Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Becca Powers: Welcome to another episode of the empowered half hour. I have with me a dear friend, business partner, vendor. she's many people to me, but I have with me and she is the owner of declutter and I want to give you guys a little bit of a reference point of why I'm bringing in on the show and how I know her.
So I got connected to Ann about three years ago. When, I was on a podcast and I had wanted to create one and I really liked the host I was with. And I said, who do you use for your podcast production and management? And then I got referred to Anne and I just called the aunt and Garcia. Okay. Let me throw a last name in there.
So there's a reference to, I just realized that I didn't fully in for you. She just, and to me, but anyways. going back to the story. So I got connected to Ann from another podcast host and we started, working the first, podcast that I had together and the partnership flew. We have so much fun working together.
her and her team are an, essential part of Team Becca. I wouldn't even survive without them and, over and beyond podcast management and production. And her team helped me with my social media, my graphics, my website design. and I just can't, couldn't be more grateful to you and your team for your services.
And I'm so excited to have you on the show.
Anne Garcia: First of all, I just want to say thank you, Becca, for not just having me on the show, but giving me this opportunity to represent the team, Team Decluttr. And at the same time, as you said, being your partner, being your support crew when it comes to your digital marketing needs for the past three years.
You're correct. It's been three years. So I feel like it hasn't been that long, but at the same time, I am amazed that we have
Becca Powers: a lot of fun, but it's yeah, it's been three years. you guys are also a team that have a lot of meaning and a lot of passion behind what you do, but I would love to hear the backstory to declutter.
How, was it formed and how did you guys get to a point of wanting to create this business?
Anne Garcia: Yeah, before having this agency, actually, I was in corporate for about, I believe 10 years. I worked at one of the largest local banks here in the Philippines. I'm from the Philippines, by the way. And, yeah, my background has always been in communications and marketing, but course, being part of corporate, as there's always a lot of layers and hierarchy.
You get to do bits and pieces of, things related to marketing, but not necessarily the whole shebang or, yes, the whole enchilada. Yeah. And then in 2017, I actually, retired, availed early retirement from my work and tried virtual assistants for, I believe, Two years. So I was a lone VA.
Actually, me and my husband tried VA ing and it was, I would say a successful run up until the pandemic when everything, of course, the entire world, stopped and everything just
Becca Powers:
Anne Garcia: but apparently, Not apparently, but actually we found the most success during the pandemic because we were able to, have a client who was doing a masterclass for a podcast, for launching a show or for launching a podcast, and we were hired to launch about 10 shows at that time.
So it really revved up, That's awesome. I didn't
Becca Powers: know
Anne Garcia: that. Yeah, podcasting has, that's why I love That's why this mic is here. Because it has been our gateway to everything that we have experienced so far. And that's the reason why we have scaled is because of our, The success that we experienced in podcasting, which led us to wonderful clients such as yourself.
And that's also how we were able to scale from just a three people team to now a team of about, depending on a given time, 12 to 20.
Becca Powers: Wow. That's incredible. And there's something in that story that I really want to pull forward for the listeners because, so many times. we are afraid just people in general, we are afraid to take action in the pursuit of doing something different or in the pursuit of doing something more meaningful, or even to something that we might enjoy more than what we're currently doing, because we can't see the end outcome.
We don't know exactly what it's going to look like and all the steps in between seem invisible as well. So that it feels daunting. And what I love about what you shared. Is that you, I call it the beautiful unfolding, but you allowed the universe to work through you, guys, you and Carl took one step at a time.
You, started the VA and that led you to this thing, the masterclass and the masterclass led you to 10 podcasts. And now you have a full digital marketing company. but you wouldn't have had that if you didn't take that first step. So there's two things that I want to say.
Like listeners know that there is a beautiful unfolding that can support you if you take that step. And then two, like sometimes you just need to just take the action and like get embraced by the beautiful and folding as I'm saying, but you're also you gain confidence that you can do the thing.
anyway, and I would love for you to share with the audience, maybe what some of your learnings, or you can expand upon what I said, but what have you learned through, doing all those different steps?
Anne Garcia: Actually, To add to what you were saying about the beautiful unfolding before I dive into the question.
that time was also scary, as you said, because when I jumped from corporate to, being unemployed for maybe two to three months and then finally diving into, virtual assistants or, remote work. Remote work back then in 2017 isn't as scary. Glamorous as it is now in 2024, like seven years ago, it was completely different.
tech wasn't as, advanced, the market is ripe, but at the same time, the learnings, you had to really learn everything from scratch. AI wasn't even, around back then. one of the early jobs that I got is transcribing podcasts from, manually listening, talking. Typing, because there isn't AI transcription back then.
