Half-Assed and Wholehearted: Katy Mann's Journey to Indy With Kids

Trigger warning: Infant Loss

This episode is dedicated in loving memory to Shaundi Adrian Mann, June 25, 2013 - Sept 4, 2013.

In this episode, Cheryl and Colleen chat with Katy Mann, the creator of IndyWithKids.com and author of the book 'Indianapolis Scavenger.'
Katy shares her experiences of building a hyperlocal website that has become a valuable resource for families in Indianapolis over the last 14 years.
She opens up about personal challenges, including the sudden loss of her child, and how this tragedy reshaped her business approach from being a solo venture to a collaborative community effort.
The conversation also explores the challenges of balancing a growing family with a side hustle, the importance of resilience, and the ways in which small acts of kindness can significantly impact others.
Katy provides insights into how she monetizes her platform, the growth journey on social media, and the transformative experiences that have shaped her entrepreneurial journey. Listeners will gain inspiration from Katy's authenticity, community spirit, and unwavering dedication to her mission.
Connect with Katy Mann on Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok or catch her on Fox59 in Indy on Wednesday’s in the 10’o’clock hour.
Or of course, her website: indywithkids.com
Her book, Indianapolis Scavenger, is available on Amazon, or locally around Indianapolis. 


00:00 Opening Thoughts: Doing It All with a Twist
00:50 Exciting News and the Reality of Parenting Challenges
03:11 Introducing Guest Katy Mann: A Journey of Adventure and Family
04:55 Katy's Story: From Global Adventures to Creating IndyWithKids.com
11:27 The Evolution of IndyWithKids: Overcoming Personal Tragedy and Growing the Business
17:04 Navigating Grief and Building a Community-Driven Platform
21:24 Reflections and Looking Forward: The Impact of Personal Loss on Business Growth
22:45 Navigating Grief and Keeping Memories Alive
23:35 The Lighter Side of Loss: Pets, Memories, and Family Dynamics
24:09 Moving Forward: Purpose, Belief, and Community Support
27:03 Building a Business: Strategies, Growth, and Community Impact
32:06 The Power of Kindness and Community in Personal Growth
40:05 Monetizing Passion: Advertising, Events, and Local Sponsorships
43:26 Launching a Book: A New Chapter in Business and Adventure

Transcript

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 0:00

I always tell people when they're like, how do you do it all? Which is so weird to me. Cause I don't feel like I'm doing it all. Like I look at my life and I think I'm not doing it, but I always say half assed and wholehearted.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 0:10

Oh my God. I love that. Put that on a t shirt.

0:49

Hello, everybody. I just need to give a quick trigger warning. We do discuss infant loss in this episode. The conversation is heart-wrenching. But the overall episode is incredible. It certainly isn't the entire topic, but we do go over it for a few minutes. So if that's not something that you think you can handle today, go ahead and either skip this episode today. And come back to it later. But the episode in general is incredible. So I do think it's worth to listen, but just please be forewarned. Enjoy.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 1:25

we are doing this right. I think you have like news you want to share with us and then I'll tell you what's going on and then we'll, we have an amazing guest, so let's hear.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 1:35

Friends, friends, I have an announcement. My au pair is in the United States. She is in Dallas, Texas. She was supposed to be here in two hours. She has, however, missed her flight, of course, because that is the way things go. But she will be here at like nine o'clock tonight. If everything goes well, let's hope there's no more gate changes that throw her for a loop, but it's okay.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 2:03

girl, you're gonna be a whole person again.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 2:07

going to be a whole person again. I can't express the number of tears that have been in this week alone. It's like, I truly think my body knows that relief is like around the corner and it's just starting to give up. It's like, Oh we can stop working now. Like, like I can just give up because like, there's relief coming. No, it's not. It's not finishing strong. My pelvic floor has straight stopped. It's just like, I'm not going to do anything anymore. Cheryl, like coughing. Sorry. Sorry, not supporting those anymore. You're gonna just, that bladder is just falling out now. So it's just stopped working. Tears. Eyes also are just crying all the time. By 730 the other morning, we had a 10 minute standoff about who was gonna wipe Emmy's butt at 7 a. m. the other morning.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 2:54

I mean,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 2:55

Emmy. Calling your ass out on the air.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 2:57

oh my god.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 2:59

Getting real over here. So, Danielle, fucking brace yourself. We love her. We

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 3:05

Danielle's gonna be great. She's gonna do a great job. We love Danielle. We love Danielle for you.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 3:11

know what? She very, very carefully selected us. Like, literally interviewed for a year before she selected a family. Like, very, very carefully selected us. She is so thoughtful. I'm, she's leaving a lot she cares about behind to come join our family. She's here for the right reasons. Like, if this were The Bachelor, she is here for the right reasons, you guys. So Medeiroses have a successful year in our future, but that is not why we're here today. We do have a guest. I'm sorry everybody, but thank you for the life update. Okay.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 3:46

