Start The Business Anyway

We talk about starting or restarting a business at any age and why the biggest barrier is usually the story we tell ourselves, not a lack of talent or time. We share simple, real-world steps that help you move from idea to action, plus how support and small “yeses” create momentum. 
• starting strength training as a reminder that progress uses more than one metric 
• building a side hustle or business to adapt with a changing economy 
• debunking the “too old” and “too young” lies about entrepreneurship 
• using past jobs and pivots as foundation instead of calling them mistakes 
• remembering the best time to start was earlier and the next best time is now 
• what you actually need to begin: a believer, a paid skill, a first customer yes 
• using mystery shopping as a flexible income stream 
• exploring Offer Lab as a marketplace for selling what you know 
• choosing business on purpose and leaning on mentors, masterminds, and accountability 
• naming fear, expecting obstacles, and using challenges to level up 

Be sure to subscribe and share it with someone who's ready to roll toward a more balanced life. 

Transcript

Welcome And The Wheel Of Life

Debra 0:04

Welcome to the D Times 2 podcast, hosted by Sisters Denise and Deborah. We are all about finding balance in the various parts of life. Using the Wheel of Life as our guide, we explore how to keep each spoke rolling smoothly. We discuss health and wellness, education and spirituality, as well as mental and emotional growth. Join us for real conversations, practical tips, and a few laughs as we share stories, insights, and strategies to help you create a life that feels balanced, purposeful, and designed by you.

Weather Check And Life Updates

Debra 0:36

Good morning, Deborah. Good morning, Denise. How are you today? Cold? Yeah, same. It's been gloomy and rainy for too many days in a row, and it's summer. It should be warmer. I feel like we're having winter in summer, the winter we never got. Yep. It's good. We need the rain for sure, but it's nice. Well, we don't need the wind with it. No, no. But we'll take what we've got. It'll get better in a couple days. And it's gonna be hot. That's something I've waiting for. Yeah. Looking forward to. So what's been going on with you?

Strength Training And Recomposition Mindset

Debra 1:09

Starting last October, I decided that I needed to do something about the shape of my body, that it was not strong anymore and just not feeling well. So I started exercising six days a week, strength training, and I did that consistently. But I missed like a week when my son got married, but like I six days a week. I was at the gym lifting heavy. And in mid-May I had to take a break. I went and helped a couple of children move and didn't have the chance to exercise really. Well, formal exercise. I was moving boxes and playing with kids and cleaning house, and so I didn't strength train during that time. And when I got back, I was hesitant to step on the scale and check my metrics. But you know what happened? I lost a pound. And I didn't feel worse. I felt pretty much the same. And then I picked up where I left off and started exercising again. So you feel like you hold held steady. Yes, I do. And I think that I wouldn't have been able to do as much as I did in helping my children if I hadn't exercised. Oh, I'm sure of that. I had built enough muscle, reserve, and just overall strength everywhere that I could help them how they needed and still feel good. So yeah, that's awesome. I would like to kindly and gently with love remind you also that the scale is only one of the metrics. Yes, it is only one metric. It's just one of the things that people tend to put a lot of focus and weight to. Not not intended, but like people just seem to go only by the scale. And you've been working on body recomposition. I have. So inches almost matter more for you right now than the number on the scale, but ideally they move together. It is just one metric. I I do know that. I was just curious to see what would be what happened with that part of my metric. Yeah, that's awesome. Good for you. Well done. I was I was excited. My hard work paid off, even though sometimes I didn't feel like it. Oh, and I saw it. I see it. I see it. And I told you the other day when we were on the pickleball court, you were just showing off your arms. You weren't on purpose, but it was showing. So that's good.

Starting Or Restarting Your Business

Debra 3:54

Okay, today we are going to be talking about business. What kind of business? So we have had a couple of listeners actually reach out about us doing more episodes about businesses. And so today I thought we would talk about either starting or restarting a business of your own at any time in your life, whether it's like a primary job business or if it's a side hustle business. That's a good topic to talk about today. We have a we do have people who have asked us about that. And the economy is changing. The economy is always changing. And you if you have a side hustle or you can start a new job or a new business, then you can adapt easier with the changes in the economy. Yeah. So as I was thinking about this, not that I'm like the perfect example, but technically I have four businesses. You sure do. And sometimes it feels like I have four full-time businesses, but I don't. One of them is very seasonal side hustle. Uh, two of them are kind of more side hustle, and two of them, one of them is this podcast, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah.

