Episode 129: Erika Stanley

Erika Stanley

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Pretty powerful podcast where powerful women are interviewed every week to share real inspiring stories. And incredible insight to help women or anyone break the barriers, be a part of innovation, shatter the glass ceiling, and dominate to the top of their sport industry or life's mission.

Join us as we celebrate exceptional women and step into our power. And now here's your host, Angela Gennari.

Angela Gennari: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pretty Powerful podcast. My name is Angela Gennari, and I'm here with Erika Stanley. Hi Erika. I. Hi. I'm so excited to welcome you. So Erika empowers purpose-driven entrepreneurs to harness ai, infuse their values into their brand and stand out in their field.

Through her agency, mile and Digital, she helps difference makers craft authentic brands to amplify their impact. [00:01:00] With technology leveling the playing field, now is your time to shine. That's really cool. So, uh, you know, very first sentence is ai. So let's talk about ai. Um, let's talk about, well first, what made you want to get into the marketing realm?

And then, um, let's dive into a little bit of ai.

Erika Stanley: Yeah, so I have been in the marketing industry for about 20 years now. Nice. And I have worked for both, uh, internal marketing departments and on the agency side. And, you know, as as I went on, I realized that. There were a lot of emerging technologies. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. That would allow smaller businesses to have access to similar resources, to the, like multimillion dollar advertising budgets that we were seeing. Mm-hmm. And the last agency I worked for, we had a really good reputation. And, uh, St. Petersburg, Florida is where I'm [00:02:00] located, and it's a, it's a very big like.

Shop local, support local. And so we would have these small businesses come to our agency wanting to work with us because of our reputation. And they just, they were too small, they didn't meet our agency minimum. Mm.

Both: Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: And so when I started Mile End Digital, I wanted to use some of the tech and the resources that we had been using at the agency for bigger clients to help smaller businesses, uh, independent business owners.

Have access to the same types of email marketing, social media, marketing ad campaigns, things like that. Um, that had typically just been reserved for big budgets and big companies. And so that's how I started the foundation of my business is just like serving those people who really. Needed my help and deserved to have access to, to those things.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Well, and I can tell you as a small business owner, that's one of the biggest challenges we have is that you see all these great products out there and you're like, I can't afford that. Like, [00:03:00] and then you do take that leap and you're like, you know, you're like, okay, well I'm gonna go ahead and throw.

Several thousand dollars into this print ad, but you're not a big business, so you can't afford to keep doing those print ads. Yeah, which is what you need to do. You need to be able to have that consistency and so you throw a bunch of money at it thinking, oh, I'll just solve this problem, and you don't get the response you want because it's not allocated properly and you're right back into, well, that was a waste of 10 grand.

Yeah. Whereas, you know, it's, it's just so frustrating as a small business owner and not knowing, and you're like, I can't afford an agency and I can't afford this, and so you're really stuck. So I love that you're serving that small business market.

Erika Stanley: Yeah. And they are, they are a. Perfect fit. I mean, they're a perfect fit for me.

Mm-hmm. Um, but they're also, I mean, they're a perfect fit for ai. It's been all anybody's talking about for the last year and a half at least. Mm-hmm. Um, I first got introduced to it, uh, like November, December, about two [00:04:00] years ago.

Angela Gennari: Wow. Okay. You're really on the front edge of that. I love it.

Erika Stanley: Yeah. Yeah. I, um, I started playing around with it.

I was actually planning my wedding. Okay. And. I needed a way to organize all of the to-dos Uhhuh. So I had this ongoing to-do list in my Apple notes and somebody had mentioned, oh, there's this thing, new thing called chat, GPT. You should try it out. And I organized my to-do list and, uh. I have not looked back since.

Angela Gennari: Really? That's fantastic. So chat, GBT is a window that is literally always open on my computer and there's a running list of like all the different topics, podcast and business and emails and marketing and like I've got a whole chain like chat, GBT, and I talk more than like my mother and I do.

Erika Stanley: Oh my gosh, yes.

I, I totally feel that I use it more than Google now, Uhhuh, I use, uh, chat GPT and perplexity more than I go to Google, so. Oh yeah,

Angela Gennari: for sure. So tell me a little bit a, about AI, because, um, [00:05:00] you had mentioned, uh, that women are slower to pick up AI than men, and I really wanna dive into that because that's, that seems crazy to me.

I freaking love ai, but I would, you know, it's such a, a great tool if you utilize it properly.

