Laura Kåmark
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Be Bold, Make Waves podcast, a show bringing you inspiring stories of women who are growing and scaling their business. I’m your host, Laura Kåmark, a website and tech integration specialist who works with online business owners who love their work and not their website. Join me as we have incredible conversations about business mindset, productivity, and of course, the website and tech behind the business.
Let’s go ahead and dive in to this week’s episode.

Welcome to this week’s show. I am so incredibly excited to introduce you to this week’s guests. Sarah Masci. Sarah is the founder of Day Rate Mastery, which is an online company that teaches creative service providers how to work less and make more with streamline day rate business model. She spent years of running a traditional design business filled with scope creep, inconsistent timelines, overlapping client projects, and eventually resulted in classic burnout, which became the catalyst that sparked Sarah’s desire to create a better process. Since its inception in 2019, day rate mastery has helped 1000s of freelancers including myself rediscover joy in their work and freedom they’ve lost along the way. Sarah, welcome to the show. I am just so excited to have you here. I can’t wait to ask you all the questions and really dive so deep into your journey and everything. Can we start out by kind of talking a little bit about why you started your online business?

Sarah Masci
Yes, yes, thank you so much for having me, I’m super excited to be here. When you shared that you were launching this, I was like, I want to be on the show. So I’m so grateful to be here. Um, why I started my business back in 2005, I actually left my corporate while actually I didn’t leave corporate in 2005. But that’s when I kind of like, decided I wanted to start a business, my oldest son was a baby. And I was only spending about one or two hours a day with him because little ones go to bed early, when they’re a year old, they go to bed at like six o’clock or seven o’clock. And I was getting home from work at after five every day. And so I just knew that like, that’s not the type of mom that I didn’t want to be the mom who never saw her child. And so I had to figure out a way to make money work from home, and still support the family. And so that was my why like, that’s really why I started this. I’ve done many, many, many things over the years, I was not always a designer, I do not have a degree in design. Um, I My degree is actually in marketing. So that has definitely helped. But yeah, that was my big why. And it continues to be my why even now, today, how many years later, 17 years later, my son is now 17. And I have three more, as you know, who are 10 1215 and my 17 year old and I’m just so grateful to be able to be here in my home. And even though I’m working a lot and they’re around at least I’m with them, and I’m seeing them grow. And I’ve been able to be so much more part of their life. Because I’ve been home all these years.

Laura Kåmark
How would you say that you’ve been able to design your business around the lifestyle that you wanted.

Sarah Masci
Um, while I was definitely hard for those of you listening who have little ones, like it’s so hard when they’re little to figure out that the balance and the juggle, and it is a struggle, because you know, you’re trying to work, you’re trying to grow a business and you’ve got kids at home. And it’s sometimes it can be really difficult to manage it all and balance it all. So I was very stressed out for those years when I was trying everything in my power to grow a business, and also manage toddlers and newborns and small children. And it was just a lot of work. Once my youngest went to kindergarten, it was like the happiest day ever for me because I was like suddenly, I had an entire day to focus on my business. But I was still here for them when they get off the bus, you know, at 330 in the afternoon. So it’s been I mean, there’s really no straight answer. It’s always been a struggle to do this with kids around. When they are a little bit older. It does get easier. Like this morning. They didn’t get up until after 10 o’clock. So I just got up and worked and I didn’t even hear from them. I had to get away at 1010 o’clock this morning. So that’s what happens when they get older.

Laura Kåmark
But I can not even imagine that this point with a six year old and a four year old. Yeah, but I mean them sleeping in we’re like it’s seven o’clock they’re not up yet.

Sarah Masci
What is wrong there must be some I think everything. Yeah, yeah, actually my 10 year old came down today and he was like, Mom, this is a second day in a row that I slept until 10 o’clock. And I was like, yeah, like you’re getting older, I guess. But yeah, it’s it does happen. So

Laura Kåmark
did you have that you put them in? Because you were saying when your youngest finally went to kindergarten started school system? Did you have them in like any sort of preschool or a nanny babysitter? Anything else? To give yourself a little break?

