Laura Kåmark
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Be Bold, Make Waves podcast, a show bringing you inspiring stories of women who are growing and scaling their business. I’m your host, Laura Kåmark, a website and tech integration specialist who works with online business owners who love their work and not their website. Join me as we have incredible conversations about business mindset, productivity, and of course, the website and tech behind the business.

Let’s go ahead and dive in to this week’s episode.

Welcome to this week’s show. I am so excited to introduce you to my wonderful, lovely guest today, Lizzie Mattson. Lizzie is the founder of Wild Feather Co, a boutique Instagram marketing agency that focus on focuses on intentional strategy, and beautifully designed organic content. With her team by her side, Lizzie serves women in the online space deserve freedom from their social media to do list. And if you follow me on Instagram, which you should be, you will see Lizzie’s incredible work in the wild because Lizzie is in charge of all my Instagram. So welcome, Lindsay, thank you so much for being here. It’s my pleasure. As always, I would love if you could start and just share a little more information with our listeners about you and what you do and how you help people.

Lizzie Mattson
I help people I am passionate about helping people set boundaries in all areas of their life. And I think everyone could agree that we all in one way or another struggle with the boundaries around social media. And so I mean, I help people set boundaries with their social media in the sense that I run it for them, specifically Instagram, you won’t see me running the Twitter’s or the YouTubes or whatever.

Yeah, I just do Instagram. And I really love that because I set that boundary for myself. So I yeah, I help people by just running their account as beautifully and as thoughtfully and intentionally as I can. About myself, I live in South Dakota, I live in the beautiful Black Hills, Dakota, because there’s a lot of the state that isn’t as cute or picture worthy. But I live in the Black Hills, and that for anybody who isn’t in the like Midwest area of the country. I live in the part that’s by Mount Rushmore, if that helps identify that. And yeah, it’s a beautiful place to live.

Laura Kåmark
Wonderful. I would love to hear a little bit. And I don’t actually know that I know this story about how you started your business, what was sort of the catalyst that brought it all forth.

Lizzie Mattson
Okay. Um, so I officially like legally became a business in February of 2018. But leading up to that I was a college student here in my town. And I was finishing up my bachelor’s degree in psychology. And I’d reached what would I mean, I was a little bit of a non traditional student, but I reached what we would probably equate to like senior year. And I knew by I knew by the time I started that last academic year, that it wasn’t for me, and I had already been working in the field in and I knew it didn’t align with my work life balance, nothing about it respected any of any boundary, any boundary at all. And I knew by finishing my bachelor’s degree and going on to get my master’s, for me and my desired life. None of it was going, none of it was going to be an alignment of and I knew that by senior year. But as many of us with student loans, understand that I had kind of gotten far enough that I didn’t have a plan B I didn’t have a backup plan. And I definitely college wasn’t for me, in the sense that I don’t, I don’t like being told to show a free spirit. I don’t like being told to show up to this class three times a week and do all these assignments that I knew weren’t because I was already working in the field. I already knew that some so much of what I was learning and being assigned wasn’t like serving any of that. So all of that to say I knew before I even graduated that I wanted freedom to work from home to to be I don’t like the phrase like Be Your Own Boss because we hear it so much for being a lady boss, or whatever. I just feel like we’ve we’ve run that into the ground. So I wanted to work for myself very much and you I’m just so I am so dang creative. I am a four, I am the most like four, you could be of an Enneagram. And so so much of everything that I was going through in that season was just pointing in the direction of not, that was not the direction for me. So I knew that I was always dreaming up business ideas. I, since 2013 had been running my own Etsy shop, I’m a fiber artist. And I have been doing, I have always been the crafty friend, the creative friend of every friend group ever. And so I initially thought, well, maybe I bought like a, it was the first time I spent any money on on like, non college stuff. So I spent like 150 bucks on an E course to become a virtual assistant. And I thought, Oh, this is glamorous, this could fund this could make up my income. So I could do my Etsy shop and eventually make my Etsy shop be full time. And I quickly learned that there’s only so much embroidery you can do in one day.

