EP 377: What Successful Entrepreneurs Know About Asking for Help

Debra, with her 30 years of being an entrepreneur and creating over seven companies, knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that decision, when you accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited possibilities but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that only someone who's taken the leap really understands. On our show, Deb digs deep with her guests to highlight what you, the listener, wants to know: the stories, the whys, and the hows to navigate the journey to success. Get ready to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers, from Generation Z to Boomers, so sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown away. Now, here is your host, Debra Drummond.

Welcome back! Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! Love you! Love you! Love you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! On behalf of all of our speakers and all of our guests and all of our groups because you are and I know there's a podcast host here but you guys are the best podcast audience ever because you are active and we know we know you are because you send us messages and so we're going to talk about something today that you decided that you wanted to talk about super important to you what I can tell you after today and if you can, if you're not driving, grab a paper, grab a pen, because you know that our group shows are fantastic. It is mic drop, mic drop, jump, mic drop. But today, after the show, how am I going to feel? How are you going to feel? You're going to feel not alone. You're going to feel like you got a crew. You're gonna feel like you have people cheering you on from the sidelines. Absolutely, because guess what? That's what we're talking about today. We're talking about how we can't do it alone. I mean, all of you mission takers out there, you probably have a little bit of what I call soloitis. You're like, I got it. I can do it. I'll add it onto it. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll. And so we're gonna teach you today about we we we, which helps when you want to scale scale scale. So there's lots of cool things that are going to happen for you today. So we're going to talk about we can't do it alone, and we have an incredible crew. Now I am going to, for those that are listening, give us two seconds. For those that are viewing, I'm going to literally call some names. I just want you guys, my guests here to just hold your hand up so people know who it is, and then I'm going to get you to introduce yourself. So we've got Stacy, we've got Brittany, we've got Todd, we've got Angelica, Vanessa, Susan, we've got Leah, we've got Mandy, and we've got Adina here to rock your "We Can't Do It Alone" world. So same question for all of you, because everyone wants to take

advice, but I always say it's important to know who you're taking advice from. So, just in a bit of time here, I'm going to start with you, Brittany. If you can just tell us who you are and what business you have, what sector do you come from?

I'm Brittany Ashley, and I'm the owner founder of a company called Creative Dynamic Virtual Services, and we help service-based businesses to really look at your full ecosystem, so the strategy, marketing, and everything else. But then the most important part is mindset. So I'm also a certified business coach and posture syndrome coach and trauma with money practitioner.

Fantastic, awesome, and let's go. Let's go, Susan.

Hi, I'm Dr. Susan Blumberg. I'm a parent, teen, and young adult coach, and I help families of teens and young adults go from chaos and conflict to mutual trust, respect, and connection. Helping teens and young adults becoming the successful, independent adults that they're meant to be.

Ooh, Lori, how are you? A friend of teenager. All right, Stacy.

So wonderful to be here with everyone. I am a sales success strategist, along with being a five-time number one global best-selling author, TEDx presenter, featured in the award-winning Zero Limits movie, which has just recently surpassed a million views, and what I love to do is for women entrepreneurs primarily, who all know all about know like trust. You've got that going on, but when it comes to making the offer, you freeze up, you go dark, and it doesn't happen. My lighthouse path gets your light turned back on for you to be able to shine your brilliance, and for the people who you want to have say yes to you, they actually say yes.

All right, thank you so much. We've got Mandy. Hi. I have a skincare business called Sea Dragon Organic that I run from Australia, but at the moment I'm living in Houston, Texas. And what I'm really focusing on at the moment is just sharing some of the the truths and dare I say, industry secrets that I learnt when I went back to study cosmetic chemistry, which was only in my late 40s, so part way through, you know, my career working in the beauty space, and I was actually really blown away with just how they use formulations to, I guess, try and control the narrative. And people often buy; they're not sure what they're really buying. So my focus is on lifting the veil on marketing in skincare, and I'm really excited to be here this afternoon.

I'm really thank you. We are as well. And Todd,

yeah. Hi, thanks everybody. My name is Todd Lingle from Cares Foundation. I have a nonprofit. When I was three years old, my mom and my sister were killed by a drunk driver, and so I've been affected on a lot of different ways, and we go around and talk to kids. We talk to kids about social media awareness, kids not only they're talking to. We talk about distracted driving, marijuana use today, and really, when it comes down to it, we help kids make better choices in life, and then help them and just save lives all the way around. That's what we're about.

