165: Building Profitable Businesses: Expert Advice by Guest Shanna Skidmore

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Bonnie Christine:
Welcome back to another episode of the Professional Creative Podcast. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to a powerhouse in the world of creative entrepreneurship. I'm here with Shanna Skidmore. Now Shanna is a former fortune 100 financial advisor turned business consultant, educator, and international speaker. She's known as the dream releaser by her clients. Shanna has spent over 15 years helping business owners around the globe create businesses that they love and lives that they cherish. The thing that I love about our conversation today is the peace of mind that she's gonna give you and the ability to make sure that you're building a business that works for you and in your life. So Shanna, with a unique blend of finance and psychology and creativity, she also has an art degree, she's really demystified this kind of complex business concept and made it so accessible to thousands of creative entrepreneurs, specifically through her signature program, the blueprint model.

Bonnie Christine:
So today, we're gonna dive into how Shanna has increased her business revenue by 248% after quitting social media, her thoughts on redefining success in today's world, and how she manages to run a multi six figure business while working just 20 hours a week, all while being a wife and a mom to 2 little ones. So let's dive into our conversation today with Shanna.

Bonnie Christine:
I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things creativity, design, business, and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains running a multi 7 figure business doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today, I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

Bonnie Christine:
Hi, Shanna. How are you?

Shanna Skidmore:
Hi, Bonnie. I'm good. How are you?

Bonnie Christine:
I'm so thrilled to have you on the Professional Creative Podcast. You know, you and I have been in Parallel Worlds for a while, and then we officially met just about a year ago. And you live close to me. Right? You're in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Shanna Skidmore:
Yes. I know. Appalachian Mountains. I think on the other side of the mountains. Yep. And I think it is wild that we had never officially it's kinda like, I feel like we had officially met, but we had not.

Bonnie Christine:
I know. Same. You I just fell in love with you from the first moment that we spoke. I think we are kindred spirits in the way that we approach business and life and, marriage and motherhood. And so I'm so excited to just dive into your world today. You know, I think you've had such an interesting career journey. So you went from working as a Fortune 100 financial advisor to becoming a business consultant and now a super successful educator for creative entrepreneurs. So can you just kinda catch us up? Tell us about your journey.

Bonnie Christine:
What led you to where you are today?

Shanna Skidmore:
Okay. I'm gonna give you the quick version. So I worked in finance as a Fortune 100 financial advisor for 5 years. That's where I met my husband. He is younger than me, so he came on after I did. And so in that role, I helped business owners mostly with their personal finances. So I was helping create budgets, personal financial plans, insurance investments, that thing. So then Kyle, my husband, wanted to go to school.

Shanna Skidmore:
He has a marketing degree, 1st and foremost. He wanted to go back to school for engineering, so we had to move to Atlanta, Georgia. So in finance, it's very similar to like a law practice. You have your clients, but if you move locations, you it's hard to take them with you. So when we moved to Atlanta for Kyle to go back to school, I started working with a private equity firm. That's why where I moved into kind of the corporate side of business and small business, and I got to work with a fashion designer. And it was so awesome, and I was like, this, I have found my calling. And what I realized is that this fashion designer was great at her craft.

Shanna Skidmore:
She made beautiful designs, knew exactly how to do her craft but had a lot of struggle running the business, pricing her products, understanding how to forecast sales, understanding costs and how to manage inventory, just the business side of her business. And that is truly, I believe, my God given ability, is math and numbers, and I just read numbers like a book. It's so easy to me. I'm bad, but most other things, everyone will tell you technology, spelling, all but math and business, it's it just clicks for me. And so I worked with her for about a year and a half, and I saw this massive transformation. And so I had it in the back of my mind like, how could I do this for other, especially female owned businesses? Because in the finance world, it's very male dominated, and a lot of small businesses are run by women, and it can be intimidating to go to talk to someone in finance when you don't really know the questions to ask or what the words mean. But I didn't know how to do it. So I continued to pursue my career and was going to go into private equity, which is just working with small businesses and helping develop them.

Shanna Skidmore:
And I remember the day I sat down with a private equity firm, and they said, Shanna, you are gonna be on an airplane 4 days a week. You will see your family on the weekends. And I just thought to myself, so I live in Atlanta. Atlanta is the huge hub. So I'm gonna be flying from Atlanta to New York to California. This feels crazy to me, and this was in 2012. I was like, what if I just start my own consulting firm, and instead of flying all these places, I just do it on a Zoom call or video chat with people or have people fly into Atlanta? And at that time, Kyle was in school. He was finishing up, and I was like, if I just made $60,000 a year, we can cover our bills and we'll be okay.

