The Leap Interview: Building and Leveraging Community, the Key to Success for Freelancers and Independent Professionals with Tina Yip

Today, we have a special guest on our show who will share invaluable insights on building and leveraging community. On this episode Rachel interviewed Tina Yip, the founder of Space to Grow, a company that empowers individuals to find a more intentional and meaningful work-life balance. With her expertise in community building and personal development, Tina has truly revolutionized the way we approach our careers and mental well-being.

A Journey of Evolution and Transformation

Tina Yip's journey in the business world has been nothing short of remarkable. Starting her career in advertising and strategy at esteemed agencies like RGA and Big Spaceship, Tina soon discovered her passion for bringing people together and fostering a sense of community. This realization led her to embark on several side projects, including hosting brunch and speaker series, as well as starting a podcast. These initiatives not only energized Tina but also fueled her desire to create a space that genuinely fostered authentic connections.

As fate would have it, the pandemic and a visa transition opened up the doors for Tina to freelance full-time and pursue her dream of establishing her own company. Juggling freelance work and growing Space to Grow, she dedicated her time to providing community strategy services for early-stage startups and artists. Additionally, Tina launched the Freelance Starter Pack program, which helps individuals transition from full-time to freelance, offering guidance and support every step of the way.

Overcoming Barriers and Embracing the Independent Journey

Many individuals are drawn to the idea of freelancing and independence, enticed by the flexibility and autonomy it promises. However, taking the leap into freelancing can be daunting, especially for those accustomed to the stability and structure of a salaried position. Financial concerns, shifting mindsets, fear of the unknown, and the lack of practical knowledge are all common barriers that need to be overcome.

Tina Yip acknowledges these hurdles and emphasizes the importance of mindset shifts and understanding personal finance as crucial elements of success in the freelancing world. Developing an abundance mindset, facing money traumas, and aligning personal values with professional goals all play a pivotal role in overcoming these barriers. Moreover, Tina highlights the significance of recognizing the initial investment of time and effort required to build a freelance business, reminding us that patience and persistence are key.

Nurturing Networks and Capitalizing on Communities

For freelancers and independent professionals, building a strong professional network is essential. These networks not only provide opportunities for collaboration and project referrals, but they also offer a sense of support and camaraderie in an otherwise solitary work environment.

Tina advises freelancers to identify their niche and actively seek out communities where potential clients are present. Networking with other freelancers and collaborators can be priceless, leading to partnerships and shared opportunities. Additionally, Tina introduces the concept of the "friend economy" or "friend club," where groups of friends, with complementary skills, work together and share opportunities, challenging the traditional boys club mentality prevalent in many industries.

Moreover, Tina believes that smaller, more intimate communities can often be more valuable than larger ones, emphasizing the importance of fostering genuine connections and providing meaningful experiences for community members. As a community builder herself, she reminds us that community should always be focused on the people, not solely on the brand or creator. The brand or creator acts as a facilitator, nurturing the community members and ensuring their needs are met.

The Future of Work: Embracing Independence and Collaboration

The shift toward independent work is steadily gaining momentum. More and more individuals are choosing to pursue freelancing, consulting, and creative ventures, driven by the desire for greater flexibility, autonomy, and control over their careers. Technology has played a significant role in enabling this shift, providing platforms and tools that connect independent professionals with clients and facilitate remote work.

As the independent workforce continues to grow, it is essential to address the unique challenges faced by freelancers and independent professionals. Companies are emerging to provide solutions for insurance, accounting, taxes, and other essential aspects of running a business, making it easier for individuals to navigate the freelancing world. This democratization of resources and opportunities is gradually dismantling the dominance of big agencies, allowing independents to compete for larger projects and clients.

The rise of independent work has also paved the way for collaborations with a rising class of online businesses that prioritize sustainability and lifestyle design over exponential growth. This alignment of values creates exciting opportunities for independent professionals who share these aspirations.

Building an Empowered and Supportive Community

In conclusion, building and leveraging community is a vital component of success for freelancers and independent professionals. The journey toward freelancing requires a mindset shift, persistence, and a willingness to overcome barriers. By embracing the power of community, nurturing networks, and capitalizing on the opportunities that arise, freelancers can forge their paths to success.

Tina Yip, with her wealth of experience as a community builder and entrepreneur, reminds us that community is about the individuals first and foremost. It is through these authentic connections that we can unlock our full potential, foster personal growth, and make our mark in the world of independent work.

If you're ready to embark on your freelancing journey, make sure to seek inspiration, reflect on your goals, and surround yourself with a supportive tribe. Follow Tina's work at Space to Grow on Instagram (@spacetogrowworld), and visit her website for invaluable resources and guidance.

Remember, you have the power to design your own career, embrace your independence, and follow the path that lights up your soul. The future of work is in our hands, and together, we can create a more empowered and fulfilling professional landscape.

Watch the full interview on YouTube or listen on Spotify.

Tina Yip The Leap Interview on YouTube

Tina Yip The Leap Interview on Spotify

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Rachel Renock Interview with Tina Yip about Community Building

[00:00:00] Rachel Renock: Hey, y'all.

[00:00:01] Rachel Renock: Welcome back to the leap.

[00:00:03] Rachel Renock: We're just going to get started here in just a second.

[00:00:06] Rachel Renock: Thanks so much for joining us.

