BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 50. 

Hey there, brand builder, entrepreneur, business owner. I am so so glad that you tuned in to this week's episode of Bird Means Business because it is super special. Y'all we are commemorating our 50th episode, and I am sharing some of the best moments over what has been almost a year that we've had the show. And I am just so happy to be here, y'all. It's been a labor of love. But it's something that I have committed to because it's really the heart behind why I started it in the first place, which is I want to be the resource that I wish I had when I launched my first business seven years ago and didn't know what I was doing. Didn't know what I didn't know. And just needed a little bit of guidance. So the different topics I've chosen had been based on things that I wish I knew but then also feedback from you guys that said hey I really want to learn about this or that. And it's been a joy, and I'm so glad to have made it to episode number 50.  

We have had the honor of having some of the most rock-star entrepreneurs I know share wisdom here with us on the show. And that's what you're going to hear today. I'm going to take the 10 guest episodes I've had in 2020, and share snippets from each. So if you're new to the podcast, this is not our normal format. But you really are going to love getting a sneak peek into some of the most magical moments of Bird Means Business. Get ready to be inspired. 

Now our first episode is from back in January, and it's Episode 10 “Team Strong with Terry Williams. Here it is.

TERRY WILLIAMS: And while we're talking about inspiring people, I just want to take a moment to inspire you, the listener, whoever you are. You tuned into this because you're interested in launching or growing a small business, or maybe just because you heard great things about Bird, and that she is inspiring because she is that. Well if I could just inspire you. I know that you carry doubt. I know that you carry fear because you’re human. I know that people look at our story and sometimes put us in the wrong bucket and they assume that we don't have challenges that every human, breathing has. And I just want to say that I can level with you there. I felt that, and in vulnerability, I'll say that there are still doubts. There's still fears. There's still things inside of me that just come screaming against everything that I feel I’m purposed to do. And maybe you hear that and your heart starts to race a little bit. But I just want to remind you that your heart beats for a reason. There's a purpose. There's a destiny there. And maybe that idea that you haven't jumped off that cliff to act on, don't literally go jumping off a cliff now. But maybe that thing that you carry, is that thing that elevates somebody else's life and allows you to love people well and pour into them. Well, I'm gonna love you well right now by letting me know that that thing might be worth doing. Even if there's risk, even if there's an exit of the comfort zone because no growth has ever happened in a comfort zone anyway. Maybe it's time, friend, to do that thing because maybe you’re purposed to do it. And the biggest question that I already know is roaring in your head is, “What if I fail?” But what if you take flight?

BIRD: So that was definitely one of those mic drop moments, right? I remember when I heard this, I thought, man. What if you take flight? How often is it that we have these toxic paralyzing thoughts rotating in our mind of, “What if I can't?” How often do we actually ask ourselves, “But what if I can? What if I can do this? What if I can do hard things? What if I can figure it out? What if I can lean into the resources I have at hand and give it my all? What if I take flight?” And I hope that you ask yourself that question. 

All right. You're going to hear again from Terry Williams. This is February's Episode 14, “Vibe with Your Tribe.” Here we go.

TERRY: Well I think there's a big difference for a lot of us between what we do for a living, and what we are living. I think it's really important that we show our clients what we're living, especially as it pertains to the culture of our brand. So for example, being a gym owner, I like to just let people see me sweat. There's an old adage that says, “never let them see you sweat” and it was meant to be like that keep your tough guy face on, you know, don't let your competition one-up you and that kind of deal. Look man as a gym owner, I would hate to be the guy that is constantly, here I go again using the Instagram analogy, cropping and filtering my reality to make it look like I'm just a beast in the gym. I'd rather you know that I'm doing this workout today too that I'm leading you all through. And yeah, it kind of hurts and there's some challenging pieces of it. But I'm getting through it, and I'm stronger because I subjected myself to that moment of weakness. Yeah, I'm walking around here sore. We can have a whole conversation and laugh about that, too. I think about a story I once heard from a guy who was whitewater rafting, and he's getting ready to take his family on this trip. And there's two potential guides you could go with, and he didn’t know which guide he wanted to go with. So, one guide was like, I mean had just gone to every seminar imaginable and could name drop the best whitewater rafters. And, you know, he knows all this stuff about whitewater rafting. He's only been a couple times. He's just getting started, to actually get on the water. But he's really learned a whole lot about what he's gonna experience when he gets on the water. Well, this other guide he talked to had zero formal education, but he was like, “Yeah my grandma lived right by some rapids when I was a kid and I was at her house every weekend. And I've gone up and down this river like every year for the past three decades. Well, he chose the guide who's living it, not the guy who does it for a living. And why wouldn't he, right? Like clients can be inspired by perfection, but they can only relate with vulnerability. Like, don't tell me I'm a mastermind at this because I graduated with this and that degree, which is so good to get merits and to learn things to progress. I'm not taking a dump on academia. I have a master's degree in my field myself. But quite frankly, I think it's so much more powerful to clients that I'm actually living it, that I’m actually trying my best to be on a good workout program and nutrition program as a fitness instructor. But then I'm also really honest about the times when I have to skip a day because I’m just super tired, or I’m sore, or life is too busy trying to corral my two kids. Or the fact that every now and then, I’m gonna get me a good pizza. I eat clean as a lifestyle. But living it out and then also being very honest about the moments that come along the journey, that show a kink in the armor, an imperfection, something that people can actually relate to.

