#94 – Business is Lonely as an Entrepreneur

SUMMARY:  Stephen talks about things to do in order to not to be lonely as an entrepreneur.

 

[00:00:14] Stephen:  Hey guys, Stephen Esketzis here from Marketing on the Move.  And it’s been a while since we’ve had a podcast.  I know, it’s been a long time.  I actually think it’s been since the start of the year, but it’s been a hell of a long time.  So hopefully you guys are still with me to — you’re still subscribed to Marketing on the Move on your phone, otherwise, you probably have unsubscribed and won’t listen to any future ones.  But if you’re still around and if you get this, when you’re on the website, tune in, still going, not going strong as I’d like, but we’re still going.

[0:00:46] But today, I want to talk to you guys about business being lonely as an entrepreneur.  So long story short, some of the things that have happened with me, a lot of traveling, a lot of shifts in the business models and a lot of new business hypes and things like that that I’ve been launching this year, and I moved out recently, which is exciting.  So actually, for those of you who didn’t know, I lived at home and then just moved out to a new apartment, which is exciting, really cool place to be, and yeah, it’s been awesome.  So one of the things I want to talk to you about was business being lonely as an entrepreneur.  So you know, as entrepreneurs, I’m not [going to say we’re introverts, but we all have our own business, we’re all working on our own things.  Sometimes, it can be hard to actually find people that meet your interest, number one.  Number two, keep you motivated, so being an entrepreneur, you go through peaks and troughs.  So, some days you’re going to be absolutely awesome, you’re going to be launching your product, getting tons of traffic, making a bunch of sales, something comes up, big orders, whatever, and other days, everything will just go to shit and there will be tons of things that just go wrong and you want to work on and nothing is going right.  You know how it is.  It’s just peaks and valleys the whole way through being an entrepreneur.

[0:02:02] And hopefully, overtime, you want that to be going upwards.  That’s our goal.  So when it comes to being an entrepreneur, especially if you’re starting your own business — and number one, you’ve got a remote team, or number two, you’re starting on your own and you don’t have a team initially, it can be pretty lonely.  It’s not embarrassing to say that.  But sometimes when you’re working on your own thing, everyone is focused on their own thing that you’ve got an interest with.  So if you’re trying to chat with other entrepreneurs, everyone is doing the right thing, but when you’re doing your thing, sometimes it’s just you and your computer or you’ve just been working or you’re doing a big session, and it’s hard to find the time to chat with others and whatever — whatever I’m doing the right thing.

[0:02:45] So, entrepreneurs are very business-savvy.  They like building teams as well.  But at the same time, sometimes you’re on your own, and it happens pretty frequently whether you’re travelling, whether you’re working from home, whether you’re — you’ve got a big team but you just don’t have them in an office, all these different scenarios.  So it’s important to be able to actually remind yourself that you’re not alone and you never keep pushing yourself forward, because motivation comes and goes, but I think people are really what help you stay motivated; people who, number one, believe in your view and believe in your business.  That’s what’s going to push you through the hard times moving forward as an entrepreneur.  A lot of people don’t even think about that as a founder, as an owner, you’ve got to kind of have the vision, lead the way.  But you’ve also got to be able to move forward and really be able to take things to the next level.  You got to lead the charge, you got to lead the pack.  And it’s something which is quite hard sometimes to do.

[0:03:44] So yeah, that’s pretty much it.  That’s pretty much the entrepreneurial journey.  And it’s something, I think a lot of people miscalculate, undervalue and don’t think of, which is quite interesting.  So, I want to bring that up today and remind you that you’re not alone.  You can keep going, you can keep pushing.  And one thing I wanted to share with you was that through business as well, you know, when you’re building all this — and eventually, people are going to come around.  You need to get more and more people that actually are going to surround you after you’ve had that perfect business.  So it’s generally the road to greatness is what’s most lonely.  You know, people don’t estimate.  They underestimate all your abilities and things like that when you’re growing as an entrepreneur and you’re growing your business.  It’s only once you get success when everyone wants to be around you and spend time with you and things like that.  So hang in there is my takeaway for today for you guys because if you listen to this, you’re on your own or your business, or you might actually be working part-time or full-time and you’ve got a side business going on or some sort of business that’s taking time away.  And people might be doubting you.  It’s something which you got to hold your nerve against.  And I think that’s one of the hardest parts of building a business, is when you’ve got people who are doubting you, you take the wrong advise and you take advise from friends or family or whatever it might be, and believing in yourself and stick into your guns and really following through is super hard.

