We were lucky to catch up with Claire Lauer recently and have shared our conversation below.
Claire, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
Let me start with where I am now and work my way backward.
I’m a mom of two little girls, ages one and four. I work three days per week, and I go to an office outside of my home and work for amazing clients nationwide. I do not check my email at night or on weekends. I am excited to hop into work, genuinely love my client list, and get to do meaningful work. I make the money I need to support my family every month. I’m “off” with my daughters the other two days of the work week. (Off is in quotes because I work way harder on the days I’m with them, ya feel me?!)
Now, let’s go back a few years.
Burnout feels quite icky. If you’ve ever experienced burnout, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I know burnout can manifest in different ways, but for me, burnout was feeling very lethargic towards life and my work. I just felt very tired and like I didn’t care at all. It felt like this it’s all too much, and I can’t do it all so why bother?
Yikes!
This was me a few years ago. I was working way too much. I didn’t have good (or really any) boundaries. And I felt like I was working very hard for very little. I feel like a brat admitting that, but it’s true. For me, I kept brushing burnout off because I knew a lot of people who had it harder than me. I had food, a home, and a loving husband. Who was I to complain?
The truth is that we all deserve to live peaceful, fulfilling lives.
There was a particular client I was working with who was quite demanding of my time and resources and who constantly pushed scope creep. They were also my biggest client at the time. They were a whopping 60% of my monthly business revenue! When this client called me (often), I knew I was about to be on the phone for hours with all new to-dos and priorities from the last call.
Oh, did I mention that I had recently had my first baby?
There was a particular situation with the demanding client when I just knew things had to change. I was either succeeding in business or motherhood, but not both. I had to figure out how to get out of burnout and move into a more peaceful work-life balance.
I had to work with a coach to discuss some things and set my priorities and goals. I had to really think about what was important to me. I wanted that exclusive, dreamy 6-fig business, but I wanted more time and freedom. I wanted to earn more money, but an amount that made sense to me and felt fair for what I was offering.
Once those were in place and I had the roadmap, it was time to put things into action.
1) Learn to say no – You cannot do it all. Set your priorities and your “yes” list, and then go ahead and say no to things that aren’t on that list.
2) Trim calendar – When I wrote out my whole week and everything I was doing, I found lots of calendar events that I could cut out.
3) Deep clean my business – I organized files, and cleaned out my inbox, reviewed all my monthly expenses, and just decluttered as much as I could.
4) Automate as much as possible – Automate, automate, automate! I have a CRM (customer relationship management) tool I was barely using at the time, so I invested some time and energy into setting up workflows, calendars, etc to free up more time.
5) Delegate where possible – Outsource what tasks you can at home and in the business. I hired someone to come clean my house 2x a month and exclusively used Instacart for grocery shopping.
6) Document processes – This one was hard for me! I needed to document my business processes. First, I needed to create systems that I needed to reduce my feeling of being overwhelmed, and then I needed to delegate tasks.
7) Create new core offers (ditch old ones) – My business was very custom. I would meet with a potential client, learn about their business, and then create a custom package and quote. I created a new core offer that used all my experience and expertise while solving a problem. It was much easier to sell and implement than custom offers.
8) Rethink client list – This was the worst. I had to rethink my current client list. I had to move away from that one client I mentioned before. Remember how they were my biggest client? I needed to delicately balance my client list and seek new clients that fit my vision while slowly moving away from the ones that didn’t. This process took months.
This entire process of moving out of burnout took years. YEARS!! It might be faster for you or take longer because you are on your own timeline. We have different personal factors that will come into play. Your needs are different. You might love working on the weekend because that’s when you can get your best work done. That’s cool! Then, you’ll need to assess where your burnout is coming from and address it.
I just hope my story inspires you to take action and move from burnout to peace!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
At 25 years old, I made the leap to start my own business. Some would think that sounds crazy, and no one thought that more than myself. I had zero business experience. Nada. ZILCH. Nothing. I had worked at two digital marketing agencies, but I wanted the freedom to serve clients in my own way. I built my business brick by brick while learning from my mistakes and celebrating the big wins.
My first step was to find paying clients. As I added clients to my list, I figured out all the “business” stuff along the way.
My business is CL Content Marketing, and I started it as a mini agency working with all types of businesses and creating content for them.
