[Transcript starts at 1:21]
Hello, hello, hello, my podcast people and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. This episode drops on Thursday, December 21st and we're talking to you about the fact, we're asking the question, are you cut out for entrepreneurship? If you're listening or watching on the day that it drops, I will be flying to Lex's family's house for Christmas.
Say a prayer for me. Not because of the family. They are great. I love them. But it's about to be cold as shit. They live in upstate New York and I have not gone, I have not gone back to the East Coast for Christmas since like 2015, since I left. I, since I left and moved here. So eight years and I don't want to go back but it's a big deal for Lex and her family and so I'm happy to be there but also say a prayer for me and my toes.
Folks, say a prayer for me and my toes. I will let y'all know how it goes. But today we are talking about how to know if you're cut out for entrepreneurship. I received this as a question in the DMs, actually Jill and I both received it, it was like a joint message, um, from someone who had just listened to episode one of Triple B, which was Business and Bullshit with my Bestie.
If you haven't listened to that series, what were you doing? Courtney, if you could link those, thank you. Let's link all of them. That'd be great. Uh, but, received the question, if you're listening to this right now or watching this and you were the person that asked that question, thank you. I never like to say the names because I don't know if people like want me to say it, but you know who you are and thank you.
But the question that they asked was, basically, how do I know if I'm cut out for entrepreneurship? Right? I get the itch, I think about doing it, and then I kind of talk myself out of it, I come up with all these reasons not to do it, but then the idea keeps coming back, and like, it's an itch that I want to scratch, but how do I know I'm cut out for it?
You'll already know my answer. Try it. Humans like certainty. I get this. To that end, the best way to know something for certain Is to do the thing. Then, you know, for sure, are you cut out or not, cause you did it. You tried it and you're like, nope, it's not for me. Or yes, actually it is for me. Or no, certain parts aren't for me, but yes, other parts.
Recording this episode at the end of the year, the end of 2023. And as we head into the new year, maybe you're thinking about trying entrepreneurship. I really don't know who listens to this podcast. Those of you who reach out, thank you. You leave, you leave recordings, what am I saying? You leave reviews and ratings, thank you.
But I don't know if people are actually doing their own thing. I, I know for a fact that when I send emails out, I will every now and then get an email back and the person's like, I don't have my own business but I'm thinking about maybe doing it at some point. Or like, kind of like, I like you and I like what you have to say and I just want to say thank you.
People will specifically say like, I am not your target audience. I'm not buying anything yet. They'll usually say yet, but just thank you. And I'm like, cool. So maybe that's you listening to this. And as we head into a new year, you're kind of toying with the idea of, of heading into trying out, trying on entrepreneurship.
I love that for you. And with this episode, I want to give you a few things to think about that might better help you help, excuse me, help set you up for success. And ultimately, yes, I just want you to go and try it. But I was like, you know what? I do have a few things to say about this and I want to share those things.
I don't want to say that, you know, what's coming in the rest of this episode is at the heart of being a successful entrepreneur, because I do think that there are a lot of, there is a lot of luck that goes into this and luck as a factor oftentimes gets overlooked and not given enough credit. I, whether it's luck with timing.
Just, when you decided to do this thing, it was really hot. Luck with how you look. There's a look for things. Luck with what you're interested in and subsequently with, you know, what you want to sell. There is, luck plays a big role with this. So I don't want to say that, you know, this list, or like put out the list of things that, you know, obviously a successful entrepreneur has to do because those factors, that luck is a big factor as well.
What I do want to highlight are some common traits and common themes that I believe allow folks to stay in the game long enough where they actually have a chance at winning, right? It allows them to stay in the game long enough that it gives them more opportunities for luck to help them out. All right.
So the list it's in no particular order, but we'll go through it right now. First. These folks, they have less need for certainty because they have more trust in themselves and that they'll figure it out. Like, they don't need to know the outcome beforehand, because they're like, you know what? I got it.
Whatever's happening, whatever could happen, like, I got it.
Next, self awareness. Right, you need self awareness because, for the most part, all of you will be working with humans in some way, shape, or form. Self awareness meaning, how am I? How am I acting? How does my behavior affect others? Why am I like this?
Why do I do these things? It is paramount. I think that this goes hand in hand with good emotional intelligence or high emotional intelligence, which makes for good listening, which makes for good relating. And these things are at the heart of relationship building, which is at the foundation, or is the foundation of building a successful business.
Next, these folks take radical responsibility for what? For everything, literally for everything. Cause we know when we take responsibility for all the things that happen, then we can actually believe we can change them. When we have that victim mentality, or this is happening to me, this happened to you can't do anything.
But when you're like, Hey, I made that decision. I made that decision. Okay. What can I do? What can I do differently? To change that outcome.
Next, they have a willingness to figure it out. Figure what out? Literally everything. That ties into the first point that I made which was they don't need as much certainty with things or a certainty about the outcome of things because they have self trust that they'll figure it out.
And Hand in hand, they have a willingness to figure it out. Defaulting to knowing that everything is figureoutable, no matter if it's tech or whatever. That's the thing that comes to mind is online business. Like they're like, okay, I can Google it. I can figure it out. I can ask someone. I can figure it out.
Next, these folks have a penchant for the process. If you're in Canada, it's the process. Folks who are outcome focused, they expect their efforts to yield specific results, and when their efforts don't yield specific results, they typically quit. And oftentimes the result that they expect is monetary. So folks that come from a traditional, which many of us, right, you come from a traditional business background where dollars for hours, um, and you have a set paycheck where you're like, I worked this many hours, I get this many dollars.
