Podcast Episode

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and welcome back to the Sales Show. I'm your host, Maree Kirkpatrick. We are just coming back from Easter and I hope you had an amazing time out with your family, your friends. You may have spent some downtime, relaxing, reading, chilling out, maybe eating your body weight in chocolate. Or maybe that was just me.

Today's episode is a little bit different. And this episode is coming from a place that I observed over the Easter break, a challenge that I saw a business owner have. And I want to talk about it because a lot of people don't talk about the stuff that happens behind the scenes about what doesn't work in business. We always show the Insta, you know, the Instagram highlights rather than like the reality of what happens behind the scenes. And so today I want to show you a real and raw and vulnerable side of business that not a lot of people talk about.

So, you know in those moments in business where you're either trying something new or you want to try something new, right? So you take that risk, you back yourself, you pour your heart and probably a bucket ton of money into something and then it doesn't go to plan. It either completely falls apart or it fails or it just doesn't go the way that you want it to. You know those moments, the ones that no one really talks about, the ones that you don't really see highlighted on Instagram, right? Today I want to have one of those real and grounded conversations about that part of business that is really freaking scary.

It's about taking those risks. It's about messing it up and completely stuffing it up so badly that you think I just want the, the ground to swallow me whole and no one to know who I am. It's when those things just don't go to plan, right? And I want to share something that happened just recently over the Easter break locally that sparked this conversation. And hubby and I were talking about it in the car on the way to Easter Sunday lunch with my fan, Bam.

And a lot of people don't talk about this because it's so easy to judge when something hasn't gone right. And it's so easy to hound on business owners when it hasn't worked or it hasn't been up to expectations or when something's gone wrong. But it's a lot harder to say. And it's braver to say that could have been me or to say that I've been there. I even in myself when we're talking about this event that didn't go to plan, I said to hubby, I want to run events in my business.

I want to be able to run events where women can come in, learn to sell from a really connected and relationship focused space. We can build out your sales processes, we can build out your sales strategy, we can nail your offers, we can look at your messaging, all of that in one big, connected, beautiful event, right? I want to run these all over the world. I haven't done it yet. Okay?

I'll be honest, I haven't done it. It's big, it's scary, it freaks me out. I also know that I'm not in the right stage of life at the moment. Three very small children that were juggling as well. But when this event happened, it kind of brought all this stuff up for me.

So let's talk about it. If you're local, to me, you probably heard about it. There was a privately run Easter show event around here. It was a big idea, it was a big risk. It was something new.

It was. They ran Facebook ads to it, they did a whole heap of marketing. I saw it everywhere and it was something that I actually considered to take the kids to. It was local, it would have supported local businesses. It was a short drive.

We could have come home if everyone lost their marbles, you know, all that sort of stuff. So we tossed up between going to the local Easter show and going to the Sydney Royal EAS to show, which is a huge event over at Sydney Olympic park with thousands and thousands of people. Really well organised, though it's been running since I think the 1960s or the 1930s, I might be wrong on those dates, but it's been running a fairly long time, right? And they've got animals and shows and exhibitions and show bags and food and they've sorted out parking, they've sorted out security and they've got rides and they've got all that stuff, right? But this local event tried to do something similar on a smaller scale.

And so they sold 8,000 tickets, but only had approval and licensing for 1500, right? So that's their first kind of challenge. There were issues with traffic, there were safety concerns. Parking was an absolute nightmare. People are upset, people wanted refunds, people will complain about how expensive it is.

And honestly, the whole thing was a massive mess, right? On social media, people were ripping this event apart. And I sat there reading this stuff and I went down the rabbit hole and I was reading all these comments of like, never again worse experience, so unsafe. People could have died. Ra ra ra.

And then they started Listing out the business owners details, Facebook pages, contact numbers, email addresses. And I was absolutely heartbroken for this poor business owner. Yes, things didn't go to plan. I get it. I get the customers are upset.

But the event organisers had also addressed that and said, we're so sorry, this is what's happened. We're happy to offer refunds. You know, they've tried to rectify the situation, but instead of jumping on the hate bandwagon, do you know what I did? I actually messaged the event organiser right out of the blue at I think it was like 7:30, 8:00 one night when I was writing all these messages and people hating all over him on social media. And I said, hey, you don't know me, I didn't go to the event.

But as a fellow business owner, I just want you to know that I'm sorry that you're going through this. You will get through it. You know, find some support, get some help if you need it. Just from a fellow business owner, I wish you all the best. Because sometimes in business we take risks and they don't pay off.

