Prepare to be inspired as Sue Ryan joins us to tackle head-on the internal and external challenges women face in the business realm, from self-doubt to securing funding. With Sue's deep well of experience, we share not just the hurdles but also the practical strategies for self-compassion, resilience, and leveraging networks that can catapult female entrepreneurs to new heights of success. This conversation is a treasure trove for any woman ready to embrace her entrepreneurial spirit and turn obstacles into stepping stones.
If you're seeking a supportive community and actionable steps to navigate your business journey, this episode is an invaluable resource that will guide you toward triumph in both your personal and professional life.
Visit us at jenniferannjohnson.com and learn how Jennifer can help you build the life you dream of with her online academy, blog, one-on-one coaching, and a variety of other resources!
Prepare to be inspired as Sue Ryan joins us to tackle head-on the internal and external challenges women face in the business realm, from self-doubt to securing funding. With Sue's deep well of experience, we share not just the hurdles but also the practical strategies for self-compassion, resilience, and leveraging networks that can catapult female entrepreneurs to new heights of success. This conversation is a treasure trove for any woman ready to embrace her entrepreneurial spirit and turn obstacles into stepping stones.
If you're seeking a supportive community and actionable steps to navigate your business journey, this episode is an invaluable resource that will guide you toward triumph in both your personal and professional life.
Visit us at jenniferannjohnson.com and learn how Jennifer can help you build the life you dream of with her online academy, blog, one-on-one coaching, and a variety of other resources!
Why are we so hard on ourselves? Well, there's a lot of reasons perfectionism, low self-esteem, maybe fear of failure, and that big society expectations right, societal expectations are a huge one. It's important to remember that everybody makes mistakes. I have one saying that's called po-buddies, nerf it, po-buddies, nerf it. It's important to be kind yourself and celebrate your accomplishments. If you find yourself being too hard on yourself, try to challenge your negative thoughts and replace them with more positive and realistic beliefs. Here's some tips I'm going to share with you on motivating yourself to be less hard on yourself. First of all, identify what those triggers are. What are the things that typically make you be hard on yourself? Once you know what they are, you can start developing strategies and coping with them. Now I would suggest having a good old-fashioned notebook keeping track of it and, if you need to keep it in your phone on what are the triggers. Then you can go back and you can challenge those negative thoughts, which is my second point. When you have those negative thoughts about yourself, ask yourself if there's any evidence that supports that. Is the thought based on facts or your own fears or insecurities? If there's no evidence, then let it go. Then replace those negative thoughts with positive ones. Once you've challenged those negative thoughts, you can replace them, and it's going to be easier and easier. Every time that you come across this, you're going to be like, oh, I did this last time. I know exactly what to do and you'll become an expert at it.
Speaker 1:Be kind to yourself. Talk to yourself the way that you would talk to a friend. Be supportive and understanding, and remember that everybody makes mistakes. No, there's nobody out there that is mistake-free, so remember that. Then again, celebrate our accomplishments Again. It's something that we don't do often. When we achieve a goal, take that time to celebrate.
Speaker 1:It's also important to remember that you're not alone. Everybody struggles with the self-criticism and the self-doubt at some point in their lives, some of us more than others. But if you're finding it difficult to be less hard on yourself on your own, reach out to somebody like a therapist or a counselor, somebody that can give you that support that you need. They can help you identify the root of your self-criticism and develop strategies for actually coping with it. Being kind to yourself is one of the best things that you can do for overall well-being, and it can help you reduce your stress, improve your mood and boost your self-esteem. It can also, ironically enough, be what you need to achieve your goals in your life, whether it's business or personal. It's going to help you be happier and lead a more fulfilling life, and who wouldn't want that?
Speaker 1:Today, we welcome into the studio Sue Ryan. Sue has, for the last 40 years, been helping individuals, from entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 C-suite leaders and serving more than 700 organizations of all sizes and in a multitude of industries, successfully navigate transitions in their business. Through her role in the enterprise application software sales area, and in parallel with her professional career, she's been navigating roles of non-professional caregiving, support for family and loved ones, and has founded the caregiver's journey. Welcome, my dear friend Sue.
Speaker 2:Welcome, Jennifer, and thank you so much for inviting me in.
Speaker 1:You know, I had you on last season's podcast and loved every minute of it. You are such a wealth of knowledge in all areas. Thank you, and I just want to embrace that today.
