08: Get Off Your But

Kimberly Beer 0:23
Welcome to The Business Animal podcast i’m Kim Beer with Be More Business

Cara Taylor Swift 0:28
And i’m Cara Taylor Swift with Fast Horse Photography

Kimberly Beer 0:30
And today we want to talk to you about a really interesting mindset entrepreneurial topic it’s called setting on your butt now that is setting as s e tt i n g and but as b ut not the bu double t but although sometimes i think it could be the bu tt two

Cara Taylor Swift 0:53
I’m gonna do my best this entire episode to not act like a seven year old every time we say the word but over and over and over and over and over again just to warn everyone right now the seven year old in me is screaming

Kimberly Beer 1:06
Oh it’s a really awesome topic it’s an amazing topic and it’s one that I think I run into with a lot of my entrepreneurial clients and thankfully I don’t always call it setting on your but but but but there’s all kinds of buts you guys are going to enjoy the butt jokes today okay so what do I mean by setting on your but so let me tell you how I ended up with this particular topic in my world so I was with a client who we were at a photo retreat that I was hosting and the airline lost her luggage and so we of course are in Montana in February and you cannot be in Montana in February without clothing like extra clothes right so we went to REI and as i’m standing there in REI waiting for her to pick out her shoes which were ended up being purchased by the airline by the way the airline like bought her an entire wardrobe for the photoshoot and then returned her luggage on top of it all it was really well anyway we’re standing there and i’m waiting for her to pick out some stuff her boots and a jacket and that kind of thing and REI had this wonderful blackboard thing set in the front of their store and in great big giant letters it said “what’s your but?” and people would take a piece of chalk and they would write on the blackboard why they couldn’t go do things outdoors and some of the things that they said we’re just absolutely crazy like they’re spiders you know I mean I think that’s a valid reason to not want to go sleep outside sure but you know others were completely off kilter and had no basis in reality truth was I think if you’re standing in REI you’re either there under duress or you’re there because you like the outdoors so either you’re you’re companioning someone who likes the outdoors or you’re there because you enjoy the outdoors so some of the things that were written on that board I was like you know what this is a topic for my entrepreneurs because when i’m having conversations with them they’re in entrepreneurial ism most of the time because they want to be they’re not doing it because they were forced into it or it was some second thought it was it was a mindful decision they made to become an entrepreneur and the things that they could write what what could they write on this giant chalkboard when it you know what’s your bet as to why you’re not being a successful entrepreneur or why you haven’t started your business or why you haven’t started email marketing you know so what is your budget what is your bet why and why do people get set on their butt so Cara and i proposed this topic to Cara as a good topic to talk about because I think so many of us get set on our buts so we came up with three types of buts so these are three big buts

Cara Taylor Swift 4:16
I love these because these are things I Think we hear all the time so normally we do our big three right guys so today we’re doing the big three buts okay so button number one we’re going to talk about the whiny but that’s the but i can’t because but number two the ducks in a row but but i need and number three the limiting belief but but i’m not and you fill in the rest so let’s talk about number one a little bit

Kimberly Beer 4:43
let’s talk about number one but i gotta tell you i’m really looking forward to the duck but okay so the whiny but but i can’t but i can’t because it’s too much money i can’t because i don’t know how i can’t because i don’t like it i can’t because it’s too hard i can’t because it takes too long or i don’t have enough time to me these are these are always whiny they always come out because they have a easy solution you know generally you can find the solution and and whatever obstacle is in your path it’s probably something you’ve created yourself in other words it’s a diversion from going where you need to go and doing what you do and i fallen victim to this i don’t know how many times i have set on my butt particularly about why can’t do that advertising campaign i don’t have enough money to do it or i don’t have enough money to hire help and yet i’ll look in other areas of my life and i’ll figure out how to spend money on on something else it’s like okay i have enough money to do you know this over here but i don’t have enough money to buy myself help to get more time do you have any whiny buts in your life Cara?