Awesome, awesome. Thanks for being here, Todd and Adina. Hi there. I'm Adina. I am an oncology nurse, a public speaker, and creator of Caddywampus. So, Caddywampus is a quirky, clever word strategy game designed to help wake your brain up in the morning. We are pioneering something I call productive play, fun that feels good and does good. It actually started with this weird little thing I did in my head, but it actually took on a much bigger purpose as I have been the caregiver to three women in my family with dementia and Alzheimer's, and that's really where Caddywampus lives. It's designed to be as simple, simple enough to fit into everyday life, challenging enough to get you thinking differently and fun enough to get you to come back. So ultimately, we're helping people do their part to keep their noggin sharp.

Oh, great! I love that. Okay, Vanessa.

Hi, my name is Vanessa Celiazar, and I'm the founder of Mariposa Sources and the creator of Energies of Brilliance. And my work really helps focus high-capacity people, especially entrepreneurs, creatives, leaders, and over-functioners, understand how their brilliance naturally expresses itself, so they can build businesses and lives that actually support them. So the heart of my work is the belief your brilliance was never meant to become burnout because we try to do it all as entrepreneurship teaches us to wear every hat. So I help people step back and ask, "What is this actually costing me? How can I be sustainable? We don't want to perform brilliance. We want to live our best lives.

Awesome. And Angelica, welcome to the show. Thank you. Hello, everyone. My name is Angelica Ventrece. I'm a leadership performance coach of 15 years, TEDx speaker as well. I started out in holistic health coaching and then shifted to leadership performance coaching because I found the work that I was doing was so much deeper than health. I was working with clients' mindsets and identity. So I'm the creator of the identity trap, and really the crux of it is is the identity that created your success holding you back from the next level. And do you have the courage to be disloyal to who you've been in order to

be honest about who you were coming? All right, what an incredible crew we have for you today, audience! I'm sure you were feverishly writing all of that down. It should know you can watch us over and over again. Okay, so let's go back to you, Brittany. Let's all answer this question. So clearly, you're all doing your passion. Clearly you're on path. Clearly you're on it. What was the moment you realized you couldn't do it alone? And if you can remember, what was a result of not doing it alone? What was something that changed after you had that epiphany or that need, Brittany.

Yeah, well, I actually started the business to help moms work from home. So a good chunk of us are moms. When I started, I was with one kiddo, and then the second kiddo. When the second kiddo came along, I realized I can't do it by myself. So I was juggling business, a team, and everything else in between. I'm really good at setting up systems and pretending that I can do everything because the imposter syndrome thoughts of like being the expert and perfectionist. I just really felt like if I put my hand up for saying help, that everyone would be like, "Oh, well, she's doing strategy and all these things. She obviously can't do it or build my business as well. With that, I started asking my own team for help because obviously I had them on my side, and we've kind of organically grown together. And I totally understand as a founder and entrepreneur. Sometimes it's hard to let go on the imposter syndrome thoughts that you're not good enough.

Wow. Okay. So we have. Got two questions for you. I want you to introduce yourself, and if you could answer that question as well about what was the moment that you realized you couldn't do it alone, and what changed after you did.

So first of all, let me introduce myself real quick. I thought it's like everybody got around. It's like what happened to me here? Okay, she forgot me. Anyway, thank you for the opportunity. I believe everyone has a story, and your story can heal, can connect, and can do a lot of inspiration for other people. So I come to this country 40 years some 40 some years ago as a refugee, and it took a long time for me to find my voice. And sometimes, you know what you do to your voice is important, but what you use your voice with a purpose is to create more impact for lives. So what I do is I have two platforms. One is called Thai Financial Legacy, where I educate women's and families about their financial well preparedness, and then the other one is Kashi Echoes globally, which is a platform for people to come to share their story and you know connect with each other. So that's what I do. And the second question again was, what was the moment you realized you couldn't do it by yourself? That so many moment as an entrepreneur, right? We are not going to be able to be succeed if we alone, a solopreneur, is not a successful entrepreneur. And I, I think that we all need a community. We need collaboration. We need partners. We need virtual assistant, in person, assistant, anything shape or way form that you can because successful business owners have a community and also have their support system. So I truly believe in that.

Thank you, thank you. And Susan, over to you. What was the moment you realized you couldn't do it alone, and a result of that?

Well, you know, I had been a therapist for 30 years, doing it on my own when I wasn't working in an agency. I was in private practice. Always did it part time. Had children. Raised my children. All the things. Then COVID came, and the first thing I did was, oh, how do I get my name out there? Hired a branding and marketing coach. Still thought I could do it on my own. I could learn a whole new business, right? Not just be the coach, be the branding and marketer. That was 2020. This is 2026 years. It still took years before I admitted that I couldn't do it all. And as Deb knows, because we've talked about this, and she's one of the people I've hired to help me get everything out there. I fought having to hire anyone else, having to delegate any part of my business, because after 30 or 40 years of doing it on your own, you don't think you need anybody else, and it's really just been the last year that I have learned to hire. I now have a VA. I have a marketing person. I have a publicity person. I have people that I go to when I need something done, and the turnaround was realizing that despite all the money I was spending on excellent coaches, excellent branding programs, excellent training. I wasn't bringing in enough money to pay for it. It was coming out of my retirement savings. It was coming out of the little amount that I was bringing in, and I was not supporting the retirement program I wanted, so to actually make money, I had to spend money and hire people to do it right.

