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I would tell these women that it's okay to be selfish and put their needs first and make sure that they're taken care of before they start to pour into other things.
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Welcome to Shout Your Cause with Sally Hendrick, a digital magazine where you can get found, get heard, and get inspired with content that challenges us to be globally minded. Our focus is on raising awareness around social justice issues, cultural differences, and to bring you the people dedicating their lives to tackling challenging topics as their way of giving back. Let us be your advocate to make your voices heard around the world.
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Welcome, Wendy, Nicole Anderson to shout your cause today. Hey Wendy, how you doing?
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I'm doing good. Today. I had a full morning of client meetings and it's been a long time coming. It feels good waking up, seeing someone has paid and having those great conversations that I've been longing to have with the right people.
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I hear you, and I like to see those payments show up as well, . So tell me a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are today.
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So I started out in corporate America. I left, um, the for-profit school system around 2015. I used to be assistant director of admissions for a large for-profit school. I got laid off from that job and I started my business. I had formed my L L C back in 2013, but I was just kind of playing around. But once I got laid off, I was like, okay, this is an opportunity for me to like really figure this out. I somehow got pregnant while I was on unemployment and during that time I realized I need to go back and get me a job so that I can have better financial resources while I'm growing it, working a full-time job with the baby on the way. Um, my business had started to like ramp up to get paid clients. I, I realized then I'm not gonna be able to manage all of this.
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I also realized at that moment that I was probably going to be a single parent. So I started automating things because I didn't have the budget to hire a team. I didn't wanna manage a team in corporate. I was manager. I don't like managing people. That's not what I do. I, that's not sexy for me. So I started automating my business and um, I worked a while and um, clients kept coming to me and giving me com compliments on my processes. And they were like, well, who set all of this stuff up for you? And I was like, I built it. And they were like, are you sure? Well, no, I built it. So then I started getting clients based on my interface. They liked the client experience, they liked how everything was seamless, everything flowed. They was trying to figure out, you know, how to get rid of their admin stuff and put something in place without having to get an assistant. So I, at that point I started doing Done for You services.
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By the time my child turned, he was getting ready to turn six months and I have these whiteboards all over my house and they have goals, financial projections, affirmations to-do lists, checklists, all these things on these whiteboards. And I remember coming in one day, I was overextended mentally. I hated my job. I hated my coworkers, hated my boss. I was not happy about the whole single mother thing. I was like, I didn't sign up for this, but I was under earning and overextended. And I looked at my board and I, it's, it gave me a quit date in March and I started praying and pacing the floor and I was like, God, um, I asked for more than this. And he was just like, well Wendy, you can go to work tomorrow just like a few years ago and get laid off or get fired.
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You will still have to figure it out. So you're not happy. You have a vision. I've told you what to do, just execute. And I thought, you're right God, you know, I could go to work tomorrow and they yanked this job from me and I would have to figure it out. What's the difference in me going to work tomorrow and just flat out quitting. So I went to work late. I woke up late and didn't give a damn and I flat, I I, I quit flat Turkey. There was no plan. I'm a salesperson. I can sell anything. And I remember getting up for a couple of weeks and I would still take the oldest to childcare. Now I quit my job on a Wednesday at 10 o'clock in the morning. And then that damn Friday, somehow I got pregnant with the second child. Crazy craziest thing ever.
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So I was literally jobless. I had now, when I quit my job for preference, I had a significant amount of money in my savings. And then of course I know how to fill pipelines. I knew how to sell cuz that's what I've done in corporate my whole life. So I wasn't worried about generating business. And um, I've been a full-time entrepreneur ever since. I'm a mom of two. We live here in Atlanta and um, I've just been growing my business and I work with solopreneurs. I teach them how to streamline and automate their business systems so they can escape burnout, work with the right clients, increase their profits and save time. I've had a nanny ever since. My second child turned well existed. My girlfriends had um, hosted a baby shower for the oldest child and I ended up being pregnant two years in a row and my friends were like, Wendy, um, we're not throwing you another baby shower, we just threw you a baby shower last year.
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So they hired the nanny. That's how I got the nanny. And I thought with the nanny you needed to pay like a annual salary, which that scared me. So she came over here, I interviewed her. She had a very robust system I had to go through for us to qualify each other. Um, they had paid her for 30 hours to get started and she was like, Wendy, you know, my hourly rate is ex since your friend, you know, since your friend hired me and I dearly love your friend, she gave me a cut, a discount and I just pay a retainer. I try to keep a certain dollar amount in her little bank account, you know, every quarter so that I don't have to worry about what her money is going. If I'm traveling, want a date night or I want me time or I'm doing something, I just put money in her account and she watches the kids.
