Well, hello, Princess Kimberly. It's episode 314. And I'm so thankful that you're here today because we're talking about how you know when it's the right time to start a business. Like, are you actually ready to start a business? That is the big question because so many of you waller in this like indecision for weeks and months and years. Like, should I start a business? Should I not? And then it never happens. Like, what is happening? You have to make a decision. And you have to make a decision that maybe now is the time, or maybe you're waiting until another season. Y'all know I talk about this all the time. That we are in seasons of life. And sometimes it's not the right time. But other times you're like, you know what? I think this could be it. So we're going to talk about it today. And I'm so excited that you're here. If you're new, welcome to this podcast. I have no doubt it's going to help you along your business journey, whether you're in the idea stage, starting or growing, this is for you. And no matter what kind of business you're starting, whether it's a local business, online business, coaching, consulting, service, providing, you make something, Etsy store, whatever it is, all of this is going to help you. And I'm so proud of you for seeking out help because it's it's going to save you time. It's going to save you energy. It's going to get you motivated and fired up to live your business dream. So if you're new here, make sure you scroll down in the show notes below. I have a free Facebook group called Women Starting Businesses and Podcasts, Doing What We Love. You can join in on that. And if you ever have any random questions, feel free to post them in the group. And I do have some free downloads for you, free things to help you, like a printable checklist. If you're ready to start your business or you want to know what that entails, it's a 16-step checklist. I have a guide that helps you with your business idea. I have a training to help you. Like if you want to start a podcast or you need to grow your current business, all that is there for you. Don't miss out on free resources. So scroll down and check those out. I also have paid programs like one-on-one coaching that can help you too. And everything is there on my website. So check it out there. If you've been listening a while, I want to thank you all to my loyal listeners. Y'all are awesome. Make sure you hit the plus button or follow whatever it is in the app that you're looking at right now. Maybe you're an Apple Podcaster, maybe like a check mark or like a little plus sign. They've been changing some of those little emoji things. Anyways, make sure you click that so that you get notified there in the podcast app when I drop new episodes. I don't want you to miss out on anything that I know is going to help you. And thank you to those of you who have written reviews and left like a five-star rating. It means the world to me. So that is it. Okay, on to the episode. Well, hello everyone. How are you? What is going on? I hope y'all all are doing well. I am on the tail end of COVID. It looks like now I get it every year. This is the same time that I got it last year. And I'm like, here we are again. But I got the whole other variant and it was totally different. My head's been stuffy. You might be able to hear it if I sound a little raspy. Maybe it's kind of cool. Maybe I need to keep this raspiness. I don't know. But if you hear me do that, I apologize if I sound a little bit different. It's because I'm on the tail end of COVID. I've tested negative now, so that's good, but I'm still like not out of the whole range of it yet. I still can feel it. So, anyways, I'm so glad you're here. And I was so happy that today I felt good enough to get on this podcast because I missed it. I miss communicating with you all. And I have to keep in touch with you because I have to know what's going on with your business. I need to make sure you're progressing. I need to make sure you're moving forward. I need to make sure you stay super motivated as you start and build this business of yours. So I'm here and I'm so excited about it. Now, I wanted to address this like big concern, okay, that a lot of you have is like, when do I take the leap? Like, how do I know when to take the leap, when to like actually start my business and move forward with it? You know what? It's just like anything. There's never a perfect time. You're never a hundred percent ready. And I actually did an episode on this a while back. I'm gonna put that link below because I think it's important to listen to if this is you and you're like caught up in this whole mind drama of timing, to remember that number one, you're never ready. You're never ready. And today, though, I'm gonna talk to you about how you're gonna actually know. Like, like this is the time. Even though I don't feel 100% ready, you're gonna feel this inkling in your soul, like now's the time. And I'm gonna tell you these three things. I think they're gonna help you sort through this. And maybe now is not the right time for you. And maybe you're just learning and researching, and that's all good. Don't start a business before you're really all in. Okay. I want you to be all in. You got to do it right. You can't just half do this because if you just half do it, you're gonna drag this out. And then you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, this is taking forever, and you're gonna lose all that momentum. And I don't want you to have that. So that's why I'm saying, yeah, you can research and plan, but when you're ready to go all in, like it's time to go all in. You have to have that moment of realization where you go, you know what? Now is the time. Maybe it's not perfectly timed in my life, or maybe I don't have all the money I want to invest in it now. It's okay. You can get it going. But let me go ahead and start then with the three things. So the first way you are going to know that you are ready to take the leap with this is when you are ready to be a student. When you are ready to learn. And a lot of you are already ready to learn. You wouldn't be here. You searched on Apple Podcasts or you asked someone about podcasts. You did something and you got here. You got here. You are a student. You're trying to learn. And here's the deal, too, about being a student of something, whether you're learning a musical instrument, whether you're training for a half marathon, whether you're starting a new workout, whether you are starting anything new, starting to cook anything. You have to be willing to be bad at it for a little while. And I don't even like to use the word bad at it because I don't think any of you are bad at starting your business. Okay. You're not. You're just learning. You're just a student, but you feel like you're bad at it. You're like, I don't know anything about business. How do I know? I've never had my own business. I've been a teacher. I've been a nurse. I don't, I don't