Podcast S2:E2 - Taking A Summer Break In Business with Cassie Widders

Cassie is a social media strategist, consultant and workshop facilitator, and she works with busy business owners to simplify their social media strategy. Cassie believes in creating sustainable strategies that work with your lifestyle, not ones that have you chained to your phone. I loved recording this episode with Cassie because she shows us what's possible.

You can connect with the freaking incredible Cassie Widders over on
Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or on her website!

Show notes:

(Please note that these are computer generated and therefore imperfect).

Ellie: Welcome to the capable collective podcast, a place for women who want to ditch the overwhelm and learn to run their business with ease. I'm your host, Ellie McBride. And I firmly believe that as women and non-binary folks, we are best as a collective. So together with my expert guests. We are sharing the tools, systems and ethos behind a simple yet thriving business.

This season, we are talking all about working with your natural rhythms and the episodes will be coming out every other Wednesday. I'm so excited to dive into topics like working with your menstrual cycle, living with lunar cycles, living seasonally, working from a place of rest and creating boundaries and so much more.

Ready to dive in. Let's go. Cassie is a social media strategist, consultant and workshop facilitator, and she works with busy business owners to simplify their social media strategy. Cassie believes in creating sustainable strategies that work with your lifestyle, not ones that have you chained to your phone.

I loved recording this episode with Cassie because she shows us what's possible. She's created her entire business around. Her energy, her schedule, and wanting to spend more time with her husband doing the things she loves. And that's exactly why we're all in business for the freedom and flexibility, as well as the capacity to help people with our gifts and talents and skillsets.

So let's hear exactly how she does it. 

So today we are here with Cassie. And we're going to talk all about social media. We're going to talk about living and working and kind of a different rhythm. We're going to talk about making things a little bit easier for you in the way that you do business. And I'm really excited for this conversation.

So let's get started, Cassie, where are you from? 

Cassie: Hello? Um, so I'm originally from Wales, uh, in the UK, but I currently live in Yorkshire in England. 

Ellie: And what are your preferred pronouns? 

Cassie: She her hers. 

Ellie: Fantastic. And when did you start your business?

Cassie:  My business has been going for, um, two years now. Um, before that I spent years working on social media strategies for large companies.

Yeah. Before I started to venture out on my own. 

Ellie: Very, very cool. Why did you kind of decide to venture out on your own? 

Cassie: Well, um, I actually got into this industry almost by accident. Um, I was working for a company, um, in China actually. And I lived there for three years and I realized that this company didn't have a social media presence.

And, you know, I used that as a user. I'm a millennial. You think that you, you know, social media, but I'd also had a travel blog. I'd been traveling for quite some time. So I thought, you know what? I think I could help him. So I proposed the role. And I wrote a job description, pitched my boss and said, listen, let me take, let me have this role.

Let me create, let me implement your social media strategy. I think I can do this. And they were very lovely, even though I had no experience, um, they took me on through that. I was able to get a lot training for them, and I learned so much in that time. But what then happened is myself and my partner were moving back to the UK.

So I was like, Oh, what do I do now? I've got this whole new skill sets, but I would like to continue on, I love the work. And I realized that I actually could do it remotely. So I just pitched them and said, would you like to be a client of mine? I think I can do this as a business. And I would love to have you that.

And they were became my first clients and I had them for quite a few hours a week before I started taking on more clients. And yeah, that's, that's how it started out of nosiness.

Ellie:  Where all have you kind of lived in your travels? 

Cassie: Um, I've lived in France and Denmark. I studied in Denmark and India where I worked for an NGO.

And then in China, Um, for a few years, cause my background is actually an international development rather than social media. So it's a bit of a jump, but here 

Ellie: I am, I feel you, my, my degree was in biology and community health. So like,

so can you tell me a bit about what you love about your work? 

Cassie: I think this is like the cliche, isn't it like freedom and flexibility. This is what I wanted. This is what I love about it, but. I think what's interesting to know is that it didn't come right away for me. I thought when I was going to start my new business, that I was going to be my own boss, so I'll get up and I'll do what I want every day.

I know I started out that, that wasn't the case and I really had to work to kind of find the rhythm that I wanted to work in and how I was going to make that happen. Um, I think it was a bit, a bit of a wake-up call when I first started my own business. It was like, Well, I don't want to do this today. I feel I was my own boss.

