BIRD WILLIAMS: Well well well, here we are, in May of 2020.  You know, well we all know, it has been a wild, two months. It has been crazy. And I kind of laugh because you know we come into 2020, we're like, new year, new decade, new me. What What. And then it was like, What? Wait. Crap! Like what is happening? The world is falling apart, and it's been wild. But we are still here. You are still here which means that you have survived your worst days. And I'll be honest, and I'll say this in humility. I'm not afraid. I'm really not. I'm not Superwoman and just super fearless. That's not the reason why I'm not gonna walk around in fear. But it's two reasons. One, I feel anchored in this hope. And it's the same hope that started all of this in the first place I feel like that hope brought me here and will get me through. And also, I feel like when you choose to operate in fear. It's just not helpful or productive. Again, that doesn't mean that I don't have moments where I'm scared or anxious. But my heart and my effort and my thoughts, I tune into hope. And I really make it that I'm dialed in there. And if I'm honest, I have this feeling that massively good things are coming. Like they're on their way to me, to you, right now. You know, I just don't know how it will all unfold or when it'll happen. It's almost like watching a movie that I'm actually in, I just don't know the ending. But I know that I'm going to win. I know that it's going to end good. And so I encourage you to approach whatever you're facing in the same way. What is the most effective thing you can do with your thoughts and your words and your time? Fear doesn't help. Choosing to wallow in it doesn't help. So just focus on hope. Focus on the good things that are inevitably coming, and really anchor in there. 

All right. So, I want to, first of all, say that there are listeners, all over the world, really. Obviously, most are in the US, but when I look at the analytics, actually Jamaica is the second largest country. So I do want to acknowledge that it's very different. This pandemic has hit different places differently, but I'm going to obviously be talking to where I live here in Houston, Texas. Just to kind of give some background, COVID-19 really hit the US. We shut our gym business down. If you don't know I own a gym business called The League here in Houston with my husband, Terry. We shut it down on March 16. I remember the exact day, where I was, having to make a really hard decision against the will of some of our clients who were like, please stay open. The gym is my happy place. Don't close, because where else am I going to be able to go? But we knew we had to do the right thing. Before even gyms were mandated to shut down, we did. We didn't really know what to expect then and we wanted to make sure people were safe. So we made that decision to close and man there been so many ups and downs. We of course had to move everything to be online for our gym business, Terry the trainer app which is another business we own actually has grown in this season and it's been a blessing in that way as people are working at home there's like workouts and nutrition and mindset coaching even there on the app it's free to download there's like a whole free section called the family room so that's been great for that business. Then with Bird Williams, it's been up and down. Initially, clients were pausing, understandably. Then it started to pick up and it's really ramped up in recent weeks which has been a blessing. I just want to say, it's been different for different businesses, different people. But now we're in a season where in Texas, in Houston, there are these phases of reopening. Phase one happened a couple of weeks ago. And now we're here in phase two, which is May 18, which is Monday in a few days, where my gym will be able to reopen. We are taking many safety precautions. We have this industrial-grade, amazing cleaning solution that my husband went to an environmental company to find. We're having to limit our class capacity to 10 people, just 25% of our typical capacity. And we're making a lot of different changes and you know, adapting as best we can. But the truth is, we don't really know what to expect. We don't know what will happen. I mean, I've honestly seen it all. I know of businesses that are like, yeah we're done like we won't survive this. We can't survive this. I've seen businesses that are like, hey, help me. I need to know what to do. How do I communicate with my clients? Do I survey them? Then that's scary because what if they say something that I don't know if I can do? And all of these questions. I've had one business owner reach out to me and say that basically half of her business she doesn't think she can operate for 6 to 18 months, but it's the biggest moneymaker. And she doesn't know if the other half of the business can float the business until then. So she's asking questions like do I have to just stop or pause or pivot to something else? These are really hard questions that we're having to answer and honestly, I have to remind myself sometimes, "Ashley, you can do this". Sometimes I forget, do you ever forget how old you are? My mind, like I'm still in my 20s or something. Like "No, Ashley. You got this. You're an adult. You could make these hard decisions ." Like I have to give myself these pep talks. 

I've seen the bad, but I've also seen the good, right? I met with a graphic designer recently, because I am maybe rebranding. Stay tuned. And I'm meeting with this graphic designer and she's like, "Oh my gosh business, has been booming." People are at home and they're really thinking about what matters to them most and they want to pursue these dreams that they've always had and they're reaching out. So, there really is a spectrum of businesses and how they've been impacted by this. I sat down and thought about all these emotions that I have around reopening and what that will look like which is, I don't really know. And I was like, how can I talk to business owners about reopening in this new season that's really uncharted? And I wanted to have these practical steps of like what business owners could expect. And this is what I came up with. This is what you can expect. Do your very best and figure it out along the way. That's what you can expect. I don't expect you to have every answer, I don't expect you to say everything right. I expect that you will make mistakes, you won't do it perfectly. But I'm going to hold you to doing your very best. That means, choosing the harder thing, you know. Not just taking the easy route and figuring it out along the way. Whether there's another wave, you know, a wave of this whole situation, which there could be. I don't think it's productive to focus there. If it happens, you'll figure it out when we get there. You don't want to worry yourself about something that might never happen. And you really only have the grace you need to get through today. And that doesn't mean that you don't think ahead or plan. I'm huge and I'm a futuristic person I love to plan ahead. But it doesn't mean that you waste precious resources elsewhere. Those precious resources are your time, energy, attention. You need to ask yourself, what is the best most valuable thing, value-add thing I can do in my business today? And this is going to be things like investing in your team or your product, refining your customer service, improving your processes. Yes, those are things that will add value to your bottom line. But not worrying about something that might happen or might not happen in the future. So just make sure that you are keeping your mind safe, protecting your heart around all of that. Okay? 

