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Hello friends, really it's episode three and a lot of things.

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We're talking about the number one mistake. A lot of new business owners make. Sharing this with you, you don't make it too. Why? Because I want you to build a successful business. I want you to have the joys that I've had and other business owners have. And I want you to be able to build a career doing what you love with this business. So that's what we're talking about today. And here's the really cool thing. This is actually an episode that I recorded like three years ago. It's been super popular, and I thought it would bring it back because sometimes we got to do that. Many of y'all are new here to this podcast and you haven't had time to go through all the episodes. So I thought I would, just like I did last week, share an episode that's been really popular and I know can help you along your business journey. So if you're new here, I'm so happy you're here. I have a Facebook group called Women Starting Businesses and Podcasts Doing What We Love. You can scroll down in the show notes and find the information and answer the three questions to get into the Facebook group. And then if you have random questions about your business or anything, you can always ask it in the group. I do have some free resources for you, printable things that will help you that you can keep out on your desk, like a 16-step checklist for starting your business. So if you're here trying to listen about mistakes and things that business owners do and you're trying to start your business, then that printable checklist will be awesome for you. So make sure you get it. All you have to do is scroll down in the show notes, click over, it'll take you over to my website at Kimberlaybrock.com. I've got free resources for starting a podcast, for growing your business, for your business idea, and for starting your business. And again, it doesn't matter what kind of business you have. This podcast is going to help you no matter what stage, no matter what type of business, they are business fundamentals. That's what I teach. Business fundamentals in a simple way that I know you can help you. So that I know will help you. So check all of that out. Don't ever pass up a chance to get free help for your business. Okay. Don't ever. Speaking of that, if you're listening to this podcast, if you never subscribed, make sure you subscribe. Like if you're in Apple Podcasts or maybe a little plus button, that's what it's had most recently. I've seen it change over the years, but at a little plus button, do that. That way, when you click it, then in the future, when you're opening Apple Podcasts, it will tell you that I have a new episode there and it'll have it there for you. Or if you're in Spotify or any player, make sure you follow. Okay. And then two, I want to thank all of you who have given this podcast a five-star rating and who have left written reviews. It means so much to me. It really does. And I just want to thank you for taking time to do that. And if you're one of those people that's been listening a while, but you've never rated this podcast, if you would just hit the five stars, it takes a half a second, y'all, literally a half a second. Hit the five star rating, and that's great. And if you have 30 seconds to write a written review, that is the slam dunk. So thank you so, so much. Okay, on to the episode. Well, hello everyone. How are you? How is your business going? I hope it's going amazing. Whether you're in the idea stage or you're starting now or you're growing, I couldn't be more happy for you. You know why? Because I know what this can mean for you. Having your own business is one of the most awesome things you will do in your life. And I'm just so happy you're here. I'm happy you're learning from someone who's gone before you. And I'm just excited for you. I really am. And today I'm sharing with you the number one mistake that new business owners make. Yipper, they make this mistake. It's the people that I see in my world, and it may be you too. I don't want you to be doing this to yourself anymore. I've done it to myself too. Okay, but I've snapped out of it. And so I want to make sure you snap out of it too and you stop doing this. So, as you know, I work with people who have a strong passion for something or they have a skill, an expertise, a God-given gift, a talent, whatever you want to call it. You have it. You have something that you've been wanting to do that you know that you can share with the world and will make it a better place, whether it's something small or something really life-changing, whatever it is, it doesn't matter. I've worked with clients that make dog products and body products, and then I've worked with life coaches. So I've seen, I've run the gamut, right? So it doesn't matter. We're all the same. We all have this yearning to make money doing what we love, but also help other people and make their lives better, right? So these are the people that I work with. So you kind of get in that mindset for a minute and you might start thinking through, well, what would be the struggles that those kind of people might