[00:00:07] Rachel Renock: And we're going to get this interview going, get her up on stage and have a great conversation.

[00:00:12] Rachel Renock: I'm excited for our guest today.

[00:00:15] Rachel Renock: We're going to talk a bunch about community, about how to build community, how to leverage community, all the things.

[00:00:21] Rachel Renock: So I'm super excited to get Tina up and running.

[00:00:25] Rachel Renock: We'll get up and going here just a second.

[00:00:27] Rachel Renock: And thanks for your patience.

[00:00:28] Catch Up Conversation Between Rachel Renock and Tina Yip

[00:00:28] Rachel Renock: For those of you who are joining us, let me get our guest up on stage here.

[00:00:46] Rachel Renock: All right.

[00:00:49] Rachel Renock: Nice.

[00:00:50] Rachel Renock: We did it.

[00:00:51] Rachel Renock: Wow.

[00:00:52] Tina Yip: Hey, it's been so long.

[00:00:54] Tina Yip: I'm talking to you.

[00:00:57] Rachel Renock: I'm great.

[00:00:58] Rachel Renock: I'm super excited to chat today.

[00:00:59] Rachel Renock: I feel like you've just like, your business has evolved so much.

[00:01:02] Rachel Renock: So I'm really excited to touch on.

[00:01:04] Tina Yip: A bunch of the topics that we're.

[00:01:05] Rachel Renock: Going to chat about today.

[00:01:08] Tina Yip: Where are you?

[00:01:09] Rachel Renock: We'll stop.

[00:01:10] Tina Yip: Where now?

[00:01:10] Tina Yip: Who knew in Nashville?

[00:01:13] Tina Yip: I'm in Nashville these days.

[00:01:15] Tina Yip: Yeah.

[00:01:17] Tina Yip: Oh, okay.

[00:01:19] Rachel Renock: We love a smaller tier.

[00:01:21] Rachel Renock: That's that's where at?

[00:01:22] Tina Yip: It's great.

[00:01:23] Tina Yip: Thanks for having me.

[00:01:24] Tina Yip: I'm excited to be here.

[00:01:27] Rachel Renock: Yeah.

[00:01:28] Tina Yip: So I'm just going to do a.

[00:01:29] Rachel Renock: Quick little intro for folks that are not familiar and then we'll get right into it if that works for you.

[00:01:34] Rachel Renock: So thanks, folks.

[00:01:36] Interview with Tina Yip, Founder of Space to Grow

[00:01:36] Rachel Renock: For those of you who are joining us, I'm Rachel Renick.

[00:01:39] Rachel Renock: I am the co founder and CEO of Wehos, which is a software platform that basically helps you take the guesswork out of starting and scaling your freelance business.

[00:01:47] Rachel Renock: So we make it really easy to price projects, bill your clients, and then if you're collaborating with other people, send peer to peer payments.

[00:01:53] Rachel Renock: Every month or so, I interview a different creative entrepreneur who has taken the leap to start their own business, usually something within the freelance space.

[00:02:01] Rachel Renock: And this week's guest, I'm super excited about Tina.

[00:02:03] Rachel Renock: We've known each other for a couple of years now.

[00:02:05] Rachel Renock: We've had these virtual bonding sessions, which I'm super stoked about.

[00:02:09] Rachel Renock: But Tina is an amazing community builder.

[00:02:12] Rachel Renock: She's a creator.

[00:02:13] Rachel Renock: She focuses on the future of work, mental health, personal development.

[00:02:16] Rachel Renock: Her Venture space to grow.

[00:02:19] Tina Yip: Yes.

[00:02:19] Rachel Renock: Used to be called strategist.

[00:02:21] Rachel Renock: It curates programs.

[00:02:22] Tina Yip: Love it.

[00:02:23] Rachel Renock: Yeah, I love the new name, by the way.

[00:02:29] Rachel Renock: Gang's all here.

[00:02:30] Rachel Renock: Gang's all here.

[00:02:32] Rachel Renock: But Space to Grow is a super cool company.

[00:02:34] Rachel Renock: It really focuses on building these programs and communities that can foster a more intentional and meaningful work life balance and experience.

[00:02:43] Rachel Renock: Really amazing concept, personally, because I feel like we desperately need that and the world is just, like, moving more and more in this direction.

[00:02:50] Rachel Renock: So definitely needed.

[00:02:51] Rachel Renock: But Tina's actually a very respected strategist and visionary.

[00:02:55] Rachel Renock: She comes from a ton of really well known agencies, extensive experience RGA big spaceship, really cool agencies, and really excited about your mission to unlock human potential.

[00:03:07] Tina Yip's journey from advertising to entrepreneurship

[00:03:07] Rachel Renock: Tina, thank you so much for joining us, and I'd love for you to just kick us off, like, tell us sort of the less glossy version of your journey to freelance and what led.

[00:03:17] Tina Yip: You to sort of start having me and for that amazing intro.

[00:03:23] Tina Yip: So I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and I actually made it my life goal to move to New York City since I was 14.

[00:03:31] Tina Yip: Did everything possible to make it happen, fast forward, made it happen, started working in New York City in advertising, and I was a strategist, started as a social strategist.

[00:03:42] Tina Yip: And four years into it, I started to feel like I wasn't sure whether the traditional path of rising through the ranks was quite right for me.

