Welcome back to Resilient Entrepreneurs. It's the podcast where we celebrate the stories of successful business people who've overcome challenges and setbacks, to build thriving businesses.
And here we are at the end of season two already what an incredible last few weeks it has been talking to exceptional entrepreneurs, Resilient Entrepreneurs who have incredible stories to share with you.
So stay tuned and listen in here from the highlights.
Season 2 Episode 4
Elite Para Athletes Tasha Price & Adam Sheppard: Just say YES!
The program I run is called WhyFire and it's all about helping people discover their Why and their passion and their purpose. And I think it's really important for people to live a great life and a fulfilling life and have direction in their life. And particularly for those, you know if you're feeling in a bit of a funk or to gain some understanding around your own Why and what you're here for and where your passion and your purpose lies.
Yeah, I guess everybody has those intrinsic motivators, those things that motivate them from deep inside. And the one thing you say with your program is, Stoke that Why with Fire. You want to.. you want to give passion to it, not just have a Why, not just have a reason, but kind of keep stoking it (keep it going), keep that fire burning so that you have that reason to get up every day, you have that reason to keep chasing your dreams and the only way you can do that is by figuring it out and knowing exactly what it is, hone in on it and then use that as the fire in your belly to keep you going.
Absolutely. We talk a lot about using your intrinsic motivators. So you know stuff that you're really really passionate about, the stuff that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up in life to pull you, to move you forward and you know, everyone ends up in those funks, as you said, it's using those things to help pull you out and keep you on the track .
Season 2 Episode 8
Author, Speaker & Coach Jaemin Frazer. Show up at your best, where it matters most!
A person building a business, this sounds like a lot to go to.. am I building my business or am I building me? And can these things be done in parallel? And, yeah, I'll let you answer that.
Well, especially for the solo entrepreneur, you are doing the same thing. You're building you and your business, you are your business, you are your brand, you are your reputation. If you are solving problems with the handbrake on, then that's going to be bad for business. If you are doubting yourself, second guessing yourself, assuming you're not good enough, fearing you're going to be found out. Okay well, that's not a big stretch to think that's affecting the bottom line of your business. So I think it's impossible that someone could really thrive in business, especially a business that is them bringing their essence to the world, solving a unique problem, creating a unique.. a unique niche and a unique solution. And yet, they're not sure that they've got what it takes or they're doubting their capacity to do that. It's hard enough running a business, let alone running a business with the handbrake on and so I think they are one and the same.
I mean, it just seems like such a vulnerable subject and there's so much angst that gets built up with the fear of .. what if I'm not good enough, or what if I don't belong or what if there's something wrong with me. So I think the human condition is, we all want to be good, we want to feel like we're decent human beings, we're just afraid that if it was all exposed, there'd be some shortcoming and something lacking or limiting and so it's terrifying to have that confirmed. So most people run or hide instead, and develop a lot, devote a lot of energy to masking, managing medicating insecurity. It's very counterintuitive to actually turn and face it instead. But that is.. that's the most important adult work is to do that, that thing to go back and review the narratives, the limiting beliefs you've picked up about yourself in early years.
And people have devoted a lot of energy into separating themselves from the past. There's a lot of lightweight rhetoric around, ‘the past is the past’, ‘it is what it is’. ‘You don't go back there, what will be the point of going back, you can't change anything’. But that's, I mean, it's just all because people get so scared around reviewing that. I love thinking about this in terms of engineering terms and if your operating system was designed 20 or 30 years ago and had never been reviewed or updated then there's no chance it's still performing relevant to your current outcomes, goals, desires, you know, even if it was a good operating system 20 or 30 years ago, there's no way it can still be performing optimally. So of course, you'll have to go back and review and update it especially if you want to perform at your best, achieve your potential, do meaningful work in the world. That's all it is. It's just an optimization process, using your adult skills to do what only you can do and reviewing the limiting beliefs and doubts, fears and insecurities you develop is the heart of that work.
Season 2 Episode 7
Relationship Specialist Tracy Baker-Lawrence: Do you lead from your head, heart or gut?
