Turning Mistakes into Mastery: Reframing Failures into Lessons

Mistakes can feel insurmountable, but they are often just stepping stones in your journey towards success. In this engaging episode of the Light Up Your Business podcast, host Tammy Hershberger discusses the pivotal role mistakes play in business and personal growth. Through candid storytelling and relatable examples, Tammy emphasizes the importance of reframing our perspective on setbacks, transforming them into invaluable lessons that fuel innovation and resilience. 

Listeners will benefit from actionable insights on how to navigate failures, whether in a business context or personal life. The conversation covers how acknowledgment and acceptance of emotions surrounding mistakes are essential in fostering learning and growth. Moreover, Tammy highlights real-world examples, such as businesses that have thrived after initially stumbling. 

This episode encourages listeners to embrace their unique journeys, shift their mindsets, and leverage the challenges they've faced into opportunities for positive transformation. You'll also discover strategies for implementing lessons learned and fostering connections through support networks, emphasizing that no one needs to face their struggles alone. 

Join us in turning problems into opportunities and setbacks into victories. Share your experiences with us on social media, and remember to keep pushing forward with courage and determination! Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and spread the word!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Light Up Your Business
• 6:26 Welcome Back: An Update from Tammy
• 47:11 Turning Mistakes into Mastery
• 1:33:28 The Nature of Mistakes in Business
• 2:46:31 How to Implement Lessons Learned
• 12:41:03 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Tammy Hershberger: 0:01

Welcome to the Light Up your Business podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of small businesses. I'm your host, Tammy Hershberger, and each episode will bring you inspiring stories, expert insights and practical tips to help your small business thrive. Whether you're an entrepreneur just starting out or a seasoned business owner, this podcast is your go-to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started. Hi everyone, I want to welcome you back to another episode of Light Up your Business podcast. My name is Tammy Hershberger. It's been a minute. I took a little break from recording. It's winter and I'm freezing and I just decided to do some other stuff and I am back. I've got a bunch of episodes we're going to knock out and today's episode.

Tammy Hershberger: 0:46

I want to talk to you guys about turning mistakes into mastery and that's called reframing failures into lessons. I think I've talked about this a little bit in the past, but I don't like calling mistakes failures. I used to do that. With help of therapy and a lot of personal growth, I have learned that there really is no mistakes in life. Mistakes are really just lessons. I mean, some lessons are more costly than others, but we learn something If you don't. You got problems here because you should be learning from the things that you're failing at or the things that you didn't do right, and hopefully you do better next time. So to me, it's crucial for every business leader, entrepreneur and anyone with a big dream to learn that you've got to reframe these things. We're talking about reframing mistakes in business into valuable lessons. So if you've ever felt like your latest blunder might be the end of the world, I have been there. Stay tuned, because we're about to turn those mistakes into mastery.

Tammy Hershberger: 1:42

So we all make mistakes, especially in business. From failed product launches to unsuccessful marketing campaigns, it's easy to get discouraged when things don't go according to plan, but what if I told you that mistakes are actually golden opportunities in disguise? Today, we'll discuss how to reframe those inevitable errors into powerful lessons that drive growth and innovation. So let's talk about the nature of mistakes. So if you start by acknowledging that a fundamental truth is mistakes are a part of every successful business journey, I guarantee you, if you talk to all the big guys who own all the big, huge corporations, they will tell you that mistakes happen, failure happens. Not every business venture works, not every plan you make works. I mean, that's in life, right, and if you're going to make mistakes, you're probably not pushing the envelope enough.

Tammy Hershberger: 2:33

I would say you're probably playing small. What does playing small mean? It means that you're not living up to your potential. You're not even trying the things that scare you. And I'm huge on like, especially in this stage of my life I'm 41 years old I am tired of playing scared. I'm tired of playing small. I'm tired of not just going for it.

Tammy Hershberger: 2:54

I mean, what's the worst that's going to happen? I mean, the absolute worst is kind of what happened to me. I had to walk away from a business but and I lost it because of that, that's like the worst. But did it kill me? Nope, I'm still here. Did it hurt? Yes.

Tammy Hershberger: 3:07

Did I learn some massive lessons? Absolutely. Do I have some new things that I'm going to take into my other business ventures and into my future that I've learned from you? Bet you it's. It's definitely. I'm thankful.

