How to Stop Overthinking and Start Taking Action in Your Business

Ever get stuck in a spiral of “what ifs” that stops you from moving forward in your business? You’re not alone and this episode is exactly what you need to give you the motivation and know how to do something different next time.

Today, I’m joined by Elizabeth Dodson, co-founder of the tech company HomeZada, to talk about how to stop overthinking, trust your gut, and make bold decisions (even if you’re scared). With over 25 years in tech and business development, Beth brings real talk on staying grounded, reflecting on what works, and ditching the shiny objects that distract so many entrepreneurs.

In this episode, we dive into:

• The power of “positive what ifs” and how to make decisions with more ease
• Why trusting your intuition is a skill (and how to strengthen it)
• How to reflect on past wins and losses to grow exponentially without burning out

This one’s full of feel-good encouragement, hard-earned wisdom, and mindset shifts you’ll want to come back to again and again.

🎧 Loved this chat? Tag me on IG with your favorite takeaway, I want to know what resonated! 

About Elizabeth Dodson:

Elizabeth Dodson is Co-Founder of HomeZada, an online and mobile home management platform that helps homeowners manage their homes to save time and money and reduce stress. Elizabeth Dodson has over 25 years in technology and business development. Prior to HomeZada, she joined Meridian Systems and assisted in the growth of this young startup. As the Director of Business Development for Meridian Systems, she managed all the partners, their programs, and sales. She holds a BS in Business from Stevenson University and her MBA from Loyola University of Maryland.

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES

• Learn more about Homezada here
• Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn

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Transcript

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Natasha (00:00)

Today you'll hear from a woman who co-founded a tech company that's changing the way people manage their homes. Elizabeth Dodson is the co-founder of Homesada, an online and mobile home management platform that helps homeowners save time, money, and reduce stress. With over 25 years in technology and business development, including experience helping growing an early stage startup Meridian Systems, Elizabeth brings sharp insight and real talk about trusting your intuition and taking decisive action with confidence.

Natasha (00:28)

Hello and welcome to the show, Beth.

Beth Dodson (00:30)

Well, thank you for having me, Natasha. I'm so excited to be here.

Natasha (00:34)

I'm so excited that you're here. And just a real quick aside, I'm at Bath at a coworking space at Granite City in Folsom. So just the power of community and networking is meeting amazing people like you.

Beth Dodson (00:48)

yes, like I'm a big fan of community and ⁓ Granite City co-working space has been like one of the most amazing places to meet so many people and to experience and learn about their businesses and share my own, which leads to great conversations like right now.

Natasha (01:06)

Yep, I'm such a fan. Coworking for the win, especially if you work from home. You need that socialization. So I want to get started. One of my first questions for you is that so many entrepreneurs get stuck in this kind of mode of overthinking, and that can lead to a real kind of doomsday mentality. And I know for you, like, this is important to stay out of that. So how do you stay grounded and focused on your path without spiraling into these what ifs?

Beth Dodson (01:34)

Well the first thing, at least from my perspective, the words what if, they don't oftentimes exist in my world because I'm like, okay, well what if? Well, we can look at the what if negative or we can look at the what if positive. And Natasha knows I'm like super positive person and I do. I have some realism to me but if we can easily spiral out of control to the what if negative, we can do the same to the what if positive.

And oftentimes I will take a step back, look at the situation, whatever that situation may be. And it could be a simple decision whether to conduct a particular marketing campaign. It could be a simple decision whether to ⁓ call back this particular prospect that is really looking for what we have. But all those different things play a role. And oftentimes I will take a step back. I will ask myself,

Well, what's the worst thing that could happen if we did or didn't do this marketing campaign as an example? Or what's the best thing that could happen? And oftentimes I won't leave it just at that what if good, what if bad? Forgive the phrases because I don't think anything is always good or bad. But I also will look at the options and I'm a big options girl. And I think options help keep me grounded because if I can look at all the multiple options,

of a scenario and there could be five, 10, three, 15, or some combination of multiple ones, then I can actually have an understanding of this, this or this could happen, whatever this, this or this is. And then I could implement the process or the campaign in this example. And then there's a little bit I have to leave out of my control, especially when we're talking about marketing campaigns.