Debra 5:15

Is takes a little more time, but then there's my wellness coaching business that is my primary. And they were all started, I'm going to say, within the last five years. That's good, Deb. Yeah. You can start anytime. Anytime. Yep. Anytime. Whether you're 16 or 60 or 80, 25 or 35, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Yeah.

Debra 5:41

So that is one of the things that keeps anybody from starting is the lies that they tell themselves that I'm too old, I'm too young, or I just don't have enough experience. Nobody's gonna listen to me. Yeah. Or I need a decree, a degree, or some kind of credentials or permission from somebody to start first. You know, I used to work in an accounting firm, and it was amazing to me how many people came in to have their taxes filed that owned businesses that didn't have a degree or anything like that. They just started a business. Yeah, anyone anyone can do it. So you don't have to have special degrees to do it. You do need some kind of education about what you're going to do, but that kind of comes at the beginning and along the way. Yeah. We didn't know everything about starting a podcast. No, but we did a course to kind of walk us through the basics, and then we've done kind of trial and error, and what do we like to do? What do we enjoy doing with it? Anyone can start at any time. So do you feel like there is a best time or a worst time?

Age Myths And Best Time Myth

Debra 6:54

Being the age that I am in my 50s, I have noticed that a lot of people kind of start a business in their late 40s or 50s. I think so I think that's because you've had your main job, you've had if you have a family, you've got your kids and they're either almost out of the house or all the way out of the house, and you're starting a new chapter in your life, and a lot of people will start something new. You might have a little more time to do it. You have more experience, more connections, and you feel more comfortable doing it at that time in your life. So a lot of people statistically, that's a good time for people to start a business. I I I think I've noticed the same thing too. I try not to just think of myself because I started, I mean, I had my massage therapy business. I started when I was early 20s. We have literally family members who are very early 20s who started their own businesses. So it really can be done anytime. But I do think some of the comfort with it comes in more 40s, 50s, just because you are more comfortable in who you are, you've gained some life experience, but it's not necessary to wait until then. No. I'll say the comfort level is is probably greater when you're older. But your go get them level is when you're in your early 20s, is like, I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna make it work, and I'm gonna go, go, go, go. And I agree. I was thinking that like the younger, there's more hustle. Yeah.

Mystery Shopping For Extra Cash

Debra 8:35

A couple weeks ago, I was sitting at dinner with my husband, Tom, and we got paid to be there. No, really, we got paid to eat, we got reimbursed for the meal, and paid a fee on top of that for the assignment. Why? Because we were doing mystery shopping. That's why I got into the mystery shopping mastery course. Here's the thing: if you've ever thought I just need a few hundred bucks a month without a whole second job, this is real. I went through the training myself. I did my first job the day after I signed up, and I've gotten paid for multiple assignments since. I just do it in the nooks and crannies when it's convenient for me. The course walks you through 120 plus legitimate companies that actually hire and how to land your assignment, how to write a shop report that gets you rehired, and then the income streams that most people never hear about. If you've been looking for a side hustle that actually fits around your real life, start here. I'll leave the link in the show notes. Why don't you talk a little bit about the business we're doing right now, which is our D Times 2 podcast. We, Deborah and I talk to each other a lot. We share our opinions on stuff and what we're learning about. And we were playing pickleball, and we're like, we should start a podcast and share everything that we are learning and talking about all the time, anyways. Because we would break between games and we would have full-on sessions between our games. Yep. And we'd finish and say, we should have recorded that. So many times we've said that. So Deborah had found a course about podcasting, and we went through the course. We're like, we could totally do this. So we got a mic, sat in my closet with blankets and pillows all around, so that sounded so it sounded good. And we tried it. Look at us now. We're in an actual office. We sure are. We have two mics, but we're still only using one because it works just fine. Yep. Over 45 episodes in and good feedback from people. So that's it's been fun. Yeah, it's been rewarding

