Growing A Real Business With Marley Baird

This podcast today is exciting. I am joined by a very special guest who actually is the first member who ever joined our accelerator program, and she joined before we even knew what was in the program. You are going to love this interview, and the realization that you can really create a real business.

Alex Charfen: I'm Alex Charfen, and this is the Momentum podcast made for empire builders, game changers, trail blazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off, and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum, so we can roll over bureaucracy, and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat, because you only lose if you stop, and we don't know how.

Alex Charfen: While the rest of the world strives for average, and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future, and instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability, and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world, because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution, and we always will be.

Alex Charfen: I'm excited today, I'm personally excited, I'm professionally excited, and honestly I'm excited for you, because you're going to get to interact with one of my favorite people on the planet. Marley Baird, the CEO of Marley Baird Media is one of the most talented entrepreneurs I've ever had the privilege of coaching, and we've been together now as in a coaching relationship for just about a year. In fact, last year on April 2nd, Marley committed to ... Actually, before April 2nd, she committed to joining our accelerator program. We were at Funnel Hacking Live last year, and Marley literally overhead Cadey talking to someone, and saying, “We're starting this new program, you don't have to be at a million dollars to join.” And, Marley, like from five feet away said, “I wanna be the first member.” She literally committed to being the first member, and then, was the first person to sign up. Marley, thanks so much for joining me today.

Marley Baird: Thank you. It's so funny to hear, yeah, that I was like, “I need to be the first person in that program.” And, hearing the backstory of it. Your team were telling you, “Okay, we have it ready, let's call Marley." And, "I don't know how much it costs, here's my credit card. Let's go."

Alex Charfen: When we got back, I literally, I told my team, “Listen, we talked to Marley Baird at the event, and she asked if she could be the first member, and she literally committed that she was going to buy this program, so do not sell anybody else until Marley is first.” And so, member 001 is, and will always be you Marley. The reason I asked you to get on this podcast is, we've been working together for about a year, and you posted this comment in our private Facebook group, our members Facebook group, and it was either a post, or a comment that just made me smile, and I got like this warm feeling all over. I think it said something like, well, you tell me what was it?

Marley Baird: I was like, "Guys, I have a real company. This is a legitimate business. I mean, we all have all those imposter syndrome moments, but I have a team that freaking loves working, and loves what we do, and they make me cry almost on a daily basis, because I'm just like, is this real life? This is my team? These are the clients we get to serve? These are the results we get? This is the money in our bank account? What the heck?" I have no words Alex, that's amazing.

Alex Charfen: It is, your team's amazing. I wanna go back Marley. Let's go back to before we worked together, because I wanna give everyone some contrast, because you know right now there are CEOs, entrepreneurs listening that are overwhelmed, don't know how to build a team, doing it all themselves, they're frustrated. Where were you a year ago when we started? If you go back to before the program, what was going on for you?

Marley Baird: Yeah totally spinning my tires, just trying to figure out what the best things to do to build a business were. It was me, and my husband, and my brother, and we had a few contractors, so like maybe, like five total with the contractors, and revenue was like just, I don't know, it was between like 20, 25, 000 a month which is good, but like it just wasn't growing, and we were just stuck, and just in the cycle of like gain a client, lose a client, gain a client, but not really actually growing, and feeling, or seeing the impact that we wanted to make, and that changed really, really fast.

Alex Charfen: Well, lets, I wanna kind of dig into that a little bit Marley, because what does it feel like when you know you can make an impact, and you're in that place of gain a client, lose a client, like we're not getting ahead, and you're working really hard, but you're just not seeing the results?

Marley Baird: Yeah, I'm like trudging through the mud, or like dragging my face against the pavement, but I'm like, it that sucks. I know that I'm meant for more, and it's like you see the vision of where you're supposed to be in the future, but you're like, what's the gap between here and there? And, what do I need to do? And, what am I not doing right? Because, I feel like I'm working so hard, but I'm not seeing the results, so what am I doing wrong?

Marley Baird: I mean, it's not necessarily that you're doing anything wrong, it's just that you don't have the right systems in place, or you're not being the person you need to be to have the business that you wanna have, and so, joining your program really helps to show me that like, I had that leadership in me, and I needed to ask for help, and find the right people that, to get that help, and not feel like I'm this fancy unicorn that I cannot ... I'm the only person that can do this, because those people on my team now that I'm like, no, I'm not touching that. Like, you're way better at that than I am, and we move so fast now.

