EP400: From Extreme Burnout to Creatively Inspired with Morgan McGoff

8:37AM Mar 29, 2023

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Keywords:

money

people

burnout

feel

yc

business

jewelry

program

morgan

idaho

actionable

sharing

art

life

instagram

inspired

aimless

friends

cincinnati

talk

Money is on its way. It just says it's always on its way. As long as your words it, it's on its way it's gonna come opportunities everywhere.

Welcome to thrive by design, the podcast for ambitious independent jewelry brands looking to profit from their products, get ready to make more and sell more doing what you love without spending every single waking minute doing it. Hey, and if you're a creative fashion or product based business, I want to welcome you to the show. I'll be dropping big tips on launching, growing and scaling your business. So you could spend more of your precious time using your creativity to make money. You ready? All right, let's do this. Welcome to the thrive by design podcast episode 400. I can't believe that we've gotten to 400 episodes. Hey there, it's Tracy Matthews, chief visionary officer of Flourish & Thrive Academy, the host of the show today. And I'm excited to talk a little bit more about what it's like to really not feel creatively inspired and like what actions do you take when you're in a spot of complete burnout and not knowing what to do next. So I have a special guest on the show today. Her name is Morgan McGough, she is the founder and designer of Skinny Dip Jewelry. She has a really great story that she's going to be sharing with you. I mean, a sad story but also ends up great. So we're in a good place. But I loved interviewing Morgan for a lot of reasons. Number one, she has great energy. Number two, she is a typical artists in the sense that she is doing her business for the art and the love of the creativity. And it was really troubling for her when she was in a place of burnout and not feeling creatively inspired to keep moving forward in her business. So she talks a little bit about that journey, and some of the things that she did to overcome that to get back to her normal and to feel excited. So I'll do a little intro of Morgan momentarily. But before I do, I just wanted to give you a heads up that our 12 week online Sales Accelerator program, train your customers to buy from you online is currently open for enrollment. We typically only run this program about once a year. And I say that because this program of all of our programs is one of the best in getting tangible sales outcomes and results for the students who take it. The reason why is it's designed in a way to help move you into action. So every week you're taking activities that are going to grow your sales. In fact, Morgan even talks about how she made her money back within the first week. So if that sounds great, and you're trying to grow your online sales, or you're someone who has a successful business, building your business in person at shows, or in wholesale, but you haven't quite figured out how to launch online, you are going to love this program, head on over to flourish thrive academy.com forward slash T YC and get your application in today. The program starts on April 17. And because it is a live accelerator, we want to make sure that you are paying attention now and you get your application in so that if you want to join you don't miss the boat. All right, so let's dive into this episode with Morgan McGough. She's the woman behind skinnydip jewelry, which is inspired by nature, closet staples and fluid living through Skinny Dip. She aims to encourage others to live life in the skinny, aka authentically, she creates inner humble home studio nestled in the heart of her hometown in Cincinnati, Ohio. So let's dive in to today's episode. I'm so excited to have Morgan McGough of skinnydip jewelry on the podcast today. Morgan, welcome.

Thank you for having me. Well, I

wanted to have you on here because we were chatting in Instagram, DMS, you're a graduate of our T YC program. And you're sharing some really fun things and not so fun things with me in the Instagram DMS about kind of where you were at this time last year. So I wanted I asked you to come on the podcast to kind of talk about your experience, going from being in extreme burnout to actually feeling creatively inspired again, because I know a lot of people experience that I know that I went through a big phase of burnout. I don't know, a couple months ago and I talked about it a little bit more on the podcast. So I want to thank you first and foremost for being on the show with us today.

Oh of course I feel so flattered to be here.

It's awesome. And we're I know that this episode is going to help a lot of people so I want to kind of start from the beginning. Tell me a little bit about how you got started into making jewelry like how do you get your brand launched? Like tell me all the things

well, foundations of jewelry were passed down to me through to matriarchs with my family. My mother and my aunts started making like wire jewelry, beaded jewelry. We even taught classes. I was an early high school I think and so I just had all this knowledge stored And the way it started was, I was in a bad place. I just mentally emotionally, I was really homesick. I was living in Idaho at the time. And yeah, I my mom would send me care packages, and I got this care package that had clay in it like sculpey clay, you know, and got to playing with it. And as one does, I posted on Instagram, and it kind of just spiraled from there. And yeah, somehow now I'm here.

