E39: Why Connection and Community are the Keys to a Profitable, Scalable Business with Kylie Hodges

Erin Austin: 00:00:00

Hello ladies.

Erin Austin: 00:00:01

Welcome to the Hourly to Exit podcast.

Erin Austin: 00:00:03

I am so excited for today's guest, Kylie Hodges.

Erin Austin: 00:00:07

Hi, Kylie.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:08

Hi.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:08

Thank you so much for having

Erin Austin: 00:00:10

me.

Erin Austin: 00:00:10

we have lots to talk about.

Erin Austin: 00:00:11

This is one of those episodes where there are a dozen things regarding

Erin Austin: 00:00:16

the hourly to exit journey that we could talk about, but we're gonna

Erin Austin: 00:00:19

try to narrow it down to a couple.

Erin Austin: 00:00:21

But before we get started, would you introduce yourself to the.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:25

Of course, uh, my name is Kylie Hodges.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:27

I help ambitious community builders convert enthusiastic fans to paying

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:32

clients by building profitable businesses.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:35

So working with me, people learn how to utilize their natural

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:39

ability to attract community.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:41

And create connections that actually convert.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:43

they learn to structure and sell impactful offers and programs and they

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:47

learn how to grow while working with their A D H D anxiety or depression.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:51

And the goal is so that they can make the kind of money and

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:53

impact that makes them wanna yell.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:54

Hell yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:00:56

Well, I love that.

Erin Austin: 00:00:57

Well, thank you.

Erin Austin: 00:00:57

Why you mentioned the H adhd, anxiety and depression because those really stuck out,

Erin Austin: 00:01:02

they really popped for me on your website.

Erin Austin: 00:01:04

obviously it all is part of connection and community.

Erin Austin: 00:01:07

Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:01:07

But in particular, how did you focus on that?

Erin Austin: 00:01:10

Have you found that the similarities.

Erin Austin: 00:01:14

Of that market are kind of psychographic, like Ramon of a certain age or more

Erin Austin: 00:01:19

psychographic, you know, they have these challenges and they need help with these

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:23

specific challenges.

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:25

Yeah, good question.

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:26

I, I say this to my clients, you can build what you can speak to,

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:30

and I can speak to that experience.

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:33

I'm someone who is diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety and depression, and

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:36

when I was diagnosed with those things as a, a chronic oversharer,

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:42

I learned that a lot more people could relate to me than I realized.

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:46

And so, yes, I'm a business coach, but if I wasn't acknowledging what was

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:51

going on with me internally, then I couldn't even apply my own practices,

Kylie Hodges: 00:01:56

and so it became a no-brainer that if I'm struggling with this, my clients

Kylie Hodges: 00:02:01

are certainly struggling with this too, and so let's do the revolutionary

Kylie Hodges: 00:02:06

thing and actually serve ourselves.

Kylie Hodges: 00:02:10

While we're serving others.

Kylie Hodges: 00:02:11

Excuse me.

Erin Austin: 00:02:12

that's, we both are coming at our businesses from similar

Erin Austin: 00:02:16

perspectives, where I, of course work with, experts to help them turn their

Erin Austin: 00:02:20

expertise in intellectual property and build scalable, scalable businesses.

Erin Austin: 00:02:24

And, you know, that hourly to exit journey.

Erin Austin: 00:02:26

I mean, is there any more hourly entrenched profession than lawyers?

Erin Austin: 00:02:31

And, building a business where I'm not just trading my time for money.

Erin Austin: 00:02:35

and our issues are our client's issues in so many ways.

Erin Austin: 00:02:39

Oh yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:02:40

But back to the A D H, adhd, I'm gonna stick with that for

Erin Austin: 00:02:42

a second because Yeah, yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:02:44

I feel like a D H D is one thing.

Erin Austin: 00:02:46

We think about that in children.

Erin Austin: 00:02:48

We don't think about it that much as adults and adults getting that diagnosis.

Erin Austin: 00:02:54

Can be really revelatory, the things that they're so frustrated with.

Erin Austin: 00:02:57

How come I can't follow through?

Erin Austin: 00:02:58

How come I can't focus?

Erin Austin: 00:03:00

when did you get diagnosed and what did it look like before and after?

Erin Austin: 00:03:04

Whew.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:05

Well, I got diagnosed, actually that's a good question.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:08

I think it was in 20.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:10

21.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:11

No, it was, very early 2022.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:13

However, I had spent about a year advocating for myself to get diagnosed.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:19

and look, I'm not a medical doctor.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:21

I can't speak to like, getting yourself diagnosed, but for me, and

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:26

what I've learned from other people or mostly other women identifying

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:30

folks is that, a couple of things.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:33

It's not easy to get diagnosed as an adult.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:37

Mainly because the medication link to it is addictive.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:41

It usually results in getting medicated with Adderall, which

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:44

I do have a prescription for.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:46

I've actually been trying to go off of it, but that's just

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:49

my own personal preference.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:50

I'm trying to out how to work with my h d and not.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:54

Medicate it, even though it has been really helpful at times.

Kylie Hodges: 00:03:58

The other thing is, um, in the medical textbooks, there's not any particular

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:02

thing about adult onset adhd.

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:06

It's a thing that you look for in kids, and then if you don't

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:08

get it as a kid, then it's like, well, they probably don't have it.

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:11

And I didn't have it as a kid, and I absolutely think Covid and the massive

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:19

life changes that happened to all of us during that year plus really messed

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:23

with me in a way that amplified whatever symptoms I had that were maybe a little

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:29

bit A D H D, they just skyrocketed.

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:32

So before I got diagnosed with A D H D, I struggled with really basic stuff

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:39

that I was really ashamed about being on time, getting out of bed, which is

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:44

also linked to depression, and anxiety.

