Before You Quit, Listen to This! The Hardest Thing About Being an Entrepreneur.

[00:00:00] It's not an easy journey. And I was saying most small business take two to three years to stabilize financially. But as Amazon, Amazon took seven years to become profitable. Starbucks took 16 years to expand beyond Seattle. And then as you were speaking about our friend, Jesse Itzler, his wife, Spanx, was rejected by every major retailer before becoming a billion dollar brand with a B.

[00:00:34] Uh, no. Ooh, that's better, right babe?

[00:00:44] She founded an architectural concrete company. He founded a hundred million dollar clothing company. She took the world by storm as a social media star. He took the world by storm as a famous serial entrepreneur. Together we started a business. And had babies. Now we're figuring out the best ways to do both. Join us as we learn from other entrepreneurs going through the same life struggles. As they share their life hacks about success, love, kids. And everything in between.

[00:01:13] Success is not final. Fail is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. Quote by Winston Churchill. I didn't get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it. Quote by Estee Lauder. Welcome to the Entrepreneur Parents Pretty and Punk podcast. I'm your host, Dan Caldwell. And I'm here with my beautiful wife. Ildiko Ferenzi.

[00:01:42] Ildiko Ferenzi. And she is beautiful. And I, weren't the kids great there? Their quotes are always great. You know, one of the hardest things to do as an entrepreneur is to keep showing up every single day, day after day, week after week, maybe even year after year.

[00:02:03] It's hard to keep showing up if you're not seeing that huge goal or maybe a glimpse of that goal that you set out to take on when you started your business. And that's okay, but that's what we're going to talk about today. So, but before we jump into that, hey guys, we hope you're enjoying today's episode of the Pretty and Punk podcast.

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[00:02:55] We want to celebrate you because we know it's not easy being a parent in business and the way that you juggle things makes you a superhero. That's worth a shout out. Together, we have a community of our personal followers as well. And we just want to put it out there. We want to show everybody that this juggle is possible and you are our family. And we're so proud and grateful to have you a part of this family.

[00:03:22] So don't forget, all the links are below in the show notes. And thank you again. And let's get back to the show. Listen, just because you're not seeing big success yet doesn't mean that nothing's happening. Success is like an iceberg. 90% of it is below the surface before it breaks through. So how do you know if your business is growing, stuck, or just a bad idea? That's what we're going to discuss today.

[00:03:52] Yeah. And I think everybody who's, if you've been an entrepreneur, if you've ever started a business, if you've ever done anything almost, you've dealt with this. You've had some level of this. And I know I have my, building my business. And lots of times I've noticed that it's the people on the outside that may not see what you're seeing on the inside. So you might even be seeing those little wins.

[00:04:18] So sometimes the hardest thing is just the outside pressure that comes because you have people coming. Oh, how long have you been doing your business? Or, you know, how long have you been building this? Oh, this is like your fifth year, isn't it? And, you know, are you guys going to keep doing it? And they're asking these probing questions because they want to know if you're going to quit. But you see like these little wins going on, you know, that they don't see.

[00:04:44] You see the fact that people get excited when you show up or you see the sales growing just a little bit more. They may not be making you a lot of money. You may not be making any real money to put in your pocket, but you see sales going, growing. And those things matter. Those are the things that keep you going, I think. What about for you? Well, we all know, I mean, in our community, success doesn't happen overnight.

[00:05:14] Most business takes months, years, and it's not something that just pops up overnight. Although social media makes it look that way, but they've been working behind the scenes for years. Even when you watch Mr. Beast, he was working for years and years on his idea. People don't see that stuff, though. Yeah. And when people were telling him to give up, even his mom was telling him to give up to

[00:05:42] a certain point until there was the signs. And that's the thing you really have to pay attention to because those little signs are going to decide whether you have a bad idea, if you truly have a bad idea, or if it's just slow growth. And you were saying five years. Five years is kind of on the line because the one thing from my experience building different

[00:06:09] businesses, two years was the line for us. And that was something that my mother taught me and stuck to after two years. If it's not working, perhaps it's time to come up with a different idea or really investigate what you need to pivot within your business. So, of course, be doing this stuff on that two-year streak.

[00:06:32] But I know we hit big before that two years was up for the architectural concrete company. We were really solving a problem. We were coming up with different ways to go ahead and do business. And we just made this big shift within that business. So look for the signs that you're growing. Well, what shift? I mean, you should tell them what shift you made.

