In this compelling podcast episode, Wendy Pace delves into her entrepreneurial journey, shaped by her dual role as a mother and a business leader. Facing the challenges of her daughter's health condition head-on, Wendy transformed her life’s hurdles into a beacon of innovation and leadership.

Wendy established Pace Setting Media to offer a supportive platform for caretakers aspiring to entrepreneurship. Her insightful narrative sheds light on the delicate balance of personal dedication and professional ambition, illustrating how adversity can forge a path to meaningful leadership and impactful business practices. Wendy’s story is an inspiring blend of determination, empathy, and visionary leadership, encouraging others to turn life’s obstacles into opportunities for growth and success.

Want to learn more about Wendy Pace's work? Check out their website at https://pacesettingmedia.com.

Connect with Wendy on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/64680436/admin/feed/posts/.

Key Points with Timestamps:

• [00:01:22-00:01:57] Wendy's transition from corporate to entrepreneurship to support her daughter and other caretakers.
• [00:03:34-00:03:53] The moment Wendy realized her mission to assist other caretakers in balancing work and home care.
• [00:05:32-00:05:58] Success story of Wendy hiring and empowering a stay-at-home mom with epilepsy.
• [00:09:27-00:09:55] Discussion on empowering individuals to create their own sustainable careers.
• [00:15:02-00:15:35] Wendy's advice on starting a home-based business and networking essentials.
• [00:21:09-00:21:38] Expansion of Pace Setting Media's services and the philosophy of mutual success through networking.
• [00:24:51-00:25:13] Highlighting the ROI of responsive and proactive social media management.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;22;01
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Wendy Pace. Wendy left corporate America and started pace setting media when she realized she needed to be a caretaker at home. And so many people face that challenge. And Wendy took it on and started her own business. by doing that, and her passion is to enable other caretaker ers to be able to have a career at home, to take care of their loved ones, but also provide an income.

00;01;22;03 - 00;01;57;25
Craig Andrews
And at the core of selling media services is a comprehend suite. ranging from content writing and blogs to direct mail marketing, email blasts, SMS, SMS stands as a bread and butter, while Wendy also dabbles in website design. Pacing media doesn't just provide services, it takes responsibility of marketing, of off business owners shoulders when incredible relief for business owners and it allows them to focus on growing their enterprise.

00;01;57;27 - 00;02;07;09
Craig Andrews
So I'm looking forward to today's conversation. because I think Wendy has an important mission. I hope you're listening. Wendy. Welcome.

00;02;07;11 - 00;02;09;03
Wendy Pace
Thank you.

00;02;09;06 - 00;02;29;18
Craig Andrews
So, you know, the when we were talking, one of the first things that you said was that your your passion is helping other people be help other caretakers have a career that works within their responsibilities. What makes this such a passion for you?

00;02;29;21 - 00;03;06;25
Wendy Pace
When, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I just never knew what it was going to look like. but I also took the job of raising my family. Really, as my main priority in life. So when my daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 11, it kind of smacks a parent in the face that it's one of those you don't realize what they can't do until you realize the danger that they're in, because they were doing something like, riding a bike.

00;03;06;28 - 00;03;34;10
Wendy Pace
she she couldn't ride a bike. She can't drive. She can't. She couldn't take a shower alone in the house because she had a seizure in the tub. She could drown. These are the things you don't think about when you're raised. You think you're raising this. This child of perfection. And she's still perfect in her imperfect way. But I realized that I had to be home to.

00;03;34;10 - 00;03;53;15
Wendy Pace
To take care of her. It was my responsibility and my husband's responsibility and not something that we could put off on our oldest child who is leaving for college. So the passion came that night when I was putting this website together and putting this business plan together, that I was like, this is it, this, this is my light bulb moment.

00;03;53;15 - 00;04;22;29
Wendy Pace
This is where I'm like, there are other people out here who need to have the ability to do this. And once I get this up and running, my job is going to be to help other moms or dads stay home and care for your your kids and still make a living. Yeah. I have sat next to her bed in the hospital with my laptop, still working and still being mom.

00;04;23;02 - 00;04;25;29
Craig Andrews
how long ago did this happen?

00;04;26;01 - 00;04;44;28
Wendy Pace
She's 24 now, so, Yeah. November 11th. It was November 7th, 2011. we are now five. We're starting on year six, seizure free, thanks to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

00;04;45;01 - 00;04;46;20
Craig Andrews
Oh, that's so excellent.

