Welcome to the The VICI Code, where we unlock real stories of small business owners who have battled chaos, crushed doubt, and conquered their challenges. Faith, family, and finances. No fluff, just raw, honest conversations that decode the path to victory, one story at a time. What is up? Thank you for joining us today as we explore our latest purpose-driven journey from Vine to Value, where we navigate marrying finance and art, the strategy of purpose-driven scaling in craft-focused business. Today's guest's core purpose is empowering craft-driven businesses to build their legacy through tailored digital strategies rooted in collaboration, craft, and intentional growth. I'm very excited about today's guest. Rachel Clawson is the founder of Barrel Room Media, a creative agency specializing in digital marketing and content creation for passionate craft brands. She is a certified financial planner FAA Part 107 licensed drone pilot and holds a viticulture and enology degree from Oregon State University along with extensive experience in the wine industry. Rachel marries this knowledge with expertise in content creation, and social media strategy. Passionate about coaching others and helping brands tell their unique stories, Rachel empowers businesses to connect authentically with their audience and build lasting relationships through tailored digital strategies. I met Rachel and Dan Martell's elite coaching group a few months ago. Early on, I sought out the accounting and finance people, so Rachel was already on my calendar. Come to find out, she's not only a dual threat, she's a triple threat. Rachel Clawson's background in certified financial planner fused with her expertise in viticulture and enology offers powerful and unique perspective on creative business leadership and intentional growth. Rachel, welcome to the show. Hey Joe, thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Absolutely. So much to get into. So I want to jump right in. I always like to start off at the beginning, the financial and purpose breakthrough. So the financial planner mindset, right? You're a CFP who priveted to running a creative media agency. This is a rare combination. What was the biggest challenge you had in your own career or breakthrough realization that convinced your creative business, that convinced you creative businesses desperately needed a CFP's analytical Yeah, I know. I love getting this question, because it's a little different. But that's just me, I suppose. I guess to kind of go into it, basically, I'm born and raised Oregonian. I grew up on a small ranch, agriculture, that kind of thing. Grew up in wine country, at least during my high school years down in Southern Oregon. And then proceeded to go to Oregon State, which is like the agriculture you know, school for a big, big agricultural focused school. And eventually, I ultimately started off in more the athletic side of things when I got to school, but eventually ended up changing my major to viticulture and enology. And so I just loved I had a few experiences early on in just talking with winemakers and vineyard managers and just like, And I think we see the movies and stuff and see that kind of like romance in the wine industry. And it kind of drew me into it. I just always loved hearing about the science behind it, but as well as like the passion behind those brands, and proceeded to get to work in the industry throughout college in the US, as well as abroad in Italy, and just became this thing that I was very, very passionate about. And then I met my husband while we were in college, and we got married shortly after graduation, and he was active duty Air Force. So for six years, we moved around, and we didn't live exactly in wine country, as you can imagine. Being a vet yourself, you know how that goes. And so through our series of moves, I ultimately went back to school to find something that was a little more universal. And I kind of had this knack for numbers and business and finance and always was kind of interested in it. And so I started down that path and started working in the finance industry during that time while he was active duty and then when he transitioned from active duty to the Air National Guard. It was around 2018. We got to move back to the Pacific Northwest. So I had a great job, loved the firm that I worked with, loved being a financial advisor and helping people from that perspective. But then we were back in wine country. And so on the weekends, evenings, whatever, just got the opportunity to start getting back into that world, reconnecting with old colleagues or friends or whatnot. And then COVID hit. And during that time, I picked up a camera for the first time in my life at the age of, I don't know, what I would have been like 30, and started just playing around, practicing. Turned out I was kind of good at it. And it was around that time that the firm I worked for, we wanted to start getting into YouTube and LinkedIn and digital marketing. And so I was already kind of playing with that on the side just for fun, travel, photography, wine, that kind of stuff. And so I were a small RIA and I raised my hand, said, I can figure out YouTube for us. I could figure out like video production. And my role just kind of slowly started morphing into that. And so I started doing it more on the side, you know, helping out these wineries, these brands that I was like passionate about, just offering to take photos or help with like social media, started doing more of that in my role at the firm. I started kind of being in this hybrid role of financial advisor and like digital marketer. And then it just kind of evolved. And as that grew, and I started to build up kind of a demand and knack for marrying that kind of analytical side of things, as well as that creative part of my brain, more opportunities just started showing up in the outside of the