10 Things We've Learned Since Starting Texas Outlaw Running

Here are the 10 things (5 good and 5 bad) Briston and I have learned since starting Texas Outlaw Running in 2020.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What is up, guys? Welcome to the Entrepreneur's Wife podcast. I'm your host, Carly Raines. If you're new here, this is a podcast where we talk about finding purpose as the helper to our small business owners in this feminist obsessed world. And I hope you're doing good today. I am recording this on a Wednesday, so it is in the middle of the week. Um, Briston and I have been traveling a whole lot this year. It's probably the most that we have ever traveled since getting married. Um, and next week we leave for Las Vegas. I've never been to Las Vegas, but we're going to two business conferences. He's attending one for two days, and then we're both attending one, a Christian one, for one day. And so it's a work trip. I'm excited that I get to go with him. Again, I've never been to Las Vegas, so we're gonna do some sightseeing while we're there and hopefully learn a lot to help improve our business and just ourselves as people and just learn from great entrepreneurs who have gone before us. So for today's episode, I wanted to talk about the 10 things that we've learned since starting this business and running it for six years. Um, I've learned a lot, I'm not gonna lie, and I've learned a lot that you just don't. Sorry, you might hear my baby in the background because she's in the background. Um, I've learned a lot that I didn't realize whenever I wasn't a business owner, and that's a key thing that I just think a lot of us don't think about. Um, if you are not a business owner or if you did not grow up with your parents running a small business, I think it's really hard unless you had a best friend or you're just reading books and very open to the idea. I think it's very hard to really like understand and put your feet in where we're at and the mindsets that we go through and just the things that happen and the things that we talk about. And I did an episode about the employer mindset versus the employee mindset, and I encourage you to go listen to it because this has just been very eye-opening the difference in how our American culture is shaped by these two mindsets. What sets apart successful entrepreneurs compared to just regular employee nine to five workers? And I'm gonna clarify there's nothing wrong with being a nine-to-five employee. I I think if everyone was an entrepreneur, um, we wouldn't have successful businesses because nobody would want to work for anybody. So I think there is a place and a heart for employees and for people who are like, hey, I don't want to start a business, like I want to help someone else's cast someone else's vision and make it come to pass. And I think that's a beautiful thing. So I don't want to dock them at all, but I also want to say that being in the entrepreneur chair uh comes with a lot of different approaches and duties and responsibilities and mindsets that you don't have as an employee, and I I want to address kind of some things that we've learned as young people um since starting this business. So let's dive into it. So I'm gonna start with the positives because as I was making this list, I kind of was writing down like not negatives, but just things that sadly have happened that we've learned from, and they were negative circumstances. So I was like, you know what? I need to start with positives because there have been positives, and then I can move into the more negative ones. So number one is entrepreneurship is the key to building wealth. Now I want to clarify again that it doesn't, I'm not saying you can't build wealth if you're not an entrepreneur. Um you can, but I think entrepreneurship is a successful avenue and not necessarily an easier avenue, but I do think it gives you more options to create wealth. And I think entrepreneurship is not just something you do, but it's it's a mindset, it's someone you become as an entrepreneur. Like when you think about the entrepreneur, you're thinking about somebody who takes risk, so they're not afraid to take risk. And a big thing that I think about is when it comes to investing and making an investment, whether that's investing in the stock market or investing in real estate or just going for an idea, just switching jobs, making a change. Entrepreneurs are quick at taking risk, and this is what makes them so successful. So we have learned this that the entrepreneur mindset is a big kicker for building wealth because you are willing to take risk and you're not sitting wasting time. Because if you study personal finance, and we talk about, I'm talking about wealth in terms of financially when it comes to money. When you talk about personal finance, there is this thing called compound interest. Compound interest. It works for you or it can work against you. It works for you when you are compounding the money in set high yield savings accounts, in investment accounts, in retirement accounts, like 401k, Roth IRA, um, and in like real estate and things that get increase in value. It compounds, which means you have a penny today, and then you have and then it doubles, and then and then that doubles, and then that doubles, and then so it's always multiplying, it's