52: {Interview} Transitioning to Entrepreneurship with Audrina Blackburn

Do you ever have that inner voice telling you that you were made for more? In today's episode, Audrina Blackburn shares her career journey from professional ballroom dancer to corporate executive to full-time entrepreneur. She discusses the skills she transferred from dancing to her corporate career, the lessons she learned in corporate America, and the importance of listening to feedback as a leader. She also talks about building loyalty in a team, scaling a company, and the decision to start her own business. Audrina offers advice for women considering entrepreneurship and highlights the benefits of starting your own business. Highlights include:
 
Importance of Listening to Feedback as a Leader
Scaling a Company and Process Optimization
Advice for Women Considering Entrepreneurship

Audrina Blackburn's journey from a professional ballroom and Latin American dancer to a dynamic entrepreneur is nothing short of inspiring. Following a career-altering knee injury, she pivoted to the corporate world, rapidly rising from an entry-level role to Director, and then to VP of Business Operations within an award-winning performance marketing company. Over nine years, she honed her skills in leadership, team management, and operations across multiple departments.

Today, as the co-founder of Summit Chasers Network, Audrina dedicates her expertise to aiding SME business owners in building sustainable, scalable enterprises. Her story is a compelling narrative of resilience, leadership, and the power of embracing change.

You can find her HERE and more on Summit Chasers Network HERE

Transcript

Caroline (00:02.211)
Today I have Aldrina Blackburn with me. Aldrina started her career as a professional ballroom dancer. She transitioned to a corporate role and worked her way up to a vice president of a very large media group. And now she's the co-founder of Summit Chasers Network. So welcome Aldrina.

Audrina Blackburn (00:18.53)
Hi Caroline, thank you so much for having me.

Caroline (00:22.231)
So I'd love to hear the story behind, you've technically had three separate pivots in your career. I mean, ballroom dancing to corporate America executive, and then now you're a full-time entrepreneur. So I'd love to hear your story.

Audrina Blackburn (00:35.53)
Sure. So started out, as you mentioned, as a ballroom dancer, I actually started dancing when I was about eight years old and danced all the way until 24, I believe. And I loved it. I didn't actually get to compete professionally, but I was teaching full time for two years prior to the injury that I had, but it basically took me out of dancing. But I, so again, 24 years old, my knee went out when I was 23.

and I was not able to put pressure on my foot for five weeks. And as a dancer, that is incredibly hard. And it basically rocked my entire world because I truly thought that dance was going to be it for me. I thought I was going to compete, judge, do shows, the whole nine. And it was just everything was centered around dance. Because of that, I did not finish college.

So I tried to go to college, I think two, maybe even three times. And every time I was like, I just can't do it. My heart is not in it. It lies in dance. So knee injury happens. I tried for another year to stay in the game and I was still practicing and training and my partner and I were wanting to compete. And I just realized that I was not at the standard that I needed to be in, in order to show up on the professional floor.

So I ended up having to leave dance, which was incredibly heartbreaking, and then transitioned into something completely new. Now, I was fortunate because one of my students at the time actually owned the performance marketing company that I ended up working for. So he sent me through the interview process with everybody. I joined the team at entry level and was in that role for about a year, just over a year, and I was promoted to director of that team.

From there, I stayed with that company for a total of nine years and spent about seven of those years, almost eight, almost eight of those years in a leadership role. And then from there, I was like, right, I feel like I have learned so much. I've grown so much and I'm just really ready to now invest in myself and go after things that I'm truly passionate about and build a business that I believe in and just have that passion around.

Caroline (02:28.935)
and the video was yours in readership mode. And from him, I feel so much. I'm proud of you.

Caroline (02:50.207)
Were there any skills that translated from your professional dancing career to your corporate career and then your corporate career now to your entrepreneurial career?

Audrina Blackburn (02:59.906)
That's a great question. The first thing that came to mind almost came down to presentation and learning how to carry yourself when you're in situations, learning how to speak to people from all different places and have conversations. So when you're teaching, you have to sell packages, right? So you better be very, very good at making connections with people really, really quickly and being able to create a connection there.