You never know what's going to work and what isn't sometimes. And it could be a timing issue. It could be ⁓ a messaging issue. It could be one word. I've experienced that before and staying focused on, okay, taking that avenue, addressing that campaign, making a decision. I'm a big firm believer in making sure you give yourself decision dates or deadlines because that will help you stop overthinking as well.

and then moving forward. And then once you do move forward, in this case, with this particular marketing campaign or what have you, then doing an assessment, did it work or didn't it work? But don't beat yourself up because I think as entrepreneurs, we're all trying to move the ball forward in our business and we're all trying to get through growth. But what works for one company will not necessarily work for another. So I think we all have some similar roadmaps.

but we also have to be open to new opportunities. And so I'm not one that gets sucked down into the what ifs. I get sucked into, okay, what if this great thing happened? How can I address it moving forward without having so much control? And I think that's part of the challenge. And that's difficult for me. I've been guilty of having too much control. I think a lot of people have, but letting go is also part of, you know, being grounded.

Natasha (04:58)

Yeah, right. We want to think that we can predict and control everything and we really can't. So looking at our options is great. And I'm definitely someone who plans for the worst hopes for the best, but I do kind of tend to get stuck in that planning for the worst instead of like, what is the best thing that could happen? And I think it's a powerful reframe because kind of our nervous system wants to keep us safe, right? It's trained to protect us from threats that don't necessarily exist in the same way that they did. And so we are programmed to look for that.

Beth Dodson (05:20)

Mm-hmm.

Natasha (05:28)

and so we can reprogram that though to be more helpful for us. So I love that reframe.

Beth Dodson (05:34)

Yeah. And I think to your point, Natasha, if we're constantly looking at the worst case scenario, and I believe we need to look at worst case scenarios for our business, we need to make sure that we're not putting our business in stress or in a situation where we could hurt it. You know, there's I've had to deal with those situations. But if we are looking for the best case scenario, I mean, that's like.

unbelievable growth in our business. And I get so excited about that because I'm just looking at, okay, we've got one option, but what else can we do? And a lot of people do get caught up. And I had this happen to me a long time ago. don't know if you've heard this story, but one, another colleague that I was working with, he asked me, what if I make the worst decision, bad, a bad decision in my business? And I'm like, but you haven't made the decision yet.

And he didn't understand the statement. And I'm like, well, how do you know if it's bad if you haven't made it yet? What you perceive as bad may actually have a different outcome. So that also, I think, helps keep me grounded is I don't know if a decision is going to work or not. And I try to let go of those good or bad words, even though we've talked about it. What's going to work? And you may not know until you try.

Natasha (07:00)

Yep.

Beth Dodson (07:00)

And so I think

that that's a big opportunity. Just try.

Natasha (07:05)

Yeah. And if you're stuck in decision-making, just try something. If it's not working out, you can always course correct. I think we kind of get stuck in the thought, you know, thinking that we can't change our minds again, but we change our minds all the time when we find out things aren't working. so we know that being decisive and trusting your gut is really important to you, but what helps you develop that kind of decisiveness and intuition and how can someone who's trying to develop their own intuition, what can they do?

Beth Dodson (07:16)

All the time. All the time.

So I'm very blessed, first of all. ⁓ I had a mom, have a mom, who told her daughters that you can do whatever you want. So she gave us the framework to say you can succeed, whatever success means to you. The other thing that she reminded us of is you need to trust your own gut or intuition because you have an individual sense.

of what's good for you. And she said this about all kinds of things, whether it was, are you hanging with the right friends? Are your friends asking you to do something that's maybe uncomfortable and you feel like something's off? Listen to your gut. Is it a business decision? Is it a health decision, et cetera? And so I think because she set the framework at a very young age and she encouraged us through this, even through school and college and everything else,

But then that allowed us to take that into our business life. And that's the first thing that I was really blessed with a mom. And some people may not have been blessed with a parent that showed them that way or encouraged that. But one of the things I think they can do is try things. If you get in touch with your body as well and your body may be speaking to you in different ways.

