My guest today, Brittany Dixon, LOVES efficiency. I’m talking color-coded binders with coordinating post-it notes kind of love. Eventually Brittany was able to turn her natural knack for organizing into a successful biz helping others put more structure into their businesses. But her journey wasn’t as simple as it might seem (and there’s hope for those of us who are a bit more chaotic!)… listen now to hear how she did it.
For someone who loves organization, you might think the nitty-gritty details are what keeps Brittany fired up in her business. It’s actually her vision that keeps her going, and that is to create freedom and opportunity for her and her family. That’s what helped Brittany push forward, despite the ups and downs of her business. If you could use a little organization and efficiency (and maybe even a little more focus?), this is an episode you can’t miss!
Can’t-Miss Moments From This Episode:
This one is jam-packed full of advice. Don’t miss out - listen now!
Brittany’s Bio:
CEO of Brittany & Co. - I am a Business Strategist & Productivity Coach and I help business owners implement 3 Day Weekends, Back End Business Organization, Systems and Accountability into their business. I offer Group Coaching & 1:1 Consulting for Online Service Providers. I started my accidental Entrepreneurial journey when I was fired from my corporate event planning job (because I didn't fit in the corporate box) and have never looked back!
Host of The Productivity Pod(cast) & The Productivity Pod Community
#twinmom to Kenna & Layla
#dogmom (2 Mini Goldendoodles Riley & Lucy)
Lover of charcuterie boards, wine, board games (I have over 85!), bougie cocktails, candy and basically all sweets. I cuss daily and use lots of gifs! Summers consist of camping in our RV with friends. I love baking, reading, trying new restaurants and traveling ANYWHERE & EVERYWHERE!
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Angie Colee: Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass a podcast about leaving self-doubt in the dust. Punching fear in the face and taking bold action toward your biggest dreams. I'm Angie Colee, and let's get to it.
Hey and welcome back to permission to kick with me today is my new friend Brittany Dixon. Say hi, Brittany. Hello?
Brittany Dixon : Hello.
Angie Colee: Yay. I'm so excited and they don't get to see it, but I love your background. It's so pretty.
Brittany Dixon : [00:00:30] Thank you so much for having me I'm super pumped.
Angie Colee: Yeah, it was just the style injection I needed today. So tell us a little bit more about your business.
Brittany Dixon : Yeah, so my name's Brittany Dixon, I'm the CEO of Brittany & Co. And we are really just on a mission to create this ripple effect of having people work smarter, not harder. I just see so many entrepreneurs, especially on the online space, working so much harder than they need to be. So really we come in and help to streamline things in the back end. So we deal a lot with productivity, [00:01:00] time management, organizing your tasks and projects to really make sure you can get stuff done, make sure you're getting the right things done.
And then we do a lot with client management because I hear a lot of people tell me I need more leads. And I'm like, no, you just need a system to keep track of your leads better and actually follow up. So those are kind of the core three areas that we really work on, but it really is just helping people be more efficient so that they can get more done in less time and actually get back to the freedom that they probably started their business for.
Angie Colee: Yes, you're [00:01:30] speaking my love language. Smarter, not harder. I try to dual purpose everything. Multifunction furniture. That is my favorite. Oh my gosh. And it's funny that you bring up client management because that's... I'm more on the marketing side. But I run into that argument all the time. It's like, I just need more clients. I just need more clients. But what if you could communicate with the clients and the leads that you already have a little bit better. Solve additional problems for them. Go to work for them [00:02:00] long term versus this constant turn and burn.
Brittany Dixon : Oh my gosh. The fortune is in the follow up. I have had a client before that it probably took three or four follow ups to get them on a call. And then it took another, probably seven or eight follow up touchpoint for them to close. And you think about that. If you don't have a system in place and you just close that out and just stop, you're literally leaving money on the table. And I see it all the time. Everyone's like, I need more leads. I'm like, no, you need a CRM. And you just need to check in with your people because you have [00:02:30] people already.
Angie Colee: Oh, you absolutely have people already. That's interesting to me, I'm going to throw a curve ball at you because this thought just popped into my head. What do you think it is that makes people see chasing after new leads all the time, way more comfortable than following up and maintaining communication with the ones they have.
Brittany Dixon : That's a good one. And I can kind of speak to experience, especially in the women entrepreneur space. I think it's a fear of success. I'm going to call you all out. [00:03:00] Because I think if you truly think about it and you're like, oh, if I buckle down and I've got a system in place, I can just keep pulling these people in. It's this fear of success of like, oh gosh, what if I get way too many people that I can't manage? And I create those problems in my head all the time. I'm like, but what if I have 100 students? And I'm like, I'll figure it out. That's what we do.
Angie Colee: That's a good problem to have.
Brittany Dixon : So I think it's a fear of success a little bit. It could also be the other side of that, feel [00:03:30] fear of failure. They take on all these people and can't do the work kind of thing. But yeah, I really think that it's a lot of mindset stuff. I don't think it's the actual technical, like CRM piece of it. I think it's all in our heads.
Angie Colee: Oh totally. Mindset is such a key part to this business and basically the entire reason behind why I started this podcast to begin with just because I had so much anxiety when I first started my business years and years and years ago. And I don't know if you've [00:04:00] heard the story, but everything clicked for me one day when I realized a friend of mine who was landing these gigantic contracts with these really big name people and their star power was just on the rise. Had a meltdown behind the scenes in a private mastermind. And I was like, wait, what? You can feel this way all the time and still go out and do really awesome things. Leash is off.
