November 22, 2023 • 36 mins
OVERVIEW
You might not know this, but it was never my dream growing up to be an entrepreneur or small business owner. It also wasn’t my dream to be a photographer. Owning a small business has been an adventure more exciting and fulfilling than I ever could have dreamed!
On this week's episode, I'm sharing 5 things this year that I'm thankful for in owning my business. I hope this episode encourages you to be thankful for the elements of your business that bring you joy and fulfillment - because for me, gratitude is an essential part of feeling fulfilled within my own work. I hope it can be that for you, too.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You might not know this, but it was never my dream
growing up to be an entrepreneuror a small business owner.
It actually wasn't even mydream to be a photographer.
Maybe you're listening and youfeel the same way.
You grew up thinking you mightdo something else for a career,
and you ended up being a smallbusiness owner, and that was a
(00:22):
surprise to you.
I'm actually going to guessthat for most of you that's the
case.
Owning a small, creativebusiness.
It's not really something thatI even knew was an option
growing up, and now that I amone, it's the best thing I could
imagine, way better than anycareer dreams I had for myself
(00:43):
when I was younger.
So much of what I do now is soradically different than what I
thought I'd be doing at this ageand stage in my life, and I'm
really grateful for that when Ithink about it.
And so, as we approachThanksgiving this week, I wanted
to share a little bit aboutwhat in my business I'm thankful
for, and I'm hoping that thosethings that I share are also
(01:06):
things that you can beencouraged by and learn from,
because I'm going to go into alittle bit of detail as to why
I'm thankful for each thing.
These are the five things thatfirst came to mind when I
thought about what I'm mostthankful for in my business this
year.
So these are things that I hopeyou are experiencing or have as
well, but if you don't,hopefully you can learn a little
(01:30):
bit about them, and if you do,hopefully you're encouraged to
continue to pursue those things,or maybe you learn a little bit
about how I utilize thosethings in my own business.
Most of all, I hope thisepisode encourages you to be
thankful for the elements ofyour business that bring you joy
and fulfillment, because for me, gratitude is an essential part
(01:51):
of feeling fulfilled within myown work.
I hope it can be that for you,too.
Let's get started.
You're listening to TeamBuilding for Wedding Pros, a
podcast dedicated to helping youscale your creative business
through building a team.
(02:13):
I'm your host, hannah Bjorndahl, owner of LaVian Rose, an
expert in all things teambuilding in the creative
artistic world.
Over the past several years,I've gone from being a one woman
show to leading a team ofamazing people to serve more
clients, dramatically increaseour business income and
(02:36):
ultimately make a much biggerimpact in the world, and I'm
passionate about helping you dothe same.
So let's do it, okay.
So five things that I am mostgrateful for in my business or
thankful, grateful, thankful Ikind of see them as the same
(02:58):
thing.
These are the five things thatI am most thankful for in my
business this year.
Number one I am thankful thatmy business exists.
This might sound like a reallyweird thing to be thankful for
and kind of like well duh, yourbusiness exists, there wouldn't
be anything to be thankful forif your business didn't exist.
(03:19):
So maybe to you this soundskind of silly, like a throwaway
answer, but let me explain alittle bit more.
Starting a business was a totalmystery to me.
I remember right after Igraduated college I started
thinking about photography andwhat a career in photography
would look like, and I thoughtit sounded really great, like
(03:43):
something that I would enjoy,but it didn't sound practical at
all.
I had no idea how to sustainmyself and make an income where
I could do that as a full timejob and not have to have another
job on the side.
It really just didn't seem likesomething I could do quickly
and really it didn't seem likesomething I could do at all.
(04:03):
I remember saying that I had afive year plan to go full time
with photography, and this wasin 2014.
Spoiler alert I went full timein 2015,.
Did not expect that at all.
But when I said I had that fiveyear plan, I didn't have a five
year plan at all.
I didn't have a plan period, Ijust had I just had an idea that
(04:26):
maybe in five years I couldsomehow figure out a way to make
this a full time job.
But if you had asked me, well,how are you going to make that
happen?
I had zero plans.
So I'm really grateful that mybusiness exists today because I
didn't have a background instarting a business or
entrepreneurship.
Those weren't my majors incollege.
(04:47):
I didn't know anything aboutthat.
Really, what I did was I waspassionate about shooting
weddings and did everything Icould to book weddings so that I
could go out and shoot them,just because I thought it was so
much fun and I really enjoyedit.
And then that grew really fast.
I pretty much was immediatelysuccessful with my business and
(05:09):
I wasn't expecting it.
So I shot just a coupleweddings in 2015, but I was
booking weddings for the nextyear like crazy.
So I'm thankful that my businessexists and, specifically, I'm
thankful for the ways that I wasable to jumpstart my business
and make it full time so quickly.
So I'm thankful for access tothings like social media.
(05:32):
Instagram was a huge way that Iwas able to get new clients and
it was free, so I didn't haveto pay anything, I didn't have
to invest any money in that andI was able to book a lot of
clients.
Really, they were like a lot offriends of friends just by
nature of showing up online andreminding people that I was now
a wedding photographer.
(05:52):
I'm also really grateful forthe people that trusted me early
on, even though I had, like, noportfolio.
Like a lot of people booked mebefore I had shot any weddings,
which just still blows my mind.
I'm also thankful for the job Ihad before I went full time with
my wedding photography.
I was working at a weddingnetworking company and I was
(06:15):
selling advertising to weddingvendors.
You've probably heard me talkabout this before and that
taught me so much, not justabout the wedding industry, but
also how to serve clients inorder to build connections and
book new business.
I got that job not because Iwanted to be in sales at all.
I knew nothing about sales.
(06:36):
I got that job because I sawthe word wedding and thought,
okay, if I can get a job in acompany that has anything to do
with weddings and it's a fulltime job and it can support me
while I'm trying to launch thisbusiness.
With a bunch of question marksaround it, I didn't know what I
was doing.
I thought if I could at leastbe at a company that's kind of
adjacent to what I'm trying todo, maybe that'll help.
(06:58):
I assumed that working at awedding networking company.
So I was working for a companythat is very well known I'm not
going to say the namespecifically, but they have a
very large web presence.
I thought, well, they're a wellknown wedding company and maybe
I'll learn about the weddingindustry and meet people in the
(07:21):
wedding industry and get to goto some weddings.
It turns out that job reallynever interacted with couples or
weddings that were happening inperson, but it was much more
working with wedding vendors.
I actually was sellingadvertising to wedding vendors
that weren't even in the DC area.
Even so, that sales job taughtme so much.
(07:44):
I received an amazing salestraining that taught me that
selling didn't have to be icky.
I had this idea in my head ofthe used car salesman, and so I
was really nervous going intothis job, thinking, oh, am I
going to have to be like that?
What I learned through trainingat this job was that you can
really provide a service to inthis case, other business owners
(08:08):
.
Now to couples getting marriedmy potential clients.
The people that are the verybest at sales know how to serve
their potential customer reallywell and how to inform them in a
way that's helpful and putsthem first.