I mean, some people may get a sore tooth and said that might be a bad decision. Some people there, they may start feeling nauseous. Now that could be also be nerves. So you gotta make sure you start looking at your body, but figuring out what really works for you is also really important. And then once you make the decisions and you think it's your intuition,

You'll then, in my personal opinion, you'll then need to evaluate the decision. And if there are some decisions that you made you thought was your intuition, let's go back to the nausea one, you literally are nauseous and you can't tell if that was nerves or intuition and something doesn't work out, then it was definitely nerves and nauseousness and maybe it was saying don't do that. But if you're getting the butterflies and you're getting a little nauseous and the system and something whatever you perform does work out,

then your body's talking to you. So I think it's up to you to not only listen to the body, but also evaluate the decision that's made and come back to how did you feel? And I think that takes practice and it takes confidence. A lot of people don't also want to believe that their body could tell them these things and

I see a lot of people, especially entrepreneurs, they feel like they have to follow a formula. And I'm not a big fan of formulas all the time because as I said earlier, each business is different. And what works for one business may not work for another. And I think that you really need to figure out what's going to work. And sometimes you got to take a chance because you may want to break the formula a little bit.

because your business may need something different. And that also helps to answer your previous question. If you can become more in tune with your intuition, maybe it can help you stay more grounded and also eliminate some of the overthinking. Now, I'm not saying don't evaluate a process or evaluate an option. You need to evaluate things. But if you can have the proper evaluation and turn to your intuition, that's like a winning formula.

That in my personal opinion, but I'm super excited because I listen to my intuition all the time.

Natasha (11:25)

Yeah, and you developed it. And I think that's the important part. And it kind of leads into my next question, which is this question about why it's important to take time to recall and reflect. Because when we chatted before this conversation, we were talking about how a lot of entrepreneurs are so busy and they're speeding towards these goals.

but they don't actually take the time to pause and reflect, especially on like a repeated process or, you know, campaign or launch or whatever. And so they keep making the same mistakes. And then to your point, they haven't taken the time to really see, okay, what is my body telling me? What, you know, develop that intuition and actually much like marketing, there's no straight path to this other than doing the messy work of recalling and reflecting. So if you could just tell me a little bit more about why it's so important.

Beth Dodson (12:14)

Yeah.

Natasha (12:14)

to take that time.

Beth Dodson (12:16)

So ⁓ in this instance, I'm going to use two examples. ⁓ I've been in sales a lot of my life as well. And so my previous company, we did a win loss evaluation. And ⁓ when you win a deal, you have to understand why you won the deal. Is it contracting? Is it the right price? Is it feature sets in your product? Is it the team that you brought to the table? Is it the timing?

Natasha (12:44)

Mm-hmm.

Beth Dodson (12:45)

Is it the some other scenario that's going on? Maybe you outperformed a competitor. Maybe your demos are great, whatever the case may be. The other thing is you also need to understand your losses. So why did we lose this? Did we not have the right champion inside the organization? Did we think our champion had more political capital and they didn't?

did we not have the correct feature sets and the company didn't know how to tell us that? Was our pricing not the best? What scenario did we, how did we lose? And so the reason why we would always do that is because one, especially when it comes to repeatable processes, if you've got an evaluation of a win or a loss, you can look back and say, okay, we won in these categories. And then you start looking at those wins

and you start looking at the patterns. You do the same thing with losses. And so when you can start seeing the patterns, you can start repeating that not only in your existing, let's say sales rep, and let's say I'm the sales rep, my sales rep capabilities, but you can also pass that knowledge to the entire set of team members on the sales team. You can also share information with the marketing team saying,

This RFP worked because of XYZ. And another good example of that is, ⁓ I remember in our previous company, we filled out all these RFPs. I mean, I think one year we filled out like 180. It was crazy because RFPs take up a lot of work and take up a lot of manpower. And it's really important that you prioritize your time. And we didn't...

Natasha (14:27)

For sure.

Beth Dodson (14:33)

write or craft these RFPs or work with these companies to craft these RFPs. And we lost, I think, 90 % of them. And we're like, well, that was wasted time. But if we had not tracked that, we would not understand that. So the next year we said, we are not going to respond to RFPs that do not meet 100 % of what we can provide that customer. If we can get in there and actually understand

what their needs are, then we'll respond. If they say, no, we don't want to respond to you. We don't talk to vendors prior to the RFP responses being accepted, then we would plightly decline, excuse me. And when we did that the second year, we won 90 % of the RFPs and managed our team, our staff, everything more appropriately, our time way more appropriately. And

It also gives the boost of confidence as well. So that's a really good example. And then the same thing holds true when you're looking at ⁓ other areas of your business. So within HomeZada, we thought for sure our market out the door was gonna be people who had availability of time. Or so we thought. We thought stay at home moms are gonna be like our number one customer or this or the other, because they have availability, they love the house.

