How to Avoid Entrepreneurial Burn-out & Find Success as a Freelancer: Lessons from the Queen of Social Media (Rachel Pedersen)

I loved this episode with Rachel Pedersen (the Queen of Social Media). 

Rachel is an expert in all things social media.  She empowers businesses with social media strategies that actually move the needle toward growth.  She also loves to teach busy parents (like herself) how to find freedom by becoming a SUCCESSFUL social media manager...without sacrificing the important things in life (like family).

I was really excited to chat with Rachel because she has had enormous success on TikTok (1.1 million followers as of this episode release) and I've received numerous FREE trainings from her (including a TikTok internship) as she's a kind-hearted and generous person.

Most recently, Rachel signed a book deal with Hay House and it's currently available for pre-order here. 

You can find Rachel on Instagram here: @themrspedersen

Rachel's TikTok: @themrspedersen

If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and PLEASE leave a positive review...it helps me get into more ears of amazing people like you.

Follow me on Instagram: @angelamariechristian and @hercircle_thepodcast

 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Welcome to her circle, a virtual women's group, where the focus is leveling up your life. My name is Angela Christian, and I'm your host. I hope you navigate a new path in your life while I do the same, whether it's mindfulness, manifestation, mental fitness, women's health or business tips. I'm your girl. After a decade in corporate finance, I'm finally pursuing a career. I love as I learn how to do this, I'll share every step of the way. Not only that, but I'll teach you how to become more, present, how to listen to your higher self and how to listen to your body. My guests, and I will talk about spiritual and personal development relationships, trauma, and how to find your purpose stick with me and let's grow together. This is her circle. While ladies today, I have a guest that I look up to a lot, for many different reasons. Rachel Peterson is known as the queen of social media and she is honestly one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met. She has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to marketing and social media, and I'm so grateful that she made time to come on my show today and share some gold with us. All. Rachel has a million followers on TikTok, maybe more by the time I'm releasing this. And she's created not just one, but two seven figure businesses from scratch. I love how relatable she is as a mother of three. And she's very honest about her path. She also provides a ton of free material on her YouTube channel or whether it's a five hour intensive that I've attended. I also just went through her internship. She is so generous. Um, her book is now available for pre-sale. So go check it out. It's being published by hay house and it's called unfiltered. So without further ado, I'm going to welcome Rachel onto the show.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Hello. Hello.

Speaker 1: 2:00

So, as I mentioned, my listeners are other women and mothers, and many of them are interested in leaving their corporate job to pursue their dreams or become a freelancer, which you know, can be a little bit scary and they're not sure where to start. So I love your story. I would love for you to share, you know, what you can about how you got, you know, from here to where you're at or a few key, like aha moments, um, you know, looking back,

Speaker 2: 2:25

Okay, I'll try to condense it cuz otherwise I'll talk the whole time about the story. Great. Growing up, I was a pastor's daughter and my family was like in and out of poverty. So it was kind of something I experienced quite a bit for a lot of seasons of life. That was the norm for me. And then, um, my parents actually ended up divorcing when I was 18 and then I kind of got lost. I know we've all had those moments in life. And for me it was a pretty big season. Um, so at 20 years old I was shocked, but I was not invited. I was invited to not return back to college, um, and making just so many mistakes. And I actually found out that I was gonna become a mom at 20 years old. And so 21, I was a single mom very shortly after that, I became a single mom. And then I, I went on government assistance, food stamps, welfare donated blood plasma, did medical experiments. I was literally one of the FDA's like Guinea pigs for medications, which is awesome. I don't wanna talk about the potential side effects of that, but anything to make ends meet eight year eight and a half years ago, I met my husband, Paul. We met and got married 13 days later. And seven years ago I started the businesses with his support of love, encouragement, a safe place and that foundation. Um, and over the last seven years, this is still so wild state. Especially when I start with that, we built two businesses that have done multiple millions. Each one is a freelancing business and we've had a lot of really cool opportunities. It's actually still just mind blowing, but that's kind of the really fast version<laugh>

Speaker 1: 4:02

I like it. Um, I didn't know some of that. And so I've heard you, you know, share different things, but I actually was introduced to you when I joined Chris and Jen's super connected with your mind.

Speaker 2: 4:12

Yes.

