Social Media Marketing: Janette Downie’s Cool, Calm, & Rich Brand

Social media marketing has been a lucrative strategy for large and small businesses alike. It’s a way to brand yourself or your business in a unique way that also allows you to build community. Janette Downie co-founded a digital agency, Space Creatorz, and also successfully launched a personal brand called Cool, Calm, and Rich, where she hosts a podcast and shares her personal insights with her audience. 

Learn all about the proper social media strategy to take if you want to build a brand and be inspired by Janette Downie’s journey to finding and creating work-life balance. 

Janette Downie On Carving Her Own Path

Janette Downie’s journey to becoming her own boss and being an entrepreneur was a long winding road. On An Entrepreneur’s Vibes, Janette says that she has always been “aligned with creative things” and creativity followed her throughout her life. She had initially thought of being a teacher so she took up an English degree but quickly realized after that she had no interest in that field. Unfortunately, Janette didn’t have a backup plan but that would be the catalyst for her beginning to enter the world of social media. Janette says, “Coming out of university, I was a host, I was a server, a bartender, and through that experience, restaurants were just sort of starting to get on to social media, experimenting with their online presence and my role ended up taking on a lot of that responsibility.” At this point in time, businesses were only beginning to realize the power of a good social media marketing strategy, and Janette would be at the forefront of the change.

Eventually, Janette would climb the corporate ladder and transition to hospitality and event sales management, where she would again get that sinking feeling that she wasn’t where she was meant to be. “I wasn’t loving what I was doing”, Janette says, citing the disconnect between what fueled her passion and her current job. Luckily, this time, she had a backup plan as she was beginning to experiment with a photography side hustle. She started part-time photography while serving at the time and it wasn’t long until she could finally do photography full-time and that became her career for 10 years before the pandemic struck in 2020. Because people weren’t allowed to congregate in groups nor be allowed outside unless out of necessity, she started working as a virtual assistant and that would be the beginning of her and her partner’s agency, Space Creatorz. “It’s a bit of a long journey into entrepreneurship, but a fun one.” Janette says, “And I did try the corporate thing and it was very quickly not for me.”

All About Space Creatorz

Space Creatorz is a digital and social media marketing agency that helps its clients with digital advertising, email marketing, branding, and websites. 

A couple of months into the pandemic, as a creative, Janette started getting bored and needed a new challenge. She made a “crazy decision” as she puts it, to invest in a business mastermind at a time when she hadn’t built her business yet. At the time, Janette and her partner had no income coming in and it made no sense to invest in something but ultimately her partner was supportive. She felt like it was “the right decision”, and like every gut feeling she’s had in the past, she would be right. 

Janette says that it was through that mastermind that she saw the shifts and changes in business amid a global pandemic. Starting a social media marketing business was the creative outlet she had been looking for and missing throughout her career. She realized she could build a business that focused on creating content and social media marketing only made sense because she had a lot of the skills needed to make this a success. She continued to build on her existing skills like photography and that was what thrust her into the industry of marketing in the digital age. 

What Is Social Media Marketing 

Social media marketing aka digital or e-marketing is a type of advertising done on social media platforms according to Investopedia. 

Internet marketing basics factor in leveraging social media to build a company’s online presence and brand to increase sales, drive traffic to their websites, and build online communities. Social media marketing is unique in the sense that it can be easy to measure and track the success of your campaign’s efforts with purpose-built data analytics, making it easier for marketers to analyze and adjust accordingly and identify opportunities to grow. 

To succeed in social media marketing, you’ve got to use the Internet marketing basics of focusing on connection, interaction, and customer data. Social media allows marketers to connect with their customers uniquely through various channels allowing them to control the narrative and content their customers will consume. Interaction through social media is an engagement never before possible through other types of advertising, making social media quite a powerful tool. With connection and interaction, businesses can gather customer data allowing them to make better business decisions and continue to leverage that data in order to produce content and services that are tailored exactly to the needs and wants of their customers. 

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Balancing Entrepreneurship & Motherhood

When Janette and her partner started Space Creatorz, they were also new parents. Janette says, “That was definitely hard to navigate and figure out how am I going to be good at all these things. How am I going to be a good business owner, good at what I’m doing, how am I going to be a good mom, like at all, at the same time?”.  Balancing multiple big responsibilities can be quite challenging especially when you’re navigating them for the first time so to that, here’s what Janette had to say: “What I realized was that instead of trying to multitask and do it all at once, you really have to become very good at doing it all separately. So being able to give 100% of your attention to what’s in front of you is the gift, it’s the solution.” Janette remembers a time when she would try to schedule work meetings while her son was at home and it would be a disaster. She found that creating systems that allowed her to be a mother and an entrepreneur full-time would result in less conflict. “It has to be harmonious”, Janette says about juggling her multiple responsibilities. Try not to do everything all at once and allot specific times to specific tasks and it’ll be the game-changer. Janette says, “Give your full attention and give your energy to the thing in front of you. That changed everything for me.”

Janette Downie On Being Cool, Calm, and Rich

Outside of Space Creatorz, Janette Downie has successfully built her own personal brand, “Cool, Calm, and Rich.” After navigating entrepreneurship and motherhood successfully, she had a new understanding of tending to oneself in order to properly create value for others. After dealing with anxiety and burnout, Janette had to find a way to condition herself out of those unhealthy work habits she had continued to dodge in the past. Hence, the ‘Cool, Calm, and Rich’ lifestyle was born. 

“I feel, as a society, but especially as women in business, that we need to sacrifice ourselves for everything and that we need to come last,” Janette shared on the podcast, “I realized how important it is to put yourself at the top of that list has such a direct effect on your overall success.” Probably one of the most important lessons Janette realized and adopted throughout her entrepreneurial journey was putting more effort back into her. After all, through her past journeys, whether it was taking up education, or going into the hospitality industry, she realized that it was simply not her calling probably because, at the time, she wasn’t pouring energy and effort back into herself which caused her to be anxious and burnt out. Only after you begin to nurture yourself can you show up as a good leader, a good family member, and a good entrepreneur, things she was initially afraid of at the start of her entrepreneurial and parenthood journey. 

