The Accidental Entrepreneur

Hello, everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. So happy to be talking to you this evening. Now, first and foremost, I just have a little announcement. So I am turning 33 years old this Saturday, May 29th. I do have something special that I'm doing with my world, you guys, so stay tuned. I'm going to be announcing this tomorrow, so stay tuned. Keep an eye out. I'm going to be posting it, doing a live. If you're on my emailing list, then you're going to be getting an email about it. I'm really excited about this, my birthday. I love making it about being around the people that I love. This year, everyone's still kind of being careful. So this year, I'm trying to make it about the people in my world. So thank you. Stay tuned for that. But tonight, I want to talk about accidental entrepreneurs. And you know who you are, if you are an accidental entrepreneur. I am one of them. I did not have a passion for starting businesses before I became a coach. It was never my intent to do this, but here I am. Accidental entrepreneurs are not the entrepreneurs that you think of when you hear that word. They're not like the drop shippers. They're not the people who are starting multiple businesses and just flipping things left, right, and center. Accidental entrepreneurs are not into hustle culture. Okay? So that's why you don't hear me talking. Boss, babe. Hustle culture. That does not mean. That is not the people that I work with. Accidental entrepreneurs are the people who just find their passion. They realize that they can make a difference in the world. They want freedom and autonomy. They realize that while their work says that they can bring their whole authentic self to work, that people rarely follow it because it means the whole authentic, positive side of you, not necessarily like you crying. You still hide in the bathroom to cry. And they are sick of it. They don't want that. And, you know, they've just. They've either discovered their calling or they just discovered something that lights them up every day or they realize they can make this difference and there's just no going back once you figure that out. And so they find themselves in a position where they have to make this work. They just have to make this work because they can't do anything else. Hi, Scott. I'm doing well. I hope you're doing well also, Jim, love the term accidental entrepreneur. Thank you. I coined it, but I'm sure other people have coined it as well. And just a little PSA for everyone who's Watching the puppy has been a little rambunctious today. So if I yell at her to stop chewing on stuff, I'm yelling at her, not you guys. So anyway, thank you for joining this evening. So the three things that most accidental entrepreneurs make are. Well, I'm just going to go through them. So one is expecting things to be predictable. I was talking about this with a client today and I'm going to dive into it further. The other one is not being visible or doing visible work every single day. And the third one is not having a proper support system. So I'm going to be going through all of these and talking about why they are so important. Okay? So number one is they explain for their entrepreneur, job, role, whatever it is, to be predictable, like their old job. And what this normally looks like is like myself. So I came from a sales background, I was handed a quote every single month or every single quarter and I was given a certain amount of things I needed to do and all that stuff. And it was pretty predictable because I was working for a business that had been in business for a fairly long time. And so they were able to look at past year's numbers and predict more or less what would be acceptable for me to do performance wise. A mistake I made and that I see a lot of new entrepreneurs making, a lot of new coaches, consultants is they start their business and they think, oh cool, I started the business and now everything's going to be predictable. I'm going to get a certain amount of clients always, and this is how it's going to go and it's just going to be amazing. And then they start working on it. And month one goes by and no clients, and then month two goes by and no clients. Month three, they get two clients, but then month four, no clients again and they're not really sure what they're doing. And here's the thing about starting your business, it is a brand new business, the business that you worked for before they became the behemoth that they were when you worked for them. It was unpredictable for them as well. The problem here is that if you keep expecting your business, your clients, your customer, all the things to be predictable in the first year, you are going to drive yourself fucking mad. Okay? You cannot do that to yourself because what happens is when you expect it to be predictable and then it's not, you immediately turn on yourself, think, I'm the one doing it wrong, I'm failing, this is all crap, I need to give up. And let me tell you, if you just discovered your Gift. If you just discovered the work that you're meant to do, the impact that you are meant to leave on this world, that is robbing not just yourself of work that you enjoy, but it's robbing all of your potential clients of the opportunity of working with you. And you cannot do that, okay? And it doesn't mean necessarily even quitting to rob them of that. If