5 of the Hardest Lessons to Learn in Entrepreneurship

What's up guys, welcome back to the podcast. Today is actually a very special episode because this is episode number 100. Yes, we made it to 100 episodes. If you are someone that has listened to the show since day one, I just want to give you a massive shout out because like you are a true OG. Thank you so much for being here. Also, to everybody that's newer to the podcast, I love you equally, just as much. But it is fun to kind of know that you've been here from the very beginning. So if you are one of those listeners, I see you. Hats off to you. I love you. Thank you for being on this journey with me. An incredible 100 episodes of the show. I'm feeling so grateful that I get to do this every single week. And as you guys know, it's one of my favorite things that I do. The podcast is not going anywhere, trust me on that. I, you know, I see all these other people doing like seasons of the podcast where they record a bunch of episodes and then they release the season and then they have a break time and then they come back for another season. And I always kind of think like, oh, should I be doing that? Like, I haven't even separated the show out into seasons because I am so consistent with it. Like, we just have an episode every single week, and now we have those bonus episodes at the end of every month as well. And so this is basically just like a super long extended season 1. Maybe like a season 2 will be someday when I decide to change the branding or change the vibe of the show. But I don't know, I still really love the initial like intro that we did, the initial music, the initial podcast art. I'm still really feeling inspired and in love with it. Which I think is a good thing. So I don't know, sometimes I get in my head, as I'm sure a lot of you do, about how things should be, or when you look outward and see what other people are doing, you wonder if you should be doing the same. But I always just come back to the fact that there's people that really love this podcast, there's people that listen every single week. I love creating it and doing it. It's good the way that it is. If it's not broke, then don't fix it. So I think we're just gonna be hanging out doing the same kind of thing for probably another 100 episodes or more. Hopefully more, definitely more. But for today's episode, I'm excited to bring you guys 5 of the hardest lessons that I've had to learn in entrepreneurship. And whether you already have an established business or you're someone who just has a side hustle that they're trying to go full-time in, or you just have an idea or feeling on your heart that you want to do something, you want to create something of your own, this episode is going to be illuminating and expansive for you because These are the lessons that we kind of have to learn along the way, but I'm gonna share them with you now and hopefully save you some time and maybe just open your eyes to what it actually takes to build a successful business and be an entrepreneur, especially in the online coaching space. So without further ado, let's dive into today's episode. Welcome to the Makeshift Happen podcast. I'm your host, Samantha Daly. Entrepreneur, life coach, and your no BS bestie here to bring you all things mindset, manifestation, and personal development. This podcast is designed to help you expand your mind and uplevel your life. So turn the volume up and roll the windows down if you're coming along for the ride. Let's go make shift happen. I've been talking a lot recently on my social media about the journey that I've been on of building this business, and there's a lot of things that I have to say and so many things that I try to share and express through posts and reels. But there are some concepts that I think are just better when we can dig into them and provide more depth. So that was kind of the inspiration for today's episode. I wanted to talk about some of these themes that I've been dabbling with on social, but really want to go deeper with you on. So the first lesson that I'm going to share with you is that you have to learn to honor where you're at on the journey. And I think this one is so, so challenging, especially because we're seeing everybody else and where they're at on their path and at the point that they're at on their journey. And it's very hard not to, A, compare, and B, just assume that what they're doing is going to work for us or what they're doing is something that we should be doing and all of the things. So I shared a little bit about this on Instagram about how everybody wants to talk about how it gets to be easy. Right? I'm doing the quotation marks. It gets to be easy. You know, it gets to be fun and flowy and all the things, and that every part of your business can really be just this pure flow and alignment and fun and all the things. And like, this is the thing, it's hard to talk about this in this space, in the online coaching space, especially in the mindset, personal development space, I guess I should say, because like I do believe that there's a certain point that we get to in which it, it really does get to be easy and there is a