I can do whatever, but now it's definitely the fact that I can, you know, wake up and choose my projects, choose my clients, which I'm now in a really good position to do. And the fact that I can work anywhere because I'm a big travel lava. So that's good. Well, not right now during COVID it was sleeping, right?

We'll come back. 

Ellie: Definitely. Yeah. I kind of feel you around that. Like for me, it was. I started my entire business around wanting to be flexible and location and time. And I finally got to the point where I was. You know, I was, my business was strong. It was a lot more flexible. I had simplified things and then I couldn't go.

Yeah, we'll get back. We'll get back 

there. We'll get there. Yes. So I like to talk to people about like what kind of help they have in their businesses, because I think there's this illusion, sometimes that solopreneurs do everything themselves and that they're really excelling and. I think that that can be really a harmful narrative.

So what assistance or help might do have in your business? 

Cassie: So I have a BA and she does quite a lot of my tasks behind the scenes. So I rely on her quite lot. And then on contractor basis, I have web developers, a copywriter, and a designer who I outsource things on a project by project basis. But, uh, this was a real struggle for me because I am a bit of a control freak, and I I've never been someone who wanted to scale into this big agency.

I always wanted full freedom. And to me it was almost a bit of a scary thing to have people that I was responsible for and that I was, you know, ensuring everything was working and passing on work to them. I just was a bit hesitant about that, but I think now having seen the benefit it's yeah, it's amazing.

And I also have my business coach who I know you've had on your show before Ashley Gartland. So yeah, she also has been helping me, um, through, for months now. So yeah, that's the little team. 

Ellie: Yes. I think the whole small, but mighty teams really are amazing because I've had, you know, my business coach and my assistant and things like that as well.

And I may be the creative person and all that. Like we, as entrepreneurs are obviously in charge of still the majority of our businesses. But we still having that little bit of help can make a world of difference for sure. Definitely. Before we go any further, can you tell people a bit about what you do?

Cassie: Okay. Sure. So I would say to me, distract just a consultant and a workshop facilitator. And I work with, um, busy business owners who want to create, um, simplify their social media strategy. So, if you are looking for a way to still reach your goals on social media, but you don't want to be glued to your phone, then he comes to me.

That's the basics of it. Yeah. I make sure that their strategies are sustainable and they work within the resources that they have. You know, not everyone has a team. Some people just have a small team, so we just kind of work about prioritizing, what should they be focusing their time and energy on and how are they going to do that?

To reach their goals. 

Ellie: I love that because I think especially around social media, a lot of people find it really draining. A lot of people find it to be really overwhelming. People really can get lost in the world of social media when you're trying to do it for business. I know personally, like if I didn't have a business, I wouldn't have a Facebook hands down.

Cassie: Right. Very many people I work with say the exact same thing. 

Ellie: And that's like, as somebody who lives is abroad and uses it Facebook sometimes still to connect with family, like I just, yeah. So I think that that's a really, really important thing in my community. We sometimes talk about social media systems and kind of creating a working environment for that.

And I would love to talk more with you around that because I obviously, like I was a virtual assistant and I helped people kind of with setting up. A routine and a system and a schedule, but that's, as far as my knowledge goes, whereas you have this wealth of information that I would love to hear about at some stage.

Cassie: I think the first thing I always work with clients, which I think is often overlooked is. Almost about redefining what social media success means to you. Because I work with so many people who come to me and they say, I want to achieve X, Y, Z on social media. And then I'll say, okay. So if we were going to do that and you want to achieve that goal, that's going to take an extra four hours of your week.

Uh, it does that look like success to you? And most of them are like, no, that doesn't actually. Okay. So let's repo, let's look at that again. And let's redefine what success is. And I think once you're able to do that and understand what the compromise would be, and then it's completely up to you, whether you decide that is.

Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to do that or I'm, that's not something I'm willing to do. I'm not willing to sacrifice cooking with my partner at night or myth missing kids best time, or, you know, and these are real considerations because for small businesses they have their full-time business and then they do their social media and their marketing on top of that.

So it's a lot of work and like we said, overwhelmed. So yeah, so you strip it back and reprioritize is so important. 

Ellie: I really understand that in a way that when I was initially starting yeah, my business, I felt like I had to be in all the places I had to do all the content I had to do all the things.

Right. And even once I started scaling that back and kind of having a more, you know, my place is Instagram and I do duplicate some of my content into Facebook and I have my blog. And now this podcast, like it's kind of grown again, but in a more. Wholesome way, I guess. Um, but what I did find is that I put a lot of pressure on myself, around my Instagram and my metrics and what was, what people were doing and such.