And I think that has definitely carried with me on top of the presentation. Cause in ballroom, it's very much about like the hair, the makeup, the dress, the tan, you have to have all of that together. And I think that has gone with me throughout my career as well.

Caroline (03:43.983)
So when we originally met, you told me the story about how you actually started in corporate America and then all the lessons that you learned throughout your close to 10-year journey with the media group. What was the biggest lesson that you learned there?

Audrina Blackburn (03:58.558)
Oh gosh. So about a year into being director at the time when I was brought on, we were very much still in like the startup. Air.

my gosh, why did it just completely go like, we were very much still in the startup spot within that company. There was only about 35 employees when I was brought on. And so we weren't necessarily doing reviews or feedback. Now, fast forward, I'm in the director role for a year and they start implementing reviews and getting anonymous feedback from your teams and things like that. Well, I was in Italy at the time on vacation and they had done the NPS and gotten feedback and who are sending everything out to us.

I was in the car driving to our next location, saw the email and I was like, Oh, I'll just take a quick peek. Got absolutely rocked. Got just absolutely hammered by reviews from my team. Just, I wasn't empathetic. I wasn't good at leading people hard to approach just all of the things that you do not want to hear as a leader. And that by far was one of the hardest things I learned, but I'm also so grateful that it happened because.

It absolutely shaped who I am today and the leader that I am today and how I show up for my team and therefore my clients as well.

Caroline (05:17.743)
I think that speaks to your leadership style because there are a lot of leaders who do receive feedback anonymous or not, and they don't make adjustments in the way that they handle themselves professionally. And I feel like it speaks to the way and to your success of actually taking the feedback and making adjustments and becoming a better manager and leader for your team.

Audrina Blackburn (05:41.278)
I appreciate that. Yeah, it's one of those things that when you're in a leadership role, you have to listen to your team and when they initially give you that feedback, it might not. One, you might not believe that it's true, but if they're coming to you and they're telling you this, then there has to be some truth in it and you're going to have to do some introspection and see what it could be about you that is having them feel that way. And then two, it is very hard to hear.

It really is, and it hurts your feelings. Um, but a lot of times that becomes, that comes from you genuinely caring about the people that are on your team. And I think if you can take the time to do that self reflection and see how you can change and how you show up for your team and how you communicate with them, it will do you the world of good. And it truly helps you to create a team that is so loyal to you.

If they know that you care about them and that you're there for them, you have their best interests at heart, they truly will just almost like bend over backwards for you in some situations. Like I had team members where I could call them at 10 o'clock at night and be like, Hey, I really need help with this. And they would hop on their computer and help me with it. So I think go above and beyond for your team and they'll go above and beyond for you.

Caroline (06:52.879)
That's amazing advice because I agree with you. People are loyal to companies that they don't care about them.

Audrina Blackburn (06:59.934)
Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

Caroline (07:04.267)
So how were you guys able to scale? You went through a huge growth period, not only as an individual professionally, but the company as a whole, the media group. You scaled from 10 million to 100 million and just shy of 10 years. I mean, how were you able to keep up with that as a leader and executive with the company? At least those are some.

Audrina Blackburn (07:22.41)
Yeah, so that we saw so much movement. So we were very much in the tech space. Yes, we were a performance marketing company, but we were all about technology. So we were constantly iterating on our processes and just trying to diversify our revenue streams, break into different channels. So when I first started, we were just within email. From there, we brought in SMS and text messaging, and then we went into actually having our own call center.

Caroline (07:31.499)
So we went on to create an array of different channels right next to different channels. So when I first started feeling just within email, from there we brought in SMS and text messaging, and then we went into actually having our own font on there. And then we had Dana coming in. We owned Dana, so we really just became fully integrated within our space.

