The Struggle is Real with Branding Expert, Kathy Bass.

Okay, hello, hello and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negative mindsets so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches you want in life. Join us here live every Tuesday at noon Eastern and dialogue with us at 818-572-2910. You can also chat with us at blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitch or share your stories on on our website at sheddingthebitch.com. Whatever the bitch is that's holding you back from living your life to the fullest, it's not worth giving up the riches in life that you deserve. So call in now and let Bernadette Boas know what's holding you back.

818-572-2910. Good day, good day, good day everyone! How are you on this beautiful April day, morning, noon, or night? I can't believe it's April already. And actually, we're like 3 weeks in, which is even crazier. And actually, I should have said I couldn't believe it was Easter already. So I hope you had a beautiful Easter holiday. I hope you had a beautiful Passover celebration. And whatever you might celebrate this time of year, maybe it's just spring break, I hope it was a beautiful one. I have to say, It was absolutely stunning here in Atlanta over the weekend. A little warm, but I'm not going to complain. It was beautiful, and I had a lovely, lovely weekend with friends and with our, you know, Matt, and then breakfast, and then a nice last-minute potluck dinner with friends, and it was just a very relaxing— I decided to kind of take time to breathe and not do a lot of work, not have my laptop glued to my wrist, so to speak, and that includes the phone as well. So it was a lovely weekend. I hope you all enjoyed it as well. As we kind of are gearing up to spring and then eventually we're going to soon get into summer, but also a really favorite time of year for me, and that's May, and that brings Not only Mother's Day, which obviously I'm not a mother, but I absolutely adore celebrating moms and all you guys do out there. But it also means that I'm gearing up for my holiday vacation summer break with my sisters and my nieces. And so we always bring the show to you live from Ocean City, New Jersey. Woo-hoo! Shout out to— the South Shore. And I'm just kind of, as you can probably tell, I'm just getting very excited about it and really will be looking forward to kicking my feet up and relaxing with my sisters. So let's see what else is going on. I don't know if anybody watched the Bee Gees tribute show that was on Sunday night. The Bee Gees, love them, my time period. My generation, so to speak. And whether or not you like disco or not, you can't help but love that music. So I was up hootin' and howlin' and dancin' by myself, actually with Charlie, Sunday night. So if you haven't gotten a chance to see it, one, it was a beautiful celebration of the Bee Gees, and it was a beautiful tribute. And there was some kind of lovely things thrown in it, and I won't give it away. But it was just very lovely and it was just a blast of a time. And I don't know how anybody in that stadium was actually sitting throughout that show because I certainly was not. But check that out. It just made me feel really good and really happy and just gave a lot of fun to a really nice weekend. You know, with Easter, I wanted to kind of mention this. With Easter, at least for the Christians, who also then celebrate Lent, the 40 days of Lent prior to Him rising on Easter Day. Lent is one of those times like New Year's resolutions where you don't necessarily set a goal, though you could, but you do sacrifice something. Because again, without pain you can't have glory, and without kind of compromise and sacrifice, you can't have the riches in life. So it's that time of year that at least for Christians, not all of us, but we'll, you know, kind of sacrifice something. I'll be honest with you, I do it all year round, not only sacrifice, but I set goals and I understand the compromising and the sacrifice that goes with it. So I don't necessarily do that. Though I was very aware of it throughout the 40 days, just the sacrifice that he made for us and therefore we should make for him. The reason why I bring this up is simply because whether it's April 18th or whether it's January 1st or November, I want you all to always be considering your goals, your dreams, your aspirations, what it is you're trying and working so hard to achieve in this one life. That you have to live. And so whether or not you use the time to set new goals or revise the ones you have, or to finally say, okay, I'm willing to sacrifice and willing to compromise, and you put a time block. I love time blocks. So, you know, for Lent, 40 days. Maybe your New Year's resolutions, you set them for 30, 60. It's just another time where you can kind of reset, hit that reset button, and start anew. So I just kind of wanted to throw that out as an initial rich tip for you as far as this time of year that not only brings spring showers to kind of clean— cleanse our souls and cleanse the earth, but it gives us an opportunity to kind of reset on what it is that we're working so hard to achieve, which is a great segue into what we're going to be talking about today and also going, you know, in the next several weeks. Because we do have some great guests lined up. We have Abby Vega coming up next week. She's going to talk to us about her sweet route, and therefore something that you can learn from, a sweet route to happiness, hope, and permission. And when I say route, because people often kind of can't grasp my accent sometimes, you can call it route, you can call it a route, R-O-U-T-E, but it's a route, a direction, a path to happiness, hope, and permission. And then we have Ask Bernadette, that first Tuesday of the month where we get into your questions, stories, and challenges that you might have. So be sure to post your questions, post those stories and challenges out on our Facebook and Twitter page, and I will make sure that I can get them addressed for you. And then for Mom's Day, and we're going to celebrate moms all through the month of May, we're going to kick it off with a conversation with Irene Hildeberger. Now if you don't know her, you want to look her up. And Irene is spelled E-I-R-E-N-E Hildeberger. Now we're going to be talking about how parenting and how to do it more effectively and how to put the me MOMME. So instead of it being mommy, mommy, mommy, it's MOMME. M-O-M-M-E-E. To carve out your happy mommy time. So really focusing on you and you as a mother, you as a woman, you as a parent, you as a sister, you as an aunt. You're the full package of who you are as a woman, and a good part of that is is around how to parent more effectively so you can take care of yourself. And then of course May will be packed full of other guests, so be sure to follow the program out on blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio so you can get all the updates on our guests and our topics and any other announcements that we might have for you. All right, but today's conversation is with someone who is a returning guest, which I'm very excited about, and who is a longtime friend, colleague, mentor, and just overall fabulous woman, and we're going to be talking to her about the struggle being real. Especially as entrepreneurs, we know that everybody, you know, wants to leave corporate and wants to become an entrepreneur, but there is a struggle. In being an entrepreneur, and many of us understand it. Many of us haven't kind of confronted it yet, and yet that's what we want to talk about today is how every entrepreneur faces various struggles which can isolate them— excuse me— isolate them and paralyze them. But know that you are not alone if you're one of those individuals. We're all seeking validation. Your struggles can be used as fuel to constructively feed your fire to bring your big idea to life or to continue it. Maybe you already started and you want to grow and expand it. Let's make this entrepreneurial journey fun as a community together as fellow entrepreneurs and even if you're corporate professionals. The 3 things you're going to want to listen for and you're going to learn today is why they are the best investor in their business. And I'm assuming that's the entrepreneur themselves. And how to achieve proof of concept. We'll talk to our guests more in that and help define that. And then we're going to— we have a lot to talk about. We're going to talk about the top 10 struggles, but with struggles comes solutions. And then what's a key struggle that an entrepreneur deals with and what's that entrepreneurial success formula that our guest has for that key struggle. So obviously a lot to talk about. Your rich question I want you to keep in mind as we're talking is, what are you struggling with? Or what are you struggling to achieve in your business as an entrepreneur? Or maybe it's even your job, because we have a lot of corporate professionals that listen to us as well. So what is that one struggle that you are having? So when we get back, I'm going to introduce you to our fabulous guests, and we are going to get into this conversation about the struggle is real. We'll be right back.