And at once they just went like, I'm going, like, I love my Instagram. I'm going to still keep showing up here. But my, my goal with Instagram now it's proved that I'm a real human who knows her stuff. And that when people check out my, my, my website and then go, what does she do over on her Instagram? That I'm a real human who knows herself.

And that's it. 

Cassie: Yeah, I think that's brilliant. It's literally just focusing on that one goal, and this is what I'm going to do because when you start focusing on multiple goals for it, that's when overwhelm kicks in. So if you can just simplify it and have that one goal, and this is what you use it for, everything just becomes so much easier.

Mm. 

Ellie: So can we talk a little bit more around your business and what simple systems. You have to help make more easy. So you have some, some people behind the scenes, but also any systems you use that. Um, so whether it be automations or software or templates that you use to make things a little bit easier.

Cassie: Yeah. So, um, I live by my Asana. Um, that is how I plan everything and my to do list and the different projects that's coming up. And then I went quits of Satos. So that has all my workflow or the automated automation. So, you know, when client onboarding and all those kinds of things. So it's all I, I automate as much as I possibly can just for ease.

And then I think with my social media, I have a really good framework to ensure that everything is not a rinse and repeat, but essentially the same things happen every week that I'm able to create content. Really really easily, um, in a time efficient way to, um, that's gonna just, yeah. Help my, my wellbeing so that I'm not actually on my phone.

I do actually practice what I preach. Um, um, yeah, so I think when it comes to my concentration, I, um, repurpose so much of it. And I think that has worked really well for me on my client's safety time. And it also the amount of effort that you put into that piece of content. You need to kind of see the return on that.

So that really works for me. And I think once I start, I found out what my, um, got crystal clear on what my message was on social media. And I niched down, I understood what I was here for who exactly I was speaking to. It sounds like we hear this kind of thing all the time, but honestly it was. So, so important to enable me to create content really quickly and still reach the goals in a time efficient way.

So that system, my social media system for me is one of my biggest time savers and does not drain my energy. So yeah, that's, for me, 

Ellie: that's very, very cool. I think that people often. Do the whole, like I'm going to create new, new, new, new, new, new content, and instead of repurposing, and w when you have these core kind of pillar pieces of content, you can do so much with them.

You can create, you can create something like this podcast episode, and I can disseminate that across my newsletter and my social media and all sorts of other things like that. But also once you have like core message pieces. So I've recorded. I have a training that I do called like simplified systems for business, and I do that training and work and workshop for that training and workshop in people's Facebook groups and masterminds and things like that.

But I also did that as an ITB, like a brief version of it. I did it as a podcast episode. I have a blog post on it. And same around my like top website kids. I've done that in multiple places as well. And so, because you're touching base with different people, not everyone's going to listen to this podcast, not everyone's going to read my blog, not everybody's going to be in that Facebook group.

Um, not everyone's going to re see my Instagram posts. So it really is okay to like reuse stuff. And I think it can be almost, I think a lot of people will be like, what if people get burnt out on that, but I don't know the exact statistic, but it's something that people need to hear a message from you.

Like a certain number of times. I want to say seven. Yep. There we go. Before they, before they really resonate with it or engage with you 

Cassie: in that way, remember not every single person is going to see it those seven times when you say it because of the algorithm or when they're aligned or whatever. So when you think about actually you, you might feel, am I, God, am I saying the same thing?

Well, it's, I'm I can guarantee you that your audience are not feeling the same and unless you're doing the same thing for a whole year, but you know, in a general sense. Yeah. It's so valuable and for you, for your time, feel messaged to really come through and solidify what you're about for sure. Yeah.

Ellie: There's something to be said for consistency across your business. We talk a lot about consistency and branding, but I think consistency and messaging is something that a lot of people kind of almost overlook the show. Yeah. All right. So I was so excited to dig in like to the next topic, but with you, and I think that your business and such will still weave in with a lot of this, but you work seasonally, right?

You tend to take summers off and entire summers off, which is, 

Cassie: well, I have a lighter workload in summer and I don't do, I don't take on clients over the summer. That is a choice. Of course I could make more money if I take clients on, but I do it for the lifestyle. So yeah, that's, it's crazy that I'm able to do that, but it's working for me.