firm that I worked for, and ultimately made the decision, launched Railroad Media, kind of launched, I should say. Fall of 2022, and the firm I worked with was super supportive, and I was kind of juggling both for a while, up until this year. And so this year, starting in January, I went full-time in my company, and that finance firm, that wealth management firm, is actually one of my clients. So our team still gets to run their marketing efforts, which is so cool and I love and where that transitions to helping out a lot of these like small winery brands or larger ones to is being able to see the data behind the content like marrying that. um strategic with the creative to really grow their brand not just post pretty pretty photos and that's what I want to do because I'm just so passionate about the industry and where it can go and the different stories and all these like family brands that I feel like if I can infuse a little more of that strategic and data-driven thought processes and systems with the creative side, there's just so much opportunity to be creative and make beautiful things in the wine industry that we can really bring about I love that you followed your heart and pursued your passion. It's hard to go wrong when you do that. You know, money aside, I just feel like happiness is just doing what you love to do every day. And that led you to ultimately you know, the freedom to pursue what you had always wanted to do. So I think that's a really good story that talks about how you kind of adapt and overcome. That's a terminology you hear in the military often. You adapt and overcome and you did that. And with your patience, things circled back around and you were able to, you know, dive back into what you wanted to do. And I can speak also to the data-driven side, obviously. I always talk to my clients, I'm like, if you're looking at accounting or bookkeeping as just another expense, then you don't have the, either you're not looking at it right, or you don't have the right partnership with your account because, that if you're not making decisions based off data, you got to go on your gut no matter what, ultimately. But if you're not making decisions based off the data, you're just leaving so much on the play. There's a lot of competitive advantage that you're leaving there that someone else is going to be taking advantage of. So I like that you bring that data analytics side to what has always been more of an artsy, discipline, adding that art, you still have that aspect, but you married it with that data, and I think that's great. Now, what's the single biggest financial mistake you see purpose-driven craft businesses Honestly, and I don't say this to be biased because of the services that we offer, but especially in today's age, it's kind of similar to your point of looking at their bottom line and looking at their numbers and where to allocate resources and skimping on their brand itself and not putting, and it doesn't always have to be financial, but a lot of times that's part of it, right? But it's not making that, the brand building, the storytelling, the creative, A part a non negotiable piece of of their budget of their resources of their team and how there's a lot of different ways you can you can work that into your plan year over year, both financially and as well as a team and resources and all that and I. And I see that time and time again. And I just want to show them, just believe, just go on and just commit. It doesn't have to be what the big corporate wineries are doing, but you've got to be doing something because I don't want to see you fall off. If you're not in front of top of mind for people, if you don't give them a reason to choose you over the other winery down the street or this other brand they see on the shelf, Eventually, you're just not gonna be around anymore. And I don't want that in today's day and age, especially digital. And just the competition that we that we see online and in person, you got to give people reason to choose you. And that's all part of your story, all part of your brand. And so I see when I see that of where people are cutting corners, at the end of the day, like numbers are numbers, and I get it. But I truly believe that like, if you make that a priority, it will the ROI will be tenfold over time. You just have to be patient and consistent and So it sounds like some businesses may lack that purpose, part of purpose driven, right? And without purpose, how do you have an identity? Right. And without those two, how do you even have a brand? How can, how can you scream at the top of the mountain? This is why I'm different. This is why you should choose me. So I think it's really important that, you know, at some point at some, at certain point, you know, you just got to get revenue. But once, once you're at, once you stabilize, you got to really, you can't let the foot off the gas. You got to really reinvest in that brand and that story. And that's really good advice. Now, let's jump into intentional growth versus explosive growth. As you and I see, there's a lot of explosive growth around us, and we see that often. Barrel room media is rooted in intentional growth. In a culture that celebrates explosive, hustle-harder scaling, why Oh, yeah, that's a great question. It's one I struggle with, because you want to see you see all that like success around you that looks overnight or looks like, oh, why are you why is that agency ahead of mine? Or why is that business, you know, doing this? And I'm, you know, feel like I'm struggling and, and everyone and it's it's hard, but you but then if you dig deeper, what I found is, as you meet those people actually talk to those agencies, those brands, those business owners, behind the scenes, it's like they've actually gone through that intentionality. And that's why they're successful where they are today, seven, 810 