In terms of resilience, I think it's about the capacity to.. well, a lot of everything comes back to being able to be present but to be able to be self aware, and be self compassionate, and to be able to self regulate, I think those three things are really powerful and I think if we can do that, then we'll be resilient.
And for me, that's what resilience is. Can you handle it? There's a lot of traffic and you're running late, can you handle it? Can you handle it? Can you be okay? And I think if we have self awareness and we know why the ego’s driving us, we can have a little chat with it and say, “Thank you very much but that's not very helpful right now.” And you can bring self compassion and you can regulate your nervous system, for me, that’s resilient.
And so then maybe bringing that into organisations, I think it's still about, Can we be all more self aware? Because we do, there's so much reactivity in the world which distresses me to see that, so much automatic reactivity and people struggling to even understand what's going on in them, let alone to understand that, let alone to then make sense of it, and then be able to regulate it. And so I think, for people in organisations, for the business owners to be able to do that for themselves is profoundly important. And then to be able to help their clients do that or leaders, if they’re executive coaches, for the leaders to do that, and then be mentors to other people in that because we co-regulate each other - our nervous systems, if we can co-regulate each other it’d be a really great world rather than setting each other off.
Season 2 Episode 14
Mini Farm Project CEO Nick Steiner: Feed 1000’s with Your Morning Coffee
Any advice for people out there that might, like you, have a big vision of a world that they want to improve on and see a niche where they can actually make an impact, but they don't know where to start? How does someone start? What do they need to know? What do you wish somebody had told you?
What I did was I came up with an idea on paper and then I spoke to somebody about it and they were like, Oh, another crazy Nick idea. And I was like, Okay, fine. Then I actually went out and did it. I just built the farm. I just did it. Here's my idea in manifest, and then they saw it and they were, wow, this is amazing. Now we see it. I find if you just do what it is that you want to do, even if it's a scale model, something tangible that people can see to share and understand, you'll get that buy-in which then fuels you as an entrepreneur or CEO or a founder to actually move to the next step. And one important thing for me is to have somebody that's close to you, that you can confide in and go, Am I a mental patient by thinking this is going to be a good idea? And you want full hard truth from that individual that goes, Yeah, you are, it's not going to work. And then if you still want to do it, you just go and make it happen. But that person is a supporter to you. I think everyone like myself, we’re creative minds, we're all a little bit touched! We need grounding occasionally, where somebody goes hang on, have a look at it this way. I'm here 100% to support you. We need that tether to support us otherwise you're alone. You can't build when you're alone, you need somebody next to you to help. That's my recommendation to anyone starting out; have that one trusted friend or personal mentor for that little bit of inspiration and help. Then just do the idea. For me, I bought my first farm in my backyard, I worked through the process and I told people about it. And then I burned my ships so to speak, I wasn't going back, this is where I'm going. And I told every human being that I ever met, I'm starting a charity, this is what I'm doing. If I fail, I'll fail on these merits because I'm burning the ships, I'm not going back, this is the way forward. So it's a mindset thing and if anyone's interested, have a look at the mind sciences, read about meditation and creative visualisation, that just strengthens your vision. And it also strengthens your inner self by maintaining calm, and focus and breathing to make sure that you can get through the stress into the next step as well.
Season 2 Episode 5
Sargasso Sea CEO Colin Rego on Embracing Adversity
I need a challenge, a constant challenge, not just day to day work, but pushing the limits, pushing legislation, pushing governments, pushing humans to think differently. And I think when you create a team of people around you coming along on that journey, it's fun. It's exciting. It's daunting at the same time, but it's kind of the same feeling when you go into a casino, when you make a bet on something, or you try something new for the first time. And that's the entrepreneurship world. Every day is new. So if you like the thrill of new things, and uncharted territories then I think that's what keeps people going, it's grounding, it's humbling and this part of the journey is definitely our focus.
We're big believers that economic downturns, recessions, this time is when entrepreneurs have the most opportunity to create new things. It's when innovation is going to be forced to happen because of need. And that's what entrepreneurs do. We find gaps, we fill needs, we help people, like you said, with the groceries, it's little things and it's simple things too.
