Do you ever feel disconnected from your business? Yep, us, too. Sometimes it feels like we get so carried away in working in our business we forget to work on our business. In this episode, Kim and Cara discuss three ways you can reconnect to your business (and your passion!).
Transcript
Welcome to The Business Animal Podcast. Saddle up for a
Jaz:gallop to the top of the animal industry, where you'll learn how
Jaz:to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools
Jaz:that will take overwhelm to obedience school and have you
Jaz:wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts, Kim Beer, and
Jaz:Cara Taylor Swift.
Kimberly Beer:Hey there business animals. It's Kim with
Kimberly Beer:Be More Business
Cara Taylor Swift:and Cara with Fast Horse photography. Hi, Kim.
Kimberly Beer:Hi, Cara. We have been having the most interesting
Kimberly Beer:chats this morning. While we're getting ready to record I've
Kimberly Beer:really enjoyed learning about all the wildlife in Florida.
Cara Taylor Swift:And I've enjoyed learning about how fast
Cara Taylor Swift:your horses are eating hay right now.
Kimberly Beer:I guess some of us
Unknown:rambling rampages?
Kimberly Beer:Yes, my horses are eating their hay too fast.
Kimberly Beer:They need to learn to ration better. They don't understand
Kimberly Beer:there's a storm coming.
Cara Taylor Swift:Well, you guys are getting it. You guys
Cara Taylor Swift:are apparently gearing up for a ton of snow right now. While
Cara Taylor Swift:we're gonna be having a Iguanas falling out of trees next week.
Cara Taylor Swift:So due to the cold
Kimberly Beer:Oh, good grief. Yes, that would be that would be
Kimberly Beer:an unexpected moment in my life. If I walked outside and an
Kimberly Beer:iguana fell on my head.
Cara Taylor Swift:That's a crazy world out here. So what
Cara Taylor Swift:are we talking about today,
Kimberly Beer:it is a crazy world down there. We're talking
Kimberly Beer:about how to reconnect with your business, which apparently we
Kimberly Beer:need to reconnect with our topics. So that's probably a
Kimberly Beer:good indication that we need to kind of get better focused.
Cara Taylor Swift:And I've enjoyed the rambling this
Cara Taylor Swift:morning.
Kimberly Beer:Okay, so for all of you that are out there
Kimberly Beer:listening that hopefully enjoyed a little giggle with that and
Kimberly Beer:aren't being clocked by falling iguanas in Florida, or frozen in
Kimberly Beer:Missouri or somewhere else where this polar vortex is coming
Kimberly Beer:along. What we want to talk to you today about is reconnecting
Kimberly Beer:to your business. As entrepreneurs, there are times
Kimberly Beer:that we get so carried away with working in our business, and
Kimberly Beer:what's going on inside of our business that we get where we
Kimberly Beer:feel really disconnected from our business as a whole kind of
Kimberly Beer:like, I don't know, like you're the bus driver, and possibly,
Kimberly Beer:you've just left the wheel and kind of put it on whatever
Kimberly Beer:autopilot, you know, put a brake on the gas pedal and tied this
Kimberly Beer:triggering wheel down and just, you know, hammer down and now
Kimberly Beer:you're paying attention to what's going on in the back of
Kimberly Beer:the bus instead of figuring out where you're going. So that's
Kimberly Beer:your metaphor for today is the runaway bus metaphor.
Cara Taylor Swift:Oh, here we go with the runaway bus. I think
Cara Taylor Swift:I think it was a runaway train a couple episodes ago.
Kimberly Beer:Oh, there's all kinds of runaway things in my
Kimberly Beer:life.
Cara Taylor Swift:Well, it's this is such good timing,
Cara Taylor Swift:because we're recording this right before, right at the end
Cara Taylor Swift:of the year. And we're moving into the new year. And I do
Cara Taylor Swift:think a lot of us put our businesses on autopilot and kind
Cara Taylor Swift:of let things just we're just getting through, you know, we're
Cara Taylor Swift:trying to get through the holiday season. We're trying to
Cara Taylor Swift:finish out our year, we're getting ready to prep for taxes.
Cara Taylor Swift:You know, we're just it's we're on autopilot a little bit. And
Cara Taylor Swift:we can feel really disconnected, disconnected from things that
Cara Taylor Swift:are happening every day disconnected from the industry
Cara Taylor Swift:and as a whole and disconnected from our why and the feelings
Cara Taylor Swift:around our business. And the reason that we're we have a
Cara Taylor Swift:business.
