Made for Mothers
10. Romanticizing Your Life with Brand Expert Tori Sprankel
Okay, no shame here, I am for sure fan-girling a little bit over my guest today!
Meet Tori Sprankel, a personal brand expert who boldly broke away from corporate America to dive into entrepreneurship. Starting with a loosely defined website and offers, Tori's business has evolved, with personal branding being her absolute passion. She highlights the importance of overcoming comparison, a struggle many of us face.
Tori fearlessly prioritizes herself and her needs, avoiding losing herself in motherhood. Instead, she embraces support from her village without any guilt, ensuring the well-being of herself and her family. Our chat delves into finding alignment in your personal brand, the joy of authentic representation (no fake or staged vibes!), the powerful connection potential of Instagram stories, and more.
Here's the fun part—business and motherhood don't have to be kept apart. Your journey should be uniquely yours, not a replica of others around you. Tori's doing things her way, leaving a legacy for her daughters by proving that work can be whatever you want it to be. This episode is a treasure trove of insights from Tori, and I hope it gives you the confidence boost to show up authentically in your space—because what you share truly matters!
Connect with Tori on Instagram @torisprankel
Learn more about working with Tori by visiting her website
Connect with me on Instagram
Learn more about booking a Biz Therapy session and working together by visiting my website
Okay, no shame here, I am for sure fan-girling a little bit over my guest today!
Meet Tori Sprankel, a personal brand expert who boldly broke away from corporate America to dive into entrepreneurship. Starting with a loosely defined website and offers, Tori's business has evolved, with personal branding being her absolute passion. She highlights the importance of overcoming comparison, a struggle many of us face.
Tori fearlessly prioritizes herself and her needs, avoiding losing herself in motherhood. Instead, she embraces support from her village without any guilt, ensuring the well-being of herself and her family. Our chat delves into finding alignment in your personal brand, the joy of authentic representation (no fake or staged vibes!), the powerful connection potential of Instagram stories, and more.
Here's the fun part—business and motherhood don't have to be kept apart. Your journey should be uniquely yours, not a replica of others around you. Tori's doing things her way, leaving a legacy for her daughters by proving that work can be whatever you want it to be. This episode is a treasure trove of insights from Tori, and I hope it gives you the confidence boost to show up authentically in your space—because what you share truly matters!
Connect with Tori on Instagram @torisprankel
Learn more about working with Tori by visiting her website
Connect with me on Instagram
Learn more about booking a Biz Therapy session and working together by visiting my website
Hi, I'm Tori. I'm an expert at personal brands for go-to-girlies and my obsession is turning that pretty little Pinterest board of ears into the brand you've always dreamed of Showing the world. You're a vibe and I love working with women who need that boost of brand magic to back their killer service suite that the world desperately needs. I specialize in lightning fast turnaround to help you show up efficiently, confidently and consistently where it matters most these days online. As a mom to two girls, I believe in showing them that a cubicle isn't the only way to make a living, that having the freedom and courage to change lives through their own dreams is worth more than any paycheck.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Made for Mothers podcast, your one stop shop for candid and relatable conversations about motherhood and entrepreneurship. Think of the show as your new mom friend, where we dive into all things marketing, branding, mindset, money, child care and growing your business. While we all navigate our roles as both CEO and mom. I'm your host, mariah Stockman, and I wear a bunch of hats. I'm a boy mama, I'm serving as a marketing mentor for mothers, I'm running a six figure marketing agency and, on top of that, I'm the proud founder of the Made for Mothers community. This show is about sharing the real stories and the practical strategies from fellow mother run businesses. So dive in, grab your headphones, reheat that coffee and let's go.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello and welcome to another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast. I'm having a little bit of a moment and this is a very exciting and this has also been an interview that I have been like waiting for. Tori, who actually I didn't even talk to you about how you pronounce your last name. I always do that. That's how excited I am. I didn't even go through the housekeeping, tori Brankle yeah, brankle.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:I mean it could go a golden wist. It's here. Tori, I can't believe you're on the podcast today. I'm so excited. Can you just share a little bit about what you do, who you are, and then I'm going to tell everyone why I love you.
Speaker 1:Yes, I am a personal brand expert, which has been a total evolution in my business. Anyway, I started as just branding and branding web and realized I was just another fish in the sea and I needed to totally stand out. So I dove into my own personal journey of personal branding and realized, damn, my clients really need to be doing this too, because I was doing a million infant sleep specialists a year. Yeah, that became my niche when I first started and it's great. I love the motherhood space, specifically the newborn stage, and it was just like okay, how many of these infant sleep specialists can I do and make different? When do I have to cut the cord here?
Speaker 1:Like better pun, but when do I cut the cord here with them? So I was like no, I live in a world with a million other designers. They can live in a world with a million other sleep specialists. So let's figure out how everybody can stand out and be their own person and also run a very successful business alongside their peers. So personal branding became my jam, and so I do that at home here. I have two girls in Atlanta. My husband just joined the business and he's also at home, but we are just in the thick of balancing work and parenthood at the moment, so it's a wild ride.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Made for Mothers podcast, where we talk about balancing work and parenthood and the mental load of motherhood and limiting beliefs, entrepreneurship and fangirling. Okay, listen, you don't know, I don't know if you know much about my story and that's okay, but I used to run like a bigger successful marketing agency and I basically got pregnant and I burned it to the ground and I realized like damn, that is like nothing I want to ever be a part of again. Energetic dreams, black hole sex, all of that Talk about like dreaming of a business and then becoming a mom and being like wow, that's so not the dream. And dreams change when babies enter the chat. Okay, so, because I used to manage a lot of marketing for Lino 40 plus clients, I used to have to consume a lot of content, and so now in my current sort of world, I don't consume a lot of content. I create a lot of content because, hello, that's like what we're all sort of tasked here to do, but there's only like this is so embarrassing, there's only like four or five people on social media and I'm not going to list the other four people because I want everyone to think that I consume all their content, but I will like go and seek you out. I will like type your name in like a freaking fangirl because I love. Okay, this is how I leverage what you do.
