#104: The Art of a Zen Launch with Carrie Flynn, CEO & Founder of Virtual Simplicity
Are you a seven-figure entrepreneur who is thinking about an advisory/consulting style business?
If so, you may have a lot of questions about it.
Where do I start? Where do I put my focus?
If this is you, this episode is perfect for you.
My guest today, Carrie Flynn, CEO and Founder of Virtual Simplicity, has a very similar offer as me.
We chatted about:
How to have a Zen launch
The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when launching
Why getting help is KEY
So, if you want to make more money with less stress, tune into this episode.
Check out Carrie here: https://www.virtualsimplicity.com or on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/virtualsimplicity.
Check out my free training on www.yournextmillion.me, where several of my seven figure clients and colleagues share what they're doing to scale their businesses to the multi-million dollar mark and beyond.
Listen to the Show:
Laura (00:02):
So many entrepreneurs, dream of living a life of massive impact by creating a mega successful company, but only a tiny percentage of businesses actually scale to that point. And when they do it is so often lacking the very joy and freedom that got them into entrepreneurship in the first place. So on this podcast, we speak authentically on what it actually takes to scale your business in a way that creates freedom and joy that works for you, your team, and the incredible impact that you are meant to make in the world as a visionary entrepreneur. My name is Laura Meyer and I'm your host. I'm a serial entrepreneur wife, mom, to three. And I love talking all things business, especially digging into what it actually takes to scale joyfully to the multi-million dollar mark and beyond let's get started.
(00:55):
Hey everybody. Welcome back. I want to introduce you to my friend, Carrie Flynn. Hey Carrie.
Carrie (01:01):
Hi. Hi friend. How are you?
Laura (01:03):
Oh my gosh. So, so good to see you. You're the CEO and Founder of Virtual Simplicity, and it's really cool because you and I have crossover clients, we have very similar offers and I thought it'd be really neat for us to talk to not necessarily the people who are our clients today, but other people who have the kinds of offers that we have. Because for many of the listeners, they might be somebody at that seven figure, multi seven figure, mark. That could be an ideal client for us, but they also might be thinking about an advisory style business or kind of a consulting style business. I get a lot of questions about that.
(01:41):
And so I get like two or three voxers a day from people in our mastermind or messages of like, tell me about your business again. How does that work again? And you have a very similar model. You really help people more with making sure that they have a, what, what you call and I love a Zen launch. Because I have approximately zero experience actually being sent by a launch and what do you love about this advisory kind of style model?
Carrie (02:16):
I think, I think I told you this the other day, but my favorite part of it is it's a very one to one like relational type of role. I also, we also do project based launch strategy, launch intensives, and other things that are a little bit, you know, shorter in nature in time. But with a few of my clients, at least two of the three that I have right now, I've been of them for over almost a year with one and over almost a year and a half. So the relationship aspect of it is so vital. And it allows me the time as a consultant and kind of strategist to
develop a really solid like flow, which is the ultimate, like end all be all when you're someone who launches something on a regular basis, even if it's just two times a year or whatever, because the goal is to create it as a part of your business flow, not as this like kind of spiky stressful situation that you've spin out on. So when you have that one to one relationship, it gives you the opportunity to build a no like, and trust with someone and you get a lot of autonomy and freedom to create a really strong, like calm flow for their launches for me, which is, I love that.
Laura (03:41):
Oh my gosh. So many questions, so, so good. So yeah, I would agree. I just had a client off board and they were, you know, they sent me a message and they were like, you know what we're going to join a couple of masterminds. We're going to focus on that for a little while. And I, I was thinking you've been with me for a year and a half. That's a win, like to me, somebody off board after a year and a half, and they've doubled their business and they're going to try some of their things like amazing. I'm, I'm so excited for them. Right. And, and, you know, I know we'll stay in touch and they could be back. But I think exactly what you're saying, like the business relationships that we have with our clients, there will be a start date and an end date. Like it will happen right. As much as we wish that they would stick around forever. Right. But I think it's the relationship that takes precedence in the exchange that makes it so enjoyable. At least for me.
Carrie (04:30):
Yeah, definitely. I had a client that I, that we mutually kind of parted ways in December and we've been together almost two years. And while it's like hard, we, because you care about them and, but it also, you're not, like you said, it's not always, you're not along for the ride for every season of somebody's business. And so it's so great to like, see, I love to see people win and be successful. And that's, I enjoy that. I'm not somebody that needs to be in the front all the time, which is I enjoy being kind of in the backend and watching people do their thing and it's easy for them because they don't have to stress about insert things they don't like doing.