Cara Taylor Swift 6:02
yeah I mean I think for me it’s the I don’t know how but like I tend to use that a lot like oh god I just don’t know how I don’t know how and the truth is is that like you said that this is one of those that’s kind of a it’s not necessarily always an easy fix but we have resources around us today that are like never before for learning how to do things if it’s not something that you can do bring somebody in to help you i mean there’s just so many options out there so yeah I think that’s a good one the whiney but

Kimberly Beer 6:30
the i don’t know how but that particular whine is so easily fixable and I do hear that from clients a lot like particularly around social media marketing but I don’t know how to do facebook marketing facebook has created an entire resource called blueprint that you can go access and it has training modules that will teach you how to do professional level marketing if you want to and then there’s also this wonderful resource that we have called youtube and youtube has countless videos including on my own channel how to do things like market on facebook another but i can’t is because I don’t know what to do actually the weekly episode that I do on on youtube called make it happen monday was a direct response to that but I don’t know what to do i’ll hear from people but i don’t know what to do so i give them one thing you can do this week to build your business and it’s just a short five to seven minute video with one thing and if you go do that one thing you’re gonna prosper for it so the whiny but a good way to get around it is to just figure out whatever it is and go learn it go look at how you spend your money go look at how you spend your time

Cara Taylor Swift 7:44
and i’m sitting here looking at the whiny but i’m thinking about like all the podcast episodes we’ve already recorded that could literally help people with so many of the whiny buts like i don’t have enough time we have an episode that we’re going to be doing an interview on that exact subject or i don’t know how or i don’t like it like there’s all these things that we’ve already put together on previous episodes like the sustainability squat episode and the email marketing that are like resources that are already out there so this is just i just love this little episode that we’re doing just kind of getting people thinking about their buts and you know what are your buts because i think sometimes we forget that this is part of the struggle as entrepreneurs so

Kimberly Beer 8:25
yeah well one of the remedies for your but is to to name it because as soon as you start to name your but it starts to go away your your but will get smaller because you know what it is and then you can figure out a way to fix it every small business owner wants to gain traction in their marketing after three decades of working with small business owners just like you i have developed what i call my four by four marketing method in just 190 minutes session you’ll discover the four major focus areas of a successful marketing plan and together we’ll uncover where your business is getting stuck you’ll leave the session with an action plan of next steps that engage your revenue engine dropped by Be More business.com to request your session today that’s bemorebusiness.com see you there so let’s move on to the second bucket which is the duck but this is the ducks in a row but and this is one that i find i have really participated in in the past and it has ended up costing me a tremendous amount of business and time so the ducks in the row but is the one that starts out with but i need but i need this certificate but i need this experience but i need this piece of software this skill this piece of equipment this giant building i ended up in bankruptcy court over that one so when i started my first business my first official business i there were probably once willed well before that the cat photography business was long before that But this one is my first official like, had a business license and everything. My intention when I started that business was to do it in my house. And then all of a sudden, I had a business partner who had a ducks in a row but and he’s like, but we can’t do it in your house that doesn’t look professional enough. But we need a building, we need to lease a building. But we need this fancy machine. But we need a huge layout table. But we need this. But we need that. And by the time we got all of the ducks in a row, we had no more money to sustain ourselves. And so long story short, after a lot of struggle, heartache and severe depression, I ended up in bankruptcy court, I bought him out before that process happened. So it was all on me at the end. But this this particular book cost me a lot. I see a lot of customers, but I need a new website. But I need new I need new branding. I can’t do my social media.

Cara Taylor Swift 10:57
new branding, and not only new branding, we need new colors and new logo essential in order to move forward in our business. So yeah, that’s a that’s a big ducks in a row. But I was thinking about when I first started my photography business, and I did what they call like the shoot and burn method where you take pictures, and then you hand your client, like a CD or a USB with images. And one of the things that I knew is that that for my particular business wasn’t going to work. And I needed to figure out how to also create a better experience for my client and sell them artwork that they can have in their home. So I was like, but I don’t have a studio space, like how do I Where do I meet with clients? How does, how do I make that happen? And I would tell myself, why can’t move to this in person service experience, unless I had a studio to bring them to. And I would say that to myself over and over again. And it kept me from doing all of the work that I needed to do to get to the place where I was ready to do that. And finally, one day someone told me what they were doing. And they were literally loading their samples into cars and doing the work in their clients homes. And that was an awesome way to do that experience. And so that was my next step getting past the ducks in a row but and moving my business forward was realizing that that was another option. And that it might not be the exact thing that you want. But being able to take baby steps to get there to get your ducks in a row, maybe you’re getting a few of your ducks in a row and the rest of them are still running around out there just kind of getting you moving in the right direction.