you get discouraged and give up for a month, you're still robbing people out there of your gift, and that's crap. You cannot do that. That is selfish. I am not for that at all. Okay? So don't expect your business to be predictable. Hopefully it ramps up really fast, and hopefully it'll get predictable very soon. But in the very beginning stages, don't expect it to be predictable, okay? Don't punish yourself that way. That's almost like going to a museum and taking a painting and then looking at the beautiful paintings that are there, and then looking at your crap painting and being discouraged that your very first painting wasn't like Michelangelo's, like, just don't do it. It doesn't make sense. If you're a perfectionist like myself, I understand the. The thing to go or the pull to go there, but just don't do it to yourself. Kimberly Kennedy. Hi, Katie. Been watching you guys. Love them. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so happy you enjoy them. And thank you for joining this evening. Anyway, okay, so that's number one, is stop expecting it to be predictable. Number two, and I talk to my clients about this all the time, every single day. You need to be doing something that is visible. Okay? Visible. Other people seeing you do it about your business. Okay? And what this can look like is posting to social media. It can look like going live. Why do you think I go live so often? It's me building visibility for my business. It could be calling some friends and telling them what you're up to, explaining your new company and how excited you are for. Could be going to a networking event, virtual or in person. As we get back to the real world and explaining who you are and what you do. It could look like going on someone else's live. The possibilities for visibility are just incredible. I mean, literally, Suzanne Evans, who is one of my new mentors, when she first started her coaching business, she convinced the local Whole Foods to let her set up a table in the produce department for life coaching. And she talks about how she was set up right next to the tomatoes. And she'd sit there and she'd ask people if they Wanted life coaching. Visibility. You have to do something that gives you visibility every single day. Any of my clients will tell you one of the first things I talk to them is, is there are three non negotiables in your life once you start a business. Number one is you need to take care of your body. Because if you are an entrepreneur, if you are running this business, you're the only person behind the, behind the wheel. There's no one to back you up if your health fails. Kimberly, no way. Suzanne sounds amazing. She is. She's kick ass. Suzanne Evans. Go check her out. So if your health fails though, there's no one to back you up. So you need to take care of your body. Okay? So that is number one. Number two, if you burn yourself out again, if you run out of ideas, you're going to just be completely depleted. So you have to do something to take care of your mind and soul. Whatever, however you feel they are connected, you have to do something. If that's reading, spending time in nature, meditation, I don't care what it is. And number three is visibility. Okay? The reason I set these as non negotiables for my clients, because these are things that you can control in your day. When you're starting a business. If you can check off those three things and feel like, oh my gosh, I did everything on my list, then you get that, that gratification, that endorphin rush of having completed your tasks. Everything else is like alchemy. It just comes back to you anyway, so visibility. Every stinkin goddamn day, okay? Something visible. And when I say visibility, also, you don't have to like shove marketing materials down people's throats. You can literally share something like, hey, yeah, so I was in my little home office today and I was organizing everything and I forgot that I had a cup of coffee behind my computer and I pushed my computer back and it spilled all over. All the beautiful papers that I just organized into perfect piles. Made a mess. You know, thank God my next client call wasn't for an hour, you know, so I could clean it up and not stress like that right there informs people of. You work from home, you have papers, you have clients. It just sparks that little bit of interest of like what you're up to. So don't overthink it. Don't get precious about it. Just be visible. Okay? Last but not least, I cannot stress this enough. You need to have the proper support, okay? And I know a lot of you are starting off and you're like my family, so supportive My husband's so supportive, my wife, they're all so supportive and I'm so glad to hear that. But wait, because their support is up until a point where their voice of doubt gets activated. So let me explain this. So you have in coaching we call it the saboteur, right? It's this voice of doubt. It's that naysayer kind of Debbie Downer in your brain. So if you're, if you're at a bar, you see someone hot and you want to go ask them for their phone number, it's a voice like, eh, they're out of your league, you shouldn't ask them out. They're probably going to shut you down and it's going to be in front of everyone, it's going to be really embarrassing and then no one's going to want to go out with you. Okay? The same voice that prevents you from applying for higher up jobs, asking