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Speaker 1: banking services provided by Green Dot Bank member FDIC. Hey everyone,
Speaker 1: I'm Jennie Torres.
Speaker 2: And I'm Austin Hankwitz. Welcome to Mine the Business. Small
Speaker 2: Business Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by Intuit,
Speaker 2: QuickBooks and iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio. In every episode so far,
Speaker 2: we talked with small business owners as they shared their
Speaker 2: stories about the ups and downs of owning a small business.
Speaker 2: But today we're going to do something a little.
Speaker 1: Our incredible guests have dropped so many gems over the
Speaker 1: last seven episodes, so for our final episode, Austin and
Speaker 1: I are going to reflect back on all of those conversations,
Speaker 1: and we're going to tell you our own stories as
Speaker 1: well as share with you some never before heard clips
Speaker 1: from our previous interviews about what keeps entrepreneurs going.
Speaker 2: That's right, Janie. For this last episode, we're talking about
Speaker 2: finding your why, the thing that inspired you to start
Speaker 2: your own business in the first place and keeps you
Speaker 2: getting up every day and continuing the dream of self
Speaker 2: employment through the successes, the setbacks, and everything in between.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited for this episode, Austin, because we've heard
Speaker 1: some great stories so far, and I have a lot
Speaker 1: to share from going on this amazing journey, and I
Speaker 1: know you do too.
Speaker 2: Oh one hundred percent. It's kind of funny, Janie's I've
Speaker 2: always thought of myself actually as an entrepreneur, even since
Speaker 2: I was in middle school. I remember living in Denver, Colorado,
Speaker 2: school got canceled one day because we had this like
Speaker 2: crazy blizzard, and instead of like sledding and building snowmen
Speaker 2: with my friends, I decided to borrow my neighbor's snowblower,
Speaker 2: teamed up with a few kids around the block, and
Speaker 2: we made one hundred and twenty dollars that day, snow
Speaker 2: blowing driveways. Like I've always had this weird knack for entrepreneurship,
Speaker 2: getting hands dirty to make some cash, as well as
Speaker 2: collaborating with other like minded individuals to achieve our general
Speaker 2: goals together. So I'm eager to jump into the episode.
Speaker 1: I love that it takes me back to the days
Speaker 1: where I had a lemonade stand, and I also saw
Speaker 1: the value of having ways of making money that don't
Speaker 1: rely on a nine to five. Even with my own parents,
Speaker 1: we used to host yard sales. My dad would like
Speaker 1: find random things in the neighborhood that folks throughout on
Speaker 1: trash day we were a little refinishing and sell them for
Speaker 1: a couple dollars. And now apparently that's a thing called flipping.
Speaker 1: So I think I had a little bit of a
Speaker 1: knack for making money on the side ever since I
Speaker 1: was young.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to dive in. So let's do it.
Speaker 2: Denise kick us off. Why did you take the initial
Speaker 2: leap into entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: So for me, I had kind of a practical reason
Speaker 1: and more of a philosophical one. So I was laid
Speaker 1: off actually in twenty fourteen, first and only time, and
Speaker 1: it was a really big wake up call for me
Speaker 1: because I had been sold this dream, right, this corporate
Speaker 1: dream where you get a job, you work there for
Speaker 1: forty years and you're good. And as a first generation kid,
Speaker 1: I definitely got the message that that was the key
Speaker 1: to success. So when I followed that path and it
Speaker 1: led me to a position where now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: this career that I've built has been pulled out from
Speaker 1: under me, it made me question a lot of that
Speaker 1: narrative and it made me never want to be in
Speaker 1: a position again to have someone be able to disrupt
Speaker 1: my financial stability. So that was the practical reason, but
Speaker 1: also I think I was definitely born with a little
Speaker 1: bit of a rebel streak. As the eldest daughter. My
Speaker 1: parents were very strict, and so I would find little
Speaker 1: opportunities to kind of question the status quo. Usually got
Speaker 1: me in trouble. But I do feel like I'm just
Speaker 1: not really good with having somebody else tell me what
Speaker 1: to do. And part of my desire to be an
Speaker 1: entrepreneur was the ability to be my own boss.