Shanna Skidmore:
And then when Kyle gets out, he'll take care of me and this is all good. And so I started this consulting firm honestly on a whim. My first client was a floral designer out of based out of Atlanta, and the same thing happened as with the fashion designer. I worked with her. She's an amazing floral designer. I struggle with the business side of running a business, and I was like, let me go in and fix these things and let's get your pricing right and understand budgeting and all these things and huge transformation. And it, for me, was this moment of like, why is my calling? She was a single mom, had 3 young kids, just was hustling so hard, not making any money. And after I get so teary eyed now even, what, 12 years later thinking about it because to watch her be able to buy a house for her boys, take a consistent paycheck for the first time in her 10 years in business, and her she had she was so well known in the Atlanta market.

Shanna Skidmore:
People are like, what happened? And she was like, Shanna, Shanna Skidmore, and that's how the business started. And Bonnie, it grew so fast, and I was so blessed, and I'm so grateful that I got to the point where I could not help as many people who are reaching out. And Kyle, my husband and I sat down. We're like, how can we just duplicate Shanna? And so we grabbed the camera, sat it at my kitchen table, and recorded the first version of my business course, the blueprint model, just going through what I believe are the essential steps, getting your offers right, getting your pricing right, creating a budget, and simplifying the math of business. And our very first course launch. It was in 2016. We wanted 30 students. We got 54 students, so we did a $108,000 launch our very first time, and it was just so incredible to be able, a, to work with 54 people.

Shanna Skidmore:
I would have never been able to do that to see their lives change. And so that's what I've been doing ever since, and I'm I love it. I love it every day.

Bonnie Christine:
Okay. I love that story. And and the backstory, it's like what a gift you are to specifically female creative entrepreneurs, because so many of us don't click with that side of the business. And I think we'll probably get into this a bit more, but one of the things that I think we do that we that we shouldn't do all the time is try to figure it out. And it reminds me of a book that I recently read that I love by doctor Ben Hardy called Who Not How. And it's this whole mindset shift, right, about, like, you don't have to figure out how so much. You gotta figure out who can help you. And so I love that.

Bonnie Christine:
That's you, Shanna, that you can just kind of, like, help us skip over the learning curve. And when that part of the business isn't really clicking, but it really must, it's essential to your success. What a gift. Okay. So we're gonna dive into more of this. One thing that I'm dying to talk to you about is social media, Shanna. So you left you quit social media in what year? 2017. So you said goodbye in 2017.

Bonnie Christine:
I actually remember this because I was a little bit sad, and I still miss you over there just for the record. However, your business revenue increased by 248% after you quit social media. So I just feel like that's nearly unheard of. And so can you talk us through, really, what led you to that decision?

Shanna Skidmore:
How do you how did you manage to grow your business without relying on social media at all? Okay. Let's dive in. And any specific questions you want, just I'm an open book. You can ask me anything about this. So 2017, we launched the blueprint model in January or February, and we did 2 or 300,000 in sales. I think somewhere between there. I think it was like 254 if I'm being specific. And I knew that that would sustain us for the entire year.

Shanna Skidmore:
And I had it had been in my heart for quite a while. And when we say social media, I specifically mean Instagram. That was the time before Instagram reels. That was, I think, even before Instagram stories. So let's just take it way back. That's even before Instagram moved from a chronological feed to what it is now, not chronological. So those are early days still of Instagram.

Bonnie Christine:
Can we just have a moment for chronological Instagram?

Shanna Skidmore:
I miss it. I miss it.

Bonnie Christine:
And and do you remember chronological Pinterest?

Shanna Skidmore:
I would never visit Pinterest back then.

Bonnie Christine:
Oh, chronological Pinterest was also my jam. Okay.

Shanna Skidmore:
Alright. Okay. Well, it's so interest okay. So, Bonnie, I don't know if you know this. So I am that crazy person who I have a business degree, I have a psychology degree, and I have an art degree. I always joke that I felt like a misfit puzzle. I just couldn't figure it out and how funny because that's literally what I all of those together make so much sense now and what I do, but I just really struggled with Instagram even when it was chronological, even when because I work in numbers and spreadsheets and but I am very aesthetically driven, and so I was so frustrated. I would try to take these pictures.

