Why You Don’t Need a Huge Audience to Build a Successful Business

[00:00:00] Sam Chlebowski: That’s the other piece of entrepreneurship that is so incredibly important.

[00:00:05] Sam Chlebowski: It is gonna be a grind. Some days it is gonna be hard, but if you stick to the plan that you’ve created and you are willing to put in the work and doing the right steps along the way to make sure that the work is in fact the right work, you’re gonna know that you can achieve long-term success and if you’re not achieving success, you know it’s probably time to pivot.

[00:00:00] Intro Music Plays

[00:00:36] Sam Chlebowski: Happy Thursday everybody, and welcome back to Designing Growth. Today on the podcast I am very excited to be joined by XayLi Barclay. XayLi is a Visual Content Creation Coach and Thinkific Expert for online course creators. She specializes in helping entrepreneurs effectively stand out and make a genuine impact in the digital space. So with that short intro out of the way, XayLi, how are you doing today? How’s everything going?

[00:01:01] XayLi Barclay: I am great, Sam. I’m so excited to be here on Designing Growth. I’m really excited for whatever question that you throw at me today, but I’m doing pretty awesome.

[00:01:11] Sam Chlebowski: I love that spirit. I can already tell this is gonna be a fun one. So one of the questions I always, almost always start off these episodes by asking is, How did you get your start doing what you do now? How did you become an entrepreneur in the first place, and more specifically, what led you to this current business or iteration of your business?

[00:01:32] XayLi Barclay: Yeah. I love that you said iteration of business because let me tell you, I’m sure you know that, you know, you start with something different and then you end up where you are. And then you look back and you’re like, oh, I can see how I ended up here.

[00:01:46] Sam Chlebowski: I mean, as a founder of a company that recently did a pivot. totally understand that. And I think that at some point, like, you know, you embrace that and you accept it as, a natural evolution for yourself, for your growth, for your [00:02:00] business.

[00:02:00] Sam Chlebowski: And if you take that in stride and you can overcome it, you’ll, most of the time end up better on the other side. So,

[00:02:06] XayLi Barclay: Exactly. so going back to your question, I started out in the beauty space. I would design and sew clothing. I loved doing my makeup and all of those things. I started sharing those things very early in the online space. And as I grew, I realized that I was very good on camera, and even better my audience realized that I was very good on camera.

[00:02:28] XayLi Barclay: So, that kind of business does take a while to grow. And so what ended up happening was I started getting asked more about knowledge based content based on video and showing up in the online. Space. And as I grew, I grew what I was able to share and my services. I started being able to talk about how to sell on camera, how to differentiate yourself in the online space and even how to, teach on camera because I was really good at that as well.

[00:03:01] XayLi Barclay: So I started with one thing, but my audience realized that I was good at other things and started asking me, Hey, and I realized I liked it, you know? So I started really, helping others to really show up on camera, sell on camera, be brave on camera, create consistently and create multiple six figure businesses and six figure businesses by getting on camera to strengthen their personal brands.

[00:03:27] XayLi Barclay: So that’s really how I got started and in a nutshell, how I transitioned to what I do now.

[00:03:33] Sam Chlebowski: you mentioned you were in the beauty space. did you have a business also associated with that, or was that, kind of just your YouTube channel that you were maybe working on, on the side?

[00:03:43] XayLi Barclay: both. So I would design as well and sell my clothing and sell my jewelry. And now that I can look back, I’m like, wow. Like on my blog, I was using my blog as a marketing outlet. I didn’t know what I was doing. Now that I can look back, I was like, oh, okay. So [00:04:00] you were creating content to sell the clothing that you were wearing or share?

[00:04:03] XayLi Barclay: the looks that you were wearing and how people could eventually purchase it from you or purchase it right away. now I can look back and see, okay, I was on the right track, but I was also very aware of the amount of time it would take for me to thrive and also investment. Right. I think one thing that we’re pretty spoiled with, In the world that we are in now of software and of, knowledge based content, online courses, the investment barrier is very low compared to a huge physical business.

[00:04:34] Sam Chlebowski: Such a smart way to pivot your business, first of all — into yeaching others and working with other businesses, how to, create courses, how to show up on camera and do marketing. But also I think a really great case study of seeing an opportunity and going after that opportunity, even if it wasn’t, originally what you had in mind.