“Seeing that the more effort I put into how I felt personally, how I felt well or not, if I was healthy or not, actually affected how much money I made. Because the more effort that I put into myself, into feeling good, into feeling aligned, to feeling healthy, that showed up in every interaction that I had.” 

Anyone on their journeys, whether it be educational, entrepreneurial, or personal, can learn a lot from Janette’s Cool, Calm, and Rich mindset. Rich doesn’t just mean financially; rich can mean a multitude of things like health, wellness, and alignment, and it can mean the achievement of whatever goal you set for yourself. But only after you’ve gotten to a space of maintaining your cool and staying calm throughout this journey can you really start to manifest success. “That’s the mission I’m on”, Janett says, “It’s just helping women see that that’s possible for themselves, that they do get to have both, that you get to feel great and be really successful at the same time.”

Listen To An Entrepreneur’s Vibes Podcast

Get more insight into the world of social media and online marketing by listening to Janette Downie’s full episode at An Entrepreneur’s Vibes Podcast. We discuss more about social media strategies, how Space Creatorz can help businesses, and what you can do today to be Cool, Calm, and Rich.

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Janette Downie [00:00:00] You can be really pulled in a lot of conflicting directions when you are a parent and a business owner. It doesn’t always feel good. Instead of trying to multi-task, you really have to become very good at doing it all separately. 

Patricia [00:00:28] Welcome to An Entrepreneur’s Vibes, the podcast that gives insight into the minds of visionary entrepreneurs and business leaders, brought to you by The Write Direction, a leading professional and technical writing company based in North America. Each episode we explore the stories and experiences of those who dared to dream, took the leap and built their own empires. Join us in uncovering the secrets to success and lessons learned along the way. So if you’re just starting out your entrepreneurial journey or you’re already seasoned business pro, you’ll find inspiration, knowledge and good vibes right here. Today’s guest is the dynamic co-founder of the digital marketing agency Space Creatorz. Our guest, along with her business partner launched Space Creatorz in January of 2021, transforming their personal experiences and toxic work environments into a thriving company that focuses on creating healthy, balanced work-life harmony. Our guest is also the host of the Cool, Calm and Rich podcast, where she shares her journey of building a successful business with soul. Get ready to dive deep into her inspiring story and gain valuable insights into entrepreneurship, branding and finding balance in the business hustle. Welcome to the show, Janette Downie! Hi!

Janette Downie [00:01:33] Hi, thank you so much! Thank you for that introduction! It’s always really funny to hear that kind of said back to you, and even though it’s things that you know about yourself, I’m like, “Yeah, that is true,” but it’s very cool to hear it said back. Thank you so much for having me! I’m really excited to be here!

Patricia [00:01:51] I’m so excited! I have so much questions about like the branding, the Cool, Calm and Rich, I love that and everything that goes into creating the digital agency Space Creatorz. So could you tell us please like a little bit about your background and what inspired you to leave the corporate world back in 2015? 

Janette Downie [00:02:08] Yeah, sure. So I think I’ve always been a creative person. I think back to being a kid and my interests were always aligned with creative things. I wasn’t big into sports. I loved dance, I loved music, I love writing, acting, all of those things. And I think being a creative followed me throughout my whole life. And as I kind of went through school and went into university, I studied English though, because I thought that I wanted to be a teacher. So I went through my degree thinking I was going to go to teachers college after school, and by the time I finished school, I realized I do not want to be a teacher. I have no interest in going that way. I had spent several summers working full time with kids, and I loved it. I loved the experience, but I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted to do every day for the rest of my life. So I had no plan B, no backup, and I started working in restaurants. Coming out of university, I was a host, I was a server, a bartender. And through that experience, restaurants were just sort of starting to get on to social media, experiment with their online presence, and my role ended up taking on a lot of that responsibility, especially when I would work as a hostess in restaurants. That would be like an additional thing that I would need to take on and do. So I started getting familiar with it way back then, but even that was before I transitioned any of those skills into business. And I worked in restaurants for about five years and I worked my way up. I got a promotion once a year, every year for five years, and then I kind of felt like I had made it in the corporate world, you know, I felt like I had gotten to the top. I was making good money. I worked at head office. I wasn’t a server anymore. I had like gotten out of that. But I worked in hospitality and event sales management. And I’m telling you, I think it was two months into my kind of biggest promotion, my biggest job in corporate, that I just had this sinking feeling that this is just not for me. I was commuting two hours to work in each direction. When I got there, I wasn’t loving what I was doing. I didn’t feel fueled or, you know, passionate to help the people that I was working with, and I just knew that it wasn’t going to be the direction for me. And luckily I had started experimenting with photography on the side, and I was thinking in alignment with not wanting to be in corporate anymore, that maybe I could finally start pursuing something creative and maybe I could make something out of this photography. And so I wanted to start doing that. Obviously, I couldn’t do it full time right at first, but I started part time doing photo shoots, taking on any work that I could, and I just did serving at the same time to supplement my income, so I kind of went back into that. But it wasn’t long, and I feel very lucky and very fortunate that it wasn’t too long before I was able to do photography full time. I had made it a goal of being able to do that exclusively in three years, and I did it in one. So I was pretty happy and pretty proud of myself to be able to transition into that within one year of starting the business. And I did that. I did photography for ten years, happily, lovingly before the pandemic hit. And when the pandemic hit, everything changed. The world of photography for me and where I lived really shut down. We weren’t even allowed to be outside with other people where I lived. And so that was just not an option. And that was where I started to explore what else could be something that I could do and transitioned into working online as a virtual assistant, which over time snowballed into the agency and working with my partner. So it’s a bit of a long journey into entrepreneurship, but a fun one. And I did try the corporate thing and yeah, it was, it was very quickly, not for me. 