Thank you for that. That's a magical moment. And Stacy, what about for yourself?

I had actually two moments. The first was I really am the poster child for burnout. I believed that anything worth doing was worth doing myself, and even though I had a team, they I had hired a team that proved me right. That if I wanted it done right, I had to do it myself. Just say it, and I wound up in bed for two years and three months. Well, I thought I had learned from my experience, I started bringing people in. I did personal development work. Things were getting better, but then I decided to come off the road. Up to that point, I was doing networking morning, noon, and night in person, and I wanted to do social media. And I'm like, how hard could it be? Well, I found out, I you can't just copy what other people are doing. I didn't know what an algorithm was, and I wound up in Facebook jail six times in five months. Yeah, finally, six times I went to a friend and I said, "All right, I give up, Uncle." Tell me who to go to, and that was the beginning of me hiring people, collaborating with people, and I I can't remember the last time I had the thought that anything worth doing is worth doing myself. Is anything worth doing is worth doing with someone else?

My goodness, I am loving this transparency. We are helping so many people by sharing exactly what we're sharing today, and it's also showing people how all of you became so successful, is that inner wisdom started to speak. And wow, thank you, Stacy, Mandy, over to you.

It was during my current business. This is actually my second skincare business, and my first business was with my beautiful cousin, and it meant that with every thought, every decision, every idea, I had someone to bounce my ideas off of. And then we parted ways. I decided to start a new business and become a solopreneur, as Lee said. And yeah, it's really hard to ask questions, and then there's no one else in the room to answer them. So I ended up joining a business group in Adelaide, in Australia, where I was living, and it was for business mums, and it was absolutely brilliant because you could get together socially, get together on Zoom if you wanted to, and just talk about all of those things, and that that every business owner has, whether it's you know your social media or accounts and tax, and there's so so many things that no matter what area of business you're in, we we have in common. So yeah, it was that moment where I realized I was literally talking to no one and needed to get some more humans in my life,

right on, right on. Thank you so much, Todd.

Yeah, I would have to say it's actually before I started Cares Foundation in my 30s. My mom, when my mom and sister were were killed when I was three, they didn't think it affected me at all. And in my 30s, it all came out. I had a shotgun in my mouth. I almost committed suicide, and at that point, for me, it was God pulling me out of that situation, and I was able to go to counseling. And through that counseling, learning that I have general separation anxiety, I learned that I can't do everything myself. I needed help at that time, and that's really when I understood not doing things by yourself. So when I started Cares Foundation, it was like, all right, who can I get to help me? Because you know what, I need this, this, this. And so you know, I had I had to network already a little bit, and so I've gotten some help that way. And and that's that's really the point. And I really learned that hey, you know what? We're on this earth, yes, but we're not here alone, and we need to ask for the help. The help is there. We just have to ask for

it. Thank you so much for sharing. I mean, really profound, and I think that's very impactful in relationship to we are entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, creatives. I always say, doesn't matter if you have two MEs or two businesses, it's all the same thing. You're building to your next bill, whatever that looks like, and sometimes the epiphanies, or the movement, or the need shows up in our personal world.

Yep,

and it's something that we need to alter in our business world, and sometimes vice versa. Sometimes vice versa. So you know, it's the same human doing passion and path. Okay, thank you so much, Edina. What was your moment?

I knew almost immediately, early on, that I was going to need help bringing a app to life because even though I had a background in business and a background in marketing, I had this much technical experience. But I've often said a good nurse doesn't know all the answers. A good nurse knows her resources, and so that's a skill set I tapped into almost immediately. I just started asking a whole bunch of questions, talking to a whole lot of people, and learned that the right people bring perspectives, experience, and ideas that can make what you're building better than what you could have built alone. And so I know Kattywamp is inside and out, and I know where I want to take it. But I've never believed I have to be the smartest person in the room to get it there.

Well said. Thank you so much, Vanessa.

Yeah. So I started my career at 19 years old in corporate life, and I saw the different departments, and I realized when I started my business, that every business needs those different departments, and one person can't do it all because that's not how it's run in the corporate world. So I couldn't afford to hire people. So I had interns, and the first intern I had was amazing, and we were so successful, and I loved working with her. So when the second session came around, I ended up with a team of seven. But I quickly realized that scaling that quickly is not sustainable. It was more work trying to find them work to do than actually. Doing it with just one other person, so it was a lot of layers.