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And so recently I just hired cleaning crew because I'm tired of cleaning this house over it. You know, I wanna spend more time with the kids, I want have more me time. So, um, I guess the last 10 years, cuz I started my business in 2013, it's 2023 now. So I've been in business for full 10 years, full-time. Eight. I've just been figuring out motherhood. I've been figuring out how to manage my day-to-day operations better. I've been becoming more efficient with my client clients and you know, I'm just, the boys are at the age where they are pretty much so sufficient. They're nine and seven. So I'm just now getting back to me and I'm at this stage of, okay, I'm, I just turned 40 last year. My health got really bad cuz I've been working, not taking care of myself. So now I'm like, well what does Wendy want? My business is stabilized, my family is stabilized. Now it's back to what do I want for myself losing weight. I would like to be in a relationship at some point that's healthy and I wanna travel more.
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And speaking of traveling, you just got back from Europe, I know you were in Rome, where else were you?
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So we live in Atlanta, so it's always easier to go to Europe if we fly into New York specifically fly flying out of J F K. So we went to Madrid in Spain, uh, for a day. That was cool. Running a up through Spain in, in a day. Then we went to Rome for a couple of days. Um, love me Sir Rome, that's my second time to go. Then we took the bullet train down to the Amel coast. I think we stayed in a little town called, um, Maso. Lua. I'm probably mispronouncing it, but that's where I got my Airbnb at. Um, we stayed there for about a few days, then we took the boat down to the Iowa GRI or or so people call Cap Capri. Mm-hmm Capri. So we went to Capri for a day and then we did, we rotated it back.
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We went back to Naples or we, we went through Naples, went back to Naples to catch the bullet train back to Rome. Stayed in Rome a couple of more days and then we went back to Madrid and then we came back to New York, ran 'em up through New York again for a few more days. We were gone for about two weeks and then we came back . Wow. And what did the boys think of that? So they were really excited. Um, first they're quite like, so one of my rules that I have is, um, people, no matter where we go in the world, it's a constant from strangers. Oh my God, your children are so well behaved. And one of the ways that I get get, um, to do so much with them is what I tell parents. When you're out, when you see your child, I see children acting a fool.
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It is because that child is overstimulated. So I had been telling the boys for months that we were going to Italy. And so what I'll do is I'll say, here's where we're going. Here's the benefits of why we're gonna do this activity or travel to this place. What questions do you have? I'll do that to them for three days. By the third day they'll say, mom, we know. And I'll say, well, what do you know? And then they'll repeat back to me what they've learned. Um, so I've been telling them until before we left, they were like, why is going to Italy so important to you mom? And I was like, I'm gonna be honest guys. This vacation is for me. I just so happen to have to take you cuz I can't leave you nowhere for two weeks. So you've gotta go and I want you to go.
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And they were, they didn't get the hype of it, but once we got there, um, they were in awe of the view, especially when we got Tono, cuz is very beautiful over there. They were just ecstatic about the boat rides. And we took in New York, we did like a, um, speed boat, but they wasn't really excited about that because they've been on speed boats before when we go to Miami. And um, they were just excited. What I was really happy about was before going to Italy, they really didn't touch pasta. But in Italy they were excited about the pasta. They even, they were like, they, they were eating muscles, they were eating clams, they were doing all the things. And now it's like, mama, can we get some more muscles? And I was like, I hate to tell you it's not gonna be great like you had in Italy, but I'll see what I can do.
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But it, I cried a lot to be honest because it was watching their eyes blow up. And when we got to the Al Capri, you know, I let them swim in the ocean and there was just yachts all over the place. And they had seen yachts before when we went to Bahamas last year. But just watching them take in life, that is what I prayed for. So they were very excited because they, it was a lot of firsts getting on the bullet train for the first time. Um, getting on the ferry for the first time. Um, they had been on a plane before, but it was, they were just excited and they were like, mama, we really like it here. And I was like, cuz ly you know, it's, it's a slower paced life over there. And so that was good.
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That's good. It's good to show kids the world from a different perspective because we have things differently over here. And I think that we can appreciate what we have and what we don't have whenever we, uh, travel like that. Especially to a foreign country.
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Mm-hmm. ,
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Would you rather work or would you rather play? If we're going to go through all of this business building stuff, it better be for something that we love doing. Right. Take a moment to do this quick life purpose challenge. To discover what makes you truly happy. It's free Visit sallyhendrick.com/lifepurpose.
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Would you say that your boys are the reason you keep doing what you're doing in your business?