Speaker 1: 4:13

And so they had this bonus and it was like an interview with you. And I remember watching, I was like, oh my gosh, she's so cool. Oh, and she's a mom. And then I started following you. Um, and then that's how I kind of started getting interested in TikTok. So, and I know a lot of people, a lot of moms or women that are listening are a little nervous, you know, because they associate it with like a teenager's, um, platform. But I would love to hear how you got started and any like tips for just like getting started. I know you have a ton of free resources as well. So

Speaker 2: 4:44

Yeah. So with TikTok, it was about, I almost wanna say it was almost four years ago because I feel like the last few years were kind of wild. It kind of felt like a speed bump or a weird parallel universe, or I don't know something just wild Twilight zone. When I got started on TAC, it was almost four years ago and no one was on it for business. And this was pre C explosion because when COVID hit, everyone was at home and everyone went to TikTok. Like that's when it really took off. So what was interesting was Annie grace, the author of this naked mind, we were on a mastermind. I love her two paces. We were on a mastermind with Russell Branson in The Bahamas. They had just brought us down. This sounds so bougie. And this is not my normal life, but like, this is really cool. So they were like, we're taking care of like, we're bringing you down on yachts and it's gonna be so great. And we're gonna mastermind in The Bahamas and I'm like, Ugh, this is so cool. And while I was there, Annie's like, you're on TikTok. Right. And I was like, what's that? She's like, oh, lemme tell you about TikTok. So Annie, grace is actually the one who got me on TikTok and I filmed my first TikTok. There's still on my account. And when I went back home, it was bad. Like I would put out a video, it'd be so cringy. I'd put out another video, it'd get like no views. And I thought, oh, my audience will follow me from other platforms to TikTok. And so I advertised it everywhere and I had 60 followers<laugh> so I was like, oh, we're starting from the ground up here. There's no like added bonus of crushing it elsewhere. So I just dove in and just started creating. And within a few weeks, one of our videos, so with 60 followers, one of our videos reached 9,000 views and I was like, oh, okay. We're onto something here. Yeah. Try again, try again, try again. Nothing really takes off. So pump, uh, pump out a video that is for parents, because I wanted to prove that parents were on this platform. Mm-hmm<affirmative> and it said parents over the age of 30, understand this and did the video. It was to the best song ever created, um, in syncs bye byebye. Oh yeah. And my husband and I were jamming in the car and that video reached something like 50 or 60,000 views in a week. And my following group, like I was like, oh, I think I'm figuring this out. And so even though there were people who said that they were experts on T TikTok, they were experts on going viral for viral sake, which is not the same as using it to build a business. So I had to figure out what is the blueprint? Can I create it? What are the frameworks, et cetera. And today I have 1.1 million followers on TikTok.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Yeah. I know. I saw that when I was researching yesterday, I was like, wow,<laugh> I have a long way to go. But yeah. I love all the, the gold that you share about TikTok. So it did, do you find that it's a lot different than the other platforms?

Speaker 2: 7:33

Yes. One thing that is interesting. So some people don't like TikTok, but they like secondhand TikTok shared on reels, YouTube shorts, Facebook reels, et cetera. And the thing about TikTok to understand is it's like traveling to a different country. The culture is different. Um, anyone who spent any amount of time in this platform, you start to see it. And you're like, whoa, why are these comments, all this kind of comment? Or why is it that it feels like everyone's in, on some big inside joke that I don't get. And that is one of the beautiful things about TikTok. When you are immersed in the culture of TikTok, you understand the nuance of those weird comments and you understand things. It just, it can be so fun because there's a lot of context that's missing. If you're just seeing a TikTok without understanding the layers of inside jokes that are kind of like rolling Hills, it's like a layer, a layer, a layer, a layer. And suddenly it's like, you're 10 jokes deep. And this joke comes from vine and this one comes from an old Twitter joke and this one comes from Tumblr. So it, the more time you spend on tech tech, the more you understand the culture, really, truly not just secondhand.

Speaker 1: 8:41

Hmm. See, I think that's really important because I'll just go on and post, but then I don't think I'm spending enough time actually like learning the culture. That's really smart. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 8:49

I will say you can still get results without learning the culture. For sure. So in case anyone's like, oh, I have to learn the whole culture. No, you can still get results. Mm-hmm<affirmative> but it's a really fun platform. As you dive into the culture. In fact, I was at the cheer awards, um, in Vegas and it was wild because the room was filled with mostly people who got on TikTok before. COVID so all these creators, we all kind of grew at the same time. Some of them grew faster than me, me, most of them have grown a lot faster than me, but we like, we all hugged. Like it was a family reunion because there was just this kindred spirit. And so that can be so fun to really get into the culture of TikTok and it can be a wild ride.<laugh> wow.