Kimberly Beer:Absolutely, absolutely. And so what we have
Kimberly Beer:for you guys today are three ways that you can pick that
Kimberly Beer:connection back up, take a hold of the steering wheel, get a
Kimberly Beer:hold of the train or the airplane, whatever metaphor it
Kimberly Beer:is that you're using for your business, it's time to take back
Kimberly Beer:control of things get reconnected and focus back on
Kimberly Beer:your business. Big Three number one is for you to step away from
Kimberly Beer:the work and take a look at the big picture. So use this time to
Kimberly Beer:get that view of where it is that you want to go or what what
Kimberly Beer:road or track that you're on right now. And is it the
Kimberly Beer:direction you need to go. Number two is reignite your passion
Kimberly Beer:with a few hours each week for a business date. And I remember
Kimberly Beer:Cara texting me when this was on the big three and saying exactly
Kimberly Beer:what is a business day, Kim. So if you're curious about that,
Kimberly Beer:we'll get to that in a moment and explain what a business date
Kimberly Beer:is. And then number three, connect with other business
Kimberly Beer:owners and industry leaders to get yourself back into the
Kimberly Beer:current flow. So let's take a look at number one, stepping
Kimberly Beer:away from the work So stepping away from working in your
Kimberly Beer:business, and take a look at the big picture of working on your
Kimberly Beer:business. And there's a big distinction there. And that
Kimberly Beer:statement that I said work on your business versus working in
Kimberly Beer:your business comes from a book by Mr. Gerber. It's called The E
Kimberly Beer:Myth. And I recommend The E Myth Revisited rather than the E Myth
Kimberly Beer:itself, or the E Myth, workbook, go with the E Myth revisited.
Kimberly Beer:That's the one that you want. And if you're interested in
Kimberly Beer:learning more about that, I think he has a lot of valid
Kimberly Beer:points. The most valid one of the points is this one. A lot of
Kimberly Beer:entrepreneurs, they come from a background where they've been
Kimberly Beer:the employee, and now they're the business owner. And when you
Kimberly Beer:come into a business, from the perspective of being an
Kimberly Beer:employee, you get busy working in the business, because that's
Kimberly Beer:what you've always known. But when you're the business owner,
Kimberly Beer:that's not the place where your business makes the most forward
Kimberly Beer:motion. And the most connection, the place from that happens is
Kimberly Beer:when you're standing in the position of the CEO. So that's
Kimberly Beer:the basic lesson that we're talking about when we say, you
Kimberly Beer:know, work on your business instead of in it. And that's
Kimberly Beer:where this number one comes in is where you need to step away
Kimberly Beer:from being the cog in the wheel, of being an employee of being
Kimberly Beer:the person who's doing the work, and reconnect with your
Kimberly Beer:business. And like Cara mentioned, uh, you know,
Kimberly Beer:reconnecting with your why, reconnecting with the how
Kimberly Beer:reconnecting with the future and where you're going. So that's my
Kimberly Beer:take on number one.
Cara Taylor Swift:Well, I think that makes perfectly good sense.
Cara Taylor Swift:I love when you mentioned the part about like, we started out
Cara Taylor Swift:as a lot of us started out as employees and worker bees. And
Cara Taylor Swift:it you have to, you have to be both of those things in your
Cara Taylor Swift:business. And if you're not used to thinking about the big
Cara Taylor Swift:picture, it can be a mind shift to put yourself in those shoes,
Cara Taylor Swift:and to put on your big picture hat and get to work. So thinking
Cara Taylor Swift:about things like, you know, where is your business going?
Cara Taylor Swift:Like, where are you headed? Where do you hope to be in the
Cara Taylor Swift:end of next year, for example, or in five years or 10 years?
Cara Taylor Swift:Where's your business headed? So sometimes, especially this time
Cara Taylor Swift:of year, where we've got you know, a January's coming up in
Cara Taylor Swift:this episode will probably be coming out beginning of January,
Cara Taylor Swift:you know, taking the time to reassess your business goals and
Cara Taylor Swift:your timeline expectation, and make sure that you're still
Cara Taylor Swift:headed in the right direction, where you want your end goal to
Cara Taylor Swift:be in the next year or five years. And then I know Kim
Cara Taylor Swift:mentioned it earlier, you know, reconnecting with your why and
Cara Taylor Swift:making sure that your Y is still just as important to you as it
Cara Taylor Swift:or maybe that's shifted, you know, has your wife shifted a
Cara Taylor Swift:little bit. And it's possible sometimes when we're busy
Cara Taylor Swift:working in our business instead of on our business that we
Cara Taylor Swift:forget, you know why we started our business in the first place.