Speaker 2:Me too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I want to talk today about roadblocks. Yes, okay, yes, and specifically as women right as women. There's a lot of roadblocks that that we find ourselves at, yes, you know, especially when it comes to business. So so and I know you know a lot about this because you were in a career, you know, years ago that was predominantly male.
Speaker 2:Yes, I was, and.
Speaker 1:Software sales yes, and you broke through all that.
Speaker 2:I did. At the time that I was in it, there weren't very many of us. There were a lot of men. There weren't very many women. However, what I will say is that I wouldn't be who I am today if I didn't have that as an opportunity for me to become a stronger person, and that is the same way I look at any roadblock is as an opportunity, and Just because there's a roadblock, a road can't block the entire world, so you find the way over, under or around it, and that's what we'll talk about. Yeah, there's got to be away.
Speaker 1:There's always got to be there's always a way.
Speaker 2:We may not know it, mm-hmm, but we don't always have to know it. Very true.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's who we know. Mm-hmm, I agree exactly. So what are some of the most challenging roadblocks that female entrepreneurs face when they're trying to scale their business, or scale grow, however you want to look at?
Speaker 2:it. Sure, what I'm going to do is I'm at a very high level, going to talk about a wide variety of them, because there is no one kind of a Roadblock and, depending on what, as a female entrepreneur, you're working on, you may hit one or more of these, obviously, and we're gonna have my contact information down there. I'll be glad to talk to anybody in greater detail, and I've got a couple of these I'll get a little bit deeper dive into, but one of them that's big is access to funding. I'll talk a little bit about that in more detail in a moment.
Speaker 2:Gender bias and stereotype in some of the industries that women go into, some of those still exist. Networking challenges, being able to to be in the right networking group with the type of Person and in the professional area you're going into. Those networking groups may not be as readily available and have the dynamic of the people who are going to be the most valuable for you. Marketplace bias is when you're in a marketplace that has traditionally been more male oriented or it's not just male, female. Sometimes it is what your ethnic background is. Sometimes it is what your level of education is, sometimes theory. So when we talk about biases or challenges or anything of like that in the stereotypes. Take a look at a wide variety of those discrimination and harassment. It still exists, and when people feel that way, one of the things that happens is they go to their lowest common denominator, where they feel safe. And so when we have those roadblocks, it's getting yourself around people who can help you move up to another level of comfort and challenge those.
Speaker 2:There has truly still consistently been a gender gap in entrepreneurship. A couple more really really quick is that a lack of female role models? So we have some, but we don't have enough. I want to touch very quickly on the funding one and we're going to talk some more about some of the specific ways. But there may not be access to the venture capital funds. They've talked about that. Women receive 2.5 to 3.5 of all venture capital funding in the United States in 2023. Female co-founded companies with a male was still only about approximately 20 to 22%, so there's a tremendous opportunity for that to increase, and when we come together, when we have a roadblock and we come together as women, we become stronger and we can get more access to that.
Speaker 1:So, just talking about the funding part, even if there is a male that is a co-founder, it's still relatively low. Yes, it is. I mean, I would love to know what those numbers are of the males, right? What does that look like? Obviously, it's much higher. It is much higher.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is much higher, and the great opportunity, though, is, while this number is still a little bit lower, there are a wide variety of ways where women can get access to money. It may not be in the traditional way with venture capital, but there are grants, there are accelerator programs, and I've got some details of some specifics. I'll list just two and then we'll put those in the show notes, but there are amber grants that monthly offer grants of $10,000 to women-owned businesses. There's the Eileen Fisher Women-Owned Business Grant, and it provides annual grants. There are a number. I was surprised I only knew of two from the Small Business Administration and when I went to their site. There are a wide variety and we can put them in the show notes, but there are a wide variety of ways that women can get access to funds that aren't in the traditional way.
Speaker 1:And we don't necessarily meaning we as individuals don't always think about grants. It's not the first thing that comes to mind. We automatically go to loans. Right, where can I get a loan? And I mean, grants are the best kind. You don't have to pay them back. Right, and they're huge and they may take some time to get. There's prep work and things that go into them, but it's like unused scholarships for college students. They are everywhere.
Speaker 2:If you just look the thing that you just said. That's really powerful. One of the great solutions for all of this is women networking. It is not that you know how to write a grant, it is not that you even know where all of them are. When we are really seeking out networking groups and I know you're so active in the community in different networking groups you connect with people who already know that, who've already walked that journey. You ask somebody who do you know who's already walked that journey? We can borrow confidence and we can borrow knowledge. We do not have to know the answers to all of these. We may not even know the questions that we don't know the answers to Get in groups who do.