They're the ones probably setting up their maintenance tasks, defining what their home inventory is, all these other different areas of their home. But we were really wrong. And we had to be accepting of that. And honestly, business professionals who are super busy are the biggest customers of Humsada. I'm not saying we don't have stay at home moms. I'm not saying we don't have retirees, but they're the biggest customer for Humsada, the biggest market share because they have limited time.

And so if we had looked at all of this and we had hold tight to it, then we wouldn't be able to move forward and make adjustments. So I think evaluation is really key in a variety of scenarios in your business. In order to prioritize time, to evaluate where time is spent, it directly impacts your growth of your company and also helps you understand where you need to make modifications as well.

Natasha (16:58)

Yeah, it's so true. I think, I mean, your first example really illustrated it. Not only that you went from losing 90 % to winning 90%, that is exponential growth. You know, it's not a little bit just by spending the time to be in reflection. And I think that this is what's true for a lot of business owners. If you keep doubling down on what works, then you are going to have not just like doubled growth, but exponential growth.

Beth Dodson (17:07)

Lee.

exponent.

Correct.

Natasha (17:25)

So it's definitely worth it. And this again leads into my next question is that so many people are willing, they're willing to double down if they see something, but they're not always willing to let go of the things that's not working. like in your case of Homsata, maybe they got really attached to the idea that it was women and maybe that was important to them because maybe it was their own idea, right? And they didn't want to give up face on the team. Like how, what's your advice for people for letting go of the things that aren't working?

Beth Dodson (17:51)

think the first thing you need to do is what are you unwilling to let go of? That's the first thing because I think some people don't realize what they're attached to and I'll use software as an example. So invariably in software products people build features and that just happens and especially when it comes to a feature set that you absolutely love and you become so attached to.

But here's the thing, if no one's using it, you've got to let it go. And oftentimes that's a hard thing to do because you just know someone's eventually going to use it. But here's the way I see it. Even if you let it go and then invariably in the future someone asks for it, you can always put it back in because you've already have the skill set. looking at feature sets in products, it's a really easy thing to let go. If you are attached to

as we indicated earlier, a market or a subset of your market, let go. Another example I'm going to give you, because it's so funny and it applies to marketing as well and sales and everything else. our company, we call it what we refer to as home Zada, a digital home management platform. Great statement. The business companies that we work with, they love it. They think it's, this is amazing. But we invariably talk to

homeowners and consumers. And the consumers have never heard of a digital home management platform and it feels very business-like. It doesn't feel very home friendly. So instead we started playing around and we used ⁓ alpha beta testing, ⁓ A-B testing on our website years and years ago and said, okay, we're going to use digital home management platform. And then we're going to use all-in-one suite of apps to manage your home.

Even though it's a complete platform and it's not individual apps, we chose that phrase. Well, lo and behold, all in one suite of apps to manage your home had a better conversion rate. So we had to get out of our own way as business owners and literally say, okay, we can communicate to the large organizations, usually digital home management platform. But when it comes to consumers, they don't want to hear that. So we've got to let go and use a different phrase.

And that's what we did. And it required not only evaluation, as we talked about earlier, but it required letting go and getting out of our own way and letting go of a phrase that we did get heavily attached to, but we're like, it doesn't work for the audience we're using. We can still use it in other areas of our business, but just let it go. And the three of us as co-founders had to let that go.

And it was quite interesting how we were like, but, but, but, then eventually we were like, yeah, okay, we can live with this. And it's made a complete difference in the business and people understand it. And so we have to oftentimes reach people where they are. And it's not fair to always bring them to where we are, because they may not understand.

Natasha (21:10)

Yeah. And this brings up just an important point that I've touched on in some of my other podcasts is we can't really attach to our own jargon about talking about things. And our buyers might not have any idea what that is, but you know, we like took this time to like build this tagline. I guess we need to acknowledge the emotion, like, because especially if it's a creative thing, you've created something, you have this level of attachment, as a, you know, creator, and you got to step away from that emotion, cause that's what's causing you.

