Well, hello, this is Kimberly Brock, and for over 20 years I've been running my own businesses that have not only been profitable but personally fulfilling to me. So now I'm on a mission to help other new business owners, just like you, make money doing what you love to. Now we're going to have some fun, so let's get started. Well, hello, this is Kimberly.
Speaker 2:It's episode 190 and I am so glad that you are here today, because I'm talking about kind of a serious subject. It's about those moments when you feel like a failure, and today we're going to talk about that because I want you to stop feeling like a failure and start doing this. We're going to discuss it. I'm so glad you're here because you know what You're not a failure. You are not. You are new here. Welcome. I'm so glad that you found this podcast.
Speaker 2:Each week, i provide you valuable tips and strategies for starting and building a business, doing what you love. Whether you want to sell something local or online, whether you have a product or a service or a consulting company, whatever it is, you are in the right place. Now, if you are new, listen up. You need to get plugged in. Did you know? I have a private Facebook group? that was made for you? Oh yes, i created a Facebook group a few years ago just for all of you who are starting businesses, so that you do not have to feel alone, so that you have a place where you can ask those silly questions that you think are silly. They're not silly, because everyone else has the same questions too. You now have a place you can ask those, you can get ideas. You can get feedback, anything you need. This group was made for you and it's free. So scroll down right now in the show notes. If you're an Apple podcast, whatever player you're in scroll down, click the link. It's going to take you over to Facebook. There's going to be three quick questions. You're going to answer those. Then you'll have a little bit of a wait until I approve you. I'll approve you in and boom, you will be in the group and I'll be so excited to welcome you in. So make sure you do that if you're new. Also, i have some other free goodies if you're new. Like I have a 16 step checklist for starting your business. I also have a business idea guide to help you if you're in that stage. So make sure you check out the freebies below. Yes, you have party favors for being here And if you have been listening a while. Thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. Y'all are wonderful. Thank you to all my grow getters and my just getting started group members. Y'all are awesome.
Speaker 2:Today I'm reading a review. Oh, yes, this one is by Fam First. I love it, fam First, and it says Kim is amazing, so positive, so refreshing. This podcast is just what I needed to give me the push to create time and financial freedom for my family. Oh, my goodness, i love this. Thank you so much, fam First, and I think that's so cute that you're talking about time and financial freedom for your family and that your little tag name there here And I think it was Apple Podcast that looks like you posted it was Fam First. I love that. I can tell where your priorities are, and I think that's amazing. So thank you so much, fam First, for that wonderful review.
Speaker 2:If you've been listening to this podcast a while maybe you've been listening to it for the full three and a half years that I've had it now And you find value in this, you're still here, so I would hope that you find value if you're still here. Would you take two seconds to leave a five star review? All you have to do is click the five stars. If you're an Apple Podcast, whatever player you're in, hit the five stars And if you have 30 seconds, like Fam First did, to leave a written review. It wouldn't mean the world to me, y'all. It means so much when I read these. It just puts a smile to my face because, as you know, i sit here and record these episodes. In an upstairs bedroom of my house and nobody is here except my dog, i have a little dog and his name is Tucker and he's sitting here.
Speaker 2:He's a little white Maltese, Shih Tzu mix, and he's adorable, but he's my audience, you know, and he's kind of over it. He's kind of over all these 190 episodes and I would love anything else that you have to say, So I just have a new perspective. you know that this is actually being heard by other people. Anyways, thank you all so much. Okay, on to the episode.
Speaker 1:Well, hello everyone. How are you? What?
Speaker 2:is going on with your business. I'm dying for the updates. I'm loving it. Y'all have been so active in the Facebook group and the women's starting businesses doing what we love Facebook group. Y'all have been super active and I love it. I love to see everything that's going on in my grow getters. Oh my gosh, y'all have been doing such amazing things and I just I love it so much to see how you are putting your heart and soul into your businesses And it's just it's working. It's working for most of you Yeah, some of you.