Tammy Hershberger: 3:18

Actually, I've learned a lot of things from the things that have happened to me. I've learned that there's things inside of me that needed to be dealt with. I've learned that I can be stubborn. I've learned that I don't give any easy. I've learned to also be relentless and fight for what I want and fight for what's best for me and my family and my mental health.

Tammy Hershberger: 3:36

And so I take all those moments that look like failure, that look like loss, that look like stuff that maybe I shouldn't have done, like, and I don't really have regrets. Regrets to me are, I think, a bigger mistake. If you want to call it a mistake is a regret. Don't have regrets. Have those moments that you maybe think are regrets and you take them and you you analyze them and you look at them and then you ask yourself what can I take from that? Right, did your marriage fall apart? What can you learn from that? Did you lose a friendship? What can you learn from that? You know, did you physically somehow break your arm or whatever? What did you learn? Maybe you don't do something stupid again, maybe you don't hold the ladder like that, or you know, maybe you watch where you're walking, or maybe you slow down, or maybe you do that safety checklist first, or whatever it is. I mean, obviously that's most important, but there's these things in life that I think happen to us. Sometimes we do them to ourselves and you look at it and you say, okay, well, that that ruined everything. Well, I mean, it maybe did ruin some stuff, but I guarantee you, if you dig into it and you be adult about it and you, you know, maybe seek some help for it or whatever it is, it can turn around, it can be used for good. God will use these bad things for good. So it's important to look at mistakes and then look at them with this critical mind of like, what feedback can I get from this? Right? What is this thing revealing to me that I can improve on? And maybe you know, if we hadn't gone through those things, we wouldn't notice those things.

Tammy Hershberger: 5:09

Oprah Winfrey says mistakes are stepping stones to wisdom because you learn from them. Right? I don't. I would like to actually talk to someone that hasn't learned something from a mistake they've made. I mean, it's literally as simple as a little kid who touches the stove and gets burned. Well, do we want him to do that? No, did he learn something? Yeah, be careful touching the stove. It's hot, I mean there's. It's a lesson this kid's going to take with him further in life, right? So maybe you think about to yourself well, what does that? What does that quote stand Like when you hear it? What does that mean to you? What are you learning from that? Right, mistakes are stepping stones to wisdom.

Tammy Hershberger: 5:48

And then I want to talk to you about a few examples of some common mistakes, so that maybe you can look at them a little different, see them different. And then I want to talk about how to deal with failure. So it says here consider a product launch that's flopped. It's easy to see this as a failure, but instead it can be viewed as valuable feedback. Right, you want to analyze it. And then you want to ask yourself these things. So in this specific example, it's going to fit, but I think in life all these things fit.

Tammy Hershberger: 6:13

So in this product launch, as we're saying here, what did you learn about the target market? So why did your product fail? Did you have the wrong market in mind? Did you have the wrong customer? You know, do you know your customer? Do you do a customer avatar and say, okay, who am I trying to sell this product to? So I'm looking in my studio here and I'm seeing a water bottle, right?

Tammy Hershberger: 6:34

Well, I would think water bottles can probably be sold to most anybody. I mean, young kids are taking them to school, old people are taking them to work, to the gym, I mean everywhere. Who doesn't have a water bottle these days? You know, when I grew up as a kid, we didn't have these water bottles. We went to the water fountain and shared germs with everyone else and you could only get them on your break between classes. And today, I mean I have this water bottle and I probably paid 30 bucks for this thing. I mean, some of these Stanleys are $40, so whoever came up with this water bottle, they've sold it to us in a way that's like we got to have it, got to spend 40 bucks on water.

Tammy Hershberger: 7:06

I saw a meme the other day that talked about that. It was like here we are, we're paying a lot of money for these water bottles, and why? Because we wanted to keep our you know water cold for three days. And I got to have it because it's cool, right? Well, the guy was like why are you not drinking your water fast? It has to be cold for three days. You should be replacing it faster. And that's the point. I mean we're spending all this money because it's cool, because this marketing campaign told us we need to have it.

Tammy Hershberger: 7:35

So if it fails, you need to look at, like why did it fail? Was there unforeseen problems with the product? Did it not really hold the water cold for three days? Did it leak? Did the handle bust off too easy? Did the colors fade in the sun Like what is it? What went wrong with it?

