Episode 65: How to Focus as an Entrepreneur So Your Business Can Thrive with Chryssy Robinson

Acquania Escarne 0:03

You are listening to the Purpose of Money podcast, a podcast where we talk about ways to build wealth and create more freedom in your life today. I am your host Aquania Escarne

Hey guys, welcome back to the Purpose of Money podcast. This is your host of Acquania Escarne. I'm excieted to have this interview today with Chryssy Robinson because she's a brand strategist and CEO of her own company called Kolor Addikt. But she's also someone who went from juggling several businesses to a full time entrepreneur focusing on one thing, and in this episode, we talk about why entrepreneurs need to focus on one thing before they develop several additional businesses. This is something that I struggled with, even in the beginning of my business, because I was selling insurance, in my nine to five, a mom, a wife, and also trying to fine tune who did I want to target to help build wealth. And I found myself all over the place trying to teach financial literacy, teach people about the importance of life insurance, and so much more at the same time. And it wasn't until I really started to focus on one thing that I saw tremendous results, not even just helping more people, but also multiplying the income in my business.

So I think this is a really important topic for entrepreneurs, whether you're new to business, or you've been established for a while and you're still trying to fine tune your niche. If you want to dive deeper into this subject, I encourage you to read this awesome book called The One Thing, the Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan it is a Wall Street Journal bestseller, over 2 million copies sold. And an amazing book for someone who's trying to find their niche and really does want to build a business. My coach gave me this book. I read it, it's a page turner. And it's a great way to help remind you on why focus is so important if you really want to multiply your sales and your impact.

So without further ado, let's hop into this episode. I hope you enjoy it. Take notes, and don't forget to share, like and subscribe so you can continue to help the podcast be visible to others out there. Thanks so much.

Hey guys, welcome back to the Purpose of Money Podcast. I'm super excited. This week we have special guest Crystal Robinson, aka Chryssy. She's a brand strategist and partners with entrepreneurs to develop a strategy to reach their ideal target market and grow their online audiences. She is knowledgeable in brand strategy, web design and marketing. Chryssy specializes in working with minority owned businesses that lack access to resources and knowledge. Her clients are empowered through training so they are able to make informed decisions.

Hi, Chryssy, welcome to the show. How you doing today?

Chryssy Robinson 3:13

I'm doing amazing. How are you?

Acquania Escarne 3:15

I am awesome. I'm so glad to have you here today. And I'm excited about this conversation because we're going to talk about full time entrepreneurship and your journey, and how to focus on one thing, which is really important, because so many entrepreneurs are juggling more than one business at the same time. So I want to talk about the pros and cons to that. And then what are the mistakes people make? So we're going to happen to this conversation. Don't worry, I'm going to ask you some questions. So we don't have to talk about everything at once. But I was so intrigued when I talked to you because you told me in our conversation that you were juggling three businesses in addition to a nine to five before you made the leap into entrepreneurship. So tell us a little bit more about that. What type of businesses were you running? And why were you running three at the same time?

Chryssy Robinson 4:07

Yeah, and the truth is, is that I wasn't I wasn't technically running them. That was a hot mess. So I had an event planning business. I had Kolor Addikt, which is the business I run today. That's the sole my bread and butter. And then I also was starting another business with a partner at the time. It was a athletic apparel is called Gym Champs. Beautiful brand great concept. But what ended up happening, still working nine to five, and I was salary, but I was in tech. So they were working like crazy for familiar with the tech industry. So to be truthful, it was very hard. It was very hard. And also, I'm of the belief that you can't really run. Well. You can run multiple businesses at a time, but you can't start multiple businesses at a time. And because all of my businesses were in that building phase where you're still trying to get the blocks up. And fully functioning by the way, right? The only one that wasn't getting in sales was the baby we were starting, which was Gym Champs, but I had clients it Effortless Effortless Event design was the event still up somewhere in the ether somewhere. And I also had Kolor Addikt clients all at the same time. So I'm juggling events, my full time position, hello. And then I'm also still running a creative agency, which was just me at the time, so it was a little bit easier.

