ļ»æOUTLINE
0:00:00 - Introduction to the Erin Davis Show and the focus on money, mindset, and confidence
0:01:00 - Invitation to attend Erin's planning day event at Carrington House
0:02:30 - Introduction of guest Marissa Roberts and her background
0:04:00 - Marissa's passion for simplifying business and life
0:06:00 - The concept of freedom and how it looks different for everyone
0:08:00 - Marissa's experience of burning out in her first business
0:10:00 - The importance of taking a break when feeling overwhelmed
0:12:00 - Marissa's approach to simplifying marketing strategies
0:15:00 - The role of authenticity in marketing and building connections
0:19:00 - Balancing work and self-care, the importance of boundaries and buffer time
0:24:00 - Creating structured systems for meal planning and content strategy
0:29:00 - Marissa's journey in navigating the money mindset
0:34:00 - Connecting with Marissa and final thoughts
THE ERIN DAVIS SHOW
Erin Davis
Okay, so welcome to the Erin Davis Show. Today. We have Marissa Roberts with us, and I am so excited to have this conversation today. Marissa helps business owners simplify and scale their business for more income and more freedom. I just love that. Do you want to share a little bit about you and your story? And I, yeah, I'm just really interested to get to know you a bit more.
Marissa Roberts
Yeah, totally. I'm so excited that we're chatting today. Erin, I yeah, I'm very passionate about helping people make their business and life more simple and easy, so that they just have more fun. You know, ever since I was a teenager, one of my goals in life was, it's going to sound really shallow. My goal was I just want to feel like I'm on holiday every day. It doesn't have to be totally fancy. It doesn't matter where I am or what I've got to do, you know, I just always wanted that relaxed sort of vibe. And I think having those goals, you know, really helped when I went through a lot of milestones in life, like moving from corporate to starting my own business, having my family trying to juggle, running a business with young kids. And so that's kind of where it all stems from. And I realised as I was going down this journey myself of making my life and business simpler and easier, I would have my entrepreneurial friends come up and go, Yeah, but how do you get all that stuff done in a day? How do you juggle? You know, work with the kids, how you're not exhausted? So, yeah, I kind of, I think it's become not only my mission in life, but my mission for others as well, simple and easy.
Erin Davis
I love that, because I think we do all get so caught up in that busy day today, and particularly, as you said, working in corporate, plus being a mum, plus doing all the things ends up leaving you feeling exhausted. So I really love how your focus is on that simple, easy, simplify and scale, but create the freedom and be on holidays all the time. That is really cool.
Marissa Roberts
Oh, exactly. And I think it can be, you know, when I talk to people about adding more freedom to their life, it looks so different for all of us, doesn't it, and it looks so different at different parts of our life. And I think that that's the beauty of it, is you don't have to rigidly follow someone else's pattern and get the exact same results they got. You know, you really need to be able to tune into what. What you really want, what makes you happy, you know, is that just, you know, having a shorter work day so you can go to the park with your kids, or is it, you know, having the freedom to work out of the office and either chill at home or go to a fancy cafe and get your work done there, like, whatever that looks like for you. I think the more you align with how you want your business to feel just as much as how much you want it to make. I think that's when you tune in and you get more of that balance, and you get more of that, that feeling of, okay, this is true success. It's living and working how I want to do it. So yeah, and I think we help more people, the better we feel, right? I know I serve my clients better when I'm feeling really relaxed and confident and feeling on top of things that that really carries across in my deliverables for clients as well, right?
Erin Davis
I really agree with that. I think the way that we feel as women comes across in everything. So I really don't like that whole fake it till you make it thing, because people can just see through it. And when you are truly feeling happy and relaxed and calm, it shows in everything that you do. So I really love that you're focusing on tuning into feeling good, because then that comes out in the outcomes that you deliver for your clients.
