Okay, to be honest, I was not planning on writing a blog post for my birthday. I wanted to bring back the Life Lessons blog post I used to share in 2013 but thought no one was reading those suckers, and it’s time-consuming. Then yesterday, I was texting my best friend Brandi, and she asked if I was writing a blog post for my birthday. So, you can thank my bestie for this blog post and remind me to write what my heart desires, so monthly Life Lessons are coming back.
Everyone wants to scale their business at a faster rate than need be, to be honest. In the last seven years, the Imperfect Concepts brand has grown organically at a rate that I prefer. One of the thing I have learned about how to grow your small business organically, stay far away from tricks and gimmicks. You rather focus on building something lasting as everything takes root.
We have all heard you become the five people you surround yourself with, but so many people do not take this to heart. When I was in my twenties I wanted to hold onto everyone who came into my life. Even those I know had no plans for growth or ambition. Yes, there were days I was beyond frustrated by their actions, but I should’ve been even more mad with myself. I continued to surround myself with those I knew who were not aligned with my future.
So, you launched your business and for the first month or so you saw some serious traction. You were excited for how things were going for your business. Then all of sudden it became the sahara desert with your sales and overall growth. Sales dropped down or there was no longer a list of people wanting to work with you. Trust, this is very normal when it comes to a new business. The excitement wears off and people forget you exist. This is why you need to establish a constant funnel of paying customers.
One thing I know about when it comes to business is, there will be pivots happening all the time. When I think about pivoting I think about Ross from Friends. If you don’t know what I am talking about just watch this clip from the Friends show. As a small business owner, most of us think the brilliant ideas we have are going to change the world and its perfect exactly how we designed. There is some truth in that, but most times life happens and you must adjust.
Do you want to know one of the biggest struggle I had in 2015? I will let you know now, it really had nothing to do with business and more with my personal life. In 2014 and 2015, I outgrew so many friends that had been there for me since college that it hurt. There was a pain and struggle inside to come to grips that what was great in the past was not working now. Often I am asked what happens when you outgrow your friends during your entrepreneurship journey. Today, I wanted to share just that with you. To be completely honest, I am not an expert on this and I am still learning.
People wonder what I do on a daily basis as a creative entrepreneur. As it must seem like all creatives have a bunch of times on their hands since they are “on social media” all day every day. Which most people don’t understand the need for business owners to be on these platforms that build the expertise and bring awareness to their company. Some people love being on Snapchat, Periscope, Twitter or Instagram depending on their needs and wants.
As a kid, did anyone ever ask you want you wanted to be when you grew up? When I was really young I wanted to be a ballerina, then I wanted to be a doctor, and then finally I wanted to be a merger and acquisition lawyer. You can blame John Grisham’s books on that. With each choice my parents were very supportive of my ambitions. When I qualified for Jeopardy tryouts as a kid, my dad drove all the way to Houston for me.
The first time, I heard about affirmations was from Kimora Lee Simmons in her Fabulosity book. Which by the way is still a great read no matter your age. She talked about being confident, speaking words of positivity & visualizing what you want. Even the concept of vision boards of sorts was mention when she wrote a check to herself. I have done vision boards that everything manifested to me within a month to vision books that nothing came to the light of day.
You can say I rejoined the Youtube world almost five months ago since that is when I posted my most recent video. Prior to posting I am back video it had been one year since I recorded Be Uniquely You. Which is far from consistent. Creating a youtube channel had been on my yearly goal list for the last two years. In the last 90 days I have really got consistent and focused. Going to a private Youtube Creator Day event does motivate you. Today, I want to share how my Youtube channel has taught me several things about running a successful business.
Can I be honest for a second? Well of course I can, since this is my site, I can do whatever I want. Last week I discussed depression, anxiety, and the comparison trap. I received a plethora of great responses and feedback from this online space, in addition to, a few other sites I shared it on. Okay, back to the honesty part. I truly wish more people were honest in business. One of my biggest pet peeves is people not living their life the way they say they are. They give off a “rose-colored” glasses lifestyle via social media. Having their audience believe one thing and doing another. Oh another would be, people taking advice from fluff experts.
Fluff experts are people who pull things from others and they give out the advice to their audience as if it was their own. When in actuality they don’t know a thing. They just want to be important. Running a business is EXTREMELY HARD. I see bad advice on social media daily and I cringe. Telling someone not to get a LLC because it is “too expensive” is not cool. It’s too expensive to be sued too.
Well, that’s my mini intro or rant for this month. That topic has really been grinding my gears, as of lately.