What you’ll learn in this interview:
- How this entrepreneur, blogger, and Instagram model makes her money work for her
- Her entrepreneurial strategy and how to create financial autonomy
- Her 3 favorite podcasts and her 1 favorite business book
- Her beauty and fitness routine to stay healthy as an entrepreneur
- The 2 comedians she looks up to
How This Entrepreneur Runs Her Business Behind The Scenes
1. What do you do? Who do you help?
When I was brainstorming with my mentor about the concept for what I’m doing he described it as “the myth busters of entrepreneurship”. I think that’s a fair way to describe it. I try out different side hustles that anyone can do and I report back on those side hustles in my blogs, vlogs, Instagram stories, and Instagram posts.
I do this within a systems approach: everything feeds into everything else and because of this, I keep multiple doors open simultaneously. For example, the modeling that I do is connected to my eBay store where I sell some of the dresses which I model in.
All of the little side hustles build into the largest aspect of the whole gig which is my brand. I talk and write about why I’m continuing with the side hustle that I’ve tried or why I’ve decided it isn’t sustainable. I write articles from an entrepreneurial perspective about balancing time, money, and resources.
I’d like to reach an audience of post-college graduates who are confused about what to do next and don’t want to jump into a corporate environment. I’d also like to reach an audience of people who want to do something more entrepreneurial.
I want to be someone they can look to and go “hey, she’s following her dreams and she seems to be enjoying it as well as building a brand, maybe I can do that too”. I’d also like to be an example of somebody who keeps themselves above ground financially through my alternative lifestyle and thrives instead of survives.
I often speak about digging myself out of holes and intelligent investment of money and time, time being the greatest resource.
2. List your favorite business tools.
- Notes – I have hundreds of notes on my iPhone. I’m constantly taking notes, either of quotes that I find creative and inspirational or ideas that pop into my brain. It’s super obvious but its the most useful tool I have in my arsenal.
- Mint – I love anything to do with money management and Mint is so amazing when it comes to figuring how much you spent vs. how much you made in a given month.
- Canva – an extremely useful app when it comes to graphic design for social media platforms and content creation. I’m still getting acquainted with it as an app.
- iMovie – what I use to edit my little videos and record my process.
- Magisto – This little app is an amazing technology for video editing. If I want to make my content extra interesting I’ll simply edit a video in iMovie and then send it over to Magisto. Their AI will add just the right touch of graphics and music to create some fun ambiance.
3. What is a good course, website or book you would recommend and why?
COURSES
- Tucson Improv Movement – I would recommend taking an improv class, or two… or three. I enjoy performing with TIV and it’s an incredible way to learn how to get out of your head and into the moment as well as step out of your comfort zone. I think this is a skill every entrepreneur needs.
PODCASTS
- Listen Money Matters – In this podcast, the two hosts Andrew Fiebert and Thomas Frank give actionable advice on money management. I’ve gotten a lot of ideas from these fellows.
- The Art of Charm – I think the Art of Charm has a lot of extremely useful and applicable advice when it comes to business and the general analysis of human behavior.
- Any comedy podcast – I think the perspective and mentality of comedians as truth tellers and objective observers of society is important. They’ll also almost always keep you up to date with what’s going on in the world through their commentary. Another plus: it never hurts to laugh.
BOOKS
- The Four Hour Work Week – A classic must-read among entrepreneurs. It’s the singular most important book to the formation of my mindset. It helped put into perspective the fact that time is our most valuable asset and that there’s no point in working your butt off so that you can ultimately sit on a beach in retirement when you could’ve done that anyway for no money or a low paying wage.
4. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
- The best advice I ever received was in the form of a parable. It was about a man who was stuck in a river, trying his hardest to swim upstream and make his way out. He swam and swam and swam until he eventually became too tired and drowned in the river. What he didn’t know is that if he had just relaxed and floated downstream he would have ended up on a river bank and survived. I keep this in mind when my control freak tendencies start to flare up. In shorter form: CHILL the bleep OUT.
5. What is your beauty/and or fitness routine?
BEAUTY ROUTINE
- I apply the Pareto 80/20 principle to essentially every aspect of my life so when it comes to day to day makeup my go to is foundation and contour as well as glamorous eyelashes. I keep my hair fairly natural. The lashes are the 20% that give the 80% of results and are especially useful for my appearances on my Instagram feed and story. When it’s work time I sport pink computer glasses.
FITNESS ROUTINE
- Another place where I apply the 80/20 principle. I run for about half an hour and then do squats and push presses. Running is my favorite way to work out and I like to keep my workouts enjoyable. You’re more likely to do something if it’s actually fun and not too overwhelming so I keep it simple I end up going to the gym a fair amount.
6. List the products or items that are indispensable in your life.
- Frying pan – I basically eat the same thing every day as well as intermittent fast.
- My Casper mattress – I slept on an air mattress for a very long time so now I seriously appreciate my mattress and all that it does for me.
- My clunker of a car – I bought it almost nothing (as part of my entrepreneurial venture). It works well, gets me where I’m going, and even though it doesn’t look pretty it’s helping me reach my goals because of the low costs.
7. Which female entrepreneurs do you look up to and why?
- I look up to Krystyna Hutchinson and Corinne Fisher, two comedian/ feminists with an inappropriately named an exceptionally entertaining podcast. I’ve listened to them from the beginning of their podcast until now and watched them as their brand has grown. It’s inspired me to start my own brand and their points of view are refreshing. Their way of thinking has greatly shaped my mindset and what it means to be a woman in 2019.
- Sophia Amoruso – I love her podcast (which is similar in concept to this blog. Her interviews with female entrepreneurs and getting to hear their story is so inspiring. The creation and story of Nastygal are iconic and a guidepost for the rest of us gals.
8. List your social media platforms.
- Instagram @Nattylightyears
- Youtube @Nattylightyears
- Facebook @Nattylightyears