The Business Shift I Didn’t Expect

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
Remember a couple of years ago I had a few episodes that planned out my maternity leave, especially the one with baby number two. Let's just say reality had different plans. And in this episode I'm going to reflect a little bit on what changed with myself, my body, my babies, my business, and what I'm focusing on next. This is your opportunity to be a little bit nosy, so I'm going to spin the tea in this episode. But first, a word from our sponsor. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show. I use it to edit not only the audio and the video, it is like Chef's Kiss magical, making the entire process so, so easy. Plus, I love their Magic AI clips.

Andréa Jones [00:00:47]:
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Andréa Jones [00:01:22]:
Honestly, y' all had a completely different episode planned for today, but I am a week away at the time of recording this from my youngest, my one year old going to daycare. If you are new and this is your first episode, a little bit of context. I have been in business for 11 years. I got pregnant with my first baby in 2021. Had her in 2022. 2022 was also our highest year in revenue as a business. We hit almost nearly a million dollars in business in the agency. That was great.

Andréa Jones [00:01:52]:
Baby one, very easy baby. Now that I've done two, I'm like oh, the first one was the easy baby. When she was around 15 months old, got pregnant with the second baby. Baby two and second pregnancy was more challenging still, like technically both easy pregnancies. However, my body had not recovered so I do not recommend that. I also had two C sections which also is very hard on the body. I'm still recovering to this day and a lot has changed. I'm going to get into all of those details in this episode.

Andréa Jones [00:02:30]:
Just wanted to lay the groundwork because y' all are nosy and I love that for you. I also want to give a caveat and say I'M just sharing my experience. There is nothing in this episode that's actual advice, and that's why this episode feels a little bit different. But I find it helpful as a parent to hear other parents talk about what happened in their business. I did do this before having the babies, and I got it in my head that, like, I would be different. I would be, like, the exception to the rule. I am not. My entire brain feels consumed by these children.

Andréa Jones [00:03:05]:
And so I want to talk about that. But also preface this by saying, this is not advice. I am not a medical physician. Clearly can't even think of the right words for that. I am just sharing my experience. And this is more of, like, a personal episode. So pull up a chair, get cozy, get comfortable. All right, let's talk about the difference first between baby one and baby two.

Andréa Jones [00:03:28]:
So baby one pregnancy was actually not that bad. At the time, I thought it was terrible. And I saw a post on Threads recently that said we need to talk more about the realities of pregnancy because it is so different than what I thought and also my frame of reference. The people around me who had kids before didn't complain about pregnancy. I never heard people complaining about pregnancy. It was always a blessing. It was always your glowing and even things like morning sickness. It's like, oh, that's so cute.

Andréa Jones [00:04:01]:
Or like, your ankles are swollen. Here, have a seat. Give your seat to the pregnant lady. I did not like it one bit. I did not have morning sickness. I had all day sickness. It did not happen just in the first trimester. Happened all the way through.

Andréa Jones [00:04:19]:
And with both babies, I didn't like meat and basically only eat eight pickles, which, y'. All. I never liked pickles before. In fact, if I went to a restaurant and it had, like, pickles on the sandwich, I would say, please don't put the pickles on there because then the pickle juice, like, gets on the sandwich. It's not like something you could just peel off. Now I'm like, extra pickles, please. Like, so bizarre how my taste buds changed after having kids. But my first pregnancy wasn't as challenging to me on my body.

Andréa Jones [00:04:46]:
First of all, it was just the one. I didn't have any kids and my business was at its peak. Um, I mentioned that 2022, we had our record breaking year of revenue. There's over $900,000 in revenue that year with the agency and the membership. And we were doing great, y'. All. Absolutely fantastic time for the business. Um, and it was great.

Andréa Jones [00:05:07]:
Like, I loved it. I loved it. It was A lot easier, too, to have my team kind of run things while I was recovering. And it was fun then. I wanted a second baby. I got baby fever. I will tell you this. Between 15 and 18 months, to me is the perfect baby age.

Andréa Jones [00:05:27]:
That's where my one year old is right now. It is adorable. She just started saying little things, but she's just, like, exploring, she's walking. She's kind of like, she's starting to understand what the words mean. Like when she says a car, she says car. You know, it's like, so cute. She's not talking back to me. You know, the three year old is like, we're in a little bit of a battle because she wants to do it her way, I got to do it my way, and I'm apologizing to her anyways.

