Starter Girlz Podcast

How She Turned a Side Hustle Into a Multi-Business Empire

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 7 • Episode 87

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Do you dream of turning your side hustle into a full-time business? In this episode, Rani Alfers shares how she built a multi-business empire from her college side hustle—including a thriving insurance agency, a skincare line, and a company that invests in women founders.

This inspiring conversation is packed with actionable strategies to help you grow with purpose—without burning out.

What You’ll Learn:

✅ How to start a business using your existing skills
✅ Systems and automation tips to grow your hustle fast
✅ Steps to intentionally build multiple income streams
✅ Mindset strategies that support sustainable growth

Whether you’re working full-time or balancing business and family, this episode offers insights to help you move from hustle to empire—with confidence.

👉 Connect with Rani Alfers: https://www.ranialfers.com/

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Rani Alfers:

I wanted to start a business and I loved coffee, so I'm like, let's do coffee then. And so that was really an interesting, eye-opening business experience for me at a very young age. I call it my college project. It was down the street from our college in Lafayette, louisiana, and just a very unique experience and taking from those days selling the business and then moving along, ending up in Texas eventually to starting my all lines insurance agency.

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being While celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Starter Girlz podcast. I'm your host, Jennifer Loehding, and wherever you are tuning in today, we are so glad to have you so excited about my guest today. We just realized that we're both from the same town. We've met before, but sometimes funny things happen and we get back connected with people and you realize you already knew this person before they jump on the show. So I'm excited to chat with her. But let's open this thing up. Ever wonder what happens when a college side hustle turns into a multi-business empire? My next guest didn't just build one business. She has built several thriving companies and is still going, and so you guys are going to get to hear from her in just a few minutes, but before we do that, we do need to do a quick shout out to our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

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Jennifer Loehding:

And with that we do want to say to head on over to startergirlz. com. Why do you want to go over there? Well, for a couple of reasons. One you want to sign up for our community newsletter so that you can stay in the know of everything that's happening, upcoming episodes, and then, of course, if you have missed an episode or if you just want to catch some of those early days of the Starter Girls. You can always go back and see those. And then, of course, if you are a budding or aspiring or maybe you're grooving along entrepreneur and you want to find out what may be hindering your success, we have a fun quiz over there, a success block quiz, and it will tell you in two minutes what may be the number one block that is keeping you stuck right now. So be sure you head over to startergirlz with a z. com and take care of whatever you need to take care of over there, all right, so let's do this thing, all right.

Jennifer Loehding:

Today's guest we're talking to, Ranie Alfers, is an accomplished entrepreneur with nearly two decades of experience in the insurance industry. She owns a top performing all lines insurance agency here in Texas and is also the CEO of EMK Skincare Through her investment company, emr Equity. Rani's on a mission to empower and invest in women founders, creators and business owners. She's a relationship builder, a mentor and the voice behind the Working Women Mentor Podcast, where she champions the stories and insights of inspiring women, from building businesses to helping others launch their own podcast. Rani's passion for connection and growth shines through everything she does. So, Rani, welcome to the show.

Rani Alfers:

We are so excited to have you here today.

Jennifer Loehding:

I'm excited to be here, jennifer. Thank you so much for having me. It's going to be so much fun. So, as I to our audience, as I was telling Rani beforehand, I got to catch up with some of the stuff the work that she's doing, her podcast and love what she's doing as far as empowering women and inspiring women, and that's really kind of what we're doing here, although we have a very large male following as well. Our show is all about inspiring women to do great things in life and in business, and so I think this is going to be such a great episode and I'm so excited to chat with you today.

Rani Alfers:

It's a good place for them to come and learn how to inspire us, right? I mean, just listen in and get the know. Get in the know today.

Jennifer Loehding:

Absolutely, I agree, and you know it's funny because I have podcasts that are men, podcasts that I love to tune into. I think we share you know we have different things, but we do share a lot of, you know, similar pain points as entrepreneurs, and I think we can all learn from one another, and so that's what makes us so great.

Rani Alfers:

A hundred percent.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, all right. So let's talk about you. Let's talk about what you got going, because you are doing a lot of cool things right now and, as I mentioned in the bio, this all started kind of with a college side hustle and it's turned into kind of this rainy Alphers empire. So tell us a little bit about what's going on in your world right now.