Pivoting Without Calling It Failure

Debra 10:55

too. We've been able to help people. I just want to say one of the points with starting a business is sometimes you might start something and realize you need to go a different direction. It might be also that you've been doing something and you feel it like an internal call that it's time to shift or pivot. So I've done that several times over the course of my life. We've talked about some of my employment changes before. And sometimes it was my own business I was selling or shutting down. And sometimes I was leaving, we call it a jobby job. A jobby job. Yeah. I'm like a statutory employee job or a W2 job. There's been different things where I've been doing it and then I knew it was time to shift, or I got into something like when I started chiropractic college. I had planned on that my whole life. And I was partway through my first semester, and I was like, I love it, I believe in it, but this is not what I'm supposed to do. So I made a shift because it was that just internal knowing that I need to do something different. And the way wasn't clear for what I was going to do, but I knew that wasn't my road. So I think it's important to not be afraid to shift or pivot or backtrack. Yeah. Sometimes it's put a pause. You know, our working life is not fixed. We live in a time when that is true. Right? That hasn't always been true in the history of the world. But in this age of la of the world, we can change whatever we want. We can move and we can change jobs, and it's okay. We have trajectory in anywhere we go. Yeah, I'd I like to think of it as every step you take, every move, move you make, sing it, Deb. Sing it. I will not sing the song. It's the stalker song. But every move that you do make is a step to closer to where you should be. And I it can be easy to think of it as a mistake or a wrong turn, but I always like to think of it as more of a foundation. Like we're building the foundation and line upon line, brick upon brick, paving stone after paving stone. It might be a little bit of a wandering path sometimes, it might be up and down, it might be a straight line sometimes. But either way, there's not mistakes. There's only what's right for me right now. I think you can look at if you think of it as a mistake, you you it means to me, it means you didn't learn anything. So, in my experience and in my observation, I've seen that through every job I personally have had, I've taken the chance to learn something from that job, which only increases my value at the next job. Right, yes, or in my house. Like I mostly am a stay-at-home wife mom, and grandma, grandma, and I can use the things that I've learned in the different jobs that I've had to make the next job better, my value higher in that job, or make my home life better. Yeah. I think so. You can look at it as a mistake, and if you do, I think you're missing out on a huge part of what that position offered you. Yeah, learn and grow and move forward. I was, as you were talking about that, I thought about you and I thought about me because you, your last like work for somebody else position was at the accounting firm. And your skill set that you already had on top of what you learned while you were there made you almost invaluable to them. They were willing to throw money at you to keep you. Yes, they were. And I've had this same situation where we will promote you, we will pay you whatever we want or whatever you want for you to stay. I've had that a couple of times. And for me to say, no, it's time for me to move on, it's not the easiest thing to turn down money and opportunity. But sometimes the other direction you're going is where you're supposed to go. Not sometimes. Generally, that's when you will do it, is when it's where you're supposed to go. Yeah. Even though it's a little bit unknown. So if you've had a job working for somebody else and now you're thinking about starting your own, whether it's a side hustle or a main income business, you can take the things that you've learned in your past work experience or school experience and put that to good use in your current endeavor, always, every time. So to say I'm I'm too young, I'm too old, I don't know enough, you're not giving yourself credit for the things that you have learned where you have been. Yeah. So that takes us to a point that I wanted to make sure we talked about. And that's why, you know, it's easy to say, oh, if I would have only started 10 years ago, then I would have done it. But it doesn't matter. Sure, that would have been easier. It's like planting a tree, right? When's the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. Yeah. What's the next best time? Right now. So, but then you weren't who you are now. You didn't have the same skills, the same scars, the same network. You or even the clarity that you've built since then. Sometimes I hear people say, if I could go back 10 years ago, I would do this. But like you said, there's wisdom that you've gained along the way. If you could go back in time with all that wisdom, then sure. But that's not how life works. That's not how it works. That's one of Tom's favorite lines. If I only knew when I was 20 what I know now, the things I could have done. And I have every time said it's not too late. And now he believes it's not too late. That's true, he does. Yeah, which is really cool. Yeah.