Brittany Dixon : Mindset is, oh my gosh. It is honestly the most important thing in business. We can figure everything else out. But if [00:04:30] you don't have a good mindset, you're setting yourself up for failure basically.
Angie Colee: Oh yeah. And I'm in the middle of that. The fear of success? I wouldn't say that I'm afraid of success, but my new business partner and I just launched a flurry of offers and that's the way she likes to do it because she's a natural salesperson. She likes to have three offers for people at different stages and we're going to go to market that way. And she's an excellent salesperson. And we have found our people and we have started making sales of these new programs. And it's exactly like you said, what if I get 100 clients? Well, [00:05:00] we got a lot of new clients. We're excited for these programs. Yes. We got to build them now. It's fantastic.
Brittany Dixon : Yeah, it is. And I've actually had something recently too. I've got a group coaching program called Hustle to Flow and I could literally have 200 people at any given time in it. And I've always just kept it really small because I'm like, but what if I have 100 sign up? I handle that. And I've just recently had a lot of shifts and we did a little bit of a launch here and I got 10 people at one time. I was like, oh that wasn't hard. Now I [00:05:30] just have to do that times 10. It's totally cool. So we definitely get in our own heads a whole lot.
Angie Colee: Oh for sure. I'm sure you've probably heard this before, but that old piece of advice about say yes and figure it out. I find that is so critical to success in business. Just say yes and figure it out.
Brittany Dixon : And I was really bad about that at the beginning because I was perfectionist. But if my systems aren't in place, I can't take clients. I was really bad about that at the beginning. But now I'm kind of like, [00:06:00] yeah, let's just do this. I don't know what this looks like, but okay. Let's jump in.
Angie Colee: Oh yeah. And I think your clients will forgive all manner of broken systems or brand new processes or hitches in the giddy up as we would say in the south so long as the communication is good. We've had some issues in the past with different clients I've worked with where we got a new offer out to market and we discovered there's a hole somewhere in the follow up. And it's just like, oh, we'll communicate with folks. "Hey, [00:06:30] you're first in, this is a beta program. We're so excited to build this with you. If you miss something or if you feel like we left something out, that's absolutely feedback we want to have." So then we're giving them a little bit of a heads up that this might not be 100% there, but we're aware. And we absolutely want you to tell us, we don't want you to feel like you're criticizing or holding back or anything like that.
Brittany Dixon : I love that. I think it's huge too because I think mean you've got your people, right? So my people would totally be cool [00:07:00] if I was like, "Oh my gosh, totally messed that up. We are going to fix that. It's going to be great. Give me all the feedback." So I think you've got to find your people too. Because the people that are coming in nitpicking, you're not my people, I don't have time for this.
Angie Colee: That's so true. I'm so glad that you said that because I think that that plays into that fear and that mindset that we have the fear of failure. What if the trolls come out and they find every single mistake I make? Yes. They're going to and baby doll I got news for you. They got way too much time on their hands.
Brittany Dixon : [00:07:30] Yes. And I would rather use that energy to be like, we're just going to go serve more of our people. Good luck with all of that over there. I've actually said recently to a couple of my students. Like I feel like that's when you've made it, when you have trolls that come in and are like, "What are you doing it like this for?" And I'm like, because that's how I want to do it. So I feel like you've made it at that point.
Angie Colee: Yeah. If you think you should be built a different way, go build it. I'm cheering you one my friend.
Brittany Dixon : Yep, exactly.
Angie Colee: I don't want to build it that way.
Brittany Dixon : Exactly.
Angie Colee: [00:08:00] I love that. So let's go back to the beginning. How did you actually get into this line of work?
Brittany Dixon : Yeah. So the short version is I was a wedding and event planner and organizer. Then I organized houses when I started the business and now I organize businesses. So I was in hospitality, food service for a while and thought that wedding planning would be the coolest job on the planet. I'm just type A organized, I've always been that way. I'm like post-it notes and color coded binders in high [00:08:30] school. My friends all thought I was crazy.
Angie Colee: Oh, you were made for people like me. It's fantastic.
Brittany Dixon : Oh yeah. Yeah. So I was like color coding and all the things. So started in the wedding event. Planning space realized very quickly that that was not my jam. I loved the backend logistics, but the people management I'm like no thank you. I don't want any part of this. So I actually got into a restaurant doing marketing and sales event planning for them. And we had huge clients, catering clients, [00:09:00] wedding parties, all this kind of stuff. And did that for about four years. And I actually became an accidental entrepreneur because I got fired because I didn't fit in their box. So I was doing things that were making them money the wrong way. That's what they told me. Leave it to some old school corporate companies to tell you're making money the wrong way. I'm like, okay, cool. Let's do this.
Angie Colee: Oh my God. Ridiculous. I brought you money. Yeah. Great. You don't want it. Okay, fine. Okay. [00:09:30] I'll take it.
Brittany Dixon : So basically there was some shifting. I started a company as a side hustle. It was called Clutter Control. I'm like, oh yeah. Cool. I'll go organize twin moms houses. Because I'm a twin mom. So I had this whole twin mom community. I'm like, I'll just do that on the side. Well then I got, let go. And I was like, so I had this business. Let's just do this.
So I started organizing houses and very quickly realized I had no idea what the hell I was doing, running a business. So I searched for business help on Google, no [00:10:00] idea at the time, but I got retargeted on Facebook with all these business coaches in this online space. And I was like, I've hopped under a rock this whole time. What is this? So yeah, really dove into the online space in 2017, fumbled very hard the first year. And then finally kind of got my footing of okay, people need to get their businesses organized. So we're going to kind of shift to that and yeah, the rest is history. We started a podcast. I do consulting, group coaching. It kind of has just formed from there. [00:10:30] But yeah, former event planner and home organizer turns business organizer.