Speaker 2:You may be feeling like you know what I'm kind of feeling like a failure right now. Have y'all ever felt that way? Have any of you felt like a failure in your business? I think every business owner goes through that. I've felt like that at times When I was first starting this business and I wasn't making any money. I was like am I about to like look like a total idiot to my family and everyone by starting this podcast and doing this and not making a ton of money? So I was paying for all my software packages and my trainings and my coachings and every little bell and whistle that I just had to have for my business, and so I wasn't making any money And I kind of felt like a failure. But I sat back from that and was able to maturely analyze it as a business owner. And that's what I want to talk to you about today, because I'm hearing a little bit of buzz that and I can see it in some of the zoom calls in my programs That some of you have felt a little deflated at times Because, as we all know, let's let's be totally frank and real about this whole process of starting a business.
Speaker 2:There is no guarantee of success, and I hate saying it and again, i shouldn't even say the word hate, because y'all know I don't like that word. I do not like to say that there's no guarantee, but that is the truth. We all have to know that there's no guarantee of anything in life. I've talked about this before on a previous episode. You can look for it. There's no guarantees. We we know that and with this business There's no guarantees.
Speaker 2:But some of you are going into it gung-ho. You're all excited, you make a big change, you commit to yourself, you tell your family, you tell your friends, you work hard, you put money into it and then maybe things Don't work right away or work at the speed that you thought or work in the way that you thought, and what happens is You start feeling like a failure. Maybe you're not making the money you thought you would make. Maybe you're not Making the sales just like the number of sales that you thought you would make. You thought more people Would love it. Maybe you don't feel like you have enough eyeballs on your business, like you don't have enough traffic. Some of you may be disappointed. You're doing things, but you're like we're really not getting enough traffic. And so what happens is When this all starts like snowballing and after you like are at it for months and months and you're doing this and you're trying to make money, some of you feel like a failure, and Nothing breaks my heart more than seeing on your face That deflated feeling like I can see it in your face And it breaks my heart because I'm looking at this person who took a chance on herself, who had a vision and had a dream and said I'm gonna do this, i'm gonna try this, i'm gonna put my time and energy and money into this and I'm gonna give this a go.
Speaker 2:And Nothing breaks my heart more than seeing your beautiful face filled, deflated. Today I want to talk to you for those of you that have felt this way Not everyone feels this way all the time. Again, this can come and go Right, because we can have random things happen, like Somebody rips us off or we have a bad experience with a client or we didn't get the bid. You know, i have consultants that are my clients and they'll, you know, try to bid out projects for different companies And it doesn't work and it's hard. You can feel like a failure, like who am I To be doing this? Have you ever thought that? like who do I think I am? I am doing this? like why did I think I was so great that I could actually achieve this? and I think we all find ourselves in that moment of Despair. Do you? have you ever had that? if you had it, have you had your moment of despair? if you're a business owner now and you have never had a moment of despair, i Applaud you. I don't know how that happened, because we all have it at some point like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna do this? What am I gonna do? How am I gonna turn this around? I'm gonna get more traffic. How am I gonna get more sales? How am I gonna make more profits? all this stuff today. I Want to stop you.
Speaker 2:If you feel like a failure, if you feel like you're in a moment of despair, i just I want to have a conversation with you, so I hope you will listen up and I want to talk you through this. First of all, if you feel this way, i want you to wake up and Realize you have done way more than a bazillion other people in this world who dream of starting a business and Say they want to and don't do a darn thing. They just sit on the couch and watch Netflix, or they continue with their miserable job, or they walk around complaining about their life and Don't do a darn thing about it. But you're different, you're Different, you are built different. That's what my kids used to say, like when they would say somebody's amazing and say, man, he's built different, she's built different. It's like a joke. So now we say so-and-so is built different. You're built different.
