In this episode...

Laura Hargrave: Welcome everyone here at Boss It, we would love to hear from you. Join us in our Boss It community by heading over to our website, bossitclub.com and join our mailing list. As we grow, we will be launching our community of fellow Boss It BFFs, and we like you to be a part of it.
Okay, Sophia Noreen, let's dig into this. I can't wait to tell them all about how we got here.

Sophia Noreen: Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup and launched it in big-box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full-time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family, and self-care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful, scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe, we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day.

There should be no hesitation. Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you.

Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. And today, you are in for a treat because I am going to be providing you the four foundations that helped me in my business. So we went back and grabbed the best four tips that we thought could help you as you progress through your entrepreneurial journey. We talked about entrepreneurship in three stages, and how you can identify which stage you might be in, and what are the three tips that you could use to navigate your journey. We also talked about how you should be patient in business. And I have a hack for you that you can try. That is episode 67 if you want to listen to more afterward. We also speak about psychological ownership and how you need to learn how to use your resources to the fullest. That episode clip is taken from episode 56. And then finally, all about accountability and how accountability can be used to help progress in your business. And that is from episode 73. And before I forget, the three stages of your entrepreneurship journey is actually from episode 59. So we have four episodes that we grabbed these tips from. So if you want to go back after, we will link them in the show notes so you can go back and catch those tips even more in-depth. And I really hope you enjoy these four foundations because trust me, guys, you got this. You can do it. And you just have to get into action. And it's amazing what can actually happen. All right. Enjoy the show. And remember, you can always follow us on Instagram at @ bossitclub. Or you can check us out on the website, bossitclub.com.

You need to be present in the current state that you're in. So for us in our product-based business, Also Sophia, we are in the phase of scaling. We started off in the discovery phase. I would say, I started in the discovery phase as an early entrepreneur. When I still worked in my hospital job as a physiotherapist. And I would be thinking about different businesses. Because naturally, if you have that entrepreneurial drive or spirit, I feel like something will always pull you in that direction. It can be a good idea., it could be a mission that you really want to explore. For me, of course, it was a combination of both. I was in a very secure job. That drive just pulled me along the way. But before I got that idea and that mission, I was looking for other things like I looked into the coffee. As a physiotherapist, I thought to open my own clinic for a while, opened my own gym, and I literally explored these areas in business. So you could be in that stage as well. The first stage I call is the discovery phase, and this can last for a number of years where you want to do a business, but you're not sure what you want to do. You have all these great ideas, so you're going to go ahead and you're going to explore them. And that's perfectly fine. I actually encourage people to remain in the discovery phase until they have something that's compelling them to work a little bit more than they're used to working. So for example, I would definitely work on the gym idea. I did my research there. We got to the financials and we realize, well, it's not going to be as sustainable if we have a hiccup. And the COVID pandemic was a good hiccup that if we had opened the gym, we would have likely been dragged down with it. So we didn't pursue that. But another reason why that gym idea didn't go into fruition was because I wasn't driven. I didn't have that North Star. I wasn't being pulled, which brings us to our first point that we spoke about just minutes ago that, if you don't have that compelling vision, it's going to be really hard to motivate yourself and move forward when it gets really difficult.

So, if you don't have that North Star, that mission, that vision, or that person, or that community in going through your discovery phase and you're not being compelled to work on it, say after hours, then I would let it go. So for tip number two, you need to be present in your current state. So, of course, a discovery phase is one of the states then build-it, I would say, building your business. And I would say, Also Sophia, the product-based business was in the build-it phase for about, I think the previous two years while we were getting our foundations laid. We are using influencer marketing to discover who our ideal target audience was. We were getting to know the community and what they wanted. We were going into a large retail space, so we were building connections and understanding how that world worked.

And then the last phase, to really break it down, I'm sure there's more phases that could be in between. But for me, those are the three big phases: discovery, build-it, and then scale-it is the final phase. And that's where you really have established your standard operating practices, your SOP, and you start scaling your team, your distribution channels, and potentially, even scaling to different continents and different countries. And so, we are approaching the scale-it phase for Also Sophia, and we are starting to grow our team. We have established SOPs, Standard Operating Practices, that are going to help us scale without too many hiccups, hopefully.

And tip number two is really about being present in that current state. When you start a business, it is a journey. And I know it looks really glamorous to say, okay, I'm starting today and I want to be a million-plus dollars in revenue in the next two years. But that may not be part of your journey, and it might take longer to get there. If that is even a concept for you. Some people are like, no, I'm going to keep it as a nice sustainable practice at home. My goal for the business is to bring in a good amount of money so I can use it for my spending like family vacations.
Many people are in that position. And I think that position is wonderful, because not only that you're feeling your entrepreneurial spirit, it's a hobby business, right? So it's a hobby for you. You're able to understand and enjoy business, and it's not stressful, or it may not be as stressful. So it's the best of both worlds. Be realistic with that current state that you're in even when you're in that hobby business. Are you in the discovery phase where you're trying to figure out what do I want to do? Or are you into a point where you're building your foundation? Be present, and think about the journey and the process, and trusting the journey and the process.