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:46

Um, being able to listen, I really want to listen, but my mind would do me

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:52

dirty and take me in another direction.

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:56

overwhelming to-do lists.

Kylie Hodges: 00:04:57

So, I still do it, but I'm better at recognizing it.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:00

But I have pages of to-do lists and in my mind it's like, yeah,

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:06

I can do all this in, an hour.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:08

Of course, it's very all or nothing, black and white thinking.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:12

And do I still struggle with this now after my diagnosis?

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:16

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:17

However, getting diagnosed is like a relief because it just gives an

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:23

explanation for what's going on with me the biggest change I would say

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:27

is that I was able to identify, it's not an inherent flaw of who I am.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:33

It is not who I am that I.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:35

Struggle with organization in my business that somehow I'm always and everything

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:41

gets down to the last hour or minute.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:44

it, it's just a symptom of a thing that I've got And now I just

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:48

need to acknowledge it, detach myself from identifying to it.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:53

It's not who I am inherently.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:56

Figure out how to work around it.

Kylie Hodges: 00:05:57

So I'm really blunt with my clients, like mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:01

I don't do early morning stuff.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:02

Mornings are just really hard for me.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:04

I try to do everything that would be like, if I could press the easy button, how

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:08

can I make this happen in an easy way?

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:10

Because over complicating stuff is a symptom of h adhd.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:14

And then, When you pile on depression and anxiety, it results

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:17

in, freezing and doing nothing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:19

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:19

Which then amplifies depression and anxiety.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:22

So to me, I found like asking myself, what is the easy button here?

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:26

Is the way to help me navigate running my business successfully, despite struggling

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:32

with A D H D and anxiety and depression.

Erin Austin: 00:06:35

Right.

Erin Austin: 00:06:36

I'm assuming that you work with mostly women.

Erin Austin: 00:06:37

Tell me Yes.

Erin Austin: 00:06:38

Tell

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:38

me if I'm wrong.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:39

Most, most of my client base is women.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:41

Um, I don't currently have any male clients, but I have in the past.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:44

Mm-hmm.

Erin Austin: 00:06:45

Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:06:45

And so are people self-identifying and going, you know, I've.

Erin Austin: 00:06:49

These issues where I think I have these issues.

Erin Austin: 00:06:51

So let me go talk to Kylie cuz

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:52

she understands me.

Kylie Hodges: 00:06:53

You know what's funny is my most recent client who I got, she was like, I think

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:00

I have this and I think I have that.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:03

And after she hired me it was, she just needed the

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:06

accountability and the gumption.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:09

Or the validation from someone else to get herself to go speak with her, doctor.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:14

So like, again, I'm not diagnosing people and I'm not like, if you think

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:19

you have h d, don't come to me first.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:21

Just go to your doctor.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:22

But what she was noticing was she was struggling with things in her business,

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:26

and yeah, she absolutely needed a tweak in her marketing strategy and sales strategy.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:31

But first what she needed to do was take care of herself internally because.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:35

She was allowing her behaviors, which it turns out she does have diagnosed

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:41

anxiety and A D H D, the way she was behaving with herself was resulting in.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:48

Fractures in her business foundation.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:50

And so we did a deep dive.

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:52

She made an agreement that she was gonna go talk to her doctor and also

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:55

start therapy and wouldn't she know it?

Kylie Hodges: 00:07:58

Once she did those things, then the ball started rolling and she could

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:00

finally show up and work for herself.

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:03

Right?

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:04

It's very common in that if there's someone who is struggling, they're like,

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:09

I just can't get myself to do this, or I can't seem to make a decision.

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:13

It might be you're confused.

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:15

It might be you really don't know what a, helpful marketing funnel looks like

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:19

for you, but it also might be that you are treating the c e O of your business

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:23

really poorly and you need to give that person the health and the self-care that

Kylie Hodges: 00:08:29

they need in order to show up for work,

Erin Austin: 00:08:31

I often wonder how much of resistance is actually resistance.

Erin Austin: 00:08:37

you just don't wanna do it or whatever the barriers are.

Erin Austin: 00:08:40

Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:08:40

Versus something like, brain fog or A D H D or something similar I think it's kind

Erin Austin: 00:08:47

of a continuum of things, but there are.

Erin Austin: 00:08:50

Many things that we need coaches to help us work through, not not medical

Erin Austin: 00:08:54

things, but some mindset issues, organization issues and clarity.

Erin Austin: 00:08:59

Let's put it that.

Erin Austin: 00:09:00

Yeah, put it that way.

Erin Austin: 00:09:01

So tell me about how you work with your clients to help them kind of move forward.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:06

Great question.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:07

So, like I said earlier about how can I hit the easy button?

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:11

I tried to apply that.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:13

What is only the bare minimum information that my client needs to

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:16

hear right now in order to move forward?

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:19

My goal of working with my clients is to help them get out of the way of whatever

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:23

is stopping them and start taking action.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:26

I'm always saying, what's the d plus effort here?

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:28

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:30

D plus is bad enough.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:32

Yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:32

Well, and so there's a lot of perfectionism that gets wrapped up in, a

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:36

lot of my clients, and that's also very much a symptom of all the things I listed.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:40

when I was, my last semester, senior year of college, I was so ready to move.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:45

I I already had a job lined up.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:46

I was very lucky and I was like, get me outta here.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:49

And my mantra became D'S get degrees.

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:52

Which again, if you're in college, maybe don't listen to that, but the

Kylie Hodges: 00:09:58

reason I share it with my clients now is because like we're going

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:01

for D plus effort here because your first effort is not gonna be an A.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:06

We have to accept that.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:07

Do the D plus work first, and then you can refine it to B, a

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:10

C, and then a B, and then an A.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:13

To get yourself moving, we have to be okay with producing imperfect, messy firsts.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:19

So to answer your question of like, how do I work with people?

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:22

How do I help them?

