Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi y'all, welcome to
the Empty Nester Entrepreneur
podcast.
I'm Jennifer Doe Lander.
I've been an entrepreneur forover 25 years and have built
multiple businesses, from 100%online to service space, to
brick and mortar.
These businesses grew tosupport our entire family.
I have a passion for sharingentrepreneur advice, tips, tools
(00:29):
and mistakes we overcame.
That made this a reality for me, and it can for you, too.
Each week, I'll be sharingpractical, step-by-step advice,
shortcuts and inspiringinterviews to guide you through
turning your hobby into abusiness and your passion into
profits.
This can be the best time ofyour life.
(00:51):
Let's do this.
Hello, friends, and welcome tothe Empty Nester Entrepreneur
podcast.
You're listening to episodenumber eight, and the title of
today's episode is Stop Stopping.
I love this title because ittruly encompasses what you need
(01:12):
as an entrepreneur.
It's almost like I have theperfect formula for success, and
it is two words stop stopping.
You've just got to jump offthat cliff and you'll learn how
to fly later.
And I really.
The thing that I compare thisthe most to is when you're
(01:35):
thinking about having children.
I know that when I was thinkingabout having children, I was in
my early 20s.
I had graduated from collegeand I had always wanted to be a
mom.
So immediately after I gotmarried, I was thinking we need
to have children, like right now, and I just had babies on the
brain.
(01:56):
And you know, if we were tolook at our bank account, if we
were to look at anything elsegoing on in our lives, we would
have said absolutely no, it isnot the right time to have a
baby.
You are not financially secure,you are not emotionally ready,
you're not ready.
(02:16):
But are you really ever ready?
And it's so similar to startinga business.
I use that comparative a lotwith businesses and babies,
because you care about them bothso much and you give them so
much time and effort and energy.
And there's truly never aperfect time, and that is what
(02:37):
you need to remember.
When you have this businessidea, you need to jump.
You just need to jump and stopstopping.
There's never going to be aperfect time, just like there's
never a perfect time to have achild.
But then you look back andyou're like, oh my gosh, I can't
(02:58):
imagine not having my child.
When I did, you learn so muchand you learn so much from
failure.
That's what you learn from.
But for some reason, when itcomes to business, when it comes
to starting a business, thatfear of failure is absolutely
(03:18):
paralyzing and it stops us inour tracks.
And I think the reason why itdoes this is because we're older
and we're supposed to be moremature and think about our
decisions more, and we do, andthat's a really positive thing.
But what's not so positivesometimes is we think about
(03:39):
things too much.
So if you were to think aboutwhen I started this business, I
honestly, on paper, I had nobusiness starting this business.
I mean, that is the God'shonest truth.
I did not have any businessstarting a restaurant.
(04:00):
The only, the only restaurantbusiness I ever had was, let's
see, I think I can wrap this upin six words I was a hostess at
Applebee's.
Yep, I was a hostess atApplebee's.
Actually, I can add two morewords and it'll be eight words.
(04:21):
I was a hostess at Applebee'sin high school.
That was my restaurantexperience.
And now I am not only starting arestaurant, I'm designing a
restaurant.
I am saying what floor is inthe restaurant, what countertops
(04:41):
are in the restaurant, what thesneeze guard looks like.
I'm thinking, what am what am Idoing?
But the bottom line is Ilearned how to do it and I just
did it and I didn't think toomuch about it.
I think when you think too muchabout things, you can literally
scare yourself out of doing it.
(05:03):
If we if Mike and I would havereally thought about what we
were doing, we probably wouldnot have done it, honestly,
because it is such a scary thingto look back.
I look back on the last yearand a half and I think, oh my
gosh, we have done so much withalumni cookie dough and now
(05:25):
we're franchising, andfranchising is a whole other
level that we are about to getinto.
Am I scared to death?
Absolutely I am, but is thatgoing to stop me?
Absolutely not.
There is no way in the worldbeing scared is going to stop me
(05:45):
because, like you guys heard metalk about in episode seven,
you heard me talk about my openheart surgery experience and how
I was so close to not beinghere.
You know I'm sorry, but thatscares me.
You know, failing at business,that doesn't scare me quite as
(06:09):
much as it did.