So it was a learning journey and it was great reapproaching the same project, understanding the market and understanding those opportunities. And if there's still a gap, then clearly there's a solution for that gap. There's always a solution, right? And if we think that everything that we've invented something or come up with an idea in our mind, there's probably a chance, a high chance of probability that it's already created or designed elsewhere. So let's not waste time recreating the wheel. Let's focus on how do we add value and how do we create a solution?
So then it was consumer behaviour and philosophy, I recognised that if you understand people and understand how to communicate something or sell something, then you could.. any business in any field, global market, underground market, it's how do you connect with people? How do you communicate? How do we engage and I can have the best service in the world, you can have the best marketing company but if we can't communicate that to to the right audience at the right time and the right channels, then it doesn't matter. Have the best Ferrari in the world, best vehicle, but if you have no idea where you want to go, how to get there, then that's gonna be a big challenge.
Season 2 Episode 19
Safe2Great Founder, Skip Bowman: The Future of Leadership and AI
You are quite the consummate entrepreneur. So what is it about it that you really like? And how did you get here?
I suppose it's about having an idea, sometimes coming at crazy times, and say, okay, let's give that a shot. I have a consulting business which I've had for many years, like 12 and a half years, etc, I’ve had lots of attempts at it. My first company was at 18, that didn't go so well, but then you learn, you learn from disasters as well. Sometimes it comes to you because it's a profession, but sometimes it comes to you because you have a calling, you want to try something new, do something different. I have a hotel which my wife and I are building up in France, it’s an old farm, and that's a calling. We were sort of lying in bed and thinking, I actually don't know where the idea came from, but suddenly we were talking about it and suddenly we were online, and a month later we bought something and then Covid hit, and then ‘Oh boy’, then we had to work out how to pay for it. But there you go, we're okay now! But there is something very special about taking an idea and making it, turning it into something. That's a real creative thing and I love that.
You have to have an amount of desire for risk, not necessarily desire, but less fear of risk than other normal people.
I’m curious, is your wife entrepreneurial?
She is. She loves the project in the hotel. She's currently working in corporate, but she finds it really boring, so I think she has a real entrepreneurial spirit.
The reality is, when you're a couple who, one is an entrepreneur sometimes you have to make choices about, your biggest determinant of success is your financial setup at home. If you don't have that right, you're gonna be, look it's not going to work. So having a salary that's more guaranteed is helpful, and I think an awful lot of small businesses are built up around that and that's how, that is a good way to make that work, to balance your risk out.
Partner bootstrap your business.
Season 2 Episode 1
Celebrity Makeup Artist Christina Flach on Manifesting Success
A lot of our audience is at the beginning of their journey. Do you have any memories from the beginning of your journey? And any advice for people who might want to look forward 20 years and say, what's the best thing to do at the start of your journey?
So I would say the best thing and most important thing is being an entrepreneur, you have to really love what you do because it is going to take so much more time, so much more effort, so much more money than you can even imagine so you really have to enjoy the process because if you don't love it, and want to wake up every day and can't wait to do it, it's going to fail, because it's exhausting and sometimes very frustrating. Tyler has a great saying that it's really hard to be exceptional because if anyone knew how hard it is, no one would do anything. So it's actually better that you don't know. I know that there's a lot of people in the world that are in corporate jobs or in jobs that they just don't love and they want to make a change. And so what I urge people to do is, work after work, get a part time job doing what it is that really brings you joy and fills your heart, and on the weekends, and not quit your job, because I didn't do that. I am very grateful that I have Pretty Girl, which is my company that I started. So days that I'm not on set, I'm doing interviews and I work on my company so for me it's a perfect fit, both my careers actually help each other. It differentiates me as a makeup artist that I have my own line and it helps my line that I'm still a working makeup artist. So I'm very grateful for that but I love both aspects of my job. It's exhausting being a makeup artist because you wake up early and it's a long day so that's why on days that I don't have a shoot, I can be a normal person, I can go work out, go to yoga class, I can do stuff and be in my office or work in my home. So I have created the life that I want and I love how it is.