You are listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. We are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity. So they can create the riches in their career, business, and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette Boas' book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business, available on Amazon and sheddingthebitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors, TSR Consulting, who offers a broad range of tax services for small to corporate size clients. Go to TSRConsulting.com to learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium-sized businesses. Email Deborah Parker at deborahparker78@gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at mediarelations@sheddingthebitch.com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

Welcome back everyone. We are here and we are talking The Struggle Is Real. Let me introduce you to our fabulous guest, Kathy Baxt. She is the creative director, founder of Ladies Who Brand, Inc., and a lifestyle entrepreneur. She started her business— first business, mind you— at the age of 9 with a red wagon and mad door-knocking skills to solve an overgrown zucchini problem, and hasn't stopped flipping complicated problems into simple solutions ever since. She loves to catalyze people to catapult change and create better internal and external results. But that wasn't good enough for her. She had to go and become a film producer, and we're going to talk all about this, of Entrepreneur: The Movie. The struggle is real. It is a 30-minute modern experiential movie about real people real life, and real stories that reveal 10 key actionable knowledge nuggets in an educational, fun, engaging style. This movie was made by an entrepreneur for entrepreneurs. So, welcome to the show, Kathy.

Thank you, Bernadette. I loved your introduction with the springtime and the— it just fits perfectly into this topic.

It really does. It really does. Because we want to start anew, right? And fresh. And yes, we know we have struggles, but at the same time, there's tons of solutions to them. What you say?

Yes. And who cares what day it is? It's really when that, that pain point just gets to where you have to do something about it. You're tired of waking up with that pain, that headache every day.

Right.

And as they say, April showers bring May flowers. And I'm listening to you and I went, I don't know if you know this or not. I'm a skier. I grew up in Michigan and I miss skiing. And this is part of coming to life and part of being successful is being happy with yourself and doing your hobbies. And every place I went to, there was a storm. So my new nickname is Stormy. And this ties in great because I don't know if you've heard the term, it's a skiing term, a bluebird day. It's where the storm hits and you wake up and the sky is blue and there's fresh powder. A skier's dream. So the point with that, the stormy— okay, so let's just take two words: struggles and solutions. That's what we're here to do, to flip them. And the struggles are the storm. Now everyone wants to get out of the storm, right? We want to put a jacket on, get the umbrella. But if you face that storm it'll pass a lot quicker, and the sunshine always comes out. But we have to stay in the storm and push through it. And now, if you also look at your term, the bitches to riches— the bitches could be the storm, the riches are the sunshine. So, right, you have work, you have a reward. And, you know, I'm listening to you also when you're talking about Lent, the sacrifice. You do have to have the pain. On the other side is the glory, and most people just want to avoid the pain, try to go all around it, but we can't. So that's the whole thing here, is confronting it. But more importantly, why can't we flip it into play mode? You know me, right? I'm an adult, or a kid in adult clothes. And, you know, make it fun like a chore. I mean, there's, there's one, you know, just to get the mindset and the, the canvas ready for this important topic is— it was Leo Babauta, who's the Zen master, who just said this very, very simple but profound thing. Sitting there going, I have to go to the grocery store, I don't want to go to the grocery store. He said, change that one word of I have to to I get to. And my God, did it change. I just said, I get to go to the grocery store. Made it into an adventure and not a chore. And don't you think that right there is the main crux of doing the hard work is just flipping the mindset and not treating it like a chore. Very, very simple. One word.