Erika Stanley: Absolutely. So there's this, there's this new study. It was done by, uh, scholars at multiple universities. Yeah. And both here in the US and abroad. And women are not adopting AI at rates as fast as men. Wow.

Both: Um,

Erika Stanley: it's, it's actually, I mean, it's abysmal.

It's sad. Yeah. Um, and it's worldwide. It's among women of different backgrounds, so women who work in offices, women in the household versus men who work in an office, or men who are, are at home and women are just not using it in the day to day. Hmm. Why do you think that is?

I don't know. I've got some theories. Mm-hmm. [00:06:00] Uh, I think that a lot of women of my generation or older, and I, it's changing now, right? Uhhuh, but I think a, a lot of women who are, um, you know, in their thirties, forties and older, we were kind of taught that tech and science wasn't our thing. Mm-hmm. And so. It just doesn't seem like it's for us and what I am trying to change, uh, with my business and the conversations I'm having with women business owners is that it absolutely is for us.

Yeah. Um, ai, if you are a small business owner, AI has so many different ways that you can. Lean into your zone of genius as a business owner, and then use AI to offload some of the menial tasks. Uh, you know, little things that we all have to do and don't want to do, the project management things. Um, I also think that there is a.

There's a fear about it. We've all seen Terminator and [00:07:00] what happens when the robots take over the world? No, I mean, that's kind of a joke, but, but there's a little, a little bit of fear about it too, about it taking away our autonomy, taking away our authenticity. Um, and I can see that and appreciate that there are ways that we can use it, where it will actually amplify our authenticity.

Um, I. This is, it's a, it's like a side metaphor comparison. Um, prince Harry. Mm-hmm. So Prince Harry worked with a ghost writer to write his book mm-hmm. Spare right. And he was unashamed about that. There are other, um, other stars who have used ghost writers, and they don't want to admit it.

Both: Hmm.

Erika Stanley: But he very openly said like.

Hey, I, I'm not a trained writer. He got trained in an awful lot of things growing up in that palace, but he's not a trained writer. We hired somebody who was, and [00:08:00] he told his story openly, uh, vulnerability, like vulnerably, and that writer was able to craft and turn that story into something that was usable as a book.

Mm-hmm. We, as business owners. One of the first things I learned when I started my business was that I was really good at marketing, branding websites. Yeah. And not great at accounting. Right. And so I hired a bookkeeper. Mm-hmm. I have hired a bookkeeper and I was not ashamed about that. Mm-hmm.

Both: And

Erika Stanley: I, I think that there's this hesitation, uh, within I.

I don't know why it's specifically women, but there is this hesitation about using technology and using AI to help us do things like it's cheating or it's, it's too easy and we hire people to help us with other things. Why not use this technology that's been created to help us bridge that gap?

Angela Gennari: Yeah. [00:09:00] Um, well, and I think you're dead on about people being suspicious of the technology.

You know, like, oh, I don't want it, it's gonna take over the world. You know, you're, I don't wanna give my information away and, you know, all of this, but remember, this is what also happened with the internet, right? So the absolutely. Internet people were suspicious about that. Like, well, this thing is. I don't trust it.

Just putting my, my information out in the worldwide web and, you know, the use, there's a joke saying, um, you know, our parents taught us not to get in the car with strange guys and now we're ordering a strange guy to pick us up in a car, right? Yes, yes. You know, all of these things that we were taught to fear.

They're, they're happening now. Right? And, and it's just like anything else you have to say, like, how can I make this work for me in a way that still protects my identity, my, my, my interests, you know, my, myself physically, you know, mentally whatever. And I think you can use it, but you have to use it at a, in a way that makes sense.

Like I would've give chat GPT, [00:10:00] like, hey. You know, here's my credit card information. What can I afford with the balance that I have? Like, you have to be smart, right? Like, don't be Oh, yeah. Out of, you know. But I also feel like maybe the, maybe women are slower to adopt it because women are in those career fields where maybe AI could be taking over like that.

Marketing, pr, you know, and I feel like those are women dominated industries where they have the most fear that AI could take over. But I think like what you're doing, you're embracing it and then utilizing it as a tool for your business. I think that there's so much value in that.

Erika Stanley: Absolutely. And I, yes, jobs are absolutely going to be lost.

Mm-hmm. Um, it's said that like 25 to 35% of jobs. Are going to drastically change. Oh, yeah, yeah. Uh, because of AI over the next few years.

Both: Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: But if we remember back 20, 20, 30 years ago, and we all had that set of [00:11:00] Encyclopedia Britannica. Right, right, right. So. None of those people that were employed by Encyclopedia Britannica, they don't have their same jobs today.