Okay. Well, I'm so excited about our guests and Cheryl's going to do the real bio because that's what she's way better at than me, but this guest and I actually have quite a lot in common and I'm so excited for us to chat with her. So take it away, Cheryl. Do the

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 4:02

OK,

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 4:03

official,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 4:04

have Katy Mann here, the creator of the hyperlocal website IndyWithKids. com and the author of the new book Scavenger. She grew up in Southern California. Whoa, someone else grew up in Southern

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 4:18

oh, just, oh, okay.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 4:20

Ding, ding, ding. Her parents regularly took the family on road trips near and far to see incredible places and have unforgettable experiences. Whoa, love that. Katy's explorations have taken her to Africa. Huh? South America, Central America, and Europe. But her favorite adventures are alongside her husband and four children in her chosen home state of India. Holy shit. Four kids.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 4:43

India, not India.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 4:45

Next level.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 4:45

Come on.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 4:46

Oh, Indiana. Well, she's such a world traveler. You could see I might mix

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 4:52

she's going to be in India

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 4:53

But OK. Well,

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 4:57

Katy! I'm so excited. We're so excited to have you

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 5:04

well, like, thanks for the three sec three sentences, but like, give it to us real, girl. Who are you?

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 5:09

Oh man, do you want me to start from the very beginning?

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 5:12

tell us everything,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 5:14

tell me about your tell me about your birth.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 5:16

Oh man, I can't go back there. I can tell you about the births that I've been another participant

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 5:23

us facilitated.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 5:24

I

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 5:25

a different podcast.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 5:26

opener today. So,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 5:28

Literally. Open that cervix, girl. Let's go.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 5:32

so obviously had great parents who took us many places, encouraged anything we wanted to do, pushed us to do other things. I was my dad's scuba diving partner growing up. So we went to like Mexico, Hawaii drove cross country at Christmas time. Just had, you know, lots of adventure in our, in our childhood. And so when I graduated high school, I decided to go to Africa and work on a hospital ship. And my parents were like, peace out. So I went, it was supposed to be a couple of years, but unfortunately my brother passed away while I was gone suddenly. So I came back home and took a job at a church working with. A youth group and went on more adventures with the youth group and then took a job in Indiana working for a church and didn't know where Indiana was on the map, had to look it up during my impromptu interview call. But now I can find all the States on the map. First time I've been able to do that since eighth grade, I think. Uh, but I just, I love it here. When I was in this. They just called me suddenly one night and had found my resume online. And they had these kids from the youth group as part of the interview. And one of the girls, Rachel asked me, she says, so if you were our youth director, you know, what kinds of things would we do? And again, I just found Indiana on the map. I had seen children of the corn and that's about it. So I said. You

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 7:01

seen it, but I have a feeling it's not good.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 7:04

No, we don't like to be known for that here. I said, I don't know, but here's some things we do in California. And I promise you that if I'm your youth director, I will find all of the things to do in Indiana. And so came out here, There wasn't really Wi Fi. It wasn't a thing. Had a yellow pages phone book, a white pages phone book, drove around, used my dial up AOL to, to find things, but no one was online at the time. You know, there wasn't like, here's all the fun.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 7:34

was this? When we, cause listen, people are, people don't know about us and they were going to think this was like 2010. Okay. So like, okay. Yeah.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 7:43

2004, you know? So came out here and decided I'd be here for two years, met my husband, my second month, and it's been 20 years. So we love it here. It's a very affordable place to live. There's lots to do. All of my friends in California cannot believe. Like the amenities that we have here since we don't have a beach, you know, we clearly have nothing, but it's not true. Like there's so much effort put into like our libraries and our park systems and entertainment and culture. So it was such a nice surprise. And it's a nice surprise. People come visit now, like we're a huge tourist destination. And more and more people from California live here than you would think. So but when I was working at my second Indiana church I was in a youth group of kids who were refugees from another country. And that was the primary makeup of my youth group. So we didn't have like a big budget to go do. Lots and lots of things that cost money. And so I started exploring like free days at different places. And I thought, wouldn't it be neat if there was like a website that had like all of this information on there so that you could just find it in one spot. And so I would just make these lists on, you know, a notebook. And I had my first child in 2010. And just started taking this baby different places. Cause I would just get stir crazy on the weekends. And I had this friend in Pensacola who had a website called Pensacola with kids. And I said, Jen, would you mind if I, you know, borrowed that and made it Indianapolis of kids? And she's like, do it connected me with this group of women online that do the exact same website and all across the country and Canada and Australia. And they were just So influential in my life and much like you, I rose to leadership and took over. And it's just been amazing to have this website. It's been 14 years now

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 9:48

Oh, wow. Wow.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 9:50

it's just grown and grown. And I remember my friend said, you know, two years in, she said, what are you going to do? When you run out of things to write about, like what happens once you have everything on the website? And we've never done that. I now have a, a business team of eight and we've got about 30 contributors at any given time. And there's just no running out of content. I mean, we're running out of time, not content.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 10:15

Yeah. Oh my gosh. That is incredible. You built like an empire. This is so incredible because you know, it's, yeah,