Patricia [00:06:37] I feel like a lot of people would really relate to, you know, the hardships of going to work every day, the commute, like working with so many different people and not having feeling that – like you’re not in control somehow. And I love that you got in touch with your creative side and you, you know, I think it takes a lot of strength to, you know, make that like, change from like something that feels very, very safe into something that you’re not really sure if you’re even going to succeed. And I think a lot of people need to understand that it does take time like it did with you, but with enough perseverance, it does happen. And I’m really happy that, you know, you can share that story with us today. [00:07:15]And could you tell us, like when you finally transitioned to photography, like what were the key lessons that you took from the first business, and what would you say are like the differences between going into that first entrepreneurship and working in corporate? [14.2s]

Janette Downie [00:07:30] [00:07:30]It’s a great question. The neat thing about starting your first business, and especially a creative business, and I kind of laugh when I think back on it now, is I didn’t even know I was starting a business, to be honest with you. Like when I started photography, it was like I was going to chase my passion, right? Like I was going to go after my dream of doing creative work. And I didn’t think like, I’m starting a business, to grow a business and to make an impact in that way. But very quickly, through having a business, I realized how much more goes into that than just providing the service that you want to provide. And you very quickly realized you have to have contracts, and invoicing, and systems, and operations, and you then need to have a website, a portfolio, social media. You need to promote yourself, market yourself and you know, the list goes on and on. You have to pay taxes, right? There’s so much more that goes into it that I didn’t necessarily realize that at all when I was starting. So I started to see that and realize, okay, being a business owner means wearing a lot more hats than just doing the thing that you want to do, right? It’d be great if you could run a business and just do the one thing that you’re passionate about, but that’s just not the reality of what owning a business is like. So that was one of the biggest things that I learned and so valuable to go through and definitely, you know, changed and paved the way that I went into my second business later on but learned so much. And I think that like the key difference is it’s sort of, as you almost mentioned already, of like the lack of control versus the corporate world feeling like not having freedom, autonomy over myself, I think is really difficult. Those were the things that really got to me with corporate was like, I hated being told what to do every single day. And it was different to like at that higher level than when you’re kind of showing up to do a job. I just changed how I really felt about it. And then when you added the commuting on top of that, the amount of time I felt like I was just wasting and and just not being happy at the end of the day. That was really enough for me to not want to be there. And it was the total opposite when I started my own business, right? I felt much freer. I felt a lot more in control of myself and my time, and I felt like I could explore whatever I wanted to. Like, the possibilities are endless, and that made me very happy. [166.2s]

Patricia [00:10:18] I love that. It gives you that like, push to start taking the reins for yourself. And of course, it’s going to be, you know, extra difficult. Like there’s so many learning curves along the way. And you were talking about wearing many hats and responsibilities. On top of like all of the things that you do on the business side, you also have arguably the biggest and most rewarding job ever as a mother. And I really wanted to ask, because there’s probably a lot of women out there who really want to, you know, learn from other moms, like how to balance, you know, everything else on top of, you know, raising a child. So I wanted to ask, like, [00:10:55]how do you balance being like a founder, a mom, a podcast host, and like, doing everything else?[5.5s]

Janette Downie [00:11:01] [00:11:01]Yeah, in some ways I’m still figuring it out. I think it’s like a lifelong journey of figuring out how to make it all work together. But I definitely learned a lot going through having multiple businesses, having a personal brand and having a child. When I started Space Creatorz with my partner, we still had a baby, this little fresh baby. And so a funny time to want to dive into starting a new business, but there was something to it, and we decided to do that. But that was definitely hard to navigate and figure out how am I going to be good at all of these things. How am I going to be a good business owner, good at what I’m doing, how am I going to be a good mom like all at the same time? And there was a lot of times I’d be lying if I said I felt like that wasn’t possible. It was really challenging, especially at first, to really figure out how I was going to make all of those things work. And you can really pulled in a lot of conflicting directions when you are a parent and a business owner, and it doesn’t always feel goosd. But over time, what I realized was that instead of trying to multitask and do it all at once, you really have to become very good at doing it all separately. So being able to give 100% of your attention to what’s in front of you is the gift. It’s the solution. So when you have your family, your kids in front of you, they have to be the priority and you have to be able to give yourself to them. And then when they’re not there and you have the time to focus on business or focus on the other things, then that’s what you give your attention, to that. I use to try to schedule meetings when my son was home and it would be a disaster and it would feel awful or it would conflict with doing his bedtime, and I would always way rather be doing the bed time. And I had to figure out the systems, the boundaries to be able to just put them all – not in a silo, because in a way, like you still need everything to work together, right? Like it has to be very harmonious, but it’s too difficult to try to do it all at once. And so it’s just figuring out how you – at the same time, right? So like how you can separate things, and give your full attention and give your energy to the thing in front of you. That changed everything for me. [157.3s]

Patricia [00:13:39] I think that’s like really good advice. Instead of like putting 100% and then like putting it in all different directions, like putting 100% of what’s in front of you at the time, and you know, like compartmentalizing sort of and having a time and a place for everything, I think is like really good advice. Because you’re right, a lot of people try and do everything all at once, which you can’t do. Like you can try, but then you’re not going to probably get the best results out of that. So I think it’s really commendable, and I am a big fan of just like working moms in general. Like they’re really – they make our world go round. Like, it’s amazing. So, I really like…

Janette Downie [00:14:15] Well, thanks for saying that. It doesn’t always feel like that, but it’s nice to hear. 