Laura (05:16):
So I have yet to have a Zen launch. It sounds really, really UN I will say that being, um, a growth strategist for many clients who launch, I rarely see them Zen during a launch. Yeah. So like I do a lot of what you do is planning, planning ahead making sure that the things that they like doing are on their plate. The things that they don't like doing are off their plate and all of the that. Right. But what happens when things go sideways during a launch? Like how do you keep that Zen? Like, I mean, I'm going to, let's go for the, like the, the catastrophic situation like you lose your ads account or like your social seller quits, or like, I'm thinking about what things have happened to us. I've not had both of those things.
Carrie (06:02):
I have a client who lost their ad account right around then. Yeah. It was very like either right before, right after. And they never got it back. It was very weird. It was very, yes. But I've been down that road before I've had, internet go out during a zoom.
Laura (06:20):
Oh yeah. Yep, yep. Yes. I live in an area where that happens quite a bit. So how do, how do you get to a place where it is totally Zen, right? Where something like that happens. Things go sideways. Like how does streamlining launches make something like that, the owner's just not a puddle on the floor.
Carrie (06:42):
Right? Well, number one, it's knowing that something will probably go wrong is really key. That's number one, I have to say that out the jump, like anytime I work with someone, we can plan everything, but we're not in control of everything. We surely can't control the weather, which is what happened to that one client where the internet went out. We have no control. There's some things we have zero power over. But knowing that there's a high probability that something's going to go sideways is number one. And number two, it's not just about planning and prep and, and, and giving, testing everything. Although those are really important things to do. It's another vital component to being in a Zen launch is the mindset work and the self-care preparation and the caring for yourself. That sounds ridiculous, but is the only thing that saves people from falling out, wanting to burn their businesses to the ground during the launch.
(07:44):
So our mutual person that we adore and love Helen, who's a mindset coach in our mastermind, did a training kind of on some of the psychological physical aspects of that, how to manage yourself during stressful times. And those are really important. So I spend a tremendous amount of time coaching and consulting my clients around those aspects. Like one, you got to prepare for self-care during your launch, do this, this, this, this, and this two, you should be caring for your wellness. Like, are you getting outside? Are you drinking enough water? Are you exercising? I mean, it sounds really like very elementary, but these are things that we will throw right out the door. The second that we are prepping for something like a launch, we get close to it. We'll start like sling away at our computer for like 15 hours and that's not healthy. And what's going to happen is you're going to trigger some of the like fight or flight responses in your body. And instead, or freeze, I'm a freezer personally, I tend to freeze, but you know, fight, flight or freeze reactions because that's
(08:53):
Get so stressed that you're going to react in that way and that's not healthy. So it's so important to do, um, put minds that work in self care preparations. Like I tell my clients to even like, don't cook order do Door Dash, do grocery delivery, um, have a babysitter on call. If you have kids like do things to take care of schedule massage, you know, cause physical touch and getting out that like stuff outta your body really, really helps or
get a facial. Same thing. Kind of getting those things out really does help. And that is a huge battle things that you can battle some of that stress, but also just knowing that having contingency plans for when as many as you can for when things rise is really key. That's why activating people on your team, having people there to support you, having good processes really helps, but you can't predict everything.
Laura (09:52):
That's good advice. So good.
Carrie (09:54):
Just know it's going to happen and what are you going to do about it when it does? Like, how are you going to react to it? If you come from a place of reactivity, you're going to activate all this flight stuff, and then you're going to fall out and you're going to want to spin and then you're going to want to like burn it to the ground. And like that's not being in touch with reality. And we want to ground ourselves back in what that's real. That's so important.
Laura (10:19):
Yes. Yes. I can completely understand that. Um, and I think as business owners we're particularly bad at self-care anyways. And so thinking about how to layer that in with launching is probably a little bit of a mind bend.
Carrie (10:33):
I will say it's important to know that just because something, a Zen doesn't nest necessarily or simple doesn't mean it is always easy on you. Right. That's so important to know that it doesn't mean it's going to be so easy and no problems. It just means how are you going to feel throughout the process? And you can control that. And you can't make sure it doesn't always, it's not always easy on you, but can certainly control yourself and how you're choosing to react and participate in the process.
Laura (11:05):
Yeah. I love that. So you and I have a shared client, she was offboarding with me when you started onboarding. And I was like, oh my gosh, I love Carrie. I'm so glad that you're working together and the first thing she said to me, when we started working together, she said, I hate launching. I never want to launch. And I'm sure she said that to you too. Yes, she did. So what do you think that are like the biggest reasons why people like the biggest mistakes that they make that make them never want to do it again? And, and what can you do to actually fix them?
