you
hello hello hello everybody come on in
where's mine why is it doing this why does them do this now how do I not do
this
um one second
there we go
let's see if anybody trickles in I just put up the post so we'll give everyone a
second if anybody else wants to come in I know sometimes I get some stragglers
which is okay how about we take while we wait let's take a minute to to see how
everyone's doing how's everyone's day going how everyone's week is going
weekend went if you want to unmute just kind of share how you are
anybody
you
everything was fine really busy now we're in spring it's like a lot of
activities happening and and we're moving and so we had a garage sale to
start getting rid of some stuff that won't be moving with us and so yeah
it's been busy yeah very busy how did the garage sale go terribly so my my
middle daughter she's nine she wanted to have the garage sale so that she
could make money off of the stuff that she doesn't want anymore and we were
trying to support her but also nobody else wants more stuff everybody is in a
like you know trying to declutter phase so she was happy that she made $14 I was
like wow that was not worth the effort but she was happy yeah $14 for a nine
year old not bad it's not bad and I mean luckily is like we're not buying
any new stuff with your $14 until we move so you gotta just put it in the
savings account yeah that's awesome how's everybody else doing
it's been a stressful week for me okay we've been the we're about we were
about to list our house to move to Texas and it's just a lot and the things that
need to happen aren't going to be happening so I just have to like put
some boundaries on and so yeah but in the process it's been really stressful
yeah this is over and then I did get some time away in a hotel you've been
doing some sake staycations since I can't go that far
I've got some got a good getaway yeah that's a little bit of clarity and I
listened to last week's recording this morning and I know I need to ask so I'm
good and I'm just trying to find my background I've put in here okay no
worries Laura how are you this week I'm okay
hanging in there this is my first time jumping on this call and I know we're in
between books and I don't even I'm just here just to feel it out and see what
happens on Tuesdays yep
Oh, I'm just kind of here to listen in.
Yeah, I love it.
Well, everyone participates on Tuesdays.
But yes, you are.
Well, I did, OK.
But I have participated so far.
But if I need to participate again, I will.
How about that?
I love it.
I'm willing.
Laura, do you want to share when you started the cohort,
when you started the Accelerator, and just kind
of a little bit about your business
as an introduction to money?
I started the Accelerator in December.
Prior to that, I had a, well, still
do have a blogging business.
I have a blog that focuses on frugal living, and easy
recipes, and fun craft ideas.
And then I took the AI course that Steven offered,
and then joined the business Accelerator
because I want to start selling some products that I'm
making with AI, specifically in the wedding business,
like ways that brides can use AI to save money while they're
planning their wedding.
And so I'm still just kind of tweaking out
some details on that.
And still just trying to stay motivated
and keep working hard when I haven't seen
a lot of fruit from it yet.
But that's why I'm here, because Gabby
claims that this is a really good group where everyone's
super vulnerable, and everyone cheers everyone on.
And I need some of that.
So that's why I'm here.
Love it.
Welcome.
So glad you're here.
Before I forget, someone said something
that made me think of there's two announcements.
Oh, it's because you mentioned the book.
We did pick our next book, which is going to be,
what's it called, Who Moved My Cheese?
Is that what it is?
Yes, it's called Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson.
Danielle posted, it's pinned to the top of the Inner Circle
group, like the schedule.
So it's going to be very short.
So I think what we're planning to do,
it's only going to be three weeks of discussion,
April 7th, 14th, and 21st.
So what I think we're going to do then is in May,
we'll start the week, like when we did the vote,
there was two books that technically tied.
Book four was the other one, which is She Means Business.
We'll just plan to start that one in May.
Because I was like, it was pretty equal.
Everyone wanted either book two or book four.
Or the numbers that we were voting
were book two or book four.
So we'll probably do start four in May.
So just kind of know that's going to come.
But the schedule is up.
So next week will be our first week discussing
Who Moved My Cheese.
And let me go back to the schedule.
And I haven't looked at it yet.
But Danielle was saying that it doesn't have chapters,
necessarily.
So the week one is going to be the topic is awareness,
like being aware of where I am right now.
So we're going to be reading The Gathering, which
is the Chicago story, start of the parable,
and up to Hem and Haw settle into Cheese Station C.
That makes no sense to me right now,
because I haven't looked at it once.
It sounds like a bunch of gibberish.
But that's what we're going to be starting on.
And then the second announcement is about our event in May.
So last week, we were discussing this a little bit on this call.
We decided instead of doing our typical larger in-person event
where we invite open outside people can come in,
other people from other programs we have can come,
we're doing a members-only event.
So we did look at the votes that we got so far.
And by far, the dates that were most voted for
were the May 28 through the 30th.
So those are going to be the dates of the May event.
This is going to be in San Diego.
So what we need now is for you guys
to fill out this updated form of the Google Doc, which
I'm putting in the chat right now.
So this is basically just saying, I can definitely be there.
I'm definitely not going to be there.