years Down the road. So I always love that quote of like, you know, don't compare your chapter one to someone else's chapter 20 or however that kind of verbiage is and I struggle with that. Like, I have to remind myself of that constantly like looking at it, you know, technically, I'm, you know, what, three years in business, but I'm my one year in. full-time, like all-in, without having another job. And I noticed that this year, as I started to build a team, that intentionality, I'm realizing how much more important that is, especially when you choose to go the route of building a team and building something bigger than yourself and not just sticking It's important if you're just going to be a freelancer like solopreneur love like I did that for a while and love that path as well. But ultimately, you always got to have people in your corner and whether that's an internal team or or contractors or whatever it may be. And something that I realized this year is I did experience some explosive growth, which was great and it enabled me to take that leap to go full time in my business, like on paper on from a financial perspective. But then I started to see like all the gaps of that explosive growth and need to pull back and get back into that intentionality and realize like, okay, Where, how, how can I set myself up for success my team up for success and our clients up for success and realize the true importance of like even if that means you got to, you know, take an L on some things or the numbers aren't quite where you want them. It's going to pay off to have that foundation, that structure, and always come back to your purpose, not just saying yes to anyone that's willing to pay you or negotiating on things like, oh, we don't really do that, but I really need that contract or whatever. And we all go through that phase. So if you're in that phase right now, trust me, I'm actively pulling myself out of that. I say it's called a hole because I think it's a phase everyone kind of It's almost like you have to go through it. I just hope your phase is short lived and you learn like if that's something you're going through, but that just just always remember that purpose. Remember that intentionality because it's going to set you up for success long term in the short term. It might hurt a little bit in one way or another, Yeah. It's like, you know, you don't, you don't sacrifice long-term success for short-term wins, right? Yeah. You know, when, when you have that purpose and that identity, like you, you have basically a roadmap and why deviate from it, you know, your ultimate goal is to get here, you know, don't get distracted with the things here. And I think we, we, you and I talked about this last week. There's, there's, it's takes a lot of discipline. as an entrepreneur who's actually good, like you're constantly conflicted with, boy, I did this well. Now I have all these other ideas, right? And you have to really, you know, write those down for another day and say, you know what, I got to be hyper-focused on this. And then even within your own business, Just because you can doesn't mean you should. There's a lot of things you can do to go pro, as Dan would say, in your business. But if you're not ready, like I'm year one, it's really hard for me to sit still and not take advantage of some of these strategies. you know, sometimes you got to take your medicine as a golf lingo. Sometimes you take your medicine and you just, uh, you just got to stick with what's in front of you. Um, so that, that's really good advice. Uh, what are the key operational challenges of implementing an intentional strategy and what is the resulting business breakthrough in terms of, I don't know, finance or team culture that Yeah, I think some of the, it's so important to focus on, sorry, I almost, my brain went to two different answers. We got time for two. But as you bring in, Oh my gosh, now I'm going to pause. Ask your question again, because No, it's all good. So what are the key operational challenges of implementing the intentional strategy? What is that resulting business breakthrough in terms of finance and Yeah those so what I've learned one of the first whether it's both I've experienced this both internal as well as with clients those operational challenges usually stem from some like lack of purpose or lack of identity and like needing so I could find that when I'm like talking with a potential client and starting to ask, we might jump to logistics and like, okay, here's A, B and C, how we should implement like ad strategy or organic or going into those things. But ultimately all of that ties back to those operational pieces all tied back to the story, the why, the brand. And so if you can't be clear on that message, then you can't implement the operational side. And I found that internally too, as I started saying yes to things or, I'm finding as I meet more entrepreneurs, we always have the ideas, right? Like, oh, this is the next thing, this is the next vision. Our minds are always kind of thinking in that big picture and that pulls you away, which are great. So like you just said, kind of write those down, save them for later, focus, like draw it in. But if you don't, because if you let yourself deviate and you don't set up that foundation or that structure, those operational procedures, you're never going to be able to get something working immediately or in the interim, like your core focus, and you're definitely never going to be able to get to the point where you can add in those other elements. I find that with clients too, if we can't hone in on just some of those basics of operation systems all tied back to the why, if we don't have that strong, strong driver, strong purpose there, then everything else that we implement is not going to mean anything. It's just not going to feel authentic. It's going to deviate. It's going