Or not treating it—

flip it—

not treating it like a— yeah, not treating it like it's a—

like a burden—

say hardship. Yeah, like a burden. It's something actually that if, you know, I was having a conversation with my coach the other day, my business coach, and we were having a conversation about prospecting and selling and how many people on this phone, especially entrepreneurs, who, you know, you basically have to— and the old saying used to be you have to go and kill what you eat, you know, and of course that's not something that you really want to hang your hat on.

No.

That image right there is not, you know, very positive. At the same time, the bottom line is, you know, you do have to work through these struggles if you want success, and no success comes without them. And so if you can look at it as more of an opportunity and an honor, that as an entrepreneur, we have an honor of being able to do the things that we have to do no matter how hard they are, because of the reward is all the things and the reasons why we became entrepreneurs, right?

Exactly. And we make it, we make it happen. And that, yeah, that ties in great. I mean, so it's choices, and that is right now there is no middle person, there's nothing in our way. And I think And that's what the overlying struggle is, is the choices, the uncertainty, is because we actually can do anything. I mean, think about the power we have. It's— and it just, you know, we were all in it. It happened very slowly, but that's the thing now that the mindset has to switch to, okay, creating value, taking ownership, and being, you know, the driver. —this, you know, that's the underlying theme of the movie is where it came from. So before I get into that, I would like to invite your audience, whether you're an entrepreneur, you talk to a lot of corporate people, I know it's a lot of your clients, think like an entrepreneur. That— Right, right. I mean, and you know, you deal with CEOs too, and so this is about becoming the CEO of you. And there's one, yeah, one key point with that, that I know we've talked about that before and it's one of those things and I've just, I haven't talked to you in a while. This is a whole deeper level that I've uncovered, which is awesome. Cuz again, simplifying the complex, cuz we as humans complicate things. That's why we love dogs. They're very simple.

So, right, right.

If you are a CEO, you have to lead and you have to decide. Now, as entrepreneurs, with all those choices, that means way more decisions to make. So, the first step here is to, you know, think about that in terms of, you know, what's your end goal or, you know, right now you're working on a screenplay, that's your passion project. And so, you know, what's the end goal and keeping that in mind, those are all your decisions based on how to get to that vision, how to create value. And how to make decisions. And then you, that's your filter. So you, and you have certain struggles with that and certain solutions. So the, I invite your audience to get out a blank piece of paper and a pen. Go ahead.

Okay. No, no, no, go ahead. Let's finish this part of it. I want to make sure there's a big question in my head. But go ahead, walk them through what you—

Oh no, let's clear the question. Let's clear it.

No, no, no, please, please continue. Pen and paper.

Okay, pen and paper. And so the problem that I was experiencing, which is where the movie was born out of, is I've been doing branding. No matter how great the external elements are, how great the branding is, if the person isn't branded per se inside, they don't have that strong identity, they don't have their soft skills developed, it's gonna fall apart. Right. And the biggest problem with branding is consistency. And that is because we're recreating the wheel each day. We're not making decisions. We're just going through the day, moving forward. We think we are, but we're not making those hard choices and the hard decisions. And the best way to brand yourself for free is the promise and the experience. So the promise you could say, is the idea and the experience is the execution. And the closer—

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, let's break that down a little bit more. Fine, what you're saying, what you're suggesting, suggesting is that for an individual to actually like go through their own exercise of really understanding what they stand for and therefore what their brand, personal brand, would be They could go and look at— right, they could go look at 2 things. One is their promise, and what was the second one?

Experience, so what you say and what you do, how closely those match up.

Okay, so the promise would be that if they would just write down on a piece of paper what they are promising to their customers or their clients or their students or whatever the case might be.

Yeah, there's a quick— if the best way to do that is, is in 7 days, you, instead of telling someone you're going to do something, write down everything you say you're going to do. Like, okay, I'm going to send, you know, email Bernadette this article about this. I'm going to— whatever you say you're going to do, because we all know that all of a sudden, the end of the day, we realize all the stuff we didn't do, including ourselves. And Then we make, you know, adjustments and we— explanations, and that's, you know, the bottom line is integrity. So we're compromising that if we don't stick to our decisions, our words. It sounds very simple, but if you actually write it down, you start to see all the promises you're making, and what it does is it lessens your load. And, you know, we all want to help, we all want to say yes, but there has to be some boundaries, some limits so that we can deliver the experience. We can execute our idea, we can act on our word, and that's that reputation, that's, you know, the intangible when you see someone or you have, you know, you have something to do, a task, you know who you're going to ask and who's going to get it done. That right there is the gold.