Sarah Masci
Yeah. And yeah, for sure. I had all of them in some sort of childcare arrangement throughout the years, so some of them were part time. I think my oldest, we did a nanny share for a couple years. And then he went to preschool. And then I had my next one. And we did a little bit more of the nanny share. And some preschool. It was always a combination of preschool nannies or like in home daycare. My youngest did an in home daycare for a few years. My third son started preschool when he was a year old. Like, we were just living in an area that had a really great preschool for him for one year olds. And so we always joke like, he’s the smart one, because he started preschool when he was a year old, and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, they’ve always been in some sort of part time arrangement. But I was still none of them were ever full time. None of them were ever like all day. So I still had to juggle, you know, getting them there, picking them up, getting them home, putting them down for a nap, hurry up, get some work done, then you know what I mean, in that whole cycle starts over again.

Laura Kåmark
I know when I first found out about you online, I heard you on a podcast, I heard about gay rights. And something that really resonated with me was the fact that you are a mom, and you have four kids, and you have dogs. And I’m like, That’s me. She’s just her kids are a little older, like, but that was something that really resonated with me, because I’ve, I’ve felt the struggle of where I followed a lot of people in the online space where they maybe don’t have kids or their kids were older when they started their business. And I know for me, I’ve felt a lot like I should be further along. And then I try to pull myself back and be like, but look at what you’re doing and look at you have the small children at home, you’re juggling because it is a juggle, it’s not a balance, there is no balance, to juggle of all the different things and like the sudden, like, oh, kids are home sick, someone has a cough, cancel all the appointments for the day, you know, move things around on the schedule, and just all that unexpected. So I know that was something I really resonated with your story with the fact that you you have children and the mom life and trying to build the business from the time when they were young.

Sarah Masci
Yeah, I mean, for me, like when I hired my first business coach, she did not have children. She was 10 years younger than me, no kids, and she like had this million dollar business. And I was like, she helped me with so many things. But I was always comparing myself to like that kind of crowd of coaches, they all there was a bunch of them. And none of them had kids. And they were all just living the single life. And I was like, Yeah, but that’s not my life. Like there’s a reason why it’s taken me 15 year at the time, 10 years to get to where I was because I was juggling small children and all of that kind of stuff that came along with it. And But even now, I mean, even now like being a pandemic for over two years now. Yes, my kids are older. But, you know, two years ago, all of a sudden, they were all home after being in school for several years. And me having this lifestyle of freedom, but them all gone. And then all of a sudden, they all came home. And I was like, so thankful for my business model at the time, because it allowed me to do you know, to still be with them, and still help them and support them in the homeschool types and stuff they were doing, and still be able to run my business.

Laura Kåmark
I love that you brought that up, because I also want to talk more about that because that was when I Found You was during the pandemic. And you were talking about gay rights. And I was trying to figure out, I was making a pivot in my business at the time because my current the current work I was doing was not going to work with children being home 24/7 And I need to pivot and I wanted to go back to building websites and finding out about the day rate model really just like opened up this whole new world for me. Can you talk a little bit about the day rate model and what that is, and I feel like it’s a very talked about thing now but at the same time, I still feel like there are people who don’t fully understand how that works.

Sarah Masci
Yeah, so day rates VIP days intensives pretty much all the same thing just to kind of clarify put that out there. I feel like a lot of people call them different things. And so um really essentially what it is, is compressing a long project a big long term, six 812 week project into one day and getting everything done in eight hours versus eight weeks, for example. Like for me and for you, or like a website in a day, or maybe two days, really depending on the size and the scope of the project. But it’s essentially packaging all of that work up and getting it done in one day, rather than stretching it out and having to go back and forth, with your client through email over and over and over and chasing down things and dragging things out for weeks at a time. Because what I found was, it’s just not an efficient way to work. When you’re juggling all of these clients every single day and you get to the end of the month, and nothing is done, nothing is actually done. You’re still in progress with all of these clients and just feeling like you’re working all the time, but you’re really not getting paid, because none of the projects are actually getting finished. Because there’s always that scope, creep and all of that back and forth, that ends up happening. This is not never planned for. So yeah, so it’s getting everything done in a day and getting paid upfront for a day and charging, being able to charge premium prices. Because not only is it more convenient for you as the service provider, but it’s also an amazing experience for the person who pays for it. As they’re getting your undivided attention. They’re getting their outcome delivered in one day versus waiting three months for it. They get to be an active kind of participant in the process. So there’s all sorts of benefits for for both sides of the of the transaction. So yeah, so in

Laura Kåmark
changing your business model to day rates, how did that kind of help with your family life?