Season 2 Episode 2
Business Coach Reyna Drake: Balancing Business and Emotions
I think especially for entrepreneurs and new business owners, or people who are thinking of going into business, one thing one must really think, appreciate from the get-go is that you are going to face challenges. It is part and parcel of running a business, you cannot avoid this, no matter how smart, no matter how strategic you are, no matter how many resources you have at your disposal. What changes is what kind of issues or concerns you have to deal with. But the fact that you have to deal with challenges does not change. So if you go into business taking this into account and accepting this fact, when you do come face to face with these challenges, you know that it's not the end, it's just what.. it's the nature of business. So it can help you continue where you would otherwise have clocked out and say I can't do this.
I think that type of attitude too, helps take the emotion out of it, when you can pull the emotion out of the sting of a challenge and realise, oh, this is just something I have to deal with, it's not something that's meant to attack me, you can change your mindset around it.
To me, resilience really means having indomitable will and I'll expand a little bit on that, to have an indomitable will is to have a will that cannot break. So even when you collapse, you are able to sustain your focus, and you get back up. So with that, because in business, you will always have hurdles, things will come from the left field and take you out and so, of course, with some strategy and planning, you can mitigate a lot of those risks. However, you cannot know what you do not know and so having that indomitable will, or that will that does not break, regardless of what happens is really really important.
Season 2 Episode 21
Business Leadership Coach Sandra Gartner: Risk, "Fail", Repeat
Do you think entrepreneurship is for everyone? Do you think anyone can do this?
I'd love to say, yes because in my world, there's no greater vehicle for personal development than starting and building a business, you're going to learn a lot about yourself. But there's other vehicles to learn about yourself, it doesn't have to be business. And some people that are risk averse, are comfortable in knowing a role or a job and like the routine of their day to day and the certainty of an income and are not really willing to step off the ledge, because there is a leap of faith at some point, you've got to leap off that cliff top, knowing that, or hoping the parachute will open, but you're not 100% sure. So if you're not willing to jump off the cliff top, then maybe you need to do a bit more work and get yourself ready for that leap. And not to say you couldn't get there but I think you want to be fully aware of what you're going into. And even if you just start the learning process, so learn about entrepreneurship, if you have a business idea, do the research, get a bit of a plan together, work out if it's got some legs, again talk to people. And then you might say, No, it's not for me, but you've had a wonderful experience of exploring an idea and that really has value in itself. Or you might say, Yeah, this is for me, I reckon this is gonna work, I'm willing to give it a go. So is it for everybody? I think it's a hard question to answer. I'd like to say yes, but possibly, you've got to look at it a bit more deeply.
Yeah, I think that's a really hard question to answer too, I totally agree with you. I think it's a lot about mindset and personal development, and being willing to have that growth mindset, I think is probably the biggest key, because you've got to grow and you are going to grow, whether you like it or not, because it's that risk, fail, risk, fail risk, fail pattern that you've got to be open to, and grow and learn from, right? And I do love that there are so many more coaches out there in the world now that are accessible, that can help you get unstuck. That's a message to the entrepreneurs out there, don't sit stuck in a place there, there are people that can help you to see it from a different perspective.
Season 2 Episode 17
Current Vehicles Founder Piers Carr, Breaking through the 'No' Barrier
What for you is the best part about being an entrepreneur, Piers?
The best part is that vision that we set out at the start, which has changed shape a few times but it's our north star, is seeing that start to form, start to come together. So an idea that we came up with in 2012 and just starting to see that take shape has been brilliant. And knowing that that was something that we came up with together, and that we’re on that journey to make it happen and it's meaningful, and it gives me purpose.
I think as entrepreneurs, you have to be an optimist, an eternal optimist, particularly when you're faced with adversity and the last year, I went into last year going, We’re back, this is going to be a great year. And it was a really difficult year for us. We did obviously pick up from the previous years but I think the arrival numbers, certainly airlift was down 50%, then we found ourselves with big supply chain issues, so trying to get the parts for our vehicles was difficult. So we had a large percentage of our fleet offline which wasn't good. This year, supply chain seems to be fixed so we will be able to put a full fleet out and by all accounts, the conversations I'm having with the hotels and our pre-bookings are looking really positive.
