Audria Richmond®: 00:23

Welcome to the UnCloned® Insider audio newsletter. My name is Audria Richmond, and I am your marketing and launch strategist. I work directly with my clients to show them how to build unclown brands and launch profitable marketing campaigns. We are the brand you come to when you want to become or remain the obvious choice of your industry. Hey, y'all.

Audria Richmond®: 00:44

What's going on? I am so excited about this audio newsletter for so many reasons. But we just launched our brand new community on school. I took my Facebook group off school. We'll talk about that in a moment.

Audria Richmond®: 01:00

But I asked people in our new community what did they want me to talk about, and one of our community members was like, hey. You know, you should talk about the transition you're making and, like, what you're working on. And I was like, okay. That sound pretty cool. So this is gonna be more of a behind the scenes type of, audio newsletter, like what's going on, what I'm thinking, you know, what I've been experiencing, so on and so forth.

Audria Richmond®: 01:26

So, hopefully, you got your pen in your notebook and your favorite beverage because we're about to have a really, really good time. And furthermore, I want you to come inside of the uncloned school community and let me know what your biggest takeaway was because I need to know I need to know y'all listening because I know y'all y'all are in the community. Y'all we so lit. Okay? Like, I can't even contain myself.

Audria Richmond®: 01:53

I was just saying, like, man, as soon as I'm done with this audio newsletter, I'm gonna take a nap. The reason I'm late getting this out today is because I've been serving inside of our uncloned community. My team and I, we've been extremely busy onboarding people, into the the to the school community, uncloned school community, so it's been a game changer. So, anyway, today's audio newsletter is about why I'm why I burned it down to rebuild my empire. So really, it's like, why I'm rebuilding this thing?

Audria Richmond®: 02:23

Like, why did I, like, why did I burn it down and why am I building it up? Right? That's essentially what we're gonna be talking about. So this is kind of like a little diary entry to a little bit. So you all asked, so here we are.

Audria Richmond®: 02:38

And thank you all for your contribution in asking those questions. Okay. So 2024 has been a very interesting year for me personally. I came into 2024 really just kinda like question mark. 2024 kinda started off like, okay.

Audria Richmond®: 02:55

What is this year is going to be about? You know, ending 2023, coming to 2024. I really wanted to work on me, Audreya. I wanted to work on all aspects of me, but more in particularly on the spiritual and emotional side. I feel like over the years I have, like, given so much of myself to people and oftentimes it's sometimes it's received, but oftentimes it's not.

Audria Richmond®: 03:23

And I I was just like, I felt like I was giving too much of myself to people. I felt like I was, you know, hanging out with a lot of people and not prioritizing myself and my work and my own personal projects. And I found myself being a part of everybody's, you know, projects and things that they're working on and not really focus on myself. And then I also had told myself at the beginning of the year, like, I'm not gonna go anywhere. I don't wanna go to no conference.

Audria Richmond®: 03:51

I don't wanna link up. I don't don't invite me to nothing. And a lot of that had to do with the fact that, like, I wanted to have some time to myself. Like, I wanted to be selfish this year. I really wanted to think about what my desires were, what do I want, and, like, what I was feeling.

Audria Richmond®: 04:08

And so this year has been all about me regulating my emotions and not allowing things that I can't control hold me down. And I'm one of those people who loves deeply. And I think one of the things that has hindered me, over the years is caring too much about people's success when they don't care about it themselves. And, you know, this has been something that I've been talking about publicly, privately, friends, no friends, you know, with my husband. Like, I just I'm one of those people who have a huge heart and sometimes when people when I well, let me just say this.

Audria Richmond®: 04:51

Sometimes when I because I wanna make sure that I'm holding myself accountable to the thoughts that I'm saying. Sometimes when I don't set boundaries, I typically allow myself to be Trump, you know, you know, ran over essentially. Right? And so that was something that I really wanted to prioritize this year was getting to a place where I where I could regulate my emotions. One of the books that really helped me with this is Atlas at the Heart, Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown.

Audria Richmond®: 05:22

And then, of course, I just been watching a lot of YouTube videos on emotional regulations. I've been, like, watching a lot of content around this. Please do not ask me what video I'm watching and this and the third. I personally do not want to disclose that. This is sacred to me.

Audria Richmond®: 05:37

And so I just I'm sharing this with you all because you asked for this information. And so I just wanted to kinda give you some insights, but I don't want this to come in I don't want this to become this tell me the link, share this with me, you know, because I know that when I'm making moves and I'm doing things, instead of people saying congratulations first, the next the first question they ask is how. And I'm a be honest with you. Over the years, that has become very annoying, because when I do things, especially if they're cool, I just want you to acknowledge the fact that I did something cool. It's like it's I I'm finding that it's very difficult for people to just be happy for you without figuring out how they can do it for themselves.