Speaker 1: 9:32

That's so funny. Well, and I, I meant to mention that I was actually just on Annie's um, podcast. So you were yeah.<laugh>. Oh, that's really cool. I know it hasn't been released yet, but yeah. I got to record a podcast with her, so it was really fun. Oh,

Speaker 2: 9:46

That's really cool. So, you know, you know all about Annie. She is. Yeah. Incredible. She's incredible. Yes.

Speaker 1: 9:53

<laugh> in the internship and this is kind of switching gears a little bit, but you had mentioned like, you know, um, some learning, um, that you developed about your business, like and things, maybe you wish you would've done differently. Like if someone is considering doing freelance, are there, is there like one or two things that you would say, like any type of advice on or

Speaker 2: 10:14

Yep.<laugh> okay. I've got a lot. And this is just in case, it sounds like I'm like the voice speaking down the mountain being like, here's everything that you need to do to do it. Right. I'm only sharing these things because I did it all wrong. And so I learned the hard way. It's not worth compromising these from the get go. Okay. Number one, you cannot work around the clock and still thrive. Yes. You can still have success. But notice I said, the word thrive. It is exhausting. And you know this as well as I do, people love to push down our throats. You have to work 24 7, you gotta hustle. Like everyone's coming to take it away from you. And I didn't realize that without sleep, like you can't even get into your best creativity. You have to sleep. You have to rest. You need breaks sometimes. Like Paul will remind me of that when I'm working on a tough project. And he'll say, you know, I think you do better work in the morning. Once you've had a good night's rest. And I'm like, oh yeah, you're right. And I closed my laptop. So sleep is important. Breaks are important. Rest is just as important as the work you do on your, your computer so that you have longevity and you thrive truly like in every single aspect. The second thing I would share is to create when and where and how you work. I call this a, how we work document. And if you don't share with someone when and where and how you work and communicate and why, and what constitutes an emerge, what constitutes an emergency, you are accepting, whatever they believe is true. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, and this is a wild one because you have to first share it and stand for it. But then you also have to enforce it. So when a client wants to call it 10:00 PM and they say, it's an emergency, you need to say specifically, like what type of emergency? And then they can respond or even better. You don't see the messages because most of us don't actually work in fields that have real emergencies. Cause none of us are brain surgeons, which is awesome. Um, so have rock solid boundaries from day one and then number three, and this is really big. Um, don't take advice from everybody. If I were to take advice from everybody, let's just use something super unrelated like hair, because I used to be a hair stylist. Some people love that I'm growing out. My natural. Some people think it makes me look sloppy. So which one's right. Technically both or neither. So when it comes to deciding whose opinions you wanna take, find someone whose results you like and say, Hey, this is how I do it. When I find hair stylist, I like your hair. You've got good judgment in hair. I want you to do my hair. And that's how I do it. Or you ask who did your hair, but both of those can work. And so when you're deciding and filtering through advice and you will get a lot, whether you ask or not filter it through the lens of whose results do I respect and who's, um, who's built not just a business, but a life based on this advice that I want to emulate or have some similarity towards. So if someone says don't ever see your kids build your business, you have to decide, do you like the way that their relationships with their kids are? Or is that advice you're gonna filter out and say, no, thank you too.

Speaker 1: 13:24

Right? Yep. That's so important. See, the first one? Yeah, because I just started, I was in corporate finance in Silicon valley here for like over a decade. And so, wow. It's very, I worked from home, but it was like nine to five basically. And so now I'm freelance and finance, but then I also like am, uh, writing a book and selling courses and stuff. So it's like these two worlds and it's just such a weird transition.

Speaker 2: 13:49

So no kidding. It's wouldn't you say it's also for everyone who works at home, at least I've found this to be true. It can be so difficult to create like division between work and life. Like have you've experienced that. Right.

Speaker 1: 14:06

Totally. I mean, my mom came in here and she said, you're always working. Why aren't you with the kids? And you know, it's like, I, the kids in the evenings, but I'm working right now, you know? So yes.

