BIRD WILLIAMS: You’re listening to Bird Means Business Episode 54. 

Do you really want to start a business, but you're multi-passionate? It is so hard to choose from all the different business interests and ideas you have? Or maybe you're like I was back in 2012, and you know, you want to run a business, but you don't really have a theme. You can't identify what type of business you want to start. You have an entrepreneurial itch. Well, my friend, you're in the right place. This episode is for you. And I'm so pumped for this one for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it's a question I get a lot, and a problem I see a lot. So in this episode, I'm going to give you 15 questions to ask yourself and help you get closer to choosing your entrepreneurial endeavor. And to take it even one step further, I took that list of 15 questions that I'll talk through later on in the episode and I made them into journal prompts. So you're able to go and download them for free. You can go to the link in the show notes. There's a link there you'll see where you can download these journal prompts and really explore them in your own time and go a whole lot deeper. I'm just so excited for you because y'all figuring this out for me was a huge moment in my life. It literally changed my entire life when I realized that I wanted to go into entrepreneurship and how that would actually look. I get all the feels even just thinking about it. 

All right. So we're about to jump in, but first a quick update. Last week on the Bird Means Business podcast was all about your year-end tasks for your business. And I encouraged you to really take inventory of the products or services that resonate most with your clients, and then reassess your business offerings based on that. Well, a few weeks ago, I did exactly this and y'all it became super-duper clear. In order to provide more space for really where I'm seeing clients have the greatest transformation, I need to make some changes to my business offerings. So beginning January 1, 2021, I'm making two changes. The first is that the 15-minute consultation I offer will no longer be free. I find that when you have skin in the game, you're more likely to show up and go hard. And a small investment shouldn't be a deal-breaker to help you build a strong brand. I really want to consult with those entrepreneurs who are ready to go to work and are willing to invest, not only in themselves but in their business. So the second change I'm going to make is with the additional 30-minute follow-up portion on my strategy sessions. Right now, there is a one-hour session and then there's a follow-up session for 30 minutes. I’ve added on that for free. But I found that the greatest value actually happens during that initial one-hour session when we create your game plan of the next steps. So, if you want to book a free consultation, or if you want to book a strategy session that has that additional 30 minutes follow-up portion, you will need to book that before the end of the year. You can go to  birdwilliams.com for both of those. Now I won't be sharing about this again so make sure you take note of it. I don't want to make a big deal about it. But I do want to make sure you know so that you can have a heads up and not be blindsided when you go to book later. And y’all I’m going to continue to give you so much incredible free value here on the Bird Means Business podcast and in my weekly emails. Y’all, these emails are not spammy at all. It’s one email a week. And they’re full of business tips and deeper insights. If you’re not already getting these emails, I promise you are missing out. So go to birdwilliams.com/join to sign up.

All right. Let’s dive into the episode. So we're going to talk all about how you should choose your entrepreneurial endeavor. Another reason why this is so important to me is because I see a lot of entrepreneurs trying to juggle too many business endeavors all at once. And I know this is gonna sound harsh. But look, unless you have some really strong resources like a lot of time or a lot of money, or a whole lot of energy, juggling too many entrepreneurial endeavors, all at once will ultimately end in failure. Or you being spread so thin that none of your business ventures really take flight. They're going to just be a bunch of random side hustles and I don't want that for you. So if you find yourself in that place, keep listening to see if you can hone down on where to focus now. And understand this. If these different interests, or ideas that you have that you want to pursue, all these different things. If they're complementary, they can work together, you may be able to ultimately do them all. You just can't do them all well at once. Actually, in the Foundation Module of my Prove It Plan course, we lay out the phases of your business, so you can really chart out a path to seeing that big vision that you have, all these things you want to do, how they can play out over time. It's actually one of my favorite and most powerful exercises in the Prove It Plan framework. 

All right. So first let's talk a little bit about the difference between purpose and passion because I hear these terms thrown around. Let's start with passion. This is the definition of passion: strong, and barely controllable emotion. I'm gonna say it again. Passion is strong, and barely controllable emotion. So when I hear that definition I think, well passion can be fleeting. It doesn't burn forever, right? I can tell you, there will be moments where you won't feel strong and barely controllable happy emotion about your business. You might be feeling some other kind of emotions. But real talk, there will be moments when your passion is challenged. I'm passionate about a lot of things that I'm not purposed to do. I'll say that again. I'm passionate about a lot of things that I'm not purposed to do. I recently heard Patrice Washington who I love, talk about this. And I really realized, I'm passionate about travel and organization, and dance. But I'm not purposed to start businesses in those lanes. Because while I'm passionate about travel, y’all, I haven't been overseas since my kids were born, which is really sad and a different story for a different day. But what I'm getting to is that this idea of following your passion can really be misleading. As if devoting yourself to something you're passionate about is going to equate to success. Y’all, there is so much crap that's going to come with any level of success. 