Sarah Masci
Well, during so I was used to doing projects and a full day like 8:30am until 3:30pm. Basically, I would put my kids on the bus, eight o’clock, I would come home, I would sit down and start working, I would work with one client all day, wrap up at 330, my youngest would get off the bus at four, it was like perfect, it could not have been more perfect, right. And I did that usually two days per week. And then the other three days, I was working on my own business, doing marketing, whatever. And then also the pandemic starts and now they’re home. And I’ve got distractions literally all day long, because everyone needs me. And it’s something. And so luckily, my husband was also home, he came home because of the pandemic as well. And so we worked out an arrangement that he would do, he would help the kids in the mornings, and I would help the kids in the afternoons. We did that for a while. And so what I did was I took my VIP day, all of my VIP day clients, and I turned them into half days. So while in the mornings, I would work, you know, to, like, half morning, right to morning, one day done. So I did a lot of that. And then what I also discovered kind of realize over time was the way the school was sending work home, the kids did not really have a whole lot to do on Fridays. And so I decided just to make Friday’s to be my VIP day. So I stopped doing the half days and just started booking clients on Fridays. And so it was kind of there, the kids had their like free for all day, they could do whatever they wanted, I would help them all week and then on Fridays was like my day I closed my door and was able to just focus.

Laura Kåmark
At what point did you turn that into the course

Sarah Masci
before the pandemic? Okay, so I started I actually launched the course in July of 2019. And yeah, so but actually, I had only only had about 30 people go through the course and 2019. And then I officially launched it like in the big kind of webinar evergreen model where you found me that actually launched in March of 2020. It was just perfectly coincided with the pandemic. And so I actually started bringing in a lot more revenue from the course that I was able to cut back on doing intensive so I was able to only do that one day a week. So having that Friday, worked fine to do one VIP day a week and then all of my revenue was coming from core sales. And who would you

Laura Kåmark
say that your course is mostly geared towards who are the perfect people for that?

Sarah Masci
Expert service providers. So typically web designers, brand designers, copywriters, marketing strategists, or marketing doers, people who do type of marketing work. OBM is VAs who have anybody who really specializes in a system, a method or a process, anyone who’s selling packages that have to be delivered over a long period of time, that type of Freelancer is really the best fit for this model. I mean, we’ve got, we’ve worked with coaches and consultants as well. But just based on my personal experience as a web designer, service provider, like I can really like, get inside of that type of business model and support the people who have a similar model.

Laura Kåmark
I know I found when I joined your program, that the community was so strong and so amazing. And at that point, that was in 2020. And then in at the end of 2020, you had launched more of a coaching program. And there was about 30 of us that all that had joined that, and that to me was like, it was the perfect timing. It was I had been in business. I mean, I started my business in 2015, when I got laid off unexpectedly, and was just kind of thrown into like, I’m about to have a baby. And I need to figure out how to grow business. And I spent so many years looking for my people, and trying and not finding like a community. And it really was when I joined your programs that I found that community and those like lifelong friends and the people I now collaborate with, and I partner with and that to me was so like, even more so than the life changing magic of day rates was the life changing magic of the community that I went into when I joined up with everything you created. And that to me was like, it was huge. It changed. It changed everything for my business.