[00:04:56] XayLi Barclay: Yeah, it’s kind of like you said, it’s never the right time to pivot, right? what makes it the right time is that you do it and just embracing like feedback that you get. and trust me, I still love fashion. I still love design and clothing, and I know I’ll do it sometime later on again, but right now, I’m so in love with this adventure that I know I can pick up that one later on.

[00:05:19] Sam Chlebowski: Amazing. Amazing. So your business And I, I was doing a little research online. Is that the T D G Visual Solutions.

[00:05:27] XayLi Barclay: Yes,

[00:05:27] Sam Chlebowski: Amazing. And how big is your team now?

[00:05:29] XayLi Barclay: I have five people on my team right now. Yeah.

[00:05:31] Sam Chlebowski: That is impressive. And what was that process like? I imagine, please correct me here if I’m wrong, that it probably started as just you initially and grew over time.

[00:05:41] XayLi Barclay: Yeah, it definitely started as me first doing everything kind of like we, we all start out and eventually I realized that if I wanted to make more money, I had to hire on. It was a scary thing to do, but I understood that it had to be done in order for me to grow [00:06:00] also, in order for me to focus on my own zone of.

[00:06:03] XayLi Barclay: Of genius. I couldn’t be doing everything. I had to learn as a creative, , I’m a creative business owner and it’s not always easy for us to leave things behind, or delegate or trust someone else enough to execute the way we think we can, when in reality, you can hire someone to operate in their zone of genius while you operate in yours.

[00:06:24] XayLi Barclay: So obviously having to climb the ladder and do more tasks, that tasks that are, obviously higher income and then higher on for, the task that you’re able to outsource at a lower price basically.

[00:06:37] Sam Chlebowski: Yeah, and I think that there’s a lot of wisdom in there, especially around the aspect of, if you are a solo business owner, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it does ultimately create a ceiling. For, you know, the number of clients you’re able to take on the amount of revenue that you can do because you’re tied, to your time.

[00:06:55] Sam Chlebowski: And, we all only have so many hours in the day when you decided to make that decision. Was it something that you said, okay, I need to hire for X, Y, Z, or was it kind of just like, I need to go all into this and I need to build my team all at once?

[00:07:10] Sam Chlebowski: What? What did that process of hiring and looking for people to bring on look like for you?

[00:07:16] XayLi Barclay: Uh, that’s a really good question. I feel like I, I’ve had different moments along the journey. There were times where I did just hire on one person, and there were times where I decided, Hey, I need to hire three people this month, and was able to do so. Although that can be pretty stressful because then your job turns into, you know, making sure that everybody gets onboarded and things like that, until you’re able to find someone else to do that.

[00:07:42] XayLi Barclay: For you. Um, but, you know, at different times it was different things. Obviously, when I first decided to, I hired on one person, so I hired on a VA and was able to kind of, you know, get to a stable place with her and I, and then I was able to hire [00:08:00] on a video editor, and I kept growing.

[00:08:02] XayLi Barclay: But I’ve also had times in my business where I had to burn it down and start from scratch again, just so that I can catch back my vision and really double down on the things that were working. it’s such a wild ride, and I think a lot of people think that the trajectory is always like up.

[00:08:21] XayLi Barclay: But there are gonna be times where you have to scrap everything and you know, restart again. And I know you didn’t ask that sound, but now I’m like

[00:08:30] Sam Chlebowski: No, It resonates near and dear to me right now because, I mean, that’s what we honestly ended up doing in. February of this year, we burn it down and we rebuilt it. And looking back, it was incredibly scary at the

[00:08:45] Sam Chlebowski: time to scrap, this software tool that we had been building at this point for, you know, months.

[00:08:51] Sam Chlebowski: At the time it was like, overwhelming anxiety, but looking back, I am so happy we did it because it would have been a. Almost sure fire path

[00:09:01] Sam Chlebowski: to maybe not like failure right away, but I don’t think that we would had nearly the amount of opportunity ahead of us now if we hadn’t

[00:09:10] Sam Chlebowski: done that.