That's really the best way tosell.
I learned a lot of differentthings about sales in that job,
(08:29):
but that was something that Itook away and felt a lot of
confidence in selling myselfbecause of my experience there.
So, number one again, I'm justgrateful that my business exists
and I get to do something thatI really love, because I really
wasn't set up for success withstarting a business.
I had no idea what I was doing,but I put myself out there.
(08:51):
It was scary and it worked out,and that's just something I'm
really really grateful for, andI'm grateful for the things that
supported me as I launched thatbusiness.
Number two I am thankful for theorganization tools that I use
in my business, without thetools that we have and that we
(09:12):
currently use to stay organized,my business would not even
exist, at least not at the levelthat it does now.
We use so many differentorganization tools to keep our
business running like clockworkand also to make sure that we're
serving our clients really well.
The different systems that wehave in place and all the
(09:33):
different types of apps andtools that we use to support
those systems make it mucheasier to run the business and
also it makes the business thatmuch better.
So I wanna share some of thosetools.
First thing I'm gonna do isjust list out a few of the tools
that first come to mind thatI'm most thankful for, and then
I'll go into a little bit ofdetail about a couple of them
(09:54):
and why I'm thankful for them.
So here's the list to getstarted Honey book, zapier,
asana, quickbooks, slack, gusto,which is our payroll system,
buzzsprout, which I use forpodcasting, dropbox and Google
Drive.
So those are just a few of theorganization tools and apps that
(10:16):
I use in my business that I'mreally, really thankful for.
Let me tell you a little bitabout a few that are my
favorites and then, if I thinkof any as I'm talking, maybe
I'll add those too.
So first one I wanna share aboutis Zapier.
So I've gotta admit I was veryskeptical that the app Zapier
and if you haven't heard of it,that's Z-A-P-I-E-R.
(10:40):
I was very skeptical aboutZapier.
I didn't think it couldnecessarily work within my
business.
It felt both really complexLike there were so many
possibilities and each one waslike really complex to program
and then it also felt like itwas incomplete, like there's no
way that this can actually helpme make my business more
(11:00):
organized.
So if you don't know whatZapier is, let me explain a
little bit more.
Zapier is an automation tool.
You can build workflowautomations within Zapier that
connect a bunch of differentapps.
I think on their website itsays they have like 5,000
different integrations fordifferent apps.
So it's a automated integrationtool that allows you to build
(11:25):
these automations acrossplatforms, which means that if
you use like HoneyBook and Asana, like we do, you can automate
both of those systems throughZapier so that when something
happens on one platform, theother platform responds or has
something happen thereautomatically.
It's really advanced.
(11:46):
There's so many differentthings that Zapier can do.
But it's also really userfriendly because Zapier has
saved a bunch of these workflowautomations so that you don't
have to come up with them fromscratch.
You can type in the differentapps and tools that you use and
they'll give you ideas for howyou can automate.
And then, if you actuallyalready have a workflow in mind
(12:08):
or an automation that you'vebeen trying to figure out in a
program, it can also help you dothat, because it's very user
friendly and easy to figure out.
You don't have to be supertechie to get it.
You really just have to knowwhat you're trying to do, or you
can just scroll down the listof ideas of what it can do for
you.
And the best part is is thatthere are free accounts, so you
(12:29):
can't have like tons and tons ofZaps.
Those are automations withinZapier.
You can't have tons and tons ofthem for free, but you can have
a handful, which we used forfree for quite a long time until
we realized how much Zapiercould help our business in other
ways, and then we upgraded morerecently so that we could use
all their features.
But honestly, the free versionis still really advanced.
(12:53):
You can do a lot with it.
It has radically changed ourworkflows in our business.
Previously, we were usingworkflows through different
systems and they just weren'tworking for us.
We needed, like, multipleplatforms to do what we needed
to do, but they weren'tconnected, so Zapier was the
perfect solution for that reasonJust to give you a little bit
(13:13):
more information on how we useit.
We actually use it in a lot ofdifferent ways, but I'm gonna
share the main way that we useit and the way that has been
most helpful to my business, andthat is connecting Honeybook
with Asana.
Previously, I had been trying tofigure out a tool that would
work for me and my team wheneverwe booked weddings.
(13:36):
I wanted enough customizationso that when a couple booked
Cassie as their leadphotographer for their wedding
day, she would automatically geta set of tasks assigned to her.
But I also wanted a few of thetasks in that task list to be
assigned to other team members.
Like my executive assistant,allison, I wanted to assign some
(13:59):
of the social media tasks toher whenever someone would book
a wedding, and Honeybook didn'tquite have the complexity and
customization needed in order todo that, and so it kind of
became a frustration for ourteam that if you were on the
Honeybook project which I was on, all of them I would see this
(14:19):
really long list of tasks withinthe workflow system of
Honeybook.
If you use Honeybook and havetried out their work, I think
they're still called workflow.
They might be called flows nowor automations, but that section
of Honeybook if you've used itbefore, you know what I'm
talking about.
You can create a list ofautomated or semi-automated
(14:41):
tasks that can happen whensomething else happens first,
like a client signs a contractor pays an invoice, and then
this set of tasks is set off,and so we were using that, but
there was no way to distinguishwhose tasks were who, and since
we have a growing team, that wasquite a problem.
There were a couple othercustomizations to that that were
(15:04):
a little bit tricky for us andjust weren't working.
So we tried a lot of differentsystems, and I also was using
Asana off to the side, just formy personal life.
My husband and I we're usingAsana, which is a task
management tool, just toremember to do things in our
personal life, which is kind offunny that Evan and I used that,
(15:25):
but we did, and I thought, man,asana is so great for task
management.
I really wish that there was away to pull our tasks from
HoneyBook into Asana, and thenthere's a way that's really easy
to assign tasks to individualpeople within Asana, and so I
thought, wow, that would just beso great if we could use that,
(15:46):
but I'd have to add everythingmanually every time a client
books.
That seems really complicated.
I might make a mistake here orthere.
It would throw us off.
And so when I found Zapier, Irealized that I could program
Zapier to do exactly what Iwanted in Asana, but it didn't
have to be manual and it alsoleft out user error, like I
wasn't gonna make any mistakesbecause Zapier was gonna do it
(16:07):
for me automatically and I couldprogram it in advance to make
sure that it always did the samething.
So now when a client books us inHoneyBook, so they sign a
contract and they pay an invoice.
Once those two things arecomplete, zapier automatically
sends a list of tasks into Asanaand, depending on whose project
(16:30):
it is within HoneyBook, thatperson gets a task list and
those tasks are all assigned adue date and the due date
automatically is chosen basedoff of a few different things.
It's chosen off of a timeframewhen the client booked and paid.
(16:50):
So, for example, the first taskin that task list is a task
that says send a welcome emailand that task is always due at
the moment that the client signsthe contracts and pays.
So they get that task in theirtask list and it says it's due
immediately.
There are also tasks that areassociated with the wedding date
(17:12):
.