Since then, I’ve niched down to focus on what I do best and who I serve the best. I realized I couldn’t do everything for everyone. I decided to serve photographers for two reasons. The first was that I had a few photographers on my client list and loved working with them. Plus, we were getting amazing results. The second is that as a new mom, I had been through the full-service photography process and LOVED it. In a way, I was marketing to myself. My work was fun, and I fully believed in a photographer’s mission to capture your family’s most important memories.
By niching down, I can be good at something and deliver incredible results. It was hard mental work to realize this and put it out into the world. I used to do social media, blogging, email marketing, SEO, analytics, and ads. It was way too much to keep up with. I was mediocre at many things instead of really good at one thing.
With the mainstream launch of AI in the past few years, fewer clients needed social media caption writing and blogging. I had to step back and think about what I offer the market. What makes me different than any other company??
After research, trial and error, and talking with a few VIP clients, I realized that I actually had an SEO framework sitting in front of me all along. It uses all of my skills; strategy, communication, planning, writing, implementation, and analyzing, to create an SEO offer that’s honest and supportive. Clients never feel confused about what we’re doing and they can see the results.
CL Content Marketing helps photographers get more leads from Google with SEO. My clients effortlessly get clients from Google and book more of their ideal clients who are out there looking for exactly what they offer.
Personally, I love reading and writing and am plugging away at writing my second novel. I love volunteering and helping local organizations. As I mentioned before, I have two little girls who are growing WAY too fast, so I hope to do more volunteer work in the future. I do love spending time with my little beauties, who are truly the best part of everything. I’m very grateful to have my flexible schedule so I can be there for my girls when they need me, and I get to volunteer at my daughter’s preschool.
My husband, Bryan, and I have been together since we were 20. He’s the best dad, husband, and best friend I could ever ask for. When I mentioned starting a business at 25, he was all in and has been my biggest supporter ever since.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Oh, I have a LOT of thoughts here. I’ll try to keep it concise and helpful.
1. Courage – You’ll always be scared of the next big thing, but having the courage to take a shaky step forward will set you apart from the rest. One foot in front of the other is better than standing still, don’t you think? Read lots of books, listen to inspiring podcasts, and do the scary thing. You won’t regret it.
2. Failure – Oh, you’ll experience failure or setbacks, but what you do during those times will set you up for your next big success. 2020 was a tough year for my business, but I spent time working on my business and figuring out ways to move forward. When you fail (note I said when and not if), know that failure can actually lead you to the next right thing. Just keep moving forward.
3. Network – Build your network and then pour into it generously. Go to networking events, find your “people,” and find community. They will be there to help you when you need it.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
I’m a huge reader with an annual goal of reading 52 books a year since 2019, so choosing ONE book that played an important role is tearing me apart. (kidding)
One that comes to mind is The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. This book opened my eyes to how you can achieve big goals by making small, incremental changes. Nothing has to get done in a day. Break down the goal into bite-sized pieces. You can achieve massive success with small, daily habits that build up over time.
I’ve written an entire fictional novel (It’s not published, but that’s an interview or psych eval for another day), but how did I write 70,000 words? By breaking down the goal and following through with the process.
70,000 words with a goal of 2,000 words a week. That’s 35 weeks. Or about 285 words per day. Can you write 285 words per day? Then you can write a book.
Here are two popular quotes from the book.
“The journey starts with a single step—not with thinking about taking a step.”
― Jeff Olson, The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness
“Successful people do whatever it takes to get the job done, whether or not they feel like it.”
― Jeff Olson, The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness
Am I allowed to mention two books!? This book has a similar vibe to Atomic Habits by James Clear, which is also very good. You can read both and pick up the concepts that helped me grow my business.
Like I said before, read all the books. Listen on audio, borrow them from the library, ask your biz friends for their recommendations. Reading will only help you in life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://clcontentmarketing.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clcontentmarketing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clcontentmarketing
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairelauer/
Image Credits
I labeled the images with the photographers to credit: Image of me holding the books – Julie Collins Photography https://juliecollinsphoto.com/ Image of my speaking in the blue dress – My Brand Photographer https://mybrandphotographer.com/ Black and white image of me speaking at a networking event – Beth Boyke Photography https://bethboykephotography.com/ The CL SEO Results is a screenshot from a client’s Google Search Console. The jump in search traffic is when we started to work together! The supporting local nonprofit image is mine 🙂