lot more flow and there is more, more alignment and there is more ease. But I also know that there is a time when things are really fucking hard. And the reason why this is hard to talk about in the personal development mindsets space is because we're all coaching on mindset. We're coaching on it, or we're learning it, or we're reading about it, or we're trying to apply it to our lives. And we know a lot of these concepts around mindset and beliefs, right? And so a lot of us have done enough work in order to know that we don't want to perpetuate the belief that in order to succeed, you know, it has to be hard, or that in order to make a lot of money, you have to have a ton of sacrifice, or, you know, things just have to be extraordinarily challenging. We don't— that's an old belief, and that is one that many of us have carried in our lifetimes because it's something that the generation before us really absorbed and felt and lived out in their life. If you're listening to this and you're a millennial, you probably saw your parents work really hard for the things that they have, and maybe they even talked about it in that way. But right, it's like, we get it. Okay, so this is a— we don't want to perpetuate the belief that it has to be hard and you have to blood, sweat, and tears and do all this stuff. But at the same time, like, we can't just sit here and tell all of these upcoming entrepreneurs or women that want to start businesses online, like, it gets to be easy from day one because that's a little bit misleading as well, right? So in, in our effort to abandon those really old school kind of wounded masculine belief systems, what I think has happened is that some of us have swung really way far over to the left, over to the other side of the wounded feminine, right? To the point where we are just kind of sitting back and hoping things will come to us and we're meditating and visualizing rising, but nothing's dropping in. And it's this whole other wounded area of like, why isn't it happening? Or, you know, being in procrastination mode or holding yourself back or just sitting in inaction, really. Because we need some of that. We need some of that masculine energy. We need some of that drive. We need some of that push to just go, to jump, to invest, to do the thing, to get started, to put it out there, to be messy, to be imperfect, right? So there's, of course, there's a balance always in masculine and feminine energy, especially in our lives in general, but especially when you're creating a business. So I posted this reel a little bit ago about how I would never go back to doing 17 sales calls a week. And it's true, like, I, I wouldn't ever want to live that way again and spend 17 hours on the phone for free. Just, you know, giving free advice and helping guide people and hopefully figuring out, you know, who was a match and who wasn't for us to work together on top of all the other work that I was doing to build a business and actually serve the clients that I had at the time. Like, it's just a lot when you think about 17 hours of your week just being sales calls. So no, I wouldn't want to go back to doing that again. But it's this weird paradox because it's also true that doing the 17 sales calls a week is part of what got me to the place of being able to say I would never do 17 sales calls a week again, you know? So I just think that there's, you know, there's so many young, vibrant, energetic, full of talent, spiritually led coaches and women out there that have a purpose and a mission and something that they want to share with the world. And they have massive potential. But this industry has made them believe in some way or another that they don't have to do these hard things. They don't— that, you know, in some way they're above DMing people or doing the outreach or the audience building or showing up consistently or getting firsthand experience in all the parts of their business. You know, like, I think sometimes there's this message of like, oh, delegate, delegate, delegate, delegate. But if you don't know what the fuck you're doing first, like, there's, there's something to be said for learning how to do all the nitty-gritty shitty parts of your business before you pass them off to somebody else. And that's not to say that that's always the case again, right? We're maintaining that balance between two extremes. But I do think that Yeah, this industry has, has made people believe sometimes that they don't have to do those things, that they're never going to have to do something that's hard or challenging or that they don't like, and they can still build a successful business. So the message here with this first lesson is just to really be careful not to assume that what is working for someone else online is automatically going to work for you because they may be at a totally different phase and stage of their business and you don't know what they've done in the 2, 3, 5, 10 years prior to that that may have helped them have this really sort of like lean back flowy strategy. Now we really need to meet ourselves where we're at always. And sometimes that does mean doing the not so fun shit that's gonna help