So two months out from awedding, whoever has that
wedding and whoever's client itis will get a task that says
it's time to schedule a weddingconsultation.
So hopefully it makes sense whatI'm saying.
If you've worked with workflowsbefore, this will make a lot of
sense.
I think If you've neverprogrammed an automation or
workflow before, maybe you'rethinking what is she talking
(17:33):
about?
Hopefully you're thinking, wow,this sounds really cool.
I need to check out Honeybookand Zapier and Asana, or maybe
just one or all of them.
But hopefully you can tell bythe enthusiasm in my voice that
this has been a huge gamechanger for us.
It saved me not just hours, butI would say weeks and weeks of
(17:54):
work that I used to be doingthroughout the year.
It also has prevented thingsfrom falling through the cracks.
Our systems before were muchless perfect.
This one still isn't absolutelyperfect, but it's a lot closer,
and so things were fallingthrough the cracks because our
previous systems weren't workingwell for us and they were
overwhelming the team in generaleach of the team members.
(18:14):
So this new system is a lotsmoother and I'm just really
thankful that Zapier exists andthat I finally swallowed my
pride and gave it a try, becauseit has really changed the game
for us.
And, by the way, zapier did notsponsor this.
This is not an ad for them.
I don't get any kind of rewardor kickback for talking about
(18:35):
Zapier.
I just really love it and Ihope that you'll try it out too,
because I think it could helpyou in your business.
Okay, one more tool I want totell you about that I absolutely
love and I use for free isSlack.
So, if you aren't familiar withSlack, slack is a communication
tool.
Essentially, it's a messagingapp, kind of like texting, but
(18:57):
it's an app that allows you toorganize conversations a little
bit better.
It also allows you to have awork-life balance, because you
can keep all your work messagesin that app.
Now, this is specificallyreally helpful for me, because I
do have a team and it'simportant to me that my team
feels like they're not alwaysworking, but if I want to
communicate with them and sendthem a message.
(19:19):
Email is kind of clunky andcalling sometimes just doesn't
make sense because we all workdifferent hours and we'll have
ongoing conversations that arehappening, that maybe one person
sends a message at a time ofday where I'm not working but
then I'm going to respond at atime of day where they're not
working, and if we were doingthat all over text or phone
calls then that would be reallyinterruptive to the parts of the
(19:43):
day where one of us is takingtime off or not working.
But to do that over email,again, it's just kind of clunky,
it's harder to organize, it'snot as fast.
I mean, I'm sure you know thisTexting is way easier than
sending an email.
So Slack was our solution tobeing able to communicate in a
way that still has boundariesand also that conversations stay
(20:07):
organized without being overemail, which is not very
organized, not very easy tocommunicate back and forth
quickly and also not aninterruption to our personal
lives.
So here's how Slack works.
Slack is its own app that youcan put on your phone or the
computer and then it really isjust a text messaging system.
(20:30):
You have different channelsthat's how it's organized and
you can have individualone-on-one channels that work,
just like texting back and forthto anyone who also has the app,
and then you can also havechannels that have labels on
them.
So, for instance, if you had ateam member that you were
working on a client project with, you could have a channel
(20:51):
specifically dedicated to thatsubject and then you would just
title that channel with thatsubject and then it kind of
becomes a group text and you addin whoever you want to be a
part of that conversation andthen you also can just message
in that channel when you want totalk about that thing.
So my team has about 20different channels and these
(21:13):
channels are everything from achannel for our weekly team
meeting, where we can postrecaps from each week, to funny
wedding photos, which is achannel where we just share
screenshots of wedding photosthat maybe are kind of like
bloopers or outtakes or oops,didn't mean to take that photo
or even just someone making afunny face, and we like to share
(21:34):
that with one another and havea good laugh.
If we put all of that stuff in agroup text, well, that would
get very overwhelming, and if Iwanted to go back and reference
something, I wouldn't be able tobecause it would just be way
too many different types ofmessages.
It would be really complex.
It also would mean that ourphones were blowing up all the
(21:54):
time with text messages, andwhat's nice about Slack is that
you can turn Slack off at theend of each day without having
to turn off notifications toeverything.
So Slack has been a reallygreat solution to communication
for my team, particularlybecause we all currently work
remotely and don't work inperson together very often.
So this is a great way tocommunicate and make sure that
(22:17):
we keep track of ourconversations in an organized
way that doesn't impose on ourpersonal lives.
So I'm getting a little bitlong-winded about the
organizational tools that I loveand that I'm thankful for, but
I hope that's given you a littlebit of a glimpse into how we're
using apps in our business andhow they are really making a
(22:37):
difference and are somethingthat I'm grateful for every
single day.
All right, number three thethird thing that I am most
thankful for this year in mybusiness is having a clear
vision of where my business isheaded.
I am definitely a big picturethinker.
I am a dreamer.
I am that type of person thathas big, big, big goals and
(23:00):
dreams and just kind of isalways talking about the next
thing.
And if you are like that, youknow I'm gonna guess that the
execution side of things is alot harder.
At least that's how it is forme.
And in the past, before I knewhow to clarify a personal vision
for myself, a business vision,making a business plan, before I
(23:22):
was able to do all of that Iwould often feel like I was
spinning my wheels orfloundering, or some days I'd
wake up and I'd have like ahundred different ideas I was
excited about but ended up notworking on any of them because I
was so overwhelmed by which oneto even do and I also would get
distracted by stupid littlethings like sitting in my inbox
(23:43):
for three or four hours.
So when I clarified my personalvision for my life and then
also got clear on what Ienvisioned for my business, both
in the short and long term,created a business plan and just
in general had a clear visionof what was coming next and what
I was working towards, thatreally empowered me to dream big
(24:06):
and not feel stressed out bythose dreams or not feel
overwhelmed by those dreams, butto actually harness those ideas
and then give them legs so thatwe could move forward.
Now again, I didn't major inbusiness or entrepreneurship or
even marketing.
I didn't know anything aboutbusiness when I started my
(24:26):
business, and so this idea ofmaking a business plan I kind of
just thought that sounded likesomething I didn't need to do
and that was overwhelming.
And well, my business seemedpretty successful so I didn't
think I needed that.
I also just didn't understandwhat it meant to have a plan for
my business, and so I'm reallythankful that about four years
(24:50):
ago, when I started working withmy business coach, the first
thing he had me do was get clearon that vision statement, the
personal vision for my life, andthen he also helped me create a
strategic plan for my business.
Having someone guide me throughit was totally different than
just kind of guessing and sayingI should write a business plan.
(25:11):
I actually had a framework togo off of and someone to guide
me along the way and coach me,and that made a massive
difference in my business.
Everything began to change inmy business when I started
working with a coach and I gotclear on a vision and a plan for
where my business was headed.
I was really able to enjoy mybusiness more as well, because
(25:34):
the things that I was reallyexcited about, I was able to
pair those things down and I hada lot more motivation behind
the things that stayed on mygoal list because I knew how
they were gonna impact mybusiness long-term and why that
was important to me and thatjust was so much more exciting
and motivating than having along list of crazy cool ideas
(25:57):
but not really being able toenvision exactly where that
would lead and why it wasimportant to me.