Speaker 1:And I love that. That is great advice because I have found personally that when I got involved in groups and I had a question that normally I would, you know I don't know how we'd find the answer, I went to that database of oh, I know somebody that I'm in this group with or this group with, and I picked up the phone and I called them and they knew the answer. I didn't have to waste precious time trying to figure out the answer because I had somebody I could go to yes, and I've changed.
Speaker 2:I don't have anything to do with networking. It's not a word that I feel confident with, because networking traditionally has meant you take your business card and you talk to people and you do something else I talk about. When I go to an event, I see every single person. There is a source of wisdom, and wisdom is what people are going to share about the knowledge they've gathered, and so I look at every single person as a source of potential wisdom and I want to learn the areas they have wisdom where I have gaps, and I want to learn the areas where other people have gaps, where I have wisdom, so that I can pour into them and they can pour into me. When you go to events, you look at every single person there as how can I learn what their source of wisdom or their source of their gap is?
Speaker 1:That's a great way to go about it. It's educational right. You are continuously learning, which is an important part of being an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:It's also teaching other people who are in a quote-unquote Networking group because they are quote-unquote networking how to get more value from it as well.
Speaker 1:Right, because you can just go through the motions and go well, this is what I'm supposed to do. Yeah, I'm supposed to bring my business card and I ain't about all these people, but really not make a connection and actually, on that note, off-tangent, but someone had said my son had gone to a networking group, mm-hmm, and he joined and he's he's 18 years old, and this gentleman who gave him his card he said now I'm just gonna give you a pointer that if I give you my business card, anybody giving you their business card you should follow up with them in four days, mm-hmm, within four, in four days or less?
Speaker 1:Yes, in four days so great because they're taking him under their wing. Mm-hmm, you know, cuz mom's not right all the time, I do now you're not. Yeah, I guess not, but you know they're.
Speaker 2:They're taking him under their wing and teaching him how things are done Exactly, and it's a great thing to do the other thing I've done is I have gone into a Group of people where I'm not really familiar with what they are, and I'll actually have an index card or I'll have something that I've printed up and I'll say these are three sources of wisdom I'm seeking and these are three areas of strength. I'm willing to share my wisdom, I'm I seek to share my wisdom, and I'll just hand them to them with my business card so they understand the context. We may not have the opportunity to have a conversation. They understand the context of where it is. If they've got nothing in that area, then they, you know, toss it out. If they do, then we can set up a meaningful Conversation that moves us forward, because that's what we really want to be able to do. Is Efficiency to getting to a meaningful conversation and value right?
Speaker 1:I love that the index card method. The index card method.
Speaker 2:There you go, we've got favorite.
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Speaker 2:In addition to all of that, when I bring my items in and they aren't things that you believe that your current audience has you Will take them to uh, about hospice, absolutely and so I don't have to take them back and you've got the receipt for hospice and I think that's great, because then they're providing value To someone else. So you're looking at the community and you're looking at the long term. So whatever somebody brings in is going to bring someone else value, and so thank you very much for that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. That is our pleasure. We are. We are here for our community because our community is here for us. That's how we see it. All right, guys, we're back in studio with sue ryan and we're talking about roadblocks that women entrepreneurs, specifically women entrepreneurs, face, and we were just talking about um. You know funding. Funding was a big, was a big part of this, and what advice would you give to women who are facing challenges and what resources? I know I said we've already talked about one resources as far as um, one of the funding resources and and all of our resources Incidentally, I will put in our show notes so that our listeners have those but you know what? What are some resources and what are some things that we can do for ourselves?
Speaker 2:There are a variety of different kinds of resources. One of the other things that I was talking brought in to talk about is crowdfunding platforms where we think if we don't have all the money or we don't, you know, we don't want to go into debt. There are crowdfunding platforms. There are peer-to-peer lending platforms where we can be sharing from that honeycomb credits, one of those uh shio, that supports women led businesses through community based lending circles, and I fund women dedicated platforms. One of the things that is very valuable for us to learn if we want to overcome roadblocks Figure out the things where we have gaps. For example, many of us were not taught about the principles of money. There's a book called the.
