Last week, my small business Hometown Sweat turned 10-years-old.
10!!!
In all honesty, running on passion was my original strategy. I didn’t know a thing about marketing, sales made my skin crawl, and an advertising budget never grazed my business plan.
I went ALL IN with my Field of Dreams philosophy… “if I build it, they will come.”
And by some grace of God, they did.
Now 10 years in, I feel an innate responsibility to keep creating, keep teaching, and keep growing my business because I am a woman and a mother.
Huh!?
Yes, really.
This isn’t a Supermom feeling of needing to do ALL THE THINGS; rather, a belief that when women make money, create jobs, affect the economy, hold decision-making positions, and create an environment for change then the world will be a better place.
I recently learned that just last month, nearly 865,000 women left the labor force.
Let that sink in.
Almost one million women no longer working or looking for work.
Make no mistake, the pandemic has shown a harsh, florescent light on the nasty, never-ending game of tug-of-war mothers play. Always being pulled this way and that, never quite winning.
Women and moms can change the world. If you’ve ever seen one get her entire family out of the house before 8am with breakfast in their bellies and clean clothes (albeit mismatched socks) on their bodies, you know exactly what I mean.
But too often they get stuck in these antiquated paradigms that don’t allow for expansion.
Over the the past ten years at Hometown Sweat, I’ve leaned into my identity as a woman and a mother more and more. And each paradigm shift that I delve into below has allowed me to feel more like myself, live and lead more honestly, and continues to bring growth and freedom.
When you have an idea to bring into the world or a passion to turn into a business, embrace these paradigm shifts, for they’ll keep you grounded and focused on your journey to growth and freedom.
I’ve also included free downloads and additional recommendations to get your brain juices flowing, so keep reading!
1. You don’t have to take anything personally … really.
When you don’t take anything personally, you free your entire mindset.
Here’s what I mean:
Not taking anything personally removes the emotional hemming and hawing out of the action required to make a change. Alternatively, it grounds you if you decide to maintain the current status.
A complaint, an employee misstep, or even a one-star online review are not about you personally.
Yes, it’s really that simple.
Think about how much mental energy you’ll conserve when you take everything at face value. You won’t lose sleep over personal conversations or complaints, and you’ll simply do the best you can with the information you have.
If you’re looking to dig in a little deeper, I recommend The Four Agreements. This powerful book will up-level your mindset and further simplify how to not take anything personally.
2. Yes, brick and mortar businesses can thrive online.
Pandemic or no pandemic, the internet gives small, brick and mortar businesses the opportunity to massively multiply their reach. Find ways to digitize your offerings so that you can serve more people whether they live in your backyard or across the ocean.
Think outside the box and offer products or services that complement your in-store offerings.
For example, my yoga studio offers in-studio and online yoga classes. For our online offerings, we’ve curated shorter classes and introduced options that are more conducive to an at-home yoga practice.
Still at a loss of what would work for your business? Grab this quick download where I brain dump what 6 brick and mortar businesses could sell online.
3. Hiring a business coach is a smart move, not a weak one.
I foolishly resisted this point for many, many years. After all, my business had made it past the five year point and was making a profit, but I was stuck doing the same things yet expecting different results.
And something deep inside kept gnawing at me that I could be helping way more people. So after nearly seven years into owning my business, I hired a coach (shout out to Nomad Business Coaching!).
The outside perspective combined with actionable advice allowed me to implement actions that would more than double my membership in under 24 months.
4. Sales and advertising can in fact be heart-centered and thoughtful.
I experienced a massive paradigm shift with sales and advertising once I doubled down on the life-changing nature of my offerings. When your offer solves a problem for others, you’re fulfilling a responsibility by making it available and communicating its benefits.
Essentially you’re solving and serving.
If you, like me, feel a cold shiver run down your spine when you think “sales,” shift your perspective and make the process more about service. And when you sell your offering, remember that you’re helping a member of your community solve a problem and maybe even change her life. Win-win!
5. You can absolutely start building your team from Day 1.
One of the most helpful exercises I’ve ever done has been listing out all the things I’m doing for my business (and for my sanity) and see if someone else can take on any of those responsibilities. I always aim to hire folks who enjoy their responsibilities so everyone remains fulfilled.
Remember, practice makes permanent, so if you resist delegation from the beginning, loosening the reins and hiring will only become more challenging as time goes on.
Here’s a little secret: you cannot hire anyone to take a yoga class for you, go for that run, or take your morning walk. Those activities fuel you to create and persevere and should never be undervalued nor pushed to the back burner.
It’s also normal to feel at a loss on where to begin hiring and delegating.
