We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sara Cripe. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sara below.
Hi Sara, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?
Risk is a funny thing. Mostly, people will talk about risk in a financial aspect. Will they be able to quit their full-time job and supplement their income with their “entrepreneurial dream job” income? This boils down to having a service or product that consumers want and need. So will you have the financial stability to pay yourself along with the cash to market to find these clients? Don’t get me wrong, the financial risk is hella huge when starting a business, but that wasn’t the number one risk I was worried about.
My ability to take risk was formulated from a fear of living a miserable life. I risked my happiness, for an extremely long time. I would come home from various jobs, throughout my life, in discontent. I remember thinking, “This is my fucking life…I’m going to do this, then die?”. Now, I didn’t hate these jobs, I actually really liked them. So, why the discontent? I wasn’t able to bring all the gifts I had to offer forward, just small pieces. There HAD to be more to make me feel, dare I say, happy! Holy shit! I’m a work-a-holic, and if I’m going to put in effort, it’s going to be 100%. It seems dumb that I didn’t do that for my own contentment.
Then I did. I wasn’t comfortable living an “okay” existence, I wasn’t willing to take that risk anymore. I started my own business that I could pour all my talents into and be authentically myself. Now, I love risk! It’s always a personal challenge to see what I can push myself to do next.
Do I fall into back into misery sometimes? Fuck yes, I do! I’m human, and it’s exhausting being your own cheerleader. What helps me bounce back? I have an amazing, clairvoyant friend that I asked about the meaning of life, as a joke! She smiled softly and told me, “The meaning of life is simply to enjoy it.”. So when shit gets hard and I get caught up in the discomfort of life, I ask myself why I’m not “enjoying it” and what I can change to enjoy it again.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Did I dream about owning a marketing business that specializes in assisting the real estate industry? Umm, no. Not even close! I wanted to create CD booklets for punk bands! Give me a break, it was the early 2000’s!
Connect Grafiks + Marketing was formulated 6 years ago as a solo operation. I was extremally lucky that some of my first clients were real estate agents. I didn’t realize how fantastic realtors were at referring, I was ridiculously busy almost right away! So there I was, just me, doing everything! I figured out pretty quickly that working this way was pretty shitty. So many hours, stress was high, and all the benefits I thought I would have of working from home were non-existent. Then, through a women’s entrepreneur group in Denver, I was referred to another designer to help with work overflow. Little did I know, this woman would change my life/business forever! Sophia and I started collaborating and brainstorming. She was the Ying to my Yang! Today, she is my best friend, partner in crime & design, and confidant.
Connect Grafiks + Marketing specializes in assisting our real estate clients in all aspects of marketing and growing their businesses. We primarily work with independent real estate agents, real estate teams, brokerages, mortgage lenders and title companies. We usually start in creating branding and logo. From there we keep their branding strong with print marketing (business cards, brochures, etc.), email marketing campaigns, social media management, website and everything in between! We love meeting with our current and potential clients to fine tune their marketing plan and budget, so their clients think of them first. Marketing is all about reminding people who you are, why you are phenomenal at what you do, and that you want their business!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three things that I have found have impacted my journey, in a good way, is the ability to work with people, failure, and the drive to prove to others of my competency.
Working with people is an artform for sure! We usually “sell” to people how we would like to be sold to. Fucking wrong! Being able to chameleon to others personality is key. Being on their level and to meet them where they are builds trust and takes out the salesmen vibe.
Failure sucks and doesn’t feel great, obviously. However, it’s a great motivator and learning opportunity. Can you learn from it? Let’s fucking hope so! Failure can be humiliating and expensive, you end up learning pretty quick what not to do again! But don’t live in the feeling of failure, shake it out, and start again. Later you will probably laugh, trust me!
A proving energy can be dangerous because of ego. I feel like we all want praise and to be recognized for our efforts. When you are around people that fill your head full of doubt, it can either fuel you or paralyze your ambition. What keeps me out of freeze-mode are wise words from my dad, “The best revenge is success.”.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
I love this question! I fully believe to focus on your strengths and delegate the rest! Time is money and when you first start, you don’t have either! I know it seems unreachable to hire things out when you are in the infant stage of your business. But, hear me out…
An analogy I love to give my clients is asking what they are worth an hour. Go ahead, what do you think you are worth an hour? Let’s say you are worth $100 per hour. (Let’s stay with round numbers because I have an art degree!) If you are worth $100 per hour and you really hate and suck ass at bookkeeping, but you feel like you don’t have the extra money to hire an accountant. You mess around with your bookkeeping for 3 hours a month. Potentially, you have just spend $300 of your own time of bookkeeping, and is it even right?! Or you could have paid an accountant $100, know that it’s done right, and you probably wouldn’t have cried and cursed at your computer. You also could have used that 3 hours to do your actual job and MADE money!
I’m all about self-improvement, but when you are limited on time, money and your mental health, trust me when I tell you to delegate as much as you can with the tasks in your business that you don’t enjoy. Between my accountant and my assistant, I would sell a kidney to pay their wages! Why? Because they make my life easier. Truth be told, I’ve made a lot more money after hiring these ladies. Being a business owner is fucking hard and you should be focusing on what you excel at and make that money!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.connectgrafiks.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connectgrafiks
Image Credits
Brook Huffington with Shedding Shots Photography
