[29] Embracing Change and Finding New Opportunities in Entrepreneurship with Becky Feigin

In this week's episode, I'm hanging out with the incredible Becky Feigin, and trust me, you don't want to miss this conversation! We dive into Becky's journey of uncovering joy and fulfillment in her life. She lays it all out—from battling anxiety and depression in her coaching business to making a bold shift into creating user-generated content (UGC) for brands.

Becky spills the beans on the newfound joy she's discovered in this exciting venture and drops some wisdom on questioning the stories we tell ourselves. She's all about being open to new opportunities and, of course, emphasizes the power move of asking for what you want. Oh, and let's not forget the value of that sustainable income hustle!

Join us as we navigate through Becky's story, a testament to the magic of embracing change and finding joy in every day. 

Links and Mentions
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/beckyfeigin/

About the Guest
​Becky Feigin is an entrepreneur of over five years. She has a passion for helping brands drive sales through her marketing, branding, and sales knowledge. She is currently in a period of finding her footing as she makes big shifts in her career path. When Becky isn't working, you can find her curled up on the couch with a book or binge watching some tv with her husband. 

Transcript

[TRANSCRIPT]

0:00:00 - (Melissa): Welcome to my life is a Saturday, the podcast that helps you live your best life by embracing a Saturday mindset. I'm your host, Melissa Janson, and each week I'll be sharing my experiences and interviewing guests who have learned how to make the most out of every day. From tips on how to develop a positive mindset to ideas for living a more fulfilling life, we'll cover it all. So get ready to let go of your worries, embrace your passions, and live life to the fullest.

0:00:26 - (Melissa): Ready to dive in? Let's go. Welcome back to my life is a Saturday. I'm your host, Melissa, and today's episode is going to be hot fire, interviewing my good friend and former coach, Becky Fagan. And before she says hi to you guys, I just want to let you know she is an entrepreneur out here trying to figure out what the fuck she likes to do and what's going to bring her the most joy. And today's conversation is going to be one that's going to hype you up and inspire you. So get ready, everybody. Welcome, Becky.

0:01:07 - (Melissa): Hi, Becky.

0:01:08 - (Becky): Hi. I'm so excited to be here. Loved the intro.

0:01:13 - (Melissa): Yes. Thank you for being on the podcast. Will you tell the people a little bit more about yourself?

0:01:19 - (Becky): Of course. Hello, people. Thanks for listening in on this episode. So, as Melissa said, I'm Becky Fagan, and I'm just claiming the entrepreneur title for now. So I have been an entrepreneur for over five years now. I feel like that's my identity almost. So I started my business not even a year after graduating college. I started as a social media manager. That was my background and quickly discovered coaching, fell in love with it, shifted into coaching, was doing business and marketing coaching for about five years. And I don't want to say I don't do it anymore. I do. I have a couple of clients, I have a membership. We have fun. We're taking a different approach, different perspective to business.

0:02:08 - (Becky): But I also have tapped into a lot of different things this year, and I've been just having a lot of fun. So I realized that I was not living my best life and I wanted to live my best life. And I was super stressed out and I was super depressed and I was super drained and anxious, et cetera, et cetera. And something I've always loved is the influencer and brand collaboration space. I used to work in influencer management, used to be a little micro influencer back in the day.

0:02:36 - (Becky): And so I put my brand content creator gloves back on a couple of months ago and started doing user generated content for brands and honestly, I've just been having the time of my life. So right now I'm just in a phase of deciding what's next, but I'm not taking it too seriously. I think for the past five years, I've taken things a little too seriously and been a little too obsessed with every little milestone. And now I'm just kind of like, let's see where the wind takes me and that gets to be good enough. So that's kind of what life looks like for me right now.

0:03:11 - (Melissa): I love that. And just as a side note, I know Becky because she was my coach in 2022 and a little bit of 2023 and fantastic, fantastic coach. So I'm glad that you still have a few clients so people are in your magic. But I've also loved seeing all of your ugc content and following this story now. It's so fun. It's also a little weird to interview you because I'm like, oh, my gosh, she's going to coach me. But we coached right now, so it's okay.

0:03:40 - (Becky): We're just pals today, girly.

0:03:42 - (Melissa): We're just pals. So I kind of want to dive into a little bit of your entrepreneurship journey because what you were saying about being anxious and depressed and just not really knowing your way, I think is something that we can all relate to on a lot of ways. And so when you found yourself feeling like that, what was your first step?

0:04:05 - (Becky): Yeah, so I think the first thing was kind of questioning why I was feeling this way. I might ruffle some feathers depending upon who is listening with what I'm about to say. I think first it's important to step back for a second. So like I said, I've been coaching for over five years now and the industry has changed a lot since I started and I do know a lot when it comes to marketing, when it comes to sales, when it comes to branding, when it comes to business in general, I do know a lot and I've loved all the clients I've worked with. I've had so much fun, et cetera.

0:04:49 - (Becky): But I started to catch myself kind of like being like, hang on, what is this kind of world we're in right now in the coaching? What is happening? Because I've always had a little bit of like, I've always loved what I do. And you probably remember this. When I was your coach, I'm always questioning my clients, not in a I don't trust you kind of way, but what's the reason behind what you're doing? Explain to me why you can do what you want to do.