[00:03:57] Tina Yip: And I started then doing a ton of different side projects.

[00:04:00] Tina Yip: I've always been someone who just liked to make things, and for me that meant bringing people together.

[00:04:07] Tina Yip: So I've hosted a ton of things from like, a brunch series to a speaker series at WeWork back when WeWork was like, a thriving company.

[00:04:22] Tina Yip: So I also started a podcast, and then ultimately I made strategist.

[00:04:27] Tina Yip: And the intention of starting strategists was just like, I felt like I was really lost in my career.

[00:04:34] Tina Yip: I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I was like, there must be other people that want to talk about it.

[00:04:39] Tina Yip: And also at the same time, I've been to a lot of industry events and I always just feel like it's always like you have to be really buttoned up and impress the person next to you and need to put on this face to be a certain way when I'm just like I just want to create space to bring people together in a way that's really soothing and I can feel really seen.

[00:05:07] Tina Yip: And people also feel really seen in this space.

[00:05:10] Tina Yip: And we'll also talk about things like imposter syndrome and important topics that we might not talk about at work.

[00:05:15] Tina Yip: And we also did things like deep dive into subcultures, did a ton of really amazing, just really fun IRL gatherings.

[00:05:23] Tina Yip: And now in retrospect, when I think about it, those side projects that I did have always been things that fueled me and gave me energy even after a really long day at work.

[00:05:36] Tina Yip: And that made me realize, like, okay, there's something here.

[00:05:40] Tina Yip: I just love doing this.

[00:05:42] Tina Yip: And then the pandemic hit, and that made a lot of people just question everything in their lives, me included.

[00:05:52] Tina Yip: And by then I was doing strategies.

[00:05:55] Tina Yip: For four years, I was at a job where I headed up marketing in an agency, and I was already thinking about what I wanted next.

[00:06:05] Tina Yip: And I think that's just how the universe worked.

[00:06:08] Tina Yip: I was going through Visa transitions.

[00:06:10] Tina Yip: I couldn't work for ten months, and during that ten months, I really wanted to figure out, okay, and I'm also somebody who I just really need to live very authentically to my values and work in a very authentic way that's true to me.

[00:06:29] Tina Yip: And I'm, like, I've known that I wanted to be my own boss.

[00:06:34] Tina Yip: I've known that I wanted to just do my own thing.

[00:06:38] Tina Yip: And I'm like, let's just give this a shot.

[00:06:40] Tina Yip: And so I started freelancing last year and I freelanced 50% of my time.

[00:06:47] Tina Yip: And then I worked on Stratus, which was what Space to Grow was called back then, 50% of the time.

[00:06:54] Tina Yip: And just kind of like tried different things and for freelancing.

[00:07:00] Tina Yip: It was like mostly community strategy with early stage startups and some artists.

[00:07:06] Tina Yip: Actually I worked on a project called Slimy Oddity on Instagram.

[00:07:10] Tina Yip: I love them.

[00:07:11] Tina Yip: It was really fun to work with them.

[00:07:13] Tina Yip: And then at the same time, I've just like I love just helping people with their lives and their careers because I just feel like you have one of them.

[00:07:23] Tina Yip: And we've been told that you need to work in this one very linear, specific way, but it doesn't need to be like this.

[00:07:31] Tina Yip: And increasingly with technology advancement, with culture, there's many different ways that you can be working and we can imagine new ways to be making money.

[00:07:42] Tina Yip: And so I was like, I think it's time to rebrand Strategist.

[00:07:49] Tina Yip: It's been a long time coming.

[00:07:51] Tina Yip: I've known I wanted to do that since year one of Strategist and then finally put space to grow into the world last month and am now building space to grow.

[00:08:04] Tina Yip: Yeah, and last year also launched this program called the Freelance Starter Pack, which is all about helping people transition from full time to freelance.

[00:08:11] Tina Yip: So doing a ton of just like, higher value items and experimenting with different formats and really just helping people work more intentionally in a more meaningful way and expanding what's possible.

[00:08:23] Tina Yip: So that's my spiel.

[00:08:25] Tina Yip: I feel like I went super long.

[00:08:29] Rachel Renock: That's amazing.

[00:08:30] Rachel Renock: I mean, thanks for sharing that.

[00:08:31] Rachel Renock: I feel like it's so needed, especially in these types of careers, I think especially like in advertising.

[00:08:37] From Salaried Employee to Independent Entrepreneur: Overcoming Barriers and Navigating the Finance Jungle

[00:08:37] Rachel Renock: And for people like Strategists, who it's not super clear, right?

[00:08:41] Rachel Renock: Like, how does my maybe day to day job or if I'm in a salaried position, how does that translate into an independent track?

[00:08:48] Rachel Renock: What does that look like?

[00:08:50] Rachel Renock: And that's like a really it's a big mystery, honestly, that I think a lot of people are going through, especially in the last couple of years.

[00:08:58] Rachel Renock: I'm curious, digging into that a little bit.

[00:09:00] Rachel Renock: What do you think are some of the biggest barriers for people taking the leap in that regard if they're trying to go their own way?

[00:09:07] Tina Yip: Yeah, I think what you said just now when you alluded to it's, like feeling like it's such a wild west because we've been conditioned to think work looks like a corporate career and there's this path and we get a paycheck every two weeks and you keep climbing and that's what work looks like.