Speaker 2: I love that genis and you know, I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people listening right now would also relate to
Speaker 2: this sort of like, wait a second. I was told
Speaker 2: if I do this, if I go to college, if
Speaker 2: I get the degree, if I work for thirty years
Speaker 2: or whatever, that this thing might be. I will be happy,
Speaker 2: I'll be rich, I'll be retired, I'll be ABC XYZ,
Speaker 2: whatever that means to them. And I had the same
Speaker 2: sort of wake up call, right. I had realized quickly
Speaker 2: after graduating college something I felt that I spent a
Speaker 2: lot of dang money on that I didn't have the
Speaker 2: answers I was looking for. Sure. I knew calculus and
Speaker 2: geography and how many moons were on Jupiter, but I
Speaker 2: didn't know how to invest in real estate, build my
Speaker 2: credit score, or start a business. And so I realized
Speaker 2: really quickly too, that I wasn't alone in this realization, right,
Speaker 2: and that a lot of Americans, countless Americans, really had
Speaker 2: no idea what the stock market was, how to invest,
Speaker 2: how to grow their wealth. So since graduating college in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, I believe the wealth gap in America has
Speaker 2: only grown wider, something that I think we all want
Speaker 2: to help shrink. So I want to introduce as many
Speaker 2: people to the investor class as possible to help do
Speaker 2: that right to not just be these consumers from the walmarts,
Speaker 2: the targets, the costcos, but also own the companies they
Speaker 2: consume from. And that's why I started publishing my own
Speaker 2: personal finance and investing content on the internet. You don't
Speaker 2: have to always trade your time for money anymore. You
Speaker 2: can passively make money through capital appreciation and dividends, two
Speaker 2: things that you'll need to know for sure if you
Speaker 2: ever want to retire one day.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, having ownership of your time is one of
Speaker 1: the best things about entrepreneurship. Our first guest on this season,
Speaker 1: Grace Wells, was adamant about the immediate benefits of being
Speaker 1: your own ball.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: For me, the most rewarding part about being a solopreneur
Speaker 3: and owning my own business is the freedom and the independence.
Speaker 3: And I think that now that I've learned how to
Speaker 3: operate in a world where I don't have to report
Speaker 3: to a boss in a linear way like I did before,
Speaker 3: it would be so hard for me to go back.
Speaker 3: Of course, I have clients and there's lots of people
Speaker 3: that I answer to, but it feels so different when
Speaker 3: every day you wake up and you're creating something for yourself.
Speaker 3: And you're creating a business that's yours. So yeah, I
Speaker 3: think that the biggest thing that sort of drives me
Speaker 3: and pushes me forward is that sense of freedom and
Speaker 3: independence that owning a business brings me.
Speaker 2: Being an entrepreneur and having to rely on yourself and
Speaker 2: your own instruction is really really important and can be
Speaker 2: eye opening for a lot of us. So, speaking of
Speaker 2: eye opening the genie, when were your eyes first opened
Speaker 2: to see, Wait a second, I can be an entrepreneur, right?
Speaker 2: What were maybe some specific things you did that were like, wait,
Speaker 2: I can do this, I have what it's Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love this question because that transition period is something
Speaker 1: very scary. I never imagined myself being a full time entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: So when I decided that I was interested in taking
Speaker 1: the leap, I chose not to jump out of the
Speaker 1: plane without a parachute. I took a very strategic approach,
Speaker 1: and I really wanted to prove to myself that I
Speaker 1: could actually do this. So part of what I started
Speaker 1: doing was funneling my paycheck to my four oh one
Speaker 1: K and paying myself through the business. So I got
Speaker 1: on payroll. I was issuing myself a paycheck equivalent to
Speaker 1: what I was earning as an engineer, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to do that for at least four to five months
Speaker 1: in order to really prove to myself that I could
Speaker 1: walk away and still be able to keep my standard
Speaker 1: of living. That might be very conservative for some people.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of folks who start businesses
Speaker 1: during a job layoff or a transition. But if you
Speaker 1: have the opportunity to do this while you're working full time,
Speaker 1: I think it's a really smart thing to do because
Speaker 1: you can bulk up your emergency savings, you can invest
Speaker 1: some money from your paycheck into growing your business, and
Speaker 1: you don't have this immediate need to make this payoff
Speaker 1: right away. And I want to remind folks how important
Speaker 1: it is to understand this is a process. Anybody who
Speaker 1: has run a business, who has built a business, will
Speaker 1: tell you it does take time. And so I think
Speaker 1: having the patience and really putting the systems in place
Speaker 1: to make you be able to make that transition safely
Speaker 1: and hopefully for the final time, I think it's a
Speaker 1: good strategic move. I'm curious for you, Austin, when you
Speaker 1: were deciding to take your content creation career to the
Speaker 1: next level. What was your process.
