SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, we are live.

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Refresh. Did we push it to um hey what's the better cousins podcast? We're cousins. Uh we talk about business, and we named it that because literally every other idea we had was taken.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Yeah, Andy. We did our research and we are still at Business Cousins everybody.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Welcome to the Business Cousins Podcast, where we believe family and business do mix. I'm Bruce Hill, your Better Questions Coach, and this is Tasha Seaware. Yes, health and wealth coach. Um okay, we're gonna see if we can pick this conversation up where we just were. She was telling me about a call, uh a potential client, and she didn't close it, right? But but I love the reason why she didn't close it. Tell them what happened. Why didn't you get the card while you were on the phone?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Because she was driving and safety first, and she had no plan to be driving during this call, but I really appreciate her not canceling the call because we've been trying to connect and get her wellness program going since last year, off and on since last year.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Has it been that long?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yeah, it's definitely been that long for sure. Um, and I was using some of Bruce's practices to like just and it's interesting because I used to do it in gold corporate. When I worked for corporate, I was a baby trainer, I would sit there and call everybody. I would literally just go through every person that was a member at Ghost Gym and say, hey, dude, you did you do your orientation? Would you like to schedule your orientation? And that's what I would teach my trainers. So kind of went back to old practices that Bruated and said, Hey, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

This is why we're not anti-job. I think you can learn some valuable skills from your job and bring it to your business. Um, so that's huge. And then I love the follow-up. So many great lessons in there. Um, safety first. Like these are people. There's not, it's not a deal, it's not revenue. These are people. Yeah. Uh so many great lessons in there. Hey, Kozo. Um, I don't see this on YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Did you hit the um you had to hit yours? Then you gotta add yours, remember?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Can we do that now? We don't. Oh, yeah, here it is. Stream to audience, select destination. See, she keeps me alive. Uh, what's the title again?

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Title Are We Building a Business That Fits Your Life or That Runs It.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

You hear my mechanical keyboard.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yes, it's being done.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

All right, beautiful. Um, business cousins podcast. Listen, y'all, I like to leave these moments in here because we really want to let you know, like this is an actual business, an actual podcast. It's not hyper polished, hyper edited. Uh, I think that stops a lot of people from getting started.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Yeah, yeah. That's the thing. I get that all the time, whether it's in business or whether it's in wellness, is the I'll start on Monday and or that's my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Oh man, it was so great. I did testimonials with one of my client friends last week, and that was the one takeaway she had is that I pushed her to not use that anymore. Like, it's Tuesday. Why are we waiting till Monday? Like, you can do something tomorrow. Let's do it tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

And I'm okay with tomorrow. And like right now, Eastern Standard Time, it's after 6 p.m. I'm okay with tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Um, I really love today.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Yes. But uh in business, I'm in the for today. Because if you're in business, you're not working a traditional nine to five, you or you work your nine to five, and then you have to do your your business after work. So but some people aren't as organized to get it done to just start today. And it's like, but did you check those other boxes that someone already told you to do? Or are you do you just keep adding? Because I do have people like that. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait. You didn't even do step one, and now you have a planned ID and you're trying to start today. No, you should not start today, you should finish.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yes, that's uh it took me years to figure that out. So I want to I want to make sure we don't skip over that. So I always say do it now. That's like my little catch, one of my many catchphrases, right? However, that's after you finish the first task at hand because otherwise you'll just start a task, start a cast, start a cast, start a cast, start a cast, and you haven't finished anything, you're just busy and tired.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Just busy and tired.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

And so I love that you said that hey, finish what you you started. Um, so you've been full-time entrepreneur for how long now?

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Nine years.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Beautiful. And so when do you tell folks? Maybe maybe they've asked you, when do you recommend they leave their nine to five?

SPEAKER_00 4:56

You know, depending on the type of nine to the five that they have, I say stay as long as possible so that you can fuel your business and see if you can start scaling and really put some parameters in place to give yourself enough leverage and leeway and freedom to leave 100%. Um, because I think during that time you can find out if you're disciplined enough to work for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

That's what caught me the first time. So I have gone full-time as an entrepreneur, and I learned about something called Parkinson's Law. What's Parkinson's Law, Bruce? I'm glad you asked. The amount of work you have fills up the amount of time you have to do it. So, perfect example for me. I still work 9 to 5 now. I'm back to 9 to 5. Um, so in the morning, I'm like, hey, I gotta get out the door by 8 a.m. So I'll get my YouTube post up, my LinkedIn done, and it'll that'll get 40 or 50 connection requests sent in like 30 minutes because I gotta go. And so that's I have a little bit of time, I got a lot of work done. Now, you on an off day, I'm like, oh man, I can work on my business all day. I'm gonna have 18 hours. It doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Uh, you have too much time, and what you said, a lot of people aren't organized enough, they're not disciplined enough. So we're on the same page. Keep your job. If you're listening to this, you're like, Man, I really want to be an entrepreneur. Yes, we want that for you too. Keep your job for now. Keep your job for now, not forever.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