So that's how. Wow. When you think about it, this
Becca Powers: entire podcast is being transcribed as we talk.
Anne Garcia: Yes. The, leap, but, one of the things that I would say that is like the biggest learning for me, when we did the whole jumping from corporate to, working for ourselves to now having an agency of our own, there's four of us here in this agency that own this.
And at the same time, we have people working with us full time. We have freelancers, we have part timers. I really. Lean heavily on the power of team. And when I say that, I mean the community, the support, the collaboration, and the synergy. I know that synergy is always thrown as a buzzword, but in our agency, that is really something that happens. It's dynamic. me personally, I learn so much from each person regardless of, where they are, like what their position is. The editor, the writer, the designer, the people who just come up with content for us, for our clients. It's really a synergetic experience. And I know that In our generation now, or in the world now, people tend to gravitate towards being more individualistic.
But that's something that I hope makes a comeback at least is for people to really rely on the support of each other or rely on their team or in their support system.
Becca Powers: I really love that you're saying that because I'm very team spirited. As well. And, for the listeners, it's really hard to chase your dreams by yourself.
I know you want to protect them. And at some point, when your dream is emerging, maybe that's something you keep private. But once you're in it, once you're in the unfolding, having a team to support you is really. Not only crucial, but it's like magical when you embrace the power, like you said, the power of the team.
I don't think I would be at this point in my own career if I didn't have your team, my team, I, just really appreciate that you're sharing that because it is from the team, you get new ideas generated, you get, like you said, there's a synergy, there's fun, there's. excitement like so much comes from the team.
Anne Garcia: And, as the saying goes, heavy is the head that wears the crown as they always, say I am the face of the clutter, but as somebody who leads an agency, it can get. Very overwhelming at times, especially with all the algorithms, the changes you have to keep up with the trends, right?
you keep up with both client demands and internal demands, which is, for your team. But I always feel that overwhelm is, equally distributed amongst ourselves. Like everybody, carries their own load. That's why it doesn't feel as overwhelming.
Becca Powers: Yeah, that's awesome. And I love that mentioned too, because tell you what, being a solopreneur like it's one thing being an entrepreneur, which is also a solopreneur, but when you are truly in that solo path, the overwhelmed, you don't have anyone else to share it with.
You're doing all the roles, which, If you look at it in a longterm is nearly impossible to sustain. So anyway, it's just such a good message. so I want to ask you another question on that. what is it like a current aha that's up for you right now?
Anne Garcia: This might come a little bit controversial, but I will say it anyway because it's, I have talked about this with, circles and groups and I've gotten polarizing responses, but I've always believed that nobody's ever self made.
You always stand on the shoulders of people who have come before you. You enjoy the path that other people have already walked on. And maybe that also ties into my belief about the power of the team, but in my case, because I am an only child, I am very reliant on community, like my cousins, I go on vacation, I sleep over, their houses so that I'm not sad because I'm an only child.
So I probably, had that growing up in the sense. And, I know how hardworking my parents have been to help me get to where I am right now. And, yeah, that's, I say, I strongly believe in that, that nobody's ever self made yes, we can be self reliant. Yes. We can be self empowered, but we also.
need to recognize that people in their circle. Or there are people in our network, or there are people in our past, in our present, and probably in our future who will, greatly contribute to our lives, our success, our experiences, the fullness of life.
Becca Powers: That is awesome, because I couldn't agree more, and again, some people listening to this are like, I'm totally self made, but I do believe that behind every self made, Person is an army of people.
Yeah. And it's nice to, from this perspective, be able to share with the listeners that, if you do have those super big dreamy goals and you're going for it, surround yourself with the team, because at the end of the day. It's going to be really hard to achieve everything by yourself.
Anne Garcia: And don't get me wrong.
you should, we should always recognize our achievements. We should always, we should be the first people to pat ourselves on the back and say, Hey, you've made it, you've come this far, you've achieved so much. But at the same time, having that, Probably that awareness or that recognition that, yeah, you made it this far, but you didn't do it all by yourself.
Becca Powers: Yeah, and then there's this other element to it too, especially with you running an agency and like me, in the, speaking, training, writing space is that, I need help. there's just no way I could do it all on my own. But, there's this element to it too, that when you're building something, each person has a different level of strengths, gifts, and talents.
