In today’s conversation, host Lorie Jones sits down with Savannah Abney, co-founder and CEO of The Breezy Company, to explore the intersection of ambition, authenticity, and entrepreneurial success.
Savannah shares how embracing her personal brand opened new doors for her business and discusses why founders, and anyone building a career, should invest in their individual visibility. From candid stories about early financial struggles and navigating “cringy” first steps in self-promotion, to actionable advice on building resilience and leveraging your unique value, this episode is packed with insights for breaking boundaries and building a life and business on your own terms.
Whether you’re just starting out or aiming to level up, get ready to be inspired to lead with courage, own your story, and become the driving force behind your own success!
Show Highlights:
- A life-changing must-read for honing true entrepreneurial grit. [03:08]
- Transitioning from business instincts to business ownership. [05:45]
- Personal branding power in a future of faceless brand failure. [09:37]
- Discover trust insights for brand optimization on social media. [12:07]
- How to better use AI for original content the market rewards. [13:41]
- The danger of fear-based advice vs. the value of adaptability. [22:42]
- Are you worried about appearing cringy in marketing efforts? [28:08]
- Should you live below your means early for business benefits? [29:42]
- Neutralizing gender bias with results-focused feminine confidence. [37:30]
- Real-life advice to young women on investing early in the future. [41:13]
Find Savannah Abney on Instagram @SavAbney.
Connect with Savannah on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/savannahabney/, or via email at Savannah@Thebreezycompany.co.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review!
For more information about Lorie Jones, go to https://fearlessfinancialadvisors.com/fearless-females.
00:01.91
Lorie Jones
Good morning, fearless females. So today we’re here with Savannah Abney. She is the co-founder and CEO of The Breeze Company. Thank you so much for joining us here today. I’m super excited to get into your story.
00:13.75
Savannah
Thanks for having us Laurie.
00:15.42
Lorie Jones
So um my first question is, I’m a reader. i love books. What is your favorite?
00:21.81
Savannah
Yep. I am a huge reader myself, constant, constant reader. I’ve been in a little bit of a funk for probably like three weeks. You know, you get in those little like dips where you don’t have anything super excited about, but I have read some excellent stuff the past several months, um, combination of audio books and real stuff.
00:42.67
Savannah
Um, and,
00:43.20
Lorie Jones
Oh, yeah.
00:43.96
Savannah
couple favorites. I’ll do a personal development and I’ll also do um one. So the one I read in the past year, my favorite personal development book, possibly top five of like all time, which I love personal development books is grit by Angela Duckworth. Just an incredible book. I, I, I like gush about this book to everybody that I can, and especially entrepreneurs and business owners. But man, if you want to build more resiliency and toughness, into yourself and into your business. Like that is the book to read. It is incredible. It’s science backed. She’s such a thorough researcher.
01:19.77
Savannah
Um, just incredible book. So highly recommend. Um, and then in terms of fiction, cause I read a lot of fiction too, this book, it is very dark.
01:31.50
Savannah
So I just will go ahead and say that I love a thriller and it’s really dark, but it was so well written.
01:33.70
Lorie Jones
All right.
01:36.62
Savannah
It’s called pretty girls by Karen Slaughter. um I read that, um, over, uh, like Christmas break, went on vacation, that kind of thing.
01:38.77
Lorie Jones
Oh,
01:43.94
Savannah
Um, and that’s, I still think about this book like constantly, And part of it was it it it was dark, but it was like one of those books that like absolutely captivated me.
01:48.25
Lorie Jones
interesting.
01:53.62
Savannah
um It is so full of twists and turns in terms of a thriller, like just insanely good. um i highly recommend. So, I mean, i could I could talk about books. I honestly feel like I could just only talk about books all day long, but those are couple.
02:06.90
Lorie Jones
I know.
02:07.32
Savannah
Yeah.
02:07.61
Lorie Jones
I know. i tend to, i I blatantly use the podcast to fill up my reading list. So I don’t have to go through the terrible books.
02:14.01
Savannah
Yeah. I love that.
02:17.04
Lorie Jones
I just only read the good books.
02:17.78
Savannah
Yeah. Yeah.
02:18.64
Lorie Jones
So I love that.
02:19.22
Savannah
I love that.
02:19.60
Lorie Jones
And I did love Grit. I thought it was a great read. I thought she was really good at it. And I kept asking myself all the way through the book.
02:24.92
Savannah
Yeah.
02:27.08
Lorie Jones
I’m like, do am I gritty? Am I not gritty?
02:29.40
Savannah
I know.
02:29.40
Lorie Jones
You know, like, yeah.
02:29.68
Savannah
I love the test that you can take. I i took it and i was fairly happy with the results, but I also was like, it’d be fun to do this like every six months or so because life also dictates how g gritty you are at any given time because you might think, oh I’m really gritty right now.
02:44.62
Savannah
well Things are actually kind of just going your way. um That’s the actual truth. When things aren’t going your way, like how gritty are you? Because that’s the real measure of it. And so I think really being self-aware in different times of your life to try to build more resiliency is is important too.
02:59.58
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that that is a really important point. Like sometimes you’re like, oh, I’m so gritty, but really things are just going really well for you.
03:06.08
Savannah
Things just kind of working out right now.
03:07.90
Lorie Jones
And there are times I know where I’m like, i’m I have no grit here. I’m going to go take a nap.
03:12.63
Savannah
Yeah.
03:13.30
Lorie Jones
I’m done.
03:13.46
Savannah
Yeah.
03:14.82
Lorie Jones
I’m out.
03:15.96
Savannah
Yeah. yeah
03:17.27
Lorie Jones
So tell me a little bit about your journey, Savannah. how did you get How did you get where you are? Did you know what you wanted to be really early on? How did you like what sort of schooling and training? and Just tell me all about you, all the things.