Speaker 2:I will sometimes feel like stuck, you know, in my own ability to show up as like a personal brand because, hello, I have a two year old almost I'm fast forwarding him. He's not two yet you know what I mean? He's still 1.8. So I will feel like energetically stuck. Or, you know, just like, oh, like I just need like a creative, like boost or something, and I just that's what I get from you. That's I'm not like trying to replicate your content. I'm not trying to like do what you're doing. I'm trying to like find something in myself and in my business and in my ability to show up as a personal brand, which is hard to do. It's become easier and easier with like hardcore alignment, for sure, and like purpose and a niche, and I totally believe in a niche and that's what I talk a lot about.
Speaker 2:But that's how I use you. I feel like use you, that's I don't know if there's a better term for that but that's how I acknowledge and honor you online and that's what I would say is like I love your content and not like. It's not like oh, I want to like be her. I'm like, oh, I want it to feel. I want my content to feel spacious like yours does. Do you know what I mean? That's like, that's how I feel about your content. It's like, anyways, everyone, stop listening. Go to her page at Tori Sprinkle just to be clear on how to pronounce our last name. Yeah, and I know that that has that's had to have been like a journey for you, and I'm sure people tell you all the time they like love how you show up. Do you get that a lot, or am I like? Am I your?
Speaker 1:team. You know what I mean. I mean, you can totally be captain of my team, but I do hear that pretty often. Now, that was not always a case that you nailed it.
Speaker 1:It was definitely a journey, and not only a journey of like figuring out a how do I show up as a designer and still look good and still stand out, because I feel like everything I put out as being judged as a designer, but also, what am I saying, like, what am I offering to this world? But the biggest thing was like getting over comparison, getting over staring at the screen and being like I have nothing to say today. What am I going to talk about? And just kind of getting over the hump of like those big moments in your day where maybe you feel like a bad parent or you just feel down. But then also you have to like show up in this whole other space, as you know, peppy and inspiring, and show that life is great. And so I realized let's burn that to the ground and let's just show all of it.
Speaker 1:But what's interesting is, like when you had messaged me originally, you were like wait, are you a mom?
Speaker 1:And it was kind of coming back for a minute because I was like wait, do I not show my kids enough?
Speaker 1:And then I was like no, this is exactly what I've been working for, because my whole space.
Speaker 1:I want it to be inspiring, that, like we are more than mothers, like we are, we are more than that, and so I want it to feel like date nights where we don't have kids. I want it to feel like there's maybe a tiny corner in our home that doesn't have a toy or spit up or something on it. Like I want it to feel like we can curate these little moments in our day, in our life, in our brand, in our business, that just feel like us still and that they aren't totally taken over by these little humans that we also love as equally as everything else. So it's just like I want it. It fit it like gave me confirmation when you said that that like I'm doing exactly what I set out to do and not just appear as the mom that has a business. Like I want to appear as the mom who has a successful business and can also be a mom, and the balance is there, but I'm putting myself first.
Speaker 2:I love that I had such a different experience. When I asked you if you were a mom, I was like damn, please, let her be a mom. I get to ask her to be on my podcast and then I'm going to make her my best friend and it's going to be so great. Shout out to Jordan Bailey, if she ever listens to this, for bringing you into my field of view. I love that we talk a lot about on this show, like the difference of like things outside of motherhood with motherhood.
Speaker 2:Do you believe in work life balance? Do you believe in harmony? Do you believe in integration? It's so interesting how different it is for every single mom, based on seasons and stages, and you know numbers of kids and types of businesses and what people's partners do. If they have partners, they might be solo, they might be divorced, like there's so many different variations of a mom in business or a working mom, and like my entire, goal is to create conversations that look, you know, different, that represent all all these different ones I just talked about recently. Like my son, he's almost two and he's can open doors and you know, in my previous life that would have caused me a lot of anxiety if my child walked into a zoom call right With a client like how dare I have a child in the?
Speaker 2:How embarrassing, how embarrassing. Like I'm in the corporate world, right, but now it's like I'm so proud of him because this is such a life skill that he's like so proud of that he can open a door, and I'm like it's just such a different space when you're with moms who get it, who are like in that season, who understand, and they're like, oh, yep, there's your, there's your child, oh, my kids have an answer outside, or you know, needs me, or you know all these different things. I love what you said about where you are today is like you are first and that, I think, makes moms take a step back. Like if someone were to ask any mom, especially a mom who runs a business, like where do you line up? Where are you in the queue of taking care of you? Right, I feel like the majority of us would not say like we're first and that's I don't know.
Speaker 2:Is that horrible? Is that bad? Like, is that sad? Is that just the reality? Is that society? I don't know. But I love that you stand for that. Like that's yes, amen, we're done.
Speaker 1:You know. Yeah, I think it's still a part of the journey, because when I first started it was you know it was the hardest thing ever to ask my mother-in-law to watch Hazel, my youngest, for two hours a day. And I was like, okay, I'll wake up, I'll do breakfast with her, I'll let you have your slow morning, you can have her for two hours and then I'll be back for lunch and nap time. And so I was like how much work can I cram into these two hours that make me feel guilty for asking for help. And then now it's like she's there all day, like eight to two every day of the week. I feel great about it. My mother-in-law loves it, it's a great relationship there.
