SNS 102: Saturday Night Special – Interview with Marketing Coach Breanna Gunn
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Welcome to tonight's Saturday night, special episode 102
[00:00:05] Breanna Gunn: [00:00:05] Brianna Gunn. And I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasure is to live out your calling, having the ability to grow your business and yourself is key.
[00:00:17] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.
[00:00:23]Robert two roads, diversion and yellow wood. I took the one less traveled by when you pivot your, the scary trail. And I think it strengthens your faith. It strengthens you as a human it's scary, but we are not on this earth to do this by ourselves.
[00:00:45] Scott Maderer: [00:00:45] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts.
[00:00:50] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling [00:01:00] and the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your impact. So that you can impact the world.
[00:01:11]And tonight, Saturday night special, I interview Brianna Gunn. I asked Brianna to share how she took a leap into business as a mom. And I also asked her to share her single biggest lesson that she's gotten during the growth of her business. Brianna also talks about her faith and how it guided her to pivot her business.
[00:01:33] Lots more know, one area that a lot of folks need some help with is around the area of productivity. Getting not just more things done, but actually getting the right things done can be really tough. I've got a course called productivity for your passion. That's designed to help you do this and then to hold you accountable and walk [00:02:00] with you so that you can tailor productivity, not just to be getting more done, but actually getting the right things done.
[00:02:08] What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and tailor the productivity system to your personnel. Cause the truth is a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type.
[00:02:26] But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work, but there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone. And we help you do that and productivity for your passion. Check it out over@inspiredstewardship.com slash lawn. Brianna Gunn is a messaging and funnel specialist working with business owners and solar preneurs to create messaging and processes that inspire loyalty, momentum, and action that leverages trust, authenticity, and [00:03:00] profitability.
[00:03:01] Reuses her more than 10 years of experience with customer service and marketing to uncover the gaps in messaging that lead to lower conversions and plugs them through customized systems, structures, and processes that are bolstered by copy that converts. Welcome to the show. Oh Brianna.
[00:03:18] Breanna Gunn: [00:03:18] Thank you so much for having me.
[00:03:20] Scott Maderer: [00:03:20] It is great to have you here. As we talked about a little bit in the intro, you do all of this work around customer service and marketing and all of this business work now. But I also know that you're a working mom and therefore you've got a lot of demands on your time and energy. That's important to you.
[00:03:38] So how did this journey in the business and how you're running your business now actually gets started. Take us back in time a little bit.
[00:03:48] Breanna Gunn: [00:03:48] I actually started my business when I was pregnant with my first, because I realized that one I'm not a very good employee and two, I wanted to have the time freedom to [00:04:00] do, to take my child to an art.
[00:04:03] Something or the museum, or, I want, I wanted to be there for my kids because my mom was there for us. And it was really important. It was nice having, getting sick at school and not worrying about, oh, mom has to call out from work and everything else. She could just come get us.
[00:04:17] And the journey started so that I could be a better mom. And it's just, as the kids have gotten older things have changed. They are still the priorities. My clients, everyone who I work with knows I have kids and I'm a mom and that they come first and my client, my, my kids know my clients by name.
[00:04:35] They come say hi, and I've just created a culture where that's acceptable and. I don't, I used to apologize. I'm so sorry. My kids interrupting us, and do that thing. And I realized after some serious self-reflection that I was doing everyone a disservice by apologizing for being who I am, and by not stepping up and setting an example for others.
[00:04:59][00:05:00] I had a client yesterday whose dogs interrupted the call and she was all over herself apologizing. I was like, you just met both my kids. And she's oh, you're right. And I'm like, yeah, like this is fine. This is where we are in the world right now. And I think that because I set my business up so that I could be home with my kids, understanding that kids don't understand boundaries and, Understanding they're going to interrupt. They're going to, say things that are, make you scratch your head. They're going to make noise and have a bad day. And always having that as this could happen, makes those moments far more easy to deal with. And it's not even an expectation.
