TCC Podcast #316: Balancing Parenthood and Business and Improving Boundaries with Kirsty Fanton

We’ve invited Kirsty Fanton back on the show for the 316th episode! Kirsty is an ex-psychotherapist turned launch copywriter and on top of running a thriving copywriting business, she’s also a new parent. Her expertise in the psychotherapy world makes her the best person to chat boundaries around not just navigating parenthood and business, but creating better boundaries for ourselves as a whole. Here’s what you’ll find in the conversation: How Kirsty’s business has changed since our first interview with her. How TCC programs helped her business reach 6-figures and introduced her to an incredible network. The shift her business made since having a baby. Preparing for maternity leave and how creating a passive stream of income helped her business. The process to create an evergreen funnel. How to step back and look at your business from a strategic perspective. How she built a business that worked around her life when her time was so out of her control. The tools she gained from being a licensed psychotherapist and how they can help you practice belief work. Are you holding on to this limiting mindset belief? The fine line of teetering two sides of business – how to avoid burnout. Why you don’t need to rely on having a large audience and how to make money from a small following. How to create an ecosystem of offers that supports your clients in all directions. What surprised her most about maternity leave and having a baby. Advice on how to implement boundaries from the expert and why they’re critical to your business (and life). Setting aside time for the big picture visions in business – where does it fit in? How to increase your reach and grow your email list. What to look out for when you’re trying to find a partner to collaborate with. The expectations vs. reality of parenthood. Check out the episode below. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: The Copywriter Think Tank Kira’s website Rob’s website Kirsty's free workshop The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Free month of Brain.FM Kirsty's first episode 106 Episode 268 Brandon's podcast Full Transcript: Kira Hug:  If you are planning on taking a sabbatical for any period of time, whether it's for maternity leave, paternity leave, or any type of leave away from the business, this is a conversation you won't want to miss. I knew I had to talk to Kirsty Fanton, our guest for the 316th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast about her experience planning for and working through maternity leave after the arrival of her little one, Ollie. Kirsty and I had our babies roughly around the same time, give or take a few months. And it wasn't the easiest of times to bring a child into this world. I mean, is it ever an easy time? No. Kirsty evolved her business during this time, despite the harsh reality of caring for a baby during a strict lockdown in Sydney. This entire conversation is a candid one about what worked, what didn't work, and how we can all continue to grow our businesses in new ways as our lives dramatically change. You won't want to miss it. Okay, So today I have a special co-host. I am so excited to have Brandon Burton here. If you don't know Brandon already, Brandon's a part of our TCC team, has been in the community, growing the community over the past few years. You probably already know him, he's been on the podcast before, but in case you don't, he is a brand voice strategist for Introverted Experts, a podcaster, a new podcaster with a new podcast, which is very exciting, a father to a new baby, Zion. So part of the reason, Brandon, I'm so excited to have you here, is because we're going to talk a lot about babies and maternity leaves and adjusting to business and work after having a baby. And so I'm really glad that you can add to this conversation. Thanks for being here. Brandon Burton:  Thank you for letting me be here. Yeah, it's an exciting conversation. I think this is something I'm looking forward to. Kira Hug:  And how old is Zion now? Brandon Burton:  Zion's three months so we're still in that difficult blurry phase. Kira Hug:  Yeah, you are in it. Okay, perfect. So yeah, glad you're even here to do this and have this conversation. All right, so before we jump into the interview with Kirsty, of course, the podcast is sponsored by The Copywriter Think Tank. The Copywriter Think Tank is our mastermind. It's kind of like a hybrid mastermind where you have access to these 25 brilliant writers in the group. I think they're some of the most generous creatives, smartest people, and I learned so much from them. So you have access to this incredible room. And then you also have access to coaching. So we offer group coaching on mindset, on systems, on scaling your business. We also have coaching on visibility. And then Rob and I also tackle just the regular business questions that pop up, off and on. And we provide one-on-one coaching as well in that mastermind. So the reason I'm mentioning it now is because we host three retreats a year in The Think Tank, and those are the times where we're all together as a group and we can really support each other, connect, learn, and create action plans for our business. And we have a retreat coming up at the end of January in New Orleans. And I'm really excited about it because it's the first in-person retreat we've had for a while. We went virtual over COVID and now we get to finally hang out in person again. So if you have any interest in taking your business to the next level and figuring out what that even looks like, what that could be for you, or if you've hit a plateau and you're like, "I need to do something differently, but I'm just struggling to see what that could be," reach out to us. We'll have a link in the show notes where you can learn more about The Think Tank Mastermind and apply to jump on a call with our team and learn more about it. And the best thing is if you do this sooner rather than later, you could join us in New Orleans in January for this retreat. Okay. So let's jump into the interview with Kirsty. I would love to just start with the evolution of your business and if you can just kind of paint a picture of just as a quick recap of where it was in 2018 and then where it is today, before and after. Kirsty Fanton:  Oh, big question. So I think ... Kira Hug:  Starting big, we're starting really big. Kirsty Fanton:  I love it. So I think, okay, back in 2018, it might test my memory a bit, but I'm pretty sure if it is at the point in time I was thinking about, I had just either done or was in the Copywriter Accelerator, had really hit it off with you in particular. Obviously, I also like Rob, but I feel like you and I, I think because we had the chance to work together and you brought me on so kindly and so thoughtfully to a lot of launch projects, I think that was the point at which my business was really starting to take off. So through working with you and also through the Accelerator, I changed my niche, I started working with more aligned clients on more exciting projects. So I think I was still doubling in email-only copy for a little while in 2018. But by 2019 I had expanded to launch copywriting and I'm pretty sure 2019 was my first six-figure year as well. I think that's right. Kira Hug:  Let's just go with it. Yep. Kirsty Fanton:  Let's go with it. Let's lean into it. So I think at that stage, that's right, yes. And 2019 was also the first time I launched Brain Camp. So 2019 was the first time I went from purely providing one-to-one copywriting services to also having an arm in my business where I had a group program, which is Brain Camp, which I still have today. So things are really taking off for me at that time. And I think things are really exciting. I was sort of stepping inside a whole new world of possibility and lots of big questions and what ifs and just sort of understanding what was possible and how much control or say I had over what I could do with my business, which was super exciting. And I always credit that moment and that knocking off of the blinkers to being part of the Copywriter Accelerator with you and Rob. Because I think without that I'd probably still be doing blog copywriting for big hotel brands and I wouldn't be very happy. How things have changed since then. So, God, they've changed a lot. So I worked with that model up until early 2021. I almost hit 200K, but I left the business in 2021 for about 6 months because I had a baby, Ollie, who is now almost 18 months, which is nuts to think that time has gone so quickly. And I had quite a rough pregnancy with him. So that put the brakes on things in my business sooner than I would've hoped. But I did manage to get a more passive income stream up and running before I went on maternity leave. And that was with two digital products, one of which is the Mirror Journal, which is a tool for reflective practice. And the other one of which is the Social Proof Sidekick, which is a tool that helps you collect, select, and leverage social proof so you can sell more stuff more easily. So my business now post-maternity leave, post-baby looks very different and probably more different than I had anticipated before I had Ollie just in that the only one-to-one services I'm offering now, 18 months after having him one-to-one coaching and one-to-one strategy sessions. I don't know if you have found this ever Kira, with your babies, two of whom are now quite big, that I just struggle to find the mental space that I know I need to do justice to big launch projects while also carrying most of the mental load for a very small human. So for that reason, I haven't kickstarted the copywriting services in my business again.