Rani Alfers:

Oh my gosh, a lot of wonderful things and they all happen and I'm embracing it as they come, jennifer. But yes, I mean long ago, I feel like many years ago in college, I started a coffee shop and I just I wanted to start something, I wanted to start a business and I loved coffee. So I'm like let's do coffee then. And so that was really an interesting eye opening business experience for me at a very young age. I call it my college project. It was down the street from our college in Lafayette, louisiana, and just a very unique experience. And you know, taking from those days selling the business and then moving along, ending up in Texas eventually to starting my all lines insurance agency. And that's been an incredible journey, from starting it from scratch not knowing anything, not knowing anyone, not knowing how to get around in traffic or just anything, and starting from there to 20 years later. I can't even believe it, it's actually 20 years this year, it just blows my mind.

Rani Alfers:

But along the way I also realized I had some skill sets and some passions and some areas that I wanted to continue to double down on, and that's really what has led me to more of the investment and acquisition side, and EMK skincare was an opportunity that I found. It's been two and a half, three years now and that is. You know most people are like skincare. What in the world? You're from? An insurance industry. What do you know about that? And again, just doubling down on the skills and the passion and the vision is not dedicated to just one space and one lane.

Rani Alfers:

And so, you know, we fast forward to the podcast that came about several years ago because I just felt like more positive female voices and a working women's space was needed. I mean, your podcast is a great example what you're doing, your voices that you bring in and that well rounded nature of just positive things to hear when we need them. And I wanted to focus my podcast on these micro moments, these mentorship moments and we can get into that later, jennifer, but it's something that has just brought a lot of joy to my life and, hopefully, the listeners. I get a lot of great feedback. It's grown so much, but you know it's. It's just what, like I said it's, you find a passion, you find a skill that you may be wanting to try out and test out and see how it works, and you just do it. So it leads me to working on a lot. Yes.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah Well, I want to. I want to say something I have so much to say about this. First of all, you and I have so many parallels. It's so funny because I was in a coffee company for a while. I was also in Mary Kay for 22 years. Oh my gosh Right, like I also did insurance. I love it. Yes, I started in my mother's.

Rani Alfers:

My sister from another podcast.

Jennifer Loehding:

Exactly, another podcast. Exactly right. My mother had, back in the late 80s and 90s, had an executive suite in Houston. This is before we had, like the co-op, the WeWorking space, all of those. Okay, my mom had an executive suites and there was a farmer's insurance agent that used to work in there. So I started working for a farmer's agent in middle school no kidding Back then we didn't have internet so I would go in there and I would file papers in a filing cabinet.

Jennifer Loehding:

And then I ended up working for this guy through high school off and on, through college off and on, thought I was going to go into insurance, and then I ended up working for several different insurance companies. And then life happened, got married, had babies, all that. But then, funny thing was, I went into Mary Kay and worked in the leadership in that for a long time and then was introduced to an opportunity at the tail end of that, to a back when the skinny coffee was kind of hitting the market. The company had the patent, came to Texas and another former Mary Kay sales director, myself, kind of spearheaded with a few other people here in Dallas the coffee thing.

Jennifer Loehding:

And so I feel like we would have had some parallels in different segues of our lives, but I think you know the common theme here, that what I'm hearing from you and I you may share this with me is that all of these things when you said like double down on these skill sets, you picked up little pieces of each of these endeavors right, and you found where your gifts are within these endeavors and that's the double downing part right. Like I recognize in the work that I was doing, one of the things I really loved doing, and all of those, was sharing stories. I had to share stories in Mary Kay, I had to share stories in the coffee and maybe in the insurance, not as much because I didn't know yet, but that we were getting there. That helped me with some other skills.

Rani Alfers:

Yeah, you hear a lot of stories in insurance, right, I heard a lot of stories.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yes, right, a lot of stories, yes, but I think it really it showed me over the time the connection between building these stories with people. And this is what people, how people, you know they what's the word I'm looking for? They connect with other people, right, and so I think the message here is just this picking up and learning. You know rolling with these, you know adapting, rolling, being okay with this nonlinear progress, but also taking away what you need from all of these experiences and figuring out how they continue to help you grow in new ways.

Rani Alfers:

Yeah, I think that's really well said. I mean, I remember in my early 20s I'm just like, oh my gosh, what am I good at? I'll never figure this out. Like we're all thinking that you know what will I do, what are my strengths, you know? Just I I feel like I would ask everyone who knew me really well, what do you, what do you think? Like I wanted to see their opinion of what they observed, even like I was in a real hunt for, for this superpower when is it? What is it? What exactly is it?