If you listen to this podcastregularly, you know I talk about
having a vision statement allthe time because I think it's so
essential as a business ownerif you want to have a successful
business on your own terms.
(26:18):
So I'm thankful for it now.
I was thankful for it then andI'm gonna continue to be
thankful for that.
I already know because that ismy guiding light, my Northern
Star, on a daily basis.
Having that clear vision allowsme to work with a purpose and
to feel fulfilled and reallyenjoy my work.
So, like I said, I talk abouthaving a personal vision
(26:39):
statement all the time.
I talk about having a strategicbusiness plan a lot, but if this
is something that's new to youor maybe you're thinking it's
close to the end of the year.
You want a refresh, you want areset to your business.
You're feeling maybe burnt out.
This is where I'd suggest youstart, and I do have a free
resource for this.
If you're like mid 2019, hannah, and don't really know where
(27:03):
your business is headed, youfeel like you're floundering a
little bit and you've foundyourself regularly going through
cycles of burnout, but you alsohave no idea where to start
with getting clear on a visionfor your life and your business,
making a business plan.
I have a free workbook thatguides you through the process
of making a personal visionstatement and you can download
(27:24):
that for free athannahbjornedollcom slash vision
.
I'll link it in the descriptionfor this podcast episode so you
can access it there.
So if you haven't done thisbefore and you go ahead and you
fill out the workbook and createa personal vision for your life
or maybe you have anotherresource that helps you do that
I can pretty much guarantee thata year from now, having a clear
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vision for your life and yourbusiness is going to be on your
top five gratitude list.
All right, let's move on tonumber four, the fourth thing on
my top five things that I amthankful for this year in my
business is flexibility.
Now there is the obvious sideto flexibility in being a small
business owner.
(28:07):
You can choose your own workhours.
No one can tell you whatvacation days you do and don't
have.
You can work from home.
There's a long list of thosekind of practical scheduling
related flexibility elements toowning a business that we all
know and love and, yes, I amvery grateful for those things.
(28:28):
But the reason flexibility ison my top five list this year is
actually kind of a differenttype of flexibility.
I am really grateful that owninga small business gives me the
flexibility to try new things,gives me the flexibility to fail
but be able to get back upagain and try again.
(28:48):
It gives me the flexibility tolearn a bunch of different new
skills and I get to choose whatthose skills are.
I get to try out differentthings and learn on the job.
I love the flexibility ofcreativity that I have in being
a small business owner.
I've learned so much from thestruggle of small business
(29:09):
ownership, which I'm sure youcan relate to.
There are always gonna be waysthat we fail.
As a small business owner, youkind of have to have thick skin
in order to be an entrepreneur.
You will fail at things I knowI failed at a bazillion things
before but it's also allowed meto learn from my mistakes
without the fear of gettingfired or being told I can't do
(29:34):
something anymore or whatever.
That trying and failing andthen getting back up and trying
again or doing something adifferent way.
That's something I've reallyenjoyed and that I'm thankful
for in owning a business, and Iconsider that flexibility.
And one more thing to add tothat is that I'm thankful that
I've been pushed to be flexibleas a business owner, to pick up
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new skills quickly, to think onthe fly, to pivot when I wasn't
expecting to.
That's a skill that I'vedeveloped over time as a
business owner, that you reallyhave to be flexible if you wanna
be successful, and I'm gratefulthat I've learned those lessons
along the way and built thoseskills.
And so flexibility lands atnumber four on my list.
(30:18):
These are in no particularorder, if I didn't already say
that, but flexibility is in thattop five and I think I'm ready
to move on to the fifth thing onmy list, number five I am very
thankful for the people whosupport my company.
Now, that's a lot of differentgroups of people.
You have my team of people thatwork with me.
(30:42):
I'm so incredibly thankful forthem.
I'm thankful for my businesscoach, who I talked about a
little bit earlier.
I'm thankful for wedding vendorfriends who support me and
encourage me along the way andsend me new business.
I'm thankful for our clientspast, present and future who
entrust us to their wedding dayand tell other people about us
(31:05):
and bring us new business.
There are so many differentpeople to be thankful for, and
really, when I put this on mylist, I was reminded just how
important relationships are whenyou are a small business owner.
In general, I really believethat relationships we build in
life are kind of like thebuilding blocks of life.
They're the most importantthings in our lives, and that's
(31:28):
true as a small business owner,too.
The relationships you buildwithin your business whether
that be a team member that youwork with every day, or a client
you're working with or industryprofessionals people are at the
core of what we do, and so I'mreally grateful that we have
some really wonderful peoplethat we get to interact with and
work with.
(31:48):
I have some really wonderfulpeople I get to interact with
and work with, and, inparticular this year, I am
really really, really gratefulfor my team members.
I have the most amazing groupof people that work with me and
that have trusted me as theirboss.
It's a lot of pressure to managepeople and know if what you're
(32:10):
doing is right.
I certainly didn't have anyexperience being a boss before I
started growing my team forthis business, and so I'm really
grateful that I have such afantastic group of women that
work with me, who have trustedme, who have supported me and
been really, really kind to meeven when I make big mistakes,
and that also have enabled thebusiness to grow so much more
(32:34):
than I thought was possible.
I also have enjoyed being abusiness owner so much more now
that I have a team than I didbefore.
I had my team, and also I justdidn't dream that a job could be
so exciting and have so manydimensions and be so fulfilling.
I've grown so much, bothprofessionally and personally,
(32:55):
through having a team andsupporting a team and mentoring
and managing team members, andthat is something I am so beyond
thankful for.
I know I said the list was inno particular order, but if I
were to pick one thing that wasnumber one on this list, it's
absolutely people.
I am so, so thankful for thepeople in my life who surround
(33:18):
me in my business.
If you've thought aboutpotentially growing your team,
but you feel hesitant about it,maybe you think this sounds too
complicated or like it's toomuch work, or maybe it's just
the financial side of thingsthat's intimidating.
Let me give you so muchencouragement that building a
team will be the most crazy,exciting and fun adventure you
will take within your business.
(33:39):
At least, that's what it's beenfor me, and I probably wouldn't
have believed someone if theyhad told me that before starting
my team.
If you ever wanna talk moreone-on-one about growing your
team, I obviously love talkingabout this topic, so shoot me a
message on Instagram at HannahBjorndahl, or you can email me
(34:00):
info at hannahbjorndahlcom.
I'd love to hear from you.
I'd love to talk more aboutthis with you, because it really
is something that I'mpassionate about and that I have
a lot of thoughts on, and alsoI'm happy to answer your
questions.
So with that I'll wrap up.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I hope you can practicegratitude this week in your
business and in your personallife, and I hope this episode
(34:22):
has been an encouragement to dothat, and that's a wrap.
Thanks so much for listening toTeam Building for Creative
Business Owners.