Patricia [00:14:21] Of course. And I feel like your son will, you know, grow up and feel the same. Like, how did you do all of that? You know, take it all together. Like, that’s crazy. But I wanted to ask like a little bit about Space creatorz and [00:14:34]how you and your partner, Steve, decided to start that. Like, what was the driving force behind it? [4.5s]

Janette Downie [00:14:39] [00:14:39]Yeah. So as I mentioned, you know, we were in the time of the pandemic, and we were a couple months in, and I started to get very bored as I think a lot of creative people do and feeling like I needed a new challenge and needed to be doing something. And I made the crazy decision to invest in a business mastermind during this time when I had no business. And I remember distinctly, like coming down after signing up, I was upstairs in the office and came down to my partner and was like, “I just signed up for this thing.” And he was like, “What do you mean you just signed up for this thing?” Like, we have no money coming in, and I was just like, “I don’t know. It just felt like the right decision. I just had to do it. I had to go for it.” And he was ultimately very supportive, of course. But it was through that mastermind that I really started to see the shifts and changes in business as the pandemic was going on. And everyone was going online, right? Like anybody who had an in-person business was trying to figure out if they should set up an e-commerce shop, and people who had businesses online were figuring out how they could capitalize on this moment. And what I really noticed was a recurring theme of, one, the people who were in the mastermind consistently talking about how much help they needed in their business and how they couldn’t do it all on their own, and they were overwhelmed, and they needed help with social media. They needed help to make a website with all these other skills that they didn’t have, and they didn’t want to do it all themselves, so they didn’t know how to get the help that they needed. And at the same time, all of the guest speakers we had in that mastermind came in and talked about the importance of outsourcing in your business, and that that such a key learning how to delegate and how to outsource in order to help continue to grow your business. So I just kept hearing this over and over again and I thought, “Well, you know what? I could do that for people. I have a lot of these skills.” Like, I talked about starting to get them way back when I still worked in restaurants and then doing my photography. I built a ton of skills for the digital world and I was like, “I could do this for people. I could help them.” So I decided to start a virtual assisting business, and I helped people do exactly that. Do their social media, do their websites, very quickly expanded into basically all things digital marketing. And I remember Steve, my partner, coming to me one day and saying, “You know, you realize the work that you’re doing for your clients is digital marketing? Like, you’re not an assistant anymore. You’re a marketer.” And I was like, “I guess you’re right.” And he at the time also had been laid off from his job. He had a ton of experience working in sales and advertising and business development, and he kind of came to me and said, “What if we tried to push this and build this together?” And we had this really casual conversation in the kitchen where we’re like, “You know, what if we did that? What if we tried it? Okay, let’s try it, and let’s see if we can turn this into something.” And just sort of like a quick handshake. Like, “Great, let’s do this.” And we literally came up with the name at the same time. We’re like, “This could totally work.” And it’s been an amazing experience ever since. So it just kind of came out of a result of that and him coming to me and saying, What if we just tried it and now we are like four and a half years in, and it’s growing really quickly ever since. [221.2s]

Patricia [00:18:21] I love that. I mean, it’s so cool. Like you had an Instagram bio, like “We’re not like a regular agency. We’re like a cool agency.” Like, I love the branding about everything. Everything just like fell into place. What were the early days like when you guys, like, finally figured out, “Okay, let’s really do this? We had a name and everything.” [00:18:39]How did you navigate like the challenges of starting a business, especially during the pandemic? [4.2s]

Janette Downie [00:18:45] [00:18:45]I felt really crazy. I think we quickly were like, “What are we doing? This is insane.” But we always liked it. And what we fell in love with in that process was just the actual process of building a business and doing that together. But there was so much learning and especially in the early days, like we didn’t quite know what the full vision for like a full scale agency was going to be. But we just started testing. We just started trying things. We started bringing people in. We had to hire very fast. But even when we were hiring in those early days, we didn’t even know what we needed. You know, it was like, “I think it would be great for us to hire an assistant. Maybe we need to hire this person.” And like, we’re just we’re kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall. Like, we really didn’t know what we needed. And a lot of our decisions weren’t rooted in information and supportive data. It was just like, “Let’s just try stuff.” And it didn’t always work. So there was a lot of lessons, a lot of learning. Same thing on the client side, with a lot of figuring out how we could actually help people. I think sometimes when we start businesses, we assume how we can help people, but we really have to go through the motions of learning and letting them show us how we can help them. So by working with so many different businesses and seeing how impact is truly made and how we actually can help people, that was a hard thing to also kind of get to know and get to learn, you know. At the beginning, we came up with all kinds of packages and thought, “Well, this could be good for people.” But then it turns out that didn’t actually make any impact or move the needle. So being willing to be flexible and keep trying, that is a lot of guesswork at the beginning and a lot of testing and just trying. And it’s the willingness to, I think, learn from all the mistakes we made to continue to try to get better, to provide better services, make better hires, make better decisions and just kind of persevere through all those early challenges was the thing that helped us to keep going and keep going. Though we made a lot of mistakes at the beginning. [138.2s]

Patricia [00:21:04] [00:21:04]I think that’s like really great what you said about, especially with like service based businesses, it’s like you tend to assume like, “This would really help someone,” but then no one’s really like, you know, availing of the service, right? But like you have to really be in tune to like maybe look at the data of like, “Where can I really bridge that gap? Like, what are people actually looking for?” And I wanted to ask you, like how you identified the specific services that Space Creatorz offer today. Like how did you get in tuned with like the customer side and really knowing what they needed at the time? [30.8s]