Rani Alfers:

Because I wanted to follow and run down that path and what I've really learned is is you know, they're evolving over time. I mean, there's not, you know, there might be a primary, but there are so many pieces that we're all so good at, and, and, and sometimes one is a little bit stronger. With one, you're going to run down a lane with a lot faster Right. And it's not just this one thing, it's multiple pieces of you that are inside there, wanting to be exercised and wanting to be let out. So it reminds me of like opening a bottle of champagne. It's like ready to go, I'm ready to get out of there, ready to go, I'm ready to, ready to get out of there.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and I think to your point. It's so true that you know we spend so much time in our early career like we're really trying to identify who, we are really trying to hone in on what is that thing. And you know, and if I were to tell you I haven't shared this a lot, but I've shared this through several episodes, you know, I joke, I love and laugh about this all the time, because when I was a kid we didn't have internet, we had cassette players and we had little cassettes we'd put in there.

Jennifer Loehding:

I remember hitting that record button on the thing and recording myself talking on my little player.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it Little did I know back then that here we would be today having podcasts? I mean, we had TV back then right News people but we didn't have this. We didn't know we were going to have this kind of stuff. And I think it's so funny because, you know, I had a girl come on my show years ago that said you know your, your skills, find you like they, they identify you. And that's what I'm saying. I think we spend so much time in the beginning really trying to find them and I think when we start sort of start to learn, to roll with it and just adapt, I think they sort of just kind of find themselves in you Do.

Rani Alfers:

You know what I mean? You're born for media in some way or somehow Right and and like. And it's fun, I think, to look back, like you're looking back and thinking about that cassette player. Like I can look back and think about just being so young, like you know, pretending I had my own business out of something, like I was selling something out of like a catalog to my dad. I'm like you know, call me and buy something for my store, here's my store and I'd give him a catalog or you know just small things like that, and when you start thinking about them it clicks and I bet there's so many more you know that we haven't uncovered yet. So that's kind of the fun part.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I think if you and I would have been friends when we were little, we would have been doing that because I was doing all kinds of businesses. I was making knitted little things and trying to figure out how I was going to sell them. I think I've spent my whole life as a child, all the way up, trying to create a business Like I feel like when you, if you were to call me up you know today or tomorrow, and you'd be like hey, jennifer, I got a business idea. I'm going to be like what?

Rani Alfers:

you got going on Rainy?

Jennifer Loehding:

I want to know.

Rani Alfers:

And I don't know if I'm going to do anything.

Jennifer Loehding:

I don't know, but I like I love hearing people create businesses and ideas, and that's what I think is so fun about what we get to do in this podcast world is we have the ability to sit across from these people that are doing cool things and learn about what they're doing. And you know, and, and, and that's, I think, the best part of of this if it is the connection and um, which I kind of mentioned that about you, about being a connector too, on a whole nother segue, but I think so much of what we're doing really comes all back to this building connection and taking our skill sets and rolling that into it.

Rani Alfers:

And it becomes that foundation, as opposed to the strategy of like, oh, let me just build a bigger network or let me go find new friends, or it's just finding that you know that filter and that foundation of who you want around you and what does that person look like? And when you have, it's like dating right, it's like all of that. It's figure out the kind of person you want and then they just start appearing. It's very interesting, they really do, and I know that, I don't wanna say it's a cliche. Everyone knows fine, you're as strong as your five people around you of your circle and you wanna find those people that really align and uplift. But I think first you've got to figure out who they are and and and then, and then the rest of it's easy.

Rani Alfers:

I think it comes natural. When you're anywhere coffee shop, you know a skincare shop, whatever it is, you know wherever you are. You then know how to be open and receive it, because you already know that they align.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and you said something a minute ago that I think is important. I want to touch upon this and have you elaborate. Maybe you said knowing who they are right, because for somebody listening to they go okay, how do you know who they are Like, how do you go about figuring out who are those people? I maybe elaborate on from your perspective what that looks like.

Rani Alfers:

Well, I think first you have to know who you're looking for and then you have to listen, you have to observe, you have to be present and you have to engage and ask questions.