Beth Dodson (21:30)

Yes.

Natasha (21:40)

to hold on.

Beth Dodson (21:41)

Yes, it totally is. And I think emotion helps us in growing our companies and it shows us how to be committed and excited about our companies. And I think you need that because in the time, I mean, we all know as entrepreneurs, our journeys are usually up and down, up and down, up and down. And in order to keep us resilient and pull us from the down sometimes, we got to be really committed and emotionally committed to our

products, our companies, our services, everything that we are. But when it doesn't serve our customers, our partners, our employees, our customers, et cetera, our products, our services, then sometimes we just have to let it go. And I think it's oftentimes where you brought up the attachment of the emotion, but I just love it. I just love it. And I see that happen too with logos.

And if people really look back over time at some of the big brands, you can just see it in big brands, they've evolved their logos over time and they make minor tweaks. And then it keeps making minor tweaks. So even changing your logos can make all the difference in the world.

Natasha (23:00)

Yeah, and know, branding, obviously that's my background and where I come from and.

especially for a lot of solopreneurs starting out, they'll start out with kind DIY branding, but they're trying to sell something high ticket. And at a certain point, those worlds kind of collide because you just don't look like you're offering something that has that high value. And so have to bring that branding up. And I think too, we can think of a brand sometimes as too static, but especially I think with the online world, we've started to see that these things have to change and shift to even just adjust to the new technology.

Beth Dodson (23:10)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Natasha (23:35)

needed one logo before, but now you need maybe alternates of your logo so it fits in your profile picture and you know this and that. And the example I love to bring up is I went to the Guinness factory in Ireland and they have a whole wall of the logo over time and how it evolved and theirs has like completely changed because they've been in business for so many years. But to see it laid out like that, it's not something you see frequently because you see this snapshot in time and what was kind of like that butterfly effect. We forget that a company changed their logo.

Beth Dodson (23:35)

Yeah.

yeah.

Yes.

Natasha (24:05)

because all we can see is like what it currently is. It's like looking back at someone aging in their photos and you're like, wow, like they aged over like, you know, six seasons of TV and you just don't notice it until you look back and reflect on that. So I love that example. All right, so.

Beth Dodson (24:16)

Correct. Correct.

Natasha (24:23)

The next one I want to get into, I think a lot of people can relate to this, is just feeling lonely as an entrepreneur, especially for women sometimes. So I'd love to hear about how you have built a support circle, especially as someone who runs a business and partnership, is the only female partner. How do you build up that circle of women to keep you going?

Beth Dodson (24:42)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, this is one of those areas where I'm an extrovert, I'm social, and even for the introverts, it still can play a role.

Several areas I think helped enhance my ability to stay connected to what's going on and keep my ear to what's going on in the world. A lot of it you can do through online systems and I have several online groups I'm a part of of other women business professionals and I've got a group that focuses on

Business professionals where they are working for large corporations and I'm probably the one that's working for my own business in the group, but we have some commonality because of the companies we serve. And I learn a lot from them and we meet I think quarterly and it's great. Whoever can show up shows up and we follow a strategy for the year and we will talk about what issues do you think are going on or the majority of the group wants to talk about and we'll go through that.

And so those issues can be anything from, want to learn better leadership skills. I want to learn better how to have, ⁓ manage a meeting more effectively. I want to learn how to ⁓ speak up for myself to ask for a promotion. Cause that does become a challenge for some people. I want to understand better networking skills, a variety of other topics. And so that is one way I stay connected to women. Another way is I am part of a mastermind. And so ⁓ I cannot take credit for star

another friend of mine started it prior to her retiring. And all these business women, these women business owners, excuse me, they come together and we would meet monthly in person because it was local. And we would talk about what was going on in our business and what we needed help with. And every solitary person was from a different business. No one business was the same. So we brought different perspective to the table.

which I thought was really good because if you're also staying with the same type of people, it could seem redundant and the creativity of solutions may not be there if you're with like-minded people. The other way that I personally,

connect with women is just like you and I connected. I am a member of a co-working space because our whole team is remote. And for anyone out there, if there is a co-working space in your area, it is so worth going there, even if it's a couple hours a week. And the reason being is because you are listening to the buzz of what's going on around you. You are also connecting if these ⁓ co-working spaces are bringing people together, because generally it is entrepreneurs. Sometimes it's

⁓ a variety of different industries depending on what's going on and you can still learn from each other. And then three, which I just absolutely love, whenever you go to a co-working space, these people aren't your employees. You're not your co-workers. So you can just chat and have all these great conversations and they need nothing from you. It is the one of the most beautiful things, but the buzz itself gets you really excited about your business and you can learn.