You cannot build a beautiful tower unless you have a strong foundation. And you don't want to build a beautiful tower if you haven't done your research and understood the land that it sits on. So the discovery phase will really help you understand the land. When you're in the build-it phase, it'll help you understand if your foundation is being set appropriately. And then of course, in the scale-it phase, that's when you're laying the layers of bricks to build your tower higher and higher and higher. And so, be okay with that. I would take a moment now and just rate the stage that you're in. Are you in stage one: discovery stage, two: build-it or stage three: scale-it? And be present with that. And that's completely okay, right? To say, I'm in the discovery phase. I'm okay with it. I'm not going to rush this phase. I want to ensure that I'm enjoying this phase. I want to ensure that I've chosen the correct path for myself at this point. And you can always change the path later. But at this point, this is what I'm choosing to do. And then you move forward to the build-it phase. Lay your strong foundation. Start getting your standard operating practices together before you start saying, I'm going to cross the continent. I'm going to cross that big pond. We need to build it and then scale it.

Sophia Noreen: you need to understand that your business will take time to grow. Let me say that again. It will take time for your business to grow. You need to be patient. I think a lot of people are really in to make it happen fast, quick money. You see it all over the internet, all over Google, all over YouTube, how do you make a quick dime? So now, I want to tell you that if you are in the business to create a brand for yourself, a personal brand or even a product-based business brand, it does not matter, it will take time. And I have a hack though on how this actually happened quicker for our business, Also Sophia. That's our product-based business. We actually were able to leverage social media through influencer marketing. And I think this is something that many businesses don't get right, and then they get discouraged and they just stop using influencer marketing. Remember, if somebody is going to be promoting their products on their platform, that's great. You got your audience. But now, the goal for the growth for your business needs to be reaching new audiences. And so why not borrow the audience of an influencer?

I think that if you can find the right influencer, either on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, you're gold. And when I say right influencers, they have to be the people who have the community that would purchase your product, or even joins your personal brand. We have shout-outs through Instagram, for example. If you have a community and it matches the community in that influencer's community, it's a bit complicated, I guess, but if you know who you're talking to and that influencer is talking to the same people, then that is the influencer that you need to bring into your team. These content creators are making a business themselves. They are basically trying to leverage their personal brand to make an income, and they're influencers. So obviously, we have an amazing program that we've launched two times already called Influencer Marketing Made Easy. I will put the link in the show notes, or I'll put the link at the bottom of this video so you guys can check that out. But that is the thing.

Influencer marketing was a thing that allowed us to grow our business, Also Sophia, faster. And if you've missed it, we have previous episodes on our podcast that talk about influencer marketing, and how it actually helped us also get into bigger retail. So it's not just about making sales, it's also about the brand name awareness that you get when you have an influencer team with you. The reason why we even made the program to begin with, guys, was because people were asking for help. So I can't obviously go around and help each business create an influencer campaign, so this is our way of giving back to you.
achieve psychological ownership. Now, I think this is a fantastic tip and I'm going to apply it now to entrepreneurship. And as an entrepreneur, we generally lack resources such as time, energy, money, or even some financial funding. We, as entrepreneurs, when we get started, have to be scrappy. We have to be very resourceful. And the Stretcher's Mindset is all about being resourceful, versus a Chaser's Mindset which is the complete opposite, is someone who feels that they need more resources to do better or do more.

So when you are in a Chaser's Mindset, you generally have this ideology that needs this much more revenue, or I need this much more funding to be able to do this much more for my bottom line. Versus Stretcher's Mindset would say, no, let me look at the resources I have today. And let me see if I can still achieve my goals without having more funding. that's a very broad example, but I'm going to bring it down now to how you can use psychological ownership to become more of a stretcher. So again, use the resources that you have available to you today in order to achieve your big goals. Obviously, when it comes to financial funding, if you're making money, you have ownership of that asset.
And many people are very careful of how they're going to spend that money because they have ownership of that money. Versus if you are a child and your parent's hand you a credit card and they're like, go spend some money, you may buy as many toys as you would like. Or if you're working for a large company and the budget is endless, you may go and just spend the money like you don't own it. You have no ownership over it. If you have ownership over your money, then you're more likely to be very careful on how you're going to spend it. I do like to cite Sam Walton. If you do read his biography, you will see how much ownership he had of the funding.

And even when Walmart was growing tremendously and they would go out for trips, he would ask the team to all share the same hotel room. Some would stay on the floor, just so they could save money. And that's just a really extreme example because it showed how much ownership he had over that funding, and how he was being really resourceful on how he would spend that funding.
Sophia Noreen: We can also apply this psychological ownership principle to your energy and also to your time. And I think this is where it gets tricky because if you have ownership over your time, you'll be very diligent on when and how you use your time, and what to say yes and no to. So the money of course is very easy to say, yes, I have ownership. I'm very careful with my money as an entrepreneur. As a responsible adult, I will be careful with my money. But can you say the same thing about your time? Have you taken ownership of your time? That is a bit more difficult. Not everyone will take ownership of their time by diligently saying, okay, this is what I'm going to do at this time of the day. Especially when you're in the entrepreneurial space, if you're not working in a traditional 9 to 5, you are your own boss. You may not have the ability to have an accountability group at this time so no one is standing over your head and saying, okay, you need to accomplish this task at this time.