Audria Richmond®: 06:12

Right? So but, anyway, that's a whole another conversation. Right? But nevertheless, I started reading, you know, books like Alice of the Heart. I started looking at content around emotional regulations, regulation.

Audria Richmond®: 06:24

I had started I had started a a joined a a spiritual program. And so by the time I got through all of that, we were 9 months into the year. And fortunately, I have clients on our roster which afforded me the the the place to be able to have peace of mind. Right? And that at the end of September, the last day of September, I was like, my year starts on October 1st because I really didn't want the pressure of like, how much money you wanna make this year and do you wanna be a gazillionaire and this and a third.

Audria Richmond®: 07:01

Like I really wanted to think about my personal desires and honor that. I wanted to under the honor the time that I wanted to be by myself. I wanted to, you know, spend time with myself, and I didn't wanna feel like I needed to be at every single social gathering that's, you know, put together. Right? So that's the first thing.

Audria Richmond®: 07:25

The second thing is I decided that I'm going to really, really, really talk a lot more to my community around leadership. I feel like as solopreneurs and CEOs and small business owners and entrepreneurs, we typically don't own the role of being a leader. It's like we have no problem following other people, we have no problem with, you know, respecting authority and leadership. But for some reason, we have a hard time leading ourself. And so I feel like if you don't know how to lead yourself, you definitely won't know how to lead a company.

Audria Richmond®: 08:02

And leadership is you don't get a leadership manual when you decide to go and start and run a business. And so for me, one of the things that I noticed was like, I'm noticing that I personally want to be a really, really good CEO. That mean I have to think different. That means that I need to be a little bit more strategic. That means that I have a higher level of responsibility that I have not been fully embracing.

Audria Richmond®: 08:27

And so if you all wanna know, like, what's those things you need to be focused on as a CEO, we actually have an audio newsletter called embracing your role as CEO. It's really, really good audio newsletter if you haven't already had an opportunity to look at that. But, like, I just told myself, like, you finna be on your CEO thing. Like, I had already made the decision that I'm like, I'm a boss. Like, I'm a CEO.

Audria Richmond®: 08:47

Like, I'm gonna run this company, and then eventually I'm gonna hire me a CEO. And so because of the season I'm in, I tend to start teaching, you know, at a higher level. And even though people who are just like, hey. I just wanna just make some money on the side. I just wanna make 5 grand.

Audria Richmond®: 09:02

Like, I'm not trying to be a boss. You may not be trying to be a boss, but if you're a CEO, you still have a higher level of responsibility that's required in order to run and operate your business. Right? And so that's something that I really, really wanted to focus on was, like, embracing the role of the CEO. Not only embracing the role of the CEO, but, like, getting really clear around what revenue look like for us, what does vision look like for us in 2025, What does team structure look like in 2025?

Audria Richmond®: 09:30

What do my leadership team look like in 2025? Like, I just been thinking on such a grand level, and I just feel like when you when you have built a brand off playing small, you gonna have to, you know, break it down and build it back up to go bigger and bigger. And I know from the outside looking in, some people may think like you've achieved a lot. You've done this. You've done that.

Audria Richmond®: 09:53

And I get it. But, you know, I'm still striving for more because of who I am and what I desire. And I tell people all the time, I'm only operating at like 10% of the stuff that I have in my idea book. So don't think for a second that, like, I may be well achieved to someone who may not have achieved a lot of the things that I have done, but by no means am I done. Like, I'm just getting started in my opinion, to be honest.

Audria Richmond®: 10:23

Like, I'm only 10 years into this. So it's not like I've been doing this for 20, 30, 40 years. Right? So I got a lot of more projects and ideas and projects. And so I just wanted to, like, think about what does it mean for me to be the CEO of the brand, Uncloned?

Audria Richmond®: 10:37

Like, what does it look like to run and operate this company? And so I had to start thinking on a really, really big level. Right? And so I just said, you know what? I'm about to get rid of everything that I don't feel like is going to go into this next season, Whether that was people, programs, products, services, you know, how was operating, how was moving, relationship, people, it didn't matter.

Audria Richmond®: 11:03

Okay? If I didn't feel like it was going to be a great integration into where I'm heading, it had to go. Right? And so I made a lot of changes this year, and so I wanna share some of the decisions that I made, and then I wanna share with you some of the things that we plan on doing. And hopefully, you can learn a lot around my decisions.

Audria Richmond®: 11:28

And by no means, I want you all to copy what I'm doing. I'm just telling you all my story. So do not take what I'm about to share with you as the final thing because like I said before, especially in our communities, marketing marketing and running a business is just you testing. You don't know. No one has the official answer.

