Interview With Self Made Chick Christine O’Kelly
Written by Dave Navarro on January 14, 2008
Christine O’Kelly, successful copywriter and blogger at Self Made Chick and Create Business Growth has stopped on by the Million Dollar Leverage virtual office and shared some of her tips for making more money in less time. Get ready to take some notes on the strategies that have made her six figures on a shoestring and put her real-world experience to work for you.
A little bit about Christine: My name is Christine OKelly. I’m a mom, an internet entrepreneur, run a successful SEO copywriting firm and several other businesses. Just over 2 years ago I was an operations manager for an internet start up company working 12 hour days, addicted to my Blackberry, ignoring my family, and becoming a shell of a person. Today, I support my family while working around the things that are important to me. I walk my kids to and from school every day - they think I’m a stay at home mom. But it’s quite the opposite. I work when my energy is at it’s peak instead of sitting behind a desk just to fill a chair all day. I take breaks when I’m not into it. I love “working” because its a challenge and a form of creative expression.
Dave: What are some of the major turning points / “A-ha moments” that created your biggest successes?
Christine: One of the biggest realizations I had was that it takes the same effort to sell to one contact with a large end-user client base as it does to sell to one end-user contact! With this type of thinking, you can grow your business exponentially with very few resources.
Dave: What are some ways you help keep a work-life balance?
Christine: Before I worked for myself, I had a horrible work life balance. For a few years when the kids were little, my husband and I would work opposite shifts so that we didn’t have to put them in daycare - that really took a toll on our relationship. Then when they were a bit older, I started working for a very demanding internet startup company and would easily be away from home for 10-14 hours a day. When I was home, I was emailing non-stop on my Crackberry. When I wasn’t doing that, I really had no idea what to do at home because my whole life had become about work. It was pretty lame.
I am not yet where I want to be with the whole work/life balance thing. I have a self-imposed demanding schedule - but I can fit work around my life rather than fitting my life around work. I usually get up at around 4:00 to crank out as much as I can when the kids are still sleeping.
My kids are 6 and 7 and they fight with each other constantly. Half the time I’m stopping in the middle of a sentence to break up a fight about who is going to be what color in a game or who hit who first with a Nerf bullet. But still, that is not nearly as annoying as some of the coworkers I used to have to deal with.
Dave: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?
Christine: There is no substitute for taking action. When I was a moonlighting entrepreneur I wasted hours and hours of my life planning businesses on paper that never materialized. Really, I was just scared of actually doing anything and planning was how I made myself feel like I was actually pursuing my dreams. I thought everything had to be “perfect” before taking real action. When I was forced to take action - things worked out - even though everything wasn’t perfect.
Dave: What leverage do you plan to use to grow your business over the coming year?
Christine: My blog has definitely been a huge resource for brining in new business so I intend to continue to build that for sure! I’m a true believer that relationship marketing is the most effective way for a small business to market. So another thing that I’m doing for some of my other businesses is to identify a handful of prospects and putting my marketing dollars and energy into building those relationships as opposed to spending those same resources trying to target every possible potential customer through mass marketing.
Dave: What blog posts are you most proud of?
Christine: One post that brought in over 10,000 hits was “One Word that Can Change Your Reality” - I was really happy about that because the realization I talk about in this post completely changed my life.
Another one of the most popular posts is “How I made $100,000 by spending 25 minutes and $0 on Marketing” This post explains in detail my ah-ha moment. What really made my day was when someone wrote to me and told me that he tried this and ended up landing his biggest client. Wow.
A recent post that has become quite popular is “The One Word That Helped My Blog Grow To 800+ Subscribers in 17 Weeks.” This one was quite rewarding to me because many people wrote and said that it changed their approach their blogging.
When I started this blog, I thought that I would probably just end up writing for myself. It’s incredible to learn that people are trying these strategies and seeing results in their business.
Dave: What blogs do you read to get the edge in your business?
Christine: There are so many great blogs - and I know I’m going to leaving some out… but some of my faves are:
Give A Shout Out To Christine For Giving Us Her Time
Leave a comment below to let Christine know what you thought of this interview and the three articles she shared with us. Then don’t forget to subscribe to her feed to keep the good stuff coming. (PS: If you’re not subscribed to this blog as well, you can subscribe right here).
Great interview! The observation about it taking the same time to sell regardless of the quantity you’re selling is very true. I’m going to try to start taking more advantage of that.
Thanks, Joshua. Christine rocks.
Best of luck with your business in ‘08!
Thank you Joshua! I hope this helps you… it certainly helped me! In fact - it made all of the difference. As a start up on a limited, you’ve got to leverage other people that have reach rather than spending the marketing $ to reach every potential end client yourself - that can be expensive!!
And thank you Dave for the opportunity!
My pleasure, Christine. Your posts are affecting the direction this blog takes as well … thanks for all that you share.
Great interview! Christine really rocks - just as you said, Dave.
(And not just because she included my blog in the fave list ;))
Thanka for the shout out Christine - Dave you always find the nicest people to interview.
Thanks, Shane. Let’s get you and Peter on board for some interviews, eh?
Now that’s my idea of a work schedule, Christine. I’m flattered and thrilled to be on your favorite blogs list. I can say the same for you. Here’s to your success in ‘08!