For now, for now, and see if you can do the structure. Give yourself like one thing I did that I think helped from transitioning for full time to working for myself was I kept the same hours. Like, no, these are the days I work and these are the hours I work, and I wasn't working crazy hours because I was really good at sales and you didn't have to work weekend Saturday, you were off at three o'clock if you hit your goals. And I was like one of those, like, I'm gonna hit my goals, I'm gonna be at 100 so that I don't have to be here Saturday. So that schedule also gave me parameters where I could take clients outside of my 95 before I left.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

That's that's so huge. Give yourself a schedule. I think that's a great lesson. We want this to be practical. There's so many gurules out there giving you these grand ideas, but okay, what does that look like today? What is it? What's uh Wednesday? What does it look like on Wednesday? So give yourself a schedule, set some goals. I love all that, and then some of you said, Oh, work outside of your nine to five. Yeah, please don't be on the clock working on your business. That is wage theft.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

No, don't tell them.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Bruce told me to do it, Tasha told me to do it. No, we did not.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

No, we did not. You did not hear me say that. That's the I said working nine to five and set your schedule outside of it. Like, whether it's the morning, if you're a morning person, I was always an evening person, so I would take a client outside of my corporate job at nine o'clock at night because I knew I didn't start at 6 a.m. in the morning until I did. I would always take that one off. It's like this is my summer, this is my winter schedule. I'm gonna take these people for now for the next three months, like if I own part-time, like I put myself in a part-time job, even though it was the same job I was doing for corporate. So um, but you do there, there's a level of um accountability to yourself, yeah, that you gotta be ready for, you know, because there is until you find partners or you know, other contractors that may work with you, a consultant that is so true. The days that I have too many hours, and I'm like, oh, I don't have any calls today. Oh, I can record this, I can edit that.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

I'll be going crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

And I say I might get 20% done of what I said I was gonna do because I had that whole Sunday in the snow to myself. It just I don't, I guess he says Parkinson's of that, it does not happen. It just doesn't happen. And because I know that about myself, I don't even force it, which goes to our topic. Is your business is your building that fits your life or that runs your life?

SPEAKER_01 8:41

And so what does that mean? That sounds that sounds cute, but what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 8:48

That means that as I tell you to stay disciplined, that you have some boundaries in place so that you can still build yourself outside of your business so that you don't become so engulfed that the people in things that are also important to you just get thrown in the trash.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

I love it. I I think that's that was where I looking backwards, it might have been burnout when I first because we hear it all the time like you gotta work 12, 18 hour days, um, you know, miss family events. And I think that is a path. You just have to make sure it's a path for you.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah, like you can't burn all the camp. I mean, you you you only get what do they say? So I think it's like four pillars is career, success, family, and um friendships. And at some point, two of them may fall to the wayside, but you have to decide what are your core values and what are your standards, yeah. And what are you not willing to sacrifice because success looks so different for everyone, and once you realize that part, then you can have the balance that you want.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

And that's for me. I I I miss all sorts of holidays, that's just not important to me. But I'll show up for some birthdays. Um, I'll praise the most high. That turned uh your uncle Bruce turned 70 last year. And he's like, Man, I know you're busy, but I'd love for you to be there. I was like, Don't even, I'm there. And I was, and I was able to um, I did a little bit of work, you know, I couldn't let it go. Yeah, but I was able to be present and share meals and laugh, and and you know, looking back at those photos, uh, those allergies start acting up a little bit. You just oh yeah, um, but that's what's important to me was spending you know, spending those birthdays with with the people I love and care about. So you have to be careful. This is my advice to to you, if you don't um as you listen, you have to be careful that you're not chasing some future version of your life and forget to live your life today.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