your brand and your business. Grow. Lesson number 2 is if you don't stop to celebrate, nothing will ever feel like enough. And this has been a really tough one for me to learn, and if I'm totally honest, I still struggle with it sometimes. I have to be really conscious and intentional about celebrating my wins. And so I posted this, this thing on Instagram that said Every accomplishment doesn't need to serve as a jumping-off point for your next even bigger goal. It can just be an accomplishment worth celebrating for more than 5 seconds. So if you are someone who tends to be kind of an overachiever, or you're just really highly motivated, you have that kind of ambitious spirit, it's tough to sit and relish in the celebration of our wins, even if they're small wins, but also when they're big wins before just going, yep, okay, that was amazing. Now what's next? Now this is the next income goal. Now this is the next impact goal. Now this is the next number of followers that I want to hit or the next number of people that I want to have in my program or the next, the next, the next, right? It's so tempting to just arrive to the goal and immediately say, Okay, what's next? But what happens when you're constantly living for what's next, what's next, what's next is after a while you start to realize that you're completely missing out on what is happening right now. And that if you keep doing this, if you keep going down this road and behaving in this way of just achievement, move on, achievement, move on, there will be a point where you get to the end of your life and you still feel like it wasn't enough. You didn't ever get that super high moment of happiness or elation or the feeling of like, oh, I finally arrived in my success and now I can relax. And you just missed it all. You missed everything because you were just always on to the next. And so if you are someone who is working on building a business of any kind, building something for your future, building a side hustle, whatever it is for you, and you are feeling really intimidated by the massive achievements that are happening for women and everyone around you, especially if you're in the coaching space, like the the level of impact and income that is happening within the coaching space is astronomical. It is absolutely 100% part of the global spiritual awakening. Like, the impact piece is something that really lights me up and makes me feel so excited just to think about the hundreds of thousands, actually millions of people that are waking up and changing their lives and choosing their realities and moving into deeper levels of happiness, joy, fulfillment, intimacy, success, all of the things because of this industry, but also knowing that it's a $20 billion industry. That's the projected— the projected level of what this industry is going to become in 2022. It's just absolutely wild. So it's very easy to feel intimidated by the massive achievements that are happening all around us. And I definitely feel you on that. And trust me when I say, like, at every level, there will always be someone who's bigger, richer, cooler, more successful, and more impactful than you. Like, there's just always going to be another echelon. That you're trying to get to. If you think that making $5K months or $10K months will satisfy you, I'm here to tell you that they won't. If you think that making $100,000 in revenue will satisfy you, it won't. If you think that any number of followers or downloads or subscribers will finally be enough to let you breathe and take your foot off the gas, It won't. Because if you get into this pattern, it's never enough. It's never enough until we actually heal the wounded masculine within us that is deeply addicted to producing and performing and achieving. And this is something that I'm really transparently unlearning alongside everyone else alongside you, right? And I'm trying my best to really hold us accountable to build healthier, more integrated businesses that work for us rather than against us and put us into these kind of toxic patterns, right? So I think with this lesson, you know, if I could give any piece of advice, it would really be to enjoy where you are right now. Wherever you are on the journey to just— Okay. So I have something I think you're really going to love and your business is going to love it even more. Do you want to steal the strategy I've been using to seduce premium buyers and sell out my offers on Instagram stories? Chances are you're already posting, you're already making sales, but if your Instagram stories aren't working as hard as you are, you're leaving money on the table. Sold Out Stories is going to teach you exactly how to change that so that you can sell out any offer at any price point. 