You've got to celebrate the milestones that you hit and each of those milestones is a win, is a success, because you have to face a lot of backlash, you've got to face really uncertain difficult times. And there are milestones, you have an idea, you'd like to see it rolled out and when you hit those, you should celebrate them. I feel lucky, and I feel successful that we've got to where we have got to.
Season 2 Episode 18
Wholesome Bellies Founder, Fiona Anchal: The Playbook for Work-Life Balance
Are you able to articulate what you love most about being an entrepreneur?
What I love most, I love that my time is my time, I have so much freedom. Having had children about 10 years ago has allowed me to run a business and be there every single morning, I don't have to rush off, and I'm there every single afternoon, and that is the most valuable gift, I won't have that… I'm gonna get very emotional, sorry, I won't have that for much longer because they're growing, and I just see so many parents living the grind and the hustle and they're up super early, and they're rushing to work and their kids are in after school and before school care, and that would break my heart. So time, I can jump back online tonight, I can be here with you this morning while they're asleep, I'm with them every single day, and that's more than anything to me.
Season 2 Episode 20 pong-suk-wetch-kul
Glaxier Founder, Tan Pongsukwewchkul: Digital Marketing Tips
The digital business, digital agency business that you've started, you're still quite young, this is your second business and you were working at an agency and then decided to branch out on your own. So you really have that entrepreneurial spirit running strong.
I would say I don't know, I don't know what entrepreneurial spirit is, but I like freedom, so I think that's what it is. For me, freedom is the best thing in the world. You could have money but you can’t buy freedom. So for me, the number one priority is freedom. I need to be able to choose the hours I want to work, when I want to work and what I want to do. Being an entrepreneur, being a business owner fits those boxes but for some people that are not really committed or driven, freedom can be a downfall as well, and that's the same for me sometimes.
What's your thoughts on AI? Because nowadays, you can get an avatar to speak for you and you can get ChatGPT to write you a script and everything. So what's your thoughts on there and the future of marketing that's coming through that?
Yeah, AI is a skill and we're moving to a world where you need to know more things to be able to work in a competitive industry. So not only do you have to know the platform that you will be advertising on, or posting organically on, you have to know how the algorithm of each platform works, you now have to know how to work AI because that's a competitive edge, right? If you don't use it you're gonna fall behind. I think the industry is talking about prompt engineers. And I think you have to learn at least the basic of what you need to say, the right things you need to say, the parameters that you have to set for AI for it to produce at least good quality, acceptable quality content that not a five year old can do.
What's the future of AI? If you were to project into the future, look into the crystal ball, what does it look like in, I don't know, even three years time
Three years time, three years time, I think AI is growing exponentially. Everything nowadays can be solved with AI, there's even a website, I can't remember the website, but it collects all the AI tools and it literally has everything that can be solved by AI. So I think in three years people will catch on and AI will just be another tool, you won't have that hype around it anymore because nowadays, we still say something is written by AI, created by AI, supported by AI kind of like, oh, this is a new product. But in three years, you won't have that buzz, that ring to it anymore.
Season 2 Episode 11
Founders of DigiRoo; Antonia & Lloyd Holder on Becoming Inventors!
The reality is it's easy to launch a service. And I know you understand that Lloyd. A service is a different ballgame than a product because a product - the time of development is what I think most people underestimate. And like you were saying the costs, there are a lot of factors and it's not just the materials and the making of the product in the factory, it's all the design phase, the lawyers, legal stuff, the trademark, everything that you guys have been through. Were you prepared for that? Or do you feel like you just went in completely naive and you went for it?
Well yes and no. So after I had the idea, we talked about it, we did the preliminary patent research where we were like, I will never forget when I read the email and it was like, ‘Congratulations, this is what they consider a novel idea.’ Right? So at that point, I was like, we’re about to be millionaires!!
No but that honestly was the first thought in my mind. Since I've become more of an entrepreneur and I have that entrepreneurial spirit, I'm constantly thinking about how I can improve things or has this been done before? Oh, that's a great idea. or out of the lack that I'm experiencing, can I capitalise on that? Do other people need that, if I'm looking for it, somebody else must be looking for it, right? And you get excited about that. And the idea that you can be successful, not just making money but also making an impact.