Right? You're going George Shift. We had to shift, right? Mm-hmm. We had to shift because of the internet they had to shift. We're gonna shift to, right. Um, that doesn't mean that their research expertise or their sales expertise, that didn't just go away. They had to shift to something else. And I think that.

Women getting into ai, playing with it, learning it, it's gonna help us stay ahead of these changes.

Both: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Angela Gennari: Well, and I, what I do think it does, uh, AI does, is it takes that, that layer of the, the mediocre, you know, and I hate to be so mm-hmm. Brash, but it takes the ones who are not really. All that good or trying all that hard and it kind of removes them, right?

Because if you can give me the same result that chat, GPT can, why am I using you? You know? And it's no different. Oh yeah. Than you know, I was in the travel industry, right. And so. When, when [00:12:00] the internet came out and all of the airlines now have, um, they put all their air airfare on, on websites, they decided we're not gonna pay travel agents anymore, period.

And they just shut down an entire revenue source for all travel agents worldwide. Right? So now if you wanna hire a travel agent to book your airfare, they have to charge you to do that because the airlines won't pay 'em a commission. And then the same thing with hotels. Hotels are like, you know, all of our rooms are online.

And so we had to become. Inventive and say, okay, well what we're gonna do is we're gonna negotiate group hotels, right? So if you have a conference, we will then source that to multiple hotels, help you negotiate your contract, help you work, you know, different, um. Uh, benefits into your contracts. And so there was a lot that you could do to add value.

But for those who were just gonna sit behind a computer and like, you know, plug away into a few, you know, like, here's your hotel, here's your, you know, this is your travel plan, you know, they can go away because I. The, [00:13:00] the internet took that away. Right. And so you have to evolve. Yes. And you have to embrace what you have and then show a way that you can add value.

And your value comes from your expertise. Right. And your, you know, consultations and things like that. So I think if you just do it correctly and you really put the effort into, look, I will embrace this technology. I'm not gonna, you know, say that it's, it's a bad technology, but I think that we can utilize it to the highest good that it can be used.

Erika Stanley: Love that. Love the travel agent. Uh. Example as well. I hadn't thought of that. I'm gonna have to remember that.

Angela Gennari: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I mean, there's so many and, and right now, you know, the whole dock strike, that thing that was happening with all the ports, um, you know, one of the things that they're so frustrated about is they don't want robots to come in and do their jobs.

And it's like, well buddy, robots don't need breaks, you know? They're not gonna complain and call off and, you know, have their union go in and say, you know, we need, you know, a 70% pay rate. Instead, the robots will just come in and [00:14:00] do your job more effectively, 24 hours a day and things will just get done.

So,

Erika Stanley: yeah. And I, I think what people have to realize is that the robots can't do it themselves.

Both: Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: Yet, uh, they yet, um. Every, every technology that we're talking about, it needs a human behind it to make it work. And that's what I want, that's what I want women to remember and to not be afraid of, uh, to not be afraid to use it, to get in.

Um, like I said, and, and to get curious. The way that we get good at things is through repetition, through continuing to, to get in, get dirty, get messy. You're not gonna break, like, you're not gonna break Chad GPT. Yeah. Like get in and try things. Yeah. And um, and the more you use it, the better you get at it, the better you understand what types of questions yield the best responses.

What types of [00:15:00] feedback can I give it so that it will shift, um, its responses I. So one of the things that I do for clients when I have a full branding job where I do mm-hmm. A full brand or rebrand website content strategy, is I'm building custom bots for my clients. So either a custom GPT or a quad project, depending on which, uh, platform they prefer.

And what that does is it. It takes all of the brand strategy that I have created and researched and written, but also that I have pulled out of my clients through all of these conversations and Right, like you talk to people and you're like pulling, pulling at the little threads to get to the heart of who they are and who their business is and what their ideal client is and, and all of that.

And you can use that to put into a custom GPT

Both: mm-hmm. So

Erika Stanley: that it understands. A little bit more about your business and what I tell my clients when I'm [00:16:00] training them is even with these customizations, you have to, you have to treat chat, GPT. Like it's a really enthusiastic intern. That's like fresh outta school.

It is anything you ask it to do, it's going to approach that. And say, yes, I can do that for you. And then it's gonna bring it back to you, and it might not be exactly correct.

Both: Yes, yes. And

Erika Stanley: if you're working with that intern, you're not just gonna take it and be like, oh, this is shit. And do it yourself. You can, but then that intern's not learning anything.