[00:09:26] Tina Yip: And then there's also these advice that you would get that's like if you have a gap in your resume, you're totally screwed.

[00:09:36] Tina Yip: It's not a good there's all these things that's been told to us for the longest time and this idea of freelancing and a lot of people that I talk to that go through the program is like, this feels like such a wild west, I don't even know where to start.

[00:09:57] Tina Yip: And then you see these people who have been there and done that and it's like, oh, they figured it out, but I have no idea what the process looked like.

[00:10:05] Tina Yip: And it's just like any sort of whether it is entrepreneurship or freelancing, often we only see the end product and we only see what successes looks like and we don't even realize that there were all these things that they need to learn along the way.

[00:10:20] Tina Yip: So I think the Mindset shift of this one linear path to this blank page is like a very big leap for a lot of people.

[00:10:34] Tina Yip: And actually it was a big leap for me, especially the financial part because I was like, I only knew how to make money that was like paycheck.

[00:10:51] Tina Yip: Yeah, it's like my Instagram, like there's a time limit thing that I put on Instagram.

[00:10:55] Tina Yip: So I'm not like dooms girl, the wild west.

[00:11:04] Tina Yip: Yeah.

[00:11:04] Rachel Renock: Financial people just like going from like.

[00:11:07] Tina Yip: A financial for me because I was like, I only know how to make money every two weeks.

[00:11:13] Tina Yip: Like the paycheck every two weeks.

[00:11:14] Tina Yip: How am I going to make money without this consistent paycheck?

[00:11:17] Tina Yip: Yeah.

[00:11:18] Tina Yip: So I think that also comes with working through money.

[00:11:22] Tina Yip: Mindsets, your money traumas, getting more familiar with your finances.

[00:11:27] Tina Yip: Before going freelance and going independent, I actually had a pretty not great relationship with money.

[00:11:34] Tina Yip: I tend to avoid it and not think about it and I'm very proud of myself of having a much better relationship with money.

[00:11:43] Tina Yip: And I'm just like I'm confronting it and I feel more comfortable with it.

[00:11:47] Tina Yip: And of course it's still a journey that I'm on every day.

[00:11:50] Tina Yip: So the financial bit is scary for a lot of people, the stability, financial, but also talking about money.

[00:11:57] Tina Yip: So learning about how to figure out their rates and the negotiation part, whatever it is, the packaging part.

[00:12:03] Tina Yip: So definitely the financial stuff.

[00:12:07] Tina Yip: And then just in general, I think Mindset is just huge, I think, because when you're an entrepreneur, I think freelancers are entrepreneurs.

[00:12:19] Tina Yip: When you're a freelancer, 100% a small business, no doubt.

[00:12:22] Tina Yip: And when you start a small business, when you have your own venture, it's not like this immediate thing where you're going to see return on day one.

[00:12:32] Tina Yip: There's few months of investment time where you're building the thing up.

[00:12:37] Tina Yip: You're investing time on your marketing, on your website, figuring out what clients you want to work with, whatever it is.

[00:12:43] Tina Yip: So you might not see the immediate money immediately.

[00:12:50] Tina Yip: So sometimes that's scary for a lot of people.

[00:12:53] Tina Yip: So you need that sort of mindset shift going from scarcity mindset and all the fear stuff to an abundance mindset and knowing how to continue on.

[00:13:03] Tina Yip: Because those doubts and fears, I still get them all the time, but now it's like I know how to deal with these things when they pass through my brain and I know how to talk to them and I know how to continue on and just keep going even though those fears come up.

[00:13:21] Tina Yip: I think those are top.

[00:13:24] Rachel Renock: Yeah.

[00:13:26] Rachel Renock: Hey, not big barriers at all.

[00:13:29] Tina Yip: Seems totally fine.

[00:13:33] Rachel Renock: Yeah, it's tough.

[00:13:34] Rachel Renock: It is.

[00:13:35] Rachel Renock: We hear the same thing a lot.

[00:13:36] Rachel Renock: And you know what's interesting to me too, that you said what I'm hearing too is that it has not even anything necessarily to do with how senior you are in your career.

[00:13:45] Rachel Renock: You may be a very senior creative director, but if you're going freelance for the first time, the learning curve to that business and running and growing that business is still as steep as anything else, regardless of how many years maybe you've been in an agency or in the industry.

[00:14:01] Rachel Renock: And we definitely hear that.

[00:14:03] Rachel Renock: And that translation around salary and money is super scary for people.

[00:14:09] The Power of Community in Freelancing

[00:14:09] Rachel Renock: The other thing I was curious to touch on was obviously you have a big focus on community.

[00:14:14] Rachel Renock: I think one of the biggest advantages, disadvantages for a lot of people who go freelance is that you come from the agency world.

[00:14:21] Rachel Renock: You typically kind of have a network that you've built up from being in agency world and network can lead to a lot of opportunities, freelance opportunities, other things like that.

[00:14:32] Rachel Renock: If you don't come from a traditional background, you are sort of trying to build your freelance business while trying to also build up your professional network, which is a blurry line in and of itself.

[00:14:42] Rachel Renock: Those are sort of one and the.

[00:14:43] Tina Yip: Same at the end of the day.

[00:14:44] Rachel Renock: But I'm curious when it comes to community.

