BIRD WILLIAMS: You’re listening to Bird Means Business Episode 1.

Hi there! Welcome to the very first Bird Means Business. I am thrilled to share this space with you. In my mind, years from now, people will tune in and fall in love with the podcast. And they’ll scroll all the way down to this very first episode, which is something I’ve done with podcasts that I just love. And they're gonna want to get an understanding of what this podcast is all about. So, that's what I'm going to share today, the heart behind Bird Means Business. So, for starters, if you're not familiar with me, here's a bit of background. I'm from Texas City, Texas, and went to a super small high school, as in I graduated with only 18 people in my senior class. Crazy, right? I went from there to the University of Texas at Austin. Hook ‘em, Horns. So as you can imagine, you know, just a bit of culture shock. I majored in finance and I had a minor in international business. Something I always wanted to do when I went to college was study abroad. It was one of the first things that I signed up for. So I got to spend an amazing six months in Milan, Italy, which was as you can imagine just incredible. I went to about 10 different European countries. So good. And then I went to Ghana and studied abroad there. I did a social development project which was honestly one of the best experiences of my life. Of all of the many places I've been able to travel, Ghana is by far my favorite. So I didn't really have the typical route of aggressive summer internships. But I somehow landed a job as an investment banking analyst in New York City. I absolutely love that city. The energy. The diversity. The hustle. To me, there's just no place like it. And investment banking is what you think. I ate all of my meals at my desk. I even had a toothbrush at my desk. I didn't really sleep much at all. I worked all the time, through the weekends. I'd have friends come to visit me and couldn't hang out, couldn't make our plans. Yeah, it was crazy. But I loved the challenge. Every day I was pushed beyond what I thought was a limit and that was so fun for me. I remember people asking when I made the decision to move to New York, “Why investment banking? It's crazy.” I had offers in consulting and in private wealth management. And I was planning on going that route before I kind of got this last-minute offer. But to me it was like, this is the most challenging thing I could do, and I'm young, so I'm just gonna go for it. But, about a year and a half in, I started to realize that I wasn't fulfilled by my job. What happened was that I was on this really, really big IPO. A huge deal. It was a landmark transaction for our company or the bank. And it was really neat cause I was the only analyst in the US on the deal. I was working with Spain, and Brazil, and Mexico, and London. And I'll never forget there was this big ceremony to celebrate the transaction and the team. And I had other analyst friends of mine coming up to me saying, “How neat you were on this deal by yourself.” And I was just like, I know I'm supposed to be excited about this. But I'm really not. Like at the end of the day, I'm helping this huge bank make a lot of money and that just is not exciting for me. You know I had accepted this third-year offer. They weren't giving a lot out that year to analysts. So I kind of felt really bad about going back on my commitment. But I knew I was having a light bulb moment, that was saying you don't want to do this for the rest of your life. And I didn't really know what was going to be next. I mean, I'll actually have to do a separate episode one day on how I transitioned to entrepreneurship because it's a long story. But let's just fast forward to me moving back to Texas. I got married to my best friend in the world. His name is Terry, and we launched The League in 2013. The League is a warehouse gym in Houston, Texas, and I call it my first baby. We have our own proprietary PAC(K) training format. The workouts are about 45 minutes, full body. It's just a lot of fun. And it's the kind of environment where you don't feel like you're competing against people. You feel like everyone in the room is encouraging you to reach your goals. You're encouraging them to reach theirs. It's just a really fun atmosphere in my opinion. In my very biased opinion, there's no place like it. There's no gym like it. So we launched The League in 2013 and quickly hit breakeven. So about two years later, in October 2015, we expanded to two locations, which was a lot of fun. It was so cool. We were rapidly growing, so we needed more space. But then about a year and a half after that we outgrew our first location. There just wasn't enough space. There wasn't enough parking around it. So we consolidated everything to our second larger location. And we've loved the community that the gym is in now. It's been really fun to build. I mean it's been a wild and crazy ride. But we have the best people ever at the gym. Our team is incredible. Our Leaguers, as we call our clients, are just so much fun. And it's just been a real blessing. 

So in May of this year, 2019, I read Rachel Hollis’ book, “Girl Stop Apologizing”. And y'all. I got so inspired to start a small business consulting firm. And the thing with this is, I was planning on doing it one day, maybe closer to retirement when I had more experience. I just didn't think it would happen now. But, I felt like it was right and like the time was now and so I started pursuing that dream. What made me excited was knowing that if I had someone with my experience in the early days of launching The League, I would have avoided so many mistakes. A lot of times with entrepreneurs it's like you don't really know what you don't know. So, that's kind of what Bird Williams Consulting meant to me. The heart in it was just to kind of be a small business resource for entrepreneurs who want to launch or grow their small businesses, to kind of be the guy that I wish I had. So I launched Bird Williams Consulting on November 11, and soon after I decided to launch a podcast, alongside it. And I laugh because it is less than a month from when I launched the business that I am recording this podcast episode, and I had no plans for that in the beginning. 

So Bird Means Business is all about you. It’s all about how I can help small business owners, entrepreneurs, giving them tips and tricks on what it takes to launch and grow a successful business. And I hope that you're gonna join in on the journey. 

So wait, you might be asking, “Who exactly is Bird?” Well, my dad always called my mom Bird because when they were dating she ate like a bird. And so then when my husband, Terry caught on, he started calling me Bird, too.

So now that you know a little bit about me, I’d love to hear your story. Please connect with me on Instagram. I'm @heybirdwilliams. And on Facebook I’m Bird Williams. . I'll include those links in the show notes. Also, hit the subscribe button so that you get each of the upcoming episodes because there's some really good stuff ahead. Next week, we'll start a 3-part mini-series on the top three lessons I've learned from owning my very first business. I know you'll be taking notes. See you next week.