I Failed This Week

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Alright guys, so I am coming here today to talk about the realities, the wins, the failures, and everything in between, about being a small business owner. You are going to get a real dose of reality today. So yeah, real talk number one. I think a lot of small business owners entrepreneurs experience that is not spoken about enough, failure. Guys, this is like a number… like life is a numbers game. Let’s talk about failure for a second. I have failed so many times. And I’ve picked myself back up. And it’s not even like, I don’t know, failure is such a strong word. I don’t really look at it as failing. If I’m being completely honest. I genuinely look at it as a learning experience. And it’s just part of the process. You got to go through those many you got you have to go through all those instances where things aren’t going your way in order to finally find the thing that goes your way. So I just sort of like I look at it very different. There have absolutely been failures that were larger than others.

I went through a hugely traumatic business failure in 2020 hundred percent. I today this is a small failure. I was like alright, I’ve got this Clubhouse planned. I’m so excited. Guys, literally nobody was in the room. Literally, literally. And I was like, That’s weird. I was like must be a Clubhouse glitch and must be a clubhouse glitch. And I like I kept going. And I’m like, maybe I’m just not seeing people. This is so sad recounting this story. I was like when me PTR Let me pull to refresh. Maybe like the opposite has been glitchy. And there’s all these people in here. Let me keep talking. Let me keep talking and like Hey, guys, thanks. First come jump into my room. Maybe they hear me? No, guys. There was nobody in this room. There was nobody in it. And I… and then like maybe one person a couple people jumped in. And then they both jumped out because they were like, oh, nobody’s almost Romano and I just don’t… I don’t want it to be just me. And this who’s where moves on the WIIM mike it out because it doesn’t say my name. So I was like, Okay, I’m gonna stop this room. I’m gonna try again in 15 minutes. Okay, so I was like, What can I learn from this? I’m gonna change the title. Let’s change the title of the room. Maybe it wasn’t specific enough. Maybe people didn’t understand what this room was about. Okay. So I did it. So like 15 minutes later, I launched the room again. And less people came in guys, less people that less than two. I think one came in pretty much bounced, like right after that. And long story short, I ended up trying the room a third time, about an hour later. And I just let it run. And I was like, You know what, like, I don’t know, maybe it’s an algorithm thing. Maybe it’s the title maybe like I don’t I don’t I can’t explain it because there’s too many things outside of my control, but I’m gonna let it run. And if people jump in in the middle, then fantastic and if not all right, I’m going to note that Friday afternoons are not a good day to do Clubhouse rooms, or I needed to promote them elsewhere because interestingly enough, that was a room that I only scheduled on Clubhouse and did not promote anywhere, and nobody jumped in. But what I’m not doing is sitting here soaking that like WIIM is dying and, like, you know, we’re going away, nobody’s interested in us anymore because like, there are people that would totally do that, you know. And you know, look, I don’t think it’s an example where something went horribly wrong, but things go wrong all the time.

As I’m writing this article, I’m exporting a pre-recorded event for one of our upcoming virtual live streams. Why do I pre-record these events because oh my god, I have felt like I’ve embarrassed myself so many times, having them go wrong. Whether the lighting sucks, and I’m like, in the frickin dark. Or, you know, I lose my train of thought. And I don’t know how to suddenly I don’t know how to speak suddenly I’ve forgotten. Or, like, there’s just a number of different tech glitches, or the internet just sucks. And it’s choppy. And yeah, I frickin would love for those live streams to be better. And I would love for them to all go smoothly, but they have not. And they won’t, there will be some in the future that won’t. But yeah, I frickin learned a lot. And the one that got recorded today, it also had errors in it but what I learned from fucking up, pardon my friend, the ones before is that I pre record them now so I can edit them when so I… I’m anticipating that things will go wrong. And they do. And so that is part of… that’s part of maybe a learning about failure, right. Is like, maybe it sounds negative, I don’t care how it sounds, it’s effective. Anticipate that things are gonna go wrong. Anticipate that things are not going to go your way, things are going to be different from how you want them to be. But know that like, the outcome is always going to make you stronger. Because you know what people that I record these live streams where they pre record them, they’re like, wow, you seem really knowledgeable on this, this is amazing. This is great, or, you know, all… a number of different very complimentary things. And I say to you know, my back of my mind, I’m like, oh, If you only knew, If you only knew. And so that’s, you know, one of my goals I’m recording this for you guys today is just knowing that like those of us, you and me included who have had success, there are so many failures that have happened prior to that success and will happen after that success because that’s life. And it’s not so bad. You know, I believe that words are so powerful. So maybe we can change the word failure or just simply not use it and really truly like a boat. I believe that it’s it’s a learning opportunity and I love to learn. So, that’s another thing I wanted to touch on today. So another thing that I heard and learned about which is wild to say in a Clubhouse room the other night. Someone brought up the idea of working and scheduling when you are going to have bigger projects or be extra productive based on your menstrual cycle.