[00:05:40] It just is. And so I think because I set my business up that way, it's made it so much easier to scale because I don't have to try and pretend I don't have it. Which I think a lot of moms do, we, I have clients where they're like, yeah, I have kids, but I'd never seen their kids. Never heard their kids.
[00:05:57] And maybe they're older. Maybe they, my kids are [00:06:00] six and six and 10. Maybe they're teenagers, maybe they're babies and they're napping. But I think if we can stop the stigma of, I can't be a professional and still be a mom. Wherever you are, whether you're in corporate or self-employed or I think that's, I think that's a really important thing that needs to change with the dynamics of working from home.
[00:06:21]Scott Maderer: [00:06:21] And longtime listeners of the show will know that I had Matt and Jocelyn Woodrum on the show a while back and the entire interview their baby was in mom's lap. Occasionally guess what you heard the baby, and he works from home. She actually works out of the house. He works from home, has his own business out of the home.
[00:06:43] So he's the stay at home dad for all practical purposes. So it works both ways. But of course has it's, his brand is around fatherhood. Yeah. So it's the same idea, but flipped on its head so that, that can happen as well. So I know a little bit from past conversation with [00:07:00] you, but I wanna, I want to draw this out for the listers.
[00:07:02] You didn't always run your business this way.
[00:07:05] Breanna Gunn: [00:07:05] No,
[00:07:05] Scott Maderer: [00:07:05] I didn't. So tell us a little bit about that. What did you try to do that didn't work? Oh my
[00:07:11] Breanna Gunn: [00:07:11] gosh. So many things I've actually blown up my business twice. And because the first time I started out as the embarrassed mom, apologizing for my kids being sorry that they were there and that had to stop real quick because when you have infant, literally nothing, you can say, please don't cry right now that doesn't work.
[00:07:35] And I realized that the work I was doing was causing me more stress than it was worth. And I think sometimes when we start a business and we have, a myriad of skills, because most entrepreneurs are multitalented, we are our own boss because we don't fit in a box. And so when you have a wide swath of skills, it can be challenging [00:08:00] to figure out the ones that drain you and the ones that don't.
[00:08:03] And so I was doing a little. Self draining tasks and self draining work with clients. And I didn't know how to get away from that. And so rather than be the adult and look at it from a perspective of this needs to shift, I said, I threw up my hand and said, Nope, this isn't working and shut everything down.
[00:08:23] And try to do the employee thing again, hated it was miserable either. No, that didn't work that worked for about six months. And I was like, I am the worst employee on the planet. I quit and went back and I did some real soul searching and a lot of prayer and a lot of reflection. And.
[00:08:40] Figured out the, that I need to have team support in my business for me to feel sane. And for me to be able to work the number of hours that I want to work. Cause I was working 60 to 80 hours a week by myself. And that's not sustainable. That's not why we become self-employed. That's not why we come home.
[00:08:57] We come home to work less and [00:09:00] have more time. And it often doesn't work out that way, but you, it can, if you're intentional about it. So I got really intentional about how I spent my time and what I was willing to take on from clients. And I'm still in the mode of. Agreeing to things and going, oh, I wish I hadn't done that, man.
[00:09:21] That was a mistake, but I can I'm, I've grown enough that I'm learning from those mistakes and, I fulfill the contract and then that goes in the burn list. The do not deliver again. Don't agree to do this, this is an absolute hard pass. Don't need to work with this kind of person or whatever it is.
[00:09:40] The other thing that I did early on was I took on anyone who wanted to be a client. And I think a lot of us make that mistake. It's a money grab, right? Because we're trying to replace our income. We're terrified. It's not going to work. And so anyone who says yes to us, we go in whole hall.
[00:09:56]Scott Maderer: [00:09:56] You'll pay me money. Yay. What is it?
[00:09:59] Breanna Gunn: [00:09:59] And [00:10:00] that works for a very short period of time. And then you end up with something. For lack of a better term. I call them the client crazies where, you know, they have no boundaries. They are far outside. They want things that are far outside of your scope of work.