Speaker 2: I did a very similar thing that you did, Genie.
Speaker 2: I did not want to jump into solopreneurship entrepreneurship without
Speaker 2: knowing that there was longevity to it, right, And so
Speaker 2: for me, I was building my business on the side
Speaker 2: while also working full time. And I did that for
Speaker 2: an entire year. So I was working forty fifty sixty
Speaker 2: hours a week and then from call it nine pm
Speaker 2: to one am, I was building my business and I
Speaker 2: did that for it really was about a year. So
Speaker 2: I did the same thing. I wanted to make sure
Speaker 2: that I had what it took to completely say I
Speaker 2: can hang up my W two. I kind of come
Speaker 2: from this other side of the spectrum where I really
Speaker 2: liked my job. I really enjoyed working my W two job.
Speaker 2: Sure I worked pretty hard and I was probably underpaid
Speaker 2: a little bit, but generally speaking, I really enjoyed the
Speaker 2: people I worked with. And it was kind of hard
Speaker 2: to take a step back from that and say, no,
Speaker 2: I should start my own business and I should double
Speaker 2: down on entrepreneurship. And you know, so when I talked
Speaker 2: to in that process was my dad. And I think
Speaker 2: this is a really big lesson that I learned as
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur was you know. I said, hey, Dad, I've
Speaker 2: got this thing called TikTok and podcasting and newsletters, and
Speaker 2: I'm doing the stuff on the internet. I'm making way
Speaker 2: more money doing this than I am with my W
Speaker 2: two job. I'm ready to make the transition. And he goes,
Speaker 2: I have no idea what you just talked about. Why
Speaker 2: would you give up your job to do things on
Speaker 2: the internet. What are you talking about, Austin? And so
Speaker 2: you know that definitely weighed on me, right. I really
Speaker 2: appreciate my dad's perspective and advice, but I ended up,
Speaker 2: of course, against his advice quitting my job, which was
Speaker 2: the best decision ever. But I think a lot of people,
Speaker 2: again take the advice from people that aren't qualified to
Speaker 2: give that advice, and sometimes to the detriment of their futures.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a good reminder that you have
Speaker 1: to believe in the idea more than anybody else, because
Speaker 1: usually what happens is everyone calls you crazy until you're successful,
Speaker 1: and then they ask you how you did it.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. It's all about taking what you know,
Speaker 2: researching what you don't, and making it happen. I mean,
Speaker 2: look at our guest Michael Bain. He was working insane
Speaker 2: hours sweating in the kitchens, but he saw a need
Speaker 2: adjacent to that world that he could fill and be
Speaker 2: much happier doing so he started Moshi Moshi Knives and
Speaker 2: never looked back.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Michael is a great example of why we get
Speaker 1: into business for ourselves, especially after seeing what it's like
Speaker 1: working for someone else. Let's roll that clip.
Speaker 4: I think right now, it's been the thing that I
Speaker 4: can make the most money with with my skills right like,
Speaker 4: and I haven't even reached close to the ceiling, so
Speaker 4: it's like, there's still so much more I can do.
Speaker 4: I just think it's the best money making opportunity for
Speaker 4: me right now. And it's like I kind of forwarded
Speaker 4: my ambition in the past four years because I just
Speaker 4: worked in a kitchen in the past decade and I'm tired.
Speaker 4: So it's nice having a easier life. But as I'm
Speaker 4: getting older too, like the desire to push more and like,
Speaker 4: you know, the desire to be more successful is there.
Speaker 1: I love the various reasons why we started this business,
Speaker 1: why we pursued entrepreneurship. I'm curious for you, Austin, what's
Speaker 1: your why when those hard times show up, Because they will,
Speaker 1: there will be setbacks, and how do you continue going
Speaker 1: forward when things do get challenging.
Speaker 2: That's a really good question, you know. I think I
Speaker 2: have two answers to this, the first being if you
Speaker 2: lay the foundation right, you work with integrity, compassion, honesty,
Speaker 2: everything that gives us our uniqueness. Setbacks are going to
Speaker 2: be far in view between understanding your business and your financials.
Speaker 2: Like the back of your hand is also a really,
Speaker 2: really great way to identify these red flags and setbacks
Speaker 2: before they happen, which is something I take very seriously,
Speaker 2: and quick books is the easiest way for me to
Speaker 2: do that. But with that being said, the way I'm
Speaker 2: able to get over setbacks, especially if they are very
Speaker 2: very big setbacks, is to surround myself with people who
Speaker 2: continue to motivate me, educate me, and inspire me to
Speaker 2: keep going. I mean, that's the simple answer a setback.