I hope you learned somethingnew that you can use to grow and
thrive.
If you're interested in gettingin touch, send me a message at
info at hannahbjorndahlcom, oryou can always shoot me a DM on
(34:44):
Instagram.
I'm at Hannah Bjorndahl.
I'll see you back here nextweek.
You might not know this, but it was never my dream
growing up to be an entrepreneuror a small business owner.
It actually wasn't even mydream to be a photographer.
Maybe you're listening and youfeel the same way.
You grew up thinking you mightdo something else for a career,
and you ended up being a smallbusiness owner, and that was a
(00:22):
surprise to you.
I'm actually going to guessthat for most of you that's the
case.
Owning a small, creativebusiness.
It's not really something thatI even knew was an option
growing up, and now that I amone, it's the best thing I could
imagine, way better than anycareer dreams I had for myself
(00:43):
when I was younger.
So much of what I do now is soradically different than what I
thought I'd be doing at this ageand stage in my life, and I'm
really grateful for that when Ithink about it.
And so, as we approachThanksgiving this week, I wanted
to share a little bit aboutwhat in my business I'm thankful
for, and I'm hoping that thosethings that I share are also
(01:06):
things that you can beencouraged by and learn from,
because I'm going to go into alittle bit of detail as to why
I'm thankful for each thing.
These are the five things thatfirst came to mind when I
thought about what I'm mostthankful for in my business this
year.
So these are things that I hopeyou are experiencing or have as
well, but if you don't,hopefully you can learn a little
(01:30):
bit about them, and if you do,hopefully you're encouraged to
continue to pursue those things,or maybe you learn a little bit
about how I utilize thosethings in my own business.
Most of all, I hope thisepisode encourages you to be
thankful for the elements ofyour business that bring you joy
and fulfillment, because for me, gratitude is an essential part
(01:51):
of feeling fulfilled within myown work.
I hope it can be that for you,too.
Let's get started.
You're listening to TeamBuilding for Wedding Pros, a
podcast dedicated to helping youscale your creative business
through building a team.
(02:13):
I'm your host, hannah Bjorndahl, owner of LaVian Rose, an
expert in all things teambuilding in the creative
artistic world.
Over the past several years,I've gone from being a one woman
show to leading a team ofamazing people to serve more
clients, dramatically increaseour business income and
(02:36):
ultimately make a much biggerimpact in the world, and I'm
passionate about helping you dothe same.
So let's do it, okay.
So five things that I am mostgrateful for in my business or
thankful, grateful, thankful Ikind of see them as the same
(02:58):
thing.
These are the five things thatI am most thankful for in my
business this year.
Number one I am thankful thatmy business exists.
This might sound like a reallyweird thing to be thankful for
and kind of like well duh, yourbusiness exists, there wouldn't
be anything to be thankful forif your business didn't exist.
(03:19):
So maybe to you this soundskind of silly, like a throwaway
answer, but let me explain alittle bit more.
Starting a business was a totalmystery to me.
I remember right after Igraduated college I started
thinking about photography andwhat a career in photography
would look like, and I thoughtit sounded really great, like
(03:43):
something that I would enjoy,but it didn't sound practical at
all.
I had no idea how to sustainmyself and make an income where
I could do that as a full timejob and not have to have another
job on the side.
It really just didn't seem likesomething I could do quickly
and really it didn't seem likesomething I could do at all.
(04:03):
I remember saying that I had afive year plan to go full time
with photography, and this wasin 2014.
Spoiler alert I went full timein 2015,.
Did not expect that at all.
But when I said I had that fiveyear plan, I didn't have a five
year plan at all.
I didn't have a plan period, Ijust had I just had an idea that
(04:26):
maybe in five years I couldsomehow figure out a way to make
this a full time job.
But if you had asked me, well,how are you going to make that
happen?
I had zero plans.
So I'm really grateful that mybusiness exists today because I
didn't have a background instarting a business or
entrepreneurship.
Those weren't my majors incollege.
(04:47):
I didn't know anything aboutthat.
Really, what I did was I waspassionate about shooting
weddings and did everything Icould to book weddings so that I
could go out and shoot them,just because I thought it was so
much fun and I really enjoyedit.
And then that grew really fast.
I pretty much was immediatelysuccessful with my business and
(05:09):
I wasn't expecting it.
So I shot just a coupleweddings in 2015, but I was
booking weddings for the nextyear like crazy.
So I'm thankful that my businessexists and, specifically, I'm
thankful for the ways that I wasable to jumpstart my business
and make it full time so quickly.
So I'm thankful for access tothings like social media.
(05:32):
Instagram was a huge way that Iwas able to get new clients and
it was free, so I didn't haveto pay anything, I didn't have
to invest any money in that andI was able to book a lot of
clients.
Really, they were like a lot offriends of friends just by
nature of showing up online andreminding people that I was now
a wedding photographer.
(05:52):
I'm also really grateful forthe people that trusted me early
on, even though I had, like, noportfolio.
Like a lot of people booked mebefore I had shot any weddings,
which just still blows my mind.
I'm also thankful for the job Ihad before I went full time with
my wedding photography.
I was working at a weddingnetworking company and I was
(06:15):
selling advertising to weddingvendors.
You've probably heard me talkabout this before and that
taught me so much, not justabout the wedding industry, but
also how to serve clients inorder to build connections and
book new business.
I got that job not because Iwanted to be in sales at all.
I knew nothing about sales.
(06:36):
I got that job because I sawthe word wedding and thought,
okay, if I can get a job in acompany that has anything to do
with weddings and it's a fulltime job and it can support me
while I'm trying to launch thisbusiness.
With a bunch of question marksaround it, I didn't know what I
was doing.
I thought if I could at leastbe at a company that's kind of
adjacent to what I'm trying todo, maybe that'll help.
(06:58):
I assumed that working at awedding networking company.
So I was working for a companythat is very well known I'm not
going to say the namespecifically, but they have a
very large web presence.
I thought, well, they're a wellknown wedding company and maybe
I'll learn about the weddingindustry and meet people in the
(07:21):
wedding industry and get to goto some weddings.
It turns out that job reallynever interacted with couples or
weddings that were happening inperson, but it was much more
working with wedding vendors.
I actually was sellingadvertising to wedding vendors
that weren't even in the DC area.
Even so, that sales job taughtme so much.
(07:44):
I received an amazing salestraining that taught me that
selling didn't have to be icky.
I had this idea in my head ofthe used car salesman, and so I
was really nervous going intothis job, thinking, oh, am I
going to have to be like that?
What I learned through trainingat this job was that you can
really provide a service to inthis case, other business owners
(08:08):
.
Now to couples getting marriedmy potential clients.
The people that are the verybest at sales know how to serve
their potential customer reallywell and how to inform them in a
way that's helpful and putsthem first.
That's really the best way tosell.
I learned a lot of differentthings about sales in that job,
(08:29):
but that was something that Itook away and felt a lot of
confidence in selling myselfbecause of my experience there.