03:29.66
Savannah
yeah Um, from a very like early age, I can remember being like three or four years old and being asked like very stereotypically, what do you want to be when you grow up? And the thing always changed. But one thing that didn’t was I would always say some form of, I want to own this.
03:43.81
Savannah
I want to run this. I want to open this kind of business. I want to do, you know, so being entrepreneurial was very much kind of baked into my DNA. Um, I don’t come from entrepreneurs. My parents aren’t, um, But for some reason, that was I always had the itch.
03:57.68
Savannah
When I was five, one of the things asked for for Christmas was a Barbie cash register because she like they like made you know Barbie everything, especially like growing up for me as like you know a younger millennial.
04:05.04
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
04:10.65
Savannah
And i remember like taking that everywhere and like opening businesses and like using it to ring people up and, you know, to make sales or whatever it was. And I would open all different businesses all the time, but that was always the case.
04:22.65
Savannah
And then i kind of continued with that like feel, but I think through like high school and college, it sort of got put on the back burner as you’re trying to figure out like how to be an adult and make money and, you know, be live life.
04:33.94
Lorie Jones
Yeah, yeah. I want to own something, but I’d also like to like pay my bills, right?
04:36.31
Savannah
yeah Yeah, yeah. And I had no sense of um really how to handle money. And I had really no sense of how I had no financial education at all.
04:47.35
Savannah
So even thinking through like investment to then save up to then do this or I just, it wasn’t even in my like worldview. So it kind of was just a happy coincidence of circumstances or providence, however you kind of think about those things. But I met my husband And at the end of 2015, we were married by the end of 2016. We were fast and furious. And i had just graduated college about six months before that. And I was working a traditional office job, nonprofit, creative project management.
05:19.51
Savannah
And he’s a college baseball coach. And I knew that that career path was going to be very fluid and we’d have to move a lot because that’s just kind of how it kind of works, especially lower levels of college athletics. You tend to have to move a lot. So I thought, huh, we have no money. We just got married. Why not start freelancing? So it doesn’t really make, again, the most financial sense. It’s not something I would necessarily like be like, follow my path. This is like such a smart idea. But I was able to get a few clients pretty quickly.
05:49.72
Savannah
And I just relanced for a couple of years. I would do content creation. i would do ah project management. I would do admin work for businesses. Like I would do like just about anything i get my hands on just to make money.
06:01.68
Savannah
But what I discovered was how much I loved the freedom.
06:02.22
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
06:05.13
Savannah
I worked remotely before working remotely was really a thing. um I could make my own schedule a lot. I had all this control and I started to understand that for me, the greatest wealth was control over my time and to be able to build the kind of life I wanted to travel, to go, and to be with my husband, to support his career.
06:24.54
Savannah
his ambitions, like all those things while still not having to sacrifice my own. So really getting to kind of have both, that was really important to me. um And then about two years into that, my former boss at that previous, that first job out of college, he went out on his own as well. We started working together and we ended up launching the Breezy Company together. um and We celebrate seven years this month. We are a ah kind of a subscription based model for marketing. Um, so we really serve as small business owners, startups, um, and solopreneurs to build out the marketing tactics and needs. They actually need to build powerful online reputations for themselves, without having to get locked into massive contracts or working with agencies that kind of treat them like a number. We have a really systematic process that’s also very human and that’s what we really, really focus on. So we’ve been going for about seven years and then i really started to invest in my personal brand about a year and a half ago. I’m getting close to two years on that and that has like really transformed me as a person.
07:24.98
Savannah
it’s really transformed my business um and it’s created new revenue streams for me too. So I’m i’m very, very passionate right now The most passionate thing I’m really about right now is founder personal brands and how much founders need to put themselves out front. Faceless brands are just not going to work at the small business and startup level going forward. And I’m really, really excited to be working with founders who understand this and want to reposition themselves as individuals and for their companies.
07:53.64
Lorie Jones
Oh, yeah, that’s so interesting. So like you’re finding that um it just branding as a company doesn’t bring the clients, but if you, if you put what, what, and what’s entailed in like personal branding, like, do you have to tell them like when you eat cereal and stuff like that?
08:13.30
Savannah
Um, so what I really found and it’s i kind of, it was a happy coincidence. I’ll say this. So I hadn’t felt like for a really, really long time that I should be more out front for breezy.
08:26.29
Savannah
I felt like if I would pushed myself to be more of a founder facing brand, it would have helped us grow quicker and not as delayed.
08:37.45
Savannah
And I just put that off for a long time. I kind of felt that in the back of my mind, but I was worried about being cringe. I was worried about putting myself out there. I’m not, for somebody who works in social media and the digital space, I don’t really put a lot out there personally.
08:48.13
Savannah
I only have posted on my personal Instagram in like probably seven years or something crazy like that.
08:52.95
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
08:54.12
Savannah
I’m just, it’s not really my thing. And so i felt like that also meant that I shouldn’t be like that from a professional and business perspective either. But um probably about two years ago, i was like you know what I’m going start getting consistent on LinkedIn. Like, I’m just going to see what that does for us. and i’m going to see what kind of benefits I can get out of that as an individual. um And I started to see some really cool things happen. I started seeing people taking me more seriously, taking the business more seriously.
09:21.21
Savannah
i felt like the quality of the leads we got were were better because i would literally see this happen where we’d get a lead through the Breezy Company. I’d see like the alerts. And I’d say the name and an hour later I’d say on LinkedIn, this person viewed your profile because LinkedIn premium shows you that.
09:37.86
Savannah
It’s like, oh, they’re going to check up on me and see like, am I a legit person? Do know what I’m talking about? Because I own this small company. This isn’t a huge, massive conglomerate thing that you don’t really care who runs it. You just know the brand.