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Stop and take a deep breath. And drink in what is and all of the things that you had to do just to get here and realize what a miracle that is in and of itself and how exciting it is, what is on the horizon, and to enjoy the newness of this phase or this level of the journey for you. Enjoy the excitement, the unknowns, the simplicity, of just starting out, right? And the infinite realm of possibility that exists for you in this business project endeavor that you're moving into. And the one thing that I always remind my clients of is like, you have to remember why you started, because we can get really lost if we forget why we started. We can get lost in the numbers and the achievements and the dollar signs and the clients and what everybody else has and the fancy websites and the this, that, and the other. It's really, really, really fucking easy to just get consumed by that and to forget why we even started this, because it certainly wasn't to become more stressed out and overworked, right? None of us started our businesses or our side hustles with the intention of, oh, I'm going to, you know, work even more and stress myself out more and put myself under all kinds of pressure and never feel like I'm enough and always be chasing after the next goal and never be, never be satisfied. Like we started what we started because we wanted more freedom, we wanted more fulfillment, and we wanted more joy. And so we have to return to that and remember and look at all the ways in our life right now that we are already more free. For having chosen this path. Like, think about what choosing yourself and choosing your passion has given you already that is such a gift to your life and enjoy this phase while it lasts. Because if you really believe in your ability to succeed, there's big things coming for you. There are big things coming for you, and with big things come big responsibilities, and that is a whole nother weight to carry. So don't forget to enjoy the journey, enjoy the phase that you're in right now. Remember why you started. Lift your head up from the computer screen and look around at your life and just be inspired by yourself. Really. Lesson number 3 is consistency is the most annoying yet effective growth strategy. There's so much talk about consistency, and I know it probably feels like we're beating a dead horse. We know I have to be consistent, I have to be consistent, and it feels overwhelming and it feels fucking annoying because it is. That's the truth. Like, that's why I I wrote this lesson the way that I did, Consistency is the Most Annoying Yet Effective Growth Strategy. But I wanted to share with you just an example of how, you know, consistency has really created something special for me in my life and in my business. And it's with the podcast, because it took me a full year to grow the podcast to 100,000 downloads. So we hit the first 100,000 downloads at almost exactly the 1-year mark, right? So that's 365 days. That was 52— there's 52 weeks in a year, right? 52 weeks of every single week without fail there being an episode. Never late, never missed an episode, every single week, right? And that felt like such an amazing and exciting milestone, and it felt super overdue, to be honest, because I've always really believed in the podcast. And when people find it, they're usually really astounded at how valuable it is and how much it's been able to change their life. And I even today, like, I think the podcast deserves to be probably bigger than it is, but I know that it's all going to happen in its own divine timing of when it's meant to. But so when we hit the first 100,000 downloads, it was like, oh, you know, deep breath, like, okay, This is, you know, we're getting some traction. We're going somewhere with this. And then 5 months after that, we doubled the listens to 200,000, which was like, oh my gosh, we're growing even faster now. This is so crazy. And then 3 months after that, we tripled it to 300,000. And it was like, holy shit. You know, so every time we're hitting another 100K in a shorter amount of time. And I think this is the snowball effect that happens with consistency. You start with a tiny little packed snowball in your palms and you begin to roll it through the snow and it feels like endless, like, oh my gosh, this is going to take forever to roll this into a big enough ball to make the base of the snowman. But there's a certain point that you get to where all of a sudden it just grows really rapidly, and then you're like, oh my gosh, okay, that wasn't as bad, and it actually went so much faster than I was expecting. So this is the magic of consistency. But when you're in the early phases of it, it does— it feels like you're in the trenches. It feels like nobody's listening. It feels like it's not catching on. It feels like maybe, you know, it's not working as well as you thought it would. And so, you know, pouring into the podcast week after week for Over 20 months at this point has taught me a few really important lessons that are kind of embedded into this third lesson about consistency. And that is, if you have a dream, it is better to start now than to try to start perfectly. If you want something to be truly impactful and reach a lot of people, it's going to require a lot of time, effort, and devotion. Even if you love what you do, there will always be parts of the process that you dislike. Kind of looping back to our original, um, lesson one of, you know, sometimes it's just fucking hard. Um, you can't pressure your passions to make you tons of money