compounding, it's adding up, it's increasing. So that works great for you. Um, but when it comes to debt, it is terrible. It works so much against you. You talk about student loans and you look at the interest and you see over time how this interest is compounding, increasing the amount that you owe in any type of debt, credit card debt, student loan debt, um, car loan debt, like it doesn't matter what type of debt it is, it's gonna compound. So entrepreneurship is a mindset, and they the the thing is the sooner you do something, the sooner you invest in the stock market, the sooner you accept whatever, the sooner you start, the more likely you are to be successful because you have shrunk the time factor. It's gonna compound for you. And I love what Briston says because when it comes to our trail running business, um, Texas Outlaw, he's the youngest in Texas out of all the trail running businesses. He is the youngest founder, um, entrepreneur, small business owner. And he says the one thing he has against all the other ones is his age. He says, I have time. And technically, we know as Christians, tomorrow isn't promised, but statistically, he's saying, I have time, so I can outperform my competitors because I'm younger and I have more time than they have, and that is a big kicker. A big thing about entrepreneurship is they make quick decisions, they are like like the from the time they think about an idea to the time they actually execute it is so small compared to the normal person. This is actually the key factor of creating wealth. So, number one, entrepreneurship is the key to building wealth. My husband has showed me in so many ways how this is, and yes, it can flop. Like, I'm not gonna lie, taking risk, it cannot work out, right? There is that factor. But I will say, as Christians, a big kicker to this taking risk factor is that we just don't blindly take risk, and even entrepreneurs who are not Christians, they don't blindly take risk, they will statistically look at the data, and data is important, okay? So, you know, as Christians, we're not only gonna look at the data, but we're also gonna go to prayer and say, Lord, like, should we invest in this? Should we do this? Um, Briston, when it came to Outlast and him creating well, Texas Allah and our new flagship events called Outlast, that was a big thing, is from the time he had the idea to the time he actually started executing it, there was like maybe 24 hours between that. I mean, it was so incrementally small and it has paid off. I am telling you, Outlast has been the biggest blessing to our business and um it's working and it's being successful. So that's number one. Number two, highs are really high and lows are really low. So, what I mean is like if we have a really good day, if we get uh an event deal, or if we hit a revenue milestone, or if we hire a super awesome employee, or if we like hitting goals and getting really big wins for when you're a small business owner, that is like yes, man, like it just it is so encouraging, and you just feel on top of the world and you're on top of that mountain, and you're like, Yes, this is the best thing ever, right? Because you put in all this hard work towards this business, but at the same time, lows are really, really low. Like when you receive a negative comment about a race, I mean, me and Briston take that so seriously. It is like, oh, it is like gut-retching because it's not like they're personally saying it about you, but it's like this is your baby, and you've worked so hard to make this successful. So it's gonna hit you differently than it's gonna hit an employee. Or if you have to fire somebody, guys, that is like one of the biggest things we've we've learned. When you fire somebody, guess who's gonna have to do their job if you, you know, until you replace that position. You are like as the founder and the business owner. If somebody leaves, somebody quits, if somebody gets fired, now you're doing their job until you can fulfill that position. And it's just highs are really, really great and they're they're awesome, but at the same time, lows are really low. And I learned this at a writing conference, and honestly, y'all, I just to step to the side, I feel like being an entrepreneur's wife and seeing Briston and seeing what he's gone through has really been helpful whenever I start thinking about my author career as a writer, and just in my author journey, because I remember attending a writing conference and they were talking about rejection, and they were talking about never in your writing career are you ever gonna not be rejected when it comes to reviews, when it comes to pitches for a book idea. Like, you are going to rejection is a part of life, and that is so true in entrepreneurship is you're gonna have moments of rejection, especially when it comes to reviews and things not working as planned. And I remember them saying, like, you have to learn how to handle really, really good reviews and really, really bad reviews well. And one of the tips that the author, she was a very successful author at the time, she said she does not really read really, really good reviews, and she doesn't read really, really bad reviews because a lot of times they're opinionated and they're not actually like constructive criticism to make you better. So, in this