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 10:24

enough, you know,

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 10:25

that's a lot. Eight employees. I mean, that's a, that's a lot for a small business. That's amazing. I am just

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 10:33

Yeah,

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 10:34

so impressed. So I know of Katy because it was so I use any with kids literally all the time. And it's a great resource for me and my family. And then also like I push that out to my clients and stuff like that, because it's super helpful for people. And I love, I love that you love Indy as much as I do. And I'm, I've obviously new compared to you, but people all the time are like, Have that same experience. I didn't, they don't know where Indiana is on the map. I always say whoever's doing the PR for Indiana as a state nationally is not doing a very good job. Like no offense to that person because people don't know what is happening here and like all the amazing things that are going on here, like the restaurants, the arts, all this stuff for the kids, like it's incredible. It's really incredible.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 11:28

and I would agree that maybe 10 20 years ago, but now I feel like we need to get people out of here. Like there's too many people. They're all coming here. I know. I'm so glad. I love when people come here and visit. But I just, you know, like we have the world's largest and best children's museum in the world. I mean, fact, not, not just their tagline. Like that is a fact. And Just some amazing places that there's performances and art museums and exhibits and festivals and, and just all kinds of things that come to Indie. So

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 12:03

Yeah.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 12:04

So Katy, our audience is largely leaders and entrepreneurs. So you've grown over 14 years, kind of look back to those earlier years, like when you're really growing, what was one of your biggest growing pains? And, and how did you overcome it? Like, think back to those early years and like that grind really in the

