The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

214 ⎸ Entrepreneurship Isn’t Hard

• Serena Shoup, CPA • Episode 214

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Hey ambitious bookkeepers! In this week's audio-only episode, I'm getting real about a bold statement: entrepreneurship isn't hard. I know, I know - you're probably thinking I've lost it, right? But hear me out. This episode dives into how our mindset and the people we surround ourselves with can completely shift our experience as business owners.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • Why it matters who you hang around
  • The issues with "venting" sessions with other business owners
  • The positive, abundant community we've built here and how you can find (or create) the same energy in your circle

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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You are listening to the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast today, I am not recording a video. If I waited until I could record a video with this and put it on YouTube, I wouldn't be able to publish an episode this week. And that's just how things go sometimes. So as I always like to say, done is better than perfect. I do love publishing everything on YouTube, but it is what it is. This week you guys are just getting an audio podcast and honestly, I was thinking about it and. I was wondering to myself, are people going to like notice the difference in energy in podcast episodes that are also on video versus just on the podcast? Because when I do record a YouTube video along with the podcast or record my podcast as a video. Yeah, my energy is totally different because I know I'm on camera and I know I have to like act more excited. Not that I'm not excited to talk into the microphone, but sometimes I feel like just talking into the microphone in my dark house. At night after my kids are in bed, just is more relaxing and more chill. So I'd love to hear your feedback on whether or not you can even tell the difference between episodes that are also in video versus just podcast. Okay, so today's topic is about entrepreneurship not being hard, and I'm gonna dive into some. I don't know, just some thoughts that I've had. I actually published this on a newsletter that I sent out a week or so ago. I can't remember how long it was ago, but I started doing this behind the scenes newsletter, if you will. That if you're on my email list, you probably got it. It looks a little different than the regular emails that we send out every week with our like little update blurb and then like sharing the podcast and whatever else we have going on. I had this inspiration to just start writing again. And if you've been here for a long time, you might know that the podcast actually started out as a blog and, that's because I like to write and sometimes it's easier to write than record a podcast. But I did want to share, some thoughts and things that go on in my head and some things I'm experimenting with and I didn't necessarily want to. Go all out and put it on a blog, but I wanted it to be accessible to people Later on, in case people find me that weren't on my email list, when the newsletter goes out, you can actually find it on. My website,, I'll drop a link in the show notes so that you can subscribe and then you'll be able to go back and look at previous newsletters. One of the things that I really like about the newsletter, as I wrote about in the first newsletter I sent out was that I'm not necessarily going to be writing and sending it out on a specific schedule. I'm really just writing these when I feel inspired. And have something that I think would be valuable to share in the newsletters. I'm also. Not selling anything. If you're on my email list, you probably, have noticed that in most of the emails that I send, we have some sort of call to action, whether it be, go listen to the podcast episode or, join us in the next workshops, or which, by the way, we're amazing and for everyone who attended those, thank you so much for your participation. It was awesome. I loved it. And I'm always offering you guys ways To work with me in those, in those emails, but in the newsletter, I just really wanted to provide value and. Hopefully just connect. So, uh, so yeah, with that, go ahead and check out the link in the show notes. I don't know the path off the top of my head, otherwise I would say it out loud. But the link will be in the show notes for you to go back and look at those newsletters. You do not have to be subscribed to get them. If you do subscribe, they'll be delivered to your inbox. If not, you can just save or bookmark the page that they're on. And, check back every so often. You can even comment below the newsletters and share your opinions and thoughts about what I'm writing about., so this podcast episode is derived from. One of those newsletters that I wrote about and, , the topic is, entrepreneurship isn't hard. It's kind of a bold statement, right? I mean, of course it's hard, like, uh, you're crazy Serena to think that it's not hard or to say that it's not hard. But I want you to hear me out, so I'm sure you've. Probably experienced at some point in your life, something along the lines of this scenario. You get together with your girlfriends, or if you are a guy listening, you get together with your guy friends and one person starts talking about how, their spouse can't do certain things right. Or how like annoying something is or whatever, and then someone else chimes in with, yeah, mine can't be bothered to help with the kids at bedtime or whatever it may be, and so on. And then pretty soon you are involved and have devolved into a spouse bashing session. Maybe just listen the first time and don't chime in, and then next time you all hang out, the same thing happens. But this time you also had a particularly hard time with your partner that day. So joining in doesn't seem so hard. I