Um, but it was hard. It was hard. I use a lot of I'm kind of like a process, like maniac almost used a lot of processes, built a lot of systems. But even then, with them all being in the very early stage, it's hard to focus on the sales aspect in the very beginning on multiple businesses at once. And I encourage anyone who's just starting out, and that's kind of the hard truth that I had to swallow. So what ended up happening was, so Gym Champ's me and the partnership kind of dissolved. So that was easy. And then when it came to Effortless, I had expanded my team really quickly, but not the best way. Right. So I was hiring, I had three people working for me. But they were all like part time, like very small hours, when I should have just had one person that was probably full time or closer to like real part time hours. And so what was happening was all these tasks that they were doing, was actually bringing in a lot of leads, but I slowly but surely started to lose them. Because it just wasn't enough for them, right? Because we all got real things we need to do. So what ended up happening is I got very overwhelmed because I was getting crazy leads getting calls and everything. And I didn't have a team to support me to the point where I had to have like, my sister helped me a couple of times at events. And it was just way too stressful. So I let that go to kind of pursue my real passion. And to be perfectly honest, the journey showed me that event planning and you will do this in business as well, like everyone does this event planning from a consumer like b2c perspective is just not for me.

I find at least and there are event planners out here who love this, but a lot of people have million dollar budgets or million dollar ideas, but like $10 budgets, and I just was not dealing with that when it comes to personal events. Everybody has $100 in their pocket, what they want what they see on My Sweet 16. Like it's just not happening. So that was some eye opening experience that I got. And also I just wanted to kind of pivot towards businesses, because the business clients that I were working with, on the Kolor Addikt side was actually what I was more gravitating to. So I made the wise decision to just put the brakes, the heartbreaks forever brakes, Effortless Event Design, and pursue Kolor Addikt. And then what ended up happening with my job is I ended up losing it. And so I told myself, I give myself 30 days to see if I can make it work. If I can't replace my full time income, with my time was more like a side hustle. But it really wasn't, I was a full fledged business. And I busted my butt. I busted my butt I worked night and day and I actually hit my goal. However, it was it was more proof to me to actually see if I can do it. But what ended up happening was, it's obviously not scalable for you to work all those hours, I was literally sleeping like three hours a day or three hours a night. And so what ended up happening is I made my goal, but I decided instead to try to figure out how I can systemize my business so that I can handle this for a long time. And that took me about six, six, and maybe even nine months to get the systems in place to get things kind of really rolling and consistent. And then I never looked back. I've never looked back since.

Acquania Escarne 8:51

I love that. And so kind of building on that. I appreciate your honesty in that you lost your job. So it's not like you took the leap and you had a retirement party or whatever. You were like wait, what I you may thought you may have thought you were going to be working there for much longer. And then they told you you weren't. So you were put in a position where you had to kind of sink or swim, you decided to swim. You treaded water, you were really swimming but you were tired, right? Like the reality set in a full time entrepreneurship and doing all the tasks can make you tired and exhausted. Right. So I think it's super valuable, that you highlighted the importance of systems and taking the time to build those systems. So now that you've had your experience, what would you say entrepreneurs should do to prepare for full time entrepreneurship. If they knew you know ahead of time, this is what they want to do, what are the steps they should take to prepare?

Chryssy Robinson 9:52

If you are trying to transition to the full time entrepreneurship, I would say focus on sales. Well Before you even focus on sales, and everyone says this, but everyone was saying it to me at the time. So when I first transitioned, I got a bunch of mentors. I was using all resources, because I had to prove it to myself, first and foremost. So everyone was telling me market research, do this, know your clients, who's your clients? And ask me all these questions. And I felt like I knew the answers, right? It was pretty straightforward. But what I've learned over time, especially being a brand strategist, you really have to understand who your clients are from a person, as an individual, because a lot of people don't look, look at their clients, believe it or not, if you think about it, most people don't look at their clients as actual people, they look at them as almost like a ticket or project or something to do when they have like, a whole essence to them. So one of the one of the first things that I realized that really helped me was doing these client interviews.

I was realizing, and it's something that you know, they do in like tech, a lot we call them user interviews. And so I would interview clients, not what is it like working with me? What products and services do you need? It wasn't a sales pitch, but I would get to know them as an individual. What resource are you looking up for? You know, your number one challenge. So if they say I'm struggling with this, what have you tried? What, what YouTubers are you listening to? Do you follow any blogs like getting to understand who they are individually, asking like, really deep questions and just kind of prying. And then capturing all of that and documenting it. From a sense of it, it kind of really builds your marketing strategy, and even your sales strategy, because it tells you kind of where to look for your client. So that's the first step is understanding who they are as a person, so that you can really show up in those places for them. And you can really be a resource, because what I learned myself is that I was talking about all these things that I thought my clients cared about. And they really didn't care about it as entrepreneurs, especially being in the branding industry. They, they know, they need a website, they know they need to look good, they know they need a logo, they know what needs to look good, etc, etc. But they really don't care about it. They care about return on investment.