Speaker 2: 14:17

Yeah. That can be super challenging. So like there's a few things that have been helpful for me. Like I don't have my laptop on the couch with me because when you get the entrepreneur bug, it can become an obsession which can easily become an addiction. And so I try to keep it outta sight outta mind. So I don't have the temptation to just pick it up and start working. Same thing with my phone. Mm-hmm<affirmative> my phone is phones are even harder because you can tap and suddenly have access to learning growth groups, masterminding messages, emails, et cetera. And so whenever I do something important or hang out with friends, I actually put my phone, um, in the car quote box and leave it there on purpose. And that might sound like I have no self-control but yes<laugh> uh, so I trade up, make it harder for myself to just, just check one thing. Just I'm just gonna check one thing. I just have one, one email to send. So when it's not there, there's no option and I have to be present.

Speaker 1: 15:12

Yep. That's see. I'm like that too. When I, when I started doing this, it's like, I just wanna keep working. Like I'm, I'm eating, standing up like working. And so this is inspiring me to have better boundaries. I think

Speaker 2: 15:24

You got it. It's so helpful. Especially if you can't control yourself. I can't control myself. I just wanna just check one thing, just check one thing. How's that one video doing? Just put my phone away. I'm like, okay. I now I don't even have to think about checking it. So<laugh>

Speaker 1: 15:40

I start doing that.

Speaker 2: 15:41

It's a game changer.

Speaker 1: 15:44

And so another thing which you probably felt at some level is, you know, now I feel like since I've been in this world only for about like maybe a year, I've had to learn so much about digital marketing, social or digital marketing, social media, like course creation and I'm still learning, but with so much out there, it's easy to like do the chasing shiny object. Um, and so I'm just wondering if someone's starting out, like, do you recommend that they say that they have a job, like continue working part-time and balance their business? Or I don't know if you've seen any like case studies like this mm-hmm<affirmative> like what tends to be successful. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:24

Yes. So I built also in a nine to five, really? So I worked and we had one agreement, so I'm, I'm very like goal oriented, but money doesn't motivate me. And I know that sounds like a limiting belief, but that's just not my main driver. And so I am very competitive with myself and also I wasn't an athlete, so I never got the chance to like, you know, win with a team on that kind of stuff. And so like, I'd say to Paul, give me a goal. And when I hit the goal, I can leave my job and he'd be like, okay, you have to replace your income from your job. I was like, okay, cool. Give me six months. And then six months I replaced it. And then I said, well, now I'm sad that you have to go to work every day. So give me a goal.<laugh> once I hit it, you can come home from your nine to five. He was like, okay, here's the goal. I think three months later I hit that. And then it was like, okay, now we're both home. So even though when it comes to money, I'm not like, oh, yay. We made more money. I'm more like, that's cool that we got to help some people. I know that sounds cheesy, but whatever. Um, it's true. But instead I do goals like Paul, give me a goal for the business and when we hit it, we can give this person a raise. Okay, cool. We hit the goal. Like that's what really gets me excited about business. So that helped motivate me. Well, as in my nine to five.

Speaker 1: 17:44

Yeah. And that's that's, that would, so I'm someone who likes to have those kind of like it's clear guidelines too. Yes. It's very helpful. So thank you for that. And then I know we don't have a lot of time left. Are there certain resources you would tell someone like, if they're just getting started, you have so much out there or, you know, any kind of guidance you can give, like maybe the top three platforms that would be the easiest to see results or yeah. Whatever you'd like to share

Speaker 2: 18:10

For sure. And I'm probably gonna overshare here just a little bit and just heads up because with shiny object syndrome. So kind of going back to that last question, if you follow every person who says, this is the best way, this is the new way, this is the only way cetera, this is the richest way. The most success producing way. You can literally turn around 180 degrees over and over and over and over and never get anywhere. And it's marketer's jobs to make it seem like, no, this is the only path mm-hmm<affirmative>. Now there's never only one path. It's the path that you choose and choose to make, right? That aligns for you. That that's the path that you'll find takes you to success. But one thing that really helps is to focus on one, two or three things per quarter. That means every three months. So for example, if I said, okay, I'm gonna focus on TikTok, which by the way, TikTok is one of my answers for this. I would say, okay, this quarter, I'm focusing on TikTok. And then next quarter, I'm gonna layer on LinkedIn and or YouTube. So, and I'll talk about which ones and why in just a second, but I can take on free trainings, free courses, free, um, or cheap books, cheap resources, cheap summits, et cetera, related to TikTok because it's not distracting me from my focus. And so that really helps, um, a lot. That is one big thing. You cannot do everything every quarter you will burn out. And so the three platforms I feel are the biggest, oh, this, this is be really hard. Cuz there's four. I wanna go back and forth between, okay, four, that's fine. I'll do four. And I'll explain where and why and how they work. TikTok can quickly bring people your way quickly generate leads, quickly position you as an authority, it's fast, but there's also the long term potential for growth. So like at first it brought me a lot of leads and I was like, oh, this is so cool. But now it's like, oh, this is like an asset in our business. It's pretty cool. Um, the second platform is one that I wouldn't normally say yes to, but it's not how people would think. So if you're a freelancer looking for clients, Facebook communities are your jam. Now here's how most people think you use them. You see someone offer a job and you're like, oh, I'll DM them. No, no, no, no. That person's gonna get inundated with DMS and opportunities and you probably won't get that person's attention when they post it in a big community. Instead you share, I would love to connect on this and then share a few wins or reasons why you can help them. And then you can, depending on the group, either share your link link or say DMU, if you'd like to learn more, it's not the person who posted it. That's gonna contact you. It's people reading that post and sharing with their friends and connecting you with their boss. And like that is the magic of Facebook groups. And that's what most people, I don't think know. So I think that's