Speaker 1:But it took a while to get to that point where I was like, and maybe it's the journey of my business too right, how successful your business looks is maybe how you put yourself in the pecking order, like maybe in the beginning, when you feel like you're just scrapping together five minutes at a time to get an email out. I can't put myself as CEO because I don't feel like CEO. But now, when it's multi-six figure business, you're running this shit and your husband's at home doing all those stay-at-home dad things that he loves to do. You're like no, like. I felt zero shame yesterday being like I'm going to get my nails done and then I'm going to the gym and are you cool with the kids all day by yourself, and he's like I'm fine, like I'm good, and so it's just like I don't feel guilt as much as I did in the beginning, because I know that what I'm doing is A making a difference in my family's life.
Speaker 1:But now it's the ripple effect of if I get to touch somebody else's business once a week and the ripple effect of that. Maybe they're a nutritionist for eating disorders, maybe they're infant sleep specialists, maybe they're a therapist for moms. Like all these people getting out there in their business because I gave them a personal brand is changing five million times more lives than I could do by myself. And it's all people who I wish I had in my corner when I was a new mom and it's you know, it's these. I see my kid growing up now having this like community around them when they can't breastfeed or maybe they're going through postpartum or maybe they need help with something, and so it's just like kind of looking at that bigger picture. Now it's easier to be like. I can do this if I give myself permission to like be number one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just I feel like when the Y is there, it's it's a total different. It's a total different business. It's a total different experience when you have that really clear vision, that really clear like drive, purpose, passion, fire, whatever you want to. People call it so many different things, but for me it's like, when I'm aligned, things fall in line like it's like it's so much I'm not forcing, I'm not like it's not like I'm like pushing this thing uphill constantly. It's like it has momentum, like I'm creating this whole world around made for mothers, and it's just sort of like evolving. It's almost like it's a life of itself. Because it's it makes sense. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that makes sense. Like it just makes sense when your personal brand and then like what you do and how you show up and what your sort of impact in the world, when all of those things can kind of find each other and like lock in it feel your business feels different. And I know why I wanted to burn my marketing agency down, because it never, ever, ever felt that way and it was like oh, I know how to grow a business that makes good money. You know, like that's a very different way to be in the world than, oh, what I heard you just say. Oh, I'm making good money because I am very attached and very proud of and very integral to the ripple effects of other people being able to build community and being able to support. It's all in this, like it's all in this one thread of what you value, and I think that when we can work with within those like systems and containers of what we value, I mean hello.
Speaker 1:But you enabled the difference in working for yourself, even as an agency maybe not even corporate America and working as yourself, as a personal brand, because you're put, you have to put yourself first. If you're a personal brand, you have to be able to be confident in showing up exactly who you are, or what I believe is showing up honest about. I'm trying to figure this out. You want to come with and that's how I try to coach everybody that I work with, like take everyone along for the ride and then they get to know you and they love you and they follow your journey. It's just like following and they type your name in and they type your name and they fangirl you.
Speaker 1:Right, but now what does that change? Like say you have I'm sure you have fangirls of your own. Everyone listening has fangirls of their own. You decide, I decide. Tomorrow I'm no longer going to do personal brands, I'm going to do coaching for moms who are wanting to start a business. People are going to come along for that ride and be like I don't care what you're selling.
Speaker 1:Here's my credit card and I have those people. I have literally the coach that I worked with all last year. It's literally she drops anything and I'm like you have my credit card on file, right, Just sign me up. And so that's what a personal brand can do for you that an agency can't, or that a business that you build that doesn't involve you at the front and the face can do. It's literally being a little egotistical and being like, okay, I am the shit and people need what I have and I'm going to change lives and this works and all these things. I need to show them exactly who I am, and especially if you're a service provider or one-on-one or anything like that.
Speaker 1:Nobody wants to work with someone who's just thrown out graphics that have no personality or watching stories that are all here's how to work with me. I want to see what Pinterest fail recipe you've done lately. I want to know what spicy book you're reading. How can I connect with you on a different level, Even if it's motherhood? That's this common ground that has this unspoken thing that we can all come into this room together and we all understand If you need to start breastfeeding in the corner cool, I don't know how many boobs I've seen on Zoom calls. But it's just like it's understood and it's fine and it's welcome and you can still make half a million dollars doing that.
Speaker 2:Something that's really interesting about what you do around personal branding and what I do, which is helping women to find a niche. So, basically, I work with moms in business. I am the coach where, if you're a mom in business, it's actually funny People actually don't know how to work with me right now, which is like a really hilarious like brand identity thing I'm having. I'm not having the personal identity crisis. I feel more stoked in my space than I've ever felt before. So I'm totally fine with it, Because I'm like mid pivot right. Still, ish, right, I can't get like Ross Geller out of my head whenever I talk and someone was like, hey, do you still do coaching? I'm like, oh yeah, that's like literally how little I talk about my services right now. And I'm totally fine with that because I'm building. It's always like meet up podcast, meet up podcast. I'm like I'm in this other space, I'm in this other, I'm in this community building, like Arab for sure. But what's interesting about? So? I help women, help define a niche, because I believe strongly in specializing and setting yourself apart, but what you're doing is not I wouldn't say it's deeper than that it's finding yourself within that as well. So the women, the moms I work with are terrified to specialize. There's so many different schools of thought on finding a niche and I would love to hear yours for sure.
Speaker 2:I think of it as like finding a unique point of view. Just find your point of view, find your perspective, find something that sets you apart. Like, okay, you talked about lactation consultants, it's sleep consultants. Sorry, excuse me, I have had like three on the podcast already and there are so many in my Made From Others local community here and they're all so wildly different in their approach, in their who they are as a person, in their experiences, in their expertise, in their education, in their life. Like Kelsey was just on here and she's interesting. She's a sleep coach who became a sleep coach before she had kids. So that's interesting.