Tammy Hershberger: 7:51

Because these are opportunities to refine the product based on real world data, rather than just assuming people didn't like it right, or perhaps you put all this marketing campaign and it didn't go as well as you had hoped. Right, it didn't get as many views or it didn't sell any product. Instead of viewing it as a waste of time and resources, analyze the data right. Why didn't it work? Why didn't it reach the people we wanted? Was it too long? Was it too short? Was it boring? Was it not interesting enough? Did I put it on the wrong platforms? You know I've done some. I've talked to some people about TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and typically Facebook is tending to be the older generation. Now I use it at 40. I know people in their 30s using it but, like TikTok, tends to be younger generation. I actually just downloaded the app. We're doing some research here on some marketing opportunities at the barnyard and we want to see, kind of, what the different platforms are, and we're going to test out some ads to see what does better and where. Now I would assume that Facebook, maybe Instagram, is going to be better than TikTok, but you never know. I mean, if you're trying to get your company out there and you want views, you got to go where the views are right, and then you're going to look at it and say, well, it didn't work here in this campaign. So then what can I improve on the next campaign? We do Shorter video, longer video, something that gets your attention, maybe better hashtags, whatever it is, dig into it, right. So everything gathered from this experience is insightful for crafting a more effective campaign in the future.

Tammy Hershberger: 9:28

There is a quote from Maya Angelou and it says I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it. This quote is huge to me because I look at, I look at my life and I think, okay, sometimes these quote-unquote mistakes change you right and, unfortunately, sometimes certain things, some failures, especially in business, in relationships, they kind of harden you a little bit right. They change you in the fact that it could make you more scared to talk to people, more scared to let people in. You might close your heart off more. You might just get this perception of like everybody is terrible, nobody cares about me, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right, there's all these things that you can tell yourself that are probably not true. And if you tell yourself enough that these things are true, then they become these self-limiting beliefs, right? So if you say everybody is out to get me, or nobody wants to be my friend, or everybody's going to hurt me, well, you're not going to go out and try to make friends because you're scared. And in business you don't want to play scared. In life you don't want to play scared, right?

Tammy Hershberger: 10:29

So for me, I have determined in my life in the window business, that all that mess that happened you know in past businesses that I it just kind of it worked, but it wasn't exciting and I ended up leaving or just closing the business or whatever. But it wasn't exciting and I ended up leaving or just closing the business or whatever. I refuse myself to be reduced by these things. So my business didn't work out. I refuse to give up on business, I refuse to give up on people. I refuse to tell myself that I can't do business because one thing didn't work out. I refuse to say everybody is not good because they were all mean to me. I just refuse that. I'm not going to stand in victim land and play that game. I am going to stand as a victor. I'm going to turn the yuck into good right.

Tammy Hershberger: 11:11

The Bible talks about the Lord will turn beauty into ashes. I'm sorry, that's not right. I will turn ashes into beauty. That's not. God doesn't do that. So God helps you. He will turn the bad into good right. But if you get this mindset of like I fail and I can't do it and I'm so, I'm such a loser and then you turn into other things, which that'll lead you down a path to victim, and then you become an addict and you throw everybody away and you push everyone away and then everything that's great about life just goes away and I hate watching that.

Tammy Hershberger: 11:41

I think that's why I have such a passion for people, because I see them playing small, I see them playing scared and the more I have fixed my own emotional and mental stuff in the past these regrets and these hurts and these pains and these things that kept me playing small at times I've worked through a bunch of them and then that opens up this capacity for me to say okay, these mistakes are not defining for me. These mistakes maybe changed me. Sure, these mistakes and I keep using the word mistakes just to prove a point to you but these lessons is what I need to transition that into is these lessons have taught me that it can be really good and it can go bad, but it can be good again. I mean, just because it changed once doesn't mean it can't change again. Or just because this product didn't work doesn't mean the whole business is kaput. Right, maybe there's a better product or maybe you tweak that product. That's how we get great innovation, because you constantly are working and changing and fixing and adjusting.

Tammy Hershberger: 12:38

And I think that's how businesses you start it and most people are like me. They start, they don't know what the hell they're doing, and then you start and then you're like okay, I have some success. And then you learn well, if you're not careful with your money, you're going to be out of money. Or if you treat your employees bad, they're going to quit, or I don't know. If you don't treat your business partner good, it's not going to work. And so you have to start adjusting and tweaking things and learning to be a better leader. And then you do more research and you study and you take classes or you go to conferences and you start to see that like there is hope for me right, there's hope for me.