Audria Richmond®: 11:50

Like, we're all testing. One thing that used to work don't work anymore. Like, we thought that fast food restaurants were going to run every day like clockwork, and now there's a lot of companies who were now using robots and computers to check you out. So, like, things evolve, things change. And I think that's important to note that, like, when you are growing and running your business, it's important for you to embrace innovation.

Audria Richmond®: 12:14

It is important for you to embrace change. So many people are so resistant against change that they won't even allow a better opportunity to exist. And I would just tell you firsthand, when you let go of things that don't serve you or is not taking you to the highest level that you want to be, you have to be willing to let it go. And that's the energy that I had this year. Regardless of how much money I made with it, regardless of how great it may be to other people, what do Arjorie Richmond want as the CEO of Unclown Media?

Audria Richmond®: 12:49

That's what I had to ask myself. Right? And so I did a I did a lot this year. So number 1, I closed my mastermind. If you're familiar with my Unclown Mastermind, I've been running this since 2020.

Audria Richmond®: 13:03

And so I made an announcement to my mastermind that 2025 would be the last year, and we will finish off the rest of the contracts for people who are here, but the uncloned Mastermind is no more as of now. And so it was very difficult for me to tell my clients that because I love my clients. I love my my mastermind clients. I love all my clients. And even though our mastermind is a huge profit center, I had to be okay with the idea of, like, okay, well, yes, this is a this is a profit center, but it's not as big as you want it to be because you're the bottleneck in it.

Audria Richmond®: 13:43

If you have a program where you are at the heart and center of the entire program, it's very hard to scale that up. Right? And so I was like, you know, I need to replace this program with another program that's not as that's not so codependent on me, Artur Richmond. Right? And so I made the decision to close the Mastermind.

Audria Richmond®: 14:07

Number 2, I reevaluated my relationships. Right? And I was just like, I don't know if you've ever done this before, but like sometimes I go and I look at my text messages and I look at like, how often am I communicating with quote unquote best friends? How often am, you know, am I the only one sharing or is this reciprocal? Like I'm just looking at, like and I'm not saying that our relationships need to be reciprocal, but I don't need to feel like I'm the only one giving.

Audria Richmond®: 14:35

You know what I mean? And so I had to kinda really be honest with myself and audit my relationships. That does that mean end people and not be and not be in relationship with them? No. But it does mean deal with them accordingly, and that's what I've been doing.

Audria Richmond®: 14:49

Number 3, I decided that I wanted to revisit my Vivid Vision. And if you've been a part of our community for any length of time, I talk about this book in great detail. But Vivid Vision is a great book for you to get clear on the vision you have for your company. Number 4, I was like, hey, our community is not it it didn't feel connected. It felt like I had a lot of places for people to be, but there was no heart, no soul.

Audria Richmond®: 15:18

And it it's be it's mainly because the people in the the Facebook group, they couldn't see my content. Because at first, I thought it was me. I was like, dang. Do do people not like the brand? Do they not like what we stand for?

Audria Richmond®: 15:29

Come to find out, it's the damn algorithm. So I'm like, what in the hell? And so once I made the decision to move over to school, it's been a game changer y'all. Like, we only been on the platform for about 4 days and 4 no. 5 days today, make 5 days, and it's been crazy.

Audria Richmond®: 15:49

Like, we've been having so much fun. It feels like an everyday party for entrepreneurs. I like to call it unicorns heaven. Okay? Like, we just been having so much fun.

Audria Richmond®: 16:00

You gotta come and join us, and you can access the link directly by heading over to unclonedot group. That's uncloned.group, that's gr0up. So it's uncloned dot group, and that will redirect you to our school community so you can request to join. It is absolutely free. So I was like, hey, I need to detox my community.

Audria Richmond®: 16:24

I need to set a new standard. I need to set new boundaries. I need to be clear on how we roll. Like, I need to be I need to step into the leadership role. Right?

Audria Richmond®: 16:33

And I needed to embrace what it means to own a community and lead a community, and what does it look like to cultivate a community. And so I made the the executive decision to shut down our free Facebook group to move people over to our school community. We have 4,000 people in that Facebook group. Have all 4,000 people migrated over? No.

Audria Richmond®: 16:54

I think we're like at 520 something at the time of this this recording of this, audio newsletter. But I feel really confident in my decision. I don't have no I don't feel no kind of way. I renamed that group. I changed the header on that page.

Audria Richmond®: 17:10

I made a couple announcements. I had been sending out emails and text messages. And I was like, I'm just going to assume that if, you know, if they see it, they see it, they don't, they don't. But let me prioritize the people that do see us, which moves me to another point. We spend so much time trying to be validated by people who don't give a shit about us, and I think it's important for you to think love on the people that love you.

