Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Britney Saunders and welcome to Big Business, the
Speaker 1: place where business is far from boring. And today I'm
Speaker 1: recording on a wobbaicle land. Now, this episode in particular
Speaker 1: that you're listening to is coming out during the Chrissy
Speaker 1: Slash holiday break, and some podcasts take a break during
Speaker 1: the Christmas break, but there's no break for me when
Speaker 1: it comes to Big Business. I'm coming out with these episodes,
Speaker 1: but I thought I would mention I'm recording these from
Speaker 1: home and the quality may not be exactly the same
Speaker 1: as when I'm in the studio, but hopefully it will do.
Speaker 1: For today's episode, I am going to be reflecting on
Speaker 1: some of the biggest business lessons of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: and you know what, sitting down and thinking about this,
Speaker 1: it's actually so hard for me to pinpoint all of
Speaker 1: the lessons that I've learned this year, or even the
Speaker 1: biggest ones. And the reason for that is business is
Speaker 1: nothing but lessons. That is like one of the biggest
Speaker 1: realizations I've had this year. I think it's something that
Speaker 1: I've always known and I can reflect on every year
Speaker 1: that I've been in business and go, holy shit, like
Speaker 1: has this taught me some lessons this year, but I
Speaker 1: think the overall realization of twenty twenty four is business
Speaker 1: is just nothing but lessons. That's quite literally what it is.
Speaker 1: And I actually saw a TikTok the other day. I'll
Speaker 1: have to grab my phone and see if I like
Speaker 1: saved it or liked it, because it was someone and
Speaker 1: that was saying that business is nothing but a spiritual journey.
Speaker 1: And I've said this before and I'll say it again,
Speaker 1: like I'm not a very spiritual person or whatever, but
Speaker 1: what this person was saying it was so bloody true
Speaker 1: and it was kind of leaning into this whole theme
Speaker 1: of you know, business just teaching you lessons, like and
Speaker 1: it's almost spiritual in a way. I'm just, oh, here
Speaker 1: we go. Oh she said, entrepreneurship is spiritual. It's going
Speaker 1: to sound like pretty bad quality, but let me play
Speaker 1: you this just so you can listen to it.
Speaker 2: And if nobody has told you, I'll tell you entrepreneurship
Speaker 2: is spiritual. It is going to require a lot of
Speaker 2: effort from your mind, your body, and your soul. Do
Speaker 2: you know how much it takes how much self confidence
Speaker 2: and self love you have to build up to operate
Speaker 2: a whole business and.
Speaker 1: Stops seriously Like I saw this video and I thought,
Speaker 1: this is so true. I'm going to keep it playing.
Speaker 2: Saying your business is small, you don't have a little
Speaker 2: small business. The fact that you even went and got
Speaker 2: an LLC, the fact that you opened anything, started a
Speaker 2: page online, whatever, that is a major step and it
Speaker 2: requires a lot because sometimes when we don't see the
Speaker 2: fruits of our labor immediately, we get discouraged, and that
Speaker 2: requires personal strength. All of it, All of it is spiritual.
Speaker 2: Every last part of entrepreneurship is spiritual, because how do
Speaker 2: you feel when people do not support you? How do
Speaker 2: you feel when you have to be the only one
Speaker 2: showing up for yourself? It's a spiritual thing.
Speaker 1: I am in full agreeance with this, and I loved
Speaker 1: what she said about how if you don't see the
Speaker 1: fruits of your labor almost immediately, that you can feel
Speaker 1: completely discouraged. And that's definitely one of the hardest things
Speaker 1: about running a business. Is Yeah, it kind of is
Speaker 1: like a spiritual experience and it requires your entire self
Speaker 1: and another massive realization or yeah, I'd say not a lesson,
Speaker 1: but a realization that I've had this year in my
Speaker 1: business journey is just how much business will force you
Speaker 1: to look at yourself. I almost feel like owning a
Speaker 1: business is just standing in front of a huge mirror
Speaker 1: and looking straight back at yourself. And it's funny because
Speaker 1: no one taught me anything in school about owning a business.