And so we can start getting a head count
and seeing what size venue, like Airbnb, we need.
And then we'll build a count number.
So if you don't mind, even if you
know you're not going to be there,
please fill it out so that we just
have as accurate as possible head count
on what everyone's RSVP is.
Any questions on those two announcements?
Perfect.
I guess we can bookend the retreat, but just stay around.
hotel or something you if you want to so the idea is that we'll be booking an
airbnb that will fit either everybody or depending on how many people we might
need two airbnbs and then the cost which we charge will be covering
airbnb probably some of the food things like that
um but if you would prefer to stay on your own
somewhere else that is totally fine no i just mean coming early
oh okay yeah that's what you're saying but yeah you could do that
yeah now you have the date so you can figure that out okay perfect
thank you all righty so today's discussion so last week i really
liked our discussion it was like what's one choice or something or
opportunity that like is in front of you that you're having
to decide so to kind of go off of that and
be on the other side of the coin a little bit today i want our
our topic to be our one three one topic some of you who have been in our
community for a while may have heard us talk about this before
um but one three one i honestly forget what it's called but it's like a
the solutionary thing like it's a it's a problem solving thing so it's
you have one problem or one decision or one
something and you the idea is you come up with three
potential solutions on your own this is what we do on our team so like you one
three one something means that you you've got a problem before you start
asking everybody how to solve it you at least attempt
to solve it yourself you may not have the actual solution you may have no idea
where to look you're just like these are my three
best like guesses or i did a little bit of research my
three best possible solutions and then based on that you
select one of those to move forward with and see if it will solve your problem
the way i want to do it today is i want i want to hear
like a problem or frustration or an opportunity or a choice or something
that you have in your life right now whether business or personal
and then i want everybody not everybody but i would love for the group to
provide the three possible solutions or three ideas to try
and implement and then you can go on your way and decide
which one if any that you want to move forward with does that make sense
perfect now as usual i will sit here quietly
until someone decides to go first i'll go first oh i love it cn thank you
that one that just like step wants to be in the front of the room
and just play okay so i'm gonna um i knew that this one two one three one
thing but um listening to the chat or the conversation
chat or the conversation last week i just had a lot of questions
and i'm going to talk about systems automation and ai
because i've been playing the system automation funnel game for
eight years and i was just like is it time to just put that
crap down because i haven't like um really i do like doing it actually
i'm really passionate about it so every time i put it down or i think
about putting it down i was like pick it back up and i don't
know if i pick it back up just because it's like that's what i'm trained in
and that's what like it's comfortable um i took a mate i took the ai
certification class and i really kind of want to move into
consulting but also knowing that if i consult them to do
fix these problems in their business i can fix it for them
um which builds on the money and so um realize that i have access to
steven i've been doing the boot camps you know and as much as i can whenever
he has one but realizing that um part of my program is having that
automation system calls ai call and i'm like i can get some hands on help
um maybe that is still because i've just been feeling like
i can't do this alone and so i'm thinking that could be a solution to
not giving up on a business that i've been working on for years
that um i guess you put into like a statement one sentence
your question or okay would um be in a partnership with
would um being a part of steven's month or
weekly call help me with my business to move it forward
okay i may think probably yes but i would love to hear
based on what you were sharing and a little bit of our conversation last week
too any feedback or any questions that
anybody else is curious about to hear from cn
Or any feedback based on what you shared because you're saying you always put you put this
down or you think about putting it down, but then you pick it back up.
And I was thinking about doing a challenge with it.
You were thinking about like creating a challenge for it, the way to drive leads?
Yes.
Okay.
And so then you're, it sounds like then you're not putting it down.
Probably not.
I don't know.
It's like a put it down.
I mean, it's, it's a silly pivot cycle.
So I either need to put it down and be done with it or learn how to make it work.
Yeah.
That last week you were talking about, this is like the busy season with the puppies and
that you were trying to put stuff on the shelf right now so you can focus on the puppies.
And so I guess the first thing I'm just kind of wondering in that context is why do you
feel like this week is the week you have to decide whether you put this thing forever
or not?
Why can't you just put it on the shelf and then revisit it after puppy season to decide
if you're still invigorated about the idea or if you're ready, like why, why, why today?
Why this week?
Why are you putting the pressure on yourself instead of just shelving it for the season
of puppies?
It's not my business.
Think of it, it's like my dad's business.
I don't get anything.
I get room and board by helping.
I'm not making any money.
With the puppies?
All his.
I'm mostly doing a lot, mostly, you know, selling and marketing and stuff and supporting
him in his business, but I'm not like, I want to move.
I have my own goals.
And it's just kind of like, basically like a job, think of it like a job that pays my
rent and food, but I'm not like moving forward in any, any way that's like promoting my growth.
Is there a way you could ask to be compensated for puppy time?
I am.
I am compensated.
I like room and board, I have good food, good, nice to place to live.
So that's compensation.
But it's just like, eventually I want to move out on my own.