Angie Colee: I love that. So many people that I've spoken to have a story like that, where it was either I broke the rules that I didn't even know existed or I thought were dumb in the first place. Because they're not as efficient as they could be. Or I got let go unexpectedly. And I had given everything to this business and now I'm kind of like... And I just had to figure out how to make it work. And I love that. You talked about Googling business skills. [00:11:00] Guys, ain't no shame in that game. Google is here and it can teach you a lot.
Brittany Dixon : Yep. It opened up the whole coaching space and this online space. For me literally did not know that it existed and that you could have an online business and work from anywhere, had no clue. So then I hired this business coach in a group coaching capacity and she was like, "Oh yeah, you could teach productivity and organization instead of physically being at people's houses and do it from your laptop anywhere."
And I'm like, wait, what? Hold the phone. [00:11:30] Let me do that. Because that sounds amazing. And then I just really kind of self taught everything and finally kind of figured some stuff out and hit six figures after 14 months. And I was like, all right, let's just keep doing this. Because I worked at this corporate job and I mean, I was making 50K a year and busting my. Hard. So hard. I've got twins at home the entire time little girls. And I'm [00:12:00] like, this is not working for me. We've got to change something.
Angie Colee: I got to say, gen Z and TikTok are giving me a lot of hope. Have you heard about this quiet quitting trends?
Brittany Dixon : I don't even know. Yeah, no, it's crazy. It is. You can start a business with nothing now. The overhead, the stuff that you can do to make millions on... I mean I'm never going to be one of those and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, no, it's just amazing what you can do online now [00:12:30] for sure.
Angie Colee: Because I'm not going to presume to know what age bracket you're in. I know that I grew up that you have to go to college that you can write your ticket. You're not going to love your job, but you give your all to it. You show that you're a team player and that resulted in 19, 20 hour days with people that would literally come to my Cuban scream at me, 80 pounds of weight gain, all kinds of stress and me burning out. Wondering why is this? This is the path to happiness. I am really confused.
Brittany Dixon : [00:13:00] I think I'm in that last age bracket of like that, but we still saw kind of what you could do, but we're like, no, that's not really real. So then when I found this space, I was like, it's not really real. You keep having an online business. But then I found out very quickly that it is very real and it's pretty amazing.
Angie Colee: I love that. You said that too really real. Because I like to think of it as almost parallel universes. And until you meet someone that can shift your vision, just a couple of degrees to the left [00:13:30] or you can't even see the kind of life that could be possible for you.
Brittany Dixon : For sure. And I grew up really poor, literally super poor. Now we were better off than a lot of people were. Like we had food and stuff like that, but very much I was the oldest of five. We lived in the cornfields, very poor. And when someone told me I could charge $250 an hour, I was like, what? No.
Angie Colee: What are you smoking?
Brittany Dixon : Basically I was like, it's not real. And then when someone told me I could make $25,000 [00:14:00] for two weeks of work, I'm like, that's literally what my parents made. So yeah, it did not seem real to me. And I think I had a lot of mindset blocks and money mindset issues for a really long time. Actually [inaudible 00:14:17] this year that really held me back from doing more. I kept getting stuck at the ceiling and I was like, okay, we can hustle our way here, but I got to make this easier. I want to make 10 times this and work [00:14:30] way less hours. And I think now I'm finally getting in that mindset shift of like, okay, this is actually possible.
Angie Colee: I love that. Yeah. I know that I saw that in your story, that there was a time that you almost quit this beautiful six figure business that you've built for yourself. You want to go into that a little bit more?
Brittany Dixon : Well, which one?
Angie Colee: Tell me all of them.
Brittany Dixon : Yeah. Yeah. I would say honestly the biggest one was back in... It was 2019 into 2020. It was literally [00:15:00] right before the pandemic. So I think the pandemic was here back in January of 2020, but it basically happened then. So in 2019 I took on the biggest client I had taken on. It was a $10,000 contract at that point. And I was like, "Oh my God, this is amazing." And I'm going to say this from the get go, I had this gut feeling from day one. I'm like, no, there's something off. But my brain told my gut to shut the hell up because it was $10, [00:15:30] 000. So it just shoved it down in this little box. And hindsight wish I would've listened, but essentially I signed on this retainer client and everything was going great. We were setting up a sauna. We were doing a lot of just process improvement and task management stuff and really just cleaning up her team.
And about four months in, well probably three months in the scope creep started happening pretty hard core. And of course this is the biggest contract I've had. I'm a people [00:16:00] pleaser. So I'm like, "Oh, I'll just do one little... That's fine. Yeah, I'll totally do that." And it just kept happening over and over. So finally month four comes and she sends this giant list and I'm like, okay, pull the phone. I got to draw a line in the sand here. This is not working for me. And she basically was like, "Well, I'm not paying you your final payment. You're going to give me a refund. You're still going to do the work." And I'm like, actually, no, I'm cutting ties at this point. Keep your last payment. Don't want it. [00:16:30] Not doing any more work, but we are literally cutting ties right now. And she kept going.
She's like, "You're doing the work. You're giving me a refund. I'm not paying you this payment." I'm like, no, none of that is happening. I know right? I'm like, none of this is happening. So she kind of had threatened legal action in December of 2019. Oh gosh, nothing really came of it. So I'm like, all right, well I guess I'm just going to let that ride. Well, January 2020 rolls around and I wake up sick. I'm convinced it was COVID at that point, [00:17:00] wake up really sick to my bank account, minus $2,000, minus $2,000, minus times four, minus $8,000. She did credit card backs for the entire amount that she had paid me and didn't pay the final payment. So at that point I was already still kind of in this flux of cash flow and all of these things. So she drained my bank account and I was, was sick, really sick.