Shanna Skidmore:
I would spend so much time trying to make these beautiful images, but I'm not a photographer. I just could never perfect you know, I could not get it to where I wanted it to be, so I always struggled, and I struggled with how much time it was taking away from my family and our fun adventure stuff. That's kind of what led to and Kyle, my husband would be like, do you really need that? I'm like, yes, Kyle. 70% of our website traffic was coming from Instagram at that time. Wow. So to be fair, in 2017, when I quit, I knew that we had enough money, and this is what I tell anybody who wants a social media detox, have a money plan so that you don't stress out when your referrals, when your traffic slows down. Because if, like me, Instagram was a significant portion of your marketing and referral source, it is going to slow down. So I knew financially we would be okay, and I wanted to take off enough time that I could replace that Instagram traffic with a form of marketing that more aligned with who I was.

Shanna Skidmore:
And so that was long form content marketing on my blog, SEO, and Pinterest. So if I would take about 6 months, it took 18 months. So I went off for 18 months until I was like, I'm gonna replace this traffic, and I did. And I stayed off, and for 3 months, my business went totally quiet. I was like, I've ruined it. It's over. Nobody's coming back. I felt forgotten.

Shanna Skidmore:
It was a whole thing we can unpack. It was very, very hard. But after about 6 months, I stopped thinking about it, and then I came back after 18 months. I stayed on for 1 week, and I was like, you know what? I'm done. Like, I'm done. And I think that in different seasons of the business, the team has gotten on. And so there's some posts, I think, from 2018, 2019. But primarily, over all that time, it has been I have never gotten back on.

Shanna Skidmore:
And so in 2017, we basically did what that launch did, about 250. And then in 2018, we launched again. We did a $550,000 launch. In 2019, we launched again, and we did about 750,000. And I always tell people, do we have a presence on Instagram? Yes. We have affiliates who share, but I I never want to demonize Instagram. I think it has helped a lot of women in the business grow their businesses. However, as a marketing tool, I always wanna challenge people to look at how can you get the word out about your business in a way that aligns with you, your soul, what's healthy for you, and is it the best place for you to be spending your time? For me, I found no.

Shanna Skidmore:
Like, I need to create blogs. I need SEO. I need to really build up our web traffic, and then we utilize partnerships to help spread the word on social media. So it's been a great but, I always wanna tell people it's not easy. It's still not easy. I still have people today that are like, you need to get on there. You're missing out, and I know I am. I know I'm missing out on business because I'm not there.

Shanna Skidmore:
But mentally, it's so much better for me.

Bonnie Christine:
I think my biggest takeaway from that is just how important it is to write your own rules. I think as entrepreneurs, we often fall for other people's goals or version of success as our own. And the whole reason that we're an entrepreneur is so that we can write our own rules. There's a saying that someone cheered me a long time ago. He said, listen, it's your house, your rules. I was I was fussing over how to set up a program. It's your house. It's your rules.

Bonnie Christine:
And I thought, yeah. You know, what a concept. You're right. That's why I got into this. And so just permission to really look at what you're doing that doesn't feel properly aligned and consider different ways to achieve the same result.

Shanna Skidmore:
Yeah. I always tell all my students, what is the outcome you were trying to achieve? What if we can focus on the outcome, I always say there's a 1,000 ways to build a business. I I truly believe no 2 businesses should live the same because no 2 business owners are the same. But if we look at the outcome and that's what I try to teach all of my students. What are the outcome of marketing? More eyes on your work. How can we do that? There are so many ways. You could go knock on doors still. That's the thing.

Shanna Skidmore:
You can pick up a phone and call people. That's the thing. Find the way that works for you because especially with social media, it rewards people who enjoy the platform because they're going to be on the platform. They're going to be engaging in the platform. Like, I think if it's a drudgery to show up, unfortunately, I just don't know if it's that effective because that's how the algorithm works. So I love that. You said I mean, I encourage people all day long. Like, if you don't like something, think about the outcome you want.

Shanna Skidmore:
How can we do it in a way that aligns with you?

Bonnie Christine:
So you shared some numbers. I love number sharing, Shanna. I'm a big fan of sharing numbers. It was women who had gone before me that were willing to share numbers that got me to where I am today. Something that I've heard you say is that 8 figures is the new 7 figures. 7 figures is the new 6 figures. And that it's essentially important to find your enough number or your piece number. Can you explain to me, kind of what that means and how entrepreneurs can apply that mindset to their business?