And I want to work on my business that I'm passionate about.
And that business that you want to work on being the funnels business or being something else?
It's still up in the air.
I mean, it's probably within systems, AI, in systems, funnels, and AI type of thing.
Okay.
So to answer your question about the Steven's call, yeah, that's going to be helpful in
terms of like, how do I build stuff?
How do I scale something?
What's the system I need for this, but to reiterate from last week to ultimately, you
still have to know what direction you're going in.
And you know, what, what I don't want you to do is rely on us to tell you what direction.
Because we cannot tell you what business to do.
Right.
And ultimately that decision has to come from you.
So what I think we could do is, I would love for a few of us at least to, as the three
solutions, as the three possible solutions, we'll kind of tweak it first for this conversation,
is offer, for you guys to offer one, maybe like question or thought that could be, that
has been helpful to you when you're like deciding directions or you're like, what do I do with
my life?
You know, we have, we all have those times of like, where am I going?
What am I doing?
And it just feels like unclear on like what we want even.
So if you've had that time in your life, what has been a thought or a question or something
somebody said that helped you to at least take a step or make a decision?
And that'll be your three like solutions to ponder for this next week.
Okay.
I think the problem is I always come back to the same, same thing.
Okay.
Happens to all of us.
Okay.
If you're, I, I, yeah, I have that problem too, where I have multiple things on the go and can't seem to put 1 down and fully walk away from it. But I think when, when trying to, um, I guess, like, get some clarity and, like, reduce the noise a little bit, I usually spend time thinking, like, what is going to provide me with the most clarity that I can get out of it.
What is going to provide me with the most value.
Not always, I probably should listen to my own suggestion a little bit more. But I know last week you talked about multiple business ideas and you're kind of like swirling because you're not sure where you want it to land.
Like you say, you keep going back to the AI funnels, like that kind of option. Why? Like, what kind of drive or motivation or value does that give you or do you get from that, you know, do you know what I'm saying?
Like, what are you getting out of that that makes you keep wanting to go back to it? Because there's always some kind of motivating factor. And if that one is, if there's more weight there, pulling you there, then maybe that's a good reason to pursue it.
Or maybe there's something else, like, it's challenging. Like, sometimes I circle back to things that are difficult because I like the challenge. I don't really need the challenge. But for some reason, my brain thinks that that's helpful.
So maybe some like critical assessment of like, if that's actually the best choice, if that's going to build you the business that you, you know, the life and business that you want, or if it's just if there's something else that's like drawing you there.
The credibility that, you know, whatever. So just critical, critical thinking, I guess.
Yeah, so critically kind of examine yourself and ask that question of what is the value that this option is going to give me? Similar, Lauren put in the chat, does the choice align with the future you want? So this is looking at your just a minute ago saying, I, you have goals, okay, we'll list out those goals.
It sounds like helping your dad with the puppy business, obviously does not help with those goals. And so it seems like moving forward, why continue to do that if it's actually keeping you from your goals? It's time consuming, it's energy consuming.
And so, yeah, so I think so far, those are two really good questions to reflect on, because like for the does the choice align with the future you want that kind of coincides with like, my thought is I, you guys have been on here long enough.
No, I talked a lot about value based decisions. So like, what are my values in like, essentially the way I live my life, like the deep values and beliefs in which I live my life and drive my desires.
I want to make decisions based on that, not based on my emotions in a moment or based on how my day went or how my week's going. Um, so does anybody have, I'll kind of, that'll be like the second one is like does the choice align with the future you want it slash value based decisions.
Does anybody have a 3rd that maybe they would like to add on.
I don't know if it's completely different than what everybody else is saying, but I sometimes just like to zoom out and look forward to where I want to get to and then reverse engineer what needs to happen to get there.
And so, like, say, for example, you're, you're zoomed out and you're like, what I want is financial independence without having to work more than 40 hours a week.
Okay. And then there's tons of pathways that you can make it to that goal.
You know, and then just reverse engineer the pathways so that personally, I like to do Gantt charts and timelines, but you can do it whatever way you want.
And then it helps me to number one, assess like the things that I'm stressing about that needs to be done today. Like, do they actually need to be done today or do I actually have to do three other things to get to that thing?
So it works with my being realistic about a timeline and being kind to myself about what I'm supposed to be achieving at what time to get to where I want to go.
Being realistic about how long it's going to take me to get to that point and the amount of effort that I'm going to have to like put in to get there to be like, is that the time that I want to be spending today or do I need to bump it?
back my timeline, et cetera, and so forth.
Just like that zoom out and mapping out the plan
and mapping out a timeline associated with the plan
helps, I think, to cut the noise a little bit
to streamline your decisions.
And then know, okay, I put that on the shelf
and in January, 2027, I can take it back off the shelf
or if it's outside of my 40-hour work week
and I wanna do it as a hobby, I can take it off the shelf.
But otherwise, I'm gonna guilt-free leave it there,
no questions asked.