know what I'm doing. It's okay. This isn't rocket science. This is not the end of the world. Everyone take the drama out of starting a business and say, this is not the end of the world. If this fails, nothing's gonna happen. You're okay. Maybe you lost a little money, but you went for something that was very important to you. Remember that, okay? So you're going to know when you're ready to take the leap, when you're ready to learn, when you're ready to be a student, when you're ready to be not so great at it, when you're used to being good at other stuff and you're willing to suck it up and say, I am going to take this on. Like if you wanted to learn a new language, think how hard it is when you learn a new language and you don't know how to pronounce the words. I'm thinking of my kids when they were learning Spanish in school, and you know, like the weird way they're trying to say it and all that stuff. You have to be willing to do it. You know, you have to be willing to be bad at it at first. And again, I say bad at it lightly. It's not even that, it's that you're just not experienced. So why don't you look at it like that? Like when you are ready to learn and soak up everything and start, you know, getting this all sorted out and become more experienced. When you're ready to start from experience level ground zero and move up, then you are ready to take the lead. You are ready to do this. Okay. I think it's awesome. I think it's awesome being in a student. As long as I've had my businesses 20, whatever years now. I am never not a student. I'm learning at everything all the time. Partly because I'm a nerd and I read up on business stuff all the time about how to run online businesses and build your businesses and all the techniques and copywriting and everything. Like I'm a student all the time. When I started going live on videos, I was a total student. My first video was horrendous. Horrendous. And like I've tried to permanently delete it off my computer, but then part of me is like, I need to keep it so that I can see where I started. It's so bad. It's so bad. Okay. And it's so bad because I looked terrible. Like I didn't know how to present myself on camera. And then the background was horrendous. And I was, sorry, I'm totally laughing. I was in this little spare room in our house and we call it the podcast room. Now I'm not in it anymore, but it's like this closed-in tiny room that got finished out by the previous owners. No windows, like so dark. And like if I go in there now, I'm like, oh my gosh, I gotta get out of here. This is like claustrophobic. I worked in here, like I really worked in here. Okay. Anyways, we're always a student, and you will become more experienced and you will look back like I do and laugh and be like, this is amazing. Look what I did. Right. So hey, this is gonna be you too. Okay. So you know when you're ready to take the leap, when you're willing, you're willing, say that again for the third time, willing to be a student. You have to be willing to be a student. Okay. The second way you're going to know you're ready to take the leap and pursue this business is when you have decided that you want your future different than it is right now. Think about that for a minute. You want your future to be different than it is right now. Am I right? Like a lot of you are like, yes, I'm ready to go somewhere else. I'm ready to do things another way. I'm ready to pursue this. I'm ready to try for this. I'm ready to be a student. I'm ready to move forward. That's how you're going to know because a lot of you tell me that the reason why you want to start this business is you want more freedom of your time. That's what this is one big reason, like of your personal time to be able to structure your days the way you want. Maybe you want to quit a job. Maybe you just want to have extra money so that you have more freedom with your time. You don't have to have a part-time job or whatever your situation may be. But you want freedom of time. You want this freedom to be able to make money and schedule things the way you want around kids or other volunteering or things that you do in your life, right? Another reason why people like you want to start a business is they want to show their kids and their family. Maybe you don't have kids, but maybe you want to show, you know, people that you know that pursuing your dream is possible and that it's not that bad. It's not as scary as it seems. You can show them that they can go for things in their life, like you're gonna go for it. And if for some reason this doesn't work, you haven't lost anything. You have discovered something amazing that you are stronger than you ever thought because you go for things. You go for things and you do it. And if you want the future to be different than today, then you are ready to take the leap. Think about it. Do you want your future to be different than it is today? What is it that you don't like about today or last week? What don't you like about your job or your situation? Have you been yearning for a different tomorrow? Another thing that some of you say is that you want something all your own. You want to do something yourself. You want to create it yourself. You're you're tired of working for other people or doing things. Maybe, maybe you're now an empty nester and your whole life has been spent, your adult life has been spent catering to children, other people in the best form possible, right? I'm not saying that in a in a bad way because we too. I always say I'm catering to my child. And it was funny because when I had COVID, my husband now was having to take care of my daughter. This is seventh grade, and she's a sweetheart and she's the easiest child ever. But she does boss me around a little bit. She's like, You need to get my water bottle, make sure you have my lunch. Are you picking me up at two? Did we bring this? We have volunteering this day. We have this, you know, all these things that she's like bossing me around a little bit. And so I said, get ready, David. You you get to get bossed around this week while I have COVID and I'm quarantined upstairs. It was awesome. I got to relinquish that. I was my own boss up here while I was quarantined. It was amazing. Like dinner got brought to me. Everyone stayed away from me, except I had my dog near me who I kept saying, the dog has COVID, I guess, because I've been kissing the dog. So keep the dog up here with me. He can't stay down there very long. I was too lonely. I had to have my dog, right? But think about it. You want something all your own that you finally have control of, right? A creative outlet for yourself, all that good stuff. You want tomorrow and next week and next month and next year. I mean, really, you want next year to be different because starting and building your business takes a little while, right? The journey is amazing. The beginning steps are amazing, but they're this whole like whirlwind of like, oh, okay, I need