#114: Multi-Stream Business Revenue with Brandi Mowles, Online Marketing Expert
Have you ever thought about having multiple streams of revenue? What about the concept of doing just that, but stress free?
And if you're thinking, "Is that even possible? How do I do that?", you're not alone
That's why I'm so excited to share with you today’s guest, Brandi Mowles, Online Marketing Expert, where she shares her goals in growing her own multi-steam business revenue.
Brandi and I chat about:
Why only 2% of women owned businesses cross the $1 million mark
How to create a stress-free business
The multiple revenue streams she runs and how she put them in place
If you are interested in learning more about how to serve your business less, and make your business serve you, this episode is for you!
Learn more about Brandi here: https://brandimowles.com or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandimowles.
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Listen to the Show:
Laura 00:00
If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, and you've been wondering what it might be like to add consulting to your business, I want to share with you the three most popular packages I've used to build an in demand consulting business over the last four years. So when you sign up for my free training, I want to provide for you immediate access to all three of my consulting packages, my exact pricing models and ideas on how you can adopt each package for your business. If this sounds like something that you would really benefit from head over to createyourconsultingoffer.com. This is specifically for people who are listening to this podcast who know that they want to have an incredible business where they can make massive impact by working with mission changing entrepreneurs. Again, go to createyourconsultingoffer.com and you'll get access right away.
Laura 00:53
Welcome to Next Level Leap, a podcast where we dive into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company and creating a legacy brand. As a top growth strategist, multi passionate entrepreneur, membership site owner, trainer, speaker, author and mom to three, I love exploring the journey of how we as founders can multiply our income impact and influence by landing on the other side of our next big leap. Let's get started.
Laura 01:36
Hey, everybody, so I want to introduce to you a friend of mine, and her name is Brandi Mowles., and she is an online marketing expert. Thanks for being here, Brandi.
Brandi 01:44
Thanks for having me. And oh my gosh, you got my last name pronounced right. And so I so appreciate that. Very few people do.
Laura 01:52
Were you having a moment when I introduced you?
Brandi 01:54
I did. I just had a moment. I was like, Oh, she's going to say it wrong. And you didn't.
Laura 01:59
I think I heard you say it one time. And I wanted to make sure that I said it correctly. That's so funny. I normally make sure before we start recording, so I'm glad that I got it right. And you and I have known each other from different circles over the years like remember Clubhouse? I think we used to hang out in Clubhouse from time to time, like when we all did that back in the day, right?
Brandi 02:18
Oh my gosh, it was so time consuming. But yes, we were on Clubhouse all the time. And that's when I got to hear how amazing you are.
Laura 02:24
Oh, well, likewise. And it was funny too, because I think we're all on there for like a hot minute. And then we made really nice connections. But then we were like, o h my gosh, this has taken a lot of time ended up bailing on it at the same time. It was so funny. So you really help agency service providers, for the most part grow their businesses. Is that right?
Brandi 02:48
Yeah. So most of them actually don't have an agency. That's really my big thing is how can we create a service based business without the agency model? So without the team or a very lean business that gives you the profit you want without the headache.
Laura 03:05
That's awesome. And so what like how did you get started on that? Were you a one on one service provider and then started to grow your business that way?
Brandi 03:13
Yeah. So I went straight from like college, to law school, two, then got into MLM and was in that for eight years and learned a lot of what how not to run a business and how to run a business. And one of the great things I also learned is digital marketing. Like I really dove into that because my degree is not in marketing at all. And when I was eight months pregnant with my daughter, I was like, I can't do this anymore. It was a moral thing. And like not saying MLMs are bad, just the situation I was in wasn't right for us moving forward with a little girl on her way. And so I told my husband at eight months, I called the company I was like, come pick up my car, I quit all this stuff. My husband was like, woah, woah, woah, like, and I was like, we'll figure it out, we'll figure it out. And it came to when she was five months old. And it was time to figure it out. I never had like a traditional job like a nine to five. And so I know, I was like that could not be an option for me. So I have to figure this out.
Brandi 04:15
And I think I did what most people do and started Googling, like, work from home. And I found mom blogging, and I started a mom blog for like two months, and it grew traffic super fast. But like I'm the worst at grammar and spelling. So like I should never been writing blogs, but I knew how to get traffic there. And so then I stumbled upon like being a VA and I had hired VA's and my MLM company, but they like send out birthday postcard client reminders. And I was like, oh gosh, I like cannot be doing that kind of stuff. It just doesn't wake me up. When I found out I
could do social media and ads and stuff like that. And I dove into that and really was like okay, I'm going to make this spark. My family needs food. My daughter needs formula and we need to diapers, I'll make it work. And I grew my business very quickly the first 10 months of my business, I did six figures. And it's really specialize the second half of that, and Facebook and Instagram ads. And that's how I got my freelance business started.