[00:09:10] XayLi Barclay: Yeah, and the craziest thing is sometimes as an entrepreneur, the fear of the unknown can hold you back because you can hold onto something that you know, And you’re familiar with, maybe it was an old dream that has come to place or point. And your intuition and everything else around you is telling you it’s time for a shift, but we wanna hold onto what’s familiar.

[00:09:38] Sam Chlebowski: Yeah.

[00:09:39] XayLi Barclay: you know, that can definitely just be one of those things that can hold us back. So, kudos to you and congratulations.

[00:09:46] Sam Chlebowski: Thanks. It’s, going well and that point, you had just mentioned too, also resonates, significantly for me because. When I think about like that fear of the unknown,

[00:09:58] Sam Chlebowski: what it can [00:10:00] do sometimes, when you are tied to like a previous vision or a previous idea or a previous previous iteration of your business, it can make sticking to a list of pros and cons really challenging.

[00:10:11] Sam Chlebowski: I don’t know if this is something that you’ve found, but something I’ve experienced personally is like when you’re making that list of pros and cons, like, do I keep. My current trajectory as a business, as an entrepreneur, as an owner, or do I, you know, make a pivot When you are focused on the past and your idea of it going in, it makes those potential pros

[00:10:31] Sam Chlebowski: seem less significant

[00:10:33] Sam Chlebowski: and makes the cons seem bigger, even if that’s not the reality,

[00:10:37] Sam Chlebowski: The reason why it feels better is because you’ve had that experience already and going into this, a new venture, a pivot, whatever you want to call it, you are waiting into waters that you’re unfamiliar with,

[00:10:49] XayLi Barclay: Yeah, you’re so right. and it’s crazy that the most beautiful, learnings and lessons come from what you learn along the path of the hardest thing.

[00:11:01] Sam Chlebowski: I could not agree more.

[00:11:02] Sam Chlebowski: One of the parts of your story that I wanted to ask you because I was reading through your website, I thought it was really interesting. So you mentioned on your website that you actually moved, to the United States from Trinidad when you were

[00:11:14] Sam Chlebowski: 18 years old. What was that like? Could you tell me just a little bit more about that experience?

[00:11:21] XayLi Barclay: that’s such a good question. It was wild. Like, remembering that I did that lets me know that I can do anything because I left everything that I knew and pursued a scholarship and going to college here in the us. and it was. Unknown. I did not know what was gonna happen on the other side of doing that.

[00:11:45] XayLi Barclay: And I also dropped myself into the wildest city in the world, which is also my favorite city, New York City. So coming from a tiny island and I’m also from the south of the island, so I’m also more from the [00:12:00] countryside and really just going through a big shift of. You know, coming to New York City, That now I look back and I’m like, you are crazy.

[00:12:11] XayLi Barclay: But I do that about everything. Like I look at my whole life and I’m like, you’re crazy. Um, it was a culture shock in so many ways. I didn’t have time to think or process what I did. I had to survive, and figure it out and figure out that concrete jungle. But it was also, I can’t even think about what life would be like if I didn’t take those risks and, and do something like that.

[00:12:39] XayLi Barclay: And it also allowed for me for when it was time to pivot, and moved somewhere else. I left New York City after 12 years and I moved to Dallas, Texas without knowing anyone that lived here. Well, I knew I had a client that lived here, but we had never met in person. I had never been to Texas.

[00:12:57] XayLi Barclay: I had never been to Dallas, but I knew it was time to shift again,

[00:13:00] Sam Chlebowski: What an amazing story and tremendous courage that that takes to me, hearing. The story in your own words, it’s like, oh, it makes perfect sense that you ended up in entrepreneurship.

[00:13:12] Sam Chlebowski: Because I think that sometimes that’s what it can feel like is like moving to a place where you know nobody and a lot of times, nobody’s really cheering for you, especially not early on.

[00:13:24] Sam Chlebowski: You’re doing it by yourself. It’s about your motivation, your drive. To make those things happen.

[00:13:30] XayLi Barclay: it’s been wild, but it’s been so rewarding, I love that correlation of. It being very similar because it is. And also, just people not believing in the vision when you first, I remember telling my friends and my family that I was leaving Trinidad and they were all afraid.