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 12:25

yes, it is not hard to go back and think that far. Yeah. So I was working full time in a church, which is like the most random schedule that you could ever work you know, nights and weekends and whenever someone's locked out or whatever you're, you're just doing that. My husband worked at a different church part time and then had another full time job. We lived on the complete opposite side of town from where we worked and I had this new baby and then just this little blog, they called it, that I was telling people that I was doing with things I was doing with my baby and my youth group. And I didn't own a computer, so it was, you know, using my work computer. It was very, very hard. And then within a year and a half, my second child was born. And then I had a third child on the way that was due to be like Irish twins with my second child. And. I was not making any money on my side hustle. My job paid the bills, my husband's job had the insurance. It was so chaotic. I mean, nothing's changed as far as the chaoticness. It's just different. But it was so chaotic and I just remember driving my kids, you know, on the opposite side of town from the South to the North to take them to the, the church. Daycare that they were in that my mother in law thankfully was the director. So they, you know, had a family member all day. And I remember getting there and I'd have a baby without shoes on or a toddler without shoes on. And I can't make the hour, you know, hour and a half round trip drive back down to go get the shoes. And I also forgot their lunch. And so then I was like dropping them off, going to target. And then my workday is already starting to get eaten up. And I just remember going home. I was, you know, probably seven or eight months pregnant. And it was the only of the three that I hadn't been on bedrest since 23 weeks with. And I just remember having a nervous breakdown one night and saying like, I can't do this anymore. Like how I can't even do this with two kids. How am I going to do this with three kids? And I'm being totally drawn to my side hustle. You know, like I still had a passion for my primary. you know, job. But then it was like, I really want to try this. And this side hustle awards me the opportunity to maybe not be hustling all the time in a physical way. And My husband said, well, what do we need to do to make that happen? And I said, well, we got to be debt free, which we were so close. We had to pay off a car. And I said, and I need a computer of my own, you know? And so within a few months we made that happen. And my, my income from my side hustle at time was like a hundred dollars a month. And we were barely making ends meet on our. Real jobs. And so it was really scary. and after my third child was born, I left and had the most amazing summer with my family. Just, I had a little bit of unpaid maternity leave. so but they were, you know, my, my employer was very generous and I got to use vacation days and things like that, but working for a not for profit, but you don't really get all the benefits that you get. At larger companies. And so our family traveled, we went on a lot of like I dunno, blogger trips and things like that, that were comped. And I grew my business slowly, slowly, slowly over the summer. Definitely not generating enough revenue to even cover a third of my salary by the time I left. But I felt like I could really make this happen if I Had more time to put into it. And so I, I left and two days later, my third child passed away. And it was just completely sudden unexpected. It was in her sleep. It was my first day of being self employed. I actually wasn't even at my home. My husband had come home from work and taken over care of the kids. And I went to go work at our local sandwich shop that had free wifi. And I just sat down. I closed. All the tabs on my computer for the first and last time ever shut my phone off. And I got to work on my very first paid article for our, our city tourism. And I was typing away and I opened up my email to send it off when it was done. And all of a sudden, just tons of random emails came in from people that I knew that said, call your husband, call your husband. And I opened up. My Facebook and same thing, just call your husband and I'm dialing my husband. And as I'm doing that, a police officer walks into the sandwich shop with two of my neighbors and I just started screaming like I've, I just, I just knew like, you don't, I didn't know what it was. I just knew. And so I, I just got up and they're taking me out of there. I'm getting in the car and they're taking us to the children's hospital. And it was, it was just the worst day, the best day in the worst day of my life. You know, I spent the whole morning with my three babies as a self employed mom. It was so empowering in the morning. And then by that night, it was, you know, the worst, most tragic thing. And. What, like the growth that came out of that, obviously, like, that's a very painful thing. But the growth that came out of that was prior to that, I feel like there was so much competition in my world. Like you see that a lot with like digital influencers now, like they don't like to share with each other, not all of them, but like, there's just this, like, this has to be mine. There's not enough. And there's not a lot of working together. And I felt. very protective of the work I was doing in the beginning. And I felt like there wasn't enough like, because I couldn't even pay my bills obviously. And there were all these other women coming up behind me doing the same things that I was doing. And When this happened, a woman who ran a website called Indy car mom, and it was all about taking your kids to Indy car races. We had met in line at an event once, and she asked if she could come over. And it was days after this had happened. And I said, yeah, I mean, the whole world's at my house right now. Just come on over. So she came over and she said, look, when you have a real job, people step in for you and they fill in when something like this happens in your life. They, they help out, they take over your job until you're able to emotionally and physically be there. And she said, but when you have this job and you work for yourself, your coworkers are the people that you formerly saw as your competition. And she said, give me the keys to your website, the passwords, and let me take over for you until you can come back. And at this point. Obviously this is a very, sorry at this point it had just been me like writing, like, oh, I went to Home Depot with my baby and, you know, we went and had ice cream and then, oh, I took my two little kids strawberry picking. And so at this point it was just my experience and what I was doing in, in our city. And When she took over, she, she got a whole group of other moms. Some were bloggers, some were not. And ask them if they would all write an article for the website over the next few months. And the website became so rich with different experiences. Like I'm not a hike at baby mom. Like you're not going to put me out in the woods with a baby carrier and have ticks crawling all over me. But there are women in my city who that is their thing. Yeah. And there are men in this city who that is their thing. And there were you know, moms that were going to vegan restaurants. I'm not going to go to a vegan. I mean, I will now, but back then I was, you know And so the website became so rich with like other voices of women living in the same city, raising their kids. And we all did it so differently from our activities to the way that we did it. And we're not a parenting website. We're purely activities. And to see the different activities that people were doing. That was not even a part of. My world my universe. So the business grew that way because we were able to not only just add different types of content, but just to add different voices. And it became everyone's website. And so it was definitely a different business plan than I thought I was going to do. I always thought this would just be my voice and my brand. But it, it isn't anymore. And it, it's not. Kind of changed from that point on. And so when I came back a few months later and you know, as a small business owner, you can never really let go. So I was watching, you know, the whole time and adding my two cents here and there. But when I came back and took over they were all like, no, we're done. Like we, it's a lot of work. We don't want to do it anymore. And so there were a few people that were like, you know, I would write for you. Maybe. And so I was offered a newspaper column and our local newspaper. And I think they paid me like 70 a week to write just the Indie with kids column. And so in my head, I was like, okay, if everyone could, and our articles were really short at that time, they weren't the way they are now. But also I was a startup and I had no money and I thought, okay, if they pay me 70 a week and I can reinvest that back into the business, I could probably pay like 50 a week. Seven people, 10 each to write an article. And then I can have more articles on the website about things I would never think to do. And that's kind of how the business model changed. And that's what we do now. But it's a different pay scale and a different, different expectations, but that's, that's how it was. And like, it was hard. You are just constantly trying to go earn money in one way to pay people to, to help you with this type side hustle. And I. I love what, I don't obviously love what happened, but I love what came out of it. And yeah, that's, that's when we started seeing lots of growth is when, when it changed,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 22:14

Wow.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 22:15

Katy?

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 22:16

sorry, lots of talking there for you and a lot of big.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 22:21

I mean, you're an incredible woman. You're, what you've done is incredible. I

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 22:32

Thank you.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 22:34

That baby gave life to a business.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 22:38

Yeah. And then I, and I had two more children after that. So we've got, we've got lots of kiddos here. So,

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 22:46

mean, everything.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 22:47

me asking what happened with the baby? Was it that, was it SIDS or, I

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 22:52

yeah, yeah,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 22:53

and is there a further explanation to SIDS? I don't think I understand that. You might have a better explanation than I

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 22:58

no, um,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 22:59

is.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 23:00

just how they sleep, where they sleep could always contribute to that. But no, just unexplained, sudden,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 23:10

how did you cope?

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 23:12

I don't know, am I still, am I, I'm, I'm still coping. Grief is,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 23:16

How many years ago was that?