09:49.18
Savannah
That’s not what small businesses and startups have to focus on. They have themselves. Like in a world of, ah you know, a lot of competition and really, really thick competition in your niche, you are the most unique, valuable asset to the business.
09:53.43
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
10:01.53
Savannah
Like you’re the thing that brings credibility. You’re the person that actually matters. um And so I started kind of seeing this and I’m like, okay, I’m going to start like ramping up my own stuff.
10:12.92
Savannah
And I did. And through the process, I start doing all this research and start seeing all this data, especially from Edelman. The Edelman Trust Barometer is a really, really powerful tool for this. i start looking into the trust in institutions being down, trust in individuals being up. And people don’t compartmentalize this. You know, people, when they mistrust government or organizations or even like religious institutions or whatever it is, that stuff kind of like flies.
10:39.45
Savannah
it kind of flows into other areas of their life too. They’re buying decisions, marketing, all these different things. that People are not, they don’t box off stuff. Everything is very much fluid for humans.
10:46.99
Lorie Jones
Yes.
10:48.85
Savannah
And like, this is interesting. And this is why the influencer bubble hasn’t burst because people still want to connect with an individual. Why not use that same leverage point?
10:59.48
Savannah
Why not use that same concept for founders to reposition them out front? I start coming across all these data points around, you know, B2B buyers trust leadership from companies that are active on social media by like, you know, like three to four times others that aren’t.
11:17.56
Savannah
um I have this whole list of like data points I could go through that I’m obsessed with.
11:20.59
Lorie Jones
I hope. Mm-hmm.
11:22.00
Savannah
But the point being that I really believe that the founders who understand that they are the most valuable asset for their business, especially if it’s a small business, startup, a solopreneur, et cetera, they are going to be able to get so much more traction over the next several years than businesses that continue to just have a company facing brand.
11:42.39
Savannah
I just don’t see it working. And I think especially now, like, with AI being what it is, people are like desperate for unique things because all you’re seeing is copy and paste crap from people and nothing’s unique.
11:51.28
Lorie Jones
Oh, yeah.
11:53.88
Lorie Jones
ah yeah
11:55.65
Savannah
Nothing is cool because they’re all posting the same stuff. And so if you can be a unique voice in your space on behalf of your business, I mean, The credibility, visibility, trust that you can build is going to be 10 times out of anybody else who’s not doing it around you. And so this is what I’m like super passionate about right now. I’m working with founders. I do some coaching. um I have programs that I can take people through. So I kind of started doing it for myself and for my own business and then kind of found out like, I love doing this. It’s so fun. It’s so fun to work with other founders to get them to kind of step into their own like power, if you will, and really see themselves as valuable as they are. So that’s what I’m really, really working on a lot right now.
12:37.53
Lorie Jones
I love that that you mentioned the AI because that’s what that’s where my mind immediately went.
12:42.23
Savannah
Yes.
12:42.26
Lorie Jones
It’s like, i want to I want to work with people who are real. And sometimes there’s this meme floating around where like the AI is answering the AI in
12:47.01
Savannah
Yes.
12:52.15
Savannah
yeah
12:53.27
Lorie Jones
i
12:53.37
Savannah
Yeah.
12:54.23
Lorie Jones
but I’m like, hu and you know, I admit I use AI sometimes to polish what I’m saying or something like that, but I i don’t ever want to get to the place.
12:59.58
Savannah
Sure.
13:02.14
Savannah
Sure.
13:04.46
Lorie Jones
My daughter, ah my 19 year old daughter sat here and told me that, you know, mom, if you, if you use ai exclusively, then you stop thinking and then you get dumber.
13:13.53
Savannah
Literally.
13:13.98
Lorie Jones
And I’m like, okay, I’m going to be dumber.
13:15.16
Savannah
And, you know, I actually listened to a podcast on this recently. was so interesting. They, um, they had like two different groups of people in this study. And if you used AI to formulate the idea, they found like over time, their brain was not as sharp going forward, but the opposite was true, which was interesting. If they came up with the original idea, and then I hope I’m getting the study um I might be missing couple of things.
13:40.18
Savannah
So forgive me if somebody knows what I’m talking about.
13:41.44
Lorie Jones
Oh, fact check.
13:41.98
Savannah
But basically, if you only used AI and it generated your ideas, your concepts, your your everything, your brain was degenerating at a quicker rate.
13:42.98
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
13:52.44
Savannah
However, if you up with your own original idea and only used it to enhance your creativity, enhance something, they saw that was not an effect. And I think that’s the whole point. Like we can’t like forget to think, forget how to think. Like if your content is being created from AI exclusively, like just write this for me, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
14:13.45
Savannah
You’re just going to be dumb and your content is going to be dumb and it’s, and people are going to see it and know it and be able to tell. But if you give it tons of prompting and tons of information, and it all comes from your brain and your creativity and your experiences, That’s a totally different story.
14:20.11
Lorie Jones
Yeah. Yeah.
14:28.41
Savannah
And then it’s just a tool. Then it’s just like Grammarly or anything else that helps you write things a little better or, um you know, create something that, you know, it just, it polishes it like you, you know, the word you used.
14:40.47
Savannah
And I think that’s the biggest thing. I instantly mistrust somebody when I can tell their content was created with AI. I’m like, nope, pass.
14:47.77
Lorie Jones
yeah
14:48.14
Savannah
Like I just, it breaks trust like that.
14:49.37
Lorie Jones
yeah yeah Yeah, I feel that same way. And that’s why I try really hard to like, um in fact, i’ll I’ll come up with the thing and I’ll tell AI, I’m like, just edit it for my stupid spelling errors.