Natasha (27:50)

I guess.

Beth Dodson (28:06)

and

from anywhere. And so I'm a firm believer if people can reach out, if they can create their own groups, you know, we've got Eventbrite, we've got all these other different platforms that we can reach out to. I highly recommend it. know Natasha, you and I have talked about this before. Some women find it easy to network.

But some women do not. the statistics, excuse me, the statistics are out there that there's a lot of women that don't love it. And they don't love it because it may be after hours and they've got to get home to kids or it's just not in their wheelhouse or they want to be able to relax. going to an event with a lot of women sometimes feels like it's forced. And I remember one time ⁓ I met this lovely young lady, mentored her, and she was super, super shy.

but she had her own business and she needed to recruit customers. And I'm like, well, you've got to get to networking events if you're not going to recruit another way. And so I encouraged her to go to several events and to make things easy on her, I said, all you need to do is talk to two people. That's it. Talk to two brand new people tonight. That's it. And

I didn't give her a big goal because I knew internally she was over the moon stressing out.

versus someone like me, I could talk to 10 people in like 10 minutes and be like, okay, no big deal. But I have to put myself in her shoes, not mine. And when she got done with that, she was so excited. Cause at the end of the night she found me, my gosh, I talked to four people. And I'm like, my gosh, that's great. And so she had a big win and a big confidence booster. And that will lead her to go into more networking activities. But I know time is always challenging for women.

⁓ It's also getting places sometimes when you've got families and everything else. But I do both in person and online and I don't add everything to my plate. I don't go to five events a week. I know there's a lot of people that do that. I just don't do that because I do have to manage my time effectively. And I think if people try those things, they will start finding that women do want to support women.

and they do want to help each other out and they may have different demands than let's say some of the men, but I will say if by chance there are men in certain areas, also ask them for advice because they've got great solutions, especially if any of your clients are men, they will help you decipher some of those scenarios and what men are looking for in various business worlds.

Natasha (30:49)

Yeah, I actually love talking to my husband and watching him work because he works differently than I do. And he has some very decisive strengths that I lack. And so I actually get a little bit jealous sometimes, I'm like, ⁓ I've been doing this for longer than him and it's harder for me. But I really am like trying to study and figure out like, you know, kind of that masculine energy that he embodies of just being super decisive and learn from it. So I love that. And I really liked what you said too about

starting your own group because sometimes there might not be a group in your local area that really fits your vibe. But you and I did this actually the women's connective that you attended with Jen Oliver. She was one of my clients and she said, you know, I can't do the social media thing. I hate it. And I said, then don't do it. Let's build a networking group where you can do it the old fashioned way and meet people in person and make real relationships. And if you're someone who's introverted and a business owner, you do need to build those skills and they are

Beth Dodson (31:24)

Correct.

You're welcome.

Natasha (31:49)

skills. They are not just, I'm introverted, I can't do it, because I used to be super introverted. You can do it. You can do it.

Beth Dodson (31:56)

⁓ totally.

And I will say this, because this happened to occur with the group that you and Jen created. There was a lot of not only business owners, but retired people who were starting to get curious about the group because retired women were trying to figure out, well, what's my next phase?

Do I want to start my own company? Do I want to connect with other women in a different capacity? What does that look like? And so I even see opportunity for even people who are considering retirement or who are unsure or taking sabbaticals of where they want to be, that they could come together and also play a role in bringing women together, but also sharing their experiences because

I'm just a firm believer. never know. Someone's experience may not be anywhere in your wheelhouse or in your industry, but when you listen, truly listen to what steps they've taken in whatever they did, career, field of work, etc. Then you might actually pick up a nugget that you can apply to your own business. And that's where the good creativity and problem solving comes in. And then that

can then lead to, I'm trusting more of my intuition. I'm not getting stuck in the weeds. I'm actually making these decisive decisions like your husband and I'm practicing it. And those are some of the things that you could take with you. And that's why I'm a firm believer. For instance, our mastermind, no one was in the same business. Not a single solitary person was in the same business or same industry. And it was fascinating how many different scenarios of

suggestions and problem-solving tips that came up that were so far out of the box that you didn't even think of it.