I love that. That's so great. So what were you doing the Idaho,

Idaho is gorgeous. It's an outdoor playground, I actually went to Sun Valley as a kid as well. Very, very important, fortunate and privileged to be able to go there. It's such a gorgeous place. So I had that in my mind. When I left on a road trip. I was on the road for about three months. The plan was to find a place to live, and did in Boise, Idaho and stayed just a gorgeous spot. And what was so nice about that place is the artists community was so it was kind of new, it was young. And everyone was really inspiring and inspired. And we all really propelled each other. And a few of the artists that came out of that area are I mean, are just outrageous. There's one artist who Dreifuss she came out of that spot, and she's like the new Mr. Doodle. She's an illustrator. She's

really gonna check her out.

You really should. She makes these characters called alter egos. They're really fun. But yeah, I started it there. After I actually I've had quite a few businesses, I went to school for photography, I went to art school. And I started photography businesses paid my bills with weddings, which not for me. And then I found myself so inspired by people starting businesses that I kind of interjected wherever I could to help them. And I started consulting and before I know it, I'm helping friends build businesses, and then one of my friends and I, we started a flower cart business together. But I had been while in this searching for something that was all my own. I had never done anything really besides photography, but still even that doesn't feel very, so low to me. So yeah, jewelry just really fit in and I found my my boys, just really wonderful.

So you mentioned briefly before that you started doing it, but because of a care package that your mom sent with the metal clay, or the clay, I don't know if it was metal.

Yeah, no, actually, it's polymer clay. It was like the cheapest kind of polymer clay that you can have no one should use it for resale purposes. But I started making these shapes and I thought is make great earrings. I went to the store that day got the materials made it all. I'm very much once I have my mindset, it's something it like has to happen then. So I did that post them on Instagram as one does as a millennial. Yeah. And before I knew it I had friends asking for for items. And I hate to even think about those items where they are now because I'm sure

we all have those in our sometimes they come out of the woodwork and people are like I'm still wearing that piece. First not even even close to what I'm doing now.

Not at all. But yeah, started there. And yeah,

that's great. So we were talking in the pre like the pre show just catching up a little bit. Tell me where did the name skinnydip come from.

In Idaho. I actually even here in Cincinnati when I was living in a little cabin, we had a little ponds and I went skinny dipping a lot and I did that in Idaho as well. And there was just this one experience I had I was on this yoga retreat in the like second largest canyon in the US and Idaho and the backcountry you have to drive either five hours or boat upstream to get to this place. I was so fortunate. And I went skinny dipping with some people that were on the retreat. I just remember looking up I saw the Milky Way galaxy. And I was just I was not just nude, physically but nude mentally and emotionally it just felt like so in myself. And skinny, skinny dipping kind of made the perfect metaphor for me that you can be nude with yourself. Skinny dipping, being in the skinny for me is living life authentically. And that's what I am always aiming to encourage people through my voice.

I love that. I love that living life authentically because I'm like, I don't think of like skinny dipping when I look at your jewelry, but that totally makes sense with your brand's story. I hope you're using that a lot. Because it's a, it's a great thing to really put out there.

Yeah, like I like I mean, I share a decent amount of myself with my audience, you know, with boundaries. But I have been through some traumatic events in my life, which have taken me to therapy that have just, you know, I, I've had anxiety my whole life. And it's so nice finally, that we're living in an age where we can talk about those things. And I do truly, truly believe that when one voice comes out, others can as well or they can at least resonate. And, you know, you question yourself, like, is this really even helping anybody?

And sure, as you're gonna be helping a lot of people by sharing this right now. Oh,

that's sweet. I mean, that really is my passion. I love to help people, I love to empower people, I, I've been lucky enough to have a decent amount of confidence in life. And I just, I just have this passion to see so many people be themselves in this world that feels very fake sometimes. Yeah. So yeah, sharing those stories, sharing that vulnerability, and that authenticity of what really resides in me, I've had so many people come to me, I've had people come to me asking me about therapy, and all sorts of things. And I, they follow up with me, and I have serious relationships with my customers, and not just my customers, but my audience. And it's, it's fulfilling,

that's so awesome. Not the anxiety and therapy, but, but it's real. And that's the thing, you know, it's like, we all go through things, I have a more anxious style personality, too, I carry a lot of anxiety at our I have in the past, I do a lot of work on myself. So I do a lot of work in other dimensions. Like I'm like one of those people who's like always working like all the fields. So what I would say, though, is like sometimes when you're caught up in that it can not only cause the anxiety, but it can be debilitating if you're not dealing with it. So I know that a lot of people like anytime I have someone on the podcast where they're talking about, and I'm just gonna use this term broadly, but like mental health issues, not that anxiety is like necessarily a mental issue. It's just, to me it is a feeling, I wouldn't, but they are always so grateful. Because they're like, oh, there's other people out there who are experiencing the same thing. Because I don't think it's something that people like to admit to having. Because we come out in the world, we put this brave face on but like, you know, if I'm honest, like I have meltdowns almost every day. So like, it's just real life, you know.