BIRD: “Let them see you sweat.” Ooh, I love that so much. Are you relating with your audience on a very human level? Do they feel connected to you? You know, people don't want to hear you touting your accolades, they want to feel like you're rolling up your sleeves and you're in it with them, right? If you’ve followed me long enough, whether it's here through the podcast or social media, or even my email tribe where I go even deeper. You've seen, heard, and read about all of my humanity, all of my mistakes and failures because I don't feel any need to polish things up and make them super pretty and awesome. Right? I feel like I can help you more by being honest with you as to what the journey has really looked like and where I really am. Like I said, 50 episodes. Awesome. Y’all, it's been rough. It's been a journey. But I'm doing it with all the things that I have going on, you can do it too. That's what I'm hoping to communicate. 

So what does it look like in your business? If you own a juice company, maybe you share your journey from having a really unhealthy lifestyle to where you are today and why juice is so important to you, and how it revolutionizes your life. You know it doesn't have to just be, “Hey my juice is awesome. My product is great.” Pushing it down their throats, it shouldn't be that way, right? It should be human. And so think about ways to make your branding, your messaging, very human and find ways to really vibe with your tribe, right?

Next is episode 18. It’s with Patsy Vivares, and she is the owner of Sticky’s Chicken here in Houston. It was once a food truck, and then converted to a restaurant and she tells her story. Here it is. 

PATSY VIVARES: It's very important, to keep people around you that not only build you back up. They'll push you, and they'll push you to keep going because there's days where you just really want to give off. And you don't want to do it anymore. But whenever you have solid people around you that know your vision and know your goals, they'll remind you of it. And then they'll keep you going.

BIRD: One of the things I love most about having guests on the show is you really getting a sense of what it's like to run a business, and that is not all #CEO, and look at me, I'm making all this money and things are so great. It's also real. You know, it's tough for you. There's times you want to give up. And I love how Patsy explained that and explained the importance of having a strong community of people around you that that can you can really lean on when it's tough. 

All right. Next, you're going to hear from Brandi Lisenbe. She is the owner of Do or Dye Salon here in Houston, and we're going to talk about her hair salon startup. Here it is.

BRANDY LISENBE: We took a look at it and it was pretty rough, but we saw the vision. We saw what it could be. So we went for it. And it was bigger than like what we needed, but we knew that people were gonna come, you know. Cause we knew, people from friends that were also hairstylists, wanted to like, come on and join our team. But we didn't have space for them. So it was, it was interesting at first. So we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We, we just said that we wanted that space for us and then now we have a team of, there’s 11. 11 hairstylists, 2 receptionists.

BIRD: Hear Brandy sharing how she had very kind of rapid movement in her business early on. And you'll have to go back to the episode to hear the full story but all of this what she's talking about centers around her faith and what her business could be. She's like, I know this is a lot of space. But people will come. And then fast forward to now, she has 11 employees. And that's what it takes a lot in the beginning, you're like, “Uh, this is crazy. This is scary. This looks like a huge leap.” But when you really know and you're really connected to the problem that you're solving and how you will do that uniquely with your unique value proposition, and what your core values are, and how you're going to really connect with your audience. It makes all the difference. All right. 

Next, you're going to hear from our financial planner in Episode 27, this is Money Talk with Helen Ngo.

