Leveraging Video to Build and Scale Your Business with Keri Murphy Ep. 87

She made it, her intention that year to be visible. She's like, I get it. It's not about me. I need to go out and serve my people. So it's such a beautiful thing to see when people understand. And I say it all the time, video is not about you, video is about being of service, reaching people through the camera lens and to see her grow, to see her have her own radio show. I'm like what? It's awesome.

Welcome to FASCINATING ENTREPENEUR. How do people end up becoming an entrepreneur? How do they scale and grow their businesses? How do they plan for profit? Are they in it for life or are they building to exit these and a myriad of other topics will be discussed to pull back the veil on the wizardry of successful and FASCINATING ENTREPENEUR. My book RELENTLESS is now available. Everywhere books can be bought online, including Amazon and BarnesAndNoble.com try your local indie bookstore too. And if they don't have it, they can order it. To them, the refuser streaming in. And I'm so thankful for the positive feedback, as well as hearing from people that my memoir has impacted them positively. It is not enough to be resilient. You have to be RELENTLESS. You can go to TheRelentlessBook.com for more information. Thank you so much. Keri Murphy is a veteran of television with appearances on MTV, E, Fox, and NBC. This might have had something to do with her current company Inspired Living, which helps entrepreneurs to go from best, kept secret to go to expert using video, to catapult their business. We talk about her past businesses, the tipping points in her current business, and some of biggest wins she's had with her clients now let's get right into it.

It was just something that was innate. I started my first business when I was 23 and it was out of like a need to feel like I was doing something with more purpose, something that was in more alignment. And to be quite honest, my boss at the time was difficult. So I'm like, I think I can do something on my own.

What was that first business?

And I had girlfriend. She inspired me. She went to a trade school for interior design. And so my first business was interior design and I was the little girl growing up that would rearrange her room every week, like broke furniture. So it seemed in perfect alignment with what I enjoyed doing. And I did for quite some time.

And what was your business after that?

I bought a talent. I was 27. I was getting bored, solopreneur working for myself by myself, where a lot of people I think find themselves. And my mom called me one day and she said, "Keri, there was a modeling agency for sale." And my first thought was "That's great, mom. But I don't wanna just develop models." Like I really love working with actors at that time. I started modeling and acting when I was 11. So I'd been doing it for a while. I'd been teaching actually my first boss, I worked for the talent agency that I went through. So I knew the business and I bought it and took it over in 30 days and scaled it to almost a million dollars when we had the 2008 recession. So much fun.

Was that a smaller mom and pop shop talent agency or was it a barbizon?

It was not, I have worked at many barbizon. It was kind of had a similar model, though. It did have the performing art center with the agency. It was locally owned at the time. I think she had it for about 20 years and then I changed the name. And when we finally ended up closing, I had actually merged with Wilhelmina. So we became kind of like a license of Wilhelmina at the time. So we started off really small, but we grew fast, which was awesome.

Was that business acquired it or did it have to fizzle out?

Nope. That one had to fizzle out. I was really trying to sell it when I realized that I was in a place that I had to, and it felt like it happened overnight. At that time. I'm in my early thirties, I grew the business based on just like passion and love for what I did. I had no mentorship, no coaching. So when the recession was happening, I felt like I woke up one day and it was like, "Holy crap, I'm totally outta money." But it wasn't, it was a, I didn't pay myself for over a year. It was like a painful, slow, like close, but I have to. It sounds cheesy, but I'm really grateful it happened. Cuz I have Inspired Living, which is a business that brings me so much joy, so much fulfillment in such a different way. And I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that I had the chance to like start again.

You had a professional experience in education and business. That's what that modeling agency was, right?

Yeah. Yes. That was my MBA to get you.

Right. So you've had Inspired Living for how long now?

Over a decade.

Okay. When was the first of many, I hope tipping points for this particular business?

Natasha, I remember it like yesterday. So when I closed the agency, I was doing some national hosting work. I signed with an agent out in Los Angeles and I ended up moving, like I wasn't planning on doing it, but then I lost the agency. So I'm like, "Well, what am I gonna do now? I'm gonna move to Los Angeles." And so I was doing the schlep of being the talent and auditioning, working actually at Barbara's on, which is so funny. I was like, just trying to make ends. Here I am 33. I've been an entrepreneur now for 10 years and I'm waiting for someone to give me a job. You can imagine painstaking, right?

You are unemployable, if you have been on your own for 10 years.