Shanna Skidmore:
Yes. Oh, I love this question. So I started speaking back in 2014. It was my very first speaking event. And I I had the privilege, and I'm so blessed that I get to see what I call the real behind the highlight reel. Like, I truly numbers on a profit and loss statement don't lie, and so I see a lot of profit and loss statements. So I just I can't always speak out because of confidentiality, and I want everybody to feel comfortable sharing their numbers with me, but I see a lot of things. And so I kinda got frustrated with this idea of, like, your following correlates to your income.

Shanna Skidmore:
So I started speaking and I was sharing these numbers of, like, actual clients, of course, not sharing their names or anything. And I had people write down in large audiences, hundreds of people, what would you be happy to make this year? How much money would you be happy to put in your pocket? Is this back again in 2014? How much money would you be happy to put in your personal bank account this year? Happy, not elated, and not like broke broke. What's a happy number? And I don't know. Bonnie, do you wanna guess back in 2014 what people would say? I would say 100 k. $100,000. Everybody wanna make 6 to 8 years. A $100,000. Well, actually, you know, it's funny.

Shanna Skidmore:
When I would, like, survey people, most people had said 40,000, but 6 figures back then was like everybody wanted to reach for the stars, hit 6 figures. That was like the dream number, but most people would be happy at 40,000. So I did this talk for years years years. And then in 2019, I gave this talk, and right before I'm talking minutes before, I created a new slide. I was like, this isn't the same anymore. Like, it's not gonna be it's not 40,000 now. I'm gonna create this new slide. And I was like, I bet now, 7 figures is the new 6 figures.

Shanna Skidmore:
Everybody felt happy making a 100,000, but they wanted to get to 7 figures. Like where did the transition happen between people talking about their 6 figure business? Now it became their 7 figure business. And it's funny because after COVID, I feel like now it's your 8 figure business. So I started talking about this idea of what is enough for you? What is that magic income number, your peace of mind number? That should be your goal. And I teach all of my students to create goals at 3 levels. What is your need number? Like pay the bills, keep the lights on. We need to know that because if you're in a season like health or if you just had a baby or if something's going on in your family, you could need to slow down to your need number, and that's okay. Your enough numbers where we where we I set goals.

Shanna Skidmore:
What do you want? What is the lifestyle number for you? What gives you the life you want? And then, of course, have that reach for the stars number. And I really realized that, like, more is a moving target. The number will keep getting bigger. It went from 6 figures to 7 figures, now to 8 figures, and all the time, it's stealing our joy and our contentment. So I wanna give people permission, just like with finding what works for you with marketing, find what works for you income wise. And yes, shoot for the stars, but stop comparing your business today to where someone else is. And because I come from a in the finance world, success is really defined by walking across the stage, being the best, hitting bigger goals, making more money, but it's like I don't think for most of us that's what success is. Yes, we wanna pay the bills.

Shanna Skidmore:
Yes, we wanna achieve big things, but showing up as the mom we wanna be and the friend we wanna be and impacting people with our work, that is truly success, and that number changes for a lot of different people. So I really wanna encourage people that more will always be a moving target. And if you are feeling discontent with, well, my business isn't doing well, focus on what it is doing and how you're hitting your own numbers instead of someone else's because the truth is in this season of life, I don't want an 8 figure business. I don't want what comes with that. And I think Kyle, my husband, said this the other day. I thought it was so powerful. He said, Shanna, no one gets more time. No one.

Shanna Skidmore:
And it's really easy especially online to see people making a ton of money and not realize, oh, maybe they don't have little kids at home or maybe they have a spouse that works like is a stay at home spouse that can help with the kids. Or everyone's season of life is different, but we don't share the hard things. We only share the successes. And so that's where I really like to just bust the myth, I guess. I had someone years ago say, Shana, you like to skirt around controversial issues, so I'm like, I'm gonna skirt around that one. Like, you don't make your number. Find your number and be happy there. Yes.

Shanna Skidmore:
You can reach for the stars, but we need to find where ambition and contentment meet. That's our goal.

Bonnie Christine:
Yeah. And when you reach the stars, realize it. Don't continue reaching for more and more and more stars. I think, contentment is such an important such an important part that, gets overlooked. You know? There's that saying, like, new level, new devil, and there's no number that instantly means that your life is easy or happy or solved. None of it. Because you're you're right. As you reach different levels, you you're just opening up a whole new world of things that, you know, are different.

