BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 17. 

Today we are talking about the beautiful dance of entrepreneurship. I know a lot of you have an idea, and you're in this weird in-between place of wondering if you're ready to really pull the trigger. And I know this because I hear from you. When I run into you, or when we chat on Instagram direct messages. And I recently asked you on social media. I said, Hey, what do you want to hear more of on the Bird Means Business podcast? And one response was, “How do I know if I even have a viable business?” So thanks for that Regina. That episode is definitely in the works. But I want to say this. There is a fine line when it comes to being ready, and I use air quotes whenever I say “ready” because you obviously don't want to be out there like wild-n-out, you know? And just jumping ship into your business without a real plan. But on the other side of that. Honestly, are any of us really ready? Do any of us ever feel like there's this perfect moment where we should finally launch our business? Not exactly. 

So, the intention of this episode is to give you a peek into what this entrepreneurial journey will look like and to hopefully help give you some insight and shape your perspective as you move forward. Because it's kind of like a dance. And I'm going to give you this in five phases. Okay, so I'm going to just name off the phases, there's The Pre-dance. Then there is “The Waiting Game”. Then there's “This is Awkward”. And then there's, “Okay, I'm starting to get it”. And finally, there's “Let's do more”. 

All right so for Phase One, “The Pre-dance”. If you can’t tell I'm kind of already really excited about this dance analogy so we're gonna just go with it. All right, first, in “The Pre-dance” phase, there's first desire. So this is when you're just like, I want something different. I want to try something new. I need to change up something in my life. I have a friend who was bored at home in the evenings and she was tired of just watching Netflix all the time. And she decided she wanted to take up dance classes. So many of you entrepreneurs out there, you know there's more in you than what you're doing maybe in your nine to five, or you just know there's more to life, or there's just this exciting idea or dream you have on the inside of you. The dance of entrepreneurship is brewing. So after this desire, then there's a first action. So with this first action, you started taking classes, and you love it. If fills you up. So that friend I mentioned, now she's wearing fishnets, and pole dancing on the regular, and she's so much happier than when she was just sitting around at her house. So in your business, it could mean, maybe you start listening to, you know, a related podcast or you attend an industry conference or do an online course. And the momentum is starting, it's building like a snowball and this is golden. But, and this is important. You can't stop there. You have to capitalize on it. 

I was just in Sedona in the beautiful, beautiful red rock mountains. And there were some mountains that were so steep, that I had to very literally lean into the mountain, and keep moving forward because if I were to stop, it'd be so hard to like start back up at such an incline. You know what I mean? All that energy would just be lost and I'd almost have to kind of skip down to the bottom and basically start over. So before you go to that next conference, make a post-conference gameplan. What are your deadlines for implementation? How many people do you want to connect with while you're there? What space will you need to create in your day-to-day life, and your schedule, after the conference to allow for the ideas you'll bring back? So the point is to not stop at starting, not stop at taking the first action. But to keep moving forward to lean in and press into the momentum that you've already started building. 

So after the first action, then there's the next action. So you keep practicing, and not just in class, in dance class. But you begin to bring the practicing home too. So as a little girl, I was in a dance company, and it was kind of a big deal. We would travel and it was fun. And it also kind of took over my childhood, until I was 12. And what would happen is my mom and my dad would actually video record me during dance class in the studio. And then when we got home, they would pop in the VHS. Anybody remember those? Yeah, they would pop it in, and later in the week at home, I'd be rehearsing that routine, again and again. And the point is that when I showed up to the next class, I'd be ahead of the pack. Because I would have put in extra miles on my own time. So I was making more of the instruction I received in class by actually implementing it at home. You know, this wasn't fun, especially as a little kid. Let me paint a picture. So while other kids came home from school, and rode their bicycles and kind of did whatever, I was in the living room watching TV, sitting in the splits while holding my arms out in a tea with dumbbells in both hands. Yeah. That's how I watched TV, y'all. What did Malcolm Gladwell say about, there's like this 10,000-hour rule where he considers the keys to success in any field is just simply a matter of practicing a specific task and doing it like 20 hours a week for 10 years. Well yeah, that's what I was doing. I was putting in my 10,000 hours. But the point is, what are you doing, not just in class, per se, but at home that will differentiate you in your business? So what are you sacrificing maybe in your schedule or in your social life or in your pride? When you get access to knowledge, you have to actually apply it. So yeah, you want to perfect your business plan, your business offering or even your own leadership skills, or your team culture. Point is that each new learning should directly improve your business. You're not learning just to learn to keep it in your head. You want it to be actualized. Okay, so that's phase one, “The Pre-dance”. 

