TCC Podcast #263: Retiring Young: How to Retire by 40 with Rachel Ngom

Rachel Ngom is our guest for the 263rd episode of The Copywriter Club podcast. Rachel is a Pinterest Strategist and Expert who teaches her clients how to utilize Pinterest to build their pipeline of leads. She plans to retire by 40 and has made investments and an action plan to make it happen. Here’s how the conversation breaks down: How Africa changed Rachel’s life for the better. How Rachel built a 6-figure business with -$400 and a new baby. The reality of selling on social media and the pivots that come along the way. Getting 1.8 million people to find your blog by utilizing Pinterest. Growing your list to 20k and having to pivot again and again. Living the digital nomad lifestyle while running multiple successful businesses. How to make investments from a profitable business. Why you absolutely need to put yourself in uncomfortable positions repeatedly. Building the courage to do the basic things in life when you’re in a different country and culture. How to visualize your success and take action. Taking your life lessons and translating them into your current business and lifestyle. Consistency. Is it really necessary? The secret to building up personal discipline and the perfect morning routine. How to do with what you have. Why everyone can and should be using Pinterest as a lead generation tool and SEO platform. Mistakes you could be making on Pinterest and how to fix them. The systems and processes needed to run a multiple 6-figure business. Why you need to start teaching duplication with your team. How to shift your mindset around failure. The right time to invest in other businesses, so you can set yourself up to retire young. How to know an idea is worth pursuing. If you need inspiration around investments, retiring, or where your next lead is coming from, this is the episode to tune into. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Rachel’s website Ask by Ryan Levesque Pinterest Cheatsheet Annie's website Episode 87 Episode 21 Full Transcript: Kira:  Build the business, scale the business, run the business on autopilot, and retire by 40. No biggie. That's a dream for many business owners. But how does it actually happen? What steps or events need to take place to make it a reality? Well, we'll dive into all the steps in today's 263rd episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast with Rachel Ngom. Rachel is a Pinterest marketer and serial entrepreneur. During this interview, we talk about how to use Pinterest for lead generation, how to pivot your business, and how to get really uncomfortable in your life and business. I'm joined today by my co-host and Think Tank alumni member, Annie Bacher. Annie, thank you so much for co-hosting with me today. Can you just kick it off with just a quick intro, if anyone hasn't heard your interview on the podcast which is episode 218. So we can all check out, revisit your interview on the podcast. But can you just provide a quick intro? Who are you, Annie? Who are you? Annie:  Thanks, Kira. So I'm Annie. I am a B2B SaaS copywriter. And I am obsessed with using copy to help tech companies make the internet a friendlier and more human sounding place. Kira:  All right. Well, thanks for joining me today. And before we dive in, this episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is sponsored by the Think Tank. Annie as a former member of the Think Tank, can you share just what type of impact the mastermind had on your business and your life? Annie:  Oh, where to start? Well, I didn't call myself a B2B SaaS copywriter before I joined the Think Tank. I didn't have a lot of focus, and I honestly didn't even know it was possible for me. So since being in the Think Tank for a year, I hit six figures in my business, I started building a team, and I've been working with clients I never would have dreamed I could work with like ConvertKit, Pitch, and some other well-known SaaS companies. Kira:  All right. Well, thanks, Annie for sharing that. And let's kick this off and find out where Rachel's journey began. Rachel:  I like to call myself an accidental entrepreneur. So I lived in Africa for a while, moved back and got my master's in social work. And when I graduated, I went to the top program in the country and I couldn't find a job even with my master's. And my husband was starting a brand-new business, we had a brand-new baby. We ended up broke on food stamps, negative $400 in our checking account. And I was like, "All right. So what are we going to do? Got to figure something out." And I was a part of a network marketing company at the time, and I saw other people having success. And I was like, "If they can do it, I can do it, I got to figure it out." So, I failed forward, failed a lot, and eventually really understood how to use social media to grow that business back in 2012, 2013. And