Soulpreneur Scaling Stories Podcast: 006. From Social Media Manager to Business Growth & Lead Generation Mentor

[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Andrea here, your host and passionate business coach and scaling strategist for Soulful Service Providers and Coaches. Welcome to another episode of Soulpreneur Scaling Stories. Have you ever wanted to look behind the curtain of your fellow entrepreneur’s business to see what actually went into scaling it?

[00:00:22] Andrea Elibero: Well, you are in for a treat because that’s exactly what we are doing here. In each episode, we will be uncovering the truth, the lessons, and the stories behind what it truly takes for Soulpreneurs to scale their businesses intentionally. I’m hoping that their stories will help you to unlock the true potential of your business so you can create your own soulful, abundant, and aligned laptop lifestyle through intentional scaling.

[00:00:44] Andrea Elibero: So whether you’re just starting out on your scaling journey or you’re a seasoned entrepreneur seeking inspiration, this episode has something incredible in store for you. Are you ready to rise, grow, and create a business that fully supports your dream life? Well, let’s dive in. Before we begin, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an empowering episode filled with real stories and soulful insights.

[00:01:04] Andrea Elibero: Okay. Hello. Hello. So today we have business growth lead generation mentor, Alicia Croce. Hello, Alicia. How are you?

[00:01:17] Alicia Croci: I’m doing well. Thank you so much for having me on. I’m super excited to chat with you.

[00:01:22] Andrea Elibero: I’m excited to have you because I know that your story is juicy. So before we get into it, please introduce yourself. Tell us what you do and what your business looks like today.

[00:01:33] Alicia Croci: Okay. So hi, hello. I am Alicia, um, owner of wildly creative studio. I am a lead generation and business growth mentor. Um, previously known as a lead generation and DM sells expert. And my business is in a very growing stage right now between like the shift of, um, done for you to mentorship. So we’re like, Growing and thriving over here.

[00:01:58] Alicia Croci: And it’s just like a super exciting, exciting journey. Um, lots of growth and behind the scenes work happening as well.

[00:02:06] Andrea Elibero: You know what? Let’s uh, let’s dive into that for a second because I feel like people don’t talk enough about. What has to happen behind the scenes in order or when you up level or shift or make these adjustments. A lot of things have to happen on the back end and I think people underestimate the all of this.

[00:02:29] Andrea Elibero: So I’ll give you an example in my case. I have had to update my website. I have had to update my email. Um, series, sequences, I have to create a new freebie. I have to make a new, like other, like all of these things on the back end in order to lead into the new level. And obviously you’re communicating to people, you are looking for more people who are your new, right?

[00:02:52] Andrea Elibero: Like aligned clients and all of these things. So what has been Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

[00:03:01] Alicia Croci: So you’re going to love this answer first. Um, a lot of it was fine tuning my systems for the done for you side of my business and automating a lot of that, even more like deeply of setting up like certain different workflows for all of our different packages to really make sure I can kind of be hands off a little bit more in the.

[00:03:21] Alicia Croci: Done for you side and let my team handle it. Um, so that has been a huge challenge. Cause as you know, I’m not a tech girl at all, so a lot of learning over there. Um, and then another huge part of it has been a mindset piece of really, um. Realizing, like, the true potential that I have and stepping into, like, this confident zone.

[00:03:47] Alicia Croci: Um, I like to say since I’m a Libra, I’m in, like, my villain era. So, really stepping into, like, that person that I was supposed to be in. Um, owning my knowledge and skills and knowing that I can truly make an impact and just knowing like, there’s a lot of work to be done in the backend. So between the systems and the mindset, I also am developing a whole bunch of passive products that can be, um, starter information, like courses for people to kind of like get in, um.

[00:04:20] Alicia Croci: My like sales funnel and then also developing a few freebies and really working on a Facebook community. Since I talk about community a lot, um, I need to like actually walk the talk. So working on that and building that up as well as a whole part of the sales funnel and just revamping this new funnel for, uh, diving into mentorship.

[00:04:44] Alicia Croci: So

[00:04:45] Andrea Elibero: So, so not much, like not much at all is happening, what you’re saying.

[00:04:50] Alicia Croci: Not much at all. Just like a whole like, you know, restructure and relearning how to mark it.