I would be lying if I said thatit doesn't scare me because,
statistically, 96% of businessesnew businesses fail within the
first 10 years.
And that statistic, it scaresme.
And if you were to really thinkabout that for too long.
(06:30):
You would say, well, why evenstart one?
Well, oh my gosh, there are 4%of those businesses that make it
and why not be that 4%?
Why not?
And I feel like there are somany things that we can do as
business owners to diversify ourincome.
(06:51):
That really does protect us andit helps us so much.
As you know that I've talkedabout I think I talked about
this in the first episode I hadowned a stationary business
completely online when I wasyounger, in my late 20s, and I
own that business for about 10,a little over 10 years, I guess,
(07:15):
and it was a great business,but it was 100% online and I
think having that business andnow having a brick and mortar
business, it really shows me howyou can diversify your income
and you're not completelyreliant upon one stream of
income.
I think that is so importantand I'll continue talking about
(07:35):
that because I think that givesyou that comfort and that safety
net that so many businesses maybe missing that there's really
no need to missing that.
We live in Athens, georgia, andin the past gosh, I guess the
past couple months there havebeen so many businesses that
have gone out of business and itjust really saddens me and I
(07:59):
think what could they have donedifferently?
What is something they couldhave done?
Could they have shifted theirbusiness?
In a way, it really it makes mequestion my business when other
businesses go out of businessand it makes me want to really
look at my business and thinkwhat can I do differently?
(08:20):
I don't wanna be one of thosepeople that goes out of business
, so how can I change things now, make a shift that maybe you're
not comfortable with.
Maybe you're the kind of personthat you're like.
You know what I don't wanna doan online business.
Well, guess what?
Do you wanna be really stubbornand set in your ways, or do you
(08:40):
wanna stay in business?
That's the bottom line.
So I'm gonna tell you this onelittle quick story about when I
did have my stationary businessand I was obviously selling
completely online at this pointand I loved this little
stationary business inBirmingham Alabama.
They were precious, I love them.
(09:03):
I actually used them for bothof my children's birth
announcements and I love thiscompany.
So I called them and I toldthem what I was doing.
Hey, I have this onlinebusiness and I'm selling.
I'm really focusing on birthannouncements and I would love
to carry your line.
And they said, well, you cancarry our line, but you cannot
(09:23):
put any of our images on theinternet.
And I thought, okay, I'm notsure how that will work, but I
did have some local business andsome local customers.
So I thought, well, I'll goahead and pick up their line and
at least I'll be able to sellit.
And honestly, I was kind ofbeing selfish for myself.
(09:45):
At least I'll be able to ordertheir stationary for me and I'll
be able to give it as gifts.
And so I did that.
But I never put it onlinebecause they never allowed me to
.
So I never sold a lot of theirline, and it was very
unfortunate because they had themost precious invitations and
announcements.
(10:06):
Well, they really dug theirheels into the ground and they
refused to pivot.
They refused to pivot to theonline world and guess what?
That business is now out ofbusiness.
They, they didn't pivot withthe times and sometimes I think,
(10:29):
in order to stay in businessand really stay strong, you have
to maybe learn about thingsthat you didn't know about
before, and it may be somethingthat you're not really
comfortable with.
So there's, first of all,there's never a perfect time.
I had no business starting mybusiness, and the thing I focus
on the most is when I am, when Iam gone, you know, when I am no
(10:55):
longer here in this world.
I you know what it is something.
This is something that I hangon to.
What is my biggest regret?
What will be my biggest regret?
And I do not want it to be whatis the number one biggest
regret of people that are dying?
(11:16):
There is a research project thatwas done by a nurse in
Australia and she stayed withthese people in the last 12
weeks of their life.
These people were going to die.
It was, you know, they were inthe dying process and she was
their nurse and she studiedthese people who were dying and
(11:41):
asked them what were theirbiggest regrets.
And their number one regret wasI wish I had the courage to
live a life true to myself, notthe life others expected of me.
So this was the most commonregret of all.
When people realize that theirlife is almost over and look
(12:04):
back clearly on it, it is to seehow many dreams have gone
unfulfilled.