00;04;46;22 - 00;05;06;21
Wendy Pace
That is. But now we playing make up because we've kept her in a bubble all these years. So there's a lot of life skills that need to be learned. She still can't drive because of medication. she could drive because she hasn't had seizures, but she can't drive because of the medication that she's taking to control the seizures.

00;05;06;24 - 00;05;32;17
Wendy Pace
Makes her response time to slow. So I'm still caretaker. I'm still driver. She is in college. She's doing amazing. but that's not the case for a lot of people with epilepsy. A lot of times they can't get the seizures under control. And so they're stuck on this, even. I'm sorry. my first assistant that I hired was a stay at home mom with epilepsy.

00;05;32;18 - 00;05;58;19
Wendy Pace
She herself had epilepsy, has epilepsy, and I helped her get back into the workforce because she thought she couldn't do anything. and she came to work for me. She worked for me for five years, and now she's. She's back in life. She's. She's back doing life. Has somebody said, yeah, it's okay that you have epilepsy and you can work from home and you can work on your schedule.

00;05;58;22 - 00;06;06;26
Wendy Pace
And when the medications keep you up at night, that's when you can work. I, I didn't care what time she did it, so long as it was there in the morning when I got up.

00;06;06;29 - 00;06;23;21
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Wow. Wow. And that, you know, that's just so incredibly gratifying to be able to have give, give that to somebody. Give the ability to manage their life and and do productive work at the same time.

00;06;23;24 - 00;06;48;10
Wendy Pace
Yeah. So I have a team of three, and one is a stay at home mom who's a foster mom, and she takes in kids that other families don't take in that have high needs. And she's able to work from home working for me and and still take care of the kids. Now, she had no desire to go and start her own social media management thing.

00;06;48;10 - 00;07;14;17
Wendy Pace
She's content working for me. I had another mom in Pittsburgh who well, she was a mom. She was a caretaker for her husband. Unfortunately, he recently passed. But while she had to work from home taking care of parents and an old and, sick husband, she started her social media management company with me. And then she took off in Pittsburgh.

00;07;14;20 - 00;07;45;20
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, this hits home for me because, you know, in 2021, I went in the hospital with, Covid, very bad case of Covid and spent three months there and if I am convinced, if it hadn't been for the fact that my wife insisted on visiting me in the hospital and was there as much as she was allowed to be, that, I don't think I would've lived.

00;07;45;22 - 00;08;08;16
Craig Andrews
and that's a whole different story by her to her in my coma. And that gave me hope. But she was really fortunate to have a company that when that happens, said, hey, you take care of your husband, why don't you work half time? We will pay you full time. And that was an amazing gift. But that was just a temporary gift.

00;08;08;16 - 00;08;39;14
Craig Andrews
That wasn't a offer they were making now. They were shockingly generous. Yeah. And they they had her do that for, from August. Well, basically, you know, I, they put me on the ventilator on August 22nd and they gave her the rest of August off completely without charging or vacation time. And then from September, October, November, December, for months, they had her work half time while paying her full time.

00;08;39;16 - 00;08;54;23
Craig Andrews
And that offer was going to come to an end. And so, you know, if if things had gone a little bit differently and I'd needed more care, she would have had to figure out, you know, what to do, because the company wasn't going to continue to offer to do that.

00;08;54;25 - 00;09;27;01
Wendy Pace
Right. That it's you shouldn't have to make a choice. And for a lot of people, it it there is no other choice but to make the choice working or being at home caretaking. Right? They don't have that option. I think the most powerful thing you can do is learn how to write your own paycheck. How do you create your own sustainability?

00;09;27;03 - 00;09;55;17
Wendy Pace
And that's what this is about. I it's an empowering thing. But it's not just oh women power. No. Because there are plenty of men who are home taking care of somebody. And a lot of them get overlooked. But it's about giving people a structure to take that leap of faith, of starting something new, you know?

00;09;55;20 - 00;10;14;19
Craig Andrews
Yeah, let's let's talk about that for a few minutes. Because, you know, the reality is far more people work for someone else than work for themselves. And and I think for good reasons, I think I can say my personal journey, you know, running a business has been hard. and it's.

00;10;14;22 - 00;10;16;02
Wendy Pace
It's really.

00;10;16;04 - 00;10;35;27
Craig Andrews
Yeah, it's still is hard. So one for you. What were some of your early lessons when you launched? You know, pace, setting media, things that you learned that are now, you know, have you have you in place of sustainability?

