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Biz Skills: What to Avoid

Let's talk about what to avoid I call it the silent business killer is a lack of confidence and boy, is it easy to lose your confidence when you've been beaten down by life by adversity by set of unforeseen for circumstances a bad relationship problems with money, confidence? I read a book a long, long, long time ago it's called thie optimistic child and in the book the author said that especially america there's one big mistake that we make because we think that we need to feel good first, and then we somehow end up doing well it's the other way around you have to do well first, and if you do well, you will feel good, I promise you when you sell a company when you build something and success is coming and it's impossible for you to feel bad about that. So instead of focusing on how you feel, focus on how you do big, big, huge in my world and us and and my daughter sometimes says that I don't have enough empathy and I apologize for that if I don't but for me it's about we talked about ...

it, we know there's an issue. What are we going to do about this now? So that's my my, my approach to this so if you have difficulties with the feeling good, try to do well first and doing well comes from executing steps one by one that's why do the five things that sea have works together again? The five things a day if you two five things a day for a week twelve months with a four week vacation you get one thousand two hundred items done in a year that's some to feel good about but you got to know the numbers and you got to know what your end goal is and why you wanted to go there so that way when you have the achievement you can say you know what time to celebrate rewarding myself for having done something that's amazing always avoid not having a plan but I think we've covered that didn't way you have a plan now yes yes yes good very good wanting to be right big mistake wanting to be a right about the business idea wanting to be a right about the people who need it wanting to be right about of pricing models it's again something that business owners very often get wrong where they insist insist that what they think is why they have this you know, on the photo biz intense if there was talking about so in the last one I have a photographer who is specialized in a in the niche off a niche so he kept on telling me on how important his photography was but because it was not just sports photography it was within the running photography it was a sub field off extreme runners in this so here's the sports market he is the running market and then it was this tiny little little bubble at the bottom of it and while I understood what the importance on the personal connection was with this sub segment off the sub segment but that the pie that we showed in the beginning I mean the slice of the pie you know it's a breadcrumb try to feed a family on that you know yes, you are right because you're good at it and you understand the market but no, you're not right it's not enough to make money and it was really great to hear from some of our live stream that some of the business model's apparently had been changed already in the process of it all right? What else not accessing money when you can we've talked about this a swell yes because when we have access to money while we have access to money before we are in the red or before we you know embark on the producing or the printing off the product and we have to spend thousands of dollars to create our our inventory we want to make sure that we don't ask for money when we already have the bill and our credit rating is negatively affected because of the ninety days behind but we want to make a plan with your profit and loss and your start of expense worksheet on how much money you need ahead of time so that when that moment comes instead of being worried about this big expense let's talk about now filling that that need with money that we've already taken care off ahead of time and then it's just like we just hit that milestone and hitting milestones it's better than having a bad surprise good to have any feedback from you so far you look you know you're serious right now just listening I like I like the idea about um letting go of of being right on, you know, there's a lot of talk these days about agile business teams and pivoting on ideas and I'm discarding bad ideas when you have them because not all your ideas they're going to be good s oh, I'm so glad you said that I have had a really great ideas that are really only great for me but they were not feasible but they were good ideas but they're not good ideas for the business and some off business ideas are not good business ideas or just good hobbies to have so it's okay to you don't have to be mine it's not pop possible perhaps to make money with everything that you love because everything is a business this is about also verifying on whether or not this is a viable business and it's exciting to hear that some of thes business ideas that you've had were, you know, already having it already undergoing transformation and changing any other feedback we got in a zoo resonating with your your feedback about how you dress, how you present yourself staying law firms do do that kind of marketing, uh by insisting employees including staff and secretaries dress like the upscale clients that they want, and some law firms don't even let their secretaries where certain types of fabric because there is a certain certainly a story uh, that they're projecting. So this has been a rule of business of time more not a word time immemorial. Absolutely you should dress for the job you want, not necessary the job you have now that's something that's gone completely after the window. But for old school people