Speaker 2:A lot of sleep coaches become sleep coaches because they had, maybe, a child. That's a problem. Yes, it's so fun to think like, oh gosh, there's so many ways that you can set yourself apart, to have a niche, even within something where they're like but I already have a niche. I work with infants. I'm an infant sleep coach. I'm like, yeah, but within that, like what's deeper than that? How will people instantly connect? Maybe you're a sleep coach and you specialize in shift workers, like dad's a firefighter, mom's a nurse, not to be like overly standard Mom's a firefighter, dad's a nurse. Okay, like maybe there's you know what I'm saying there's like there's niches within niches.
Speaker 1:Not just any parent.
Speaker 2:Yes, but then there's Tori, enters the room and it's like, okay, but who are you within that niche? That's where I see what you do. That is like a unique value that you add to people's businesses, like who are? Yes, okay, you found your niche. You're a sleep coach for shift workers, parents who work 12, 13 hour days, blah, blah, blah. But then who are you? You know Semi-Etha in that right.
Speaker 1:Is that? Is that that's exactly what it is, but it and doesn't that always like seem like the easiest question that you should be able to answer and none of us can really answer that? You know, like, who am I, and even more so, like how it started for me.
Speaker 2:No one can answer that. Sorry, I just coughed.
Speaker 1:You what?
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna do that out. I just coughed everyone who am I? Because it's not. They're not really okay with answering that. I think what they want to say is who am I wanting to show up as online?
Speaker 1:There is a difference.
Speaker 2:That's what we, I feel like we've all been conditioned to think, which is like this, very like fake, curated you can be curated and authentic. I believe those two things I feel you do that You're curated and authentic. It's a beautiful married. What's the word I'm thinking of? Like Blah You're talking about. Like fate, like overly produced, like polished, like not like there's you, or like when people aren't a part of their content at all. It looks very like overly planned. You know, daged, daged. Yes, there, when people, when you say who are you, they're thinking like who do I want to pretend to be maybe or something, and not even pretend to be.
Speaker 1:So let's back up to the very beginning, and you're trying to figure out who you are as a personal brand. For myself, it was this struggle because I was like I'm a new mom, I don't even how am I supposed to define a personal brand when I don't even know who I am? A amen, like my whole persona just changed. I walked through the threshold of my home with a baby. Life is totally different. So how do we figure that out, who we are anyway? And so that's when I talked a little bit about the journey.
Speaker 1:Like I think trying to figure out who you are as a personal brand should start as a journey and taking your people like show them behind the scenes. I started this by just like every Monday, I'm going to start journaling and doing journal prompts and stuff like that, and it sometimes sticks, it sometimes doesn't, but I was exploring that as a part of one of my personal brand themes, which is choosing who you're going to be online Like. I think like there's parts of me that nobody sees. Like if you think about the grand scheme of you watching all of my stories in one day, it maybe adds up to 10 minutes of my day, and so we can be this whole other person and still be authentic, like what you're seeing is still actually happening in my life.
Speaker 2:I'm still pouring my coke in a champagne bottle.
Speaker 1:Yes, but you're also not seeing. You know the meltdown that my children might have, where I don't really know how to react. You're not seeing all the times we're at the soccer field. That's just not a part of my personal brand. There's just things that don't really talk about and there's a million things you could choose. You could be like I'm going to show my outfits for the day. I'm going to do all my Trader Joe's hauls. I'm a skincare girly. That's going to be my thing.
Speaker 1:Like you could be a nutritionist who is like all about candy. Like I have a friend who is in the health and wellness space and she's like no, like I eat candy and burgers, and you can too. And you know like where can you break the mold? And maybe you're thinking I can't show up this way because of my business. Like your friend who you just interviewed, who's a lactation consultant before she had kids. Like kudos to her for saying I'm going to be shunned. I don't have kids. Like nobody's going to want to work with me. I've never experienced that myself, but she may be one of the most knowledgeable people in the room about it. I think it break down whatever like limiting beliefs that you have, whether you're boring or you're not qualified, or that's not cool enough or like whatever the common ground that people have, just like Taylor Swift's, a cat lady. So are you, you know, like you care.
Speaker 2:Some people's personal brands are literally like their pillar. One of their pillars of prism is Taylor Swift Like is just like, yeah, exactly, speaking up to a Swifty?
Speaker 1:I know that is, I have no idea what that's like, I don't know, but yes, exactly, it's like we think we have to be so different and like stand out when, when people say stand out, like, be that different person, but really it's, it's just connecting, like how can you connect with the people? What are those things about your personal brand that also may be personal brand pillars or even just related to the people you're trying to talk to. For me, my ideal client usually has a hard time putting themselves first. That's why I'm here, so I'm going to try to inspire those date nights. I'm going to try to inspire those little moments where you go buy yourself flowers or you drink something fancy or you just go get your nails done. We can like, just be, we can be more, and we can bring all of ourselves to the table as a personal brand or whatever we choose to.
Speaker 2:Okay, but do you combat this message a lot, which is like I am showing up as a personal brand? I got professional brand photos.
Speaker 1:Because I'm a person, I'm a personal brand, as I feel like.
Speaker 2:So there was an evolution in marketing about what five years ago I would say, which was like everyone gets professional brand photos. Now Everyone hires a photographer and everyone goes, and I love, I love a good photo shoot. I love professional, I love brand photos. One of my besties here is, yes, free bird imagery. I love this, I love photos. However, I think that's where a lot of service providers or a lot of like solo entrepreneurs who show up online coaches, mentors, whatever they're like oh, I have a personal brand because, look, I show these, I show these stock looking sort of photos should call them Never stops.