[00:07:00] Oh, for us, it was just, it wasn't even huge things. Let me tell you, we started doing residential, just simple, basic residential. But I had my eye on going bigger. And I was kind of arguing with my partner about this because it was comfortable money. But I wanted to go to executive homes. I wanted to do government jobs, civil jobs, and commercial jobs because that's where the money is at.

[00:07:29] But it was all a lot about presentation and branding, helping people to just feel comfortable with us. I could see the people that were rolling up before us to give the quotes, quotes, just what they wanted to get done, give them some ideas of what we could do, give them some different price points. We certainly weren't the cheapest, but we weren't the most expensive either. But we had different options for whatever they wanted to do.

[00:07:59] Now, when we came up, we didn't come up in a scruffy van that looks like you're going to rob the place. We came up in a beautiful truck. Everything was clean. When they came to the car and they looked inside, everything was spotless. We were dressed nice. We were presentable. We spoke well. We made people feel comfortable. I had very solid rules. I didn't let our workers lean against the furniture, touch the furniture, lean against

[00:08:28] the walls, put handprints on the end when we were going in to do the interior concrete work or even outside. There was no... Not that we had any employers. Don't touch nothing. Don't touch nothing. Absolutely. Because... And the other thing that was really valuable, and I don't know, there's a lot of real estate agents. There's a lot of women that do business and they get flirtatious with the husbands. I don't know why they do this. This is a... It's just... Bad business.

[00:08:59] It's destructive. Okay? You go to the... The wife is the one that is going to make all the decisions. Make friends with her. Don't be overly friendly with the husband. Give the husband the card. There were just little things that we did differently. I gave my card to the woman of the house. She was the one that's going to persuade her husband. I included the wife in the conversation. I saw this with other companies that came.

[00:09:29] If there was a woman involved, they're talking to the big bucks. They're talking to the wallet. Now you talk to the wife and you're respectable. And this is just the way that I grew up. This is how I saw my mother do business. And it just... It's a way of making people feel comfortable. You ask them about their story. Ask them about their vision. Even if it's concrete, they have a reason why they want it.

[00:09:56] They want to imagine their future. They want to see the problem that you're solving. Is this job that you're going to do, is it going to invest in their home where it's going to give them value for one day if they want to sell it? Is it going to... There's just so many different things that we did compared to other companies. I can go on and on. But you get the idea.

[00:10:22] I remember Jesse Itzler, a friend of mine, or ours, Jesse Itzler, and his wife, Sarah Blakely, who started Spanx. Jesse, I remember Jesse telling me when he started Zico, you know, because he founded Marquee Jets before that, which was a huge exit for him. But when he founded Zico Coconut Water, or I guess actually when he was selling it, which we were involved in a little bit.

[00:10:47] But when he was selling it to Coca-Cola, Coke came to him, or he went to Coke. But the head of Coca-Cola told him that it takes eight years to build a brand in the United States. And he recounted that's about what it took him, you know, within a year or two to build Zico. And that's true to Tap Out, too.

[00:11:13] That's about what it took us to really build Tap Out to where we were making real money. Big brands. We had a brand that could actually be sold. So it takes a long time. And a lot of people, you know, a lot of people who think that they want to be entrepreneurs aren't, they don't understand delayed gratification. They aren't ready for that. They don't understand what that actually means.

[00:11:38] They think that because they're so used to being in a world that you go to work and you get a check two weeks later. And being an entrepreneur, nothing like that. Most of the time. Yeah. They're just not used to that. Yeah. And so you have to be prepared for that.

[00:11:55] So if you're not mentally prepared for that, if you're not ready for people to come at you and, you know, put, start asking questions about your business in a way to try to really, they're really trying to, I don't want to say put you down. But they're there. They don't understand. Some people may want the best for you. Yeah. But they're still trying to point out why it's not working. Right.

[00:12:25] And lots of times that's just because of their insecurities for not wanting to try something like this. And so you have to just stay within yourself and know yourself and believe in yourself. Yeah. And it's not an easy journey. And I was saying most small business take two to three years to stabilize financially. But as Amazon, Amazon took seven years to become profitable.