to have too many cooks in the kitchen saying different things. And yeah, I think everything just all pulls back to that purpose, that why, that drives all Absolutely. Cause he could just, you just spread yourself. Then it gets chaotic and then you end up, it's still snowballs, right? You know, I think it's just snowball when you don't stay focused. So, you know, staying focused has there, there's longevity there. And it just, it really does help with, you know, with team culture, but that helps attract and retain good talent on your team, too. So I totally agree. Now, I kind of want to get into, you know, purpose, pillars and legacy. So we're going to talk a little bit more about leadership and team development here. You have a deep passion for leadership and team development rooted in collaboration. In the agency world, burnout is common. How do you lead your team at Barrel Room Media to protect their well-being and Yeah, I love this question. This is something I'm so passionate about. And the deeper I get into building my business and kind of stepping into that leadership, that CEO role, the more I get down that path, the more I'm like, this is me, like, this is what I like to do. I was an athlete my whole life in the beginning of college as well. And I just love that like team environment. And I love coaching as well. I coach track for a little while and coach like little kids sports and things. And I just I find that's just something in me. And so when it comes to my team, and I've pulled a lot, since joining Ali, I've pulled some of this from Dan too, of just like the questions to ask. I love his philosophy around knowing like you as the leader should know your team's goals and basically your team's goals and wishes should fit inside of your goal. I have to have a goal and vision big enough for my team's goals to fit within and provide them those opportunities. And I wanna know, what their one-year, three-year, five-year, ten-year goals are across their life, not just in their career path, but personally too, and be someone who can help them achieve those, regardless if they stayed a part of my Barrel Remedia team forever or not. I want them to grow and succeed. We talked about that last week. It's almost a great thing to like you, you want to develop that great talent. And if eventually that means they they leave you for whatever reason, you're kind of like a little bit proud, you're like, dang it, I gotta replace them, but you'd be like happy for them. And that's what I want. So that's something I do with my team, like we have a monthly one on one check ins with me and the team member. Each month where we kind of review those goals, keep those things top of mind. I asked them for that authentic feedback of what can I do? What do you need? How can I set you up for success? And then also making sure that like I'm the person in Slack that like if it's after five or like in their time zone, we have people in different time zones like. Do not respond to my message like get off like go live your life like I don't respond on Saturday. Don't like responding like I want you to have your life and like right now we're getting ready for the holidays and so we're having an extra push right now. This first part of the month to create content calendars, make sure campaigns are all set up, schedule things out, get approvals, etc. To carry us into that like first week of January so that the team can have those that Christmas New Year's time like to set to be off to have time with their family, friends, travel, whatever it is they want to do. And something that was so important to me from the get-go, from when I decided to go into business, even before I decided that I really wanted to build an agency, even when I thought for a while I just wanted to maybe be like a freelancer or maybe have like a partner or something, one thing I wanted to do was work with my sister. I wanted to like, she's great at what she does. She had a great job, but I knew it wasn't like, everything that she wanted and wasn't going to provide her the opportunities and flexibility that she needed for the personal life that she wanted, you know, family and so on. And we live, you know, in different states and stuff. And so that was one of my goals is like hire my sister. And in May of this year, I had the ability, I got to hire her full time. And so she was my first, like, Partner essentially and so and she's joined and she started her own little business and she is like the operations master of barrel room media and I'm so glad that in like. how we kind of talked about, you know, things just kind of start to work out, timing works out. Turns out her and her husband got pregnant with twins. And so she just had my twin nephews on Halloween. And I was able to not I say it like I, but I feel like together, we were able to give her the ability to take, take that time off, like have that flexibility she needed at the end of her pregnancy when things were getting tougher. And And now she has that time off with family. And then when she starts coming back to work, she has that flexibility to come back to work in the way that works for her and for her her new life. And that's something I want to provide for anyone that I work with. And so that's just one other example that's been super exciting. And the people are more important to me than everything else. I think the business stuff follows, and that's something I try to always keep top of mind, even when I'm stressed out or trying to get all the ducks in a row. How are the people doing? I try to I don't know if you know this, but I know this and I think you do. You're a great leader. Just hearing that answer tells me everything I need to know about what it's like to work for you. what level of happiness that your team has while being at work? That's why I love that question because it's very similar to how I do