0:05:19 - (Becky): And that's something that I've always done, and I've always been very careful about the clients that I was taking on when it came to. If they say they're a business coach, okay, then why do you need me? Obviously, I've had coaches, so it's not that I don't think business coaches need coaches, but it's like I don't want to get into a little bit of pyramid scheme energy going on in that I feel like there's a really fine line sometimes in coaching, and I've always loved it, and I had the time of my life doing it, and there was nothing more exciting than helping people get clients and feel like they found themselves and all these really great things.

0:05:51 - (Becky): But there were always some things where I was like, this feels a little off. This feels like, I don't know, not the best always or whatever it is. And the worst is when you're in a phase. So what happened to me when I really kind of hit a wall of feeling really down, really depressed is that I hit a phase in my business where things had really slowed down. And that's not to say that I don't know what I'm doing anymore. It's not to say that I'm not good at it anymore. It's not to say that I all of a sudden don't know marketing, don't know this, don't know that there's so many reasons that somebody's business slows down, and there's a lot that you need to keep up with to stay consistently successful and profitable in the online coaching space, especially when you're competing.

0:06:30 - (Becky): I'm not one that's ever really liked having a team just from the space of, like, I'm really bad at letting go of the reins. And I'm also totally transparently a sicko for money, and I want to keep it for myself if I can do it myself. Not going to lie, when you're competing with people that have full on teams, obviously it's going to be a little bit tougher, and there's a challenge there. And I started to see all these coaches that I don't know. I've always kind of known the tea, and I've seen all these coaches that I'm like, I know your tea. Why are you thriving when I'm so legit, so genuine, so heartfelt, so passionate, and it's not hitting for me right now.

0:07:12 - (Becky): And so that started to make me kind of have a little bit of identity crisis in a way of like, what am I even doing? Why am I doing this? What is going on? And as much as I've been super successful, I've had high five figure months. I've had consecutive high figure months. I've helped clients hit their first five, three months, all these things. I'm selling this story and I'm like, it's not my story right now. And I know that I can create that story for myself, but at the same time it's like this weird mind fuck of like, I can create this story for myself again by selling this story to people who are going to buy into the story that I'm going to help them create. And I'm still confident I can help them create it. But the only reason that I now have that story again is because they just hired me because I was telling a story.

0:07:59 - (Becky): So I'm like going through this cycle and I'm like, I just kind of started to get almost like, for those of you that have read a court of thorns and roses and that whole series, the veil kind of was lifted. I'm trying to remember the words that they use in the book, but it's like the enchantment, the glamour, they use the word glamour, like the glamour of it all just kind of lifted a little bit. And I was like, oh, shit, big identity crisis is going on right now. And because of that big identity crisis, I was like half in, half out, things were plummeting. I wasn't really making a lot of money. And I was like, fuck, what am I going to do with myself?

0:08:44 - (Becky): So that's kind of what led to that first piece of being really depressed because now I went from making a fuck ton of money consistently all the, I was going like two years of consistent five figure months. That's a shit ton of money over and over again to nothing, pretty much. And part of that was because I had an identity crisis at the beginning of this year. I was getting married and kind of took a break leading into the wedding. And then after the wedding, I had to figure out how I wanted to come back. So it makes sense that things slowed down. But to me, no matter what anybody said to me, it didn't make sense how long it was taking for things to pick back up.

0:09:20 - (Becky): And I was just getting kind of frustrated and kind of like disenchanted by it. The glamour, like I said, kind of fell off a little bit. And again, I still totally believe in the coaching space. I totally believe in what's possible. If I didn't, I would cancel the membership clients that I have, and I wouldn't do the membership anymore. I do really believe in it, but I take a different approach now and a different perspective, similar to what I've always done, but still a step further into, like, how do we bring this into real life? It doesn't always have to. Anyway. That's like a whole side thing.

0:09:56 - (Becky): Basically. This summer, when I was deep, deep, I was like, well, I have to do something. I have to do something. Something has to change. But I still wasn't brave enough to take the step out. I was like, I'm very into when I commit to something. I can't let it go. I have to keep going, and I have to make it work. Otherwise, I'm a failure. I don't know where I found that story, but that's a story that I told myself. So, anyway, this is so long. I apologize to your one question, but this is that.

0:10:24 - (Becky): So I take that kind of to my grave in a way of like, I'm just like, I got to keep going. I got to keep going. But one day, I was like, I just need something. I need something to make me money. And I open up Facebook, and this woman is like, I'm looking for people to make these quick videos for me, and I'll pay you. I think it was like $10 a video. Like, nothing crazy, but it was like, basically what I came to find out is that she's an Amazon influencer and was paying people to take videos of Amazon products in their own houses that she would then upload onto her Amazon storefront for onsite commission. And God only knows how much money she was making off the videos I made for her. But so I was doing that, and then that led to her paying me, like, I don't know, it was like 25, $35 a video to make essential UGC videos for apps.

0:11:14 - (Becky): And I don't really know where her clients are coming from, where she was hired. I don't know the whole scope of it, but that kind of started, and it was like, nothing. I was making, like, maybe on a good week, $200 a week, but I was like, okay, it's something. And every once in a while, I'd also hit an intensive client or a one on one client or whatever it was. So I was, like, keeping it together. And then probably like a month and a half into doing this with her, I realized what was happening, and I was like, I want to figure out how to do this for myself.