[00:12:52] Starbucks took 16 years to expand beyond Seattle. And then as you were speaking about our friend, Jesse Itzler, his wife, Spanx, was rejected by every major retailer before becoming a billion dollar brand with a B. So there is truth to that. But then again, you got to remember the hard truths are the signs that your business isn't working. And you have to look for the signs that your business is growing.

[00:13:21] And maybe let's go through a few of those where when it's working and these are going to be little clues that you got something, that you've caught on to something. People can't stop talking about it, even if sales aren't huge yet. But if people love your concept and organically share it, then you are on to something. And you just may not know how to do the next steps. And that's when you start doing your research. Are you solving a real problem?

[00:13:49] If your business genuinely fixes a pain point, demand will build over time. You just need to keep introducing that brand to the people that need to solve that problem. Do you have repeat customers? Because if you have people that come back or refer this product or business to others, that's another sign of a long-term success. Is your audience growing?

[00:14:14] If you're not making major sales engagement and follows and interest, it means that you are getting closer if you are growing those things slowly. These early subscribers, these diehard customers. I know that's what drove us early on. I remember people talking about, oh man, all I want to wear is tap out every single day.

[00:14:42] And even though we were dirt poor and we couldn't pay our bills, when people tell you stuff like that, you just want to keep going. You believe that if these people love the product so much, love your product so much, that there's got to be more people out there that are like that. You just have to get it to them. And when we were talking earlier off air, I made the analogy that it's like a train that's trying to get going on the tracks.

[00:15:12] That when it first gets going, it takes so much power and so much energy to get it moving down the tracks. And it starts off really, really, really slow. But if you look back, you go, you know, five seconds ago, we were way back there. And at least we're moving forward. We're going in the right direction. We're not going backwards. We're going forward in the right direction.

[00:15:36] If you realize that, that you're going forward in the right direction, the direction you're supposed to be going, and you're moving a little bit faster each time, a little bit faster each time, that eventually you're going to get to that point where you have all this momentum and you're moving forward. And, you know, once a business gets going, we've all seen, we've both seen this. But once a business gets going, that it's almost like you just need to maintain it at that point. You still want to grow it, but it doesn't take the same energy that it takes at the beginning.

[00:16:06] All that energy, like getting a train going, is really important at the beginning. Yeah, I was just laughing because you were talking about how the word of mouth. And we had a lot of great word of mouth in our businesses, but one was really funny.

[00:16:24] We were doing the executive homes, and I remember getting so upset because we had a lot of college-age, clean-cut young men working for us. And it was really hot in the summer, and they all took off their shirts. And I found out about it, and I was so upset.

[00:16:50] And they're like, no, but they were so friendly, and they had all, you know, they invited their friends over, and they're having drinks or cocktails in the back, and they were all very friendly. And then suddenly, we started booking in that neighborhood. All the housewives were booking, hoping to do that. It was ridiculous. Oh, my goodness. That's just a funny thing.

[00:17:16] They weren't supposed to remove their shirts, but it ended up being a really good thing for that neighborhood. The word of mouth. Find ourselves to the backyard. Yeah. The cocktail parties. And they were so friendly, offering us drinks and water. That's a tactic. And snacks. It's a tactic. Oh, my goodness.

[00:17:39] But anyway, the one thing I wanted to touch on, too, if you're doing something right, bigger companies are watching you. And if your competitors or industry leaders start noticing, following, or even copying you, you know that your idea has traction. And then number three, let's just go over some hard truths. If your business isn't working, and I know this is hard to, because you love.

[00:18:07] Obviously, you love what you're doing and what you've created. But if no one cares, even after consistent effort, if marketing, networking, and tweaking hasn't sparked any real interest, your idea might not have a strong market fit. And if you're fighting the wrong market, just because you love it doesn't mean there's a real demand. I think you've got to see growth. I think it's growth. Like, if you're literally not seeing, I don't care if you're making money.

[00:18:37] That's not the important part yet. It's about growth. If you're looking and you're seeing that more people are getting involved in your company, that whatever that looks like, more people are getting behind your company, more people are interested in your company, more people are buying your products. And are you targeting the right? You're growing. Yes. And if you're growing, something's right. Something's going right. Yeah. And then one more thing, just make sure you're targeting the right audience.

[00:19:05] Make sure that if you don't have any repeat customers or referrals, if people only buy your product once and never return, then there's an issue with the product pricing or value. So identify those and just perhaps, and this is an important one, maybe you have a hobby. It's just a hobby. And you're not really solving any real problems. And there's no strong revenue model.