Speaker 1: It might be different in school now, but you know,
Speaker 1: back when I was young and I would hear, oh,
Speaker 1: they're a business owner, or even if I thought of
Speaker 1: the idea of ever owning a business like when I
Speaker 1: was young, when I was a teenager, like, I didn't
Speaker 1: think of it from an emotional or spiritual level. I
Speaker 1: just thought of it as, yeah, owning a business, going
Speaker 1: and working and running a business. But I think business
Speaker 1: is more about you personally and looking at yourself in
Speaker 1: this massive mirror that is business as it is opposed
Speaker 1: to like just showing up and working on the business
Speaker 1: every day, if that makes sense. Like I feel like
Speaker 1: it's more of a personal emotional journey where you would
Speaker 1: just learn everything about yourself that you never would have
Speaker 1: learned otherwise. And I think another one to add to
Speaker 1: that is dealing with staff. I've always said that's the
Speaker 1: hardest part of business, Like, yeah, it's freaking hard in
Speaker 1: a lot of other ways, like financially building a business,
Speaker 1: making sure you don't run out of money, marketing yourself,
Speaker 1: like all these things are really hard, but dealing with
Speaker 1: people is the hardest part of all for me, And
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of other business owners out there
Speaker 1: would agree with me. And I think just dealing with
Speaker 1: stuff and like their emotions and you know, making sure
Speaker 1: everyone's happy, and you know, someone's probably most likely always
Speaker 1: going to be unhappy with something, and just dealing with that,
Speaker 1: it just makes you like stop and look at yourself.
Speaker 1: You know, I never really questioned who I was before
Speaker 1: I started a business. I never questioned how other people
Speaker 1: may perceive me, Like I think back to before I
Speaker 1: own fate, and you know, I was working nine to
Speaker 1: five and then I did influencing as well. Like during
Speaker 1: that time, I never like thought, I wonder how other
Speaker 1: people perceive me, or I wonder how people are reading me,
Speaker 1: Like sure you have a fear of judgment, but I
Speaker 1: don't know. Dealing with staff and having people work for
Speaker 1: your company and working with you, it makes you look
Speaker 1: back at yourself in a way that you never would
Speaker 1: And I think those are two massive lessons that have
Speaker 1: come out of this year is number one that business
Speaker 1: is just nothing but lessons. And number two, business is
Speaker 1: so personal, but not in the way that you would think,
Speaker 1: and it makes you look at yourself like you never
Speaker 1: have before. And I don't know if either of those
Speaker 1: make sense. That's the first two things that just came
Speaker 1: to my mind as I started recording. I think another one,
Speaker 1: especially for this year and even for twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: is there's no problem that you can't solve. I think
Speaker 1: when you're a business owner, it is really easy to
Speaker 1: get caught up on tiny little things, like you can
Speaker 1: something tiny could happen, and it might be like a
Speaker 1: negative thing, right, and you can just get so caught
Speaker 1: up on this one thing and it spirals in your
Speaker 1: mind to be something way bigger than it is when
Speaker 1: reality it isn't. But another massive lesson for me is
Speaker 1: there's no problem that you can't solve, and it could
Speaker 1: even be as easy as solving it with a conversation.
Speaker 1: I've spoken a lot in my pod about avoiding tough
Speaker 1: conversations and how important it is to just embrace them
Speaker 1: and have those tough conversations. I always say saying, and
Speaker 1: you can take this away with you for the end
Speaker 1: of the year. I say it all the time. Hard conversations,
Speaker 1: easy life, easy conversations, hard life. Hard conversations, easy life,
Speaker 1: easy conversations, hard life. I think if we tiptoe around
Speaker 1: and don't want to upset anyone or don't want to
Speaker 1: confront anyone, which naturally most of us are like that.
Speaker 1: Like I'm naturally not a person that would go and
Speaker 1: confront someone, I don't think many of us are. I
Speaker 1: think there's definitely some people out there who thrive when
Speaker 1: it comes to confronting people. And I will say that
Speaker 1: I'm learning to become that way, like not afraid to
Speaker 1: confront or have a tough conversation, and I think that
Speaker 1: comes with practice. But it's really important in business to
Speaker 1: get comfortable with having uncomfy conversations because if you don't,
Speaker 1: you're gonna end up in absolute shit creek. Because something
Speaker 1: tiny happens in your workplace, you don't address it at all,
Speaker 1: it then spirals out of control and six months down
Speaker 1: the track it is a massive problem, you know, But
Speaker 1: nothing is ever that big of a problem. Sure, massive
Speaker 1: problems can happen, but I'm talking about like the little
Speaker 1: things that we get caught up on as business owners.
Speaker 1: It could be something like a negative review, Like you
Speaker 1: could sit on that fucking negative review and let it
Speaker 1: destroy you, or you can resolve it and move forward.