That way, it cuts down the noise in my brain
of open threads that if I don't close them,
will take up energy and not in a positive way.
I love that.
That's my big interest.
I love guilt-free things.
Thank you.
Does that help?
Does that give you some things to at least think about
this week as you're, they're not really three solutions
necessarily, but it's three ways of thinking
that can help you evaluate where you're at.
No, that absolutely helps, absolutely, yeah.
Good, absolutely.
Okay, who would like to go next for their 131?
There you are.
Okay.
All right, I'll go.
I'm in a bit of a headache recently.
I get these emotional트� reactions
when I'll leave the chores
to go do something that I care less and I wanna control.
Just give me a little point,
a little energy that will make this work.
So yeah, I'll go with the last one.
That's a happy emotional feedback.
Cash crunch, that feels persistent and ever present,
especially when the first of the month is tomorrow
and a lot of bills are due on the first of the month.
And I know that I don't have the money
in my checking account to pay them.
And so, yeah, I don't know what to do about it.
Do you wanna provide whatever context
that you're comfortable with on your cash crunch?
I think I talked about a lot of it on these calls,
but for the people who weren't here for the whole series,
like my full-time job is not paying me
and I'm recruiting hours,
mostly because I haven't gotten a new job yet.
So I was like, may as well recruit hours there,
but they're not paying.
And this week they'll be back
behind like four and a half paychecks.
And I was on a board call yesterday
and none of the board is just like
ponying up the money to make it,
the payroll happen, which is problematic.
And then I have rental property that has been vacant
since July of 2025 that I've been carrying the mortgages for
which has been painful.
And I've gone through my six months of savings
that I expected that I would need, that's gone.
I converted one of them to an Airbnb.
The second booking, they call it, the second booking,
somebody like shot a gun through the kitchen
and it went into the neighbor's house.
And so Airbnb delisted my property.
So not only do I have to like pay for all the repairs
and I didn't get the money from that booking
because the people were kicked out,
I have problems with the neighbors now
that I have like money I'm spending on a lawyer
to make sure I don't get sued for liability.
And now I also don't have money from that property again
even though I've spent a lot of money furnishing it,
et cetera and so forth.
And then the e-commerce business,
it just bleeds cash where it's like I make sales
but it doesn't really matter because I've already,
I spend so much on advertising
that the money is already spent by the time I make the sale.
It's not even breakeven.
And I reduced my advertising spend,
but of course my sales reduced with the advertising spend.
And I don't, just that all the money goes out
and not enough money comes in
because none of my businesses are profitable.
So there's that.
Thank you for sharing.
I wanna just say for if you offer a possible solution
as always, we're.
None of us are claiming to be experts on anything.
It's just like, hey, this is what came to mind.
This is my best possible solution for you to consider.
So just everyone, you don't have to have the pressure
of like completely figuring out Christy's problems.
And I know she doesn't expect that either
because I know Christy, but just know it's okay
to just be like, I don't know if this would be helpful,
but this is what I've got.
So just wanna like take the pressure off people.
But I'd love to hear three thoughts,
three possible solutions, three, I don't know, something.
Before I share a thought, I have a question.
How can the company that you work for not pay you?
No, they can't.
Like basically the CEO said, I can lay everybody off
and you can take unemployment,
which unemployment will not pay anybody's bills.
She said, or you can quit or you can accrue hours.
And I mean, she fully knows everybody's looking for a job,
but the job market is garbage.
Okay, so I guess that's what I was getting at.
It's like, why are people still working there
if nobody is getting paid?
Like that, yeah.
They just can't find another job.
I mean, I think I saw something on LinkedIn yesterday
that like the top like 10 companies laid off
almost 400,000 people in the past 12 months or something.
It's like, and it's all like tech workforce.
They're all like super skilled labor.
It's not like we're driving Uber, you know?
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Okay, I remember you sharing
about that whole Airbnb experience
shortly after it happened.
And I just wanna say, I'm super sorry
that you're even navigating that
cause that sounds so frustrating.
And Airbnb sounds like a great option
to switch from like a long-term rental
to at least having some kind of income.
And then I'm sure it feels like,
okay, now I'm faced with this situation.
Is it possible for you to like sell one of those places
that were rental properties to at least
not have to pay the mortgage on them going forward?
Or is that like, I don't know what the housing market's
like where you are.
Like, I don't know if that's feasible,
if that would be like a huge loss,
but is that an option to like at least free up cashflow
so you're not paying a mortgage on a monthly basis?
Yeah, definitely is buying season now.
And so I wouldn't have sold over like January and February
for what I would have needed it to sell at.
But now that we're into April,
it is possible to sell the properties.
Yeah, it feels like I have one vacant lot
but it's not actually costing me anything.
And I've thought about selling the lot
just to have the cash available to pay the mortgages
until I get them actually rented.
And I haven't pulled the trigger on any of it yet,
but I'm going to have to.
Yeah, thank you, Margo.
Thank you, Sienna, what do you got?
