"Just Start" and Other Lessons Learned from 4 Years in Business

Shauna celebrates her first podcast episode and 4 years of her business, Simplified Savvy. She discusses how she got started and the various lessons she's learned along the way.

SHAUNA GREY
www.simplifiedsavvy.com/
Instagram: @simplifiedsavvy & @thesavvyscooppod
YouTube: Simplified Savvy - The Savvy Scoop Podcast

Transcript

Shauna Grey | The Savvy Scoop Podcast

Welcome to the Savvy Scoop podcast. We are officially live. We're giving you the full scoop on all things living your best life. If you want more of that, join me. New episodes drop every Wednesday for you to enjoy. I am your host, Shauna Grey. I am a business and social media mentor for service-based small business owners and social media managers.

Well, I hope you'll be a fan of the show. And when you are a fan of the show, I would appreciate you rating and giving it a review wherever you listen. And you could also watch the show on YouTube and subscribe over there so you never miss an episode. As I said, today is it, the premiere episode. I am like so just beyond ecstatic to finally be officially launching this thing. I have been talking about a podcast.

for so long dreaming about it. I just couldn't get it all to come together. But finally it is happening. As a kid, I used to make up lots of shows in my bedroom, just like chit-chatting to myself in the mirror. And I also used to have asides to a studio audience. And I always wished that I had a studio audience. I always pretended that I did have a studio audience.

And now I have started the podcast and I have an audience, hopefully. So it is really like my childhood dreams all coming true with this podcast. Even if no one listens, I'm making my childhood dreams come true by giving myself a place to talk and hopefully a couple of people listening. So it also happens to be my business's birthday. Simplified Savvy turns four years old today. I can't believe it. It has felt so long and so short.

at the same time. I started this business before 2020. I started it in October of 2019, and that actually really kind of worked out since we all went virtual in March of 2020 anyways. But I started it because I was a busy working mom, and then I was on my second maternity leave and I couldn't imagine going back to a nine to five with two kids and doing all the hustle that comes with those like getting ready in the morning and the drop-offs and then the rushing to get back to pick them up. And I just couldn't do it. I couldn't think of it. And I honestly had wanted to start my own business for years. I wouldn't have been ready if I'd done it before that. So I'm glad that I didn't.

But I really did have a version of a business for myself in my head for a really long time. So I was happy that I could finally, it made the most sense. I was on maternity leave anyway. So instead of returning to my job, I decided to take things into my own hands, leap into entrepreneurship. And we're not going to pretend like it's all been sunshine and roses. I mean, the last few years have been just crazy. But.

It has been amazing and everything that I wanted to get from it, which was taking the skills that I already had in communications and wrapping them up into services that I could offer to my fellow small business owners. It's been a dream. I wanted to just work with other people who I could click with and have clients who I just really vibed with and whose businesses really excited me. And then I could bring...

my skills with writing and communications and social media and all of that to them. So yeah, it's just been amazing. It's been a wild ride. I mean, I think any business owner would be lying if they said they didn't want to take their business and throw it in the garbage every so often. Start again, completely abandon it. I've definitely had times like that. Definitely had times like that. I would say this year has been the times that I've...

It's been the year that I've wanted to do that the least. So yay for that. So maybe the third year, getting into the third year is worth years the charm. So anyways, what I wanted to talk about today on the podcast since it is my business's birthday and the premier episode, I was gonna talk about lessons I have learned in my four years in business. And I think they can apply to life too in anyone, even if you're just like a working.

even if you don't have your own business, I think some of these lessons could really apply to just about anybody. So the first one is not everyone will get it. Not everyone will get it. Whatever it is that you wanna do, not everyone's gonna understand. You know, starting your own business or launching a podcast or starting a new hobby. I mean, whatever it is, people aren't always going to understand your choices. Do it anyway.

Who cares? Honestly, who cares what they think? Do you need their approval to live your life? I have some incredibly supportive people in my life. The people in my life have been very, very behind me and always encouraging me, but I know not everyone has that. And I know not everyone understands what the heck I do, but they don't need to. They're not my target audience. So.