Laura Kåmark
You explain to me what cyber art is?

Lizzie Mattson
Oh my gosh, yes. Somebody asked me once. If I was a nutrition. Oh, like, like dietary

Laura Kåmark
fiber dietary fiber? Absolutely.

Lizzie Mattson
That is no, that is not it. Fiber

Laura Kåmark
string proteins.

Do you crochet protein?

Lizzie Mattson
Okay, so being so fiber art is any kind of fibers yarn, thread, fabric, it, it can like, sometimes crossover into textiles, but there’s still it’s kind of still it’s separate category. So the two that I am most passionate about are weaving and hand embroidery. Not with a machine. No, no, no, no, no, like everything by hand. So those are the two. Yeah, those are the things that I love to do.

Laura Kåmark
Okay, continue your story.

Lizzie Mattson
I think that was wrapping

it up as that I so I was gonna be a virtual assistant to fund being able to be do my Etsy shop full time. Oh, how deeply I wanted that. But I learned so quickly, like, just my all my joints, my fingers. I couldn’t keep up with fulfilling orders. And so I decided, well, I didn’t decide to just kind of evolved into what it is today. So I’m not a virtual assistant, but I’ve done some in the past. But yeah, I’ve moved into social media. And then I knew that I wanted to niche down even further. So Instagrams my game.

Laura Kåmark
Wonderful. How I love that first off, I think that’s an incredible story. And do you still have your Etsy shop today?

Lizzie Mattson
Yes, it is on vacation mode. It’s temporarily closed, because I had a baby at the end of 2021. The last the second to last day. tax write off. This is true. And I was abundantly grateful for that. I was so happy he was born last. Yes, I have my Etsy shop. It’s not currently open. But I have a bounty. I have a large inventory that I’m just sitting on right now. And I am so passionate about doing in person shows, I love craft shows. And so I think I’m saving it for you know, the next in person event that I have the time and energy to do. But I’ll eventually update my inventory on Etsy and get things back up and running. But yeah, not right now.

Laura Kåmark
I’d love to find out some of the kind of fears and doubts you had. When you first were starting out with that with doing your VA work and how you overcame them. Um,

Lizzie Mattson
I think a lot of us have experienced the oh, what do we call it? The were the people in our lives or maybe doubtful about our goals and dreams and aspirations. I remember a lot of the people closest to me, seemed apprehensive that I got my degree in psychology. Why am I not continuing? down that path. Everybody in my life closest to me knew that the current place I was at was absolutely not for me. And that that wasn’t going to continue. So I experienced a lot of like the outside. People doubting me, but I was really I didn’t doubt myself much. I being in like a rural area. For a while I was thinking oh well maybe I’ll just serve like business owners around here. That was also not going at the time, nobody understood like virtual work. And in paperless work, people were expecting me to like come sit in their office, or like with their phone and use their no oh man. So some of the like mindset stuff was, I guess doubting like, Can this be something for me like I didn’t have a lot of connections, I didn’t have a lot of like networking opportunities, the in person networking opportunities around here just weren’t right for me. So I think what finally, I was doing like little projects here and there I had like a little bit of consistent work, but the income that was coming from that one, I should have been charging wildly more for it. So it always felt like I could never take on enough clients to meet the income goal that I wanted. And so gosh, I think things really took off. And like I really truly finally was able to prove to myself and to those closest to me in my life, during the pandemic, when everything was shut down. Who who was still being able to work, all the people who do virtual things, people in the online business space and the most when everybody else was struggling. And I was still like I had like another part time job locally. But it was in that season that I realized, like I had never made so much money before. And so I think that was what finally like I finally overcame, maybe like my money mindset issues was that in the middle of the pandemic, there are people who are ready to hire me suddenly. And so I was able to quit all my jobs and be full time from home. So since June of 2020. Here I am.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. I mean, the pandemic really showed how important it was for businesses to get online and how there’s a whole ecosystem in our little, our little online virtual world where we the businesses here, a lot of them were still thriving, because we’ve been home. So I yeah, that’s wonderful. I love that I love that you were able to take something and really turn it into something that wasn’t the you know, that was really hard. a really hard time for all of us. Yeah. And your business was able to thrive during that. That’s incredible.