I would ask if you've actually looked into,
I know your employer said that you can't get paid
anything with unemployment, that's a lie.
Yeah, you don't get paid what you're worth.
But it's more than getting nothing.
And there's other benefits for it.
Like I think during COVID, I got an employment
and I think it was over a couple thousand dollars a month.
It paid my bills.
And you can put that money towards whatever.
And also I agree with what Margaret said about,
looking at selling or looking at renting
your other properties.
Is Airbnb the only business like that around?
Honestly, I don't think I can stomach
any of those short-term rentals.
The benefit of the long-term rentals
is you can do a background check on anybody in the house
over the age of 18 and they live there.
So they have some like ownership
over what's happening in their own home
as opposed to, yeah, that short-term rentals.
term. I just can't, I cannot do that again. So the long term might be better? Is that what you're
saying? Yeah, long term renters are going to be better. So I thought I had somebody signing a
lease for April 1st for the house that got shot. And for whatever reason, he didn't submit his
application and sign the lease. And so now my property manager is talking to him about moving
in on Saturday, which is maybe the fourth or something, instead of tomorrow, which would be
the first. Because I have to move out all of the Airbnb furniture, which is just like another
expense that I have to undergo. And so if that person doesn't sign, we do have a backup person
who could sign a lease. And so we would move on to her next. And then it will rent within
two months for sure. Now that we're into the long term lease season, it's just people don't
do anything December through February in that area because of the way that area just is.
And then my other property that has, it's just bigger. We are working with the Veterans Affairs
to put VAs, like rental by the room. And they have a program where they pay the rent for the
veterans. And they pay like a little bit higher rent because of a lot of factors that we've
kind of pre-negotiated, like a social worker from VA to be able to manage the people in the house,
to do whatever they're supposed to do to meet their metrics to make it for their free rent.
So the first person from that is supposed to move in May 15th. But again, he hasn't put in
his application yet. So yeah, but we have some other people who could rent it by the room
and another program that would rent it by the room. That's just like, yeah. Basically,
if that house, that's the house I would sell, the big house that has the big mortgage on it,
just because it's the least, it would solve the problems the fastest.
I want to kind of go off of what everyone's saying. And also Lauren put in the chat,
like, are you able to sell the property, which we're discussing? Are you able to take the layoff
now with unemployment? It's not full salary, but it's better than nothing. I kind of want to go
off of that. And also what we talked about in our last one-on-one call was, you have a hard time
letting go. You said letting go of things is kind of hard. And I just want to say with all this,
we don't have to stay stuck with what we have. We don't have to stay stuck with a bag of shit.
You know what I mean? Sometimes we do in the sense of like, okay, this is what it is. It's
hard. And I'm just, I need to persist. And I, it's just hard and I need to, and I'm going to
keep going. But, you know, I, the same with the same kind of concept was like, you could do
unemployment. It's not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it's better than nothing.
You know, that's an option you have the same with selling or the same with doing some other type of
rental. Like what you're talking about is, is an option, you know, it's like get going and driving
Uber is better than getting paid nothing. And, you know, in terms of like how that makes you
feel also to be working and working and not get paid and not like, just that feels not great.
You feel it's over time. It's hard for your sense of worth and like,
encouragement and enthusiasm to stay up here. It's going to decline pretty quickly.
And that trickles into other aspects of life too. And so the same with your e-commerce business too,
it's like, okay, you have your e-commerce business, you have options there. You don't
have to stay with it, or you also have learned a whole host of skills by going through the
accelerator where you could have some other part of your brand that has nothing to do with e-commerce
or has nothing to do with something that's going to require upfront investment. So I think what I,
you know, my, what we're all saying is all the solutions are kind of the same, even though
they're in different areas of your life. It's like, you don't have to stay with the bag ship.
You have something to, you have an option, even if it doesn't feel good or it's not great,
it's not the best option. There is something else that you could do. So I think it's kind of
going back to like, what do you want to settle for? Or what do you want to persist through also?
You know, so everyone's options were, you know, on the job or the housing stuff or
e-commerce, but ultimately I think all of the three solutions.
solutions are, what do you want to stick with, what do you want to persist through, and doing
that in the various things that you have going on, you know, job, e-commerce, rental properties
are like your big one.
So, I don't know if any of that feedback you got is helpful, but I appreciate everyone
trying to offer, yeah, which fire is the biggest?
That's a good one.
Which fire is the biggest that needs to be put out the first, like, first before everything
else?
All right, guys, let's move on to someone else, so Maura, Margo, and Lauren, I know Lauren
thinks you're probably not able to come on camera, so you could always put yours in the
chat if you want, but does anybody want to go first?
And don't forget, like, you guys can give out any problem, small or big, it doesn't
have to be anything huge, if you don't feel like sharing anything, or maybe you don't
have anything huge, it can be small.
I feel like I have lots of things, I don't even know where to start.