That brings up a really good point too. I think as people start to expand, one of the things that we hear, one of the things that we experience, is there is a growth period, right? Like if you hire somebody for something, there's a growth period of training them getting to know you. Stacy talked about it, and Susan talked about the marketing piece. So now they put, you know, it's your social media team. There is a growth time. So if you hear anything up here, people don't wait till you're on your knees, you know, before you, because it's going to take maybe three months for someone to be able to talk your voice or understand your marketing or understand your financial or understand your rhythm so well, well said. Thank you for raising that point. And Angelica,

yeah, to that point, hire before you're ready. That was one of the greatest things I learned from one of my business coaches. So the moment for me was when I had my online holistic health coaching company, and all of a sudden I went from like two clients to 30. You know, like we all said, we're doing everything. Then I started to notice I was making a mistake on a program, or I forgot this thing to do, and I was like, okay, I need help. But at that point, I had so many clients. So then you have to take a step back, train the new coaches that you bring on. So it's always like just that reminder to like hire before you're ready, because like you said, Deb, there's gonna be that transition period where you have to train the people you bring on, which can sometimes cause a dip in your business because you're spending all that energy, time, and focus to then get it to the next level. So always my biggest piece of advice there: be hire before you're ready. But yeah, that that was a moment for me. Too many clients, little mistakes, dropping the ball in certain areas where I was like, okay, I can't, I can't be doing everything by myself.

Thank you, and I, I, I mean, I love also Leo what you said in terms of building a community around you. I think that's a critical piece. Let's talk about something because everyone talks about growth in a different way, and I think what you've done is you've all put a flashlight onto what was and what it is that you did when you knew that that was that you were having that experience in relationship to I can't do this on my own and growth for everybody is such a different just such a different definition you know growth could for some if somebody could say oh I really need to grow that could be their social media grow could be bringing somebody else on grow could be to raise their prices grow could be all sorts of different ways in terms of the success of growth. So as you have all experienced having to reach out or reach up or add whom you needed to your team to be able to grow, can you let's get fun? Let's get excited on the show. Let's get people excited about this entrepreneur thing, right? And what has been one of your? I'm going to switch it around a little bit. I'm going to put growth in a success conversation. What was one of the most coolest, amazing forms of success that's happened from the growth that's happened from you making these hard decisions to let go and let someone else take part of the reign. Like, what has been some of that party for you? I'll, you know, for me, I'll just throw it an example. Is, you know, I always say that, you know, while everybody's working, that's when I go do the things that I don't want to go do when it's super busy. So I'll go hang out. You know, one of my most I love architecture, and there's this gorgeous church in our town, um, where both my kids were Christian, and I'll go Tuesday afternoon. There's like three tourists in there, right? And I'll go, and I'll just have peace and quiet to myself. To me, that is that's an extension of my growth, and one of the things that I get. Or there isn't a, you

know, there isn't a celebration or a birthday or something really important for my kids I've ever missed. Never had to be part of my world. I've been entrepreneuring for a while, and my daughter's, you know, a little older than my son. I've just, I've just never missed anything. So that's just an example of some of the success, the things that rock my world, and I'm going to go back to you, Brittany. That's that's wow. These people that are listening to us and make them excited about being like prayers.

Well, I'll just kind of jump off kind of what you're saying, Deb. Like I mentioned, I started this business to help moms work from home to break out and really talk about societal norms of how we as women sometimes we have to work a nine to five, and then we forget and lose our path to of the bum side. So in essence, I started this business to help moms work from home, and my growth is also my personal development of how much I've grown to even talk on stages to, or I'd be so scared and tuck in the corner kind of situation to just being able to be with my kiddos, like this whole summer, I decided to take off because I was on feeling like a state of brown, and that's like really important to know when you're an entrepreneur, when you have ADHD, when you're hyper focused all the time. But that's the self development piece, and really recognizing where those pieces come in, and making sure you. Take a step back and really enjoy those little moments. Are so good.

Wow! So what I heard you got to take the summer off. That's awesome, Susan. What about for yourself?

Well, for a long time, I had said I would protect Friday and Saturday afternoons. My my daughter, who's grown, she's 31 now, likes to have Saturday afternoons with me. It was our time to binge watch television. A lot of us are talking about family time as something we protected, but I lost it. I lost all that extra time because I was having to do so much in terms of making calls and attending networking and just keeping up with my business, I had social media to do. I had so much to do, and just in the last oh, I would say three or four months, am I starting to be able to protect some of that time again? And I'm breathing a little more than I was. I'm breathing to to say I can take that Friday afternoon off. People can wait to see me till next week, just because a client wants to see me on a Friday afternoon. They can wait till Monday so that I can have a breath of air. Because like Stacy, I have had burnout periods. I don't want to do that again. So protecting my time is the most important thing.