Season 2 Episode 16
Re:New Designs CEO Alisa Newey - Sustainability and Self-Care
I always say that business brings out the best in you but it also brings out the worst in you, it is a relationship, you learn so much about yourself by running a business.
So much. And I think that's what I realised retrospectively I loved most in business training. Finance is not my jam, I obviously have to learn about them because I need to run a profitable business but it kills my soul the days that I have to sit down and do invoicing. But the bits that I learned I loved is actually learning about people and learning about myself and doing all of the profiling and then understanding why I approach things in a specific way. And I think there is so much of that in business because as you say, it brings out your best and your worst and it is a pressure cooker, particularly the first years of running a business. So if you've got reasons within yourself, why you're driven to work too hard, you won't be able to address that unless you can address why you're doing it and you'll end up burnt out. So a lot of it is actually looking at the deeper reasons behind what motivates you to do something. And I was having a discussion with my friend the other day about the energy of moving towards something compared to the energy of moving away from something. So if you're building a business like I was, because I wanted to prove myself in the world and I wanted to be successful and I was fundamentally, I didn't want to have the life that I had as a child where we didn't have enough money and there was scarcity. So as much as I felt like I was building something I was actually running away. And I was using a business as a vehicle to do that, to create the opposite of the life that I didn't want. Whereas this time, I have a vision of the change I want to see in the world. So I know what the target is, I know what I'm building towards and it energises me to try to get there. So that the amount of work might be exactly the same but it's energising rather than depleting, because when you're trying to constantly struggle against something, it takes so much energy compared to when you're excited about achieving something.
Season 2 Episode 6
Systems Expert Krystle Divertie: Before you hire, hear this!
What do you like most about being an entrepreneur, what's the best thing?
The freedom. I think for me, being in business provides choice. So it's the choice that if I want to work, I can. If I don't want to work, well, I don't have to work. Work in terms of in the business and the choice to.. if it's a hot day, go to the beach and have a swim, I don't have to be sitting at my desk because my boss has told me I have to. And that also then leads into the choice for future Krystle and my family, not someone else's future. Yeah, so it's the freedom.
I’m curious, as someone who's into systems and operations, and this being your work and your career, what was your childhood like? Were you quite an organised orderly child? What would you say that.. How has that impacted you today?
Very much. So my father was in the Defence Force and so it was very much drilled into me, mind the pun. There's a way to do everything and there's a better way to continually improve what you're doing and get faster and more efficient. And so, yes, my childhood was an interesting one with continually being challenged around, well if I'm washing the dishes, how can I do that better? How can I do it faster so that I can finish my chores and then go do the things that I actually want to be doing. And that has instilled some really foundational structure and the basics around systems and processes and streamlining for efficiency and effectiveness. Yeah.
I spent the majority of my 20s travelling the world and getting life experience. And so it wasn't until I turned 30, that I went, Oh, it might be time to start adulting. And because I also grew up in business which not a lot of people have that experience. And so I didn't know any different, business is my normal. And so all of the challenges that you learn when you start a business, I actually learnt from the age of 12 to 18 through my parents’ businesses. And so all of those mistakes that you make in that first one to two years of business, I was really lucky, I didn't have to make them because I already had that skill set sitting there waiting to go. So for me, when I decided to become an adult at 30, it was more around what do I want to do. And there were a few different career changes in the first couple of years and through that journey, I realised that my skill set was in systems and processes and standard operating procedures and software. And through the qualifications in ISO and workplace health and safety, yeah, I jumped pretty quickly into having my own business because it was my normal.
Season 2 Episode 12
Objective Business Strategy and Coaching CEO, Pat Phillip-Fairn: Run Towards What Scares You!
What would you tell somebody, maybe that you worked with, that was ready to take that leap into entrepreneurship or just starting out and they're going through all those emotions?