sense, we have race reviews, and this is something that runners who attend our race they can leave a review to let us know like what's working, what needs improvement, what they thought about the race, all that stuff. And um, you know, just thinking about it, I actually read the reviews, and Briston no longer reads the reviews, but we have to take that and discern what they're saying because it's one thing to leave an opinion, it's another thing to leave constructive criticism that's actually going to help us improve the business and help us actually become better as an organization. If they're just saying, Well, I didn't, I didn't like the fact that you prayed because I'm not a Christian, okay, well, that's your opinion. Um, and they can go to a different race company that doesn't pray. I mean, that's not gonna help us, you know, with making our races better, you know. But if they say, hey, like the watermelon was low at the aid stations and we kept running out of PB and J's or whatever, okay, that's actually gonna help us say, okay, how often should we go check the aid station and make sure the volunteers are actually refilling the supplies? So highs are really high, lows are really low. Um, I just think that you have to separate yourself from the organization. And I learned this in graphic design school. Um, you are not your work and you are not your organization. So when someone leaves a poor review or doesn't like the race or whatever, um, it's they're not attacking you necessarily. They're just they just they're just not your people. And I also have realized, you know, people who genuinely want you to succeed and want you to be successful in life, um, whether that's as a person, as a business owner, as an author, that they're going to, you know, they might like tell you, hey, you need to improve in these ways, but they're just not gonna bash you. Like, they are actually gonna come to you and say, hey, I care about you as a person. Like, they are going to be very strategic in how they approach you. People who are just, you know, insecure and just probably very sad and angry in their hearts. Yeah, they're they might not approach it at the best. And they probably don't want you to succeed, and that's really sad because as people, we should want others, especially young people, we should want the young generation to succeed because they are our future. Um, but don't get me started on that. So that is number two. Highs are really high, lows are really low. Number three, I gotta take a pause because my okay. Number three, the team is like family. And I've worked for a big corporation. I did an internship at a big corporation, and I've worked at a D2 university, and yes, there were times and there were certain members who felt like family, but in a small business, everybody knows everybody, everybody's up in your grill, and there's not that many uh actual employees, so you feel like family, and this has been really cool because we are also all around the same age, and I just I love the fact that you know we have a group chat and we send funny messages, and yes, there are times where it's like serious business and we gotta get stuff done, but at the end of the day, um you want people who just love what you're trying to do, have the same values, and are like family, and they're just they're like family. Okay, number four. Um, this is this is a big one. Okay, these last two are are very key. Number four is having a service mindset or mentality is the way you level up. So as Christians, this is pretty obvious. We're called to serve people. Um in business, for-profit business, I think. Sorry, I know I'm jumping all over the place. I think in ministry, it is easy to think, oh, I need to have a service mindset. Like I'm serving at church, or even if you work in ministry, it's like, well, duh, we're supposed to do this, right? That bubble, you're supposed to serve people in that bubble, in that capacity. When you come to a for-profit business and you're the business owner, um, man, guys, people are snakes. People, it is no wonder it says the love of money is the root of all evil in scripture. Like, people go crazy over money. And when you are just constantly thinking about profits in a like, I have to have more type of way, and there is no heart posture of service towards your customers and towards people. Um, I I think it it just sucks, and you're you're not gonna be a good business owner to work with. And we've learned that we have to maintain a service mentality, like, service is the way we are going to reach more people, is by serving more people. Yes, we're going to charge for race registrations and merch and all of that, but at the end of the day, like our hearts are to make them better, not necessarily us. And by making them better, it will make us better. But that is the Christ-like mentality, is I want to make you better as a person. And something that I've realized is like we as people, whether you're a Christian or not, but it happens sadly in the church, we are so insecure in ourselves that we do not like to celebrate others, we don't like to build others up. We we would rather stick them down, elevate ourselves, make ourselves look good, compete, and try to win for ourselves rather than say, you know what? I'm gonna let you have it. Like I'm gonna let you have