Speaker 1: And I think that's just a really important lesson that
Speaker 1: I've learned is to not dwell on little things because
Speaker 1: they can absolutely consume you. I feel like even the
Speaker 1: smaller the things are, the more they can overtake your
Speaker 1: whole brain. But it's really important to just solve problems.
Speaker 1: It may include having tough and awkward conversations. And I
Speaker 1: speak to my friends in business about this all the time.
Speaker 1: And people don't want to talk to people because they
Speaker 1: don't want it to be awkward or you don't want
Speaker 1: to upset someone. But trust me, it's so important to
Speaker 1: have uncomfortable and tough conversations. Most of the time you'll
Speaker 1: probably end up being surprised with how well it went.
Speaker 1: And maybe if it didn't go well, then you needed
Speaker 1: to see that, if you know what I mean. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's another big lesson for me in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: is just there's no problem that we can't solve, and
Speaker 1: solving problems gives you confidence like nothing else. The growth
Speaker 1: that I have experienced throughout this entire year and previous years.
Speaker 1: You just can't compare it to anything. And going through
Speaker 1: tough times and challenges in business and figuring out things,
Speaker 1: solving problems, resolving conflict, it only builds your confidence, and
Speaker 1: then I think every problem that comes your way in
Speaker 1: the future, it almost becomes like smaller like because you
Speaker 1: build this confidence of no matter what happens, I'm always
Speaker 1: going to know how to resolve it and move forward
Speaker 1: kind of thing. And I think that's another thing to
Speaker 1: be really open minded about when you're in business. Is
Speaker 1: just like for me anyway, I don't know about other owners,
Speaker 1: but I'm very comfortable with the fact that we are
Speaker 1: always going to be dealing with some sort of problem
Speaker 1: in the business one end to the other, from retail
Speaker 1: all the way through the warehouse and everywhere in between.
Speaker 1: Like somewhere in your company at all times, there's always
Speaker 1: going to be some sort of issue that you're dealing with.
Speaker 1: It would almost be scary if everything was just amazing
Speaker 1: twenty four to seven, because then I'd be waiting for
Speaker 1: something really bad to happen. But I think the sooner
Speaker 1: that we as owners can be comfortable with knowing that
Speaker 1: we're always going to be putting out little fires. I
Speaker 1: think the better. I think it's better for your mental
Speaker 1: health to know that it's okay to be dealing with
Speaker 1: problems in business and for things to be going wrong
Speaker 1: and for shit to be hit in the fan every
Speaker 1: now and then because it's normal. It's life, and it's
Speaker 1: part of the journey. And my final lesson that I'm
Speaker 1: going to share with you today and again I always
Speaker 1: say this in every single episode, like there's a billion things,
Speaker 1: there's a billion lessons I could share with you, but
Speaker 1: I guess this is going to be two together. My
Speaker 1: last two lessons is Number one, You're never going to
Speaker 1: be able to make everyone happy, and that's okay. This
Speaker 1: could be customers. I feel like I accepted this a
Speaker 1: really long time ago, but it's something that I'm reminded
Speaker 1: of daily at Fate. You know, like we get customer complaints.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say like all the time, and
Speaker 1: for every you know, five hundred amazing reviews, there'll be
Speaker 1: that one negative one. But when you're in businesses, especially
Speaker 1: if you're growing and you're getting more and more customers,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get people that are not happy with you
Speaker 1: for whatever reason. And I've really come to accept the
Speaker 1: fact that we're never going to be able to make
Speaker 1: everyone happy, and that's okay, And I think that's something
Speaker 1: that all business owners need to accept and be okay with. Naturally,
Speaker 1: we are all people pleasers. We never want to upset anyone.
Speaker 1: We're not, especially in business. We're not out here intending
Speaker 1: to completely upset someone and ruin their day. But you know,
Speaker 1: if someone's gotten a pair of jeens and they're not
Speaker 1: the right fit for them, or maybe the buttons accidentally
Speaker 1: popped off and there was a fault, like, people will
Speaker 1: go out of their way to tell us that we've
Speaker 1: absolutely ruined their day or you know, ruined their holiday,
Speaker 1: and shame on us. And it's really hard when you
Speaker 1: obviously feel so close to your business because that's your
Speaker 1: business and it's your little baby. But it's hard when
Speaker 1: you get that negative review to not let it get
Speaker 1: the best of you and to feel like a bit
Speaker 1: of a failure if you've let someone down. And you know,
Speaker 1: when we get negative reviews, usually they land in our inbox.