Speaker 2: I think every content creator, maybe even yourself included, is
Speaker 2: worried about right now. Is this like potential ban for
Speaker 2: TikTok And for me that would be pretty I'm certainly
Speaker 2: a TikToker, but I'm doing what I can at the moment.
Speaker 2: To own my audience by collecting their email addresses, maybe
Speaker 2: migrating them to another platform, and back to what we
Speaker 2: talked about before, diversifying my revenue streams away from one
Speaker 2: specific funnel. So I think that by having sort of
Speaker 2: a bird's eye view, a calm, cool, collected perspective on
Speaker 2: what this setback might be, and to only remember that
Speaker 2: you can control the controllables. That's all you can control, right,
Speaker 2: things that are absolutely in your hands, And I can't
Speaker 2: control a potential TikTok ban or something else that's completely
Speaker 2: out of my hands. So I'm doing the best I
Speaker 2: can with the cards I'm dealt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's all we can do. We kind
Speaker 1: of just have to roll with the punches. I always
Speaker 1: tell people that entrepreneurship is the greatest lesson in resilience,
Speaker 1: and I had a personal story with my own business
Speaker 1: that really made me grateful for the fact that I
Speaker 1: am very conservative when it comes to how I set
Speaker 1: aside money, because you just never know when there's going
Speaker 1: to be those times where there's an unexpected expense or
Speaker 1: things are over budget. I had my first live event
Speaker 1: last year and I ended up going six figures over
Speaker 1: the budget. When it was all said and done, and
Speaker 1: that type of situation could make or break a business.
Speaker 1: But what I have been really good at, and I
Speaker 1: think this is why I like to call myself a
Speaker 1: little bit of a money nerd is I have so
Speaker 1: many different pools of money that I was able to
Speaker 1: kind of reallocate where I had saved some investments and
Speaker 1: cash out that stuff so that I could actually foot
Speaker 1: the bill and not get into even more debt in
Speaker 1: order to cover the expenses of this live event. It
Speaker 1: was a really big teaching moment for me because it
Speaker 1: was the first time that I had taken on such
Speaker 1: a big project. Made me question if I want to
Speaker 1: do it again. But I'm just glad that I had
Speaker 1: the financial stability and the resiliency in my own business
Speaker 1: to be able to weather that really unexpected expense.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I could not imagine having to deal
Speaker 2: with that. Jendi's I more power to you. You know
Speaker 2: that really reminds me, though, of our conversation with Taylor.
Speaker 2: You know, she had this crazy tax bill that came
Speaker 2: out of blue for her. She had to move, she
Speaker 2: had to do all these crazy big things to overcome
Speaker 2: that setback, and that challenge, and it really just reminds
Speaker 2: me of how resilient entrepreneurs can be.
Speaker 5: I get into this creative flow that fills me up
Speaker 5: more than anything, and I think that's when you know
Speaker 5: you're doing the right thing, is when your job doesn't
Speaker 5: really feel like a job. And so I think, if anything,
Speaker 5: that's just like, what keeps me inspired is just the
Speaker 5: love of what I do. And I think if you
Speaker 5: can find that, like, I feel so lucky to be
Speaker 5: able to be doing this for a living and to
Speaker 5: enjoy it as much as I do.
Speaker 2: You know, I think a lot of us forget, though,
Speaker 2: that we dream and fantasize about being an entrepreneur, about
Speaker 2: being a solopreneur and owning our time, owning our business,
Speaker 2: and then we get to that point and we're like,
Speaker 2: oh gosh, wait, this is a little scary. I'm just gonna,
Speaker 2: you know, be a victim to my circumstance and kind
Speaker 2: of bow out. Heck, no, I mean, you work so
Speaker 2: hard to get here, keep working hard to remain here.
Speaker 2: You mentioned resiliency. That is so so important for people
Speaker 2: listening right now to realize is entrepreneurship isn't always flowers
Speaker 2: and unicorns and rainbows. It sometimes is a lot of resiliency.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, as they say, anything worth doing is worth working for,
Speaker 1: and even through the ups and downs, it's so important
Speaker 1: for us to celebrate our victories wherever we can. And
Speaker 1: I'm curious for you, Austin, why do you celebrate victories
Speaker 1: and how do you do it?