So, number one again, I'm justgrateful that my business exists
and I get to do something thatI really love, because I really
wasn't set up for success withstarting a business.
I had no idea what I was doing,but I put myself out there.
(08:51):
It was scary and it worked out,and that's just something I'm
really really grateful for, andI'm grateful for the things that
supported me as I launched thatbusiness.
Number two I am thankful for theorganization tools that I use
in my business, without thetools that we have and that we
(09:12):
currently use to stay organized,my business would not even
exist, at least not at the levelthat it does now.
We use so many differentorganization tools to keep our
business running like clockworkand also to make sure that we're
serving our clients really well.
The different systems that wehave in place and all the
(09:33):
different types of apps andtools that we use to support
those systems make it mucheasier to run the business and
also it makes the business thatmuch better.
So I wanna share some of thosetools.
First thing I'm gonna do isjust list out a few of the tools
that first come to mind thatI'm most thankful for, and then
I'll go into a little bit ofdetail about a couple of them
(09:54):
and why I'm thankful for them.
So here's the list to getstarted Honey book, zapier,
asana, quickbooks, slack, gusto,which is our payroll system,
buzzsprout, which I use forpodcasting, dropbox and Google
Drive.
So those are just a few of theorganization tools and apps that
(10:16):
I use in my business that I'mreally, really thankful for.
Let me tell you a little bitabout a few that are my
favorites and then, if I thinkof any as I'm talking, maybe
I'll add those too.
So first one I wanna share aboutis Zapier.
So I've gotta admit I was veryskeptical that the app Zapier
and if you haven't heard of it,that's Z-A-P-I-E-R.
(10:40):
I was very skeptical aboutZapier.
I didn't think it couldnecessarily work within my
business.
It felt both really complexLike there were so many
possibilities and each one waslike really complex to program
and then it also felt like itwas incomplete, like there's no
way that this can actually helpme make my business more
(11:00):
organized.
So if you don't know whatZapier is, let me explain a
little bit more.
Zapier is an automation tool.
You can build workflowautomations within Zapier that
connect a bunch of differentapps.
I think on their website itsays they have like 5,000
different integrations fordifferent apps.
So it's a automated integrationtool that allows you to build
(11:25):
these automations acrossplatforms, which means that if
you use like HoneyBook and Asana, like we do, you can automate
both of those systems throughZapier so that when something
happens on one platform, theother platform responds or has
something happen thereautomatically.
It's really advanced.
(11:46):
There's so many differentthings that Zapier can do.
But it's also really userfriendly because Zapier has
saved a bunch of these workflowautomations so that you don't
have to come up with them fromscratch.
You can type in the differentapps and tools that you use and
they'll give you ideas for howyou can automate.
And then, if you actuallyalready have a workflow in mind
(12:08):
or an automation that you'vebeen trying to figure out in a
program, it can also help you dothat, because it's very user
friendly and easy to figure out.
You don't have to be supertechie to get it.
You really just have to knowwhat you're trying to do, or you
can just scroll down the listof ideas of what it can do for
you.
And the best part is is thatthere are free accounts, so you
(12:29):
can't have like tons and tons ofZaps.
Those are automations withinZapier.
You can't have tons and tons ofthem for free, but you can have
a handful, which we used forfree for quite a long time until
we realized how much Zapiercould help our business in other
ways, and then we upgraded morerecently so that we could use
all their features.
But honestly, the free versionis still really advanced.
(12:53):
You can do a lot with it.
It has radically changed ourworkflows in our business.
Previously, we were usingworkflows through different
systems and they just weren'tworking for us.
We needed, like, multipleplatforms to do what we needed
to do, but they weren'tconnected, so Zapier was the
perfect solution for that reasonJust to give you a little bit
(13:13):
more information on how we useit.
We actually use it in a lot ofdifferent ways, but I'm gonna
share the main way that we useit and the way that has been
most helpful to my business, andthat is connecting Honeybook
with Asana.
Previously, I had been trying tofigure out a tool that would
work for me and my team wheneverwe booked weddings.
(13:36):
I wanted enough customizationso that when a couple booked
Cassie as their leadphotographer for their wedding
day, she would automatically geta set of tasks assigned to her.
But I also wanted a few of thetasks in that task list to be
assigned to other team members.
Like my executive assistant,allison, I wanted to assign some
(13:59):
of the social media tasks toher whenever someone would book
a wedding, and Honeybook didn'tquite have the complexity and
customization needed in order todo that, and so it kind of
became a frustration for ourteam that if you were on the
Honeybook project which I was on, all of them I would see this
(14:19):
really long list of tasks withinthe workflow system of
Honeybook.
If you use Honeybook and havetried out their work, I think
they're still called workflow.
They might be called flows nowor automations, but that section
of Honeybook if you've used itbefore, you know what I'm
talking about.
You can create a list ofautomated or semi-automated
(14:41):
tasks that can happen whensomething else happens first,
like a client signs a contractor pays an invoice, and then
this set of tasks is set off,and so we were using that, but
there was no way to distinguishwhose tasks were who, and since
we have a growing team, that wasquite a problem.
There were a couple othercustomizations to that that were
(15:04):
a little bit tricky for us andjust weren't working.
So we tried a lot of differentsystems, and I also was using
Asana off to the side, just formy personal life.
My husband and I we're usingAsana, which is a task
management tool, just toremember to do things in our
personal life, which is kind offunny that Evan and I used that,
(15:25):
but we did, and I thought, man,asana is so great for task
management.
I really wish that there was away to pull our tasks from
HoneyBook into Asana, and thenthere's a way that's really easy
to assign tasks to individualpeople within Asana, and so I
thought, wow, that would just beso great if we could use that,
(15:46):
but I'd have to add everythingmanually every time a client
books.
That seems really complicated.
I might make a mistake here orthere.
It would throw us off.
And so when I found Zapier, Irealized that I could program
Zapier to do exactly what Iwanted in Asana, but it didn't
have to be manual and it alsoleft out user error, like I
wasn't gonna make any mistakesbecause Zapier was gonna do it
(16:07):
for me automatically and I couldprogram it in advance to make
sure that it always did the samething.
So now when a client books us inHoneyBook, so they sign a
contract and they pay an invoice.
Once those two things arecomplete, zapier automatically
sends a list of tasks into Asanaand, depending on whose project
(16:30):
it is within HoneyBook, thatperson gets a task list and
those tasks are all assigned adue date and the due date
automatically is chosen basedoff of a few different things.
It's chosen off of a timeframewhen the client booked and paid.
(16:50):
So, for example, the first taskin that task list is a task
that says send a welcome emailand that task is always due at
the moment that the client signsthe contracts and pays.
So they get that task in theirtask list and it says it's due
immediately.
There are also tasks that areassociated with the wedding date
(17:12):
.
So two months out from awedding, whoever has that
wedding and whoever's client itis will get a task that says
it's time to schedule a weddingconsultation.
So hopefully it makes sense whatI'm saying.
If you've worked with workflowsbefore, this will make a lot of
sense.