Ellie: So tell us a little bit about how that works. So first off, I assume that most of your clients, you, you provide strategy for them. So you wouldn't have very, I mean, I could be totally wrong about this, but very many clients that are like on a consistent basis. Do you have a project based 

Cassie: kind of system? I have two, um, options where clients can work with me.

So I have a one-to-one coaching program that's six months. Um, and in that we create and implement their social media strategy together. So from start to finish, I will be that. And then I have half day intensives that that's where we, um, lay strong and sustainable foundations for the social media. And I give them the tools so that they can go off and do it themselves.

So over the summer period, I will make sure I do not have. My coaching clients at that time, intensives, I will book in as, and when I, once the depending, if I'm traveling or if I'm, you know, how I'm feeling for that for the summer, but generally I do low on my workload then, um, yeah, coaching clients, obviously, because they're ongoing and they send me their content plans.

We go over their launch plans. That's a time when the summer is just not, not a time to be working with coaching clients for me. 

Ellie: Okay. And so how do you kind of structure your business otherwise to kind of make that happen for you? 

Cassie: Make sure that my winters and my, my old teams, my, on my winters, all my super productive time.

So that's when I really look at my outreach strategy. So that's when I, you know, pitched for podcast interviews because I've identified that. When I work with clients, we look at, you know, simplifying the social media. We look at their skill sets and we look at their enjoyments. And for me, I've identified that my skills are in podcasts and doing lives and collaborations.

And I really enjoy that. That's one of my favorite things. So I, I have identified that that's a better return of my investment for my time. So I ensure that that that's the time when I really go for it with my outreach strategy. And that brings in a lot of leads and those leads come at a great time when I'm able to take clients.

But I won't be pushing my outreach strategy later on in spring because when those clients come in, I'll only have to tell them, you'll have to wait until autumn, which is not something I really want to be doing. So that's when I just kind of make it seasonally when I'm pushing and when I'm 

Ellie: okay. And so then you focus all obviously on then having kind of clients for winter and spring kind of wrapping things up.

Cassie: Yeah. And there will be some that will wrap up like early summer. But I find that when I work with clients, you know, the beginning time is such an intense periods of, um, you know, they've got loads of set up loads, they're learning loads of questions and where we're going over. So many things and almost, um, changing the foundations.

Whereas the latter half of the time we're working together, they are implementing things on which we can, things where analyzing what's working and it's a much slower pace. So it kind of works really well. 

Ellie: Right because the bulk of the true work and teaching has happened kind of in the upfront section.

It's the fine tuning. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And so tell us a little bit about like, why you've chosen to work seasonally. What's brought this about, 

Cassie: well, this is, um, quite a story. I, last year I got married and this is a true story. I was in my hotel room the night before my wedding. It was midnights and I was sat on my laptop working midnight before my wedding and I was there and I was trying to cram in the swag.

I had client demands. I had all this, all this stuff I had to do. And I just was like, Well, wait, is this like, is this really what I set my business up for? I am sat here. I generally looked around and it was like, just past midnight. I was like, what, what am I doing? And that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

I found that this is not. What I envisioned when I created my own business, we talked about freedom, flexibility, all that thing. And I had none of that. Clearly, if you're working the night before your wedding. Um, so I realized something had to change. I ended up, well, I started working with Ashley, which is, you know, one of the main implementers of in all this stuff that I wanted into practice.

But I meant, I ended up looking at, you know, my priorities, what did I really want? What did I really value? I took a step back and I realized what was taking up my time, what was draining my energy. And when I looked at my purpose for setting up my business, my, how I wanted to live my life, what was important to me, I realized that money for me.

Isn't the biggest driver. Obviously, everyone, everyone wants money. So, and it's important. But I realized that my time was more important for me and my husband's a teacher, so he has some days off. And I was always like, I remember when he was becoming a teacher, I was like, I'm so jealous. You're going to have all this time off.

And what about me? And then we will like, Oh no, it's fine because you can walk anywhere so we can travel and you can work too. And I realized that wasn't true because sure. I could physically be there. But I actually wasn't because I was, I was working when I was with him. So with my husband's schedule and with the fact that I had realized that I hadn't actually set up what I wanted to set up, that's the reason for then moving to more of a seasonal wax wax schedule.

And, yeah, I'm just so happy that I did that. 