Speaker 1: You know, I work pretty closely with our customer happiness
Speaker 1: team and sometimes I'll bring them to my attention. If
Speaker 1: someone's being like really horrible and you feel so many
Speaker 1: emotions when you get those really nasty reviews, And in
Speaker 1: the past, I definitely would have like held onto that,
Speaker 1: dwelled on it. I would have thought about it at night.
Speaker 1: I would have spoken about it with AJ like I
Speaker 1: would have really gotten in my own head about that
Speaker 1: negative review. And we always go back to everyone with kindness.
Speaker 1: That's just another one like Kielm with kindness. Selena Gomez
Speaker 1: was so right in that song, and it's the only
Speaker 1: approach to take is just killing everyone with kindness at
Speaker 1: all times, even if someone's being so horrible and you
Speaker 1: want to give them a piece of your mind and
Speaker 1: be like, well, excuse me, We definitely don't do that
Speaker 1: at fate. We just kill them with kindness every time.
Speaker 1: And even if you are killing someone with kindness, they
Speaker 1: can still come back and be so horrible, Like some
Speaker 1: people are just horrible. But it's just important to know
Speaker 1: that that's normal and you're never in business going to
Speaker 1: be able to make every single customer happy again. It
Speaker 1: would be alarming if you did, Like if you just
Speaker 1: had one hundred percent accuracy across the board, one hundred
Speaker 1: percent customer satisfaction, because that would just seem like there's
Speaker 1: something weird going on, right, And same goes beyond your
Speaker 1: customers as well. You're never going to be able to
Speaker 1: make everyone happy in your team, Like I've had so
Speaker 1: many people come and go over the years. Well not
Speaker 1: so many, like our employee turnover rate is actually really good,
Speaker 1: which is a good thing. But you naturally will have
Speaker 1: people come and go over the years. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's some people out there that have worked for me
Speaker 1: that think the most horrible things of me. And I'm
Speaker 1: okay with that again, because if you sit there and
Speaker 1: dwell on what a past employee may think of you,
Speaker 1: or an ex customer that has said I've never shopping
Speaker 1: with you again, like you've ruined my life, if you
Speaker 1: sat there and dwelled on that, I don't think that'll
Speaker 1: do you any favors in any kind of way. And
Speaker 1: we need to remember that we cannot make everyone happy.
Speaker 1: We cannot make every staff member one hundred percent happy.
Speaker 1: We cannot make every customer one hundred percent happy? Can
Speaker 1: we try one hundred percent? If someone is unhappy with us,
Speaker 1: can we try to fix that as well? Absolutely? Can
Speaker 1: we try to offer as many solutions as possible. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: if a customer is unhappy about something, can we try
Speaker 1: and fix that for them? Yes. If a staff member
Speaker 1: is unhappy about something, can we try and fix that
Speaker 1: for them. Yes. You can do all the things right
Speaker 1: and that's what's important, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: some people still may not be happy, and it's important
Speaker 1: to remember that that in itself is okay, and that
Speaker 1: you're not a bad person or your business isn't shit
Speaker 1: if people are unhappy with you, because that is quite
Speaker 1: literally just life. People are never going to be one
Speaker 1: hundred percent happy, and that is completely okay. And those
Speaker 1: are my lessons of twenty twenty four. And like I
Speaker 1: always say, there's a billion things that I've learned this
Speaker 1: year and business is nothing but lessons. I truly feel
Speaker 1: like that is what business is. In a nutshell, it's
Speaker 1: just doing things, doing them wrong, learning lessons and moving
Speaker 1: forward and learning better for next time. I quite literally
Speaker 1: think business is just one massive lesson in itself, and
Speaker 1: you're never going to stop learning. And I truly think
Speaker 1: that that's the beautiful thing about business. You know, there's
Speaker 1: no perfect way of doing everything, there's no handbook that
Speaker 1: will tell you exactly how to handle every single thing
Speaker 1: in business in every single scenario. You honestly just try
Speaker 1: your best, and you might make mistakes along the way.
Speaker 1: I do, we all do, and you learn the lesson
Speaker 1: for next time, and you learn so many lessons about
Speaker 1: yourself along the way as well. So yeah, this has
Speaker 1: been a bit of a reflection episode, hasn't it. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I'll see you in my next episode.