0:11:41 - (Becky): So my first step was I was lucky enough that I found something to make me money that then kind of lit the fire under my ass for me of how can I do this? But essentially better to make it for myself. And I discovered Amazon influencer, onsite commission. I figured that out. I started doing that. So that makes me, like, a couple hundred dollars every single month at. So I dove into that, and then I was like, wait a know. Whenever you get on TikTok, I feel like if you're scrolling for long enough, you'll see at least one video about, like, everybody's always talking about it. I've wanted to do it for, like, I really have, but I always had the excuse of, like, business is doing too well. I don't have the time. Business is about to pick up. I don't have the capacity. Like, I never had the capacity. Never had the capacity. And I was like, well, now we have the capacity.

0:12:31 - (Becky): I can do this. I have two options. Basically, I could keep making posts that I'm essentially uninspired by at this point on my instagram. Because you do get to a point where it's like, okay, nobody's commented. Nobody sent me a DM. Nobody's even having a conversation with me. I'm 1ft in, 1ft out. And you want me to keep writing these things. Like, you do get to that point. So for me, it kind of hit. And I was like, okay, so I could keep doing this and hope for the best because there is that beauty or that little bit of glamour right within the coaching space of, like, I can wake up tomorrow and my whole life can change and I can make $10,000. And it's not wrong. It's happened.

0:13:10 - (Becky): It can happen. But at the same time, I was like, if I finally take the step, I could still balance coaching for now. And if I finally take the step into UGC, then I know that there's money there. Brands are always looking like, I know I can do it. I know how to do it. I just need to apply what I know and bring it into the UGC space because I've never done it in that capacity, but I know how to do all these things. I know how to connect with brands.

0:13:35 - (Becky): So I was like, I could keep doing this for this woman for $35 a video, or I can go do my own thing and make at least $100 a video. So that was kind of the fire under my ass that finally got me to take action and go after it. So if I were to break it down to realizing that you're feeling down, depressed in the dumps, about anxious about where you're currently at and then making a shift. I think it's first because the story I shared in the beginning was me kind of realizing that, okay, this isn't all sunshine and rainbows like it used to be. I'm not as obsessed and in it as I used to be. I'm not so locked into it like I used to be.

0:14:15 - (Becky): And then kind of like talking out your stories because I think when we stick to something because we're stubborn or we refuse to be considered a failure or whatever, it's like we're holding ourselves back from something that could be so much bigger for us. And so for me, I was making this story about, like, I'm going to be a failure if I switch paths or I'm going to lose friends or my past clients are going to judge me because I'm not even doing the thing that I brought them into or whatever, all these stories that I had.

0:14:45 - (Becky): And I was like, I can keep telling myself these stories and push myself in this direction and burn myself out again, or I can rewrite my story and try something else and look at it as like, if I had never started coaching, I would have never gotten into UGC. That's point blank the truth. So thanks to my coaching, I got to use that to step up. And I really believe that if you're an entrepreneur in the coaching space or the service provider space online and you're using online to market yourself, you are already like five steps ahead of a normal person that just started UGC because they thought it'd be like, you already know so much more than the normal person.

0:15:25 - (Becky): So you're already ahead and you can leverage that to land, like, that was my stories that I had to rewrite. So I think that the biggest thing that you have to do to be able to take a step back, look at your life from outside of your body almost and be like, I'm unhappy here. I want to get here, but I refuse to get here. It's like, what are the stories I'm telling myself that isn't letting me get there and working through those? Because until you work through those, you're never going to let yourself get there. It's kind of the thing. So everybody's path of getting there is different for me. I kind of got a fire lit under my ass and had that realization, but everybody's story is a little bit different.

0:16:02 - (Melissa): Yeah, I love that. And thank you for going into so much detail because I feel like it really sets the stage and so many people can relate to that feeling like you're on one path and you're doing it and it's like, what the fuck are we doing eventually? And I think for a lot of people, we can get really stuck in that mind drama of a pivot, of changing with school. For example, somebody's been going to college and they want to be a doctor, and then they realize that's not what they want.

0:16:33 - (Melissa): It can be so much mind drama to decide. Even though I put in all this time and learned all these things, I can still pivot my life. And I think when you build a life that feels like a Saturday, the bravery that comes with the pivot is a muscle that's so important to flex. So I really appreciate that. I am curious, when you switch to or you began doing ugc content, did you find that it was really easy or.

0:17:03 - (Melissa): I know sometimes when I start something new, I'm like, oh, I fucking suck at. So did you have, like, a learning curve?

0:17:10 - (Becky): There was definitely a bit of a learning curve. I've definitely gotten better since I started. I also noticed that depending upon how much, when a brand wants to pay me, like $50 for a video, it's just simply not going to be as good as the brand that pays me $200 for a video. It's just the truth. But so in the beginning, when I first started, I already was a little bit ahead because first of all, again, because of my business and knew all those things, but also I was making videos for that woman for two months before I was like, oh, let me do this.

0:17:43 - (Becky): So the hardest thing for me was figuring out how to actually get deals initially because I was like, oh, I'll just send emails. Because when I first graduated college, even before I graduated, like 2016 to 2018, I had a small account on Instagram, like maybe 1000 followers, and I had a blog and I would email brands constantly and I never got paid, but I was getting free shit weekly from brands and it was so fun.