Speaker 2:Photos. You know what I mean. And then it's like it, that's like check the box. I am showing up as a personal brand because I have brand photos. But there's been such a beautiful evolution. You know, maybe a little bit around TikTok maybe had something to do with it, I'm not sure but there's been like a beautiful evolution, I think, since, let's say, the pandemic, where now you know everything is sort of like B-roll, everything is sort of what's behind the curtain. You know it's deeper, it's what you're talking about. But I think for some people that's like a stretch, because maybe the brand photos are still a stretch. You know, like I don't really want to go post a bunch of photos of myself. So there's a lot of mindset here that you're gating, particularly if you're working with women. There's a lot moms, for sure. There's a lot of mindset work here and I'm just wondering, like does that come up? People being like this is I have it, I'm done, I've done it and you're like there's so much more to you, you know.
Speaker 1:Not to spoil too much, but because it has come up so much, I'm launching soon a like group program that specifically develops Is my credit card on file. And mindset is module one. So we definitely talk about that and it is because there's that you're terrified, you know, remember the first time you decided to talk on stories about anything and staring at yourself and yeah, so when I see you, it's so scary, so many filters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have actually speaking of stories. I have a free challenge and it's just a girl, a bunch of girls in a DM right now and every day we hop in and I'm like, okay, we're going to hop on stories today. I want you to like not post in the moment. That's a big thing too, like feeling like the content owns us versus we own our content. And I just feel like why don't you just romanticize some parts of your day and take some content if you feel led to, but don't post it right away? I know a lot of times for me, like some of those like funny one liners or the way things are connected to my business from something earlier this morning, happens in that like space in between where we like let it breathe and we let our brain kind of like process things, and it's like, oh, okay, I can turn this like recipe disaster into a way to segue, into ways to work with me A similar under insight or yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, you've got to let it.
Speaker 1:You're not going to like, find that like profound thing. You're going to say about your cupcakes burning when you're to learn no, in the middle of your leg. Exactly, exactly, you're going to find it when you're laying down at nap time with them and you're just thinking about it and you're like, oh my gosh, my client feels the same way I did earlier.
Speaker 2:I actually read an article once that was some some clickbait title which was like why are we most the most creative in the shower? And it was like it was the thing Neuroscience around being alone and relaxing and like that is how the creative part of your brain there is a reason why you brainstorm so much and have, like, your best ideas in the shower.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you got to let your stuff breathe, whether it's personal or professional or anything like that. And also I think that makes us feel a little more pride in like what we're putting out in our content. Because if you've ever watched your stories back at some point and you're like, oh, cringe, or felt cute, might delete later, you know that whole thing and it's like why don't we just give it a little bit of space to where we feel like we are so proud? If someone watched our whole story for today, like it just feels really aligned, it feels really us, and that's the part where it comes into like the curating, where this is authentically me. This did really happen, but I'm doing it in a way that feels really good to me and I can feel like really proud of what I'm putting out there.
Speaker 2:It makes me think of like you know. Like you know how you feel when you like don't get dressed for the day, versus how you feel when you get dressed for the day or I mentioned many times I'm a toddler mom when we like get dressed and leave the house and I'm always like, oh man, I should really like get out and do fun. Like I should get out into the world more. I feel good, I feel cute, I feel you know, I feel put together, I feel you know and I there's. No, that's not from a space of feeling like shallow or vain. It's from a hardcore like self esteem, energy, motivation, space which is often hard to source when you are raising young kids. It makes me think about like I don't know why, but just made me think about the days where you feel like, oh man, my stories are cute. They got dressed up, they got dressed today, they left the house today, like they really like showed their best self today, and there are definitely I'm looking at six inches of snow. If you know, god forbid, we'd have to leave the house, which we're not, but I wouldn't feel cute. I'm leaving the house today and that's totally fine and there's a time and place for all of it. Like my sort of, my sort of like motto is, like you know, don't, don't stress about being consistent, just be consistent. You know what I mean. Don't overthink like. Am I being consistent? Just like, show up, just do it, just do it messy. They messes your message or whatever. But the common theme here, actually really the common theme here that we haven't like not talked about stories so clearly from like, a marketing perspective, from a brand building perspective, it sounds like to me we both agree that stories are like the place, because that's what I think.
Speaker 1:I love stories so much, I think there's a whole lot less pressure for one because they expire in 24 hours. I think that people love consuming stories and it's really easy to show that as yourself. I hate when people put filters on their stories Like that. I feel like that's a place to really be authentic. You know, and of course I feel, put a little filter on if you feel like you need to have a little bit of like face judging for the day, but at the same time, like maybe don't show up if you don't feel good, like I want your energy to feel really good and confident when you show up in stories. And so when you feel good and you can talk on stories which is the scary thing to get over it just makes life easier.
Speaker 1:Like, if you look at my Instagram feed, it's probably been six to eight months since I've posted a portfolio piece on my feed. Like I don't even sell in my feed anymore. That's purely like thought leadership pieces, things that I'm like my person needs to save. This versus this could expire in 24 hours, and that's where your personal brand shows up the most is stories and that's where you can get comfortable. And then when you go to your feed. It's like how do you write your personal brand into your captions and it becomes really easy. It just becomes fluid because it really is who you are Like. It shouldn't be hard. If it feels hard, it's probably not something you should be forcing.
Speaker 1:So it's really easy for me to write about the books I'm reading in my captions and post about it in my stories at the same time, because that's I'm never without a book. That's just who I am, and I didn't know that till I posted about it. And then literally thousands of people were like I read that book, I loved it, it's on my to be read. It's like, and I'm like okay, we're book girlies, okay, got it. That's a part of my personal brand theme. I love that, you know. And so the journey you're not going to know what other people connect with unless you're trying stuff out and bringing them along. And one day you're going to hit the nail on the head and you're going to have DMs out the wazoo just being like me too, and that's what you want.