[0:05:05] When you don’t have people who’s surrounding you that have been there and done that before, it’s a hard, hard thing to do, so actually stick to your guns and follow-through.  And what I recommend, the remedy to that, is if you listen to other people who are doubting you; number one, try and get away from them if you can.  I know sometimes it’s family as well.  And that’s hard because you really can’t get away from them that much.  But what I’d recommend is find people who have done what you’re doing before and trust yourself with them.  Try and be the best student to them as you possibly can.  Find someone who’s a few steps ahead and then become their best student.  That’s kind of the best answer to that.  And then taking that to the next level is — I heard a marketer, and one of his quotes was he wants to be his mentor’s best student.  And every mentor he has, he wants to be their best student.  I think that’s a really good way of overcoming your doubts and your motivation and that peak and trough to really make sure you’re consistent with everything you’re doing, is you want to find people who are ahead and become their best student.  And that’s who you’ve got to take onboard and consult with advice, someone who you know has been there, has been down the road, is experienced with the thing you’re experiencing, and that you can trust as a valid experience in what you’re doing.  So that way, you know, just taking advice, working through on your own and then worrying about whether something is going to work or not.

[0:06:29] So that’s my advice for you guys today.  And also, one more piece I’m just thinking giving you as well is actually get out there and speak with people.  Go to networking events.  Don’t be stuck in one place.  Just as an example, so right now, as I mentioned, I moved into a new apartment, super awesome.  It’s going to be allowing me to be a lot more productive and things like that.  I’ll be working from the home office initially, and then a few weeks, start expanding the team locally.  Right now, everyone is remote.  So we’ve got a team of 20 to 30 people, I think now, remote, so in the States, in the Philippines and I think Canada, we got one person as well.

[0:07:08] So it’s not a huge, huge thing, but it’s pretty big.  But sometimes, if you’re just working in the office on your own, it’s hard to actually remind yourself that you’ve got that kind of team there.  And everyone is in Slack or Skype or whatever you’re using and you underestimate what everyone’s capabilities are and that they’re all real people and whatever.  So you want to be able to actually remind yourself that you’ve got that team and you’ve got that human interaction even if you’re working on your own.  So what I like to do is — number one is, this year I picked up an accountability partner.  That was really good.  We catch up every Friday.  We go for lunch, we talk about all this to-do list, what did we hit, what didn’t we hit, why didn’t we hit them.  And then we basically catch up every single product for an hour, grab lunch, and then go through that process.

[0:07:54] And what we’re going to start doing — and I encourage you guys to the same.  Actually, I’ll report back how it goes once we’ve actually begun.  But basically, we’re going to start attending random meet-up events outside of our industry.  So we’re both in the kind of marketing online space, slightly different industries, but slightly different sub-niches, but we’re both in kind of marketing and business building.  And what we’re going to start doing is going to different events outside of our industry completely.  So we just want to kind of expand our network, expand our vocabulary, expand our interests and our thoughts and start thinking outside the box because that’s where the best networking comes in, and that’s where the best business ideas come in as well.

[0:08:35] You know, someone who’s like in the gardening industry and you go and attend all the gardening events out there and the conventions, you’re going to think like every other guy.  And I don’t even know what industry it is, but you’re going to start thinking like everyone else you start mixing with.  As soon as you can get outside the box and start going to different events and start taking — you know, one little takeaway you have or one idea that spark something, that’s all it takes for you to be able to make a huge momentum shift in your business, and it’s actually going to be taking it to the next level.

[0:09:04] So it’s something which I think you’ve just got to really pursue and really put pressure on if you want to expand everything you’re doing.  And it’s what I learned from Jay Abraham.  The guy, I like his stuff, but he’s a bit of a waffler when it comes to the talking stage.  He just waffles on about a whole bunch of things, and it’s usually pretty high-level stuff, which is great, great content.  But I signed out pretty quickly.  But there are definitely nuggets in there that you’ve got to take onboard.  And one of those nuggets was, start attending events in different industries.  And I thought that was phenomenal advice, and something that we’re going to be doing.

[0:09:42] So yeah, take onboard one piece of advice — I feel like I’m kind of waffling here and there as well, but you understand that from what I’m saying, just take one or two pieces of advice and then implement it and see how you go.  But absolutely, start seeing if you can find other people you can network with, and then go outside your industry, do something different, think outside the box and don’t stay so lonely.  Entrepreneurs are lonely, so go out and network, make friends even if you’ve got a team or you’re on your own, and that’s what’s going to get you through those troughs when you go through that business building process.

[0:10:18] So, over to you guys, all the best.  We’re going to do another podcast shortly as well.  I’m going to try and keep this going.  I’m going to keep the momentum.  And then if you have any questions or you want to reach me, hit me up on Facebook or in my email and we’ll chat then.  Thanks guys.  Talk to you soon.