Marissa Roberts
Yeah, and isn't that the goal anyway? You know, we start our business because, yes, we want some, we want more money, we want to do what we love. The underlying thought, there is, I want to feel good. I want to be happy. And so I think let's just shortcut, Let's aim for that first, and then all of the other stuff comes in as a bonus. Because the more the better you feel. The easier everything is, the more things flow. People are happier. Sales are easier, because you're not desperate for them anymore. You are just, happy to help people. It all just kind of comes full circle, doesn't it? So how do you tune into that feeling of, well, this is what I want to do. This is, this is how I want to feel and how I want to be, because there is a lot of that comparison. It is happening out there that, you know, you see people and you think, Oh, well, I need to be working this many hours a day, or I need to be doing this, and they're doing that. So how do you work? Or how do you suggest your clients come up with that? What does it look like for me and what feels good for me? Yeah, I think you nailed it before when you said, you know, we're reacting to things all the time. We do spend most of our day putting out the little fires that pop up, right? And you kind of feel like we're not in control of our day.
We have a plan, we have a to do list, and then, boom, 10 things happen that we're not expecting. We just have to handle all of those. And then you get and then you get to the end of the day and you go, I don't even remember what I got done. I feel like I just ran a marathon and I got absolutely nowhere. We all have days like that, and I was noticing with my business, I was having a lot of those days. And I had young kids at home at the time too. Because this isn't my first business, my first business, it's called beautifully organised. It runs kind of automatically now selling online courses on how to organise your home. And I started that business because I wanted to help other mums with young kids set up their home in their life, so their day flows easier, right? So lovely. Super ironic. I burnt out in like two months. I was helping other people in their home so much. Their house was great. Their life was awesome. I was exhausted. I was working more hours than I did in my corporate career. I was too tired to play with my kids. My house was a mess because I was so busy cleaning other people's houses I couldn't do my own. And that was kind of an aha moment for me. That was, that was the time where I went, hang on a second. I started my own business so I could work hours that suited my family, and I'm working more than ever before now. The kids are getting looked after by way more other people than they did when I was in corporate.
So that was a moment, and I think everybody has to find that moment. You know, the best step you can take is to wait till you kind of, well not wait. But you know, when you're in the thick of it and you're kind of feeling overwhelmed and that I don't know what to do, and I'm not sure what I should be focusing on. I feel like I'm behind with everything. That's actually the time when I tell my clients just that's when you need to slow down the most. That's don't try and get everything down. That's when you need to just take a break. And people will understand. Everyone understands when you say, I just need a day, right? It's not the end of your business, not the end of your world. It actually makes people relieved sometimes, because often they're not ready for what they need to give to you at that time. So if you just take a day when you're feeling overwhelmed and go, I need to make this whole day purely about me, it just kind of frees up. It opens up that little gateway for you to go, Okay, now I've given myself permission. I've got actual time to do this, and I'm going to start looking into what I actually want right now? Is it more money? Is it more free time? Is it a more fun way to work? Do I want to add more playfulness? Am I working for too many people right now and under charging and burning myself out? Or am I feeling like I don't have enough work right now? So I'm constantly on edge and feeling nervous. You know, taking the day. It sounds really simple, but we never actually stop and do it, right? We're so busy serving everybody else. Yeah, take the day, is my first advice. Yeah.
And I love that, because I know that I get caught up in that whole running around, doing all the things that one day just leads into the next. And I think when you are in that space, you're not allowing the creativity to flow. You're not showing up as your best self, because you are constantly on that hamster wheel just going round and round and not really slowing down to tune into what it is that you want. So I really love that. Yeah, I love that as a first step. I think it makes such a big difference, because it takes you out of that mindset of, I'm behind and I can't catch up. And it puts you in the mindset of, no, I have plenty of time. I can control what I do with my time. I just need to be a little bit more focused on where I want to go and where I want to be. And, you know, for me, the answer was shortening my work days. I'm not a person who can sit and focus for eight hours. I'm really not, and I'm not great at being stuck in an office or stuck in my house. If I'm working from home, I need a little bit of excitement. So you know, if you're on my Instagram, you'll notice I'm usually posting a lunch at a cafe or going down to the park and working on my laptop there, or going to the library or a co working space or something. I just have this need to have something a little different happen in my day, and I think that kicks in my creative side, and that's where a lot of my writing and my content and my products come from.
And shortening my workday so that it's not a full eight hours, that was a really good one for me, because A, I felt like I had more freedom. I didn't have to work as much, but B shortening those hours forced me to really prioritise what was most important to work on, right? So because I hadI started off by shaving a couple of hours off each day, and because I had less time, I really didn't have time to fluff around with my email. I didn't have time to go down internet rabbit holes or procrastinate on jobs that I had to do. So for me, those two steps were really big ones, but they are going to be different for everybody.