Now we're getting into phase two, which is “The Waiting Game”. And y'all we’re hoping that this is a short one, because you've practiced, and now you're on the sidelines, waiting for someone at the school dance to ask you to get on the dance floor. Like can I give you a shortcut? That may not ever happen. So I'm gonna need you to stand up. Yep, you. Stand up. Get off your butt and push past the fear and the discomfort. And the “what if”? And the “but what will I look like?” And get your butt on the dance floor, because there's not going to be a perfect moment. And there's not going to be a hero, except for you. No one is going to come and do it for you. And I don't want you to think that I'm just barking at y'all. I'm telling myself this too. I can't tell you how many late nights I've been sitting in my living room while my entire family's asleep, and I want to be asleep too. And I'm thinking, “Man, I wish someone could just come and do all this for me. I don't want to do this anymore.” You know I'm kind of waiting for something to happen, yet nothing's gonna happen. There might not be a big investor or a partner, but you still have to start. Remember you didn't do all this practicing for nothing. So phase two, “The Waiting Game”. That's going to be a short one. 

All right. Phase three is called “This is Awkward”. So this phase is rough. But it's important. Have you ever seen someone dancing and it’s like they're trying to do way too many things at once? Like with their hands or their hips or their shoulders, but it's not all syncing together. But they're just going, you know, in their own zone. I must say when I see people dancing crazy like this, I love it. Because to me, it shows that they're truly free, right? And that kind of freedom is kind of underrated, but anyway. You too, as you're walking onto the dance floor of entrepreneurship, you may have a tendency to want to do all the things. You have all the ideas and you want them to perfectly come together day one. Well, guess what, they probably won't. Because you likely won't have the capacity to do all the things because you may start with a small team. So here are four things I want you to do in this awkward phase, okay?

Number one, start with just your core product or service and learn from it. And then I want you to build from there over time. 

Number two, I want you to test things. So, this will look different depending on your specific product or service. But let's say you have 50 flavor ideas. I want you to start with 10 ideas. And I want you to survey your clients and adapt and evolve from there. I want you to test out things with your marketing. See what works and doesn't work, and then change accordingly. And y'all this might feel awkward. But it's normal, and it's important. 

Number three, I want you to start off by thinking of your business in phases. So this is an exercise that I walk all of my one-on-one clients through. It is great because it helps you to do two things. One, not feel overwhelmed right now because you want to do all the things right now. And two, it helps make it feel okay to have to do some of the mundane things now because you're motivated for what's ahead. 

So if you've been listening to the podcast you know that I've recently done an online course called Making Sense of It developing a profitable business plan. I had a great group of core students and this was something that I had to really reiterate with them when I sat down and reviewed their business plans one on one. There were some amazing ideas but I could tell that they didn't have the capacity to do all the things right now in phase one. But maybe once they became profitable, or whatever the milestone would look like. Then they could add on the extra thing. The point is if you miss this piece of thinking of your business in phases, you might not have a business next year. If you try to do everything now you might be able to sustain that and then you don't want it to be the situation where you don't even have a business anymore. Think of your business in phases, and you will feel more motivated than you think. Right now in my business, I'm doing a lot of things that I don't really enjoy doing so much. But I can see in the future if I keep this up, I'm going to be able to have those goals out in the future. So think of your business in phases and pace it. 

And then the fourth thing in this phase is to stay focused. So this is internally in your business and also externally. I'll explain in just a second but this part is very important. You don't want to focus on others kind of dancing next to you on the dance floor because you're going to be tripping over your own feet by doing that. Stay focused on your business, your business partner. Your role in the business is your dance partner in this example. And don't sweat over the competition. So don't just do what others are doing because you think that's what you're supposed to do. Okay, I'm going to give you two examples. First is the internal example. This is all about core competencies. So I recently had a conversation with a potential client, and she set up a consultation call and told me straight up from the beginning, look, I am so stressed about the numbers in my business. This young lady is beautiful and brilliant and strong and like a go-getter. But she's like, “Ashley, I'm having physical anxiety when it comes to the numbers. It just completely freaks me out.” And her business was at a place where they were getting ready to go to a new level. And there were so many moving parts and so many things she had to focus on. And she's like, I just know that this isn't right and I got to get it right. And she explains that this weekend she’s going to spend her Saturday at a tax conference. And I thought, oh no. So I explained to her about core competencies. Yes, it's important to have the numbers in your business right. But your secret sauce is not bookkeeping or taxes. So you're gonna have to understand the line in your business, the time in your business, where you need to go ahead and outsource. You need to go ahead and get a bookkeeper. And so I began to explain to her about my accountant, Alby, and how great he is. I know I mentioned him in Episode Two in Securing Your Money Team. And she ended up setting up a meeting with him and she's like, “Ashley, It feels so great to just have that off of my plate.” She was about to go spin her Saturday at a tax conference when she's getting ready to grow her business in a huge way. You want to use your energy and skill to grow your business. Not to focus on things in your business that are not your core competencies. That's what you're going to want to outsource when the time is right. So you want to stay focused. 