Brandi 05:15
That's so cool. I mean, the thing about those types of service businesses is that everybody needs it.
Brandi 05:23
The barrier of entry is so low.
Laura 05:26
Yeah. So if you're good, and you're skilled, and you have a pleasant personality, like a customer centric personality, everybody is looking for somebody strong to handle those tasks in their business that knows what they're doing. And, you know, if you need to pivot a little bit, or you've got to change, they're like, not a problem, you know, happy to help. And that's so cool that you ended up stumbling upon that. So take me to today, where, what kind of business do you have? Like, I know you have a membership, you get our courses? Yeah, you have a lot of time freedom. So how did that come about?
Brandi 06:05
Yeah, I like to say that I have a multi stream business revenue stream, that's a big thing for me is having just not all my eggs in one basket. And I don't think anyone starts that way. It's something that's grown over the last four years, July will be four years that I've had my business, three years with multi streams of revenue. And so I really think that that's important. But also the other thing that's important to me is stress free success. So how can I find access for me, but also make it stress free? And so now I do provide very little one on one services, it's at like a very top premium, like VIP days style. But most of my income is coming from a membership and group coaching, I have two signature programs. And they're all about, you know, my membership has been my first digital product. And it's like, my love language. I love that group. And that's where I help those freelancers scale to 10k months without a team. And then when they're ready to create that second revenue stream. That's what I do in my group coaching program has helped them like what's your next step? How can we add something on to your already successful business to give you more options? And I think right now we're sitting in 2022. And we're probably all looking around and thinking like, gosh, I cannot have my eggs in one basket.
Laura 07:25
Yeah, I think a lot of people are thinking that simply because you don't know what is going to trend in a positive direction, you don't know what's going to trend in a negative direction. And it's so helpful to have flexibility in that way. And so, on your website, you state that 12% of women owned business crossed the six figure mark, and only 2% actually break the 1 million. Why do you think this is?
Brandi 07:51
Oh, gosh, that's such a loaded question. And I know that there are going to be a lot of people that disagree with me. I think one of the things that has really contributed to this is society in general, especially in the US how we view women, it's crazy, because over 7.5 million people in the US have more than one job. So main jobs, side hustle, maybe two full time jobs, and the majority of them are women. But also our society says that women have to be the primary caregiver. So now you're adding on most women in the US are carrying three jobs. And we all have the same amount of time. And we all have these really high expectations of what our life should look like this work life balance, which whatever that means for whoever invented that. And I think that we set women up to fail, because no one can manage that, that. And if you do manage it for a little bit, it's not sustainable in a way that you can't be 100% in three different things. And so I think part of it is that as women, we just have way more responsibility. I also think as women, we don't ask for help as much as men do. And men aren't, like, as we say, a society but they're, they'll go out and say, Hey, will you be a JV partner? For me? I mean, we can look in the online space, which I love. And I'm never one to like, say the online space is a horrible place. But if we look around and we see like, who are the top JVs that are going, it's usually men helping other men. And I think that it's because they're more likely to ask for help. And as women, we struggle to ask for help. But then we want to keep our plate so full. And we expect to do so much in such a little bit of time, instead of thinking like, what's the big picture here? What can I sustain over a long period of time? So that's like my very short response to a very big question.
Laura 09:50
Yeah. And I hope it's okay, if I ask have you broken the seven figure mark in your business?
Brandi 09:55
Yeah. So um, it was 2020. So my second year business. And we did 1.2 million in revenue and ran it 58% profitability, which I think is more empowering than just the revenue number, I could care less what our revenue number is, I really want to focus on what our profit number is. And so, yeah, seven figures per year. And we did that as well. Last year, we did a million last year.
Laura 10:22
That's so interesting. Why do you think you hit 1.2? In your second year in business? Like, what do you think are some of the characteristics or factors or even decisions that you made that helped to make that happen?
Brandi 10:35
Yeah, everyone wants to ask this question. And I used to, like really shy away from it, but I think it comes down to a few things. One, I told the entire world, my goal, I literally recorded all my income reports for 2020, it was so open about what we're doing the revenue that came in the revenue that didn't, when I felt behind, I was so open, but I came in from that. My, it was my first full year of business doing 250,000 and was like, I'm going to do a million and I even had a coach tell me who wasn't man. But that I mean, a woman could have told me to, it doesn't really matter. But they said, like, that's a big stretch, you're probably not going to hit that. And like, it just lit a fire. So I came January 2020 and I was like, we're going to do a million, I'm going to document the whole thing. And there was times where I didn't think we were going to hit it. But I just kept on showing up because I was like, you know what worst case, we're going to do well over 250. And then I'll just continue to record them until I get a million.