Kimberly Beer 12:26
You know, what’s interesting is that over getting to know you as we’ve been doing this podcast and spending so much time together. Yes, Cara and I have gotten to know each other very well in the past few months. One of the things I know that you do are the big pluses in your business is your concierge service, you’re very focused on the service and the experience. And honestly, the way that you solved that ducks in a row, but added to the experience that eventually birthed the type of business that you have where it set you apart from your competition. So rather than looking just like a cookie cutter of another business that did that same type of photo viewing session in their studio, you found a better way to do it that fit what you want it to become as a photographer. And I think that’s the thing with the ducks in the robot, don’t let it get you stuck. If you find yourself really fixating on one thing, like I see a lot of my coach clients, they fixate on the certificate, I have to have this certificate. And then once they get that certificate, they found another program that they want to learn with another skill. And so they never launch because there’s always the next certificate and I get it, I love learning I would be a professional student to be honest with you, if that was a paying job, but you’ve got to launch and you have to launch from where you are. And nothing says you have to stay there. You know, you just start peeling back those layers and get out there and make a difference to look at is a process I guess is the best way to put it. And that’s one step in the process. And I think this but also goes back to perfectionism, which is another thing I think entrepreneurs really are concerned with about like, what’s going to happen if I don’t show up in this perfect way?

Cara Taylor Swift 14:22
Well, some of it comes back to like the whole idea of imposter syndrome.

Kimberly Beer 14:25
Yeah, imposter syndrome. perfectionism. Yeah.

Cara Taylor Swift 14:28
That we’re just getting by faking it until we make it trying to hobbled together when in reality we know a lot more than the clients that we’re going to be working with. So that’s really where you need to be if you can offer value and you can offer assistance and you can give someone a great experience, then you might be at a place to move forward and then keep building from that place

Kimberly Beer 14:48
in our coaching with the coaches in particular if you know one thing more than your customers do in any of these service oriented type of businesses if you have access to knowledge or once step ahead of where your clients are at, you have a valid business, you have a valid business idea, you don’t need more certificates or more experience, start where you are and launch it. And then it’s a process you’re going to grow, your business is going to change and morph, and you’re going to get better at it. And better at it, I promise you, you’ve got to get out there and practice in order to get to that stage though. So don’t wait for the ducks in a row, go ahead and get going on things and create that action, because the action in and of itself moves you forward.

Cara Taylor Swift 15:34
So true. So let’s talk about this next one, the limiting belief but, I’m not good enough. I’m not experienced enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not talented enough, or the one that Kim and I were talking about the other day, I’m not old enough or too old. I’m too old for this. I was talking about how sometimes as women, I remember, you know, I was in positions of leadership really early in my career. And I was pretty young, oftentimes younger than most of the people that I was managing or leading. And I always felt like I was too young and people treated me sometimes like I was too young. And then I hit this like sweet spot, which lasted maybe five years. And then the next thing I know, I’m in this spot where I suddenly feel like I’m too old sometimes when I’m standing around next to other people are working with other folks. So it’s really hard as women, I think sometimes in terms of that limiting belief, but because I mean, are we really supposed to have like, what five good years where we feel like we’re in like, this sweet spot of not being too old or being too young. So, you know, anyway, I was thinking a lot about the limiting belief. But and as I’ve mentioned, in our first episode, you know, the accidental entrepreneur, I spent a great deal of my early career working beside survivors of domestic violence. And one of the things that we know about working with survivors is that a lot of times, they will tell us, they’re not good enough, or they’re not capable of doing things, or they’re never going to be able to keep a job, or there’s a lot of things that they’re saying. And we talk about this idea of where did that where did these beliefs come from? Like, where did these thoughts come from? And the fact is, a lot of times, it’s someone else has said that to them, or has said that to us, maybe you know this, but comes from a place of someone in your life said to you, you know, you’re never going to be successful, or you’re never going to be good enough, or you’re not smart enough to have this job or to have this business or to do this on your own. And you know, I would really encourage people to take a step back. And when these thoughts are running through your head, these negative scripts, where are they coming from? Because the truth is, is that you’re probably are good enough in there are things that you can reflect on in your life, that you can say, you know what, I am smart enough, I have done all these amazing things. And why can’t I do this too? Why can I start my animal business, or I am a good employee or a good worker. And that can be proven by the fact that I’ve had the same job for the last 10 years, and I’ve gotten raises and I’ve been promoted. So I would just strongly encourage people to think about where some of those negative scripts are coming from in terms of the I’m not good enough. But or but I’m not experienced enough. Like, where’s that coming from?