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 23:18

Let's see, Scotty is 12. So Shaundi would be 11. She's, she'd be turning 11 next month. So about 11 years ago. So I think you just cope day to day. Obviously, you know, I'm crying now because it's, It's a lot. You know, I don't think that you'll ever fully recover. Sometimes I don't cry. I

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 23:41

Do you want to talk about it? I can shut up if you don't want to talk

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 23:43

know. I, I love, I mean, that's what they say that like when you, when you have a child, you know, you try to keep them alive and when they pass away, you want to keep their memory alive. And And she's such a huge influence on our family. My two littlest ones who never knew her they still like consider her their sister and they talk about missing her and it's so interesting to me. But I will say just a little, just bring a little bit of lightheartedness to this. We had a dog named Pixie. We had a baby named Shaundi. They all met the dog. And so every now and then. One of my kids will talk about one or the other, and then my littlest will go, wait, is Pixie the dog or the baby? Cause like, it's just this whole thing of loss, you know? And that's all they compartmentalize it as this is loss, but what am I grieving right now? Am I grieving the baby? Am I

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 24:34

Yeah. Yeah

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 24:35

it's, it's just like the cutest thing. I mean, you know, you could be, you know, Angry about it. Or you could just say, that's so innocent

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 24:42

yeah.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 24:43

and real.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 24:43

it's love. It's love.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 24:45

Yeah. So how do you help? I think you just move forward and you know that you have goals, you have a purpose and you're just trying to figure out what that goal and that purpose is for your life. I don't think like everything happens for a reason. I absolutely do not believe that. But I do believe 100 percent that good can come from Every situation. It may not be from that situation directly, but it may put you in a position. To create good. And I think that just being able to I guess show people that like life, life does go on. It moves forward and it changes you. Like, I mean, it's, it's changed me physically. It's changed me emotionally. It's changed the way that I treat people. You wouldn't believe just the, that's just one story of like how much people came around us and loved on us. And like, we just had no idea that this many people cared about us or cared about our story. And I think that that just changes you and you start looking at people differently instead of that your competition or, you know, your, you know, It's just, you're all, we're all people here trying to do what we need to do. And if you can help other people out along the way, like do it. If you can't help them out, then don't hurt them, you know? So that's, that's how I go on.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 26:10

yeah,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 26:10

Perspective. Perspective can be a very powerful gift.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 26:14

Yeah.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 26:15

Like in your life moving forward and how you live your life. Yeah.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 26:20

And I, everybody's story is different, but I think one of the things that we really, the patterns, if you will, when you see, when we talk to women business owners, it's just this idea of like persistence and resilience and, you know, like consistent, you know, like that could have been some, that is obviously something that if you had decided at that point, like, I can't continue this, nobody You know, said anything about it. Right. But it's just so amazing to watch somebody build something so amazing and so beautiful and to, and to understand like behind that, you know, we talk a lot about peeking behind the curtain, right? Like understand the hurt and the grief and the sadness and. The resilience and the strength and all of it behind something that on the surface is just, you know, like, it's so amazing and it's this amazing website and business that you've built, but like your heart and soul are in that in so many different facets and ways. And

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 27:32

So.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 27:32

it's so incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 27:37

Yes. Thank you so much for sharing that. Okay, so I have a logistical question. To move on to. So I, I just recently started following you, but you I have a lot of followers yeah, 24, 000, 24. 1k on Instagram for a local following. That's big. Do you have any tips or tricks on how you grew to that level?

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 27:59

Well, you know, we've been, we were early adopters, so, you know, a lot of those are legacy followers. People who have children in college now are like, Oh my gosh, I still love seeing what you're doing and I'm going to have grandchildren. I mean, we're like in the next stage of people who had children when I started are getting to where they're having grandchildren. And so it's just really. You know, we have a bigger following on Facebook because that was where we started, you know and I think one, don't be afraid to try new things. Like if, if something's working for someone else, it doesn't mean it's going to work for you, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. And you know, if it doesn't work right away, it doesn't mean you should abandon it either. You know, like I'm, I'm definitely that, like my strategy is throw it all at the wall and see what happens. And while it may be immeasurable what you're doing, the consistency that you mentioned, that is so important. And there were times where, you know, we weren't posting on, we've, we've always posted on Facebook at least once a day. Now we're like seven to 10 times a day. But you know, we, we. And I say we now because there is a we, but originally it was just me, you know my husband just, we just had show up in our memories the other day where my husband on Facebook had begged his friends, like, go follow my wife. She's about to hit 100 followers on Facebook.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 29:23

I love that.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 29:24

And. I always remember that stuff. I remember that moment. I remember Facebook. I think they still do it. Well, maybe they don't. They used to tell you when you had a page you know, 99 people are following you. 45 of them are your friends. And I remember the day that that number of people who weren't my Facebook friends was larger than the, the people that were like, I remember those milestones and it all came to just not giving up, you know You'll sometimes people are looking for like a new social media handle and someone else will already have it, but you look and they haven't posted in like 345 years and it's like if they just like kept up with it, like, don't let things be dead. And so, you know, number one, try everything. Number two, consistency. And number three, like, don't be afraid, especially if you're just starting out. You don't know better, you know, and that's like the most powerful thing. What does that to have? Like someone used the word yesterday, like ignorant I don't, well, base ignorance is bliss. You can do whatever you want, like, you know, reshare stuff or make your own stuff or, you know, Just do something really weird and see if it works. And if somebody is like, why would you do that? Say like, cause I've never done this before. I didn't know, you know, so I'm very big on asking forgiveness instead of permission.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 30:47