Andréa Jones [00:05:56]:
Baby 2 happened so quickly, too. I do not recommend this. I did not expect this to happen, but apparently we's fertile over here. Baby 2 pregnancy happened much quicker than I thought it would. And my body had not recovered from the first pregnancy. And so I had a really tough time physically with the way that my weight was being carried. With my C section scar, like, stretching out from having the second baby, I started showing much quicker. And then I also had some family stuff that resulted in less family support.

Andréa Jones [00:06:31]:
Okay. That's my other caveat for this episode. I'm going to try to be as particular as I can be, but also, like, boundaries. Y' all don't need to know every single little thing. Just know that it's like, I didn't have as much support as with the first pregnancy. And with the first baby, my body wasn't recovered. I was literally, y' all taping my belly with reinforcement tape to hold it up because my muscles couldn't hold up my belly. This baby was bigger, too, and I was chasing a toddler.

Andréa Jones [00:07:01]:
Anyways, the realities of my first baby to my second baby, totally, totally different. I will also say as newborns, they were different. First baby, very chill. Second baby was colicky. And so basically what I learned when people say their baby was colicky, this is a fun fact, y'. All. For those who don't have kids, when they say your baby's colicky, it basically means we don't know. Like, the doctors have no idea.

Andréa Jones [00:07:29]:
And they just slap this word on their colicky, and they're like, it'll go away. So there's like, literally nothing you can do. She was crying all day for the first three months. She just cried all day and all night. She spit up A lot. For her first year, she would just spit up almost everything. And so it was really gross. I think I've talked about this on the podcast before.

Andréa Jones [00:07:54]:
It was really gross and frustrating as a mom. Plus you also have a toddler to take care of when you have two. So like baby and toddler. And it was a lot. It was a lot on me. So July of 2024, I realized that the business wasn't doing as well. Okay, so 2022, record breaking year, 2024, not only was the business not doing well, there was just some shifts that happened. Financially, it wasn't doing well.

Andréa Jones [00:08:24]:
I had to let go of some of my staff because of that. The economic situation we're currently in, like, y', all, we're in an. Not. Recession's a strong word, but it's in an economic downturn for sure. The rise of AI means some of the menial tasks we were doing no longer needed. I love that for everyone else, but as a business owner, it was like, eek, right? And so I mapped out this whole plan for my business, like, here's the steps I need to do to like revitalize it. But July 2024, I had a colicky three month old and a two year old and a C section I was recovering from with less family support. So I decided to sell my business.

Andréa Jones [00:09:06]:
I have a couple podcasts on that. I'll link in the show notes. So I sold my agency. I sold it to two of my team members. I sold our client list essentially in our processes and did a beautiful exit there. And now my focus for the past year has been on the Mindful Marketing Lab, the podcast, my courses, speaking and teaching. So I'm a marketing consultant. In that time, I also rebranded from savvy social to mindful marketing to really lean into more holistic marketing ecosystems.

Andréa Jones [00:09:39]:
Okay, so that's kind of like bringing us to today. I want to highlight a few things though, in that process. One was that I am. I've learned that I am an optimistic person. Okay. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just something I have to be aware of because I jump into everything with two feet and I'm like, it's going to work out. It's going to be great.

Andréa Jones [00:10:03]:
If you go back and listen to my episode, I just listened to the one where I did my maternity planning before Baby one. I was so optimistic, so optimistic. Nothing wrong with that. But it wasn't the reality of my situation. The reality is that I was sick, I was tired, I couldn't Stick to a rigid schedule because my life was so in flex and so I needed a business model that fit with that. Hence what I am working on now, which is the mindful marketing lab. I can batch create content, I can do things at naps and when the kids go to sleep. It doesn't necessarily have to be so structured.

Andréa Jones [00:10:43]:
I set the pace for like how often I do lives and teach classes. And if I can't do lives, I do prerecorded. Okay. So I've learned that that is a business model that fits for me and it's not something I thought going into it. Right. I do think if the market hadn't shifted and there wasn't this rise of AI that I could have very easily continued the agency. But in the world that we live in, things change. And as business owners and leaders, it's our responsibility to change for that.