And I was like, [inaudible 00:17:30]. [00:17:30] I can't do this anymore. I'm done. How do you come back from that? Not to mention the confidence hit that I'm like, oh my God, I just put four months of work into that. And it was amazing and you just completely washed it all down the drain. So that was probably the big one and probably the most expensive business lesson I've learned to this point. I was going to sue her to get part of it back. Because I had a solid contract, all the things in place, but I was like, you know what? It's just not even worth it at this point, the time [00:18:00] and energy. So we're just going to call it a wash and see what we can do.
Angie Colee: I'm so glad that you mentioned that because I've seen in so many, especially creative freelancers, folks that have to do the service end of the business, with contracts, there's this kind of magical thinking of just the perfect wording on the contract will protect me from anything like this and that let this story show you that that's not necessarily true. You can have a great contract in place and Karen's going to do what Karen's [00:18:30] going to do.
Brittany Dixon : 1000%. I paid a lawyer for this contract. I made sure because it was the online space, because I still felt like this thing wasn't real, I need to be covered here. And it was everything. Payment, even if we say we're done, payment's still due all of these things were in place and it didn't work. So yeah, the moral to the story is trust your gut because yes, this has happened. Not to that capacity. [00:19:00] It's happened a couple other times, similar situations. Luckily I came out ahead because I had a very solid contract. So the second piece to that is have really good contracts, but trust your gut every time, every single time I told my gut to shut up and shoved it in the box, it came back to bite me.
Angie Colee: Same, absolute same. And interesting. I'm going to throw another curve ball at you. If you could go back in time, what were the red flags that set your intuition on edge about her? Was there anything particular?
Brittany Dixon : [00:19:30] It was at the beginning, she was questioning a lot of the contract stuff. She was like, "Well, what does this mean? And what does this..." And I'm all for clarifying, making sure we're all on the same page, but it was just very nitpicky like, well I want you to take this out and I'm like, it's not happening. So it was a lot of that. She had also brought her husband in to have a call and she's like, "I think he really needs to be involved." Which is again, totally fine. Right. Large investment. I get it. But then the husband, just like some of the questions he [00:20:00] was asking and I was like, okay, let's just do this I guess.
But it was red flags from the get go. It was the question of the contract wanting to get extra stuff, making sure that she had a lot of things that were in there. She's like, is this going to be covered? Is this also going to be covered? She had also asked me once we built out SOPs, if she could sell them. And I was like, no. That's my intellectual property. I guess it's in your system. But [00:20:30] no, you're not going to bundle those and profit off of them.
Angie Colee: I mean, if you want to be an affiliate of mine and go sell for me, that's fine. I'll give you a cut.
Brittany Dixon : And that's what I told her. I was like, I mean, I can have those and we can co-sell them, but you're not going to take them and sell them. Lots of red flags is basically the end of that story and trust your gut and don't shove it in the box because it'll come back by you.
Angie Colee: Oh for sure. I had one of those. And then I talked myself into staying. The first time [00:21:00] that I had the reaction of, I don't like this and it's not actually what I signed on for.
Spoke to some people that I trust. And I convinced myself that I was overreacting to the situation that was happening. And this was a five figure a month consulting contract. But we'd had a lot of conversations before we signed on the dot. Again, big investment. And I'm coming to run this person's team and I'm telling him, "Okay, so here's a couple things about how I work and if that's not how you work, that's fine. It just means I'm not the right [00:21:30] consultant for you." And one of the biggest things that I hammered on was I cannot sell something I do not believe in. So I got to believe that this product serves a need, fills a gap in the market that the people who buy it are going to love this thing and be blown away. But obviously there's going to be some refunds and not everybody's going to like it, but we're doing some good.
Brittany Dixon : Yeah. And that's the thing I think when I stepped back, I was like, okay, I have had hundreds of students and other clients of praise and testimonials and all of this stuff. [00:22:00] So in the big schema things, it's like these two or three people compared to hundreds. But you do have to be prepared for that. And you do have to have stuff in place and you have to trust your gut and be like, no, we're going to set some hard boundaries on this one.
Angie Colee: Oh absolutely.
Brittany Dixon : So those cases can take down the strong. I was making six figures. That was a huge portion of that cash flow. And then she took it all back. [00:22:30] That right there is a confidence and just business killer that if you don't have a strong mission, vision, why you're doing it, you'll quit very quickly.
Angie Colee: Yeah. And circling back to what you said before, I love that you mentioned that you evaluated whether or not it was worth your time and your energy to go fight this in court. Yeah, there's the moral righteousness standpoint of like, yeah, screw you lady. I want to win. Trust me I of all people get it.
Brittany Dixon : I had that. I was like, I am going to [00:23:00] take you to court. I am going to win. I'm going to stick it to you. And you're going to have to pay me back double and I wanted to do that. But I was at this point for me, the amount of like, yes, okay. What if I go win and get all the money back? How much time do I have to put into preparing for that? Getting stuff ready? Making sure I have a good case. Oh God, it's not worth it. Let me just go find somebody else for 10Gs.
Angie Colee: And be aggravated and upset and stress the whole time, which impacts your work with the other people that are paying you good money.
Brittany Dixon : [00:23:30] 100%, trickle effect.
Angie Colee: I just want everybody... It's not as simple as you file a case with judge Judy who rips them a new and you get your money back. That's the magic of TV.
Brittany Dixon : I like to believe that the universe and karma has its thing going on here, but we're here.