And what I love is that we're talking about different places and different places in different stages. And so the gift of the growth of the not doing alone and all of that. If you're listening and you're not experiencing that yet, it's okay. You're in the right place doing the right thing. These are the kind of bonuses and benefits that you get when that shows up for yourself, right? When you have that epiphany and you're moving through growth, that's awesome! Yay, Stacy.

Well, for me, I I don't have children. I now have a 90 year old mother who's needing my attention, and so things are shifting. I'm going to say that having the team allowed me to have tremendous growth in many ways. Starting from once, once I learned, I'm going to say I I hired a group of people to help me get my first book out. Then I, instead of self-publishing, I went with a traditional publisher, and then they got it out to a lot of influencers, and things just kept getting better and better. So I always look for ways to collaborate on projects, and I'm going to say that's the freedom I have. As my business has gotten larger, as people know me, and I've got a track record of keeping my word, then it makes it easier and easier to be able to organize, if you will, or jump into someone else's project, and and it's just fun. It's fun to be at a place of growth, or people want to play with me, and I want to play with

them. Ooh, I'm hearing personal success from Brittany and Susan, and I'm hearing business success. Mandy, down to you.

For me, I guess I had the privilege of having, you know, the business first time round, and then a bit of a gap, and wrote a business plan for my current business before I even started anything. So I had that opportunity to look at what what do I love, what do I enjoy, what am I good at, and what don't I like, and then from the get go, planned to outsource all of those things that I'm either not brilliant at or absolutely don't like, and for me, the biggest one was making the actual skincare. So my previous business, I would spend days and days in a warehouse with big equipment, and I would make you know 1000s of kilos of this stuff and have to watch it, check it, bottle it, all of that. And I really didn't like that. I like creating the products and coming up with the formulations, but I don't like making great big vats of it. So that was one of the first things I outsourced was to find a contract manufacturer who could make organic products and in small batches. So they needed, you know, not 100 100,000 kilowatts at a time. You know, only say 50 50,000 grams at a time. I should say. So yeah, to me, that that's part of it. Like, what? Where do you want the help? Get the help in those areas of your business that either you're not great at or you don't love, and that might be different for each of us depending on what we

do, fantastic! Thank you so much. And Todd, what about yourself?

Well, I would say for growth and fun of it, really for me, it's excitement when a kid says, "Hey, you helped us actually have a voice and talk. That's like wonderful. And then one of the things we do at Caris Foundation for. Number of group homes we bake birthday cakes for them. So my fiance actually is a good cake baker, and she makes the cakes, and I deliver them. And so, you know, I got a text today. They're like, "Man, the cake looks amazing. I'm like, "Yeah, I didn't do that. If it was me, it would have been a brive. So, you know, just those times are great when we get that opportunity.

Wow! So personal joy, personal satisfaction, or just Adia. Well, I just have to tell you, I love this question because you know I'm all about brain health, and our brains thrive in community and connections. So this is just such a great question. But for me, you know, I'd been I'd done business, I had done nursing, I had never ventured into this tech startup realm. So really plugging into a startup community was really helpful for me because then I was surrounded by other people who were also building companies, dealing with that same daily grind, the setbacks, the wins, that constant problem solving, and there's something incredibly valuable when you realize you're not alone, and and it also accelerated learning. Right, so instead of trying to figure every lesson out myself, I could actually learn from people who had gone before me, and then you know I've been doing this now for three years, and so now I'm able to help others who are just starting out, just like someone poured into me three years ago. So, it's fun to see it all come full circle.

Wow, I'm hearing personal joy as a celebration of the growth. I'm hearing mentorship, learning, personal development. This is super cool, Vanessa. What about yourself? A growth, success, something that you know, as a result of,

as a result of, yeah,

yeah,

working remotely. So I was able to spend a week watching my high school friend's children when she went on her honeymoon. She lived out of state in southern Caldern South Carolina at the time, and so I got to spend a week out there taking care of her sons. I got to spend three weeks in Oakland helping my sister prepare for her second baby. So just being able to remote work has been great.

Wow! How about yourself? Thank you so much, Leah. Success from the growth.

Yes, I love that question, and I resonate with many moms in the young stage with young kids because that's how I walk out of my corporate life almost 20 years ago. And when my son was young, and I love the part that I was able to spend all my time to cater to his like import in my own right, so you don't want to miss anything, and I love that. And now he's a grown man away from home, and I felt that the growth is. I'm not just having a business, but I have a bunch of sisterhood. I have my mastermind group. I have friends that you know understand the journey that I am going through. They're going through the same, and we went to retreat for a fun and some beautiful business idea just born out from that. And the growth is, you know, when you put great mind together, they just multiply, and you know, those are the friendship that not just my business grow, but also the friendship that who I have in that journey also grow, and I really appreciate that.