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That's a hard question. Um, my first response to you, and it's not natural for a lot of other mothers to hear this, but I would say no. But then I'll say yes, I have been an underdog for my whole life. And it's, and it's interesting as I'm growing and more and more people are coming to me and getting results by working with me, it's interesting how friends and family who've known me my whole life respond to me. Like for an example, my aunts will consistently say to my mother, how is Wendy able to have her lifestyle? And my mother was like, she makes a lot of money. She does well and they're baffled. Cuz now I can, I fly my mother here to see me at least twice a year. And it feels good when she says I'm doing this. She doesn't ask me for money, but it feels good to be like, Hey, I sent you something.
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So for me it's more of validation for self. Like this is the lifestyle that I can provide for us regardless of, um, me having a non-traditional lifestyle as a single mom. And, and then two, yes, I wanna prove to my boys what is possible. Like a while ago I just got in to get groceries. We all know groceries are expensive and they were just like sad sided because I was able to bring their favorite foods into the house. Oh, mama, mama, thank you. And I said, when you leave me alone and let me work at my designated times, I'm able to make money. So you can have these basic things. And those basic things are pretty hard to come by for a lot of people right now. So for me it's a lot of it is me, I guess to fuel my own ego. But the other is they have wants and they have needs and I don't want to ever be in a place where I have to say I can't do that because we don't have the money. Like I just can't, I don't even want that to come outta my mouth.
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Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm . So what has changed, like since you first started working with people? I know what you do now. You really help these people automate what they're doing. They help 'em save time, help 'em save money, help 'em, you know, have a different mindset about automation. What about when you first started? You said something about 2013 and then you started. Yeah,
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So when I first started, so I did get my coach certification. I started out just being a life coach and I really struggled with that because everybody was going into coaching and yes, even though I went through a certification program with someone that's well known, she didn't teach me business acumen. She didn't teach me a lot of the things that I needed to have online. It wasn't until I met you, I met Kimra, I met other people and you guys started teaching me you know how to, cuz I don't know if they know me. And you've known each other for a significant period of years now mm-hmm. and, um, you started teaching me different things and having me to look at it, but coaching was hard because I'm not a warm and fuzzy person. I'm just not, um, people say I'm nice, they say I'm hilarious and I got personality, but I'm very stern.
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And I realized that my genius is I'm a fixer. I work best with clients who are already generating revenue. They already have a clientele, they are a wheelhouse by themself, but they, they, they grew fast. Meaning like they woke up, they had a thing, they pitch it, the thing is selling, it's taking off. But there's no rhyme or reason of how they're managing their operations. They're just kind of going on a hope and a prayer. And I like to go in and say, Hey, let me clean this up. Let me show you how this could be better. Mm-hmm. You keep doing what you're doing, I'll make sure you're running more efficient on the back end and then also on the front end. So your client experience can be a whole lot better. So I stopped coaching, I started consulting, I do, well if you gimme your thing, I can look through it and I can audit it. I can find holes that most people don't think that's there. And then they're like, I no wonder why I'm having those problems. Yeah. Because you're missing A, B, and C. So it was a realization of, I was just going with the flow. I didn't really know what my options were and I just kind of fell into this and it feels the most, it's the most natural thing that I can do, if that makes sense.
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Well that's good. I mean, I think that we should all adhere to what our natural talents are and the things that we're good at doing. And when we do that, that just makes us better. And the things that we're not that great at to hire it out or find a way around it, automate it, something.
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Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. ,
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So if there was a cause that you were to support out there in the world, maybe something to do with women, do you mostly work with women? Mm-hmm. . I know you say entrepreneurs, but it's mostly women, right? Women, yes. Yes. Um, that's what I thought. Cuz I've, I've been in groups with you before, but if you were to share something with them, you know, that would be maybe a common theme, common cause for women that are entrepreneurs that are out there getting shit done, , as you like to say. Um, mm-hmm. , what, what would that be?
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So I had a call with a younger girl, younger lady earlier today and early. Warms my heart. She's a new entrepreneur and she's flourishing. But a lot of the women that I meet, unfortunately they came from families who didn't teach them the final mentals of life. Meaning like, they, they're not even sure how to make a budget, how to manage finances. Um, they have been in a bubble, they desire to travel, but they haven't. So for me, and don't get me wrong, I love my children. I was one of those women that I had to become a mom. Had the doctor told me I was gonna have problems having a baby. I would've been that crazy full to have done almost keyword, almost anything to be able to bear a child. But specifically women that are from like 18 to 28, I would tell those women hold off on starting a family.