like me that's a struggle because I just dress professionally all the time that's just the way I am, even when I'm not on air I come into the office fully dressed and that gets laughter every day. But this is that's the way I think there's a challenge we wanted to be a fireman, that was a challenge you shouldn't go toe, but otherwise you should always dress for the job you want, and law firms are a good example of how they stuck to that dress code yes, exactly, and it certainly is changing it with a lot of the companies as we're seeing out there and with it, with the younger generation. But I do believe that everybody has their has to place in time and it's important for what you do again. It's important what you want to project, but again, like the personal trainer that's overweight, that's training clients and I'm like, dude, you know, you probably can't even go to my little hill without being huffing and puffing, so I would not give you a sense. So as long as things are going and thought through another thought of polynesia says the yacht, eh, you have just really hit every nail on the head. I'm on ly in the planning stages of my business, and I'm already experiencing a lack of confidence and believing in myself enough confidence that you know what? Maybe we should spend a little bit more, more, more time on that to talk about this confidence. Nobody can really give you confidence other than you can give yourself confidence. I find that that orienting myself upward. So hanging out with people that already are more like what I want to be really has helped me to get that out of out of my head and taking tea to your making. It may be people you can feel about it one way or another way but sometimes it's the only thing you have it's in the power of positive thinking and let me get a little bit no now into that sort of spiritual spiritual portion of it I do not believe again it's my personal belief that achieving success is possible without a sound core belief I do not think that I would be here today and that I would have achieved what I've achieved if it wasn't for me having done a lot of the right things I remember when my company was acquired he goes through this huge to diligence that people say you're good business owner when you've done two things you've been through a lawsuit and an acquisition I've been through both and it everything you have done is being looked at by incredibly qualified people with massive degrees and big successes and they literally look att everything you've done under the magnifying class and no matter what you've done there trained to find the skeletons in the closet so you know you have to produce this enormous amount of paperwork and and so they're sitting in this due diligence for months this isn't about a day and they say yeah and now we want to see this and we want to see this we want to see this and this and this and this and this and this everyone to see your divorce papers, my divorce papers well because I didn't want you know the ex husband to jump out of the bushes with some unreasonable requests I want to make sure that you know, things were kind of ok was big big amount of money to be paid and I remember the moment when it sort of came to the closing of the due diligence and I set down with the financial advisor who was running the due diligence and he looked at me and he says, you know what? I got to tell you this that a lot of times but sometimes that way by companies and then you look at this and you don't even like the person that's making this money and you have this internal resistance off off wanting this to go through because you just don't I think they deserve that, he says, but with us as I can wholeheartedly say that what I have found, I couldn't think of a better person to suggest the clothes then for you powerful and when these things to me always mean that we have no idea how our lives really will go, we only influence it as much as we possibly can sort of along the way, my surviving guide and my surviving thought when I was struggling with this power of positive thinking while there really wasn't much to think positive about I mean you've heard my story believe me when all of this happened and then and then in that and then this came on top of it and then I lose my key photographer in a huge natural disaster stuff like that just doesn't happen to everybody but it did all happen to make and to keep that positive outlook is very, very difficult but what I did do and what I did understand is that positive thinking means finding one thought thatyou can authentically and really believe it it's not this ago things were going great and just no problem it's easy peasy because you can tell yourself that all day long but if you don't believe it it's worth this is a waste of time but if you think perhaps like I thought this can not be it there has to be something better than this there has to be alighted the end of the tunnel there has to be something that comes after this because this cannot be it because I did do the right things I didn't lie I didn't cheat, I didn't steal, I treated my people well, I believed in the things I'm not responsible for this I'm not responsible for this I made mistakes but I shouldn't be punished like this this cannot be it that was my surviving thought this cannot have been it and I truly believed in that thought and at the end of the day it wasn't it it came you know there was a lot more that came after that so if you are suffering from a lot from a lack of confidence find that thought that you really can believe in and believe in that with all you got ha ha ha I was a little more than I thought I was going to talk about I get emotional about these things you know because it brings me back to that despair I and you know and you know and all of this I was