Lessons

Lesson Info

Keep the Momentum Going

Everyone, we made it way are on. Lesson twenty five. Keep the momentum going. This is it. It is our final lesson. We're truthfully a little sad. We're also a little excited, right? Because now you have so much so much that you're gonna do with your business right? Gonna be amazing. So in the last lesson, we created your daily and monthly action plan. We figured out how you're gonna spend your time. We solved that problem of getting up and feeling like, what am I supposed to do today? Texas media eat lunch, right? We solved them that so what I want to do today, today's goal is to develop a strategy for keeping the mo mentum going even when the going gets tough. So in our very first lesson, which seems like a million years ago, right, I talked about this idea that running your business is a marathon, not a sprint, right? We're not going to make a million dollars tomorrow and then retire to an island, not the business model we're in. And truthfully, I know why we're in it, right? We want ...

those long term, sustainable businesses, but let us create the products that we want let's, create those products that were passionate about. We signed up for the marathon and we're actually kind of excited about it, right? We're excited about the long haul atleast now you should be after twenty five lessons, right? But I also mentioned that it's a really hilly marathon there's a lot of ups and downs when you're running your own business, there are days there's going to be honest there days where it's where it's hard where you want to quit happens to me even this many years in you get those days. So what you need is a strategy to get you through the ups and downs of running your business. So I'm gonna tell you guys a story that actually has nothing to do with business, which means it's a metaphor that has everything to do with this mess, right? So a couple of years ago, my husband and I did aa thirty one mile bike ride for charity. I know that might sound like kind of a lot, but the year before that same event, I had done the sixty two mile boop solo and I crushed it right it's awesome. I had school time, I was on it finish. I felt it was just great was like one of those moments were like, yes, this is awesome, but a year later my life had turned upside down there's a lot it's just stuff happening so my husband and I signed up to do the thirty one mile loop because there was no way I was in shape for the sixty to my lip and truthfully I wasn't really in shape for the thirty one mile if I hadn't trained it all and my husband is one of those people who's super annoyingly in shape and does nothing right so he's like gliding up the hills and I'm not and so I just kept hoping that when I would get to the top of the hill he wouldn't be waiting for me right? I wanted I wanted to just do what I wanted teo so he goes on ahead I'm pedaling up this hill I live in pennsylvania it's really hilly, right? Not sandra says go hilly but it's still hilly way mills there to go paddling up this hill and I start to have a panic attack which is the worst thing you can do when you're trying to ride your bike up a hill, right? So I'm like freaking out I can barely breathe and I just said to myself, stop not stop riding the bike because then I would have fallen over right but just stop you are not going to make it up this hill with a panic attack you're not helping yourself you are not going to finish this thirty one miles if you keep going like this, you need a different attitude I need a better plan to survive this so I calmed myself down and worked my way to the top of the hill I thought okay, I need a new strategy we need something that's going to get me to the end of this ride and so what I decided was that I was going to stay calm and take my time on the, uh, pills didn't matter how slow I what the most important thing was that I had to get to the top right however long it took me and I was going to take advantage of the down hills if you ride a bike regularly, you know that's the fun part right towne hills they're fun fly I mean to take advantage of enjoy it right? I signed up because it's supposed to be fun but I'm gonna enjoy those down hills and then when I got to those stretches where the road is pretty flat and the pavement was really good that's what I was going to push and so armed with that new strategy I completed the ride was at the pace I want to know, but I got through it I didn't have a panic attack, nobody had to come pick me up right? I got to the end I accomplished my goal and you can apply these same principles to your business right I told you was a metaphor there there's a reason I was telling you a story about me riding my bike right so you can apply these same principles to your business when you're struggling to get up hill when it feels really hard don't panic right take your time there's no rule that says you have to build your business at a specific speed right take your time pay attention to the self care we don't talk about that a lot but it's still super important right? Whatever self care looks like to you get up to him whatever speed you have teo but then when you've got some momentum right and you're feeling you're cruising on a downhill enjoy it right enjoy running your business think it's one of those things that we don't talk about enough right? You're so in it all the time but if you're not enjoying it then you mind as well just go get a day job right a lot of ways it's a lot less stress yeah you got stressed from the boss you got stress him all that but at least you know where your paychecks coming from right? So when you've got a little bit of momentum enjoy it celebrate those wins celebrate those moments that feel good and when you see that beautiful stretch of flat smooth pavement head when you see those opportunities that's the time to push really hard the time to push