthroughs. I stayed consistent with energy healing, breathwork, and supporting my detox pathways. I was clear that if I really launched this - success HAD to look and feel differently than it had in the past. It had to prioritize me as a human and a self-healer as well as a business owner. I was no longer going to be available for putting in burnout levels of effort for meager returns.

I also wanted to truly step out and stake a niche to help who I feel most committed to helping. And that is the black sheep online business owners. The coaches, healers, authors, and speakers who feel like invisible experts. Who are world renowned, transformational in their work - and yet they don’t have an online presence or business back end to allow them to truyl earna. living doing what they love.

I sat down on a Saturday last August in the heat of the summer while my husband took our son to a birthday party. And I set up a kind of shitty landing page off of my own website. And started writing proposals for people who had said they may be interested for support on their websites, funnels, email marketing when I was ready to launch. When the first client processed in to my CRM, I remember crying tears of joy.

In the first few months I was not only marketing the agency, setting up the back end, training new team members - but also writing ALL the copy. Like hundreds of pages of email sequences, sales pages, website pages.

And then I started to learn more about how I would need to position and price services to include the cost of a copywriter. And started getting introduced to mentors in the agency space. I began to attract copywriters, funnel and website designers, tech VA’s, project managers and assistants who all saw my vision and were willing to be on standby as we grew.

I started attending networking events, learning how to speak about what we do in a way that was concise and compelling, and how to run an effective coffee chat to develop out my referral program and network.

I took on some absolutely aligned clients. And also had a few clients who were not happy with our work or were not aligned in the systems we specialize in - that led to some refunds and parting of ways. But I kept holding the vision of what this could be. Not beating myself up. Doing the best I could.

I believed that the Intuitive Marketing Collective was meant to be bigger than me. To be a safe space / hub for coaches, healers, speakers + authors to enter and receive the marketing support they needed.

Over the last few months, we have expanded drastically. Meg O’Neill stepped in to lead a new division offering Instagram content creation and account management, as well as marketing strategy. And we are in the works finalizing new packages that will help clients generate new leads through SEO, paid ads and Google Reviews. We have also hired an operations manager, an additional project manager, and tech VA’s to round out our teams that get assigned to new clients.

Everyone who works in our agency is committed to bringing our clients’ vision to life online, are open-minded, and truly enthusiastic and passionate about the work they do for clients. Many of our team members thank me regularly for giving them the opportunity to work with such amazing and transformational clients, who are emerging leaders in healing, coaching and personal development.

Last week there was a day when I received inquiries about our services via Instagram DMs, Facebook DM’s, my personal website contact form, the agency website application funnel, and a referral introduction by email. We have been onboarding more clients daily and weekly than every before, and are poised for growth.

For the last year, holding space for the vision and running this business has felt like flying a rocket ship with screws falling off sometimes, but mostly holding it together. But it’s coming together, Systems. SOP’s. Aligned hires. Referral partners. Marketing efforts. It all seems to be coming together.

Now as we step into this next year - I am personally committed to bringing more intention and focus on my physical strength and development of leadership and character to continue to grow this. And we are setting goals for sustainable growth in each division of our work. We have a beautiful team mapped out, with skills, expertise, and heart to help our clients. And are here to serve, grow, and learn.

Until very recently I hadn’t allowed myself to set goals for this business - because it felt premature. And honestly I don’t lead with money marketing. But it’s time. To set big goals, help more business owners, and bring this agency to a new level.

For those of you reading this who have trusted me and my team to serve your business in our first year - thank you. I truly hope that the work we have done has served your business and ability to earn a living based on your gifts, knowledge, expertise or experiences.

If you’ve been on the fringe watching, or are new to my little slice of the online world - I welcome you to lean in and get curious as to whether any aspect of services we offer could support your goals and vision for your business.

To learn more about what we do at the Intuitive Marketing Collective, make sure to check out our Services listing, and fill out a free inquiry form to start a conversation about whether we can help you now or down the road.