things. And I learned a lot of leadership, obviously in the military, but you can learn bad leadership in the military too. And I'm sure your husband has seen some poor leaders because sometimes people just pick up rank. Um, and you see that in corporate world too. People who may be good at what they do at the grunt level, you know, may not re may not be able to lead and inspire people, um, and empower people. But I really believe in how Jocko explains it, that like, you know, you work for your team. Like that's how I love that. If you approach that, you work for your team, you know their goals, you try to reach their goals, you're their biggest. When people leave, that's a testimony. When they leave because they're going pro or they're taking that next level, that's a testimony to your leadership and the culture that you've built. So I love that that's your you know, perspective on how you run things. Cause I really believe that's the way to do it. There's a lot of ways to do things, but I think at a very core, um, if you put in your team first and, you know, knowing that their goals fit inside your goals, that's something that a lot of people can, you know, implement today, um, and have an immediate impact on, on their business and their culture. Um, what's the system or process you use to ensure your commitment to craft is also reflected Oh yeah, that's a good one. That's actually I would say from from like a logistics like actual like core like implementation perspective. Something we're working on actually working on right now. That's actually my probably biggest goal going into year end. I think we're going to accomplish where we've got the right people doing the right things to put the that frame those frameworks in place and it kind of ties back to I mentioned earlier of how I had a little bit of explosive growth and then realized like I need to kind of pull things back. I don't have that. you know, craft and structure set up. And so that is something that we're working on right now. And I love, I'm working with this incredible VA and OBM agency called Champagne Collective to help me really build out our systems and all the different like little moving pieces that kind of make Bear Room Media more unique. And the fact that, yeah, we're a creative agency and there's Hundreds of thousands of those around the world, but we speak, we know wine, spirits, food, like we speak that craft industry with personal experience in the industry, and there's just things that we like to do a little bit differently to make our clients feel like... They're like they're part of us like we're a part of their team and they're a part of ours and be able to implement that in a structured way of how we communicate, how we are proactive, how we implement and then that carries through to the team to like that was a piece of feedback I got from the team was like I'm struggling to kind of keep track of like just like that day to day like all the moving pieces like we need like some type of more formal project management system. So it's like. Okay, let's do it. Let's get that built out. So like we're building out ClickUp is the ultimately the platform we're going with, you know, like a technical perspective. And so did you say ClickUp? ClickUp? Yeah, ClickUp. Yeah. So I'm excited to have that in there. And that's something Champagne Collective is doing for us. And they just get us and the different things. And so to kind of go along with that, to tie things back to craft, I encourage my team. On the team, I'm the only one with the viticulture and enology degree that's actually worked in a taste stream harvest. But we all have our kind of different perspectives that we bring to the team. That's something I encourage. And everyone that's wanted to come work for us, And that's one of the things that I heard from them in the interview process of like, actually, that sounds like so such cool brands, like those brands always do have cool like stories, or like, what a great like thing to be a part of. And so I encourage them to, you know, put build into their schedule, you know, go just pick something based off the label or try a new like food pairing or like just kind of get into it or if you see you know some of our clients you can just go see their products in the store and stuff like give them a try like what do you think get your honest opinion just like immerse yourself go do some of those fun experiences like I want you to get out and experience because especially and then as we bring that back into like how we implement and kind of like being, you know, a little more unique or more immersed in our kind of the niche, I guess you say that we are being out there and experiencing life in those different ways brings back, we bring that back into our creativity and how we operate and just think of, you know, ideas or things that we can implement. And yeah, I think that all kind Nice. Very nice. Can you, for our audience members that don't know what OBM is, Oh, yeah. So, uh, VA, like virtual assistant, OBM, online So kind of like, I want to make sure I know us military peeps. We It could be anything for our audience. I just want to make sure that we OBM, online business manager agency. So great for, you know, kind of that consulting services, projects, management, you know, build out kind of stuff, even like consult, like, you know, offer Copy, solid copy. How does your personal faith or core conviction translate into the intentionality and Yeah, I think I'm a big believer in collaboration and I think and I forget it might have been something that Dan shared on his page or maybe it was Renee and a while back around how I and I've seen it firsthand with you know just. other people or even like different brands that we're also like we're not a good fit for you is that you kind of see that people operating at that higher level who have that like kind