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:24

A lot of my clients have a natural ability where they attract people.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:27

They're really good at connecting and creating a sense of community, and they

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:32

just haven't figured out how the heck.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:35

To structure a business around it that's actually paying them well and going

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:39

deeper with how they wanna help people.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:41

So I really help them focus on, okay, what are your offers or services or products

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:46

that are meeting people where they are?

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:49

And also taking you where you wanna be going in your business.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:53

Like what is that happy intersection?

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:55

what is your sales process doing that's also serving your community for.

Kylie Hodges: 00:10:59

how can we flip that so that it's not, I'm feeling salesy, it's, I'm

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:04

actually creating a deeper sense of connection when I am selling.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:08

And also it's your marketing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:10

How are you using your marketing as a way to help your community connect

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:16

with each other on a deeper level?

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:18

So I really focus on those three things, and it all ties back

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:21

to how can we give the business owner the life, the space, the.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:27

The money and the impact that they really want.

Erin Austin: 00:11:30

yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:11:31

So do you work with them one-on-one or do you create community

Erin Austin: 00:11:34

with them, in a community?

Erin Austin: 00:11:35

what is your best way, your most effective

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:36

way?

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:36

Yeah, good question.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:37

So I, will not work with people only one-on-one.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:42

And it's because I know that there's so much value in.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:46

Being in community even when you're learning.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:48

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:49

So while, my program is called the v i p Inner Circle, um,

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:52

and it is a hybrid program.

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:54

Yes, they get me as their private business coach, but also it's a mastermind format,

Kylie Hodges: 00:11:58

so it's a very intimate and small group.

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:01

and there's training, there's q and a, there's retreats, we

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:05

have accountability sessions or accountability and like co-working.

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:09

I do little micro boot camps on like, we're gonna practice sales today.

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:13

We're gonna practice building out our, marketing funnels today.

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:16

and the reason that I also strongly encourage my clients to never offer

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:23

just one-on-one is because you are depriving people of a sense

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:28

of connection and a sense of.

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:32

Community that can help them feel more glued to what you're creating.

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:38

Like you don't even need to be around necessarily, but when you

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:41

create a container or a space for people to do co-learning or even

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:47

just to develop relationships, that is strengthening the glue.

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:53

Your client's wanting to sign another contract.

Kylie Hodges: 00:12:58

it's the gift that keeps on giving, it gives them an opportunity

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:01

to learn a different way.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:02

I compare it to, my mom was always telling me, put on sunscreen and I

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:07

was like, I don't wanna listen to you, mom, don't tell me what to do.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:11

But then I go on Instagram and I listen to the beauty gurus.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:15

I put on sunscreen and I.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:17

Did you know we need to put on sunscreen?

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:19

I had no idea.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:20

So sometimes clients just can't hear everything that comes outta

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:24

my mouth because, you know, I'm mommy dearest in this situation.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:28

they need to just hear it another way from someone else.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:31

And sometimes that means when they're, equals are in a space

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:35

with them learning as they go.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:37

They can hear it better, they can hear it differently.

Kylie Hodges: 00:13:39

I

Erin Austin: 00:13:39

love that.

Erin Austin: 00:13:40

So there are two things that you mentioned.

Erin Austin: 00:13:42

So community as both an input, like helping feed you and your business,

Erin Austin: 00:13:47

helping you think about things differently, relieving some of the

Erin Austin: 00:13:51

loneliness of, what is now mostly a.

Erin Austin: 00:13:54

Primarily work from home environment

Erin Austin: 00:13:56

I'm sure many of your clients are working from home.

Erin Austin: 00:13:58

Yes.

Erin Austin: 00:13:58

If not all of them.

Erin Austin: 00:13:59

And then also it is an output as one of Yes.

Erin Austin: 00:14:03

The offerings as well.

Erin Austin: 00:14:04

And so I love that that, you know, kind of that 360 degrees of the

Erin Austin: 00:14:09

benefits of building community and community as a revenue model is

Erin Austin: 00:14:14

not something I hear very often.

Erin Austin: 00:14:16

Tell me how you help people work with that.

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:18

Okay, first of all, very good ear that you noticed

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:22

that community is a holistic thing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:24

We as humans need it.

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:27

We we come from people that would die if they weren't in it

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:30

way back in the caveman days.

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:32

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:32

part of the struggle I've experienced with A D H D and anxiety and depression

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:38

was only amplified during Covid when I felt so isolated from community.

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:44

And there's absolutely parallel here in when we isolate ourselves

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:49

and our businesses with our clients, and also personally and

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:53

emotionally, we're restricting ourselves from what is possible.

Kylie Hodges: 00:14:57

And when we lean into community, internally in our businesses and

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:01

externally in the way we show up in the world, it's only growth

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:05

and expansion fulfillment and just being okay is what's possible.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:12

So to get a little bit out of the like vague intangible feelings

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:15

part of it, and into the tangible stuff, what that looks like.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:18

Is this the word leverage?

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:21

Like my favorite word in the world, Mevo.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:24

Let's leverage what you've got so.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:28

A lot of people hear community, like I said earlier, I help, ambitious community

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:32

builders convert enthusiastic fans.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:34

Sometimes people hear that and think, oh, influencers, like, I don't have

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:39

thousands of people on my email list.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:40

That's not me.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:41

It's actually not true.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:43

your community is just, who are the people you know, who are the people

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:46

that are right there in front of.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:48

Or maybe not even the people you know, but the people who are following you on

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:50

Instagram, you might not know all of them.

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:52

So it's how can we leverage what we've got right now?

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:56

How can we leverage that in our marketing?

Kylie Hodges: 00:15:59

just, like I said earlier, when you create a sense of community internally

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:03

within your clients and that becomes the glue to keep them wanting more.