And then the external example is really just as I mentioned with seeing other people doing things a certain way and thinking that's what you're supposed to do too. So the example for this is my first business if you don't know is a warehouse gym in Houston, Texas called The League. My husband,  Terry and I, we've owned it for about seven years and it's just the best. And very early on, we realized that our social media marketing was very powerful. It was doing very well. When people would come to the gym, we'd always ask how did you hear about us. And it was either a word of mouth referral or social media. So, we were doing great with it but we thought, okay, well, we see other people having like these social media companies that are like managing their social media, so we should do that too. So we found this company in Austin. I think they were well-meaning, but they sold us kind of on having this algorithm that would kind of predict what type of client would want to come to The League. We were paying them hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month to, you know, take over our social media. And it was a huge fail. Because what ended up happening is they were marketing to clients that were already Leaguers, that were already at The League. And so people were responding like, uh, is this Ashley or Terry? Like who is this on Twitter hitting me up about The League? It was just a mess. And we did that because we thought that's what we were supposed to do. We thought that was leveling up. But in reality, our social media was doing great and it was something that my husband, Terry, is just so naturally gifted at and enjoys doing. It wasn't even burdensome for him. So, we should’ve just let him keep it going. So don't look around too much, you know look at what is and isn't working in your business and focus there. So it's great to take in information. But always take it back to your foundation and place these big decisions next to your core values and your vision. That's another exercise that I walk my one-on-one clients through is really exploring these foundational aspects of their business because everything flows from there. So even when it comes to things that I share on Bird Means Business podcast. Some of it will work for you, and some of it may not. But the beautiful dance of entrepreneurship is figuring out what works best for your business. So don't get caught up on there being just one way. Okay? 

Next is phase four. So phase four is when you're like, alright. It's called “I'm Starting to Get It”. So in this phase, you're basically feeling yourself. You put yourself out there, and you've been actually dancing or, you know, in your business for a while now. And so now you've kind of gotten into a good rhythm and a good flow. So quick story for this one. I see a holistic doctor, and I have for years. Some years ago, I had this weird autoimmune issue kind of appear in my body. And then I started going to see this holistic doctor and it's been great. And so a few months ago, I had an appointment with him. His name is Dr. Mark. And he pulled out my most recent toxicity questionnaire, and he compared it to the toxicity questionnaire from two years ago when I first started seeing him. I filled it out on day one. And he showed me that my initial score was 129 in terms of toxicity in my body. And now it's at 27. Y’all this is a huge deal. He gives me this long speech, that was almost moved me to tears, about really just how proud he was of me and how I'd worked so hard to get here by cutting things out of my diet and taking supplements. And he encouraged me that I have to keep doing what got me here. He was telling me that now is not the time to slack off. But it's the most important time to lean in and to continue to make those hard decisions because what got me here will get me through the finish line. It will get me to the next level of greatness. So it's the same way in your business. Let’s take the NBA, for example. You can expect greatness in the NBA when you practice really hard and you get sleep and you eat clean all the way up to the playoffs. But then when you get to playoffs you're like, whew, okay. I made it here. I'm gonna go hang out now and just chill. No. This is your moment. To get through the playoffs to get the championship, you have to keep at it. So it's the same way in your business. When you start to feel yourself, when you start to kind of feel like you're in a good rhythm in your business, take a moment to pause and identify on paper, what is and isn't working in your business. So this phase might also be short because a) when you start to feel this way, you know, entrepreneurship is so crazy that things change very quickly, And then also, because you always want to be challenging yourself in some way. So, when you feel this. When you start to feel like okay, things are good. Make sure to take note of what is and isn't working, because it might be kind of short-lived. You know you want to really make sure to capture that moment. 

Okay, so for the final phase, phase five. This is called “Let’s Do War”. So y'all, this is when you're at the dance all the time. You want to dance, all day every day because it's giving you life. And in the case of your business, it gives others life too. Like how cool is it, that as business owners, we can really help others in so many incredible ways? So in this phase of let’s do more, it's okay to want to take on more and want to do more. Remember we talked about the phases of your business? And it's okay to do more here because you're already in the practice of continually learning and perfecting things and taking time to capture what isn't working and kind of realigning your business. You've been doing that in this kind of dance of entrepreneurship, so it's okay to take on more. So that friend I mentioned who's now in fishnets regularly. Yes, starting dance classes, has caused her to also explore other types of fitness. It has also caused her to eat cleaner, because again, we talked about momentum, right? And it all happened because of a decision she made to get up and to move her body, and to change her environment. So you too won't know what other parts of you will be unlocked until you act. So get up and get at it. I am cheering you on. 

Friends, if this has been helpful to you, I would really love for you to leave a review on iTunes, and to share Bird Means Business with any of your entrepreneur friends. I'd also really love to hear your thoughts on this episode. If you want to share on Instagram tag me. It's @birdwillliams. Or just shoot me a DM and let me know what you think. Alrighty, talk to y'all next week.