[00:04:55] Andrea Elibero: I love too that you brought in the mindset piece to it because this is so important. It’s not just the systems and then this and then that. When you are growing into this next level, the mindset is a huge piece of this because you’re like, Oh, can I do this? Do I have the right quote unquote? Is this, you know, who am I to be offering this thing that I want to offer that I haven’t done before?

[00:05:14] Andrea Elibero: So I love that you brought that into it as well. I don’t know if there’s anything that you want to speak to in regards to mindset that I leave up to you.

[00:05:22] Alicia Croci: Yeah, um, so mindset looks different for everybody. And in my case, it, I had to do a little bit of healing, like internally in myself. And I realized, so backstory and like high school, I was this Like social butterfly. And I was super confident in myself. And in college I became like the socially awkward introvert.

[00:05:45] Alicia Croci: And so a lot of like, what’s been holding me back into like showing up and selling my offers and everything has been like finding that trauma. And it was from being bullied in high school. And so my mindset work had to go through that healing process to. Kind of understand what changed in like my whole, like little socially awkward area and now like really finding myself again.

[00:06:10] Alicia Croci: And that is, I sit out in like my backyard underneath like this 200 year old tree and just like ground and write and journal and like cry and all sorts of things. So for like my mindset work, it’s outside of business, but it is directly correlated in my business since I am my business essentially.

[00:06:30] Andrea Elibero: Right, I mean, it always is, right? All of these things that… That affect our business always come from things that happened when we’re younger. And then they play out here and you’re like, Oh, Oh, I guess I have to deal with that now if I want to, you know, have this business except be successful. So thank you so much for sharing that.

[00:06:47] Andrea Elibero: Um, really, really important thing for people to know that it’s a really important piece of the puzzle because it’s not just about the strategy. It’s not just about, you know, do this step one, two, three, and then you’ll. Be successful. There’s, there’s a lot to it. There’s a lot that goes in on the background, both in strategy and for sure in mindset and embodiment and all of those, all of those fun things.

[00:07:05] Andrea Elibero: Um, so we heard about where you’re at now, where you’re going, everything you’re doing. When you first started on your entrepreneurial journey, what did your business look like then?

[00:07:15] Alicia Croci: Um, so whenever I first started, I really wanted, I keep us coming from, um, social media director position in the agency world. And I really wanted to get outside of social media, um, just cause I was so burnt out. So I actually started as a website designer and brand designer. Which is way off from where I am like now and like what I teach and everything.

[00:07:42] Alicia Croci: But I, so whenever I first started it was website and brand design. And then I knew like I could sell social media ’cause that’s where my tactics were and my strengths were. So I had a small social media package and that, and I was kind of forced into this bubble of, I needed to pick one niche. And so I wanted to

[00:08:03] Andrea Elibero: what do you mean? Wait, wait, what do you mean you were forced into it? How, what does that mean?

[00:08:07] Alicia Croci: Um, so in one of my first group coaching programs, I was very, um, structured in this. Uh, essentially like the bubble of this is how you have to operate. And this is what I saw. So if you do my ways, you will find success. And that never truly,

[00:08:28] Andrea Elibero: ah, you gave me like, you know, my stomach did turn.

[00:08:35] Alicia Croci: and right. Even as I say this, it makes me sweat. But, um, as I slowly like started to growing, like it never felt right. Because. I am a managing and I’m very multi passionate and I get bored so fast. So as I was doing website projects, eventually I got bored of those. And I was like, okay, I guess we’ll go back to social media.

[00:09:01] Alicia Croci: And then it was still like that fight of, well, now I have to like niche down into social media and I have to like work with a specific type of client and my business just never truly felt like me because I was. Going along this strategy that I was told to do and as a new entrepreneur, I was completely lost.

[00:09:20] Alicia Croci: So like, obviously like this expert was, you know, coaching and making the type of money that I wanted to make. So their word, in my opinion, at that point of my journey was like gospel to me. So I was like, okay, this worked for them. So it has to work for me. And it never worked for me. Um,

[00:09:38] Andrea Elibero: this, hold on, this, because this is so important and this is like, and I promise we did not practice this beforehand, I did not feed Alicia anything to say. But this is like, this is a hill that I will die on this cookie cutter, like step by step. This is my process. You must conform. And even the words you use, you have to do this, you have to do that, you know, in order to be successful, I have to do this.

[00:10:03] Andrea Elibero: And it just felt even you talking about it felt so disconnected. And especially as somebody who was has not been in at that point who had not been in the journey, like in the entrepreneurial world for so long, how did that feel to you? Did you feel like Yeah. Like, how did that feel when you were being told that, Oh, you, this is the way it has to be done.

