Audio Transcript
Hi guys and welcome back to The Wanderlover Podcast. I want to start off by just thanking each and every single one of you who have reached out with words of kindness, with messages and DMs saying how much you love the first few episodes of the podcast, how much it motivated you and how it inspired you to take action and for sending me screenshots of things you’ve done after listening to it.
(1m 1s):
And honestly, it just makes my day, and it’s what I live for. Right? Like seeing my words make a difference in someone else’s life and just giving them that hope and that feeling of possibility. So thank you guys so much. And I kind of want to just be completely transparent about it. Those messages also mean so much to me because I think I spent three hours recording the first episode of the podcast. Like, was it? Yeah, it was around three hours and the episode ended up being like, what, 40 minutes?
(1m 41s):
But it was so new to me and I just hated how my voice sounded in the beginning so I would keep recording. I would keep stopping and it was just a mess, but it gets easier. And if you’re listening to this being like, oh my God, she is so ahead of me in terms of content creation and podcasting, I’m here to just be like, no, I’m struggling, too, and it takes me so long to record these, but it’s getting easier and easier and that’s just what has to be done. The first step is always the hardest. And in this week’s podcast episode, we’re going to talk about getting started with your side hustle and tackling the belief that you have to be the first in order to be successful.
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And if you haven’t seen it on social media already, I started a brand new Facebook group for new entrepreneurs, for side hustlers, for full-time entrepreneurs, and for creatives. And it’s just such a high vibe community where we can share ideas and network and just help each other on our journeys. So one of my questions to enter the group is, ” What are you struggling with?” And I got hundreds of answers. And today I’m going to talk about one of the most common struggles which is getting started, finding your voice to express yourself, narrowing down what to focus on, and standing out. So these are all answers that other people in the group have responded with and it’s eye opening because if you’re going through the same thing – you’re not alone.
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Everyone who goes from corporate to entrepreneurship – we all go through the same journey. We all go through the same confusion, the same like shiny object syndrome. We all get overwhelmed by the internet, right? You’re not in this alone. And if you’re in a place where, you know, like everyone around you in corporate…They’re not on the same wavelength, they don’t have the same desires, and you’re really feeling like a black sheep… I would really encourage you to join The Wanderlover Community. You can type it in, I’ll link it in the description, but we are here to help you. And so the first thing that I want to bring to everyone’s attention is that you don’t need to put the pressure on yourself that whatever you commit to today, you have to stick with for the rest of your life.
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Right? And I think that is a really big problem that a lot of people coming from corporate have. Maybe just browsing the internet for entrepreneurship ideas, they get so overwhelmed and they put the pressure on themselves that whatever they decide to start, they have to commit to, and it has to work. Right? And Entrepreneurship is never like that. You’re never going to well, not never, but very rarely are you going to just have it all figured out from day one. Where the real learning happens is by doing and trying and taking action yourself. And if you’ve listened to my first episode, I talked through the four chapters of my professional career of my entrepreneurship days in four years..four chapters in four years!
(4m 52s):
and it’s like just a fraction of the life I’ve lived so far. And I don’t put that pressure on me that whatever I choose to pursue, I need to commit to forever. I know things change. I know the environment changes. Like there was a pandemic… There is a pandemic. So things are flexible with entrepreneurship, but what you learn from doing it yourself, you can always apply to the next step. So it’s just so important to get started. Also, what I see as the case for a lot of new entrepreneurs is they get really discouraged when they start seeing successful people on the path they want to pursue, and then they start doubting themselves, right?
(5m 35s):
They look at all of these famous Instagrammers, YouTubers, dropshippers, and then they’re like, “Oh my God, these people are so good. They’re making so much money. The market is saturated. I don’t have what it takes. I didn’t even start yet. How am I going to distinguish myself? And how am I going to be successful?” Right? And you start getting overwhelmed, you start getting discouraged, and then you start questioning your ability because you have nothing in front of you to show for it. And it’s a catch-22, because the more you look at those people and the more you’re learning, the less action you are willing to take because you just think you’re not good enough. And I remember specifically going through this exact scenario.
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I think this was in 2016 or 2017 when I wanted to be a content creator – when I wanted to be a YouTuber. And I would look at these people with millions of followers. And I told my friend back then I can’t do this. I want to do this; I can’t do it. Look how many people are out there already. Look at like, look at their team, making this content for them. Look at their entire crew. Look at all the systems they have. And my friend was like, “Wait, but look at this.” And I was personally referring to Aimee Song. I don’t know if you guys know her. She is an absolute sweetheart. And just her fashion, her posts – it makes me laugh.