You're going to give them feedback. Say, Hey, this piece is really good. This piece needs a little bit of work. We need to tweak this, or This is wrong about my business. You got this piece, um, a little off. And you can do that with chat GPT. You can give it feedback and it will learn within that thread or within that project.

Both: Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: Um, it learns more about your business. It learns what [00:17:00] language you like to use, uh, your tone of voice. You can put all of that into the customizations so that. What it's giving back to you might not be exactly what you would put out as a blog post or a social media post, or a press release, but it can get you about 80% of the way there.

Mm-hmm. And you go in and add your little, um, tweaks and adjustments to make it more like you.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. Well, and what I love about it is that it just sparks innovation. So like I'll say, Hey, I'm thinking about redoing the compensation plan for, you know, my management team. What is competitive that I can bring to the table and how can I incentivize them?

And it sparks, I'm like, oh, that's interesting. Well what about this? And then I'll, I'll, I'll. It's like I'm having a full on conversation with a, you know, somebody who has researched the internet while I'm talking to them. Right. And

Erika Stanley: so, yes. Yes. And so I think one of the other hesitations that we [00:18:00] didn't talk about mm-hmm.

Uh, with people using chat, GPT and I, I hear this a lot from the women I talk to. They used it a year ago,

Both: Uhhuh,

Erika Stanley: when it, or, or a year and a half ago. Mm-hmm. The results they got were crap and they haven't gone back to it. Right. Right. It has gotten so much smarter and it's continuing to get smarter and better.

The customizations it allows you to, to put in are, are better.

Both: Mm-hmm.

And

Erika Stanley: so I want people who. Did try it, did not get the results. They wanted to go back and play again. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because it's come leaps and bounds.

Angela Gennari: Oh yeah. So much, so much better. And I mean, I, like I said, it's, it's a tab that's literally always open on my, on my computer because I go back to it so often and, and I like, you know, it.

Saves what you've been searching or what projects it's worked on for me so I can just hit, you know, pretty powerful podcast. And it can be like, Hey, remember when we were talking about this? I wanna add this and here's what I think I'm gonna do. And it will just spit out as if we never left that conversation, which is amazing.

And so like there's [00:19:00] just. So many great tools that, um, that I use, even if it's just for a framework. Like even if it's like, Hey, I'm gonna have, you know, an annual planning meeting with my team, can you just give me a great agenda that I can use as a starting point? And then I will use that agenda and I will plug in what I actually want to talk about.

But there's, there's just a lot of value in just taking some of the, the work off of your shoulders. And like, you don't have to reinvent the wheel every single time. And it's so interesting sometimes because like we've done annual meetings now I've had my business for 10 years every year, but you know, asking chat GPT how to, I'm like, huh, yeah, we've never talked about that.

I guess that would be a good thing. Like it just gives you a new perspective sometimes, which isn't a bad thing.

Erika Stanley: Yeah. New, new perspectives and it. It gives you a bit of power.

Both: Mm-hmm. Mm. I think mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: There's, there's that feeling of helplessness when, you know, you're, when you know you've got a thing to do and you're staring at [00:20:00] a blank screen.

Yes. And just that little flashing cursor, like, oh my, my gosh, where do I start? I know, I know. And that, that little leg up, it's just, it, it's so helpful and it helps give me. Confidence in doing things that I was not trained to do, to at least start to start researching, to start with curiosity.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Well, and one of the funny things that I use it for, um, so I am from the Northeast, but I live in the south.

And so, you know, sometimes I can come across across as harsh, right? And so I've heard this, I've gotten this review, like we do these 360 reviews and like, sometimes the way you say things is, you know, it feels hurtful. And I'm like, Ugh. You know, like I'm really bad at that whole like, you know, build, burn, build.

Like, I just get to the point of what I'm trying to say, and so I'll craft an email and then, you know, on Google right now they have a, you know, rewrite an ai and so I'll have it rewrite. I'm like, oh, that sounds so much softer. Perfect. You know, or I'll tell [00:21:00] chat, GBT, like, rewrite this email, but add in some, you know, just some nice words of encouragement.

So it does, yeah. It's amazing. Yes. Not that it's not sincere, but it's not how I would, 'cause you know, I, I get just rec direct to the point, and I just, you know, it doesn't even occur to me like, oh, I should ask how their day was,

Erika Stanley: and

Angela Gennari: I'm like,

Erika Stanley: whatever. Yeah. So same, that direct communication style, it's, it's really good for that.

Um, the other thing that I, I have a former colleague who is, uh, she's dys dyslexic,

Both: Uhhuh.