Speaker 2: How I celebrate victories is you know, certainly I like
Speaker 2: to go on vacations. I like to spend time with
Speaker 2: my family. I like to go out with my friends.
Speaker 2: You know, I live here in Nashville. It's a lot
Speaker 2: of fun. But something else I like to do, and
Speaker 2: I try and do this every single quarter throughout the year,
Speaker 2: is I reflect upon the last three months and I
Speaker 2: write down to my journal what I had achieved right,
Speaker 2: And sometimes when I look back to what I have
Speaker 2: written in this journal back in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, I'm just like, oh my gosh, if
Speaker 2: I come so far. And I think a lot of
Speaker 2: that self reflection is really important for other people listening
Speaker 2: right now to do because you don't know what you
Speaker 2: don't know. And I guarantee you in two, five, ten years,
Speaker 2: you're going to be doing stuff that you right now
Speaker 2: would have never imagined.
Speaker 1: It's so true. You know, when I think about why
Speaker 1: it's important for me to celebrate victories, it's because entrepreneurship
Speaker 1: has given me a real gift, which is the ability
Speaker 1: to own my time, and to celebrate my one year
Speaker 1: anniversary of becoming a full time entrepreneur. I actually ended
Speaker 1: up taking my mom to Paris. Oh wow, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it was an incredible mother daughter trip. We've never
Speaker 1: traveled together before that, so it was an opportunity to
Speaker 1: make a lot of memories, but especially because she was
Speaker 1: declared cancer free a little bit before that, and so
Speaker 1: for me it was just a really important mile stone
Speaker 1: for both of us in entrepreneurship was at the center
Speaker 1: of why I was even able to take this trip.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't have to request PTO and you
Speaker 1: have to worry about the budget. I was really able
Speaker 1: to just be present and make these really really memorable
Speaker 1: moments matter. And I think that's the reason why we
Speaker 1: have to get really good at enjoying those benefits that
Speaker 1: do come from entrepreneurship, because it is so worth it.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, Paris, that sounds incredible. I am so jealous.
Speaker 2: I've never been, and I'm thrilled for your mom to
Speaker 2: be cancer free. Being able to be there for family
Speaker 2: members when things get challenging is one of the benefits
Speaker 2: of entrepreneurship that you really just can't put a price on.
Speaker 2: You can measure profits and overhead and output all day long,
Speaker 2: but the ability to take care of your family, not
Speaker 2: just financially, but with your time and your physical presence
Speaker 2: is just an immeasurable benefit.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: That really reminds me though, of our conversations with Michael
Speaker 2: and Daniel j. They're a father and son team who
Speaker 2: co founded the t shirt business that Lazy Butt Club,
Speaker 2: and not only did they find a way to work together,
Speaker 2: but they also made sure that as entrepreneurs, they make
Speaker 2: time for each other outside of work and prioritize their family.
Speaker 1: And let's throw to that clip real quick.
Speaker 6: What keeps me going is the fact that we have
Speaker 6: had success and I've seen that it's possible, and then
Speaker 6: that it's happened a few times actually, where we've had
Speaker 6: different viral videos over the span of the last coming
Speaker 6: up on three years. So when the views are low
Speaker 6: and the sales are low, I just keep going because
Speaker 6: I know it's possible now.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I was just going to say, what keeps me
Speaker 7: going over the years and everything is knowing that you're
Speaker 7: an entrepreneur and you can actually have your own destiny
Speaker 7: by working more hours, working harder, and not really trying
Speaker 7: to be successful, but just trying to keep working. And
Speaker 7: the thing that keeps us going really well is knowing
Speaker 7: that we do get to be lazy when we're not
Speaker 7: doing well. And it used to be that you were
Speaker 7: just always trying to make money, but now since we're
Speaker 7: so busy, we're always trying to take time off and
Speaker 7: go golfing, and that's a easier way to do it.
Speaker 2: And the same thing for Jordan Rose, right, she's an
Speaker 2: Etsy seller and the owner of Fresh Prince of SF.
Speaker 2: She was very clear about how important owning her time
Speaker 2: is and how as entrepreneurs we don't have to ask
Speaker 2: for PTO. We don't have to go ask for someone's
Speaker 2: permission to go take a family trip or celebrate someone's achievements.
Speaker 2: It's just so powerful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she gave us some really great insights into what
Speaker 1: keeps solopreneurs going.
