What you’ll learn in this interview:

The 7 tools this entrepreneur and business professional uses to run her business.
The 3 books that made an impact on how she approaches life situations.
The 2 best pieces of advice she received that she has taken with her on her entrepreneurial journey.
Her go-to beauty products and fitness routine!

How This Career Coach Runs Her Business Behind The Scenes

1. What do you do? Who do you help?

Lipstick & Ink™ is a career and lifestyle blog, community, and events organization dedicated to motivating and inspiring the female professional. It’s a destination for women seeking more passion and purpose in their lives, but specifically in their careers.

I aim to help those women who lack confidence in their potential and abilities and fuel them with the encouragement and tools that they need to pursue both their professional and personal goals.

To accomplish this, I believe it starts with having a goal-oriented mindset and writing down goals and creating a plan. Having a go-forward path empowers these women to pursue their goals and truly make their mark.

These are the main themes that are infused into each and every blog post, social post, and event to encourage the Lipstick & Ink™ audience.

2. List your favorite business tools.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram Business Analytics – This has helped me understand what content resonates most with my audience when it’s ideal to post, and gives me insight into how people are discovering and seeing my posts.
Planoly – Planoly has helped me plan out my Instagram posts ahead of time so I can see how my feed will look once my pictures are posted. It helps me stay consistent in my colors to make sure everything flows together. It also has an auto-post feature which I’ve taken advantage of in the past.
Tailwind – My favorite Pinterest tool that helps me pin in advance and take advantage of their “Tribes” to get my pins in front of even more people to potentially pin and drive traffic back to my blog.

EMAIL MARKETING

Mailchimp – I haven’t tried any other email providers out there, but I really like the ease and use of Mailchimp. It always me to customize my e-mail templates I sent out to my subscribers and interpret my analytics in a quick and digestible way.

DIGITAL PRODUCT

Todoist – My business coach introduced me to this and it’s been a game changer! I am a huge to-do list person and Todoist has the ability to categorize your to-do’s in terms of ‘projects’ which comes in handy as an entrepreneur! Cannot recommend it enough!
Google Drive – My Google Drive houses literally everything Lipstick & Ink related. I keep track of all my blog posts, my finances, my event planning, and more in my Drive and it helps keep me organized and on track with my business.
Canva – I absolutely love Canva and how I can beautify a pin or social post within minutes using their templates and then changing it up to reflect Lipstick & Ink branded colors and fonts.

ACCOUNTING

Google Drive – Because I just launched my brand and business last year, I don’t have a need for an account system at this time. I use good ol’ Google Drive sheets to keep track of my costs and revenue on a monthly basis. These come in handy especially when it comes time to file taxes.

3. What is a good course, website or book you would recommend and why?

COURSES

Make Traffic Happen – SEO The Easy Way – SEO is so important for blog traffic. This course/e-book broke down things in a much easier format that was easy to follow and helped me implement strategies to ensure I am getting more organic traffic to Lipstick & Ink.
Planoly Webinar: Fundamentals for Success on Instagram – Instagram is a hard platform to crack and find success with both growing your platform and your engagement. I learned a lot from this webinar as they went through a lot about why branding is critical on Instagram and how you come across in your bio and first nine pictures are so important.
Cliquish’s Built To Create: Legalese – In building a business, it’s important to know all the legal aspects of it. This webinar was super helpful to learn more about whether or not to file as a registered LLC vs. Corporation, how to register your trademark, and when it makes sense to copyright.

WEBSITES

Planoly Blog – Planoly has some stellar articles when it comes to social media and influencer marketing. I really enjoy getting e-mails from them and clicking through to their site to read their newest blog posts. I always have takeaways from reading them!
The Influencer Podcast – I came across Julie Solomon randomly and her podcast is definitely one of my favorites as it’s targeted specifically for influencers. She has an immense wealth of knowledge from her previous career and brings in other experts to talk about topics that are extremel relevant.
Boss Girl Bloggers Blog – So many great nuggets of information for bloggers like me!

BOOK

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Nell Scovell and Sheryl Sandberg – This book was so enlightening, especially as a female business professional. It gave me the encouragement I needed to speak up for myself and know and own my worth in the workplace.
Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis – I idolize Rachel as a person, so reading her book and getting a more in-depth view of her life and what she preaches to women was so refreshing. I see so many similarities in the topics that we write about.
You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero – I seriously loved this book. It gave me so much to think about and put things into a new perspective for me and helped me apply these learnings in my everyday.