Lizzie Mattson
It was a good feeling.

Laura Kåmark
What would you say? Were some of the surprising challenges that you’ve had to overcome? I know we talked a little bit about some of like, the people who weren’t as supportive and some of the money mindset, but was there anything else you would say that was kind of you were surprised by as a challenge that you faced?

Lizzie Mattson
I was, I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I yeah, I guess I was. So I went from working right before the pandemic I was. When I left the human services field, I did something totally like random and unexpected I just on a whim, walked in for an interview to work in like a retail shop locally, which I don’t do things on a whim, I like to like, take forever to like sit on an idea and think about it. Like really like plan things out. And so I went like working retail I saw like, at least 100 people a day, and went from seeing lots of people. And since I’m an extrovert that I mean, it was exhausting. But it’s still like filled my cup in the sense of like seeing people just like social interaction to the pandemic hitting. And then when I you know, decided to quit, I was seeing nobody. So I was I knew that it was going to be hard. But I think I was surprised by the gosh, the way my energy was focused in a different way. That definitely surprised me. It also pleasantly surprised me. The relationships that I was able to pour into, and the relationships I was wonderfully able to maybe scale back or say goodbye to. And that was the good feeling, the relationship aspect that I was able to pour into friendships and relationships that I wasn’t able to give as much of my time to

Laura Kåmark
how would you say that you’ve built relationships online? Like where have you gone to really find your people find your tribe?

Lizzie Mattson
I there has been, you know, you know, this very well. masterminds just seem to really bring together the right people at the right time. And so I would say I participated in a couple of masterminds. Facebook groups were not the place. I think we all tried that at least one If we did was like self promotion and it whatever, I think we’ve all been a member of at least one Facebook group that had like, what? 50,000 women in it? Oh, boy. Yeah, so it was, yeah. So finding my tribe in the sea of people that are online. I think it started with masterminds. And then when those people who like become like, what you would call like, like business acquaintances, I know you don’t like the phrase biz bestie was trying to avoid it. The there’s that I don’t like anything.

Laura Kåmark
Why can we just call it business? It’s my business. Bestie isn’t this?

Lizzie Mattson
I don’t like bestie? I don’t I think we’ve just used so many phrases too much. It is what it is,

Laura Kåmark
I think biz best you only bothers me when it’s like in the written form.

Lizzie Mattson
I can see that.

Laura Kåmark
Because I don’t know sometimes the the written shorthand, like when people write u r that drives me bonkers. I’m like, just write. Like, I don’t know, it’s also not used properly a lot of the time.

Lizzie Mattson
Shouldn’t if I use it in correctly, you should call me out on it. Because I want to. I want to learn from that.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I would? Absolutely.

Lizzie Mattson
Gosh, yeah. So yeah, back to the relationships, I would say some of my like internet, friends. Some of those relationships have become like some of the most meaningful encouraging several of the ladies that I was in a mastermind with that we are no longer like in that space together. We have like an actual like, group chat, like an actual texting group chat. And it’s just been like, it’s encouraging. We don’t always like reach out. Because I’m not the only one in that group that has a new baby. But yeah, those relationships have become really special. And, and as they’ve evolved, I was able to, like I’ve hired one of those ladies, another one is just just happens to be coming out here on vacation in a couple of weeks. So those relationships are really valuable. And I wouldn’t have anticipated that a few years ago. What the sweetness of those friendships. I wouldn’t have anticipated that then that I have now. Yeah,