Rani Alfers:

And I don't mean an interview process, but I always say just speak to someone like you've known them forever, like you were to speak to your, like you've known him forever, like you were to speak to your best friend. You know, be that warm and engaging, let your guard down, and it's amazing how much will flow out from the right person. And and I think often we're not as present as we could be we're thinking ahead of, like you know who are they, what can we get from them, what do I need to do for them? Like, ah, you know, we're thinking about all of these things that aren't even coming to fruition yet. And, and that presence is important, I do believe, if you give yourself a little bit of time with someone and a really, you know, pretty honest, polite conversation, you can, you can start unwinding that person and and you know, get a good idea if they're they're starting to meet your filter.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah, and I like that you said the filter, because I think too you know all of this comes back to understanding those people's, also understanding you, right Like yourself, and, and I think you know when we talk about you mentioned kind of like I don't want to get into all the dating thing. I've been married for a really long time, so we kind of passed all that part.

Jennifer Loehding:

But you think about like knowing who you are right, because you can't make room for the right people if you don't know who you are and what, your boundaries and your parameters, and you know and knowing your worth. And so I think this is all good, but I wanted to tell you thank you for Because people listening to this you know maybe we, you and I talk this lingo and we go okay, hey, we are the sum of our five people. We know who our people are right, we know who we're not going to bring into the five or into the space. But somebody listening to this may be a new budding entrepreneur coming into this world and they're like what does this even mean? Right, and I say this to you because I, you know, I've coached, I've worked with a lot of different people in the entrepreneur space and sometimes I'll get these new people that come in or maybe they've been in the corporate and they're coming in and they don't even really understand that.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know what I'm saying. It's like a kind of a new thing to them and they're like my people are fine and I'm like, no, they're not. You know, you got to have, you really have to look and to know that you have to know yourself Right and and the thing is, as you level up, so do your people right, like as the more you go up, the more your people do.

Rani Alfers:

They do and it's also, I feel, like that connection and can also vary based on your season you're in. So, whereas we might know all of these things, but we might right now, for instance, not have a lot of time to invest in new people or sometimes our existing people, quite frankly, depending on where. You know what projects we have, what goals, you know it's summertime, for example. Like you know, I try to more, I try to take a lighter approach, I try to get rid of a lot of other things I can really focus in on more time with my son, more strategic projects that we've been wrapping up so they can be executed during that time while I'm with him or away, wrapping up so they can be executed during that time while I'm with him or away.

Rani Alfers:

So it's sort of that, that balance, you know, between you, don't? It's not an everyday deal. You know, some days are just going to look different when you're trying to build those relationships. And but again, I think I think the right people know that about you. You know my friends, who know what I have going on right now. They, they don't expect to see me at the moment, Like they know, like she's heads down in this, but I know we have something on the calendar Like we can't wait to connect. Sure, it's just being meaningful about it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, and I think you're right about the seasons. I think that's so important to understand, that. I think it allows you to give yourself grace, right, because you recognize. You know it's kind of like I talk about like when we are mindful, whether it be in our business practices or in our self-care, meaning like our exercise or eating habits or whatever you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

I always say that you know, like, for instance, I work out almost every day but there are some days that I decide not to because I've got too much going on that particular day. But I don't beat myself up because I make that choice not to, because I do it pretty much every day as a habit. That there's not a lot of that self-guilt. I will tell you that on Father's Day my son is a chef and we went to his restaurant and I am a low-carb eater, meaning I eat very little sugar. I do a lot of meat and a lot of just veggie, you know, low carb, veggies and fat. Well, I ended up they brought us out two desserts that day for Father's Day and my son was like you got to try this lemon meringue pie and, oh my gosh, rainy, I tried it and it was so good you know what that was one day.

Jennifer Loehding:

I woke up the next day and I was like Jennifer, that was just a dumb move, Like you did not need all that. So my point to this is yeah, sometimes we do do those things, but I think the idea here is that give yourself grace, right Allow yourself to back up. Yeah, back up. It's okay, whatever season you are in, to accept where you are Right and as long where you are right, as long as you're making that conscious choice and you're okay with the choice in that season.

Rani Alfers:

Yeah, yeah, and, and it's, it's. It's like I always think of it as seasons and speeds, and if I can sync those two things, it's a perfect world for me. But sometimes it's running and sometimes it's a walking pace, sometimes it's a sprint, and the reason I'm doing those things are because of the schedule that I've built, the balance that I've built for that week or for that month, or because I know I have these certain pieces where I'm not available. Yeah, I don't want to be available, and so to do that, to get that luxury of my time, and so to do that, to get that luxury of my time, I have to sprint in some other days that maybe I don't really want. Like, I'm not, like, oh, I wish I wasn't doing this or, you know, oh, I wish I would have worked harder yesterday. It's like no, no, no, no. I recognize each, each speed, um, and hopefully align it with that season. So those are, those are, those are my balance.