[00:10:15] They are hyper demanding. They want you on weekends and evenings and how dare you want to go to church and how dare you want to go to youth group and all of these things. And I've slowly filtered those clients out and do I still make mistakes? Absolutely. But I have a much better radar now for high demand.
[00:10:32] And I'm much better about setting boundaries. And I, I even in the last year, I've put up a an email autoresponder, which I'm sure you got when you emailed me yesterday that says Hey, I'm glad I got your email. I'll get back to you within 24 hours. Here's my hours. If you're a client, it'll be sooner.
[00:10:47] But I found that setting the expectations in the forefront rather than trying to scramble at the backend, which is what I was doing is far more effective.
[00:10:56] Scott Maderer: [00:10:56] So as you grew into this, you just talked about a lot of the [00:11:00] things you had done wrong. If you had to narrow it down for somebody else that maybe is hearing some of this and going, oh, that's so me, that's where I am right now.
[00:11:08] What would you say is the biggest lesson or the biggest takeaway or, the biggest share that you could give with other folks from your team?
[00:11:18] Breanna Gunn: [00:11:18] Give yourself, grace. We are so hard on ourselves and it's especially as a business owner, you take on so much more responsibility than you probably should.
[00:11:30]I had to learn over time that if the client's launch fails, that is not my fault. If this email doesn't get 60% open rate, it's not my fault. I had to really. Be intentional with giving myself grace. It actually happened. I was in church and the pastor was talking about how Jesus, his disciples are all outskirts they're there.
[00:11:55] They were on the edge on the fringe. They weren't, people you'd want to associate with really. [00:12:00] And it really gave me an aha moment. And I was like, I'm trying to be this perfect person and Jesus, isn't interested in perfectly. Cause nobody's perfect. It's only the people who think they're perfect.
[00:12:13] And so I had to really take that and start giving myself grace to the grace to make mistakes, the grace, to make adjustments and understanding that you know, that like light bulb moment of no one has ever built a business like mine and no one has ever built a business. Like you. And if you're listening to this, the business that you're building is unique and there isn't a roadmap and you can take bits and pieces of advice from people, but take the advice that works for you and toss the rest.
[00:12:47] And give yourself the grace to implement it over a period of time. Don't expect that you are going to have the answer tomorrow because I'm telling you guys I've been in business for 11 years. I still don't have all the answers.
[00:13:00] [00:13:00] Scott Maderer: [00:13:00] Yeah, no, I think a lot of times and that's another thing I'll call out is, oftentimes we see another business owner and we go, oh, look, they've got it all together.
[00:13:08] They've got it all figured. No, they're not, they may be faking it well, but no, they don't. I don't think most of us have it as figured out as people might think they do. And that gets back to your idea of being authentic and not hiding the fact that, Hey, your kids may walk in, in the middle of a call.
[00:13:27] It's okay. It's not the end of the world, especially nowadays that we're all at home and all on zoom right now. I
[00:13:33] Breanna Gunn: [00:13:33] know that expectation was so weird. It's keep doing what you were doing in the office with nobody around. But do it with your kids, your family, your dog, your cat, your bird, your parakeet, whatever in the same room with you all, all at once.
[00:13:45] And just use the zoom background because nobody will hear the noise. And
[00:13:49] Scott Maderer: [00:13:49] by the way, the kids also on home at school, on home, and you're also supposed to support them and help the teacher out. Lord knows the teacher needed, they've got 30 [00:14:00] kids on a zoom call, which is,
[00:14:01]Breanna Gunn: [00:14:01] Complete chaos. We actually pulled my kids out of school because of that, because it was so chaotic.
[00:14:07] My, my kids are both add and they have a hard time on screens anyway. And the chaos, and I felt so bad for their teachers because it's trying to wrangle stuff. That are hyped up on, on some kind of RD drug that it's not going to go away.
[00:14:26]Scott Maderer: [00:14:26] I'll try to wrangle squirrels that are bouncing off the walls more than squirrels normally do.
[00:14:30]And I was a teacher for 16 years now. I taught middle and high school, so they're a little older, but even still, I can't imagine having to teach in a zoom world nowadays.