Alex Charfen: It's so important Marley. What you just said is something that I try, and convince every CEO I ever talk to you who tells me, "Oh, no, I'm the only person who can do this." My immediate reply, we were talking about this right? Before I hit record, my immediate reply in my head is always like, "No, you're not, and I bet you anything, there's somebody who can do it better." You were in that place of I'm the only person who can do this, and now you're on the other side of, oh my gosh, there's people on my team who can do it better. What does that feel like?

Marley Baird: It's like it's, again, I say this all the time, is this real life? Last year my husband I traveled 186 days in one year, because we were the ones that were like managing the clients, and going to the shoots, and I have speaking engagements, and things like that, but I'm like, I can't live like this. At some point we wanna have babies, like start a family, and I can't do that on the road with people, or when I'm constantly on the road, and I can't keep scaling, and growing my business when I'm the one who's doing the day to day things, and this is exactly what we do for our clients too, is we take away the tactical stuff, and do it for them so that they can be the visionary, they can be the leader, they can create the movement in their business, and be the face of it instead of being in the mud, doing all the tactical things.

Alex Charfen: We're a year later, a year ago you were four, or five people, but contractors, not really any dedicated to the team other than Wayne, which lets hope Wayne is Marley's husband, and he's exceptionally dedicated. Today, give us the contrast Marley. Where's the team now? Where's the revenue now?

Marley Baird: We have 14 people on our team.

Alex Charfen: Whoa, I didn't know it was 14, congratulations. That's awesome.

Marley Baird: Thank you, and so, I love sharing it like this, because we started in April last year, and I think the first live event was like June just a couple of months later, and I was like, Oh my God, we just had a $40, 000 month, so we went from like 20 to 40, and then, the next event was September, and I was again, oh my gosh, record high. We just had a $60, 000 month, and I was like, oh my god, guys I'm making it. Mom look at me, and at the last event in January, but this happened in December, because I remember sending you a box where I was just crying. December we had our first hundred thousand dollar month.

Alex Charfen: Yes.

Marley Baird: And, I'm like, so I get the numbers back, and I toned it down a little bit before I sent you that box, because I was like just hysterical, but yeah, I boxed you I was just like, I can't believe this. Is this real? Look how fast that happened from April to December, went from 20, 000, 25, 000, to a hundred thousand dollar months.

Alex Charfen: Yeah, from a $300, 000 run rate to a well over $1 million run rate. I mean, Marley, it's no surprise to me that you did that. I told you the first time we met you were an eight figure CEO, and I'm 100% committed to proving that, so why don't you share with everybody who's listening what are some of the, or at least one major change that you made in this past year? Like, what was it in our program? What was it in your company? What shifted so much that's put you in this place?

Marley Baird: I didn't realize how much my job is to be a leader. It's not doing the tactical things like I thought I'm the only person that can edit these videos, I'm the only person who can sell to these clients, I'm the only person that can post these, and write the copy. My goodness, my copywriter is a million times more talented than I am, and it's a better use of my time to not be doing all those things. I get to lead the team, inspire them, I get to come up with the strategy, be the face of the business, but then that's how we're funneling people into our services, and to really put people into their zone of genius, and remove any weaknesses, like part of the momentum planner. Why was I uncomfortable yesterday, making sure that every single person on the team is operating in their strengths, and in their superpowers, and if they're not finding the solutions.

Marley Baird: It's really allowed us to have the freedom, to dial in our message, to create better content for the people who are looking for us, or who we are serving, so really stepping into being a leader, and oh man, this is a big one from the event in January was realizing that like, even if the work doesn't feel hard, it is still the important hard work. Sometimes when I'm like, am I actually working? Is this [crosstalk 00:10:24]?

Alex Charfen: I'm having too much fun to be working.

Marley Baird: Is it okay if I'm like not dragging my face against the pavement anymore? Because, like [inaudible 00:10:31]. I like it, and so, sometimes I, like I have those moments of guilt that I'm like, yeah, I didn't do anything today, but then, I look at my time study, which I do a time study all the time, just because I like being accountable myself, and see where I'm writing things down, and it's not satisfying to write that I scrolled through Instagram for 30 minutes, so that also helps keep me on track. Thanks to you, so there it is.

Alex Charfen: I'm filling my time study right now for everybody listening. I mean, I'm on day nine.

Marley Baird: I love it so, yeah, when I look at my time study, oh, actually, yeah, I got a lot done there, and they're all important things, and things that are in my strengths, and things that are strategic, that are supposed to be in line, and then, looking at the little things like, oh yeah, maybe I can outsource that tomorrow. I can send that off to someone else on the team who will be better at it than me. Those are the really big things that have, I just, I like what I do. I like my life Alex, thank you.