Laura Kåmark
I know. For me, like when I started investing in masterminds at really, it felt like it expanded my network and expanded my connections to be more meaningful. And I love that. I mean, I just like you, I have so many connections from mastermind groups that I was in and like those masterminds are no longer together. And we’re still doing a monthly check in or we have a group chat, or we have a group box, or like I have a whole bunch of different little mastermind groups. And that to me has just been so special because it can get really lonely online. And also, it can be hard to connect with other people in real life because they don’t all necessarily understand the work that we do online. And so I know that’s been huge for me, I actually had one gal who we’re in a program together. We both live in Southern California and we connected on that piece before and she’s mentioned she comes up to my area from time like maybe once a month because she has a friend up here and she sent me a message like two weekends ago or two weeks ago. I’ll be up do you want to get together? I said yes. Let’s meet for coffee. We went got coffee we walked around the harbor we talked like all this online business stuff. It was It filled my cup so full. I was it was it was just the greatest start to the week.

Lizzie Mattson
so happy. I Yeah. Oh, that makes me happy. I think also, like when speaking of networking, something that I think is missing when I’ve gone to like in person networking things like locally like that, like my, maybe my local Chamber of Commerce or like whatever local stuff around here, I think what’s missing, or the difference between the two is that those in person ones people are, you know, they don’t know anything more than to just like, pitch who you know, whatever they are involved in and hand you a business card and maybe you sit together at a table and like engage, you might engage in like, you know, a thoughtful conversation or, you know, you might be like doing drinks or an activity or something. But I think the networking that has that I have enjoyed online is much more meaningful because it’s usually a friend of a friend and you can see their social proof in one way or another versus just being handed a business card. I like the networking shift that happens in the online business space. That isn’t to say the in person networking is invaluable cuz I think it is but I would say my sweetest relationships are the ones the networking relationships are online.

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that. I want to switch gears a little bid in our conversation and talk a little bit about the industry that you’re in. And I would love to know if there’s something that you dislike about your industry and that you would like to change.

Lizzie Mattson
Alright, everybody

Laura Kåmark
don’t hold back.

Lizzie Mattson
I’m in the social media industry. I don’t know if it’s one thing. Well, let’s we could give it an umbrella. I think it’s really important, especially for me in my own mental health. And I think you and I, you and I have had, like, I think we’ve agreed on this before. At the end of the day, it’s just social media. I think, in so many ways, all of us in the back of our minds. Need to maybe not, I don’t want to say not put it on a pedestal. I think we need to humble how we view the how we value like your Instagram presence. i Okay, I know it’s dumb, but like I intentionally try to like downplay, like, when people like when I’m talking to people about, I don’t know, just Instagram in general, I like attentionally. Like, mispronounce it. I call it the Instagrams. Okay, because at one point a very long time ago, Facebook used to be called the Facebook. And so and it also comes from an episode of shits Creek, where one of the characters is saying like, can we tweet that on Facebook? Or something? Or like, No, it was, it was their, like, TV commercial, or something or a billboard. And it said, tweet us on Facebook. And I think it’s really important to yet maybe humble the, the way we value social media. And I think that translates into lots of different things. But for me, I take any client that I work with, I take your account very seriously, like, the work I’m doing for anybody, I take that seriously, because I’ve been interested to be a good steward of that. And that’s important to me. But also, at the end of the day, let’s say, I call in sick, I have a baby, something. And a post gets missed that day. It’s just, it’s just Instagram, it’s just Instagram. You still have your business. You The world is not is not revolving around your Instagram account. I know these are like, bold. What is it making waves?

Laura Kåmark
That’s what we’re here to talk about. Yeah, so I guess

Lizzie Mattson
if there’s anything bold I can say about my industry. And there’s a lot of things I could say. It’s just at the end of the day. It’s just Instagram. It’s just social media.