Bonnie Christine:
They're just different. Yeah. If you are a busy entrepreneur like me, you'd rather spend your time on the work you love and growing your business than on a mountain of paperwork. Now when my team started growing, I knew that I needed something to make complicated business tasks like payroll simple and personal. That's when I found Gusto. Gusto has been a game changer for my business. It's like having a fairy godmother for all the less glamorous parts of running a business. With Gusto, I can handle payroll and minutes, and manage benefits and time off requests as well, all from one beautiful, intuitive platform.

Bonnie Christine:
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Shanna Skidmore:
Bonnie, can I turn the mic around on you and ask you a question?

Bonnie Christine:
Sure.

Shanna Skidmore:
Your business has reached for the stars. Like, you have probably hit financial numbers that maybe you've never expected to hit. Do you feel like there were moments where you sensed discontentment or, like you said, new level, new devil, like or do you feel like you were able to practice, like, gratitude and groundedness as the business grew. Does that make sense?

Bonnie Christine:
Yeah. I love this question. I think that, you're right. There are numbers in my business that I still can say, and I like, they're not lost on me, but at the same time, they're unbelievable. They're hard for me to grasp. And there are, things that I didn't necessarily expect. Now I will say, I think there's some fear around making money that maybe it'll change you or something. And I think that making more money will, enhance whoever you are.

Bonnie Christine:
And so if you are, super humble, super generous, super grateful, then more money just kind of makes that more in you and your life. And if you're not, if you're greedy or, discontent or constantly, like, maybe a victim mindset type of thing, it's gonna just do that more as well. So I think it's not money that changes you. I think it's who you are, from the beginning. So I I am always, very adamant about wanting people to not be afraid of reaching for the stars than going for that level. But I would say that something that, like, we didn't expect that came was this immense amount of responsibility to steward it well. And I never thought that that would be something that we had to pay a lot of attention to. Like, who would even think about that? All you want you know, when you don't have it, all you want is it.

Bonnie Christine:
And you don't realize that when you have it, it's a huge responsibility to be wise, to steward it well, to be generous, to give it well, to invest it well, to, you know, impact the places and and spaces and people that you wanna impact. And it's almost a full time job. And and and it's beautiful. It's just interesting. You know, they're just different things at every level. You begin to manage more people rather than do the thing that you started doing in the first place. Just interesting.

Shanna Skidmore:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It shifts and changes. Thanks for answering that. Yeah. I was just curious, you know, if you have felt that pressure of more and reaching higher, and I think you're so right. Like, so many people there's so many feelings that come with money, feelings of wanting more of it if you don't have it, or I think there is a lot of fear of success.

Shanna Skidmore:
I think there's a lot of mindset talk around making money, making 7 figures, making 8 figures. Like, that's a whole mindset shift too, and I just hope anyone listening can know, 1st and foremost, know what you need. Know what you have to have. What is your enough number? What is your peace of mind number that pays the bills at home and pays the bills in the business and gives you the lifestyle that you want? Because once you know that, there's freedom in there in that number. There's freedom knowing that your number is unique to you. And if we can set our goals and what we need and the life we want, then we're chasing after something we care about and not just some arbitrary 6 figures, which PS, I don't know if you know this, what is 6 figures is one of the most Googled things on Google. What is 6 figures? Because yeah. Because people don't it's like 6 figure is a $100,000, but people don't know that.

Shanna Skidmore:
They're like, what are 6 figures? So it's just funny to me that we set goals on something we don't even know what it is. So I just wanna everybody out there, find your number. Find your number. And if you need help, of course, come see Shanna Skidmore. I'll help you.

Bonnie Christine:
I love that. Okay. There's another topic I really want to touch on, and that is the fact that you have a 4 month old and a 3 year old.

Shanna Skidmore:
Yes.

Bonnie Christine:
You have 2 really young, cute girls. Right? They're both girls. Yes. Yes. So let's talk about motherhood and balancing running a successful business. And and what does that look like? How are you finding that work life with where you're at right now? Okay. I love this question. I have been working on a new blog, maybe a podcast on how my business has changed since becoming

Shanna Skidmore:
a mom. So I had had my business about 8 or 9 years, I needed to really figure it out, before having my first daughter. And I think there's something really great about that. It was more established. I had I had the season of running hard and chasing after big goals and getting to travel a lot and do a lot of big things. And then I had my daughter, and a lot of things changed. I sat down, and first of all, I think money becomes more serious when you are taking care of other people. You're like, we have education to pay for, potentially a wedding to pay for.