I would say be very, very clear on what it is that you're offering. What is your purpose? What is the purpose of your business? What is the problem you're solving? Be clear on that. Because then you can stay focused. So if something is put in front of you that does not align with that, then it's easier for you to retain clarity, get through the.. ‘I must say yes to everything that’s put in front of me’. If you're clear on your purpose and what it is that you're actually providing, then if something is put in front of you that doesn't align with that, then you can decide, okay, really, should I be doing this? Is this in my skill set? Or is this helping me to solve that problem I identified, is it really in alignment with what I do and who I am. Never forget your values as well, as you go through the entrepreneurial journey because that, again, can help you to stay focused and really understand what your objective is for your business. And so stay focused on your objective. Always, always have your values in sight when you're making these decisions and then you'll be able to take that leap and say no to the things you should be saying no to, and be able to provide your service, and always provide your service with clarity.
Season 2 Episode 9
MediWaste CEO & Founder, Donte Hunt - the Essentials of Entrepreneurship
So Donte, tell us what you love most about being an entrepreneur?
What do I love most? Great question! You know what, I truly believe that entrepreneurs are in the artists’ space, we like to create, at least that's what I like to do, I like to create. And it's something special about creating, you have the latitude to do almost whatever you want. You're in the pilot seat, if you will. The ultimate satisfaction is sometimes, I say sometimes, sitting back and looking at what you've created and it just feels absolutely awesome. The reason why I say sometimes is because we get so stuck in as entrepreneurs, right? And so we've never, we've never arrived, right? And so, sometimes we cannot just see all of what we've accomplished because we're always looking for more and more and more. Have I done enough, X, Y and Z? So I guess first and foremost it's about being a creator, naturally. We talked about this earlier, you get the sense of freedom, right? It's give and take but you control the direction of the business and it's up to you. That can be scary but sometimes it can be, many times, it can be awesome. It all depends on how you prepare yourself when you get into a role of an entrepreneur and leading a company,
Season 2 Episode 15
Visartech Inc. Co-Founder & CEO Slava Podmurnyi If you're not growing, you're dying!
What is the best thing for you about being an entrepreneur? What is it that you truly love?
From time to time, I'm getting older, yes and I'm not so passionate as I used to be maybe, less active, more calmer person. At the same time, I still have this feeling when I was playing those games when I was younger, a kid, I was playing those strategic games and that feeling that you are growing, building, scaling, helping other people improve their lifestyle. That's what I like the best because as an entrepreneur, you can wake up during the night and get an idea like, Oh, my God, I got an idea, like you just note it and you discuss it with your team in the morning and it's a brilliant idea. The ability to make more artistic impact, I would say is the best part of being an entrepreneur.
Season 2 Episode 3
Award-Winning Entrepreneur Claire McDevitt: On Developing Partnerships
What's the best part about being an entrepreneur? What's the one thing you love the most?
This stuff right here is meeting other entrepreneurs and being on podcasts and being able to share your story and hopefully connect with somebody or something that I would say, connects with them and they know, okay, I'm not alone in this.
The flexibility I love, I work hard, right? No doubt about it but I love that I can pick my daughter up and I can have that quality time with her. And then I can log back in, work wise in the sense of after she goes to bed or I can manage it, manage my time myself.
And also just the growth, I'm not saying there's no growth in nursing per se, but just that expansion of what you're capable of doing as an entrepreneur and business owner, that just blew my mind. I'm doing things that I never thought I would have the confidence, that was what other people did and what we do, or what I do, or what you guys do, right? It's a constant learning and it's just getting bigger and bigger and it's fun, I don't ever hate the moments, I learn from them, any failures you just learn what happened.
And your attitude. It's your attitude, it's your.. how you approach it, I can take it as a negative and be down in the dumps about it and sulk and lick my wounds for X amount of time. And that's okay to do it but it's coming back and being, okay, what did I learn from this? That's ultimately the only question you can ask then, what did we all learn from this? Whether, and then dissecting it from there, and the support network that you may have as well reaching out to people. Again, I'm not afraid to ask for help and that's the biggest thing, if I don't know marketing, if I don’t know this, I'm going to ask somebody else to show me because I'd rather not spend five hours down a rabbit hole trying, than just ask for help and know that I can get a solution really quickly.
Being grateful is another thing, right? I don't want to sound soft but how many people get to start their business again, and get to be in a position where I'm meeting so many people every single day, and doing something purposeful and helpful and enjoying it. I'm enjoying it, so immensely grateful all the time for what we have done, what we have achieved and what we're going to learn in the future.