So, this is something that may feel taboo for some reason to people listening. Okay, we’re about to normalize this, because I don’t know about anybody else who’s also saying, but if you’re a woman, I get my period every single month. So like, if we can’t talk about this, that’s pretty freakin crazy. Can certainly feel comfortable talking about my menstrual cycle but what I found was really interesting, and I never thought about before. She was like, Yeah, I plan content, or, you know, some sort of big projects around my menstrual cycle. And like, I swear to you, like, if we were talking maybe like, 10 years ago, when I was younger, right? I would have been like, Okay, that sounds really “woo woo” to me, like, I don’t really like, Okay, I got it. That’s for you. That’s not for me. I have, like, I have absolutely had that experience, where there’s just a time in the month where like, my brain works a little better the hormones in my body are optimized in such a way that like, I’ll work till three in the morning and feel like oh, my God, like these two days, I felt so productive, like more productive than any other days of the month. And it’s right before it’s right when I’m ovulating. Like it’s right before I got my period. So when she said that it was just like a light bulb in my head went off. And I was like, Oh my god, that’s so brilliant. Like, why have I not thought of that or like put the two together. I think that it’s so interesting to think about and could be a really great change. Alright, the last point that I want to touch on today, realities of being a small business owner. I think that it’s so important that you really lean in, to what you enjoy. So I will be honest, for years, I was managing talent, and running my own agency. And it was run in a way for a long time that I disagreed with. And without going into so many details about that, because that’s like, probably at least its own hour or two of this… of a discussion. I was running my life in a way that wasn’t suiting me. I disagreed with things that I was going along with though, right? Like, something felt wrong in my gut. And I honestly was very unhappy for a long time but I just was so used to it. It was my routine. It was it was a lot. Like it felt like it was all that I knew, to be honest. All I can say is that what I learned from that is… I say like, we all say this a lot. A lot of us say this a lot, right, which is like you got to trust your gut. I think it’s so important to take these elongated moments, and evaluate and find some quiet time to yourself, and maybe one or two people that you really trust and who really know you, and who will maybe prompt you with thought provoking questions, but don’t necessarily guide you in a direction. But when I… I felt like I really turned a corner personally and professionally. When I started working for me. I had missed though… My life was moving really fast for a while. And I feel like there were so many moments that I was missing. Because I was stuck in this hamster wheel. And yeah, I was making good money and like from all intents for all intents and purposes and from an outsider’s perspective, a lot.

It looks shiny and successful. But I am so much happier now than I ever was during that time and I make less money and I’m not from the outside. I’m not having the successes. This just laid out there for display, like I did before, and I don’t have a big team and I, you know, I don’t necessarily have all the things that maybe other people define a successful but like, this is my success, this is my success, and I gave myself permission to be… to experience it. Here’s what I’ll leave you guys with, I will just say that, like success looks different to everybody. And for any of you who are chasing the success of others, because it looks good on them, just know that like, their clothes look good on them, but they’re probably not going to fit you. I think that all of that energy could be way better spent being introspective, and testing things out. Because that’s the only way to find out what you really love and what really gives you joy and fulfillment. And just because you’ve been doing something for a long time, like you can have the courage to change your direction. It is scary. It’s hella scary. But it’s it would otherwise it would be your choice to stay on the on that path. And continue down a path that doesn’t feel right for you. You could have the whole rest of your life to pivot and to do something different. And if it’s something that feels good to you, I just encourage you to chase that. Alright, everybody. I don’t want to make this super long. It’s already been a fairly lengthy chat. But if you like this, these types of episodes, and there’s anything that you can relate to let me know because I want to make sure that like this podcast isn’t just feeling like a therapy session. I mean, maybe a little but that like it’s relevant to you guys are helpful, even if it’s not like even if you’re like, Oh, I hate it listening to that, but like, I don’t whatever it is, you can be honest with me. I want to hear it. Please dm us on Instagram. That’s the probably the avenue that I check the most. We’re at @iamwiim on there. And yeah, good or bad. I want to hear from you. I see numbers when I look at you know metrics of this podcast and I see how many people are tuning in. And I don’t know I want to hear more from you are like our Facebook group is cool, because for lots of reasons, but I feel like I get to have two way conversations with people and Clubhouse the same thing and I can’t emphasize enough like I love hearing from you guys. It makes… all of this like all of this so much more fulfilling. If we can just have more conversations. So tell me all of it, guys.