00;10;35;29 - 00;11;04;28
Wendy Pace
Harness your fear. I think a lot. And part of this was probably my upbringing had, you know, my, my, my boomer parents were like afraid of everything and, you know, stability, get a jobs day in their job, get your retirement watch and your your benefits and your good. so a lot of us are raised with fear, the fear of the unknown, the fear of independence.

00;11;04;28 - 00;11;43;24
Wendy Pace
Right? What if what if I fail? Well, then you get up and try again. so the the biggest lesson for me was having faith in myself, which I didn't at the beginning. Faked it, made it. and I think it's a lot of people are just so afraid of the unknown, and they're afraid of failure. but if you take that leap of faith and, I'm not overly religious, but I feel like the universe is there to go do it, you know, make that take the step.

00;11;43;24 - 00;11;57;03
Wendy Pace
Let's see what happens with, like, my what's the worst thing? You go back to work, you go back to working for somebody else. But at least you can say you tried.

00;11;57;05 - 00;11;58;08
Craig Andrews
Yeah.

00;11;58;10 - 00;12;14;20
Wendy Pace
So for me, it's living without regret. I didn't leave anything on the table. I. I put it all out there, and I did my best. Yeah. And it far exceeded what I thought it was going to do when I started setting me that, I was like, if I could just make two grand, man, if I could just make two grand a month.

00;12;14;20 - 00;12;35;15
Wendy Pace
Oh my God, we'd be sitting pretty. We'd be all right. We'd be good, solid. She go to dance class? We could do this. And then six months later, my now CFO is going, yeah, remember when you wanted to just make two grand, right? You were. Yeah, yeah. What do you make it out? Shut up.

00;12;35;17 - 00;13;08;20
Craig Andrews
Yeah, well, and there's this magical moment for me when when some stranger out there finds me and says, hey, I'd like to pay you money to help me, you know, help me solve this problem. I it's an amazing feeling. You know, and I think that's, that's one of the joys, you know I think you know I believe people that start businesses, you know they, they see something broken in the world and they're trying to change that.

00;13;08;20 - 00;13;24;14
Craig Andrews
They you know I think that's, you know, often something. And for you, the brokenness was the traditional job done didn't allow you to care for your daughter the way she needed to be cared for, right?

00;13;24;16 - 00;13;43;13
Wendy Pace
That's exactly it. And that was the catalyst. I don't know that I would have had the the fortitude to do it, just to do it like it was a it was out of necessity that I did it. Yeah, yeah. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I was afraid. But this I, I was like, well I got to stay home.

00;13;43;13 - 00;13;50;05
Wendy Pace
So regardless I'm home. I just have to make sure this I can make this work for me. And I did.

00;13;50;08 - 00;14;11;08
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Wow. So when we were talking earlier, you you started talking really passionately about kind. You're giving a formula for other people to go and do the same, you know, to start their own thing. What what is that formula? How would you recommend that people do that?

00;14;11;10 - 00;14;37;27
Wendy Pace
So first I would love for them to reach out to me. I'm even if and I do this all the time, even if we don't work together and but I, I've given you the outline to for what you need to do. I'm all about helping. I just am. I don't charge for it. I'm like, this is what you need to get.

00;14;37;27 - 00;15;02;25
Wendy Pace
You need to get a scheduler. You need to find, some kind of networking system where you're out of the house one day a week and you're being a grown up and you're doing your hair, getting out of your pajamas, because that's just as important as the caretaking is when you're networking to and talking to people about something other than the care you're doing it.

00;15;02;28 - 00;15;07;22
Wendy Pace
Oh, yeah. Sorry. My my coworker is being aggressive.

00;15;07;24 - 00;15;13;04
Craig Andrews
Yeah, we we have a coworker floating around here somewhat somewhere as well.

00;15;13;04 - 00;15;35;13
Wendy Pace
So what I try to do is I'm like, okay, figure out first of all, what's your budget? Can you there are scheduling programs out there that are free that you can use to get started. Right. And they'll give you like maybe five accounts, ten accounts. And most people are like, if I had ten accounts, I, I would be, you know, no.

00;15;35;18 - 00;15;58;23
Wendy Pace
So you're all it's ten social media. Yeah. I'm sitting there allowing you to post on so I try to give them that guideline. Then I try to explain to them, it's not going to happen in a vacuum. You have to get out of the house. You have to go to some kind of chamber or be an I networking, some kind of networking system, because that's where you're going to get your client.