[00:13:49] XayLi Barclay: So I’ve always learned not to listen to other people projecting their fears onto me because, every huge move you’re gonna make in life, you’re gonna find people that are gonna tell [00:14:00] you that’s not gonna work. Don’t do that. it didn’t work out for this person or that person. you gotta be crazy to do X, Y, Z.

[00:14:08] XayLi Barclay: Yeah, that’s me.

[00:14:12] Sam Chlebowski: it’s a wild thing. and that idea of people projecting their own fears onto you is something I haven’t heard put so eloquently before. It’s something I’ve definitely felt, but.

[00:14:24] Sam Chlebowski: Hearing you say it that way, I’m like, oh yeah. a lot of times you have to ignore people and trust your gut.

[00:14:30] Sam Chlebowski: It’s not saying, don’t ever listen to anybody, but it is saying like, if there’s something that you believe that you can do and you want to do it, a lot of times you gotta stick with that initial feeling that inspired you in the

[00:14:42] Sam Chlebowski: first place.

[00:14:43] Sam Chlebowski: One of the videos kind of along this topic that I watched, I thought was a, a really, really well done video that you put out was, why all entrepreneurs need therapy. I would love to know, from your perspective, what are some of the. Struggles entrepreneurs face, even going more specific to like your experience what you’ve seen

[00:15:06] XayLi Barclay: yeah. Oh my gosh. I feel like I have processed so much more since creating that video, and learned so much more, which even further, further validates the point that I feel like we do, because. Uh, on my journey, there were so many things that I was doing and I never had a name for it. whether it was in my personal life or in my business life.

[00:15:30] XayLi Barclay: one of the things that I shared about recently that I realized through therapy is that I was a people pleaser. And I can, I could see in my business how much that kept me back. whether it was, closing sales, whether it was reaching back out to someone to find out, even a testimonial, something as simple as that.

[00:15:52] XayLi Barclay: I would have the, I don’t wanna bother that person attitude or mentality. Sharing a really strong perspective [00:16:00] online, I wouldn’t share because I would feel like, you know, I don’t wanna get canceled or I don’t want to rub anyone the wrong way. Or even if it was something that I really, genuinely believed in.

[00:16:10] XayLi Barclay: I realized that if I didn’t, process it as a, I was a people pleaser. I processed it as, oh, I’m just a good person. There’s such a difference between both things. And so really, realizing that within therapy and getting to the core of it and understanding childhood trauma and things, not everything that I learned as a kid is gonna serve me in adulthood.

[00:16:35] XayLi Barclay: I was able to then process those things and come through on the other side, and run a completely different business even so.

[00:16:41] Sam Chlebowski: The idea of being a people pleaser man, that strikes a nerve with me because it is something that I really struggled with and I think continue to struggle with in some ways.

[00:16:52] Sam Chlebowski: Um, cuz I have that same fear of like, I don’t wanna bother this person. They’ve been a great customer.

[00:16:57] Sam Chlebowski: Like we have a great

[00:16:58] Sam Chlebowski: relationship, but for whatever reason, I feel like I’m asking them too much I think it gets easier. When you start asking for those little things, whether it’s, help in your business, whether

[00:17:13] Sam Chlebowski: it’s a testimonial, whether you are asking a potential client directly, Hey, do you want to work with us after you’ve been talking for months?

[00:17:20] Sam Chlebowski: Those conversations, can be really tough for people who have a natural tendency to want to just like, Keep the conversation smooth sailing,

[00:17:29] Sam Chlebowski: No, peaks and valleys in

[00:17:31] Sam Chlebowski: between, just like flat line. But at the end of the day, I think that, you know, you can’t make any progress if you’re not willing to be a little bit uncomfortable.

[00:17:40] XayLi Barclay: Oh yeah. Ooh, that one. That part right there. Yes, yes, yes, yes. You’re absolutely right. and I think that it’s just important for us to have an external perspective, which is really internal cuz your therapist is just gonna bring your thoughts out of you and give you [00:18:00] something to think about. But essentially if you never have that external perspective, you’re not gonna realize, oh wow, this is affecting my business.