[00:10:22] Andrea Elibero: You will be successful in this way. And it wasn’t, and it didn’t feel good. Like what was, what was going on inside of you?

[00:10:29] Alicia Croci: I felt very unseen and unheard. Um, cause I, I am. I’m a disruptor in nature and so going against the grain has always been my thing and like trying to teach myself how to do exactly like what they were telling me. And then I was doing the steps, I was doing the work and I wasn’t seeing the results. It made me feel so unheard and frustrated and at that point I was like, why the hell am I even doing this?

[00:10:57] Alicia Croci: Like I could be less frustrated, less stressed and then nine to five and I could just find something that is like, Muggle work, essentially, and just like not really have to deal with the emotions and feelings that I was feeling from this specific strategy that did not work for me.

[00:11:17] Andrea Elibero: now I’m on the edge of my seat because obviously we shifted. And so what happened? How did we get to that point? Because it makes me so sad because you were like, it sounds like you were on the edge of just giving up this entrepreneurial dream. because somebody tried to fit you into a box that wasn’t you.

[00:11:33] Andrea Elibero: And that makes me so sad. So where are we going from here? Paint the picture, take me, take me down the road.

[00:11:39] Alicia Croci: So naturally, um, I’m very stubborn. My husband will tell you I’m the most stubborn person he has ever met. And so I was at a point where, um, it was either give up. And given to the fact that I, it’s just not for me and I’m not going to ever be like successful enough or stay the course and figure out my own path.

[00:12:00] Alicia Croci: And that is where I started dabbling in different areas. I really sat with what I enjoyed doing. And surprisingly enough, what I really enjoyed doing was. talking to people and kind of getting to know people in a different way. And so that is where I found engagement and lead generation. Um, so I started niching down into that.

[00:12:23] Alicia Croci: Um,

[00:12:24] Andrea Elibero: so before we get to that point, because I think this is really important. So you said you, you sat down and said, okay, what do I like to do? So, but this is important because a lot of people don’t, don’t do this, right? They’re just like their business to kind of take some and they float around and they do what their business tells them versus actually, zoning in on, like, what is my wizardry is what I’m calling it.

[00:12:44] Andrea Elibero: And like, what is my magic? And what are the things that light me up? So, so what did you do at that point? And how are you discovering this? Were you doing more sitting by the tree and journaling and all of that? Like, what was going on?

[00:12:56] Alicia Croci: at this point I didn’t have my beautiful backyard tree. Um, so a lot of it was just kind of. I look through all of the unaligned clients that I had previously in the past and the ones that really lit me up and the ones that didn’t light me up and I looked at the areas that I supported them in ways that wasn’t on like my um initial scope of work because boundaries and I are just I’m not friends over here sometimes.

[00:13:25] Alicia Croci: And a lot of the time it was where I would do the project work, but I’d always want to like learn more or do more. Or I would like hop into their account and say like, Hey, if we. Um, spend this much time doing these types of engagement tasks, then your social media content, we can get an ROI on this, or we just got out like this really great brand and your launch is going good, but nobody knows about it.

[00:13:49] Alicia Croci: Cause you’re not like talking about it and you’re not, you know, like having a community behind you where you’re like not spending time in your account. And that’s where I figured out of, I love the project work. But I also love taking that extra step and making sure like their people knew exactly like what greatness we were doing behind the scenes.

[00:14:10] Alicia Croci: Um, sometimes I kind of felt like it was like a little bit of selfishly of me. Cause I was like, this is amazing work. Like we just did like this whole three months, like brand design. And now nobody knows about it because you don’t talk to anybody. And I wanted people to know. About like their amazing new brand.

[00:14:27] Alicia Croci: And so I would go into their accounts and like start building their community before we would launch or like slowly after we would launch and just like get hype around that. So that’s partially how I figured out my internal magic of like the clients that I was very unaligned. They were very structured.

[00:14:45] Alicia Croci: Um, and they were like, no, like just do this, like finish this work. And they like controlled how I worked and the ones that I really loved. Um, working with them, like, really love the projects that was where I took that extra step and I built a community for them while we were doing either social media management or a design project.

[00:15:07] Alicia Croci: And I kind of figured out the community aspect is where my strengths line, like, what I really enjoyed doing and. So that’s kind of like where I went.