Andréa Jones [00:11:15]:
I'll also say emotionally, I had a really hard time with my second baby. I had postpartum depression and anxiety, which I didn't realize I had until my husband actually pointed out, bless his heart, so helpful, so supportive. He said, hey babe, you may want to ask the doctor about this emotional journey going on. And of course nobody wants to hear that. Right. So I had this like emotional breakdown and then I was like, oh, maybe he's right. So I went to the doctor, got my diagnoses. I'm on Lexapro now.

Andréa Jones [00:11:50]:
It's been amazing for me. And then like looking back retroactively, I'm able to go, oh, I now see a very clear difference between my emotional state now than six months ago. Okay, so I was, I had a really bad postpartum depression and anxiety for me, Bad for me. That made it challenging to work. Okay, so that also added to this. Then we're also adding to all of this. Like post pandemic fallout. People were chronically online in 2020, 2021.

Andréa Jones [00:12:22]:
They're not online in the same ways right now. In fact, people are craving more in person community, but their budgets are different. Their budget has have also changed. So even things like, I plan to do my retreat again. So optimistic of me. I didn't sell the tickets that I needed in the pre sale phase, so I canceled it. But now retroactively looking back, I can also see it wasn't priced correctly for where people are. There's a lot of things like that.

Andréa Jones [00:12:51]:
Okay, so headed into where I am now, we. I am in a pivot. I would say that this pivot has been for the past year. If I can say that I'M like thinking out loud here. Y' all are thinking with me because I saw I started the sale of the agency in July of 2024, completed it in October of 2024. And since then I do feel a little bit adrift because I have been as a service based business owner for 11 years. Okay. So I'm going into my 12th year of business in March.

Andréa Jones [00:13:26]:
So I've been doing this for a long time. And I went through the stages of grief when I sold my agency because there I had to let go of that title of agency owner. In that podcast episode, I positioned it as my Tom Brady moment where I said this is a goodbye for now, maybe not forever, but I'm retiring as a service provider. And with that also lost my team. So I was so used to working with people that I went from working with like at its peak, my team had, we had 12 people. I went to working from 12 people, like half of them full time, half of them part time down to it's me and Jamie, my wonderful, amazing assistant who honestly I've been working with her since 2019. So we don't really talk a lot. I think in the past three months we've had one meeting like, like we just like we send little text based updates and then that's it.

Andréa Jones [00:14:29]:
And I'll send her like a podcast level voice note sometimes to be like, here's what I'm thinking, but that's it really. And so I felt lonely. This sounds really sad, but I felt lonely. And so I was dealing with that as well. And so that is where I am now. So let's talk about what's next for me. As I mentioned, my little baby, my little one year old, she's not a baby anymore, she's a toddler. She's going to daycare.

Andréa Jones [00:14:58]:
And so I have an opportunity to go back to work, which I am blessed y' all with. I have space to figure this out. I'm in a season of life where fortunately it's, it's not urgent for me to work full time and I am the primary parent. My husband works a lot. So that being said, here's what I'm doing next and I'm really excited about it, y'. All. So I'm maintaining the mindful marketing lab. It is like literally one of my favorite places to contribute content to.

Andréa Jones [00:15:36]:
I post in there almost every day. I have tons of resources that I give my members. Like, I just created a new custom GPT for 365 content ideas where I, I spent like a Couple of days training the AI on my philosophy for like creating content. What does it look like per platform, how do we repurpose? You know, if someone said, you know, today is August 22nd, what do I post today? Then I trained it on how to help our members. And so that's the stuff that I'm spending my time on. It's like I get to geek out on like, how do we fast track this content creation process? And yeah, some of it feels kind of silly because they don't need me anymore when they have a custom GPT, but also they need me because I'm the one who built the custom dbt. So that's what I'm doing in the membership. I have so much more planned for this year and just loving on my members.

Andréa Jones [00:16:29]:
But a big part of what I'm doing as well is producing more free content. One of the things I've noticed in this market shift is that it takes a lot more to trust someone with your hard earned dollars. And so I'm doing that piece of it. But also, like, I have a deep love for supporting small business owners and My membership is $97 a month, so it's not cheap by any means. And there is a ton of support. Like all of my members get unlimited strategy support. Like you can't get that level of support for less than a hundred bucks a month anywhere. I digress.