Speaker 2:You are, you went for it. So, first of all, you have no business calling yourself a failure, because you were brave enough to go out and pursue this. And you're here listening to a podcast, trying to get more information, trying to pursue your dream, trying to get motivated, helping yourself, believe in yourself so you can make this happen. So, first of all, you are amazing. You went for this. So that's my first point. You're better than a lot of people, and I'm not saying life is about being better than people, okay. So don't take it that way. I'm just saying you got your booty off the couch or, you know, in your spare time, working on this business, because you wanted to help people. So, number one you're amazing. Okay, so you are not a failure. You're actually quite the opposite. You're someone who is going for it. Okay, so that's number one.
Speaker 2:Number two I want you to realize that there are going to be highs and lows in this business, and if you can't handle it, maybe you shouldn't be here. Did you hear me? If you can't handle it, what is that? You can't handle the truth. What movie was that? Oh my gosh, i'm gonna freak out. What is that?
Speaker 2:Tom Cruise, you can't handle the truth. Oh my gosh, what is the movie? Why can't I think of this? You can't Come on, duncan. You know what this is, don't you? You can't handle the truth. Oh, few good men From the movie A Few Good Men, you can't handle the truth Here.
Speaker 2:listen to me, everyone You can. You can handle the truth that there are good times and bad times in your business. There are highs and lows. If you cannot come into this and handle that, then you may need to leave. You may need the security of another job, but I hate to tell you you go to another job and there's gonna be highs and lows in that job too. Have you ever worked for somebody and there's been highs and lows. There are going to be highs and lows. If you are not willing to accept the highs and the lows, then you probably shouldn't be here. I'm just gonna flat out tell you that, and I think you are willing, or you wouldn't be here. I think you are willing, i think you love the highs, but all of a sudden, when things get hard and you decide, i'm just gonna call myself a failure and waller in my misery that I'm a failure and I can't do this Really. Really, when you've already achieved so much. You've already achieved so much. You've already been trying to figure out this business. You've been trying to put your product or service together. Maybe you've been working on your website. You've been figuring out how to tell people and spread the word and do all this stuff. You're already doing amazing things, but you have to be willing to accept the lows so that you can have the highs. Okay.
Speaker 2:So number two this is the game. It's highs and lows. You are going to feel great and then sometimes you're gonna be either mad at yourself. You're gonna be mad at the way the world is, because there's bad people that try to steal from you, or rude clients or whatever. You're not gonna win every bid, or whatever it is. You have to be able to handle that. This is how it is. There's highs and lows and you're gonna have to accept this.
Speaker 2:I talk about acceptance all the time. Have you all listened to the last four episodes? I think the last four? now I've talked about acceptance because I think everybody wants to deny what is. Why are you denying what is? There is going to be lows. You are going to feel low Sometimes. Something's gonna go wrong. You're gonna do wrong, make a wrong decision. You're gonna hire the wrong person, you're gonna ship the wrong thing. Something's gonna happen. But you take that because you know there's highs ahead. Right, you take that.
Speaker 2:It's like when you're going along road trip, like you just deal with everybody in the car and all the chaos and the horrible time that you have to sit in the car. I don't know about you. Maybe I'll love road trips. I'm not a good road tripper. I like to get on an airplane and get somewhere as fast as possible. But I know a lot of people who are obsessed with road trips and love it. But the road trips that I've been on, i just was willing to go through the lows of it so that I could get to wherever I was going, which is usually the beach, and I would be so happy at the beach. It was worth it. So you have to accept this, that this is part of the journey of entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2:Number three here is the big one. Everybody pay attention. Let me recap the other two so you don't forget while we go to number three. Number one you went for it and other people didn't, so how can you call yourself a failure? Number two you have to accept that there's highs and lows of entrepreneurship, just like anything else in life, right, i mean, come on, you expect this to be different. You expect it all to be unicorns and sunshine and rainbows. It's not. There's highs and there are lows, but you are willing to take the lows because you know the highs are going to be so amazing, right? Number three here's the big one. Everyone pay attention.