Laura Kåmark
It’s just social media. I remember when you were out on maternity leave, and you were like, Oh, if anything, I’m like, it’s just Instagram. No one dies. Like it’s just Instagram. It’s true. It’s, it’s okay. You know, I mean, i i The reason I outsourced is because Instagram stresses me out. I can’t figure it out. Like, it is just beyond what I can figure out. I don’t like that. I can’t like, post a link on the like in the comments or like respond with a photo. Right? I get that’s how I communicate. So I can work I can I can respond on the Facebook. But the Instagrams, like, it’s just for I also wish that I could change out a photo without having to delete the post and just start over.

Lizzie Mattson
I feel all the things are saying yes. Like, I don’t disagree with you. Yes, I would love to be able to do all those things, too. But then would it be Instagram or would it just be a new version of another platform? That’s good. There you have it.

Laura Kåmark
So yeah, so I guess for me, the thing that I love so much about outsourcing is it takes the stress off of me. And it also makes it that I know that I’m showing up consistently on a platform and it’s being done well. I’m being well represented, and I love it. I am a big fan of outsourcing things that are not in our zone.

Lizzie Mattson
And I’m grateful that you outsource to me and it is always interview series or not. It is always just a joy and a pleasure to work with you truly. What a treasure. I am so grateful to have you in my life

Laura Kåmark
weepy be moment. Okay, next up I would love to know what are you most proud of when it comes to your business?

Lizzie Mattson
I am most proud that I have, I spent years dreaming of being able to work from home, and to be a parent from home. And very, very long story short, we had a long fertility journey. And so I spent many years not just dreaming of a baby, but the freedom of being able to work from home and care for my kid and be able to bring in, you know, the meaningful income. And that happened. Here it is. Remind me of the question again, I’m so sorry.

Laura Kåmark
You answered it, it was what are you proud of when it comes to your business, you’ve created that you went out on this mission to create a business where you can be a mom and be at home and be present for your son. And you built that? You got that?

Lizzie Mattson
So yeah, that is definitely what I’m most proud of. And I would say like secondary to that kind of circling back to what we’ve been talking about is the relationships that have come from that journey. They’re invaluable. Yeah, I’m proud of those relationships to

Laura Kåmark
know that that well, in speaking of family, I would love to know kind of how you blend, business and family, personal life and kind of balance, I always call it balance, I don’t are not balanced juggle.

That’s actually what I got asked me not too long ago, there is no, there is

no balance, you’re probably pregnant, I was like, there is no balance, it is a juggle. And sometimes everything falls,

Lizzie Mattson
you were completely 100% Spot on when you told me when I was pregnant. But the first three months are like, you can get some work done. Because the kid like they kind of don’t move around much. And they’re easy to please, roughly, you are totally right. As soon as he was past the three month mark, oh my gosh, I need every ounce of help, like I will take any help I can get. So there is absolutely no balance I at the time of recording, my little guy is just over five months old. So there’s no work life balance, I don’t really get to have any like downtime right now. But I’m hoping as he gets bigger, and I’m able to scale back some of the more labor intensive, caring things that I do for that my time and energy will be able to shift a little bit. And so I know in this season of life right now, I know that I’m sacrificing my free time and downtime for caring for my little guy. But I know that this is just a season. And there is another season ahead. And I’m looking forward to that. For like the like nitty gritty, like in the back behind the scenes in the background. I work whenever he’s napping. I think as many moms, we’ve learned that maybe contact naps get us a little bit more sleep than if we you know, set them down to sleep. So I carefully balance you know what time I do like a contact nap. So I just strap him to my chest and I sit here and work and get like one like hour long nap with him for that. And then after he goes to bed, I try to get in, you know, an hour or two before I go to bed. And I just take whatever, you know, anytime my husband’s able to watch him, I really just work in the margins. And I never really truly understood that phrase. I had a friend that talked about that a lot working inside the margins. I never understood or valued it until until I became a mom, I get it so much now,

Laura Kåmark
I think also we just find ways to be very productive in very short amounts of time. And yes, yes. All we need to do is just write down that list so that the second we have that that monitor goes on and we can just start knocking out tasks in little you know, anything that can be done in a 10-20 Minute. chunk is kind of cool. Everything has to be because yeah, it’s you know, I have to mine are older now they’re at right now. They’re four and six. And it definitely is easier with them at this age. But yeah, when they were little and I was trying to grow my business it was it was tough. And yeah, those naps were so important for to get that afternoon nap I was so I need that nap because that’s Mommy’s work time.