Shanna Skidmore:
You know, it's like, okay. Let's get real now. Let's adult. Let's adult with our money. It became more serious. You can't take as many risks maybe or you feel, you know, really gotta calculate those risks. But I also had to sit down and what is the mom I wanna be? What is the life I wanna build? I think being a working mom is really beautiful. I love that they get to watch me work, but most of my work is also on a computer.

Shanna Skidmore:
And so I know that I'll never get to be very involved in my work, and that makes me sad. Sometimes I would rather build something or help you know? Hey. Let's help package this and send it out, like, so they could understand a little bit more. But I think that, I tell people a lot. You know, I was a gymnast for most of my life, and when we think about

Bonnie Christine:
Did you know that I was as well?

Shanna Skidmore:
You were?

Bonnie Christine:
I was. Do you have back pain just like me?

Shanna Skidmore:
I don't have back pain, but I do joke that I have bunions from wearing high heels for so long. So that's my,

Bonnie Christine:
Alright, fair enough.

Shanna Skidmore:
I actually think that's so interesting. How old were you when you started gymnastics?

Bonnie Christine:
Oh, I mean, 6, 7, probably.

Shanna Skidmore:
Okay. See. I was like 3. Yeah. So I wonder like, I just feel like my body I don't know. Hopefully, I won't get back pain. We'll see. I feel like it's made me not have back pain because I've, like, moved so much, but Okay.

Shanna Skidmore:
Who knows? Everybody's experience is different. But I so, Bonnie, you know this. Like, when you think about a gymnast, especially on a balance beam I think it's funny that it's called a balance beam. Right? Like, we have to be perfectly balanced. But what's interesting is balance is always in movement. If you look at a gymnast's feet when they're standing on a balance beam, they're constantly moving, getting themselves into alignment. And that's what I believe, and so I don't even say work life balance anymore. I say work life harmony because we are looking to find the harmony, and that's the question I'm always asking myself.

Shanna Skidmore:
We just added number 2. She's 4 months old. So I'm still figuring out what does the harmony look like in this season. We need the income from my business. We I don't have the option to not bring in money for our family. And so but but, again, what is the number we need right now? And is there a way to make that income in a way that more aligns with the time I have? So I'm grateful now that we do digital courses because I don't do as many one on one things. So I think what's so great about building a business and what I try to teach all of my students is the fundamentals of business. Create an offer that is profitable, that pays the bills to the amount that you need it to.

Shanna Skidmore:
And if those offers need to shift, when your season of life shifts, you know how to do that. So for instance, I started as a service based business. I did all one to one service based, and then we added courses. So having that digital component allowed me to make more money or the same amount of money with less people you know, or with more people, so with less time. And so if you're strategic about how you grow your business, I feel like we can find that work life harmony, but what it comes back to is always asking, what is the life that I want, and how does my business align with that, instead of trying to fit our life into our business. And that's how I stumble through it imperfectly every single day. But I ask I keep asking the question because I know that I have control for the answer. Does that make sense?

Bonnie Christine:
It sure does. Shanna, is it true that you work 20 hours a week? Is that right?

Shanna Skidmore:
Yeah. So, yes. Not always 20 hours consistently. So but I track my time always. Best business practice. I can tell anyone listening. If you get nothing else out of this, track your time. I use a tool called Toggle.

Bonnie Christine:
As an entrepreneur, you're tracking your time every day.

Shanna Skidmore:
Every day, Bonnie. I have no oh, Bonnie.

Bonnie Christine:
Never not once.

Shanna Skidmore:
I'm gonna bring you in. Well, you're doing great. So I mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But I love tracking my time, and I teach all my students to track their time because it tells us so much about our price. That's how I really especially as a service based entrepreneur, if you know how much time goes into anything, the hardest thing about pricing a service is correctly estimating your time. And that's why I have a lot of students that I tell in the beginning, price hourly. I don't know how you feel about this, Bonnie. We never talked about Price or service hourly because I see people put packages together, and so they they quote this package rate, and then it takes them 4 times longer than they quoted it and so they're working for pennies.

Shanna Skidmore:
And you you learn that a few times and you get better by, you know, pricing, but track your time.

Bonnie Christine:
If I was working for a client, I would track my time.