And I mean, what's tough about that is, you know, realizing, when you need help is really tough. And real elite, seeing the things about yourself that make you feel really uncomfortable are so important. But it's so hard, and just being able to be a light for that. I just think if you can talk about it, you should I think that we all have a voice. And your your vulnerability is what makes you human, I feel

100% under percent. And so one of the things when we were like going back and forth on Instagram when I was like, I want to have you on the show. You shared with me that last year, I think it was probably around this time, maybe a little bit later in the season, you were in kind of this phase of extreme burnout. Do you want to share a little bit about what was going on with you?

Yeah, man, you know, I just came to this place. I, I think honestly, it was like, riding off of the pandemic push, like I like. And I just don't think that I ever reconcile those feelings. And I just kept pushing. And you know, like, during that time, consumerism was an all time high. It was a time of cash in, there was money on the table. And, you know, I was trying to do as much as I could to make sure I was getting that flowing. And I just kept doing that. And I was making pieces that didn't resonate with me anymore. But there was money on the table. I wasn't taking enough time for myself, first and foremost, like, I needed rest, to be able to find inspiration and to find my why. And I just wasn't doing that. And so I got I got just to the point where like, I mean, yeah, I was having mental breakdowns all the time. My mental health was in a terrible place. And I just didn't feel motivated or I didn't have a direction and I felt I felt pretty aimless. And that's a whole other thing on your mental psyche. Right? It's it's exhausting. And when you are doing something like art, that's my biggest motivator is are, and you're putting yourself out there. You know, you live within your art and putting that out there in the world. Is this tough? And I am kind of like a, an existentialist, I think, and I think very conceptually. So I'm always like, you know, thinking a little too hard.

I love that. You know, a lot of people are in their head a lot, you know, it's okay. So how have you kind of like navigated doing things for the art versus like the money? Because you mentioned to me that you're not really motivated by money, but you are motivating yourself to like cash in? Yeah, during a busy time. So let's talk about that.

Yeah, so I went to art school. And I went to a very conceptual art school. So it was like, why it's dapped. It's here at the University of Cincinnati design, architecture, art in planning. And it was such a conceptual school. And I love that part of it, I would say most of my classmates done it. Like you couldn't just make something because it was pretty, you had to have some reason why I find myself needing reasons. For my art, I want to look at them, I want to see the emotion, the feeling, I want to know what inspired me and pushing myself to really make money, it's gotten easier over time, for sure. And finding those pieces that I know will just do the work for me that it's tough, reconciling that like motivator, because, of course, I want to make money. But at the end of the day, I'm a dreamer. And that's my heads are up all in the clouds. So I mean, I still have a hard time with it. But I will say after t yc. I feel so much more directional, I don't feel aimless. I have, like, very clear, proven ways to make money. So I can look to those things and know. Like, okay, I can focus on AR, I can be a dreamer. But now I know the direction to how I turn those dreams into, I guess actionable money use strategies, I tend to live by the idea that like everything is going to be okay. In the end. We just don't know how yet. Something my grandmother used to say all the time, all of that. And that's how I try to think about money. One of my friends gave me this amazing motto, and I use it all the time. It's just the money is on its way. It just says it's on its way. As long as your words it, it's on its way it's gonna come. Opportunity is everywhere. You just have to like, look for it.

Yep. Money is on its way. I love that. So good. So you you referenced the T yc. I hope we haven't really brought it up the TYT is our train your customers to buy from you online program. It's a 12 week online accelerator and you joined for our cohort that we did last year. And throughout the entire cohort, the coaches were like, Morgan is awesome. You need to talk to her. She's like fully engaged, you and Kim, you, you guys the besties like you're all into it. And so I'm just curious, like, you know, when we were chatting like you decided, why did you decide to join the program? First and foremost, like what was your impetus in joining,

I was directionless. I just didn't know what I was doing. I didn't have any structure. I didn't have much of a routine. And I was desperate to find someone something to help you find that. Okay, and also learning along the way that was important to me. I want to know why I'm doing things.