Jennifer Loehding:

That's how I feel it's getting me on this whole idea of preventing the burnout, because one of the things that I work with people a lot is on and I will kind of share this with you about my, from my perspective, how I operate. So for many years as a high achiever, I got to get a drink. It's like all of a sudden I got a cough Hydration.

Jennifer Loehding:

As a high achiever, I always talk about this whole crash and burn thing where I recognize that a lot of my stuff kind of manifests in my health and so I would go, go, go, go go and then just crash and burn and I have I have my son is the same way tends to kind of do some of the similar behaviors, and so for me, this kind of came to head in 2012,.

Jennifer Loehding:

I got diagnosed with this rare nerve condition and it took me a while to actually go back and really take accountability and recognize that, although, yes, I was diagnosed with this disorder, there were certain patterns of behavior that were actually contributing to this.

Jennifer Loehding:

And I say that because for a long time I was bitter and angry about it and then I was able to go back and really assess and look at my role in this, and so now I'm very big on and I'm not saying it's perfect, because we're human, we're complex, right. So there are moments, yes, where I sometimes do get stressed out, I overcommit or whatever, but I do try to be very methodical about the way I iron out my days and my weeks and so, and two and I think that gets back to all this stuff we're talking about like the boundaries and knowing who your people are and what you're willing to accept. You know learning how to say no to something that does not fit in the plan or really doesn't align with your your overall goals, vision, values, right, but also recognizing that maybe your skill set is not appropriate for it too. And being able to say maybe this isn't something I should take on because I'm not equipped right.

Jennifer Loehding:

So I think all of this we're kind of talking about is just being really conscientious and aware of the choices that we make right, and whether that be our weekly self know, self-care practice or our taking on business opportunities or having coffee with some whatever that looks like in the capacity of our day. So I don't know if you want to add to that. I feel like this is something we're kind of diving into which is so important for women to understand.

Rani Alfers:

Yeah, I mean, I think what you said is is so important, because I important, because I've been there too with you know, run, run, run, run, run and then you just want to burn out and then you start the cycle all over again and it's just like an engine. You know, remember the old lawnmowers? You'd pull some string on them and then they'd start up and it's like you pull and you pull and, okay, I'm going, and it just makes you feel like you can't think clearly, you can't operate from that high level, you can't. I mean, you're just reacting, reacting at constantly, and I think it's. You know, we all are going to have those crazy hectic, high workload days. Hectic, high workload days. They're inevitable, they really are. But I think being able to break them down into components that you can actually chew on and think about and then commit to getting them done by the timeframe you've anticipated, is the best thing that you can do for yourself. And I mean that because I could tell you I have so many things I'd like to do today, jennifer, like it'd be so great.

Rani Alfers:

I'm leaving the country next week and I already have exactly what we need to do. I already sent my significant other a to-do list this morning, I'm like this is what we need to accomplish by the end of the day, and he's probably just like, oh my gosh. But the reality is is we can't. And so first, know what you need to accomplish. Second, break it down into manageable pieces and third, measure it. Make sure it's where you feel good about releasing it to the world. You know, when we find ourself just push, push, push, push, I find my output is not as great as it could be. I find that when my team is under that same feeling, their output is not as great as it could be either. So you know, give yourself a minute and really decide is this the work I am capable of? And if it's not, that's, I feel like, how you know, to give yourself a little bit more time and break it down a more manageable task.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, the other day I was on a on, so I was guesting on, cause sometimes I go on other shows too. So I was guesting on another show and we were talking about my story and kind of where we, how I got to where I was today, and she asked me a question like what is like one thing I would tell somebody to do? And I can't remember at that time what I said, but I always go back because you're probably like I am, I'm sort of kind of a meat and potato girl. I'm like show me what you did and then I will replicate what you did tell me what you did for me.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I'm gonna have to reinvent the wheel. I don't want to, and I'm an idea person, so I do come up with a lot of ideas, but sometimes I just want to follow. If somebody's done it and they've been successful, you know, show me what you do. So when we talk about like these, these you talked about to-do lists, which I think is really good Um, I do those too. I have. In fact, you're going to laugh, because here's mine for today. It's on this white piece of paper and it's just scribbled, and somebody asked my. I think my son asked me one day. He's's like why do you not just write like in a straight list and you know what I like? I'm creative and you're like my brain does not think that way.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I don't want to because I'm bored, and then I'm gonna look at that. If I do this, it's like a game, it's a puzzle. I've numbered this like all over. There's no even, there's no even pattern to the number. It's like one, two, three, four, five, six, like. So I have to purposely stimulate my brain to be like okay, where's number one? Do I want to do that? Okay, skip. Like I have to go on the paper and look for it. But I can't do it like that. It has to be kind of creative. So I think you know, again, working with our skill sets, but I think what are the? What is something like? If you were going to advise somebody, maybe right now to let's talk about this get some kind of balance in their life, I would say harmony, because I think that's kind of a little bit, like you said, we're ebb and flowing here. Maybe something they could do.