Angie Colee: Same. And another thing that I want to circle back and highlight was the fact that you looked at these two people in context, these two or three people that made you miserable [00:24:00] and that you had to walk away from, and this is a lesson that you can't really pay for until you go through it. I think so many of us are... And it's hardwired biology. We focus on the negative, because that saves us from getting hurt and losing our lives. But we're still doing it today, guys.
And that client's screwing you over. It's really inconvenient. It's really scary and stressful. And they're not actually in the process of murdering you. So you got to focus on swinging that pendulum back the other way and remembering is it me? [00:24:30] Is it them? Oh shit, I've got hundreds of other clients and fantastic people over here who love working with me. And just this one ding bat in the corner who thinks I'm nuts.
Brittany Dixon : 100%. And it's like that it's that meme. That's like the client that pays you $500 that wants to be with you 24/7. And then there's a client that pays you five grand and is like, I know you're amazing at what you do, do your thing. Let me know what you need. And it's a different mindset for those two different people. And you have to get in this [00:25:00] mindset of, if you let this person go, that's toxic to everyone. You're going to replace it. I know it doesn't seem like it. But every time I have let someone go, someone else that was way better fit came in. Every single time. I know everyone says that and I even was like, oh yeah, okay. That worked for you. Not going to work for me. But it's true because that toxic energy drains you so much from finding the new people that are actually good for you.
Angie Colee: Oh absolutely. It changed my life when one [00:25:30] of my business mentors mentioned to me, it was nature abhors a vacuum. So go create space for someone better to come along. Don't wait for them to come along and then cut your old people loose. Just buy back your head space and your energy and your faith in yourself right now by cutting that person loose. It's okay. They'll go find someone that works for them or they won't. Not your problem. Wish them well..
Brittany Dixon : Not your problem at that point. Yeah, for sure. And I think too, so I just started on this personal therapy journey trauma from growing [00:26:00] up poor money, mindset issues, all the things. And I think so many times we base our decisions off of everyone else's trauma and crap that they bring along. And our own, right? It's like this trauma just clashing and we make these decisions based on that. And we just have to make decisions based on us. We cannot make decisions for other people. We're here to support and help them. But if they're not ready for that and they're not in that mindset, no matter what you do, you're not going to help them. They're just not ready for it.
Angie Colee: [00:26:30] I love that. I recently was... I'm always interested in learning how to improve my communication because the further I go, the more I'm learning that it's about relationships and having a business and clients and employees and co-work like dating everybody. And I'm in this close relationship to varying degrees with all of these different people. And we're going to butt heads and we're going to have bad days and we're going to miscommunicate. And so I'm always studying coaching. [00:27:00] And that was an interesting thing that came up to me in this communication workshop that I just recently took. And it talked about when you try to make a decision on behalf of somebody else, what are you really saying? You don't respect them enough to be able to find a solution for themselves. You're trying to live their life for you. Baby live your own life and let them live theirs.
Brittany Dixon : Yep, yep. 100%. And it comes down to the money part too. Shopping on a... Oh no, they're never going to buy that. It's too [00:27:30] expensive. How do you know? If it fixes their problem. There are people willing to pay lots and lots of money to fix their problems if it's strong enough. So don't shop out of their pocket and tell them like, oh, it might be too expensive. It's fine. Let them make that decision.
Angie Colee: Absolutely. Don't spend other people's money. You don't know what's in their wallets.
Brittany Dixon : Yep. 100%. And you don't know how strong their pain points are of their problem, of how long they've been living with that and how bad they want to fix it.
Angie Colee: That is so true. I think for too long, I was afraid to put [00:28:00] offers out there because I was trying to figure out what was affordable for people. And I was trying to do other people's thinking and rationalizing for them instead of realizing here's this thing that I put together that I think is worth this much. And I'm just going to invite all of you to join. And it was funny the first time I put out my own big ticket offer with my business partner, how many people said yes. That I was afraid to even make that offer to. And then of course the one response that was negative that came in, that was what I was thinking the majority [00:28:30] was going to be. Was somebody who'd had a bad experience with a similar vendor. Somebody who was teaching something similar. And I was like, okay, well that's on you to heal and grow and learn what you can. And I will be here to help. And I mean, I didn't tell that person that.
Brittany Dixon : Yeah, no, that's a huge point. It was actually my biggest contract to date that I have signed, which was two and a half times the old one. So I'm just telling you get over this. It works. Their biggest hesitation is that they've invested [00:29:00] big like this before and it didn't pan out. And that almost stopped them from working with me. So I had to work through how to break through that barrier and say like, okay, I'm willing to spend the extra time to show you my process. Let's spend an hour together. I'm going to show you what this is going to look like. I have all these testimonials. I have all these people. And had to coach them through that because somebody else that they've invested with it didn't pan out for numerous reasons. But that's the kind of stuff [00:29:30] that you've got to work through. If he would've said that at the beginning, because first off I was terrified with this genetic contract, sending it out.
I was like, okay, you want to get on a follow up call? Cool. And I'm making all these points in my head and I'm like, no, I'm like, I don't know what he's thinking. He might just be like, "Hey, let's get this scheduled. Let's figure out logistics." So I got in my own head, but the whole thing was letting him make that decision, walking him through that, helping him through that and showing him what my process looked like, who I [00:30:00] had worked with, what it was about. And if I wouldn't have done that, I probably wouldn't have gotten it. If I would've just let that barrier stop me. But that is stuff, that's more recent for me this year with therapy and trauma and money issues, all of these things. So again, back to mindset and everything comes back to mindset. I don't care what kind of systems you have in your business. I don't care how much you can get done. If you have a crappy mindset none of it matters.