if you haven't put in the legwork first. So this is kind of about creating without too much expectation of, oh, I'm gonna start a podcast and then instantly it's gonna get me all kinds of ads and clients and I'm gonna make all this kind of money, right? We can't put that level of pressure onto our passions right away. We have to do that legwork first, which involves a lot of consistency. And growth doesn't happen overnight, but with enough consistency, it does become exponential. So like you can see with this, with this example of the podcast, you know, a full year to hit $100K and then another $100K in just 5 months and then another $100K in just 3 months. And then pretty soon we'll probably be at a place where we're at $100K per month and really quickly that escalates to $1 million. And so you can see how, yeah, it takes a lot of time and effort and energy and devotion and commitment. But at some point it really does become exponential. And this is the last thing that I really want to tell you about this lesson of consistency is that whatever you're working towards right now, I just want you to know that it won't be this hard forever. And showing up week after week without fail, even when it feels like no one cares, is actually Superwoman shit. Like, you are fucking incredible. Even if it feels like no one's listening, no one's watching, no one's caring, no one's buying, if you still are showing up week after week, whether it's your social media or your YouTube channel or your podcast or whatever it is that you're creating, you are a fucking superwoman. And don't let anybody ever tell you different. You should be so fucking proud of yourself. And don't take your foot off the gas. Just not yet. Don't quit because it's all coming. Hey, don't forget that every month we are picking a Listener of the Month to win $50 in cash just for showing love to the show. All you have to do is leave an epic review of the podcast on Apple Podcasts, screenshot the review before you hit submit, and DM that screenshot to us on Instagram @makeshifthappenpodcast. And that's it. I want to thank you for being such a loyal listener and show my appreciation by putting a little extra cash in your pocket. It. I know it's super easy not to do it, but every single rating and review seriously helps the show rank higher and reach new people, so we appreciate them more than you know. We'll announce the next winner at the end of the month and slide into your DMs if it's you, so keep an eye out and good luck. Love you guys and thanks for supporting Makeshift Happen. Lesson number 4 is If you have the courage to meet your edges and invest at new levels, you will speed up your timeline. So here's an example, and I wrote about this the other day, so it's, it's fresh in my mind. It was January of 2020, and I was in a hotel room in Italy. With Jaime. We were celebrating kicking off the new year. We, we didn't know that, you know, everything was about to go to shit real quickly. The pandemic was about to start, and oh my God, and then Italy was a total disaster. So it's kind of funny that we were there like right before everything popped off and just went wild. But anyway, it was January of 2020, and it was that kind of energy. You probably remember like when it was the 2020 New Year, there was so much anticipation. It was like, oh my God, because it was such a cool year, like 2020, you know, this is the year my life changes, this is, this is going to be my year. Like, there's so many of us that said that, and then, I mean, our lives all did change in 2020, but not in the way that we were expecting. But anyway, we're in Italy, we're celebrating the New Year. I had just finished the first ever beta round of From Burnt Out to Badass, which with my first ever 7 coaching clients that I worked with one-on-one. And that was like the foundation of my whole business. And I had just written my second ebook that I was releasing, New Year, New Magic: The Complete Manifestation Guide, which is still honestly such an epic ebook. If you guys don't have it, you should go grab it. It's only $22. It's on my website. You can go to samanthadaly.com and download the ebook. So many good lessons in there. But anyway, I'm going on a tangent. I'm in this hotel room, right? We're celebrating the new year. And I'm really thinking about my coaching business at the start of this new year. Cause I'm like, wow, 2020 is going to be my year. I really want to expand this. I want to go all in. I want to leave my teaching job. And so I saw this coach that I had been watching on Instagram and engaging with for some time. And I really admired her and looked up to her. And she was advertising that she had private mentorship spots available, um, on her Instagram stories. And so I was like, oh my gosh, like, that would be so amazing to work with her. So I DM'd her to get some more info, and I told her about my business. And, you know, she ended up sharing with me that her rate at the time was $15,000 for 3 months of coaching paid in full. And I instantly knew that I didn't have the money. Like, I had only ever made about $1,200 in my coaching business at that time, and I was still teaching