[00:15:18] Andrea Elibero: That’s I love this story. The story is amazing, and I feel like a lot of people can relate to it. And so I think it’ll be it’ll be so, so, so good. Um, so thank you so much for for sharing. So you got into, so that was kind of your first, I’ll say, up level is really actually figuring out what you wanted to do, which was the engagement and the community growth and all of that.

[00:15:39] Andrea Elibero: And, um, my understanding is that There’s a couple of more stages that you went through, uh, after that. Right. So what was the next kind of phase of the journey of building this business?

[00:15:52] Alicia Croci: Yes. Um, so after I niche down and I started getting, um, clients in the engagement and lead generation space, I still feel like there’s more that I can do for my clients. And so I started learning more about cells and learning more about funnels, um, all of the, like, natural, not natural, because I kind of worked for it, obviously.

[00:16:16] Alicia Croci: All of the like internal, like knowledge that I had inside of me, I ended up like putting that onto my clients as well, whenever we would be in their accounts and I’d be like, Hey, I’m seeing like this gap that’s missing. So like, I really feel like we should focus on this area. And so I’ve always, ever since I niched down into engagement and lead generation, I’ve always been. A mentor in some capacity or a strategist in some capacity where if I, I like physically cannot let. A client fail, if I know that there is some kind of gap missing or something that we need to work on to have our strategies also impact their business more, um, so a lot of the clients that I work with are newer entrepreneurs, newer business owners, and so there are a lot of gaps that are missing and a lot of them.

[00:17:08] Alicia Croci: Are the same kind of journey where they followed the certain tactics. They followed the certain themes. And my favorite is one of my best friends came into my roster and she had this cookie cutter launch plan and she was like, I’m just going to do it. And hopefully it is like, it works for me. And I was like, this is not you.

[00:17:28] Alicia Croci: And I was able to tell her, tell her that because one, I have a personal relationship with her. And. So I knew like what lights her up in the cookie cutter strategy that she had, I knew would not light her up and she would not like continue to do it. And so that is kind of where another light bulb clicked of, I do have like an extra knowledge and I do have the ability to kind of see like the bird’s eye level of someone’s business.

[00:17:58] Alicia Croci: And so I started adding into like a mentorship strategy. Um, Support into my done for you legion packages, and then I got capped.

[00:18:12] Andrea Elibero: Funny when that happens.

[00:18:14] Alicia Croci: And so I still had the wire in my brain that said the best way to grow was to go into an agency. And

[00:18:25] Andrea Elibero: This is so common, I think, with service providers, right? It’s like, I did it too. I did it. I was like, when I first started out, I was a general VA. In 2019, I was a general VA and I was getting all of these clients. And it was like, okay, I’m getting all these clients. I don’t want to let them go. I don’t want to, you know, what do I do?

[00:18:41] Andrea Elibero: Okay, I’ll hire some subcontractors and have this agent all of a sudden have this agency and I was like, why do I have an agency one day? I was like, why, why am I doing this? Like I didn’t, I didn’t choose this. And I was like, I don’t want to have a general VA agency, which is great if you want that. But I never put any like there was it wasn’t intentional.

[00:18:56] Andrea Elibero: There was no intentionality behind it. It was just like what kind of happened. And then so yeah, so so then we burned it to the ground, but did other things that are better that you know, but but this is a common journey. And this is a thing that I’m I’m out here like, Okay. It’s the screaming from the rooftops that I want people to realize that they don’t have to do that.

[00:19:15] Andrea Elibero: So, so, go on with your story of the, okay, this is, this is what I have to do. This is the journey I go on. Build an agency. This is, right?

[00:19:23] Alicia Croci: yes. So like you, that was the journey that I. Felt like I was forced to go down. Um, especially again, that first like group program thing that I did, they had specifically said, like, if you want to reach those multi six figure months. Don’t go into coaching, just build a team, build an agency, scale your, um, business by raising your prices.

[00:19:52] Alicia Croci: And that was like, okay and all, but I also came from the agency world and I did not want to go back into the agency world.

[00:19:59] Andrea Elibero: But you did it though.