4. What is the best piece of advice you have received?

Everything happens for a reason – I know, I know – so cliché. But my grandma always said this and I truly believe it. When something goes wrong nowadays, instead of complaining and saying “why me?” my goal is always to think “what can I learn from this?” or “what is this teaching me?”
Sometimes you have to cheer for yourself, even when no one else is – The reality of being an entrepreneur is that some people aren’t going to get it, some people will be too consumed in their own lives to care, and some people may be downright jealous. There are days where you won’t feel like you’re getting any sort of support for what you’re doing and it can really dig at your emotions. My advice for those days when you feel that way is to keep going and keep cheering for yourself. You need to be your own biggest cheerleader for the sake of your business. Stay focused on your path and ignore all the negative thoughts and noise going on around you. Keep your head held high and don’t let anything bring you down.

5. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?

Don’t let “no” stop you from succeeding – Keep going, no matter how many “no’s” you get. Learn from your mistakes and failures and implement things you learn along the way because it’s going to help you become more successful in the long run. The worst you’re ever going to hear is no, so why not keep trying? What do you have to lose?
Be consistent – In being an entrepreneur, you have to ensure you’re staying consistent in terms of your branding, your messaging, and how you are coming across to your clients. If your brand is all over the place and not put together, it’s going to be more difficult for brands and clients to trust and respect you and ultimately want to partner with and buy from you.
Have a service mindset – I may not have the biggest following and the page views I’d like, but I will say by staying professional and having a game plan of what I can offer to brands in terms of partnership and event sponsorship has made me relevant and able to secure many “yes’s” over the last year. I recommend always thinking of how you can serve the end user – whether it’s a brand or a client. What can you offer them and why should they choose you?
Remember your why – It’s so easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing and how they’re running their business. I have to constantly course correct and ensure I’m staying on the path that I want to lead and bring people along with. It starts with remembering why I started Lipstick & Ink.

6. What is your beauty and/or fitness routine?

BEAUTY ROUTINE

You can find my skin care routine here – I believe firmly in keeping my skin moisturized!
My favorite go-to products are:
- Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmers – My absolute favorite lip color to swipe on when I’m in a hurry! Adds the best hint of color.
- Maybelline Color Sensational Lipsticks – My go-to lipsticks when I need that pop of color to boost my confidence.
- Anastasia Brow Definer – Fills in and defines my brows so perfectly!
- Urban Decay’s Naked Palettes – I really don’t use any other eyeshadows except these palettes. They are perfect for the every day or to spice up your look at night. Also great for travel since it has so many colors to choose from and you don’t need to carry a bunch of separate eye shadows.

FITNESS ROUTINE

Classpass – I’ve been with Classpass ever since they launched. I love the flexibility of signing up for classes and trying a different array of studios. Through Classpass, I’ve learned which class formats and studios I like best and Pure Barre and megaformer Pilates are definitely my favorites and go-to’s. They have shaped my body in a way that no cardio class ever could.
I also really enjoy going on long walks, especially on the good weather days we have in Chicago. It’s good for my body and soul to get some extra steps in and get some fresh air in my lungs!

7. List the products or items that are indispensable in your life.

My calendar/planner – I keep track of all my commitments with these and I would be entirely lost without them!
Pen + paper – Pen and paper is basically my bread and butter since I am constantly writing myself notes and to-do lists. I love writing things down on paper, especially handwritten notes and my thoughts in my journal.
My iPhone – As an entrepreneur, I couldn’t live without my phone. I do a lot of my business when I’m on the go, whether it’s typing up my thoughts in my Notes app, responding to messages and e-mails, and posting on social media.

8. Which female entrepreneur(s) do you look up to and why?

Rachel Hollis – Rachel is such a badass. She built her company from the ground up and encourages women in a very similar fashion to how I do. I find so many similarities between us and how we talk to our audiences and if I could build Lipstick & Ink into half of what the Hollis Company is, I’d be ecstatic.
Emily Merrell – Emily is my business coach and I am so thankful to have met her. She’s the founder and CEO of Six Degrees Society, a women’s networking group that hosts a diversified series of monthly programming for millennial young professionals. She has grown her events business to multiple cities across the country and is bringing all different types of women together and that is something I find so admirable.