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Well I didn't have a child until I was 31 cuz you don't even know yourself. Like, I'm 40 now and I'm just now like owning who I think I want to be without fearing someone judging me. But with those women, I feel like they need to really focus on self-love, being clear on who they are and what they want to not, um, just accept any type of companionship from a man or their preferences with the woman. Um, definitely date, but I would tell them to build a legacy, figure out how to minister finances, start learning about investing at a young age, figuring out how to govern their money to the point where Uncle Sam doesn't eat up all their taxes so they can get, they can get ahead of that. Um, I would tell them to work remotely, to travel, to, to be, to be an expat in multiple countries, so they could figure out, you know, where they need to settle in the world.
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I don't have any regrets, but if I had it to do over my eight, 18 to 28 would've been completely different. I, I became a homeowner at 28. But I guess what I'm trying to say is I would tell them it's okay for them to curate their own path. That they may have sister friends or friends who are going down traditional path, and that's okay for some people, but I would tell them it is okay to quit something if you feel like it's out of alignment and do something else. I think for the longest until recently, you know, society really has damned us from trying different things. It was, it was glorified if you went to a job and you stayed to that job until you retired. You know, most people don't have a variety. But I would tell these women that it's okay to be selfish and put their needs first and make sure that they're taken care of before they start to pour into other things. Whether that's business, other people, especially with us older, like if you are a daughter, the oldest daughter, we feel compelled to like carry that family torch for whatever reason. But tell them that, you know, here are the resources you can follow to create the life that works best for you. Not what you've been told you need to do or have to do.
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That's really cool. I like how you phrase that and bring that back together to, you know, these women who really can invest in themselves and can take those steps forward in their lives and, you know, make a way for themselves and their families.
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Mm-hmm. ,
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The last thing before we move on is, where can we find you and who, who's the best person that re needs to reach out to you?
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So I have three different client avatars that I love to work with the best. Um, so just for a reference, I build automated business systems for solopreneurs that want to create their desired work-life balance, generate higher profits and solely work in their wheelhouse without compromising their values. So a person can come to me and hire me for done-for-you services, for everyone else. I like to teach. So I teach those entrepreneurs the right way to streamline and automate their business system so that they can have more time and make more money. My website is wendy nicole anderson.com. I am all over TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, the handle is, I am Wendy Nicole, but the people that I love to work with the best. The first person I like to call her a scattered visionary. She's a genius at what she does, but when it comes to having a right systems to run her business, she's in amateur at best.
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She's always in catch-up mode and she's more than ready to finally have a system that works for her so she can attract and keep the right clients. Um, she's also started a business, but she don't have a, she don't have standard automated processor for her clients to hire her. She doesn't have an onboarding or follow-up process in place. And when it's time for her to pitch her services or ask for the sale, she kind of freezes up. That's my person . She doesn't have a fulfillment game plan in place. Meaning that when the client actually hires her, she's scrambling and she's trying to figure out how to get rid of the tire kickers. She's ready for emotionally and financially able bodied people to work with her. That's the first person, the second person I love working with. I call her the overwhelmed strategist. Finding new clients is never her problem, but being willing and comfortable with charging her worth, it's a daily struggle for her.
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She's most likely undercharging. Um, she's missing out on life because she's stuck in the fulfillment with a business that leaves her no flexibility to think, let alone produce her best work. Um, so she's just overworked. And then the last client that I love working with, I call her the Max Stout expert. Um, serving her clients well is her strongest asset, but knowing the right way is to scale her expertise quickly, becomes a costly liability. She's reached her incompetently with her one-on-one clients and she's just trying to figure out how to leverage her brilliance to establish more lucrative low maintenance revenue. Revenue streams.
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You heard it here first from I am Wendy, Nicole . So if that any of that applies to you, that's who you wanna look for at I am Wendy, Nicole on all of social media. And I have seen you a lot on TikTok the last couple of weeks. So you're, you're showing up.
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I'm trying, I'm trying to, I, um, what was I getting ready to say to you? Um, TikTok scares me. Um, cause I've, I've been Facebook for the longest, but, um, it's time for me to branch out. So I'm doing TikTok to like, you know, help myself grow.
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Yeah, well, I mean, you gotta try it out before you know if it's right for you. If it works or if it's a waste of time. You gotta figure out, figure it out organically to know what works for you anyway. Mm-hmm. . So, and you're not afraid to do that. And I, and I think that that's why I admire you so much is because you do step up and just you figure it out. If there's a problem in front of you, you are going to dig in and find a way out of it. And I really appreciate that about you. So thank you so much for being on here today.
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You're welcome.
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Awesome. And I will talk to you next time.
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Thank you for listening today. My name is Sally Hendrick. Be sure to visit our website for show notes and more information on how you can inspire others. If you would like to contribute content to our magazine, please apply on our website at shoutyourcause.com.