Janette Downie [00:21:36] [00:21:36]Yeah, a lot of it was that paying attention to what people were asking for. And in the beginning we found a lot of our business online, whether it was in Facebook groups or different like online forums where people were posting and asking for what they were looking for. And we did notice that there was a lot of similarities. In the beginning, what we really focused on a lot was websites, branding and social media. Social media was a big one for us at the start, and we kind of did each of those things in a silo. And as time would go on, we’ll be working with some people and then they would bring up for us like, “Do you also do email?” or “Would you also do SEO?” And at the beginning, we didn’t always do those things, but we always figured out how, and we always figured out a way. And so over time we just ended up having a team of people who were experts in these different areas who could execute all of those things. But it really was actively listening to what people were looking for and asking for and not just, yeah, trying to come up with everything and anything. We tried several different things, though, and it didn’t always work. Like I said at the beginning, we did try to sell just individual services and we didn’t have the package offerings that we have now. That’s definitely come through a process of learning about, again, how we can actually make impact for people. But we would do things just individually and we started to see that it felt really hard to prove results for people from a marketing perspective if we were just doing one thing for them, and that the more we learned, the more services we brought in-house. We were able to see that when we do more things and combine different services, that more impact is actually made. More money gets brought in to those businesses. And so eventually, we scaled that into the offer that we have now, which is our fractional marketing team. And businesses hire us essentially as an extension of their team to act as an in-house marketing team. But we’re technically out of house and to be able to just have a certain number of hours each month where we get to focus – collectively decide where we’re going to focus the energy and the efforts in marketing. So yeah, a journey to get there but trying a lot of different things along the way. [147.2s]

Patricia [00:24:04] [00:24:04]And how would you say the vision for Space Creatorz changed from when you first started and how it’s evolved today? [5.5s]

Janette Downie [00:24:11] [00:24:11]I think like the true vision, the true essence of it hasn’t really changed, which is very cool to me. What we think is possible for us is the part that’s changed, I think because at the beginning, we didn’t necessarily think that we wanted to create like a big company. We probably thought about keeping it relatively small, relatively lean, just working with a few clients. And I don’t know that we necessarily even thought it was possible for us to grow a big business. So that was mindset stuff that we had at the beginning that we eventually started to work through. But the core vision of what we want to do at Space Creatorz is twofold. We have an internal vision for our team that is really focused around creating a space where people feel free and valued to do the work that they love. Pretty simply put. We want people to feel like they can work exclusively on what they love, what they are passionate about, what they are good at, what they can bring their best energy forward for, and not have to take on a bunch of responsibilities that don’t really apply to their job or that don’t really work for them. We want them to have autonomy and freedom of space. You know, all those things that I complained about from the corporate world that my partner also resonated with and wanting to just create this environment for people where the work really added to their life instead of taking away from it. So that is the internal vision, and that’s still true today, and that will probably never change. I love the model we have. I love the team that we have, the people we attract into that vision and mission. It works out great. Externally for our clients, it’s kind of similar, but different. The whole idea behind Space Creatorz is with the clients, we want to help them create space to focus on the things that they love and that they’re good at. And so a lot of the times, the businesses and people that will hire us, marketing isn’t their strong point, and branding and websites isn’t their strong point. And so they are looking for someone who’s an expert in that field, who can help them, who could come in and step into that role, so that they can focus on growing their business and moving the needle forward. So our whole idea of creating space really applies to both the team and our clients and just wanting people to be able to do exactly what they love. [150.3s]

Patricia [00:26:42] I love that. That makes so much sense about like the name Space Creatorz, how it’s like a dual ended thing where it’s like giving a space for creators to be creative and then giving space for other businesses to do what they do best and let you take, you know, the creative side. I think that’s really amazing. I wanted to ask you like some more leadership innovation advice. Like [00:27:04]how have your experiences with anxiety and burnout influenced the way you run your business today? [5.3s]

Janette Downie [00:27:10] [00:27:10]So much. So much. Yeah, I’m still learning and still growing through my experiences with anxiety. It’s gotten a lot better for me as the more work I put into it. The better I feel, the better I do. And I haven’t been burnt out in a long time, so that’s a great sign. But it was going through those things that also really affirmed the mission of what we’re doing for me. And I did experience these things while having Space Creatorz. Part of growing the business definitely played a bit of a role in that, and learning about myself, learning about my boundaries, learning about what I need as a person and as a business owner, and everything that I went through, feeling anxiety, feeling burnout, panic attacks, they really shifted my perspective in what’s important. And applying that to my business has been really important as well because I think it’s really important that everyone on my team feels the humanity of things. And I also want clients to feel that way, that, you know, things happen, experiences happen, people have anxiety, people get burnt out. People experience grief and loss. The list is endless of human experiences that happened while being a business owner, or while being somebody’s client or while being someone service provider, and I just wanted to really bring that forward with me that that should be okay. You know, I really felt like a lot of the times when my personal experiences in my business rubbed up against each other, and it felt like it wasn’t professional to have anxiety. It wasn’t professional to burn out. That wasn’t okay. You know, like it wasn’t okay for my business and my clients wouldn’t understand. And they’re shifting my mindset around that. I realized it’s very okay, and it’s very human and it’s very normal to have those types of experiences. Yes, even when you’re successful, even when you’re a big business owner or even when you are someone’s client, like these things are okay. So it’s really shifted my viewpoint in that way of, you know, what’s allowed in the business space. And what’s professional, and what’s not professional and the grace that we can give each other. [144.7s]

Patricia [00:29:36] I love that saying. What you just said right now, like giving yourself that grace and not shutting out like all these valid feelings that you have. And I think that’s like one of the first steps, right, to getting better about it is when you finally acknowledge that I am feeling these things, and I don’t want to feel these things, but they’re not necessarily bad. And there might be things around my environment that’s leading me to feel these things, and I need to find what those things are, so I can fix them, instead of just like saying, “This is not a professional feeling.” Like it’s valid, like there’s a reason why you feel like that. And, you know, there’s always like things that we can do better, especially for ourselves and just giving yourself that grace. I really love that. [00:30:18]And could you share with us like some strategies that you’ve used to maintain, like having a work-life harmony while growing a business?[7.0s]