this opportunity. And yes, don't get me wrong, the business world is a competitive world. Like we have competitors at the end of the day, we have other Blaze trails, um, Tejas trails, trail running over Texas, Rise Racing, like these are our competitors. And yes, we want to outperform them. I mean, we are competitive people, and I don't think it's wrong to be competitive, but I think if your motive is only because you want to get more money and not like, hey, I want to build a community of strong fit people and make them better as a person. If that's not your mentality, I would really look at your heart and like why you're a business owner and why you're doing what you're doing. And also, we got to cut it with the whole survive mentality. This goes back to number one entrepreneurship mentality. And this relates to number five that I'm about to get into. This whole survival mentality will make you do things that you would probably never think that you would do because you're in need of money, in need of service, in need of products, in need of customers, in need of whatever. Um, so I'm just gonna move to number five and say stewarding your money is more important than making a lot of it. And I was telling my mom this morning, I said, mom, you know, I said, I feel like until you understand personal finance, unless you've been taught personal finance or you took a class about personal finance, or you've read a book or researched it yourself, until you understand personal finance, you think in your head the way you reach financial stability, independence, and freedom is by making more money. And I would say that is completely wrong and very deceptive. Yes, to an extent, you need to make more money, but if you do not steward those finances well, you can make a lot of money and be completely broke. I had a friend who is much older than me. She they are Gen X, they're um the generation between boomers and millennials, and they have always owned a small business. They've been small business owners since college, and they have a small business, and they are a solo entrepreneur, which means that her husband does the work, um, and they don't have any employees. And she called me because this was probably like a few months ago, but she called me because we we're 20 years younger than them, and Briston is hiring like every three to four months, we're having a new position that he's hiring. And I'm gonna tell y'all that the reason he is able to hire as quickly as we are able to do is because of how he stewards his business finances. Okay, we do not spend all of our business finances. We guys, we could take home a lot bigger salary than what we are living off of. We could have a lot bigger house, we could have really nice cars, we could be living a completely different lifestyle than what we are living, but because of personal finance, we both knew if we wanted the business to grow and if we wanted to be successful, we were going to have to minimize our living expenses, and we're gonna have to live below our means and below our business means. I had this friend call me and she said, Hey, like how did y'all end up hiring? Um, employees because she wants her husband, they're about to reach retirement age. She wants her husband off of the field, like out of the field and managing someone rather than him physically doing all the work. And I I told her, I said, you have to have a business savings. Like you have to save. If if you're getting paid for a job, if we were getting paid for a race and we spent all of what we got paid for that race and what we made for that race, Bristom wouldn't have been able to hire Asher. There would have been no way. We we wouldn't have been able to hire Sam, who replaced me when I got pregnant with our second daughter. Like this, this would not, and what you don't realize is by you lowering your business expenses and saving so that you can hire, you're actually creating ways to make more money. Because what Briston can do in a day is only so much. But what Briston, Sam, and Asher can do in a day is a lot more than just what he can do in a day. So you're actually gonna make more money. Yeah, you got to pay them, but you should be thinking about ways of how is their job, their job should be able to make more, which is gonna pay for their salary. So stewarding, stewarding money is so important, guys. It is so important. Um, let's I could do like a whole episode on that. And I've talked about that in previous podcasts, episodes. So, number four um is a big one. People will judge you before they ask about your story of how you got where you are. Um, we're currently experiencing that. I'm not gonna lie. Um, I did a whole episode on the must-be nice mentality, and we moved to Longview, and people had no idea who we were, um, our background, how we grew up, nothing. And so I remember even us having several runners who came to us when we first bought a we had hired Asher as a race director and we had bought a company truck and trailer. And I remember them coming to us and mentioning, oh, is it daddy's money? I've had, I've worked in philanthropy projects, and I think people assumed Briston came from money, and maybe I married him for money, so I didn't have to work. I don't know. But we but there is this preconceived idea of, oh, well, this must be nice because you're