Erin Davis
But I think that's the thing, isn't it, that we, we think we have this amount of time, and it doesn't matter if we've got, like you said, eight hours or five hours, we're going to fill that time no matter what time it is. So if you are really strict with your boundaries in relation to that time, then you're just going to focus and you're just going to get done in that time, rather than taking the whole eight hours to do it. Yeah, that makes a huge difference. So you do a lot with marketing. So how do you simplify your marketing strategy so you have more sales with less effort?
Marissa Roberts
It's my favourite thing to show people, because I think when we start a business, a lot of us think marketing is this big, serious thing, and there's only one way to get it right, but really marketing, and in a nutshell, is just getting in front of people and raising awareness of you and your business and your offers, and so we can have a little more fun with that.
You know, there's never been a better time to have a business and have your own marketing strategy, because we have so many free online tools for this, or we have so many social opportunities to get in front of new people. I really think that when it comes to things like marketing and sales and making them a little more easy or making them effortless, it really comes down to what feels good for you, right? So I'll usually say to my clients, okay, if we're talking about online, and this is going to sound different to all the other advice that I got when I first started running a business, because everyone was like, go on the social media platform that your ideal client is on, which is a great theory, but it never worked for me because it wasn't where I wanted to be. So I just hated showing up there right away. I thought a lot of my clients were on Twitter when I first moved into simplifying business and Twitter, for me, it's quite a negative space a lot of the time. Or maybe it's just my algorithm. I don't know who I accidentally clicked on and interacted with, but, you know, it was terrible. I never wanted to do it, so I was never consistently there, and that did nothing for my business.
I love Instagram. Love being on Instagram. I love watching reels. I love reading other people's posts. I like following along on their stories and answering the little questions and polls and that sort of thing. So it makes sense, when I'm doing my marketing to focus heavily on Instagram. I enjoy being there anyway. I happen to be there, and if I can, if I'm consuming content, I might as well put a little bit out there at the same time. So I think coming at it from a point of taking that pressure off and releasing the need to do it like other people do it, that's a really big step. If you're watching someone else succeed online, because they're doing a particular strategy on a particular platform. I think we've got to remember sometimes that what we're seeing isn't the only way people do things. There are 1000s of ways to market your business, and there are going to be trends coming and going all the time in terms of marketing, and some of them you're going to love, and some of them you're going to hate. And it's totally fine to just pick the one that feels really good for you. So go by how you're feeling, and once you've picked it, that's when I'd say, add a little bit of structure and commit to it for a certain amount of time. So don't just try it for a week and give up, but really spend some time online. For example, on social media. If you pick Tiktok as your platform, spend some time there. Show up on a consistent basis. Give it three months. Give it six months, give it a year, whatever you're comfy with, commit to that amount of time, and then just think to yourself, you know, how can I make it more fun? How can I enjoy what I'm posting and enjoy what I'm putting out there for people to see? I think a lot of us feel like we have to do a lot of teaching on social media, for example, you know, lots of how toā€™s.
You know, if I can show people that I can help them in this way they're going to buy my product, because I've proved that I know what I'm talking about. And yeah, there's space for that. Maybe, you know, I do that maybe once a week, but the rest of the time, I like to just document my day, document my life, show people what being in my industry and specialising in what I specialise in has resulted in for me as a business owner. And, yeah, I mean, who doesn't love? I mean, I know it's a bit cringe, but who doesn't love taking a picture of their lunch if they're at a fancy cafe or or showing that they're, at the beach, going for a walk along the beach at midday, when everybody else is at work and at school. The little subconscious messages that document your day can actually show your ideal client are more powerful than a lot of people realise they are.
Erin Davis
And I think that plays into the whole money mindset confidence piece too, because when you are showing up in your true, authentic self, rather than trying to be like everybody else and doing what everybody else does, that whole negative energy, or that fake energy that we put out there comes through, even though we're trying not to. So when you can show up as your best self, doing the things that you love in a way that feels totally aligned, it feels more natural, it feels more connected, and it feels more in flow, which then translates into how your audience feels about you.