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:07

Let's apply that to your marketing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:09

When you're building out your marketing funnel, how can you have your community

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:13

develop a stronger sense of connection with each other and you every

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:18

step of the way along your funnel?

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:19

That way you're making a bigger impact in the world when you have.

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:23

A free offer of a free P D F, or a free Facebook group or whatever.

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:28

What can you do to help people develop a deeper sense of connection, not

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:31

only to your messaging, but also other human beings in the process?

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:36

That is a way to amplify your message, but also, make up a

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:40

greater impact on the world.

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:41

And a lot of the people that I work with are very message driven.

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:44

They're people, people, and so they're building a business because they have

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:49

either a, natural talent or a very strong skillset, but also they really care about.

Kylie Hodges: 00:16:56

Explaining the purpose of that message or that skillset globally.

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:01

And so how can we do that?

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:02

By creating little micro brand ambassadors every step of the way in your marketing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:07

And when you're having sales conversations, making it not about you,

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:11

but about the person you're talking to.

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:13

That right there is deepening a sense of connection with that person.

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:17

You're giving them a great gift, which is being heard, and then when they're

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:21

inside your business, How are you helping them go deeper with the transformation

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:27

they desire in terms of having them feel connected and plugged in to the other

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:33

people and the type of space that can help them live into their, best self,

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:40

for lack of a better term, I think that's everything I was gonna say.

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:43

I also forgot what I was gonna say.

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:45

Halfway through that answer.

Kylie Hodges: 00:17:47

We're

Erin Austin: 00:17:47

gonna make Anne work for this, this, so I'm gonna come back

Erin Austin: 00:17:53

to leverage cuz you and I Oh yes.

Erin Austin: 00:17:56

Love that.

Erin Austin: 00:17:56

But first I'm gonna go back to, what you said about brand ambassadors and Oh yes.

Erin Austin: 00:18:02

Connection and community.

Erin Austin: 00:18:03

I love that because it reminded me of my personal experience with.

Erin Austin: 00:18:08

I mentioned before we started recording that I live in a excerpts

Erin Austin: 00:18:11

of Washington, DC and anyone who knows this area, like, you know, you

Erin Austin: 00:18:15

don't go inside the beltway unless you the president's being inaugurated.

Erin Austin: 00:18:18

I mean, I you, otherwise I forget about it, right?

Erin Austin: 00:18:20

And so this is pre pandemic.

Erin Austin: 00:18:22

Like I never, so I.

Erin Austin: 00:18:23

I was out here, my little, home office doing my work.

Erin Austin: 00:18:27

there weren't really on a lot of online networking of opportunities.

Erin Austin: 00:18:31

You had to go into the city to go to lunches or go to things and, it

Erin Austin: 00:18:34

would take me longer to get into the city in the evening because

Erin Austin: 00:18:38

of the reverse traffic than it you know, if you left in the morning.

Erin Austin: 00:18:41

So I never did any stuff like that.

Erin Austin: 00:18:43

And then Covid comes along, worst thing ever.

Erin Austin: 00:18:45

But it did.

Erin Austin: 00:18:47

And suddenly there were all these opportunities to network online,

Erin Austin: 00:18:50

to build community online, and it frankly has been a game changer

Erin Austin: 00:18:54

for my business to be able to build community with so many people online.

Erin Austin: 00:19:00

And to create those little ambassadors.

Erin Austin: 00:19:01

Like these are things I never could have done without, the people who I match

Erin Austin: 00:19:06

your mind with, you know, that go out there and go, oh, you gotta talk to

Erin Austin: 00:19:09

Erin, or introducing me or be able to do, have conversations like this, that

Erin Austin: 00:19:13

just weren't really happening before.

Erin Austin: 00:19:16

community is a hundred percent, is absolutely essential to.

Erin Austin: 00:19:21

Sense of wellbeing, we just can't do this alone.

Erin Austin: 00:19:24

We really do need our community around us to help out.

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:27

may I say something about the brand ambassador term?

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:29

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:30

I wanna just share a little bit about why I use that term and why it's so important.

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:34

My first adult job after graduating college was as the spokesperson and

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:39

driver of the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile.

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:41

Do you know what that is?

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:42

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:43

When you asked if I'd been to DC before, my first time was in the Wiener

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:47

Mobile on Pennsylvania of all places.

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:51

And it's a 27 foot long hotdog on wheels.

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:53

And my job for one year was to drive that thing all around the country

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:57

as the national spokesperson of it.

Kylie Hodges: 00:19:59

So while the really sexy highlights are, I was on the Today Show at CNN

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:04

and I got to close the be at the New York Stock Exchange, sexy, most of

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:07

the job was actually really unsexy.

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:11

It was standing in Walmart parking lots, handing out coupons and taking

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:14

pictures of people in front of it.

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:16

But here's the.

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:17

Whether I was on the Today Show, being seen by a million people, or standing

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:22

in a Walmart parking lot in Lexington, Kentucky talking to one person, my

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:26

message was always the same, and my goal was always the same, to show up

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:32

in a way that made people feel good and understood what I was doing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:39

And it wasn't a false sense of making people feel good, it was just give

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:43

people a moment of feeling heard and experiencing a little joy in their day.

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:48

So internally, as Hotdoggers, which was my job title, there were 12 of us, we were

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:53

trained to be the Disney of Oscar Meyer.

Kylie Hodges: 00:20:56

Give someone a delightful experience on their, random Tuesday afternoon,

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:01

picking up groceries when it's a really hectic work week.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:04

And what I found, I was using the same talking points every day, all day, and we

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:09

would measure how many people we spoke to by how many wiener whistles we gave away,

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:13

which are those tiny little plastic toys.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:15

So I spoke to anywhere from 500 to a thousand people a day, and what

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:20

would happen was I would have a really delightful conversation with.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:26

How are you doing today?

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:27

You ever seen the Wiener mobile before?

