Personal Transformation: 3 specific examples of marketers/entrepreneurs who transformed their careers to get results

This article was originally published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter.

Leo Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

I thought of that quote while watching Flint McGlaughlin’s latest video, “The Number One Key To Transformative Marketing” (McGlaughlin is the CEO and Managing Director of MarketingSherpa’s parent organization, MECLABS Institute).

As McGlaughlin says in the video, “The key to transformative marketing is a transformed marketer.”

So today we bring you three stories of transformed marketer/entrepreneurs to help you on your own journey of discovery and change.

First up, a truly remarkable tale of an artist who was laid off from an entry-level role in a company, spurring her to start her own company, which ultimately led the original company to reach back out and ask her to run it.

Next, an entomologist who could no longer run a pest-control company due to poor physical health, so he used his accumulated knowledge to launch a content website.

And finally, since even the most transformative solopreneur can’t do it alone, a legal industry coach who credits her newfound attainment of monthly recurring revenue to reaching out and getting support.

Transformational Story #1: Getting laid off from entry-level job, then starting own business and growing it to $1 million in annual revenue, leads to running initial business she was laid off from

Bailey Christenbury, Founder and Managing Director, Ringcrush:

I was laid off from a multi-million-dollar jewelry startup, started my own jewelry company with $400, built a multi-million-dollar brand, and was recently contacted by the original startup to run their company.

Although I now consider myself a business owner, I started my journey as an artist. I studied sculpture, and then jewelry, at Savannah College of Art and Design. While finishing college, around 24 years old, I was offered a prestigious design position with a luxury jewelry brand in the United Kingdom. It was my dream job. Or so I thought. I regularly worked 60–80-hour weeks, and I quickly began to wear way more hats than I anticipated.

What was supposed to be a jewelry design role, I soon found myself flying between Atlanta, London, and New York City regularly managing production, contributing to brand strategy meetings, and even babysitting my boss’s children on more than one occasion. I felt $50,000 a year was a salary I should have been grateful to have, particularly with the experience I was gaining – experience I wouldn’t get if I accepted a design role at an established company.

I didn’t realize how soul draining the experience was until the company pulled the plug in late 2015. I was heartbroken having lost my dream position. After a few months trying to figure out what my next steps were going to be, and with a rapidly dwindling meager checking account, I decided to invest $400 in jewelry materials to start an Etsy store.

I started my company with a lot of research on viable ecommerce options on a limited budget.

One of the focuses of my design work was data-driven design – meaning, focusing on developing low-cost products that fill voids in the marketplace. I made items that a lot of people were searching for online, that had low competition. The cool thing is, the low competition was primarily due to the difficulty in the technique required to create said product (one-of-a-kind raw gemstone jewelry), which shielded me from competitors who did not have the expertise on the technique, or the patience to learn it.

The technique also allowed me to produce the products much more affordably than traditional jewelry manufacturing, which requires casting and traditional stone setting, which is also very time consuming and expensive to implement.

Once I had my data, and my plan, I got to work and turned my tiny one-car garage into a jewelry studio. I made several designs, and posted onto Etsy, which was much more affordable and user-friendly than starting my own website. I focused primarily on raw gemstone jewelry, which allowed me to use real recognizable gemstones, like sapphire, diamond, ruby, and opal, but at an affordable price point.

[Avoiding] the gemstone cutting process saves a lot of money and makes these gemstones much more accessible. Plus, the raw gemstone “look” is what makes our brand special, as each individual piece is one of a kind. The Etsy marketplace allowed me to reach customers all over the world, including boutiques. And I'm proud to say we have jewelry in shops as far [away] as Amsterdam and Tokyo.

I gradually expanded by reinvesting as much of my profits as possible into hiring one or two assistant artisans at a time. We now have 14 full-time artisans who handmake all of our pieces, just like I did in my garage in 2016, and a large studio in Atlanta, Georgia.

Within two years, we were already doing over $1 million in annual revenue. Now, we have sold over 150,000 pieces of jewelry.