I was really sick and ill you know with with a a physical condition that lasted for ten years and nobody could figure out what the heck it was because I was so stressed out and under so much so much pressure I mean to get out from under all of that it's not easy and I'm not going to lie and I'm not going to give you tryto statements jenise good um when you were talking about I was thinking about how far you went down and I was thinking about myself and what I try to do after um you know, some tragic things happen in my life and try to build my financial um situation back up I tried because my credit was really shot and so I have to start thinking differently about how I view money because I don't want to I didn't want to get in debt again so can you can you speak about that on how you are? What the questions specifically on how to how to how to change your view about spending money getting into debt so that you, khun, get the purchased equipment, if you will, that you need in or website or whatever it is, you need to go forward when you know the numbers, janice, when you know the numbers and you've calculated how the purchase off this new camera or the lighting equipment will help you to offer a different service that more people can buy and you see it as an investment, not as an expense. Remember we talked about that when you look at it as an investment and say, if I'm investing five hundred dollars a thousand dollars into this piece of equipment, I can service more clients that want they want this product because before I could only do it in natural light, but now I can also a stage, you know, stage the photo shoot. That means I'm independent from whether I'm independent from location I can set up anywhere so now, instead of being able to shoot one time a week night can shoot every day, so even if it would increase twenty five percent my revenue, then I would shoot an extra day per weeks, and now I just doubled my income. You know, and that's how you that's, how you talk you away through this, but let me tell you this feeling off money, I mean to me never went away after I sold my company and I thought I'm going to do this big shopping spree at at the famous retailer on rodeo drive, I went in and that's what we did, we looked at the t shirt in the t shirt, says two hundred eighty dollars for a t shirt. My daughter said, look what a cute code it's a burberry coat for, like, two thousand dollars. I was in that store for five minutes, I said I didn't do it then, and I don't think I'm going to do it now. So your relationship with money it's not necessarily going to change um, it's just that your argument with money is going to change because remember the word expense bad the word investment good. So use the right words and sometimes you need to give yourself a pep talk about this and and really allow yourself to to say, okay, I'm worth it and if you want to reward yourself sometimes that's, okay, but very much like you do this for me and never really went away to his day to this day, if I buy anything for price, I feel guilty and it never will know it will never because I will never forget on how difficult it was to get here so I will always honor that and that's good I think that's true I actually have read parts of a book called the millionaire next door and it really does talk about the mentality of a millionaire is really it depends on the person you still can have ah lot of net worth but it doesn't mean you have to roll around in money actually they tend to be the most the most frivolous with not frivolous frugal from what was it with the money? So yes, it absolutely is a mentor to me and certainly all the people that I know that have been very successful in business there are very few out there that are, you know, acting like the nouveau riche just muchas I think yachts and and and second homes and things like in timeshares and things like that are fan fabulous and amazing but when I do the math and that's what you learn, what I just taught you issue ran the numbers and you know is the timeshare is that that second place really worth it? Are you really going to be rather take that money and go on that two week vacation and pay for it and you're probably going to spend half assed much as you would be doing otherwise good to answer our ad to genesis answers I mentioned earlier that I feel a lot of anxiety about getting into debt and it's hard for me to make these purchases. Photography can be expensive. Um, and I was talking to a fashion designer friend here in the city, she's also working on a make her project. But anyway, I said, you know, I want to buy this piece of equipment, and and I just feel so freaked out about doing and she says, well, is it going to make you do better job at your next gig? And I said, yeah, it is and it's going to save me time and editing as well. Uh, and she said by it, you know, and, uh, I haven't I will. But yeah, I think this is this is all giving me up for understanding. Like, what is a practical expense and investment? It's an investment and and what? What might be frivolous? Or try to separate those two things enough that practical versus frivolous. Great way to look at it. Great way to look at it if you can justified with the numbers, by all means, go for it. Excellent. Good. Um, let's, uh, before we get ready for our next guest, let's talk about some more things off things to avoid and I don't mean to make it really sort of heavy this is just some offthe e you know, there's the bread and butter stuff that all entrepreneurs need to know that we very often do wrong. No, I got this like no, no, no, this is just like this little frog that's going like this but, uh, there's a lot of residents powerful concept thinking of investment instead of expense. I definitely need to change my way of thinking. Thanks