Cara Taylor Swift:So just simply taking a moment to reconnect that piece to your
Cara Taylor Swift:business can be a big shift. And when you're thinking about the
Cara Taylor Swift:big picture, I also recommend, and this is something I have to
Cara Taylor Swift:do, at least once a year, I have to take a step back and
Cara Taylor Swift:determine as my business become too complicated. Maybe I need to
Cara Taylor Swift:look for ways to streamline my business, I definitely can get
Cara Taylor Swift:caught up and thinking I need to do that I need to do that I need
Cara Taylor Swift:to add that I need to incorporate that Oh, that would
Cara Taylor Swift:be really cool to incorporate in. So I start adding all these
Cara Taylor Swift:little things. And the next thing I know, my business is no
Cara Taylor Swift:longer streamlined, it no longer has a clear path that my clients
Cara Taylor Swift:should take. And so it just really does become complicated.
Cara Taylor Swift:And I have to take a step back. Look where I need to streamline,
Cara Taylor Swift:look at the things that are serving my business and not
Cara Taylor Swift:serving my business, and then start thinking about okay, some
Cara Taylor Swift:of this needs to be outsourced. Some of this needs to be
Cara Taylor Swift:automated, some of this needs to be put away. It's just not
Cara Taylor Swift:working for my business. Another piece that I think is really
Cara Taylor Swift:important here, when you're looking at the big picture, is
Cara Taylor Swift:look for places in your business, where you hear
Cara Taylor Swift:yourself saying words like never, or can't, and make sure
Cara Taylor Swift:that those nevers and those cans are still serving your business.
Cara Taylor Swift:For example, I hear clients, I do mentoring for photography
Cara Taylor Swift:clients, and I hear them say things like, I could never
Cara Taylor Swift:charge that much money. Or I'm don't have the ability to take a
Cara Taylor Swift:vacation or take time off. And I just can't do that. So think
Cara Taylor Swift:about what that means. And is that still serving? Is that
Cara Taylor Swift:still serving you maybe in the early days of your business? You
Cara Taylor Swift:couldn't charge that much, but maybe you're someplace where you
Cara Taylor Swift:can now can What do you think about that the nevers and the
Cara Taylor Swift:cats like looking for those places in your business?
Kimberly Beer:Oh yeah, that That's That's NLP, that's
Kimberly Beer:classic neuro linguistic programming. And picking up on
Kimberly Beer:when we say that and walking back and asking ourselves and I
Kimberly Beer:can hear Melissa Pierce's voice in my ear saying this because
Kimberly Beer:I've she said it to me so many times if I get caught in that,
Kimberly Beer:it you know, if I say I could never do that, and or I could
Kimberly Beer:never charge that, let's take that her question and I hear it
Kimberly Beer:immediately because it's ingrained in me now is never
Kimberly Beer:really, you could never imagine a possible scenario where you
Kimberly Beer:might be able to charge that never. So it another one is,
Kimberly Beer:anytime you do the ones that are like, so definite, like I always
Kimberly Beer:do this, or a lot of times we say that when somebody else does
Kimberly Beer:it to us, right? Like he always treats me poorly. And it's like
Kimberly Beer:always, is it? Is it always? Or was it just a few times and now
Kimberly Beer:you've sort of gone to that extreme. So anytime you catch
Kimberly Beer:yourself in that language, ask yourself that question really is
Kimberly Beer:is never Can you imagine a possible scenario there's
Kimberly Beer:there's no way that could happen in that gets your brain to open
Kimberly Beer:up the the world of possibility. And then you're able to walk
Kimberly Beer:through that door. So anytime you hear yourself or catch
Kimberly Beer:yourself doing that, make sure that you can you question it. So
Kimberly Beer:neural NLP is fascinating. And once you dive down into it, it
Kimberly Beer:really you start to catch yourself where you do a lot of
Kimberly Beer:things where you sabotage your own self. So that's a that's a
Kimberly Beer:good one. And I hear that same thing from my mentees as well
Kimberly Beer:with the well, I could never charge that. Or I could never
Kimberly Beer:take photos like that. Or, yeah, so I could never have that kind
Kimberly Beer:of a life. Right? Or that kind of a business. That's, that's
Kimberly Beer:definitely limiting for you.
Cara Taylor Swift:Absolutely. You have to Yeah, definitely. If
Cara Taylor Swift:you hear yourself doing that,
Kimberly Beer:yes. If you hear yourself doing it, stop it right
Kimberly Beer:now. Stop it.