Angie Colee: Exactly [00:30:30] well, and I love the fact that... I've heard some people in the more woo circles talk about surrendering, but I think that that was a perfect example of surrendering in that moment because you detached from the outcome. I can't control what he's going to say. Once we get on this call, all I can do is show up on the call, really excited to work with this person, hear him out, respond to whatever comes up and then let it be what it'll be. Yeah fantastic.
Brittany Dixon : Me a year ago, I would've been [00:31:00] sweating to even hit send on that. I'd be like, oh no, I can't do it. Oh my God, what is this? And coming from growing up poor, that's literally what my parents made in a year. And you're going to tell me that I can make that in 80 hours of work. So getting over that mindset crap was the hardest thing. And I think I had finally gotten to a point this year that stuff's going to explode now because I finally just let that be. And I am amazing at what I do. And there are [00:31:30] people that are going to pay me and they're going to come to me and I'm going to have haters, which means I've made it.
Angie Colee: Exactly. Exactly. I mean the world changed for me in terms of communication too. When I realize that I can't control the outcome of this conversation and I was real bad about this before. I had every word scripted out in my head. Like I was directing a little play.
Brittany Dixon : That was me. I was like, if they say yes, I'm going to say this. If they say no, I have my whole flow chart. The whole nine yards. I feel you. I did the exact same thing.
Angie Colee: And I'm [00:32:00] thankful I had that for me. It was total neurotic. I had 50 different options scripted and I was practicing them and he says, this I'm going to do this. I had that little neurotic moment in front of an old roommate who was very, very wise. And she told me, no matter how much you plan, you cannot make him dance the way that you want to, you are not a puppet master. And I was like, oh shit that's really zen.
Brittany Dixon : That is true. Bring it back, bring it back.
Angie Colee: I can't control anything but myself. I really want [00:32:30] him to say yes and my business wants him to say yes. And if he doesn't, I got to trust that I can control me and go out there and find some more business.
Brittany Dixon : 100%, 100%. Love it. Yeah. Great. It's great.
Angie Colee: Well, and I know that you mentioned another one about this surprising, because I love that we were talking about money mindset and stuff because you had a big surprise when you encountered a moment where you wanted to walk away from a successful business. Do you want to tell us more about that?
Brittany Dixon : Yeah. I mean, honestly it was [00:33:00] that I legit, almost closed up shop with the money coming out of my account. I was like, this isn't worth it. It's so much stress and it's so... How am I going to come back from this basically. And we figured it out. You figure it out. Again, going back to that say yes and figure it out later. This was like, oh shit. All right. Let's figure this out. So honestly for me, I think the biggest thing, I [00:33:30] knew the big picture, vision, mission. I'm not in this for the short term. I'm not in this for the next year. I'm not going to give up after two years, this is long game for me. And I've got twins at home and I want to show them that they don't have to live how I lived growing up poor.
They get to have experiences. They've been more places in their nine years than I ever was until I was like 26. So showing them that and knowing that I can do this, [00:34:00] that was the biggest driver for me to keep going. Even though I did not want to. I did not want to. I was literally she just took back a 10th of my income for the year and I don't know what I'm going to do. And finally just, I mean, I had figured it out. I got a loan to cover some of the costs and get some cash flow back in. I made sure to do some kind of flash sales and okay, cool. We have this thing. It is on flash sale right now. Who wants it? You just figure it out, man. [00:34:30] But I think the whole thing is if you don't have that long term vision and that long game vision for your business, and you're wanting this to be short term money right now, it's not going to work. You're going to run into obstacles and you're going to want to quit so many times.
Angie Colee: Oh, I love that. Did you ever watch a Parks and Rec?
Brittany Dixon : Yes.
Angie Colee: Freaking love Ron Swanson. Like don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing. And by in case it's not clear what I'm saying you should whole ass, you should whole ass your business. Because [00:35:00] I know too many people who started as a side hustle, but they approach again, back to mindset that they approach it from. If it takes off, then I'll invest more in it. No, you got to invest in it.
Brittany Dixon : It hurts my heart. Ah, gosh. I will tell you, you have to invest. You spend money to make money. There is no ifs, no ands, no buts around it. You have to. So I invested the first time for $1,000. That was really freaking scary. And I did not have $1,000. Figured it out. Really scary. [00:35:30] If you tell me to invest $1,000, now it's a different mindset because I know that for every 1,000 I invest it's at least two to three times when I get back in that. But it's a mindset shift and it is this process you have to go through, but you just have to realize if you're in it for the long haul and this is not just a side hustle, you have to invest. And it hurts my heart to see all the side hustlers who want it so bad, but won't invest.
And [00:36:00] it hurts me because I want to help them so bad. But I also know they're just not there yet. And I can't. So I support them with my podcast. I support them with my community. I support them with these free things to kind of lead them there. But there's so many women business owners that want it to be this real thing. But they're like, oh, well when it takes off or if it does it and I'm like, no, you have to take control of this. And you have to put in the work you have to put in the focus.
Angie Colee: Yes.
Brittany Dixon : Focus, focus, [00:36:30] focus. That's the biggest thing. Shiny object syndrome is the killer of side hustles turning into real businesses. For sure.
Angie Colee: For sure. And I love what you pointed out there about sometimes you just got to get scrappy and resourceful. Sometimes you say, oh, well crap. I got an $8,000 shortfall I got to make up for this month. How am I going to do that? Not can I do that? How am I going to do that? The way you ask yourself questions.