0:18:10 - (Becky): And so I had a really easy time connecting with brands back then. But that was almost ten years ago. Yeah, that was like, not yet, but it was pretty long ago. Now.

0:18:20 - (Melissa): 2016 being ten years ago, that's so scary.

0:18:24 - (Becky): I guess we still have three years until it's ten years, but it's like closer to ten years than it is one year. Whatever. Anyway, it is terrifying, though. It's absolutely horrifying. So back then, there weren't as many people doing this. TikTok didn't exist yet. Nobody knew how to, like, you had to search a lot harder and you had to really want it to figure out how to do it back then. Now it's like the information is right at your fingertips. So brands are getting like probably hundreds of emails a day, if not thousands from.

0:18:51 - (Becky): So like, I know my emails were getting opened, but I wasn't standing out enough for them to respond. So I was like, okay. That was really the hardest part for me was figuring out how am I going to start getting deals? So for me it was realizing that building an audience for UGC was the best way to do it because then brands find you and they reach out to you. So that's how I've gotten the majority of my brand deals.

0:19:19 - (Becky): So I think that no matter what, you're going to have strengths and weaknesses in whatever place that you pivot. So it's like definitely learning curves and figuring things out. I mean, another thing, so I'm doing several different things now. My friend runs a really successful marketing and pr agency and she used to talk about hiring me for marketing, but then they needed a project manager and she was like, I know you need some work. Do you want to take this on? I was like, hell yeah, let's do it. I've never been a project manager in my life, but I just went in there and I was like, yeah, mind you, I am the least organized person when it comes to my own shit. Like, the least organized project management is all about being organized, all about being on top of things, all about all this stuff.

0:20:02 - (Becky): Luckily, I went in and her team member already had all the systems and I just had to mimic them essentially. But that's a role where I'm like, I'm just figuring it out as I go. You have to be shameless about asking questions. Have the audacity be delusional enough to just do the thing. So even, for example, I can't say what the brand is, but I just signed a contract like a couple of days ago with a really big company for a couple of UGC videos.

0:20:35 - (Becky): And I have my base rates, but I was like, I know I want to raise them in 2024. And I always like to charge a little bit more when the brand is sending me the brief, which might sound crazy because it's like a lot less work in the sense that I don't have to write a script. But I find a lot of times when brands write the scripts, it's actually a lot more complex than anything that I would have written. And I tend to break out into a sweat when I'm filming the videos that include a brand writing the script for me. And I'm like, oh, my God, I'm exhausted afterwards. So I was like, okay, I'm going to price accordingly. And I priced a lot higher than I normally would have priced. I was being delusional. I was being delusional. I decided to have the audacity. And I'm like, let's just see.

0:21:19 - (Becky): I write my pricing when I send the email. In a way that opens up the opportunity for a negotiation. But they were just like, all right, sounds good. We could do that. Or even I had a partnership with a mattress company when I first started, and they were like, it's a gift exchange because it's a mattress. I'm like, that's great, but the mattress doesn't pay for my food, and I really need money. Can you find any capacity for compensation?

0:21:45 - (Becky): And they found me a couple of $100. It wasn't anything crazy, but it was something because I asked, because I had the audacity of the delusion. So was delusional enough to just put myself out there and see? So, yeah, I feel like all my answers are so freaking long, but I feel like, honestly, it was definitely a little bit tough. But at the same time, I'm like, what do I have to lose? What do I have to lose? I'm just going to do it and put myself out there and see what happens. Like, what's the worst that's going to happen? The stranger on the Internet tells me no.

0:22:18 - (Becky): Okay, I'll never talk to you again. See you. Bye. As long as you're kind, polite, genuine, whatever.

0:22:25 - (Melissa): Yeah. I love that. My mom, always growing up, would say, if you don't ask, the answer is no. And if you do ask, the worst answer you can get is no. And I feel like a lot of the times when we are going to ask something, and the reason that we don't is because we're not specifically afraid of the no, but afraid of what that person may think of us for having the audacity to ask. And really, most of the time, people just need to be asked.

0:22:53 - (Melissa): And I feel like with working with brands, it's the same as going to a job interview and asking for your salary. They aren't going to put up there, like, this is the top salary that you can get for this position in flashing lights because they don't necessarily want to do that, but they do have the budget for it. So I think asking is always so, yeah, yeah, I love that you're doing project. So that was not like a becky thing that I would think. But it sounds like you're thriving in it.

0:23:27 - (Melissa): And I've been loving your UGC videos on TikTok.

0:23:31 - (Becky): Thank you. Yeah, I mean, the project management stuff is funny. I have to be honest. When I was like, yeah, I'm in. So the title of the role is actually account coordinator. It's just like a part time thing. I honestly had no idea what I was like, yeah, I'm in. I was like, I don't know what the hell I'm about to be doing, but it's kind of fun. I get to pretend that I'm an organized person and I get to work for my friend's company, which is super cool. I love that I get to do that and support her and make her life easier and, yeah, it's just like a fun thing. And I'm just in a place right now where I'm just like, I still get to work for myself.

0:24:13 - (Becky): I still get to work for myself. I still get to do what I want. I still have plenty of time in the day for me. And now I just have really sustainable income. It's not like the ten k plus months that you talk about in coaching, but it's reliable as shit between UGC and my part time stuff. I know for a fact that no matter what, I'll bring in at least five k a month. And that's amazing that I know for a fact.