Is this the biggest struggle that entrepreneurs deal with? I mean, is that real? If you were to say to them, okay, of all the things that I've seen around entrepreneurs, and we are going to talk about your movie in a bit, but through all my interviews, through all my experience working with entrepreneurs, even myself as an entrepreneur, would you say that that's the biggest struggle that they're dealing with and that's why— that's where you feel they should focus? Or what is their biggest struggle?

Would you say? Oh, you answered it. That was gonna be my quiz at the end. Okay, so the biggest struggle— do you have a mirror nearby? If you look in the mirror, that's your biggest struggle. What is it? Uh, you nailed it. See, I mean, and so that's what I kept experiencing with branding, was people would, you know, you have the idea, you have this whole thing, and so my— what I'm expressing here is to Less than that. The less is more. The more you do, the more overwhelmed, the more things. And so if you just scale— and I scaled everything back. I took everything off the plate except this movie because I could be the best brander in the world. I could do all this work. I could collect money. But if the inside job is not done, it's not happening. And the branding was just, give me this outfit, give me this great website, make me look good. Well, at the end of the day, you have to show up and you have to deliver that experience. So yes, I mean, it's, it's that simple. That's the whole premise of Brandy's, the promise, the experience, which creates your reputation. But dealing with reality and being stormy, you have these struggles. And you know, the, the best day of my life, well, one of them was It just— another simple yet powerful thing. When my mom said, you know what, you're a work in progress, it just gave me huge relief and huge permission to be messy, to fail, to just go out there and try it. Because hey, there's no rulebook, which is again the excitement and the fear. How do we channel it? And so yes, the biggest problem is us. Uh-huh. No, go ahead. And doing what we say, and in the land of uncertainty, right? It's a scary land, right?

So how do we do it?

Okay, so right, so okay, so the biggest struggle is ourselves. We get in our own way, uh, because we really don't know, or we're not committed to what it is that we want or believe in. And so we have to do a lot of work to kind of figure all those things out. And then how does that relate to then kind of overcoming and being successful? How does that translate to someone?

Beautiful transition. Okay, so then the solution, and you've heard this term a lot and it's coming up more. It's soft skills. That's what we have control over. And that comes down to your choices, your decisions, and your actions. And if you do this every day, it's like a muscle. You build it. And I'm, you know, speaking from experience because, you know, let's face it, there's a lot of experts out there and they tell you, they sit back and say, do this, do that. Well, sure. You know, like watching a football game. Whoa, why didn't he do this? I mean, who— you have the vantage point of and the comfort of being in the stands, but they're on the field and they're playing. And so if you, if you do these things every day, I mean, it's just my world is so different now because I was taught my messaging was to avoid, avoid, avoid. That's a lot of work actually. You know what? And so this is confront, decide, and, and learn. Okay. So that's where the, the 10 struggles came from is what have I seen over and over and over again? Everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, and like you said, it's not like, you know, what they call the real, which is R-E-A-L, right? The highlight reel. No, it's messy, and if you think about, okay, think about it in analogy to sports. You've got the Super Bowl, and we as entrepreneurs do this. We want, okay, I have this idea, and now I'm gonna go play in the Super Bowl, right? Come on, we all do it. Yep, yep, there is a lot of behind the scenes, a lot of practice, the 10,000 hours that is not shown. And so when we're in it, we feel like we should already be at, you know, we want to be at the finish line or whatever. And so that's why I say like, play, have fun, all these sayings, you know, enjoy the journey. Well, don't you understand that now? So you have to pick something you like because then you want to pick yourself up and, and go with it again and That's where, you know, with, with the words and the actions, it really helps you dial into that core. Because you're not going to just wake up and know exactly what to do. But the more, the closer you can get to it, and those decisions, you know, where they just— you tell someone you're going to do something, it doesn't sit right. Examine that, right? You know what, again, you call bitches, it's angst, it's tension, it's tension. Why is that happening? Because there's some disconnect. And so examining that, right? And so, you know, the, so that's, you know, the main problem is the consistency, the words, the actions. The solution is the choices, decisions, and taking action. And then when you are having, you know, it's not going to be natural at first. And so the blank piece of paper, there's the 3 tips is one is, you know, do you want to, do you need to? And then do you have to or do you get to? It's just terming it, and then that again gets you closer to that life you want to create, that stuff you enjoy doing, the play. And then what— it's something I call MLF, which is not what you think, okay? You want— you're at point A, you want to get to point B. What is the MLF? What is the most limiting factor? That just dials you right into the core for that movie.

Okay, so wait, I'm going to slow down— most limiting what?