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:29

Oh, you grew up, you grew up seeing it on tv.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:31

That's so fun.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:31

Would you like a picture with it?

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:33

Oh my gosh.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:33

Tell me more about your neighbor who used to work for Oscar Meyer.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:36

Really basic stuff, but that moment of connection, it made me feel good

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:43

because I was able to just bring a little joy to someone's day.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:46

It's pretty easy to make someone smile when you're driving a giant hotdog car.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:49

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:50

But also because I understood that my messaging was getting through to them in

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:55

the way that I was instructed to do so.

Kylie Hodges: 00:21:58

But also it made them feel good because they would always say, Ugh, can you

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:01

take a picture of this in front of me?

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:03

I'm gonna show this to my grandkids.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:04

They're gonna love this.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:05

And I always try to channel that Now in my business, I

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:10

was a literal brand ambassador.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:12

For a hotdog company.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:13

Okay?

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:14

And I know that it's a lot easier to get people to wanna share about seeing

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:18

a 27-foot long hotdog car at Walmart than it is to run into a lady who's

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:23

a business coach and talking about marketing funnels and sales strategies.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:26

However, I channel that in everything that I do, and I

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:30

tell my clients to do the same.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:31

What can you do to evoke a stronger sense of joy or ease or whatever it is that you

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:37

are trying to create in your business?

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:40

And do that in tangible ways while connecting with people so that they

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:45

want to go out and be brand ambassadors.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:47

And in the Wiener mobile.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:48

How did I know that I was creating brand ambassadors?

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:50

Because people would post the picture I took of them on

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:53

social media and tag Oscar.

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:55

Or they would share it in the Oscar Meyer Facebook page and they would say,

Kylie Hodges: 00:22:58

I loved talking to catch up Kylie today.

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:00

So now I think about how can I measure the brand ambassador

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:04

impact in my own business?

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:06

Well, how many clicks am I getting on this link?

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:09

How many views or how many shares?

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:11

You know, it can translate however you need it to, but the purpose is

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:15

always the messaging and the way I'm showing up, actually making a tangible.

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:20

That's why I say let's create people who are brand ambassadors.

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:24

What can we do within ourselves to get our message across in a way that

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:30

activates people to take action?

Erin Austin: 00:23:32

Yeah, I like that.

Erin Austin: 00:23:33

And you know, it reminds me of, there's a couple of people, I

Erin Austin: 00:23:35

wanna say certainly Jonathan Stark, people have a Rolodex moment.

Erin Austin: 00:23:40

So when they think about, like someone says, you know, I'm looking for someone

Erin Austin: 00:23:43

to help me with strategy, or, you know, they immediately think of, Kylie or, and

Erin Austin: 00:23:48

so to be able to get there, I imagine that you help people get that type

Erin Austin: 00:23:52

of positioning you know, referability so that they can have a really tight

Erin Austin: 00:23:56

message for their intended audience.

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:58

Yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:23:59

And you know what's funny is I noticed that a lot of my clients

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:02

come to me thinking that it's like figuring out their messaging or their

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:06

branding is like a Rubik's cube.

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:08

They just haven't cracked the code yet.

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:09

the way I approach it, is, like, it doesn't have to be complicated,

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:12

it just has to be clear and.

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:15

And you have to be okay with it not being clear and concise right away.

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:19

Yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:19

But the more you try it on like an outfit, the more you see what fits and what works.

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:24

So Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:25

And it's a lot of just getting started and like seeing the feedback you get from

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:33

others to see if that messaging is working in the way you want it to work for you.

Kylie Hodges: 00:24:38

Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:24:38

Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:24:38

It is tough to, out.

Erin Austin: 00:24:41

Dinner party or someplace and someone asks what you do and it could say,

Erin Austin: 00:24:45

well I'm a lawyer or whatever.

Erin Austin: 00:24:46

Versus, you know, saying I help experts, you know, turn their, you

Erin Austin: 00:24:49

know, build scalable and sell business.

Erin Austin: 00:24:51

And so it's a muscle that you have to exercise cuz it's

Erin Austin: 00:24:54

super easy just to, kind of.

Erin Austin: 00:24:56

When I'm a marketer, I'm a accountant.

Erin Austin: 00:24:58

and kind of keep going.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:00

So, yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:01

Yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:01

And what is that, thing you're telling yourself when your instinct

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:04

is, oh, I'm just a lawyer, right?

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:06

Yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:06

Like, it's like, oh, they don't actually wanna hear.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:08

Yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:08

But again, creating a brand ambassador out of someone means

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:12

that you have to give them the enthusiasm that you want them to go.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:16

I help statement you were about to give is so great.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:19

People need to hear that.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:20

To really understand lawyer can mean a lot of things.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:23

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:23

Lawyer can sound scary.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:25

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:26

But you're the opposite.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:27

You're not scary.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:28

You're helping.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:29

Well, even worse,

Erin Austin: 00:25:30

Laura sounds like, Hey, I've got this problem with my landlord.

Erin Austin: 00:25:33

You know?

Erin Austin: 00:25:33

Right.

Erin Austin: 00:25:34

That

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:35

to me is like, that's, that's right.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:36

Don't invite the wrong conversation.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:38

You don't want in, and by being really strong in how you show

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:42

up in your messaging can really navigate the conversation.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:46

Good.

Kylie Hodges: 00:25:47

Good point.

Erin Austin: 00:25:49

All right, so we're finally gonna get to leverage.

Erin Austin: 00:25:51

So our favorite, okay.

Erin Austin: 00:25:52

Yes, yes.

Erin Austin: 00:25:53

So, you know, hourly to Exit podcast, we talk about you.

Erin Austin: 00:25:56

Moving from hourly building scalable businesses that

Erin Austin: 00:25:59

hopefully we can sell some day.