Marissa Roberts
Yeah, that's so that's exactly how it works, that and people can feel the vibe if it's not quite right. People know, right. And it's so strange because, you know, I'll have clients say to me, you know, once I started just relaxing and letting go and stop trying to make content that I was seeing other people successful with, and just be myself and share what I like. That's when people engaged more. That's when my followers grew. And I say to them, it's so true, because your story, your life, and everything that you do in it, whether it's business related or non business related, whatever you share becomes, becomes you, and you know, it's like, you know, your pets become cameo characters in your content. People love, you know, when my cat accidentally walks across the screen, if I'm doing a video podcast, they love that more than half the content I'm sharing, you know? And they're like, I don't know why, but that sort of thing resonates with people. People love hearing about your origin story. You know what inspired you to start your business, because it's usually a challenge that you've overcome in your own right, and people resonate with you having a challenge, or, you know, people love to see the things that you're currently working on.
We all think we have to present this perfect image, and everything's a success. And we've, we've hit the top, or reached the peak, or whatever the saying is with the mountains, but people actually like to hear exactly where you're at. What are you working on right now? What's something you're struggling with that you're focused on right now? Because all of that stuff is relatable and all of that stuff is interesting to people who might be on a similar journey, and they might just be a step or two behind you. We don't have to be perfect, do we?
Erin Davis
No, and I think that vulnerability that you show without having to share all the nitty gritty and all the bits and pieces, but being able to share where you're at and articulate the struggles that you've gone through and then how you've overcome it really provides that permission for other people to go, oh Yeah, I can do that too, or she's done it, so I can do it, or I can do this. I know I can do it, rather than just sitting there, hiding behind that, oh, I can't do it. I'm not sure. I'll just keep struggling along. You can actually just step up and have a go and because you see other people do it, it just. It really just gives you permission to have a go yourself.
Marissa Roberts
Yeah, exactly. And I think that's what makes it more fun, then you start engaging people with the people who are following you, and you get to know them as real people, not just numbers on a social media page, and you start to find out more about, you know, their their perception of what's happening in their experience. And that helps you learn and grow in terms of being a coach or a service provider. And so it that back and forth really helps you grow as a business owner as well. So your marketing's covered. You know, just relax. Pick somewhere you like to be. Relax. Show up on a regular basis, share what's really going on. Everyone has a level. I don't really share my kids on social media anymore because they're older, and they're like don't do it. So, yep, that's not showing my photo
Exactly. They're like, yeah, donā€™t do that!
Marissa Roberts
Exactly. So I don't share them. But, you know, I just I relax. I share what I'm learning, I share what I'm doing, I share the fun I'm having, and I have a little sales funnel in the background that takes all of that little visibility and all of that connection and turns it into sales. For me. So I know a lot of people are like, you know, just shop consistently, and the money will come. And for me, I needed a little bit more structure, because I'm terrible at sales on the spot. I'm terrible at sales phone calls and discovery calls and stuff like that. I stumble through them. So for me, I was like, I'm just going to relax and share my life and share my business, but then in the background, have a little email funnel going, or have a little social media funnel going where I can introduce my products and services to people. Behind the scenes, the system will do it for me. I don't necessarily have to do it myself, and that for me is, yeah,
Erin Davis
I bet that feels much more aligned to you, though, rather than having to get like you said, you don't like to do those sales calls or it feels a little bit icky, but having we're in business to make money, right? Because money is for me, money allows us to have the freedom to choose what it is that we want to do. So while you can be in business for that heartfelt purpose. There's also got to be a profit behind it, because otherwise, what's the point of doing it? So if you have your systems and processes set up in the back end to allow for things to move through, then that really allows you to show up on the front end in a way that feels more connected, more aligned, more expansive and abundant and you know that the back end is taken care of.
Marissa Roberts
Yeah, it totally takes the pressure off. And that's why I think, if you're a business owner and you haven't set that up yet, you're always going to feel like you're running and running and trying to catch up, because you're always feeling like, I've got to sell something on this Instagram post, I've got to sell something on this live video. I've got to sell something here. And so here and sell something there. And you're always feeling right? That's a lot of pressure. Some people, some people are fantastic at that. And if you are good at that, if that's if your adrenaline pumping is how you sell and you sell, well, totally do it. I am terrible at that. So yeah, for me, having that structure, having it all set up so I can just focus on having a great time. That was the key. Yeah, yeah.