15:02.26
Savannah
Right. Yes. Or like, I still want it to be all of these things. Just clean this up. Like you don’t need to rewrite it. Like it’s pretty good as it is. Just like make it a little bit better.
15:13.06
Savannah
Like there’s like 5%.
15:13.53
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
15:14.22
Savannah
I can’t quite get, you know, right.
15:16.47
Lorie Jones
Yeah, stop telling me what to do. That’s what I want to say.
15:18.14
Savannah
Yes. Also, I hate how it gives you fake compliments too. Like, I can’t stand that. Oh, you’re on you’re on such a great track with this idea.
15:23.19
Lorie Jones
Oh, I know.
15:25.60
Savannah
well but I don’t, you’re you’re not real. I don’t need your compliments. Like, just do what I asked you to do. Like, you’re just a machine. Stop.
15:32.44
Lorie Jones
It’s so funny. I program a lot with with AI and they’re like, oh, I can see where you’re going with this. And it’s like half an hour into programming and they’ve given me the wrong answer five times. I want to bash over them.
15:42.59
Savannah
Yeah. You’re like, no you’re still dumb. Yeah.
15:44.95
Lorie Jones
Yeah. so So tell me a little bit, what is the best investment that you’ve made in yourself? If if you can think along your like career journey, is there something that you’ve done where you’re like, oh my gosh, I’m so glad I did this?
15:59.50
Savannah
Honestly, starting to build a personal brand. um I think that owning a company, there’s something I’ve really discovered in the past year is that I want to be a multi-venture entrepreneur.
16:14.30
Savannah
And so when you as an individual are only tied to one thing, that can prevent you from those things if you have that interest at all. And so for me, I started really looking at it and saying, you know, I’ve spent, at this point, I had spent five years building this company and that was all I had done. I only invested in building this thing, which there’s nothing wrong with that. Like some people, that’s all they want. They want to build that one thing and like that’s that’s their thing and that’s great.
16:41.27
Savannah
But I’ve tied all of myself to one venture that I love and care about and want to be successful, but it’s not the only thing I want to do. I, as an individual, am complex and have lots of things and lots of interests.
16:52.57
Savannah
And I don’t have any real estate that I own.
16:52.73
Lorie Jones
Thank
16:55.73
Savannah
That’s mine. and Savannah at me, you know what I mean? And that was when I really started to, that was another piece of why I started investing in a personal brand. Um, and really started going, okay, I need to like mark some territory and create a lane and a space for myself that I’m passionate about and that I care about and whatever, but I need to be okay investing in myself as an individual. And that will only help my company. And any other company as I start or any other ventures I have, that’s only going to benefit it, I think, more than just about anything else. But I need to have actual space that I occupy for myself.
17:31.26
Savannah
And so making that investment, and it’s a weekly investment. I mean, Building out content that does not just happen, especially if you really want to do a good job with it and you really want it to be high quality and be helpful and valuable.
17:42.06
Savannah
um But it’s one of the best investments I’ve made. And something I did very recently, um a few months ago, as I did a full professional photo shoot and have tons of really nice, really, really good assets.
17:52.78
Savannah
We’re actually about to launch my personal brand site. So it’ll be all of our founder facing stuff for um what I offer individually, coaching, all kinds of stuff.
18:03.05
Savannah
And so that site is going to look so nice, not because of those photos, because of that shoot. And that was a huge time investment. It was a huge money investment, but I really feel like it absolutely was worth it for me on a personal level, as well as the company, um as well as the Breezy company, because it will only bring better visibility, credibility, trust, quality of leads, all those different things to our company too.
18:18.97
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
18:27.20
Savannah
So those are a few things.
18:29.35
Lorie Jones
I like that. and And it seems like this this younger generation of workers sort of understands that idea of personal branding. And they they’re asking their companies, like, you know, what what is available for me as a personal brand?
18:43.19
Savannah
h
18:44.51
Lorie Jones
You know, how can you help me build a personal brand?
18:44.89
Savannah
Yeah.
18:47.39
Lorie Jones
What can I do?
18:48.28
Savannah
Yeah.
18:48.63
Lorie Jones
What sort of resources are available? I think that’s smart.
18:51.19
Savannah
Yeah. I focus mostly on the founder piece right now, but employee generated content is an employee generated brand, personal brand employee, personal branding, I think is just as critical. It’s the same principle. It’s just people who aren’t in charge, like, but those people can be the most valuable resource for you. Um, I think when I, if I had to like boil down everything that I really care about right now in the marketing space, it’s like,
19:14.46
Savannah
put people out front. The people are what actually is going to create the trust that you want, the visibility, the credibility. They’re going break through the AI crap.
19:23.93
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
19:24.43
Savannah
They’re going to be able to ah garner of people that you want to work with. They’re go to attract those people. And I think that’s that’s really what I’m… And I think too, in a world where like technology is taking over everything, and I use these tools too. They’re great tools, but that’s what they are. They are tools. And I just… This idea that it’s going to take over every bit of us, like I think we should resist that. And I think we should you know still want to embrace our humanity while using these you know, to embrace, to enhance our humanity. um And so i I totally agree with you. I think personal branding for really anybody at any level. And if I was in college right now, like I could go back and do it again. Like I would have started doing this years and years and years ago. So I would say to like anybody that has an entrepreneurial bone, small business, or even just wants to really excel in their career, like start building your personal brand now, like figure out your niche, figure out your lane and just like go to town. Cause I think it can only help you.
20:21.05
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s so interesting. what um What is the worst advice you’ve ever gotten? Has someone ever given you really bad advice?
20:29.43
Savannah
Oh yeah. Tons bad advice. Um, can you narrow the question down?
20:35.08
Lorie Jones
The worst.
20:35.32
Savannah
I’ve had tons of that.
20:37.66
Lorie Jones
I know.