Tammy Hershberger: 13:09

I used to be a mess and I'm not that way anymore. I'm, you know, I've always been a hard worker and I've always tried my best, but internally I just took everything on me and I internalized everything that it's my fault and I could do better and this isn't working because of me and and that's that's a trippy place to be. I mean, it's very limiting, it's very hurtful, it's very hard to to push past that and I'm if you ask anyone that knows me, I'm very, very strong and I can push through and I can make stuff happen. But if you do that long enough without dealing with it, it will crumble you. And that is kind of where I ended up after the window business debacle. It's like I just fell apart. I mean I kept, I did business and my business didn't hurt Barnyard didn't hurt and my other stuff and I picked up new business stuff and I tried new ventures and I kept going. But internally I was pretty messed up, I was broken, and I think that's a testament to like where I am today.

Tammy Hershberger: 14:05

Today, I don't know, it's been like a little over a year and a half since I had to walk away from the business and you know, I wished it was very different, but it's just not, and so I'm going to keep going. I'm going to push harder as far and when I say push harder, I don't like the mentality of like just push through it and ignore it and push it away and push it away. I of like just push through it and ignore it and push it away and push it away. I'm talking about I'm gonna push through because I'm gonna keep going to therapy, I'm gonna keep discussing the hard stuff, I'm gonna keep reaching out to people that matter to me. I'm gonna keep trying.

Tammy Hershberger: 14:32

If things go awry, if conversations don't go the way I planned, I'm gonna face it and go back and rehab another conversation and the people that are in my life that I care about and that's all part of the mistakes, because sometimes we say things that maybe we didn't mean or came off wrong or the other person perceived it differently, and I'm not the type that's going to be like, okay, well, you can just be mad. No, I want to fix it, because if I mess it up, let's fix it. Or if you hurt my feelings, instead of just being upset and not talking to you and basically doing the silent treatment, it's going to get you nowhere. All that's going to do is ruin your friendship, your marriage, your business. You have to face it and you talk it through and I'm telling you there's so much relief and happiness that comes with that, even if it turns out like we're just not meant to be business partners or we're not meant to be friends or whatever. Talk through it so that way you end on a positive note. You can end with at least peace in your heart. You can end with like I wish you well. I don't want to hurt you, you know, I hope life's good to you. That is so much better than ending in a place of like I can't talk to you and I hate you and I whatever, like it's just not good for you, it's not good for them. And so there's all these things that we can reframe right, okay. So I want to talk to you about this reframing.

Tammy Hershberger: 15:53

Dealing with failure is tough, but it's a crucial part of growth and learning. So how do we navigate it and I have kind of a list here that we created. I want to make sure I get through as much of it as I can and hopefully don't miss anything. So I'm going to jump between both of these. So reframing mistakes. So you want to acknowledge and accept it. So it says it's natural to feel upset, frustrated or disappointed when things don't go as planned. You need to allow yourself to process those emotions and it's okay to feel down as long as you don't let those feelings control you. You have to take responsibility for what you did, because denial will not help you learn or grow. You have to accept the errors as part of the progress, right? So it's okay to acknowledge like I'm always just going to refer back to me and I hope, as you're listening to this, you're thinking about whatever you're going through or whatever you're trying to process and you kind of put this on yourself.

Tammy Hershberger: 16:47

But for me, because I'm the one talking here, it took me a while to acknowledge how angry I was, how full of resentment I was right for the things that had happened. I I felt like I put myself into a pretzel trying to figure out how to fix it and unfortunately, as I've said in the past. There's two sides. Some people are not in the same place you are and I think sometimes people can't meet you there, unfortunately. And that's okay, I've learned it's okay because they're just not where they're supposed, where I need them to be, or where they're not in a place where we can move forward, unfortunately.