[00:14:40] Breanna Gunn: [00:14:40] Yeah. It's I. So much respect for teachers, especially after this year. If they're if you're still a teacher right now, you are a superhuman.
[00:14:51] Scott Maderer: [00:14:51] Yeah. Put in for sainthood. Cause you probably deserve it. You mentioned earlier, having that experience at church and hearing that message of grace and then [00:15:00] bringing it back and applying it to you and your business. Why and how do you think you work? Inspired guided divinely inspired, all of those sorts of words come to mind.
[00:15:11] And how did that tie back into your beliefs and what you do as you made that pivot and began to make that shift in your business?
[00:15:19]Breanna Gunn: [00:15:19] I grew up Catholic summer, recovering Catholic, and you aim for sainthood, right? You never make a mistake. Sins are a really big deal. Not saying sins, aren't a big deal, you have to go to confession.
[00:15:31] You can't just ask for forgiveness directly. There's all of these hoops to jump through. And so I grew up thinking that, every little mistake was the end of the world. And as I got older and had the chance to go to different churches, I tried a lot of different things. I, my parents were very graceful.
[00:15:48] And even though they wanted me to, confirm in the Catholic faith, they understood, I needed to do some soul searching and unfortunately didn't work out well for them worked out great for me. But I found a church community that is biblically [00:16:00] based and they work through the Bible every year.
[00:16:04] And teach out directly out of the books of the Bible, and they're not shy about some of the contradictions and the things that don't make sense. And, James doesn't agree with John and all of that. And it really got me thinking that, Jesus was human. He was divine, but he was also human and he wasn't perfect.
[00:16:22] And his disciples weren't perfect. And he helped people who weren't perfect. And it changed my perspective from I have to try to be perfect to it's okay. To be perfectly imperfect and not to say, you can go murder someone in Mia culpa and, But
[00:16:40] Scott Maderer: [00:16:40] it's not that there won't be consequences, but it doesn't mean that there is a
[00:16:43] Breanna Gunn: [00:16:43] grace.
[00:16:44] Yeah. And so under I think it was, that was the first time where it really hit home, that grace is given to you for free. That it's not something you have to go talk to the pastor about and confess all of that you stole a cookie from the cookie [00:17:00] jar and you did all these things.
[00:17:01]And so I think it was this really. Looking back. It was a very pivotal moment at the time. It didn't seem like such a big deal. It was an aha oh, that makes a lot more sense than what I grew up believing or learning or being told. And then looking at it and saying, how can I change my perspective of myself?
[00:17:19] How can I change my perspective of others? How can I be a better human and a better. A better missionary and lead by example. And that's really where that came from was I strive to help and serve and everything I do. And I've always tried to do that because my dad instilled that in me very young, he did a lot of really good work that he didn't want recognition for.
[00:17:43] He just wanted to do it for the sake of doing it. And he always included us kids, which was great. He built playgrounds at churches that weren't his, that kind of a thing. And. I never understood why until that moment of, it's not about the [00:18:00] recognition, it's about doing the thing, because it's the right thing to do.
[00:18:03]And understanding that the only person who judges you is God. And that if other humans are judging you, that's their problem. And it's not doesn't mean I don't get my feelings hurt. It doesn't mean that I don't wish I could change things, but really marrying that belief. To myself. My sense of self was really powerful because it allowed me to give myself more grace in my business to give myself more grace in my parenting to be a better wife and a better human and a better mother and a better daughter.
[00:18:33] And and it allows me to, to minister in my business without thumping the Bible over people's heads too.
[00:18:40] Hopefully that answered your
[00:18:41] Scott Maderer: [00:18:41] question. It does. It does. I think it's why you were talking different phrases were popping into my head. So I was raised Methodist and I'm now back in the Methodist church, but like you, I went through a period where I went and visited every church that would let me in basically.
[00:18:57]And did a lot of soul searching and spent a [00:19:00] lot of time on a journey, but it, yeah. Coming into my head. One of the Wesley and phrases that as famous from Charles Wesley is it's onto perfection. And his point was it's the journey. You never actually reach the destination, and yet that's where you're going.