And it's like as amazing as Anne might be and how amazing Becca might be. I have deficiencies. It's really weird people, like there are just things that I, maybe I can do, but I shouldn't be doing. And that was, I don't know, maybe if you want to talk about that too, but, that was something during my journey that I really learned.
is that there's a lot of things I can do and that maybe I'm even decent at or good at, but it, A, there is someone that can do it better. And B, if I do that too much, and it actually takes me out of the thing that I love the most. So I don't know if you relate to that or if you want to talk about it, but I think that's an interesting topic to chat about too.
Anne Garcia: You are pitching to the choir because somebody who, remember I, Started as a lone VA. So I'm very used to doing everything myself. And I have to confess, I'm someone who has a high need for control. I need to, like this has to be done this way. This has to be done this way. But another aha moment for me, and I actually love this discovery.
it's not groundbreaking, but for me it is because of who I am as a person is that you're correct. Somebody will be able to do it better, faster, more amazing than you. And it will cost half the time and half the effort than you doing it yourself. And I am grateful that I'm surrounded by people who are, more talented than me who, are, doing things for our clients.
And I'm very glad that they are satisfied by it, but. yeah, at the beginning it was a struggle. To, let go of the reins. Oh my gosh, the initial
Becca Powers: letting go is so painful. You're like, but
Anne Garcia: once you see the output, because, I'm a result oriented, so when they see that something is well done and well made, really get that satisfaction that, ah, this person can, Take the wheel and I'll just,
Becca Powers: just an example of that.
And if you guys want to see any of their work, you can go to my website, BeccaPowers. com. But Lene, my business partner, which a lot of the audience knows, like we used to do the website and it was okay. was cute. We did our best. And then we finally helped let go of the control and handed it to Anne and her team, and it's just night and day.
I was like, Oh, wow. I probably should have given that over a long time ago.
Anne Garcia: And shout out to the team, they really enjoyed working on this website.
Becca Powers: Yeah, they did a great job. all So let's pivot into another question. So why are you passionate about the work that you do?
Anne Garcia: I would say I've always had a penchant for words in the sense that my mom said, I remember, I distinctly remember my mom said, when I was five years old, I wrote like a news article.
report on the piece of paper and I was like practicing it and I think she still kept that piece of paper. So I was acting like I was a journalist or I was like a TV news reporter or something. So I've always had a love for journalism, communication, and that eventually evolved into, advertising and marketing because that is my, what I did in college is I was a major in advertising.
I love. Just matching, tone and intention. And communicate that to a brand, making it a personality. So I'm very grateful that yes, digital marketing can be, stressful as an industry, but at the same time, where it has gone to now, it's a democratized how people are able to build themselves.
10 years ago, nobody has the power to create their personal brand. Now. You want a brand, you want to, sell yourself, you want to build a name for yourself, you can do that in a week or two weeks. that's what I'm very passionate about is matching, the power of marketing, the power of branding with people, helping them have that platform.
To stand on so that their voice can be heard, so that they can find their network, they can find their people. Because when that marriage happens, for me at least, it's one of the most satisfying things. When you see a post and people interact with that post. We check, the podcast downloads, the analytics, and when you see that people are interacting, people are engaging, it's very satisfying for me.
Becca Powers: it is. you always love celebrating our download, our next level of downloads and stuff like that, too. So I could say, and being a partner with you, that you get very excited when we hit milestones.
Anne Garcia: And one of the things that, I'm passionate about too, is just, I'm a sucker for organization.
And that's why, Ron makes fun of me that I'm, very type A. I have a Monica in me, as a person. Although millennials, the reference, and the clutter actually, the name, the clutter, it actually started out, I don't know if I told this to you, is Carl and I used to have a, organization and like interior design make over side hustle before, where in we help people declutter their homes or their rooms so that, their space makes more sense for them.
So declutter actually came from that. The origin of that. I was always curious
Becca Powers: how you got the name and now I know. Awesome.
Anne Garcia: Yeah. So when we built this agency, that's the first thing that also came to my mind is I want to help businesses declutter their workflow. Fixed, streamline their processes, their services so that they can focus on the things they love.
in your case, you don't need to edit your podcast. You don't need to write your show notes, but what you do is what you're doing now. The magic of, communicating and engaging in, connecting and networking. yeah, that's the other passion that I have is just. Fixing things, keeping things in order, putting things where they are.
Becca Powers: I love that. And I love that you took the, because it really is, you are decluttering people's workflows. the, more of these types of tasks that I keep. It clutters up my workflow for sure, because I have to do the things that these are the things that I have to do, not have to do, but want to do.