Ellie: That's really, really cool to hear. I can't imagine being up on my wedding night and just being like, I have my laptop here, but well, I can sort of relate in a sense where I was actually the day that I decided to start my initial calibrated concepts, which was like seven cycles back from what it is now was on my honeymoon.

Like I built my website on my honeymoon, but my honeymoon was like, Eight months after my wedding because of visa stuff and whatever else. And at the time I was just like tinkering on Squarespace learning it really. So yeah, I can totally get that. I think that it can be so easy to be lost and our businesses, there's so many hats we wear, especially when we're solo entrepreneurs.

And so not only do you have the client work and then. Depending on how you're working with clients. Like when I was a virtual assistant, I had a very similar feeling where it was like I had all these people demanding things of me. I have no idea what was going to land in my inbox that day. I couldn't plan or schedule very well because there could be a client emergency.

So I can kind of feel you on that there. Before I went full-time with calibrator concepts, I was working. For work sometimes on my lunch, after work weekends, like, and there was a time where I was like my poor husband. I have no idea what I put him through at that stage. Like no idea. So like to be where I'm at now and hopefully help other women get to where we're sort of getting ourselves to where we've taken a critical looking on, what the hell am I doing?

And made our businesses. It kind of flipped the script and started making our businesses work for us. 

Cassie: Yeah. And taking action. I think that's so important because I took some steps back, but I was like, all right, I've analyzed where I'm going wrong, but what am I going to do now to actually ensure that happens?

And one of the biggest things was moving from, I was a social media manager back when I was, um, you know, midnight before my wedding. And I realized that that kind of work was really draining for me. I enjoyed it. And I was creating strategies as well as managing accounts, but the managing account side to just wasn't working for me.

So I revamped my services to so that they could actually work for me and the six-month program. Works for my seasonal workspace. I just make sure that they're in a different season than the summer and my intensives fill that gap for the extra income that I want, or the flexibility in working with different types of clients that can still challenge me in a different way.

So I was able to yeah, change my services to match how I wanted to live my life. 

Ellie: Right. That's definitely, I've talked about another episodes, but that's definitely what I did too. I went from being a VA to building websites because it's project based and it's like, it's a lot easier to plan around.

Exactly. And I don't know about you, but also there's something weird in business where somehow you can generally make more money consulting. Than actually providing services, which is, that's so weird. 

Cassie: Yeah. I've spoken about this myself. I think it's the craziest thing. Cause as a social media manager, um, you know, I was making good money, but as a social media strategist, there's a high premium for my services.

And yes, you could argue that I've got way more experience now, but I found that the day-to-day of doing social media management, it's such an undervalued profession because there is so much that goes into it. You are creating all their content. You are scheduling everything you are. Front-facing managing all the comms with people online.

And I was like, how is this work? Not getting paid more? It's it's yeah, it's really undervalued. I think. 

Ellie: Yeah, I totally agree. Because in the limited social media scheduling and things that I did like trying to be in someone else's brand voice, making sure that the photos and things are coming together, right.

Scheduling everything out. Like it is a lot of work to do that type of stuff. And I think that it's definitely highly undervalued, but that said like pivoting for me into doing websites where yes, I'm still doing service based, but a lot of my work has really consulting and then going in and doing some design.

I make more money and a lot less hours and it feels a lot less stressful. And I get to set my terms and like, if I don't, I can exercise a little bit later in the day. I can have a slower paced morning. I'm getting to the point where I think I'm just going to start taking Fridays off.

Cassie:  I love it. I love it.

But I think that for that, that was for me when I was a social media manager, like I would, even though it was stressful, that experience was so valuable because having been there on the ground, implementing the strategies that I was talking about, enabled me to gain the experience of like, I'm just not talking about something, I'm actually implementing it and I'm testing my strategies.

I'm tweaking them to, what's been, um, to how it's working for different audiences. I have different clients from different industries. So therefore I was able to test it across multiple different audiences. And I think that was valuable and having experienced that stress, that burnout, that nonstop content creation.

Was it, what enabled me to understand, how can this be simpler? How can we scale back, streamline this whole process? Because I had to find simplified ways to do that because I physically didn't have enough hours in the day to create all that content for all my clients. Um, and I was quite strict on the amounts of clients I took in the first place, but so I was thinking even with this limited amount of clients, how can I do this in a simpler, more time, effective way that's going to affect me, um, help me mentally, um, and using that knowledge now has been so invaluable.