[00:19:16] You know that you're working to go there. You're not. And it's that weird dichotomy of giving yourself the grace of not being perfect and yet continuing to strive to do better. Which is an interesting and interesting place when you're a business owner.
[00:19:30] Breanna Gunn: [00:19:30] Yeah. And I think so many people are afraid to bring their faith into their business because I work with a lot of non-Christians.
[00:19:38] I work with a lot of quote, spiritual entrepreneurs who. Are into crystals and other, and sure you have to, if you choose to do that, which I have you can't be like, and John said, and you have to minister in a different way and you have to lead by example and [00:20:00] demonstrate the goodness that, that Jesus demonstrated to his disciples and really.
[00:20:07] Give them grace and give, and I look at it, I'm on this earth to do what I was put on this earth to do. And that is, to effect as many people as I can. And. But it's not my job to beat someone over the head with the Bible. It's not that kind of a thing. So I can minister in a way that is comfortable for me.
[00:20:29]And I know others who minister in a much bigger way. And that's great for them. I think it's understanding. What works for one may not work for you. And that just because someone else is doing it doesn't mean it's the lemmings, right? Just because some, one lemon jumps off the cliff, the rest of them follow you, don't have to, you can make a choice to not, you can make a choice to minister differently.
[00:20:48] You're going to get choice to affect people differently and still, live your faith and walk your faith and be be a beacon for her. Absolutely.
[00:20:58] Scott Maderer: [00:20:58] Yeah. And so [00:21:00] that kind of brings us to this. Talking about faith in business, of course, my brand is inspired stewardship at impart. I did that because stewardship is inherently a word that you hear a lot more in a church than you do anywhere else.
[00:21:12]You hear it in other places, but it is a quote churchy word. And one of the questions that I try to ask all my guests, because it is part of my brand and part of my, my faith journey as well is. About that word stewardship, because it's one of those words, like several others that I've discovered over the years, most people don't define it exactly the same way, if that makes sense.
[00:21:35] So if you had to define it, what is stewardship to you and what is that impact been on your life, your business, yourself?
[00:21:44] Breanna Gunn: [00:21:44] To me, stewardship is helping and leading and it is. I have a sticky note on my desk that says selling is helping because I deal in sales. And if we don't tell people what we are selling.
[00:21:56] They're going to go find someone else selling the exact same thing. Who's actually talking [00:22:00] about it. And so for me, stewardship is not only living my life in a way that is reflect a reflection of Christ, but it is also running my business in a way that is a reflection of Christ and doing so offering help, offering assistance, offering guidance being open to lessons and learning.
[00:22:21] Giving everyone, the grace that they deserve. It's really about that helping piece and that, that service, because whatever you do, if you sell widgets, you're helping someone with their life. And that is a service that is stewardship. If you have a horse therapy business, that's stewardship and it's understanding that it doesn't have to be big grand gestures.
[00:22:44] It can be very small things, but those small things add up.
[00:22:46]Scott Maderer: [00:22:46] So now I'm going to shift and ask you some of what I jokingly call the easy questions. Cause they're not easy. If I could pick you up at a time machine right now and take you, a hundred, 150 years into the future, and you were able to look back on your life, [00:23:00] what's the impact that you hope you've had on the world?
[00:23:04] Breanna Gunn: [00:23:04] Oh gosh. I, I. I think about that a lot, actually, what do I want my lasting impact to be? And it's very cliche, but I want my children and my children's children to be good. Human. That is the impact. I want to leave on the world, like with my business, I want to help people learn how to sell without the sleeves and the gross and how to use words effectively.
[00:23:30] And I hope that I can affect enough change in the world that, a hundred years, 150 years in the future, we don't have car salesman anymore.
[00:23:39] Scott Maderer: [00:23:39] At least the stereotypical car salesman,
[00:23:41] Breanna Gunn: [00:23:41] right? More like the Carvana commercials where you like type in the kind of car you want, it shows up at your door and there's no negotiation and it's all there.