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And it’s just a bundle of joy. But anyway, I was looking at Aimee Song back in 2017 and everything was just so professional. Right. And then my friend was like, but look at this. And what he did was he went back to Aimee’s YouTube, sorted it from oldest to newest and showed me her first episode from 2011 or 2010. And it was…I don’t want to call her out. You guys can check if you want, but I promise this is like from good intentions to help all of you and just to like, share what I went through. But this video was her with like a Macbook in photo booth being like, “Look at my outfit!”
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Right? And at that point it was such a cute video. And I don’t mean to say it wasn’t like great, but it was just… It made it so much more real for me because I realized that’s where she started from. And then once I saw that I started going back all the way to all other content creators that I admired and seeing their stuff one. And I think that’s when it clicked for me that I need to be comparing my step one to their step one. Right? You can’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter 20. It’s not, it’s not how it works, but you need to start from chapter one in order to get to chapter 20.
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And this is also where I want to tackle the limiting belief that the market for influencers, for coaches, for content creators, for whatever it is that you want to do, that it’s saturated. And I see this excuse a lot because three years ago, I thought it was saturated, but it wasn’t actually saturated. It was just because I was scared and I was giving myself an excuse to not put myself out there. Right. And if you really think about this and challenge it, is it really saturated? If there are people starting, if there were people that started last year and they’re successful this year, there’s people starting today and they will be successful in a year. So don’t use the saturation excuse as an excuse, right?
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As an excuse to not do that. If you are an entrepreneur or want to be an entrepreneur and wants to be part of an all-inclusive high vibe, community of side hustlers, digital nomads, and creators, I just created a brand new free Facebook group called The Wanderlover community. And everyone in it is here to support, inspire, take massive action together, learn about all things social media, online business mindset and travel. And feel free to ask questions. I am in it every single day. Entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs and we are here to help you through the lows and celebrate the highs.
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I’m really excited because I’m going to be doing live trainings, Q and A’s, wine nights. So please join us and don’t miss out on the fun; you can search on Facebook, The Wanderlover Community, or click on the link in the description. I’ll see you inside. One of my friend’s favorite TV shows that I’ve been watching since college is shark tank. And for those of you who aren’t familiar just really quickly, it’s a show where there are five investors known as sharks. They’re really wealthy. It’s like Mark Cuban, Laurie Grenier, and Damon John. And the concept of the show is entrepreneurs pitch their ideas so that they can partner with one of the sharks in exchange for equity in their business.
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And I’ve been watching this for years, right? Even before I pursued entrepreneurship. So this was in college when I was still like looking for a corporate job. I just really love this show. And looking back… What I realize is that this show kind of made me believe that in order to become a successful entrepreneur, you had to think of a completely new idea, an untested market, just a completely new, innovative thing that would change the world. Right? And I feel like a lot of times that’s what people think of with Kickstarter campaigns, with inventions.
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The concept of entrepreneurship is always creating this brand new product. And while that is the case for a lot of entrepreneurs, there’s also a subset of entrepreneurship where you’re not creating anything new per se. You’re just bringing yourself to the market. The market is tested for you write. And most of the time you want to go into a market where there’s already competitors, where they already basically prove that there’s a need for it and people are buying, which goes back to the title of this show, or I mean, of this episode. It’s that you don’t have to be the first. And if that’s where are struggling with entrepreneurship right now, like trying to think of this brand new idea where you have to do a bunch of market research market testing, you can still think that way, but there is an alternative where you can just bring yourself because no one else in this world is you.
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And if you just have your personal brand online, that in itself is a business. And if you are listening to this and you’re like, “But what do I have to offer? I’m not special. I don’t know anything that other people don’t know.” And if you just really think there’s nothing special to you, I’m here to tell you that that is completely false. And what is happening is you’re in this bubble, right? You’re in this bubble of people who you associate with, who you hang out with, who you’re surrounded by. And maybe that bubble is some like corporate American office. And when you’re in this bubble, you don’t realize that there are so many other bubbles out there in the world, right?
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And everyone has different interests, different passions, different skills, whatever you’re working in. I’m sure like 99% of the world won’t know how it operates, right? And this is like my boyfriend; he used to work in roofing and he’ll like, tell me these roofing terms. I’m like, what, what is that? Like, I’ve never heard of the different types of roofs and all of these terminologies. It’s just so foreign to me that I wouldn’t ever have even thought of it if he didn’t bring it up. Right? And same thing, like I used to work in finance. So when I tell other people about like financial terms and they’re working in like the creative industry, and they’re like, what is that?