Audrina Blackburn (07:51.006)
And then we had data coming in, we own data. So we really just became fully integrated within our space. But then as far as scaling a company, that was a task and a half. We definitely had to get so, so clear on our process optimization and implementation, making sure that everything was completely streamlined and that our company ran like a clock and that's something that with Summit Chasers, that's actually one of our pillars where we really focus in on making sure that your company.

Caroline (07:58.403)
But then as far as steering a company, that was a task and a half. We got to do a social media network.

Audrina Blackburn (08:20.518)
all of the knowledge and all of the value is within it, within your processes and your documentation. So I think that plays a huge, huge role, as well as being able to collaborate cross-functionally or cross-departmentally is another key aspect of that.

Caroline (08:38.229)
Was there a pivotal moment or an aha thought that came up in your head? I mean, you have had an obviously very successful career as an executive in corporate America, but what made you want to go out on your own?

Audrina Blackburn (08:52.866)
So it was actually my partner and I were on a drive and we were just talking through, we were listening to Simon Sinek find your why or start with why and we were going through his line of questioning to help us get really, really clear on that. And we realized how aligned that we were. And then we realized that the experience that he and I both had was incredibly complimentary and would allow us to go in and really start something of our own.

Caroline (08:54.777)
Thanks.

Audrina Blackburn (09:22.194)
And so that is where Summit Chasers came about. And it feels so good to be able to go after your own dream and after your own passion. And I'm so, so grateful for the time that I had there and everything that I learned. Like I said, it really shaped the leader that I am today, but it feels so good to just wake up every day and be moving towards my own dreams and my own vision with my partner.

Caroline (09:35.951)
I don't know if you're hearing me on this way, but it just so happens that I have a kid. So it's nice to be able to have a different partner. Is there any specific advice you would give to a female executive working in corporate that maybe has this inner voice or this thing, this idea that maybe she would like to do?

and encouragement to step out and do that on their own. I mean, do you suggest we bring out the Band-Aid and just going zero to 100 or starting as a sign out soul?

Audrina Blackburn (10:07.562)
So I think it's gonna be so dependent on the situation that you're in. But the one thing that I think rings true across the board is if you have something that truly fuels you and fires you up and you're so, so passionate about, you're doing the biggest disservice to yourself to not explore that and try to take it further. So whatever that looks like for you, obviously the safest route is to start to build it up on the side. That way you can make sure that there's traction there, that you have got proof of concept, that the sales are coming in.

And then that makes that transition much, much easier. However, if you want to push yourself and grow like you have never grown before, throw yourself into it head first. Like truly the amount of lessons that you'll learn and just the amount of resilience that you'll realize that you have within you is huge. And it, it almost helps you build a little bit more self-confidence too. When you really do take that leap and you're like, right, this is on me now. I have to show up every single day. I have to.

learn new skills that I didn't know before, or learn new parts of the business that I wasn't familiar with before. And this is all on me. And I think that that's a really exciting thing to do, just to be able to challenge yourself and show yourself what you're truly capable of.

Caroline (11:18.055)
And you don't have that corporate salary holding you back. I feel like it's like golden handcuffs.

Audrina Blackburn (11:24.51)
Yeah, it absolutely is. Cause I think we can also, like you can only earn so much when you're working for somebody else's company, there will always be somebody that's in charge of your income and what your take home is. Where when you decide to take the leap and do something for yourself, the sky truly is the limit and it's up to you to show up for yourself and to put the work in and make sure that you're bringing in what you need in order to live a life that makes you fulfilled.

Right. And that can be so different for so many different people. Some people don't need a whole lot. Some people want a lot and want to live an incredibly lavish life, but it really is in your own hands, which is also exciting.

Caroline (12:04.931)
So as we wrap up, how can our listeners find you?

Audrina Blackburn (12:08.042)
Sure, so we are Summit Chasers Network, absolutely everywhere except for YouTube, we're Summit Chasers Productions. We're constantly putting out new content and really what we do is business made simple so you can live extraordinary.

Caroline (12:23.267)
Thanks, Audrina.

Audrina Blackburn (12:24.875)
Thank you.