[00:23:50] This is coming from someone who used to sell cars.
[00:23:52] Scott Maderer: [00:23:52] So I did too. Yeah. And I know what they teach you to do and it's not sleazy.
[00:23:59] Breanna Gunn: [00:23:59] And so I [00:24:00] hope that as a species, as humanity, we come far enough that we don't have to use those sleazy gross tactics anymore. That we are literally just in service and, from a larger perspective, I hope that I raised humans who.
[00:24:15] Have a heart for service and have a heart for stewardship and that they carry that through, their family. And it's a continual situation.
[00:24:24] Scott Maderer: [00:24:24] So speaking of, where you're going from here, what's coming next for you in business and in life. As you continue on this journey to figuring out what your business is going to look like, what your life is going to look like and going into the next phase.
[00:24:37] Yeah.
[00:24:37] Breanna Gunn: [00:24:37] So I'm starting a group program to help people with their branding and stewardship and messaging. Because I think a lot of times we put the cart before the horse with our business and it's all about getting the money in. And that's fine and great. And that's necessary when you're in early stages, but once you get past those early stages, then you have to start thinking about positioning [00:25:00] yourself properly and how you're going to sell your products and services and who you're going to sell them to.
[00:25:05] And there's all of these pieces. So I'm starting a group program to help people figure that out. My kids are going back to school in the fall. So I'll actually have a quiet house to work from, which will be, I told my husband, I'm like, it's going to be so bizarre. And I don't know what I'm going to do with myself.
[00:25:19] Like I'll probably sit in my office and cry for the first day. Completely honest and miss my kids. And then it'll be fine. And then, looking forward with my business, I think building a larger team. And so I can serve more people is where we're going at this point. But I've, like I said, I've been in business for 11 years.
[00:25:36] I still don't have it all figured out. And I'm trying to give myself the grace to accept the things I cannot change. Just steal a brains. So if the trajectory looks like it's shifting, I'm going to try and follow that,
[00:25:50] Scott Maderer: [00:25:50] No not always fight the stream, if that is interesting. Cause it's always that balancing act of having plans and intention and going with intentionality.
[00:26:00] [00:25:59] And yet also being able to pivot and shift, whatever, again, go back to COVID, the, some businesses kept trying to do everything the way they'd always done it. And that didn't necessarily work and others were able to go. Okay. We've got to pivot. We've got to shift or you going to change a little bit, go a new direction.
[00:26:18] Yeah.
[00:26:19] Breanna Gunn: [00:26:19] Pivoting is good. And I think people are scared to pivot. Oh yeah. Because you're going down it. I always picture that scene and beauty and the beast where it's the happy pretty trail. And then it's the really scary trail and he picks the scary truth. And it ends up being a really good thing in the end for everybody.
[00:26:41] Or you look at, Robert Frost, two roads, diversion, and yellow wood. I took the one less traveled by when you pivot, you're picking the scary trail and I think it strengthens your faith. It strengthens you as a human it's scary, but [00:27:00] we are not on this earth to do this by ourselves. We have to lean on God.
[00:27:06] We have to lean on our community. So the pivot, even though it's scary, don't, if you're in the middle of a pivot or you're looking at a pivot in front of you, don't be afraid to step into the scary path because great things light at the end of it. It's just getting through that anxiety and that tension at the beginning.
[00:27:29] Scott Maderer: [00:27:29] So you can find out more about Brianna Gunn at our website, which is Brianna gun.com. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram as the Brianna gun and on LinkedIn as Brianna gone, of course I'll have links to all of that over in the show notes. Brianna, is there anything else that you'd like to share with the Lister as well?
[00:27:49] Breanna Gunn: [00:27:49] If you're listening to this and you're starting your business and it's not very old, don't be afraid of change changes. Embrace it.
[00:27:58]Scott Maderer: [00:27:58] Thanks so [00:28:00] much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes rate.
[00:28:26] All one word iTunes rate. It'll take you through how to leave a rating and review and how to make sure you're subscribed to the podcast so that you can get every episode as it comes out in your feed until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world. .