Ellie: That makes so much sense. I think that. Well, it's really easy from the place that we're at now to be like, yeah, that was such like, why did I do that part of business? Right? There is a point to it. There's a season to that business of learning. I'm not about like hustle, burnout culture, but first year or so of business, like it's okay to not have that down, Pat.

Like, it's okay to have it be a little bit like, I don't entirely know what I'm doing. I'm trying all these things. I've pivoted, you know, I've pivoted from being a VA to a tech VA to a Squarespace designer. Actually my first business, I had zero clients. It never got off the ground, but I was supposed to be essentially a consultant for startups and creating efficient systems.

And I realized that Belfast has loads and loads of startups, which is why I started it. But I realized that. Startups don't want to spend their money on that. Yes. Not until they've gotten a little bit further down the line. 

Cassie: I have the exact same thing. I generally work with established business owners because established business owners have been through, I've done the whack and they understand the value of what they're paying for.

And they have trials. They have tested, they have implemented, they have learned, they have done all the things that they, um, to succeed on social media and then maybe not, they'll see, not seeing the results that they want. So that learning curve for them makes the value of what I do so much more for them.

Like they really understand what I'm doing and how I'm going to do it for them. And they come to me going, right. This is, what's not worked. How can we achieve this? Whereas I find that with new business owners, not that I don't work with them, but they're rare. Um, a lot of them are, maybe haven't gone through that time of learning and implementing and tweaking and understanding their audience, understanding.

The different platforms, finding their groove, finding what they're good at, what they enjoy more. And without that kind of knowledge, it's a little bit trickier to create the strategy that is going to actually be sustainable for them. So, yeah, I've um, and that's when they don't want to pay more either because they haven't understood, um, a bit more about it.

So, yeah. Interesting 

Ellie: definitely is very interesting because I think you're right. There's, there's a time and a place in business. Right. And it seems to be that two three-year point where people start going. Oh, like I first off they start getting it and then they also start going, something's got to give, like, I really got to start making this work for me and I need help.

Cassie: And that's, I think that that's a transition. Yeah. They have to come to that themselves to be like, do you know what I need help. 

Ellie: Yeah. And actually a really funny, quick story kind of around that is that I've been having a lot of resistance to getting help with the podcast here because I haven't monetized the capable collective in any way, shape or form.

And so the business, the money would have to come from my other business. And so I'd had all this resistance around it and I'd gotten the software and I edited season one all by myself. And then I had a call actually a couple of weeks ago with a podcast editor. And just yesterday, I was like, yep, I'm just gonna do it.

I will find the money. I will make it work. I'm just going to edit it. Yeah. Feeling the relief. The relief of being like, the decision is made and I'm going to just adult this and I'm going to be like a proper business person. And, you know, you have to pick and choose the things. But that was, I was finding that the podcast editing was not for me.

Like, it's not a skill that I have. 

Cassie: Yeah. And that goes down again. So I was saying skill and an enjoyment, you know, and if you don't have that skill and you find that it was actually stressing you out a little bit, then yeah. If you can outsource it, I think that's great. I 

Ellie: know, I'm so excited about that, but it's one of those things where the, and just trusting that it's going to work and I've done it before and it's gone really well business.

So I'm just trusting it again. Like you had it, it does get easier as you go, but I don't know if you ever, when you make a big investment, don't go like Oop, and then get, but, you know 

Cassie: yeah, yeah. But I'm sure it'll work out really well for you. 

Ellie: Um, I, I love the gal that I'm working with. I have no, no, no questions about that.

So let's talk a little bit more about just your business in general. So I want to hear a bit, a little bit about what was your biggest win business 

Cassie: so far? Greg question? Um, for me, I think the wa one, if I was to pick out one little element, I remember getting a call from a past clients and they have a really high level mastermind that they run.

I think it was like a ridiculous amount of money. And she asked me to be a long-term guest trainer for them. And I remember joining it and thinking, Oh my God, I'm teaching these ones who are attending because I was in such awe of the women who were attending the mastermind. So to be in a position of teaching them, I just felt like.

Oh, this is really cool. Like this is, this is really cool. I am, I think, I dunno if it's like, my personality is something, but I maybe always undervalued what I do. And, and I'm not maybe, um, someone who would shout about it too much about my achievements. So to stand around and realize, Oh my God, I've been placed in this position by someone is it was a really nice wake up call for me.

So I think that was, that was a highlight for sure. Right. 