created a six-figure business within two years. And that was primarily in the beginning using Facebook and Instagram. I had 50,000 followers on Facebook, 20,000 on Instagram, and back then it was so easy to post, and get comments, and make sales. I would get thousands of comments on some post. It was awesome. Then the algorithm changed. And I was like, "Oh, got to figure something out." That's the life of an entrepreneur. You got to pivot and figure something out because nothing is going to last or work forever. So, I moved to my blog and Pinterest, and I just started creating content, and putting stuff up on Pinterest, and I did not have an elaborate strategy or anything like that. But I was like, "We'll just see what happens." And I noticed my traffic was increasing, and I was like, "Where are these people coming from? Is Facebook working again?" I looked at my Google Analytics, and I had 34,000 people every month coming to that blog from Pinterest. And since then 1.8 million people have been on that blog, which is crazy. And so my email list was growing. I had 20,000 subscribers on my email list from Pinterest. And I started teaching my network marketing company, people on my team and other teams how I was using Pinterest to grow that business. And that company restructured. Again, nothing lasts forever. My income was cut in half, and I was left thinking, "Okay. I'm an entrepreneur, but I'm not in control." The company is in control because they made the switch from DVDs to digital, and I was working harder and harder and harder, and still nothing was working. And so I was like, "I have to do something on my own." So I hired a business coach. Couldn't afford it but figured it out. And she helped me see Pinterest was my sweet spot of this is how it can really serve entrepreneurs that are struggling on Facebook and Instagram that need to generate new leads and sales on autopilot, and I can teach them how to do that. So we launched Pin with Purpose. That's my program. I'm teaching entrepreneurs how to generate leads through Pinterest, and we've had over 2,000 students go through that program. And it has been wild to see them triple their sales in 60 days. And it's been a lot of fun. We've had the freedom. We lived in France for two years. We lived in Senegal the first six months of this year. My husband is coming back from Senegal today, I'm so excited. And we've been able to take money from this business and then invest into other businesses. So my husband has been in Senegal setting up a chicken coop. We bought land, and doing car rentals, and all kinds of things with the plan to retire by 40. So that's the story in a nutshell. Rob:  And thank you for joining us for the podcast. That was an awesome episode. Okay. You covered a lot of ground there. And we definitely want to come back to, for sure, Pinterest, all the things you're doing to retire before 40. But before we do that, I'm curious what took you to Africa in the first place? Before all of this started, how did you end up there? Rachel:  Good question. So I played volleyball in college at the University of Illinois. I was on a full-ride scholarship. And it was there that I became a Christian. And I was at this... We had all campus worship, and I was at worship. And it was like this Holy Spirit moment of God being like, "You need to go to Africa." And I was like, "Huh, how is that going to work? I don't know anybody on the continent. I play volleyball, I can't take more than a week off." And it was all these things fell into place of, I met my professor who intimidated the crap out of me. And I never would have gone to talk to her if my grandfather hadn't passed away. And she thought I was a dumb athlete that was lying to get out of taking the midterm. So I had a meet with her. And she was like, "What do you want to do? You're getting your degree in sociology, you're never going to get a job." And I told her I wanted to join the Peace Corps, and she was like, "I can get you an internship in Africa." And I was like, "Huh. Okay. But I play volleyball, how is that going to work." And at that time I actually got injured. I tore a cartilage in my ribcage that never healed. And so I was able to take six months and live in Kenya, and it completely transformed my life. I came back, I finished college, and then I wanted to go back to Africa and work on my French. And I chose Senegal, and that's where I met my husband. Took him back to America with me, and we've been all over the world since we've been married for 11 years now. I think we've moved 10 times in the past 11 years. It's been wild. And yeah, so that's what took me to Africa in the first place. Kira:  Let's talk about those lessons from Kenya, and the life changing six months, what were some specific lessons you learned that may show up in your business today? Maybe you go back to those moments and think about it.