Don't give up on your dream just because you're worried about what anyone thinks. Honestly, like this life is too damn short to not spending it doing the things that you love. Right? Okay. So on that note, my second piece of advice is just start. You will regret not starting sooner. That was one of the best pieces of advice, best pieces of advice I got when I started my business. I kept wanting to like push back, push back, push back the launch date.

because I didn't feel ready. I didn't feel like my website was perfect. I didn't feel like I had my social media presence really locked down. Did I have my offers really solidified? Did I know exactly what I wanted to do? I mean, at some point it just has to be good enough. It just has to be good enough and then you just have to do it. Because if I had waited even longer to start my business, I mean, I would still wouldn't have launched it because how many times has my business like changed over the last four years? A heck of a lot. That's a-

a story for another podcast. I'll get into that another time. But yeah, you will never start. You will never start if you wait for it all to be perfect. And honestly, you will regret not starting sooner. You will, because you just figure it out along the way. You learn as you go, which leads me to my third point, when to push and when to pivot. You need to, you know, that's been big learning for me over the years.

This is your business. If you aren't happy with what you're doing anymore, you can change it. Like I said, I have changed my business services many times over the last four years. But that being said, there are times when you'll be frustrated with what you do and work with a client or things aren't going to be going amazing. And that doesn't mean necessarily that it's like, OK, we're starting all over again and putting all of that away. No.

sometimes you just have to push through. Sometimes you just have to push through that hard time because if you really do love what you're doing and you're just having a hard time with a difficult client or you're having some other maybe issues going on that are like pushing you away from what you're doing, you know, give yourself time and push yourself. And really a lot of times I've found that the hard, when I go through some, you know, hard seasons in my business, almost always, like a huge...

beautiful revelation will come out of that. And it takes me in a direction that I never thought of and makes things even better. So sometimes you need to push through it. That being said, if you are consistently really not enjoying what you're doing anymore and you've done soul searching and you know that there's something else calling to you, then pivot. I know, I hate that word too. We used it too much the last few years, but there's no really better word to it. Pivot.

Do something else because it is your business. You need to make yourself happy and do what makes the most sense for you. This also takes me to my next point, which is you will have mental blocks, et cetera, you need to push through them. But imposter syndrome, it will rear its ugly head. It's inevitable. If you care...

about your business, you will have imposter syndrome. Just the way it is. No one is immune to this. Every business owner that I admire, that I have had the opportunity to speak to, has told me that they second guess themselves all the time. All the time. So those people that you see that seem like they have it all together, that you just admire and think they are amazing and think they are incredible.

They have second guessed themselves on more than one occasion. So when you're doing it to yourself, just know that you're not alone, but that doesn't mean that it's time to just stop what you're doing and burn it all down. When this happens, I can't stress this enough, it is time to turn off social media because most of the time when you are getting imposter syndrome, it's because you're looking at what everyone else is doing.

Stop that. It's time to get off. It's time to turn it off. Put it away. And be guided by what you really want. Think about what you really want. You don't have to do business like everyone else, which leads nicely into my last lesson. Authenticity is everything. Please be yourself. Please don't be a copycat of everyone else that you see online.

Bring your whole self to the party. We wanna get to know you. I don't wanna just know about your business. I do wanna know about your business, but I also wanna know like, what kind of coffee do you drink? How do you take it? What do you eat all day? What do you do in your free time? Do you have kids? Do you have pets? Where do you live? I wanna know all of it. You know, showing up as yourself is your greatest flex. Because, you know, this...

online space is so, so crowded. And there's a lot of people who do what you do. That's okay, there's room for us all. But what's going to make you stand out from somebody else like you, another service provider like you, is actually you, your personality. What makes you unique? What makes you special? And that's what's gonna make somebody choose you.

over somebody else in your industry. So you want to be able to find those connection points with people, and that's how you're really going to resonate. Okay, that's it. A short and sweet episode for the first one. Thank you again so, so much for being here. I am so excited, and I can't wait to keep hanging out with you every week, every Wednesday. Look for the next episode to drop. Next week I'm going to be doing

Oh, I'm gonna be, yes, it's going to be an interview with my health coach, Lisa Klein. She is incredible and she is the person that got me started on my health and wellness journey two years ago, which frankly is why I'm able to do this podcast now, talking about all things living your best life because I started this journey two years ago and I've been slowly working my way to changing things so that I feel like I am living my best life every day. So stay tuned for that.

Next Wednesday that episode will drop. It happens to be the two-year anniversary of when I started working with her, so it's a really special episode near and dear to my heart. I hope you'll keep listening. Thank you again so much for being here, and I'll see you next week.