HELEN NGO: Usually people come to me thinking that they have a money problem. But they really have a habit or an organizational problem with the systems in which they manage their personal finances or their business finances. And I hear the statement often, “Oh, I'm really bad with money. Or, “Oh I'm a bad spender.” It’s not because you're a bad spender. But there's no such thing as being bad with money. You just have bad habits and money happens to be part of the tool that you're misusing. Right? So that's not a money problem. You're not really broke. I work with all sorts of clients and I'll tell you, there are clients who are making like $600,000 and have nothing to show for it, versus my client who's making $75,000 a year, and their net worth is much higher than what my six-figure income earners are doing. So, to me, just because you make more money doesn't necessarily mean on the books, you're any more successful than somebody else who's making 10 times less than you. Right? So I have learned to appreciate and take everybody's like quote-unquote, exterior success with a grain of salt. Cause I always ask myself, “Okay, he's driving a Mercedes. I wonder how much he borrowed in order to get that car.”  At the end of the day, it's not about how much you make. It's about how much you keep. So even as a business owner, even as a business owner if you're making a million dollars but it costs you $900,000 to make a million dollars. Well, really you're making the same amount of money as the person who made $200,000 and spent 100 grand. You net the same amount. So, that is like the back end of the advantage I have of seeing other people's finances. So I treat everybody the same.

BIRD: “It's not about how much money you make. It's about how much money you keep.” Dang. That hit me hard. Because what happens when we focus more on our habits and our systems than on all the external like, what it looks like, right? You definitely want to go back and get that episode in your life if you haven't listened to it yet. Helen, like I said, is our financial planner. I love that girl. She is super direct and to the point. And there’s so much to learn in that episode. 

Okay. Next is Episode 31. “Own Your Voice With Sahar Paz”.

SAHAR PAZ: Please have at least that one person that wants the best for you, is willing to have those hard conversations with you, and is hopefully is the person that really sees the true you, that's not being condescending or any you know these hard conversations are not to take you away from your magic. But to protect it. So I appreciate her for having those hard conversations with me and they weren't always graceful and I needed time to process them. But I chose to get out of my own way. And I couldn't literally sit down and write my resume. Like my point of view of myself was so wackadoodle. And, you know, she literally wrote it for me. And it's funny because a big part of my business is that I do that now for other people. I've scaled what Mercer did for me, you know. We do sometimes need other people to help us find that voice. And, you know, we were talking about core values a little while back. An interesting practice is asking 20 people to send you three adjectives. And you could do this about yourself. Like when you think of me, or if you have a business you say, “When you think of my business, can you send me three adjectives that come to mind?” And you can begin to really see, one, you're positioning in other people's minds. And also kind of like where your values and their minds meet. So that's an interesting process. 

BIRD: So, in this episode, Sahar talks about how in order to own your voice, which is so important as a brand builder in terms of your messaging and consistency in your branding. In order to own your voice you have to find your voice. And she shares how this friend of hers helped her find her voice and now full circle here she is doing it on a much larger scale for so many other businesses. Goes back to making sure you have clutch people in your inner circle, who will hold you accountable, who will bring out the best in you, and who will also push you forward. And I also want you to make time to do that exercise if you haven't yet, where you ask a few people, “Hey, what are three adjectives you either think about me or about my brand or my business?” And see what shakes out. 

Okay. Next, you're going to hear again from my best friend and my husband, Terry Williams. This is an episode on marriage and business. It’s Episode 36. Here it is.

TERRY: Family time above everything else. Family time IS priority. It does not matter how big or important or special or successful your business is if your family is taking a loss at expense of it. Then, frankly, I hate that this sounds like rude like now I'm the one wearing things aggressively, right? But your brand is worth nothing, even if it's worth millions if it comes at the expense of your family time suffering. I'm not saying that family time is gonna always just be hunky-dory. And it's not just all roses. When you're running a business, there are sacrifices that have to happen and that's certain, and that's understandable and you know it to a certain extent it's inevitable, you know. But family cannot take the backseat. Family deserves the best of you and not the rest of you.

BIRD: So as you heard there that last part hit me. “Family deserves the best of you, not the rest of you.” If you think about why you're doing what you're doing. For a lot of us, it's for our family, right? But then we can kind of flip the table and make it to where our family is on the back burner while we're so focused. We're giving all of our best energy to our business, forgetting that the whole purpose of it is really to support our long-term goals for our family. And I mean, honestly, this is something we struggle with which is why we talked about it in the episode. We struggled with it for years. And really having kids is what made it really come to light. And we've kind of talked about our challenges and how we work through it. But, I heard something recently and I wish I could remember the source so that I could credit it. But I want to share it here real quick because it really helped me and actually helped one of my clients in a strategy session I was on. And it was this.