Tammy Hershberger: 17:24

But for me and this is where I'm talking to you is you've got to face what you're feeling. You know you can't control the other person. You can't get them to move through things if they don't want to control the other person. You can't get them to move through things if they don't want to. You can't get them to work on things if you don't want to. But you can acknowledge your own feelings and I think that's important. So and that is a lot of what I didn't do in the past I would stuff it down and be like I can't even be mad at this person, because then it's just going to cause more problems and I'd push it away and then something else would happen and then I'd be, you know, more hurt or whatever, and I would like in my mind say I'm really angry, but then I push it down and it's a nope, just got to keep going and I may address it a little bit, but I ultimately would give up on it Cause I'm like it's just going to push them away or whatever and instead I need to.

Tammy Hershberger: 18:05

It took me a long time to realize like I'm angry, but what's below the surface of that? Well, I'm anger is usually hurt, right. And why am I hurt? What's the reason I'm hurt? Am I frustrated? In my case, I was frustrated. I was very disappointed. I had too high of expectations. That happens, right, because I hold myself to a high standard. But not everybody's like me. Not everybody has the same desires and goals and values, and so when you kind of project that onto someone else and they can't hit it, it's going to disappoint me. I would imagine if they care about you, it's really going to disappoint themselves because they're trying. I would see that in my business. I would see my business partner trying, unfortunately I don't know, through all of it.

Tammy Hershberger: 18:50

I think it just got too much at the end and I don't think that person was in a place to to move forward. And so for me realizing that, like I can't control this stuff anymore, I have to face it, because it just builds so much resentment that then it's like a wall. You can't even get over it right, and then you kind of have to start to analyze it, and that's kind of what I was just talking about taking a step back and dissect what went wrong. You want to look at the factors that led to the outcome. So then it's like, depending on whatever it is, was it a lack of research? Was it poor planning? Was it just a person that is not in a good place and you can't really move past it? Was it you didn't have enough money, like you didn't open in the right location? Maybe I don't know. Maybe you did a mobile and you should have done more of a stationary business right. Or maybe you did a business where you put it in a location that was not good and maybe it would have been better in a mobile business for, like, a coffee shop or whatever. So you just got to kind of look at that and say, okay, what went wrong?

Tammy Hershberger: 19:47

And for me, with my past business I've had a lot of time to do that and I can see a lot of spaces that it went wrong. Now I can't go back and change that or fix that. I wished I could. It's not how it works, but now I know, going forward in my current business and my current ventures, if there's other things in the future, I know what to avoid and what not to do this time and remember to be really objective. You know, look at like I saw that I did this, but how could I look at it differently? How could I have done that differently? Because you want to understand the why so you can prevent it from happening in the future. And then you want to kind of find lessons. Again, that's part of what we're talking about identifying the key takeaways. What insights can you draw from the situation? How do you apply these lessons going forward? And then you want to implement the change right, use the lessons learned to make improvement. You want to adjust your strategies, refine your processes, apply what you've learned to future projects.

Tammy Hershberger: 20:46

So I work with some coaching clients and I'm noticing, like a lot of small businesses and this is not, this is standard I think it happens to most small businesses because you get going and sales are most important because you got to have money coming in. Then you start getting the sales and then you start to grow and then it just kind of becomes mayhem and you're trying to keep up and then there's no system for problems, there's no system to track orders, there's no system to track clients, and I see it a lot where these businesses they're just struggling because they're like the money's coming in but it's all going back out and it's chaos and I'm stressed out. And so that's where it works good to sit down with a coach like me, because I'm looking top down, I'm not so emotionally invested in the business where you are, so I can start to see, like, okay, I can see from the outside the chaos, I can kind of look through it, because you're so knee deep in it. There's that saying you can't see the forest through the trees. That's why a coach like me is great, because I can come in, I have to spend a little time in your business, but I can see, like, okay, you guys are not communicating, clearly, your systems are a wreck, or maybe you don't even have any. Um, I can see that, like, you don't have a budget, you don't, you don't know your numbers, whatever. And so then me and you can sit down and start going through these things and saying, okay, it's not just here's homework, take it back. Because the problem is when you're so deep in that and you're so stressed out and whatever, you don't have the time to say, okay, I'm taking an hour to work on this. But if you're working with me, I'm going to say we're going to meet, you're going to respect my time, you're going to actually show up, and then we're going to work through it together and we're going to start knocking these things off the list and over time it does take time to fix problems. You can start to see, okay, we have a system, this is running smoother. Or I have a budget. I can see like we're not making any money because we're spending it all, or we're not charging enough so we have to raise prices. And together we start to work through that. And that's why a coach is really great. So if if you don't have one, I recommend it.