0:24:44 - (Becky): Not like I have this belief that no matter what happens, I'm going to sign a client. Or I know for a fact that the next three months I'm going to make five k a month because I have these clients. But then I don't know what I'm going to do afterwards. But I believe in all of my heart and soul, and this probably sounds like I'm bashing coaching. I'm really not. But I'm just saying it's such a different.

0:25:02 - (Becky): It's so much more calming to the nervous system to be like, oh, wow. I just know. I know that no matter what happens, I'm set with this much money. And then anything above is like, bonus one of my clients, I have TikTok shop set up on the account that I run for them, and I'm making at least, at minimum, a couple of bucks. But I've had a couple of $100 days in commission alone that's just added on to what they're paying me every month.

0:25:31 - (Becky): It's amazing what's out there and what opportunities are out there when you open your eyes. And that's something that I've really talked to my clients about too, is we're so, not to make this a different conversation, but a lot of times with anything, not just in coaching, in any company that have or work for you, get really honed in on like, well, this is all I can do. I don't know what else is possible.

0:25:56 - (Becky): This is my only option. And when I was coaching, I was like, this is my only option. There's no other option. I say when I was coaching, like, I'm not anymore. I am. And I'm always thinking about like, okay, how can my business grow with me and shift with me, whatever. But the months that things were slow, I would have meltdowns almost every day and I'd be like, well, what am I going to do now? I can't do anything.

0:26:23 - (Becky): I love doing this stuff for my business, but I don't want to apply this. I don't want to go get a marketing job. I don't want to do marketing. I don't want to do it like that. That's not what I want to do. And I would just go down this rabbit hole of like, this is all I can do. There's no other option. For me, this has to work because there's nothing else. And for some people that might be really empowering and inspiring. For me it was like toxic as fuck and horrifying and not great for my mental health.

0:26:45 - (Becky): But a lot of times that's what we think and we believe that there's no other option and this is the only thing that's going to work for us. Or if somebody decides to become a coach, for example, but they also have a nine to five, they're like, well, if the coaching doesn't work, my only option is just to fall back on my nine to five and I'm never going to get out of this and be stuck in the rat race forever. And it's like not true.

0:27:03 - (Becky): First of all, maybe you'll find a different nine to five that serves the hell out of you that you love. But there's so many other opportunities out. And in my exploration of UGC, I realized that there's so many things that we could do even within coaching. I mean, you don't just have to coach people from the Internet. You can go into your local community, you can do corporate wellness. If you're like a sales expert, you could go into corporations and coach the sales team on different sales approaches. There's so many different opportunities out there that nobody's thinking about.

0:27:37 - (Becky): Even with start, I pitched an opportunity for me to further help a company with something totally unrelated to UGC. Well, it's not unrelated to UGC, but it's not me doing more UGC for them. And starting January, they're paying me additional money to do this other thing for them because I saw an opportunity that I was excited about and I pitched it to them. There are so many UGC creators that then just shift into doing UGC and creative strategy because that's a whole other. Like, there's so much opportunity out, there's so many ways to divide and conquer and do so many different things.

0:28:10 - (Becky): But we get so focused on the one thing we're doing and we convince ourselves it's the only option, when in reality there's all these other options that break off from what we're currently doing that would make us so much happier and fulfill us so much more that we're not even looking at because we just can't open our eyes wide enough because we're so blinders on, focused on the thing and convincing ourselves that it's the only thing out there for us.

0:28:34 - (Melissa): Yeah, mic drop. I'm like, yes, I worked for a corporate restaurant for ten years. And when I left there and even when I was there and so not happy and I hated it, I would always say, and it's cringey now, but it'd be like, well, I only know their systems. I only know how to wait tables. I only know this and that. And it's like, no, you, first off, are a great learner and you can learn anything. And what you do know in your experience can be applied to so many other areas that it's wild. But I think that it's so easy to get stuck in that.

0:29:15 - (Melissa): And something I've been saying a lot is I've heard someone say, ask yourself better questions. Are you asking yourself shit questions? And I think it can go along with stories too. Like, tell yourself a better story. What could be more empowering? Once you start really telling yourself those stories and then believing them, it completely can transform how you approach life or what you're doing.

0:29:47 - (Becky): In addition to that, it's like you have to figure out how to sell yourself, right? Because you can just put on your resume like, oh, I waited tables and was a host for ten years. Or you can take that and be like, because I've worked behind a bar. Like I was a bartender and stuff, but I never really waited tables, actually. I had to look twice in my bartending job. And I was like, fuck no. This shit's hard.

0:30:10 - (Becky): Waiting tables is not for the faint of heart, first of all. But being in customer service, being in waiting tables, having to manage all of that and being a hostess and having to figure out where to see everybody, you have so many skill sets that you don't even realize that you just picked up over those years as working in that service. And it's like if you figure out how to sell yourself correctly, you're not just the story that you're telling yourself of. Oh, I'm just a waitress. That's all I know. You're all of a sudden this insane business person that can do all these crazy amazing skills just because you figured out how to sell yourself.

0:30:45 - (Becky): So it's like selling yourself to yourself and then selling yourself to whatever role you want to do. But there's so much, and every single person out there has so many more skills than they realize that they do.