have seen very similar stuff play out in business where there's just client bashing happening. complaints about how hard business is, how hard it is to get good clients, let alone clients at all. How impossible it is to find team who know what they're doing, and then there's the, I can't start rearing their ugly head, right? I can't charge my clients that much. They won't pay that. I can't find anyone willing to work and to do a good job. And my response. To this and to lots of any scenario when people are like really negative and like you're like, oh, I can't do that. And it's like, well, yeah, not with that attitude. Not with the attitude that you have towards your clients or your team or the sheer unwillingness to reflect on your side of things. It is no wonder entrepreneurship feels so hard. With that attitude and surrounding yourself with people who are also complaining, you are actually feeding that mindset. So even if you don't start out this way, if you hang around other people, other women who bash their husbands or other men who bash their wives on the regular, or gossip about other people, or complain about how difficult motherhood is, it's going to be really difficult to stay positive about your own situation. Yes, entrepreneurship is challenging. It is hard, and it is what we signed up for, right? Motherhood is challenging and we signed up for this, but it will feel a whole lot harder. If you are surrounding yourself with negativity, that feeds that feeling under the guise of venting. So if you're in groups, in business or personal where the negativity is wearing on you, it is okay to opt out. Just take a step back for a while and reflect inward. If this business, if this life, if motherhood, fatherhood, whatever it may be, if this is really what you want, when you shift your attitude towards it, it won't seem so hard. And that's my loving little kick in the pants to really evaluate who you're surrounding yourself with. The groups of people that you are running with. And if you need to recalibrate that, if you need to readjust it, maybe it's time. If you're feeling that weight of negativity of other people's negativity kind of wearing on you and shifting your own attitude towards things. It might be time to reevaluate your circle. One of the things that, I really love about the community that we've built here with the Ambitious Bookkeeper brand here on the podcast and my Facebook group. If you're not in the Facebook group, go ahead and join. If you're into Facebook still, I'll link that in the show notes as well. I don't put up with. The negative venting type stuff. Fortunately I don't really have to like even remove posts or anything like that, but I'm just really grateful that I have attracted a caliber of bookkeepers and accountants into my world where that kind of stuff just doesn't happen. And because it's not already happening, people don't come in and start doing that. And if they do, I'll remove the post. Like legit. I just, I, nobody has time for that level of negativity. We all, life is hard enough as it is. We don't need, we don't need extra help feeling shitty about things. So, um, so yeah, that's something I've really like. I just feel so honored that the people. You listening. Hopefully this resonates with you and if you're looking for a more positive, abundant mindset group of people, , you found it by listening to this podcast, I hope, and maybe join the group if you're in any of my programs. You've probably felt it if you were in part of the workshops. Hopefully I spread that mindset around a little bit. So yeah, this was I think, volume two of my little behind the scenes newsletter. Again, I'll link those in the show notes. And the other thing too is those newsletters are not. Ideated or written with ai. I just wanna be like, I feel like now we have to like put out a disclaimer on things that we're putting out that it's, either not written with AI or it is, but like I feel like most everything is being helped with some sort of Cha JBT or Claude or whatever. And so. Now I feel like when I do something without any help from ai, I think I need to like claim it. And so yeah, those newsletters are not helped out at all with ai. I'm not asking AI for topics on these. These are purely from the heart. I'm not asking AI to help me even outline or anything. I'm not ideating, I'm not having it right. I'm not having it even proofread. I am doing my own proofreading, y'all. So if there's mistakes, I'm sorry, but I'm also not sorry. That's how you know, it's, it's actually me writing them. And the day that I feel like I need AI to help me write those will be the day that I stop. Even with this podcast, I could probably count on one hand how many times I've used chat GPT to even help me, like outline an episode. There's been a couple of 'em where I've had a hard time like organizing my thoughts and I've put in, you know, what I've bulleted out so far, and then asked chat GPT to like kinda help me, , organize it better, but. I feel really strong. There's so much content out there and, I know probably chat GPT will be able to scrape my podcast and my website and pull from what I'm saying, but at least you all know that from my heart and I'm gonna keep sharing that way. I don't, I don't need to, we don't need to add to like the generic level of content that's out there. And yeah, will be fully transparent. I do use chat GPT to help me write my blogs for my firm, but that's, I don't know. That's a little different, I feel like, but I guess it's a topic for another day. Anyway, I'm getting a little off track here. I hope this episode was helpful for you. And, make sure you check out my newsletter. It's in the show out. It's for the 50th time. Thank you again for listening with me every week or listening to me every week. And, if this resonated with you, share it with a friend. I appreciate it so much. I'll be in your earbuds next week.

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