Most people had not honoredeven a half of their dreams and
had to die knowing that it wasdue to choices they had made or
(12:24):
not made.
And so it just.
You know, health, the gift ofhealth, brings a freedom very
few realize until they no longerhave it.
And so that's what I want youto ask yourself is tomorrow, if
tomorrow, if tomorrow was mylast day, what would be my
(12:46):
biggest regret?
And if it is not starting thisbusiness that you have in your
your, this business idea thatyou have, if it is not realizing
your dream, then you need topivot, you need to change.
Is it comfortable?
Absolutely not.
But I can promise you one thingwhen you jump off that cliff,
(13:09):
you will learn how to fly it.
You just will.
You are smart and you arecapable and you are wise and you
have been through experiencesin your life that will help you.
It will propel yourself intothe next, your next journey, and
(13:29):
that's what this is all about.
I have made so many mistakes inthis business, and that's one
reason why we are franchising.
I want to pass along the wisdomthat I have gained in the past
year and a half so other peopledon't have to experience those,
those failures.
(13:50):
And I am thankful for thosefailures because I have learned
from them and I am proud ofmyself because I never quit.
Every single time there was afailure.
I made a choice and here it is.
I chose to not be frustratedand I chose to propel to the
(14:15):
next level and decide what can I?
Ask questions, what could I havedone differently?
What can I do differently inthe future?
And this has happened manytimes with our business in the
short year and a half.
But I have not thrown in thetowel.
I have not gotten frustrated.
I dig in my heels, and I don'tdig in my heels and say I'm not
(14:38):
going to change.
I dig in my heels and say I amnot going to give up.
I will find a way, and I willfind a way to make this better
than it was before.
That's how we came up with ourwholesale program.
We were slow at the cafe and soI came up with the wholesale
program.
(14:59):
I got so many wholesaleaccounts that are now thriving.
So when we do have a slow dayat the cafe, guess what?
It's not really a slow day,because we have the wholesale
business.
When we were, when we had adowntime during the holidays,
guess what?
When all the students were gone, because we're in a college
(15:19):
town, when the kids are gone,it's kind of slow.
Well, that propelled me to comeup with our fundraising program
.
So now we have this incrediblefundraising program for people
in our community where they canearn money.
We have schools earning money,we have travel teams earning
(15:39):
money, we have churches earningmoney.
I am so proud of that that it'slocal, helping local, and that
just excites me so much.
So, with every so-calledfailure, that has propelled me
to do something even better, andthat is what I hope I am
(16:00):
passing along to you.
So today I want to leave youwith this one quote, and it is
success.
True success is the ability tomove forward from one failure to
another without losing yourenthusiasm.
That is what you need toremember and that's why I go
(16:23):
back to, time and time and timeagain, this idea that you have
this business idea.
You need to love it, you needto obsess about it, you need to
eat, breathe and sleep it,because it will truly excite you
so much.
When things are down, you willthink of another way, you'll
(16:43):
think of a way out, and that iswhat true success is.
True success is not havingrecord breaking after record
breaking, month, month aftermonth after month.
True success is continuing toget up, time after time after
time, and that is when you willhit the next level.
(17:08):
So remember just jump, justjump, you will learn how to fly.
I promise you that.
And if there are two words thatyou need to remember from this
one episode, it is stop stopping.
Please stop stopping.
(17:29):
If you continue to move aheadand keep pushing, even through
the hard times, there's no wayyou will fail.
I wish you the best of luck andI hope and pray that these
podcasts and all of my helpfulhints are going to help you
propel to the next level.
And remember to never, never,never stop, never stop, stop
(17:54):
stopping.
Keep on going, even when timesare tough.
Thank you so much for listeningand I will see you next time on
the empty nester entrepreneurpodcast.
Thank you so much for choosingto tune in today to the empty
nester entrepreneur podcast.
I realize how valuable yourtime is and I feel so blessed
(18:14):
you chose to spend some of yourtime with me.
I will see you same time, sameplace, next week.
Until then, make sure yousubscribe to the empty nester
entrepreneur podcast so youdon't miss an episode, and I
would love for you to leave areview.
Remember life is short.
Take chances and set your soulon fire.