Cara Taylor Swift:That's right. And then the last little piece
Cara Taylor Swift:that all add to this would be the idea of gratitude and just
Cara Taylor Swift:reminding yourself to practice some gratitude. You know, we
Cara Taylor Swift:were talking about this the other day that you've got to
Cara Taylor Swift:remind yourself, sometimes you have to just stop and see how
Cara Taylor Swift:far you've come. And that somewhere inside of of each of
Cara Taylor Swift:us little entrepreneurs out there is a version of us, you
Cara Taylor Swift:know, is this version of you just starting out, that would be
Cara Taylor Swift:just so incredibly amazed with how far you've come and that the
Cara Taylor Swift:things that you know, right now, today that you're finding boring
Cara Taylor Swift:or just unexciting in your business, are the things that
Cara Taylor Swift:that original version of you really dreamed of having. And so
Cara Taylor Swift:I do remind myself of that I remember, you know, when I first
Cara Taylor Swift:picked up the camera and thought I could make this a business. I
Cara Taylor Swift:remember never in my life, what I imagined, where I am today,
Cara Taylor Swift:having clients and hosting workshops and being a part of a
Cara Taylor Swift:community of cowgirls with cameras. And I mean, it's just
Cara Taylor Swift:like that person that I was then would just be jumping up and
Cara Taylor Swift:down screaming and squealing with delight to think about some
Cara Taylor Swift:of the things that today I'm like up just gotta get to work,
Cara Taylor Swift:you know that it's like commonplace everyday stuff
Cara Taylor Swift:today. You know, do you have moments like that?
Kimberly Beer:Oh, yeah. I'm sure that the me who started
Kimberly Beer:this business back in 1996, would probably be totally amazed
Kimberly Beer:and flabbergasted actually, if I would be able to go back there
Kimberly Beer:and sit with her and tell her what I'm doing now. Should be
Kimberly Beer:like, yeah, no way, that there's no way that that that's going to
Kimberly Beer:happen. So yeah, absolutely. And to say that, I've done it now
Kimberly Beer:for 30 plus years is is amazing. So super happy with that.
Kimberly Beer:Entrepreneurship for 30 plus years. Okay, so Yeah, are you
Kimberly Beer:ready to move on to number two? Let's do it. Let's do it. So
Kimberly Beer:reigniting your passion a few hours each week with a business
Kimberly Beer:state. Now this idea came to me or this concept came to me and I
Kimberly Beer:do this with my own business, by the way, through the process
Kimberly Beer:called, it's by Julia Cameron. It's called the artists way. And
Kimberly Beer:basically what the artists way is, is a 12 step program to help
Kimberly Beer:artists reconnect with their creativity. So a lot of times
Kimberly Beer:life gets in the way of our creativity. It kind of eats at
Kimberly Beer:us, other people pick at us the day to day sort of success drive
Kimberly Beer:from our creativity, and part of the process that she has you
Kimberly Beer:walk through, there's 12 weeks and 12 steps and one of the
Kimberly Beer:things that that is just at the very beginning of it that she
Kimberly Beer:sets up with you. There's actually two one is daily
Kimberly Beer:journaling. And then the second one is once a week to Take
Kimberly Beer:yourself out on an artist date. And I give this to my business
Kimberly Beer:owner clients as going out on a business date. So this is going
Kimberly Beer:taking a couple of hours a week that you set aside specifically
Kimberly Beer:to go explore something that is working on your business and
Kimberly Beer:hopefully outside of your office space or outside of where you
Kimberly Beer:work. So if you're a dog groomer, get out of the dog
Kimberly Beer:grooming area, you get away from the grooming table, don't take
Kimberly Beer:your tools with you, but go somewhere where there's
Kimberly Beer:something interesting and exciting. I don't know if
Kimberly Beer:there's such a place but maybe a place where you could go look at
Kimberly Beer:new scissors, I grew up in a family of dog groomers, like new
Kimberly Beer:scissors and new clippers were a lot of fun for them. That's
Kimberly Beer:their, that's their like their paint brushes, right? So, go
Kimberly Beer:find something along those lines for you. If you're a horse
Kimberly Beer:trainer, or you raise horses breed horses, you know, here's
Kimberly Beer:here's something I don't think anyone has probably ever given
Kimberly Beer:you as an assignment in your business. But go hang out at the
Kimberly Beer:tax store for a few hours. Like go just wander around a tack
Kimberly Beer:store with no specific thing in mind to go by. Go take a look at
Kimberly Beer:what's new look at the halter is in the ropes and the and the
Kimberly Beer:training tools and and all of the all of the paraphernalia
Kimberly Beer:that comes along with horses because those are your paint
Kimberly Beer:brushes. And the way that you start to work on your canvas to
Kimberly Beer:create that horse that the client is going to absolutely
Kimberly Beer:adore all of us even even those of us who work in offices. So
Kimberly Beer:for me, one of my business dates, go to the office supply
Kimberly Beer:store. I absolutely love going to the office Play Store. Now
Kimberly Beer:here's where Cara is gonna get a good giggle out of this. I love
Kimberly Beer:to buy organizational things that I never use. So those of us
Kimberly Beer:that are the least organized are the ones with the most planners.