[00:18:08] XayLi Barclay: Like even in my therapy sessions, my therapist didn’t say, this is affecting your business. Cuz we were speaking about just my life in general. But processing those things made me realize, wow, I can see how this is showing up in business and affecting our bottom line and affecting, you know, how I could.

[00:18:26] XayLi Barclay: Communicate with my team or how I hire, I might wanna hire someone or I might hold back on hiring someone because I just don’t wanna deal with the extra, energy or the person or I feel like I don’t deserve. And I think that’s something that people pleaser. we always think we’re bothering someone or asking someone for too much.

[00:18:47] XayLi Barclay: And so even though you’ve hired this person, you’re paying this person, you being afraid to say, Hey, next week is not a, a great week for you to take off. I’m so sorry. I wish you would’ve let me know in advance. You know, like, so both things,

[00:19:04] Sam Chlebowski: I think in some ways, therapy and specifically talking about business owners, and probably for everybody else, but therapy becomes like this processing power that your brain doesn’t currently have the bandwidth for, and you’re

[00:19:17] Sam Chlebowski: adding on that extra bandwidth by going to therapy.

[00:19:20] XayLi Barclay: Wow. You’re giving me things to think about saying, I’m like, whoa, yes. I so agree. Like, you just don’t have the space to tap into those parts of your brain. And so, having someone else help with that, I think is, is really important. It just allows for growth with you, with you within yourself. And like you said, you know, it’s gonna be uncomfortable, but it’s gonna be worth it.

[00:19:46] Sam Chlebowski: I can’t take entire credit for that take because our last business, was all about serving mental health therapists. We were doing

[00:19:55] Sam Chlebowski: marketing and websites. For mental health therapists. I have spoken with, I kid you not [00:20:00] probably 5,000 therapists over the years.

[00:20:02] XayLi Barclay: That’s amazing. Wow.

[00:20:04] Sam Chlebowski: One of the questions I wanted to ask you, is a little bit more of a technical question, but a systems and operations standpoint within your business, what are some of the tools that you are using, whether it is to manage projects, whether it’s to manage

[00:20:20] Sam Chlebowski: teams, whether it’s content creation, like what are some of the favorite pieces of software that you are using right now that you find a lot of value in?

[00:20:27] XayLi Barclay: Yeah. Let me tell you, I have adhd, so it depends on how my brain is working, at a certain time, which is horrible. I have to create a YouTube video about that because it’s also so honest, right? I remember, buying planners on notion and being completely confused on how to use them because someone created it like way too complicated for my brain to process and then deciding.

[00:20:52] XayLi Barclay: I’m gonna build out my own, own templates and things like that. so we use a few things, but for different projects so that I can see it, in a different way. So we, we do use Notion and we use Notion for a ideation, for hosting, content ideas, knowledge based, Just projects that we’re working on, like if I’m building out master classes, I even use it to teach actually.

[00:21:19] XayLi Barclay: So sometimes, instead of using Canva and designing a slide, I’ll create a notion and teach based on the document, but also give my students access to my living document so that they can get updates. Things like that. I use monday.com for content organization. and my assistant also loves Monday.

[00:21:40] XayLi Barclay: She uses it to manage like her daily, tasks and also like just her vision for the year based on what I’ve given her. so those are two that we really use. I also use sama. And I’ve like signed up and canceled it a million times because of how my brain works. But I really enjoy [00:22:00] using that as well. It just helps me like keep a tab on what I’m doing daily.

[00:22:06] XayLi Barclay: We use Google Drive for SOPs and videos just hosting things that we may have to come back to, or if it’s a document that I’m kind of working on. I do lots of sponsorships and partnerships and they usually use Google Drive. So, you know, getting into a document if we’re fleshing something out, um, or you know, communicating based on ideas and things like that.

[00:22:29] Sam Chlebowski: That is awesome, and one of the reasons I asked that question We had talked about it a little bit earlier, but you know, you’ve grown this business up and you have a team working with you now, and I think there’s a lot of people who listen to this podcast who are like right on the cusp of that.