Every single one of my clients are number one, number one goal was always either grow revenue or expand their team. So that made me transition a lot of my marketing to be more results driven. Right. So not just beautiful things, but let me help you make them work. Let me help you increase the conversion, I would not have had that knowledge without talking to them. So I say first talk to your clients, if you don't have clients, if you're in the very, very early stages, talk to potential clients, you have a network, you have people who you think could use your services. So talk to them, just say Hey, can I can I borrow your ear for 30 minutes, or even 15 minutes and just ask, ask the perfect questions. And then from there, you build your sales strategy, and you keep changing and changing it and trying different things until you find something that works. And then you double down on that.

Acquania Escarne 12:55

I love that best. That's awesome. That's excellent tips. And I think it should I hope you guys are listening guys that should resonate with you, especially if you are debating jumping into full time entrepreneurship. So my next question for you is the focusing on one thing, you had to do it out of the results of one business dissolving itself one business, you found you liked more than the other. So you really focused after trying three at the same time? How would you recommend someone focuses? And how should they prioritize what they focus on? What tips you have for that.

Chryssy Robinson 13:36

So the reason, I just want to take a step back for a second, the reason why you focus, especially in early stages is because you're only one person. And unless you have a team, there's no way it's impossible. Like I'm a strong believer in this, unless you have a team, there's no way to start multiple things at once. Because if you think of all of your energy, your effort as kind of this bucket that you're pulling from, at some point, by pulling it towards one business, you're taking it from another. So you have to really, really, really get focused and how you do that, how you figure out what to focus on the easiest, simplest way that I like to give people have a vision. So even if you set goals from I recommend, I'm a crazy person. So I I do weekly on the weekly goals, monthly goals, quarterly goals and annual goals. Right. And what this does is this helps me prioritize what I actually need to focus on. And I do this with clients as well. So say for example, if one of your goals is someone to podcast, right, and you have this huge to do list, I call them brain dumps. Because to do list is all the things but sometimes there's things missing them just keeping you up at night, right?

So your brain dump is everything you have to do dump it on a piece of paper, then what you're going to do is go one by one and say this is going to get me to my goal. If it's not, it's not a priority, period. It's not a priority. It's just going to get me to my goal. And then take all the things that get you to your goal and organize them in a way that is kind of first in first out type of things. There's usually some dependencies that will, I can't, I can't, you know, get guest until I actually have a process for securing guests, there's usually a nice like, sequential order that you can follow. But at the end of the day, and there's also certain things that can go at the same time, but prioritize everything. The problem is, is that a lot of things have to be done as an entrepreneur, as a business owner in general, there's a lot of things that we wear a lot of hats. So to prioritize what you do, you have to know where you're going. Because you can get distracted, I even get distracted all the time, someone will send me an email and I'll go down a rabbit hole and I look up and I'll be like, crap, I just lost the whole hour. Like fishing around for something.

So I have that like, for I call it a false sense of urgency. And a lot of people do, a lot of people do. Everybody thinks you got to do something right now. But at the end of the day, unless you're a firefighter, or a police officer. Unless you're that person, you're not saving lives. So whatever that thing is to can wait and focus on what your goals are.

Acquania Escarne 16:07

I love it you're not a firefighter or the police, you are not needing to rush and be urgent, that's important. And I and I agree with you, a lot of people create their own urgencies, and a stress it causes stress, right, and who wants to be stressed out entrepreneurs. So I love that advice. And I like your ideas for prioritization too. I am a Lister. So I like to write things down and I like to cross them out. So I can relate to that a lot. Now, I guess I want to ask you now that you are on the other side, you are a full time successful entrepreneur. What are some of the mistakes that you see people making when it comes to brand strategy? And what are some of your tips to help them avoid those mistakes?

Chryssy Robinson 16:51

Absolutely. So I would say the biggest mistake, which is going to throw, I know I cannot stop people from making this mistake, because I can give you a million reasons as to why you shouldn't take this path. But people still will. And I have a theory as to why this happens. But the biggest mistake is they focus on the visuals. Instead of understanding that our brand is so much more than the logo, oh my gosh, you don't buy a Nike because of the swoosh. You don't, it's not that sexy of a logo. Right? You buy it because of the experience and what it stands for listening for motivation, getting it done, you you buy it, you buy into this whole experience of who they are. So if you start again, to focus on what your brand experience should be. And just as a pro tip, if you're like, What is a brand, a brand is what people think you are is their gut feeling or experience of you. And what we do is brand strategist, as we try to align what you want people to think, to what they actually think it's a balancing act, you do not hit it. And then I'm done. This the same way, Nike and all these companies are still rolling out marketing materials and different events and all kinds of things it never end. But a lot of people in the beginning they kind of when they're starting their business, they almost see you know, website logo, you know, maybe LLC or something like that checklists, got a business. And you haven't even talked about products. You haven't talking about services, you haven't talked about your client, all the things that actually do equate to a business. Right.