Fantastic, Angelica.

So one of the first things I told myself when I became an online entrepreneur was that I was going to get a dog. I didn't have the dog growing up, and then like Vanessa, I went right into corporate, you know, corporate world, pharmaceutical sales. You cannot have a dog, so I got a dog. That's one of the biggest personal joys of my entire life. And every Friday, it's Beach Friday, so there's no computer work. I'll work from the beach with him, but that just brings me so much joy. And then also just the ability, you know, like Vanessa said, we lived in Costa Rica for a month. We were in Italy for a month, and then to just piggyback on what Mandy said too. One of the other, I say professional pieces of joy is like just getting things off your plate that you hate. Like I don't like techy stuff. Like active campaign, go high level. Do I understand it? Can I teach myself? Have I spent hours staring at the screen trying to figure a funnel out and then doing it? Of course, but it's just not my zone of genius. So I'd rather pay someone to do it. So as you, you know, the beginning, you like we said, we try to do everything, but being able to get little techy things like that off my plate and let me focus on making reels, writing my copy because I like doing that stuff, like I like to be creative. So for me, there's the you know the personal and professional joy in those two areas. So

ooh, I love that personal and business joy, professional joy. Okay, someone's gonna hashtag that today. Hashtag professional joy. I love that, Angelica. This is fantastic. This is fantastic. I love the variety. If there's anything I love about group shows, is everyone's different take on and experience to that place of success, whatever that looks like. Here's a really interesting question I want. Ask you because we're talking about not doing it alone. So the automatic thought would be something like partnering, joint venturing, collaborating, networking, masterminding. But tell us a little bit about that journey for you. Not everybody was jumping up and down about having to be on stage or talk on stage, or people had to learn how to shake someone's hands. Like it may not have been your zone of ease; it had to be your zone of learning. More than likely, some people are natural at it. I mean, Leah, I mean, you talked, and we were like, are like, oh, we went over two times. So we obviously, but was that learned? Was that something that you came with? So let's talk a little bit about that. So Brittany, back to you.

Definitely not. Like I was a shy one. I like to sit in the the corner and be quiet and just look at the room and make sure it's safe before I even speak up. However, now I'm actively within the chamber, going to be vice president next year, actively in the community. I do a lot of speaking events, going to be at Startup Canada this year. So, looking back from what I would have been like five years ago to now, I'd like, oh my goodness, you're crazy because that's not Brittany at all. But I, I've learned that I thrive off of it too. It's like my dopamine hit. So I've come a long way.

You've come a long way. Awesome, thank you.

And let's go to Souza. I like speaking almost as much as I like working with the teens and young adults. Speaking is so much fun, and So, I what's really funny to me is my family likes to sit in the hallway when I'm doing these podcasts, or I appear on a summit or a stage because they just like to listen to me talk about what I do. I have so much enthusiasm for helping families. It's my passion. Whether I was doing it as a therapist or now a coach, and speaking on stages, that's not the part I hate at all. That's not the part I want to delegate. I want to get on more stages and more stages and more stages.

Okay, so collaborating and partnering and relationshiping easy for you, fantastic!

Oh, in fact, I one of my advantages of being on on podcasts and summits and having events of my own is inviting guest speakers to come be on my stages. Yeah, that's been such a pleasure partnering with new people, finding people who are in my my you know, sphere, and saying let's do stuff together. Let's create new things.

Very cool. Well, new things and creating. Stacy, I'll pass over to you. Well,

I'm like Susan, and my degrees were in public relations, marketing, advertising, radio and television Production. I love speaking. I joined Toastmasters right away when I got into business and became National Speakers Association speaker. That said, the tech stuff. First thing I will always offload. I know what I want to say. I want someone to help me get it out there. So having the team that I rely on, both for my social media, I tell them what I want to say. They make it great, and then they distribute it. But also the other things, the the website, the platforms, the funnels. I do not need to do that at all anytime, and I'll just say that.

Okay, okay, I think we got it. We're that landed. That landed. So we're hearing a lot of things that you know that were easy for people and things that were tougher for people, and they could be vice versa, right? So, but talking about not doing it alone, this learning curve of how to network, how to ask. Oh my goodness, I have an ask party. Let me tell you, it can be tough for people to ask. Soloists have a hard time asking unless you force them into a group. Adina,

well, I'm a big fan of collaboration. It's really how you survive in the hospital as a nurse, right? But one thing that I've learned is some of the most challenging parts of your business don't magically go away because you ignore them, right? They're still there. You eventually have to address them, even though they're painstakingly awful at times, but I think, like as a founder, you have to be self-aware enough to recognize the difference between something you need to learn and something where the business really needs a skill set that you don't have, and so to be able to bring in that talent when needed, and that doesn't necessarily mean hiring. Someone full time. It may be hiring a consultant or fractional someone that can just do what you need them to do, so you can move forward. And so that's typically when I bring someone in.