[00:22:45] Sam Chlebowski: And I think

[00:22:45] Sam Chlebowski: hearing. From someone like yourself about what you’re using and how you’re using these tools can be really helpful

[00:22:52] XayLi Barclay: yeah. No, you’re so right. It is helpful. and for me, I like transparency. I’m not perfect. I think it’s. just this super organized myth, mythical ideas that we have about entrepreneurship or online business owners, we’re still figuring things out and I like saying that cuz a lot of times we look at videos on YouTube and their systems are so organized and everything just looks like so flawless.

[00:23:18] XayLi Barclay: And I am not one of those people. And I’m not afraid or ashamed to say that. I know like even, I may have a document in my assistant, it might drive her crazy, but I understand the organized chaos and I’m so appreciative of her because, she always knows which brain I’m using based on project management system.

[00:23:38] XayLi Barclay: So, it’s always helpful.

[00:23:40] Sam Chlebowski: Well, and I think that too, your assistant it’s also a great reason to keep those people close. Because you find somebody that can understand your brain, they can understand the way that you work, especially as an owner, a founder, those types of people are invaluable and they aren’t everywhere.

[00:23:58] Sam Chlebowski: They are a needle

[00:23:59] Sam Chlebowski: in a [00:24:00] haystack.

[00:24:00] XayLi Barclay: you’re so right. I have found myself in situations where I would beat myself up because of how my brain worked when I was working with a person that brain was too similar to mine. Like, like too creative, chaotic, all of those things. And I remember, the first week that current assistant, Sarah, she started working with us and I couldn’t, for some reason, I think I was just super busy with projects that week, so I couldn’t onboard her in the right way I was like, listen, get in there this week. next week I’ll be free and I can help you, like figure things out.

[00:24:33] XayLi Barclay: And she got into everything in the business and started organizing and I literally was on my backend like, wait, what’s happening right now? Like what? I always tell her that like, she didn’t ask a question. She didn’t, she just. Got in there and I was, she just so amazed. And then, you just realized that she could organize my chaos.

[00:24:59] XayLi Barclay: I know sometimes I might ask her for the smallest document because I can’t remember where I put it, but she just always knows where it is and, you know, you’re so right. Like finding the person that can work along with you is really, like you said, a needle in a haystack. and it affects your day to day.

[00:25:15] XayLi Barclay: So it’s golden.

[00:25:17] Sam Chlebowski: Yeah. Yeah, and it’s something that, now that we’re talking about it, I think a lot of times in, sort of the smaller business space, you — talking like under 10 people working with you — we don’t call it culture.

[00:25:31] Sam Chlebowski: I think people feel like that’s too corporate-y or too big of a word for them. But at the end of the day, like, I’m of the firm belief that whether you are two people working together, you’re 10 or you’re a thousand. you have a culture that’s been created within the business and it flows down from, the first person there to the last person who’s been hired.

[00:25:54] Sam Chlebowski: Understanding that and coming to terms with that and having an idea of what your culture is and what you stand for and the type of, business you are [00:26:00] building, it can really help you, find those people and then also, help you, further your growth as a team. So like I said, people are afraid to use that word culture.

[00:26:09] Sam Chlebowski: But I think it’s a real thing. I don’t think we should shy away from it.

[00:26:12] XayLi Barclay: Completely agree, and I love the way that you put that. it is, like you said, even if it’s two people or 10 people, it is really important and it is what it is. It it is the culture of the company. and it can also set the tone for how you grow. So, that’s so important.

[00:26:27] Sam Chlebowski: So thank you so much for your time here today, XayLi. I wanted to ask, one more question and then we’ll wrap it up with two final questions, but while it’s kind of hot on my mind, I would love to just pick your brain about what you were doing for marketing within your business what strategies are working really well for you right now?

[00:26:49] XayLi Barclay: That’s a really good question. Marketing is something that I’m always testing. We have our platforms that have served us really well for a few years and there’s always new emerging concepts and strategies and platforms. So I would say marketing right now is a balance of staying true to what works.

[00:27:07] XayLi Barclay: Cuz I think a lot of times see a new shiny object and we drop everything that’s working and run over to that.

[00:27:10] Sam Chlebowski: Guilty.

[00:27:14] XayLi Barclay: Listen, I get it. I’m here for it. I get it. it’s balancing, uh, just knowing what works. And also not getting left behind, cuz things are always changing and evolving. So paying attention, seeing what’s what we can test and try on different platforms. YouTube is always like home for me. I love creating content.