Speaker 2:Psychology of Money. There are things that help us understand. We tend to think that we wanna be debt averse. There is a great power, if you've got education behind it, to understanding the importance of debt, but if you don't, and you've got the fear of it. So one of the roadblocks is education and knowledge about money and debt and how to use it, and then having places where you can get sources of money to do things.
Speaker 1:I wanna interrupt you really quick, please, now that you said that, because, being a small business owner, being an entrepreneur, I was always taught to be afraid of debt, because that's everybody and you can use it to your advantage Absolutely. But not everybody sees it that way. Oh my gosh, I have debt, I have debt, I have debt, but that's okay, Debt is a tax deduction.
Speaker 2:There's just one hint when people look at that, now, unmanaged debt is. So I'm not talking about unmanaged debt. I'm talking about when you learn to understand money. You learn a different play. I was never taught that about debt, and I was also taught that owning a home is an asset.
Speaker 1:It's not really an asset for a Right right, you got a mortgage. It's not an asset.
Speaker 2:So, at any rate, it's understanding those things so that you're able to make a wise choice. And that's one of the big challenges. For women with these kinds of roadblocks is that we were not educated. This happens to men as well, so this is not a gender thing. Exactly, this is something for women, and there are a phenomenal number of programs that are available, and then organizations like SCORE that helps you understand about building a business, and then a lot of educational organizations we've got FGC and you down here and Small Business Administration. There are places where you can learn about running a business, where you can learn about like with SCORE, you can get a mentor, volunteer mentors. People are I was part of SCORE, I mean 35 years in business and they want to share their wisdom with you.
Speaker 1:It's pretty amazing. I actually utilized. I had a mentor at SCORE and it was phenomenal. It was wonderful when I was first starting out. It brings them joy.
Speaker 2:I mean they want to do that, take advantage of opportunities in the community to do things. And then one of the things of a big thing for overcoming the roadblocks is to look at and this is not a traditional answer for it, but we tend to get all in in a particular area of our lives. Now, I do not subscribe to the concept of work-life balance, because if you're always trying to be in balance, you're always gonna be going from a place of I'm not, I'm not, I'm not and, oh my gosh, I'm under stress because I'm not in balance. I talk about alignment, which means you are consciously choosing where you are investing your time. People say, well, I spend my time there. If you spend your time, you're wasting it. If you invest your time, you're investing for a return value.
Speaker 2:So when you look at the layout of your entire life, you look at the areas of your life. You can have three or six or eight areas of your life and then you may choose in a season of your life that you're gonna scale back in one particular area so that you can invest more time in another area. So, overcoming roadblocks some of those are how you look at, how you structure your day. So there's the finance, there's access to wisdom and knowledge that you don't have yet, and then there is structuring your day, and then we're gonna talk about another one farther down that we'll get to. But one last piece that I will talk about is getting support systems.
Speaker 2:Getting support systems. If you don't have a mentor, find a mentor, and it can be as simple as walking up to somebody and saying I need a mentor. The other thing is go look at what area. Pick one area of your life where you would benefit from the wisdom that someone has to share, and that's what a mentor does. They have wisdom in an area and they want to share it.
Speaker 1:And I have to go back to something you said. You said Something about spending your time. Yes, the investing it. What was the saying? It was you should be spending. You should be investing your time out, spending your time.
Speaker 2:If I spend money on something, I'm not expecting it to give me a return, it's spending. I'm depleting something, and that's the same thing with time. Time is is Incredibly finite. We only have X about of time. If I am not being wise about my time, I'm spending it someplace. When I look at the time I have available, if I am investing it, I'm getting a return. So I am wisely investing my time to do something and get a return.
Speaker 2:When I look at how I Invest my day and where I'm investing the time of my day, if I'm looking at it and I've got to get now I am gonna play spider solitaire at some point in time. You could say that spending time, but you know like it lets my brain decompress anything but, but what I'll find is I'll say you know what I just I just doodled around for seven minutes on nothing, and that's time where I had an opportunity, where I could have moved the needle on something. So I will literally get into my life where and I got a lot of this from caregiving, where you've got a really Fine amount of time if I have five minutes, what would I do if I had ten minutes? What would I do if I had a half an hour, what would I do? When you're looking at how you want to invest time in your day, you look at it especially when, like you, you're a mom, you're a wife, you're, you're a business entrepreneur, you've got your health. So you'll have a gap of maybe five minutes someplace in a day, or maybe 15 minutes.