Erin Davis
So how do you know if you've chosen the right strategy for your marketing?
Marissa Roberts
Oh, itā€™s definitely not going to feel good if you've chosen the wrong one. It's going to feel like a hard slog. If you've picked something that's not aligned, you're going to always feel stressed when you think about it. You're going to sit down, go to write a post, go to write a newsletter, and you will have that blank page syndrome. You won't know where to start, or what to say, or how to tie it into selling something. I think it's all, it all comes back to feeling, doesn't it? It all comes back. If you wake up and you think, well, I've got a couple of jobs to do today, and I'm excited to do them, you're on the right track. If you wake up and think, oh, everything on my list today is horrible. I just want to go hide in a corner. I don't want to answer my phone. Then there's something going on in your business, it's not set up in alignment with your goals and your personality and your natural strengths and talents. We all have something that we're good at and other things that we're not so good at. And I think you can come to a blend in the middle where you can work on some of your skills and get better at them. But I also think there's a lot of beauty in just going, you know, what do I really, really enjoy? What am I naturally good at? What do people ask me for help with normally that I wouldn't have thought was a big deal, because it seems easy for me, but it's difficult for them. You know, those sorts of things. They're the ones I want my clients to lean into, and when they go, Yeah, but that doesn't feel like real work. That's fine. That's okay. It shouldn't be a hard slog. In fact, I think when we were at a point where you kind of go, Oh, this feels a little too easy, that's when you're on the right track, which that probably sounds really shallow, but, you know, I really like that, yeah, that that whole connected back to feeling is so important. Important. I think we just discount it so much, and we just keep pushing through, rather than trying to find a way that is simpler and more in flow and connected to what it is that we want to do. Yeah, I mean taking a minute to think, What do I like to talk about? What angle do I find interesting, or even the content that you consume, what podcasts do I like to listen to, what YouTube channels do I like to watch, what shows do I like to watch on TV? They all hold little insights into your own interests and strengths and the things that really shine out of you when you take part in them, and those are the things that draw people to you, that draw clients to you, because they tend to gravitate towards people that they have things in common with.
And so I just think, you know, if there's an easier way out there, and it feels good, why not give it a go?
Erin Davis
I love that so much. So how do you keep your mindset aligned and in flow with what's important to you?
Marissa Roberts
Oh, that's a good question. For me. Self Care is a really big influencer on my mindset. If I'm taking care of everybody else except me, my mindset goes down the drain. You know, everything is hard. I get very resentful. I have a lot of lack and scarcity going on if I'm constantly, constantly prioritising everybody else but me, and I'm a mum, and I have extended family and friends that I love, and I met, I was always a people pleaser, naturally. So it's very it's very odd, I think now for me to say that, now that I'm at this part of my life where I'm like, No, it needs to be all about me first, because it's like that old saying, right? When you're on an aeroplane and all the oxygen masks come down, they say, put it on yourself so that you stay alive and can help other people.
That's so true in real life, whenever things feel hard for me, I really look I take that that little day, and I step back and I look at everything, and I realise that it only feels hard because I'm seeing a pattern of me putting myself last and it's the same thing every time, if, if I'm stuck in a rut, I look back and I go, well, actually, I haven't had any time for myself. I haven't had downtime. I've been jumping from one thing to another. I've been trying to meet deadlines for everybody. I've got no breathing room. That's a really big one. I like to have a lot of downtime. Yeah, I like to go to the Gold Class movies while everyone else is at school or work. I like to have a long bubble bath for three hours and just keep refilling it with hot water. I like to give myself four hours for a project when I can probably do it in one just so I can really tap into the creativity and not feel pressure. I don't like to over schedule my calendar. I think buffer time is so important, because we often think we can do things in a certain amount of time and don't give ourselves enough time to complete them, and then we feel like we can never keep up.