Carrie (11:37):
Well, her reason, I think was just, she felt very, um, kind of overwhelmed by all the parts. And she didn't want to be in involved in a lot of the details because it just felt like a lot of to manage. And that can feel very overwhelming if your strength area is not that, and that's hard. So that was one of the biggest things that she, I know she said to me, she didn't like, and that she wanted to not even think about it. She just wanted to be as
just show up and do the, that she wanted to do and everything else she didn't want to worry about. So that happens a lot to people.
Laura (12:19):
How do you fix that?
Carrie (12:20):
Get help, that's key. If you can get help, get help first that's number one. Like if you can get somebody to support you, even if they're on your team to help you, you with that, and you don't necessarily have the money or what have you to invest in somebody like me, you know, to come in and really overtake it all. There's ways to handle it with people internally that let's say you're starting out, like from nothing. How do you deal with that? Well, you have to know yourself. So she's pretty high, quick start. Like you're going to want to zoom, zoom, zoom on all these ideas and stuff and just start pinging. And that causes a lot of chaos and ideas are great, but also terrible. And so like, so they're awesome, but also can cause you a lot of stress and overwhelm.
(13:10):
So I think that pivoting, a lot of people are the beginning or imposter syndrome. There's some shiny objects and all the things, and it's very tempting to, um, that's what I see with people causes a lot of overwhelm and they're focusing on the wrong things. They're not taking their idea through to the end. They're not really like seeing through, and they're not really planning anything. They're sort of just like jumping ahead, like a whole phase and a half, right. To the part. They just want to jump to the launch. That's not a good idea. Like there's something to be said for like slow down for a second and let's really like think through like what's really, and just slow down for a sec. That's the biggest thing for me that I notice we've worked with newer people as well as more seasoned business people.
(14:05):
And I noticed that quite a bit that people think that all they need to do is put the thing together and boom, I can put it out there and I'm like, that is the opposite direction of what you need to do. That's not what you need to was. You need to think about how can, what do the people really need from me and how can I communicate that to them in an easy and simple way. I love that. So its easy. Yes. So I would say in terms of combating the, I hate launching thing, like it really examine why that is. Why, what is it about launching that you hate? And it's probably because you've been doing it wrong, right? Meaning you've been doing it too stressed or too fast, or you had too many ideas or you had no support and you were doing it by yourself or you were focusing on the wrong things or maybe you had too much and right. It could be a combination of a couple of those things.
Laura (15:01):
Or the experience we've had in our team, you assign it to somebody and they don't do it. So then I have to do it.
Carrie (15:05):
Yeah. And so, and then there's some, that's a whole nother like, listen, I go on that topic because I had that same issue with my team. But there's issues with team. Like can they, do they understand what a due date is versus like, you know, um, when it's due versus when it's ready for review, like there's all these layers and that can cause distrust on a CEO or a business owner. And then they feel like, oh crap, I have to, that was the issue our client was having, having to circle back and check everything that feels like so hard when you're like just trying to, you just want it out there. And, and as she said, I just want to make sales. I want to help with it. I want. And I'm like, I totally get that.
Laura (15:48):
Yeah, I get, I can totally relate to that too. So this is such a good conversation and I know people will probably want to get in touch with you after they hear what's the best way for them to connect with you.
Carrie (15:58):
Well I am of course on Instagram and LinkedIn, if you go on LinkedIn, you just search Carrie Flynn and it'll pop up. And then virtual simplicity is our business name. So if you look on Instagram, that's my handle. But if you want to know more details about our business and our services and what we do, our website's the best bet. It's virtualsimplicity.co because I could not get.com.
Laura (16:20):
Awesome. Thank you so much, Carrie. Awesome to be here with you and I'll see soon.
Carrie (16:28):
Thank you.
Laura (16:30):
Hey there: before you head out, I want to let you know about a free new training I have right on a brand new website called yournextmillion.me. It's yournextmillion.me, where several of my seven figure clients and colleagues share what they're doing in the next year to scale their businesses, to the multi-million dollar mark and beyond. And I have to tell you, it is not what you think. So check it out at yournextmillion.me. And if you loved this show, will you subscribe to it and share it with a friend or just say something nice about it to someone, you know? I’d really appreciate it so much. Thanks so much for being here and I'll see you next time.
The Scale with Joy podcast dives into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts and leaders - sharing behind the scenes stories of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned-all while building their multi-million dollar empires.