Brandi 11:33
And so I spoke it out like, and I put the action behind it. I think sometimes we hear like, you can manifest stuff, and I so believe in that. But I do think there has to be aligned action behind that. And so I put aligned action. And that didn't mean working more actually worked four day work weeks, during that time, but very intentional nine to four schedule, and took Friday, Saturday and Sundays off 47 weeks out of the year, and had my family always first also, the second thing is my husband is my daughter's primary caregiver, I brought him home, he does that. And that's, you know, I still take care of my daughter, I show up for everything. But he takes care of her as a primary. And I wasn't afraid to ask him to do that. It did take time for us to really get into the groove of shifting. But by 2020, we were in that groove. And so I asked for help.
Brandi 12:27
And then the third thing is, I just am not afraid to pivot. So like when things feel like they're going south, like, I'm like, Okay, are we staying on this track? Is it just like something we need to whether are we going to pivot and try something else. But we're saying that I'm not jumping around to a bunch of stuff. Like I stay with what I know works. I've been running the same webinar for three years, not changing it. So it's not about like shiny object syndrome. But if we see like, Oh, crud, a launch just tanked, because ads just iOS came out and everything went to heck, like I was quick to pivot, what can we do in our business to now like shift with the time shifting instead of just being like, this doesn't work anymore. But shifting, but using the same mechanisms, the same systems that we have in our business. And so I think those are the big three that helped me get to a million as quickly as we did.
Laura 13:21
That's so fascinating. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for being open. I think for many people, they don't want to say what their goal is out loud. And in a lot of ways when we make that declaration, it changes us. Yeah, right. Like just saying that, just you going around being like, this is what we're going to do. Even if you didn't hit the 1 million or 1.2 million, the action and all of the thoughts and all of the feelings that drove that goal? In a lot of ways. You probably you hit it before you hit it and a lot of ways, right? Yeah. That's so fascinating. And I think everybody listening could learn from that. And many people who are listening or have already hit multi million dollar years in their business, and maybe even be looking at the next goal and figuring out what does that look like and there's so much golden what you just shared.
Brandi 14:14
Big thing with that is just because you hit the goal. I actually struggled more telling my next goal after we hit million, because I felt like it needed to be bigger, or what if this was a fluke, what if it's not going to happen again? And I was making decisions based on like this perception of what people would think if I didn't had it, and that's when I really came I guess that was 2021 we were building a house going through moves and all this crazy stuff. And I came to terms with like, holy cow. I don't want a $10 million business like I've been holding on to this thought that I needed a $10 million business to be successful. Because that's just like I'm no one told me that but it was the narrative that I put in my head and after that After hitting million, I like thought that I needed to be like, my next goal is 3 million or 5 million. And that's what I was telling people. And I didn't even believe it. I mean, it wasn't because I didn't believe we could get there. It's because I didn't want to get there. I was like, I don't want a $5 million business, I don't want a $10 million business. And I was like, I want a $3 million business that runs at 50% profitability with a small team like that success to me, because for me, that equals freedom and stress free success. And I think, soon as we can all like, find out what our stress free success looks like. It just opens up doors, and a weight just gets lifted off your shoulders. So just because you hit a goal, that maybe someone else set or like marketing sets for us, doesn't mean that that's actually your goal. And when it's not your goal, it's way harder to hit than when like you were like deep dark, like craving that, like I was craving the million dollar, like it was everything. And so I think that's one thing that we have to learn as business owners and women is like, let's just define our own success. And what stress free success looks like for us.
Laura 16:07
Yes, yes, because just a lot of $10 million businesses out there without much of a profit margin, right. And I think that's something that, you know, I really love talking transparently about on this podcast, and I'm so appreciative that you've brought it up. And I had a, you know, $3 million business with a teeny tiny profit margin when I was in brick and mortar. And part of
why I wanted to get into the online space is because you know, low overhead, easier to see all of that, which is still true. But I think sometimes we forget to take advantage of the fact that, you know, 50, a profit margin for 50% profit margins are possible in this business, and they don't exist in most businesses, you know, and restaurants, if you're 9%, you're like killing it. So, you know that I think it's so important for people to be mindful of that opportunity, and to take that into consideration when they determine what their growth goals are.
Laura 17:06
So when we're thinking about these multiple streams of income, this is a really interesting topic. I had a mutual friend of ours actually say to me recently, I need more streams of income. And I challenged her a little bit, she has a lot going on. So I was like, Do you have time for that? Is that the best path right now? Do you need more passive streams of income versus semi active like courses or memberships? But I'm wondering, how do you view that that multiple streams of income so you've got your membership, you have your courses? What are some of the do you have other things going on? Or like how do people start that process when they start having that feeling of like, particularly someone who's the breadwinner, like yourself, or like our mutual friend, like, there can be a little bit of panic that sets in two of like, well, what is this goes to crap. And you don't want to be reactive, and at the same time, you want to be smart. So like, how do you navigate all of that?