Three Things You Really Need

Debra 17:28

So three things you need to know before you start a business. Okay, lay it out. Not it's you don't have to have a business plan. Okay. You don't have to have investors. And you don't have to have a website. You know, I my longest running business at this point just turned five. I still don't have a website for it. I don't have an Instagram account for it. Nope. And I have any social media for it, and I am at full capacity. Yeah. Like it doesn't matter. No, it it really doesn't. You do need somebody, at least one person who believes in you. That will make a huge difference in your success. Can that one person be you or are you talking about somebody else? You I think you need somebody else. I agree. You need a cheerleader. At least just one to encourage you. You also need to have at least one skill that you're willing to get paid for. To the to me, that means you're confident enough in your ability that you feel comfortable asking people for money. Yeah. Not just donating your time. That's that's kind of a hard one, right? When I first started doing massage therapy, like I loved it. And if I could do it for free, I told my husband I wouldn't do it for free. But that's not a fair exchange of value. So I had one skill that I was ready to get paid for. And a lot of people, when they start a job or start a business, are scared to ask for money. But if you value what you're doing, people will value it as well and be willing to pay you for it. Absolutely. And sometimes pay you very well for it. But you have to be confident in yourself to your product, yourself, your whatever it is you're selling to ask for money for it. And if you don't feel like there's it's worth the value that you're going to ask people for, then it's the wrong thing. Or you need to work on your mindset behind it because if it's truly a value and you see it, but don't think other old people see it, that's a you problem. That's not a value problem. True. That's true. Or you could tweak your val tweak your offer so that you could get so that it's a little bit more valuable. The third one that you need is at least one customer to say yes. Yes. At first yes is awesome. Yep. Yeah, everything else will flow from there. Everything else follows that. Okay, let's talk real. Have you ever looked around at the people in your life and thought, I figured that thing out years ago? Why haven't they figured that out yet? Every single day. So that's the whole premise behind the platform Offer Lab. Yeah, Offer Lab. I love it. Offer Lab is built by Russell Brunson. He built it for people who already know things that other people are paying for. And it could be budgeting, it could be health, it could be relationships, parenting, side hustles, you name it. Whatever you've actually lived through and figured out, you can sell on Offer Lab. Or other people have things on there that if you don't have a good idea, you can take theirs and sell their offers. It's a beautiful setup. Russell Brunson, everything he does, is seems to be brilliant. So there is a free tier to get started. No subscription needed, no setup costs needed. You fill out a profile, you list your expertise, or if you don't have any, you don't have to put that. Pick the clients you want to work with and show up in the marketplace. And then there from there, people who need your help find you. And you can set your own rates. You keep most of what you charge, and then you pay them a little bit, whatever you decide, to promote your stuff. And like Deborah said, if you don't have something to promote, you can find other people's offers and promote them and get paid. That's what Tom's doing on there. He just looked for other people's offers that he likes and he's promoting them. If you want to go a little bit deeper, there is a VIP track. So check that out. There's also the certification track. That's what both of us did. It is. Yeah. So if you've been sitting waiting with knowledge or you want to share other people's knowledge, it's worth 20 minutes of your time to check it out and take a look at Offer Lab. Yeah. And remember the free entry is real. That's a good value. But there are paid paid tiers also. The links in the show notes. Click on it. Check it out.

Mentors Masterminds And Accountability

Debra 22:18

So one thing as we talk about this that I want to make sure hits home is that you get to choose. Okay. You don't have to start a business. Nobody's making you. You don't have to start a specific business. But if you're going to, you're doing it because you chose to. You're not being forced into anything. You didn't run out of options. It's not because someone told you to do it. Although I'm going to say I have started businesses because I was told I should do it. We both have by the same man by the same, we'll call him a mentor. But in a good way, right? But it was still ultimately your choice and my choice. But it's the choice that you make to start it that helps to carry you through the difficult times. Because there are always difficult times in a business.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Yeah there are.

Debra 23:16

There are walls you run up against or customers or like there just are things that come up. And if you know why you're doing it and remember that you chose it. Something else that can help you keep going is if you have professional type friendships. So you can have a mastermind group and you don't even have to be in the same business in a mastermind group. It's just business people getting together. People to bounce ideas off of and to run scenarios with. Yeah. Or you could have a co-host like Debra and I. We bounce off of each other all the time. Yeah. You could have a mentor someone to teach you, guide you, kind of show you the way, encourage you. Yeah, whether it's an official mentor or you're doing an internship with someone or someone that's willing to just go get a drink with you every once in a while and hear what you're up to and give you guidance. All types of different mentorships or an accountability partner. So they're working on something you're working on something. It doesn't even have to both be businesses. No, it doesn't you can be working on whatever but somebody that will help hold you accountable. Tell you the truth keep you in line reflect the mirror back at you. So I think it is in asking for help that the magic happens. That's the superpower not the weakness. Yeah you can it's it's not a solo path that you're on to ask for help. Because you'll find a lot of people are willing to help. Don't give advice and you can take it or leave it. Take it or leave it. Or take it as a as a starting point for what you're working on. But yep. Yeah that's always good.

