STARTING AND RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS IS NO EASY FEAT! EACH MONTH, WE'LL BE HIGHLIGHTING SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS AND THEIR TIPS ON HOW TO MAINTAIN AND GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS.

Meet Janna Hall. Chief Experience Officer of Leap Innovative Group + PR and Marketing Maven + Advocate of the FunEmployed Lifestyle.

*Editor's Note: The last time we spoke to Janna, she was working as the Social Media Strategist for Girl Scouts of the USA in New York. She now owns her own agency and Girl Scouts of the USA is one of her clients. Talk about a "180 moment!"

Q: You wear a lot of hats, what are top 3 hats that you wear most often?

I am the Chief Experience Officer of the Leap Innovative Group - a creative branding consulting agency, placing a special focus on brand development and social media strategies. I consider myself a Chief Experience Office, because I want the work I do with my agency and with my clients, to be a full on experience for everyone. I also wear the hat of Secretary because I am the gatekeeper of my business. Kree, is my intern turned assistant and social media manager. So I'm slowly transferring things to Kree. My third hat is that of an Intern. I am ALWAYS learning. I always remain a student. My clients come from so many different industries - the housing market, non-profits, the corporate world). I have to research each industry to see how marketing can work for each client and industry. I also do work with a couple of personal brands and do some writing for blogs.

Q: We're seeing the "Quit Your Job, Pursue Your Dream" message preached a lot. What is "Fun-Employed" and how can someone become "Fun-Employed?"

Fun-Employed means that you have the audacity to live the life you want and to make living doing what you want. I make self-employment a reality for my clients. I break it down and conceptualize it - from the amount of customers my clients need, to the amount of products they need to sell each month - my goal is to make self-employment a reality.

Now I don't like to preach to people that they should their job. The truth is, it's hard running your own business. I've been running the Leap Innovate Group for the past two years and it's been hard. Even living with parents to offset certain costs, I still have to consider taxes, business insurance, health insurance, so many things that go into following your passion full time, and it isn't always glamorous.

Q: What do you love most about being Fun Employed?

I love that I have the freedom to create my days. I am NOT a morning person, don't think I ever will be, but it doesn't mean that I'm not a productive person. It does mean that I can start my day little later. I can workout mid-day if that's what I want to do. I decide what is priority and what my schedule will look like for any given day. I usually dedicate no less than 8 hours of my day to developing my agency. However, those hours are driven by my passion. There are weeks where I've worked 50+ hours and I need a break. [Janna took this interview on her "break day"] So like today, I'm allowing myself to eat pizza, not taking calls, and binging "Living Single." I love the fact that I'm running my own business.

Q: You're a branding expert for many clients, but when do you get to work on your own branding? How much of your time do you dedicate towards working for clients?

I will say that it has been hard for me to keep boundaries. As an entrepreneur you can easily forget about yourself. This time last year, I didn't have a Facebook page and my Instagram was barely existent. I took off the last 2 - 3 weeks of the year off, I told all my clients that I was going on vacation and made sure their projects were in good places. I didn't take any new clients but what I DID do was work on my website, my social media, and my outreach strategy for the year. When I came back I could take better care of my current and former clients because MY business was good. As a C.E.O., founder, and gatekeeper of your business, you really have to make sure you're good.

With my new strategy, the goal is always for me to work smarter and not harder. It's been great to utilize help. I have more time to devote to building my business, creating structures, pricing, finding and talking to potential clients, and drafting proposals. Only a small chunk of my day is dedicated to direct representation. Having a team is something I'm slowly becoming comfortable with. I won't lie, it was hard giving some of my check away to my team. Jay Z said in the song "BOSS": "Everybody is a boss until it's time to pay the office. Till them invoices separate the men from the boys. Over here we measure success by how many people successful next to you. Here we say if everybody is broke except for you." You cannot shortcut people. You have to move with integrity, no matter how much it hurts you.

Q: How did you go about picking a team?

I try to provide opportunities or women of color. I always enjoy working with young women who are eager to learn. My team challenges me and they're always looking for opportunities to grow. THAT is what's important to me. There is no "business etiquette" class or "interning 101," so I teach them soft skills - how to write an email, schedule appointments, etc. I also teach them trade skills like graphic design and social media management.