Speaker 1: 21:01

Yeah, that's

Speaker 2: 21:02

Great. Yeah. Um, LinkedIn is fantastic. There are at any given time thousands of jobs that are available for freelancers and for remote jobs. And so you can actually turn jobs into clients or just look for Lance roles, part-time roles, fractional roles, and they're literally there and free for you to literally start applying to so you can start getting some traction there. And I have one student who that was where she got the majority of her clients from so 10 outta 10 recommend that I call it jobs to clients. And then the fourth one, this is long term. So weigh in if this is right or wrong for you. But long term YouTube is the most powerful, but you will almost never see any of the results of it for probably the first few years. Okay. So just know that, but it's one where it's like, if you just do one video a week for years, it becomes a massive machine.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, I do have a YouTube channel, but I like, I haven't posted on there. I wasn't doing it regularly. So I'll start doing that once a week or something.

Speaker 2: 22:02

Oh, this is gonna be really exciting in a few years. You'll say thank you. This is so good. Yeah. But at first you'll be like, at least I was like, this is not fun. This is very, a lot of work for very little reward or even dopamine hits of people being like, I love your video, you know, like, right. Very it's crickets based in the beginning, but it's yeah,<laugh>

Speaker 1: 22:23

On game again. Okay. That's good to know.<laugh> yes. Um, well thank you so much. And before you go, I would love if you could just share where if anyone's listening, they're like, oh, I wanna go work with her, find her, um, and then any, or a free resource or whatever you wanna share.

Speaker 2: 22:38

Beautiful. Okay. Easiest place to find me. And I have, it is actually kind of hard to find my paid programs on purpose because everything as much as we can that touches people it's free. Um, so we have tons of free resources on my website, Rachel peterson.com and tutorials. But also I have a book coming out this September with hay house and I'm really excited about it. It's called unfiltered and it is proven strategies to crush it in life and business by being yourself and breaking the rules. So don't follow the rules. Um, tr find a mentor that you trust, put, lay down, rock solid boundaries. I dive into all of that in depth with example stories and, um, practical action steps in my book. Unfiltered.

Speaker 1: 23:24

Nice. Congratulations. I meant to say thank you. Yeah. Is it available for pre-order

Speaker 2: 23:29

It is already available for,

Speaker 1: 23:30

I think I ordered. Yeah. I'm like, I think I saw it when you posted, but yeah, if not, I'll, I'll share the link with people so they can go pre-order it too.

Speaker 2: 23:38

Thank you for doing that. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:40

Well, thank you so much. This was so helpful and I know all of my listeners will be really appreciative as well.

Speaker 2: 23:45

Amazing. Honestly, thank you so much, Angela. This was great to connect and I hope that at least one person loves what they heard or got what they needed from this episode.

Speaker 1: 23:55

Yeah, definitely.<laugh> thank you so much. Thank

Speaker 2: 23:57

You.

Speaker 1: 23:59

Well, ladies, that wraps it up. Thank you so much for being a part of my circle. Check out the show notes for all the links I mentioned and some surprise ones, please make sure to subscribe. And if you're feeling generous, leave a review, especially if I was able to help you out in some way. That helps me get into the ears of more women like us who are ready to level up their lives. Join me for wellness Wednesday on Instagram at Angela Marie Christian I'll share mindfulness techniques for you to do at home at the office or on the go until next time my friends stay safe.