Well, last week I dropped a big thing in the chat right before we left, and that was when
you were asking, like, what decisions do you have before you, and I actually brought it
up yesterday in Mindset Monday, got to talk about it a little bit.
That is that question about whether I need to, not need to, I guess, I don't know, it's
like so swirly in my head.
I feel like I need to decide now whether I'm going back to work after my six-month leave
of absence or not, which I kind of got the feedback yesterday that, like, maybe I don't
need to decide that right now, which I think is true.
I've already decided that I don't want to.
I think my concern is that if I don't get to the point that I want to get to, am I going
to have to?
Am I going to be, like, backed into a corner where it's like, this is the only option?
It's not really a question, but.
Well, it's a mindset, I don't want to say problem, but it's like a mindset problem.
It's a mindset.
Your question, your need, your ask is mindset.
So then the three solutions are all going to be mindset solutions, mindset tweaks, or
mindset, hey, do this for your mindset.
Does that make sense?
So I'd love to hear if anybody else has ever been in this position or if you ever imagined
being in this position and feeling, I'm sure we all feel this way at some point when you're
an entrepreneur, it's like, do I drop the thing that gives me a sense of security and
safety and comfort and not just sense, but in a very real way gives security and safety?
Do I drop that thing?
How do I tackle that mentally?
If you have no idea, that's fine, you can give it your best guess.
Let's open it up for three mindset solutions.
Or maybe emotional solutions.
Did you talk to Danielle?
I was very emotional yesterday.
I did not.
I have not heard yet.
I guess you have to maybe just reflect a little bit on.
The fact that being an entrepreneur, there's always risk, there's always like you are going
to be at the end of the day, the boss, the leader, the one that everybody's going to be
depending on, right?
And you're never going to be as secure as if you're in a government job.
But what does security look like?
That's going to make you feel confident and secure in this business that you can depend
on the business and the business can depend on you.
It's like, what do you have to see?
What do you have to notice?
What do you have to feel like in the day to day to make you feel that this is.
Whatever, insert word, stable, profitable, fulfilling, whatever the word is for you.
that you can let go of full-time job.
The full-time job is like the stability, right?
It's the certainty.
And certainty is not something that people use
to describe entrepreneurship.
So you have to figure out what does it feel like
that you're gonna trust it enough
that you don't have to trust your employer.
Thank you, Christie.
Laura, I love you.
Yes, I was gonna call on you.
Oh, okay, well, good, great minds.
Great think.
So, Marco, I guess I just have a couple
of background questions before I chime in
with what I was thinking.
But did you just start this six-month leave of absence?
No, it starts in July.
No, it starts in July and goes to December.
So I haven't even started it yet.
This is me like anticipating the thoughts
that I'm going to have down the road.
Yes, I know it's ridiculous.
Well, yeah, but we probably all think the same way you do
because if we weren't planners
and we didn't have that skillset of overachieving,
we wouldn't even attempt to start our own businesses.
Your mindset isn't unusual.
If I was in your shoes,
I would totally be obsessing about that.
So basically, you're worrying about not being successful
when you haven't started yet?
Okay, yeah, that's something that I would do.
And when you admit it and say it out loud,
maybe you can finally just let it go.
Maybe you can say,
I decided to take the six-month leave of absence.
That's pretty darn brave, number one.
And I think you need to applaud yourself
for being brave and even taking the risk.
And if worst case scenario is that you go back,
if you have to go back,
it doesn't mean you're locked in jail
and you have to go back forever, right?
Could you just go back for a little bit of time
and then work on your business part-time
and then take another leave of absence?
Or I guess what I'm offering is gray,
try to give yourself some grace.
You're being brave and have some gray area thinking,
maybe not just so much black and white
that if I fail, I have to go back
and I don't wanna go back.
Maybe let's just not even go there
because we haven't even started yet.
Me and Maura are so in sync because she was talking
and I was gonna kind of summarize it as like,
you don't have to have the black and white thinking.
So that is fantastic, I'm loving it, I love it.
And I am such a black and white thinker
and that's something that I'm personally working on.
So I guess right now, because I'm personally working on it,
it's easier for me to see it in other people.
And I'm also preaching to myself right now.
So I'm like, oh, I think a lot like Marco does.
And here's what therapy is telling me to do.
And maybe if you could even just put the full-time job
on a three by five card and just like physically
set it aside and say, I don't need to pick this up right now
and try to just focus on what you need to be doing right now.
I think that might be helpful.
I love it.
Okay, I'll stop there.
That's okay, no, you're not.
Christy's talking about reflecting,
Maura's talking about the black and white thinking,
and what do you got?
I just wonder who you're gonna hurt
or like step on with your decision.
Who does that affect besides you?
Well, my family, my partner, none of them are concerned.
Is it just money?
What's that?
Just like financial stability?
Yeah, yeah.
Are you letting your company down or anything like that
if you don't come back?
Oh, I don't really care about that.
It's the provincial government.
It's like the state government where you guys are.