20:38.90
Savannah
Yeah. Um, I think It’s kind of a yeah combination of a lot of probably different things. that have been said, I’ll kind of like sum it up into like one ah combination piece of advice.
20:54.62
Lorie Jones
Okay.
20:55.50
Savannah
But I think just just being unwilling to go for stuff. I feel like there were a lot of, I’ve been cautioned a lot um over the years. And I’ve always been like the youngest person in the room of every room i’ve been in.
21:07.86
Savannah
I will say that. I think that’s part of it is that as I’ve gotten older, I realize those people probably didn’t have bad intentions, weren’t trying to crush my spirit, but it’s,
21:18.05
Lorie Jones
That was just a side effect.
21:19.37
Savannah
Yeah. But that’s that’s kind of what happens, especially if you’re like 10, 15 years younger than like everybody in the room all the time. They feel like they’re – and they are further along, obviously, and they do know things. But I think the trap of getting older is you get more fearful because you feel like you have more to lose.
21:36.64
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
21:37.05
Savannah
And I’ve always tried to resist that. um Because I think that’s kind of the death of an entrepreneur is when you start getting too afraid to to take bold chances.
21:44.42
Lorie Jones
Try.
21:45.25
Savannah
um And so in general, I’ve been given a lot of like, tread more lightly, don’t, you know, don’t try that, don’t do this, whatever, those sorts of things.
21:45.30
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
21:53.80
Savannah
And Thankfully, largely haven’t listened, but I think you know there’s a difference between – everybody has a different risk tolerance for everything. And everything is a bet.
22:02.21
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
22:03.04
Savannah
Everything is a gamble. if You don’t know. even if you’re just like, I’m going to be really steady and go do the corporate job and get the 401k and all that. well, that company could go under in two years. You have no idea. Like nothing is actually that predictable, even if you think it is. So you might as well do what you want. You might as well do what you care about and what makes you happy and what you feel like provides value and purpose to the world because nothing’s really set. Nothing is, you know, as, um as stable as you think it is. So I think a lot of the bad advice I’ve gotten has been more based in like fear and wanting more stability. And I’ve never really been wired that way. um So it’s not really that I’ve fallen into, but I’ve definitely gotten pushed in that direction.
22:47.79
Lorie Jones
Yeah, that’s really interesting. And it’s, it’s so true too, that you, you you do get less risk tolerant as you get a little bit older, but it’s so important to remember that really there is no safe bet.
23:01.07
Lorie Jones
Like they just came out with that report ah a couple of days ago um about the AI taking over all the jobs and there’s like 20% unemployment or something like that.
23:09.21
Savannah
who yeah yeah.
23:12.30
Lorie Jones
And I’m like, well, then you can’t really trust that what you’re starting today is going to be the job that you’re going to have in five years anyway.
23:21.47
Savannah
No, mean, you don’t. That’s why, that’s why I think have a lot of, lot of irons in the fire all the time. Like it’s like the whole like standard, you diversify your portfolio concept. I mean, but don’t do it with your money. do it. Yeah. Do it with your money, but also do it with your skills, with your abilities, with your, that’s actually one of the reasons I love that book grit so much is because it really shows you how to be an adaptable human being. And that’s actually the secret sauce of people who are great at stuff. They are just extremely adaptable and they can maneuver themselves for whatever the situation, you know, demands. And that’s what I really try to be as a person. I’m definitely as an entrepreneur.
24:00.99
Lorie Jones
Savannah, what about do-over? If you could go back to a situation that you’ve done in the past with all the knowledge you have today, is there a situation that you would do differently? And and tell me how and why.
24:14.39
Savannah
Oh, a hundred percent. I would go back and have started my personal brand years before I did. i was resistant to actually wrote this article for our, um, for our blog. And it was like all the mistakes I’ve learned about personal branding and like how to avoid them basically. And my number one is like, I resisted it for so long. And I think if I had been working to do this years ago, I’d be like so much further along than I am now and would have a lot more of the things that I’m trying to create now a lot different revenue streams I’m trying to create now.
24:44.38
Savannah
Um, and I really fell into this trap of believing, like it’s kind of odd cause it was almost like opposite of egotism. It was like, i feel like I can look like a bigger deal if I hide behind a logo because the logo is more important.
25:00.70
Savannah
It’s more impressive. It’s more interesting. I have a whole company. I, you know, that’s what I have, but that wasn’t really serving the company to just hide behind a logo that nobody knew if we were just a small company.
25:04.98
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
25:10.97
Savannah
Like we’re a small brand, you know, people don’t know who we are. and we have a really nice brand. It’s, I think it’s built some equity, but it’s still, we’re still a small business at the end of the day. And if I had positioned myself out front sooner for the business and for myself, on an individual level, I think that I could be in a lot better position where I’d like to be in a lot of different ways.
25:32.41
Savannah
So, you know, it’s one of those things where the best time to start with yesterday, the second best time is now. And so I finally just embraced that concept and was like, I’m a little late to the game on this compared to other people in my industry and space.
25:44.17
Savannah
like, I’m just going to go for it. And now I’m just all in all the time. and I actually had, I was on another podcast a couple weeks ago. was like, yeah, you’re just always in my feed all the time. And I’m like, that’s what I want. Just an onslaught, just like in your face. And you know, more is more and we’ll kind of see where it goes. And I have a lot of ideas and I’m very excited about the direction I’m going with a lot of this work and where we’ll go as a company. But I wish that I had not fallen into this trap of like, I need to appear a certain way and it’ll be cringy if I do this and like, what will people think and this and that? Like, who cares? Just do it.
26:18.81
Lorie Jones
Just try it. is that Is that what held you back in the first place?
26:19.88
Savannah
Yeah.