Exactly, exactly. And I never miss the holidays. I I think I think because I am the oldest, and me being here if isn't Christmas, where's grandma? Where's that? Where and sometimes that might the day off that everyone has is not really a day off because I'm trying to hit all the people that I know I'm off, they're off, I'm gonna see your face on this day, no excuses. So I do, and it's nostalgic. I have a lot of the nostalgia as well that I'm like, oh, it still feels good, and it's it's a privilege because so many people that aren't nostalgic about holidays, and so it's something that I've always kept kind of sacred. Now, the fake holidays, the Columbus Days, the Mondays that everybody gets off, I don't take those days. Okay, yeah, like the Memorial Day. My birthday happened to be fallen labor day, so I often take that's the only one that, but otherwise, I work through it too. Even on vacation, we all went to family vacation. I was recording workouts at the vacation. I was like, Oh no, I gotta record exercises and show y'all how to foam roll. I packed my foam roll. I'm showing uncles how to they're they're limping around. I said, No, no, no, y'all don't be limping around on my watch. Yeah, so I but that's what happens sometimes when you love what you do, which is how we started this podcast because we like this.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Is literally how we started the podcast. I I don't remember you hit me up and I was like, What you been up to? And you said, Oh, working on the business, and you said, Oh, I'm working on my business. What's the business? Fast forward, here we are.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Here we are, here we are.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Um, and you'll go back. Oh, shout out episode six. We started two things happened very simply. I said, Man, we should record these conversations, and let's share them. And then I think our lighting or my lighting anyway, yours was pretty good from the jump. My lighting was terrible, right? So then we worked on the lighting and then we worked on the audio. Um, I've been looking in the upgrading cameras for us, right? So the the audio or video quality is gonna increase, and it's been a journey. We didn't start out great. So if you're coming in these early episodes, just watch it get better. Just watch it better.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah, buddy. Yeah, same here. I was gonna say, even the things we were talking about in December are totally different than what we can talk about today. Like, like business is moving, there are things that are changing that is happening, and when you stick with it and you see I'm on year six of the of the actual business outside of being an entrepreneur, it looks it's starting to look a little different, it's starting to feel real grounded. Like, okay, we're moving this needle.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

It's a good feeling. Um, what was the other thing I was gonna ask you? Oh, we looked up most podcasts. Um podcasts don't make it past six or ten episodes.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah, it was ten, they don't make it past ten.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Okay, and that's where it was so important for us not to just get started but to continue. And that's it. That's sometimes all you need to do is win is be consistent. Yes, you don't have to be the best, brightest, richest. Just be consistent.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Yes, just hit the button, you know. I had a call with one of my new partners, and she is so smart. Her name is Amy Anais Gillian, and she's a scientist, she's a therapist, reproductive wellness coach, paramenopause, and just all around dope human. And I said, Okay, well, I need your recordings, and you guys say some things, and and and it's the getting on speaking in the fear of not being right or criticized for something you're saying. And I said, the world needs man.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

I mean, let's talk about that though. There because there's someone out there who wants to start a podcast, they have all the degrees, all the credentials, all the experience, and they haven't hit record. What are some things that stop them? You've said one of them just now, but how do we overcome that?

SPEAKER_00 15:03

I think the first step is hopefully you have someone in your community that you started that's behind the scenes that gives you that, man, just do it. Sometimes you need one cheerleader. Sometimes it's my husband, and he's like, Man, you know, they should be surprised if you can't fly an airplane. Like, sometimes you need that. When I was like, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Everybody needs a good hype person.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Man, because you need that one person that has that mediocre, you know what I mean, person that they're like delusional about their confidence to go, okay, wait, wait, wait. They could do it, I could do this, I could do that. Push a button.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Um, it's interesting because people say, be a self-starter, but I don't believe looking back, I haven't found a single person that was self-made.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Me neither. I I think I just believe too much in communal living and communal help, you know, call it communist, call it what you want, but I just don't, you know, like I think we are here today because our my my mom and your dad, they set a foundation to give us the confidence minimum to give us to say, no, if you try, you can do. But you have to try. It's definitely a no if you don't ask. You know, there's certain things.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

That's something I I never really, but I can never thank him enough. I'd be like, hey, can can I try this, or what would happen if I did this? They said, I don't know, let's let's go see. Because I go try it, and I might fail. And they're like, Hey, how'd you what'd you learn?