Like they'll replace me, so.
Is your family behind you doing your own business?
Yeah.
That's all I got, that's just me.
My thought is to kind of go back to the value-based decisions is like as you're going through
preparing for the leave and also in it, it's like instead of spending so much energy and
thought you know consumed with the what if it doesn't work out, should I go back, should
I not?
That takes up a lot of time, it takes up a lot of brain space and it's very exhausting
and so not that it doesn't need to be considered but imagine if you took that amount of time
and energy and mental energy and applied it to the business, that's going to, that acceleration
is going to be far greater than the acceleration of should I stay or should I go and so it's
like your value is that you want to have a business, you want this business to look
like XYZ, it has these goals, you have whatever financial goals or service or product-based
goals, evaluating the value of that and it's like okay, my value is to have that so my
decisions are going to reflect that value.
Sometimes we need to detach from our emotions and our mental worries and sometimes it can
be helpful for me at least to like write down like okay, here's my values, here's what
I want, here's the way I'm living my life and kind of go through a list of like here's
how that affects this part of my life, this part of my life, my business, all of that.
Okay, so if it affects my business this way, what kind of decisions need to be made?
To me it helps to write it down I guess is what I'm saying because it helps me just like
ignore essentially my emotions and the mental noise and just kind of be more objective and
be like all right, my business needs this decision and this action for me so I'm just
going to go and do that even though my emotions are still probably running and still like
the worry is there but I'm just not giving it, I'm not paying attention to it necessarily
there but I'm not letting it be front of mind where it's driving my everyday and now my
actions are driven by my worry instead of my value to have a business.
So I don't know if any of those are helpful but I think you got some good like things
to think about.
Lauren, but it felt like you had a clear decision just now, your family is in support of you
focusing on your business and you don't have any ties or commitment to your job.
Take this opportunity to focus on what drives you in your business, you'll never know the
outcome if you don't try.
Yeah, and I think that has been the plan all along, like take this amount of time,
I have this approved leave where I do not have to worry about my 9 to 5 and I can focus
on other things, my business predominantly, also I'm getting married so that's also a
focus.
It's just my overactive, you know, what if imagination because I've wanted to step away
from my full-time job for a really long time and I tried this, I've done this, I've taken
this same kind of leave of absence a few years ago but I was in the middle of a very messy
divorce so it wasn't quite the focused time and I think there's definitely some like residual
trauma from that time that's like making me question whether or not it's going to
work this time.
Yeah, so I just get, I have a wild imagination and I get sometimes caught in the what if
cycle and I know it's not good for me.
So talking through it is helpful and getting other people's like thoughts and ideas is
also helpful so thank you.
Good, I'm glad.
Yeah, I think we all do.
We all have, our imaginations are all wild, wild, I know mine is, it's out there.
You don't even want to hear some of the things but yeah, I think just reflect on one, the
different mental pieces we're saying but also maybe take into consideration some of the
practical like how can I compartmentalize whether that's writing down, journaling,
or something else, talking through.
Christy, since Mikayla isn't here, consider reading 12 Months to a Million.
Yeah, I'm starting, I'm putting months zero to three right now for July.
That's a good, yeah, that's a good idea.
Yeah, thank you, thank you for speaking through, Mikayla.
I study so many times, I'm like okay, let me buy this book and I have started reading
it and I get why she recommends it so much because it's a very practical, I am a very
practical Gantt chart driven person, is a very practical, like this is why you got to
in this order to build and scale.
And maybe Sian, you could consider it too
on behalf of Michaela, I'll put it out there.
Because while you're doing your puppy business,
you can have like your zero to three month,
which I think is just basically trying to get
to 25 sales per day.
And it really is about branding,
focusing on your customer,
really understanding your customer avatar
so you know who you're speaking to,
and then scaling after you've locked in a customer base.
Michaela's normally here,
but she's, I think, had a lot going on.
She hasn't been on in the last few weeks or so.
But yeah, Michaela's usually a frequent
attendant to this call.
We have about five minutes left,
which means we have time for one more.
Maura or Lauren are the only ones that haven't gone.
So I was, and again, we've been tackling
really big problems, I feel like, on this call.
This is not necessarily what it has to be.
I'm just gonna keep reiterating that.
We don't all have to be contemplating
very big, big life decisions.
Could just be in our business
or something smaller and personal.
That's okay to bring to the table as well.
And if, Lauren, my problem decision,
I've paused things in my business
because I was bleeding money mostly on ads.
I feel like I need to jumpstart things again,
but I don't know if I should market
to the same audience or rebrand.
Okay.
Let's hear our three solutions,
or three ideas, or thoughts, or questions to ask.
Christy.
No.
It's a little easier, I would still love
to hear from you, Christy, too,
because it's easier when you're thinking
about somebody else versus ourselves.
It's always easier to give advice
than give ourselves advice.
I think,
this is when my, like, so much easier
talking about someone else's situation,
and I feel like this is when my risk taker comes out.