00;15;58;26 - 00;16;23;18
Wendy Pace
That's where you're going to get your first client. and then it's about organizing yourself and understanding that. Set a schedule so you know, you're caretaking. If you're up between midnight and 3 a.m., and that's the best time for you to create postings or do your work. This allows you to do it. Then you don't. It's not a 9 to 5.

00;16;23;20 - 00;16;41;01
Wendy Pace
You don't have to be at your desk on the phone 9 to 5 Monday through Friday. so it it does allow for a lot of flexibility, but I know that there is a lot of people out there that they want somebody who's going to hold their hand through it and be like, yeah, you're doing it right. You're doing it right.

00;16;41;01 - 00;16;56;02
Wendy Pace
Keep going. It's like when your kids learn to swim right now, keep keep paddling or or biking. Keep paddling. You're doing great. That that's where I come in. I'm like, no, you're doing great. You're on the right path. Keep going. You can do this.

00;16;56;05 - 00;17;00;07
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And and you said it's about getting your first clients.

00;17;00;10 - 00;17;03;07
Wendy Pace
It is about getting that first client.

00;17;03;10 - 00;17;07;04
Craig Andrews
And and what have you found? Once you get that first client, what happens next?

00;17;07;07 - 00;17;30;15
Wendy Pace
For me, it was endorphins. I was like, yes, other than the one that helped me get. So as I was telling you earlier, I had a person, another friend in marketing, who said she wanted to have a more robust social media for the company she was working for, and that was my first client understanding that that was the niche, that that was the need.

00;17;30;17 - 00;17;56;26
Wendy Pace
I then had to go out and find five more, right? So I gave myself the goal. I've got one. I know what they need. I need to find five more that need that same product. So the whole conversation was, where do I go to do that? And I went to my local chamber and I started networking there, and I went to a, a group called B and Business Networking International.

00;17;56;26 - 00;18;24;11
Wendy Pace
It's the largest networking, group in the world. And what it allows you to do is you buy a seat. Now, this this is more expensive than the average person might want to put the money in. But if you can find a networking group where the whole purpose is to raise everybody up, it's not just a, charade, you know, five card monte of how many business cards did you pass out?

00;18;24;14 - 00;18;28;23
Wendy Pace
But actual connections being made, that's crucial.

00;18;28;25 - 00;18;56;20
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, and I think that's a generally that's a good rule in life. the, the you know, if you look at tremendously successful people, there's somebody in the movie industry and I forget which studio it was. But early, early in his days he would get up and he'd spend the first hour of his day making phone calls.

00;18;56;22 - 00;19;09;00
Craig Andrews
And they're real short calls. And each call was he would call people he knew in the industry and say, hey, what are you working on? And how can I support you? Wasn't hey, you know.

00;19;09;03 - 00;19;11;25
Wendy Pace
Yeah, I need your help right.

00;19;11;27 - 00;19;38;05
Craig Andrews
And and he kept doing that. and the more he did that, the more his studio grew. And I forget which studio is. But it's one of the major studios, and it was all born out of the idea of today. When I get up, I'm going to call. When I get into the office, I'm going to call 4 or 5 people, see what's going on, what they're working on, and how I can help.

00;19;38;08 - 00;20;08;19
Craig Andrews
And then tomorrow I'm going to do the same thing, and day after that, I'm going to do the same thing. And I think that's that's something essential to networking. I'll tell you something I love about podcasting. You know, I, I meet so many wonderful people like you and, and inevitably I'm going to be talking to somebody next week or two weeks from now that needs exactly what you do and fills my heart with joy.

00;20;08;21 - 00;20;23;24
Craig Andrews
To be able to say you need to reach out to Wendy. You know, Wendy has a passion for helping caretakers and moms have a career from home. You guys need to connect.

00;20;23;26 - 00;20;25;26
Wendy Pace
Givers gain.

00;20;25;29 - 00;20;37;16
Craig Andrews
Givers gain. I like that. So let's take a couple minutes and let's talk about pace setting media. What okay. What do you guys do. Who do you help?

00;20;37;19 - 00;21;09;00
Wendy Pace
So when I first started, we my total lane was social media management. That's. I've put blinders on. That was all I wanted to do was just manage businesses, social media. So that's their Facebook, their LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok's YouTubes. And we create content and we curate content. then we expanded to direct mail marketing, email blast newsletters, and ultimately website design because people are like, no, I just want to give it all to you.

00;21;09;00 - 00;21;38;24
Wendy Pace
And I'm like, I don't really want to do a website. So I have a network of vendors that I work with for websites, for printing, and all of them are part of my givers game list, right? They've thrown me business. I throw them business. Their success is my success and my success is their success. So they're all with that same mindset of we're going to help.