For some people like myself, I'm lucky enough to have a really stable, supportive environment around me. Whether that's my hubby, whether that's my parents, whether that's my brothers, whether that's my amazing business friends, whether that's my girlfriends that aren't in business but think I'm totally crazy and don't know how I do it, but they're there to back me through all of it, right? Sometimes things don't work. And not because we're restless and not because we don't care, but because we believed in something. This business owner put this on thinking this would work.

He put this on thinking he would help local businesses. He brought local businesses in. He thought it would be good for the local community, whole heap of fun for the kids, all of that sort of stuff. But it didn't come off like that. Okay?

It's not because he didn't care. It's not because he didn't believe in something. It just didn't work. And do you know what? He's probably left absolutely heartbroken about it.

And the challenge is that in business, I actually know that feeling. Not from an events point of view yet that may happen for me, I don't know, but I know the feeling when you've put a whole heap of time and energy into something and it just hasn't worked. Whether that may be launching things, whether that may be trying to reach out to someone to do a business collaboration together. And it hasn't happened. Whether like this is not my.

The consulting firm is not my first business. I've got multiple businesses currently and I've had businesses in the past and sometimes they just haven't worked. They haven't gone to plan. Okay? But in today's episode, I want to talk about the difference between why we're afraid to take risks and the difference between taking that leap and actually doing something about it.

So as business owners, if we don't actually try new things, we end up staying stuck, right? Many business owners don't try new things because they're afraid of exactly this. People will get mad, they may fail publicly. Like this guy has. What if what happens goes really wrong and they can't fix it?

What about if this buries them and their brand and their whole self worth crashes with all of this? Like this guy, I just think I put myself in his position. I think if he's at home, he's like, I just want the ground to swallow me whole. I'm done. I don't want to do this anymore.

I've stuffed it up. I'm not as good as what I think. Like what is the self taught going on in his head? We carry so much fear around failure. Not just financially, but emotionally as well.

Right? And I think especially as women, we carry it a lot more. Right. When things are scary, we either have two options. We hold our breath and take the leap or we go, we'll do it later.

We don't want to disappoint people. We don't want to be judged. We don't want to lose face. We don't want to lose everything that we've worked out living bejeebers off to get to. And I know for me, I never want to lose everything that I.

All the work that I put into a business, but also that huge risk that I took in opening the business in the first place. Okay? But here's the real truth and I really want you to hear this. No one grows without taking risks, okay? Both professionally as well as personally.

You cannot stay in your comfort zone and expect to get next level results, okay? It just doesn't happen. The people who make things happen are the ones who are willing to try it, even knowing that they might fail. Okay? So it's not just about being fearless.

It's about being brave enough to feel the fear and do it anyway. Okay? Now when I look at doing big scary things and I sit there and go, oh God, what if this doesn't work. What if I don't nail this? And let's be honest, not every risk leads to reward, okay?

Sometimes it flops, sometimes people get upset, Sometimes you'll live picking, left, picking up the pieces. Sometimes you're left spending hours and hours refunding people's money. And sometimes we just need to sit back and give ourselves a little bit of credit. So here's how I believe that it's best to support yourself when things don't necessarily go to plan. Number one is absolutely freaking.

Own it, okay? Don't ghost it, don't hide. Be honest and transparent. I did my best. It didn't work.

And be compassionate, right? Sometimes people just want to be heard. I think for a lot of these families that are disappointed with the way the event went, they just want to be heard and acknowledged that they didn't have a good time. And they probably put a whole heap of time and effort and money into getting their family out the door. Organising the event, mentally preparing all that sort of stuff, getting kids out the door, all of that is big, right?

And when things don't go to plan, as the business owner, people are wanting that compassion. But be compassionate with others, but as well as yourself, right? Like, give yourself the space and time to feel it, okay? The second thing I recommend doing is to truly apologise with integrity. With integrity is the biggest part.

Now, when I saw the apology that came through from this business owner on this local event, some of the words that were put out, I think may have been run through the good old chat GPT. Okay? Now, if you've worked with chat GPT before and you've just kind of been winging chat GPT, you know that there's not a whole heap of emotion and humanness in it, right? If you're just winging it. So I want you to apologise with integrity.

If people were hurt or let down, acknowledge it. That doesn't mean taking on the shame. It just literally means being a human and apologising with heart, okay? The next thing you want to look at doing is absolutely protect your energy. Now, this is one of the biggest things for me because I'm an empath, I'm an introvert.

I take on a whole heap of people’s stuff okay? I at times find myself getting caught up in other people's stuff and I forget to take a step back and go, do you know what? This is not my stuff. This is not my energy. This is everyone else's. So protect your energy.

Set boundaries with maybe even reading the comments online. Take time to take yourself offline and give yourself a bit of a break and really talk to someone you trust. Okay? So during these times, your nervous system tends to go a little bit crazy. We're constantly running on the adrenaline.