Rani Alfers:

We talked to-do list. Anything else we could add to this? Yeah, I think to-do lists are very that's so basic in a way. As you know, we all have things to do right. So, at the very like that's so basic in a way, as you, as you know, it's like I mean, we all have things to do right. So the very essence, we all have a to do list and I am someone that starts with a list and then breaks it down on my calendar. If it is not on my calendar, it will not get done period. And because it is how it helped me bridge the the, the sense of lost time in my brain, I mean you take me to lunch.

Rani Alfers:

I'm there with you chatting for three hours, jennifer, until I have like an alarm that goes off. Yeah, my alarm is like oh God, you got to go. I mean, you know my coordinator on my team. She pulls me out of meetings because she's like Rainy, like you've been there for, like you got to go, you got to go to the next thing. Yeah, so being able to align your list with your calendar and measurable dates to be done is a game changer. Then from there, breaking it into project management pieces on you know, a sauna or a Trello board or things like that, and embracing automation. I mean, what in the world would we do without automation at this stage?

Jennifer Loehding:

in 2025?

Rani Alfers:

Right, like, are you kidding me? If you can't look around your day and find five things to automate, you know you're not looking in the right places. I think I mean automate, you know, five new things, change five new things a month, maybe even figure out what you can have that you don't have to keep thinking about, so you can dedicate that bandwidth to something incredible. Um, and not this, these menial repetitive things that we just don't have time for.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, speaking of automation, I'm telling you that is something that I'm learning so to do. You know, for a while I've had a couple co-hosts on the show and one of them was really good about doing like all the automation stuff and when she left I was like, ah, because I never really had to do that. And so I'm telling you this is what I realized. I just recently was helping another successful colleague she was getting her podcast up and running and I realized, while I was telling her how to do all this, how many things I had actually set up and like, created and done. And I was almost like, oh my gosh, just let me do it.

Jennifer Loehding:

It's easier for me to just do it than to try to explain this to you, because I have, like, the course on my website and then I have an automation that goes out from there, like the email sequence. It goes from there, right, like all the just for the podcast talk we were talking prior to the show, the automation we do for the guests before they come on the show, all these little things. Right, it's so much. It is, but once you set it up, it's such a game changer because now you can remove yourself from these tedious, minutiae tasks right and you can put your energy in the places where it needs to be, where you're most effective.

Rani Alfers:

Yeah, I hired a company this past year well, at the end of last year to dedicate fractional CFO and automation to my insurance agency for example.

Rani Alfers:

So I have them on retainer and we're working on so many projects and I walked into this thinking you know, if I don't do this, what is my end of the year of 2025? Look like it's going to look like the same it looked. All my systems are going to look the same as they did at the end of the year of 2025. Look like it's going to look like the same it looked. All my systems are going to look the same as they did at the end of 2024.

Rani Alfers:

And and wow, I mean the amount of technology available to us that just wasn't progressive or really fair to me or my team right to not find some more efficiency for them. And so it was something, you know, I made the choice to invest in and I'm doing it in my other businesses as well. We actually created an AI podcasting course and I'll send over a link you can put it in your show notes for anyone wanting to create a podcast from scratch to help save them time with AI and ease and without all the overwhelm and all the steps that you just named. You know that we have to do as a host, right, because what we're doing is the fun part. I mean this is great, you know, and all the other stuff.

Jennifer Loehding:

There's the back end. Yes, oh my gosh.