experience? Because, like if you were opening a restaurant or you had some major startup that you're pitching on Shark Tank and you've got investors and those struggles are different. Those struggles are different. Although I could argue that maybe it would be the same. But I'm telling you from my world, my perspective, people like you that I work with do this one thing wrong. Okay. And so I want to kind of lead up to this and walk you through this before I tell you what it is, because I think it'll make a lot more sense. So when you're thinking right now about starting a business, what are the struggles that you have? Right. Think about it. Like, what have you been struggling with in general? Maybe in general. I'm there may be little things like, oh, getting my website up and stuff like that. And I get it. But like, what might be the struggles? Okay. What might not be the struggles? Maybe let's think about that. Because here's some things that people they are not struggling with. This is what I found that they are not struggling with. The first thing is they're not struggling, doing what they do well. Because y'all are all good at what you do. You really are good at what you do. You have this expertise. You've been doing this a while. A lot of y'all have been doing this for life and you just haven't even been paid for it. But you always thought in your head this would be so fun to do as a career. Like I would like to do this. This would be amazing. I could make a difference in people's lives. I could have fun. I could make money. This could be my life and my time and all that good stuff. So that's not the struggle. The struggle is not being good at what you do. Y'all are amazing at what you make or what you do. If you're a product or service writer, there's no one that I've worked with that has not been good at what they do. Like that's the truth. Y'all have all been good at what you do. Okay. It's not because you're lazy. None of you are lazy. All of y'all are so busy. It cracks me up. I have never had a client that said, I have no job, no life. I'm just sitting here. I have all the money in the world and I'm just bored. And so I think I want to start a business. Like, has never happened. Okay. Do you know what the normal conversation is? I am so busy. I'm trying to start this on the side. Some people have kids. Some people have another job. They're trying to fit this into their life. They may be caretaking for an older parent. They may be volunteering. They may be doing a million other things. It's not because y'all are lazy while you struggle. That has zero to do with it. Zero. Okay. And it's not because you don't have enough information. I think a lot of you actually have, I mean, most of you. There's some people that don't. Like you get to me and you, you haven't really gotten any information. But most of the time, y'all have so much information and you almost have too much information because you are trying to figure out what direction to go because you got so many options. It's almost like when you pick out fabrics or something or y'all paint colors. Have y'all ever tried to pick out paint colors? And you're like, I just want white. I just want white on the walls. Who knew that there was 80 gazillion whites? I am not kidding. When we went to go paint our lake house, we had to redo it. And we have a very modest lake house on a fishing lake in East Texas. And the white paint was a complete nightmare. Everyone told me to use this one paint, which I had actually used on our cabinets in our house here in Houston. And I had had our cabinets painted. Was it white dove? It was Sherwin Williams White Dove. Came out great, white. We have accessible vage on our walls. If y'all know anything about paint, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't know anything about paint, just listen up for a minute and just try to get through this because I'm talking about paint. And I want you to realize how just little things can stump you. So then we go to paint the lake house, and I'm like, just use white dove. We used it on our cabinets or put white dove up all in the little lake house. It's only like 1100 square feet. It's small. But it turned yellow. The house was yellow. We were like, what in the world is going on? And there's a lot of windows on one side. So a lot of sunlight comes in, a lot of warm light. And I think that's what warmed up the white. We had to get it all repainted, had to go get samples of other whites, had to go put the whites up, and then finally decided on pure white. Sherwin Williams, pure white. And then I got this room here that I work in, my daughter's old room, pure white. We painted my daughter's room pure white. I'm all into pure white. It's kind of a cool white. So it kind of turns blue, FYI, if y'all are looking for whites. It has a slight gray to it, like the slightest. But my point is when you've got a million whites to pick from, it takes a while and you don't know which direction you're going. And you start on one and then it doesn't feel right and you have to go to another. The same can happen with all your information overload with your business because you'll hear, oh, you could do a course. Oh, you could do a workshop. Oh, you could do an