Mandy, over to you. Relationships, partnering.

Yeah, I guess I went through. I love what you just said, Adina. That yeah, sometimes you do just have to be the one that does the learning, and I guess upskill yourself. In my previous business, I was the one holding the camera, and my cousin was the face of the business, and she did all the social media and all the standing on stages, and being you know, the solopreneur, I realized, oh heck, I have to do that now. So I started practicing with my. I got an Instagram account for my pets, and I thought I'll just post every day, and I'll work. I didn't even know what hashtags were like. I had no idea how it worked, but I just thought you just have to start somewhere. You just have to do it and seek out people who can give you the skills that you need. And I've worked with Deb to improve my media skills, and actually gave a a keynote early this year, which was amazing because I learnt a lot from it. I wasn't perfect, but it was the first one, and it was a step in the right direction, so yeah, absolutely, yeah. Love what you said, Adina. That sometimes we do have to, yes, learn to do it ourselves.

Well, I'm just going to say she rocked it and like got four words for four products. But anyway, she did okay. Todd,

yeah, I will go with previous business I was in. I did a lot of networking, so networking has been one of those things that's come easy to me. But getting to ask the people after you're getting networking, and it's it's all about who you meet and who you can get introduced to to help you out, and that's probably the that's been the best thing for me because you know I get introduced to different people and I I really target when I go into talk to try to find that person that can help with what I need help with and so I don't just go just to network just to meet lots of people at first I did and then I was like okay I need to hone this down so I'm not spending a lot of time, but the biggest thing too with me is I feel comfortable when I do get on stage and speak, and then I'm like, okay, am I okay at speaking? Am I not okay at speaking? So I went to a professional speaking school. He goes, "You're good, but you're not great yet. I'm like, "All right, help me get great. So you know that's where I'm working on myself, and and the other thing is it's just it's not about me; it's about what everybody else. We can help everybody else, and the bottom line, I mean, I say it all the time: saving lives for us.

Wow, so good, so good. All right, Leah.

So speaking is that I think is not a born skill. I come from a culture that was not encouraging girls to talk to speak up. So I didn't know that I would suppress all my my voice all my life until I have my own business, and then I'm start thinking, okay, my business started 2006, 2008. The market. tanked. So what do I do now? So that's when I'm started going to Toastmaster and giving out show and speaking and ask for collaborating, and that's the biggest thing. I don't ask to buy my stuff. I ask how can I help you to help your business in return. We can help each other, and I'm big on that component. And you know, learning to speak, like I said, it is a skill. The more you speak, the more confidence you have. And by the time I didn't even know that I have the confidence, tell people tell me go apply for TEDx, and I did, and I, I did on that, and I become a TEDx coach, and then I become, you know, things that I never thought that I could do. Writing a book, a memoir, telling my horrible story of of how we get to America. But the more I think that you are sincerely being vulnerable and let people know the real you, the more people will trust you and want to do business with you. So I'm learning to ask, how can I help you? It's not about me because then I don't feel you know awkwards or or things that you know. So yeah, collaborating is the big things for me, and I love to invite people to my podcast and share their story. It's called from surviving to thriving, and we are thriving at some point, so that's my story.

That's a story. Beautiful, Vanessa.

Yeah. So I started podcasting myself, and it was interview style of really interviewing service providers, and I realized that. Every business needs an accountant. Every business needs a copywriter, and every business needs a VA. And I worked with those girls to create a bundle package as a lead magnet. But then that led into the whole energies of brilliance, where we can't do it all. We need people to help us be successful because it's exhausting trying to do everything in a business,

Angelica.

So I started selling when I was 16. I sold sneakers in the mall in Long Island, New York, where I'm from, and I realized very quickly that I was good at it. And what I loved about it was just talking to different people. So I guess I've always maybe been a little bit of a talker. Like I'll talk to, I say hi to people when I'm running in the supermarket. So I love talking, I love speaking, I love being on stages, like Susan, more stages, yes, please. And then with networking, like Leah said, it's it's being intentional, and it's not just about you. I think young me would be like, okay, I need people to hire me. This now it's like, how can I help you? Can we collaborate? Let's just build a genuine connection and see where it goes. The old me, and I'll fully be vulnerable in the mythus, would just go away with an agenda, like to have someone hire me, get me on stage. And now, as I've grown, I'm like, no, it's not. It's not about that. If someone likes me and they want to hire me, they want to bring on great. And I love collaborating. You mentioned the word soloist earlier. I've been alone in my business for quite some time, so I like doing programs with other people. Do we have? Can you lead on something and I lead on something, and we come together and marry it together? So I think collaboration is such a beautiful thing in the world of entrepreneurship.