I like to say people are playing business not actually doing business like playing Doctor, doctor. So you got you got the whole uniform on, you got to get up, you look great. But you're not doing any business, you're not talking to anyone. So I would say that's the number one thing. However, I understand why people think like this is because the visuals is what you experienced as a consumer. So you believe business that is business, but you don't see the end work, they pay someone like me, or they have a team in house to do a lot of this work of understanding who their clients are of trying to figure out how they can get into them targets a great example they have multiple client profiles, you have to target savvy ones, who you know, are, you know, coupon savvy, then you have your, I call them like Target nistas or Tarjay. You know, though, the Bougie Target shoppers. They have so many levels within kind of their different audiences. And and they are nuanced. And they know those and they talk to those individually.

If you think about their marketing, like their ads and stuff, you always see women, you always see family, so marketing to a specific person. They're not just saying everyone, oh, it kills me when people say, and I asked who's your audience who's your client? And they say, everyone, well, everyone no. And that's how I know you're thinking way too big. So that's kind of like a two parter one don't focus on the visuals, two actually know who your audience is. Those are the two mistakes I see in the very, very early stages. Know your audience. And I didn't even call an audience know your client as a person individually, because audience feels still big, know who they are.

Acquania Escarne 20:02

That's, that's good advice. And I struggle with that even in my own business when I first started out, and then I had to write it out, I was so resistant to write it out, because I was like, that's gonna take too much time. And I feel like this is fluff. You're on a whiteboard. And you're, you know, putting down adjectives and describing people that you give fake names. But it was so helpful. Like, once I did that exercise, I was like, Oh, yes. And then I actually looked at some of my real clients, and I took their lives, and I put them on paper. And I was like, This is my current client list. This is what they look like. And I created four actually created four different avatars, they call them. And now I'd target those four types of women. So I love what you're saying, I totally get it. And I could see how some people don't focus on that, because it takes time, it doesn't immediately appear to have a return on investment. But you'll notice that it actually does, right. Like, once you narrow down who you're targeting, you can nail it, and then it takes less effort to convert to a sale.

Chryssy Robinson 21:15

Right? Right. And it gives me some kudos. Right? I'm on your email list. Great. And that's because I'm sure you've done that work. A lot of people struggle, they say, Chris, I don't know. I don't know what to build content on, or I have no ideas. I'm sure you're using that list to help generate content, cause you're asking yourself, What does Suzy need, right? Because we're calling her name. Now. She's no longer my client or my target market? What does Suzy need? What does Katy need? What does Karen need? Whatever, whatever her name is? What does she need? And I'm gonna show it for her every single day in her inbox.

Acquania Escarne 21:47

I love it. Yes, thank you so much for being on my email list. But I love the feedback too. Because, you know, I was asking for myself, in addition to my friends. So now I kind of want to ask you one of my favorite questions. The name of the podcast is called the Purpose of Money. And it's a signature question I asked all my guests, what is your purpose for money?

Chryssy Robinson 22:13

My purpose for money is, I hate to say this, but freedom, freedom to show up for people the way that I need to show up. So if I'm thinking about kind of, like how I price things, and how it's like working with me, is so that I can show up 100% and have not and not have any regrets. What I was doing in the early stages, is that I was in everything. Especially black woman, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, under charges in the beginning. And so when you under charge, you end up undervaluing your clients and kind of being a brat. Right? You don't show up the way you need to show up. So I look at money as kind of like clarity, peace of mind, you know, because when someone I look at every single I, I can't remember who said this, but every single dollar is a love note. So I look at it as like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. You love me. So let me show up for you. 100%. Right, if you're paying me your hard earned money, I'm gonna show for you 100%. So for me, peace of mind, clarity, and love, love. Thank you. And abundant? Can we just say that can everyone just everyone listening to say money is abundant, please, it's flowing all around you no matter where you look, you look up, there was money exchanged, no matter what you're looking at. And if you're not looking at anything, it's internet and all kinds of radio waves above your head. So maybe even through your head. But it's money being exchanged everywhere. So it's abundant. All you got to do is reach out and grab it. It's fine.