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Right? And so if you think like this, there’s definitely things that, you know, that other people don’t. And when you pursue this further, you start realizing there are unique things about your personality, about your brand – not only your expertise – but like who you are, your personal values, that’s different. And it’s like finding a partner, right? Like everyone has different criteria. There’s so many different people. If people were the same in terms of personality and interests, like wouldn’t everyone just be married to like the same person, right?
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And so just be authentic and be you and put yourself online. So once you start realizing, “Oh my God, I do have stuff to share,” this is when you start building the systems and by systems, I mean, taking your personal brand, making it visible online, and telling people around the world exactly who you are. And there should never be a disconnect between who you actually are and who you show up as online. Right? People want to see authenticity and people want to see the real you. And so this would look like building an Instagram page, engaging with your audience, creating a blog, writing blog posts, building your profile on LinkedIn, starting a podcast, right?
(15m 16s):
All of these are vehicles where you can start reaching your ideal audience and when you can start making an impact. And this reminds me of the quote, “There are people less qualified than you doing the things you want to do simply because they believe in themselves and take action.” And I don’t feel comfortable like preaching this because I totally understand where people come from. Like I was there just a few years ago. I was like, I don’t have the background, right? Like I came from finance.
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I’m not, I don’t have a creative background. I’ve no idea how to, how social media works. I don’t have a public Instagram profile. Right? And the thing is like, there’s people starting from nothing all the time. There are no credentials, there’s no certifications. There’s no like, what’s the word, minimum qualifications to be successful as an entrepreneur. And any time your mind tells you that there is, or there are, it’s a limiting belief. It’s an excuse to get you to not take action and stay inside of your comfort zone. Also, if it makes you feel any better, I’m still starting from the beginning on a lot of platforms.
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I’m in the middle of my 90 day LinkedIn challenge and it’s been the second week. Before I started, I was scared shitless of posting on LinkedIn. And it was all my former like finance executives, all my corporate friends. And here I was, as The Wanderlover being like, “Oh my God, look at this freedom based lifestyle.” And it’s just like, I’m back to being the black sheep, right? And it was uncomfortable. But as I said before, the first is always the hardest. You just have to get it over with and take action. And even with my Facebook group, right? My Facebook group is completely new.
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It started out with zero people, but it’s only going to get better from there. You’re starting from the bottom, but you’re working your way up. And if you’re still not convinced and you think the problem you’re going through is just like not solvable, then you really can’t start at all. I actually made a spreadsheet with every single struggle that the members of my Facebook group are going through. And I just want to read them out to you to make you realize once again that you are not alone. So people are saying: social media and website, finding my niche, making new content, getting coaching clients, marketing, leaving the nine to five to pursue full-time entrepreneurship, getting confident in my skills, clarifying my offer, starting, starting branding, just making it work.
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Everyone has struggles. And the only way to get out of this cycle of struggling is to take action. So if you are at a point where you’ve listened to this podcast and you’re like, “Yes, Danielle, I want to take action. I know I can do this. I just need to get started. But where do I start?” Well, I have some ideas for you. So by the end of the day to day, I have three tasks. Actually. It’s like one main one and three examples. So my take actions tip is to put something out into the world for the first time.
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So if you have an Instagram it doesn’t count if you’re just like posting again, right. It has to be something that you’re doing for the first time ever. And so this is like, for example… You can start in Instagram for your business. Think of the name and just start it. You can always change it, but I want you to have the actual page up because having it up is more important than thinking about it in your head for a week. Start on Instagram or if you already have one, start a website or start a Shopify store, right? Create something. Another idea is to post a video or even better post a live video, introducing yourself, talking into the camera in my Facebook group.
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And as of now, we’re only like a little over a hundred people. So it’s not a big audience. It’s not a huge audience. And it’s a perfect place for you to practice. Just get comfortable with stepping outside of your comfort zone. We’re all here to support you. And we’re all going through the same thing, right? And so by the end of today – take action. Screenshot whatever it is that you’ve done and tag me. I will repost it. I will be supporting you every single step of the way. I hope you guys found this episode helpful. I’ll probably be going through more struggles and just giving really practical, actionable advice every week.
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And if you’re not in my Facebook group yet, please join. I would love to have you there. Let me know what you thought about this episode and have a great week, guys!
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