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

They never cuss and yell at me.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

Never. I've had telescopes, microscopes, I ice skated, I played clarinet. Like, if I started naming all, I thought I was gonna be an archaeologist, ballerina, and I I checked off one. I was a ballerina.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

You were a ballerina, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Yeah, so um, I think that if you can have that, if you just find that one person, and I know it's tough, but you've got one person close to you, that's like it is tough, but I think it's easier because we have technology, we have social media, like so.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Hey, you're looking for your person, you're like, Man, I want a community. Use hashtags for sure. Go show up. I teach this when I'm doing sales uh training and prospecting training. Go to where your clients are. Perfect example. Shout out to MM Washington, phenomenal speaker coach. If you're looking to do a TEDx, staff is our preferred partner. I reached out to her yesterday and I said, Hey, you know what? Helping these folks on TEDx stages, how are we helping them make more money? And she was like, Well, you don't even think about adding it. And I was like, Hey, let's let's just do this. I'll do it. I'll teach you because I'm already doing it, right? You work in your area of excellence, I'll work my zoning genius, let's do a webinar form and let's educate them. And then anyone that works with me, I'll make sure you get an affiliate partner. And she's like, Well, I'm a little busy, I don't have time to do a webinar. I say, Good, I don't want you to do more work, I want you to make more money. I was like, I'll do it. That's my that's my business, right? Helping people here yes more often by teaching them to ask better questions. She was like, Man, this is great. So I don't, she's been doing this for years, so I don't have the the email list yet. But instead of trying to go find a hundred people one at a time, I just talked to one person who already has those hundred people. Go find your community, go find some people that are cheer for you.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yeah, yes, and that's why that's partially why I started my online community, Power of HLS, is to bring in all my medical practitioners and wellness people that are doing this so many modalities within it. We can live under the same umbrella and share information and share people for that matter to really build something great. So the communities are out there if you're looking. So come join us if you're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

You know what? Do you have the link? I'm gonna put that in the notes right now. We'll update it later, but yes. That's again, that's how we keep getting better and better. So we got our thumbnails coming up.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

We'll have our um we actually have a thumbnail if we're sticking with the name.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

So I was thinking to write an SLP and have a new one each time.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Would that be too extravagant? I've been playing around.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

We could um so it's not too extravagant, we just have to get ahead of it and get our um titles of each episode ahead of time so that we can send it over to graphics and it's already done, not on a week-to-week basis. They'll be bulk, they will be bulk completed. So not too extravagant. I have thumbnails in my school as well in our community, so um not crazy because it will just we would just have to have the subject matters for the next 10 more episodes.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, and that's and that's where I want to start thinking longevity um and planning for success. I don't believe success happens on accident. So that's up next. Thumbnails, uh, show notes, links to the things we talk about. So um you can text that to me or um yes, I'll send that to you. And I'll go ahead and add that.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

So what so these are so is this your normal process when you're starting something, new Bruce?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Do you I just I just start and then I'm like, okay, what do I need?

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

And so if there's a hundred things I need, I'll ask myself, I'll ask myself what's the easiest to implement and the most effective or the most impactful to implement. And so I'll do that one thing, and when that's done, I'm like, all right, there's nine things left. What's the next one? And that's where one of my favorite um concepts is dream big, but start small. So I do set goals that I can't achieve, or this version of me can achieve, but I break them down to such small parts that I end up, I end up always winning.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Yeah. Well, I will be tasked with that. I will do our SOP. So by the time we meet next week, we'll know. Well, okay, and we'll it won't be 99 things, but we will check it all so that the last four episodes will go.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Give it a little facelift, and then yeah, yeah. That's that's all I tell folks, man. That's why my my business is still New Skills New You. I know I always talk about better questions than sales, but it's really about um personal development.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Mm-hmm. It is, it is. I with using this platform, even building this, I've been able to use it more for testimonials. I've been interviewing my clients. Um, shout out to StreamYard. Yeah, yeah, but it is a dope platform. To share with multiple audiences at one time. I'm able to bring my clients in and interview them. And I've I really enjoyed the editing that it has already built in. So far, it's a dope tool. And it is a new skill. This time last year, I was introduced to it, and I'm like, oh, you know, new stuff, new technology looks a little overwhelming at first. But then once you get in there, you go, oh, we got we got sound effects, we got all kind of cool stuff in here, you know. So I am glad that that is still something at the forefront of your business because that is important. And that's what I give my clients. I give them new skills so that they can become new people, you know, and it's usually things that they can teach their family and their friends. It's no gatekeeping. What I give them is not a hundred percent exclusive to them. It is custom, but not exclusive.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Oh, that's good. Custom you, not exclusive you. That's good. And that's really it. Listen, y'all, if you want to grow uh in all areas of life, healthier and wealthier in every area in a holistic way, tap into the angels collect if you're links in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Yes. So thank y'all for coming through today. Bruce, it's always a pleasure. You're always dropping some gems and some quotes and some books and some people, places that we should know and grow and group to grow. So, look forward to seeing everybody next week.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

I love that. Cheers. This has been another episode of the Business Cousins Podcast until we meet again. Cheers to your success.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Yes.