So unemployable, but I'm like, I know hosting, I know TV, I know camera works. So I signed with this agent I'm going out and doing the audition circuit. And in LA I'm 33. I might as well have been 93. Cause you know, like everyone starts so young here, but I will never forget the. It was, I wasn't auditioning a lot. I was trying to get my business up and going. I didn't really know what that was gonna be. And I went to an audition for a spokesperson opportunity for the Atlantas and I had to put on a swimsuit. I had to go to the audition room. Now, Natasha imagined this, you walk in there's at least 200. What looked like supermodels in the. Now I'm 5'6" in curvy and 33. So you can imagine I'm like, what am I doing here?

You're like, grandma, grandma just entered.

Yeah. What am I doing here? So three hours I wait three hours and I get into the room with the casting director. You know, I take off my swimsuit cover up and I do my two minute, like little thing and I walk out and I fall. Like I am crying and I'm talking to my manager and I'm like, I'm never doing this again. And I will never forget that phone call. I will never forget that decision. And I never, again, have been in an audition room since that day Inspired living was born. I literally, the next day reached out to Kevin Sobo on Facebook. He was a big golf fan. I hosted shows on the golf channel. I said, Hey, I'd love to interview you for Inspired Living TV. And he is like, "Sure." I'm like, "Okay, great." And that's really what started it. Yeah. Now also, I just wanna say too, at that time, I had just come off a year of being a NLP, personal development trainer and coach. So I had some international clients that I was working with on the kinda like the life coaching side of things. So that kind of like, it was like the precipice of like, "Okay, I'm just doing my own thing. I'm not gonna wait for someone."

And within the business. So you've had it for 10 years. There are points of when the business. Ramps up so much. And then there's this tipping point of success that flows into, maybe it'll be a plateau, but then it builds up to another tipping point. Can you walk us through some of those milestones in your business?

I love that question, Natasha. Cause I feel like it's forever highs and lows right. With growing the company. So I remember about probably about four years ago. I brought on my first employee, cuz we worked with just, you know, contractors. So I wanna say I got to my first six figures, which to me was a tipping point by speaking and really understanding video. And even with all the businesses I had, I always used video to grow them. I just wasn't aware of it. Cause it wasn't even a thought for me. I'm like, of course I'm gonna do commercials. I'm gonna be the spokesperson or I'm gonna be the correspondent on the local morning show. So at this. That was a tipping point. It was like reaching that six figure mark. And I was like, that's awesome. And then it was like, well, "How do I sustain that?" I need team, I need more help, right. And so I'm like, "OK." Then it was hiring. And then it was cash flow. But I feel like I'm still going through that today at multi seven figures. I feel like, honestly, we go through highs and lows and tipping points where you have these huge wins. I remember when I sponsored Lisa Nichols event and this was back when, like I was new, I think it was back in 2013 and I started my business in 2011. So a write a big check to sponsor an event was terrifying, but I loved her and I knew that her audience was my audience. That was a tipping point because I wrote a check to sponsor an event to speak on someone else's stage. It ended up being years of us working together. We've become dear friends and some of her clients have become mine. And it really opened. The opportunity for me to play bigger in my business.

Did you get, go to her wedding?

No, I did. But we talked about it. We talked cause I got married shortly before her as well. Okay. So we were talking about our wedding dresses on our podcast interview, which was really cute. But yeah, I mean, it's just been really constant rollercoaster. We constantly are hiring then it's we need more revenue and then it's like, "OK, now we've hit our million dollar mark." And now, you know, we, we wanna go to eight figures. How are we gonna get there? So, I don't know if they're specific, but I do remember the key things of like hiring my first employee, deciding I'm not gonna work with just contractors anymore. I'm actually gonna build a team and then how we're gonna continually get the message out to our right fit audience investing in Barry and blue at Sage events to run a three day virtual event. This last year was a huge tipping point for us. So I feel like we have them often.

Good, good for you. Do you have a coach or have you studied since starting this particular business? How to run, build and scale a business?

Yes. Yes. And yes. In fact, I can't even imagine. I mean, right now I'm on a tiny hiatus from having a business coach, but I can't imagine never not having one. When I look back at my two previous businesses, I think what was missing was mentorship and coaching. And now I can't even imagine not. Having someone in my life that is helping me get to the next level. You know, you hear the saying all the time, you can't get to a place you've never been. And I feel like as entrepreneurs through our talent and our drive and being ambitious, we can get to a certain place. Absolutely. But there is a ceiling on what we can create, I feel without coaching. So I've started with Ali brown, with Kelly Roach, with Lisa Nichol. And we'll always have mentorship and coaching. I'll tell you what I do consistently invest in as well as community. We were talking about EO right before this, I find that coaching is super important, but so is making sure that you are tapped in to a community that is doing big things. That's streaming big, that's reaching huge milestones. I wanna be a part of a group. That's doing things that I'm not doing. So that's important to me.