But I do have a few practical tips. One, as you're navigating reopening and how this looks and what your business' messaging is around this, think about putting yourself in your customers' shoes, your ideal clients' shoes. What is it that they need most right now as it relates to your product and service? How does your product or service help solve their pain points, amidst all of that? Basically, what do they want to hear? And this is a practice you should get in, regardless. You want to make sure that what you're putting out there is addressing the concerns of your ideal customer. 

Number two, you don't have to wonder what they're going to think. You can just ask them. You can just poll your clients. We actually did it on Instagram. Instagram Stories has a poll feature. You probably know that. We just asked hey what class times, these are the class heads we're thinking. What do you think? Which classes would you attend? What are some classes maybe on here that aren't listed that you would like to have on? And man, it was so insightful. Two of the class times that we had were not class times people wanted. They actually wanted earlier classes and I'm so glad we added that and would be able to serve our clients better. So just ask them, Hey, what is it that you need as it relates to my product or service? You can poll them on Instagram. You can do a Google survey or Survey Monkey. It doesn't have to be complicated. Just ask them what do you need from me right now. 

And number three would be to communicate to your team. You want to make sure that you set expectations. And to me, your team, the people in your business, are the most precious asset. They're the hands and feet. They're going to make this all actually happen. So make sure you're talking with them in setting expectations. One thing we told our team recently was, it can be a little bumpy over the next couple of weeks. We might have to adjust class times. We don't really know what's going to happen so just like hang in there with us. That's so much better than just not saying anything because you want things to appear perfect, or you're just too afraid to communicate. You want to make sure you're setting expectations around what may or may not happen, making sure that they feel comfortable opening up about concerns they may have. We have, I think two employees who don't feel comfortable coming back to the gym right now. Completely understandable and we made that clear from the beginning. Just because we're opening, it might not be comfortable for you. You don't have to. Having those kinds of hard conversations is so key. 

Number four would be just that thought that maybe you are launching your business through all of this. You're just thinking like, oh my god this is crazy like my grand opening is literally happening as the world reopens. And that could be kind of intimidating. But y'all there's opportunity there. You've had time to plan and business loans are super cheap. So as you go through this process of launching your business, record everything. I tell people this all the time. That first client, that's gold. Improve and refine your systems. Get their feedback and see what can we make better. And then rinse and repeat. Do it again and again. You know I think a lot of times people focus on, like the broader marketing avenues, you know like, ads and things like that. But really it's just like the people who are already buying, what are they saying? What do they want to see different? How can you improve their experience? 

Finally, maybe you will like haven't launched your business yet, but you know, like now, more than ever, it is time. I had a conversation with a friend recently and she was like, "There has been like a divine spotlight in my life through all of this of what is and is not important, or essential in my life. And more now than ever, I want to step out into what I want to do. All this other stuff that I've been focusing on and prioritizing isn't really what I want to do." And she's thinking of launching her business 

Really the first step you have to understand is creating a strong business plan. Now, one of my earliest episodes is why you need a business plan so you can go back there to listen in more. But y'all, a business plan is not just a financial plan. A business plan is not an executive summary. A business plan is a deep dive into why you're doing what you're doing and how is it going to actually work. What is going to turn it from an idea or a hobby into an actual functioning business, okay? So y'all it has been so fun to walk now it's been several clients through my specialized process of exploring the four pillars of your business, in order to develop a strong and profitable business plan. And I would love to help you too. Because what I tell you, this is like my jam. It really excites me. And it's also really incredible to see the ideas and the ingenuity and then to kind of help guide you into actually bringing that to life. So if you're interested in going through this process of developing a profitable business plan, go to birdwilliams.com/consultation. And we'll just book a quick Zoom chat to kind of just connect first and see if we're a good fit. And we'll just really go from there. Okay? Okay. 

So finally, my encouragement to everyone out there. Now, this is business owners and non-business owners. Y'all be gentle with the small businesses, as they manage this reopening process. Because just like with humans, COVID-19 has impacted and affected small businesses in different ways. Some small businesses are really sick and like on their deathbeds and they're hoping that they can survive this. Some businesses weren't very affected. They didn't get affected by COVID because maybe they were entrepreneurs who already worked from home. And then there are other businesses who are stepping back out into the world, going through this reopening process. And they're really afraid that their business could kind of get exposed by the virus so to speak and affected negatively in this reopening phase. So just be gentle. We went to a restaurant recently, I was like, "Terry, we gotta leave a big tip." The restaurant was again at 25% capacity, so I'm thinking these waiters aren't getting as many tips as they normally would because they're not as many people here. So just do what you can to be understanding as small business owners navigate what is really a scary process. 

All right. Okay. So one last thing I want to do is just pray, and something I've never done on the podcast and if you're not religious, you don't have to do this. I'm not trying to force anything on anybody. But it's something that I've leaned on so much during this time, and I'm just going to make it really quick. God, I pray for any entrepreneur or entrepreneur-to-be out there right now. God, I pray that you give them an overwhelming sense of peace, a peace that really surpasses their understanding amidst all of this. I pray, God, that you fill them with witty inventions and supernatural wisdom on where to go and where not to go. God, we pray that you open the doors that are the good doors to walk through and close the wrong doors. All right, and ultimately God. We pray that you just allow us to help a lot of people in this whole process. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

All right. That's all for this week. And as always, thank you so much for subscribing to Apple Podcasts, to make sure that you don't miss any of the episodes. And you can also follow us on Spotify as well. And don't forget to tell your entrepreneur friends about Bird Means Business. All right? Talk to y'all next week.