The brand I originally worked for recently contacted me, impressed by my success, and asked me to lead their company into profitability. I did accept. Although the experience as an underling was stressful, the opportunity to lead another global jewelry brand is very exciting. I don’t think I would have easily worked my way into an upper management position for a large jewelry company following the traditional path of climbing the corporate ladder, particularly at age 31. I needed to carve my own path to grow in my career, and I will continue to do so.

I believe I was contacted by the original company’s shareholders due to my success in building and scaling a jewelry brand. The data-driven design strategy, in-depth knowledge of ecommerce, and my manufacturing expertise all played a role in continuing the conversation to finalizing my involvement.

Simon Benney, Primary Shareholder, House of Benney:

Very much looking forward to working with Bailey in building up the Benney brand and creating a pure ecommerce site for House of Benney – using her skills and experience in creating Ringcrush and applying her skill sets to Benney, marrying up the Benney heritage with bang-up-to-date ecommerce [and] data-driven design and marketing.

Transformational Story #2: Turning a career’s worth of expertise into online content produces a website that generates $5,000 per month in affiliate commissions

Nicholas Martin, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Pest Control Hacks:

I had been working as an exterminator and pest control consultant for over 25 years in my own small, local pest control service. I’m almost 60, but I didn’t want to quit the realm. As a keen entomologist I was really enjoying the business, but it became quite difficult to keep working as an exterminator due to diabetes.

I decided to sell the service and invent a new calmer workplace for myself. I spent around six months after selling the service considering various work-from-home business options and improving my health condition. At the end of my vacation, I had an idea that inspired me very much.

I decided to withdraw $10,000 from my Solo 401(k) and invest it into the development of a pest control-related website with an exterminator search engine and a high-quality DIY (do-it yourself) pest control blog with my own and other experts’ guides and product reviews. I knew nothing about the business, but I found out that freelancers can get all the development done in less than three months and for only $3,000.

Did the idea work out? Indeed! Hiring an experienced SEO (search engine optimization) manager and freelance writers helped me to drive a surprising amount of traffic to the platform and make it generate sufficient income in less than a year.

Today PestControlHacks.com has from 75,000 to 150,000 visitors [every month] directly from search engines and generates up to $5,000 per month on the Amazon Affiliate program. Writing articles and delegating website maintenance is an easy task for me, so I can keep working in the field for years and have a great semi-passive income source for the rest of my life.

Transformational Story #3: Getting support led to first $9,000 per month

Emily Hirsekorn, Career Confidence Coach, Hirsekorn Coaching LLC:

The most transformative thing I've done in my entrepreneurial career was getting support.

In addition to completing [a] coach training program, I hired several coaches throughout my first year of business, including:

• a whole-person life coach who keeps me on track on an ongoing basis
• a coach who helps online marketers launch a course, which empowered me to get a group program up and running in just one month that brought in $3,300
• a coach who helps coaches launch a six-figure business, which helped me go through a strong client surge and get me to my first $9,000 month
• a coach who specifically focuses on video marketing, which is now supporting me as I build out a hybrid course/group coaching program to seriously scale my business.

With these resources, I have never felt alone in business, I've been held accountable to get a ton of work done, and I've had guidance every step of the way.

I have also been networking with other coaches in my niche industry (focusing on lawyers and business professionals) since day one, and it has paid off immensely over time.

Networking has brought new business opportunities my way, including affiliation with an international group of lawyers coaching lawyers; resulted in countless client referrals and new clients; led to social media collaborations; and helped me grow my followers with increased exposure.

But networking has also done something for my business and me that has probably been more important than anything else: make me feel like I have colleagues – a ton of chosen colleagues – and like I am not working completely on my own despite being a solopreneur. I always feel supported and inspired and also know I have a circle of friends to call on with questions, concerns, and big, crazy ideas.

Related Resources

The Hidden Opportunity Within the COVID-19 Crisis: Three ways to transform your work and your life

Marketers Stand Together: 8 crucial conversion optimization lessons from MarketingExperiments videos in 2020

Customer-First Marketing: A conversation with Wharton, MarketingSherpa, and MECLABS Institute