Tammy Hershberger: 22:35

I'm a business coach. There's tons of business coaches out there. It's really good to see, because then I also I've been through this stuff. I run my own business, I run multiple businesses, I've had business partners, I have businesses I run by myself. I mean I just I've seen a lot and I feel for people in business who love their business. They're trying to do right, you know, for the customer and for their families and they're just struggling because it's a lot. And I've been through a lot and I've built businesses and I just know how it works and I can see it.

Tammy Hershberger: 23:05

Now. I don't run corporations, I'm not a coach for a corporate person, I'm just I don't run billion dollar business. I mean I have no idea what that even looks like, but you know, I would say a business starting out all the way up to a few million dollars. I mean I've got a pretty good business in the barnyard and I kind of I've built the systems. I mean window cleaning. We built all the systems from scratch. Unfortunately, the systems were not the problem, it was more just the people trying to get along, which is the hardest part. People, you know we can't make each other do what we want to do and sometimes our values get a little mixed up and our lives change and we go in different directions. So that's all part of that.

Tammy Hershberger: 23:41

And then let's see here I want to see which one I want to go to next. I would say the next thing would be the implementing, which again I was talking about with the coach, using the lessons that you've learned to make improvements. So would be the implementing which again I was talking about with the coach using the lessons that you've learned to make improvements. So you're adjusting your strategies, refining the process right what we just talked about and then start applying it, start putting it into practice. Because if we just talk about it which I feel like happened in my business we talked about stuff until finally the showing up just didn't happen anymore, but we talked about it and then we just as much as I would push to implement, implement. It takes the people in your team to implement those things, because I can't be everywhere and so you have to get buy-in and get the people on board. And then you want to.

Tammy Hershberger: 24:25

I would say, kind of sit down with your team and share the lessons you've learned, share them with the team or the network. It not only helps others learn from your experience, but also solidifies your own understanding of it. And even just kind of talking here on this, this platform, my podcast, it reminds me of like, yeah, I mean I've got some stuff to keep working on and I've done, I've made some big progress and I wished the only well. I won't go too much into this, but the only team member I wished I could share this with was my old business partner. I wish we were at a place where we could sit down and just like talk about it and not talk about it because there's any saving anymore, it's too late.

Tammy Hershberger: 25:03

But I think there's so much growth in discussing the past and not not coming back of like you did this and blame, but like the revelations. There's healing and growth in that and I just that's the one thing I wish was different. I wish this person would be willing to talk to me and in a place of like, not condemnation and blame, but growth and change. Because, man, I've learned so much and, you know, no one else knows that except for the people that were in it with you, and so I do hope and pray that God will somehow align that someday and it'll work out and change. But you know, for now I'm just going to keep figuring it out for me and keep trying my best to change.

Tammy Hershberger: 25:37

Unfortunately I can't go back to my company and do that because it's not my company anymore, but I do it currently in my the barnyard business I and it's really helped me in coaching because I can see the struggles and you know, sometimes it's hard to take criticism, sometimes it's hard to see the things that you're personally doing that you know other people see, but they're too afraid to tell you. And that's one thing about a business coach if they're a good one, they will tell you to your face, like you're being really hard on your people or you're treating them wrong, or you're being too hard on yourself, or maybe you're not taking any time for yourself or whatever. And they will tell you to your face some of the things that they're seeing so that you can start to make adjustments. That is the most invaluable thing ever, because that is also talking about that. In my past experience again in my business partner, especially the first few years, I learned so much from this person because he was a bit of a. He wasn't a big talker, but when he would talk I would listen because he didn't say a ton right and I saw things that I he would tell me a lot I was, I was working too much and I need to relax a little bit and have some more fun. And and there was some things there that, like I can really dig into there was nuggets of goodness and some, and there was times he told me I wasn't in my other businesses, I wasn't charging enough, or he would tell me how valuable I was, and I don't know. Those are things I am so thankful for, because not everybody was telling me that and I wasn't being good on myself. And so having that kind of mirror if you will, that will tell you the truth is is really I don't know it's really valuable. So, anyway, I'll continue.