Acquania Escarne 23:41

I love that. I love it. I love it. I love it. I want to know, if someone wants to work with you, what is it that they'll get when they connect with you? And how can we connect with you? So talk about your client experience? Who is your target audience? We talked about minority owned businesses. But is there anything more you want to say? Because if someone's listening, and they are your target audience, I want them to contact you. So describe who that is, what they get when they work with you, and then let us know how to find you.

Chryssy Robinson 24:17

So I actually so when it comes to the creative agency, we work with people who are kind of more established in business. So I don't have any necessary like demographics, like I work with people of all shapes and sizes. But we more concerned about like, are you ready for this kind of investment in your business? And I would just say if you have a question, I'm always open. Right? So if anyone has a question, definitely reach out. I'm not the type of person who I mean, I probably turned more clients down than I should. Because a lot of times really early people in the early stages come to me and like I said, I don't think it's something you should focus on and I'm not going to be the place you store your money into. I don't care if you got to sit in there. doesn't matter. There's other things that have to happen first.

So, with that being said, I would say if you're if you're trying to reach out to me you can either, you know, message me on Instagram or you know book a call on my website it's Kolor@Addikt.com its spelt with K's K O l O R, ADDIKT.com. And we do with so I should also say I have an accidental business. Because like I said, Well, my the good thing is, is that Kolor Addikt is a well oiled machine that baby goes with or without me. So I have currently I have eight people under me, and who are working for me different designers, video editors, my team is pretty large. So that kind of just goes I'm just more of the brand strategist Creative Director for it. So with all this free time, I accidently started another thing last year, and it's going very well. It is for women entrepreneurs in the early stages, because what was happening is that I would cross all these people, like I said, I'm in calls and they will be like, I want to work with you like I'm sorry, no. And that's power in that, guys.

That's why I say freedom. And so I would be like No, and I wouldn't really have anything for them. And so what ended up happening is I started this group, originally I started for myself, I would be selfish, be honest, started for myself, I was like, I want to connect with other entrepreneurs, exactly where I am. We can brainstorm good ideas, etc, etc. But I did it. So quickly. I work very fast. So I did it so quickly. I didn't do the best job of marketing. And so what ended up happening in my application process, I was interviewing all these people and getting them in, signed up. And I realized that in the calls, I ended up coaching a lot I was participating at first and then I actually ended up coaching in these calls. So now it's kind of full blown transition, probably since I would say around August last year is transitioned into a paid membership and group coaching.

So I have that that's for the kind of those who are people who are still transitioning. So I call it like the builders of business you have built this is just my own terminology build grow and thrive. Right. So if I'm working Kolor Addikt works both growers and drivers were boss fish is more for builders, and that's the name of the group I should say Boss Fish's name of the group. So if you're interested in that, there's also links on my website as well. You just go to the menu and it says Join my mastermind group there the page there tells you all about it videos, the sneak peeks inside and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, I'm open for any questions. I just like to be a resource for people at the end of the day. Same thing on Instagram to you by the way, so it's Kolor Addikt no spaces, no underscores no funky stuff. Just Kolor Addikt spelled exactly the same.

Acquania Escarne 27:51

I love it. And this is important because I think people were asked do they have to live in the same state as you to work with you.

Chryssy Robinson 27:59

I have clients all over I've clients and Cali, New Orleans was not Wisconsin, Washington. I was thinking W applied to all over Atlanta. I am a fully digital business COVID didn't really impact me that much because of that. I do have local clients too though. Shout out to Michigan clients. But the most part I have a lot of love in Cali I don't know why I think I should maybe move to Cali a lot of my clients are in Cali.

Acquania Escarne 28:29

Ok, So next time I'm talking to you, you'll be Southern California or wherever, wherever you maybe maybe we'll take in the sunshine is way better than the cold.

Okay, so I really love this conversation. Crystal thank you so much for being on the Purpose of Money podcast. listeners. Don't worry if you didn't catch the links. I will include all of them in the show notes make sure you follow Crystal check out her brand and if you're interested join her mastermind group. And of course if you love this episode, don't forget to share it and leave a five star review wherever you're listening.

Thank you so much. Until next time, keep building generational wealth.

Thank you for listening to the Purpose of Money podcast. For more resources and information check out my website the PurposeofMoney.com . And while you're there, please sign up for our newsletter so you have the latest information on new episodes and blog posts. Until next time, keep creating freedom in your life today.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai