Ask The Experts: Big Entrepreneurial Myths Unpacked -Ep.133

Hey welcome to sheet coaches, coaches, I'm your host, Candy Motzek. And I'm going to help you find the clarity, confidence and courage to become the coach that you were meant to be. If you're a new coach, or if you've always wanted to be a life coach, then this is the place for you. We're going to talk all about mindset and strategies and how to, because step by step only works when you have the clarity, courage and confidence to take action. Let's get started.

Hey, and welcome to this episode. So glad you're here. I know that I say this every episode. But it's true. I wish you knew how much I appreciate you spending your time listening to me listening to these answers. And I hope being inspired and motivated and supported. I'm bringing you a group of experts, there are a number of them seven plus me. And I've gathered them together to answer one question. Now this is kind of a challenging question. So it's gonna take a bit of concentration for all of them. And in fact, it took me a bit to answer it for myself. So here's the question, what are the three biggest myths you've discovered about being an entrepreneur? And for me, I've narrowed it down even to being an online entrepreneur, because there is a it's a slightly different world. So I wrote that question. I asked them, and then I started to think, wow, how would I narrow it down to the three biggest myths, and I'm not sure that I've actually got my three biggest myths, the largest ever, but these are pretty close. So let me tell you, what I came up with. The first one is that it is there is one singular, fast, easy way to be successful as an entrepreneur. And this myth keeps us from trusting ourselves. And it makes us think that since we didn't get immediate and fast success, maybe we weren't fully booked in 30 days, or some such crazy thought that we were doing it wrong. So instead of realizing that, just because it didn't happen fast, we forget that there are many paths to success. And we need to trust ourselves that we are finding our own way, it can take some of us longer than others. And if you're one of those people, it's taking a little extra time, just keep heart, you're on the right path for sure. The second big myth is that a coaching business is different than any other kind of business. But it's not. Just because you love to coach doesn't mean you don't have a business, we still need to market to potential clients, we need to make offers, we need to manage our finances. The only thing we don't have to do, or most likely don't have to do is have a brick and mortar store. When we remember that a coaching business is a business, a business that does good work, does work from the heart. It's still a business. When we get over that we reduce our resistance to doing all that business see kind of stuff. And it gets so much easier. It is the resistance and thinking things aren't or shouldn't be that way that makes it harder for us. So accepting it makes it easier. And the third big myth is this. This is the myth of the six or seven figure launch. Now if you're anywhere on social media, you have been targeted by people who proclaim in big letters, their giant launches. The only problem is, you have no idea how long they've been in business. My guess is it's more than just a year or two. So the less time you spend comparing yourself unfavorably, the better. The second problem with this six or seven figure launch story is that this is the money that they receive is their income, their sales, their revenue, the money that comes in, but what it doesn't tell you is how much it costs to them that they pay 1000s of dollars on advertising. Did they hire a top notch copywriter to write their emails? Did they have a full team and all the costs that go along with that? So a six figure launch, which is some time that for an event, they sold more than $100,000. Some of them might have expenses of 10,000 50,000 100,000, or even more. So get me here. If they sold 100,000, it's a six figure launch. But if they sold 100,000, and then spent 100,000, guess what? They've got no money left over. Oops. So those are my three big myths. Now, let's hear from the other experts. Could you tell me what you think the three biggest myths that you have discovered about being an entrepreneur? Hmm,

the first one is leaving your nine to five job is not going to give you more free time. I want to become my own intrapreneur because I feel like nine to five and I feel stuck. And now that's it, that's not gonna give you more time. So that's the Myth number one, the counter positive to that is, you're actually going to be something that you're excited about. And if you're so excited to do it, it's not gonna feel like a job, you might be working 12 hours a day as opposed to eight. And you might be working weekends also. But if you do something that you actually love and passionate about, that's okay. And that's how I feel right now. Like, alright, it's not a nine to five, sometime I'm sometime when I'm a bit exhausted, I should get a nine to five job. Off, I'm not gonna be happy and living my passion. But that's okay. I love what I do. So that's Myth number one. Myth number two is some people think that all I need is a great idea. So that I can be successful, I just need a great idea. But in reality, yes, it's good to have good ideas. But it's good to do your research. It's good to look around and see where who's having something ideas similar to yours? And how, how do you now develop that idea so that you can have a valuable and prosperous business? So just having a great idea is just not quite enough?

That's really important. Yeah. And there's a lot more to it. There's lots of great ideas in the world. Not all right. And then what about the third one,

the third one is, you're not the only one that can do it. delegate, delegate, delegate, there are so many wonderful, what if you don't have money to pay for an assistant, there'll be right there beside you. There's a lot of wonderful people that lives in a country where they don't charge 50 bucks an hour, you can look for them. And they'll be more than happy to assist you to work with you to support you too. And they're very well educated, they're well, you know, spoken, and they can help you. So you're not the only one that can do it perfectly. So don't be afraid to delegate, don't be afraid to bring people in your team. And, and you pay them as much as you can. Meaning that if you have on your budget for I don't know, $50 a week to have someone working with you. Well, there'll be a certain amount of hours with people from oversee. And then you can have that person delegate, you can delegate to her and the weight that will come out of your shoulder will be so wonderful. So you're not the only one

delegate. And then you're also helping more people to know the people who are the virtual assistants and you know, any kind of contractor that you might hire for your business, you

writers they're doing design,

they're good at what they do. And you might not be as good as they are. Right? So like, allow them to do the great thing that they're so good at, help them and help yourself, it's gonna give you more time and more joy in your business.

Yeah, if I have to write an email sequence for a gift that I'm giving to people, it might take me all day, right? Or maybe two. But then if I have a copywriter that has done that, like regularly, they can get to know you, and then they adapted to your business, it will take them a few hours. And so imagine how much is your time worth? If you spend, you know, let's say two days on writing that sequence, that email sequence with different calibration and you know, if your time is is worth like $100 an hour to sit, let's say 16 hours, that's expensive.

Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah. Yes, it makes me it just makes me think I you know, I see this a lot with the coaches that I work with is that many of them do try to do everything themselves. And I think it's important to take that step, even if it's only five hours. is a week, you know, if you could get somebody for five hours a week, at a reasonable rate, who is skilled, you're starting to build that habit that you're growing a team that it's not just all on your shoulders. So that's really important. Kathleen, what are the three biggest myths that you have discovered about being an entrepreneur?

Okay, this was great, because I have a lot of I have some friends who have corporate jobs, most of my friends are entrepreneurs. And I think the thing that is always interesting that comes up, especially around my friends with corporate jobs, is that I have all the time in the world. I can just like, Oh, I could just do this and that and, you know, sure, if I'm having a lazier day, and I'm maybe not being as effective, I'll go run an errand or something. But for the most part, I really find that that is such a myth that we have all the time in the world, because what happens is a lack of time management, I'm not as effective. And bringing in time management helps me actually focus and get more work done versus Oh, my goodness, so easy to work six and a half days a week, right? When you have all the time in the world, it's really easy to work too much. So I think that's an important myth to talk about. Because I do feel that sometimes when people are, you know, dreaming about coaching as a side gig, and they're trying to work on that next phase, that dream is, oh, I'll have more time. It will all be my time. Well, it's all work time, you end up working probably more if you don't have good time management skills. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the second one is that doing everything, wearing all the hats, playing all the roles, trying to do everything as an entrepreneur is going to save you money. And that is something that I really learned quickly, that there's baby stages of growing. So even if it's just signing out a project for five hours, you know, with Fiverr, I mean, Fiverr, Upwork, that kind of stuff makes a huge difference. Plus, it helps you be in your genius. And I think that's a really, really important thing is to realize that you probably shouldn't, I don't like to use the word should, but you will be more effective. And in your genius zone, the sooner you can begin to receive support from other people that are in their genius. Yeah, yeah. And the operative word there is receive. Right and go. Yeah, yeah. And I think that a lot of heart centered entrepreneurs, so So the people that listen to this podcast, they

forget that, you know, giving and receiving as a flow. So they want to give and give and give and give and give of all the things give of their time, do all the stuff but then not actually receive. And so that thing that you said about receive and allowing those other people to do the giving and work in their zone? It's like magic,

right? Yeah. Cool. Yeah. And the third thing is, vacations. You gotta make them happen. Even if it's long weekends, five day weekends, like, again, you're noticing my patterns, right? The two of them are about working too much. Welcome to the club. So you gotta book um, even if it's three day weekends, even if it's just no, Saturday and Sunday are sacred. I remember even just recently coming across a colleague who's just like, No, I don't even answer emails Saturday, Sunday, and I'm like, Oh, I love you. Wow. Okay. I'm gonna try that too. So it's very easy to get just a year ago by and not taking a vacation. So book it again, that's it's that planning thing. But I think what I wanted to speak to was the feeling as an entrepreneur, that we can be spontaneous, and we can, but please be spontaneous. Then if you're not a planner, please be spontaneous. And take a three day weekend. Give yourself rest. That's so important. You will come back refreshed and clearer and more effective.

Yeah. So of these three myths, time and energy, right, and resources. There's that theme there throughout those. Very interesting. So could you share with me over the years, what are the three biggest myths that you've discovered about being an entrepreneur?

Oh, my goodness, there probably are. There are so many things I could talk about. Oh, three that come to mind, the first one would be, don't let anybody tell you that you have to do anything in your business. It's a myth, we hear these messages all the time, you have to do a Facebook group or you have to do a challenge, you have to do a webinar, a lot of times it is around our marketing, right. And the fact that matter is you don't have to do anything in your business, you get to create a business that fits you, how you work, where your clients hang out, and what you want your lifestyle to look like. And I'm not saying that there aren't principles of business, there are foundation things that to be successful, your 99% going to want to have in place. But when we let people, when we become a victim, in a sense of those messages out there that we have to do one thing or another to fit into the mold, what ends up happening is that our business doesn't feel authentic, and it usually isn't successful. So that would be Myth number one. The second thing I hear a lot, and I know you work with newer coaches. So you you may or may not agree with this philosophy. But I hear a myth a lot that an online course is a great way for a new coach to get started. And I believe that is truly a myth. Because, you know, for two reasons. Number one is because creating a course before you've actually coached clients, is a recipe for not success in a lot of cases, because you haven't taught clients yet what you teach. And you don't really know what they need until you've had some of those plants under your belt to get experience from to use this kind of your market research incubator. So what happens is that you spend all this time and first of all, it can take you newer coaches months to create that online course. And then it's not right after you actually get it out there. And the second part of that is that you create the course you sell the course before you sell it, instead of creating it, and then going out and having to find people to buy it. And when you're new in business, you don't have a list. So it's really hard to get a bunch of people to start at the same time, because you don't have that community yet created. So that would be the second that I would talk about. Then, the third thing that I would say is more related to what's near and dear to my heart, which is living your bucket list now, and taking your business with you. And that myth is that, that you have to wait until you're successful, to live the lifestyle that you want to live. And for me, it's the opposite. You decide what your lifestyle is going to look like what you want it to look like. And then you build the business that fits into that lifestyle. And I personally had it again, you can just happen anytime in your in your business career. I had a knock upside the head moment, six years ago, where I realized I wasn't living my bucket list. I really wanted to travel full time. And I had almost unconsciously built a successful business. But I was relying on life speaking primarily to drive by leads. And if I went to Europe for three months, and my leads dried up. So I put a stake in the ground totally reconfigured, my marketing messaging, went virtual, sold my home, put my stuff in storage. And six months later, I was traveling internationally about nine months of the year. And you can do that too. You just have to be clear, it goes back to me talking about the big tip is your vision. Be clear on what that vision is for your lifestyle first, and you don't have to wait till you're successful.

I love that. And you know, and so this is kind of the like you said, this is one of your themes about living, you're living your life first and wrapping your business around your life.

And I think wait for Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.

Oh, totally. The other and the other part of it is we are conditioned to wait for the life that we want. I mean, look at all the people who were supposed to work for I don't know how many years 25 years, and then retire and now they can actually live their life. And people are not willing to do that anymore. Not willing to put their life on hold until that time long in the future. Thank goodness. Right, right. Like you know that that is a recipe for not having not creating the legacy not creating that fully meaningful, Purpose Driven Life. And all of the things that go along with that. So I really I really resonate with what you've shared Avital, Can you tell me what do you think are the three biggest myths about being an entrepreneur?

I think the first one I want to go for is the myth that one does it by themselves. An entrepreneur works alone. They have their own business, they do their thing. I learned really, really fast that without my network and with out, meeting new people and making more connections and finding people that can help me with this, that or the other, or people to collaborate with. This thing doesn't lift. Right? Yes, the feeling is I do everything by myself. But the actuality is

I don't. Right. Yeah, I think that's

really it is mine. But it's not done alone.

Mm hmm. Yeah. It reminds me of that. You know, that saying that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far go together. Very similar to that. Yeah, that's one. So what's the second myth? What would you what would you think?

I think the second thing that surprised me, I don't know if it's a myth or not. But these are things that surprised me. And I think I'm, from what I heard, I'm not alone. That the main thing you need to be a good entrepreneur to get a business going, is to be good at what you do, or have something of value to contribute. And this is really the main thing that you need. And I would say that I found out really fast that I, I am good at what I do. And I knew that, you know, before I started in terms of helping people with their tech and getting them all that's good. But I knew nothing about running a business. I came from, you know, corporate, and somebody else was doing all that. Finding clients connecting with clients getting payment, you know, what are the expenses? Everything to do with the business side of it marketing sales, I had a huge missing piece. And without that there is no business. Right? What I do just doesn't stand alone.

So being really excellent at what you do, is I think it is critical. I personally think it's critical, but it's only a portion. And so there's that the myth, right? That's the sort of, maybe it's not the myth, but like you said, but maybe it's the missing piece, right? It's not the

only thing. It's not the only thing, and it's not the it's not the factor that's going to say if you're succeeding or not, I mean, you can't succeed without it, that we have no question there. But you can fail really miserable elite, while being excellent at what you do.

Right? That's yeah, what would you say is the third one? I'm not sure.

I don't have a good third. Okay. That's fine. You have one that you are?

Ah, I have, I have a lot. So I have the the myth of the myth of two t o, where we think that we're too young, too old to female too. Who knows what, that there's something inherently too much or too little with us to make it. And I think that if you have the passion to do it, and you're willing to feel uncomfortable, sometimes hugely uncomfortable, and you just never give up, eventually you will learn and eventually we'll create that. And so that myth of too, you know, that somehow there's only only certain people that are gifted enough to actually do that. So that would be that would be the one that I would layer on with yours. Catherine, can you tell me what are the three biggest and if not the biggest, maybe the three important mess about being an entrepreneur that you've discovered

three important myths that it is, it's not so much a myth as it is a an anomaly, that you can go from zero to seven figures in 2.4 seconds. And it won't be it won't be hard at all. That is is a little more myth than true. I know what's happened. But there's usually a lot more going on behind it. But the flip side is that is that it doesn't have to be so complicated that you give up. So you know, it's not as easy as some people make it sound but it doesn't have to be as hard as we all seem to make it. So there is a middle ground there. So I think, you know, set expectations and give yourself you know, set expectations in a way that you know, there's going to be some some ups and downs. And it's a bit of a roller coaster ride but at the same token, it doesn't have to be as hard as some of us make it on ourselves. So be be wary of that. Give yourself some grace. I mean, you know, my first Here, I think I fired myself every morning. You know, I just, I just retired you're out, you're done. It's we're gonna walk you out rehiring myself. Yeah, yeah. And I just rehired myself as, okay, so I need to change this attitude or I need to, you know, remember what I'm doing. So, you know, give yourself a little bit of grace, but know that it's going to be a little bit of up and down. So that would be number one, number two myth is that you have to do it all on your own. Don't do that, right. Don't try to learn every program, don't try to do everything is not your is not everything is your zone of genius. So stay in your zone of genius and hire people to do the rest of the stuff. You don't have to do it on your own. And it doesn't have to be expensive, there are ways that you can get salespeople to work straight off commission, it doesn't cost you anything, there are ways to get bas that, you know, that can really make a difference in your bottom line that doesn't, you know, put yourself at risk for losing the house or something like that. So don't do it alone. And I think the third thing is just be really mindful of what an income producing action is. So making sure that you spending time on income producing actions, sitting on Facebook, and scrolling through for two hours is probably not an income producing action. So it might be I mean, it might be in if it is and bullying for you. It's probably procrastination, and procrastination is not going to pay you. So get super clear on what your three non negotiables every morning are, and making sure that you get through those as income producing actions. And, and that will set you up for for good, you know, week, and then month and then year.

So the three that I hear, have perspective, it's not going to be as fast as you might like it to be, but have a perspective on it, and know that it will happen. Second is don't do it by yourself, get help hire people get support, figure it out. And then the third is income producing activities. And you, you spoke about the three, you know, these three activities that are really going to move the needle, you know, so there's, it might be hard to choose the three, especially as a new coach, because they don't know what they don't know. But it could be hard. But if you choose three, and you just keep doing three, can adjust over and over and over, you're going to make some huge progress, right,

and your three are going to be different than somebody else's three. So don't don't necessarily like if guru number one tells you one thing. And Guru number two tells you another thing, you're gonna have to find your own path, you'll figure out which one's your income producing activities are pretty fast, because everything else is not going to produce revenue. So you know, if that, like, for me, that's a lot of networking, that's a lot of speaking engagements. And, you know, for other people, that's just a lot of time on Zoom, that's not working for them. So I don't do a lot of Facebook paid ads. For other people, that's exactly what they do. Or they do a lot of posting on social media, if that's your income producing activity, fantastic. Concentrate on that, but then don't do all the other fluff things that you think you have to do. Because, you know, like, oh, I don't have this thing or no going or that thing going. It might not be for your business, it might not be for you. And that's okay.

And if you sort of dilute your effectiveness on the things that are working, you're missing out on the opportunity to master those right? To tweak, to adjust, to assess, to improve. And so if you've got something that's working, it can work a little bit better spend your time there instead of somewhere else.

I love that. Yeah, I always suggest going deeper than broader. So the more that you're you spread out your energy, the shallower it goes, right. So go deep on a couple of things, if that's what works for you, and again, not it's not one size fits all, I think that's the you know, my fourth little bonus secret. It's your business, you're in business to create your own life and your own destiny and your universe is different from mine. So you do you and and you know like listen to your to your intuition. Because it's gonna know and, and you'll you'll go far with that.

Sherry, I have a question about being an entrepreneur, you think are the three biggest myths that you've discovered about being an entrepreneur?

Well, that's See that being your own boss is the only way to do things. So you can take time off whenever you want. And it is just the best. Well, of course, you can't take a lot of time off, because you have to focus on on building your business. And if you aren't focusing on it, who's going to be if you aren't minding the shop, who will do it for you. And then the other. Another thing is that there are natural born entrepreneurs. Well, they aren't naturally born, they are tried and tried and tried. And with the experience, they become experienced entrepreneur. And then I'd say the third one is that if you open your business, they will come. They'll come if you are promoting your business, or if you have a method to get the word out that you have opened your business and begin to build that know like and trust factor. So people know what you're doing and are aware, because people aren't mind reader's

a great upgrade. So it starts with the opening. And then you actually have to invite people and you have to be promoting and marketing yourself. That's great. Jackie, I have a question. I know there's a lot of them. But if you had to narrow it down, what are the three biggest myths? You see? And you've discovered about being an entrepreneur?

Hmm. So the first I would say, Well, I don't know if it's a myth, verse or just like what I came into it? Well, you mentioned earlier about entrepreneurship and versus employee, I definitely came in with this. I've got to do do do to have like, I've got this this employee mentality is the harder you work, the more money you make, the harder you work, the more money you make, you know, and, and you gotta like struggle and hustle and, and push. And boy did I do that, like I filled every crack and crevice of my schedule. It was nights, weekends, all the things because remember, it came from the restaurant industry, which is what I was used to, and the 50 million hours, seven days a week, all that stuff. And I wasn't until I learned the concept of believing before a cheat before you're going to achieve. And then there's a whole third concept of receiving it is, but I the believing before achieving is so different than the employee mindset where it's like you go to work you do you go to work to make a paycheck. But I never learned the pieces of believing and be, you know, how do I just be energetically and how being and what I mean by being is just doing you spending time with my coach, quick story. My coach told me one time she's like, Okay, we're gonna do this, this little exercise, you're gonna do nothing on your schedule. This was September 2019. Sure, you're gonna add nothing to your schedule, you're gonna do nothing in October and I laughed at her. Because I had this massive schedule. And I was like, she was like, well, if anybody wants to get on it, you can have to put them to a future. You know, in January. I was like January what are we doing here? I'm like, still got a quarter ago and right. And so I trusted her and I did this thing where I'm like, and I'm like, What do I do with all this extra time? And she's like, you're gonna, you're gonna walk, you're gonna play with the dogs. You're gonna cook you're gonna talk to a friend like she gave me all these things that had nothing to do with making money and doing and having right and so I trusted her and of course my income you know, go figure no coincidence went up and went up from 1000 to three. And she's like, we're gonna do it again. I was like, like going into my leg. Oh, no phase you can see my face right now. And so then of course it increased another 2000 And I was like, Okay, I guess this concept works right? And I was having my schedule is getting smaller and smaller. She was let me ask you like, what do you want your schedule to ultimately be like? I was like, I giggled. Candy. I giggled I was like, 10 to four Monday through Thursday, no weekends, no nights, and I was like, no Fridays, haha, right? Boom. I mean, I have that scheduled today. But then I thought it was like a just a total like joke, like, like, like dream. And that's what it turned into. I got less and less and high detail. I put my availability to that. And I stepped into the vision of what that's like, what it feels like. And then the third month I made more money I kept going up to $1,000 increments per month and I was like, okay, so this taught me that lesson of, you know, trust, surrender, trust the front end process, surrender be, don't just do and have and that was one of the mentalities that came from the rest strengthen me from the employee mindset. You know, we don't we're not taught how to just be.

So it's so I'm kind of I'm still tangled in the three myths. So I'm hearing, let me tell you what I've heard so far is the myth that the more hours you put in, the more you will receive? Yeah, the struggle is

not real. That's the struggle is real. No, it's not.

And then the second is that you can't relax and receive. Yes. And then the third is, when you relax into being who you are, or sorry, as a myth, it would be don't relax into being who you are. Because it's not gonna, it's not gonna work. And then that's not true. Did I miss? Did I miss something? Sorry. There's more here. I don't and I'm thinking there's a lake. But I can't hear that guy.

You translated it for me, because I was like, I can sometimes, you know, when you're in it, it's hard to decipher, to pull out like, what is what was the mythical sound but you're spot on, it's, you know, working harder doesn't necessarily mean more money, like it gets to be done with ease, and grace and flow and all of that. And that was a big missing piece for my life as the feminine energy, you know, that I had a ton of masculine from the industry. And that the feminine is not strong. And that's not that's not strength. That's another myth, you know, the belief that I have to be in a very structured strategy driven, push mentale. And, and they're both important, you need both, but I was completely oblivious to the feminine energy of things.