[00:14:49] Tina Yip: What do you think are the.

[00:14:50] Rachel Renock: Different sort of stages of that freelance journey that you've seen?

[00:14:53] Rachel Renock: And how does community sort of play a part in all the different basically the lifecycle as somebody is evolving from doing stuff on the side all the way through to maybe getting to the.

[00:15:03] Tina Yip: Point of yeah, it's a great question.

[00:15:05] Tina Yip: So everyone has a different starting point and even I think when you were describing this different scenario, there are people who maybe are ten years into their agency career and they're trying to go freelance.

[00:15:17] Tina Yip: And we actually talk about starting with your save zone because if you're ten years into it, you probably have some sort of network to start with.

[00:15:24] Tina Yip: So starting there.

[00:15:26] Tina Yip: But if you're someone who's really starting from scratch and have not much of a working network, I would say these connections and clients can really come from anywhere.

[00:15:37] Tina Yip: So start somewhere.

[00:15:39] Tina Yip: Whether it is figuring out the niche of your offering the niche of the industry that you want to serve.

[00:15:46] Tina Yip: And so for example, if you want to work with F and B, like food and beverage startup D to C companies, then you then would figure out, okay, where are these potential clients hanging out?

[00:15:59] Tina Yip: Are there communities that are for those kind of potential clients?

[00:16:03] Tina Yip: And then being active in those communities and start, I guess, networking there.

[00:16:11] Tina Yip: And another thing that you could do is also network and create community with other freelancers, other collaborators, maybe on Weathos or other freelance networks.

[00:16:27] Tina Yip: You just never know where your collaborators come from.

[00:16:30] Tina Yip: And a lot of times these are how if I'm a freelancer, I'm like, oh, my plate is full, I can refer you to this client.

[00:16:39] Tina Yip: They're just like reach out to me.

[00:16:40] Tina Yip: So you never know where these things happen.

[00:16:43] Rachel Renock: Totally.

[00:16:43] Tina Yip: And also I would say what I've seen in the most successful, most consistent freelancers, and I say success in a way that is like they have work, they've been freelancing for quite a few years.

[00:17:00] Tina Yip: Oftentimes they work as a collective and work with the friend group that they consistently go back to.

[00:17:07] Tina Yip: And some of them operate as an official collective that they, I don't know, brand themselves unofficially or have a fun website, whatever it is.

[00:17:16] Tina Yip: Or there's this unofficial collective where they are people that just get each other, they like working together.

[00:17:24] Tina Yip: They refer each other on different work projects or they bring each other in on specific projects because they have skills that complement each other's skills or whatever it is.

[00:17:37] Tina Yip: So that's what I've seen a lot of freelancers moving towards.

[00:17:42] Tina Yip: And also some of the, I was one of the happiest freelancers that I've talked to often operate in that way of working with this collective of people.

[00:17:53] Tina Yip: And I was also talking to a friend, she was like, I just want to work with friends, I want to pay my friends, I want to collaborate, I want my friends to we just have this friend economy almost.

[00:18:07] Tina Yip: And I was actually thinking about it today and I'm like that's just kind of like the boys club.

[00:18:12] Tina Yip: And just like the boys club is a thing because they go golf, they just give business to each other.

[00:18:19] Tina Yip: It's this very closed thing and we don't need to make and it doesn't need to be closed off.

[00:18:24] Tina Yip: And the boys club, what their values are, whatever it is, we create our own version of a friends economy boys club where we get to work with people that share our values and we want to just collaborate and do things with yeah, totally.

[00:18:45] Rachel Renock: We see so much of this activity.

[00:18:47] Rachel Renock: We have a joke that most agencies are free freelancers under a trench coat.

[00:18:50] Rachel Renock: That's how so many people are operating.

[00:18:54] Rachel Renock: And it's so interesting to see how much more prevalent it's gotten, I think, over the last couple of years.

[00:19:00] Rachel Renock: I also find that to your point when you're working with a small group of people or your friends, you're combining the power of your shared networks.

[00:19:08] Rachel Renock: So people are constantly bringing each other opportunities.

[00:19:12] Rachel Renock: We say freelancers who hire other freelancers, basically, and that they're forming these virtual studios is what we call them, which is basically where you are forming these collectives.

[00:19:23] Rachel Renock: And I think it's really interesting to me that so many of the platforms, even to date the marketplaces, are inherently causing freelancers to compete with one another.

[00:19:34] Rachel Renock: But at the end of the day, that's not the natural behavior actually of this community.

[00:19:38] Rachel Renock: This community is collaborative.

[00:19:40] Rachel Renock: People want to help each other.

[00:19:42] Rachel Renock: They want to share resources, they want to share leads.

[00:19:44] Rachel Renock: They want to bring jobs to their own communities, create jobs for their own communities.

[00:19:48] Rachel Renock: And so I think that when we get into this, we've gotten into this sort of really competitive atmosphere where it's.

[00:19:53] Tina Yip: Like, well, if you won't do $5.

[00:19:55] Rachel Renock: I'll find somebody who will.

[00:19:56] Rachel Renock: And that just destroys kind of the fabric of the natural community oriented approach in which there's actually more for everybody if we're sharing with each other, essentially.

[00:20:08] Rachel Renock: So I feel like community is such a, it's such a powerful thing in general, but I think for this audience or these entrepreneurs specifically, it actually is like your network is your business, your business is your network, right?