Sarah Masci
Yeah, having having those connections in business is so like it like you said it’s life changing. I mean, it can be really lonely, right. And you probably experienced this a first few years when you don’t have that group or that core, like whether it’s a mastermind or coaching community, or even just biz besties it is so lonely because your spouse has no idea if you’re married, like, I don’t know about you, well, I know about you, but like, my husband is just like, has no idea what I’m talking about. And as I’ve been trying to kind of bring him into the business, I’m like, I feel like I have to explain every little thing to him, and he just doesn’t get it. But yeah, I agree that we definitely have attracted like a really amazing group. I think everyone just resonates so well with each other because everyone’s experienced a lot of the same struggles and frustrations as a freelance service provider and can really just, like get on the same page with each other and form those tight connections.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah, I mean, because also, like you talked about how, when you first started your business, you were also raising children, and motherhood is very lonely. And then on top of that, okay, I’m starting this business. And that’s very lonely, because I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’m trying to just wing it. And again, until you find that, that network, it’s hard. It’s really hard. So thank you for creating this, these amazing community that you created. Just the people that are drawn to you are definitely like my people I found. So that has really been incredible for me. I would love to know, to talk a little bit about how your business has pivoted. You know, we talked already about how you were doing the traditional projects and the burnout with that, and then transitioning over to day rates. And then we’ve touched a little bit on how you had created the course and a coaching program. You talk a little bit about just kind of the waves of your business.

Sarah Masci
Yeah. So I was I was doing web design and branding. And before I launched the course that you joined, I actually had launched a branding course was like a membership. So I did that it was like a $29 a month. DIY branding membership is called simple brand Academy. And it was really cool. It was kind of a spin off of my mood board challenge which I think you’ve probably gone through. I have not

Laura Kåmark
okay, not it’s it’s been on my list to go through it. I’ve always wanted to because I’ve been hearing about it for all these years. And

Sarah Masci
I feel like everyone’s like starts there. Like that was like my thing that people started with. But as fun as somebody here it’s not like the only thing that people find me

Laura Kåmark
on a podcast. Yeah, that was and then I and then a different podcast often you’re on again and I’m like, Who’s this Sarah Massey. And then one of the clients I had at the time that it was my, my last retainer client that I that stayed on during the pandemic. She was like, Oh, I’m doing this joint venture with Sarah Massey. I’m like, she keeps coming into my world. I’m gonna use a reason. And I watched the joint venture and I was like, sold. Yeah, I need I need her in my life. So yeah,

Sarah Masci
so I started with side a five day moodboard channel And, and that’s where a lot of people kind of learned about me. And I was going to notice the branding girl, and the mood board challenge girl, before I became the day rate girl. And so yeah, so I did that in 2003, when I launched my first VIP day client with a with a VIP day client, I also launched this membership, I kind of did it, almost like within just a few months of each other. And I ran that course from like the summer of 2018. And through about the summer of 2019, what I realized and then, and then I launched my my gift book by the day VIP day course in the summer of 2019. And very quickly, I realized that how much more I enjoyed working with fellow freelancers who were struggling with the same things that I struggled with and overcame, versus trying to teach non designers how to be designers. That was like, so frustrating for me, because it was just hard. Sometimes it’s just hard to teach someone how to design if they are not naturally inclined if they don’t have that natural design ability, right. And so I was like, I came to a crossroads where I knew I had to decide because everyone was everyone I was listening to and getting coached by and reading was like, you have to go in. And one thing, you’ve got to become known for one thing you can’t be trying, you can’t be serving two completely different audiences with two completely different programs. And it was so different that I was like, Okay, I have to, I have to pull the plug on one of these. And I knew I was like I love working with other people who are burnt out and frustrated from these long drawn out projects. So I pulled the plug on my branding course, and went all in on my VIP day course. And that was July of 2019. And really have just like kept that in the back of my mind and really tried to keep my blinders on all these years. Like stay focused, stay play the long game, rinse and repeat, launch, you know, rinse, repeat, launch, rinse, repeat, because that’s how you become known for something that’s how you become the guru or the influencer or the expert is by just staying with it, even when it feels hard. And even when you have all these other great ideas as a as a business. You know, as a CEO or business owner, we have a million ideas. But really being able to stay focused on one thing has really helped me to kind of get to the level that I’m at.

Laura Kåmark
When you start to want to wander off track. What do you do to get yourself back on that stay focused?

Sarah Masci
I reached out to my mentors and say, I’ve got this idea I’m thinking about doing and they’re like, no, no, just focus on what you’re doing. Yeah, no, but really, it comes down to having really good coaches and and mastermind peers who helped me stay focused.