Speaker 2:Where can you be investing? You got time wisely and being at choice. Big thing that you want to be when you're investing, it is you're being at choice. When you are spending it, you're not at choice, right, and you're just. It's the result of something else and it goes away the same amount of time. But but what it can happen is when you are investing time for a return and it's intentional. It's like there's the compression of time. You can get more done in a shorter period of time because there's intent behind it.
Speaker 1:And I think it all comes down to being intentional. Being intentional knowing Exactly exactly. Yeah, that very much so, and that was sorry. We got off at a tangent and now I no surprise about that, wow between the two of us Hello.
Speaker 1:We're what? What are we talking about? So? So I'm gonna share all those resources that you shared with me. We were talking about mentors and I agree wholeheartedly. So you're a mentor of mine a very much, so I look to things you do and I go to you with questions and you always just you have that wisdom and I appreciate that and I appreciate you so much, thank you. And but you're right, we do have you should have different mentors for different things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, like and and here's the thing with a mentor, people think, well, I don't want to bother in vain, or things like that. I Am passionate about being a mentor because it reminds me of things in my life, it allows me. We get to a point in our life where we want to give. It's not wisdom until you give it away, it's knowledge. If you've got it and you've built it and it's yours, it's your knowledge. Wisdom is what we give away and that's how we elevate the consciousness of our planet. Is when we're sharing wisdom. When I'm sharing my wisdom for you, I'm I'm gaining more wisdom because I'm seeing it through another lens. I'm seeing it through the lens of what you're going through, which may not have been what I went through. So that extra application teaches me more and I develop more Knowledge and then I can share more wisdom. So mentors give and they receive always receive more than they ever give.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful relationship. Yeah, really, really it is. What are things? I know with? This was kind of we didn't really talk about this, but as From and I'm specifically talking about women entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2:Okay okay.
Speaker 1:woman to woman, yes, okay. What are what's the best things that we can do for each other as entrepreneurs?
Speaker 2:The best, the number one best thing we can do as entrepreneurs. The first thing is we can listen to each other. We can be a conscious energy for the, for the other person, and listen, be fully, fully present to them. And when I say that it's because so much of what we have going on is not really what we know how to say or how, what we feel comfortable with saying. And when we listen to each other and when we ask questions and we're present for someone, we give them a safe space. So we have a space, safe space to be vulnerable to, to be able to say I don't know, I'm afraid, and so we can be ourselves. So number number one I would say is to be there, to be fully present and listen. Another thing is to be a conduit. I don't have to know the answer. You're very, very good at this.
Speaker 2:This is one of your superpowers, you're a conduit, because somebody will come to you with something. It may not be something you do, but you know somebody who might be able to, and you'll immediately mean you do it. While somebody's there, you get on your phone and you make a joint introduction. I'll connect people and we don't have to have the answers. We we invest in people to find out, help them find out the answer. And then there's also accountability.
Speaker 2:It is a lot of times when we're a female entrepreneur and it's just us yes, we have the we have list after list after list, and when we have someone who can help us be accountable it's not that they are holding us in judgment If you have to get this done it's that they will help us be right with ourselves and they will hold us in and they will hold us accountable. And if we're struggling with something and we've struggled too long, it's like, ok, we need to find a different resource. And we we tend to feel like and this is part of genetically how we are as we were fixers and we should.
Speaker 2:We should be able to do this what a terrible word. I should be able to fix and do that. And so when we have an accountability partner and we have somebody else that can help us see what we can't see in ourselves and say you know, how long have you been working with this? How's that working for you? Right the words of Dr Phil, and help us get so we don't go down a rabbit hole yeah. So those are, those are several things that that I think that we can do for each other.
Speaker 1:I think they're wonderful. I agree with all of them. There you go, all right. Well, sue, it has been a joy having you on today. Thank you, if our listeners want to get ahold of you to talk about any of this content, or or just to chat, have a conversation with you, how can they do so On?
Speaker 2:my website at su ryansolutions. There's a place to schedule a calendar with me. There's a calendar link there and you can subscribe and I'll get back to you as well. And then my email is su at su ryansolutions, and I am glad to talk with anybody and share information any way I can, because I am grateful for so many other people who have poured into me. There will never be enough opportunity for me to pour into others the way I've been poured into throughout my life, and I'm not done. I need a lot of help to.
Speaker 1:I'm looking for it and that was beautifully said, because you pour into me every day.
Speaker 2:And I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Big, big heart. We're giving each other hearts. We are, we are.