Ellie: That's that is really cool. Having someone kind of almost show you the level you've gotten to. And for sure, on the flip side of that, what would you say was your biggest mistake or learning experience aside from working the night before your wedding?

Cassie: Yeah. Um, so this has been a journey that I went on massively as a social media manager. And then now as I moved in as a strategist, Is not implementing boundaries with clients. And I totally understood when I was transitioning and I was looking at what services I should be offering now, how nothing was going to change if I didn't implement those boundaries because not having them and having, you know, given out my WhatsApp number, allowing non-stop voice notes, allowing clients to message outside of Sutton hours, I'm responding to them and reading them.

And. Not having those boundaries was seriously detrimental. And I think it's really hard to be at the position where I'm at now. And, you know, for someone who's listening to this who might be at the beginning of their journey, it's probably not what you want to hear because we're all trying to get clients.

We're all trying to appease our clients. We're trying to do the best job we can, and we just want to go above and beyond. And it's so hard to be in that position when you're still, you know, building up your client base and still have those boundaries. I almost want to say, you know, it's something you maybe have to learn, but it's also, you know, if you can, yeah, definitely put them in place.

Because for me, that was my biggest learning curve of I've. I've created some, created a monster. This is not what I wanted. Um, so how do I change that? 

Ellie: I can definitely relate to that. It took me quite a long time to put a lot of those boundaries in place too. And I think that in service base it's often that like, Under promise and over deliver.

Yeah. There's totally ways to do that in while still having your boundaries. You know, you can over promise and under deliver a service or reverse that

have to be awake at all hours and be checking your phone constantly. And all of those things like, and a lot of those things. And I've talked about this in other places of the podcast, but I just want to refresh people. Are you set them right from the get-go. My clients can not text me the only way they can contact me as the email, me, or book a call.

That was it. And those calls are booked through a scheduler. So they only happen at specific times. Yeah. And those types of things like building those in from the very beginning in my onboarding sequence, there is a section that says what to expect for me, what I expect from you. And that is very, very clear.

And I showed up. It's one of those things you just kind of have to do it right from the get go. 

Cassie: Yeah. And once they do it, you know, most clients fine, no one has its own in your head that you think that they're going to have it. But I think it comes from a confidence in what you do and what you deliver and understanding that, you know, you don't have to work all these hours.

To deliver value. You can still, you know, if you trust in what you do and you know that you're good at what you do, then the works that you produce will speak for itself. I think that is like, yeah, something that maybe comes with experience, but it's, um, it's been so valuable for me just to be like chill, Cassie.

Like, that's not something I need to do because I've already done a great job on this. And then I can action something tomorrow or whatever. Right. But I'm fortunate now with my clients. I think that I'm in a good place with them. 

Ellie: Yeah. I think that that's one of those things. It does probably to some extent coming with experience, but I think these things all go hand in hand, it's like in my business, um, I get better clients.

When I have boundaries. They, I feel better about them. They feel better about me because I'm not getting the types of clients that expect me to be on a hundred percent of the time. Um, I talk about this type of stuff on my social media and such. So people know what they're going to be getting from me from the get-go that like, I have apps that turn off my inbox at certain times and things like that.

But on top of that, it's the same type of thing I've talked about. It comes with experience, it comes with boundaries, but I also have found that the more I charge the better clients I get, they respect my time, my boundaries, my energy more because they respect who I am and what I do 

Cassie: for sure. And they, I think when, um, when I work with clients on, um, higher ticket offers, They are fully more invested because they've, you know, they've spent quite a lot of money and they are willing to, you know, put in the alpha and the understanding of what I do and want to action the things.

Because for me, if they don't action things, then your, your strategy doesn't work. So when I back in my, you know, a couple of years ago when I used to be a social media manager and I wasn't charging much, I found that these people were just paying a little bit of money and expecting a miracle. Whereas now people really want to put the work in because they've invested it and they want to see the results from that.

And it's been, yeah, it's so, so interesting that once you actually. Charge your worth that you get the right people. And now that I've niched down into stretching and specifically doing sustainable strategies, that simplify things for people, I talk all about your lifestyle goals and your social media goals are mixed.

You know, as an, as an entrepreneur, a business owner, your work life and home life is, is intertwined. So your goal should be to, and once people have heard this so many, so many times, I very rarely get people come to me that don't have the same values because I talk about it all the time. And that kind of, I think when we're talking about our messaging and especially as service providers, you attract what you put out and that's why it's so important to keep on talking about your message, because that's when you're actually going to get the dream clients that everyone talks about.