Shanna Skidmore:
Yeah. Yeah. Which is interesting. Like, I do have Yeah.

Bonnie Christine:
I price my time per hour, but I base it off of I base it off of a full time work week. But I've never tracked my time. This is so interesting because to me, it's very gray. Like, I'm thinking about my business, when I'm not technically working or I'm reading a book on vacation. I'm not technically working, but it's all business related. So to me, it's all very, like, inter interwoven for the most part.

Shanna Skidmore:
Yeah. Okay. This is so interesting. But did you start as a service bit? I mean, did you ever have a service offer? No. Yeah. So I started with a service based all my offers were service and my time, and so I needed to know how much time it was actually taking me Yeah. To produce these deliverables so I could price it correctly. Could I not try my time now? Probably, but I've done it so long that I know how long every launch takes me.

Shanna Skidmore:
I know how long I'm spending with clients. I know how I mean, it's so eye opening, and so that's how I sit I know I sit down every single year, and I look at which offer was the most profitable for us based on my time and my team's time. Mhmm. Which offer gave me the most joy, which, you know, sucked the most energy out of me. Like, I just I love trying to find myself. So all that to say, in this season with 2 littles at home, we have my oldest, she's 3a half. She goes to school 3 days a week, so I'm still like with them quite a lot running a business. I track my time so that I pull 20 hours a week.

Shanna Skidmore:
Like every week, that's my goal. And I tell a lot of people, like, I don't sit down You know, in the past, I've been able to say, I'm gonna work from 10 to 4. Great. Over the days of, like, being able to have a schedule. Now it's like I might work in the fringe hours, but I know at the end of the week, I have done 20 hours. And sometimes that really pushes me. Sometimes that pushes me to work hours I don't wanna be working, but I love that because for me, I am a perfectionist. I'm a very I wouldn't say I'm type a, but I it gives me a goal to work towards, and it helps me balance, truly find more harmony and not be thinking about my business when I'm with the girls.

Shanna Skidmore:
And thinking about the girls when I'm in my business because I'm like 20 hours. That's what I've committed in this season, and that's what the business is getting from me.

Bonnie Christine:
Okay. I love that. I'm taking notes. I'm taking notes. So I wanna make sure to hear more about the blueprint model. I know it's coming up. Is it something that is only offered once a year, Shanna?

Shanna Skidmore:
Yes. Yes. Every once in a while, we'll do it twice a year, but typically one time a year.

Bonnie Christine:
Okay. So I know that it has helped so many creative entrepreneurs build profitable businesses that do exactly what we're talking about, align with their life and their goals for their personal lives. So can you give us a big overview of the program and how it's particularly, beneficial for moms in business?

Shanna Skidmore:
I love it. Like if you're short on time but want to make a big impact with your work or a full time income, that's a I provide a full time income for my family. I love this program so much because just like we've talked about, it's a very it makes you think more strategically about the hours you're putting into your business and the offers and the pricing. I would say, Bonnie, there's a lot of courses out there that are very specific. If you wanna learn Pinterest, go take a Pinterest course. If you go and learn Instagram, go take an Instagram course. If you wanna learn a service pattern design, go take Bonnie's course. Like, it's there's a very specific takeaway.

Shanna Skidmore:
What I love about the blueprint model, it is not industry specific. It teaches a framework in what I call 6 building blocks that every business has to have. So it talks about what I call your success currency. Like, what is your business for? Is it for time freedom, financial freedom, creative freedom, or impact? Identifying the purpose of your business. And a lot of people are like, Shana, you're the numbers person. Like, we're we're getting all woo woo here. I'm like, you have to know what type of business you want and why. That's how we don't burn out.

Shanna Skidmore:
Because if we're trying to build a business that someone like someone else but like I'm time motivated, that I'm very protective of my time. I'm not gonna be over here like coaching a 100 people, going on a bunch of speaking events, and I know that. So know that what is your success qualifier? Why are you building your business? Then we look at your offers. What are the most profitable offers, the most strategic offers for this season of life? We look at pricing. We build out your marketing plan. Then we look at a budget for your business. So it's very numbers and finance heavy, but it's built in a way that people can essentially use it as a framework to build a business that aligns with their season of life, their goals. And it's so versatile in that way.