Janette Downie [00:30:27] [00:30:27]Absolutely. And having those kind of strategies is so instrumental and so important. I feel like we’re kind of just waiting in the water, like you’re trying to swim somewhere and get somewhere. Without a strategy, without knowing how to work through things like you just stick there and you get stuck, right? And you can’t really get anywhere. Things that have really helped me is, number one, identifying what my true priorities are, right? Because a lot of the times when we get burnt out or, you know, business starts to feel really hard or we feel overwhelmed, it’s because we’re not able to focus on the things that truly, truly matter to us, whether that is our families, whether that’s children, whether that’s our health and wellness. It could be anything, right? And so being able to figure out what are the things that are actually my true priorities, and I have three of them. So I like to pick three, and those three things are the most important things to me, and I know that I need to prioritize time for them every single day. And if I don’t prioritize time for them, not the end of the world, but I’m probably not going to be at my best. And so it’s knowing that knowing that family is super important, creativity is super important for me and my health and wellness is very important. If I lose sight of those priorities, then I know things are out of whack for me. So having that is important, and it made me also like – knowing that I was giving energy to those three things made me not resent putting energy into my business, right? So having that understanding of, okay, I am going to give myself to the things that matter, and then I will still have more to give to the business as well. That is key for me. Extending into that and like a little bit from it is knowing what your true core values are. And I think you know that by if you think about times in your life that you’re in that rooted moment of like, “Yeah, this is me. This is what I’m supposed to be doing,” you feel very aligned, those are things that represent your core values. And so also knowing what those are so that you can build a business that supports those values. So let’s just use an example of if freedom is one of your core values, then you’re not going to want to build a business that steals away all of your freedom, right? So knowing what the things are that can guide you from a values perspective and how to build a business around them, it’s also really important because you don’t want to build the business and then realize that you’re not actually living in your true values, right? So that also has been really, really important for me in that journey. And then honestly, it’s just getting to know yourself on a really deep personal level. Sometimes I think we separate – you have to separate yourself. Like, it’s twofold. When you have a business, you’re not the business, right? You are such a big part of the business. You’re the owner. You’re a very important and integral piece, but you’re not the business. You’re a person outside of the business, and I think getting to know your self as deeply as possible so that you can live in a way that really supports who you truly are from authentic perspective, if you’re building a business around someone that you’re not, again, values that you don’t have or, you know, even just operating in a system that doesn’t truly work for you, then there’s going to come a point when either you’re going to burn out or you’re going to quit, or you’re going to go back to corporate. And so, you know, those things are, to me, the most important. Those are the things that keep me grounded. That’s my strategy in staying harmonious, as you said, work-life harmony.[236.3s]

Patricia [00:34:25] [00:34:25]How do you ensure that your agency as well is following through these strategies? Like, how do you promote that culture of a healthy work-life environment for your team? [8.8s]

Janette Downie [00:34:34] Yeah, so these same strategies we use as an organization. Our organization knows what our key core values are. We also have something that is called even over statements. And those are when two hypothetically or seemingly good things rub up against each other, which happens a lot in business, having a very clear understanding of which one you would choose. And so one good example of that would be one of ours is people even over profit. So a lot of the times we might have an issue where our people are vulnerable in a situation or there’s something that is not working for them, or maybe for our client, and we’re always going to choose people even over the opportunity to make more money, right? Or choose our teams wellness before we’re going to bring on a client that is really not aligned or something like that. So having that understanding, though, we really operate in the same way. Having core values, knowing what our mission is and our vision very clearly, knowing our priorities and knowing those even overs keeps that vision of having a healthy team alive. Our number one core value is over communication. So we communicate, and then communicate again. Communicate more than you think you need to about anything and everything, whether it’s project related, life related. You just need some time off. Like, that’s all okay. Again, the human experience in my eyes is very okay, and what works from a business perspective is as long as we’re communicating, then it’s all fine, right? So I feel like everything and one of my biggest passions in having a team is making sure that they are healthy and they do feel well. They need a lot of support in that, because when you work for someone else, it’s not always easy to determine that for yourself. [122.5s]

Patricia [00:36:38] [00:36:38]I love that. I feel like you really created something so different from what you experienced in your corporate life and really took those lessons and said to yourself, “I’m not going to make, you know, the people in my team feel the same way.” Like you said earlier, about if one of your core values is having freedom, like I feel like you wouldn’t want to try and get freedom out of the people who like, work with you and try to give them as much like creative space and whatever else is their own core values. I really love that over communication, especially when you’re working with so many people. It actually does make a lot of sense. Like to kind of feel connected, right? Like you’re – where you’re more than just coworkers. You all work together for the same goal. So I love that, over communicating. Since Space Creatorz is a marketing agency, I wanted to ask you, like, what do you think is like the importance of branding in today’s digital landscape, and how does your agency help your client stand out? [56.8s]

Janette Downie [00:37:36] [00:37:36]I mean, I think it’s super important. I feel like with the way things have gone and how, you know, everything is online, there’s an online presence for most things, there’s exceptions. There’s some good classic brick and mortars who, somehow, they make it without being online. But for the most part, our world is very digital now. We are very online and that is a visual space, right? And everything that we see and everything that we consume has a visual aspect to it online, whether it is a website or social media. And so the role that branding plays in that is so key, right? In order to show your specific brand identity, your core values as a brand. What type of brand you are? What do you feel like? Like what does it feel like working with you, buying from you? This is all something that happens visually first. There’s a lot that goes into supporting that visual identity as well. But to me, having a visual brand that stands out is so important. And as much as it stands out, does a really good job of representing your business and who you are, what you stand for, and what people can really expect from you, the experience of your brand, that also has to translate visually, and I feel like it’s something that is very important today because I mean, the amount of stuff that’s on there, you just think about a person scrolling. I think it’s what point – two seconds maybe that you can have someone’s attention. So having that and the ability to stop someone in their tracks through all the information that they’re consuming every single day is really important. And our business really takes a big focus on that. Branding is one of the things we love the most. It’s something that we’re the best at and we love helping businesses really set the foundation for their business with the brand. We like to take it into a whole strategy. The idea of having a brand is, like I just said, much more than just the visuals. The visuals are important. Logos are important. Colors are important. Fonts are important. But beyond that, what does the brand stand for? What is the brand actually doing in the world? What are we trying to achieve? Who are we trying to bring in to our mission? Who are we selling to? What’s the point of the whole thing? What does it sound like? It goes so much deeper than that, and I think that’s where we really start to excel with our clients and helping them really set the stage of what their brand means and how it’s going to function out in the world. [164.9s]