We're in that fight or flight mode. And so your nervous system needs care when you're in that fallout. When I'm having moments like this, for me, from an energy point of view, I will curl up into bed with blankets because that. That those blankets make me feel protected and comforted. I always put on a dressing gown.

Even if it's in the middle of summer and it's hot. I will put on the air conditioning and I'll have my dressing gown on, too. That's an energy thing for me. It's like it's bringing my energy back in. Okay, so make sure you're protecting your energy and looking after yourself.

And then what you want to do is you want to reflect without spiraling. So if I was the gentleman that had run this event, I would be looking back at it going, where did this go really wrong? What can I do differently? What would I do differently in the past? What did I actually learn from it?

What lessons could I take from this? Because even if that guy decides never to run an event ever again, he will. If he continues with business or if he steps out and goes and works for someone else or whatever he does, those lessons will be with him for life. Okay? So he can either look at it as a lesson or he can carry a whole heap of shame and the heaviness that goes with it that's just not needed.

Okay? So just reflect back. What would you do differently? What went wrong? What did you learn?

What can you do differently in the future? How can you take those lessons into the future and take them with a silver lining? There's got to be a silver lining in there somewhere. And then the final thing is, let it strengthen you, not stop you. One mistake or a few mistakes even, doesn't define you.

It teaches you. If you're taking it from a place of integrity and understanding and reflection and really owning it, then take the lessons from it and don't let it define you. It makes your next bold move even stronger, because you've got the lessons to back you from that challenge that you've already had. You don't have to be perfect. At the end of the day, we 'all freaking human.

We are all freaking human running businesses, okay? You just have to be someone that keeps going and Tries new things and pick yourself up when things don't work. I'm really grateful for my husband because he will say to me, bless his little cotton socks. He will say to me, babe, do it. If you feel like it'll work and you feel like you can do it, I back you 110%.

His only rule is don't bankrupt us or leave us homeless. Which I think is absolutely fair enough, right? So for me it's like, great. I know that if things don't work, I can come to him and sit on the floor and cry and be like, babe, that didn't work. And he'll go, yep, that's okay.

What did we learn from it? You've got this, let's go and try and something new, okay? Because on the other side, there's the risk of playing it too safe, right? Yes. Taking risks is really scary at times.

But do you know what also scary? Not taking risks. Not taking risks is also risky, okay? Playing it safe all the time, never launching the thing or waiting for it to be perfect, or never saying yes to the opportunity or never trying something new out of fee. That's like a slow burn kind of failure, right?

You wake up and in five years time you're still in the same position because you haven't taken that step forward, you haven't taken that risk. It's like that when you look back and you thought, what if I just tried every business that I have set up now? My first business, a little bit of a side note, my first business took me, I think that I can remember, about six years to kick off. I was like, oh, I'll just write all the notes about it. I'll just do a business plan, I'll just do more research on it or just.

Or just, or just. And I kept waiting to pull the trigger. It wasn't until I ended up falling pregnant with my first bubble lubes. And I thought, I never want to walk into a boss's office and ask for swimming carnivals, off running carnivals, Mother's Day events, anything. I wanted to be a present mum.

And so for me, the best way that I knew how to do that was to run my own business. Now when I was pregnant, I was planning it all out and I was like, yes, yes, yes, I'm go going to do this. Just, I'll just. And I kept hesitating. And I was still hesitating all the way through my pregnancy.

At 36 weeks, I had quite a major car accident and ended up in hospital with going into early labour. They stopped it. There was a whole big thing around that anyway there. I had a lot of PTSD. Every time I got back in the car, I felt like every car behind me was going to crash into me and something bad was going to happen.

So I ended up going and seeing a psychologist. And this psychologist was like no one I'd ever met before. She was freaking brilliant Dr. Ebbs. She was amazing.

She was an older lady and she had run businesses in the past. She was a lecturer in many universities. She was very, very good at what she does. And so once we kind of worked through the car PTSD sort of stuff, she was like, okay, so what else are you hesitating on? Like, what are you wanting?

And I was like, I really want to start this business. Kind of been building it all out behind the scenes. Ra I'm just, you know, still waiting. And it was her that set me a deadline and was like, you need to have this launched and hit go by. I think it was the 22nd of July and I was like, o, okay.

Because I knew I couldn't walk back into her room and. And give her the excuses because she'd pull me up on it anyway. So jumped in, took the leap. And I remember when my first sales came in and my first sales came in from people I didn't know, that was the game changer, right? When.