So you have to have the psychological ownership to get it done. If you don't have that psychological ownership of your time, then your day could be gone and you may not even realize that you spent three hours scrolling through Instagram when you really should have been completing a deliverable that you had for yourself.

Another example of psychological ownership is over your energy. Sometimes people are not as cognizant on how they spend their energy. It takes me a lot of energy to do simple things like social media. Doing a social media post is very toxic for some people. If you don't have a great strategy yet, it could be taking hours. So not only are you not owning your time, your energy is being depleted because you're not enjoying the task. If you're enjoying the task, then that's different. Because you're enjoying the task, you get stuck into a good flow and in the end, you realize, oh my time went by but I really enjoyed that task. Versus trying to complete that task, not enjoying that task and now you feel depleted. You don't feel energized after doing that task.
If you feel energized after doing a task, that's fantastic. But if you feel depleted, can you say that you have psychological ownership over your energy? So again, as you would apply the same principles to time and to money, you should also apply it to your energy and be really, really careful on how you spend your energy. Because again, energy is not infinite. You need to be able to conserve your energy for the best tasks for you to complete, and then develop systems or find team members, find volunteers, find your mom, find your sister, find your best friend to help you with other processes. So that way you're not getting stuck and burning out, and then not being able to achieve the goals that you're looking to achieve.

Sophia: accountability is your best friend. If you tell somebody, your business BFF, your spouse, your partner, your sister, your brother, your best friend, you can even tell your dog if you like. But I want to make sure that you feel you have ownership of this goal. We're not talking about when you will actually achieve the goal. That's a whole other conversation. All we're saying today is you have committed to action-oriented steps that will move you towards your goal accomplishment and you're committing to a specific time block in your calendar, a specific time and frequency throughout the week. And now, they're going to go and tell somebody about it. Which means you are going to be held accountable.

Now, you could tell somebody who doesn't really care. Or you could become a little bit more savvy and you could put money on the table. Some people use a trick where they'll write a cheque to their friend. For example, say you write a thousand dollar cheque to your business BFF or your best friend, your brother, your sister, your mother, whoever it is. And you say, if I do not do this action, you are allowed to cash the cheque. Simple as that. And if it's a significant amount of money, and I know money motivates people, that's the reason why I use this. If it's a significant amount of money, you might in fact ensure that you get that goal done. And you don't even need to use money.

I actually have a class that I go to, or I was going to before the pandemic hit and shut down my gym again. But with the pandemic, our gym had to become very organized and they started reserving our yoga spots using an app. So I would actually have to reserve my spot many days before the yoga class to ensure that I had a spot and we weren't too full. And because I had committed to going to that class on that spot at that specific time and it was in my calendar now because I booked it in the app, and then the app put into my calendar, I was so much more committed and accountable and I actually attended the classes more frequently. So just a simple action of me committing externally to the app, I was more likely to finish the action.
Isn't that crazy? I think that's pretty incredible that there was no money on the table there but it was just me committing to the app. I guess, really, I was really just reserving my spot in the app an hour before the class. Of course, if I had not unenrolled from the spot I was committed. And they said that if you don't show up for that spot and you do that three times, then we are going to pause your ability to reserve any spots in any class for two weeks. So I, of course, never wanted that to happen.

So at the last minute, I might feel like, oh, I just don't feel like going to my yoga class. I'm not going to go today. And because I go and I looked at my phone and I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm already within the hour. I have to go now because I don't want to be that one that gets banned from booking a class for two weeks. So talk about shame, but it doesn't really matter. The point here is, if that works for you if you need somebody to hold you accountable, but it doesn't have to be with money. You could even try out a system where somebody else has access to your calendar and they may be like, okay, well, it looks like you booked in. Did you actually go for your walk? Or did you actually go for your gym resistance training? Or did you actually meet and greet with five potential business leaders that can help you expand your business and sales? That's what you need.
You need that level of accountability. And remember, it could be that you need to put money on the table to really get you moving. It could be that you just even need to publicly announce it. So some people will even publicly announce that they're doing something and because they've publicly announced it to the world of social media or even to their family, that holds them accountable. So that is a great trick.

One other trick that my friend uses, and she now is in the weight loss space, she will actually go book a photoshoot for herself. So she'll book a photoshoot that is meant for people who are training and she will have that six months or five months down the road. And now she's like, shoot, I have a photoshoot that I booked and I want to look amazing for it. So I need to train every single day. So those are other acute examples that I think work very well. And I want you to really try to find something that will make you push into action because it's great if you pick a specific action-oriented step that will push you towards your goal, which is the first tip we spoke about. And it's great if you go ahead and you schedule it into your calendar and you time block it. But if you don't have that accountability, that's where a lot of people really slide with achieving their goals.

Sophia Noreen: So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now, it's time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story, and tag us at @bossitclub. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our top 50 tips for starting and scaling a business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers so don't miss out. Now remember bosses, make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes, you can have it all.