Factor. So what's my biggest obstacle; what's my biggest barrier? Like okay, I want to show this movie at an institute.

Wait, back up a minute though. Break this down because you went through that pretty quickly. So those first set of questions that someone's asking, even before they get to MLF, it was in order to get the—

oh, the want to or need to. Want to or need to. Okay. And then do you get to or do you have to? Because deciphering wants and needs are important, right?

Right, right. Okay, so that will help them decipher between what they really want to do and what they need to do, because those two things do impact people's actions, decisions, and choices, like you said.

And priorities and focus. Right? And so this is a quick way to get you to dial in.

Right. So what do you want to, need to, get to, or have to? Okay. And then again, if you kind of repeat those to yourself, they kind of resonate to kind of say, yeah, there's some of those that are like the thrills, and then there's some of them that just have to get done. It's almost, you know, they just are the foundation, I guess I would say. So how do they feed into the MLF? How do they feed into the most limiting factor? How should a listener use that?

Yeah, you want to achieve it. Okay, I want to do this, I need to do this. Okay, what's the most limiting factor? Standing in my way. Like I was saying, if I want to show the movie in an incubator, well, it's getting on the calendar and finding out who sets up the calendar. It's not how am I going to do the event. We get into all the details, which then takes us away from the most limiting factor. I have to sell. I have to ask.

Right?

How many times do you do that?

And that's the actual limiting factor. And that's the actual limiting factor. It's not that you don't know how to. It's just that you're scared or you're anxious, so that goes back to those, to those what we call bitches. See where I'm going with that?

It's like a procrastination method, meaning I developed this whole vent but I can't get in, but I just wasted a lot of time. So can I get in? Here you go. And then I put writing— uh-huh, go ahead, go ahead. Oh, it said— so the— because everything has just 3 tips. Like the 3, these are tons, and you know me, the researcher, the reader, conference-goer, these are like the 3 main ones. Because you have more than 3, you can't do it. The 3rd one is writing, meaning, okay, say, you know, I want to get on your radio show and I don't know you. Then I make myself sit and write an email. So then I'm really, that's like a self-check, right? Am I ready to be on her radio show? What do I want to do? What is good? What is in it for you? What— how is this a win-win? And so if you sit there and you write on that blank canvas— love that blank canvas— it forces you, you know, again, a gut check. And are you ready? And then if not, what do you have to do? So those are just 3 free resources you have every day. You could do self-talk, do whatever that just keeps you on focus, keeps you on track, and gets get rid of all the, the noise and confusion, right?

Because it comes back to what we ultimately were talking about here in regards to the struggle is real. The struggle is real. It's as real, and it's as good or bad, difficult or easy, painful or joyful, as our mental mindset makes it.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Right, well, there you go. But it's true. I mean, it's perception.

Perception is reality, right? Right.

Well, that's why FEAR is the acronym— is False Evidence Appearing Real— is the, yeah, you know, the acronym FEAR. It's False Evidence Appearing Real. So we create all this drama in our head, you know. For you entrepreneurs out there, you know, the number one thing about that entrepreneurs don't get is If you have any anxiety about selling, for instance, then you need to overcome that to be an entrepreneur because that's all you're going to do as an entrepreneur is sell yourself, sell your business, sell your employees, sell your products, sell your services, whatever the case might be. There's a ton of mindset. If you're a corporate professional and you're going after an advancement or a raise and yet you don't think you deserve it or you're not good enough or you haven't worked hard enough or long enough or you don't have the long resume, well, that's not potentially true fact. That's just your head games playing on you. So we're going to take a break because we have a lot more to talk about, and yet time is already flying by. And when we get back, we're going to talk to Cathy about her amazing transition into then putting her own struggle, her own experience, her own entrepreneurship into a movie that is now, or is about to, because we're like one of the first people she's talking to, woo-hoo, before her big launch. But it's really going to change lives and empower those entrepreneurs and those who want to be entrepreneurs in a significant way. So we'll be right back to talk to Kathy Bass further in regards to Entrepreneur: The Movie. We'll be right back.

You are listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. We are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity so they can create the riches in their career, business, and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette's book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business, available on Amazon, ShuttingTheBitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors: TSR Consulting, who offers a broad range of tax services for small to corporate size clients. Go to TSRConsulting.com to learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium size businesses. Email Deborah Parker at DeborahParker78@gmail.com. @gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at mediarelations@sheddingthebitch.com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

Welcome back everyone. We are talking to creative director and founder of Ladies Who Brand, Kathy Bass, but she's also a lifestyle entrepreneur, so much so that she went and she went and created Entrepreneur: The Movie. The Struggle Is Real. It's a 30-minute modern experiential movie about real people, real life, and real stories that reveals 10 key actionable knowledge nuggets in an educational, fun, and engaging style. It was a movie that was created obviously from her as an entrepreneur for entrepreneurs. We are talking just all about just how she got to this point, But also, really, she's providing you a lot of tips and advice on how you can overcome the struggle that you might be dealing with in your own business or even in your career or life. So Kathy, my amazing friend Kathy who ventured out and became a film producer. You have to tell us where this movie came from because we've known each other, what, probably 7 or 8 years, 9 years now. So where did you kind of come up with this idea for this movie?