26:22.57
Lorie Jones
It’s just that idea idea of, o the that’s kind of what holds me back. I’m like, ooh, somebody will see me.
26:27.00
Savannah
Oh, absolutely.
26:28.56
Lorie Jones
I might look at me.
26:28.79
Savannah
i can’t tell you like the first time I ever had to film a video for Breezy, it wasn’t even like for my personal pages. It was just like for the company pages. the level of cringe that I felt, like I’m alone in my apartment by myself, like no one’s around. And I am like deeply embarrassed, like just like, ah just struggling to like make it happen. And now I’m like, what I mean, I film multiple times a week.
26:50.33
Savannah
all the time.
26:50.58
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
26:50.85
Savannah
My face is you know, out there all the time and I just don’t care it now. Um, I think that’s just reps. I think that’s what actually makes that better. I think you overcome imposter syndrome by just doing it over and over again and just getting used to it.
27:02.53
Savannah
But yeah, it was just this feeling. And I also think I didn’t, you know, early on, I didn’t really understand personal branding and I didn’t understand how it could be. and this something really want to like share with,
27:13.62
Savannah
business owners and entrepreneurs of small businesses, they think it’s just for like the elites. I think it’s just for the big names, just for the big CEO, just for the big company owners. And it’s not it actually is like a very, very valuable ah leverage point that you have that can make a massive difference in your business in so many different ways. um And I don’t think I understood that. And if I had, I would have started way, way earlier than I had.
27:36.47
Savannah
But um yeah, I think the the biggest thing I hear from people is just like, I feel so weird. I feel so awkward. i don’t know if this going to work. Is this worth it? Like, I don’t know i want to put myself out here like this. And it’s like, I’m just telling you like, this is this is the direction things are going. So you either get on board or you’re going to get left behind, I think.
27:55.90
Lorie Jones
Yeah, yeah. If you could go back and look at a really great financial decision that you made, high five yourself for that decision, what would it be?
28:06.55
Savannah
So as a business owner and an entrepreneur, your your personal your business finances are deeply intertwined, obviously. Most people, if you just work a job, like your personal finance is all you’re concerned about. Like you you’re not concerned about the the business finances. But when it’s all yours, it all matters. And I think…
28:24.50
Savannah
My husband and I really, really embraced the concept of delayed gratification the first several years we were married. His job and his career was also like you hustle a lot the first few years and you make like no money to hopefully get yourself to a spot where you can make good money.
28:31.33
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
28:40.34
Savannah
So for a long time, we just we did not have a lot. We just did not have very much all the first few years. Um, there’s actually, we’ve had a conversation a few times. I was like, how do we make it that first year? Like, how do we act if we had to go back and into the P and l Like, how did we do that? Cause neither of us made like any money. It was just like terrible.
28:59.32
Savannah
Um, but we always just, we really worked hard to live below our means significantly. um we lived in places that I would never want to live again, but they were cheap and it worked.
29:11.19
Lorie Jones
ah Yeah.
29:12.44
Savannah
Um, we were very cautious about, you know, activities is the main thing. I think we were just so careful about that. Like I, we were talking other day we didn’t go on like a nice vacation that we could pay for ourselves.
29:24.68
Savannah
that we didn’t tag along with somebody else or stay, you know what I mean? Those kinds of things.
29:28.54
Lorie Jones
yeah
29:28.84
Savannah
Like we didn’t go on until like five years into marriage, I think.
29:29.24
Lorie Jones
yeah
29:32.09
Savannah
And so I think if you are somebody who really wants to dream big dreams and have entrepreneurial goals and all those things, like you have to sacrifice somewhere. Like you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You don’t get to have…
29:44.50
Savannah
what your parents have at 55 straight out of college and also be able to pursue all these things. Like all these things take time. And I’m so grateful now because our financial portfolio is extremely sound. It’s very, very steady. It’s very, um we’re set up really well.
30:02.07
Savannah
We have a lot of margin in our life. Um, we do live in a nice place now. So we have, we have those things, but I think just being very focused on like building the business, building our careers, building what we wanted, but not acting like we didn’t really have what we had. Like we were very honest with ourselves about this is actually how much we have. We need to live here. i mean, we had a spreadsheet.
30:25.51
Savannah
we’d only been married a couple of years.
30:25.81
Lorie Jones
Oh.
30:26.43
Savannah
And my husband took a, my husband took a, this was a very common thing several years ago. It’s not as common now, but he took a volunteer position at a pretty big school on their staff.
30:38.58
Savannah
And you literally don’t make money and you work full time. Like that’s literally how it works. It’s no longer legal to do that for obvious reasons. But in 2018, this was still the case. And so like, when I say we had no money, it was like,
30:52.06
Savannah
Literally we did not. And we had a spreadsheet and we had a budget for every, you know, every section. And we put every single purchase in it every single time.
31:03.63
Savannah
It’s also before those apps existed.
31:05.46
Lorie Jones
Right.
31:05.67
Savannah
Um, and we would like, it it was like a game for us. It was like, how far below can we get it? Like how a little can we spend this? yeah So we can hopefully put a little bit in savings. Like hopefully we can, you know, do this.
31:16.41
Savannah
And we just lived like that for, for several years. And, you know, I, I’m so grateful now. Like I wouldn’t want to do it again, obviously. But now that I look at the investments we have, the savings, the margin, we have property, we have two different rental houses now, which is another, you know, amazing revenue stream for us. So very, very grateful that we chose to go about things that way.
31:38.04
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I do remember those days. I had five kids and raising five kids, you can’t afford daycare for five children.
31:45.59
Savannah
Right.
31:46.20
Lorie Jones
You just can’t.
31:46.49
Savannah
Yeah.
31:47.20
Lorie Jones
Right.
31:47.35
Savannah
Yeah.