well, you're definitely speaking all of our love languages right now. literally just, you know, it's so so inspiring to, to see your story, right? To, to see that you're in this, you said 14 years later. You know, I know so many of our listeners are in the earlier stages or kind of those middle stages and to understand too, that like. It is not necessarily an overnight success, right? Like this was some, this is a, something that you built and you know, there are a lot of people who will look at you and say like, well, she's got 24, 000 followers on Instagram and she's got, you know, however many on Facebook and she's got this great website and like, why am, why aren't I there yet? And you're like, well, because I started this, I was an early adopter. I was very early into social media, very early into blogging. And been doing it consistently for a long period of time. The other thing that I love hearing you say, and, and, you know, out of sorrow and out of grief, like this beautiful thing was born as well, is that somebody had this. Mindset this ability to help you and that you also were willing to receive that help and that, you know, some people might have been like, you know, no, I want to do it myself or no, no, thank you. Or not, not be willing to receive that or, you know, help. And how you were able to pivot your business and pivot your business model. And that was the thing that was able to make you grow to a different level that maybe you didn't expect. And I just, I, I am just so in awe of, of your ability to, to allow that to happen and, and to kind of pivot and roll with that. You know, that's, I mean, I probably just going to say that you're amazing, like every five sentences, but I'm just like over here, like starstruck with work.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 32:43

And let's talk about the Indy mom in the car. What a blessing. What a gift from God.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 32:50

know. I know. And I mean, her name's Jill and she's definitely like part of my, my legacy and part of my, like when you think about the people who lifted you up along the way, like she's, she's there. And like, I'll never like, we're, we're not like really great friends in a normal level, but like, she is one of my best people. Like she really is because like, who would do that for me? Like. You know, at that time I never would have thought anybody would, I mean, that wasn't even in my, like, I didn't know that was a thing, you know, and her words were so meaningful to me and I've just carried them with me to this day. And I always think about that. Like when I'm in a room with someone, I always want to introduce everybody and like, tell it like, Hey, this is so and so and she runs, you know, this really great business. This is her talent and her gift. Like, Like connecting people, but like without knowing what that other person is going to need, but like just really saying like what this person has and does, because maybe they're going to find a connection, maybe in some way, this person's going to be meaningful to that person in the future. The way that Jill was to me, you know, we met in a, in a line at a thing at the racetrack and our kids were running around and, you know, creating havoc while we're just trying to stay cool on the line and that, that was our, our only in person thing. Meeting at that point and to have that person be so important in my life months or a year or whatever it was later, you know, is just amazing.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 34:30

thinking of this theme that I don't know, Colleen, if it's resonating with you, but that I've kind of like Throughout these interviews we've done over the last year, there's, there's been several times, like just a person that does like a small act of kindness or these, there's been these people that just do something that just profoundly changes somebody's life. And it's just so amazing to know, like any one of us could be that person for somebody else too. So like, look, be that person that's looking for an opportunity to change somebody's life because you could, we could do that for somebody. That's incredible. Like one small thing that we could do for somebody could have this amazing impact on somebody's life.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 35:10

yeah.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 35:11

We get, we get that opportunity every day, even like the other day, not to toot my own horn, but like, I just offered some friends of mine have been going through something and I, was at the store and I picked up extra dino nuggets and then, Like did one other thing. Oh, she needed a target order. And I said, text my husband. He works right next to target. He'll pick up your target order on the way home. And she was like, I don't have to leave my house now. Like, and I'm like, yeah, it was any, but you know, on those days where you're just like at the end of your rope and you're like, I don't have the energy to leave, like those were two very small things that we could conveniently do for this person that made their life so much easier.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 35:51

Yeah.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 35:52

Like we should be looking for ways to just simplify other people's lives when we can do that.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 35:57

Yeah.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 35:57

And, and it's okay to ask for what we need to, you know, like,

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 36:02

And accept it

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 36:03

and then accept it. So I've been like looking for an opportunity to go to Michigan to see my uncle. And I have one weekend, one window that I can go. And I started getting a group text about like, it's the last week of school. We're going to do a last week of school, you know, party for the kids. And I'm like, well, I'm not here that often. Those days you guys are looking at. So, and I just said, like, I want August to be able to go, but she might need support getting home because we're gonna have a new au pair and I don't know if she can be able to drive, like whatever. I might need some help. And one of the girls is amazing in there. She's like, we'll get her home. Like, we'll make sure she can come and we'll make sure she can get home. And I'm like, sweet. And I'm accepting it. Thank you. I'm going. Like great ideal