set up, and I I don't think they realized all the hard work and all the sacrifice that it took for us to get where we're at. Okay. Um, again, for Briston to buy a company truck, he had to steward the finances and live on less than he made so he could save, so he could buy a truck. He's bought like two, I think two trucks in cash, and he's bought all of the trailers in cash. And this is because of how he stewards his finances. Um, and I that this is not gonna go away. We see this in politics, we see this with celebrities, we see this with influencers. We as humans just we judge. And we're as Christians, we're not called to. And so I, as the entrepreneur's wife, have to remember that that they might not understand, and your people, your community of people who are for you and want you to win, they will ask questions and they will want to hear your story. Everyone else might not, but the right people will want to hear your story, and that's what matters. So that is number six. Um, number seven, an employee can mess up, but people will always blame you, the founder and CEO. Yeah, that's true. We had um, I can't remember if it was like Haley or Asher, we had like one of our race directors mess up at a race, and Briston got so much backlash for it. He wasn't even there, guys. Like he didn't even put on the race. But when you think about it, if you think about Apple, if you think about Tesla, if you think about if you think about these companies, when something goes wrong, who do we put the blame on? We immediately think of Elon Musk or Steve Jobs or the founder. That's who we think of. I mean, we think about BPN with Nick Bear, that's who you think of. And I you you if you're a business owner, you know this. I mean, it was so funny. I'll just name this scenario, but it was so funny because we had a situation where our marketing team does, we have two people on our marketing team, and they do all of our social media posts. Well, Briston doesn't see every post that goes out before it's posted. Like he tells them, you know, ideas for what they need to post about, but he's not looking over every post before it's posted. So they did a post, you might have saw this, but they did a post where it said fired in really big letters, and it had a picture of Asher, and um, it was basically saying, like, Asher is fired up for these races coming up. It's a really good marketing tactic because it got people's attention. Well, Asher's wife is pregnant, and there were a lot of comments saying, like, oh, I thought you had fired him right before she was having her baby, all of this stuff. And um Briston went to Asher and Asher was like, Yeah, when I saw that, I thought, like, what the heck, you know? Briston was like, dude, I didn't even know that they were gonna post that. Like, Briston was like, that wasn't my idea. But again, all of these comments are docking Briston and shooting him down for a post that he didn't even think of. Like our marketing team did that, but guess who gets the blame? Briston gets the blame. Um, so that was just one example that we constantly have to deal with. And I think I will say an encouragement is we have to separate our ourselves, like our identity from the company. I think when you are confident in your identity, yes, it's gonna hurt when things happen and it's not gonna feel good when people say things and it's gonna suck, but it's helped us move on and keep going and not get burnt down and not give up and not quit when we know our identity and what we're doing is good and right and established in Christ. Like you you have to base your success on am I doing the will of God, not what do these thick people think of what I'm doing? Because if you base it on what people think, you're gonna give up and you're never gonna, you're never gonna be successful. Um, okay. So number eight is hiring friends creates a different type of relationship. So um Briston and Asher. Asher was the first race director that we hired, and Asher was actually Briston's roommate, college teammate, and best man at his wedding. So they had a very close friendship before we hired him as an employee. And I will say, since hiring him as an employee, it's been two years, I'm pretty sure. It's changed their relationship. And I don't think the relationship will ever go back to what it used to be. It's just different now, and it's not necessarily a bad difference, it's just different the way that they talk to one another, you know, what they talk about, um, how they see one another. Because to be honest, Briston is Asher's boss, and so there are times where Asher does things that Briston doesn't like, or Briston does things that Asher doesn't like, and it just changes the dynamic of the relationship. So definitely keep that in mind if you are thinking about hiring a friend. Just know that when it comes to work, it is a work relationship and it's nothing personal, it's just you have to have that mindset of this is work and we need to be professional. And then outside of work, yeah, you can have friends and be fun and things like that, but you probably don't want to work with all of your friends. Um, it's probably not the best idea. So, number nine is employees don't care about the business as much as you do, and they can care about the vision of the business, but at the end of the day, if all