I would be like, well, what's the,
what's the downfall to marketing
to a different audience?
Like, if you felt like you weren't selling
as much as you wanted to sell,
like, I don't know what your product is,
so I'm kind of just stabbing in the dark,
but would it serve another, a different,
another audience, a different audience?
Is there someone else that would benefit differently
or better than the one you were originally marketing to?
I think the answer is yes,
but I'm imagining she's typing right now.
Yeah, I also assume that.
I didn't know if maybe, Gabby,
if you knew what her product is, but.
You'd have to remind me, Lauren,
because I know it's a, like, pet memorial type product.
Well, but it can be, no,
I'm thinking of something else.
I can't remember if it was released or anything.
Very few units.
Remind me, Lauren, because I'm like,
I know we've talked about this,
but I know I'm remembering us talking about it
being marketed to different audiences,
so I feel like I'm worried I'm getting it confused
with a different product.
Keepsake box, thank you.
Right.
So she's been marketing to pet parents
who have lost their animals and have, you know,
they have a keepsake box to essentially
remember their animal loved ones.
Are you deleting ad money only on Amazon
or are you on other channels
that you're also advertising on?
Lauren, I'll let you type.
I know she's also on Shopify.
Oh, she's also on Shopify, okay.
Yeah.
So I would just say I feel,
and I don't have data to back this up,
but trying to get, like, sample ads for meta
to, like, a new keyword is less expensive
than competing on Amazon for a whole new keyword.
It just feels to me, and it is feeling,
it's not based on data,
that meta will test out your stuff
in a less expensive way than Amazon does.
I'm actually kind of thinking
to completely go off of Amazon
because there's just been a lot of, like, negativity
in the news around the way that their platform
is kind of, like, catering more to the bigger brands now
and more established brands,
but I'm-
put my conspiracy theories on here, I would just say that if you have any like organic
content on Meta and you wanted to like try like boosting some of your organic content
that caters to a different audience, that might be a cost efficient way to collect data
to see if it's worth it to just target that audience.
I think that's helpful.
I think that's a really good point that I haven't thought of before, that it definitely
is going to be a lot more affordable to test different audiences off of Amazon because
Amazon, it also takes time to build up your level of like competition in different categories,
different buyer intents.
So I think that's a really good point.
Oh, sorry.
I was just going to say you could run like the same campaign basically, but run different
ads off of the same campaign on Meta and have the entire ad spend be like a nominal amount
of money until it gains traction and then you can increase the ad spend if you want
to.
And that like, like Christy was saying, that's a really good way to.
And then if something's not performing at all, you can turn it off and then it'll split
that money more evenly in the other ads that you have running.
So you could try like moms, pet parent, like you could go back to some of the same areas,
weddings, like I don't even know, whatever, all the things that people might want the
keepsake box for and just see what gets traction and then what and turn off the ones that don't.
And then it might give you feedback that you can like focus moving forward.
Yeah.
I think Lauren also for that idea specifically, if you wanted some help on that, if you were
able to pop on Yuke's call on Wednesdays at the 9am Pacific Standard Call, I know you
work, but if you're able to pop in there, he could help you with, you know, thinking
through that and saying that, or one of the applicable like cohort calls on Thursdays
would also be, would be helpful in the next couple of weeks.
We have a new cohort starting, so they'll be like hitting their like week two, which
is like where we talk a lot about setting up your ads pretty soon.
So you can hop on that call as well.
Sienna, I'm going to let you go.
I'm going to try to be quick because I've got to get to another call here in a minute.
You're muted though.
I have a guy reaching out to me that wants to charge me $300 to run my, for our dog business,
building our list again, a meta.
And I'm like, I'll go with you for, I mean, I've been taking, I've taken the Facebook
ads class and everything, and I have ads running, but I'm like, I'll pay to invest
the $300 to see what you do for me.
What?
And I'm like, I'll cancel you in a month or two, but I'm going to steal your ideas
for my dog business, because I don't know how to run ads for my dog business.
But I think that
hard cap your budget.
He's charging you $300.
You don't let him spend a thousand dollars a day.
I'm telling you right now, because he'll say, Oh, we have to test it really quickly.
And then we'll know what's working, but the budget never goes back down.
Okay.
Yeah.
Like I'm spending like $5 a day on my ads right now.
Yeah, that's fine.
I just kind of want to see what he does, what's working for him, for this big
business that he can get me all these dog leads.
All right, guys, I've got to go, but thank you so much for sharing your
problems and sharing your solutions.
And thank you for everyone just receiving all those ideas really
graciously and openly.
I really appreciate that about this group.
Um, don't forget next week we are starting week one or the first week of the new
book to move my cheese, see the schedule on the inner circle group, and then also
that Google doc or that Google form for the May event has been updated.
So please go back and submit again for like your definitive answer.
The dates are 20th through 30th.
That's also posted the inner circle group.
Um, and I will see everyone back here next week.
Thanks.
Bye.