Erin Austin: 00:26:01

And the key to that is creating leverage in our businesses.

Erin Austin: 00:26:05

I like to talk about it as know, decoupling our income from our time.

Erin Austin: 00:26:09

Tell me how you work with your clients to get leverage

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:12

in their business.

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:14

Well, first of all, yes, let's absolutely get out of that racket

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:18

of trading dollars for hours.

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:19

it doesn't make sense.

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:20

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:21

Really?

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:22

if you're changing someone's life and you can do it in a half hour,

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:25

is that really only worth, $300?

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:28

so one of the things is actually that we're not trading dollar for hours.

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:32

We're pricing based on transformation and.

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:36

another way I help people leverage is always asking the

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:41

question, what can you do?

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:42

So whether that's creating a product or a service that you know, you can sell

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:47

right now without any required, refining.

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:51

So I encounter a lot, a lot, a lot of my clients are people who.

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:56

If they don't identify as perfectionists, they have perfection and behaviors,

Kylie Hodges: 00:26:59

and one of those looks like, oh, I just need to go get another certification,

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:04

or I just need to research a little bit more before I'm ready to do this thing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:08

I suspect lawyers might also be in that bucket because we

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:12

have to do things by the books.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:13

We have to go get our proper permission slip before we can do this thing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:17

And the beauty of entrepreneurship.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:19

of course, we're ethically selling what we know we can sell.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:23

the permission slip lies within you, so you don't need to wait for anybody else.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:29

So leveraging, what can I do now?

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:32

Who is in front of me?

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:33

Where else can I go?

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:35

And we apply that to building out what is the thing you're.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:39

And if you're already selling something that's working well you're looking for

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:42

a higher earning ceiling, then okay, how can we leverage the thing that's

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:46

selling really well into making a lower priced offer that gives a little bit

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:51

of access to that thing that's selling really well at a more affordable rate.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:55

That doesn't take any more time from you.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:57

You might not even need to do anything extra.

Kylie Hodges: 00:27:59

It might actually save you time to sell it in this.

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:03

And the same applies to your marketing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:04

What do I have right in front of me?

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:06

Who do I know?

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:07

What kind of asks can I make in terms of sharing my offer

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:11

or sharing my free webinar?

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:13

inviting people to, grab my free P d F.

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:17

and then same with sales, leveraging.

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:21

In terms of who is someone that's complimentary to what I'm doing

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:25

that has access to more people I know I can help asking if there's

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:30

a collab potential in there.

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:32

a business can fully thrive from the Petri dish that is leveraged.

Kylie Hodges: 00:28:37

Yes,

Erin Austin: 00:28:38

absolutely.

Erin Austin: 00:28:39

So you mentioned pricing and pricing based on value as

Erin Austin: 00:28:43

opposed to ours or deliverables.

Erin Austin: 00:28:45

Yes.

Erin Austin: 00:28:45

And I imagine perfectionists.

Erin Austin: 00:28:48

I imagine they have a lot of trouble with that, you know, cause

Erin Austin: 00:28:50

there's a whole mindset thing.

Erin Austin: 00:28:51

but I know I can do it in an hour, so how am I gonna charge, you know, $20,000?

Erin Austin: 00:28:57

So something that I can do in my sleep, like, do you help them with,

Erin Austin: 00:29:00

get over those mindset issues or in

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:02

how?

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:02

Of course.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:03

Of course.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:04

you know, with pricing.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:05

There's a lot of nuance in this conversation because it really

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:08

depends on where the entrepreneur is.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:10

If they're someone who is not selling nearly enough, and they just need to

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:15

make more money, I'm actually less inclined to fight with them about

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:23

adjusting their pricing and more inclined to focus on what is the thing that

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:28

needs to change to get you to sell.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:31

Because once you sell one or two at this rate that isn't good, you are going to

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:37

understand that you're gonna feel it.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:39

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:39

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:40

And so then you're gonna be willing to make the change.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:43

So I don't make people do anything.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:45

And as someone who loves to control things, which is why I struggle

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:49

so much with all the other things internally life in general.

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:53

being a coach is like the ultimate practice of releasing and detaching

Kylie Hodges: 00:29:59

and helping people do the same with themselves and detaching from the

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:04

outcomes of what they're creating.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:06

And when it comes to pricing, it's usually not going.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:11

Feel urgent to change their prices until they're burning themselves out

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:17

or they have a client that's not a good fit because pricing can help you.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:21

get the right people in the door who are really committed mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:25

To either making the change that they wanna make that you can help them with.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:29

Yeah, getting the thing that you offer.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:32

pricing allows entrepreneurs to play differently.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:35

And I recently was talking with a client about like, how would you be

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:39

behaving if you were someone that charged a number that makes you wanna

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:43

throw up a thousand dollars an hour or something, or $10,000 an hour?

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:49

Would you be behaving the same way as you do now?

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:51

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:52

So let's start acting like the woman who charges $10,000 an hour.

Kylie Hodges: 00:30:57

She's probably for ease, not charging by the hour and just creating a

Kylie Hodges: 00:31:01

lump sum right In working with her.

Kylie Hodges: 00:31:03

Mm-hmm.

Erin Austin: 00:31:04

I am straddling these worlds.

Erin Austin: 00:31:07

Being a lawyer, you where, and being referred business, that's someone's

Erin Austin: 00:31:11

looking for an IP lawyer and being referred as business and having to have

Erin Austin: 00:31:14

these conversations where they expect someone who's just gonna charge by the

Erin Austin: 00:31:17

hour and they have a general idea what it will be And having to push back

Erin Austin: 00:31:22

on, you know, I don't do that anymore.

Erin Austin: 00:31:24

I do these types of high impact things that would make sense for me

Erin Austin: 00:31:28

to work with those types of clients.