Speaker 2:When you feel like a failure, are you listening? When you feel like a failure, you need to identify the real problem. You are just making a blanket statement that you are a failure when you have yet to really identify the actual problem that is happening before you. There are many problems that could be there before you. I'm not even going to lie, i'm not going to sugarcoat it. There is a plethora of problems that you could have, and you probably only have one or two big problems. Other than that, there's not a lot of problems. There's one or two big problems and I don't know what your problem is.
Speaker 2:But what I want you to do is start thinking through what really is at the heart of this, what I think is a failure. What is this really? Is it number one? I don't like what I do. I'm not liking this. It's not fun. I don't want to be an entrepreneur. I want to go back to having a boss and having a job. That could be you and that's totally fine and I applaud you for that if that's you.
Speaker 2:You all heard my story the other day. I talked about on the podcast that I saw a neighbor who started a business a few years ago. I caught up with her. I hadn't seen her in a few years and she said oh my gosh, no, entrepreneurship was not for me. I'm meant to work for a corporation. I love to work my way up and I follow directions and I love my job. I was like hallelujah to you, sister. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Is the problem that you don't really want to be an entrepreneur? First of all, identify? is it that? Maybe it's not that? There's a whole bunch of problems? I'm going to list a whole bunch here So you can listen and start seeing if any of this is you.
Speaker 2:Number two is the problem that you don't really have time and you can't fit this all into your schedule and it's you haven't decided to invest in help. Is that the problem That you haven't invested in help? because you really don't have any time and you feel like you're totally at a loss for time. You don't have time to work on this business, so you feel like a failure. This is what you're telling yourself You feel like a failure because you don't have time, when really the problem is that you weren't willing to invest in help. Is that the problem? Okay, number three could the problem be that you are super frustrated Trying to set everything up in your business, like your website and all this stuff, because it's not your gift to be doing this. Like you are not good technically and you're super frustrated, so you feel like a failure, when really you could have hired somebody To do your website and to set up this stuff, but you weren't willing to invest and let go of money. Are you kind of hearing a trend here that You could either give up your time or you give up your money as you start your business?
Speaker 2:right, and if you're sitting here going through this feeling like a failure, you're like I'm a failure because I'm so frustrated. I'm not techie and I can't figure out which website platform and I'm not good at this And I don't know how everyone else does this, so I guess I'm a failure and I'm not meant for this. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? that is nonsense. When you first start something, it can be very difficult and, especially if you are a non techie person like you, you legit think that you are not And you're not good at figuring out software packages, stuff like that. Like I've talked about this before, my sister is not techie at all and she gets so frustrated With all that was trying to hire me to help her do it. And eventually she hired a graphics person and all this to do it Because she can't do it. And I'm like the opposite and I love doing all of that stuff. Right, i love doing all the techie side and building the website and I often do things I shouldn't be doing, though I should be doing other things to grow my business, not working on that stuff. Anyways, i digress, but my point is The problem is not that you're a failure.
Speaker 2:The problem is actually that you haven't been willing to give up money and give up control Over your design and all that stuff so that you can have it done for you, so that you can actually get on with your business On the parts that you're gonna do. You see, are y'all understanding this? that a lot of you are calling yourself a failure? You're stamping it on your own forehead when really there's a different problem at hand And you've never taken the time to identify the problem.
Speaker 2:Here's another problem. Some people say, oh, i have a traffic problem. I don't have enough people seeing my business, i don't have enough eyeballs on my business. And when we start diving into your business, we realize that you actually had an Economy problem. Like you don't have Enough products or services that you're selling to actually make up for all your costs.
Speaker 2:So let's say you're a person that you know you market yourself locally and you're selling your. So let's say it's services, okay, services, example and you're selling it for a hundred dollars. When you don't have that many clients, the economics doesn't work, the math doesn't work. Like if you, if you finally get 10 clients and that's a hundred dollars each, that's a thousand dollars. That's not paying for your stuff. You have an economy problem. You have to raise your prices, change your packages. If you are only going to be in front of a certain amount of people, you are going to have to change your whole package. That's the problem.