Erika Stanley: And she has the entire time I've known her, she's had difficulty crafting email responses back to people.

Both: Mm. She used

Erika Stanley: to dictate her response and send it to an assistant and have that assistant type it up. Now she types into check, she like, she'll copy and paste the email.

Mm-hmm. Then cop like, then type out her response. And have chat GPT rephrase it and it's [00:22:00] given her so much confidence. Yeah, it's amazing. 'cause this is something she struggled with her entire life and she's a, she's a CEO. Mm. And it, it is a struggle. And now this has. Taken that barrier away for her.

Angela Gennari: Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. Well, and you know, outside of chat GPT, there's also so many great tools out there and I mean, almost every website now has some sort of AI feature to it. Like I said to me, even my Google email, you know, has a rewrite and AI feature and you know, LinkedIn I think is, is another one where I can write a post on LinkedIn and it says, you know, rewrite an ai.

I am like, okay, go for it. You know, it. Sounds great and, and it just gives you that extra level of, you know, it. If I have a run on sentence, it fixes that for me. If I have, you know, misspelled a word, it fixes that for me. So I just think that there's value and I think the more we embrace it, the, the more we can utilize it to our benefit.

Right. Again, it's not competition, it's not out there to take our job. It's out there to be [00:23:00] our assistant. It, and, you know, if you, if you. Use it the way we're s and and this is another thing, maybe it's that women are bad at delegating 'cause I know I am. So maybe that's a thing

Erika Stanley: you, you may have, you may have something there.

I, I dunno if women are bad at delegating, but I know women. Business owners, women entrepreneurs, we're, we're scrappy. Yes, we're scrappy as hell. We're used to doing ourselves. We wanna, we wanna prove to the world that we can do it all. Yes. Um, but, uh, please let me let this serve as permission to everyone listening.

Uhhuh, here's your permission slip like outsource to chay pt. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You're not hurting anything. You're not hurting anyone. Like just. And

Angela Gennari: if you don't like it, then don't, don't use that part. Right. But like, yep, don't throw the baby away with the bath water. Right. And so it's like, it's like, just try it.

If it didn't work for you that one time, fine. You know, don't use what it wrote for you, but then come back later and be like, Hey, you know, I thought that, or rephrase it and let it, let it figure it out. But you gotta teach it. It's kind of like, like you were saying, like an intern. [00:24:00] Teach it what you want, just like you would teach anyone else what you want.

Erika Stanley: Yeah. And. I do think, I do think that authenticity is a, is a big thing.

Both: Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: Um, whether, whether that's part of the hesitation or that's a separate issue, um, authenticity is, is a big deal. Um, people like to say that they can tell when AI has written something. Mm-hmm. And I that is in some cases it's true.

I can, I can spot. AI generated, uh, Instagram caption. Sure. Uh, LinkedIn post, especially the LinkedIn comments, um, where people are using bots to comment. So I think as we move forward, authenticity is going to be huge and for small business owners, there will be a fine line that we walk, right, using AI [00:25:00] to the best of its ability and for what we need to use it for, and also remaining.

Authentic owning our own voice and our own power within our area of expertise. Um, I, I think we're, we're seeing Okay. I. We're recording this, uh, Uhhuh the week of the presidential inauguration.

Both: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: We just saw at the inauguration a room full of the tech bros and billionaires Uhhuh, yeah. Right there on stage.

Yeah. Um, meta just announced that they are firing all of their fact checkers for their, for their platforms, and, and they're doing this in an age when we've got more information and more bought. AI garbage coming at us, like more than ever. Yeah. Right. So as much as I want to be an advocate for ai, I also, I, I want people to [00:26:00] understand it and the people like you and I, Angela mm-hmm.

Like that, keep it open on our desktops all the time. Right. Um, that yes, we can use it, but. I hope that people are using it as a tool and not a crutch.

Both: Right? Yeah. I,

Erika Stanley: I'm seeing with, with branding, we need to be building our foundation and our home base, right? So our brand, our websites, like the literal communities.

Um, I'm a part of two awesome women's networking groups here in St. Pete, wherever those are, um. Building those communities and staying authentic within those groups, uh, is going to be hugely important. Mm-hmm. Um, but a lot of those digital communities, like social media, we also have to acknowledge that those could go away

Both: Right.

At any

Erika Stanley: moment. Right. Like, we're seeing it with TikTok, uh, the past few weeks. Um, email's no different, right? Like we all say like, oh, social media. You don't own social media. You [00:27:00] do own your email list. Like, yeah, we own our email list. Those email addresses are yours. But the email platforms we're all using, they're all part of that same Silicon Valley tech sphere.