to set up this, I need to do this, you know. But if you know I really want the coming months and year to be different than it has been, then you're ready. You're ready to take the leap. Who cares if this is the perfect timing or not? You don't have to put a lot of money into this. Don't give that as an excuse. Okay. Again, you have to number one, be willing to be a student and maybe be not that great at something for a little while, but get excited for the experience. Number two, you have to definitely want the next coming months and years to be different than they are today for whatever reason that you have in your head. Because there is a reason that you have in your head that you want it different, right? And the third way that you know that you are ready to take this leap is that you finally realize that your dream is worth it. You finally realize that your dream of this business is so worth it. You have to realize that. When you do, you will have that awakening and you'll be like, you know what? This is so worth it. I have wanted to do this, I have wanted to, you know, start this business. I've always felt I had this gift. Maybe you have a gift, a talent, a skill, a passion. You have some thing that you want to share with the world and you want people to know about it. And you want people to be able to see this God-given gift that you have. You know this. This dream is worth it because it has been implanted in your soul. I know that sounds dramatic, but I cannot tell you how many new business owners that I work with that come in the Facebook group, that are in Growgetters, that are one-on-one coaching clients, whatever. They say, I have been wanting to do this for so long. And so many even say, even since I was younger, I mean, it's crazy. Y'all have had these passions in your soul that is worth pursuing. Because if you don't, then where are you? You are left with a life unfulfilled, undone, unfinished. Right? This dream is worth it because you know you can make a difference. You already know this. Some of you are gonna make a difference through the actual products or services that you offer. Some of you are going to make a difference because you are gonna affect people's lives positively. Some of you are going to make a difference because you are gonna take some of your proceeds and you're gonna donate them to some type of organization, philanthropy, charity that is near and dear to you. You all have set out to make a difference in your own way, using your God-given gifts. But this dream is worth it. It is worth it. But this is not the end of the world if it somehow didn't work out. But I'm here to help you do our very best to help you build a successful business. That's why you're here because you are protecting yourself. You're not just out there starting your business, not asking for help, not getting recommendations, not getting guidance, not getting feedback. You're here being a student. You're listening. You are probably printing out my checklist or my guide to help you start. Some of you are getting in the workshop to help yourself plan and ensure that you have all your foundations set for your business. Some of you are in one-on-one coaching with me to make sure that you're giving this business due diligence. And some of you are in grow getters who are becoming transformed over the months that you're in the program. You're going from this person with a dream to this joyful person with a successful business. That's what you're becoming along this journey. You have to realize that this is a transformation. This dream is worth it because you have a gift that can make a difference in this world. And you have to understand that. And until you get to that point, you won't really start your business. But you'll know when you're ready because you will say, Oh my gosh, this is worth pursuing. Whatever happens, I'm pursuing this because I've always had it in my soul and I'm doing it. I know I can make a difference. People, that is it. Did you hear me? It's becoming a student. That's when you know that you're ready to take the lead. It's knowing that you want your future to be different than it is today. That's how you know when you're ready to take the lead. And the third thing is you realize you have a self-reckoning moment. They call it sometimes a come to Jesus. Like you realize you're there and you're like, I just had that moment where I realized that this dream is worth it. Like I'm going to do this for myself. Sometimes that's hard for some of you because you want to do things for everyone else, and that is amazing. But you know what? By you focusing on you, you're going to help other people through this business. So it's not selfish. It's not selfish. It's actually a way of using the gifts that God's given you to make a difference in this world in however way you will make a difference in this business because you will. Think about this podcast and my business. People tell me all the time what a difference this has made in their lives. What if I chose not to believe that my dream was worth it? What if I said, you know what? I'd always had this dream and public speaking or passionately sharing a message. But you know what? It's not worth it. I'm going to just stay and do what I'm doing and just live my little life over here and never use my gifts that I know I've been given. Just think about it. And I tell you that so that you realize in your own life that you are made for more than where you are today. And if you know any of these things that I just said, you are ready to take the leap. Get over it. It's going to take time. You're going to have to make time. Get over it that you may have to spend some money. It's fine. You want your future to be different. And you know that your dream is worth it. I'm so glad you're here today. I hope you all have had an awesome week. And I can't wait till next time I record because hopefully I'll be totally over COVID. My voice won't be weird. Anyways, y'all know I have a private Facebook group, right? You know this. If you're not in it yet, you need to scroll down right now and come get in the group. We have some amazing ladies in there who want to support you along your new business journey. So come hop in the group and then you know people. I you know I say people. You know, mostly ladies that are listening that I would be honored and love to help you along your journey. If you know right now, you're like, you know what? I need some help. I need some guidance. Check out my website below. Again, we've got the business workshop that you can do on your own time. You've got one-on-one coaching options, and you can become a part of Growth Better and transform yourself over the coming months. Okay, that's it. Y'all have a great day. Bye now. Now, this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimberlybrock.com, and yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. You know what? You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.