Natasha (33:53)

Yeah, I've said this on my show too, ⁓ cause I just had Sally on who's in the craft industry, which isn't necessarily adjacent to what I'm doing, but I love this cross pollination because especially in branding, if I go and look at everyone in your industry, and then I make my assumptions based on that, you're going to blend in and look like everybody else. And so some of these unique ideas or at least new to your industry or your segment come from maybe blending some of your own stuff with something you're seeing somewhere entirely out of there. That's where those unique ideas

Beth Dodson (34:20)

Yes.

Natasha (34:23)

come from and that's what you really want.

Beth Dodson (34:25)

Mm-hmm. Yes, I 100 % concur with that.

Natasha (34:30)

Yeah, so I know you have a good statement that goes with this too, but a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck in shiny object syndrome, kind of chasing these different things and it can really derail their ability to stay focused and accomplish some of those strategic goals. So what advice do you have for people trying to stay grounded and focused?

Beth Dodson (34:48)

No, I'm kidding. In the name

of love. ⁓ No, when it comes to shiny objects, shiny objects, they are like such a beautiful thing, but also a challenging thing. And someone on your team has to be around it. They just have to because shiny objects for everybody on the call who are listening to this podcast.

Shiny objects means you have all these opportunities and you have all these different options available to you. And it's like women who walk through a by a jewelry store who happens to like jewelry or glitter. And I know not all people like glitter because it makes a mess. But if you like shiny things like that, you're like, where do I start? Why? Wait, I like that ring, but I like that necklace or I like those earrings or I like this. And you just don't know where to go.

It's the same concept in business. If there's so many opportunities, then you could get caught up in all these opportunities. Yes, it's a great idea. Yes, it's a great idea. However, in most businesses, I'm not talking some of the largest of the large, but most businesses, and we're talking entrepreneurs here, generally there's a limited supply of cashflow. There's a limited supply of time. There's a limited supply of human beings in the company.

that can get all of these activities done. Now, that doesn't mean you don't want to think about other opportunities because you can always outsource some activities. You can always bring in more staff. You can always ⁓ find money through investment or loans or whatever opportunity, increase revenues. You can always ⁓ manage time and move time around from other projects. But...

If things are limited and you're constantly looking at all these shiny objects, then are you missing the opportunity to focus on what actually is working? And oftentimes, shiny objects can be distractions. And so it's really important to understand what opportunities exist. Are they real opportunities? And that's where maybe having a better evaluation prior to using pure intuition is a good thing. If

You've got partners like I do who loves shiny objects sometimes. And believe you me, I do too. Someone has to be grounded and we have to have a bit of an evaluation saying, is ⁓ this really what we need to do? And then, or look at what is the outcome we need in order to pursue this opportunity. Meaning, do we need X number of revenues? Do we need X number of ⁓ website visitors to our website?

Do we need X number of ⁓ marketing shares? What are we looking at in exchange for this opportunity and in exchange from taking our time from one, excuse me, one project and giving it to another? And those are the things I really think people need to talk about. And this also takes us back to those RFPs I talked about earlier. We allowed all those shiny object RFPs and those opportunities

in one year to be a distraction for our team, filling out all this activity versus moving into real opportunities that work. And by the way, if you are pursuing a lot of shiny objects or opportunities that may not fit, you could have lost opportunity cost as well. And a lot of people forget about lost opportunity cost. If you're not managing your business effectively,

You're not focused on the opportunities that actually can help you manage your business versus the opportunities that sound good. And we've been, everyone's been guilty of that. I mean, I have been as well, but a lot of times we'll try something because we think it works and then we'll evaluate it. And then if it comes full circle, if we evaluate it and it didn't work, we know to cut that shiny object loose and you do it quickly.

instead of elongating it and saying, we gotta just keep trying more and trying more and trying more. So if you are gonna participate in some of that, please evaluate it as quickly as possible and say it didn't work or it did work. And then repeat the process if it did work. And if it didn't, cut it and say, okay, it's not gonna work, we move on. But it's very, very important. I'm a big firm believer. Shiny objects have to be managed and bubbles have to be pulled out every now and then. Because let's face it,

You may wear one ring one day as a lady and you may wear a different ring a different day.