[00:19:35] Then it's just a passion project. And that's okay. But you're not going to blow up. I think that's a personal decision. That's a personal decision. If you want to make little cupcakes or cookies or sometimes moms have this side hustle that they want to do, but they don't really plan on going big. But that's a personal decision, right? That is a personal. You can grow anything. That's right. But do you want to keep it just as a side hustle or sorry, a passion project?

[00:20:02] It's you're doing it because it feels good to you. You like it. There's a little bit of traction, but it's not moving that well. But perhaps you come up with this incredible recipe that is in demand. Then you have to be prepared. You're going to have to rent that industrial kitchen. You're going to have to go all night long. And are you ready for that? Is that something that you want? So those are things to check off.

[00:20:28] Yeah, you got to ask yourself, do I want more business or am I comfortable where I'm at? I know a lot of people. I know a guy who owns this service-based business where he does garages and epoxy floors. And he doesn't want any more business. He knows about how much business he's going to have. And it's all marketing through word of mouth. And he really doesn't want to grow any faster than that.

[00:20:57] He likes staying at that level with that business. He has another business, though. He's trying to grow. And for him, that works. So you may have a business that maybe it's a side hustle and you have a regular 9-to-5 job. And then you're also doing this business. And you don't really want to work outside your 9-to-5. You want to keep your 9-to-5 job. But you also want to make a little extra money on this side business. And you don't really want to grow beyond where it is. So that's okay. That's true.

[00:21:24] And then the next thing that I wanted to go through is just a little list for you guys to get tactical. Things that can get your business moving right now. So do the research. Pivot. Don't quit. Sometimes just tweaking your offer, tweaking the audience or pricing is all it takes to turn things around. Now the other thing you want to do is leverage social proof.

[00:21:49] Get testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content to create credibility. You really want to create credibility and let that speak. You don't want to be the only one telling everyone how great it is. Let your audience do that for you. Then find that one viral hook. Every successful brand has one message or story that people latch onto. So you need to find yours. You need to find your story.

[00:22:18] That is so important. And then network and collaborate. If your brand isn't growing, try collaborating with bigger players who already have an audience. And I see a lot of brands do this while Love Shack Fancy. They are always collaborating with Stanley or I think they just did a smaller or a less price point collaboration with Goody. They had the floral all over the brushes.

[00:22:48] They literally sell out within, I want to say an hour. Let's just say max an hour. Because every time I try to buy something, it's already gone. I'm busy with the kids and I go online because I want that floral Stanley. It's gone. I wanted the little brush for my daughter. It's gone. So they do a wonderful example of collaboration. And then there's these moms that are affiliates. Let's say they're doing affiliates.

[00:23:18] And you know who's pushing your brand. So all of a sudden, these moms are doing a collaboration with Nordstrom or other companies. And it's this woman's name. That is very common because they have the audience. So seek out someone that represents your brand, whose audience represents your brand. And literally, it can change overnight.

[00:23:47] There's a lot of people on Amazon or Etsy. And these affiliate moms will find a product. And they'll wake up in the morning and say, how did I make $300,000 overnight? Well, because this celebrity influencer shared this person's product. And it just brought them this gold mine of sales overnight.

[00:24:13] So just be really looking for that brand or person that you can collaborate with. It can change your business. It truly can. And make data-driven decisions. Stop guessing. Look for what's working. Double down on it. And cut what's not. So those are just a few steps that you can implement today. Have you heard about that famous study about the marshmallow experiment? We were talking about delayed gratification earlier.

[00:24:40] And they did this study where they gave these kids, this is like in the 1960s, that they gave these kids a choice to whether have one marshmallow right now or two a little bit later. And then they went back. And the ones that picked that they wanted two a little bit later turned out to be all the most successful kids of the group.

[00:25:08] So the ones who were willing to have that delayed gratification were willing to take two marshmallows a little bit later rather than one right now turned out to be the most successful people of the group. And that's what the study was really about. And it really proved it. Now, I mean, I don't know what the controls were, how, you know, overall how it worked and how successful they really were. But I do know this is that you have to be willing to have delayed gratification if you're

[00:25:38] going to be an entrepreneur. You have to understand that concept. I think our kids are going to be okay then. Sometimes when they get sweets, they should take their time. They really take their time. They don't just hog it all up. It's so funny. Um, that's, that's a cute study. I like that. Yeah. So I hope you guys got something out of this guys today. I mean, it's something that is near and dear to both of our hearts that we both had to go through this in, in, in different, in all of our businesses. Yeah.