Fear Obstacles And Getting Stronger

Debra 25:13

Having those partnerships or accountability or mentors or whatever can also help when the scary times land because everyone has fear when they're starting a business or if things go awry in a business it never goes away you learn to live with it and keep going with it. The difference between people who start and people who don't is not the absence of fear. It's naming it and walking through it anyways. Yeah feel the fear and do it anyway. Yeah. So we've talked about before the obstacle is the way that's true a hundred percent with business. Those obstacles will teach you things about yourself and about your business and how it's working and about your customers that will help you tweak it, change it, and you could grow faster than you would have had you not had that obstacle. Mm-hmm to walk through it anyways. I think it makes you better I literally see that as the way to level up and then level up again. So I'm going to take it back to my story at the beginning with working out. Sure. Excellent analogy coming forth listen closely. So I use I use this kind of analogy for kind of every aspect in my life. When you're lifting weights if you lift five pounds with your arms like a bicep curl five pounds and you just stay there at five pounds for five years you're not going to get stronger. No. It may get easier to do but you are not going to get stronger. It's not going to make a really big difference in your life but if you take that five pounds and after two months you increase it to ten pounds it's harder. But your muscle starts to show up and after that if you increase it again your muscles get stronger and they start to show up even more. And life is like that. Like you have things in your life your physical life your spiritual life your mental emotional like every spoke of the wheel of life that we talk about all the time there the only way to level up in those is to have a little bit of a challenge. Stress. Yes yeah your bones don't get stronger if you don't stress them your muscles don't get stronger if you don't stress them. True your spiritual life is the same. How many people do you know had some struggle and spiritual struggle and they worked on it and worked on it and it became this great inspiration to you. Like Victor Franklin World War II, you know like these giants come out of that stuff. Yeah. I almost feel like now you're just naming spokes of the wheel and applying it but it literally can be applied to every spoke of the wheel. Yes. Today we're applying it to the business business work spoke but anyways.

Pep Talk And Next Steps

Debra 28:23

So let's start wrapping this up for the 20 year old who's listening. Oh 20 year olds get it done you're not behind you're earlier than we were take a few steps build the foundation now find someone that's older than you and just talk to them about it. Yeah and if now's your moment awesome you're ready. If you're building toward that moment also awesome the moment is coming and you'll be ready. If you're working in a job or going to school take those experiences so that and put them in your back pocket so you can pull them out when you are ready to go. Okay. And to the 70 year old who's listening it's not too late. We call it the second act founder and it's one of the fastest growing demographics in business. Your experience your network your wisdom they're all assets you have way more than the rest of them. Yeah the I'm too old lie is your loudest lie but it's the easiest to to disprove. Yeah you know a lot of things that other people don't know. So just like to the 20 year old get it done get it done. Take a step you might need to ask the 20 year old for help with some of the tech but that's fine. We all we never do it alone. Nope we don't yeah so the first step isn't a business plan it's a conversation yes that's how this whole podcast started as a conversation. Yep. That's how your wellness coaching got started as a conversation. As a conversation yep so if you need to pick someone who can be your accountability partner or find somebody who you really respect that you could ask to be a mentor do that you could find a coach you could find a course but it's better to find a friend who will check in on you. Yeah. Speak your idea out loud oh why Deb? Why speak it out loud? Because the moment it leaves your mouth it actually becomes real. It's so easy to just let ideas rattle around in your head. Once you speak it and you speak it to somebody else there's now substance to it. Yeah that's true. Breeds life into your idea I think that's all we've covered it I think we have. So that's your pep talk on start a business. Get going. It can be full time it could be a side hustle. Yep we do all of it yes we do.

Share The Show And Closing

Debra 31:00

A little bit of that a little bit of this yes so if there's anything you found helpful or useful in this episode please share it with somebody like it on whatever platform you're listening on. Yep remember that we have the website where you can access all of the resources that we have for you for some free resources as well as links to things that we love and recommend including some of the things the business tools and the money tools that would help with this. Yes yeah easy to start yeah and until next time keep your wheel rolling smooth. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to the D Times 2 podcast with Denise and Deborah we hope you enjoyed today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share it with someone who's ready to roll toward a more balanced life. Your support means the world to us. And just a quick note we're sharing our own experiences and ideas, not professional advice. Always do your own research and talk to a qualified expert before making big decisions. Until next time, keep your wheel rolling strong