Great question. I know because it actually happened in— actually, I'm going to a media conference next week, and I realized that when I was there last year, I had nothing, and I get to go back this year with a movie. And, you know, the biggest thing is, yeah, I mean, it's surreal.— and this is the power when your mind is clear and you get rid of all the noise and confusion. I was struggling with speaking and how can I scale myself. Well, the only way that I know of is to clone yourself. And I was doing workshops and seminars and I just— I was struggling with it. And I said, how— get creative, how can you do it? Whoa, what if I make a movie? And instead of me speaking for a half hour, people get to watch this education, entertaining, edutainment movie for 30 minutes and then they get to be interactive, network and discuss. Everything is going experience-based, right? So that's where this idea stemmed from, was that struggle of, okay, well now all of a sudden I'm global, I'm worldwide, I have this movie. But you know me, it's always about results. It's not, you know, about that. It's interesting, when I did testing and I showed the movie, people, because of my mindset and my intention, didn't talk to me— they talked to me as if I was on their side, not the person in the movie, because they could relate to it. And I hit the 10 struggles that we'll go into, along with solutions. And Right. How, you know, again, with our attention span, you know, it's all these different nuances that we're experiencing now, and the movie was just the ultimate. You've got video, you've got a captive audience, you've got this, you know, with our technology, it's accessible. Anyone can do it. We actually rented a $15,000 camera for $600. What a concept. I would have never thought of that. And so I just— the idea and the vision was so strong and it built on everything I had done and it just came together. I went to visit a friend and she goes, "What are you doing?" I said, "Oh my God, I just wrote the script." I mean, I'm telling you, Bernadette, this movie took over me, which I knew—

I bet—

oh, it's hard to explain unless you're in it. I'd never had that, right? And it kept falling apart, it kept dying. The Friday before we shot, I was ready to cancel it. It this movie would not die. It— that was a movie in itself, was the movie behind the movie. It wouldn't die. And everyone showed up strong. They had— nobody knew the whole script. Script was not registered till the night before we shot, but everything happened because it just, you know, I reverse engineered it. I was organized. That, you know, the other thing was everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. You meet people and they go, you're an entrepreneur, that's so cool. And that's the end of the conversation. Now there's livelihoods, there's dreams, there's resources, there's, you know, time, money, and energy, as we know how long it takes to get things done. And that's what this movie is about, is to catapult people into, okay, let's— instead of, you know, the word hustle is being overused. I don't know, I want to change that to just put your head down and do the work. Yeah, right, then you hustle. Well, buddy, and that's what's— yeah, let me just—

yeah, no, I would absolutely agree. So let me make sure everyone knows, enter entrepreneurthemovie.com is where you can get more information. You can also— let me look over all this— you can also go to, um, and Google on Eventbrite, because that's what I did, eventbrite.com /e/entrepreneurthemovie: The Struggle Is Real to get tickets. And you can actually just Google The Entrepreneur: The Struggle Is Real and you'll find it on Eventbrite. Okay, so I want to get into the struggles, and like I said, time always runs very quickly on here. So we might not reach all 10 in 10 minutes because we want to talk about the solutions too. So, Would you say, could they hear your backstory in regards to the movie in the movie?

Actually, yeah, I have to videotape that because it's a live event. I do the introductions, but that's a good— it's a good point. Um, they could still watch it and get right into it. And you know, the movie, the premise is I'm on a staycation and I have a beach at the end, and it's all different scenes in the hotel so they can follow along the journey, and it hits all the 10 struggles throughout the movie. Cool.

Okay, so all the information regarding the interactive experiential aspect they can find on the website, is that right? That's correct.

They can actually hit— there's an event right button on the website, and then there's a manual that accompanies it, right? You know, somebody's usually struggling in one area more than another, so you tackle that one area first because that's going to be your MLF, your main limiting factor to action. Correct. Good, perfect.

All right, so I want to also make sure everybody knows then that she has— of course, I love my, my guests, they have specials for us all the time. So she has specials for us. If you were to email Kathy directly, at any point you're listening to this program, because many of us, many of you listen to us later after we've gone live. So if you were to email her at Kathy, and that's with a K, Kathy@entrepreneurthemovie.com, she will give you the survival manual for free., and then that way you can use it along with the movie. But then she goes one step further, and if you were to go to Eventbrite.com and like I said, Google Entrepreneur: The Movie: The Struggle Is Real and get a ticket, the tickets are $8, and she's giving you 20% off using the code, and we will put this out on the social network, using the code shedding. For Shedding the Bitch. So shedding, using the code shedding, you will get 20% off on the movie tickets if you were to buy an additional manual, even if you were to buy both the manual and the movie ticket, 20% off. So I just wanted to make sure we mentioned that, and I'll try to get it in before the end of the program as well. So, okay, so considering we may run out of time to cover all 10 struggles, What is, what are the top ones that you would want to make sure that gets, you know, in on this program before we wrap up?