In life, we are trying to juggle a lot. There's a lot going on. It's like we're trying to juggle all these balls. And there aren't like 5 or 10 balls. There's like 71 balls. That's what it feels like a lot of times. And what we have to identify is where are the plastic balls, and where are the glass balls, because we don't want to drop the glass balls. Those are going to shatter. It's going to be a mess. It's not okay. But the plastic balls, we can give our self, grace for, and that doesn't just apply in business. It also applies with family, and honestly, that's where I got the most relief from because there are some things in your family, your day-to-day, even with your kids. They’re plastic balls. If you can't make the drop-off. Like I was trying to make all the drop-offs and pickups for my kids every single day even though, Terry is available as well. We both like to go. We love our kids. But there were some times where I'm like man I really need to jump on this, this, you know webinar or whatever it might be and I'm going to have to miss drop off or pick up. That’s a plastic ball. It's not going to be the end of the world if I can't pick my kids up from school, even though I love it, right? So, identify where those balls lie in both your personal life and then also in your business. Not everything is a must-do, a have to do. It's not going to be detrimental to your business to drop a plastic ball. So making sure that you identify where those are in the different facets of your life. And really prioritize things to give yourself grace, because I know a lot of people could have critique around this metaphor because you're probably thinking, “Well, why are you even juggling 71 balls?” Let me tell you something. In the beginning, when you're launching a business when you're building a brand, and just you. You're a one-woman or one-man show, you're going to be juggling a lot. It's just the reality of what it is. Of course, you're trying to grow, to where you're not having to do as much. But in the beginning, it initially is a lot. So being able to say what is really important and what is not that important, so that I can not feel like I have to do it all. Where are the glass balls and the plastic balls in my life, and in my business, so that I can be sane, and get through all of this? So that's just a little tip right there. 

Next, we're going to hear from the amazing Mair. Y'all, I love this episode so much. I called it, “We Can Rival” because it's something she said in the episode and it just really stuck out to me because she's so bold. You'll hear about that in the episode. But she owns Mair Fragrance. And here it is, Episode 40.

MAIR FRAGRANCE: So I just kept going. You know, everybody knows what it looks like when you quit. But you owe it to yourself to keep going, to see how far you can go, and see what the future can become if you continue. I contribute all of my success to that main mantra. Number two, I had help along the way. I partnered with other people. Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. I partnered with other people early on. I was like, “Okay, you are in Houston. You are a boutique owner. I want to partner with you.” “You are a hotel owner. You have a boutique in your hotel, I want to partner with you.” The power of partnerships will get you a long way. Number three, my tribe, people I lean on are also in the fragrance community and also have their own brand, their own fragrance brand. And I know your listeners are going, “Well, isn't that the competition?” No, because we are going about the fragrance industry, completely different ways. We're all secure and very confident. And I know that's very rare to find, in our own skill and talent. So when we come together, we're not like, “Okay, so what are you doing so that I can make it better?” It’s “Okay, so how can I help you? Hey, I know that there's a store in West Philly, that is looking for that kind of perfume.” See what I'm saying? The power of unity. I knew that early on, going in, so I was able to receive it and act on it.

BIRD: Now y'all know Mair is speaking my business love language. Oh my goodness. The power of unity. The power of community. Not focusing on the competition in terms of how can I be better and how can I steal ideas or what if someone is going to steal my idea? It's living in the abundance mentality of, “Hey, there's enough for everyone.” I just love that piece so much and how she started with, you owe it to yourself to keep going. We know what it looks like to quit. We know what that looks like. What happens if I believe in myself enough to just say, “You know what? I'm going to put one foot in front of the other. I'm going to continue on and press on.” Such a great episode. You want to hear her resiliency, her boldness. She just went out there. She Googled fragrance people and ended up finding a mentor who transformed her business like, what? Yeah, it's such a good one. Mair Fragrance. Get it in your life. That is Episode 40. 

Next, you're going to hear from Kirbi Smith of Active Faith Sports. It is a apparel brand, a Christian apparel brand. This is also a dear friend of mine. Her and her husband, Lanny, have an incredible startup story. It's Episode 45. Here it is.