Speaker 2:I think that your stories, too, like I feel like people don't really understand that. You know your stories are already your people, your stories are in there as your people there are, like we call them followers, I call them people, but you know your grid, your posts, your reels, all of that that's searchable to new people. So, if you're going to be searchable for new people, you know you don't want there to be like a drastic difference, but your people in your stories are already there. Like how are you nurturing them? How are you building that community? How are you creating relationships? You know, like that's the, I think, like a key sort of thinking of it is like from a strategy, when you're talking about sales is like you don't really have to, like you don't really have to be focused on selling online, like this is not you don't have to be thinking about selling, selling, selling. You have to be thinking about like who are you? How do you impact people? Like you know what I mean. Like I know for a fact when I go to your page, I would love for you to have any hand on my brand for sure, because I don't have to look at your portfolio. I can just look at how you do you, and that's the difference. Right, that's the. That's like the huge difference. I don't even need to see your website. I just want to know how do you do what you do, because I want to do what you do. You know what I mean, like what. That's such a beautiful, like change. Also, I'm laughing. I was laughing inside when you said, like, oh, I'm a book girlie. So thank you, taylor Swift.
Speaker 2:But also my family that I married into. I got married in Michigan. I worked in Michigan for like seven years. I married a man whose family was from Michigan and his grandma lived there and had to have a farm. Farming is like a huge pillar of my brand, but I like football now. Okay, so I'm like a little bit, a little bit.
Speaker 2:But also because I married into a massive U of M family and I've been, like historically, a football hater because they are on so many nights a week and they are so long, the games are so long. But all of a sudden this year I don't know why Michigan did so well and they kept like winning and their champions. Now they just won this week, last week, and it's like for the first time in my life, I like went to my husband and I said we've been together for like seven years. We're going on Sunday for seven years. Hey, do you know when U of M is playing next? And he I mean I could have like picked him up off the floor Like he couldn't believe what his wife was saying to him and I followed along and so I posted in my stories a couple of times like about U of M winning.
Speaker 2:But it's crazy how many Michigan fans I have like in my universe of mom I've never known. And then it's like it's not just like oh, like it's not just oh football, because whatever, it's like Michigan, it's like this connection to Michigan, it's like why? Well, anyways, I'm laughing because it's like I couldn't have bet any amount of money that like I would be saying this on a podcast publicly about football. Anyways, it's just so funny these little tiny, these little tiny facets of us that create relationships and that's what it's about you know, for me it's literally connecting.
Speaker 1:And that's what, like when you said I found you on Instagram and I don't care what your website looks like or your portfolio, I just work with you. That is the magic of personal branding. Can you imagine all of our businesses If it was like no, I don't have to sell again. In my stories, I have inquiries for months, I have clients booked for a year. Like can you imagine our lives if that was how our businesses ran? Like that is so magical and freeing, especially when, like selling still to this day for me, can feel salesy, like it's not hard to sell, but at the same time, sometimes we just get in our head and it's like dang, this is really gross.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or it's just entered. It's a different energy.
Speaker 1:But like that doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker 2:I've actually, since becoming a mom and pivoting my business over the last really year, I've completely eliminated sales calls, so there's no more like virtual coffees. There's no more. Hey, can we jump on a call and talk about what your coaching services look like? And I wish, maybe in a different version, I could do that. Like that works for some people, but I just can't, because when I actually looked at the hours I spent doing those, it depletes me in a way that other things in my business don't deplete me and I don't see my bottom line being impacted by deleting something that depletes me. Actually see my bottom line being better because I have better energy spent towards cultivating clients who are just ready to work with me.
Speaker 2:Okay, listen, I know you do something that's really cool in your business, though, and I want to talk about it. And also it's so funny because I'm staring at all of these like wonderful questions about motherhood, and I know you've had transformational experiences in motherhood. Maybe we'll get there, maybe we won't, maybe I'll have to ask you back on and we can talk about that later. But this one thing I love that you do you open your doors. You have wait lists. I jumped on one. I haven't followed through, but that's because offline after this podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm a good fit. But listen, you had said, hey, my Q2 Brand client books, get on the wait list, get you have. You have a formula. So do you want to share a little bit about that, because I think my guess would be, a lot of moms particularly would benefit from having some sort of structure, like you have in your Pipeline and how you convert. And I heard you say something about this like free. I saw it come through the free stories group. Sounds like you have this group coaching.
Speaker 2:I love knowing and learning about you know Everyone wants to be like the Jenna Kutcher and Amy Porterfield of the world, right like that's. People love using them as examples, but that's. There's so many other versions of business that are like, beautiful and spacious and and profitable that don't require that level of like. You know what I mean like you don't have to be at that level to have really beautiful success. To me, I would love to have my business operate the way that you are and it inspires me to do that, which is this whole wait list cart open. You know I don't know if Jordan helped you with some of that in the beginning or what, however, that happened, but can you share a little bit of that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that Um has also been kind of an evolution of just trial and error, like what works for my business and what doesn't, and in the beginning I was trying to just book as much as possible, just trying to make income, get people on the books, and so I had doors open all the time, like I would have a call at 8 am In the morning and it would totally drain me, like that. I went right back into the Sunday scaries and so I was Realize pretty quickly I was like this is not working for me and so for the past like year I've only had Brand consults held on Thursday, so people can only book on Thursdays.
Speaker 2:I have two, maybe three tops and I know Friday it's my work like an hour hour, 90 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes, 30 minutes. Yeah, you're cool. Consults, okay, yeah. I just yeah, so it's a 30 minute or these are people who are, who are on a list already, right these?