How did that structure influence you and like, kind of overcoming this burnout situation that you were in?

Yeah, so through the course. I loved being in the group setting. I think that comes from my history and art school, being in a studio setting where you have like, you can have mind melds you know, you can all really talked through things and that encouragement from others and working with others showed me that I'm not alone, like we were talking about earlier. I'm not alone in this and that I can keep pushing and I can also lower allowing for allowing Yeah, or I can I can rest I can rest money is always on its way. But during that program really what what gave Give me the energy to start getting out of burnout. And my work was just having that structure, having these proven systems that I can continue to go back on, you know, I've saved, all the workbooks, all the videos, all these things. So I just have those that my fingertips and I guess it's like, it's a nice safety net, and away, like, I know that it's there. And I know that I can turn to it. But I also built so much confidence during the course, was able to show myself that you didn't know what you're doing. You just, you just need some extra help. There's some things that you just don't know about. And like, here's an opportunity to learn with others, and how to do this. And that community aspect was really everything for me.

And how did that affect your mindset?

The accountability groups, just being able to, I mean, we wind together, you know, commiserating. Like, oh, my God, I feel this or that, or I don't, I don't know how the hell to do this. Yeah. And through through those accountability courses, or groups, I was able to really talk through all of that, and get these other perspectives. And I was told that it's okay. I think, when we work alone, I mean, I, I'm alone all the time when I'm working. And I don't really have someone next to me telling me it's okay. Or, like, you know, you got this, or this is how you can do this. I can boil it down to a very specific instance, I would time thing that I heard. For the life of me, I can't remember her name, who came in and did the, like mindset coaching.

Yeah, Sherry, one of our coaches very Yeah.

She said, There's no such thing as being behind. I say that all the time. I tell my friends that my my whole, like, Outlook on my business was flipped in that single phrase, like, this is my journey. I don't need to be comparing myself to other people, especially when art is more of my motivator than money. I don't feel that I need to scramble and push and push all the way into burnout to make money. I think that if I'm inspired, and I'm working slowly to build those systems and structures for myself, you know, I'm already starting to get into so much more of a flow where I feel like it's all just happening. Yeah, just knowing there's no such thing as being behind there just isn't life is not linear. I've never lived a linear life. And why should I do that? In my business?

Also time, according to some people time is a construct. So

yeah, yeah, I think that too. I mean, I really do. I mean, it's like, some people meet the person of their dreams. And they know that that's the person within I don't know, an hour sometimes I'm sure that exists. But yeah, I think that's the same and just about anything you do.

Exactly. Oh, my gosh, thank you for sharing that. I'm gonna like text Sherry after this and be like, Oh,

I think about her all the time. She lives rent free in my head, saying it when when I hear it.

I love that so much. So you talked a little bit about kind of being aimless and not knowing where to go, and you joined the T yc. And it gave you a lot of structure. What was the thing that made you want to join the program?

You know, I think that I was just like, mentally, you know, I was where I was at, and all my thoughts and thinking, I don't know what I'm doing. I need structure. And you know what, you popped up on Instagram, you popped up on Instagram, and I was like, What the hell? I'll see like, what this is about, I think I did a master class. And what was so nice, I've taken plenty of master classes. And it's always like, some BS, you know, by the end, you're like, cool, just wasted an hour of my life. Thank you for that. But this I felt like, I think this could work. This could and I was I was really hesitant. Let me like be honest, I there's a lot of fake people out there. There's a lot of fake programs, there's a lot of money grabbers that don't actually care about their program or the people that are in it. So I was nervous. Maybe that was what this was going to be. And I pay it twice over just for this mind shift I've had, I don't know if I'm drilling it in enough how transformative this class was for me. I just I know I wouldn't be where I am without it. I can definitely say that.

That's amazing. So what were some of like the your favorite parts about the program?

You know what my favorite thing was actionable? Like, I got homework that I was excited about. But also, we did stuff in class. Yes, I had that accountability I had that time, that was so wonderful. Building a routine around the class frame. And the times at the classes was awesome. I mean, it was just wonderful, because I knew I have this block of time. And I always gave myself another block of time to work more on after that class. And so I just always knew that it was there for me, and that I was gonna get stuff done. I have a hard time getting stuff done. So I knew I was going to be there. And I actually one of my good friends did the course with me names ISIS for a little pieces. I talked her into joining it with me. And I was like, We can do it together. Like we can have, you know, zooms and we can work on stuff together, which is exactly what we did. We had about a zoom each each week, I think we usually did on Mondays. And we went through stuff that we went through in class. And we just got even deeper into things. Sometimes we we just commiserated but about the things. But the actionable aspect of the clap of the whole class was really important to me. And that was actually one of my first questions. When I had my little pre interview. I was like, I actually want to get stuff done, or am I going to walk away feeling like, okay, now I have all of this stuff that I can work on on myself, but I don't I'm not going to have that accountability. I'm not going to do it.