Rani Alfers:

Yeah, oh my gosh.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I'm with you. Well, you know, I applaud you for all the things you're doing and for the willingness to learn to delegate and remove the things that are not serving you while you need them for your business, but they're not places where you need to be spending all of your time and so I applaud you for recognizing where you need to make those shifts, because you're right. If you continue to do the same thing and expect different results, that's a definition of insanity right.

Jennifer Loehding:

You got to make changes if you want to go up. But all my 20 years okay listen, that's what I did. I empowered women. I'd be like why are we doing the same things over and over? That's just the definition of insanity. We're expecting different results but not willing to do different things.

Rani Alfers:

So I love it.

Jennifer Loehding:

Brandy, I do want to ask you kind of a, I guess maybe more of a. I guess all of these have kind of been personal questions, but I want to touch a little bit upon some of the challenge part of this. Because here's the thing I think people coming on here and I know you recognize this they look at us and they think, oh my gosh, like Jennifer's great at doing these interviews and, by the way, you're an amazing interviewer yourself, because I've heard, I've listened to some of your stuff and you're phenomenal but we've been doing this for a while, Like we've been doing the things we've been doing for a while. So eventually I always say you know, if you decided tomorrow to go ride a unicycle, you're going to do one of two things Either you're going to figure out or you're going to get off Right, and that's what we did we figured it out.

Jennifer Loehding:

I want to know from you, like maybe some of the hard things you mentioned a minute ago, you know, kind of getting finding systems right. It may be a challenge that you really had to work through to help you get to where you are today.

Rani Alfers:

Yeah, oh, there's so many, yeah, there's so many. I think, um, yeah, I'll start kind of backwards. I mean, I think the podcast is a great example. I waited six plus months to start my podcast because I'm like total imposter syndrome kicking in. You know who's going to listen to me? What in the world do I have to? Who's going to even be a guest? Like you know, it was this idea that I had and I just I was. You know. You know that feeling where you talk yourself into something, you talk yourself out of something. It's just like happening simultaneously. And you know, I went through that. I went through you know the frustration of like, okay, this is a lot of work that I don't get paid for. I don't know if this is a time thing. I better either figure this out or get out Right. And and that was something that I had to spend a little bit of time and then we, we flashed back. You know, in my skincare company, I mean, are you kidding me? Everybody said what do you know about skincare?

Jennifer Loehding:

Are you?

Rani Alfers:

sure I love my son. At the time he's probably like 10. And he's like well, you're either going to be a billionaire or you're going to go broke, mom, and I'm like, okay, kids are honest. Sage advice, sage advice, my dear, sage advice, sage advice, my dear. But you know, the point is is I, I did not know about a lot of components of that industry and it has been a learning curve for me in in FDA compliance and formulas and packaging and tariffs in China and sourcing material and all of these things, not to mention.

Rani Alfers:

You know, I love marketing, love it, love it, love it. But the consumer is a bit different and the space is different. You know, these challenges that I'm having to push through, and I spend a lot of time learning it on my own, jennifer, but then hiring the right person or empowering the team that I have to also learn it. Hey, this is what we have to figure out how to do. Here are some resources. Let's get on it, and then, simultaneously, if we need to hire someone who's an expert to work with us on this while we figure it out, let's do that too, and so realizing what I'm really weak at has been one of my greatest strengths, because it's a lot of stuff, jennifer.

Rani Alfers:

It's a lot, I mean really you know an insurance starting from scratch I mean, moving to Texas, you know insurance is about a business where you got to know a lot of people. You got to talk to a lot of people, you got to sell a lot of insurance to make a lot of money, and that is what I wanted to do, except I didn't know a lot of people and so you know it was. It was challenging to build a community and a network and a company without having the components that require. You know, without having those components, it was very uncomfortable to go and ask someone for something when I started marketing for that insurance agency. I do not like asking people for things at all.

Rani Alfers:

I mean, I'm just, you know, I've never been able to do that and I had to learn that. How to, how to do that and why I was worth it, what I was offering them, what the value of it was it was. That was probably the hardest thing I have had to had to learn in my career with insurance and I learned it early and quick and hopefully I'm able to help others now with that same skill, because I spot, I can spot it immediately on new hires or when my existing team does it when they kind of weasel out of something, when they, when I know, they know, or they're awesome, you know, and they, they kind of weasel them like oh, oh, I know what that is, you know. Like I, I do that, I've been there.