English in Spain, which, as you guys know if you follow my story, was not lucrative at all. Like, my salary was— my, my monthly wage was like $1,000-ish, a little over $1,000 a month. So at that time, I really honest to goodness did not have much to work with, and I knew that I didn't have the $15K, but I still immediately started thinking about how I might be able to get it. So I was like, oh my gosh, who could I ask? And Jaime was like, okay, I have a couple thousand that I could invest invest in you and your business, because he's always since day one been super supportive. And I think that's a huge part of my success is having a partner who really believed in me. And so we were talking about it and I was like, oh my gosh, do you think I could ask my dad for it? And then I was like, that's a lot of money. Like, oh my gosh, I'd be way too scared to ask for that. And so, you know, ultimately I kind of just knew that it it wasn't the right time. I wasn't gonna be able to make it happen because my business was still very much in its infancy. But I really decided with myself in that moment that I would work with this coach someday. And a lot of us experience this, the, the classic thought of like, I'm just gonna work really hard and put my head down and come back and hire you for one-on-one someday. But the thing here is that I actually did it. And I think— I don't mean to— I don't mean to sound any type of way when I say this, but I just, you know, you guys, I'm the No BS Bestie for a reason. Okay? So unapologetically, I just— I see a lot of women in the online space saying, I'm going to work with you. I can't wait to work with you. I'm going to work with you soon, yada, yada, yada to me or their favorite coaches or whoever. And they're just not, they're not making the moves required to actually get there. It's a lot of talk and not enough walk. And so this is what, you know, this lesson is all about, of actually having the courage to meet your edge and invest and having that be the thing that really speeds up your timeline. So to close out this story for you guys and make it all make sense, a little over a year later, In 2021, this dream coach that I had been wanting to work with was once again opening up spots for private mentorship on her stories, except she only had one available. She was like, I have one open spot for private mentorship. And I was shitting my pants because at this point I had already invested over $30,000 in my business that year alone. Because here's another important thing. I didn't wait around for her spots to open up in order to start learning and scaling. Going, right? I wasn't gonna just wait and wait and wait for Morgan to be ready to, to take me on. I knew that I needed to get my business going. So I, and I had already invested in a couple of coaches, different courses and programs and things, and I was like, oh my gosh, okay, there's only one spot, like it has to be mine, but like I already spent all this money, I'm in this 12-month mastermind, maybe I should just be in the mastermind and let that be enough. There was a lot of mental back and forth, but I applied anyway. And the thing about Morgan is that she's really talented in what she does, and so her client roster is almost always full. So I knew there would be a lot of women trying to jump on this spot, but I applied anyway because I had this weird feeling. It was just like a deep sense of knowing in my gut that the spot really belonged to me. And the, the only time available. So I applied, but then I had to book in for like a clarity call with her, whatever you want to call it, a sales call. And the only time available was like for 5 days away, like into the next week. And I was like, nope, I cannot wait that long because somebody else that gets to go first might snag the spot. And so I sent her a message asking if we could talk sooner because I, I just felt like this spot was mine and I wasn't going to let anything get in the way. So we had our sales call like the next day. I think we bumped it up a ton. I was like, yep, I can meet this time, whatever. We met and it was just a really awesome, genuine, authentic conversation. We really vibed. And long story short, she offered me the spot, of course. And I had that moment where I was like, I knew it. That was my intuitive ping. I felt in my gut that I was meant to apply. I felt this spot was meant for me, and it feels so good to honor this experience. And so of course I paid in full, and we had the most magical 3 months together upleveling my business. And to this day, it has actually been one of my favorite coaching experiences ever. Shout out Morgan. We're going to bring her on the podcast someday soon, you guys. So just wait for that episode because there's so much magic to be had in that conversation. But The point of me telling this story paired with this lesson is to remind you that if there is a coach out there that you've been admiring for some time and, you know, you've been wanting to join a program or work with her one-on-one, or you've been DMing her saying, I can't wait to work with you someday, the time is now to cultivate the courage to actually go make it happen, because