I think If you've neverprogrammed an automation or
workflow before, maybe you'rethinking what is she talking
(17:33):
about?
Hopefully you're thinking, wow,this sounds really cool.
I need to check out Honeybookand Zapier and Asana, or maybe
just one or all of them.
But hopefully you can tell bythe enthusiasm in my voice that
this has been a huge gamechanger for us.
It saved me not just hours, butI would say weeks and weeks of
(17:54):
work that I used to be doingthroughout the year.
It also has prevented thingsfrom falling through the cracks.
Our systems before were muchless perfect.
This one still isn't absolutelyperfect, but it's a lot closer,
and so things were fallingthrough the cracks because our
previous systems weren't workingwell for us and they were
overwhelming the team in generaleach of the team members.
(18:14):
So this new system is a lotsmoother and I'm just really
thankful that Zapier exists andthat I finally swallowed my
pride and gave it a try, becauseit has really changed the game
for us.
And, by the way, zapier did notsponsor this.
This is not an ad for them.
I don't get any kind of rewardor kickback for talking about
(18:35):
Zapier.
I just really love it and Ihope that you'll try it out too,
because I think it could helpyou in your business.
Okay, one more tool I want totell you about that I absolutely
love and I use for free isSlack.
So, if you aren't familiar withSlack, slack is a communication
tool.
Essentially, it's a messagingapp, kind of like texting, but
(18:57):
it's an app that allows you toorganize conversations a little
bit better.
It also allows you to have awork-life balance, because you
can keep all your work messagesin that app.
Now, this is specificallyreally helpful for me, because I
do have a team and it'simportant to me that my team
feels like they're not alwaysworking, but if I want to
communicate with them and sendthem a message.
(19:19):
Email is kind of clunky andcalling sometimes just doesn't
make sense because we all workdifferent hours and we'll have
ongoing conversations that arehappening, that maybe one person
sends a message at a time ofday where I'm not working but
then I'm going to respond at atime of day where they're not
working, and if we were doingthat all over text or phone
calls then that would be reallyinterruptive to the parts of the
(19:43):
day where one of us is takingtime off or not working.
But to do that over email,again, it's just kind of clunky,
it's harder to organize, it'snot as fast.
I mean, I'm sure you know thisTexting is way easier than
sending an email.
So Slack was our solution tobeing able to communicate in a
way that still has boundariesand also that conversations stay
(20:07):
organized without being overemail, which is not very
organized, not very easy tocommunicate back and forth
quickly and also not aninterruption to our personal
lives.
So here's how Slack works.
Slack is its own app that youcan put on your phone or the
computer and then it really isjust a text messaging system.
(20:30):
You have different channelsthat's how it's organized and
you can have individualone-on-one channels that work,
just like texting back and forthto anyone who also has the app,
and then you can also havechannels that have labels on
them.
So, for instance, if you had ateam member that you were
working on a client project with, you could have a channel
(20:51):
specifically dedicated to thatsubject and then you would just
title that channel with thatsubject and then it kind of
becomes a group text and you addin whoever you want to be a
part of that conversation andthen you also can just message
in that channel when you want totalk about that thing.
So my team has about 20different channels and these
(21:13):
channels are everything from achannel for our weekly team
meeting, where we can postrecaps from each week, to funny
wedding photos, which is achannel where we just share
screenshots of wedding photosthat maybe are kind of like
bloopers or outtakes or oops,didn't mean to take that photo
or even just someone making afunny face, and we like to share
(21:34):
that with one another and havea good laugh.
If we put all of that stuff in agroup text, well, that would
get very overwhelming, and if Iwanted to go back and reference
something, I wouldn't be able tobecause it would just be way
too many different types ofmessages.
It would be really complex.
It also would mean that ourphones were blowing up all the
(21:54):
time with text messages, andwhat's nice about Slack is that
you can turn Slack off at theend of each day without having
to turn off notifications toeverything.
So Slack has been a reallygreat solution to communication
for my team, particularlybecause we all currently work
remotely and don't work inperson together very often.
So this is a great way tocommunicate and make sure that
(22:17):
we keep track of ourconversations in an organized
way that doesn't impose on ourpersonal lives.
So I'm getting a little bitlong-winded about the
organizational tools that I loveand that I'm thankful for, but
I hope that's given you a littlebit of a glimpse into how we're
using apps in our business andhow they are really making a
(22:37):
difference and are somethingthat I'm grateful for every
single day.
All right, number three thethird thing that I am most
thankful for this year in mybusiness is having a clear
vision of where my business isheaded.
I am definitely a big picturethinker.
I am a dreamer.
I am that type of person thathas big, big, big goals and
(23:00):
dreams and just kind of isalways talking about the next
thing.
And if you are like that, youknow I'm gonna guess that the
execution side of things is alot harder.
At least that's how it is forme.
And in the past, before I knewhow to clarify a personal vision
for myself, a business vision,making a business plan, before I
(23:22):
was able to do all of that Iwould often feel like I was
spinning my wheels orfloundering, or some days I'd
wake up and I'd have like ahundred different ideas I was
excited about but ended up notworking on any of them because I
was so overwhelmed by which oneto even do and I also would get
distracted by stupid littlethings like sitting in my inbox
(23:43):
for three or four hours.
So when I clarified my personalvision for my life and then
also got clear on what Ienvisioned for my business, both
in the short and long term,created a business plan and just
in general had a clear visionof what was coming next and what
I was working towards, thatreally empowered me to dream big
(24:06):
and not feel stressed out bythose dreams or not feel
overwhelmed by those dreams, butto actually harness those ideas
and then give them legs so thatwe could move forward.
Now again, I didn't major inbusiness or entrepreneurship or
even marketing.
I didn't know anything aboutbusiness when I started my
(24:26):
business, and so this idea ofmaking a business plan I kind of
just thought that sounded likesomething I didn't need to do
and that was overwhelming.
And well, my business seemedpretty successful so I didn't
think I needed that.
I also just didn't understandwhat it meant to have a plan for
my business, and so I'm reallythankful that about four years
(24:50):
ago, when I started working withmy business coach, the first
thing he had me do was get clearon that vision statement, the
personal vision for my life, andthen he also helped me create a
strategic plan for my business.
Having someone guide me throughit was totally different than
just kind of guessing and sayingI should write a business plan.
(25:11):
I actually had a framework togo off of and someone to guide
me along the way and coach me,and that made a massive
difference in my business.
Everything began to change inmy business when I started
working with a coach and I gotclear on a vision and a plan for
where my business was headed.
I was really able to enjoy mybusiness more as well, because
(25:34):
the things that I was reallyexcited about, I was able to
pair those things down and I hada lot more motivation behind
the things that stayed on mygoal list because I knew how
they were gonna impact mybusiness long-term and why that
was important to me and thatjust was so much more exciting
and motivating than having along list of crazy cool ideas
(25:57):
but not really being able toenvision exactly where that
would lead and why it wasimportant to me.
If you listen to this podcastregularly, you know I talk about
having a vision statement allthe time because I think it's so
essential as a business ownerif you want to have a successful
business on your own terms.