Alex Charfen: That's so awesome. Marley, give us some of that contrast from a year ago to what does your life feel like now? Now that you have a cadence in place, now that you have a team in place, now you have Rachel who's amazing backing you up, and there's clarity in the business, what does it feel like now?

Marley Baird: Yeah, well, first of all, to find my right hand Rachel Blackmore, is my COO, and like, I just to have someone that, because I can be the visionary, and have all these ideas, but to sometimes put it into words, and have the step by step, that's not my strength. I used to feel really guilty about that, that I need to be good at everything, and this is my role, this is what I'm supposed to do, but really, I'm just not, and so, having that person to be my right hand, my shoulder to cry on, my like everything, that I need to implement everything, my goodness, and I didn't know it was possible to find that person, so having the system for how to find them, and hire them was the kickoff to everything.

Marley Baird: Also, that last year like I said we traveled a lot, and we were burning out, and my husband especially was like, "I don't wanna do this." And then, we got into a place where he's like, "I don't wanna travel, but I don't wanna be without you." And, I'm like, "But, I have to travel. What are we gonna do." And now, we got to a place where we're traveling when we want to, so like when I have speaking engagements, or if there's a client that we choose to film, because we, of course, have such great relationships with our clients, but we do also have the option that our team can can do the implementation.

Marley Baird: Now, when we travel we look at it like we're going on adventures, and we call it like, every time we travel it's like, oh, it's our 42nd honeymoon. We're always having a good time, and we're not burnt out anymore, and, of course, you also introduced me to the Oura ring, which I'm like, I get to sleep at night. That's so [crosstalk 00:13:17].

Alex Charfen: It's so awesome. Marley, I think one of the apprehensions that CEOs have, and one of the apprehensions that entrepreneurs have about growth is that they feel like, "I'm doing $25, 000 a month right now, and it's so hard, and so much work, and so much pressure, and it feels overwhelming. If I ever got to a million dollar run rate, how much pressure, how overwhelming would that be?" Give me some contrast, has it gotten harder at a higher number, or is it different?

Marley Baird: Harder in different ways. It's not like you get there, and you're like, "I've made it. smooth sailing now." No, so it's just like there's like new level new devil. It's just, you get to that new place, and there's a new set of challenges, but I have the team behind me, then I'm not alone. I'm not doing it myself anymore, and my team also because of what I'm inspired by from your content, and all the other people around us, and in the program, like you really operate from a foundation of self care first, and really being in integrity, and in alignment with yourself, and your family, and that trickles down to my team as well.

Marley Baird: Everything that we're doing we're making sure are we setting our goals, and targets realistically, can we achieve this so that we are celebrating wins, not losing gracefully. Look, I'm using your vocabulary.

Alex Charfen: I'm like, "Man, you could do my trainings. This is awesome."

Marley Baird: I think I could do that.

Alex Charfen: No question.

Marley Baird: I don't think, there's not that, I certainly don't feel overwhelmed, and I think that the communication in our team, I'm making sure that every single person on the team feels excited, and happy about what they're doing, and we just had our monthly all hands a couple of days ago actually, and one of the members of my team said, "How cool is it that we are the ones that get to be in the trenches?" That, like we as a team, as our core executive team, right now we're the ones that get to create this growth, and create this change, and all the team members that get to come sure they're gonna be so excited, and they're gonna see all the wins, and successes, but they're not gonna know that experience of being in the trenches like we are right now.

Alex Charfen: So awesome Marley. You sound like you're having so much more fun at a million dollar run rate than you were at 300, 000?

Marley Baird: Oh, heck yeah. There's more people to enjoy it with every single day on my huddles we're laughing, and crying sometimes, and man it's so, it's different in an amazing way.

Alex Charfen: Marley, you inspire me, and I know you've inspired every person who's listened to this, so I want them to be able to reach out, get to know you, understand what you do. By the way, I want everyone to know, Marley is not just a client, and a close friend of mine, but I'm also Marley's client, and the day that I spent with her and Wayne shooting video was absolutely game changing. I've got notes from that day that I take out every time I shoot video, so if you are looking to get more exposure, to put some videos out there, to elevate your brand, to have people know exactly what you do, why you do it, and how you have to contact Marley Baird Media. How do people get in touch with you?

Marley Baird: Yeah, our website marleybairdmedia.com, YouTube, youtube.com/marleybairdmedia, Facebook, check me out Marley Baird. I'd love to meet you. We wanna work with people who have that movement, that message that needs to be moving, that needs to change the world. That's what we wanna help you do.

Alex Charfen: Yeah, don't mess up this opportunity. If you're looking for exposure, and you want somebody to help you reach out to Marley. She is absolutely a game changer, and Marley, thanks for sharing today with everybody.

Marley Baird: Thank you.