Tammy Hershberger: 27:18

So once you do that, you want to set some new goals. It says failure doesn't mean you should quit Never, quit Never, please, never give up. Relentlessness and I guess just desire keeps me going, because I'm like, I'm not going to take that. I'm not a no person, I don't like no, I want to find a way around it. There's gotta be a better way. You don't want to be my friend? Why? How can we fix it Right? Or you don't want to buy my product Okay, how can we maybe change that? Or, uh, you can't know. I think that's just a fight that's in me and I don't like no. So if you, if you're a no person, let's talk, because I'd like to get around that until maybe, or yeah, so there's a different way, or maybe I just don't work with a company, but it's. I think there's just got to be a fight in you that you want to say that's so.

Tammy Hershberger: 28:14

Then, talking about goals, break them down into smaller, achievable steps so the journey feels more manageable. Maintain a growth mindset. Embrace the belief that skills and abilities can improve with effort and learning. Those who view challenges as opportunities for growth are more resilient in the face of failure. And then it talks about seeking support. Don't do it alone. Talk to friends, talk to family, talk to mentors, talk to your business partner. Talk to your employees to a point where you can Now some stuff you can't talk to them about because they need to not know every little detail of your business. That could cause some issues. But if you can find other business owners, talk to a coach. I mean that's if it's business stuff. Talk to a coach, right, or a mentor. If it's personal stuff, talk to a therapist. Talk to someone you can trust, someone that doesn't really have fight in the game but they care about you improving, if I would say that they usually offer fresh perspective, encouragement and helpful advice.

Tammy Hershberger: 29:13

And then really take care of yourself. During tough times, it's important to take care of yourself, your mental and physical well-being. Get to the gym, go for walks, mental health, you know growth books, yoga, there's therapists, there's counselors. There's so much stuff out there that if you would just reach out for help. I see people that I know they're struggling and they just they think they have to do it by themselves and that's probably a trust issue, I'm sure, but they're afraid of getting hurt. But I wish they would just like just trust and just let people be people. I mean, we're not perfect, but there is good people out there and when you find them you hang on to them because they're you're going to need them. I mean, life can be hard, it's a battle sometimes and I think with good people behind you it lessens the burden.

Tammy Hershberger: 30:00

And then the Lord. Talk to the Lord. If you're a believer I hope you are, but I mean the Lord. I've let some stuff out to him and I trust that there's some stuff that's not good right now that he's going to continue to work on and will make better because he's a faithful God. You always want to eat well, right, you want to exercise, you want to get plenty of sleep and you want to keep your mind clear and focused on the bigger picture, and that's something I was telling one of my coaching clients the other day was, since I've started working on my mental health and my emotional health in the past and trauma and all this stuff. It's like the more I get that out, the less heavy my emotional baggage is and the more clear I think every day, the faster I get stuff done Like I'm. I'm so mentally clear right now because I'm just cruising through things and I'm just I'm not carrying the weight of all this stuff. It's not there anymore and I'm so thankful for that, because there was a time when I couldn't, I had no capacity left. I was so emotionally bankrupt and I was mentally drained and I was physically exhausted and things took so much longer and things went awry because I couldn't, I couldn't hold the bag anymore. You know, the bag was busting at the seams and now that that barrel of mine is kind of starting to empty out, it's so refreshing and life is so much more exciting and fun again and I can enjoy what I'm doing and enjoy the moments.

Tammy Hershberger: 31:24

And then you know, don't let fear and failure stop you. It can sometimes paralyze you. Remember that every successful person has experienced failure along the way. What matters is their persistence and the fact that they bounce back right. Don't ever let failure and I believe a devil likes to push that on you, like you failed, this didn't work, this relationship didn't work, whatever. And then you go in a hole and you hide. And man, don't do that. Come out swinging, come out proud. I mean, be proud that you tried, even if you failed. Your business didn't make it, you didn't have the money and it didn't work or I don't know. You've learned those lessons. You took a swing at the bat right, like if you just go up there and never swing at the ball, well, that's pretty sad. I mean you don't even have a chance to fail because you didn't try.