Etsy store. Oh, you could do your own website. Oh, you could have like a mobile booth. Oh, you could do booths at farmers markets. Oh, you could like do a whole bunch of lives and do like live stream teaching. And you could do like a group program. I mean, y'all, it's like an indeed overload. It's so much. It's so much. And for someone like me who wants to try everything and is a quick, fast, like I'm super fast at like picking up and then trying something and then realizing, oh, wait, maybe I didn't want to do it that way. You know, it's a nightmare, a nightmare for someone like me who's doing that. It's almost better if you're a slow thinker and you're like strategic. And that's kind of what I'm helping you do now because I haven't done all of it. I have not had a mobile booth business. I've had pop-up shops where we put all of our accessories and decor and would sell it in local hotels and places, but I didn't have like a mobile unit, actual physical mobile unit. You know what I'm saying? My point is, I've done a course, I've done live stuff, live workshops, I've done many workshops, I've done group programs. I get it. I know exactly I've done one-on-one coaching, like all the stuff, right? So there's a lot that goes into it. And so you have to be strategic. And it really helps if you have someone helping you because you won't go off on the wrong tangent and paint your whole house a white that turns yellow. You know what I'm saying? Okay. So my point is it's not because there's not enough info. Y'all are great at what you do. You're not lazy, you're go-getters, you're trying to do this, and you actually have a lot of the information. So why would you be struggling? Well, many of you struggle because you're overwhelmed with all the stuff, like everything you need to do, all the steps, like how to do it, how to get your product or service ready, like all of it. You are also scared. This is a huge one. I didn't realize y'all got so paralyzed with fear. I did not realize it until probably more recently. I knew people were scared, but now I really get it just from working with the grow getters and everyone, that people are scared. And even though people that have just come in, my just getting started group, that's what it's called, in case y'all didn't know. I have a new group. For those of you that are just starting your business and you're in the weeds, you can go to justgettingstarted.biz and check it out. But y'all are scared. And I get it. You're scared because you don't know what people are gonna think, scared to put yourself out there, scared to tell anybody that you're starting a business. Like, why are you scared to tell people? What are you scared of? Are you people pleasing? What are you doing? Why are you thinking people are judging you? People actually think you're amazing that you're starting a business. Flip it around and you will see. People think it's amazing that you're starting a business. So quit being scared to tell people what you're doing, right? Y'all are scared that you're not going to make money. You're scared that people aren't going to buy your stuff. You're scared of losing money. Like the list goes on and on and on and on. And then here's the other thing you'll struggle with. Y'all are struggling with perfectionism. Y'all are trying to make every single little thing perfect before you get it out to the world because you want it to be amazing and you want your image to be pristine because you think that if it doesn't have the right exact shade of yellow or whatever it is, that you are not going to look as good. And I cannot express enough how wrong that is. That in order to make your business be the best it can be, you have to get version one out there. You have to get something out there and put it out into the world. And then you get feedback on what you're doing, you start seeing how you like it. All this magic starts happening. And then you are able to start improving upon that and then getting your business to where you want it to be. The fact is, you don't know what you don't know until you start selling something. I think all of you think that by prepping, that you now are a master of business. So that when you open, the learning is done. Like you're done. You're like, I've learned it. I know how to do a business. That cannot be farther from the truth. You actually really start learning once you start selling. Did you know that? You actually really start learning once you start selling. Okay. So if you're in that starting phase, are you stalling? Are you selling anything yet? Because if you're not, you're not learning near as much as you're about to learn. A lot of you also struggle because you're confused about the steps. You don't know certain things you should do to take your business in certain directions. And the other reason many of you struggle is because you feel alone. Maybe you don't have resources around you or people that you know that can help you with starting a business. Maybe no one in your family started a business and they don't know what to tell you. My family never started a business, but I was like, heck, I'm starting a business. This was in my wheelhouse a long time ago. If y'all heard one of my very first episodes, I talked