Let's look at purpose instead. Here's the definition of purpose. It is the reason for which something is done, or created, or for which something exists. I’ll read it one more time. The definition of purpose is the reason for which something is done or created, or for which something exists. So purpose goes much deeper. I view purpose as a calling really. For me, purpose comes from God. I feel like God is the one who created me. God uniquely designed me with intention and with care and with love. God thoughtfully put certain characteristics in me and left other characteristics out. You know God gave me these gifts and talents, and so that's where purpose is born for me. Purpose is my why. There's a reason why I'm here on this earth. It’s not meaningless, right?

And as I've discovered my purpose and really leaned into it, there's this like feeling. It just feels right. It doesn't always feel easy, and it certainly doesn't always feel like strong and barely controllable emotion. But there is this knowing and this feeling of centeredness and feeling of home, as I walk in my purpose. So thinking about it more like purpose makes it much easier for me to endure hardship in business because I know that my purpose is much bigger than just me. There's much bigger meaning in it. And I know that faith doesn't play the same role for everybody. But I really just wanted to share where purpose stems from for me. 

Now, some of you may have heard of the story of how I chose entrepreneurship and how that led me to running a gym, but here's a quick synopsis. So I was working in New York City as an investment banking analyst on Wall Street for a company called Barclays Capital. And there were parts of my job that I loved. I loved the rush, the energy. I loved being challenged. I really like working under pressure, which is good and bad. And so I loved that aspect of my job. I mean, I didn't know what was going to happen on any given day. And that was exciting for me. But ultimately, I wasn't fulfilled by what I was doing. I was on this huge IPO. It was a $4 billion IPO and I was the only analyst in the US, in the United States, on this deal, which is kind of crazy. I was working with analysts and teams in Brazil and Mexico and London, all over, Spain. And it was a big landmark transaction for our firm. Once we landed a deal, we had this ceremony where they were congratulating the team. And so many of my other analyst colleagues came over to me and were just congratulating me and saying how amazing it was that I was on this deal and how big of a deal it was, and, y'all, I was like, “No, this is not that big of a deal. Like this is not cool guys.” That’s what I wanted to say. It did not fulfill me, It did not excite me. I had no passion or purpose in it. And that was really a lightbulb moment for me. But I also had no idea what I wanted to do. So I wrote a list, I had some questions and I wrote a list and I'm going to share those questions in a little bit. And I put that list boldly on my computer screen. I worked on a trade floor kind of setting. So, everyone can see everyone’s computer. But I guess I was already at that place. And I put this list on my computer screen and sort of just meditated over it. And one day it jumped out to me that, oh my goodness, I want to run a business. 

And so that’s where I realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur. But it wasn't until I actually had one business idea that failed. It was a tea business with my mom. We didn't even start and failed before it started cause my mom decided she didn't want to do it. But it was actually the reason for me leaving New York and moving back to Houston. But by then I was married to my husband and he was an amazing fitness trainer in Houston training all over the city, and he wanted to have a gym. And so that's where I got to fitness. I share this because I had no deep passion or purpose for fitness. People get that confused a lot. They assume that I was an instructor or that I just was super into fitness. No, I was passionate about business. That was my lane. That's where I felt purpose to be. But my husband, Terry, had so much passion and purpose for fitness. And so, we had both had opportunities to operate in our own lanes, as I ran and grew our business and as Terry led out our programming for our fitness training, and training our instructors and all of that. 

So that list of questions that I had and posted on my computer screen was so integral in me really understanding what that next step looked like and where to really focus, and in realizing that I really wanted to get into entrepreneurship. I'm super excited to share those questions here with you today. 

Let's just jump right in. Again, these are questions you should ask yourself if you're trying to figure all of this out. “I want to be in entrepreneurship. I want to run a business. I have so many random ideas but which one do I pursue?” Now, this list of 15 questions is a compilation of the questions I asked myself back in 2012 when I was trying to figure it out. And some really awesome questions, I found in a Mark Manson episode when I was doing research and I was actually trying to help a friend of mine understand what direction she should go in after leaving her nine-to-five job. So, I'm gonna link the Mark Manson episode in the show notes so that you can refer to that as well since a bulk of these questions come from him as well. I want to make sure I credit him. And I'm gonna hold back from giving too much context to each question because I don't want to frame your answers or really interrupt your flow too much. 

So, here we go. These are the questions I want you to ask yourself as you're choosing your entrepreneurial endeavor. 

Number 1. What work would I still do if no one paid me? What work would I do for free? 

Number 2. What work would I do if money wasn't an issue if I'm not having to consider all of the financial implications?

Number 3. What work do I find myself so engulfed in, that when I look up, hours have passed by and I didn't even realize it?

Number 4. What type of tasks do I enjoy doing for fun? Once you identify those tasks you just really enjoy doing for fun, I want you to look at the cognitive principles behind those activities that enthrall you. Are there any parallels? And I'll just give you an example. When I said my list of things was so random, it was. It was everything from, I enjoyed organization, I enjoy volleyball, I enjoy planning and logistics, I enjoy dancing. It was random. But there was crossover. There were parallels around strategy and logistics, which led me to realize I wanted to run my own business. 

Number 5. What do friends and colleagues always ask me for help with?

Number 6. When choosing between different paths, think of what I'm uniquely gifted to do. Why do I have the most secret sauce? This is going to be your unique value proposition and distinguish you from competitors. So think about what you're really good at.