Kimberly Beer:And the most, most file thingies and the most all of that now the
Kimberly Beer:thing is, is I'll bring those things home, and then not use
Kimberly Beer:them. And they are very disorganized thing Lee stored in
Kimberly Beer:my closet. However, just the interaction of going to the
Kimberly Beer:office supply store, and seeing all of the things there and
Kimberly Beer:interacting with them or buying a new favorite pen or I found
Kimberly Beer:here's here's one of the things I found on a business date. I do
Kimberly Beer:these canvases with clients where we put sticky notes all
Kimberly Beer:over canvases, and it's a whole thing if you're interested in
Kimberly Beer:growing your business. It's a it's a fun adventure to go on
Kimberly Beer:with the canvas experiment, and I can explain more about it. But
Kimberly Beer:in the context of this, we're just no we're putting sticky
Kimberly Beer:notes on things. Well, they kept falling off, and it irritated
Kimberly Beer:me. And I'm one of my excursions for no other purpose. But to
Kimberly Beer:just wander around an office supply store, I found these
Kimberly Beer:sticky notes that are meant for outdoor use. And so they're like
Kimberly Beer:extra sticky. And though they put up with humidity, which
Kimberly Beer:Missouri is like, prone for, and they are extra tough. And like
Kimberly Beer:when you write on them, even if they get a little wet. The it
Kimberly Beer:like absorbs the ink so that the ink won't run. So they're meant
Kimberly Beer:to be used in extreme situations. So I now have
Kimberly Beer:extreme sticky notes that we can use and they stick really well
Kimberly Beer:on the vinyl canvases. So you never know what you're going to
Kimberly Beer:come up with on an artist date.
Cara Taylor Swift:Well, and I think that, you know, when I
Cara Taylor Swift:think about going on a business date, if it's not connected
Cara Taylor Swift:sometimes to the productivity of my business, I'm less inclined
Cara Taylor Swift:to do it, even though I know it's really an important thing
Cara Taylor Swift:to do. So I would encourage if there's folks out there like me
Cara Taylor Swift:that you know, don't be afraid to try something new. But you
Cara Taylor Swift:can, it's also okay to find something that you know, can
Cara Taylor Swift:ignite a little passion inside of you that also serves your
Cara Taylor Swift:business in some way. So a great example that I like is you see
Cara Taylor Swift:pet photographers that are donating their time and
Cara Taylor Swift:photographing shelter pets for adoption. For example, one of my
Cara Taylor Swift:pals Penny, I'm sorry, Tracy, a pennywhistle photography, she
Cara Taylor Swift:does a ton of shelter photography. And it's it's a way
Cara Taylor Swift:for her to give back to a cause that she really believes in. And
Cara Taylor Swift:she gets to do different things with her photography and she
Cara Taylor Swift:gets to be creative in ways that she can't always be for paying
Cara Taylor Swift:clients. So she's found a way to connect that to her business in
Cara Taylor Swift:a way that's helpful for her business. You know, and then
Cara Taylor Swift:take some time to learn something new. Take a class,
Cara Taylor Swift:attend a lecture, you know, enjoy a webinar or add a new
Cara Taylor Swift:skill to your toolkit. Now the key to this is you can sign up
Cara Taylor Swift:for the webinars you need to actually attend it, you can buy
Cara Taylor Swift:the class, you have to actually watch it, you can get the new
Cara Taylor Swift:presets or techniques or, you know, DVDs, whatever it is that
Cara Taylor Swift:you're using to learn something, but you actually have to watch
Cara Taylor Swift:them, I have yet to figure it out how to order or pay for a
Cara Taylor Swift:class and like stick it under my pillow and absorb it, because I
Cara Taylor Swift:don't know about you, but I am the worst about, oh, I really
Cara Taylor Swift:want to see this new technique. And so I'll download it and then
Cara Taylor Swift:never watch it. So I'm, that's like my office supplies,
Cara Taylor Swift:probably, you know what I mean? Like getting classes and
Cara Taylor Swift:educational things, and then not actually following through, you
Cara Taylor Swift:know, buying the book and not reading it, it's all the same.