Erin Austin: 00:31:30

And it is, it takes, one, having confidence in your ability to do the

Erin Austin: 00:31:33

other stuff and to disappoint people.

Erin Austin: 00:31:35

cuz it's hard, it's hard for a lot of us to say no.

Erin Austin: 00:31:38

Right.

Erin Austin: 00:31:38

Even when we know this isn't a good.

Erin Austin: 00:31:42

But I could help them.

Erin Austin: 00:31:43

It'd be really easy for me to

Kylie Hodges: 00:31:45

help them.

Kylie Hodges: 00:31:46

Well, and also when someone is pushing back by getting nickel and diving on

Kylie Hodges: 00:31:51

the price, that's your opportunity as a business owner to, this is a lesson

Kylie Hodges: 00:31:56

I learned driving the Weer mobile.

Kylie Hodges: 00:31:58

it's bridging the topic to what is the bigger concern.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:03

If they're nickel and diming you for the price, then let's go back

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:06

to, okay, why are they really.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:08

And you can ask them, so wait, what do you really want?

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:10

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:11

Why is this important to you?

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:13

Okay, so here's what it costs.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:16

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:16

Is it more important to you to pay a little less or to actually get

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:21

the thing that you're looking for?

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:22

That's great.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:23

Usually you wanna say it a little nicer than that, but Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:32:26

No, that makes sense.

Erin Austin: 00:32:27

Like understand sometimes not outcome, like we're not

Erin Austin: 00:32:30

talking about, The deliverable.

Erin Austin: 00:32:31

Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:32:31

we're talking about the outcome, like what's the outcome you want

Erin Austin: 00:32:33

and what what's that worth to you?

Erin Austin: 00:32:35

And

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:35

now, yeah, like I always say, what is the desired transformation?

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:38

You know, like people wanna be on the other side of the rainbow, they

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:41

don't want just one step forward.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:44

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:44

And so do them the favor and sell them the thing that takes them all the

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:48

way to the other side of the rainbow.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:50

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:50

Which is probably less work for you.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:52

Might cost them more, but we'll have them showing up to get to

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:57

the other side of the rainbow.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:58

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:32:58

And not playing small by just being like, well, what's the

Kylie Hodges: 00:33:01

next brick right in front of me?

Kylie Hodges: 00:33:03

It's like, help them lift their head up, open their eyes, and

Kylie Hodges: 00:33:06

look farther ahead mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:33:07

And help them and push them.

Kylie Hodges: 00:33:09

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:33:10

To the end of the rainbow.

Kylie Hodges: 00:33:11

Right.

Erin Austin: 00:33:11

Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:33:12

And they may have incorrectly self-diagnose the problem as well.

Erin Austin: 00:33:15

Like they may think that this is what they Oh yes.

Erin Austin: 00:33:17

Right.

Erin Austin: 00:33:18

What they need as well.

Erin Austin: 00:33:19

So let's connect this to intellectual property, shall we?

Erin Austin: 00:33:23

Sure.

Erin Austin: 00:33:23

so you know, when I, talk to experts about kind of making that leverage

Erin Austin: 00:33:28

leap, we talk about, turning their expertise in an intellectual

Erin Austin: 00:33:31

property so that they have assets.

Erin Austin: 00:33:33

I mean, you need to have assets in order to build, something

Erin Austin: 00:33:36

that you can repurpose, make more efficient, perhaps sell separately.

Erin Austin: 00:33:43

A business that you could sell someday.

Erin Austin: 00:33:45

So when you're working with your clients, does intellectual property ever come in

Erin Austin: 00:33:48

part of the conversation or asset building or how, how does that conversation go?

Kylie Hodges: 00:33:53

Yes, and I always say, you gotta talk to a lawyer.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:01

It's a good thing I got you here.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:03

we talk about IP in terms of, you we need to be mindful of

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:07

always giving credit where it's.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:09

and being intentional about, what are we saying?

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:13

Is it something that we've picked up from someone else or is it actually your own?

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:17

Yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:18

Ip.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:19

Mm-hmm.

Erin Austin: 00:34:19

I know I've seen this on the consultant side where people

Erin Austin: 00:34:22

are getting certifications here and there and all these things,

Erin Austin: 00:34:24

and that's basically what they're offering is a compilation of different

Erin Austin: 00:34:29

certifications rather than having their own original kind of, materials.

Erin Austin: 00:34:34

And I imagine that happens in the coaching side as well.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:37

A hundred percent.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:38

I mean, even the way I work with people, you know, I'm not using

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:41

specific language with you that I, do use with my clients internally

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:45

because that language is not my ip.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:48

I'm certified under a specific methodology, but it's not my own.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:52

And so I will give credit when I'm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:55

Repeating it to my clients.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:56

I say, that methodology and I really like it and I'm sharing it with you.

Kylie Hodges: 00:34:59

but I don't do it publicly and in marketing just because

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:03

it's not mine to share.

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:05

Right.

Erin Austin: 00:35:06

That is so smart because, when I talk to people about creating

Erin Austin: 00:35:09

licensing programs or other things like that, it has to be your stuff.

Erin Austin: 00:35:13

You you're getting something from a certification program or from some

Erin Austin: 00:35:16

training that you received, that is for you to use with your clients.

Erin Austin: 00:35:21

Mm-hmm.

Erin Austin: 00:35:21

It's not to train other people to use, that would be a sub license and

Erin Austin: 00:35:25

certainly that is restricted under the permissions that you have to use it.

Erin Austin: 00:35:28

So,

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:29

yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:29

the rule of thumb for me is If I'm in a place with people where I could be

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:34

selling something to them, don't use that language, don't use that methodology.

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:39

Wait until they're a client who signed a contract.

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:42

Yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:43

It's just safer that way.

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:45

Perfect.

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:45

And it's also a good exercise in figuring out like if I do work,

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:51

with people in a way that is using a methodology that I have a license

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:54

for, let's get into the practice.