Patricia [00:40:22] Well, since we’re talking about branding, I wanted to ask you about your personal brand, Cool, Calm and Rich. I wanted to get an idea of how that brand came about. [00:40:31]What was the inspiration behind creating this space that focuses on balancing business success with personal well-being? [5.8s]

Janette Downie [00:40:38] So a lot based on what we were talking about and my experiences with anxiety and burnout, and what I just came to realize again, like after going through that, was that it didn’t have to be that way and that we have a deep conditioning. I feel, as a society, but especially as women in business, that we need to sacrifice ourselves for everything and that we need to come last. I used to make a joke and I think about making to-do lists and all the things that we would write on it, but doing something for ourself would never show up on that list, you know? It would be all the things you have to do for your business, then all the things you have to do for your family, then your friends, then the stranger you could help, you know, all before you even show up in that mindset. And I realized that how important it is to put yourself at the top of that list has such a direct effect on your overall success. It affects how you show up in your daily life, how you show up for your family, but also for your business and for your clients. And for me, seeing that the more effort I put into how I felt personally, how I felt well or not, if I was healthy or not, actually affected how much money I made. Because the more effort that I put into myself, into feeling good, into feeling aligned, to feeling healthy, that showed up in every interaction that I had, whether it was with a team member or a client or a potential client. And the better I felt, the better I showed up, the better we did for them. And that, in turn, means a better experience for the client and them referring you or working with you again. So there is a direct correlation to how successful I feel like a person can be to how much effort we put into our personal wellness. And I really want to change the narrative with Cool, Calm and Rich that we get to define what success looks like for ourselves. And we also get to define what richness looks for ourselves. And it’s a very personal journey. And now, we have to stop necessarily just trying to follow what other people says is successful, that all the people have gone before. They’ve been able to make it in their way, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be our way, and we get to kind of pave our own pathway forward. Then that’s the mission that I’m on. It’s just helping women see that that’s possible for themselves, that they do get to have both, that you get to feel great and be really successful at the same time. [157.6s]

Patricia [00:43:16] I love that, because that resonates with me so much. Like when you said, putting everything else before you shouldn’t be the norm anymore. Because instead of like – because you subconsciously feel that, right? When you prioritize other things over yourself, I guess that kind of will build some sort of resentment, and then you feel like, “I’m actually not taking the time to care for my own well-being.” instead of like really pouring into yourself and then raising everything around you as you go. Like, that should be the norm, and I feel like that’s what you’re trying to achieve, telling, you know, women how to do that. So I think that’s like so cool, calm and rich. I love that. So you also have a podcast of the same name. What was the vision for it? How did you get that started? Please tell me. [46.6s]

Janette Downie [00:44:03] Yeah, the vision for it, it was a way to keep myself accountable to my own wellness journey. When I first started, I thought, “You know what? I’m going to start talking about this.” Because, one, it makes me feel better to talk about it. It keeps me more accountable to showing up and doing it again. If other people are listening and hearing and being a part of it. And as I was doing that, more and more people would come forward that they felt the same way or they were having the same experiences or going on the same journey that I had been on. And so the more I talked about it, the more I realized that there’s not enough people talking about it and that we need to have as many conversations as possible around this, because it’s so needed, and it’s so important. And so it started in that way. And then as it continued to grow, just really saw the value in conversation, and that’s when I also started to bring guests on to the show so that we could get a lot of perspectives about what’s possible in this realm of personal wellness, and success and how we can make the best of both worlds. So it’s been one of my favorite things that I’ve done. Of all the things I’ve done, I’m so obsessed with my own brand, and because – it’s just so much fun. It’s so much fun making a positive impact. It’s so much fun being a part of this conversation and trying to pave the way of a new way toward success. And so, I just – I love it so much, and doing podcasts is my favorite thing. [89.0s]

Patricia [00:45:33] I totally agree. And I mean, I just wanted to ask you, like, what are the things that make you feel cool, calm and rich? [5.6s]

Janette Downie [00:45:41] So this is the question I ask everyone who comes on my show. I don’t know if I’ve answered this one before. The things that make me feel cool are I mean, my family, my partner, my son. They’re the coolest, and so, being associated with them makes me feel cool. I feel cool for being a part of this conversation. I was like talking about success without stress and trying to do things differently. That feels really cool to me. The things that make me calm is my commitment to my personal wellness. I like to try all the things and see what works from a wellness perspective. I love journaling. I love meditating. I love breathwork. I love movement. And those things all really keep me calm, make me feel centered. And the things that makes me feel rich is, is my life and my business. I love both of them. They make me feel rich in the fulfillment aspect of richness. They bring all the joy, and that is what truly makes me feel rich. It’s like all three of them combined too is just like the realization that I made of being in the present moment. And the more that I am just present, I feel the coolest, calmest and richest of all. [86.1s]

Patricia [00:47:08] Thank you so much for sharing that. I mean, the branding, you are so right. I mean, I’m so obsessed with it as well. This is something I’m going to try and like, you know, imitate in my life and, you know, really ask myself, “Okay, what makes me feel these things?” And just do that. Well, could you tell me, like maybe some memorable moments that you’ve had on the podcast so far? 