00;21;38;27 - 00;22;05;19
Wendy Pace
What do you need? How can I help you? And, that network is important for building case setting media. So we went from just doing social media management, making pretty pictures and putting up video, content to, all of those other features. My whole thing is to make my client the answer to the question. Somebody is googling to find them.

00;22;06;20 - 00;22;12;13
Wendy Pace
In as many different formats as I can do it.

00;22;12;16 - 00;22;42;19
Craig Andrews
you know. And, you know, and it's, and the beauty of that is when that's. That don't require the recurring ad spend and you're just out there, you're established, you know, as, as an authority, you know, something, you know, something that I've been, talking about. And I, you know, like most great ideas, I got this from someone else.

00;22;42;21 - 00;23;05;08
Craig Andrews
but basically, if you want to have sustainable growth, you need three things. You need authority, acquisition, automation. And it's that authority that you help build for people that when you go to the internet, what they question, they're the one that has the answer right? Yeah.

00;23;05;10 - 00;23;28;05
Wendy Pace
That's exactly it. And understanding. So a lot of, business owners will spend between 6 to 8 hours a week trying to do their social media, and they might get two, maybe three posts up if they're lucky. Yeah, we post five days a week, Monday through Friday. We cover your holidays. Everything is brand branded and consistent. We manage your Facebook Messenger.

00;23;28;07 - 00;23;46;15
Wendy Pace
I have been known to call clients on a Sunday night going, hey, you got somebody on Facebook who's looking for a quote and they're like, Wendy, it's Sunday, I know, but you've got somebody on Facebook looking for a quote. Do not let that sit on it. How would you like me to respond?

00;23;46;17 - 00;24;31;26
Craig Andrews
You know, and most people miss this when you get a lead, the time to follow up is now. Stop what you're doing. Follow up with that lead. The, I have some stats floating around somewhere. from, somebody that runs ads for me. guy named Kevin Adams. Very, very capable guy. And I got what the stat was, but if you follow up in the first ten minutes of a league coming through, the probability of that going to fruition is like 5 or 10 times greater than if you follow up in the next hour.

00;24;31;28 - 00;24;51;00
Craig Andrews
Yeah, it's just the, you know, the time to follow up from the time they become a lead to the time you follow up is so incredibly important. So when you do that for your clients, yeah, maybe it frustrates them, but it's one of those things that you're doing for their good. And and hopefully they understand that.

00;24;51;02 - 00;25;13;10
Wendy Pace
Well. One of the things that I like, there was a story I had a pest control company and I was leaving. It was, Labor Day weekend. So I'm in the car with my family heading out to the beach, and it's about, I want to say, 730, 8:00 at night. And Ali comes in on his Facebook messenger going, we need a termite bond.

00;25;13;10 - 00;25;37;06
Wendy Pace
We're closing on our house tomorrow. And I knew what that was worth to him. So I get him on the phone, I'm like, hey, he's like, I thought, you know, like I am, but you've got a lead on your Facebook that you need to hit right now. And he got it, he got it, he got the bond. And I had just paid for myself for the whole year.

00;25;37;08 - 00;25;38;17
Craig Andrews
Wow, wow.

00;25;38;17 - 00;25;42;17
Wendy Pace
That's I was like, and there's your ROI.

00;25;42;20 - 00;26;08;28
Craig Andrews
Well, I tell you what, I can't think of a better place to end than there because that's the most powerful thing to be able to pinpoint one activity. And that pays for the year of your fees. That's that's critical. That's where you're bringing value to people. So, tell me how, how can people reach you? where do they go?

00;26;09;00 - 00;26;30;13
Wendy Pace
Well, I know this is going to be a big surprise, but I have a huge social footprint so they can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. I'm everywhere. it's Wendy at pace setting Medium.com. they can just. Yeah. Social media is the best way to get to me. LinkedIn is the best way to get me to respond.

00;26;30;16 - 00;26;35;20
Craig Andrews
Excellent. Well, I hope people reach out. And Wendy, thanks for coming on, Leaders and Legacies.

00;26;35;22 - 00;26;41;06
Wendy Pace
Thanks for having me.

00;26;41;06 - 00;27;10;04
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Alize for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this episode on social media.

00;27;10;06 - 00;27;33;16
Craig Andrews
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00;27;33;18 - 00;29;44;02
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe your thumbs up! Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me. It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Alize for me.com. or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.