So yeah, self care and self care can be so many different things. I can be going to bed early. It can be giving yourself time to do a puzzle or read a book. It can be sitting with your cat on the lounge, watching a show, patting your cat and just enjoying a nice, slow evening. It could be the fun stuff too. It can be going and getting a facial or getting your nails done, or, you know, taking yourself out to dinner or giving yourself a long weekend staycation, whatever floats your boat, you got to tune more into it, and you've got to do more of it. And I think we'd all give that advice to our kids, right? Do the thing that makes you happy. Everything else will start to fall into place, because you'll be in a better mindset. So, yeah, basically, treat yourself like the most important person in your life.
Erin Davis
And I think as mums and women, we do forget to do that, and we try to schedule everything in. I know my Thursday this week is just appointment after appointment after appointment, and I'm looking at it going, Oh, that really should have had some buffer time in there. It's like, how am I going to get from one to the other? But trying to do everything ends up being that we do nothing really very well, and then we feel disappointed in ourselves because we haven't given 100% to that task that we needed to do, or shown up as our best self. So this Thursday is going to be on for me, but I have locked out that buffer time to allow for some extra space and capacity. But, you know, sometimes you just gotta do things as it comes up. And as you know, I just need to make sure that Wednesday and Friday are days that allow that space and have that buffer time in it, so Thursday can be full on. But either side, I just need to make sure that I'm taking care of me.
Marissa Roberts
I love that. And how many people don't look at that whole week and go hang on a minute. This is full on. I need more space over here, even just to sit down on a Sunday night and look at your week ahead. Gives you so much more opportunity to take care of yourself in the coming seven days, right? And Tell you what, one of the best things I ever did was take my to do list and put it in my calendar. So if a client said to me, Hey, can you just do this little job for me? I used to go, yeah, yeah, sure. And then try and cram it into my week and go, I don't have the time to do it. I'm going to have to juggle things now. I just go, oh yeah, I've got, you know, two hours span next week. I can slot that into Thursday. That sounds good. So much easier. It's like a tiny change, but it makes a really big difference. And if I don't have the time that week, I can say, Oh, look how much of a priority is this because I don't have any space next week, but I can put it in front of the job I'm doing for you currently and focus on that instead, you know, and be a bit more flexible. And clients, every time I say that to them, they're fine with it, whereas I thought it's just a conversation, isn't it? It's having that conversation and the expectation about, well, when do things need to be done? Who needs to do it? How do I need to get it done? And if you have that conversation up front that everybody knows what's happening, it makes it so much easier to take all of that stuff out of your head and put it down on paper. Everyone knows what's happening, and then nobody's disappointed, because you've set the expectations exactly the amount of times likely, where I've said to a client, you know, when do you need that buy? Just when do you need that done by, yeah, yeah, little words, yeah. I never used to ask that. And here I am thinking that they've asked me if they need it done today, and they'll reply and go, Oh, in the next three or four weeks, is fine?
Erin Davis
Yeah, Hey, hang on. I don't need to do it today because I've got space and I've got capacity. One of the things that we have done for our family, the kids have got lots of appointments, and we're working. The kids are working, we have a on our wall. There are four wall planners, and it's a week for everybody. So we have the kids laid out. We know exactly where they're going to be. The meal plan is up there as well. And I think just taking all of that stuff out of our head and putting it on paper somewhere, whether it's in your calendar, for us, it's the week is on the wall. Everybody can just see what's happening, and it takes out that pressure to do everything and be everything. We don't have to remember everything. We just know where it's up to which then, as a business owner and a mum, you're able to show up as your best self again, and it all keeps coming back to that, like circling back to how can you show up as your best self?
Because then that's how you grow your business, and how you feel connected and how you feel aligned. Is when you're in that space.
Marissa Roberts
I totally agree, not having to rely on your memory or not having the mental load, it's like the golden thing you can do in your business. And I remember you said a meal plan. And it made me remember the time I got so sick of planning dinners every night that one day I sat down and I wrote 31 meals, just 31 ideas, and said to my family, from now on, we're just going to rotate this meal plan. It's just cyclical every month, on the third day of the month, we're like fish finger wraps and chips for dinner, you know. And we went through a couple of years like that, and now we're a lot more flexible, because I think my husband got sick of it, so he started taking over the dinners.