of purpose and why behind what they're doing are once you want to collaborate and people that don't necessarily have that are ones that viewed as competition. And I'm a big believer, like I love connecting with other agency owners. I love connecting wineries together. We've actually seen some crazy success of doing like collabs across wine brands like you're not competitors. There's enough to go around, but you can do fun things together. And I think that's just something that's really important to me. So when I'm talking to a potential person to, you know, maybe it's like a website designer or whoever, like someone to like collab with. or a potential client or a potential team member, if they're talking from that kind of place of abundance and positivity and let's lift each other up and how can we do things together, just even like you and I are, those are the type of people I want to work with and something very important to me. When I have conversations that aren't that way that are more on the negative or competitive side or like well like they're stealing my you know whatever. i'm just like that's not the energy, I want I really that's that's one line that's like I do stay pretty strong in of i'm going to just. Say no or close that door because and and I hope one day they see things differently and and if they do, then let's let's clap and do something together but. that's one of my biggest things I think it's just just being true to true to who you are and being supportive of others and and. Yeah. And I think early on, especially for those, for those in our audience who are just starting out or thinking about making that leap into self-employment, whether it's full-time or part-time, you know, I know you do your, you know, your SWOT analysis and you do your, your competitive analysis. Um, I always like to think early on, you know, competition really isn't competition until, you know, you're really out there doing things. If anything, it's more of a, it's a testimony that there's a market for this. So study them, get to know them. And honestly, early on, I think, I you know, it's okay to reach out to, you know, your competitors. And I think with the right, with the right business, like they're happy to tell you, you know, cause, cause you can't be them, right? You're not trying to be the next them. You're trying to be the best you. So I think that, you know, there should be really no threat to just open that door and open that conversation with somebody that you admire and that you think, you know, highly of their business enough to just to meet with them. So I think, Yeah, it's good to build that network and that collaboration. We collaborate with HR, we collaborate with IT, we collaborate with legal, banks, all that stuff. So I think it's important to identify those collaborators in your industry and lean into it. A lot of the people that you know, we do business with, we refer out, like my insurance guy, I refer him out, you know, my, my real estate guy, him out. Um, as well as, um, you know, we bring them onto the show too. I've had people that we do business with, we have them on the show. Um, even, uh, even competitors, people that we work closely with, I call them more strategic partners. I like to call them. Um, but yeah, yeah, that's smart. I like that core conviction. That's a I think yeah and if you're again kind of piggyback off of what you said if you're starting out or even if you're not starting out like I think you'd be surprised the number of people like if you reach out to someone maybe you're scared so you're like oh I don't want to bother them or they might think I'm trying to steal from them or whatever. I think you'd be surprised that most often I would say like eight or nine times out of ten when you reach out they're happy to help with you like they've been where you are and they wanna collaborate with you or give you advice or even just a few minutes of their time, whatever it is, I find that, trust me, I've had a conversation where I reach out to someone and it's not been well received and they're like, ooh, kind of had that negative mindset. But that's okay, that's to each their own. But I would say don't be afraid of just going into someone's DMs or sending the email or popping into the store. You Yeah. Sales 101. It's not your job to say no. Ask the question, be vulnerable, be embarrassed. And if it happens, move on to the next. There's a lot of good people out there that are happy to share. People want to talk about themselves and not just in a bad way. They just, they, the giving is better than receiving, right? So like people like to share this information, like to talk about, you know, it's like we talk about our kids the same way we talk about, you know, our businesses. It's like we're, we, there's pride there. So Yeah. When I, there's a great, uh, just like little like mantra that I remember from. So the first, my very first job in finance was with Edward Jones as you know, a financial advisor on their like kind of new career path, new FAA career path. Back in, I don't even know, it was like 2015 or something like that. But there was like a mentor advisor and he would always tell us, and this was back in the day when we would like go door knocking for like getting prospect, like literally go in neighborhoods door to door. Hey, do you need help Oh, yeah. Pounding the pavement back then, which definitely made me stronger today to hear no, literally, or literally have doors shut in my face. But he would always say, some will, some won't. So what? Who's next? And it's something I always kind of remember and pass on. Volume, right? Yeah. Speaking of mindset, juggling a CFP mindset, creative vision, and CEO demands requires an immense energy. What is your most non-negotiable personal system, whether it relates to fitness, routine, or personal reflection, that I love this one. For