(26:18):
So I'm thankful for it now.
I was thankful for it then andI'm gonna continue to be
thankful for that.
I already know because that ismy guiding light, my Northern
Star, on a daily basis.
Having that clear vision allowsme to work with a purpose and
to feel fulfilled and reallyenjoy my work.
So, like I said, I talk abouthaving a personal vision
(26:39):
statement all the time.
I talk about having a strategicbusiness plan a lot, but if this
is something that's new to youor maybe you're thinking it's
close to the end of the year.
You want a refresh, you want areset to your business.
You're feeling maybe burnt out.
This is where I'd suggest youstart, and I do have a free
resource for this.
If you're like mid 2019, hannah, and don't really know where
(27:03):
your business is headed, youfeel like you're floundering a
little bit and you've foundyourself regularly going through
cycles of burnout, but you alsohave no idea where to start
with getting clear on a visionfor your life and your business,
making a business plan.
I have a free workbook thatguides you through the process
of making a personal visionstatement and you can download
(27:24):
that for free athannahbjornedollcom slash vision
.
I'll link it in the descriptionfor this podcast episode so you
can access it there.
So if you haven't done thisbefore and you go ahead and you
fill out the workbook and createa personal vision for your life
or maybe you have anotherresource that helps you do that
I can pretty much guarantee thata year from now, having a clear
(27:47):
vision for your life and yourbusiness is going to be on your
top five gratitude list.
All right, let's move on tonumber four, the fourth thing on
my top five things that I amthankful for this year in my
business is flexibility.
Now there is the obvious sideto flexibility in being a small
business owner.
(28:07):
You can choose your own workhours.
No one can tell you whatvacation days you do and don't
have.
You can work from home.
There's a long list of thosekind of practical scheduling
related flexibility elements toowning a business that we all
know and love and, yes, I amvery grateful for those things.
(28:28):
But the reason flexibility ison my top five list this year is
actually kind of a differenttype of flexibility.
I am really grateful that owninga small business gives me the
flexibility to try new things,gives me the flexibility to fail
but be able to get back upagain and try again.
(28:48):
It gives me the flexibility tolearn a bunch of different new
skills and I get to choose whatthose skills are.
I get to try out differentthings and learn on the job.
I love the flexibility ofcreativity that I have in being
a small business owner.
I've learned so much from thestruggle of small business
(29:09):
ownership, which I'm sure youcan relate to.
There are always gonna be waysthat we fail.
As a small business owner, youkind of have to have thick skin
in order to be an entrepreneur.
You will fail at things I knowI failed at a bazillion things
before but it's also allowed meto learn from my mistakes
without the fear of gettingfired or being told I can't do
(29:34):
something anymore or whatever.
That trying and failing andthen getting back up and trying
again or doing something adifferent way.
That's something I've reallyenjoyed and that I'm thankful
for in owning a business, and Iconsider that flexibility.
And one more thing to add tothat is that I'm thankful that
I've been pushed to be flexibleas a business owner, to pick up
(29:56):
new skills quickly, to think onthe fly, to pivot when I wasn't
expecting to.
That's a skill that I'vedeveloped over time as a
business owner, that you reallyhave to be flexible if you wanna
be successful, and I'm gratefulthat I've learned those lessons
along the way and built thoseskills.
And so flexibility lands atnumber four on my list.
(30:18):
These are in no particularorder, if I didn't already say
that, but flexibility is in thattop five and I think I'm ready
to move on to the fifth thing onmy list, number five I am very
thankful for the people whosupport my company.
Now, that's a lot of differentgroups of people.
You have my team of people thatwork with me.
(30:42):
I'm so incredibly thankful forthem.
I'm thankful for my businesscoach, who I talked about a
little bit earlier.
I'm thankful for wedding vendorfriends who support me and
encourage me along the way andsend me new business.
I'm thankful for our clientspast, present and future who
entrust us to their wedding dayand tell other people about us
(31:05):
and bring us new business.
There are so many differentpeople to be thankful for, and
really, when I put this on mylist, I was reminded just how
important relationships are whenyou are a small business owner.
In general, I really believethat relationships we build in
life are kind of like thebuilding blocks of life.
They're the most importantthings in our lives, and that's
(31:28):
true as a small business owner,too.
The relationships you buildwithin your business whether
that be a team member that youwork with every day, or a client
you're working with or industryprofessionals people are at the
core of what we do, and so I'mreally grateful that we have
some really wonderful peoplethat we get to interact with and
work with.
(31:48):
I have some really wonderfulpeople I get to interact with
and work with, and, inparticular this year, I am
really really, really gratefulfor my team members.
I have the most amazing groupof people that work with me and
that have trusted me as theirboss.
It's a lot of pressure to managepeople and know if what you're
(32:10):
doing is right.
I certainly didn't have anyexperience being a boss before I
started growing my team forthis business, and so I'm really
grateful that I have such afantastic group of women that
work with me, who have trustedme, who have supported me and
been really, really kind to meeven when I make big mistakes,
and that also have enabled thebusiness to grow so much more
(32:34):
than I thought was possible.
I also have enjoyed being abusiness owner so much more now
that I have a team than I didbefore.
I had my team, and also I justdidn't dream that a job could be
so exciting and have so manydimensions and be so fulfilling.
I've grown so much, bothprofessionally and personally,
(32:55):
through having a team andsupporting a team and mentoring
and managing team members, andthat is something I am so beyond
thankful for.
I know I said the list was inno particular order, but if I
were to pick one thing that wasnumber one on this list, it's
absolutely people.
I am so, so thankful for thepeople in my life who surround
(33:18):
me in my business.
If you've thought aboutpotentially growing your team,
but you feel hesitant about it,maybe you think this sounds too
complicated or like it's toomuch work, or maybe it's just
the financial side of thingsthat's intimidating.
Let me give you so muchencouragement that building a
team will be the most crazy,exciting and fun adventure you
will take within your business.
(33:39):
At least, that's what it's beenfor me, and I probably wouldn't
have believed someone if theyhad told me that before starting
my team.
If you ever wanna talk moreone-on-one about growing your
team, I obviously love talkingabout this topic, so shoot me a
message on Instagram at HannahBjorndahl, or you can email me
(34:00):
info at hannahbjorndahlcom.
I'd love to hear from you.
I'd love to talk more aboutthis with you, because it really
is something that I'mpassionate about and that I have
a lot of thoughts on, and alsoI'm happy to answer your
questions.
So with that I'll wrap up.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I hope you can practicegratitude this week in your
business and in your personallife, and I hope this episode
(34:22):
has been an encouragement to dothat, and that's a wrap.
Thanks so much for listening toTeam Building for Creative
Business Owners.
I hope you learned somethingnew that you can use to grow and
thrive.
If you're interested in gettingin touch, send me a message at
info at hannahbjorndahlcom, oryou can always shoot me a DM on
(34:44):
Instagram.
I'm at Hannah Bjorndahl.
I'll see you back here nextweek.
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