there's something magical that happens when you are first in line, first on the phone, ready to pay in full and change your life. It's about courage. And the reason I tell the story is because sometimes not having the means, not having the money is a very real experience. And I'm not talking about that. I'm talking to the woman who, if she really wanted to, she would or she could but she's holding herself back, right? Because there was a time where I definitely did not have the money to jump on that opportunity, and it was probably for a good reason because I wouldn't have gotten all the same things out of that experience had I done it so early on in my business or at that phase that I was at. There's different coaches for different phases of your business. There's different programs for different phases of your personal growth journey, right? And so meeting ourselves where we're at, again, I think that's That's very true, but it's also true that if you really want something, you can make it happen. And it's about reflecting and asking yourself if you're actually doing what you need to be doing in order to make that happen, or if you're just talking, if you're just saying, I'm going to do that someday, but you're not actually behind the scenes doing the work, investing in yourself in other small ways to get those next up levels to work with the Dream Coach or go on the Dream Retreat or have that really transformative experience. The hard truth in all of this is that if you really wanted it, you would figure it out. And it's about courage. That's, that's all I have to say is it's about courage because jumping never gets easier. At every new level, there will be a new edge of your comfort zone that you have to meet. There will be a new edge of for you to invest in yourself at. And the jump never gets easier, but waiting around will always kill your momentum. So if you need that kick in the butt right now to really look at what am I doing to make my dreams a reality, am I actually meeting my— meeting the edges of my comfort zone and pushing myself to invest at new levels, or Am I just kind of saying that I'm going to do it, saying that I'm going to have it, saying that I'm going to experience it, but not actually taking the action that's required to get there? Right. So if you have the courage to meet your edges and invest at new levels, you will speed up your timeline as an entrepreneur. 100%. Okay. Lesson number 5, the last and final one, is that if you want to be successful, you have to build unreasonable self-trust. And I've said this before, like, self-trust is my main business strategy. It's the way that I've built everything that I've built. And I just think it's so, so important to have this unreasonable, unshakable, incredible level of trust within yourself. So in my journey, along my journey, I've taken quite a few big risks over the years to get where I am today. You know, I declined my job offers and moved to Europe without an apartment or a plan, really, just a boyfriend in a foreign country that I wanted to date. I quit my stable teaching job to work for an influencer, and a job that I later got fired from. You guys have heard that story on the podcast. It's also detailed in the ebook if you want to download the ebook. I asked my family to loan me $5,000 to hire my first coach. That was risky and scary. I made investments in my business that didn't make logical sense to anyone else, probably like the story I just told of investing $30,000 and then being like, okay, another $15K on top of it, why not? Like, it just— it sometimes it doesn't make sense. But when you feel it and you know it to be true for you, you do it anyway, right? I pitched to be a guest on podcasts with millions of downloads before I had even made $5,000 in my business. So I was really putting myself out there. I invested in mentorship at a level that made me want to poop my pants. Definitely with the 12-month mastermind, like that was a really scary investment. I quit my job. During a pandemic. I raised my prices before I felt ready. And most recently, I stopped offering my one-to-one life coaching to make room for something new and unknown to unfold and just allow space for more creative projects to flow through, one of which I'm working on right now. And I'm so excited to tell you guys about it, but that's for another time. Okay. So the point of me telling you this is because in order to be able to make these risks, I had to trust myself. And at every single one of these moments, I— the strategy, the business, quote unquote business strategy that I leaned on most was self-trust. Because if I'm really being honest, I, I seriously, I don't know how anyone could ever take the risks that are required to build your dream business life career without self-trust. I just don't see how it could be possible. And I think this is why so many people get stuck. They slow down when they could be speeding up or they completely quit because they— it's not that they don't have talent or motivation or creative ideas or valuable work to do in the world. It's that they don't trust themselves enough. To keep going, to meet that next edge, to make