about my lemonade stand and what I did. And it was my first little appetizer, my little taste into entrepreneurship. And it meant a lot to me. And I worked hard at it because I knew what I wanted. I wanted that bicycle at the end of it. And I was going to work until I got enough money to get there. Like, simple as that. I wasn't scared that in 1980 or whatever it was, I was charging 75 cents for lemonade. And people were like, that's really high. And I'm like, what? It is. I don't know. I don't see any gas station around here where you can buy any drinks. So, you know, location, location, location, right? I mean, come on. We got to be smart about our businesses, right? But my point is a lot of you struggle because of overwhelm, fear, perfectionism, confusion, and you feel alone. And you feel alone. So in turn, what do you think is happening with all of you right now? If you're in that mode, like imagine somebody else in that mode if you're not in it. I'm sure you're probably in it. If you're in it, you're overwhelmed, you're frustrated, you're confused, and you know now that you are stalling the opening of your business, you are stalling helping people. There are people right now waiting on you. Like right now, like they would love what you offer, whether it's a dog product or life coaching. They would love it. There's people waiting on you. And you're stalling making money doing what you love. All of that is causing you to stall making money doing what you love. Okay? Here is the problem that's causing all that. Here is the number one mistake that y'all are making. You ready? Drum roll? I wish I had a little drum roll. Maybe the editor can put in a we need like a little drum roll. The number one mistake that I see new business owners make. Are you hearing me? You are complicating everything. Do you even know that you're complicating it? Well, now you do. You are complicating it. I am telling you right now, if you and I were talking and we were like, oh my gosh, we have a business idea, we could start it in a couple of hours. Now, granted, our product, if we had a physical product, it might not be ready. Okay. We'd have to get that ready. Well, we could basically have our business up. We could have some kind of page up somewhere, and we could be taking people on a wait list, on an email wait list or getting people to get notified, and we would have a business going started. Would we be making money yet? No, we would not. But our business would be started. My point is to tell you that it can be that easy. It really can. And so you're probably sitting here wondering like, how do I not complicate this? Well, here's the solution. Super easy, super obvious. You start simple. You start simple, very simple. You get the first version of whatever you want to offer out into the world now because then you can perfect it. You have to start simple. Okay. That is the solution to all of this. And I think it's hard for a lot of you to start simple because you don't know what is necessary and what is not right now. Don't you think? Like sometimes you can't discern when you're just starting something new. I mean, I understand that too. It's like if you're starting a new fitness program or anything, you're kind of like, wait, what should I be doing and what shouldn't I be doing? I've heard about this, or how should I be eating? I've heard this, this. And really, it depends on you. And I've talked about this before. But for example, with food and people eating on diet plans, everyone's going to tell you that you need to be doing keto or you need to be doing this or that. And I'm here to tell you it doesn't work for everybody because everybody's genetic makeup is different. And I'm a perfect example. I can't handle any kind of low carb. My body goes into this weird thing. I've had genetic testing. And so for someone to tell me that that's the way that I would have to do it is ridiculous. Okay. And it's the same with your business. You have to start simple in a way that is right for you, that is right for you for who you are in a way that is authentic to you. Like say you wanted to start selling something, like a product that you make. Maybe you make cute pillows or blankets or something, let's say, right? And your dream, your dream down the line is to have a store in your town. And you would love a little country store or you'd love any kind of cute little boutique or shabby chic store or whatever it is, right? You have this dream. But right now, I'm telling you that you can kick start this business in the most simple way possible and start getting it going and start learning so much. Cause what did I say earlier? The learning begins when you start selling. And when you start learning, then you can build up, you can start making more money. You can get the confidence, you know what you're doing. You can build your email list, you can build your fan base, you can build your audience base. Boom, you could open a store later. So I'm teaching you ways to get started very simply so that you can eventually get to your dream business, right? But I think starting simple is the best way to go because you're not risking all your money, you're not mortgaging the house. Y'all remember before I opened this