Have you ever thought that you should write a book that you should write the story of your life to help other people learn from your experience? Please go to MemoirSherpa.com and learn how I can help you write, figure out your publishing path and market your story, your memoir to a best seller status. I would love to know some of your biggest or maybe one or two of your own clients, biggest wins that you helped them.

There's two that come to mind. One is her name's Jen Maire Montes. And she was part of my Luminary Leadership Mastermind. And she has been now for, I think, four or five years which is beautiful. But I remember when she first came to me, she had a fitness studio, a brick and mortar. She was a personal trainer. I mean, the girl is amazing. Her work ethic is insane. Like she gets up at four in the morning and works until like eight at night. And so we were talking about her. And she came to my two day on camera training and she felt like she wasn't ready. And that, you know, I'm like, no, you're gonna stay here anyway, long. And short of it is she had a cancer fitness certification that less than 500 people in the world have. And I said to her, I said, Jen, she works with cancer patients. She works with patients that are going through, you know, different diseases. And, and I said, "Why aren't you like specializing in this?" And she's like, "I want to, I just dunno how." And so, we created together cancer champions and she got rid of her brick and mortar. And I will tell you, it is amazing what she's built. She's getting grants from athletic. She's become a 5-0-1-2-3. She's working with mass general and Kaiser oncologist. Like her business is doubling and tripling. She is on camera. Like I just am like, "Oh my God, who are you? And it came down to helping her niche down and really get her message clear with who her right fit client was. And so, it's so amazing to see, I feel like mama bird over here like, "Oh my God."

I can see that. Okay. What's the next one? I want another jolt of excitement.

Yes. The next one is Laurel. It's funny. I was just actually texting her this morning. So Laurel Rutledge came to us again. She just happened to be in my mastermind and she is a career transition expert came from corporate HR. So incredibly smart. And she hated being on camera, like "Not doing it, I'm not doing it Keri." And you know, that's it.

She signed it up for your course, but said, "I'm not doing it."

She's part of my mastermind and she's not being visible. So in 2019, she made it her intention that year to be visible. She's like, "I get it. it's not about me. I need to go out and serve my people." And since then, she's been asked to host her own radio show. It's one of the top rated shows in her market. She has launched the Rutledge Perspective Podcast. She's speaking on stages, she's on camera all the time and building and doubling her business again. I'm like, "Who are you?" So it's such a beautiful thing to see when people understand. And I say it all the time. Video is not about you. Video is about being of service, reaching people through the camera lens and to see her grow, to see her have her own radio show. I'm like "What?" It's awesome.

That is amazing. So I'm learning about your business just by you really talking about your clients. And you're not just showing people how to show up best visually and present on camera. It seems to be going much deeper, which probably hearkens back to your life coaching days.

Yeah, I mean, we really specialize in helping people understand how to authentically show up on camera. That's great. But really the secret sauce is the strategy and how to leverage that and how to build a business. Because of it, so it's like you come to us for video training and coaching, but we're like, "Hello, let's actually get your business to a place where it's making multiple six, seven figures. Let's get you thinking differently. Let's you down. Let's really clarify your message." And then that Ascension model, right? That value ladder you're taking your clients through. I'm always encouraging my clients to give themself raises, to look at how they can leverage their time, money, and energy. So yes, we do a lot more, but that's the door in which you enter usually is, you know, you know, you want and need to be more visible, but the how is overwhelming.

So within your business, your own organization, what are you focusing on? What's the biggest number one strategy you're focusing on for growth for your own business, not for others, although that's probably part of it.

Yeah. You know, the other day, my team member, she interviewed me, we flipped the switch and she came on and she said, "Keri, what is your greatest fear?" And I had to sit for a minute with that Natasha. And then I thought, and I'd said, my greatest fear is not making the impact. I feel I'm called to make, but that's not it. I think my greatest fear if I go even, is not reaching my fullest and highest potential with the work that we're doing with my own life, with all the things. And why I say that is because what we're focusing on right now is reach everyone I talk to is like, "Oh my gosh, Carrie, everyone needs what you do." And it is true, but you can't reach everyone. I tell people like, don't talk to everyone. That's not your market. So for us, we've gotten a multi-7 figure. We know who we're serving, we're really focusing on how do we help more people and how do we put the content out there in a way that like everyone's dealing with that's digestible that is getting people to take action. That's helping them see what's

Great, are you on TikTok?

possible for themselves. Well, I'm on TikTok and my team's like, you need to get off TikTok. So yeah, we have this battle all the time because you have to go where your right fit client is.