really hard in your business is not when you're fighting to go up the hill that's actually not the best use of your energy best use of your energy as when you've got that opportunity when it feels easy because when you push when it feels easy, you're going to get so much more momentum right? It always feels so much easier to sell during the holidays right that's when you should push the feels really hard to sell in the middle of summer is off right don't try to fight it, push and take advantage of the times when it's smooth when it's easy to roll forward right and a couple of things I want you guys to keep in mind focus on why you're doing this right way back in lesson one we set your why we set your goal we set your purpose remember that remember that so that when things get tough you have something to go back to shell what motivates you? What why are you doing this? Um I'm a gn advocate for anti consumerism and I like small batch stuff it had made stuff and I want to promote that but you want to put something out in the world that feels special and different and isn't made by children in a factory in china exactly something that's more meaningful right offthe um christine, what are you doing this I love making stuff and I like seeing that other people appreciate the stuff right may right and you also you also the school he look you wanna bring this other aesthetics won't bring this design driven us into this world I think people are craving right aboutyou way think the world needs more art are beautiful cool um get more people involved and financial security right? Right you wantto have financial security and you also want to provide that for employees too super good goal I want to be able to support my family and actually enjoy the process right? You want to support your family you want time with your kids, right? I don't really know how to do anything else but making create so I don't have a choice that's actually really good right? I always tell people one of my really big motivators is I'm super scared to ever have to get a day job, right? I'm not employable least I'm not employable in the traditional sense right that's a huge motivator for me we are balance and financial status, stability awesome, right? So when you get stuck, come back to that focus on why you're doing it keep the big picture in mind put that vision board up in your studio no what you're working towards when you get bogged down in those day to day details, step back, right? Whoa I'm in this I got to be working on it right step back and look at that vision and that means carving time out every few months to assess your numbers and look at your plan and you know what this is actually more fun if you can involve someone else in the process right when we talked about our numbers here fellas scary right to talk about them in a group so find some people that you could talk about the with but then you also have to be able to sit down and do it for yourself to write you set the vision you set the goal all right this is a big one stop comparing yourself to people on the internet just stop I have this rule but if I'm looking at someone social media profile and it makes me feel jealous or angsty were bad about myself unfollowed there is no rule that says you have to follow your competitors there's no rule that says you have to follow your frenemies right we all have those people you're like hi how are you and really I don't want to see you it all right don't follow them they make you feel bad about yourself just acknowledge it and unfollowed and stop comparing yourself to people on the internet you don't know they may look like they're doing great I have a ton of credit card debt right? They may look like they're an overnight success but you don't know how long they've been working right? You look at that quote ten years of really hard work will make you look like an overnight success right and that number I'd be different I might take you five it might take some whales twenty you don't know you don't know what else they did before they got to this point stop comparing yourself to people on the internet focus on you run your own race it was a runner in high school right? Those are things was run your own race you can't look at other people you have to run your race right and then find a support system where you can share without shame maybe it's a facebook group maybe it's a mastermind group maybe it's just a good friend right talk about the numbers but again if there's someone in that group that makes you feel icky it's not the regroup get out right find a person find whoever it is so that you can share and talk about this because it is really hard to do it alone right you need people you can fall back on many people you can call from behind she's really bad like it's okay fine you get through it or what am I supposed to do today? What can you do to make money that right you need those people that you can call and ask those questions so find those people and then learn from your failures, right? There really is no such thing as failure it's all just an opportunity for learning, right? It's all just an opportunity to decide where you need to pivot in the business. So learn from those I have made a ton of mistakes in my business a ton, but it's okay, because they all got me to right here, right where I'm standing in this moment, right? Sometimes you have to make him to learn, right? I can stand up here and I can tell you every mistake I made and chances are you're going to make some of the same ones yourself, right? Sometimes you just don't know until you do it. I'm mistakes that I've made repeatedly I mean, it takes you a couple times to learn the lesson, but you learn the lesson and you pivot and you adjust and you do what makes sense for your business right and really, really, really important celebrate the winds, right? Even the small ones enjoy the downhills