0:30:59 - (Melissa): Definitely. And I think sometimes it takes stepping back and really writing down your skills and doing something more than just a google search on how do I put server on my resume and really dialing in on the skill set and experience that you have to sell yourself and to then go ahead and sell other people. I think especially women, it's a skill that we all could learn a lot and thrive from because we can do way more than we put out, that we say we're going to do or that we believe that we can do.

0:31:40 - (Melissa): Yes. Yeah, I'm totally there with you.

0:31:44 - (Becky): Yes.

0:31:46 - (Melissa): So now it sounds like you've moved from this. Like, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing or want to do to. Like, now you have things that you're enjoying and you're liking and what does the future look like? Is this a moment that you want to sit in and just build on? Or are you someone who's always looking for the next thing?

0:32:08 - (Becky): That's a great question. I don't really think I'm always looking for the next thing. I think if I look too far out, I get really anxious. Actually, I actually had a whole conversation with the girls in my membership the other day about this and like goal setting and stuff because it's like some people thrive on that shit. When somebody asks me, I'll never forget this. I think it was like my second or third year in business.

0:32:32 - (Becky): I had to renew something. I don't know, something. And the option was one year or five years, but it was cheaper to do the five year than to do the one year. So I was like, oh, I guess I'll just do the five year. And after I did it, the woman was like, oh, congratulations on locking in your business for the next five years. That's such a big accomplishment that you feel good to do that. I get off the phone and I have, like, a meltdown. I was like, what the fuck?

0:32:55 - (Becky): I just locked in my future for the next five years or whatever, which, no, you didn't. It's just like a fucking, the rights to the business or whatever the hell. I don't even remember what I did. For all I know, it's time to do it again. I don't even know. But it just gave me so much anxiety. I'm like, what are you talking about? I don't know what tomorrow brings. So for me, it's funny because for a while, I was, I got really into, deep into manifestation, and I was like, okay, I'm always having to manifest. I have to manifest what I want, what I want to create, whatever.

0:33:26 - (Becky): And right now I'm really in this space of, like, I'm just for real going with the flow. And just like, whatever happens, happens because I'm just trying to figure out what I love, what I'm doing. And I'm like, okay, what comes next and when do things shift differently? Because even the clients that I have, for example, I love the monthly retainer clients that I'm working with, and I took on the roles because it was a really good learning experience.

0:33:58 - (Becky): And so it's like, okay, when do I shift? Because the pay that I'm getting, it's good pay, but some people would get paid that for a quarter of the work that I'm doing. But it's just because of the set up that I'm in or whatever. So the questions for me are like, okay, is this it for me? Is this where I want to stay? Do I want to try and shift into something else within UGC? But there's scariness in that too, because it's like, okay, there's going to be a lull period when I pull away from one client, whatever.

0:34:35 - (Becky): I'm pulling off of one client. That's like losing a big chunk of money for a period of time, and everything's going to work out in the end and it all falls into place and it's all going to be fantastic and great and all the things. But, yeah, I kind of just am taking it day by day. I am planning to plan out a little bit further in advance because if you take it too day by day, that in and of itself can be very stressful.

0:34:58 - (Becky): So definitely planning in advance, but really just kind of like, seeing what opportunities come my way and not trying to shape my future too much, because the world is our oyster. There's so much out there, and I think I've been so strict with myself and stringent on what I had to do and when I had to do it for so long that I just need a little bit. Like, I need to loosen up a little bit and just see what happens with the knowing that my end goal is always to be consistently increasing my income, even, like, a little bit.

0:35:35 - (Becky): That's always the goal.

0:35:37 - (Melissa): Yeah. I appreciate that about you, because my take on life in general, and I'm trying to get more into this becky, chill, let it come vibe, but I always have this hyped up sense of urgency that my goals need to happen right now, and if they didn't happen yesterday, it's already too late. And that has been quite a challenge and a mind fuck to overcome. And so to hear you and your approach and just be like, I'm just taking it one day at a time. And what I like today might not be what I like tomorrow.

0:36:16 - (Melissa): It's inspiring to see somebody who can model what I'm trying to go for because this always hyped up, like, oh, my gosh, I'm not there yet. It's exhausting, and it's not good for my.

0:36:29 - (Becky): No, it's not. Well, one thing I will say, first of all, I'm not telling anybody to do this. I'm not pushing this, but I will say my anxiety got so bad that I did up my meds, so I am on some good anxiety meds right now. So that's probably part of it. So there's that because that's normally my norm, too, of this hyped up. Like, I need to reach my goals right now, almost in a panic. And I've always been that way. But totally transparently, I think that the coaching space made it worse.

0:37:03 - (Becky): I think it really triggered me without realizing. I think it was very subconscious and that everybody's always talking about their goals and what they're accomplishing and what they're achieving and how quickly they did it, and it's all encompassing. You're constantly consuming that. And I didn't even realize. I was like, oh. When I had friends being like, oh, I have to get off social media, I spend too much. Toxic. I'm like, oh, I have a healthy relationship with social media.

0:37:29 - (Becky): I don't even know what you're talking about. Can't relate. But in retrospect, because now I don't really consume anywhere near as much because I'm just, like, working and creating. And so a really big platform for UGC is Twitter. Everybody's like, I refuse to call it.

0:37:46 - (Melissa): X by the.