[00:27:36] XayLi Barclay: I love creating long form content. YouTube has served us really well in that as a small creator and a small channel, I’ve been able to really use YouTube as a tool for traffic. even though I don’t have a lot of subscribers there, I think that’s a whole misconception of you have to have a hundred thousand subscribers to do really well on YouTube if you use it in the right way.

[00:27:58] XayLi Barclay: The opportunities that can come to [00:28:00] you are endless. so that’s our main platform. I use Instagram to nurture a lot because we can use things like stories and, know, they have broadcast channels now. There’s so many ways to nurture on Instagram. I love stories however, and so, even if I find someone, or someone finds me on YouTube, there’s always a way to get them over to an Instagram or a Facebook group where I can nurture that relationship.

[00:28:23] XayLi Barclay: And, eventually get to the sale aspect of it. then another thing that has worked really well for us is also creating on TikTok. It’s an outreach platform. I feel like it’s a whole different like vibe. It’s just more relaxed. Why are you laughing, Sam?

[00:28:41] Sam Chlebowski: I’ve only found out. the differences that you’re describing within maybe the last three months? I’m starting to realize Instagram seems to be a little bit older, like 25 to 45, 50 or whatever. But TikTok, it skews so much younger.

[00:28:58] Sam Chlebowski: It is wild, but at the same time, there’s still a space and there’s still a ton of people on TikTok,

[00:29:05] Sam Chlebowski: but you almost have to like follow. What the kids are doing in some ways and have that more relaxed mentality, part of the reason why I was laughing is because like that was something that when I first started trying to post on TikTok, because the first TikTok I ever created was for our company.

[00:29:23] Sam Chlebowski: Now I do some stuff on my personal channel, but it’s like, that sense of being like super professional and buttoned up…

[00:29:29] XayLi Barclay: You don’t have to.

[00:29:30] Sam Chlebowski: And it doesn’t, work on TikTok

[00:29:31] XayLi Barclay: It doesn’t work, yeah.

[00:29:33] Sam Chlebowski: So uncoupling my mind from that idea and being willing to be a little bit more vulnerable was really hard for me to overcome it.

[00:29:42] Sam Chlebowski: I’m still working on it.

[00:29:44] XayLi Barclay: Yeah. I love that. I love that you shared that. I was like, what is Sam laughing at? But no, I love really love that you shared that it is a different experience. It is a different type of platform. You don’t have to be as perfect or polished or professional. I think that’s what the beauty [00:30:00] of it all is like for me.

[00:30:03] XayLi Barclay: TikTok really made me realize when I started on TikTok, I then realized, Whoa, I’ve accomplished so much. And I’ll say that because, the things that people were sharing, I’m like, Zay, you’ve done all of this stuff already, or you’ve been doing all of this stuff for the past few years. and I realized also how powerful me telling those stories were on TikTok.

[00:30:31] XayLi Barclay: so. Literally you can pick up your phone and share, well, you know, this is what I did to do X, Y, Z, or, this was my experience of I went from this to this. And I realized I had not been telling those stories at all, and just bringing that concept or mindset. Over to a YouTube or, into my email newsletters or even my live streams like that, is helping my community become even closer to me because there is so much, so much that I just never shared.

[00:31:03] XayLi Barclay: Cause I’m like, nobody wants to hear this. Like, you know. the beauty of it is just learning from each platform, how you can integrate specific things to drive specific results and yeah, that’s what we’ve been enjoying for marketing.

[00:31:16] Sam Chlebowski: Very cool. Yeah, and that piece about sharing, it’s like a couple months ago, I took a step back and I’m like, oh wait, I’m watching these videos where people are giving these very in-depth details about their business. They’re saying like, Here’s how many clients I worked with last month. Here’s how much I made from those clients. And old brain Sam is like, oh, I would never share that. That’s against,

[00:31:37] Sam Chlebowski: That’s against the rules. I can’t. And now I’m seeing like, but if you’re not saying those things and somebody else is saying them, you’re missing out on a big opportunity because your video’s gonna be the one that gets skipped over.