else fails, like they they don't care about it as much as the founder does. And that's just the truth. The way Briston, how hard he works, the way he works, what he works on. I mean, he is like day in, day out. This is his baby, like this is he is going to go down with the ship if the ship ever were to go down. He's the captain of the ship and he's not leaving it. And you know, your employees, they care, but they also have to live and get paid and survive and pay bills. And so their mindset, especially if they don't have an entrepreneur mindset, their mindset's gonna be different than yours. And you just have to realize that that they might not care as much as you do. Number 10 is giving is more fulfilling than hitting revenue goals. Um, this year we have hit a lot of our goals, and we have made more in the business than we ever have, and it's awesome to see and just see the success of our team and ever what everybody's doing and how it's working. But hitting those revenue goals feels awesome, but I will say thinking about what we can do with that money is more fulfilling than hitting those revenue goals. Um, we will officially start a foundation at the end of the year. And guys, this is my baby. I have always wanted to start a foundation. I am passionate about philanthropy. I love the idea of fundraising and giving to those in need. And Brist and I both feel a heart, um, especially in 2027, to do more community projects, to be more involved in our community, to give more, to just be the hands and feet of Jesus to the community and to widows and to orphans and to homeless and to people in need, the vulnerable and people in need. And we are starting a foundation, and the business will give a percentage of its profits to this foundation, and we will use that for the good of projects that the board that we will have for the nonprofit for the foundation, the board will decide where we want to use that money. And I am so excited, and this is so fulfilling. I I love this. I am like, yes, let's do this, let's go all in for this. Even as an author, as an author, when I think about my books, I'm not just thinking about how I could make money through my books, but I'm thinking about how I could use that money and what could I do with that money, and like what could we do for the world? Because this is the key. This is what I want to end with. This is the biggest thing I've learned about owning a small business is it takes money to spread the gospel. It takes money to make Bibles and send missionaries and create disciples and to build churches, and like it takes money. I think for the longest time, the enemy has made us think that as Christians we should be poor, we should not make a lot of money, and we should not build wealth. And that is a straight lie from the enemy. You can be poor and have a terrible mindset towards money, and and and that's not the Christ-like way. You can be filthy rich and have a God-honoring mindset towards money and use your wealth for good. And I also want to say you probably realize this, but guys, wealth being rich is so relative, it's a relative term. Like the middle class average person in America is filthy rich compared to third world countries. So us saying, Oh, Christians shouldn't be rich and shouldn't build wealth and shouldn't make a lot of money, well, you're rich compared to probably 90% of the world. So, are you gonna sell your four-bedroom house and are you gonna get rid of your car payment? And are you gonna, you know, like like it's a relative term. Um, I think it's what you do with your money, and I and I truly believe in what I've learned this year is that God blesses good, faithful stewardship. If you're managing your finances well, if you're giving to the kingdom of God, He will bless you. It is the equation, it will happen. And these are the things that I've learned with owning a business. And it's been a crazy journey, it's been an exciting journey, but I just want to encourage you that if I can encourage you with the biggest thing ever, it's steward your finances for God's kingdom, lead your people like you are leading a ministry. I mean, one of the things Briston is like, I want to do more, I want to do more ministry, I want to do more ministry. And I and I tell him, babe, every day you're doing ministry. Like, I'm like, do you realize how you lead our team and how much you incorporate God in your conversations when talking about races and the vision for our endurance events and our team meetings and how you encourage them to be better people, which is discipling them to be more like Christ? Like, you are doing ministry, and um, I love it. And and I I just I just think that's the focus. Like, that's what we've learned about entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship, having a for-profit business is no different than working for the ministry. Like you you are you are the hands and feet of Jesus, and you have a company that you get to use for the kingdom of God and its advancement, and it's awesome. So I hope y'all enjoyed this episode. But uh, I'll be praying for you, and um, you know, I just I just pray that you utilize your finances well, that you utilize your people well, that you ask God for big things, that you 10x, um, and you invite God in your business because that's gonna be the key to finding success.