And we're realizing that these, the, the billionaires, the tech bros, they can change the game on us at any point. Yeah, absolutely. So we, we really need to be, and you can, you can use AI to do this. We can, yeah, we can use it because. If I've got a really good story or a really good case study that I want to share, that will be really helpful to my communities, and I've got an email community, I've got social media on Instagram, I've got threads.

Um, I, I've got people that I, that my networking groups that I speak to, if I've got this one case study, I can use AI to frame that in a way that's going to be, um, most impactful. For the people on those platforms.

Both: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But at the end of

Erika Stanley: the day, [00:28:00] and at the core of it, it's still my story, it's my case study, it's my expertise.

And so we're fusing these two things. We're fusing authenticity with AI to help us spread our stories in a way that are impactful to the most people. The, to the people in our communities that we're cultivating. Yes. Right? Yeah. So we can use these platforms. Social media, email, uh, even ai. Um, but I think in 2025, and this is, this is just a, this is just a prediction we'll have to see.

It'll be interesting when I come back a year and year from now and listen again. Uh, right, right. Um, I think that the, the community building and getting our messages out to those communities and building trust, that's, that's gonna be. The key, the foundation that we should all build.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I'm seeing a lot of that.

I mean like even the community, the communities that I see, you know, rallying around all these disasters that are going on. You know, [00:29:00] whether it's, you know, massive snowfall in the south, or it's the hurricane in North Carolina, or it's the wildfires in la like, you know, people are rallying. And they're building community and you know, I, I see a lot of positivity coming out of that.

Mm-hmm. And willingness to help. But I think it's finally bringing back that human element, because I think we lost the human element during the pandemic. And so, you know, during the pandemic. This is when technology really took hold of us and said, okay, we're stripping your humanity out. You have to only communicate through Zoom.

Stay in your house, don't associate with people. And now we're like, no, we need people. Right? Like technology isn't gonna solve, you know, they're not gonna, it's not gonna go help the people in North Carolina right now. It's not gonna keep us warm in the snowstorm. You know, we, we need community. And so, yes, I, I think that authenticity, the community, those things that we're.

Right now is I feel like more important than ever.

Erika Stanley: Yeah. Those, the digital [00:30:00] platforms, they can change and evolve. They can go away. Yeah. We can let it frustrate us.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, yeah.

Erika Stanley: And shake our fists at the algorithm or we can focus on the relationship building that. Right. I mean, really. That's how we all started our businesses in the first place was with that relationship and trust building.

That's, it's at our core.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. Absolutely. So to pivot a little bit, um, what obstacles did you overcome when you were, when you were starting your business? Because I'm sure you've, you've had, you share as we all have, but tell me some of the things that you've had to overcome.

Erika Stanley: Okay. This is a great question.

Um, I, I have been laid off four or five times. I'll have to count so I can get this right for the. For the story, but um, yeah, working in the marketing industry, marketing, it's always seen as overhead uhhuh, not revenue. Interesting. So

Angela Gennari: even though it generates revenue indirectly,

Erika Stanley: indirectly, the bean encounters don't always see it that way.

Uhhuh. [00:31:00] So, uh, at 43 years old, um, I've been through several ups and downs, the.com bubble, the, you know, different recessions and as. The economy starts to slow.

Both: Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: Marketing is usually the first thing that gets cut in a business. And so I've been through several layoffs, um, starting my own business, and I started during the pandemic after a layoff.

Okay.

Both: Um,

Erika Stanley: it was scary, but it has been the most fulfilling thing I've ever done. Um, I, I was. I was feeling like I didn't belong in this agency, and I was feeling like, Hmm, I don't wanna go off and do my own thing. But then the pandemic hit and I got scared. I knew I needed health insurance. I knew I needed a steady paycheck, and so I stayed at a place where I wasn't happy and I knew it wasn't a right fit for me.

And then I got laid off and had to [00:32:00] figure it out on my own. And so now it's, it's interesting realizing that. The job security that kept me in that place. Yeah. Is, it wasn't security at all.

Both: Hmm. Um, I have a Was it comfort

Erika Stanley: zone? It was comfort zone, yeah. Yeah. Oh gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I have a, I have a colleague, a friend with a t-shirt.

I want, I want this t-shirt. It says. Be your own daddy. Make your own sugar. Ooh. And I just, I love this shirt so much Uhhuh, because like realizing that I didn't need someone else's business mm-hmm. To pay me a paycheck that I could pay myself with the business, the expertise, the brain that I have myself.