When your friends and family buy, they go, yeah, great, that's really nice of them. And you think they're just supporting you, you know, because they love you or whatever else. But when I had sales coming in from people I didn't know, that was the real game changer for me. But the thing is that when I reflect back on it, I think, what if I started it earlier and my biggest fear was putting all this time and money into a business and it failing. And I thought my husband would come back and be like, you've spent all this money and it didn't work.

But when we actually sat down and spoke about it, he was like, what are you talking about? He was like, that's in your head, babe. He's like, I would prefer you to give something a crack than to die wondering. And I was like, wow. And that has stuck with me in my.

However. However many years I've been in business now. Over 10 years, right. I never now want to look back and go, what if I tried? And that is how a lot of my businesses have started.

Even our breastfeeding covers. When we started that in COVID, I thought, you know what? We'll throw a couple of thousand dollars into it. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, I won't die wondering.

And beautifully it's taken off, which has been great. And it's something that I'm really passionate about and believe in. But I think it's important to know that sometimes playing it safe and sitting in, that taking no risk is a risk on its own. So not every risk will pay off. But you know what?

Some will. And in the businesses that I run, a lot of my risks have paid off and some haven't. And some I have ve sat down in the shower and cried about and thought, this sucks. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm going to go and find a job and it'll just be easier and stress free.

But that's not who I am. And I know that taking those risks, some will pay off, some will have to work. Because the time and energy I've put in and the lessons that I'm gaining along the way will work. I know it will. So if you're ever one of those people that questions at risk, find someone that helps you take that leap.

Because you'll never know which ones will work and which ones won't unless you give yourself a shot at it. And the reality in this whole life of business is we're not supposed to do it alone. So if this episode is hitting close to home for you, I want to leave you with two really, really important things. Right? First of all, you are absolutely allowed to try new things.

And sometimes they won't work. They will flop. They'll break your heart a little bit. They'll test your confidence and you'll think, maybe I should just stick to playing small and not taking in those leaps and those big jumps. But I'm here to tell you, don't do that.

Because what makes you a real businesswoman isn't that everything has worked the first time, okay? It's what you have learned. It's about you getting back up. It's how you rework things. It's the way you can pivot and change things up when it hasn't gone to plan and you show the hell up over and over and over again, okay?

And the second thing is, you're not meant to do this alone. We are humans. We are actually wired to be around other people and to have a village around us so that when things do go wrong, you have those people in your corner, people who remind you of who you are when those times that you forget who you may be and people who don't say, see, told you that wouldn't work. I told you it was too hard to run in businesses. Do you know how many businesses fail?

No, we don't want those people. We want the people that go, okay, babe, what's next? Well, that didn't work. Laugh it off. Ha ha.

What are the lessons we learned? Let's give it another crack. People who remind you that one moment doesn't define your entire business and also doesn't define who you are, okay? And this is why, for me, it's so important to have true quality people around you. It's the reason why.

Who? Sales Club exists. It's the place where it's safe to take risks. And especially in sales, right? Sales is about growing your business.

Because in business, it's not a matter of if something will go sideways, it's absolutely when it will go sideways. And when it does, you need those tools. You need those people, you need that mindset support, okay? Because I promise you, you will bounce back. The sting will fade.

The ideas of wanting the ground to swallow you whole will slowly deteriorate and they'll go, okay? Because you are still widely capable of doing big, brilliant, amazing things. I know you are. Because the mindset of business owners, people don't go into business to have a fluffy, no risk life, okay? You've taken that risk to back yourself.

You've got to keep backing yourself. Don't let one fail stop you from that full body of work and that purpose of why you've started this. You're really not here to play it safe, okay? If we all stopped when things didn't work, none of us would know how to walk or stand up. I have a little eight month old at the moment.

He is in the process of pulling himself up and kind of. I know there's a word for it, but I can't think of it. Or cruising. I think it's cruising along furniture. So he's like pulling himself up and kind of supporting himself and taking the little steps while hanging on for his dear little life.

And guess what happens? He falls over, he bumps his head, he bumps his mouth, he hurts his finger, he hurts his foot, right? That for him could be. Could be seen as a failure, but it's not right. It's just a lesson and it's practice and it's building that resilience, okay?

We aren't here to play it safe. As humans, we need to take risks. You're here to grow, you're here to evolve. And you're here to create a business that actually lights you up. Those moments where you're like that puppy dog out the window, tail wagging, tongue out, living your best life.

So be bold, take the risk, and when it doesn't go to plan, don't run. Rebuild it. You are, and I can guarantee you, you are so much stronger than you think you are. And I am cheering you on all the way. Okay, if you need some support, if this resonates with you, please reach out at Maree Kirkpatrick.com or you can find me on social media at Maree Kirkpatrick. I hope you have an amazing week, and I hope this podcast has helped you. I look forward to chatting to you again in the future. Have a magical week. Bye.