Cara Taylor Swift:You just can't absorb it that way. And then I would say, you
Cara Taylor Swift:know, find a way to challenge yourself that could look like
Cara Taylor Swift:you know, designing a new product or a new service
Cara Taylor Swift:experience. I know in the last category, I said, streamline and
Cara Taylor Swift:look to see if your business has to become complicated, too
Cara Taylor Swift:complicated. And now I'm saying add something or challenge
Cara Taylor Swift:yourself. But I think those two things can work together, you
Cara Taylor Swift:have to be creating, I know for me in my business, in order to
Cara Taylor Swift:stay connected and passionate about it, I have to be figuring
Cara Taylor Swift:out how to uplevel a service or how to streamline a service or
Cara Taylor Swift:how to create a new experience that's going to meet the needs
Cara Taylor Swift:of my clientele. So I'm always looking for that. And when I
Cara Taylor Swift:come up with something that I really love, it does excite me
Cara Taylor Swift:and it reconnects me to my business. Another great option
Cara Taylor Swift:is finding ways to reconnect to your clients. So this time of
Cara Taylor Swift:year is such a good time to reach out and ask your clients
Cara Taylor Swift:for feedback to send out postcards in the mail. You know,
Cara Taylor Swift:not people don't do postcards like they used to anymore. And I
Cara Taylor Swift:don't know about you, but I actually when I look at my mail,
Cara Taylor Swift:I actually do flip through all of it as opposed to in the
Cara Taylor Swift:inbox. I'm delete, delete, delete, delete when I have a
Cara Taylor Swift:bunch of random emails. So look for ways to reconnect with your
Cara Taylor Swift:clients, do a survey, start a newsletter, write a blog post,
Cara Taylor Swift:just look for ways to reconnect. Now, Kim, I know you like to
Cara Taylor Swift:talk about trade shows and expos Do you want to mention that in
Cara Taylor Swift:this section, because I think it fits well hear.
Kimberly Beer:Yes, and I also think it takes us on into the to
Kimberly Beer:the next topic, which is connecting with other business
Kimberly Beer:owners and industry leaders to get yourself back into the flow.
Kimberly Beer:But I do think trade shows and expos kind of fit both number
Kimberly Beer:two and number three, they're a great way to take yourself out
Kimberly Beer:on a business date. With your business, if you're especially
Kimberly Beer:if you're going as an attendee, rather than somebody who has a
Kimberly Beer:booth or a speaker or something like that, on the date side of
Kimberly Beer:things, you don't want to do the work necessarily, what you want
Kimberly Beer:to do is place yourself in a place of creativity and learning
Kimberly Beer:and expansion. Whereas the other side of it, you're you're having
Kimberly Beer:to pony up a lot. So we want number two for you to be on the
Kimberly Beer:receiving end, then number three, and the big three, you
Kimberly Beer:need to be more involved in it. But trade shows expos and
Kimberly Beer:industry events, I think are always energizing for business
Kimberly Beer:owners. It gets you back like really deeply connected with
Kimberly Beer:your industry. And for most of us our industry is really tied
Kimberly Beer:to our why. And I was gonna say earlier I just to mention we did
Kimberly Beer:a whole episode like way back there on your wife, it's you're
Kimberly Beer:worthy. Hell yeah. And so remember that, but it does
Kimberly Beer:reconnect us with that worthy Hell yeah. And we, we can get a
Kimberly Beer:little bit of a lot of a boost for some of us out of that
Kimberly Beer:experience of being there with people that are interested in
Kimberly Beer:what we're doing that know the industry jargon that are either
Kimberly Beer:buying from businesses like ours, or are serving businesses
Kimberly Beer:like ours. I know know about you, Cara. But I don't think
Kimberly Beer:I've ever been to a PPA Imaging conference that I didn't walk
Kimberly Beer:home from thinking just amazing things about being a
Kimberly Beer:photographer. I mean, it's so energizing to go to Imaging USA,
Kimberly Beer:which is put on by the professional photographers
Kimberly Beer:Association. It's it's such a thrill to be there with other
Kimberly Beer:photographers and I feel very specialist I'm walking around
Kimberly Beer:the event, there's, you know, the Canon booth and all of the
Kimberly Beer:different software's I've used. And I'm really thinking about
Kimberly Beer:the big picture of my photography business and what
Kimberly Beer:that that portion of my business is like, and the same thing goes
Kimberly Beer:for any of the businesses. I do like Gestalt, there's a big
Kimberly Beer:summit that happens in September out in Colorado where all of us
Kimberly Beer:gather and we're peers and we come up with great ideas and and
Kimberly Beer:I can tell you I always leave that event really energized and
Kimberly Beer:then any business expo I go to I leave that really energized so
Kimberly Beer:it's a great way to get back your energy to get back into the
Kimberly Beer:flow of things that are happening in your industry. You
Kimberly Beer:feel more current you feel more connected. And that gives you a
Kimberly Beer:boost in your business and being connected to it. And it all
Kimberly Beer:falls back to that we're working on our businesses, not in our
Kimberly Beer:businesses, it gets you away from the grooming table away
Kimberly Beer:from the round pen, away from your desk away from whatever it
Kimberly Beer:is you do, and get you into that flow. So you do get reconnected
Kimberly Beer:with your business.