Erin Davis
But well, that's what we have done for our family. We've got a four week roster, so there is a meal plan for a week, and we've got four weeks and we just rotate it. Because it was the same. I was like, well, what are we having for dinner this week? Or what are we going to do this week? It just took so much energy and mental load, that we just went, well, why don't we just write a meal plan for a month, and we just rotate it. It's on a weekly rotation. And, you know, little things like that. I think they all contribute to making your business easier and making the way that you feel lighter,
Marissa Roberts
And a lot of that stuff then becomes second nature. So, you know, I do it with content as well. I think to myself, once a week, I'm going to do a podcast episode. It's going to be repurposed into an article. I'm going to screenshot that article and post it on my Instagram story, and then done it's all, you know, that's the one piece of content I follow the same pattern every week. There's no mental load. There's no What am I going to post? What is it going to look like my followers enjoy the regularity of that content and the fact that they can expect that style of content, and then the rest, I just pepper through and just take random photos and videos of whatever I'm up to. So it's like you take the pressure off with the main foundational piece. You set up the structure around it, whether that be a meal plan or a content plan, you put that same thing, right?
Yeah, you plug it in, and then yeah, as I mean, honestly, I say to my customers, if you plug in your work things into your calendar, but you also plug your self care into your calendar, and then as little fires pop up, you try and schedule putting them out, rather than putting them out immediately. That's it. Really you're winning at life at that point.
Erin Davis
I love that winning at life.
Marissa Roberts
That's just, that's what we all want, right? Now we want you on holidays, every day, you know, every day, and you know, giving yourself a little bit of buffer in terms of your commitments as well. Like I realised a couple of weeks ago that I had my kids, I had some medical appointments scheduled for my kids and myself, and I had accidentally put a few on the same day, and I freaked out a bit, and thought, how am I going to juggle all of that and get work done at the same time? And then I realised I can just ring the place up and say, Hey, I've accidentally double booked us. Can I move the appointment? And it's such a simple thing. But it didn't occur to me until that moment that I could just ring and change the appointment. As simple as that sounds. I thought, No, I've made the appointment. I have to make it work. How am I going to make this busy day work? We're all going to be exhausted by 8pm but at least it's done. No, I can just ring and they had another appointment 10 days later, and it was no big deal. It was fine. Sometimes I think we make things big in our head because we want to be successful. We want to show we can handle things. But we never mind if somebody else needs help. We never mind if someone else needs an extended deadline. We never mind if somebody says I'd love to do it, but I'm just a little overwhelmed right now. We always feel compassion for those people, so let's give it to ourselves as well. Feels better.
Erin Davis
So good. I love that. So to finish off, what is your relationship with money and the way you feel about it, the money mindset. How is that? You know, you're obviously a successful business owner, having a couple of businesses. How have you navigated through that money mindset space?
Marissa Roberts
Oh, I'll tell you. I've had some lessons over the years, and I think there's always a new lesson, right? You can get on top of one mindset block, and then, boom, another one pops up, another one pops up. Yeah, it always pops up. It's continuous learning, continuous development. I think a big one for me when I was younger, especially in my early 20s, is that you gotta work hard to make money. The hardest working person makes the most money, which now I'm like, That's ridiculous. I make more money now. Hardly doing anything helps more people. I'm helping more people than ever before. Then back when I was in my 20s, trying to work two full time jobs and burning out in the process, it's, you know, so you've gotta work hard to make money, was a big, big limiting belief for me, and that changed when I discovered YouTube.
Do you remember it was like 2009 when YouTube came out? I had a couple of toddlers at home at the time, and that was when I was in my burnout phase. And I remember thinking, you know, I want to I, I need to make money, and need this business to work. And I was, you know, just trying to juggle eight hour days. How many clients can I fit into? What day, driving time to their house, physically lifting and moving their furniture and helping them Declutter? It was so difficult. But I was in that mindset of, you know, you've if you're going to make money doing this, you have to go all in. You have to put all your time and effort into this to show that you can do it. And then I remember being at home with my youngest baby and just watching YouTube videos while, you know, we were up at night during the overnight feeds, and coming across people who were doing exactly what I was doing, but just sharing their tips online and selling them as online courses with unlisted videos on YouTube that just email you the video once a week, you'd buy the course. They send you a welcome email. They send you a new video every week. And I remember thinking how that's too easy, like, too too easy. That's wrong. Yeah, that was my mindset. And then I thought, well, hang on, if not them, we, you know, why? Why not me? If they, if they're succeeding, why can't I?