Kylie Hodges: 00:35:57

Figuring out how we would talk about it ourselves.

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:00

Eventually, like 99.9% of my clients are gonna be in a place where

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:05

they want to have their own IP that they can then, license or at

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:08

least protect legally in some way.

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:11

So this is a good exercise in figuring out what the heck that even is, right?

Erin Austin: 00:36:16

Absolutely.

Erin Austin: 00:36:17

All right.

Erin Austin: 00:36:17

So this is a very meta podcast, as you know.

Erin Austin: 00:36:21

Female founders of expertise based businesses who are building them

Erin Austin: 00:36:24

to hopefully sell them someday.

Erin Austin: 00:36:26

So tell me, are you building your business to hopefully sell it someday?

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:29

Oh, oh, I thought you meant to sell something.

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:32

no.

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:33

The exit part of I was like, yeah, I'm selling things well,

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:37

I've been talking about sales.

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:38

That's a really interesting question that I don't think I've ever applied

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:41

to myself, and I've definitely listened to other episodes, but it hasn't

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:44

actually occurred to me right now.

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:45

Would I sell my business?

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:46

I actually don't know.

Kylie Hodges: 00:36:49

Is that, that is all your, that's a fair

Erin Austin: 00:36:51

answer.

Erin Austin: 00:36:51

That is a fair question.

Erin Austin: 00:36:52

But, I like to say you know, you don't have to be thinking about.

Erin Austin: 00:36:55

Exactly, because the same things that you do to help scale your business, to put

Erin Austin: 00:36:59

leverage in your business are the same things that create a saleable business.

Erin Austin: 00:37:02

So yeah, creating assets when you're creating independence from

Erin Austin: 00:37:06

you personally, providing the services, putting systems in place.

Erin Austin: 00:37:11

Yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:37:11

Those are

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:11

all for, I think, the build a business.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:13

I think the answer is yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:16

And My business currently is super personal.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:20

I don't have any other coaches under me using my methodology.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:24

Mm-hmm.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:25

And I know that day will come where I'm going to wanna start outsourcing

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:29

people to work within my world.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:31

And I think in a way I see that as selling when I've removed myself as

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:36

a touchpoint so that I can do other stuff, lean harder into my speaking

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:39

gigs and workshop opportunities.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:42

I look at that as selling, even though it's still probably a business run by me.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:46

So I'm gonna say yes.

Erin Austin: 00:37:47

That's the scale.

Erin Austin: 00:37:47

That's a scaling part on your way to building a business.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:49

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:50

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:37:51

What a long answer to a yes or no question.

Erin Austin: 00:37:57

So as we wrap up here, I think beyond ip in the hourly, the

Erin Austin: 00:38:01

exit podcast, we believe in creating an economy that works for everyone.

Erin Austin: 00:38:05

And so we love to give shout outs to organizations and people who help

Erin Austin: 00:38:09

create a more equitable economy.

Erin Austin: 00:38:11

Do you have an organization that you'd like to

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:12

share?

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:13

I do.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:14

I know that I mentioned the TIA Foundation.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:17

Yes, she sure did.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:18

Okay.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:19

So, I know the founder, her name is Mauna.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:22

Hussein Katan.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:23

Oh Tia is all about creating communities of support and, organizes

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:27

access to economic opportunities for refugees or immigrants or

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:33

displaced indigenous communities.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:35

TIA Foundation has a restaurant in Los Angeles.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:39

Called flavors from afar and they hire immigrants and refugees.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:43

They have chefs bringing in their own homeland, expertise cuisines, and it's a

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:48

wonderful place to just give people who have been displaced income so that they

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:52

can start their lives comfortably here.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:54

So I'm a really big fan of Mamuna and the TIA Foundation.

Kylie Hodges: 00:38:57

Love that.

Erin Austin: 00:38:57

Love Ethiopian food.

Erin Austin: 00:38:58

And yes, next time I'm in LA I will make sure I check it out.

Erin Austin: 00:39:02

Cause that's, yeah.

Erin Austin: 00:39:03

I know that you have a offer for the audience.

Erin Austin: 00:39:05

Would you like to share

Erin Austin: 00:39:06

that?

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:06

Yes.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:07

I have a mini course, totally free available.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:11

It's called Create Your Pathway to Profit.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:13

if you go to kylie hodges.com/free, you can grab it and you're gonna get

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:18

a workbook that you can sit down and crank out all at once if you want.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:23

If you have a D h D and can't handle getting stuff done for more than

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:26

10 minutes, you will get seven videos over seven days that are five

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:30

minutes long, walking you through one section of the workbook at a time.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:34

So you watch the five minute video, you spend five minutes on the

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:36

workbook, and in one week you will have created a whole plan to profit.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:40

That is fantastic.

Erin Austin: 00:39:41

All of this thank you will be in the show notes, so, be easy to find.

Erin Austin: 00:39:45

And I, thank you for that.

Erin Austin: 00:39:46

That's very generous.

Erin Austin: 00:39:47

So thank you.

Erin Austin: 00:39:48

Thank you.

Erin Austin: 00:39:49

People

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:49

find you.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:50

Oh, well, people can find me on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:53

My name is Kylie Hodges on both.

Kylie Hodges: 00:39:56

you can also shoot me an email if you wanna start talking one-on-one.

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:00

I'm, I love connecting with people.

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:02

Of course.

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:03

As someone who talked about community for an hour, my email's Kylie.

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:07

Kylie is ready to take your questions.

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:09

Yeah, yeah.

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:09

You wanna talk about hotdogs or business?

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:11

I don't care.

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:12

it's Kylie, Kylie Hodges dot.

Erin Austin: 00:40:15

Wonderful.

Erin Austin: 00:40:16

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Kylie Hodges: 00:40:18

Thank you for having me.