Brittany Dixon : Again. Back to mindset and wording, it's all [00:37:00] in the mindset and how am I going to do this? And when is this happening? And I'm getting 10 people who are coming into this program, you can't say, well, if it happens. Because you're telling me the universe, you're not ready for it. Yeah. It's the hardest thing for me. And actually that was why my business didn't take off faster is because I was trying to support those people for the longest time. I was like, just pay me and I will change your life.
[00:37:30] They just weren't ready. So I was spending my time and energy with people that just were not there yet. And that held me back from helping people that were there because I was stuck in this energy of free, free, free, free and super, super low cost. And I just realized I can't build a sustainable business without people paying me. And if I don't have a sustainable business, I'm going to hustle and burn out and then I can help no one. So helping less people [00:38:00] at a higher price point is actually going to allow me to help more people. Even though it's going to take a little bit longer. But again, back to the long game.
Angie Colee: I love that. My sister once told me, she gave me this beautiful analogy that made it so clear. And I think this applies to a lot of situations in life, like negative relationships, people that are trying to take a lot of time and energy for you, because they're scared or they're angry or whatever they're dealing with. But she goes, imagine you're trying to step up on a wall, a little retaining wall, that's a foot or two up off the ground. And you're trying [00:38:30] to help somebody step up onto the wall with you and you're pulling them up and they're pulling you down because they're scared to step up. Who is going to fall first. And I was like, oh, I hate it when you're brilliant.
Brittany Dixon : Oh, that's good. Well that's really good. Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. That is so true. And I see too many entrepreneurs in that space because of scarcity mindset, money mindset, imposter syndrome, which is mindset. It's all mindset. [00:39:00] You have to get over this hump because now, like I said, and I hate to say it like this because I feel like I'm braggy, but I'm like $1,000 to mean. Now I know that's such a smart investment. I just bought a ticket to an event for $1,000.
For me that was so easy to swipe because now I see every time I invest, it comes back. Every time I invest it comes back. So you just have to do it once and then do it a little bit more the next time. So maybe the next program's $2,000. Then like [00:39:30] me, I just invested a $10,000 mastermind last year. And that was still hard for me. That's a scary, stretchy thing. But you've just got to exercise that muscle and build it up. And then it's just a mindset and you'll get to a point that you don't even think about it.
Angie Colee: And the cool thing about that, the stuff that it took me a long time and some really blunt and compassionate friends to learn this. It's like every time you are investing in yourself, you're challenging yourself to step up into a new room with people [00:40:00] that are potentially more advanced, more smart that you can learn from and challenge yourself to step up.
Brittany Dixon : Yep. What is that? The quote, in the room of five people, you want to be the least smart person. I don't know what the full quote is, but that's so true and it's so uncomfortable, so uncomfortable, so uncomfortable, but you just have to push through it and stuff just happens. It's so crazy. And I know everybody that's in that space is thinking right now, like oh yeah. That worked for [00:40:30] you. Not for me. I'm telling you. I lived in a cornfield. I grew up poor. My parents made like $50,000 the entire year and I just made that in 80 hours. It's so possible. You just have to have the long term vision. You've got to have the focus. Focus is the biggest thing. And you just have to get those mindset skills in place.
Angie Colee: I'm so glad that you mentioned that because the same thing, I'm the daughter of two truck drivers, blue collar, as you can get [00:41:00] from south Texas, there's not really any entrepreneurial spirit in my family. It's just work hard and one day you'll reap the reward, which there's nothing wrong with that. No shade. Entrepreneurialism is not for everybody.
Brittany Dixon : Oh hell no. It is not for everybody. It's not for the faint of heart. If you are not in it, don't do it. It's tough.
Angie Colee: Oh yeah. But by the same token, I am absolutely not meant for any kind of freaking job. I can tell you that much.
Brittany Dixon : I'm unemployable. Yeah. I like [00:41:30] to do things on my own terms. That's probably why I got fired. Because I was like, "But what if we do it like this? What if we do it like this?" And they're like, "No, that's dumb." And I'm like, I'm just going to do it anyway. It's fine.
Angie Colee: I once got screamed at as a corporate copywriter for, I'd asked for permission to do this email automation that I knew would be a winner because create an asset that makes you money over and over and over again. That's a hint for those of you that are just starting out, create assets, not one time things, but if you're not there yet, it's fine. So I created this sequence anyway, [00:42:00] with the help of a very up yours marketing manager, friend of mine and we sent it out and we basically brought the company $8.4 million. Free money. We just sent it over to people we already had.
Brittany Dixon : But it probably wasn't their idea.
Angie Colee: Exactly.
Brittany Dixon : So that's what I had. They're like, well, but no, we can't do that. And I'm like, I think I'm going to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. I'm just going to do it anyway and see what happens. So yeah, I'm unemployable. I legit, [00:42:30] from a time schedule standpoint and just being able to do what I want, how I want, when I want. There's no freaking way I could work for someone at this point.
Angie Colee: Same and two years on the road as a digital nomad. An entrepreneur. I love the fact that I can take off in the middle of the day and go, I'm going to go on a hot air balloon ride.
Brittany Dixon : Oh my God. Yes. That's my favorite part. We're you're actually looking to live in an RV in the next year or so with the kids. And that's the biggest... That alone, the freedom to just be like, I'm going to [00:43:00] get a massage on a Wednesday at 2:00 PM. That is freaking amazing. That alone is worth it.
Angie Colee: I don't have to ask anybody for permission. I don't have to request time off and get it denied. I can just build my schedule the way that I want to build it. And I can still deliver a whole ton of value without burning myself out. Novel concept, American capitalism.