[00:20:00] Alicia Croci: yeah,

[00:20:03] Andrea Elibero: Despite all the reservation, isn’t that insane? Like, not you that you did it, but insane that like This is what people say. You know what I mean? That like, this is the route, period, the end. Like, there’s no other options. Like that blows my mind. I

[00:20:16] Alicia Croci: yeah, yeah. I still to this day, like I know. So if I, I don’t know if I never like stumbled onto that person’s like page and it was, it was also a sales tactic that I didn’t want to invest in, but I felt forced to invest in. So like the whole thing was like, so unaligned and which also like. Helps me with like my own like legit and DM sales for clients because I know I know what worked for them and it was just like so skeezy and I was like absolutely not but I end up purchasing it anyway so here I am like 6, 000 in debt to a program that’s telling me what I can and cannot do that I absolutely did not enjoy.

[00:21:03] Andrea Elibero: can’t believe it was 6k. Damn.

[00:21:05] Alicia Croci: Yeah, yeah. I put it

[00:21:07] Andrea Elibero: But I really. A learning lesson. A learning lesson that really shaped the rest of your journey. So it’s good. We’ll take some positives from it. Yeah.

[00:21:17] Alicia Croci: A little bit of traumatizing, but it also made me more determined. But… So going from there and like, taking their words, and it was the first program, you know, that I invested in and they were successful in my eyes. And so I kept in the back of my mind, I kept saying, like, I can’t go into mentorship.

[00:21:34] Alicia Croci: I can’t go into mentorship. And it was really this last, like. January that it started like clicking of I have been mentoring. I have been like strategizing all along. And if I want to grow, cause I hate hiring the people that are on my team. I absolutely love them and I’m so grateful for them. And I got lucky with them, but I’ve also been burned by hiring.

[00:21:58] Alicia Croci: And it’s just something that I don’t want to spend the energy on. And that was the click of this growth phase that I’m in now is either continue going on the dreaded path of hiring and building out a team, or realize that I was never meant to be an agency. I was always meant to help people in a different way and help make impact for them. And so that is the enlightenment route that I went on instead.

[00:22:26] Andrea Elibero: I didn’t give you a big hug through the, through the screen. I love the story. It’s just, it’s so, it’s so inspiring. It’s, you know, there were so many things and you were like, no, I’m going to do this. And then you stepped into your power and did it and are doing it, you know? So it’s just so, so beautiful. So are you still, uh, planning to keep it as the two, the two kind of sizes, sides, sizes?

[00:22:48] Andrea Elibero: No, the two sides of your business. Kind of like mini agency, shall I say, or maybe just like the team who’s operating the done for you and then the mentoring and coaching that you’re doing yourself.

[00:22:58] Alicia Croci: Yes. Um, so. Like I said, I absolutely love my team members and I love how they help me support my clients. Um, so as far as the plan right now, the team that I have is the team that is going to support me. I may have like one more hire, um, coming on this fall and that’ll be like a very strategic and. Um, I have someone helping me with that hire, so it won’t be

[00:23:26] Andrea Elibero: hmm.

[00:23:27] Alicia Croci: a dread for me, but

[00:23:29] Andrea Elibero: this is this also hold on. This is like also Like a very important thing right like the things that drain your energy and that you’re like This is not what I want to be doing outsource that have somebody else get some help That is somebody’s own of genius, you know That is something that they love to do and they’re gonna make an amazing hire for you because that’s where they’re gifted So fabulous, let’s hone in on the things that we love to do what are meant to do and focus on those things.

[00:23:54] Andrea Elibero: Yay

[00:23:55] Alicia Croci: yes, yes. Um, I took that lesson out of your playbook. 100 percent of outsourcing that part of my business. Um, but. So I will have two sides and since the agency team side done for you side is, um, pretty much booked out for the most part that gives me the space to like, really step into this, um, strategist mentorship role and to really focus on the themes in the back end of all of like the passive products, the courses, um, I have an amazing, like evergreen group program coming out next.

[00:24:34] Alicia Croci: Year, hopefully end of this year, maybe, um, that I’m super excited about. And just having that team support allows me to like, really dabble into this area and make sure I’m covering like all the bases that I want to cover to help. Entrepreneurs not go through the same journey that I did, because to be completely honest.

[00:24:56] Alicia Croci: I don’t know how many people would have like stuck it out and it’s the stubbornness inside of me that kept me going, um, that I wanted to prove those people wrong and here I am proving them wrong.

[00:25:09] Andrea Elibero: But that’s so interesting. Did you see people in the program who, who stopped you, gave up their business? Just out of curiosity,

[00:25:15] Alicia Croci: Uh, yes.