because if you can't do that, you're going to get burned out really quickly if all you're ever focusing on is what went wrong, what didn't work? What I could've done better, you're gonna get burned out, you're going to get exhausted, you have to learn how to be excited, you have to keep that spark so when it comes back at the end of the day, you can look at the things that didn't go well and you could learn from them. But think about what did go well each day, right? What's the wind that you got in that day, you can answer that question every single day. It's going to make you more excited to get up the next day, you can celebrate those little winds, so I'm gonna ask our studio audience and you guys can think about this at home as well. What's a win that you've gotten during this boot camp, but someone you've gotten, I feel a fresh energy. Teo just hit it hard when I get back home. I think my main inside is to be more strategic and, like, intentional with a lot of the things that I do may be today for the business. Awesome. Yeah. That's really important and it's where a lot of people right, kind of fall short jetting direction. You guys kind of know better now, right where you are. Awesome. Well, of course, there's way more than one. But I think the biggest one is, um, having systems in place. Even if you're organized, you have to have systems. To keep that going yeah, I also want to point out that you told me during a break that you set up multiple sales right to clear out some old inventory that's awesome that's a huge win right? You've got that set up so that you could take action and I love that catherine what do win you that have a more decisive plan of what direction I want to go in first? Awesome I think I know questions now to ask myself what to do and I really enjoyed meeting all the people because they're so different that made it was like I kind of got excited about other people's wins like see where it would go right? This was really nice, right? Which is really awesome and so that's the other thing too is that we find it so easy to celebrate for other people we find it really hard to celebrate for ourselves, right? So that same feeling that you have for them make sure you're channeling that for yourself too, right? Um there's so much but I think I really feel more empowered to push forward and really make this my full time business I love it I love hearing all you guys say that you guys know one of my big goals that's right strong, confident women so I see a whole group of them sitting in front of me now which I love so before we go I want to talk about the next step right? Because one of the things that happens whenever you take a workshop whenever you take a class is you leave with a million things right? So I want everyone to come up with their one very specific very actionable next step that you can take today I always like to say today right? Because tomorrow never actually comes right so what is one thing? It could be small but what is one thing? One action one next step that you could take today michelle, I actually can't take this today but my next big step is to make my cells page more understandable for the people who hit it. I want to break that down right because I want to be really specific with you guys in this moment you are yes. You knew where I was going with that? Your next step is a by now button on your sales age, right? Yes. Be specific. All right, christine what's your next step I'm going to send out my first email newsletter. Awesome I'm going to go home, visit a couple stores, see if they want to do a trunk show perfect. My next step is the annual calendar to really see where to prioritize my attention right now fantastic that's a great one mine is developing a line sheet ah, yes, perfect. You gotta have that writes you could hit those stores. What's your next step. Liquor flicker. Yeah, right here in put your portfolio on flicker. So it's really easy to show perspective clients. What? You d'oh awesome. Leo what's your next step I'm going to buy a domain, increased my brand presence and also reach out to stores perfect by a domain is a great civil next action. Step off. Um, so before you guys go, of course I have to give you one more homework assignment, right? Of course I have to give you something to do. We can't just leave it right. So, here's, your homework, I want you to share a win that you've had during the suit camp. I want to celebrate and then they were going to call up everyone and we're going to celebrate here in the studio. But I want you guys to celebrate and I want you to celebrate online so that I can celebrate with you, right? So share a win you've had during this boot camp. You guys have been working for five weeks, right? I bet there's more than one win, but I want you to share atleast one posted on instagram and use our make live cell hashtag and give me a little shout out. Give me a little at mega nam in so I can see it because I want to celebrate the winds with you and then step two is not as to identify that next action step it's to complete it. Gonna hold all of you guys accountable, right? I'm gonna hold all of you guys in kind of a long line too, right? Declare that next action step and get it done. Not tomorrow today, right? Do what you need to dio to move yourself forward. So I want to thank you guys so much for joining me over these twenty five lessons. We have learned a lot and I have loved spending this time with you guys and I cannot wait to see what happens in your businesses because we've got some fantastic products and some fantastic businesses. And I know you guys are going to succeed, and I cannot wait to see it. So thank you, everyone for joining me. Now I actually want call rc audience up. So I just want to say thanks to everyone for joining us and here's to twenty five lessons of hard work and some really successful businesses cheers, everybody.