Andréa Jones [00:17:06]:
Still people, some small business owners can't afford that. And so I'm revitalizing my YouTube channel to bring more free content that can show you what's possible in your marketing. I, I'm really living through the values of my tagline, simpler, smarter marketing for busy people because I've learned in this process the shortcuts. Like, literally, because I'm sick, I'm tired, I have two kids, I cannot follow the blueprint that is like the traditional marketing blueprint. Okay? Like, I literally don't have the time, space, capacity to do that. So I've taught myself the shortcuts, like, how can I still run a business with this marketing level of marketing? And it has been phenomenal, like life changing. I don't think I'll go back to doing it a different way, you know, and so this is how I, I teach it in my membership and then this is how I'm going to teach it for free on my YouTube channel, if you're watching here. And then my monetization model.

Andréa Jones [00:18:05]:
So I know y' all are curious about this. Yes, the Mindful Marketing Lab is still like my primary revenue stream. But I also teach workshops and do live classes. So a lot of these I do through incubator groups or small business enterprise groups, co working spaces hire me, things like that where you know, they need someone with a social media perspective, a marketing perspective to come in and teach small business owners. Usually I'm paid through grants or they have funding or if it's a co working space, it's kind of like your co working fees go towards, you know, things like speakers. So I will go into those spaces and I'm not paid directly by the small business so they that alleviates their cash flow. But I'm still getting paid. Right.

Andréa Jones [00:18:53]:
And so grants actually have been a fantastic way for me to come into spaces. There's like a black business group that I work with out in Nova Scotia that does this. There's a local group here in Niagara region that does this where they're paid through government grant and government funding. And so I get paid, the small business owners get support. So that's where part of my income comes from. I also have a lot of affiliate arrangements with things. I have sponsors like this podcast is sponsored by Riverside. So that is how I also am able to produce more free content because honestly I still have to get paid.

Andréa Jones [00:19:26]:
So I just get paid through a different means. You get it for free, but there's an ad involved and if you click my link, I also get paid that way as well. If you click my link and sign up. I do get affiliate payment that way. But that's only if you're going to sign up and only if you're going to use it anyways. Right. Like don't feel pressure if you weren't. And so I'm leaning into this slower season of life for me because what I've learned with having two kids is that I have to be flexible.

Andréa Jones [00:19:56]:
So I'm headed into the season of life where I have more time to work. But and this is a big but I'm not actually going to work full time. Gasp. So I have a few things going on. One is I have a new train your team workshop that I have launched. Where specifically local business. If you have a multi location business, think like a coffee shop, a gym, a cannabis store, things like that, where you have multiple locations, maybe you even have multiple people capturing content and they're sending it to someone or each location is responsible for their own content. You want a cohesive story.

Andréa Jones [00:20:34]:
I come in and I like train your team on how to work together with the marketing. So that's my newest offer. I'm really Excited about that. I do have one or two spots for services as well. But like I said, I'm being very picky about who I'm working with. And I'm not working entirely full time because of the. The children. The other thing that I'll say about this is I have started writing.

Andréa Jones [00:21:00]:
Some of y' all know this already, but I write romance novels. They're very spicy, very queer romance novels. If that's something you're interested in, you can DM me. I can give you my secret pen name. I'm not sharing it with everybody because I'm keeping this one close to my chest because honestly, I don't want Yalls opinions on this because it's my thing and I'm having so much fun doing it. It's essentially creating a second business. And what I'm doing with this business model is I'm taking everything I'm learning in a new vertical and teaching it in the mindful marketing lab. And I'm getting to practice what I preach.

Andréa Jones [00:21:38]:
When it comes to marketing in a completely untapped field, like writing books, specifically romance books, it's not heavy on the marketing, it's not heavy on the funnels. There's so much untapped energy there that I was able to come in and actually get surprising about a success fairly early and somewhat easily because of my marketing skills. So it was. It's a lot of fun for me to practice marketing in that way. But the most fun part as well is like taking that and sharing the results with my members and in my content. So I'm able to say, you know, yes, I know this works, but I'm not just doing it for me. I have another business that I'm doing it with, and the results are surprising. Like, it.