Right.

Our right fit client is a woman who is in her forties to fifties has a great business. Like we work with doctors, realtors, attorneys, coaches, healers, fitness experts. And even though they go to TikTok for infotainment, like, are they really there to make buying decisions? So the same thing, we work with our clients on, we work with internally. Like for us, it's scale. How do we go from where we are to where we wanna be, which I've never been driven by dollars, but I am now that you, like, you kind of reach a certain place. I'm like, how can we reach more people? And how can I contribute more to society? You know, to me, Inspired Living is really about doing your genius work, making a great income, doing it, and then putting it back. Like giving right? Charitable philanthropy, tithing supporting your family and Natasha, we can't be in the 2%. Like we need to grow the 2%. Like the fact that it's 2% of women make over seven figures to me is just, that's not okay. So for us, it's like, how do we help more people reach that and scale?

I'm wondering if that number, and I'm wondering out loud and I've wondered it for a while. I'll have to admit a few years ago, I called my daughter and I exclaimed to her. I think she was in college at the time. I was like, "Bennett. I am one of the 2% of women that make a million dollars or more in business." So I'm boasting and I want her feedback about how great I am. Do you know what her response was? She's like, "That's horrible." I'm like, "Wait, wait a minute."

I actually got chills.

Hold on a second.

Yeah.

What are you talking about? She's like, "That's ridiculous that only 2% of women in business." I read an article recently about how relationships were useful back in the day and how at one point. Maybe in the fifties, the man typically went to work and he was paid a salary that was enough to cover the entire family and that the woman could stay at home if she chose and take care of the household and the kids, which we all know is a full time job. And then like it's CEO, COO, janitor.

It's all things. Yeah.

It's all the things.

Executive assistant, personal assistant,

everything-

It's all the things. Yes.

And so we're still though. We're still in 2022, still in that mindset a lot that the woman needs to take care of all this stuff. But if she's taking care of all that stuff, which is a full time plus, plus job and running her own business.

Impossible. It's impossible.

How could you scale and grow without.

You can't.

You know, you have to add people to the team and give yourself some bandwidth, so, okay. Those were just,

yeah

general musings.

No, it is so true. We gotta get out of this systemic sexism and it is insane that we're still in this place where the woman is still responsible most of the time for cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping and all this stuff. And I'll tell you,

And laundry.

I just had a retreat with my luminary leaders and we talked about. And I'm like, and they're like some of them in tears, like such overwhelmed with life and work and family. And I said, look, you need to hire help, go get a personal assistant, what you're spending time on doing laundry. And by the way, my husband's a great cook. And if I had to cook, we would probably not eat as a family.

Starvation.

So yes, and I have a nanny and she helps me with laundry and picking up the house. And this is all such first world privilege. And I'm very aware of it. However, you are absolutely right. If we are gonna get more women to the 2%, you gotta stop doing all the other crap around the house. You have to be able to be with your kids and be with your partner and be present when you are not working. And not doing the other stuff. And when you're working, you're giving that your full attention. Cause you're so right. I mean, on like, it sounds so silly, but our nanny's been out this week and it has been so hard. Like we're like shuffling kids and we're trying to do all the things. And again, first world problems. I know, but this is part of also taking care of a business and running a family. It is a lot of work. And at some point you have to say, my time is more valuable than fill in the blank. Doing the laundry going the grocery store, slapping the kids around you tell I get passionate.

I love it's important that we talked about today. Really. To inspire, not just women, but men and women to think outside of what was placed before us and is on television, right. And movies still. So I understand how you want to scale. So flipping that, what is the number one biggest challenge in your organization that you're facing today? Like when we get off this call, what's gonna be nagging you, that you need to take care of?

Well, we just hired a new team member, so onboarding and I will say, I have the best team on the planet and it's like, we need more team it's like that. You're pushing that Boulder up a hill and you see it. And you're like, oh my God, this is so amazing. We just need one more hand over here. We need kinda like one more hand over here. So I'm always looking at org. The org chart and the team roles and who we need next. That's one of the things. And then we're also in the process of putting together our annual brilliant event, which is the most brilliant thing on the planet. If I may say so myself, so we are immersed in launches and getting the event filled up and preparing for that in September. So it's the juggle.

Yeah.

And then I have my clients that we're serving.

For more information, go to the show notes where you're listening to this podcast. Wanna know more about me go to my website, OfficialNatashaMiller.com. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you loved the show. If you did, please subscribe also, if you haven't done so yet, please leave a review where you're listening to this podcast now. I'm Natasha Miller and you've been listening to FASCINATING ENTREPRENEURS.