Audria Richmond®: 17:34

That's that's the best way to put it. Right? Like stop spending time trying to get someone to see you. It's kinda like the lady who's in a relationship with somebody that she know don't love her, but she's in a relationship because she don't think she can find something else. That's essentially what that feels like.

Audria Richmond®: 17:51

And I was just like, I'm not dealing with that. Like and I'm cool with my my group getting down to a 100 people, to a 120 people, if it means all 120 people love the UnClone brand. I am sick and tired of attracting and working with dabblers. People who are just not serious. Right?

Audria Richmond®: 18:12

And so I was like, you know what? We're gonna make a pivot. We're gonna shift. And when we move over to this new platform, we're setting new rules, we're setting new standards, and we're raising the bar for what it means to be on clone. And so that was part of that.

Audria Richmond®: 18:26

And then the next thing we decided to do was really go all in on virtual conferences next year. So this is kinda me moving into all the new things that we're introducing. So let me start over before I get to virtual conferences. Number 1, we introduced a brand new program called unclone 90. The unclone 90 is a business and marketing accelerator where we work directly with entrepreneurs to help them develop one offer and bring it to market.

Audria Richmond®: 18:52

And so it's called Unclown 90. It's a 90 day business and marketing accelerator, so that's the first offer. And I would consider this more of so mid ticket. Number 2, we're going to be creating a more foundational non launch related membership that's about marketing tactics and what's working now. So I realized that there's a lot of entrepreneurs who aren't just ready for the unclown launch circle just yet, but they still need support with marketing their business on an everyday level.

Audria Richmond®: 19:22

So think about this marketing membership more so like a marketing club where we talk a lot about what's working now. What's the what's what are the trends that are working right now? What are the strategies that are working right now? And most importantly, how do you make it uncloned and make it yours? Now, the third thing, we introduced a new assessment called the uncloned brand assessment where people can learn their uncloned brand score.

Audria Richmond®: 19:46

And when I tell y'all that has been a game changer. The amount of information that we now have, we have viable data so we can make really good decisions around what type of content to create, what type of events to create, what kind of resources we need to make, what kind of YouTube videos we need to create, what kind of audio newsletters we need to have. Like, the assessment serves so many purposes right now, and it's now going to become a part of our foundational journey, And it's one of those things that if you wanna be connected to our community, you need to know your UnClone brand score because we're going to be coaching and training and teaching from that perspective. And so, you know, one of those examples is, let's say somebody say, hey. You know, I did a launch and no one signed up for an example.

Audria Richmond®: 20:35

I'm probably gonna ask them, like, well, how big is your email list or how big is your audience and, you know, how did you score in the uncloned lunches and marketing category? Now if you haven't taken the uncloned brand assessment, you're probably like, what the hell is she talking about? But if you have your uncloned brand report and you look inside of your report, there's a page called lunches and marketing, uncloned marketing, that shows you how you performed and it show you your score. And so when we're coaching people, the uncloned brand assessment is not just a tool for our business owners to learn where they stand with their brand, but it also serves as a tool for us for coaching and advising our clients. Alright?

Audria Richmond®: 21:14

And then the the last thing I'll say is we're doing a lot of virtual conferences next year, lot of virtual events. We're also want to be doing some in person social event and so we're going to just prioritize our community. We're gonna prioritize our clients. And if you're not, you know, quote unquote unquote unclone insider, you're missing out. Right?

Audria Richmond®: 21:34

And so if you're listening to these 9 times out of 10, you are unclone insider. That mean you're on my email list. That mean you're probably a part of our school community. And I just wanna say thank you for believing in the brand, for believing in yourself, for showing up even when it's not easy because I know how hard that can be. Now, one thing I want you all to think about as we bring this conversation to a close, what do you need to do?

Audria Richmond®: 22:03

Like like think about that. What do you need to do? What do you need to fix? What do you need to bring attention to to become the highest version of yourself? You know, for me, I took a 9 month break and I understand that everybody can't do that, but I'm curious to know what is something that you want to do that's going to allow you to become that highest version.

Audria Richmond®: 22:27

Do you need to read a book? Do you need to go to a retreat? Do you need to get you a prayer partner? Do you need to go to therapy? Like, what is it that you need to unlock so you can get to the highest version of yourself?

Audria Richmond®: 22:39

And I'm curious to know from you, what are you willing to, like, burn down so you can build it back up in a way that's more impactful than than before you built you brought you burned it down. Right? So anyway, I just wanted to share that with y'all today. I really do appreciate you all for taking the time to listen to this audio newsletter. If you have any questions or if you just wanna discuss this episode, head over to unclonedot group to share your insights in the uncloned community.

Audria Richmond®: 23:10

Until next time y'all, let's go live an uncloned life and build an uncloned brand. Bye y'all.