Hayley Luckadoo on Turning Her Passion into a Media Brand That Elevates Women

Hi, Haley! Please share a brief introduction about yourself and your business:

Hayley Luckadoo is a marketing coach, high-energy motivational speaker, and the founder of Females on Fire, a media brand focused on elevating women in business and personal development. As a coach, she helps entrepreneurs build businesses that fuel their freedom and create marketing plans that fit into their lifestyle, and as a speaker, she empowers women to pursue their wildest dreams and create the highest version of themselves. Hayley is an audacious dreamer who got her entrepreneurial start with a hobby wedding planning business born out of her college apartment, then pivoted to create her current business, and turned it into a multi-passionate success story built on resilience and community. Now, in addition to coaching and speaking, she’s growing that community through Females on Fire’s podcast, virtual and in-person events, and various programs, with the goal of helping 100,000 women create their best lives.

Who are your customers?

Women interested in entrepreneurship and personal development who are ready to find their community, take their business to the next level, and chase their most audacious dreams.

What was your background prior to starting your own business?

I dove headfirst into entrepreneurship with no real background in anything! I’m actually a college dropout and that’s what ultimately pushed me into starting a business!

What made you take the leap to start your own business?

The short version: I was in a six-year relationship and we were engaged with the wedding right before senior year of college. He called it off (over a text!) the month before the wedding. That same week I found out my school had cut some of my financial aid, so I couldn’t afford to come back for senior year, and instantly became a college dropout. Within the span of a week, I lost the guy and the diploma but jumped into action mode and thought, “What skills do I have to help keep the lights on?” I immediately thought “Well, it didn’t happen, but I just planned my own wedding and I’ve got a lot of friends getting married” and my first business was born. I ran a successful wedding planning company for five years and it gave me the business know-how and the love of marketing that led me to pivot into what I do now.

What an inspirational story, Haley! Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

Yes and no! I definitely didn’t know I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I feel like I always had a very multi-passionate, entrepreneurial spirit.

What is the biggest challenge you have encountered along the way so far and what have you learned from it?

My biggest challenge has definitely been finding the balance between dreaming about huge audacious goals and ideas and allowing myself the space to actually complete them! Good things take time, so getting out of my own way and remembering that while being an action-taker is a good thing, sometimes you have to slow down and really put quality into things has been a hard lesson to learn. Go-getter problems!

What accomplishment are the most proud of to date in your business?

I’m so proud of the community we’ve built through Females on Fire! I really feel like one thing I’ve been great at is saying “We’ll figure it out” and just jumping in with faith that we’re jumping and the net will appear when we need it to. Because of that mentality, we’ve launched programs, courses, and virtual events that get thousands of attendees all in perfect timing with what the women who find us need. It’s built a community that is such a beautiful space for people to truly show up exactly as they are and find the help they need to create their dream life and business. I definitely didn’t do it alone, but it’s absolutely the part I’m most proud of because it’s making the biggest impact!

Do you have any recent wins from the last year that you’d like to celebrate with our community?

We launched ticket sales for our very first in-person event – the Females on Fire Conference! After years of virtual events, this is a lifelong dream in the making for me, and we’re so excited to bring women together in August 2024 for this!

What’s next for your business? What can we expect to see over the next few years?

We have a lot of amazing things in the pipeline, but the thing we’re most excited about is creating and expanding our in-person events! We’re starting with our first Females on Fire Conference in August 2024, but then we’ve got some fun events planned for the next few years!

What is your top productivity tip? 

There are so many amazing productivity tips out there, but something a little different that has really helped me is to make a list of everything you need to get done. Then find the one that you’ve been putting off the longest or seems like the one you’re trying to avoid the most. Do that one first! Productivity is 100% about momentum and sometimes you’re putting a lot of mental energy that you don’t even realize toward those things you’re avoiding. You’ll get so much momentum from finally seeing progress or checking off that one thing that you’ve been avoiding, and then you’ll be amazed at how quickly you fly through some of the other things on your list!

What is one thing you wish you had known when you started your Entreprenista journey?

I always go back to connection. When in doubt, find someone to connect with. Any time you start a new business or idea, jump into a new membership or group, or try something for the first time, it can feel overwhelming and you start to question if you belong there, if you have the time to commit to it, or if it was worth it, but we’re not meant to do anything alone. Finding people to connect with will help the puzzle pieces start to connect and you’ll find your way through by letting people guide you and support you. So always always put your focus on connection first!

What is your favorite business tool or solution and why?

Instagram is where I spend the majority of my time connecting with people, but I feel like I couldn’t run my business without Flodesk. Some people think email marketing is boring or complicated, but it’s such a great way to connect with your people and I love how fun and easy Flodesk has made that for me over the years. It’s definitely been a constant for me throughout my years in business and I love that it’s always evolving with me while staying true to what I need it for.

What advice do you have for aspiring Entreprenistas?

Ambition is useless without action. Simply put, you can have all the big dreams and goals and you can say “I’m going to” as many times as you want, but nothing gets done if you don’t take the leap and start step one. So whether it’s with joining something from Entreprenistas or anything else in your life, you hold all the power to make things happen, but you have to just start!

Learn more about the Entreprenista League and join today!