Fantastic! Oh my gosh, I am. I have no doubt because we hear from our audience that they are writing feverishly. We're going to do a quick round robin. Seriously, a round robin, and don't get caught up on the last part of this. I'm going to go around 30 seconds. 30 seconds. If you have one thing to say to somebody, if there's one message that you could leave today, we're going to go 30 seconds. In that 30 seconds, and Brittany's going to go, "Oh my gosh, you're going to go to me first, and I am. But Brittany, I think you know this question. In that 30 seconds, you are going to leave your absolute favorite song you are listening to, or band, or musician for that to go anchor. Don't worry about Angelica. I saw your eyes go up. There's not sure someone that you're listening to. So, Brittany, 30 seconds to give advice. Do this and listen to this. Let's rock the end of the show.

Okay. Now my brain's thinking of what music. I would say everyone has a seat at the table, and if someone says that you don't have a seat at the table, make your own table.

Perfect. And a song that you like, or an art, an artist that you like.

I always say the song that describes my life is unstoppable. So we'll go with that with Sia.

We'll go with that. All right. See you then. 30 seconds, girl.

My advice is: don't wait as long as you think. Get that held sooner, sooner, sooner. And the song that I'm taking to all my events with me right now. Is this is me from the Greatest Showman?

Perfect, Stacy.

Yes, I'm gonna say notice when you are feeling like you're overwhelmed. When that word starts going through your head a lot, that is a clue that you are doing too many priorities yourself. So that's my advice. And then do something about it. Get help. And the song is the one that's just in my mind right now is "I Feel Good" by James Brown.

I feel good.

That's

it. Okay, man. I feel good. Yep,

I would say that perfection can be the the biggest negative for small business owners. Just take action, even when things aren't perfect. Don't wait for things to be perfect because you might never get off the ground or you might just never get into action. And I have been listening to an old song from my childhood called Annie's song, and I think it's by is it Don McLean or Don? No, it's John Denver. John Denver. John Denver. And over on the radio a little while ago, what is the name of this song? And I remember it from my childhood. So I've been listening to that a few times in my car lately.

Good old country roads. All right, over to you, Todd. 30 seconds.

I would say, if there's something bothering you in life, there's some time you're gonna have to deal with it. So just deal with it. Ask for help. I always give out my number. So you know, look on here. I give you my number, and this biggest song for me is I worship song is dancing with a dinosaur. Stephen Curtis Chapman.

Perfect. Go dance with some dinosaurs, people. Adina, 30 seconds blocks away.

I would say do it scared. Right? If you wait till you're ready, you'll never do. So do it scared. And then my favorite song right now is "Thankful" by Forrest Frank.

Ooh, very good, very good, Vanessa. Over to you, girl.

Catability is not the same as sustainability, and my favorite artist is Peachka, and she's a high vibe rap artist.

High vibe, high vibe. All right, to you, Leah. 30 seconds.

Okay, so my advice is face your uncomfortable conversation now when you still can. Don't let life force you to a place where you can't really get that conversation. So your financial voice does matter. Bring it to the table. And I I want to say that my favorite hymn, not so much of a song, but it's whenever I'm get anxious, I would sing "Be Not Afraid.

Perfect. All right, Angelica, wrap us up.

Okay,

what got you here won't get you there. So there's certain pieces of your identity that made you successful, but they're often not meant to go to your next level with you. As far as song, the first thing that popped in my head is screen Michael and Janice Jackson. So I'm an old school kind of girl.

Absolutely! What an incredible show! I want to thank all, all, all of you for pouring out, being transparent, dropping gems that are going to change people's businesses of people you probably never will meet, but hopefully do. Thank you, audience, for being incredible, sharing. Do what you do. You always do what you do. We're so grateful to you. We're so happy to announce we are the top 5% of podcasts. That didn't happen with you know me and Carmel rocking out the back. It happened with you. So thank you for doing that for everyone who shows up here. I'm a standup, speak up, show up. Yes, you person. If you want to see yourself sitting on this stage, if you want to see yourself sitting on any stage, if you want to brave up, we will hashtag brave up with you. And I'm going to leave you with the song that I'm getting to last weekend, and that is "Tears for Fears. Love and tears for fears this weekend. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you, audience. Thank you, listeners. Thank you, successful entrepreneurs, for sharing your goodness. And with that fact, we are going to wrap. So be well and stay groovy. Bye for now.