Lizzie Mattson
Oh my goodness. I’m ready for he is such a good sleeper. I will tell anyone and everyone he sleeps Good night, and I’m so grateful. But that does cost during the days. He is the King of the 30 minute nap. So I know that it, it will shift. I was a nanny for a few years before, you know, before I went to college or got married or anything. So I know that the days are ahead where there’ll be a morning nap and an afternoon nap and bedtime. And so I am looking forward to maybe longer, more dedicated stretches that are at the same time every day. Instead of well, he woke up at this time, and two hours later, he gets his 30 minute nap.

Laura Kåmark
I know when my youngest was still fairly young, probably around that age, maybe a little bit older. But under a year, I had when I’m when I was still taking retainer clients. And I had one client that we would try to schedule our meetings around, you know, during nap time. And there was some times I was like, Hold on, I’ll be right back. She’s up and my daughter would come and sit that was back when my office was in the kitchen. Not in an actual office, it was just at the kitchen table. And I mean, my daughter would just sit in on those meetings, I’d throw a bunch of little puffy things with her in the highchair and just hope for the best. And I remember my husband had said something once and he was like, you know, that’s not very professional. In the space I’m in we’re most of us are moms and making this business work around our lives. And if I have a client that that doesn’t fly with them, they don’t need to be my client.

Lizzie Mattson
i Okay, let’s talk about that. Yes, okay. I am really, I’ve always felt exactly that. I never ever, ever, ever care if anyone’s kid is tuning in for the Zoom call. Or maybe if I have a client whose cat frequently comes across the screen,

Laura Kåmark
that’s me, she’s talking about me.

Lizzie Mattson
I never ever care and no one ever has to apologize. Like, you should absolutely never be in a position in this space to apologize for your kid being at home. Being a kid like they’re at home, that’s their space. And there’s absolutely nothing unprofessional about your kids. I never feel that way. But wow, I am really having to remind myself in this current season that my baby does not make me unprofessional. And I am I didn’t anticipate having to remind myself so often within like the last like month or two. Because he has a knack for like I’ve tried carefully, time things he I don’t have to tell him. He just knows. I’m going to be on a zoom call. There’s no reason to take a nap. Why would we do that? Just knows. So yeah, I’ve had to remind myself a lot. And I’m still going to need to remind myself my baby does not make me unprofessional.

Laura Kåmark
Absolutely. Yeah, I had a conversation very similar to that about the apologizing. Because I didn’t realize I was doing it sometimes being on like a Voxer chat. And with one of my one of my relationship mastermind gals, and I who’s also a mom and her kids are close to my kids age. And I was like, oh, sorry. You know, when one of my daughters would interrupt and she’s like, why we as moms vicious like I do it too. Why do we feel the need to apologize, I’m like, I don’t know that I even recognized that I was doing it. And once she said that she was like we need to all stop apologizing for being a mom and for having our kids be present and be home when we’re also running a business. And I’ve been become more aware of that. And I stopped apologizing for that. So that it’s it’s interesting because again, not something that I was really aware of until I was called out on it.