Um, that's, that's a, a huge. Like level up on, on mindset for me.

Angela Gennari: I love it. Well, and it's one way we can, you know, start to [00:33:00] write the pay equity thing, right? And so, oh yeah. You go out and you make your own destiny. If somebody else isn't gonna see my value, I will go bring my value to them and charge them more for it.

Right? Because I know I'm good at what I do. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That, yeah, that's really interesting. So, um, yeah. One of the things that I really struggled with was imposter syndrome when I was getting out on my own and I was like, I, I can do this, I can do this. And then I'm like, I can't do this. I can't.

And but, but that comfort zone, they say it takes, you know, it takes the pain being so bad that it's worth the pain of the risk, right? And so. We're, we're very pleasure and pain oriented. That's how we're motivated. And so we are not motivated by pleasure, we're motivated by pain, and so the pain has to be enough pain that you're willing to go through the pain of the un unknown, which is not only painful, but it's also scary.

Right? Oh, yeah. We loved, we love predictability and um, yeah. So yeah, I just find it [00:34:00] fascinating that as much as we focus on happiness and being happy and finding our happiness, we're really motivated by pain. It really is. You know, how painful is this and can I make it less painful? Pain and

Erika Stanley: complacency.

Angela Gennari: Yes. Yeah. Like status

Erika Stanley: quo.

Angela Gennari: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Absolutely. So, yeah, that's very interesting. So who inspires you?

Erika Stanley: Um, my biggest inspiration right now is all of the women who are starting businesses. Uh, there's a statistic out of the, uh, small business administration, uhhuh, there have been more women who have started businesses in the last few years than men, really for the first time in history.

Wow. And these, these women are what inspire me to keep doing what I'm doing. Mm-hmm. Um. Yes, they're all going to need a brand, a website. Sure. And so, and that's my business. But they also are going to feel like, I [00:35:00] felt like they don't deserve to be doing what they're doing, that they're not ready. And I want to be a cheerleader for those women.

And they, their journeys also it, it's a huge inspiration. Mm-hmm. Having the willingness and the courage to jump from a nine to five.

Both: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And

Erika Stanley: we've all got different motivations. Um, some want more. A lot of people I talk to, it's a freedom of time thing, and the acknowledgement that I. I will have control over my own schedule.

Mm-hmm. To spend more time with my family and my kids to travel when I want to, to I, those are the things that I'm hearing over and over. And so I am constantly inspired by the courage it takes to jump from that nine to five into the unknown.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. It is scary, but you know, and, and then there's also this idea that, you know, people who say, oh, I wanna make my own schedule and I wanna do [00:36:00] this.

That's a balance, right? Like you, that takes so much discipline because when you're starting your business, you want to work on it all the time. It becomes an obsession almost because we wanna see it succeed, right? Like, this is our baby, we're taking this risk, you know, it's all on the line. And so we can become obsessive.

And I know I've done that where my personal life is outta whack and oh yeah. You know? But you know. It, it, there's a, what is this saying? Um, an entrepreneur will work 80 hours for themselves to avoid working 40 hours for someone else. Yeah. This is so true. Oh, yeah. But you know, you, you have to do it because you just genuinely want to do it for you.

And then the amount of confidence that comes from that, the, the level of just, um, reward that you get from it, from knowing that I did something like this. Like I, I. I stepped out of my comfort zone and I did something I never thought I could do, and I did it and I, and I succeeded. And here I [00:37:00] am, you know, to tell the story.

Oh yeah. So it's, it's the most rewarding thing. I always say it's the hardest and best thing I've ever done. Same. Same. Yeah. Yeah. So what advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?

Erika Stanley: Oh, well, um. I am, uh, I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan. All right. And she's, she is got this song, uh, you're on your own kid. Oh.

And so, 18-year-old me, I just, I want her to know that maybe, maybe she's not on her own, but that she's on her own journey. You're on your own journey, kid. Mm-hmm. Um, your journey's not gonna look like anyone else's, and it's not supposed to. It doesn't have to, and that doesn't mean that it's wrong. Mm-hmm.

Um, I. 18 felt like I needed to, you know, you finish high school, you go to college, you step into a career, you, you know, you're on this predetermined path, and [00:38:00] I just want 18-year-old me to know that it doesn't have to look like that, and that's okay.

Both: Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: Um, yeah.

Angela Gennari: I love that. Yeah. I think, um, I think we get caught up in that, especially girls.