So I gave that a try, and that was the turning point for my whole organising business. The whole thing is online. Now, you know, even the embarrassing YouTube videos I made back in 2012 where I'm filming on my iPad and folding fitted sheets on the floor, and I'm cringing about that, now, that's still my most popular YouTube video that sells the most courses, because people go, Oh, this is someone relatable. And yeah, so yeah, you've gotta work hard to make money. Was the first one that I had to get rid of. And then I guess the one that matches that is feeling like you need to get paid for hours of work. That was a big one for me. And so even pricing my services now, over the last few years, I've had to do a shift and go, I don't need to price hourly anymore. I need to price based on the amazing outcome I'm going to give people. So I don't have to justify when I'm working with clients and say, I am physically working at this many hours a day, at this rate per day, and that's why it's valuable for you. They're not interested in that, not the clients that I love working with. They just want to say, you know, I know I need to do this, but I don't want to do it myself. Can you free me up and do it for me? And whether I do that personally myself or I subcontract that out to my team, as long as they get the results at the end of the day, they don't need to know the details of how.
We got there and how long it took. They're paying because I'm freeing up their time. They're paying because I'm creating digital products for them that have no cap on the amount of money they're going to make in the future. So they're making more money in the long run from having me work for them. They don't mind if I have templates that save me six hours a day at work. They actually like that, because they think, well, it would have taken me a long time to come up with the ideas for those templates or for that service, and you've already got it ready to go, so I'd like to pay you to be able to use those resources and save myself all that time and effort.
So yeah, so money and time and having a cap on what you can earn, that was a big money block for me that I'm really enjoying busting through right now. Like to know that you can add passive products to your business, especially service providers. We think, Oh, you, if you're going to have a digital product or a passive product, you have to be a coach or you have to be a course creator. But if you're a service provider, you're probably doing the same job month in and month out for multiple clients. You've probably got your own little, say, template pack already set up that you're using. Why not sell that passively on Etsy or on your website or, you know, somewhere online. Why not sell that for customers who aren't quite ready for the full service yet and would like to DIY it first and have all of that money coming in in the background, just Ding, ding, ding, on your phone while you're, you know, enjoying a nice dinner out for a holiday all the time, or a holiday feeling like you're on holiday, holidays. So yeah, the two big ones for me,
Erin Davis
I love that so much. So have you got anything finally, that you want to share? Or, where can people reach you? Where can they connect with you if they have loved listening to you today?
Marissa Roberts
Oh, well, the easiest way to find me is on my website. So it's just www.marissaroberts.com and then you can go to the contact page, and it will have all my social media icons down the bottom of that page. I love to chat about making work and life easier.
So Instagram is always the best place to find me. I'm there every day, and whether it be, you know, chats in stories or chats in DMS or just a little bit of back and forth, I love hearing other people's perspective on something that they have simplified. So I'm not here just to be like, you know, everybody needs to do what I'm doing. I'm really passionate about other people sharing their ideas and their experiences as well. So I do, yeah, I love chatting on Instagram. It's the best, best place to find me absolutely. And you know, if you go on the website, there's always a couple of resources for free on there that are going to help save you time and effort. So go ahead and grab them. We've got, you know, a little ebook on how to get started with passive products, a little workshop on how to create your own course for the first time so that you actually get it done if you're procrastinating on it. Here's a nice, easy way to do it, basically, if you want to hack for doing something in less time with us, less effort, go to the website. Ah, okay, I'll be over there soon.
Erin Davis
Amazing. Thank you so much, Marissa, I have loved chatting with you. Yeah, I love your idea of just making things simple, because I think we over complicate things way too much because we get caught up in that we just have to be on the go all the time. But I love being on holiday every day. That is my goal. I definitely want that. I want to be by the beach every day or going for a run, just really slowing down and simplifying, but then having the choice. So thank you so much for joining us. I have loved chatting with you. And head over to Marissa website. I will put all the links in the show notes so you can have it, have a look and check it out, and I look forward to chatting with you soon.
Marissa Roberts
Thank you for having me.