Laura Kåmark
At what point in your journey did you start joining like masterminds or coaching all that

Sarah Masci
stuff. Um, so I’ve been in a lot of like higher ticket courses and coaching programs, I started those in 2018. I started kind of joining the bigger ticket courses. And then I joined my first mastermind, like, I joined some high ticket coaching programs in 2020. And then 2021 is when I joined the mastermind that I’m in now, and that’s like the only official like mastermind that I would say I’ve been in so it was Yeah, a little over a year ago. How do you feel

Laura Kåmark
that that’s the joining the coaching and the mastermind groups programs have changed your business?

Sarah Masci
Um, well, I would say the coaching programs, the the high ticket courses and coaching programs, I always join programs that I know are going to give me a very specific result. So you when I wanted to shoot when I wanted to launch an evergreen webinar funnel, I joined a course a high ticket course it would give me exactly what I needed to launch an evergreen webinar funnel. And I always want to join something where I know I’m gonna get that ROI very quickly and then exceed it. So evergreen webinar funnel, I joined a high ticket course when I wanted to launch my membership back in 2018. I went with a course that taught memberships. When I launched my high ticket coaching program, the one that you joined, I was in a program that taught high ticket coaching programs. And now the mastermind that I’m in is so much more broad. It’s just a very general There’s nothing specific that I’m learning there’s no curriculum, but it’s the people I’m there for the people and I’m there for access to the coaches that are in the mastermind for like sounding boards just feedback. You know whenever I’m struggling with anything I know, I have mentors, coaches and peers who I can go to. And I’m going to get everything I need from that group.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. And I think that’s such a great way to look at when joining those programs is what specifically is it that I’m looking for to get out of my business? Or to you know, what, what’s the thing I’m trying to accomplish? And then finding the program that supports that? I think that’s really great advice. And I love that so much.

Sarah Masci
Yeah, yeah, I just, I just feel like going with someone who’s very specific about what they teach, is going to get you so much farther, so much faster than trying to learn it through a general coaching program, or a general coach who doesn’t have the experience in that thing.

Laura Kåmark
Yep. Absolutely. Oh, I love that. So I would love to know, what are you doing, that’s being bold in your industry.

Sarah Masci
Um, I think just simply trying to simplify everything for for just, my clients, and my peers is really like, I feel like everyone’s so caught up and having, like, these perfect models and these perfect frameworks and these perfect offers, and so many people get stuck. And they, they don’t put anything out there because they their progress, basically, is procrastination, they’re they’re trying to make sure everything is just perfect before they put it out there. And so really just helping people take the leap, and ensuring them that it’s okay, if it’s messy, like, you know, my, my whole do MSC motto, I mean, we run that as like a challenge inside of our course. Because people come into the course and they’re like, oh, I don’t know, I don’t know if this is ready. I don’t know if this is good enough. And I am of the mindset that you learn so much more by doing it messy and putting it out there, imperfectly and unfinished, then you will ever learn by just sitting there and waiting for it all to be perfect before you put it out there. So we are huge advocates of taking imperfect action. And we’ve really tried to encourage all of our students and clients and our audience just in general, just just go for it, just do it. And we’ll go back and fix it later. It doesn’t need to be you know, we always make it perfect eventually. But it doesn’t need to start that way.

Laura Kåmark
And I’ve loved that so much. And that right there is what helped move my business forward. When I joined your program started working with you. And you were like, just do it messy. I’m like, what, what do you mean, but I’m a perfectionist. And you just do it messy, it’s okay, you can go back and change it later. And that has just shifted my mindset around business, around my life around just everything, so much of just trying to put it through that lens of do it messy. And because if you want to do it perfect, it’s going to sit there and you’re never going to hit the send button or the publish button or whatever the button says. You’re not going to move forward with it if you wait for it to be perfect. But if you and also you can make it part of your brand where you people know like, we’re just we’re doing it, we’re going with it. It’s okay, if there’s a typo, that’s fine. It’s okay. But links broken oops, it’s okay. We did it, we put it out there. And that’s the important thing, because that’s really if you don’t put the offers out there, you’re not gonna grow your business.