They're my priorities is making sure I'm hosting my podcast that I'm, keynoting in front of audiences that I'm training with corporate clients, like when I'm not doing those things and I'm in my back office. not doing the thing that lights me up. So I appreciate your, passion and commitment to decluttering my workflow.
Anne Garcia: And may I just add something that, as I just want to allude to something you said earlier about, finding people that, do it better than you.
Becca Powers: Yeah.
Anne Garcia: The reason why that's important is you, yourself, like you, Becca Powers, you do the things that only you can do. And we can't do what you do. So you need to do what you're good at because you're the only person who can do that.
I can't speak to 1, 000 people like you like that's not my wheelhouse, at least not yet. but you, do it effortlessly. On your third book already. I don't even have one book by my name. But you need. shine your best because you're doing the thing that you're best at your, zone of genius.
So
Becca Powers: yeah. So let's, I want to ask another question, especially since we're coming down to the bottom of the half hour. I can't believe it's been almost a half hour.
Anne Garcia: It's like just two gals. Gabby.
Becca Powers: It's so fast, but all So let's, I want to ask you a question that's directed towards the listeners.
What, is an empowering message that you might have for them if they're looking to maybe break free and do their own thing or, basically anything that would recap our conversation, but what's an empowering message that you can share with the audience?
Anne Garcia: they say that in this world, there are two types of people who believe that trust should be earned, and people who believe that trust is lost. I do categorize myself as in that second group of people wherein, Trust is lost. And why do I say that as an empowering message? I believe in trusting people.
I believe that we can all. As peachy, as it sounds, I believe that if you are able to trust someone, they will come, how do you say it? They will come for you or they will?
Becca Powers: Yeah. I don't know what exact phrase going for, but they'll support you.
They'll work for you.
Anne Garcia: What I'm trying to say is if you are able to trust someone, they will. Be there for you, Let's just say that. If you're able to trust someone they'll be there for you. They will be able to have your back Oh, yeah, yes, and I keep alluding to the power of team and to you know just community but because of my background and my experience and where i've Had the most success and experienced the most happiness.
It's always with having somebody or having Support or having a friend or having a team and it's, also I would say. I used to come from corporate and that is, you're part of a large thousands of people workforce, but you can feel the most alone a sea of people. Whereas when, I,changed my profession and I work for myself, that is actually when I felt most alone.
supported, I felt most, trusted. It's also because I was able to put that trust in other people. And I hope that's something that, because nowadays I see a high level of Individualism, especially with the younger generation. And even with our, younger team members, I always say that, friendship is important.
Trusting people is important. Collaboration is important. partnerships are important because you're saying all the words
Becca Powers: that I love. Yes.
Anne Garcia: Very isolated. trust in yourself. It's okay to be self empowered, but it's also, it feels better. There's that higher level of security and support, if you know that.
Becca Powers: Yeah. we're meant to be connected. Yes. Belonging is one of, it's actually one of the five primary human needs, but yet we are becoming, I guess fragments of society are becoming very individualized. And while that has its empowering moments too, it's definitely aiding to this connection with other people.
So I think your, message is very empowering and needed right now.
Anne Garcia: I do believe that. So yeah, trust people.
Becca Powers: Yeah. I love that. here we are. we're at the end and I'm sad because it's over and I don't know what to do.
Becca Powers: but I would love, for you to share with the audience how to stay in contact with you. If they're interested in your services, how can they find you?
So it's your time, Ann.
Anne Garcia: Yes, you can go to our website, teamdeclutter. com. You can also find us on Instagram, on we're on YouTube, we're on Facebook. And yeah, I would love for you guys to reach out to us if you ever feel like you need help in amplifying your voice and being on social to, improve your visibility so that you can reclaim your time and focus on the things that you love most.
Feel free to visit our website, and inquire about how we can provide services the same way that we have also, provided. Provider support and services to Becca.
Becca Powers: That's so awesome. And if you're interested, don't hesitate. Reach out to them guys, because they have changed my life in a very positive way.
and I absolutely loved having you on the show. I can't believe again, we're at the bottom of the 30 minutes, but I do just really want to also thank you for your messages of trust. teamwork, connection, belonging, all of those messages are super important. And I think the audience will appreciate it too.
Anne Garcia: Thank you. Thank you, Becca. Thank you for the opportunity to be on your show. Appreciate it. I'll see
Becca Powers: you soon.