Kimberly Beer 18:13
Where is it coming from? And then going back to the episode that we did on the sustainability squad, this is where your sustainability squad can really step in. This is where your coaches or mentors, they can come in and help you because they can give you the reality check that says, yes, you are or Okay, you don’t feel that you’re experienced enough? How can we fix that? What is it that we can do to get you the experience that you need? Or to get you the employee that knows how to run the complicated machine? So what is it that we can do to problem solve to get you where you want to go? That’s the big reason for building that network is when you feel yourself falling into this bucket and you feel those negative scripts start to come over. The first thing you got to do is get aware that that’s a negative script, right? That it’s not reality. It’s something that’s been written on your psyche and on your soul. And that’s number one. But as soon as you become aware of that, then someone like a coach or a mentor can really help you figure out and brainstorm ways to move past it and to resolve that limiting belief so that it’s it doesn’t have a charge, that’s what I call it, it doesn’t have that electrical charge anymore. You don’t worry about it, you can see it and become aware of it and go oh wow, I used to feel that way. But now I don’t feel strongly about that at all and I’m okay I can move forward. It is perfectly fine to get help, especially when you have a limiting belief. It’s it’s okay to work with a coach. It’s okay to work with a mentor. It’s okay to work with a mental health professional because in my years of being an entrepreneur and helping entrepreneurs I’ve worked with Literally 1000s of entrepreneurs and the mass majority of time, the thing that is keeping them from being successful, has nothing to do with their marketing plan, or their business plan or their business idea, or their abilities, or even the thing that everyone worries about, which is money. It doesn’t have anything to do with that it has to do with exactly this. But something got routed into them very young. And they sometimes aren’t even aware that it’s there. And then once that truth comes out, and they’re able to really look at it and see Oh, wow, that isn’t the truth that what I was telling myself is wrong, I am good enough, I am experienced enough. I’m smart enough. I’m capable enough. I’m talented enough.

Cara Taylor Swift 20:49
And I would encourage people to for this, but the limiting belief, but to gather that proof somewhere so that you have it when you need it. If that looks like testimonials, then pull your testimonials so that when you need them, you can see them, or text messages or your community of supporters that Ken was talking about from our sustainability squad, there are going to be times when you know you’ve done that work, you’ve recognized your budgets, you know what might be holding you back. And sometimes you just need the boost. And you need to be reminded that Gosh, darn it, you are capable being successful. And these are the reasons why because you’ve done this and you’ve done this, and people told you you couldn’t do it and Gosh, darn it, you did it anyway, you did it successfully. your equine based business has unique needs. It’s your job to tell the story of your horse brand. You know what you want to say. But creating or finding powerful storytelling images that grab the attention of your ideal client can be a challenge, especially when you’re busy running your business. That’s why equine industry business leaders turned to fast horse photography, and a library featuring 1000s of searchable images available for businesses just like yours. And guess what 100% of those images are horse related. Now finding the right horse images for your website, social media, and all your other needs is easier than ever find the perfect images for your equine business right now at Fasthorsephotography.com. That’s fasthorsephotography.com.

Kimberly Beer 22:15
One of the things as a speaker, I do a lot of speaking presentations as a volunteer. And believe it or not, my volunteer speaking gigs are sometimes much more brittle than the paid ones, one of the organizations that will actually multiple organizations that I speak for, because they’re nonprofit, they have to prove their impact. And so every time I speak, they hand out assessment forms. So here’s what I started to do, I started to ask to see the forms, because I’m one of those people I want my grade, you know, I like to see my grade, I want to know how I did, partly because I like the approval, I will admit that freely. And partly because I want to know what I can do better to make a difference. I think that’s an important piece. And they asked questions on those questionnaires that are critical information for that I started photographing the positive comments because there’s a little section on the the questionnaire that people would leave could they could leave a little comment and people would leave things It was a very short line. So it’d be usually things like we love Kim or Kim did an amazing job or Kim taught me this or, you know, keep having him speak now occasionally there would be somebody who wrote something nasty in there, you know, and when women complain, it was an anonymous, I’m guessing it was a woman because I don’t know if men would notice this, but she didn’t like my nail polish color. She thought it was distracting, you know? I was like thinking, yeah, that was a comment that I think spoke more loudly about her than it did about me anyway, so I photographed those and I keep them in my phone. And when I run across that person who comments like oh, my fingernail polish color, and I get down on myself going I shouldn’t be up there speaking in front of people that are old enough thing I’ve got these gray hairs now I’m hoping people see that their wisdom and not out of date because I teach things that are young people’s world, social media marketing, you know, technology, things that you don’t consider somebody in your, in their 50s to be excelling at. So I look at those and I see the impact that I make and I understand in my values because I’ve worked through my values that making a difference is my number one value. And so when I can look through that it helps me feel in alignment with my values and know that I am doing the right thing. I am making a difference for a lot of people I can’t make a difference for everyone but I am making a difference for a lot of people. And it keeps me positive and it keeps me moving forward. So what may seem like a little bit of an egotistical practice actually helps me combat this particular but that I got from my family when I was a kid, and it just can get triggered really easily. And that helps me Stop that.