If you go into entrepreneurship expecting that, you will be disappointed and you may leave, right? If you need that certainty there, you may leave because you could work on building your website. And I'm just actually, let me take an example from today. I worked for maybe two or three hours on creating a new email, email template because everything's figureoutable.
And I actually, I really enjoyed doing these things, but I wanted to switch it up. I was like, you know what? I want a different look. I want to switch the things up. And then ConvertKit was like, but we're going to make it difficult for you. And I was like, of course you Are. I don't expect to get paid for those hours.
They're not, you know, direct delivery to anybody. Whereas if you had a regular job, you're in the office and you're doing work, then you could be like, hey, I'm gonna get paid for those hours. Or maybe you're just really fucking slow. I'm gonna say you're really fucking slow at doing stuff. And so you're like, well, it took me like three months to build this course and so like, I want to get paid x dollars. And you're like, well, you're just fucking slow. So that would have taken somebody else a weekend, number one. And two, the two are not just, you know, they don't equal each other. So folks who are able to lean into and love and appreciate and focus on the process, they will typically stay with the thing long enough to get the results that, you know, the results, the results that they desire. They're not focused on, on that outcome. So, you know, my favorite quote from Meredith, have expectations of effort. If you must have expectations, have expectations of effort, not outcome. So penchant for the process.
Next, these folks don't need their idea, their side hustle to work.
They don't need it to work for the money, but they do have something to share. They have something to say. They have something that they want to use to help people. When you need this thing to work, it introduces urgency, which makes for bad decisions because you're like, I got to make money. I got to make money.
I just gotta make the sale. I'm going to take on this client and the client's a totally bad fit. And it's a totally bad service. You don't even like doing, you're not even that good at, but you need the money. Now, this is not to be confused with in the beginning. In the beeninging, if you know that, that, uh, it's not a meme, but that funny video that goes around, but in the early days of your business, oftentimes you're, you're kind of saying yes to a lot of things just to get the reps and it's close enough.
And you're talking about, you're trying to figure out what you actually want to do, who you actually want to help, what your, what your niche actually is. That's different than like I'll just do anything and like it's close enough and like I'm gonna do sleazy sales tactics so I need this work. I need the money.
All right. Bad decisions secondary to urgency. For some that burning of the ships and introducing urgency can be helpful but it's not what I believe and it's not how I coach. It's not what I subscribe to myself so I don't promote that. The second part of that kind of this point which is that you don't need it to work monetarily, but you have something to share and you have something to say.
That second part, the belief in what you do, and the desire to help others. That is something that can absolutely keep you in the game, all right, and keep you in the game long enough to quote unquote win. I will say the caveat here, just because you're passionate about something doesn't mean that people need to pay you.
All right, again, it's that expectations of outcome there. Just because you put an effort towards disseminating this information doesn't mean anyone has to care. And that's tough for a lot of people. People also think just because they have expertise, they deserve an audience. Also, no. Also, no. But, being passionate about something and being like, I, this has helped me, it's helped the people I've worked with in person maybe, and I'd like to help more people.
That passion for that, for that, that helping, that message, that can keep you in the game long enough to actually win.
I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about Erica Webb right now, honestly. And that, that she, a few episodes ago I talked about this and she crushed that launch. And I've watched Erica be in the game and stay in the game for a long, long time. And so much of that was, I believe, bolstered by just her belief of like, this can help people. It's helped me so much and like, I need to get this message out. She's never, ever once said, I deserve an audience. I deserve a massive launch. Chick is just out there like, I want to help people and this has helped me and I see the need and I want to share it with whoever wants to to receive it. That will keep you in the game long enough to actually win.
Things like your writing abilities, your communication abilities, technology, understanding of tech, or familiarity with tech, or just proficiency with tech. Your ability to be in front of the camera or be on camera. Those are all skills that can be trained, which is why I didn't include it in the list. Yes, some folks are inherently better than others at these things, and they pick them up better.
But it's a skill, which means that you can practice it, practice it, practice it, and get better at it. If you have that willingness to figure it out, right, that was one of the points that I did put in the list, then you'll learn that thing. And you'll be fine. I will also say that there is definitely an it factor when it comes to larger scale success.
So, you know, there's accounts that are just like have a ton of numbers. Like there is an it factor. Part of that's that luck, right? How do you look? But you can still experience success, whatever success looks like for you, without that it factor. You just have to keep going. Which I covered in the list as well, which is the penchant for the process.
So are you cut out for entrepreneurship? I have no idea. I don't know. But that list of characteristics that I just set forth, it's a start. It's also just my opinion. I do believe that having those things, those traits, those characteristics can make it easier for you to stay in the game long enough to win the game.
But as always, the certainty that you are looking for is waiting for you on the other side of the action that you're not taking. All right. So you want answers? Action is the solution. All right. That's all I got for you today. I figured to keep it short cause the holidays are coming and maybe, you know, you don't want to be listening to this, but as always, I am grateful for every single minute of attention that you get, you get me, you give me.
Happy holidays. Thank you for listening. We'll be back next week. I don't shut up. You know, I've got something to say, uh, but for real, endlessly, endlessly, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time friends, Maestro out.
Watch this episode on YouTube!
MOTM #515: Business & Bullshit with My Bestie Part 1: Doing the Thing
MOTM #517: Business & Bullshit with My Bestie – Part 2: Standing Out In the Space
MOTM #519: Business & Bullshit with My Bestie – Part 3: The Nuts & Bolts of Online Business
MOTM #521: Business & Bullshit with My Bestie – Part 4: Asking for the Sale
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