We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Morgan Specht. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Morgan below.
Hi Morgan, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
This is a question I get asked periodically and it always makes me chuckle. I don’t view myself as an overly self-confident person, but I do think starting my own business is the best thing I’ve ever done for my confidence and self esteem. When I first started out I had a lot of imposter syndrome and was always worried that potential clients would “figure out” that I didn’t “really” know what I was doing.
Having mentors who were open and transparent about their struggles and mistakes in their own businesses helped me to see that we are really all just “making it up as we go” and that’s okay! That coupled with proving to myself over the last 8+ years that I am skilled at what I do and my knowledge is valuable have been game changers for my confidence levels.
Plus, getting positive feedback from clients goes a long way too!
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?
I own and operate a branding and website design agency. We offer brand strategy, brand design, and Squarepsace and Kajabi website design for service based businesses. I also run a membership called The Six Figure Brand Society where we support our members through building profitable, sustainable businesses through a combination of done-by-you, done-with-you, and done-for-you support.
My favorite part of the work I do is getting to really dive into my clients businesses, learn the ins-and-outs, and treat them as if they were my own. I love getting inside their heads and building them a brand strategy and visual identity that leaves them saying “OMG this is even better than I could have imagined”.
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?
I would say the three qualities that have been most impactful on my business journey have been resilience, work-ethic, and willingness to learn. Building a business takes A LOT of really hard work, and it’s inevitable that you’re going to experience hiccups, bad days, and setbacks.
I was so motivated to make my business work (aka so desperate not to go back to corporate) that I was willing to put in 12+ hour days in the beginning in order to achieve that goal. Nowadays, I have much better work-life balance, but if I hadn’t been willing to really buckle down and grind like that in the early days, I don’t know that my business would have ever really gotten off the ground the way it did.
Resilience and willingness to learn have also been integral, because there have been several times I’ve launched a new service or product and had it not be as successful as I expected. I’ve had to be willing to pick myself back up, not get discouraged, figure out what I can learn from that “failure” and use it to make the next version even better.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
Right now a big are where I’m learning a lot and constantly being humbled is in balancing motherhood and being a CEO. One of the main reasons I started my business was because I knew my husband and I wanted kids someday, and I wanted to be home with them as much as possible.
Now I have a 1 year old and our second child on the way, and I am in the throes of finding that balance between being a present mom and also showing up for my team and my clients. I’ve learned A TON about going with the flow, being flexible, and managing my expectations and surprisingly, having “less time” to work on my business has made me get MUCH more efficient with the time I do have.
As we prepare to welcome baby #2 this Fall I am really focused on getting systems and team members in place so that I can focus on the things that truly need my attention (i.e. my family and managing my team rather than getting stuck in the weeds of the nitty-gritty design work).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.spechtand.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spechtand.co
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spechtand.co
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morganbspecht/
Image Credits
Shannon Confair Photography