Brandi 17:56
I think it all starts with like, I always like to look at it with don't, you can't go in and try to focus on two things. Like let's start with one and get it to success, whatever that success looks like. So I would like to break it down. What's your revenue goal, and not just revenue goal, but what's going to be your profit goal, because then we have to take taxes, and all that the average according to Business Insider, the average and I would say this is more now this was 2021 is the average living necessary expenses in the US is $67,690. That's the average the lowest, which I thought would be way lower is 58,321. And that's in Mississippi. So the chances are, we're all hovering around this, like 60 $65,000 We have to make to live. And yeah, if you have two household incomes, that changes, but if we're talking about one, we have to think okay, a six figure business and taxes and if you have a lot of expenses, like you're not going to hit that and so it's something to consider like what's your profit your take home? Like what do you want to take home at the end of the day? Go? Okay, great. What's the best path for you right now. So if you're a one on one freelancer, which is who I usually start working with, what do we need to get you to, so that your business is running where you can still add on something else, you're not completely tapped out.
Brandi 19:21
But the fact that you're also making a mount that super comfortable for you and your family. And so that comes down to pricing and everything and once you get to there, it's like, okay,
you're not completely tapped out. Because if you're tapped out, like, it's going to be hard to add something else, you're going to have to let some clients go something like that higher whatever it may be. So then when we get to that sweet spot where you're making enough money where you're comfortable, but you also have this like wiggle room, that's when I say okay, now let's decide what is your second revenue stream and we decided based on your goals is that group coaching which is usually higher ticket but less people? Is it a course is it a membership? Is it low ticket? And I call it your deliverability Sweet Spot, but we choose like what's going to serve the people you want to serve? What's going to serve, like your lifestyle and where those inner meet. That's like your deliverability sweet spot. And that's going to be different for everyone. But I think it's really important that you have one locked down. And before you start the second one, and then people want to like start membership course and all this stuff in there, like Brandi, you did it. But I didn't focus on a course until we had the membership at over six figures, it just happened that it was six months that that happened. And that's when we added on another one.
Brandi 20:34
Once that one was running pretty much on its own, with my small team handling it, then it was like, okay, now how can we serve our clients at the next level, and then we got that one turning. And once that one was just like running on its own, then it was like, okay, now I have room for a group coaching program that lights me up, and I love the more connection. But weekly coaching calls may not be for everyone. Or maybe you don't want to pass like I don't call anything passive but a more leveraged program. Maybe you want to take more one on one clients, but you want an agency model. And so I think it's so like dependent on the person their goals or lifestyle goals. But so many times we're just making quick decisions, because that's what the marketing says, instead of sitting down and being like, what is my deliverability sweet spot? Is it like, do I want to be completely hands off? Do I want to have more interaction with people, and what fits my lifestyle so many times we just focus on what fits the revenue. But ultimately, like what fits your lifestyle that you want what lights you up, because like I said, a $10 million business with a whole bunch of team members and small profits does not light me up, I'd probably hide under the bed if that was my business model.
Brandi 21:46
But having two people on my team running a million dollar a year business, high profit margins, and like taking off two weeks of June to go to the keys and travel and just be with my daughter or taking every Tuesday off because I want to that lights me up. But that may not light someone else up. And so it needs to be so dependent on you. But I do think it's important that we have multiple revenue streams, but adding those on one at a time until they're running really solid, like a well oiled machine. And then we can take a look at what does it look like maybe next it's investing in stocks, maybe it's taking on real estate, it doesn't have to be just in the online space.
Laura 22:26
Yeah. And so cool. It's something I've been thinking about recently as well. You know, high profit margin $3 million business with some, you know, really good investments is probably a great sweet spot, you know, for many, many people. So you've shared so many nuggets of wisdom today. I'm so appreciative. And if people listen to you, and it resonated with them, or they had questions where they just want to learn more about what it is that you offer, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
Brandi 22:57
Yeah, so my podcast comes out every Tuesdays serve scale sore, and that is a great place for all the free nuggets and then Brandi Mowles just my name on Instagram. I post some reels I never posted on Instagram, but I really like rails like that's like short form videos like my I like I'm having so much fun with it. And so Instagram but it's always me in the DM so I love connecting with people. I know Laura, you're a connector too. I love to connect. So in the DMS it's always me send me a DM let's chat about who you are and your goals and those are the two ways. So pretty much even the peloton its Brandi Mowles and you can find me.
Laura 23:38
So go for a bike ride with brandy co founder on peloton or check out her reals, they are very entertaining. They show up on my feed quite often. And I do often laugh so they're great. Well, thank you, Brandi for being here today. I really appreciate it and I'll talk to you soon.
Brandi 23:52
Thank you.
Laura 23:55
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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.