So here are some of the new questions I mentioned that I got from the Mark Manson article. I'm going to kind of add those into the mix here and again you can find that article linked in the show notes. 

Number 7. What can I do with my time that is important and meaningful?

Number 8. What struggle, or sacrifice, am I willing to tolerate? Y’all I love this one so much because it goes back to that idea of passion wearing off. You may have seen my Instagram post a couple of weeks back and I actually want to share it here now. This is what it said. “Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard. Building a brand is hard. Working a nine to five is hard. Choose your hard.”

See, the thing is that we feel like the grass is greener on the other side like we're gonna come into entrepreneurship and all of our problems are going to be solved and all of our dreams are going to be fulfilled. Well, it doesn't exactly work like that. It's going to still be hard too. So I just so love this question of what struggle, or sacrifice, are you willing to tolerate? Which hard are you going to choose?

Number 9. What is something my younger self enjoyed doing as play that I lost touch on? 

Number 10. Am I ready to be embarrassed? The article I mentioned says, “Embrace embarrassment. Feeling foolish is part of the path to achieving something important, something meaningful. The more a major life decision scares you, chances are, the more you need to be doing it.” I can't tell you how many times I felt embarrassed on video or wherever. Y'all, the more you do it, the more you get over it. But you have to ask yourself, “Of these business ventures I'm thinking of considering. Am I ready to be embarrassed?”

Number 11. Are you ready to be misunderstood? The article says, “Great things are by their very nature, unique, and unconventional. Therefore, to achieve them, we must go against the herd mentality. And to do that, is scary.” Are you ready to be misunderstood?

Number 12. How will you help save the world? The article says, “Obviously you're not going to fix the world's problems by yourself, but you can contribute and make a difference. And that feeling of making a difference is ultimately what's most important for your own happiness and fulfillment.” You know, I'm going to add a little bit to this to kind of contrast what Mark Manson says in the article. Even if what you're doing will help save the world, but it isn't life-giving to you, it doesn't spark joy for you. It isn't what you’re purposed to do, you will not be sustained. So it can't be all about you helping save the world. That's obviously valiant, that's great. But it also has to be meaningful to you. So a lot of these questions of course work together.

Number 13. If you had to leave the house, every single day, all day long, where would you go and what would you do? The article says, “Would you sign up for a dance class, join a book club, get another degree, invent a new form of irrigation system that can save thousands of children's lives in rural Africa? Learn to hang glide? What would you do with all of that time? If it strikes your fancy, write down a few answers and then go out and actually do them. And bonus points if it involves embarrassing yourself.

Number 14. How do you want to be remembered? And this doesn't necessarily have to be for the masses. How do you want your children, your friends, your family to remember you? What do you want them to say you stood for? What do you want them to say you worked hard on it and devoted your time to?

And finally number 15. Am I willing to develop an entrepreneurial mindset? If you've downloaded my Ready, Set, Launch checklist, you've seen this as the number one item on the list. The first thing you need to do is develop an entrepreneurial mindset, understanding what it takes to be an entrepreneur. 

All right. So you might be asking, “Okay, Bird, I'm listening to these questions, I have some juices flowing. What do I need to do next?” Okay, three things. Number one, download these free journal prompts, so that you can really search your heart and explore all of these questions even deeper. I have space there for you to just really write and flesh out your thoughts for each of these 15 questions. Again, you can download that by going to the link in the show notes. 

Number two, I want you to be honest with yourself. I don't want you to answer these questions based on what you think others would expect you to say or do, or what will make you the most money, or what just maybe makes the most sense, quote-unquote. I want you to just be honest as you answer these questions, and then see where it leads.

Number three, I want you to meditate on what you come up with. I want you to post this list on your bathroom mirror or in your closet or somewhere where you will see it often. And I hope that one day for you, like with me, it'll just all of a sudden click. Honestly, I think for many of you, it's right in front of your face. You've just really not cleared out space or time to be able to see. And that's why there's the journal prompts to help get you there. Okay? 

If you're struggling still, with feeling like, “Man there are so many things I still want to do that I feel equally purposed to do.” This is what I would say, two things. One, identify the low-hanging fruit. Understand where the easy wins are that you can set up quickly and get rolling with and really start gaining some good momentum? 

Number two, even if it's hard, I want you to create clear priorities. I want you to make a list of the order you’ll follow and choose one entrepreneurial endeavor to focus on now. I do not want you to do all of them at once. I want you to do one now, simple and strong, and then, like I said, build some momentum and grow from there. Again, it doesn't mean that you can't ultimately do everything. You just can't do everything well right now. 

All right. So make sure you go to the show notes to download the free journal prompts. And then I want you to schedule time within the next three days while all of this is still top of mind to get to journaling. The sooner the better. Okay? 

My people, thank you so much for sharing this space with me and for tuning into the Bird Means Business podcast each week. It means so much. Also thank you for subscribing on Apple Podcasts, and for following on Spotify. And make sure you tell every entrepreneur or entrepreneur-to-be that you know about this episode so that they can discover their entrepreneurial lane, too. All right, talk to you all next week.