Speaker 2:people usually wait three to four months just to talk on a brand not like oh, just you can book a sales call on a Thursday with you. This is like okay, you've jumped on a wait list, like I did. You jumped in a wait list. Okay, you get an email. Hey, here's the calendar. They're only on Thursdays in the 30 minutes.
Speaker 1:So this is a very controlled it has to be because I have client work I have to focus on, I have admin work I have to focus on and I have my family, and so I try not to work on Fridays. That's my and yourself right, and so that's always sprinkled in. Yes, thursdays, I know Monday can be my admin day. I can ease into it, I can start late if I want no one's waiting on me. Tuesday, wednesday client work. Thursday is client work plus some consult calls, and Friday's weekend, and so it's just like it feels easy.
Speaker 1:And so I just had to really tune into my gut. Like every time I tried something new or Tried consults three days a week or two, to like if it felt icky, I didn't want to do it, and so this hasn't yet to feel gross and it works. And so it's definitely people exactly like you who are like I spoke to someone last week who booked immediately and that's kind of how it's been going, but she's like dang you book out far and I'm like I mean part of it was the holidays, but also, yeah, I mean people are just willing to wait and I'm like so grateful for people Seeing me, for me and wanting to be a part of that because, like who, who am I to be the one with a crap-long wait list? Like that's crazy to think about.
Speaker 2:But I love that it's so humbling too, if someone were listening to this podcast and they were to be like, okay, but what's the actual structure, what's the actual oh yeah, flow for creating a wait list, and then the door like how far out like I know you use flow desk like Kind of like, yeah, go back the curtain for like an actually pretty details.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I have my inquiry form. That always kind of exists.
Speaker 1:But if you have a website on my website and that is through honey book and so I have the inquiry form. It directly goes to an automated Automated send you my calendar. If the doors are open but you Say you hop on today, you probably will get like April time slot for a brand consult and we just sit and wait and you can always shoot me a DM if there's questions or anything. But I have lots of information in that automated email. It's like what can I expect for an investment Timelines?
Speaker 1:like I don't want you to hop on that brand consult call and and we've heard of our time if you are not ready, and so obviously a lot of my content serves people who should be ready. So the people going to the yes.
Speaker 2:That's the difference you are like. You're like slow roasting, like the whole time.
Speaker 1:But you, you know, when you want a brand like I want you to think of Brandon Webb, when it's time for you, I want you to think of me. They're ready to go for the most part, and so booking percentages are pretty high at that point because there's so much work that happens before then to answer questions. Even on my services page before you maybe look into that it's it gives a lot of information on how we could work together and stuff. So I think you know people are a lot of times scared of like putting pricing on or putting you know exactly what your offers are or even limiting what. That is afraid I'm not gonna make a sale because somebody wants something a little bit different. Like, don't worry, that's not, that might not be your person.
Speaker 1:Like you're waiting, you're trying to serve that spot instead of Getting someone who may be even a better fit, maybe a higher ticket and even just energetically a better choice for you, and so yeah, so honey, book inquiry form and then, of course, flow desk serves as mine. Like Free value, that's my emails, the weekly, nothing fancy Friday email, that's all value, that's no sales. So I think, just like getting the right people onto your inquiry form, it doesn't matter how, if you have a wait list or if you don't like, take them as it feels good to you, but they're gonna be ready to buy when you finally talk to them.
Speaker 2:I think it's so smart. It sounds like you've had to like work up to this space, but I do love the idea of moms being able to control their schedule to the best of their ability instead of being in this space of like trying to fill a business into the nooks and crannies of their life, like kind of like reverse engineering it. But it takes what you were saying around, like the mindset and the confidence and the self esteem to be like am I someone who could be valued in this world in this way? Like, am I worth having like a wait list? And my gut response to anyone would be like, why not?
Speaker 2:Like says you know, like, go for it, see if it works, see if you can and of course, it's not gonna work for every single business model out there, but there are certain key services that you could do, that you could plan, you know in advance and see how that goes. I always say like if you launch something like no one will know if nobody buys, like, I mean, of course, in your world you could say like, yeah, but you could also go online and I mean you could go on your stories and you could talk about how nobody could use that failure as a conversation and, as you know, a part of your personal brand and letting people in and then to know you and there's always like teachable moments and everyone's like you know, feeling forward but like no one will know if you don't wanna share, like it's not knowing when you don't try. I think that is really hard to sort of like like what could happen if you just go for it.
Speaker 1:If you just try. But if you on the flip side of the launching side of things, if no one is buying, then I think we're not listening to our audience, because our audience is telling us exactly what they want in our DMs and our comments and all the stuff. So all of your gold lives in those replies. Like that's where you should be forming content around that stuff. You know you should be forming your offers around that. And so just I think, listening to your people, which they're not gonna give you any feedback till you start showing up as yourself, you gotta get to give and give to get, and so you kind of have to like just tiptoe in and start being yourself and start talking about things and your offers and then they're gonna help you adjust that and refine that to be sell out. No question, Doors haven't even opened.
Speaker 2:I love it, tori. I love it so much I wanna know one. I'm gonna ask you one question before we end, but I ask it on all of our guests. Okay, if there's a mom listening who wants to start a business, who wants to pivot, who's afraid of starting a personal brand, who feels really inspired, who, hopefully, was listening to this podcast and then went to your Instagram and then watched some of your stories and looked some of your content and now has context to our conversation, right, which, hello? That's your homework. If anyone's listening, go do that.