[00:31:50] XayLi Barclay: Exactly. And people want authenticity. They want permission, want a deeper understanding and trust of the people that they, desire to pay. We don’t buy [00:32:00] from companies. We buy from people essentially, and it’s very different, but it’s so true.

[00:32:05] Sam Chlebowski: Amazing stuff and yeah, it’s a learning experience every day too. But, uh, yeah. Thank you so much for sharing what your marketing looks like right now.

[00:32:19] Sam Chlebowski: Cool to hear it too for me because these are some strategies I’m just kind of tiptoeing into it. Like I said, I’m working to learn, be better a little bit every day and, you know, seeing some of the fruits of, what I’ve created thus far.

[00:32:26] Sam Chlebowski: And like you said, you know, you don’t have to have the biggest account, the biggest following. As long as you have a message that resonates with people, content that resonates with people, it’s gonna be effective for you. So,

[00:32:36] XayLi Barclay: Definitely.

[00:32:36] Sam Chlebowski: With that. Two final questions for you here. First one, business one. Second one’s gonna be a fun one.

[00:32:42] XayLi Barclay: Okay.

[00:32:43] Sam Chlebowski: If people want to learn more about you, about your work and the things that you are doing, where should they go to find you?

[00:32:48] XayLi Barclay: I am Zay Barclay everywhere. That’s XayLi Barclay. I am on Instagram a lot, and we also have our Brave on Video on Instagram where you can learn more about getting on camera and how to really build a business based on using video in your marketing and in in building your personal brand.

[00:33:11] Sam Chlebowski: Fantastic. And we will put links to those things in the show notes. And now for my final question and our fun one — outside of work, what inspires you?

[00:33:21] XayLi Barclay: That’s a really good question, Sam. Oh my gosh. I would say…my health and wellness journey. Because, let me tell you — it reminds me that things take time. only works if you work it. It just reminds me to stay the course. It reminds me to set goals. If you don’t set goals can accomplish them.

[00:33:43] XayLi Barclay: It reminds me to track. And, you know, collecting data because it’s the same in business, right? When I think about your fitness journey and your business journey, man, they are so similar. Consistency. If you don’t show up, you can’t accomplish the goals that you have set for yourself. So [00:34:00] that’s what I would say.

[00:34:01] XayLi Barclay: I don’t know if that’s what you were looking for, but.

[00:34:03] Sam Chlebowski: It is honestly a fantastic answer and I think it. Ties back to what we even were talking about, at the earlier part of this episode we were talking about how you, came to the United States when you were 18. You had to kind of take that leap. I think about that and now I think about how you’re saying that your health and wellness journey is inspiring you to stay consistent, to track, to do these things that you need to do to make incremental progress. And that’s that other piece of entrepreneurship that is so incredibly important.

[00:34:38] Sam Chlebowski: It is gonna be a grind. Some days it is gonna be hard, but if you stick to the plan that you’ve created and you are willing to put in the work and doing the right steps along the way to make sure that the work is in fact the right work.

[00:34:54] Sam Chlebowski: You know you can achieve long-term success and if you’re not achieving success, you know it’s probably time to pivot.

[00:34:59] XayLi Barclay: Yes. That was so good. that was the bowl on top of like the perfect gift to end our conversation.

[00:35:05] Sam Chlebowski: I gotta say, it’s easy to talk when you have somebody that’s easy to talk to and. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This has been a blast for me and honestly, a little bit of a therapy session. I’m gonna leave this today and I’m just gonna be kind of floating on Cloud nine.

[00:35:23] XayLi Barclay: Yeah. Thank you for having me. has been really awesome. I’m like, damn, our conversation is over already.

[00:35:30] Sam Chlebowski: Absolutely. Yeah. We’ll have to have you back on again in the future and get some updates. So, thank you so much everybody for joining us for another great episode of Designing Growth. If you like this episode and the content we are covering, it would mean the world to us. If you go ahead and leave us a five-star review on Apple or Spotify,

[00:35:50] Sam Chlebowski: As I say in every episode, you don’t even have to write a review. Just click the five star button and it would mean the world to us and get this podcast out to more people. Until next time, Sam Chlebowski signing off. Have fun, good [00:36:00] luck, and go crush it. Take care everybody. Bye bye.