Cara Taylor Swift:It's so true. Because anytime I think you can
Cara Taylor Swift:have a big concentration of this is what I'm here to do. I'm here
Cara Taylor Swift:to really just jump in and be fully absorbed in getting
Cara Taylor Swift:inspired around my business. I mean, I think about that, Kim,
Cara Taylor Swift:when I think about like cowgirls with cameras and our events.
Cara Taylor Swift:It's not often that photographers can really solely
Cara Taylor Swift:focus on just the art of photography and being in the
Cara Taylor Swift:presence of other people who share an interest. I don't have
Cara Taylor Swift:other than the photographer's that like you and the folks that
Cara Taylor Swift:I meet with, like, I don't go home and talk to my husband
Cara Taylor Swift:about photography, because he has zero interest. You know,
Cara Taylor Swift:it's very minimal. And I think most of us that run our small
Cara Taylor Swift:business, we like what we do, like we like there's a reason
Cara Taylor Swift:we're in it. We like the subject matter. We like the practice,
Cara Taylor Swift:whatever that is, we like the animal that we're serving. But
Cara Taylor Swift:we don't often have a lot of people in our lives that we can
Cara Taylor Swift:deep dive, really brainstorm and chat about this topic that we
Cara Taylor Swift:love. So when we get to fully spend, you know, multiple days
Cara Taylor Swift:really immersed, it's so inspiring, so energizing. And
Cara Taylor Swift:you really do you come home with so many new fresh ideas and
Cara Taylor Swift:things that you want to do. And hopefully you don't spend too
Cara Taylor Swift:much on his wagon, train new things to try out. Like we
Cara Taylor Swift:always do it imaging. But still, it's there's so many so many
Cara Taylor Swift:great things that come from that. But you knew on a smaller
Cara Taylor Swift:scale, you don't have to have that big Expo that big industry
Cara Taylor Swift:of inexperience to get some of that influx of like kind of
Cara Taylor Swift:exhilaration, just you know, heading out and connecting at
Cara Taylor Swift:local meetings, local chapters or coffee meetups, with other
Cara Taylor Swift:business owners can be a really easy, low cost way to get some
Cara Taylor Swift:of that same type of energy. Because you're you're being
Cara Taylor Swift:able, you're able to brainstorm your business, you may not be in
Cara Taylor Swift:the exact same industry, but you're gonna have the same types
Cara Taylor Swift:of business, running issues that come up. And being able to share
Cara Taylor Swift:across different types of industries, how you solve
Cara Taylor Swift:problems can really bring an influx into your own industry.
Cara Taylor Swift:So you know, we've talked about some of those things, attending
Cara Taylor Swift:different conferences and workshops. But you know, you can
Cara Taylor Swift:also be someone that hosts a meetup or an open house. So if
Cara Taylor Swift:you don't have like a coffee, meet up with other business
Cara Taylor Swift:owners, you can start one on your own, you know, or join a
Cara Taylor Swift:chapter. I mean, there's so many great small business
Cara Taylor Swift:organizations that are out there that are looking for members.
Cara Taylor Swift:And I know Kim, you speak and visit one on a regular basis.
Cara Taylor Swift:And it's I used to in my past life, I attended a ton of those
Cara Taylor Swift:meetings, and I was always inspired, like just hearing
Cara Taylor Swift:other business owners and the things that they were dealing
Cara Taylor Swift:with. And it always, you know, it always circled back to my
Cara Taylor Swift:business and what I'm doing and how can I connect those things.
Cara Taylor Swift:And then a couple other areas that I was thinking of for this
Cara Taylor Swift:part with connection is, we're all online these days. And we
Cara Taylor Swift:can really connect online with social media, you can find
Cara Taylor Swift:different businesses that you want to follow. They don't have
Cara Taylor Swift:to be in your industry, I actually recommend that, of
Cara Taylor Swift:course, follow people in your industry, but look for
Cara Taylor Swift:businesses that are, you know, in other industries that you can
Cara Taylor Swift:take inspiration from, and reach out and connect to those people,
Cara Taylor Swift:follow them online, like support, share their content,
Cara Taylor Swift:and just connect with people. And then the last little thing
Cara Taylor Swift:that I'll say here is connecting and partnering with other
Cara Taylor Swift:businesses. You can host your own event or your own meetup.
Cara Taylor Swift:But host a community event with another business is a great way
Cara Taylor Swift:to do that, too. So if you don't want to host your own, you can
Cara Taylor Swift:support another one. But just look for different ways that you
Cara Taylor Swift:can get out into the community and connect with other business
Cara Taylor Swift:owners. I feel like there's a lot of options out there. But we
Cara Taylor Swift:tend to get kind of just on our own little path and we forget
Cara Taylor Swift:that there's all this stuff happening around us that we can
Cara Taylor Swift:take part in.