Tammy Hershberger: 32:08

That's harder for me not trying than failing. I mean, what do I really care what these people think as I'm getting older? That's really true and that's not saying that I just go and hurt people. That's not what I'm talking about. But I don't know. I'm actually looking at a sign right now that's in my coaching studio and it says hustle until your haters ask if you're hiring right, because you have people aren't going to be, they're not going to like you, no matter what you do, they're going to always, you know, be against you. And I kind of like that. It's kind of cheeky, because I'm like I'm going to hustle and do it in the way that God will honor it. So much of these people can't deny that I did something great. Right Like I don't care if they don't like it, but at the same time, maybe it'll inspire them to quit being such a putz and get off their butt and do something.

Tammy Hershberger: 32:56

And that's my next point is keep trying. Most importantly, don't give up. Every time you pick yourself up, you grow stronger. The road to success is rarely a straight path, and persistence is the key. And remember that sometimes things fail, it's okay. The key is learning from your mistakes and using them to improve.

Tammy Hershberger: 33:13

So I want to tell you a story that's kind of interesting. It says Starbucks made a misstep when it initially tried to scale too quickly in the 2000s, the company faced criticism for its overexpansion and decline in coffee quality. However, they took these criticisms seriously, redefined their business model and focused on their core values, and this led to revamping the brand. And then, all of a sudden, this resurgence in popularity rose up, and now look where they are. So I mean, I think for me, my misstep was I guess it would be not having clear boundaries, not staying in my lane, and I don't know it's.

Tammy Hershberger: 33:59

It's a hard one for me because I don't think I'd take any of it back. You know it's hard that my ego is like I would never do it again. That's not true. I had so many good experiences. I wish it was in a very different place. I wish that business would be growing so good right now. But you know you can't live in the past, you can't live with regret. And so just remember, cultivate that growth mindset, get that feedback, reflect and then celebrate the wins. Man recognize and celebrate the improvements you made as a result of learning from your lessons. They'll keep you motivated and focus on continual growth.

Tammy Hershberger: 34:32

And I think doing things like this telling people, get out there and be a platform of the mistakes you've made and I'm putting it out there I freaking, messed up man. I didn't do everything great, but I've learned a lot and I think my heart for people is still there. My heart to help people is still there. And these mistakes, they're not the end of the road, they're just the valuable detour on the path to success. So this quote from Trevor Noah says mistakes are the dots that connect our experiences and shape the narrative of our lives. Your lessons are your pivotal moments that lead to growth, resilience and creativity. And so the last thing I'm going to say before I end this is I was there's, I don't know.

Tammy Hershberger: 35:13

It's like a video on YouTube you can watch, but it's Tombstone and it's got great music behind it, but it's talking about the dash and it's saying that life is the dash right. So on your tombstone it's like I was born in 1983, I died 2045, whatever it is, and there's that dash in between and it's like what is, what is the dash? Well, that is, that's your life, that's your experiences, that's the happiness, the moments of regret. That's that's all these things, right, and the dash is what matters in life, because you don't I apologize, I'm actually getting emotional talking about this but the dash is like that's all you get, man. I mean, some people get 20 or some get 50, some get 100.

Tammy Hershberger: 35:53

But what you do in the middle is what matters, right. The people that you love and affect, and the children you raise, and the spouse that you grow old with, and the businesses you raise up, and the people that work for your business. That's what matters, the stuff in the middle. So don't sweat the small stuff. You made a mistake in the middle. Keep going. There's so much life yet. Don't give up and don't live in regret, because everything is a lesson, everything is something you will learn, and so I just I hope you think about that today.

Tammy Hershberger: 36:25

So, if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, like, share, you know, do all of it. Like my page, share my page. I am on all different platforms. I'm on Facebook, instagram, iheartradio, apple Podcasts, youtube. I will be adding video here in the next few weeks. I have a good friend of mine who's going to come in and help me with that, so we'll have that soon. I challenge you to keep pushing forward and turning those mistakes into mastery.

Tammy Hershberger: 36:53

Thank you so much for listening today. We're growing quickly and I'm so thankful for all of you listening today. We're growing quickly and I'm so thankful for all of you. Please share your own experiences and insights by visiting wwwlightupyourbusinesspodcastcom. And thank you and you guys have a great day and I will see you next time. And remember, in the world of business, every success story begins with a passionate dream and ends with a strategic billion dollar handshake. Stay ambitious, stay innovative and keep making those deals that reshape tomorrow. Thank you all for tuning in and until next time remember. Proverbs 3.3 says let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. That way you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. And remember. If you like what you heard today, click the follow button so you never miss an episode.