31:47.88
Lorie Jones
And so we were living on one salary. So so one of us could be home with the kids. um And and I remember ah like budgeting out like ice cream cones at school.
31:58.77
Savannah
Yes.
31:59.10
Lorie Jones
You know, McDonald’s.
32:00.60
Savannah
Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I can’t imagine.
32:03.83
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I know. Those are the days. They’re there are hard days, but they do lead to better results in the end if you can you can just remember that.
32:06.46
Savannah
Yeah.
32:11.93
Savannah
Yeah. Yeah. I, I’m not about everything that Dave Ramsey has to say, but I, the one thing and that I have always really appreciated and liked that he says is live like no one else right now. So you can live like no one else later. That’s always been kind of in the back of our minds of like, let’s live uncommon in this time, whatever that means for us. So we can have an uncommon result later.
32:36.63
Lorie Jones
What scared you the most when you started out? Is there anything that was just really scary for you? And it does it still scare you?
32:45.30
Savannah
Um, you know, I think I was so young and so naive that nothing did, to be honest. That’s like kind of the the thing about being really, I mean, I was 25 when we started Breezy. Um, I think that’s the great thing about being young and dumb is you don’t know what to be afraid of. And it also like keeps you, keeps you hungry and it keeps you going. And like, you’ll just make wild decisions that somebody 10 years older than you wouldn’t, because they have more on the line. They have a mortgage and they have kids and they have this and that. And I didn’t have any of that stuff. um So I wasn’t really afraid of anything. And now, you know, think used to be afraid of
33:22.62
Savannah
the business not going the trajectory that I had in mind for it. And I really had to come to terms with that. Honestly, like a few months ago, um I really had to come to terms with like this. I only have so much control over this.
33:35.58
Savannah
Like I have control over process and attitude and effort and things like that, but this is kind of going to go how it’s going to go. Like that’s, it’s hard to admit that people don’t really like living life like that.
33:46.54
Savannah
But I have this sign behind me and it says Amor Fadi and it’s, a Latin term for love of fate or love everything that happens. And it’s really a principle I try to live my life by because, and I’m not perfect at it and mess up all the time because I’m very type A in combination with that.
34:03.38
Savannah
But, um you know, you really don’t control the outcome of things. You don’t control the outcome of your career, your business, your investments. You just, you make the best decision you can at the time with the most amount of information that you have.
34:17.21
Savannah
And then you roll with it and you give it everything you have and you work your butt off and you hope that things go the direction you want. And I think that perspective helps me not be very fearful because however it turns out like, okay, I’ll go try something else.
34:28.64
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
34:33.33
Savannah
I’ll do something else. Like I always can bounce back and reinvent myself and create something new. um so yeah. Yeah, i I didn’t have a lot of fear in the beginning. And i think a lot of the fears I’ve developed the past few years, I’ve really been able to kind of work through with that mentality.
34:49.97
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I love that. And I think that as you look back, like you also, you didn’t have very much to lose when you’re young. That’s how we’re like, I can make this decision.
34:58.68
Savannah
Exactly. I had no money. had nothing to lose.
35:03.73
Lorie Jones
What’s the worst that’s going to happen?
35:04.34
Savannah
Sure. What’s the worst that’s going to happen?
35:05.01
Lorie Jones
Like, you know, yeah.
35:06.14
Savannah
Yeah.
35:07.42
Lorie Jones
um But used to if you if you continue to use that sort of mantra, like what’s the worst that’s going to happen? Is it you know, do I want to take this chance? What’s the worst that’s going to happen?
35:18.38
Lorie Jones
Like I have to go get a job and I’m perfectly skilled to do that.
35:19.10
Savannah
Yeah.
35:22.18
Lorie Jones
So, okay.
35:22.55
Savannah
Yeah. Yeah.
35:23.66
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
35:23.75
Savannah
And live your life in a way where, and that’s kind of the delay gratification thing is like live in a way where things can fall apart and you’re still okay for a while. Like live your life with margin, live your life with lots of savings, have different, you know, revenue streams, income streams for yourself, like build in, like take risks, but also build in lots of backup systems.
35:31.14
Lorie Jones
Mm-hmm.
35:42.54
Savannah
Like that really is the the key, I think.
35:45.66
Lorie Jones
Yeah, I love that idea of margin. I mean, that’s at like margin in time. So you’re not like back to back scheduled margin in money. So you’ve got ah an account margin in energy.
35:55.94
Lorie Jones
i just I love the idea of margin.
35:56.95
Savannah
Yeah.
35:58.02
Lorie Jones
I love that you mentioned that.
35:58.67
Savannah
Yeah. Me too.
36:01.72
Lorie Jones
What about any unique challenges? Did you face any unique challenges because you were a woman?
36:10.31
Savannah
I’ve never really experienced any anything that I personally perceive that way, like maybe other people did, but I just never really paid attention to it. I feel like I’ve been, I’ve always been pretty confident and in my femininity as well as like how that, I don’t know, comes across in like a business setting.
36:20.33
Lorie Jones
Thank you.
36:30.04
Savannah
um I’ve never really had any difficulty from that perspective that I am aware of. So I’ll say that like it could have existed and there could have been times that I was denied things or people didn’t move forward whatever, but I never saw it that way.
36:44.06
Savannah
think that’s kind of half the battle is just deciding like, I’m just going to do what I’m going to do and be who I am and be proud of that. And if other people don’t see that, like, okay, that’s fine.
36:54.95
Savannah
um But I just never really really let that stuff kind of affect me. And I i also don’t look for it. I think that’s too, like if you look for it, you’re probably going to find it. So it better not to look for it because that’ll just tear down your confidence.
37:05.39
Savannah
So just don’t look for it. That way you can, you know, stay confident in who you are.