KIRBI SMITH: Just a quick story about that, you know, when we started out we were, our goal, our focus was to get in all Christian stores, the Christian retail stores. And crazy enough, none of them would take us. And it’s like, wait a minute. How can our target audience, our target market, not understand or not take us? That's because they really didn't understand. They were behind the times as well, and didn't understand the product, didn't think their audience would resonate with it and understand it. So that was very discouraging because, you know we're out at conferences trying to sell stuff and now you're not thinking of like, oh well Macy's and Academy, all these different places that people come in to buy apparel. Well, we're going straight to Christian stores. This is where we need to be. And because that didn't happen it forced us to figure out another way, another method, which brought us to an e-commerce platform. And at the time, e-commerce wasn’t popping. It was not how it is now. But we were able to work through those kinks, get up and going. And hindsight is 20-20 like literally pick up on e-commerce and I mean. And then those same stores were calling us now to put us in their stores. It was hard. It was discouraging. But it forced us to have to figure out another plan and figure out how to redirect and where else to go, because we still knew and believed in our product, believed what we were selling. And we just had to get out and let people know about it.

BIRD: So what was a huge surprise to them when they first launched their business and a huge setback in that where they thought they would be able to distribute their product, they were just getting rejection after rejection. That ended up being what made them pivot into e-commerce, which is huge today but wasn't even a thing really back then. It was barely, you know, it wasn't the cool thing to do. But they were forced into what is now the biggest engine behind their business. That just goes to show that, you don't want to allow any setback or frustration to defeat you, to just stop you. What if they would have just stopped? They have an incredible business with crazy owners like Steph Curry and Case Keenum. And they've done so many incredible things in their purpose, and they didn't allow like a bunch of no’s, a whole lot of no’s to stop them. So don't allow no’s to stop you either. What you have is gold. She goes back to, “We knew what we had was good if we could just get it out there, there is a market for it.” So she'd done that workaround, you know what her audience wanted and needed, where the market was. And despite the no’s, they pressed forward. They pivoted. And I want you to do the same thing in your business. All right? 

Okay, next we're going to hear Episode 49. This is Marlene Williams, my sister-in-law, Ph.D. So proud of that girl. She talks about navigating mental health and entrepreneurship. And y'all, this was one of my favorite episodes. I mean I have so many favorites. But there were just so many gems dropped. She has a four-step process she talks about, but I'll let her get into this one snippet. Here it goes. 

MARLENE WILLIAMS: So you do away with that mindset and go in viewing, you taking care of yourself, is actually productive for your business. Okay? Because, and I have this conversation with people all the time, that literally, by you nourishing your body, nurturing yourself, resting when you need to, you are going to have more energy, more focus, more motivation to actually carry out the work that you need to do. And, your outcome, your outputs, your productivity, the quality and efficiency of your work, is going to be so much better. Like, again what ends up happening a lot is, we work work work work work. We work. We don't take care of ourselves. And guess what? We actually end up missing some of the deadlines. So the very deadline date that we were setting out to do, it ends up getting postponed or prolonged or delayed because we don't have energy. We don't have motivation. Would you drive a car with no gas? Would you get on your computer when it has no battery? No. We are more important than these cars and computers, right? So we have to do the same for ourselves and I think if you go from the outset, accepting that and viewing that as actually productive. I think you're gonna see a lot. You're gonna see your business actually benefit from it. You and your business will benefit.

BIRD: I mean, y'all. I needed to hear every word of this episode with Dr. Marlene Williams because yes, me taking care of myself is productive work in my business. Yeah, y'all want to go listen to that one if you haven't already. And I know you probably now want to go binge listen to all of these episodes. I'm gonna link them all here in the show notes. This is just 10 of the 50 y’all. The other 40 are just me, solo with all different types of episodes about bookkeeping, and your lawyer. How to, you know nail down a commercial lease and how to know if you even have a viable business. How to think about marketing because it's not just advertising. It's also much more. So make sure you check all of those out. And if you are really ready to get started on your entrepreneurial journey and you're like, I just really need some help with getting pointed in the right direction. Go to birdwilliams.com/consultation. This is where you can book a chat with me, and I'll just help you get on track, even if I can't help you I can definitely point you in the direction of someone who can. The point is that you start. The point is that you feel equipped. The point is that you get a game plan together so that all the things that seem so daunting, aren't, cause you can do this. I really believe in you. 

And then to the faithful Bird Means Business listeners, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of this journey. Y’all, hearing your stories and the impact it's had on the brands that you're building, and even on you personally, has been so motivating for me. It means the world. So thank you, thank you, thank you for that feedback Thank you for tuning in each week, and please continue to share the episodes with other entrepreneurs to just share the love. All right. Okay, I hope you've enjoyed this, and I hope you'll have a great week.