Speaker 2:Like. What advice, what suggestions, what encouragement, what words of wisdom. You know, I used to go to the summer camp and used to call it wow time, words of wisdom time, and it was like that was in Michigan. That's what I used to. I was a summer camp counselor. That should be a part of my brand, but it's the fact that every mom needs to hear from another mom. That's truth, that's hands down. I always say, like, build your damn village, build it yourself. It's not gonna come knocking down on your door. So what can you say to any mom who's just like oof, I need my cup a little bit filled up today around all of this work Like what kind of wow time can you?
Speaker 1:lend them, what can wow everyone with. So I definitely think it's gonna start internally. I think it's gonna be realizing that you're worth it, you're valuable, you have something to say, but also learning how to. I really love like making romanticizing your life just be a part of that original homework, because it really boosts our self-confidence, it boosts the thought in our head of people need to see this, or I can't wait to share this. You know, like how many times have you gone to a fancy restaurant and taken a picture because everything was perfect, the candles were lit, the meal was plated, great. You know you're excited to share that, and so how can we make parts of our life that maybe feel spit up covered 24, seven really romantic, spending hands, spending in a hand. And so I think starting internally with that just romanticizing can also bring on so much gratitude for what we have.
Speaker 1:And like noticing little things, like I try to notice every morning. I love when the light pours in my windows. I think it makes my house look beautiful, and that is what I think of when something breaks in my home because it's a fixer upper, and so I'm like wait, but the light is beautiful and it's. I love it here, and so I think romanticizing our life makes it easier to show up to everyone else really proud of like who we are, and so I think you should get a little bit selfish. I think you should put yourself first. I think you should ask for help so that you can put yourself first, whether that's even just putting your makeup on and sitting at your computer, like the energy is gonna be totally different when you show up to work feeling full of self-confidence. But get selfish and romanticize at the very beginning and it should become this like beautiful journey into your personal brand.
Speaker 2:Oof, I love that Beautiful. I love what you just said about the light filtering in. It's like the rest of the house can be a mess. But then you have this like one little perfect, one little corner, one little corner. I wanna read something that you had shared and all the guests that come on the podcast fill out a form and then when, the same questions, and I actually just wanna read word for word what you shared before we close, after we're gonna ask people where to follow you and all that good stuff. But okay, the question is okay.
Speaker 2:Now to the good stuff. How do you make motherhood and biz work together? That's a very weirdly worded question. When you say it out loud, how do you make motherhood and business work together? Right, mm-hmm, this is what you had shared with me. Well, as I'm typing this, I'm currently at my desk that resides in the playroom. I don't hide work from the girls and I don't feel like they need to be separated. They just need boundaries, like I won't work for more than an hour or so while they're playing independently next to me. Part of my legacy is showing them that work doesn't have to look the way we grew up thinking it had to.
Speaker 1:Woo-hoo.
Speaker 2:I'm like tearing up, I know from the nosebleed section, woo-hoo. It makes me feel a little. It's to me Like again to me, it's like part of my legacy is showing them that work doesn't have to look the way you know we grew up thinking it had to which was working for someone else in corporate structures that are grind and that are thankless and that are replaceable, where people are replaceable in systems constantly. Instead setting yourself up in the way and in the life that is, you know, you first, family, second, business, third, and I think that that's or opposite, or opposite or whatever You're saying to your mom and you have dreams that you can't fulfill because you're sacrificing yourself so much.
Speaker 1:I think because I grew up with I had a mom who was very career-driven, single mom, and then my stepmom, 100% stay-at-home mom, so I saw both sides of the spectrum and in the middle I'm like so I have to choose.
Speaker 2:What if?
Speaker 1:I'm a thick, both girly, so I want both.
Speaker 2:I am a full-time, everything, all the time. Yeah, of course I'm everything. I'm a stay-at-home mom who's got a full-time career, who you know.
Speaker 1:I want to be a CEO on Monday, but also be a stay-at-home mom on a Friday if I want to, yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that. Thank you so much for just sharing your obviously your wild time, your words of wisdom, that yourself, and showing up in a way that inspires others to be more authentic, and just trusting the fact that you are creating ripples that allows other people to create ripples. And I mean that's like system change in the most basic sense of the word. When one part of a system changes, the whole system changes. That's just the way that that works. That's my nonprofit background, right there. I love it, but I do think that the value that you bring to the table is just a beautiful version of it. So where can people find you? Where can they follow you? When does this group coaching program dropping? Will that be relevant when this episode drops? What's evergreen? Where can they get at you?
Speaker 1:ToriSprinklecom will probably, I'm sure, put it in the show notes because spelling is a issue with that last name, but you could probably Google it and I'll pop up too. There's not many of us. Torisprinklecom has almost everything you could look for it has an inquiry form, it has a store with social media templates and lots of fun things to get you started there. Group program will be in a couple months, so that will be very exciting. But I would love to connect with you on Instagram and I'm at ToriSprinkle there. Love a voice memo through there, so send me all of those.
Speaker 2:I love it. Tori, thank you so much for fulfilling my fan girl sort of desire it's a weird word, my fan girling and I love this conversation and again, everything will be in the show notes. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast. Go give Tori a follow and if you feel inspired to show up in your stories different, please send her a DM and let her know that the ripple hits you and so she knows so more soon. Thank you, Tori. Yay, you just finished another episode of the Made for Mothers podcast.
Speaker 2:As always, you can find more details about today's show in the show notes and be sure to give us a review. Subscribe so you don't miss a chance to grow your biz from fellow moms. Are you wanting more one-on-one support or are you looking to learn how to market your business in a way so you can spend more time with your family and less time stressing about what to do next? Then follow along on Instagram at mariahsdoughman, or book a one-on-one biz therapy session with yours truly and let's find that work mom-ahood harmony we all deserve. Until next time. This is your host, Mariah Stockman, and thank you so much for tuning in MUSIC.