Andréa Jones [00:22:25]:
It is. I'm just. My mind is blown by how much traction I was able to get in such a short amount of time with zero marketing dollars. Like, pretty much all, like, boots to the ground, like, guerrilla marketing efforts. Okay. Like, the stuff that I teach, right? And so it has been so fun to practice in that vertical and then go, okay, here's what's working on Instagram right now. Here's what I noticed about TikTok. This is the thing that worked on threads.

Andréa Jones [00:22:51]:
Here's how I grew my email list. Here's what tool I used to build my website, and I only spent $30 a month on, like, things like that that have been incredible to go through the process again, starting from absolute zero. And so I don't think that I would have ever explored this had I not had kids and had the market not shifted. Which is why I wanted to come to you with this episode. And it's kind of different because I wanted to share what I'm doing in my business in case you're in a similar spot or thinking about being in a similar spot, or maybe you're a little bit past this and you're like, now what? Okay, so with that being said, my core lesson for this right here podcast episode is that things are going to change. Life shifts, business shifts. Things go up and they go down. This is not about failing.

Andréa Jones [00:23:48]:
It is about adjusting and adapting to what's actually happening, the circumstances around you. And it can feel challenging. I know so many people who used to own an agency. They lost all of their clients because of this weird market we're in, and they got a full time job. I know so many people who used to own an agency. You know, maybe they sold it, maybe they just closed the doors and now they're back to freelancing. I know a couple people who completely shifted business models, one of which started a bookstore. And I'm like, hello? That is like, my life dream now is to own a bookstore.

Andréa Jones [00:24:24]:
You don't have to grow in the same way in every season of your life. And I think this is a lesson that I'm saying to myself mostly, but out loud to you as well. You don't have to grow in the same way in every season of your life. There was a period in time in my life where having a million dollar agency was like the penultimate goal. I was hungry for it, okay? Especially before I had kids. And even for a while there, in the early days of having my first kid, especially when we had that year where we were so close, I was thought, for sure the next year we'd pass that. Even my accountant was like, oh, yeah, for sure. Next year you're gonna have a million dollars in revenue.

Andréa Jones [00:25:04]:
And then I didn't. Right. And that process of, like, acknowledging things are different, moving through it anyways and still finding contentment and creativity, it's a process that takes a lot of time. I'm not gonna lie and say, oh, it was roses. Was for a while there, it was not. It was very hard. And the lesson that I learned is I don't have to grow the same in every season. The season of life that I'm in right now is like the season of playfulness and fun and experimentation and creativity.

Andréa Jones [00:25:35]:
And that means my growth are in those areas. It's not a season of life where I'm growing in other ways. And so you can pause, you can adjust, but then you can rewrite the rules however you want to write them them, rewrite them. And listen, if things don't work out, I'm sure y' all will hear about that as well. I think the most important thing to do is that to move forward with intention. This is where my optimism works in my favor, because I get to dive in with both feet and just figure it out. Just figure it out. Build the plane while I fly.

Andréa Jones [00:26:10]:
And I think the most interesting thing, too, is people trust me more. At least, I've heard this. People have trust me more because I'm able to be this transparent in the way that I share things. All right, that is it for this kind of different sort of episode. I'll be back with, like, the usual marketing stuff next week. But as I head into the season of Life where both of my kids are in daycare, I am no longer having kids. It's literally impossible. There are no more children coming from this body.

Andréa Jones [00:26:45]:
I got my tubes removed, y'. All. That's why I said it like that. No more children. I'm in a season of my life where it feels like I'm turning a page, I'm turning a chapter, and I'm really freaking excited about it. I know I'm talking softly, all because the baby's napping, but I'm really freaking excited about it. I just want to share that with y'. All.

Andréa Jones [00:27:04]:
So big love, if you found this episode very helpful, come on over to my Instagram DM and let me know. I love to hear the feedback. The ahas from last week, I kept getting people talking about poop scrolling. Y' all loved the poop scrolling one. Oh, that was two weeks ago. Poop scrolling. Y' all loved poop scrolling. Um, so I love what y' all said.

Andréa Jones [00:27:26]:
We DMs about that. One person even, like, tagged me in a meme about it. It was hilarious. So if there's anything in this episode that you're like, ah, come DM me. I mean, I'm on all the platforms, right? But, like, Instagram's where I spend most of the time. I'll be back with a new episode next week, so I'll see y'. All. Bye for now.