Kimberly Beer:Absolutely. And for those introverts of you out
Kimberly Beer:there listening to this that are going oh my God, that sounds
Kimberly Beer:horrid. Just pick one and set a time and then go hide and like
Kimberly Beer:be kind to yourself afterwards and make sure you have a private
Kimberly Beer:time that you can be away from humanity after you've done your
Kimberly Beer:expo or gotten back into those meetups and stuff. I promise you
Kimberly Beer:if and another thing I think is good for the introverts that are
Kimberly Beer:that are kind of cringy over this is those deep conversations
Kimberly Beer:that you can have with other business owners at the coffee
Kimberly Beer:meetups in the one into once does energize you and reconnect
Kimberly Beer:you back to your business very, very effectively. And there is
Kimberly Beer:no small talk involved. So that's another really effective
Kimberly Beer:way to be able to do that. I'm always thinking about my
Kimberly Beer:introvert friends, because this all sounds like a blast to me.
Kimberly Beer:But I can can hear other people out there going, Oh, no, I don't
Kimberly Beer:know if I want to do that. So yeah, I think we've given you
Kimberly Beer:guys some great ways to think about getting better connected
Kimberly Beer:to your business and reconnecting. If you've been
Kimberly Beer:feeling like you're disconnected, one of the biggest
Kimberly Beer:keys I think, to this is that when we get disconnected from
Kimberly Beer:our business, it becomes really easy to, to quit our business or
Kimberly Beer:to see the the negative things in our business, because we
Kimberly Beer:don't we lose track of the, the forest for the trees, so to
Kimberly Beer:speak. So taking this time on a regular basis to make it a
Kimberly Beer:practice to mindfully reconnect to your business, I think is
Kimberly Beer:really key in which entrepreneurs make it long term,
Kimberly Beer:and which entrepreneurs fizzle out and go back to a day job
Kimberly Beer:somewhere. So I think it's it's a really important piece of the
Kimberly Beer:puzzle. And I know we've kind of made light of several things
Kimberly Beer:today in here. But I think that all of these things, even though
Kimberly Beer:they may feel a little bit off your trajectory of what you
Kimberly Beer:think you should be doing on your to do list, they're
Kimberly Beer:important things to do for your business so that you don't find
Kimberly Beer:yourself being in a rut or a hole, or I know we just did an
Kimberly Beer:episode on burnout very recently. This is one of the
Kimberly Beer:ways that you can prevent burnout, because it does get you
Kimberly Beer:back into the flow of things. And why you're an entrepreneur
Kimberly Beer:and why you're working on this business. And it gets you
Kimberly Beer:excited for being part of that. And when you bring that to the
Kimberly Beer:table, naturally, everything around you seems brighter and
Kimberly Beer:sunnier, and your clients are also happier. So it's a it's a
Kimberly Beer:win win situation for everyone.
Cara Taylor Swift:And just a reminder, this should be fun.
Cara Taylor Swift:It's a way to have fun with your business, it's supposed to be
Cara Taylor Swift:energizing, it doesn't need to be more work. And it's really
Cara Taylor Swift:hard sometimes to make time for the fun stuff. But this is the
Cara Taylor Swift:kind of thing that's going to keep you around and in your
Cara Taylor Swift:industry and relevant and keep you going forward long term. So
Cara Taylor Swift:you really do have to this should be a priority, even
Cara Taylor Swift:though it's going to feel like fun. So it's okay to have a
Cara Taylor Swift:little fun. So I think that's it for us today. So thank you guys
Cara Taylor Swift:so much. Follow us online you could find us on Instagram and
Cara Taylor Swift:Facebook at the at The Business Animal I almost said at cowgirls
Cara Taylor Swift:with cameras. You can find us over there too, but we're The
Cara Taylor Swift:Business Animal today. So you can find us at The Business
Cara Taylor Swift:Animal on Instagram and Facebook. We're also online at
Cara Taylor Swift:the business animal.com And yeah, if you are enjoying our
Cara Taylor Swift:show, let us know y'all we want to hear from you. Please leave
Cara Taylor Swift:us a rating leave us a review whatever your platform prefers.
Cara Taylor Swift:And we'd love to hear from you.
Jaz:Thanks for listening to this episode of The Business
Jaz:Animal. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And
Jaz:if you learned something today, leave us a review. To learn
Jaz:more. Find us at thebusinessanimal.com We'd love
Jaz:to hear from you. Until next time, keep your business well
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