for that. And that comes from dave enya. Wonderful. How good I thinkit's a simple mind uh a simple mind trick because again, it's the expectations that something is going to come back around let's talk about what else to avoid, not knowing you must have seen your negotiables. So what I mean, when I make the statement is if I go in a negotiation, I know how low I can go and I know what portions off this job are going to be negotiable in which ones they're not getting paid but not negotiable how you get paid negotiable if you're delivering this today or tomorrow negotiable so each part of your job, whatever you you work through it from the purchase order from the your terms and conditions from your income from your everything is either a negotiable mustapha can you negotiate your feet? Can you negotiate your expenses yes yeah if they want to do something I want to do the project differently and you can say what's expenses are as proposed can you negotiate expenses? Uh well, if I know how much it's gonna cost I'm not going to but if I know I'm putting out a certain amount of money teo pay for something I'm not going to negotiate on that yeah, I mean that's that's something that I'm not going to hard costs ah hard costs right? So you cannot negotiate on your heart cost because you know where they are and that's you know, remember the groupon when you heard all these horror stories about group on when they first came out, a lot of business owners had said that they had totally forgotten what the heart costs were and so you know why? They thought that was great to do the volume but they realize that their hard costs per product that they were delivering were higher than then what they were selling it for. And next thing you know, every time they sold the product they lost five dollars was the most expensive it put them people out of business because they couldn't deliver so hard costs are generally not negotiable if you have you know, if you providing a package and it depends on whether they having mac and cheese or oysters yes, that part is negotiable but the hard costs ofthe catering is not negotiable photographer friend in the area he does architectural photography and he we were talking about this concept and he said, well, I heard someone say once you know you could do something well and fast and cheaply but you can't do all three at the same time oh great it's it's quality price and quantity you can only have two so walmart has which two price quantity quality quantity in price neiman marcus quality quality and cuss and service as service I mean it's like looking in a puzzle that's okay it's service okay quality hold on hold on hold on hold on hunted my imperfections are showing through price and quantity in other words he was saying if a client is saying I want a really good photos but I want you to do it quickly and I want to to do it cheaply you can't you can't do it you know? So you can't say well if you want it if you want these gorgeous, you know quality images I know tonto thing customize velvet background it's going to cost right? Yes, but I can't put you on the left over a polyester blend from trees in the quarters exactly something something like that yes so you know, just just for the example after I sort of screwed up this three thing because yes and carmilla but by surprise but yes, your friend is right and we'll revisit that when I'm you know, not as focused on what I'm trying to say yeah she's e can't believe that um lack of personal boundaries what are you willing to do ed would cost personal boundaries are if I have children from a mom and I need to run because it's an emergency with my kid that's a personal boundary that will always come first answering phone calls from demanding clients on sunday morning at six personal boundary so you train your clients what to expect from you. So if you answer emails and I'm so guilty on saturday and sundays they come to expect that you working twenty four seven some people go so far that they actually put it in the email and they say we only answering emails from x to y this is and we'll get back to our earliest convenience having too many or too few networks so if you do what I do and you start out like that that it would be enough to make anybody crazy so use you know to start with one, two, three, four try a few things and then when you feel you got a good handle on that and you can get rid of one, then use another one nobody's equally good at everything shocking but true the gold paradox, which is something I actually describe in the book I in the book there's a chapter on the on the triple paradox and the gold paradox goes like this we sit here we write our plan we say if I only would and then we go there and we think about well we've just achieved it would say yeah, I just didn't get that big client but I'm still driving a shitty car I'm still twenty pounds overweight and I still don't have a boyfriend or significant other and my mom still hates me so the gold paradox means that no matter where we go we will never be happy because we I don't really know that that's a goal so when we do reach the goal make sure that there's a reward at the end of the goal and that you have clearly identified if I add three big clients by the middle off by the end of july I am going to take two days off and I'm going to book a massage retreat at this x y z play place so it's important that we take care of ourselves pestering customers and over serving why go daddy has to send me a survey on how they did every time I speak to them is really beyond to me do not do that let's just be in a sensitive about this you can do too many surveys you cannot pass the customers for feedback you asked them and then you remind them. And then you need to back off and always use your own as as a guideline.