Natasha (39:36)

Yeah, I think that's so important because we can get so lost in the weeds. And I think, again, going back to the emotion, if you're working on a project and you're repeating it and improving it, that can get kind of boring, especially for those visionary type entrepreneurs, which let's face it, most of them are. And so you get this high from the new idea. Well, this is the new solution. It's the magic thing. And you get caught in the emotion in your own head versus the actual dollars on the

Beth Dodson (39:48)

Yes.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Natasha (40:06)

the resources on the spreadsheet because it's a lot more fun.

Beth Dodson (40:07)

Correct.

Yes. And by the way, I'm not saying not to grow the company. I'm not saying that's a try things, but you need to evaluate what you're trying because you may risk your business because you're focused too much on shiny objects. So you've got to have balance. I'm a big firm believer in balance.

Natasha (40:29)

Yeah, I like the statement you gave me. You said, leave the glitter, it's messy.

Beth Dodson (40:33)

⁓ totally. It can get messy. And for people who don't understand, yeah, try spilling that all over floors or what have you. like, it's hard to get up. Vacuum cleaners don't always work.

Natasha (40:47)

Right, right, and it doesn't matter if you vacuum it, if you clean it, like you find it in bits and crevices on your pillow for weeks, days, years.

Beth Dodson (40:54)

Totally. Totally.

Natasha (40:58)

Well, it's such a joy talking to you about all of these things and just to be able to have your ear in this kind of conversation because not everyone has access to go sit down and grab coffee with you. So I appreciate being able to bring you on and share all these things that you've learned through your time building Humsada. And I'd love to know where can people connect with you online if they want to learn more about Humsada or you?

Beth Dodson (41:21)

Yeah, no, thank you so much for having me. ⁓ They can visit HOMZADA at H-O-M-E-Z-A-D-A dot com. They can also connect with me on LinkedIn and I am Elizabeth Dodson. Put in HOMZADA please because there are maybe 5,000 Elizabeth Dodson's. I'm a popular name. Or you can type in LinkedIn with E. Dodson. That's my little URL there. And I would love to connect with everybody.

Natasha (41:48)

Awesome. And before we wrap up, I'd love to ask everyone my final question, which is what is one piece of advice you'd have for your younger self?

Beth Dodson (41:56)

I think what I would say is do it. Just do it. I remember a time when I was given an opportunity in a promotion in my previous company and I didn't take it because I didn't think I was ready and be careful what happens when you when you don't when you have doubts because then I had to go in and clean up the mess after what happened after that.

and ⁓ it was kind of messy and all because I had doubts. I would just say for people the whole, you know, Nike ⁓ tagline, just do it. I'm like, what's it going to hurt? I guarantee you'll figure it out. If you don't know how to do something. We just talked about women really want to help each other. So you can ask around, you can get advice from other people, build your network and then you will

figure it out and you will be successful.

Natasha (42:58)

Figure it out scared. Yeah, I love that you shared that because it can be easy, you know, for people to look at someone who is super successful and in the place in business, you are not think that they have the same struggles because I know that this is common for women in general, right?

hold back from a promotion or hold back from even applying for jobs. They say there's some statistic, I don't know what it is offhand, but that men will apply for jobs that they're not, you know, they don't fit the qualifications for at a much higher rate and women just will walk away. And I can relate to this personally too. So just that encouragement of do it, do it scared, figure it out that you have plenty of resources around you to help.

Beth Dodson (43:17)

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. What's the worst could happen? You might actually succeed. I mean, that'd be the best thing. Okay.

Natasha (43:40)

you

That ties back to our beginning of the conversation, which is a perfect place to close, which is that, what if it happened the best that it could? What if you were just as qualified?

Beth Dodson (43:46)

quarterly.

Yes. Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Natasha (43:56)

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I'm sure I'll have you back again sometime soon in the future.

Beth Dodson (44:01)

Well, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure as usual.

Natasha (44:07)

you