0:37:49 - (Becky): Finding. I get the majority of my inbounds from Twitter, which requires me to be responding to tweets, to tweeting myself, et cetera. And it's not that bad or anything, but sometimes I'll be reading some of these tweets and I'm like, oh, why am I not there? And I'll catch myself comparing. All of a sudden, I'm like, why am I not there? Whatever. And I feel the anxiety lifting a little bit or increasing a little bit, and I'll have to close my phone or shut off Twitter. I'm like, I can't do this anymore right now. So I've become really self aware of it.

0:38:19 - (Becky): But I do think that the coaching space can be super triggering for that and push you into that overdrive of constantly wanting to reach your goal faster, faster, faster, because you see whatever, because of all these reasons. And so I think that that's one thing and so realizing that and kind of noticing your triggers and slowing that down. But the other thing for me that I think really clicked me into, I just have to be easy going and just see what happens and trust the process is, well, really two things. One is that I'm not lost, but at the same time, I am really lost.

0:38:56 - (Becky): I have a hard time letting go of things. And so for me, my entire childhood up through college, I was convinced I'm going to school in Kentucky, but I'm coming back to New York. I'm going to live in New York City. I'm going to be a New York City girly. Like, that's my life. And then when my parents called me at the end of freshman year and we're like, we're moving, I was like, wait, what the fuck? I don't have a home base in New York anymore. What do you mean?

0:39:17 - (Becky): I have family there. But I grew up literally, like, a 25 minutes train ride out of the city. And my family that lives in the city, I couldn't go live there. It's not big enough. And so I was like, oh, my gosh, I don't have a home base to go home to, to then build my life in New York City. I would just have to straight up go to New York City, and that's terrifying. I don't want so. And now I'm at a place where I'm like, I don't think I'll ever live in New York City?

0:39:41 - (Becky): Plus, you have to be so rich to live in a kind of building that I know wouldn't have rats in it. And I don't want to spend that kind of money on rent. Let's be real. I'm petrified of rats, by the way. Like, absolutely petrified. So I'm sorry, this is, again, super long. Everything I say is so long. But the point of what I'm trying to say is I've just been living this life for the past, however many years, honestly, probably like ten years now, because I kind of started to accept the fact that I wasn't going to move back to New York after my parents left. I was like, I don't know where I would go. So then I was all of a sudden kind of just, like, floating. And I was like, I guess Kentucky is my home now.

0:40:16 - (Becky): This is the only other place I've lived the longest for. And then whenever I left Kentucky and came up here, I do really like it in the DC area, but it's like, okay, I guess this is kind of my home. My parents used to live in DC. Now they live like, an hour and a half away. I don't really know what I want. So I'm 28 years old. I don't really know what I want. I've never even necessarily took a second to sit down and ask myself what I want.

0:40:39 - (Becky): There are certain things, like, I know what I don't want, but I don't really know what I want. And so I'm like, what am I rushing to? I don't know what I want. I don't know. I don't know what the future holds. I know that we're moving next month, and we have a lease here for at least the next 15 months, but I don't know anything. So why am I being so obsessed with what the next step is when I don't even know what the next step is? What am I doing? So I think that was one thing, was realizing that I'm still not necessarily over the childhood dream of living in New York City.

0:41:12 - (Becky): And it's not necessarily me saying that I want to move to New York City, but it's just like, if I still need to work through, like, why am I trying to create this story of what my life needs to be when I don't even know? So that was one thing. And then the other thing was at the beginning of UGC, I was being psychotic about deadlines and wanting to get things in early to look really good for the brand. So I would wake up on a Monday in severe, severe anxiety mode, like panicking, running around the apartment, like going crazy, like dodging things, jumping over the dog, like running around, carrying my lights all around the apartment to get the best lighting, carrying my tripod, literally going all over the place, trying to film all my content in one day and being so crazy about it. I'm like, everything needs to get done on Monday because otherwise I'm going to be behind literally being crazy.

0:41:58 - (Becky): Probably a month into it, I'm like, this is so not, this is not sustainable. What am I doing? Why am I acting so psychotic about this? This is absolutely absurd. What am I rushing for? What is the end goal here? I don't even know what I'm doing. I'm just in overactive hyperactivity. Have to achieve everything immediately. For what? I really don't know. So I think having kind of, like, I wouldn't say call it a rock bottom, but kind of like that smack in the face moment of like, holy shit, I'm draining myself. For what purpose?

0:42:30 - (Becky): Why do I need to achieve this tomorrow? I have the whole rest of my fucking life. I think realizing that is so crucial. I think it's just like, honestly, to get out of that hyperactivity, of needing to achieve my goals tomorrow is realizing the world that we live in now is different than the world that our parents grew up in. And the stories that we've heard about their lives does not even come close to comparing to the stories of our lives.

0:42:53 - (Becky): I think it's realizing, like I said, the toxicity and the triggering things that we see online every single day. I think it's like getting comfortable with the idea that maybe our life isn't what we thought it would be, and that's okay and we get to make it in our own time. Sometimes I like to remind myself of all the celebrities that didn't get famous until they were like, 50. That helps, too. I think it's just like, again, I'm saying so much, and this is such a long thing, but I just think it's important to know that I wouldn't necessarily say that this is me. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's me now. It's me that I'm being like, oh, we'll see what happens. But this is very new. And I think a lot of it comes from hitting these walls of realizing that something needs to shift because it's not working for me anymore and I can't do this.