me, core, on a daily basis, non-negotiable is some form of a workout. I start my day, whether it's we have a nice gym built out in our garage, so it's either something in there or it's going for a run. But that is a non-negotiable that just, like, sets me up. I feel like it just sets myself up for success for the day. You, like, kind of check that off. Some days it's harder to get out of bed, you know. Like, I mean, it's way colder where you are than where I am, but still, like, it's hard to get out. But that is something I always come back to. Or and even, like, if I'm just having, like, a rough day or getting tired or sluggish, going for an outside walk or something like that activity, taking care of my body, like eating, eating well, exercise, like just, I feel like it just translates to everything else in your life, building confidence, telling yourself you can do something, you can achieve goals, you can, yeah, it's, that's my always my, yeah, just core go And is there any practice of intentional growth in your life to avoid burnout? Yeah, I'm getting better with that. I've gotten, I struggle with that. And I think if you're watching this, you're probably also a business owner, entrepreneur type, and there's always something we can do. You could never turn off your brain if you don't want to. There's always the next thing, the next something. And I've had to learn the hard way by getting burnt out that, You do have to make time for yourself that it's okay. And in fact, necessary to make time for yourself, whether that's whatever that is for you. For me, sometimes it's just like having, you know, evening to read my book or watch a movie or, you know, just go on a date night or just something like you force yourself to shut off and and a practice that what i've recently implemented to help help me with this is again something from dan of. He says, essentially, like schedule your fun first right and so like actually put it in your calendar of like when you're going to go on a trip or like when you're going to log off for the day or like when you're going to go see your family or have time with friends or have. Personal time and and since implementing that like literally like I always I thought it was such a odd concept like put in my account even putting my calendar like Jim or or date or whatever it is and but since doing that that has actually made a big difference. Just like schedule it like you would a meeting and then protect that time I've learned. in order to, like, if I have those things plugged in, then it also actually makes me focus more and not get so distracted on the million things that I could be working on and sticking to, you know, what I have, like, a time block for, of whether it's, you know, whatever it is that I need to be working on and knowing that, okay, I have this rest scheduled in later and I want to enjoy that rest, but I can't if I don't stay focused here. So it's kind of like twofold. That's, yeah, It does work. It does work. And you know, it's new. And it just, what is it? There's varying degree of like how long a tab it takes. Some people say 30 days, sometimes it's more. But it, when it works, it's kind of easier to stick with it. I've got even my morning routine is on my calendar, even though my morning routine is like a two hour, three hour block before I even start work, it's still there. My team knows I'm doing that. My team knows when I'm at the gym. So it's all on there. And it's a reminder to, hey, like you intentionally block this off on your calendar. So you're not making money during this time. So you might as well take care of yourself during this time. It's good. It's a good visual reminder to sense, you know, especially business owners early on in their stages, they're just so like, what's on my calendar? You're just constantly doing go, go, go. It's good to have that blocked off for you. As we get near to the end, what is one final piece of tough purpose-driven advice you would give to a business owner who is currently making great content, but needs to integrate that financial precision to Yeah. I, I'll go back to another quote that I think a lot of people say this, and I think Dan said it, I don't know who the originator of it is, but it's, you know, what gets, uh, you know, what, what gets measured grows or, uh, um, I'm now I'm butchering the quote. I had it, He's got so many, but, but essentially like, if you're not where, again, this is where I think that creative and like finance or like data, data mind come together is, you can, if you're not measuring what you're putting out there, it's like content, you know, for example, if you're not looking at it and actually seeing, you know, what's working. And also I think there's kind of two fold when you look, if we, on the subject of content, it's looking at the actual numbers, the analytics themselves of is, you know, did we gain followers from that reel? Like what was the performance, what was the reach, you know, so on and so forth. But then it's also, how did you feel about making that content? So I think one of the best pieces of advice I can give for kind of marrying those two of creativity and strategy and analysis side is find that intersection of what works, like what your audience is telling you works, and that you actually enjoy doing. Because even if it's something that your audience is telling you works, but you hate it, you're going to burn yourself out. It's going to start feeling inauthentic. It's not a long-term win. And so you got to find, and the way you find that is just by getting, just continue to be consistent, put stuff out there, take, you know, even if you think it's silly or you're tired, you're not feeling it, like put it out there and then look at the data and then take stock of Was that honest for me? Did that feel like me in that piece of content? And where that intersection is, you'll probably