Sarah Masci
Right? Well, I mean, the biggest thing is by you get so much feedback from you can you’ll get good feedback you’ll get you’ll get amazing testimonials from your messy offers, right? Like, I remember when I first offered my very first VIP day, I had nothing figured out I had no sales page for it or work on the page. I had no systems. I had no framework, no process, like literally nothing. I was just like, wow, I don’t have time to fit you into my schedule for a long project. And I certainly don’t have time to spend two hours putting a proposal together for you. But if you want to pay me for a day I can I can carve out this next Friday and get it done for you. And she was like, oh, man, that’s great. And I was like, perfect. And we did it. And I realized that I undercharged and so I learned from that I realized that I overestimated what I could finish in a day. I learned from that. But if I had never set it, if I had worried about having a prep like this, none of this would have ever happened. And like I literally just learned so much from that one messy offer that I was then able to use for my next stop for the next person that came through the door. So

Laura Kåmark
you recently were talking about you sent out an email about burning down all your funnels on the back end. And I would love to hear more about that. I’ve been so intrigued ever since I saw that email. What do you mean you’re burning it down because I I love the funnels. I love the back end. I’ve gotten to where I’m setting up a lot of the email funnel systems and nurture sequences for clients. But my big thing is like let’s keep it simple and not have all these different legs to things because it just it gets complicated. And I don’t like complicated. I like things to be simple.

Sarah Masci
Yeah, yeah, I mean, that’s really the bottom line is I like my, my number one core value is simplicity. That’s what I started. That’s why I loved the VIP day model so much because it was so easy. And so simple. People bought it, they loved it, I delivered it in a day, then we were done. And it was just simple. Everything about it was simple. And then I launched a course and then another course and then a coaching program, and then a mastermind and then I was like, and then our retreat where we all went, you know what I mean? I was like, I have just like, made this simple business so complicated. And that the amount of tags in my system and knowing who’s gotten this and who’s enrolled in this, and well, if they’re in this and they can’t get this email, because this is for these people. And then I would get emails back from people being like, I just received your email about this program, but I’m already in it. Do you need help with sent Do you need help fixing your funnels, and I would be like, Oh, that was embarrassing. Like that was messy and really embarrassing. And it just got so complex, like, I mean, we’re talking hundreds, if not 1000s of tags in the system, and segmentations. And the other thing is like when you put people into all these funnels, and you’ve got when you have as many as what we had going on the back end, you’ve got people in all these funnels at any given time. And then there’s like a world event or something happens and you’re all of a sudden you’re kind of showing up as tone deaf, because you don’t like you’re not acknowledging any of that stuff in these funnels, and some people are getting, then people end up in two funnels, and they’re getting two different emails a day, and it just gets, it gets very like, I don’t know, it just didn’t sit well with me, it felt almost like dishonest, like, like people thought that I was really emailing them. But I wasn’t because it was all automated. And so I wanted to go back to just keeping it simple, and really sending out one email a week to everybody on my list, no matter where you’re at, in my customer journey. If you’re a customer, if you’re not a customer, if you are my highest level customer, you’re gonna get the same email from me. And this way I can talk about what’s on my mind, I could talk about current events, I can share some sort of inspiration, I can do whatever it’s like, you know, I get to make the rules. And I get to say whatever I want and do whatever I want. So I will say that I’ll never create another funnel again, because funnels work. I just got to the point where there was too many, and there’s too much stuff. And we really needed to burn it all down. And maybe we will start some simpler ones in the future, depending on new courses or new programs that we launched. Like I can’t say we’ll never do that. But for now it feels really good to just keep it simple. Send out one email a week, actually two emails a week. So we’re gonna send then the spotlight newsletter one day, which is kind of like announcements, things we’re doing podcasts, summits, that kind of thing. And then the Friday email we’re calling whitespace. Because that’s how I want to feel, um, I just want I just love that whitespace and I it does not feel calm and clutter free when there’s all of this other stuff going on. So I want to kind of bring it back to that calm, simple, simple email in your inbox, little like inspiration, nothing too big, nothing that’s going to take too much time. So yeah, I’m excited. I love

Laura Kåmark
that. And I love like right there just like the permission to run your business in a way that feels good to you. And if something’s not feeling right, you have the right to change it. And that’s the beauty of us owning our own businesses and running our business the way we want to. And I love that I love I love I loved that you were your message that you were gonna burn it all down and like I need to know more about yeah, definitely a lot.