Yeah. Well, that's one of the reasons why we restructured the program the way it is because we do a training. And then you have and during that training, it's like a workshop style training. So we stop and go, and you're doing the work as we go. And then several days later, we have you like, implement what you've done. You bring the work back for feedback, and then you move it into action. Like that's the whole thing. It's like, our goal is always to help you make money. You mentioned to me something that you made your you want to talk about that.

Oh, yes, yeah. So within the first two weeks, I made my money back my investment back from this course. And of course, that was like, your, I mean, the biggest fear is you're throwing money away. And yeah, absolutely going to. And actually, that was gonna be my second thing that I loved so much was the fast cash strategies. I love it. I did it again this year. I, it just, there's just so many different ideas, and I got so many from them things that I would never think of doing that, like, that was so fun. And we dove right into that immediately. So that was reassuring to me. When I first started the course I was like, Oh, we're off. We're doing it. And that felt good. Like, Okay, I'm ready to dive into this and signing up as like, early as I did. And I know that I wasn't even in the earliest group. But I had all of this time to, like, get excited. And like, get worked up about it get a little nervous about it. And yeah, that those first two weeks, I was like, Alright, I'm so like, I'm here.

I love it works. You're so great. I love it. So how would your business grow and change after taking the program

for talking like percentage wise, my business grew, the sales alone went up by about 25% 26% to be exact. And the total number of orders went up by 20%. And the traffic that I was able to drive to my site was by 11%. And I do want to also like stress this with like, I was not one of the most actionable, like, students in this class. I really wasn't. I showed up, I was enthusiastic. And I learned a lot. But I think that even if I had even drilled harder, I mean, I can only imagine where those percentages would be. That's awesome. And it's possible. I mean, it is so.

So my last question for you is to someone listening to this podcast, who might be thinking about taking their next step in their business, or maybe they're feeling burnt out and they need a little dose of inspiration. Or they're kind of thinking maybe about the T YC program. What would you say to them?

You know, it's so funny as someone actually just asked me the other day they reached out and said that they're thinking about the program. And I said, you know it's actionable. You're gonna get in, you're actually going to do things. It's not some silly like, Instagram masterclass, you see, and then by the end of it, you're like, cool, that was a sales pitch. And you are going to make your money back, I can't stress that enough, you are going to make your money back. As long as you do some work, it's going to happen. Don't let the money be What stops you from doing this risk equals success and reward. And you're gonna make friends. Like, you're gonna make friends, you're gonna, like, you're gonna get the warm and fuzzies at least I did, I got the warm and fuzzies. And also, like, if you do do it, like, do it, get get into it. Be vocal, like, I think that I, I got a lot more out of it. I mean, I'm making assumptions. I think that I could have gotten more out of it than other people who were not as vocal. I was not afraid to ask questions. No question is dumb. I want you know, I'm going to ask them all. And also, it was fun to give my own feedback to people, and then have them come to me and be like, hey, that that worked. And I was able to do that vice versa. So the community aspect is great. And, yeah, just don't hesitate. Just take the risk, take the plunge. And no matter what, you're going to have fun, and you're going to learn like a crazy amount too much, actually. Sometimes you won't be able to contain it all.

Yeah, I love that so much. Morgan, thank you so much for being here today.

Oh, thank you for having me. This was this gave me the warm and fuzzies

thank you so much for listening to the show today. It is a pleasure to come into your earbuds all week. I am grateful that you're allowing me to share more stories of artists and designers who are doing great things with their business. And that's why I wanted to extend an invitation to you to put your application in for our train your customers to buy from you online program. One as I mentioned earlier, it's a 12 week accelerator style program that's specifically focused on moving you into action, actionable marketing that is going to grow your online sales. So we cover everything from list building, email marketing, SMS marketing, and so much more. We're going deep to help you scale those on line sales, head on over to flourish & thrive academy.com forward slash T yc. And check out all the program details right there. Until next time, I'll see you real soon.