Lizzie Mattson
My husband, I’d say like maybe two years ago or so it was a while ago, he caught me apologizing for how I looked on a zoom call, I think I don’t know, it was my hair or something. I bet she was in the middle of the pandemic and I just looked very casual. And he told me after the call, he’s like, why did you apologize for the way you look like you don’t need to and so I make sure that like once he told me that I never ever again have ever apologized for. Yeah, you don’t need to apologize. No one’s expecting an apology from you as often as you think. And I would also say some of my favorite things. Because I being in South Dakota there’s something called Midwest nice. And the best way to describe it is just people like like saying sorry, too much or not really saying what you really feel like in an effort to just be overwhelmingly polite. And I Yes. So in that I instead of you know apologizing, like Oh, I’m sorry, I was late instead, you know, thank you for your time, or I have been sending a lot of emails to different people lately. Because we’re trying to finish buying our house. And I am not apologize for a lot of things, and instead saying, I appreciate your time. Thank you for your patience. You’ve been really gracious through this process, instead of like, Oh, I’m sorry to bother you again. And I know I sent a lot of emails, instead of saying, I’m sorry for you. No, thank you for your time. Thank you for being thank you

Laura Kåmark
for your time. Absolutely. Oh, I love that

Lizzie Mattson
everybody loves to be like, and I more now than ever understand the value of someone’s time. And so I frequently make a point to like, say that to other people, too, because I think they feel that same weight. And so by, I think it’s really important to always thank people for their time, because it’s just as valuable or more so than money. And so if somebody’s giving you their time, in some ways, there’s a monetary value to that. So why not say thank you?

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that so much. Oh, I love that. So I want to ask you, we’re getting close to the end of our time together. But I do have a few more questions that I want to kind of dive into. I’m ready, I would love to know if there is a person that you admire, or look up to based on the bold decisions they have made in their business or life.

Lizzie Mattson
Circling back to when we talked about different ladies from like masterminds and, and I would say like my online circle of friends, there isn’t like one very specific person, it in my mind, and in my heart, it is, all of the women who have done many of the same things I’m doing now, just to show me that yes, you can be a mom, and you can work full time from home. The balance is difficult, but you can do it. Any friend of mine that has encouraged me and emboldened my heart, to get pursue whatever it is I’m working in. I would say yeah, the collective group of women that have you know, gone before me in the sense of, like, showing that this can be done and, and getting creative with ways to do what we’re doing.

Laura Kåmark
I love that. That’s beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. I would love to know, one piece of advice you would give someone when they’re first starting out, that would help them be bolder, and make waves in their business.

Lizzie Mattson
You’re gonna love this. This is something a friend of mine reminded me earlier this week. Today’s Tuesday, so earlier this week was yesterday. Oh my gosh. She reminded me of a phrase that I say all the time. This is something I I learned early on, but wasn’t able to put words to it. Until maybe just a couple years ago. I heard a phrase similar to this. But the one that I say the most is this. Oh, it’s so good. The people in your life that are angriest about the boundaries you’re setting are the people who benefited the most from your lack of boundaries.

Let’s say it again.

The people who are in your life who are angriest about your boundaries are the people who benefited the most from your lack of boundaries. There’s some you’ve set a boundary in one way or another online at home, personal life, professional life, whatever somebody is, if you’re surprised by somebody’s emotional reaction to you setting a boundary, maybe dig deeper and ask yourself how much and what were they benefiting from my lack of boundaries?

Laura Kåmark
Oh, I love that so much. I know I have been so intentional in the last couple years, especially with clients with really getting clear on how projects are going to run and how working with me is gonna run and just setting those boundaries in the beginning helps. It helps guide them it helps let them know what to expect. So a lot of time. I find that when clients are pushing boundaries. It’s either you didn’t set them or they just don’t know what to expect. Like they’re not doing it coming from like a bad place. They’re coming from a good place. They just they don’t know. Managing expectations. Yeah, managing expectations. Exactly. And so I found that as I’ve gotten more into tensional and more, I guess sort of organized with how I communicate with my clients and let them know like, here’s how it goes, here’s what to expect, and giving them updates. And just doing those little things has made, for me at least a lot smoother relationships with my clients, because they, they’re just clear on what to expect.

Lizzie Mattson
And those relationships probably last longer and are maybe more. Gosh, what’s the word? Yeah, just more fruitful.

