Meet Sarah Mills

 

We recently connected with Sarah Mills and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

My family moved around a bit when I was growing up. I went to three different elementary schools and two different high schools.
When I arrived at elementary school number three, I could have been cool. Somehow, I connected with the popular girls and often found myself with them at lunch. The only problem was, they would walk around at lunch, bopping around from group to group. While I wouldn’t say I’m anti-social, this was a problem for me. Lunch time is for eating lunch and I am not one to turn down an opportunity to eat. So I opted out of the cool-girl group and instead began sitting down to enjoy my PB&J at lunchtime.
There’s so much in life that we don’t have control of. And when you don’t have control over where your family moves or what the popular girls are going to do, making the decision to sit and eat your sandwich is taking control, being confident, and owning your agency- at least for a 12 year old.
We moved again after my freshman year of high school and I threatened to run away. I had my friend groups and my clubs and my soccer teams and I was being ripped away from them all.
None of the moves were easy transitions for me but the experiences made me adaptable. I am confident in who I am because I haven’t been defined by a single experience or environment.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

After graduating from college (UC Irvine- go Anteaters), I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I moved to Yosemite National Park, where I worked seasonally for four years before following my family to Virginia. I worked in a winery tasting room for a year before I was asked by a group of guests what I wanted to do for a career. I said that I was interested in social media and they connected me with a real estate agent who was looking for digital marketing help. After working for that agent for a year, I later became the Director of Social Media and Agent Services for the brokerage office where that agent had worked.
Eventually, I started my own social media marketing business, Ink & Olive, and run my business remotely. My niche naturally developed into social media marketing for real estate agents and teams and I’ve served my clients while working from Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Bali, Hong Kong, among other places.
Now that I’ve developed proven systems and have successfully run my business for six years, I have created a self-paced online course, The Social Media Business Academy, that teaches aspiring solopreneurs how to grow their own social media marketing businesses.
I can’t imagine going back to working a butt-in-seat job. I want more women to have the freedom and flexibility that my business affords me, so, my niche has evolved to serving people who look like I did six years ago- suffering from wanderlust and ready to go from employee to business owner.
I also have a free webinar that shares my biggest tip for business growth, niching down. It shares what niching down means, why it’s so pivotal for your business, and how to choose your own profitable niche: https://www.inkandolivemedia.com/your-profitable-niche

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?

Knowing that everything is figureoutable. This term is from Marie Forleo’s book, Everything Is Figureoutable. Being a business of one, you have to believe that everything is figureoutable and with resources like YouTube, TikTok, and now ChatGPT, there’s no excuse for not figuring it out. From designing websites to video editing to email workflows, just know that it’s possible, it’s been done before, and you can figure it out.
Marie’s book is an invaluable resource for believing that you can figure it out.
The Social Media Business Academy is a way for you to fast track figuring out how to grow a successful social media marketing business.

Manifesting, praying, putting what you want into the universe, or whatever you want to call it. I got my first social media job by talking about what I wanted. I was chatty with every group that came through the winery I worked at and eventually that paid off with a new job.
When I started Ink & Olive, I talked to anyone about it who would listen. By not being afraid to talk about what I was working toward, I signed multiple clients before quitting my 9-5.

Being adaptable. When I first starting Ink & Olive, I also offered design services. I loved creating branding and even designed a few websites. After a couple years I phased out my design services. Design is so subjective and it was stressful to have to constantly find new clients. Once a design project is done, it’s done, whereas social media is ongoing and my contracts renew each month.
It’s important to realize when something isn’t working or isn’t worth it. And that doesn’t make you a failure, it makes you smart for realizing it and adapting.
I’ve also had to adapt my social media services to fit my clients needs. In these cases, it’s about being flexible and willing to adjust to better serve your clients.

It’s not like any of these qualities are knowledge based- anyone can develop and implement these skills.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

My ideal client is freedom-driven; they value the idea of working remotely and desire a lifestyle that allows them to travel, work from anywhere, and experience new cultures and adventures without being tied to an office or demanding schedule.

They no longer want to work under a boss or adhere to a company’s rules. They’re ambitious and ready to take control of their career and income, and they’re ready to invest in learning that will help them establish their own successful business.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Savannah Tilghman (the two professional photos)

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