“ I was really stuck in, “If I’m not designing, then I’m not a brand designer, but now my business has experienced a complete 360.”

Meet Maria (Instagram | Website)

Location – Tampa, Florida

Company name– Maiden Gone Rogue

Services – Branding & Web Design -full rebrand specializing in storytelling and strategy.

Team members – Had 1 team member- 4 contractors before the program. Graduated with 6 contractors and a core team of 3. (hired two lead designers, a marketing coordinator, and a CFO. Has 3 copywriters and 3 photographers as contractors.)

Revenue – Before, it was 5k consistently with random spikes of 10-15 k. Now it’s consistently 10-15k a month.

Joined October 2021 | Graduated May 2022

Challenges | Program Solutions | Life After Grindaholics

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Challenges before Grindaholics Anonymous

I wanted to make more money and have more clients, but I was stuck in this feeling: “If I want more money and want more clients, then I would have no life.”

Before I joined Grindaholics Anonymous, I felt like there was not enough time to do everything to grow my business. I couldn’t see a way to scale. Since I’m in design and branding and have a specific style, I thought I was the only one who could do it, and that support was not possible. Even if possible, I didn’t know how or where to start.

I didn’t know the possibilities. I felt like I was stuck in this mindset of, “if I’m bringing 5k, I’m stuck in this 5k unless I wanna die and take on more work. Then I can maybe make 10 and 20k.” I wanted to get out of that.

Solution Grindaholics Anonymous Provided

The first module, mainly about mindset and recalibrating, how you think, really opened my eyes to make it even possible to think of having a team. I was still stuck in that mindset of “Who will perform the way I do? Who can help support me, you know?”

Going through that process helped set me up to be open to the idea of having a team.

Then once I was open to that, the org chart was life-changing because I was doing all these little tasks, and I didn’t know how to bundle them together. The org chart set me up to know who will do what, the positions, and the titles. I love that you gave examples, too; they helped me see what’s possible. For instance, with the marketing coordinator, I didn’t even know that was a position that existed. I just thought I could do all of these things. And if I did find someone to support me, it would be out of scope, budget-wise.

I didn’t think anyone could help me within my budget. So really nailing down my budget, the positions, the job descriptions, and even the personality in the job description, like how I wrote it, really brought forward people who vibed with me, which was fun.

Then there’s the hiring process. I skipped the hiring process for one person, like, “Oh, I can see where I messed up. <laugh> This person is not a good fit.” The two people that did go through the whole process with the test projects and the interview going through all of that set me up to find people that long term fit my business. I hired 3 people, and they’re doing amazing.

I can see myself growing with them, and I’m also open to training them. They’re not perfect, but I understand how training is valuable. Sometimes we’re very quick to fire when we need to talk it through with them or redo our framework because we’ve been doing it ourselves for so long.

Those were my biggest takeaways: the mindset, and forming the team was like the biggest win.

The coaching calls replay were also great, I couldn’t always join the live calls, but I would go back to watch the replays and click the timestamps to check out different questions. The course itself is very impressive.

Life after Grindaholics Anonymous

After going through Grindaholics Anonymous, my business has experienced a complete 360. I have more time, and I couldn’t understand my role before. I was really stuck in, “If I’m not designing, then I’m not a brand designer,” but now that I have people designing for other people working for me, I still see that I’m very much needed. There’s just a different role, and it feels really good in the seat of just reviewing things. It still means that I’m designing, it’s not always hands-on, but I’m reviewing their designs and giving them feedback.

So they stay with the vision that I’m doing. I’m still very hands-on. It’s just very much so a creative director. So it’s giving me the freedom to take on more clients confidently.

Before, I would be on sales calls in the back of my mind wondering, ” Can I meet the deadline? Will I be too tired? Should I push the due date back?” I don’t need to do that anymore. I can say “yes,” I can book two clients simultaneously and feel perfect. I can even plan for a vacation. I know that my team can handle it.

I’ve been able to redefine how I communicate with my immediate core team, which helped me communicate better with independent contractors.

“It just feels really good to have people support me.”

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