Sarah Masci
We got a lot of replies from that email. I was like, well, there’s some good open rates right there and some good algorithm stuff. But yeah, a lot of people were very excited about it too. So

Laura Kåmark
I love that. Um, we are getting close to our time together. I do have a couple more questions that I definitely want to touch on. As you I know you’re aware of I am really big on celebrating wins and the achievements we have and the success that we’ve created, the opportunities how we’ve shown up and all the things I would love to know, what is something that you are most proud of when it comes to your business?

Sarah Masci
Good question. Um, I think I’m just most proud of building this company from the ground up and really staying the course and persevering through a lot of hard times, like a lot of stress and a lot of frustration. There was a lot of years where I wanted to burn the whole thing down our I just give up. I mean, I remember like trying to apply for jobs at one point because it was just, it was just I felt like this endless push, like I felt like all I was doing was pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing. And, yes, I have a lot of grit and persistence. And that’s just, I’m stubborn, and I’m not gonna give up on anything. But it’s really exhausting and tiring at times. But then now I can look back and be like, wow, like, we’ve really come a long way. So I’m definitely celebrating that. Also, I think the other big thing for me was not having spousal support of my business for a long time. He didn’t see the vision, he didn’t understand what we were, what I was trying to do, or what I was trying to create, I probably didn’t even understand what I was trying to create for a long time. But I just stayed focused and push through anyway and thought I kept thinking to myself, I’m gonna prove him wrong, I’m gonna prove him wrong. I’m gonna prove him wrong. And now we are on the other side of that, where he’s so supportive and so encouraging, and just celebrating wins with me all the time now, which is, it’s like made our relationship like, yeah, it was rocky there for a while, like, going, going through that together. And now now that we’re on our side, it’s just been, it’s been really awesome.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that. When you did feel like you want to just burn it all down? What was what do you think was what you tell yourself to get out of that mindset? How did you pull yourself back around? Did you just did you take a break and step away for a minute,

Sarah Masci
I don’t think I’ve ever taken a break in 17 years, really, um, except for like, a day or two here a week off or whatever. But um, no, I didn’t take a break. I just knew. It’s just not in my nature to quit. And I knew that I hated corporate life. And I did not want to work for anyone else. And I knew the potential that of business, that being an entrepreneur, like a successful business is so much more prosperous and lucrative then going back and working for somebody else making an hourly wage or salary. I mean, I look around at my friends and family who have traditional jobs. And, you know, we can just like we just booked a week at the beach next week, very, very spontaneous like it was that we found a great deal on a beach house, I was like, let’s go to the beach for a week. And that, but it has 12 beds. And so there’s only six of us. And I was like, Who can we invite who can come with us, but they all have traditional jobs. And they can’t they they can’t just leave and go away for a week. And so it’s really that for me, it was like knowing that how much I value the freedom and simplicity of my setting my own hours doing my own thing and having no cap on my earning potential. And just knowing all of that. And so that’s kind of what has kept me going. But like I said, I look around and I’m like, Oh, I wish I could just like shake some of these people and be like, Do you realize how much freedom you would have if you would just go and start your own thing. But I guess I keep being reminded that that’s not in everyone’s blood. Like everyone doesn’t have that same entrepreneur mentality that we have. But it’s definitely that’s what’s kept me going.

Laura Kåmark
I have a neighbor that I’ll see when we’re out walking dogs in the morning on Friday. He’s always like, Friday. I’m like, Man, I love my job. I love what I do I necessarily look forward to Friday. I really love like, showing up for my clients and like the client work they do. I find it exciting, exhilarating. And like I’m in my zone, and it feels so good and fulfilling. Like my cup is full. I don’t have that like, oh, corporate. I hate my job. I hate what I do. You know, Oh, thank god. It’s Friday. Like, I don’t have that. I know, which is interesting. Like when you talk to the corporate people.