Speaker 8: I wrote a letter to myself when I left the library,
Speaker 8: and my sister told me to do that, it says
Speaker 8: to me, like you left the library. You left your
Speaker 8: nine to five for a reason. I always love libraries
Speaker 8: and I'm happy to sub there, but I know, like
Speaker 8: as a lifestyle, it doesn't work for me anymore. And
Speaker 8: when I get exhausted doing what I'm doing now, I'm
Speaker 8: still happier than I've ever been in my whole life.
Speaker 8: And in the beginning, when I was really questioning, like
Speaker 8: struggling to have anyone see my work or whatever it
Speaker 8: may be, you know, I was struggling to get money
Speaker 8: in my pocket after having very comfortable nine to five
Speaker 8: that gave me a consistent amount of money each week.
Speaker 8: I would open that letter and say, like, don't panic,
Speaker 8: everything's fine.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break.
Speaker 9: When I went freelance, the reason I did it was
Speaker 9: so that I could live a fuller life, whether that
Speaker 9: was travel, whether that was pursuing comedy.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with mine the business. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Mind the Business. Small business stories from iHeartMedia's Ruby
Speaker 1: Studio and into It QuickBooks. You know, one of the
Speaker 1: things that despite entrepreneurship being so fabulous, it does get
Speaker 1: lonely at times. And so I think that's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why it's been really important for me to
Speaker 1: build community. I know, for somebody who is like a
Speaker 1: first generation business owner like me, my family still doesn't
Speaker 1: understand what the heck I do, and so it's been
Speaker 1: really important for me to create community, find folks who
Speaker 1: actually get the struggles that we're going through, and it
Speaker 1: can be very lonely as well. From somebody that works
Speaker 1: from home, I've had to become very intentional about creating
Speaker 1: this space where I can ask for help and know
Speaker 1: who to contact for resources, and community can do more
Speaker 1: than just give you a hand when you need it.
Speaker 1: It's also a place where we can help out others
Speaker 1: and even thrive ourselves. Our guests Sierramani Mae looked around
Speaker 1: and didn't see any environmentally sustainable options for faux hair care,
Speaker 1: so she said about creating one herself, founding her own company, Rebundle.
Speaker 1: Now she's a community leader at the forefront of that
Speaker 1: entire industry.
Speaker 10: I'm excited by how much more work there is to
Speaker 10: be done in this space. I think that we've done
Speaker 10: a great job bringing awareness to this industry and the
Speaker 10: way that the product has been made and distributed For
Speaker 10: the last several decades. So that was really motivating in
Speaker 10: the beginning to like sort of spill the beans and
Speaker 10: like shine a light on the space that I didn't
Speaker 10: think was getting the attention it deserved. But now a
Speaker 10: couple of years in, I'm motivated by the real possibility
Speaker 10: of making this segment of the beauty industry more aligned
Speaker 10: with the way the rest of the beauty industry operates.
Speaker 1: I'm curious for you, Austin, how's community played a role
Speaker 1: in your own journey.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, community was major. I mean, to your point,
Speaker 2: working from home, not being around people, but making all
Speaker 2: these random friends on the internet, Like it feels wow,
Speaker 2: I've got all these followers and potential friends and people
Speaker 2: that care about what I have to say, but it
Speaker 2: gets really lonely. So you know, for me, I would
Speaker 2: say that having that community not just to look toward
Speaker 2: as it relates to specific problems or challenges that I'm facing,
Speaker 2: but also I love connecting with new content creators or
Speaker 2: new small business owners who are really excited to begin
Speaker 2: their entrepreneurial journey and sharing with them. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I tried this, it worked great. You need to do
Speaker 2: it too, or oh my gosh, I made this mistake.
Speaker 2: Avoid it at all costs. This is not what you
Speaker 2: want to be doing or spending your time doing. I
Speaker 2: just that to me is what really fires me up.
Speaker 2: You know, in building community outside of entrepreneurship can be
Speaker 2: just as important. I think a lot of entrepreneurs fall
Speaker 2: victim to like hustle culture and always on, always working.