Speaker 2:The problem is not that there's not enough eyeballs Oh you're, are you hearing me on this? It's not that there's not enough eyeballs, that you don't have traffic, that you don't have a bazillion people. It's that the people that are in front of you, what you're charging and what you're offering, is never going to make the math, it's never gonna make your business profitable. And you have to realize that. It's like if I only sold a 17 dollar product and And maybe I have a lot of people but still when you do the math, if only a certain percentage you're buying, it's not going to add up to a profitable business. So it's more of an economical problem Versus a traffic problem. You have to identify it. Is it really traffic or is it really that My pricing and packaging is not working for the amount of people that I am in front of?
Speaker 2:Okay, some people say I am not good at sales. That's another problem. I'm a failure because I don't know how to sell. Okay, the real problem is is that you are not sharing the value of what you do to people in a way that feels authentic to you. You think you have to go out and sell like all those bro marketers out there and be like salesperson of the year and go out and know how to convince people to buy something that they don't want to buy. That's the problem. You think that's selling. That is not selling. Selling is getting in front of your right people and sharing from your heart the value of what we do, finding those people that actually are interested in your kind of thing. You don't have to quote, sell. All you have to do is speak from the heart. So really, it wasn't that you were a failure. It's selling Is that you weren't even in front of the right people to be able to be authentic and speak from the heart. You thought you had to do it like some used car salesman of the old ages that were so salesy they had a bad reputation. Are you hearing me on all of this? The problem is not that you are a failure. The problem is that you haven't identified the problem. There is a real problem here and you haven't identified it.
Speaker 2:I challenge you today if you were in GrowGutters, post it in the Facebook group. If you feel like a failure for some reason in your business, let's talk about it. Bring it to our next Zoom strategy session. Let's talk about it. If you're in my Just Getting Started group, post it in there. I would love to help you. Y'all know this. This is what I'm here for. Let's help you identify the problem so you don't continue to feel like a failure and give up on your dream. That's the last thing I want is you to give up on your dream before you give it due diligence.
Speaker 2:I do think at some point, if you keep trying this business, you keep going and going and going and you have identified problems and you have tried to fix them and you've given it all you can and it still isn't working, then maybe it's not for you. But what I'm seeing is that most of you have not given it due diligence. You have not actually identified the real problem at hand and stopped yourself from feeling like a failure. Don't do this to yourself. You're better than that.
Speaker 2:Let me repeat the three things again, so that you can leave here today and realize that it's not that you're a failure. It's, number one, that you have done something way better than many people have. You've been braver, you have pursued your dream. You have no regrets. You're doing this. Number two you know that there's going to be highs and lows in this and you have accepted this. Okay, you have accepted it. There's gonna be lows because you're waiting on the highs, right. And number three, you cannot label yourself a failure unless you have fully identified the real problem and you've worked through it and given it due diligence. Okay, you are not a failure. You are one amazing human being for pursuing your dream. I respect you so much. Your friends and family respect you so much. You're doing this. I just want you to get to the root of it so you can fix it And then you don't have to worry about feeling like a failure anymore. Well, that is it. Y'all are amazing. Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 2:And if you are in the stage of starting your business right now and you would love ongoing help as you get started and have a community, a private community, and training on how to actually start your business effectively, make sure you check out the Just Getting Starter Group, because it exists to help you get your business started and open already. And then I do have Grow Getters. Y'all know this. Right, this is my flagship program to help you grow your new business and get to consistent sales. Whether you're offering a product or service locally or online, we work together to help you generate leads in your business every day so that you can get to consistent sales. So that is it. I'm so happy you're here And until next time. Bye now. Now this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to kimberleybrockcom and, yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey And you know what. You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help you. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.