[00:20:20] Tina Yip: And it's just a very and I think there's a reason why people are like people want to be at their full time job because of the community part too, because they but that community is not necessarily like what you've made and a lot of times these environments aren't made for you.

[00:20:37] Tina Yip: But there is that element that people are like, totally, but if I go freelance, I'm not going to have that.

[00:20:44] Tina Yip: But the thing is you can make your own.

[00:20:47] Tina Yip: But also there are other communities that are also more value aligned to how you want to show up and how you want to work.

[00:20:56] Redefining the future of work through freelancing and lifestyle businesses

[00:20:56] Tina Yip: That exists in the freelance space too, and in these other indie spaces.

[00:21:02] Tina Yip: Agreed.

[00:21:04] Rachel Renock: Yeah, I know.

[00:21:08] Rachel Renock: I think it's going to be an interesting sort of paradigm shift shift over the next couple of years because it did used to be that you couldn't really do big meaningful projects unless you were in an agency, like a traditional agency.

[00:21:18] Rachel Renock: And with the rise of technology and you could shoot 4K on your iPhone now and you can send payments in an instant and there's all this stuff that didn't exist like even ten years ago.

[00:21:28] Rachel Renock: I feel like that's going to be just, we're about to go through the shift that Ecommerce went through.

[00:21:32] Tina Yip: Frankly.

[00:21:32] Rachel Renock: It's what I think it's about like.

[00:21:35] Tina Yip: You and just like people who are building for future work because I think a lot of a big hurdle for people also of going indie is like, I'm not going to get insurance.

[00:21:45] Tina Yip: What does accounting look like?

[00:21:47] Tina Yip: What does taxes look like?

[00:21:48] Tina Yip: What does this support system?

[00:21:50] Tina Yip: What does benefits look like?

[00:21:52] Tina Yip: And all these things that comes with the full time job.

[00:21:55] Tina Yip: But there's increasingly more startups like Wethos and all these different companies that are trying to build that foundation for the indie workforce.

[00:22:04] Tina Yip: So I can see like three years, five years, all of those things are going to exist and we can be an independent freelancer consultant, whatever you want, a fractional female, whatever you want to call yourself that.

[00:22:18] Tina Yip: You will have that foundation that is currently being built too.

[00:22:25] Rachel Renock: Yeah, totally.

[00:22:26] Rachel Renock: And I think that it's going to open up to so many opportunities for independents to compete with the big agencies who are frankly getting a lot of the business.

[00:22:35] Rachel Renock: Like billions and billions of dollars are going into these huge top five holding companies, basically.

[00:22:41] Rachel Renock: And I think that with the rise technology, we can just change the tides completely, as they say, like arm the rebels, right?

[00:22:48] Rachel Renock: Give them the tools to compete and be able to really win bigger, more meaningful projects with each other.

[00:22:53] Rachel Renock: Yeah.

[00:22:53] Tina Yip: And I think also increasing people are rethinking what a company and what the goal of a company is, other than the goals of capitalism and high growth, hockey stick growth being the one and only monopoly of your industry.

[00:23:11] Tina Yip: I think increasingly there are people who are like, they want to create lifestyle businesses.

[00:23:15] Tina Yip: They want to create medium sized businesses because they want to create a lifestyle that works for them and for their employees.

[00:23:21] Tina Yip: So for a lot of people that's going freelance, that's also the people that they want to serve.

[00:23:26] Tina Yip: So with the increase in entrepreneurship for products, whatever these mid sized companies, there are also these freelancers and consultants that want to work for these sort of companies.

[00:23:40] Rachel Renock: Yeah, there is.

[00:23:42] Rachel Renock: I feel like there's this emerging class of businesses, online businesses that are not trying to be like the next Uber, but are just trying to create a sustainable business where they can design their own lifestyle basically around it.

[00:23:55] Rachel Renock: And that is like a huge unlock.

[00:23:57] Rachel Renock: I mean, how powerful would that be?

[00:24:00] Rachel Renock: The half the US workforce Project will be freelance by 2027.

[00:24:03] Rachel Renock: The majority of the workforce will be freelance, which is crazy.

[00:24:06] Rachel Renock: And I feel like we're really just on the precipice of carving out kind of like a whole new way of designing a career.

[00:24:14] Rachel Renock: It's a very different time.

[00:24:16] Rachel Renock: I feel like we're transitioning into question.

[00:24:21] Understanding Community Building in a Digital World

[00:24:21] Rachel Renock: Before we get to our last question, I have one more question about the community side of things because I've seen the word community get thrown around a ton and I think every company, every startup tries to build a community.

[00:24:33] Rachel Renock: Everyone's trying to tap into community.

[00:24:36] Rachel Renock: It's a broad term, I guess.

[00:24:38] Rachel Renock: And so what I was curious about is what do you find is sort of the key motivator for members of these communities to engage?

[00:24:47] Rachel Renock: How do you think about building value into these communities sort of from day one because I think everyone's sort of got fatigue, everybody's trying to get more engagement and it just seems like the internet is increasingly becoming robust.

[00:24:58] Rachel Renock: I don't know.

[00:24:59] Tina Yip: But yeah, how do you sort of spark that and think about it by defining community.

[00:25:08] Tina Yip: As you said, community could just mean so many things these days.