Speaker 2: Got to be working my twelve fifteen, twenty four hour
Speaker 2: days like these just crazy things. You know, It's okay
Speaker 2: to take a break and go hang out your friends,
Speaker 2: or go take your dog for a walk, or go
Speaker 2: you know, just get outside, touch grass, right, all these
Speaker 2: things that are so important that the headlines and the
Speaker 2: Internet might make you think is like, wait, no, that's
Speaker 2: that's not what entrepreneurship is about. Well, they're wrong. Entrepreneurship
Speaker 2: is about owning your time and spending your time the
Speaker 2: way you want to. If that is connecting with other
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs and building that side of your community, or connecting
Speaker 2: with your friends and your existing community outside of work.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, a big part of how community has helped me
Speaker 1: is having a kind of pool of people who can
Speaker 1: give me access to connections and resources that I didn't
Speaker 1: even know existed. For example, I am coming out with
Speaker 1: a new book and my book proposal coach, my agent.
Speaker 1: So many people that have put this together were because
Speaker 1: of community. I have a mentor who introduced me to
Speaker 1: a lot of folks who have now been able to
Speaker 1: be a part of this awesome project. And so I
Speaker 1: think it's important to foster community because that is how
Speaker 1: you can potentially find out that next tool that going
Speaker 1: to help make success easier for you and your business,
Speaker 1: like QuickBooks money.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more. Janis Now we've talked a lot
Speaker 2: about ourselves here, but I really want to dive deeper
Speaker 2: into your why Why do you keep going? Why do
Speaker 2: you keep doing it? Give me the number one reason?
Speaker 1: So I love the fact that now I get to
Speaker 1: write my own rules. I am someone who really enjoys
Speaker 1: the fact that no day looks the same and I
Speaker 1: get to live and work in a way more creative
Speaker 1: zone than I could before. This is the freedom that
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship gives you. It's really the ability to create a
Speaker 1: career and really dictate how you spend your time your energy.
Speaker 1: For me, most importantly, it's been that I am my
Speaker 1: own safety net as an entrepreneur. I don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about somebody laying me off. I don't have to
Speaker 1: worry about you know, it's not in the budget. There's
Speaker 1: a real power that comes from being able to be
Speaker 1: your own money printer as a business owner, and I
Speaker 1: feel like it helps me walk around in the world
Speaker 1: with a little bit of more confidence, you know, just
Speaker 1: that I have the ability to create the life that
Speaker 1: I want, I have the skills to do it. And
Speaker 1: most importantly, it's like I don't have to decide if
Speaker 1: I have time for family, if I have time for friends,
Speaker 1: if I have time to invest in my own health
Speaker 1: and self care. There is a real power that comes
Speaker 1: from entrepreneurship, and that really is my why. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like, yeah, I get to run things. I am
Speaker 1: the writer of my script.
Speaker 2: Ooh, I love it. I'm right there with you. I
Speaker 2: remember commuting an hour each way to work every day.
Speaker 2: I remember sitting in the kitchen and eating my boxed
Speaker 2: lunch in silence with my little headphones in listening to music.
Speaker 2: I was always on call if my boss needed me,
Speaker 2: and it was like ten forty five at night my
Speaker 2: phone was ringing, and that was the same for the weekends.
Speaker 2: Right today, I have the freedom to spend my days,
Speaker 2: my evenings, and my weekends any way i'd like. I
Speaker 2: also work from home, which means I save a lot
Speaker 2: on gas now, But you know, to that point, the
Speaker 2: flexibility also gives me an extended amount of time with
Speaker 2: my dad, who's in his late seventies. I'm his primary caretaker,
Speaker 2: and there's nothing more special to me than being able
Speaker 2: to run over to my dad's house, make him some lunch,
Speaker 2: and just make sure he's good for the rest of
Speaker 2: the day. I also love having him over for dinner,
Speaker 2: something I was never home to do because I wouldn't
Speaker 2: get home till seven, eight, nine o'clock at night sometimes.
Speaker 2: So to your point, having the flexibility, having that confidence,
Speaker 2: knowing that you are your own boss, you can write
Speaker 2: your own script, but also taking that extra time to
Speaker 2: do something other than just leisure, but also something really
Speaker 2: meaningful to you, I think is my why and what
Speaker 2: keeps me going. I love being able to spend time
Speaker 2: with my family, my friends, and having that you know,
Speaker 2: extra couple hours a day or several hours a week,
Speaker 2: even of just saying I want to do this because
Speaker 2: this makes me happy. Be and I totally agree with
Speaker 2: the confidence side, of the equation talking about how you
Speaker 2: feel like you can control your own destiny because your skills.
Speaker 2: I think that's what's so important too about being an
Speaker 2: entrepreneur gene Is is people's skills never go away. Your
Speaker 2: tools can go away, your computer can break your you know,
Speaker 2: whatever you use equipment wise to make and produce your
Speaker 2: products or services. Those can go away the deterior over time.