Yeah. Keep on, keep on talking about it. 

Ellie: Do you mind sharing? Is there any, like off the cuff tips you have around like maybe one or two little tips around strategy and simplifying it and making it feel a more aligned with your life? 

Cassie: Yeah. So I spoke about this before, but the redefining your definition of success, you have to almost do this first because.

Otherwise, if you don't do that, my whole strategy may seem like some hack that I've got and it's not possible to post once a month and still get, you know, 10 clients a week through the door that is not possible. So you have to readjust. Your expectations and your definition of social media success. So I would always advise people to go back and look at their goals and look at how much time that's going to take you.

And then you can see actually that's not worth it because then you're actually going to get success, you know, in terms of being able to live your life and run a successful business. And then in terms of content creation, once you've got the clarity and the understanding of your why and why you show up, why you're here, that kind of thing, in terms of helping create content just makes it so much easier.

And with your confidence as well, you just you're instantly know what you're here for. You don't feel. Like an imposter, you don't feel like you're just regurgitating what everyone else is saying. And then you're able to create content really, really quickly. So they're like mindset stuff. But in terms of like a practical thing, I would definitely start with nailing down your content pillars.

So your seams, the topics that you want to talk about have around five minimum. And then from there, you just keep on looking at your data and repurpose the things that are doing well in certain areas. It's a really simple framework and that will give you a good foundation in terms of simplifying your content creation process.

Ellie: That is amazing. Um, I definitely need to go back and like start thinking about which posts are performing really well because I'm personally, I think it's mostly pandemic drain, but I'm finding social media a little tougher than I usually do. 

Cassie: Yeah. So many people are it's totally and totally normal. And I find a lot of people, um, you know, especially if you have a business account you want to follow.

You know, other business owners, but sometimes that's just like too much. I used to find that every time I logged on Instagram, I was just getting advice, do this, don't do this tip number one. And I was like, Whoa, this is insane. It's okay to follow, you know, travel accounts or interior design or whatever you're interested in and messed with your business stuff.

It doesn't have to be separate because. One thing that is the worst thing can happen for your business is if you don't enjoy logging onto the app, because if you don't enjoy it, you're not going to do it. So make sure that it's a pleasurable place to actually scroll through and somewhere that you enjoy and that you're getting some, some inspiration, whether it's business or just enjoyment, because that then is the first step to actually getting you on the app in the first place.

Yes. 

Ellie: I think that's another thing I could balance out a little better. I try and make sure that I really engage with like my friends and family first when I'm on social media so that it knows. But, um, that's another really good tip. I could probably do a little bit better. So are you working on anything exciting right now?

Cassie: Yes, I, um, implementing workshops throughout the year. So, uh, one thing I want to do more of is I used to do a lot of in-person workshops, especially with COVID and everything that's happening. So I'm moving them online. I just did one on 20, 21 social media trends, but how to prioritize which trends to jump on.

So I'm actually working on the content for what my workshops can be throughout the year. And then my website is being rebranded at the moment. So that's launching at the end of January. So that's really exciting. So yeah, the two big projects for me right now, you know how 

Ellie: I love about websites. And then on top of that, like that makes me so excited.

I can't wait to see it. And then, um, the workshops sound really cool. Um, I'll need to check in on those, because even that first one, that it sounds like I've already missed. Would've been amazing. All right. And so tell me, tell us where people can find you. 

Cassie: Yeah, so, um, I'm mainly on Instagram. That's my, that's my place.

So you can find me @CassieMWidders and I'm also on Facebook, on the same and LinkedIn, Cassie widows. Um, my website is cassiewidders.co.uk widows.co.uk. Um, yeah. So come send me a DM on Instagram. I'd love to connect. 

Ellie: Fantastic. Thank you so much for being here. 

Cassie: It's been a lot of fun. Thank you, Ellie. Really appreciate that.

Ellie: Thank you for listening to the capable collective podcast. I really hope you enjoy this episode and have gotten value from it. If you did, please subscribe on your chosen listening platform. And if you happen to be listening over on Apple podcasts, please take a moment to leave a review. It helps other people to find and trust this podcast.

And it would mean the world to me. This episode was edited by Emily Crosby media. She's amazing to work with. And if you are looking to start a podcast or for some practical media solutions, definitely check her out. Thank you so much. Again, have a great day.