[00:25:12] Tina Yip: It's being just thrown around.

[00:25:14] Tina Yip: So there's a difference between your audience versus your community.

[00:25:17] Tina Yip: So your audience and you as a brand or a creator or a maker or whatever you are, you have a one to one relationship with your audience and with your community there is a bi directional relationship.

[00:25:30] Tina Yip: So you can think of it this way.

[00:25:32] Tina Yip: Like if I'm a YouTuber, I'm a creator, I make videos and everyone that watches my videos is my audience.

[00:25:38] Tina Yip: And in the subsection of that audience, there could be a community where these people have a relationship with each other.

[00:25:45] Tina Yip: And a lot of times it's facilitated by.

[00:25:55] Rachel Renock: You'Re getting blocked out again, your Instagram is yelling at you.

[00:26:01] Tina Yip: Blocked again, sorry.

[00:26:06] Tina Yip: Don't you hate it when your computer.

[00:26:08] Rachel Renock: Starts telling you to do too much?

[00:26:11] Tina Yip: I hate this.

[00:26:13] Tina Yip: Yes.

[00:26:13] Tina Yip: So bi directional relationship facilitated by the brand or the creator.

[00:26:18] Tina Yip: So it's like a bi directional thing.

[00:26:22] Tina Yip: So how I approach community, I put on my strategy hat with my strategy background.

[00:26:29] Tina Yip: So I first come up with hypothesis of what these community members need and I create things for them so that they can come along and I can bring them together for a reason and make something that is really special for them.

[00:26:45] Tina Yip: And at the same time, on the other side, it's important to also talk to them all the time and just like yes, I have some hypothesis because also I'm part of the demo that I'm serving.

[00:26:56] Tina Yip: But there are also things that I probably don't know that they're going through.

[00:26:59] Tina Yip: And it's important to just have your boots on the ground and really understand who your community is, why they joined your community, what they find valuable in your community.

[00:27:15] Tina Yip: And you, as a brand, what is your role in their lives for this community and be able to then create those sort of experiences so that they can keep coming back and have a reason to come back.

[00:27:28] Tina Yip: And I think a lot of times with anything that is in our capitalistic society, the more the merrier, the bigger the merrier.

[00:27:36] Tina Yip: But that's not always the case.

[00:27:38] Tina Yip: I actually find smaller communities really valuable.

[00:27:42] Tina Yip: And I'd love to also create small, intimate spaces because I like just having these experiences where people can truly have deep conversations with each other, where people can truly connect instead of being overwhelmed on this server that has a million people and you're just like, what is happening?

[00:28:01] Tina Yip: And there's a million people.

[00:28:02] Tina Yip: So for me also, I think consistency is also super important.

[00:28:09] Tina Yip: Like any sort of venture I feel like sometimes people are like, I did it for three days and nothing's happening.

[00:28:16] Tina Yip: No, you need to create that trust.

[00:28:19] Tina Yip: You need to be consistently showing up.

[00:28:22] Tina Yip: And I think that consistency of showing up and knowing that and creating that trust with your community members is also huge.

[00:28:33] Rachel Renock: Yeah, that's really helpful.

[00:28:38] Rachel Renock: I've never heard of anyone describe it that way in terms of but it makes total sense in terms of audience being like a one to one me to you versus the community is actually where the people themselves are building these interpersonal connections and how that goes down.

[00:28:53] Rachel Renock: Sometimes it's organically because of the topic, maybe Tumblr, I feel like, is like a really great example of how people just used to crowd around these really niche kind of topics that really built a lot of, as you would say, like the bi directional sort of relationships.

[00:29:10] Rachel Renock: And I think that yeah, I don't think too many people are thinking enough.

[00:29:14] Rachel Renock: People are really thinking about it that way.

[00:29:16] Rachel Renock: And that what's my role in being a facilitator of how these people engage with one another versus how do I engage with them, or the disconnect there that I'm hearing from you.

[00:29:26] Tina Yip: Especially brands, when they make Community, they try to make it about the brand.

[00:29:32] Tina Yip: But when you make Community, it's not about you, it's about the people.

[00:29:37] Tina Yip: So don't try to make yourself the star.

[00:29:39] Tina Yip: You need to make your community members the star and figure out how to connect them, facilitate.

[00:29:47] Tina Yip: You're just a facilitator.

[00:29:49] Tina Yip: You're not the superstar of this scenario.

[00:29:53] Tina Yip: You're not the main character.

[00:29:54] Rachel Renock: You're not the main character.

[00:29:55] Rachel Renock: Sorry.

[00:29:59] Rachel Renock: Amazing.

[00:29:59] Tina Yip on the Transition to Entrepreneurship: Inner Reflection as a Tool for Growth

[00:29:59] Rachel Renock: Well, before we hop off, I have one more question.

[00:30:03] Rachel Renock: There's a lot of folks out there who are clearly thinking about taking the leap, or maybe they're sort of taking the leap not by choice.

[00:30:10] Rachel Renock: A lot of stuff going on in the economy.

[00:30:12] Rachel Renock: What advice do you have for those people who are in the process of doing that?

[00:30:17] Rachel Renock: Any parting words?

[00:30:19] Tina Yip: Parting words of wisdom?

[00:30:24] Tina Yip: I think one of the things that I think it's important I mean, I talk about mindset a lot, but I think with any sort of transition, it's important to this is a line from Space to Grow.