Rani Alfers:

Um, so I, you know, our, my, my struggles have helped me, jennifer, to, you know, help the people in my businesses, and I'm going to keep finding them. I mean, we're going to run into struggle and everything we do. It's never all perfect, but but that's where I think people who have that grit and that creativity and that curiosity to, like you said earlier, find a better way. I'm always looking for a better way to do something and if we can just keep that mentality, I think that's the game changer.

Jennifer Loehding:

I think that's the best thing. We talked about so many things today, but I think I feel like that's like the best thing. It's just the the strive to find a better way, right, like it's not about it's not about reinventing the wheel, it's just improving. What's like constantly being willing to improve Right.

Rani Alfers:

And it applies to everything. It's like not just a business, Right, Right, I mean even like you know we're on vacation or something and we've got a plan and I'm like, oh, I think we can do this a better way, we can do better than this. And I'm like, okay, you know I've already reworked the route and the itinerary and the and then it's like this is a dream day. We're going to have a dream day today. We're not just going to do like the average day, Like we're upping the ante on this one. So it's just, it's how to find the better.

Rani Alfers:

You know, we get one day right and that's it. And we never get it back. When my son gets out of the car for school in the morning, Enjoy the best day ever. You're never going to have this Wednesday back in your whole life of eighth grade, Right. How are you know, make it amazing and he's probably going to remember like my mom was crazy when I get out of the car in the morning. But but I appreciate you truly mean it. And so find, find a better way today.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it, rainey. Well, you are doing incredible stuff and I love it and I appreciate you sharing all this information. I think it's important and I think we touched upon a lot of really important topics. You know, specifically, I think these are areas that women struggle for. Men struggle for them too, but I think women really a lot of the self-worth and these things they play out in what you're talking about, in our sales and in our bringing the right people into our space and creating these boundaries for how we want our work-life harmony to look like right, and so I think that's kind of like our overall thing here really is about being willing to improve right and being really conscientious about how we do that going forward.

Jennifer Loehding:

So if we were going to like sum all this up right, like I always have to do these, like when we're trying to get the titles for these shows, like how do we sum these episodes up with these people bring to the table? And you know, right, I don't know about you. I mean, maybe when you do your show, you kind of know like what's going to be. I never know when I bring you guys, you know women, men, whatever. Never know when I bring you guys, you know, women, men, whatever, whomever I bring on the show, I never really know exactly how we're going to roll this episode out. I like to let it organically flow. I think it's such a beautiful thing because we get in here and we find topics that we can actually connect on, and in this particular one, we had a lot of parallels and areas that we could bring together and talk about and, you know, openly share them. So thank you for your willingness and participation and all the fun wisdom you brought to the show today. Jennifer, thank you.

Rani Alfers:

I love your approach, your natural flow and your energy and everything you're bringing to the table for men and women. So thank you so much for having me as a guest. Thank you.

Jennifer Loehding:

So if our listeners listening to this today, they want to either find this course, maybe they want to find out about the skincare, maybe investment, I don't know Maybe they need insurance. Where do they want to find you, rainy?

Rani Alfers:

They can find me at ranialfers. com or on Instagram and to support and visit the podcast workingwomenmentor. com. Mo re information about the course and our guest and to apply to be a guest if they're interested, Perfect.

Jennifer Loehding:

And I love that you got a website for yourself because, yes, you needed to bring all those things together so they can find you, because you are like me, you got too many things going on. I don't know. I feel like now I've got a website for this. We just currently my daughter, my middle child, and I started a little pet sitting business too. So I have a website, a whole little. I'm trying to build that up for her and so so she can kind of take that over eventually. But, yes, I feel like I've got a website for this. I got a website for that. So we have to have just the jenniferloadingcom so that everybody can go to the hub, and so we're multifaceted, I mean, there's so much more to women other than just one thing.

Jennifer Loehding:

Is that not the truth? Yes, we're moms, we're wives, we're successful. Ticket drop down box, that's right, we just do it all right. I love it. Well, you are doing amazing things and I want to applaud you for continuing to inspire, appreciate it, thank you Absolutely.

Jennifer Loehding:

And, of course, to our audience, we want to say to you we appreciate you, love you, thank you for tuning in. We hope you found this episode both inspiring and informative and, of course, if you do, you know what to do. Do all the things Hit the like, the subscribe, the share, comment, help us support the mission here and so we can continue to share all these fabulous stories and content with you. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another and we will see you next time.

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