for more pay, having tough conversations because it's always going to the worst case scenario, okay? And it's worst case scenario, it can jump from you got like turned down or shut down in some minor way all the way to you're now homeless, jobless and in the woods, starving to death. And if you have children, they're there as well. Okay? So what happens when you're doing something exciting and brave like you quit your job and you start a company and you're revving up? Someone will be really excited for you until they start getting worried for you. And worry is just their saboteur being afraid that you're going to die. They're going to come out with you with caring, lovely questions about how your business is going. But it's going to happen in just the wrong moments. You will have just gotten off a sales call that didn't go well, you didn't get a new client out of it. And they'll ask you how's money going? Because they want to know and they're worried about you, but it'll send you into a spiral. Okay? Proper support, a real support system to help you build this thing is objective, separate people that you can call who don't have their saboteurs be activated on your behalf. Okay? So whereas your spouse will be worried that you're not bringing any money in and they have some invested interest in there because they're also contributing to this household. A coach, a mentor, a business bff. Okay? All these things are things that you need to have. You need to have people that you can turn to that you can just say, hey, listen, I need to cry on the phone for five minutes. I need to then spend another five minutes just venting about how all this sucks and I want to quit. And then I need another five minutes where I can get out of it. Okay? Oftentimes, the people who love us most have the hardest time being there for us in these moments. So having someone to go to is key. And the reason I mention three, coaching is really important because it helps you tap into your own creativity, your own resources, and it reminds you of where you're going. And it really helps you strategize and break down the plan from that big dream. So say you want to make a million dollars a year. You have to intentionally build that. It's not going to happen by accident, so it's going to reverse engineer that. Mentors are something completely different. There are people who are a few steps ahead of you, who have done the thing that you want to do, who can give you some insight and also make you feel like and remind you that you're not crazy for this being hard. Okay? And then, of course, business BFFs. I can't stress this enough. If you're starting a business and you don't have any business BFFs, you need them. Okay? I have, I have three right now. Three who are my business BFFs. Kelsey Letko, Jesse Cohen, and Leah Turner. Okay? Those three people are the ones that I call when good things happen, when bad things happen, where I need to, like, just ask a quick question, like, am I crazy or is this a weird situation? It is a game changer when you have those people who can cheerlead you on, remind you that you're not crazy or tell you when you are being crazy. And just to check in with and to vent to it is just a game changer. You need those support systems. So coaching mentor, business BFFs, Kimberly Kennedy, you need a business BFF. Yeah, absolutely. Hit me up. And I'm sure for those who are watching, if anyone wants to be Kimberly Kennedy's business bff, let's get some volunteers in here. I think you'll have a few by the end of this week, Kimberly. But anyway, those are the things that are just absolutely critical. So don't expect it to be predictable in the beginning. It's not going to be. You'll make yourself absolutely crazy if you do be visible. You can't be a secret and a success at the same time. I'm going to say that again. You cannot be a secret and a success at at the same time. So stop keeping yourself as a secret and out yourself. Become visible. Let people see you. Just come out of the entrepreneur closet for goodness sakes. And then finally, it's so key. Have the support. Get the support. Ask people to be your business BFFs, hire a coach. Find mentors. Have people on your side who you can turn to, who will be objective, who aren't. Who aren't going to be activated by things going really well or really badly in your business. Okay. Anyway, the puppy's fallen asleep and she's doing like this fast panting thing in her sleep. I think she's running and catching something. But anyway, again, I just want to remind you tomorrow I'm coming out with my birthday surprise for everyone. I hope you see it and if you know anyone who can take it a of it, I'm just teasing a little bit, then please feel free to pass it on. It is going to be something that people can sign up for and buy, but all proceeds are going to go to two causes that make that are really near and dear to my heart, that are really important to me personally and to our world right now specifically. Anyway, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Thank you so much for joining me this evening and for those of you who have tuned in and commented. Kimberly, Jim, Scott, thank you guys for joining. If anyone commented and I didn't shout you out just because you didn't show up on my little stream yard thing over here. But anyway, I hope you have a great Wednesday night and I will talk to you tomorrow. Bye.