[00:25:17] Andrea Elibero: but Yeah. Wait.

[00:25:18] Alicia Croci: Yeah. Um, so I had like three, four people in like my own, like little group chat on Instagram that I like found through the program and I really, really enjoyed like talking to them. And one of them. She started out as a coach and she just wasn’t like working, like it wasn’t working out for her. And it was because she was told like you had the industry experience.

[00:25:44] Alicia Croci: So just go into coaching and like, this is for you. And she was like, but I really like doing the work. Like she couldn’t like sit still and just have like coaching calls. Um, and she ended up giving up her business for like two years and then she. Got laid off. I’m still friends with her. She got laid off and like is now in the online space as a online business manager, because she really loves systems.

[00:26:09] Alicia Croci: Um,

[00:26:10] Andrea Elibero: That

[00:26:10] Alicia Croci: so that, yes, yes. And then the other two, um, that I talked to consistently, uh, they completely like dropped off the online space in general, and I never talked to them anymore and it’s really sad because they were like my homies.

[00:26:30] Andrea Elibero: It’s such a good lesson though. That is sad. Also, this whole online space is really like you’re saying you’re so you’re stubborn. I’m going to do this. I was the head coach. Tell me you’re very resilient. I was like, I’m like, I’m going to keep going. I’m going to do this thing. Like, you’re not going to defeat me.

[00:26:44] Andrea Elibero: I’m doing this. So, so I think we share that, that quality,

[00:26:48] Alicia Croci: Yes.

[00:26:48] Andrea Elibero: matter how we label it. I think it’s the same thing. And I think you kind of need that because there’s, you know, there’s things that happen. So, and, uh, Um, in my belief, it is the tools that underlie the, this, like the cookie cutter. So it’s like, Oh, there’s all these approaches, right?

[00:27:06] Andrea Elibero: But it’s really the stuff underneath that that’s important. And that’s, those are the things that a lot of people are not teaching. So it’s how do you listen to your intuition? How do you know what you actually want to do? How do you actually see what you’re good at all of these things? So so and, and how do you do that over and over again so you actually can tell you, Oh, this is a thing.

[00:27:23] Andrea Elibero: Oh yeah, this is going to work. You know, like, like. How can you tell? Because you have that inside of you, but a lot of people don’t know how to access that. How do you get past your traumas? How do you work through these things in order to, to, for real, right? In order to grow and do these things, because it takes all of this inner work to do that.

[00:27:38] Andrea Elibero: So, so I’m really happy that you shared all of that, and it brings up all these really, really important points. So I’m going to ask you, let’s see, more questions. Um, okay, so. All of this, your biggest hurdle. What would you say has been your biggest hurdle in this scaling journey?

[00:27:56] Alicia Croci: Breaking outside of that box is probably, I’m going to say like my biggest thing of that truly is what held me back for the longest time. And I didn’t have the support that I needed to break outside of that box. But whenever I eventually got the support that I needed, whether it was like my team or the only mentors that I invested in that actually like saw my true potential and made me feel seen and heard. That is what really helped me like explode, I guess is the word I’m going to use. Um, it helped me get over that hurdle and really figure out like business can be done any way that I want it to be done. As long as it. feels aligned to me. I don’t have to follow the rules. I don’t have to listen to like what all the gurus are saying because ultimately I am an expert in what I do.

[00:28:53] Alicia Croci: And so really leaning into that and like owning that has been the biggest like growth jump for me. And so like getting outside that box and finding someone that makes you feel seen and heard is what Help me get over that hurdle.

[00:29:13] Andrea Elibero: pre preach, all of it. I wanna repeat that, like put it on a loop and repeat this over and over again because Right. Like a hundred percent. Like you need, people need the support of. People, whether it’s coaches or just like your friends or like, you know, somebody who supports you to, to, who believes in you to help you to believe in yourself.

[00:29:35] Andrea Elibero: And yes, like there is, there are a thousand ways to run a business and there are just as many successful ways to run a business because somebody ran it and it was successful for them. It does not mean it’s going to be successful for you because you, everybody is composed of.

[00:29:57] Andrea Elibero: So, uh, I just find it fascinating that people have these, these like very like step one, step two, step three, step four. And it’s like, but how do you know that that’s like, you know, like, cause if that was the one way that everybody’s business would look like that. And it would be a very. a very gray place.