Cara Taylor Swift 25:07
Well, I think a lot of people are probably like you like I did training for years and years. And they did the same thing. They were grant funded. So they had to show through the survey how the training went, and what people were getting out of it, basically. And it was the same thing I would go through, and I would have 25 super positive, amazing testimonials or reviews. And then there would be one that had some snarky comments about my hair or my low voice or something, you know, that would be that would be there. And I would dwell on the one as opposed to being excited about the 25 that were super positive. So that’s what kind of where I was coming from. With that, it’s like, you’re gonna have days in business where you don’t feel like you’re good enough, or their butts are gonna be popping up everywhere, you know, your ducks are going to get out of their line and you’re going to be feeling kind of whiny about something, you know, you’re going to be not believing in yourself. But collecting all of that positive stuff so that you can re bolster yourself to move forward. I think that’s been super helpful. For me,

Kimberly Beer 26:06
it’s a huge, it’s a huge piece of it. And I think that this, but is one that keeps a lot of people from posting on social media, because they’re worried what people are going to say to them, and then that is going to trigger one of these limiting beliefs. And you can’t do that there are going to be haters on social media, there are people that that’s all that they do. And because they’re anonymous, they can do it very well delete them and move on. It honestly says far more about them than it does about you. And so if anything, offer them compassion, because living in that space must be absolutely miserable. So we’ve gone over the three big buts, three big buts. But number one is the whiny but then there’s the ducks in a row. But I’ll tell you a secret about ducks. If you’ve never raised ducks, if they’re in a row, they’re not in a row for very long. So laugh at it for what it is and see if you can let it go. Cuz that’s the best way to get rid of that one and then the limiting belief but so we do have some advice that we’ve given you along the way that I want to reiterate, buts are really interesting. I say in my blog post that I wrote about the buts that I found on that board and REI, you know, they’re like Rumpelstiltskin. If you give them a name, if you call it out, they disappear, they lose their power. So once you can identify that you’re setting on your butt, you call it out by its name, say it out loud, recognize it, say it three times magically. And they will start to lose their power. I know I’m not going to say they’re going to completely disappear, but they do start to lose their power. And I think that’s a really important one when you recognize it, but call out the truth about that but

Cara Taylor Swift 27:57
and flip the script. And you know, if, if you’re telling yourself, I’m never going to be able to leave my job and start my own business, you need to figure out where that buts coming from.

Kimberly Beer 28:07
Exactly, definitely look at where it’s coming from and do flip the script, turn the but around on itself so that you can move forward. I’ve been studying NLP neuro linguistic programming, and it says that you know, but if you say but it negates everything in the sentence ahead of it. So when you say but what you just said had its power completely removed. And if that statement that you put the but after was one, like, I really want to have my own business, but get rid of the but take it out, you know, I want to have my own business. And here’s how I’m gonna do it. Cross that but off off your list. We hope you guys have enjoyed this episode of the big buts. three big buts maybe gotten a few giggles as well as some good information that you can take home. Cara, do you have any final thoughts on the buts?

Cara Taylor Swift 29:07
I think this episode is just one you and I have been thinking a lot about. And we’ve had other colleagues and friends. It just seems like it’s come up so much in conversation, the buts. And we just wanted to do a quick fun kind of light hearted episode, but also one to get all of our listeners out there thinking about their buts, and what’s holding them back in their animal based businesses. So we hope you guys spend a little time thinking about this. If you do, please let us know. We’d love to hear we’re active on Instagram and on Facebook. And we’d love for you guys to hop in and say I heard your episode. This is the but that I’m dealing with right now. We’d love to hear about it. Or if you’ve got a strategy that helps you get rid ofyour buts. We’d like to hear it.

Kimberly Beer 29:50
Awesome. Have a great week, and we’ll see you next week.

Jaz 29:53
Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. if you learned something today leave us a review to learn more find us at TheBusinessanimal.com we’d love to hear from you until next time keep your business well trained with The Business Animal