[00:26:06] And you're going to see that in every business you do, whether you're starting a podcast or you're building a service based business, whatever your business is, be prepared that things are not going to just jump from the get go. That sometimes you may even have a jump at the get go because you're at the right place, right time. But then things might slow down for a second. But just keep being willing to pivot if you need to, to look at where your business can

[00:26:32] grow, how you can do these collaborations, how you can do things to help grow your business, how to build your customer base, how to be a better person to your, how to be a better employer, how to, all these different things that you can do to make your business better. constantly walk around with your eyes open. How can we grow this business? Always be looking to improve your business because that's how you're going to turn that

[00:26:57] company and continue to grow and continue to build until one day you're able to have an exit or keep that company or pass it on to your family. Every, yeah, it's a great experience. That's right. Because every entrepreneur hits a wall before a breakthrough. So don't let slow progress make you quit. Let it make you stronger. And just remember the big brands today almost failed because they, or they almost failed

[00:27:24] before they became the big household name. So remember that. And most importantly, God doesn't plant ideas in you for no reason. If you're meant to succeed, he will open the doors. So look for the signs and do the things you need to do to do those little pivots. And let's blow your company up. Let's blow your business up. One quick story.

[00:27:51] I was, I was talking to Dana White yesterday and it reminded me of this story because I saw one of these videos from him. He said, um, he said, um, in, and I remember this because I was there in 2000 when, uh, 2001, when they purchased the UFC, Lorenzo, uh, for T day partner with Lorenzo for T day, who had the money who, uh, to buy the UFC for $2 million. They, they, they thought this is, they love the sport. They wanted to build it, but it was illegal in every state.

[00:28:19] And they started to put some money into it. And Lorenzo over the next five years, put like $40 million into it. And Dana tells this story about one day, Lorenzo calls him and he says, Dana, I put $40 million into this business and we're still not seeing what we're looking for. Obviously they were doing better, but they're not seeing what they were looking for. They're not seeing that real growth that, that the money coming in the positive cashflow. And he said, Dana, he goes, I can't do this anymore.

[00:28:48] He goes, can you start looking to, to offload the UFC and see what you can do? And this is 2000, about 2005. And so Dan says, yeah. And so he, he reached out and the next day gets back to, to Lorenzo. He says, I think I can get about seven or $8 million for it. And Lorenzo said, okay, let me think about it. Let me go to sleep and think about it. And he woke up the next day and he called Dana and he said, screw it. Let's go for it. And the rest is history.

[00:29:18] And, uh, we were just at the UFC yesterday and it was, uh, you could see how much it's grown and how crazy and how big it is and how, um, ubiquitous it is around the world. So, you know, keep going. You have to push through it. Keep going. You're, you're going somewhere. And, um, good luck to you guys. Thank you guys for listening to this episode of the Pretty and Punk podcast. I hope you got something. Oh, I said Pretty and Punk podcast today. Entrepreneur parents. Pretty and Punk podcast.

[00:29:49] You said it. And if it resonates with you, tag us and share your story. How long have you been building your business? And DM us if you need clarity on your business growth. Let's get you unstuck and come and be a part of our community. We're opening up the doors for a limited time to build another community from scratch because we have our other community. But a lot of people are bugging us.

[00:30:17] How can we surround ourselves with these other entrepreneur parents? We need this community. And it is true. You will become who you surround yourself with. And I feel like these entrepreneur parents, they understand the struggle and the juggle. And we can celebrate those wins together. And when we collaborate together and we talk and we work it through, we are unstoppable.

[00:30:42] God bless you all and have a blessed, successful, amazing week. We'll see you guys next week. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Entrepreneur Parent Pretty and Punk podcast. And I just want to leave this with you. When you're building something, it's going to be hard. But it's going to be so worth it. So keep going, guys. And don't forget this.

[00:31:11] I know you will be able to do this. God bless. I'll always remember you. See you next week. Thank you for listening to the Entrepreneur Parent Podcast. Remember, guys, you've got to keep going. You know this. You can do it. Don't forget to like and subscribe. And be sure to share it with somebody you know. And we'll see you next time. Bye.