[00:30:13] Andrea Elibero: We would live in a very gray world, you know, because there’d be no variety. And like, how cool is it that there are, I love seeing, like, one of my favorite things is seeing all the ways that people build their businesses, obviously, because this is like what I’m doing, right? This is like what I do. So like, I really love seeing like, Oh, look at how like this offers that they put together.

[00:30:31] Andrea Elibero: Oh, this is a different, you know, I haven’t seen somebody do this before. And, and really like seeing people be successful that way. Because everybody I talked to on this podcast, the most successful people are the ones who have broken all the rules and have just lived by their own, by their own magic and just listened to themselves and did the thing.

[00:30:48] Andrea Elibero: So, so yes, yes, yes, yes. A thousand yeses. Um, and on that note, uh, top scale, and we got into this kind of, but anything more to share about your top scaling tip that you’ve learned along your journey that we haven’t covered yet? I know we’ve been talking about that a lot.

[00:31:06] Alicia Croci: I would say just like a more of like a reiterate of

[00:31:10] Andrea Elibero: Mm

[00:31:12] Alicia Croci: truly do the inner work and the mindset work and figure out what lights you. Um, and if it’s, if what you’re doing currently is something that does not make you get out of bed and like, make you excited for the day, or if you like dread opening up your computer, then that probably is not for you or the way that you’re doing it is not for you.

[00:31:31] Alicia Croci: And so anytime you’re feeling like that, really sit with yourself and figure out, are you currently burnout? Is it how you’re operating your business or is it the work that you’re doing? And that is one of the best. That’s the pieces of advice that I can give. Cause that is what each point of my like scaling journey I’ve had to sit with myself and have had to figure out that answer.

[00:31:53] Alicia Croci: And it’s either I had someone to help me pull those answers out of me, or I sat underneath my beautiful like tree now within the last couple of months and really found those answers myself. And ultimately, like. You set out on this journey to make this like dream life that you can envision. And how are you going to support that dream life?

[00:32:18] Alicia Croci: And if it’s not lighting you up, you’re not living your dream life. So if it is lighting you up, then you are living your dream life. So just like, listen to yourself and listen to your intuition. I’m going to get a little wooey over here and like really trust you. Um, Whether it’s like spirit, the universe or whatever, like trust them to guide you on the path that you need to go on, or you want to go on, or you desire to go on, because if you listen to all the noise, then you’re just listening to like the multiple manipulations out there that are telling you a different journey that you’re on.

[00:32:49] Alicia Croci: Maybe you’re not meant for, so listen to yourself, do the inner work and just like own your own power. I’m going to take your word there.

[00:32:58] Andrea Elibero: Beautiful. Take all the words because it’s I again, I could not pay you to say it better So like yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Um, and and last thing is please let everybody know how we can stay in touch with you If you have any gifts anything you want to share the floor is yours. Please go ahead and do that

[00:33:17] Alicia Croci: Yes. Um, if you have any questions or if you relate to my story in any way, uh, the best way to contact me is on Instagram at wildly creative studio. And, um, as a community person, I full heartedly welcome any messages that come in that are just like. Questions and just like your last little bubble, or if you just wanna help me.

[00:33:38] Alicia Croci: Um, I just recently moved, so I have zero friends in that. Real world and I love my online friends. So come be friends with me.

[00:33:46] Andrea Elibero: And you have cute corgis who you post pictures of, so if you want to see corgis, then that’s the place to be.

[00:33:52] Alicia Croci: Yes. Yes. Courtney butts daily.

[00:33:55] Andrea Elibero: That’s the promise. That’s your campaign promise.

[00:33:58] Alicia Croci: Yes.

[00:34:00] Andrea Elibero: Thank you, Alicia, so much for being here. This was a pleasure.

[00:34:04] Alicia Croci: Yes. Thank you so much. I am super honored to be a guest on your podcast and I’m so excited that you invited me to share my story. So this is amazing thing that you’re doing. So thank you again.

[00:34:20] Andrea Elibero: Thank you So much for joining us today. I really hope you found inspiration and insights from today’s episode. You know, scaling your business intentionally and from the inside out is a transformational process, but I’m here to support you every step of the way. Head on over to dancingleafsolutions. com slash resources for free tools to help you do just that.

[00:34:39] Andrea Elibero: And thank you again.

[00:34:40] Andrea Elibero: for being a part of the Solpreneur Scaling Stories community. Your presence and dedication to growth inspire me every day.