the leap. They don't trust themselves enough to send the email, to pitch to the show, to spend the money, to ask for help, to hire the mentor, to press publish, to switch gears and pivot their business. But if you want big results, you have to be willing to make big moves like tiny baby little safe moves. Don't get big, massive, explosive, inspiring results. It like, it makes sense, right? They— it just doesn't work that way. So the question that I always ask myself when I'm about to do something that is scary, that is a little crazy, that maybe doesn't make sense to everybody else is, you know, even if this doesn't work out, am I going to trust myself enough to be resourceful and resilient to keep going? Like, do I trust myself enough that even if this doesn't work, even if I lose my money or I don't learn anything, or the opportunity isn't what I thought it was, or it turns out to be the wrong job, or I don't like it, or it's the wrong guy or whatever, right? Even if it doesn't work out, do I trust myself to be resourceful and resilient enough to keep going, to pick myself up and dust myself off and figure out the next right move? Do I trust myself that even if it all crashes and burns, I will be able to figure out the one next right move to keep going? And the answer is just that I do. I do. I just simply do. And when the answer to that question is yes, you will start to become unstoppable. So if you are in a place in your life where you feel called to do something new or different or outside your comfort zone, or you want massive growth or massive results or impact or income or whatever it is, right? But you know that it's going to require something of you. It's going to require that level of courage. It's going to require that level of risk. It's going to require you walking to the edge of your comfort zone and saying, fuck it, and stepping over to the other side. Ask yourself that question. Even if it doesn't work out, do I trust myself to be resourceful and resilient enough to keep going? And I, my, from the bottom of my heart, I really hope that the answer for you is yes. But I also want you to know that if the answer is not yes for you yet, that it can be, but it takes practice. Self-trust is something that we have to engage and we have to work on. It's like a muscle we need to build. So you have to work on making those smaller, scary decisions and trusting yourself that you'll be able to figure it out, whether it works or doesn't, really doesn't matter. Because if it's an intuitive knowing, if it's a soul yes, and you say, I trust myself, whether it works out or not, to know what the heck to do to just keep moving forward and you do it, you will build insane amounts of self-trust, self-respect, and courage. And that will take you so much farther than sitting in your comfort zone and just waiting for it to feel right, waiting for it to feel like, you know, it's not risky, waiting for it to feel like it's enough money that I could just throw it away. We never have enough money where we feel like we can just throw it away. This is like the stock market game, right? They're always like, invest— don't invest money that you need or that you'd be upset if you lost because it's so volatile. Look, any money that we lose, we'd be upset. Okay? Like, we know that. That's just how it works, right? None of us want to throw our money at something and then not see a return. But I think we really have to come back to that idea of self-trust and understanding, like, even if it doesn't work out, I know that I'm strong enough, smart enough, resilient enough to figure out the next right step. And in doing so, I'm going to learn something so much more valuable than just standing still, right? So even if I quote unquote lose, even if I quote unquote fail, even if it quote unquote doesn't work out, by having that experience, I'm going to grow and I'm going to be better. And the next thing that I do is going to be bigger and more aligned. Right? I just think that there's so much to be learned through this process of meeting our edges and stepping outside of our comfort zone, and there has to be an element of self-trust that's involved in doing that. So I hope you guys enjoyed these 5 hardest lessons that I've had to learn in entrepreneurship. All of them are a super big part of my journey, and they're things that I continuously lean on and go back to and relearn and unlearn, and it's of course, always an ever-evolving process. But I hope this episode was insightful for you, helpful for you in some way. If you enjoyed it, please take a screenshot and share it to your stories and tag me at _samanthadaily and @makeshifthappenpodcast. If you're not following our podcast account on Instagram, go give us a follow. We share all kinds of inspirational quotes and fun things that you can share to your stories. And I just want to say that I'm So, so honored to have your ears and your attention on this podcast. It really means a lot to me. I'm excited to celebrate the 100 episodes with you, and I hope that you will continue to come back and listen to many, many more. All right, sending you guys so much love, and I will see you next week. Bye!