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 36:45

And I think there's so many of

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 36:47

taking that help

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 36:48

Yeah. And, and it's, when it's interesting to think about who those helpers are and who those people are, it's always the people who have too much on their plate and who are willing to do a little bit more. Right. Like there, I think there's like, you know, we all have multiple kids. Cheryl and I each have three kids. Yeah. And it's like, for me, I, we situation. We had a friend who's a single newly divorced, single mom and her daughter wrote, and on Thursdays I would pick up my kids from school, go pick up Josephine 15 minutes away from our school and then bring them back because growing up for me, you know, I had a single mom and so many people helped us, right? Like that's how I was able to get to things and that's how, you know, and those people were so impactful in my life. That, you know, you know, and once you've got three kids, what's one more, you know, like, they're not going to

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 37:47

It's kind of fun.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 37:48

Actually the change and it's going to change the dynamic probably for the better.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 37:52

Yeah,

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 37:53

Yes.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 37:54

But I, it is, it's those people, right? Like Katy, if I was like, Hey, you know, I can't get my kid to soccer. You'd probably be like, all right, throw them in the car. Like we got you because. That's just kind of how people who are handling and juggling, I think, not everybody, but I think that the, those are the people that make such a huge impact on our lives, you know, for the better.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 38:20

I always tell people when they're like, how do you do it all? Which is so weird to me. Cause I don't feel like I'm doing it all. Like I look at my life and I think I'm not doing it, but I always say half assed and wholehearted.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 38:31

Oh my God. I love that. Put that on a t shirt.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 38:36

Yeah.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 38:36

That is a hundred percent and people will say that to Cheryl and I all the time. How do you do all the things that you do? And you're like, Oh man, like you're not seeing the whole

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 38:46

Yeah. I always, I'm not doing it, but just don't come to my house today.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 38:51

I'm yelling there's shit everywhere

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 38:55

I need a pedicure and a manicure and

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 38:57

Not pretty

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 38:58

and I keep trying to get there and it's not happening. And

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 39:01

My clothes are wrinkled. My hair is dirty. I mean, I haven't exercised in six years. What do you want?

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 39:08

Oh my God. That

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 39:09

a vegetable? I don't know.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 39:12

I'm very familiar with dry shampoos.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 39:15

is like my best friend in the whole world. I have to tell you guys the funniest thing I got kicked out of our PTA.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 39:24

Atta girl. Tell us more.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 39:27

not for any other reason other than I have so many things going on. I put, I didn't see all the emails and I didn't really get kicked out, but kind of

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 39:34

There's probably too many emails, let's be honest.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 39:37

like I,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 39:38

Wow.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 39:40

always ask the people back, but like, apparently they sent me a bunch of emails and I didn't respond, which by the way, I went back and searched and I didn't see them, but maybe they sent them, I don't know, but they're like, but it was funny, I was really upset about, I was talking to my business coach and she's like, you don't need to be on the PTA, Colleen. You've got so many other things going on, but it was like, you know, we're trying to do everything and we're doing everything. And I'm on the PTA and I'm running the businesses and I'm doing this stuff. And I, I'm finally getting to this point now where I'm like, I am okay with doing a little bit less, like just being more intentional about what I'm doing. But I'm just like, I can't believe they like kind of kicked me off. Like it's

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 40:25

You're like, I'm freaking out. I'm actually like, Oh, I know they were going to talk about them at Thursday's meeting. I should see if they've asked me back. Cause I didn't go to the Thursday's meeting.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 40:35

Yeah, but it's always, it's always us where we're trying to do too many things. And I was like, okay, I can, we can let the PTA thing go. But Katy, there's two questions I want to ask you about your business. One, how do you monetize your business? Are you, do you do advertisers? You said you do some paid writing. Like how does that how do you monetize your

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 40:57

so I would say it's probably 90 percent through advertising on our website or through our emails on social media. And just as our traffic grew, so did our opportunities. We're part of an ad network, which sends us a check every month based on how many people visit. And then our local sponsors are just amazing and believe in what we're doing and help with our work in the community. Without them, we Couldn't do it. It would just be me and I can't cover as much as we need to, you know and then sometimes opportunities come up through social media. We have a very extensive list of Indy families who are on our email list. And so we're able to monetize that as well. And then we've been able to be in some smaller programs through like Facebook and Instagram that provide compensation. And then I also do some freelance work and then we've thrown a few events of our own. We have one coming up in the fall. So businesses will ask us to get families out to their, their, put on an event that families will come to. And we'll do that. We. That's like just a little something that we do because a lot of some people on our team like event planning. And then our followers like to get together with their kids. And then we provide like a really fun, special VIP experience that they may not have access to. But we prefer to promote other people's events. You know, like we're not here to, to run our own event empire. We're here to, Share what's going on in the community and make sure that like every family, no matter your budget, no matter how many kids you have, how few kids you have, but that every family has access and opportunities to the amazing things that our community provides, that they know about the programs, that they know about the freebies, that they know about the opportunities and experiences that are available to families out there. Because if we don't use them, We've learned that they go away and some of our favorite programs have ended in the past because of lack of attention on them. Some of our favorite businesses have failed because people don't know, you know, what a great experience it is. So Just to try to make sure that no matter your budget, we have free things on the website and we have people who've been to Disney. I haven't done that yet, but some people have, you know, so we have everything for for the Indianapolis family or someone coming here to visit. Some travel. I recently went to Iceland and so I did a whole thing about going to Iceland with your kids. And then next month we have an article coming about going to Ecuador and Galapagos with your kids. So but yeah, so lots of good stuff there, no matter your budget, free to Galapagos.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 43:51

free. And then like a hundred year old turtles.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 43:56

Just depends on your budget. There's something for you. And if that one's not for you, you just scroll past, you know

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 44:01

that is so cool. Okay. Now, what I want to talk about is now you've entered into a new phase of this business with your book. Tell us about your book. Tell us everything and where can we buy it? Tell us what it's about. How are we doing it?