I think, I think, you know, when we're young women, we we're like, Nope, this is what the expectations are of me and we need to follow the expectations that others have of us. Um, and that is something that I think women in particular, we get caught in the trap of that, you know, the expectation is that I'm going to graduate from high school, go to college, meet my husband, have a family.

You know, maybe have a career depending on whether or not we can fit that into our life, you know, and then, you know, go from there. And so there's, there's such an expectation of us that we have a hard time, you know, kind of pushing that away and saying, you know what? I think I'm gonna make my journey a little bit different because we're so afraid of what the backlash could be.

You know, the, yeah. The, what do you mean you're not gonna have kids? [00:39:00] What do you mean you're not gonna, you know, go to college? What do you mean you're not going to do, you know, get married in your twenties? Like, there's, there's so much of that and we're so afraid of getting that, that pushback because we're people pleasers many times and we want people to like us and, and be happy with what we're doing.

Erika Stanley: Oh yeah. And I speaking as someone who did not get married until her forties. Yeah, yeah. I like, I need 18-year-old me to know that that's okay too. Yes, exactly. Exactly. But I, I also want to acknowledge the, like, the privilege in that statement.

Both: I am

Erika Stanley: extremely fortunate in that I had a, a very strong support system.

I have very supportive parents. Um, I have a very supportive partner who has, um. Been here for me with many, uh, all-nighters staying up till 4:00 AM to finish a website. But, um, that's awesome. But my parents at, at, you know, at 18 were also very supportive and I think Understood that I was on a different journey.

Both: Yeah. I wasn't

Erika Stanley: [00:40:00] gonna be the one to get married at 22. That's good. Um, not that there's anything wrong with that, but Right. I, I, I know that there is a privilege that comes with having that support system, that safety net. Mm-hmm. Knowing that. I could go off on a different path and if I failed mm-hmm. I wasn't gonna be sleeping on the streets.

I knew I always had a couch I could come home to.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Erika Stanley: Um, uh, not that, not that I ever needed to. Yeah. But it, knowing it was, knowing it's there gives you a certain amount of freedom and I am incredibly great Mom and dad, if you're listening, I am incredibly grateful for that.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, absolutely.

So I really enjoyed this. Erika, you were amazing to talk to. And just so wise, I just really enjoyed this, but, um, what do you wish more people knew?

Erika Stanley: Oh, um, I wish that more people knew that AI is not scary. [00:41:00] Yeah. Um, that you don't have to have a plan for it. You don't have to have a strategy. You can just get in and play with it.

Yeah. And you're not gonna break it. Just Absolutely, absolutely. Approach it with curiosity. Um, with the curiosity and the wide eyes. Wide eyes of a child, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, that, that it's, it's there for us to use as a tool.

Both: Mm-hmm. Just

Erika Stanley: like anything else.

Both: Mm-hmm.

Erika Stanley: Um, I, I also, for all the, for all the small business owners out there, or all the, all the women who are thinking about starting off on your own, um.

Job security is a complete smokescreen. Yes. Uh, it's a fabrication. Yes. And that's, we are learning mm-hmm. That the rug can be pulled out from underneath us at any, uh, this goes back to the, you know, billionaires and the algorithm. It's changing administrations and tons of people with like super secure government jobs who are finding out this week that now [00:42:00] they don't anymore.

And. Me with my, with my experience getting laid off and, and having to realize that, no, and this is, this is a powerful statement that I can say now that I don't think I could have said four or five years ago. I now know how to make my own money.

Both: Mm-hmm. How to

Erika Stanley: support myself, how to use my expertise to help other people.

And to be profitable at that. And there is power in that, that no, once you figure it out, that no one can take away.

Angela Gennari: Yes, absolutely. Amen to that. So, um, I've really enjoyed this. This has been amazing. Thank you so much for being on the show with me today.

Erika Stanley: Thank you so much for having me. This has been a great conversation.

Yes, I've enjoyed it. Well, where can people find you? Well, I am online@mileenddigital.com. Okay. And that is my website. I am [00:43:00] also a, I'm working on starting a group, talking about community building. Yeah, yeah. Uh, starting a group for women to get in and learn how to play with ai. So I am starting the AI Queens Society.

Uh, information for that will be on my website and on Instagram at mile and Digital.

Angela Gennari: Perfect. All right, awesome. Well, thank you again, and you can also find Erika on pretty powerful podcast.com. So thank you guys, everyone for uh, your time today, and I hope everyone has the most amazing weekend.

Intro: Bye-bye.

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