Janette Downie [00:47:29] What’s become more memorable for me is for sure, as guests have started coming on, that’s been such a fun experience. I love every person that comes on the show and shares their point of view. Really memorable for me, I think of two things. One is the first time that I did an in-person interview, which was with a girl named Tamara, and she was such a fun, lively guest to have on, but just doing that first face to face interview was a very cool, pivotal moment for me. It made me realize how much more I wanted to do that, how much more I wanted to be in person with people having this conversation. I’m so grateful for her for being the first person to do that on the show. That really stood out for me. And then another moment was having my most notable guest on the show, which is [00:48:18]Jaclyn Johnson. [0.5s] She’s the founder of Create and Cultivate. She’s a massive figure, especially for women in business, and she came on the show and was a guest, and it’s definitely my most downloaded episode. And so that was a very big moment for me too, is just having someone kind of so influential be a guest and be a part of the conversation. 

Patricia [00:48:42] And I mean, podcasting these days has been – I don’t know, there’s just been such a boom in the industry. I feel like everyone has a podcast these days. I think that it’s also very relevant because it really shows who you are. Like it’s another way of like branding yourself so people can get a really close up look into like what you’re really about. So I wanted to ask you, like some advice for people out there who want to start their own podcasts. Like what do you recommend them to start to do? 

Janette Downie [00:49:09] When I first started recording, and I still do this sometimes, I tried to create the least amount of barrier possible to recording the show. Sometimes starting a podcast feels very overwhelming and you start to think, I need all the equipment, I need the best camera, I need the best lighting. I need the best microphone. And you don’t need that at first. For the longest time, I simply recorded my episodes as voice notes in my phone. They sound great. They work perfectly. And so for me, it was just like, don’t put barriers up to starting this show that you want to start. Just start recording. Talk about the things that you really want to talk about. I like to not overthink what the episodes are going to be about. Like, they’re your true experiences. You don’t have to over plan things, but just try not to put barriers up. Try not to make it harder for yourself than you need to, because it doesn’t have to be, especially at the beginning. And you can get the fancy equipment as you go and as you show that, you know, yeah, I actually do want to keep doing this podcast and I am committed to it, then go for it, right? Invest in all this stuff, but at the beginning, just make it easy.

Patricia [00:50:26] I love that, because I totally understand like when people think, “I got to get the best tech.” Like, it’s really about the content. It’s really about what you say and the messaging behind the podcast that really makes that like impact. I feel like if you were really saying something so valuable, it doesn’t really matter if people are seeing you or just hearing you. That in itself is the real impact. So I love that. And just one last question about the podcast. Like, what do you hope your listeners can take away from each episode of the Cool, Calm, and Rich podcast? 

Janette Downie [00:50:56] I hope that they can identify themselves in what we talk about, and be able to see that they’re not alone in their experiences, that the things that they feel and that they experience as business owners is very normal, and that when you often feel so isolated in what you’re going through, especially the hard stuff, that it’s not true, and that everybody faces those same challenges, and that there’s a way forward and that there’s a way to do things differently. I hope that people really can listen to this show and feel affirmed in themselves that they can trust themselves to make the best decisions for them. 

Patricia [00:51:37] I’m going to make sure to link the Cool, Calm and Rich podcast in our description later so everyone can like listen to your episodes. I feel like it’s going to be, you know, really a great way for, you know, other women who might be watching right now and want to learn from you, so I’ll be sure to link that down below. And I also wanted to get your advice. What would you say to other working moms out there who are really trying to balance entrepreneurship and motherhood? 

Janette Downie [00:52:03] I would say stop trying to be perfect at everything. I would say give yourself a ton of grace that you really are doing the best that you can. Don’t feel bad when one thing doesn’t feel right. Know that you can fix it. Get in touch with what matters to you the most. And for a lot of moms, I know that’s their kids, and so don’t lose sight of that. Remember that they get to be your priority in your business journey and that you don’t have to sacrifice time with them to be successful. [35.1s]

Patricia [00:52:40] And I wanted to ask you obviously, like, what are the vibes looking like for the next few years? What’s next for Space Creatorz? The podcast. Are there any new projects or services on the horizon? 

Janette Downie [00:52:51] Yeah. Thank you for asking. I’m always excited and always thinking about the future and what’s possible. With Space Creatorz, we’re continuing to grow. We’re trying to become a massive agency to make big impact with big brands and have a huge team that supports. So we’re just continuing that growth journey. We love where we’re at. We love our offer, and we’re just going to continue to grow that, keep working with amazing people. In terms of Cool, Calm and Rich, things are going so great with the brand and I’m now just starting to transition to doing more and more in-person events. I have a retreat that is coming up in January. First retreat in collaboration with another group called High Vibe Women, where we are bringing together the two worlds of business and personal wellness in a weekend experience, so I’m going to be doing a lot more things like that, planning more retreats. We’re already thinking about the second one that will be happening on the West Coast and starting to see how I can expand the community. And so, that’s going to be my really big focus over the next little while is expanding how I can make impact with that brand. 

Patricia [00:54:01] Could you leave us any final words of advice for all of our listeners out there? Maybe a way for them to cultivate being cool, calm and rich in their mindset? Anything you’d like to say before we go? 

Janette Downie [00:54:14]Yeah, absolutely. I think the thing with this idea is a lot of times, and especially if you feel stuck or you are in a state of burnout, it feels like it’s not possible for you. And I just want to assure whoever is listening, and if you feel that way, that feeling cool, feeling calm, feeling rich, having success without stress is possible for everyone. And it’s about being able to get past that limiting belief that it doesn’t apply to you, because it does. [32.8s]

Patricia [00:54:48] Thank you so much, Janette, for today. Like I feel cooler, common, richer already just talking to you. And like, I hope everyone else feels the exact same way. And I’ll make sure to link everything about the agency and your podcast in our description should people know how to find you, and I appreciate you so much for being here today. This has been so great. Of course, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to grace our podcast, and thank you so much for being here. To everyone who’s listened today, this has been your host, Patricia, and remember, for all your professional business and technical writing needs, there’s only one way to go, and that’s with The Write Direction. See you guys soon! Thank you, Janette! 

Janette Downie [00:55:26] Thank you!