Brittany Dixon : I know, I'm convinced that that's probably why they're not teaching it, but there's that.
Angie Colee: They're raising-
Brittany Dixon : Whole [00:43:30] other conversation for a different rabbit hole here.
Angie Colee: Oh yeah. Gosh, they're get me started on that rent. They're raising generations of people to be good workers, but not good thinkers. So one random question for you. Well it's not so random. If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, what would that be?
Brittany Dixon : Yeah, I think it would honestly be to focus on one ideal client with one offer and have a framework. So we have our BCO methods, so that's kind of how [00:44:00] we organize everything. And then we also have the road to scalability. These were kind of built as I was working with people one on one, but having that framework gave me the confidence to sell because I'm like, no, you do it like this. A, B, C, and D. This is a system. This is so the confidence to sell. So creating a framework of some kind and selling one offer and to one ideal client, until you get to six figures. Stop with a shiny object syndrome, stop trying to build a freaking email list. At that point, you have to figure out your people. [00:44:30] What their problem is, how you can solve it. And you have to do it on a one-on-one capacity first.
Angie Colee: Yes.
Brittany Dixon : Make six figures. Then we can talk about turning it into a course, turning it into a webinar, doing all the social media, building a website. I did it so asked backwards and delayed my success for a long time because I was like, I'm going to build a course and a funnel. I didn't even know what the freaking heck I was doing. I had no business building a funnel. One offer be very, [00:45:00] very, very focused and stop downloading all the things. And that's hard to say coming from somebody who has stuff to download, but stop downloading all the freebies and all the... Shiny object syndrome will kill a business very quickly.
Angie Colee: Absolutely. I'm so grateful for a mentor in my early days that said... I think he recognized I was a little bit ADHD before I was officially diagnosed, which is a very recent thing. But he said, if you're getting overwhelmed by information, but you can't really stop yourself from looking for new information. Because you feel like if you [00:45:30] know everything, you'll be more prepared. Because just pick one or two people who really resonate with you somewhere in your gut or your soul, you vibe with everything that they're saying and consume everything that they've created. At least create a narrow lane for yourself. And then you can't add any new gurus or shiny objects until you've put their advice into play and taking some action. And that changed my life, focus.
Brittany Dixon : No, that's literally the shift from not making money and being burned out to hitting six [00:46:00] figures was I stopped downloading all the things. I stopped listening to all the podcasts, all the people, all the webinars. Just to what you said. I took in all the information because I was like, oh, if I have it all, then people will pay me more because I'm really smart. And I know all the things. It doesn't work that way. And we just have to say yes and figure it out.
Angie Colee: Yep. People actually believe I'm more smart.
Brittany Dixon : Yes.
Angie Colee: Because I tell them, I don't know. That's a great question. You threw me a curve ball. I don't know. I'm going to go find out.
Brittany Dixon : [00:46:30] When I became a business minimalist and stopped doing all of that and streamlined systems and stopped downloading every freaking app and tool and whatever, when that happened that's what shifted from not making money and being burned out to making money and taking Fridays off like game changer.
Angie Colee: I want every creative and service based freelancer out there who's got an eye on becoming a guru, a thought leader, having courses, passive income to take this approach right here that Brittany [00:47:00] said, find someone you can help that you like to help. Them find another person you can help start noticing when you're doing the same thing over and over again. Because that's that framework that Brittany mentioned, then you go out and you just teach people you got that framework from doing the work and on and on. It goes baby steps, baby steps.
Brittany Dixon : Awesome. And again, it's the long game. So you're not trying to build a course and help 1,000 people in the next month. [00:47:30] You just have to build these solid foundations for sustainable business. That's going to be here long term.
Angie Colee: Yep. Don't treat your business like it's the lotto. That's a losing game.
Brittany Dixon : Yes. I love it. I love it.
Angie Colee: This has been a fantastic conversation. We're so excited [inaudible 00:47:47] for each other. I love it. So tell us a little bit more about your business and where we can find you online.
Brittany Dixon : Absolutely. So our main website is BCOHW.co. So you can kind of find everything there, but the productivity [00:48:00] podcast we've got that. So we've got our podcast. We also have the productivity pod community. So it's a Facebook group type of thing, but it's actually built on mighty networks. We actually have our own app and do all kinds of fun stuff. We have like coffee chats and happy hours and really are just there to help build relationships and give productivity tips.
And then we do VIP days for consulting and we've got Hustle to Flow, which is our group coaching program where I give you my framework all in a pretty little though. [00:48:30] So yeah, again, we're really just here to help you work smarter. Not harder. We have a template shop coming at some point too. So kind of keep an eye out for that. And then we're on Instagram. That's probably the biggest place that I hang out.
Angie Colee: Awesome. I'm going to make sure that they have clickable links in the show notes so everybody can check you out. This has been such a great conversation.
Brittany Dixon : Yes. Thank you so much for having me. This has been awesome.
Angie Colee: So that is it another awesome episode [00:49:00] of Permission to Kick Ass on the books. If you want to know more about the show, if you want to know more about me Angie Colee and the mission I'm on to help entrepreneurs punch fear in the face and do big bold things, then head on over to permissiontokickass.com. That is all one word together, permission to kick ass.com. Make sure to sign up for my email list so that whenever there's a hot, fresh and ready podcast episode out for you. And also on Mondays, I like to send out a little newsletter called Kick Monday's Ass. I'm sure you're totally, totally surprised by that. [00:49:30] So thank you for being here with me today. I'm Angie Colee. Make sure that you share this with a friend that needs to hear this message today. Like it, share it, comment wherever you're listening to this today and let's go kick some mess.