Q: What services do you provide? How do they grow your clients' businesses?

So, the Leap Innovative Group provides four different types of services - A) Consulting, B) Brand Development, C) Social Media Management, and D) Diagnostics and Strategy.

The Consulting service is for people who have an idea and they're ready to take their business off the ground. They want to know how to market it. I sit with them and talk about starting points, marketing, and afterwards I develop a two pager with everything they've requested. Brand Development is for people who don't want "hands on"management, but still need coaching. This service is for the entrepreneur who needs clarity on demonstrating what their business is, how they want it to be conceived, and to whom it should be marketed. Brand Development is sort of like therapy, but for your business. Social Media management is all about strategy. Let's be honest, social media is everything. I give my clients' a game plan on how to promote their business on various social media platforms. Diagnostics and Strategy are my "one-off" services. A social media diagnostic is for people who already have a strategy but it's not producing the results they need or it's clearly flawed. The entrepreneur's message is being lost. My job is to give you the tools to fix things yourself. I provide a 15-page document with tactic, sample images, loose content calendar, accounts to follow for inspiration, influencers to reach out to, everything my client needs to improve their reach. I also write blogs, articles, or other media as needed for my clients.

Q: What is the best way for entrepreneurs to build their clientele?

I CANNOT place enough emphasis on the key of valuable relationships! It is the biggest tool that has helped my business to grow. All of my clients have come from "word of mouth" or my work. For example, I worked in the social media department of the Girl Scouts of the USA. My relationship with Girl Scouts of the USA I didn't leave with any burned bridges, but I knew it was time for me to go. They weren't happy with my leaving but I did GREAT work as a social media strategist and then as a managing editor. I'm happy to share that Girl Scouts of the USA is now a client of mine. I am fun-employed and my client is my former employer based off of relationships. You want people to think of you, and think well of you, when opportunities arise.

Q: Are there any conferences or networking events you suggest?

I HATE networking events. I feel like it's forced fun and conversation. Companies throw you in a room with a name tag and a drink and say, "Alright! Go play!" I've never met people at networking events that I've ended up collaborating with. To me, it's so contrived. I will say that there are some really informative conferences out there. I attended the the Summit21 Conference. We were reminded to horizontally network vs. focusing on vertical networking. Instead of waiting in the long line of hundreds to speak to the keynote speaker after her address, reach out to your peers in the room whose goals align with yours. Use the inspiration from the conference to reach out to people in your home network that you hadn't considered before.

Q: Do you ever have moments where to go back 9-5?

I don't have those moments. 9-5's work for lots of people, but knowing myself and how I operate, that 9-5 life is a nightmare for me. No matter how bad it gets, I know it will get better. Now that's not to say that I don't have hard moments.

I have moments where I see my peers with a hefty cash flow. These peers have been in the game longer, but it's hard not to notice the houses, cars, and vacations. There are months where I barely make enough to pay the team or myself. I feel a little down. In those moments, you have to be committed to your "why?" Why did you start? What do you want your story to be? That you were courageous, quit your job, started your own business, and then it got hard and you gave up? NO! I don't have kids or a husband that I have to provide for. I can work through these hard moments for myself. Everything I want I will have.

Q: You have an extra $10 what are you buying? $100? $1,000?

$10 - I'm buying 3 Pineapple Ritas. I am their unofficial spokesperson. $100 - I"m going to Zara.com's sale sections and buying 3 or 4 dresses. I also really like their sandals with tassels and frills. I've been eyeing them for awhile. Ulta is also my happy place, so I'd definitely shop there. $1,000 - I'm taking a flight Europe. I am the QUEEN of cheap travel. I would book a flight to Europe and figure out which flight had the most fun layover. I book the flight so there was an overnight layover in this fun location, get a hotel/hostel, explore the city, and make it back to the airport for my destination.

Q: What's going in Janna's Universe?

Well I was just featured on iPower 92's "Under 30." [Read her feature here] I am also on the Board for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

Of course I'm running the Leap Innovative Group and building my clientele list. [Readers can join the "Fun Employed" Mailing List here] The Fun Employed mailing list issues out guides to cheap travel, playlists curated by other entrepreneurs, and future Fun Employed events for those flirting with the idea of entrepreneurship.