Sarah Masci
Yeah, and you want to be like, I’m sorry. Like, like, I don’t even know what to say half the time. I was just like, sorry. Like, like, you want to start a business. Just just ask me I can help you. But it’s like, yeah, it’s it’s hard. Definitely having real life friends. I mean, all of our real life in person friends are trying to end traditional jobs.

Laura Kåmark
Yeah. Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah. I mean, my husband has his own business and has I mean, for forever. I don’t know if he’s ever worked a corporate job. So it’s and then I was raised, my parents had their own business. So I always knew one day that I was going to do something outside of corporate that was my own business. It just took a little time to figure out exactly what that was. But yeah, definitely the freedom the freedom for me is that we could take off at any point and go I mean, when, when my when my oldest Olivia was like 15 months old. We went and took off for Europe for him. I’ve traveled around Europe and around Italy and Sweden when saw the Swedish family and you know, we could do that. Because,

Sarah Masci
yeah, I mean, I can’t tell you how many times I when my kids were littler they were still in school. My youngest was not, but I remember being like, we should just move to another country, because why not? We can homeschool you, you can homeschool the kids on the business like what’s the big deal? And my husband is very, he needs stability. He needs structure. He needs routine. And so we never did that. But that was always like on my list. My wish list. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so

Laura Kåmark
my final question for you today is I would love to know, for anyone who’s just starting out in their business, what’s one piece of advice you would give them that would help them show up older, make waves in their business and just really help them move forward in building? Maybe it’s an advice you would give yourself if you could go back?

Sarah Masci
Yeah, if I, if I could go back and give my speeches like, this is year 17. For me. So it’s taken me a long time to I there was a lot of years of struggle. And a big part of that struggle was me being afraid, afraid to show up from show up, put myself out there. Like I was always great at what I did, but I was never, I was always like, shy and introverted and uncomfortable with sharing openly and doing podcast interviews and doing trainings and teaching people I remember, one person was like, you really should start teaching what you do. And I was like, There’s no way like, I can’t record a video, what would I even say I was stuttering over my words. And it was like, I truly didn’t believe that I was capable of coaching and teaching and being a mentor and running like bigger programs like this. I just didn’t have that belief in myself. So it’s really my advice would be to believe in yourself. And if you’re scared, like, you’ve got to push through those fears, even if there are a whole bunch of little fears, like push through whatever’s holding you back. Because there’s so much more on the other side of fear. And it’s in that discomfort that we get, we gain confidence, we get clarity on what it is we’re here to do. And when we get that clarity, we’re more confident about it, and it just propels you forward that much faster.

Laura Kåmark
So good. Oh, Sarah, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Can you let our listeners know where they can find you online and get more Sara in their world?

Sarah Masci
Yeah, so they can go to Sarah massey.com That’s the best place to find me. If they want to learn more. Well, everything pretty much on my website is about VIP days. So if they want my checklist I mean, my smaller course my bigger program, like all of it is on there. So it’s just going to serum sc.com You’ll find all of that and I’m also kind of on Instagram, I hang out there a little bit here and there. I’m not like super consistent are active, but I’m at Sarah messy on Instagram.

Laura Kåmark
Wonderful. I will link all that up in the show notes. And Kim also just let our audience know who our little furry friend behind you

Sarah Masci
is. Yes. Oh, there’s Mabel. She can’t see her. We can’t see her eyes right now. She’s a haircut. But yes, she’s our little office, my little office partner, and she’s probably in more than half of the videos. Wonderful. Well, thank

Laura Kåmark
you so much, Sarah. Again. It’s been such a pleasure having you on the show. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode. Be sure to check out the show notes at LauraKåmark.com/podcast. And if you’re ready to grow and scale your business, and your current website is outdated and doesn’t reflect the magic you bring and the results you get for your clients. Go to Laurakamark.com to find out how I can help bring your vision to life. Thanks so much for listening. I’ll see you next week. Bye now.