Laura Kåmark
They’re more balanced. I feel like there’s a level of respect on either side.

Lizzie Mattson
Yeah, I completely agree with managing expectations from the beginning establishing those boundaries and following through any parent who has said no, that needs to follow through with that. No. It’s the same way, I think with clients too. And I also would say like, yeah, setting those expectations in the beginning, my younger self could have definitely learned also to think through and establish just to have a very thoughtfully planned contract. I think contracts are one of the best boundary setting tools. And doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. If, if there’s any chance of boundaries to be disrespected. There’s probably a way that a contract could have gone before you.

Laura Kåmark
Absolutely such good advice. Lizzie, this has been so wonderful. I would love our audience to hear where can everyone find you if they are like, I struggle with Instagram. i It’s not my cup of tea. I would love to have a beautifully curated Instagram and someone who’s experienced to guide me along the way, where can everyone find you?

Lizzie Mattson
was beautifully worded. You can find me on the Instagrams at Lizzy Mattson. You can also find me and my team in our adorably crafted boutique Instagram agency, wild feather CO at Wild feather co.com. And two different ways you can if you are interested in you know, making some changes in your online presence with Instagram, I have two really, really fun options. The first is something I’ve been offering for a while now is the month to month Instagram management, I have a different balance for every single client, nobody has the exact same balance of content and management is another. So I post to your feed, I take care of your stories, everything is done top to bottom. And so that is always available. And second. My second thing is a brand new offer that I am really excited about and Laura has encouraged me in throughout the process. It is called the VIP content experience. Take what you know about VIP days or just like VIP the process of like a VIP experience. But we are applying it to the content creation for your Instagram. So think of it as a fully customized organic content package I craft me and my team, we craft 60 pieces of content for free for you from scratch. And so all the graphics this isn’t just me like writing a, a one sentence caption. With a stock photo and some hashtags. This is beautifully thoughtfully designed. All of the graphics are customized with your brand colors and fonts and photos. And the captions are thoughtfully written to promote your main offer or to you know, promote your freebie to drive traffic connect with your audience. Whatever your goals are, that your the captions are pointed in that direction, all of your hashtags are thoughtfully researched and crafted for your audience and your the specific content. Gosh, I work. There’s so many things I could say about this. I’m really excited about it. It is for the person who wants to manage their own Instagram account but doesn’t have time to make all the content. This is for the person who maybe does some Instagram live some of their own reels. Somebody who’s like posting to stories every day but doesn’t really post to their feed, but wants to have a Well to dip from have ready made content that is evergreen, so doesn’t matter what time of year, it is the there’s thoughtfully written content that all you have to do is copy and paste that caption, and hashtags, and post the photo, graphic, whatever. And it’s everything is already done for you. So that’s something that I’m now I’m now booking, this is the first time I’ve gotten to talk about it.

Laura Kåmark
I love it.

Lizzie Mattson
I’m excited about it. I think it answers a pain point that I’ve been experiencing. There’s people I’ve had discovery calls with that really wants to work with me, but really enjoy and desire to continue to manage their own account, they really, without saying it, they really, truly their desire is to have content made for them. And so I’m really excited to answer that pain point for people. So yeah,

Laura Kåmark
I love that. Well, I will link everything up in the show notes. And I can’t wait to hear how that offer goes. Because I know that it’s, it’s, it’s incredible. It’s gonna be great. So

I’m really excited. I put a lot of thought into it. And and you were one of the people who inspired me. So I’m really, really grateful for your part in the process. Well, thank you. And thank you so much for being on the show. Lizzie,

Lizzie Mattson
thank you for having me. It was such a pleasure as always.

Laura Kåmark
Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode. Be sure to check out the show notes at laurakamark.com/podcast. And if you’re ready to grow and scale your business, and your current website is outdated and doesn’t reflect the magic you bring and the results you get for your clients. Go to laurakamark.com to find out how I can help bring your vision to life. Thanks so much for listening. And see you next week. Bye now.