0:43:37 - (Becky): And also just being a little bit burned out and needing to shift out of that and also calling myself out. I think it's like a lot of little things that have built on top of each other that have allowed me to get to this place. Oh, and the last thing I was going to say, the other thing that I think has allowed me to get this place is the sustainability, because it's not like I'm making $1,000 a month. I'm making good money right now. It's sustainable good money. Could I make better money? Hell, yeah. And I'll get there. But I'm making sustainable, good money that's reliable right now. And that takes a big weight off of your as. As much as I'm like, oh, I want to keep ugc to myself, even though everybody does it anyway. But I'm like, I'm going to push that till I'm blue in the face because I really do think that there's so much opportunity in it and there's so much possibility. So anybody that's even a little bit curious, go explore it, because I really do think it's so amazing. And if you approach them the right way, it can create so much sustainability and so much reliability in your life. But I think that that's another thing that's allowed me to just kind of be more chill, is I'm like, all right, I'll get there when I get there. I have income here. Here I'm okay.

0:44:49 - (Becky): So it's amazing what reliable income can do to your nervous system.

0:44:57 - (Melissa): Yes, it is money. And the nervous system, they go hand in hand, for sure. And being able to support yourself, I feel like throughout this conversation, you've really highlighted the power of pivoting or shifting. And whether it's in what you're doing or your actions or your thoughts and beliefs, that's like a thread that I've heard through all of your stories that I think is so powerful, because a lot of times we can get really caught up in the mind drama around a pivot.

0:45:30 - (Melissa): And your stories are an example of how a pivot can really be powerful, and especially when you approach it without guilt, shame, or judgment towards yourself in where you're going. So I absolutely love that. This has been an incredible chat. I do always ask my guests one question at the end, and that is, what does my life as a Saturday mean to you?

0:45:59 - (Becky): I've been thinking about this question, and I'm like, what does it mean to me? And I think, when I think about it, since the first time that you said this to me of my life is a Saturday, it's just about finding joy in your life every day and enjoying the journey. That's what I really think it's about, because when I think about a Saturday, I love that this is your thing, because it really is almost like the most exciting day of the week, whether you have a really exciting plan for the day. And you also know you get to sleep in tomorrow, too, or you just are going to sit around on the couch all day, but you also get to think, oh, I have tomorrow, too.

0:46:35 - (Becky): It's not Monday yet. I still have another day. It really is just, like, one of the best days of the week. And so I think it's just all about finding joy in every moment and just finding ways to be excited about every day.

0:46:53 - (Melissa): I love that. I absolutely love that. So good. Becky, thank you so much for coming on the, uh, can we tell the people where to find. They're like, yeah, Becky's my person. Where would they go?

0:47:09 - (Becky): Of course. So I would say, go to my account. It's just my first and last name. That's like, I made a separate account for UGC, but Becky Fagan will always be the account that, like, hanging out on and doing my thing on. So come find me there, and all my shit's there.

0:47:28 - (Melissa): I love last. I guess one last question is, what's your favorite?

0:47:35 - (Becky): Ooh, I don't know that I could pick one. Shit. That's such a great question. You're going to have to wait while I open these up, because I got to tell you, first of all, you know which one I really love, actually, I love the one where they're, like, shaking hands like that because you know what it reminds me of? I think it's called I'm embarrassed the shit on myself right now. I grew up in the emo pop punk world.

0:48:03 - (Becky): What is it, like, hard styling or something? When you bend down on a knee and you both grab the two front people? Do you know what I'm talking about? Grab each other's hands to take a photo. Okay, well, anybody that's listening, that's in that space will know exactly who I'm talking about. It's like all my guy friends growing up at concerts and stuff, that's how they would pose in the photo. Each of them would bend down on a knee, fake facing each other, and grab each other's hands like that. So I love that emoji because it reminds me of that, and I'm always trying to fit it into conversations with friends.

0:48:29 - (Becky): So there's that one. I love that one. And then a quick runner up would probably be, what's one that I use a lot? I feel like that really is my favorite one. My top used emoji is the one that's, like laughing where it's on an angle because it's like laughing so hard or whatever. That's my top used emoji.

0:48:54 - (Melissa): I love that.

0:48:55 - (Becky): Yeah.

0:48:56 - (Melissa): Okay, well, friends, when you go hang out with Becky on Instagram, send her a handshake emoji so she knows that you came from the podcast.

0:49:04 - (Becky): Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

0:49:06 - (Melissa): I love that. And again, thank you so much for being on the podcast. It's always such a pleasure to chat with you and I love you. I'm so happy that you came on.

0:49:19 - (Becky): Me too.

0:49:22 - (Melissa): Beautiful.

0:49:23 - (Becky): Thank you.

0:49:23 - (Melissa): All right, you're welcome. All right, guys, that's it for this episode. When you go out today and live your life, just remember that the vision that you have is on your heart for a reason. And your life is always a Saturday. Talk to you later. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to my life is a Saturday. I hope you enjoyed this episode and are feeling inspired to live your best life. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your friends.

0:49:53 - (Melissa): You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook at my life is a Saturday for more fun and Inspiration Nation. Remember, life is short, so let's make the most out of every day close.