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 44:17

Debut book. It's through Read Press and they have a book like this in several other large cities like Chicago and Tampa Bay and St. Louis, and it's a scavenger hunt. And in here are about. 320 clues, so there's a photograph of something and you're supposed to find that using the rhyming clue that I provided you. So I wrote like 350 rhyming clues, four liners. They all had to have the same number of syllables each line did. And that was not a poet. That's if you look at my style it was definitely something that stretched me. An opportunity that came my way and that's the other thing. Don't say no, don't say no to something that sounds cool to you, even if you don't think you can do it. So I went into it, it took about a year. There's 19 different Indianapolis area neighbor Indianapolis neighborhoods in here. And it's like a walking tour. You could park your car, get out with your, your family, and try to find these things. And some of them are very hard, so not impossible. But you'll have to use the clues and the clues have some direction in them. They have some history. They have some information to help you find them.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 45:30

Colleen, what, a great closing book for people with kids.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 45:33

you already know I went there. I'm like, wow, I need to buy like a bunch of those and put them in our

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 45:38

Yeah. Yeah.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 45:44

Especially as you know, like as a transplant here, and we have so many more people who are transplanting to Indianapolis, like what a cool tool to have for you and your family, like for you and your kids or not kids. Right. I suppose anybody can be doing it.

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 45:59

It's, it's definitely in the adult section, travel guides, not, not, it's not made for kids, but kids should go on the adventure with a well behaved adult. So that's what we're saying. Like a well behaved. Can't take Children on this adventure. But it'll it'll take you to some amazing places, like things that I didn't even know existed until I walked these neighborhoods multiple times. Because like so often we're just driving through our communities, you know, we don't get out and like really look at the things and then one, if we do that, if there's people who do that, we don't always go and like Google and figure out like, what was that before? Like what? What's the story behind that? Or why is that even there? And so it made me a very curious citizen and I learned some crazy things about our city. Some that I love and some that are kind of cringe worthy. But the things that I love are in this book. Yeah.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 46:55

large, small, you know, whatever in between is. People predominantly just stay in their own like five to 10 mile radius, right? Like I live in the North side and because I'm used to commuting and stuff like that, from being from LA, like I will go places and I, I go and visit places and go take the kids places. And people are like, where is that? People have lived here their whole life. They're like, what are you talking about? What? is that? And I'm like, well, if you leave, like if you go below 96th Street, like you'll find there's a whole new world down there, right? Yeah. 96th is a stretch. If you're in Carmel, usually it's hundred 16th, but yes. Yeah. So I love this. I love that it gives people an opportunity to like really explore and love their city because. In any city, but particularly here. There's so much cool stuff that you people don't know about, you know Awesome. I love it.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 47:54

Katy, thank you so much for all you shared today. This has been really a delight.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 47:58

Yeah, I wish I could talk to you for like seven more hours, but

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 48:02

I know. Do you have three or four more hours today? Or are you just hanging? You want to just hang out with me while I reorganize the playroom today?

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 48:09

I'm always down for that.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 48:10

Yeah,

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 48:10

Hmm.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 48:11

well

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 48:12

really nice.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 48:13

We know Indie with kids has a website But tell us all all the places where we can find you and then also tell us where we can get your book

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 48:21

Indianapolis scavenger is available on Amazon. It was one of the top 20, 000 books last week. and then you can also find it if you're local, you can find it in Barnes and Noble I believe target as well as Indy reads our local bookstore. Let's see, fables and fairytales and fables bookstore and coming soon to several others. So as far as finding me and my team, you can find us on social media at Indie with kids on both Instagram and Facebook. And then on Wednesdays, you can find me on Fox 59 with our regular segment.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 49:01

Amazing. And can they order the book directly through your website or is it only through retailers?

katy-mann_1_05-17-2024_121847: 49:06

Go ahead and get it on Amazon or yeah, I would just get it on Amazon or through 3d press. Yes.

colleen_1_05-17-2024_121847: 49:12

Amazing. Awesome. Well, thank you. Oh my God. Thank you so much for being here and for chatting with us and sharing with us and, and all of it. Like I'm just literally have no words at this point because I'm so impressed and amazed by you. So thank you so much. Cool.

cheryl_1_05-17-2024_091847: 49:29

Thank you. So nice meeting you. Bye.