Gotcha. And thank you for mentioning that special offer. People can actually watch it in groups and discuss the struggles in a safe room, right? Have viewing parties. Very nice.

Very nice.

And so, you know, like I was saying, and leading by example, the Promise and Experience, I did, I can cover this really quick and clearly, okay. In the beginning, you mentioned why we are the best investor in our company and proof of concept. So I'm just going to clear those really quick to make sure we cover that. The reason you're the best investor in your company is because, like we mentioned at the beginning, you have control over you and you have the power to create value and you know that vision in your head. So that's why you're the best person. Which leads into proof of concept, which is shaping your idea, adding value. So every day you make those decisions, those choices, especially the hard ones, you build that muscle, you build the value, build the reputation because you really can't talk to VCs or investors until you have this. Then people, you'll find out who your customers are, what your main value is, right? So those two are very important and tie in with that. And then we mentioned at the beginning, yourself is the main, the key struggle. Okay. The overlying one. You obviously, this has become clear, are the, you know, so it's time to take responsibility to yourself, to others, keeping the commitments and practicing the discipline. So the success formula is very, very simple. Are you ready? Choice. You always have two choices in everything. This is the success formula for everyone. The outfit fits everyone. One, you change a situation, or two, you change your thinking about the situation. And you see that ties in with the have to or get to. That applies to everything. Again, paying attention to your angst, your discomfort, your tension, your bitches. How do I flip those into riches? Well, I change the situation, or I change how I'm thinking about it, because you are in the situation, correct? Absolutely, yeah. Okay, with the situation, there are 10 main struggles. They're actually— if I had to pick the top 3, the first one is showing up. How many networking events, appointments do you have that you don't want to show up? That word that you said you'd be there and you don't. Right there, just showing up gives your actual— the struggle and the solution, right? Problem is showing up, solution is showing up. Do you love how I do this? So simple. It really is, but it's doing it. That's the hard part. Okay, second one is budgeting. Now again, the resources are time, energy, and money. Again, people don't do this. I did not do this in my— the first major business in '98. I took a cash advance on my credit card and I blew through all the money. That's also in the movie. I was called mismanagement, which was actually one word, not two words. I mismanaged the money. So it's taking inventory doing simple math and managing it. Well, I need this service. I don't have money. Let's figure out a win-win trade. And the last one is the most important because why are we all doing this? It's defining your success. I didn't do this. I used other people, you know, I take responsibility now. I didn't before. I let other people define my success. So, that one is, you know, again, the over— why are we in this? Why are we doing this? Why are we working hard? And that's where the real power is. And you define it according to your definition, your words, your priorities, and your terms. So, those are the top 3.

So, and we'll get to— if we can get to all 10, that would be great. I just want to make sure because our conversation has been flying. So let me ask you something on the— going back to— I definitely get showing up. And I'm not one, I have to say, I'm not one to say I'm doing something and not do it. I mean, I'm doing it if I say I'm doing it. That's good. You're ahead. Now, well, and now that doesn't mean that I didn't have to learn to say no. Because I said yes too many times. So, you know, I think, you know, that's a key part too. But so when it gets to budgeting though, because the minute you said budgeting, and I'm glad you explained it, I kind of went immediately to money. But explain a little bit more for folks where any of us get really hooked up, caught up, as far as budgeting our time, because we get the money thing, right? But our time is also where I find, you know, myself and other entrepreneurs really struggle with is how to budget, time block as I call it, their time to ensure that they can do what they want to do.

Yeah, well, a lot of that ties back into the choices and the decisions. As you, you know, that question, is this moving me closer to my goal or further away from it? And the time, I mean, it's— And it's again a work in progress. It's every day, you know, some days you get better at estimating, some days you don't, and then really sitting with that discomfort is really a great gauge. And, you know, as you mentioned in the beginning, it can be used as fuel. So if you are sapped out on time, your energy is depleted, and you're not going to be able to deliver. And so I think, It's again just gauging yourself, and you know that if you're okay, if you're not feeling 100% or you got knocked down and you need to get back up the next day, take that low-level energy task. Because if you don't have the energy, let's say you have an hour and you have to get something done and you don't have the energy, it's going to take a lot longer than an hour. And so what I'm saying is relying on yourself and using that personal compass, and it takes work and it's hard. And just adjusting and, you know, what I, you know, good, what do they call them, life hacks. This one really worked well. I'd have, you know, the 3 main rocks you do first thing in the morning because then you're not feeling behind all day and you're not dreading those and you're making the hard decision to get them done. Now, obviously there were days where that 3rd rock just kept rolling forward. And what I would do is in the morning— I just came up with that, I like the visuals. It's true, it keeps rolling. I couldn't get it, it was like had butter on it or something. I'm just kidding. And so the next day I woke up and I had to tackle that third rock, meaning I did not allow myself the decision to not confront it because the elephant's always in the room. Let's just say hi to the elephant, greet it. Right? Recognize it, greet it. I mean, that's the first way to get to the other side. And so the time management, that one is always a work in progress and just getting more in tune with who are the energy sappers, how much time does something take, allowing yourself the freedom and when you— time blocking is absolutely necessary. But you— one of the struggles, actually the third one, is igniting creativity. Okay, so what that is, is the solution is to play with it, or maybe walk away from it, or day block. Meaning I can't sit here and say from 1 to 2 I'm going to be creative. That does not work, right? And that's where I, I finally come up with the day, because then you can get into it, get into that flow. You don't just sit down and go into flow. So you kind of can do stuff, but you've given yourself permission to not waste time because you're playing and you're, you're getting into that completely productive state. And so yes, to answer your question, it's again comes down to those two choices. You're changing your thinking about the situation, right? And if you focus on the results, it does like, okay, with the movie, Does it matter how long it took me or if I had experience? Look at the results. It happened. It doesn't matter how I got there and how much time. And again, fueling the fire, the energy, and allocating your resources. Does that answer your time question? Because all those elements are key.