[00:30:39] Tina Yip: Go inward for alignment, outward for inspiration, and sideways for support.

[00:30:43] Tina Yip: And I think the reason why I rebranded Strategies to Space to Grow is because I think when we are in our day to day autopilot mode, we don't make space for ourselves to go inward, to even question, to question the default, to just ask ourselves, what do we even want to just figure out?

[00:31:05] Tina Yip: If I were to dream big and truly do what I want to do, what would that look like?

[00:31:12] Tina Yip: We don't spend time thinking about that.

[00:31:14] Tina Yip: And I think spending that time to go inward to whether it is reflective questions on where you want to head or working through some of your.

[00:31:26] Tina Yip: Money mindset stuff or your internal doubt blockers, whatever it is.

[00:31:31] Tina Yip: Internal work is so important.

[00:31:34] Tina Yip: And when I say I'll work for inspiration, for me, a big unlock for me was when I realized that people that I've always looked up to were creative entrepreneurs.

[00:31:43] Tina Yip: People who went rogue, did their own thing and just kind of did things differently.

[00:31:51] Tina Yip: I love Chef table.

[00:31:53] Tina Yip: I love hearing stories about chefs or creative entrepreneurs, like artists.

[00:32:01] Tina Yip: PS.

[00:32:02] Tina Yip: Shout out to Rick Rubin's Art.

[00:32:03] Tina Yip: His book recently have been an amazing it's a part of my morning ritual in the past month of reading a chapter every day.

[00:32:13] Tina Yip: So I went for inspiration and just like community sideways for support.

[00:32:18] Tina Yip: A lot of times a big hurdle for freelancers is not having people who believe in what they want to do because maybe they're in a more traditional environment and that's not the fault of their friends or their family.

[00:32:31] Tina Yip: Whatever it is, that's just like their reality.

[00:32:33] Tina Yip: But if you want to be a freelancer and take a different path, you also need to surround yourself with people who believe in that path that you want to go into.

[00:32:41] Tina Yip: You just need to surround yourself with people like that.

[00:32:44] Tina Yip: Because sometimes when things are tough and you're alone, it's hard and things get hard.

[00:32:53] Tina Yip: And ultimately a lot of times people, whether it is going client side or going freelance, it seems that when you don't know what it's about, it seems like the grass is greener.

[00:33:03] Tina Yip: But I think it's more about choosing your poison.

[00:33:05] Tina Yip: There's ups and downs for everything.

[00:33:07] Tina Yip: So you just need to know yourself and what your values are, what's important to you and which poison you want to take and what will make you happiest.

[00:33:20] Rachel Renock: Yeah, totally.

[00:33:22] Rachel Renock: I think that's really important.

[00:33:23] Rachel Renock: I feel like the inward reflection and doing that work to unpack that stuff, honestly, not doing it can really hold you back and doing it can really speed up your process.

[00:33:36] Rachel Renock: Honestly.

[00:33:37] Rachel Renock: It's an accelerant and it's also a barrier and it's sort of your choice whether or not which way you're going to go.

[00:33:43] Tina Yip: You know what I mean?

[00:33:45] Rachel Renock: I think that's really important.

[00:33:47] Tina Yip: Coaches, therapists, work through all your stuff so that you can accelerate.

[00:33:52] Tina Yip: Yeah.

[00:33:52] Tina Yip: Do your anything that works.

[00:33:55] Rachel Renock: Yeah.

[00:33:57] Space to Grow: A Chat with Tina Yip

[00:33:57] Rachel Renock: Amazing.

[00:33:57] Rachel Renock: So Tina, if people want to follow along, if they want to join Space to Grow, if they want to check.

[00:34:02] Tina Yip: Things out, where's the best place for them?

[00:34:04] Tina Yip: Follow this handle that is collabing with this live right now, spacetogrow World.

[00:34:11] Tina Yip: My personal insta is my name Tina Yip.

[00:34:16] Tina Yip: I don't post that much on there except for my readings.

[00:34:20] Tina Yip: And what you'll always use that.

[00:34:26] Rachel Renock: Always use the rest.

[00:34:27] Tina Yip: And website is spacetogrow world.

[00:34:30] Tina Yip: Feel free to slide into my DMs anytime.

[00:34:32] Tina Yip: I'm very open to just chatting with anyone and shout out to Weathos for building us into this building an additional foundation for this future work that we're heading.

[00:34:43] Tina Yip: So thank you wehos?

[00:34:47] Rachel Renock: Thank you.

[00:34:48] Rachel Renock: Thank you.

[00:34:49] Rachel Renock: Yeah.

[00:34:50] Rachel Renock: So we're going to post a recap of this on the feed and definitely check out Tina and all the work that she's been doing.

[00:34:56] Rachel Renock: If you're feeling isolated out there and you feel like I'm not doing it right or what's going on or it feels wrong, just know that we all feel like that.

[00:35:04] Rachel Renock: So you're not alone, and that's super important.

[00:35:07] Rachel Renock: We'll be back next month with another episode of the week.

[00:35:09] Rachel Renock: Tina, thanks.

[00:35:10] Rachel Renock: You have a good night.

[00:35:11] Rachel Renock: Have a good night, everybody.

[00:35:16] Tina Yip: Bye.