business, I almost opened a facial spa and it was gonna be half a million dollars. And she said I wasn't gonna probably turn a profit for two years. I hired a consultant that was gonna, well, actually didn't have to hire her. She was talking me through it all for free. I would have hired her had I opened it. So, but she gave me all the stuff and it was just so awesome and informative. I would never have opened a store without having a consultant. And I went through all that and I just got cold feet. Like I was like, I can't do this right now. And thank God I didn't, because that was the end of 2019, y'all. And then what happened in 2020? We all know what happened. My facial spall would have been a disaster. I would have signed a lease. Like, I can't even believe it. Like, I know God had a hand in that and I just couldn't do it. So I started this business. Y'all, I started this. We're so cheap. If you take out my podcast, because I do pay for a podcast editor, you take out that, it costs barely anything to open this business. I uh started with a Squarespace website and social media pages. Y'all, that is nothing in Canvas. This is that$25 a month. Yo, it was nothing to start. What a great way to enter into a big thing, a big important thing, and not have to spend a lot of money. How awesome is that? That's what I teach in the just getting started group. I teach you how to start simple. So you can get your first version of anything out there. Let's get it out there and start testing it and get it open so that then you can see what the heck you want to do with this. Do you want to grow it into a store? Do you want to keep growing it online? Like, what do you want to do? Do you want to keep doing what you're doing just as you are? It doesn't matter. The point is to test it out first so that you gain the knowledge and you gain the confidence and you start simple. It's the best way. No doubt in my mind, I will stand firm on that. So today, if you're sitting here going, yeah, yeah, I'm complicating things. I do feel like I'm stalling me, getting this open. I'm stalling, I don't, I don't know what, you know, what to do when and now. And I just want to make sure I'm doing it right. I want to give it due diligence and I don't want to be confused and I want help. I don't want to do this alone, then I ask you today to check out the just getting started group. That's why I made the group for people like you. That's why I started it. Because I realized after working with Grow Gutters and other people, I'm like, you know what, there's this whole other group that just needs to get their business open before they can get into Grow Gutters and I need them to get moving. And so that's why I started that program. So if you go to justgettingstarted.biz or you can click the link down below. There may be a wait list right now on it. So I'm gonna open it at different times. Get on the wait list so you'll get notified the next time I open the doors because I just launched it. I just launched with founding members, and I'm so excited because they're gonna be success stories. I cannot wait to work with them and help them get their business open. And it's just so exciting to learn about what they're doing. And I just want all of you to realize that there is a better way to go about this. Do not go about it, the overwhelmed, frustrated, frazzled, crazy person, doubting yourself, being fearful, this whole drama that a lot of you are creating. And just let's chill. Let's take a chill. It's almost like when you get a glass of wine, like take a deep breath and be like, okay, I'm fine now. Like I can relax, like everything's gonna be okay. And to actually look in the mirror today and say, am I complicating this? Have I been stalling this? Have I been stalling helping people? Have I been stalling making money and doing what I love? And if you have, there's a simple way, there's a faster way. Let's get this thing moving and join me in the just getting started group. But I hope you realize that's the number one mistake, people complicating it. So ask yourself today if that's you too. Thank y'all so much for being here. This was so much fun. Do you feel enlightened now that you know the number one mistake? And so now I have to tell myself, I'm telling y'all right now, I tell myself this all the time, whatever I'm working on, whether it be slides for something for my group. When I started the just getting started group, y'all, I used the process that I'm teaching in it, which is start simple. And I'm just starting simple and I did it, and people are in the group, and it's gonna be great, right? Start simple. You test it out before you go big. You start small and then you go big. Okay. That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing. And I'm doing it in a way that's comfortable to me. I'm making the money that I want to make. I'm happy. Okay. You have to be proud of who you are and what you want out of this business. And just start simple. And it can be so much fun and so exhilarating and so rewarding. Okay. Well, that's it. Y'all are amazing. I hope you have a great day. And until next time, bye now.

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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.