37:07.13
Lorie Jones
Yeah.
37:09.85
Lorie Jones
I bet, though, that you’ve run into some challenges as far as like running your own business and and you have kids and and like any of those things that…
37:15.54
Savannah
Oh, yeah.
37:20.28
Savannah
I don’t have kids yet, so I can’t speak to that piece of it. um But being a small business owner is literally just being a fire extinguisher all the time. Like that’s what you are. um You’re constantly going to have problems with people, process, clients, payments, um do you invest in this? Do you not? Well, can we invest in this for a year? It didn’t work. Like there’s always going to be an issue. There’s always going to be a problem. If you don’t like problems, do not start a business. That’s all I can tell you. If you don’t like problem solving all the time and dealing with a fire. Um, and now that I deal with fires every day, we have a great team and, but in the beginning it was, you know, very different. Now there’s like a really steady rhythm and things feel very different, but, um, that’s just kind of part of the gig. It’s just kind of part of the game.
38:07.00
Lorie Jones
Yeah, at the beginning, it does. It feels like it’s a, it was that thing. You’re on fire. The house is on fire. Everything’s on fire.
38:13.59
Savannah
Literally. Yes, completely.
38:17.27
Lorie Jones
um What is the thing you are most proud of, Savannah?
38:23.90
Savannah
think just the idea that I always dreamed of owning something and I did it, like the fact that I did start a company and I was raised, I know this has changed a lot, but like I was raised you know, late nineties, early two thousands when the American dream was still very like alive and well and pushed. And like, you can be an entrepreneur and you can be a business owner and you can like have your little piece of pie.
38:49.53
Savannah
And I think that was really, really integrated into my like psyche, if you will. Um, and i always thought that that was like the highest form of like career and like what I could do.
39:02.23
Savannah
And um I am really proud that I was able to make that happen for myself and to pull that off. I’m really proud that I’ve built a business that employs other people. And we’ve attracted some really wonderful people that I’m very, very grateful to work with. um I’ve been able to support my family in a way that is not cumbersome, if you will. You know, I work hard and I work a lot, but I’m able to control my schedule and my time, my effort.
39:33.02
Savannah
And in different seasons, it can up and down and um just being able to be the boss, being able to be the person that controls my life and somebody else and something else doesn’t. um I’m really, really proud of that.
39:45.15
Lorie Jones
Yeah, it’s hard too. It’s it takes grit, right?
39:48.60
Savannah
Yes, absolutely.
39:48.71
Lorie Jones
It’s hard.
39:53.05
Lorie Jones
Any advice for a young lady who’s kind of just starting down this path, ah like run the other direction right now?
40:01.02
Savannah
yeah
40:01.11
Lorie Jones
you know But any advice for her so that she can be successful like you?
40:06.71
Savannah
Just find what you’re most passionate about, figure out where the problem is in the market, build in your solution and just go for it. um I don’t think that there’s any area right now where you’re too behind on it in terms of marketing or personal branding or any of that stuff. I think you can still absolutely have a seat at the table. So just go for it. Invest in yourself as an individual early and often. Don’t put that on the back burner for a job or a career. You probably have to keep working a job or keep working a certain level of employment, obviously, and building a ton of margin for yourself to be able to do that safely. But, um, even if you have that day job, that isn’t your favorite, like keep investing in yourself and your future and your dreams. in every pocket of time you can, especially like if you’re single, if you don’t have kids, um, those sorts of things like this is the time. And this is like where you compound your investment. Like you just, you go to work, you go crazy, you work all the time. And then you look up in 10 years and it’s like, okay, i built this thing and I have all, you know, it’s, it’s a very different situation. So early and often in yourself, um, in the dream that you have.
41:16.50
Lorie Jones
I love that. And it works for pretty much any area of your life, too, because I’m just sitting here thinking like that is the same advice i gave my kids. I am like, start your investment account early, invest even when you feel poor.
41:24.60
Savannah
Yeah.
41:27.77
Savannah
Yeah.
41:29.41
Lorie Jones
And I swear to you, like, you know, the if you start early, the compounding effect that you have on it.
41:36.31
Savannah
Right.
41:36.93
Lorie Jones
really makes a difference.
41:37.24
Savannah
Right.
41:38.13
Lorie Jones
And that’s what you’re saying. It’s like you start early when and invest every you know all of your free spare time into building that skill set.
41:40.24
Savannah
Yeah.
41:47.93
Lorie Jones
And then when you get on the other end of that, you’re going to have that great big retirement account or that great big business that gives you a little bit more freedom and flexibility.
41:48.50
Savannah
Yeah.
41:53.37
Savannah
Yeah.
41:57.30
Lorie Jones
I love that.
41:57.90
Savannah
Yeah.
41:58.06
Lorie Jones
That’s a really good… at Well, I like it because it goes with finance, but…
42:00.44
Savannah
Compound interest. It applies in basically every area of life.
42:05.45
Lorie Jones
That’s really cool. Well, thank you so much for taking some time with us today, Savannah. I really appreciate your experience and sharing that and especially that personal branding. I’m going to take that and and work with it.
42:17.77
Lorie Jones
And I’m going to try and be less, a little bit more fearless, a little bit less scared about about people seeing me, you know.
42:22.30
Savannah
Good. Good.
42:26.10
Savannah
Absolutely.
42:26.84
Lorie Jones
I love that. But how can a young lady get in touch with you if she has questions?
42:31.29
Savannah
Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram at Sav Abney. I’m just Savannah Abney on LinkedIn. ah If you wanted to shoot me an email and chat, savannah at the breezy company.co and my website is coming out very soon. It’ll be linked up in all those places when it’s launched here in the next few weeks.
42:46.36
Lorie Jones
Perfect. Well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.
42:48.98
Savannah
Thanks.