Absolutely. No, and I love the whole work in progress. I need to highlight that. That you mentioned kind of toward the beginning, because it is one of those things that women are known for is that we think we have to be perfect. Yeah, how that happens. Yeah, right. How that works is the question. Overrated. Exactly. And I do tend to lean on the 80/20 rule. At least be 80% there and don't worry about the 20%. But I love the work in progress because I do think that Whether you're an entrepreneur, a corporate professional, a stay-at-home mom, it doesn't matter. Things are always changing and evolving, so to ever put pressure on yourself that the minute that you're something, you're going to then change again, so you're never going to be finished. Because to me, if I'm finished, I'm done. You might as well just put me in a casket, nail it shut, and put me in the ground. Right, you're the type that's never going to retire, and that's—

that knows you're in the playing in the right field with your passion. And so right there, if you, if you face the discomfort and make the hard choices, that's the fastest way to adjust. And what that, you know, saying, change is constant. So we've got, you know, the top main struggle is yourself, and then dealing with uncertainty and making the decisions. And if you do those 3 things, the rest will fall into place. But really just coming into awareness, doing that thing for a week, you know, think about when you— somebody does something for you that they didn't promise. That's the beauty of that experiment too, is all of a sudden you get something instead of you expected it from me, I'm late, and it creates that whole waste of energy and time and maybe money, right, of not being the right place. And, you know, the work in progress— yes, allow yourself the freedom to, like, you know what, I messed up, I actually don't want to commit to this, because you are going to create more work. You know, it's counterintuitive. These things are very, very hard, the stormy flipping in the beginning, but you stick with it, push through it, and then you get that reward, the intrinsic, uh, you know, accomplishment feeling, and that energy to go do what you have to do. Along that selling, you mentioned one of the struggles. That was one of them. Using your voice, having an opinion, speaking up. We covered proof of concept, bouncing back. That's one. You fall down, lick your wounds, get back up. If you can do it the next day, awesome. Used to take me a month. You just figure out how to shorten it. And then you have— Systemization. How do you deliver your end product? You have to have some kind of system so you're not recreating it every day. And then we're actually going to cover all 10. Okay, this one was huge in the feedback on the movie. Overthinking.

Okay, well, I'm going to have to stop it there or we're going to lose everybody.

That was it, overthinking. Yes, overthinking. Don't do it. Just don't do it.

That's the solution. There you go. Don't do it. Don't overthink. Just kind of do it. Everybody, I just want to really, really have you go to entrepreneurthemovie.com, go to Eventbrite and look up Entrepreneur the Movie: The Struggle is Real. Buy a ticket. Watch it. Get that email, Kathy, at Kathy@entrepreneurthemovie.com and get the manual. And work through these struggles that she's been discussing with us, with you. Work through the solutions and participate, actively participate in the movie. The movie is releasing May 1st, correct, Kathy, real quick?

Yes, the official launch.

The official launch is May 1st, but you can go out onto Entrepreneur the Movie right now. Also, be sure to follow her, Entrepreneur the Movie, Facebook, Twitter, entrepreneur_tm is her Twitter handle. But be sure to go and support her as an entrepreneur, support her as a fellow woman, a fellow initiator, influencer that's out there rocking it. And not only that, but you'll learn, you know, 10 really key things that can help you achieve your goals and dreams in whatever aspect of life. That you are creating them, as she said, you want to create. So Kathy, I want to thank you. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. Keep in mind, next week we have Abby Vega to talk to us about The Route to Happiness, Hope, and Permission. And I'll look forward to talking to all of you right back here at noon Eastern time next Tuesday for Shedding the Bits Radio. Thanks everybody. Thank you, Kathy.

Thank you, Bernadette, and remember to play.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Thank you for listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. Join Bernadette every Tuesday at noon Eastern as she helps you shift your bitches to riches. And the dialogue is always going on at sheddingthebitch.com. See you next week.