Shanna Skidmore:
And what I love about it and why is because how many people are gonna have the business they have today, 5 years from now, or 10 years from now? Bonnie, is it gonna look exactly the same? Are you gonna add a new offer? Are you gonna change your service? Are you going to try something new? If you can walk through these 6 steps every time you create a new offer, every time you wanna pivot, anytime you wanna start a new business, anytime you want to invest in new business, whatever it is, these 6 building blocks are essential for any business. And so that's what I love about the blueprint model. It's a framework for designing a business that's profitable and sustainable and aligns with the life that you want because it's gonna give you these essential tools that every business needs. So it's not like, hey. Let's go learn Pinterest. Not on Pinterest. It's like we're gonna teach you all the business essentials that you need and how to run a business financially sound.

Bonnie Christine:
What a gift. Oh my goodness. How many do you know how many students you've helped since you started?

Shanna Skidmore:
I think we're up to, like, 4400. I think the last time we counted, it was, like, 4400. You know, it's funny. Like, wave wise, like, the ripples are so much bigger than that. But, yeah, I think 4400 around.

Bonnie Christine:
So tell us all the details. When can you join the blueprint model? Where do we go to find out more information?

Shanna Skidmore:
So I'm not exactly sure when this this is going to air, but I'm doing a new masterclass. I'm very excited about it. It's all free. It's 1 hour. It's called part time CEO. How to build a business that feels like magic and pays the bills while still enjoying your family life. It's I am really I've never done a workshop just geared towards this conversation, but I think it's so relevant right now. So that's happening September 12th.

Shanna Skidmore:
If you if you all wanna jump in September 12th, it's gonna be awesome. And then we open doors to the blueprint model on that day, September 12th, and it runs for 1 week. We always say it was very similar, Bonnie, to how you do it probably. It's almost like the semester in school. So you enroll in a program, we close the doors, and then we open up the program. It's 6 weeks guided with me weekly calls because I have done finance now for, what, 16 years, and there's still things that I have questions about. So recently, I have to tell you this story, Bonnie. My 3 year old this summer did swim lessons, and I'm sure you know this, but most kids don't like to go underwater, and most kids don't like to get their ears wet, things that I learned with swim class.

Shanna Skidmore:
So 1st day of swim lessons, mom was gonna have to go to therapy over it. The teacher's like, we're going underwater. We're getting our ears wet. And to watch this tiny little human who was so scared put her head underwater, and then she came home and ran to daddy and was like, I went underwater. Like, the pride in her of learning something new just reminded me all over again like why I do what I do. Finance is something that's typically extremely intimidating to people, and a lot of my students, I'm sure in your world too, Bonnie, avoid, avoid, avoid. They kinda just stay blissfully unaware. And what I love is I have I feel very approachable in this conversation, and I want people to walk away feeling empowered in their numbers to feel because why? Why does this even matter? Because I am a new mom.

Shanna Skidmore:
Like, I have little people at home. And if I didn't I mean, I'll get tear tear eyed about it. If I did not know how much my family needed me to bring in, if I did not know that I could walk away and rest, if I felt the need to work all the time, not only would I be distracted from my family, I'd be stressed, and I wouldn't know and that's why numbers matter. Making money was not the reason likely any of us went into business. But understanding how to keep our business going, understanding how to pay our bills, understanding how to get paid consistently for what you're doing, there's a peace of mind there that if it doesn't matter today, it will matter one day. And that's what I want everyone to walk away from, the blueprint model knowing. And so I just tell people all the time, like, it's gonna be hard. There's gonna be stuff that makes your brain hurt, and that's why I work walk through the program with all the students.

Shanna Skidmore:
But it's just like my little 3 year old learning how to go underwater and feeling so proud. When you do it for the first time and it clicks, there's pride. There's pride there. And so let's do hard things together.

Bonnie Christine:
Oh my goodness. I just feel you are so approachable about it, and it is something I would assume many of us hold some kinda shame and guilt and embarrassment around too because, like, we should understand or know or whatever. And so just to have a safe place and someone so approachable, so wise to walk you through that, all I can keep saying is, like, what a gift this is for every entrepreneur. So we have all of your links, Shanna, over on the show notes for today's episode. So, definitely join the workshop. Consider joining the blueprint model just so that you can have this peace of mind. Shanna, thank you so much for being here. Bonnie, this is so fun.

Bonnie Christine:
Thanks for having me. My friends, thank you for tuning in to today's episode of The Professional Creative. Be sure to join me and sign up for Shanna's workshop and potentially the blueprint model as well. You can find all of the links over at our show notes today at professionalcreative.com. Until next time, create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you.