Speaker 2: But your knowledge as to how you can do that
Speaker 2: and monetize your unique and specific information and perspective will
Speaker 2: never go away. And I think once people unlock and
Speaker 2: have that light bulb moment of what that knowledge is
Speaker 2: to them, because everyone has their own you know, specific
Speaker 2: unique perspective, experience, know how as it relates to a product,
Speaker 2: to service, a just general idea that they can monetize
Speaker 2: and build upon. I mean, heck, I have no idea
Speaker 2: how to sharpen a knife, but Michael does and he's
Speaker 2: using that to generate revenue and just spend his time
Speaker 2: as wisely as possible to make the most amount of money.
Speaker 2: Sydney Holmes same thing with her company. No ifspr like,
Speaker 2: I don't know how to do any of that stuff,
Speaker 2: but these people know how to do those things and
Speaker 2: then also kind of have that perfect work life balance
Speaker 2: flexibility that we've been talking about.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Sydney really spelled it out when it
Speaker 1: comes to why she keeps ongoing as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 9: I think the thing for me is the freedom of
Speaker 9: being able to be a solopreneur. I think it's a
Speaker 9: double edged sword, right, Like, if I'm not working, I'm
Speaker 9: not making money. But at the same time, like when
Speaker 9: I went freelance, the reason I did it was so
Speaker 9: that I could live a fuller life, whether that was travel,
Speaker 9: whether that was pursuing comedy, whatever it was. Like when
Speaker 9: I got married a couple of years ago, I took
Speaker 9: a full month off. So I think it's definitely the
Speaker 9: freedom of being able to kind of choose the people
Speaker 9: I work with, do what I want to do, take
Speaker 9: time off if I need to take time off, and like, yes,
Speaker 9: you are working a lot more, but the trade off
Speaker 9: is not only do you keep all the money, but
Speaker 9: you also have the ability to set those boundaries. It
Speaker 9: is a tough balance, but anyway, Yeah, I think the
Speaker 9: freedom is the thing that keeps me going. It's very
Speaker 9: hard to give.
Speaker 1: Up, and I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: that's why we all do what we do. From Grace
Speaker 1: Wells discovering the flexibility of working for herself, to Michael
Speaker 1: Bain going from washing knives at all hours in a
Speaker 1: kitchen to sharpening them on his own time, or from
Speaker 1: Taylor Randall having the option to generate income with something
Speaker 1: she's passionate about, to Michael and Daniel Jay being able
Speaker 1: to work and enjoy life as a family, to Jordan
Speaker 1: Rose catering to an audience she loves and making money
Speaker 1: doing it all the way to Sierra Amani May being
Speaker 1: able to make an impact and help the people within
Speaker 1: her community, and Sydney Holmes improving the quality of her
Speaker 1: personal life by taking control of her working one. I
Speaker 1: think we can all see a through line here. It's
Speaker 1: about the options, It's about the freedom. This is what
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship is all about.
Speaker 2: I couldn't have said it better myself, Janie, what an
Speaker 2: incredible season. Oh my gosh, all of these guests we've
Speaker 2: had across the last several episodes. I've had so much fun.
Speaker 2: I've learned so much from these people, and thanks again
Speaker 2: for breaking down your why.
Speaker 1: Absolutely at the end of the day, I think most
Speaker 1: of us do this for more than just money. We
Speaker 1: want the ability to be our own boss. We want
Speaker 1: the ability to control our own businesses. We want to
Speaker 1: give back to the community and to other entrepreneurs, and
Speaker 1: we want to make money.
Speaker 2: We definitely do. I love, love, love seeing my own
Speaker 2: community of solopreneurs and entrepreneurial friends building over time. I'm
Speaker 2: glad you are now part of that community as well, Janie,
Speaker 2: and I'm super super excited to hear that your business
Speaker 2: is growing exponentially over time. I'm sure well.
Speaker 1: And now we have an amazing community of listeners here
Speaker 1: on Mind the Business, Small Business Success Stories. Austin, thank
Speaker 1: you for another great episode.
Speaker 2: Thank you for a great season.
Speaker 1: You're very welcome, and thank you all so much for listening.
Speaker 1: You can find me on social media at jocierro Di
Speaker 1: netto podcast.
Speaker 2: And you can find me at Austin Hankwitz. You can
Speaker 2: follow into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks.
Speaker 2: To get the tools you need to start, run and
Speaker 2: grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today.
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