be surprised. There'll probably be a lot of things that fit both those categories, like the little Venn diagram kind of situation. And I think that's where you'll find success and long-term, too. That's really good advice because people are starving for connection. You know, what may seem silly and mundane to you is something that hundreds, thousands of people are excited to like dive into. They, they want to get immersed into. other people's lives for better or worse, but it's what people want. It's why videos and social media are doing so well because people are just starving for that connection and to relate to people. So yeah, I think authenticity and genuineness wins always. So even if it sounds stupid or silly or you're rambling, first of all, raps. Yeah. Second of all, right. You don't know that could be your next big, like one of my biggest or best, uh, recently, uh, post was just me just doing a sunrise picture of all the snow steady and cold. People loved it. People loves it. Um, and I just, I don't know. I just had a moment where I was just like, I got to get this. Yeah. No talking, no nothing. Just 10 seconds of a Yeah, I think that's like almost the secret like I think in reality we all have boring whatever lives, you know, and so that's what you're going to relate to is just like, I mean, so yeah, some of the best videos I have had of just sort of like my, like making like chicken and rice for dinner, you know, just like moving stuff or just like a walk with my dog or, or literally, or just like typing away at my computer. Like you just, you just don't know. And, but yeah, the reps, that's how you, that's how you start to know and you get more confident and it, feeds, you get that data, right? Like it feeds back to you and then you And you just start, you just look at the trends, be a geek like us and just look at the data, right? So speaking of social media, where can our listeners find Barrel Room Yeah, thank you. So on Instagram, I'm much more active on my account, Rachel C. Clawson. We also have a Bear Room Media account, just at Bear Room Media. I'm on LinkedIn as well, same, Rachel Clawson. And of course, our website, bellaromedia.com. You can find us on Facebook as well, but I'm not going to lie, I'm more active on Instagram and TikTok too. I've actually, I've recently picked up TikTok and that has been a fun experience. So same handle, Rachel C. Clawson. And that, if you want to see Rachel experimenting with just like, like putting videos out, that's follow me on TikTok and just see what works. That's my strategy. Just anything goes on TikTok. I was very anti-TikTok for the longest time and I'm just kind of succumbed to it. Now it's just kind of living out my own reality TV. Yeah, now and yeah, honestly, you Yeah, and it that that does the best. Shockingly, it really does the best and it's not pay to play on TikTok. The more you put out there, it doesn't ruin your algorithm. It's just you could literally have your own, you know, reality TV, you know, page and it will do I've given in to TikTok. I'm team TikTok. I've been playing around with it a little bit towards the end of the year, just started, but I'm very committed to 2026. And the things that do well, I will just, you know, I'll share on Exactly. Same, yeah. That's pretty much what I'm doing as well. And it's a fun way to go about it. And yeah, you just never know. you're one Volume. Volume reps. So as we close things out here, I just want to kind of recap some key takeaways for our audience. The necessity of combining financial literacy with creative passion, right? Both have strong weights wherever you go in business. But when you can pair them together, I feel like you can have the most impact. So if you're that creative person and you don't have that financial literacy side of you, find somebody in your team or in your network to be that balance, be the ying to that yang. Or if you're very technical and data-driven. You know, you got to find that creative friend to kind of balance you out or the employee to balance you out, or your sister for some people. And the value of pursuing intentional growth over reckless speed. We see it all the time, burnout, going too fast, not really stopping to check the temperature. If it happens, it happens, but you should intentionally spend your time on growth factors, not just being the fastest to market. It's very rare that that's the winning strategy. And then the power of building business rooted in collaboration and craft. you know, your, your, your, what you think may be your competitors are really just people that are passionate about the same things you are. And you can really learn some things and you might be able to teach these people some things, even if you're new. I'm sure there's a lot of younger accountants that can teach me some things that, that I could, you know, benefit from. And I think the same with you, Rachel, I'm sure that, you know, some of the young bucks get in the game of content creation and in the wine space or a combination of both. Uh, you could learn from, you know, um, but I do, I do want to thank you, Rachel, for your time and demonstrating how to build a business that is both profitable and rooted in deep sense of purpose. Um, I just want to go through real quick your, your, uh, uh, social media. You can check her out on Barrel Room Media and follow her on her Instagram page, Rachel C. Clawson. And then on the businesses, Barrel Room Media, that's for Instagram and Facebook. And then Rachel Clawson is on LinkedIn. And then, you know, the BarrelRoomMedia.com. Thank you so much to our listeners for listening to the VG Code and join us next time as we continue to explore the journey of purpose-driven leaders. Bye now. Thanks for tuning in to the Vici Code, where the underdogs rise and the numbers finally make sense. 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