To dominate and delegate, grab this PDF where you’ll access the exact chart I used to get me started. You’ll realize quickly where you can delegate and what you can keep for yourself.
6. Recurring Revenue is the life blood for your business.
Ok, this is a really important one. Having a recurring revenue stream does a few things:
First off, it gives you a snapshot of the revenue you can expect to bring in the next month so you can plan and budget.
Next, it serves your community because your members will be more likely to use what they’re paying for since they pay for it every month.
Furthermore, monthly recurring revenue will challenge you to keep creating. When the pandemic hit and my business was forced to close temporarily, I knew that continuing to offer classes would allow us to survive and thrive our way through this. My clients were already paying for monthly yoga, so I knew we needed to deliver the very next day.
And lastly, recurring revenue gives you the freedom to live your life, work on your business (as opposed to in), and make time for your “rather be” things. You know, rather be sweating, rather be playing, rather be golfing, rather be cooking, rather be gardening … you get the idea 🙂
7. You’re allowed to not follow your mentors’ advice, you can implement customer suggestions, and your gut always has the final say.
Mentors provide sound, coherent advice, but they’re not always in tune with the day-to-day happenings within your four walls. They could be further along in their journey or have different personal visions. Keep your differences in check when following their guidance. Plain and simple: it’s ok to not follow a mentor’s advice.
Your customers, while not necessarily knowing the ins and outs and back end details, can provide some of the most valuable ideas. When they tell you what they want, consider if a bigger market exists for what they’re suggesting. Then of course determine your expenses, opportunity costs, and whether the idea actually lights you up.
And at the end of the day, listen to your own gut. Does an idea excite you? Does it challenge you? Or does it fill you with dread and squash a little piece of your soul? If an idea feels fun-scary, like it’ll push you outside your comfort zone and make you grow in ways you haven’t explored, those are the gut feelings to follow.
8. Don’t be afraid of change… be afraid of staying the same.
I can best illustrate this point with a little story:
For seven years, my business offered one thing. ONE CLASS STYLE – that’s it. I was so afraid to branch out into different offerings because I didn’t want to upset the status quo, and I feared what the greater yoga community would think. A limiting belief kept hissing that my colleagues and fellow yoga teachers wouldn’t take me seriously if I branched out.
Thank goodness I got over those fears (or more accurately decided to move forward regardless!) because my business exploded in the best way ever. And even more awesome is that now I’m able to serve so many more members of my community.
My mindset shifted from asking what are people going to think? to how many more people can I help?
Remember, it’s not the strongest that are necessarily the ones who survive but rather the ones who are willing to evolve and adapt.
9. Kind, clear communication absolutely produces big results.
Taking inspiration again from The 4 Agreements, I’ve leaned into the advice to be intentional with your word in order to organize communication and free up brain space. At the risk of sounding trite, here’s another way to think about communication:
Say what you mean and mean what you say, but don’t be mean when you say it.
Kind, clear communication leaves little up for interpretation and keeps your team on track.
To take this one a step further, encourage your team to repeat back to you what they think they’ve heard. Not in a pejorative way; simply as a safety net to make sure everyone’s on the same page. It’s fascinating to hear how others interpret your words the first time though. This extra layer of confirmation will motivate you to clarify your communication if their interpretations keep missing your intended mark.
When your team is inspired by and understands your communication, you will get results.
10. Black Lives Matter and practicing anti-racism will make your business more inclusive, not less.
My white privilege allowed me to wait far too long before practicing anti-racism. And to be honest, I still have so much to learn. Fully recognizing that I am not an anti-racist educator, I encourage you to learn from others who specialize in anti-racism. And by “learn” I very much mean hire Black coaches, read books by Black authors, and buy courses from Black educators.
As a white woman, I’ve benefited from racists systems that have afforded me advantages on my business and life journey. What this means is that as a business leader, I have the power and ability to challenge racist systems when you I see them.
And I must work to see them.
Feeling stuck on this one? Invest in 1:1 coaching with an anti-racist educator today.
I’ve worked with Dr. Monea Abdul-Majeed 1:1, and she’s also led workshops for my clients. Dr. Monea is a Racial Justice Trainer and a yoga teacher. Her honest, clear teaching will help you move forward in your business with anti-racism as a core value. With her guidance, I put together this post for my yoga community. Check out her Fall training offering for Yoga Professionals called “Level Up: A Mindful Antiracism Immersion. website by clicking here. You can also reach Dr. Monea directly by emailing her at monea.tamara@gmail.com or visiting her website here.
11. Women business leaders, especially moms, are needed NOW.
Ok, so really we have 11 points here, and this final one is my motivation as I move onto the next decade of entrepreneurship.
I’ll be honest … when we shut down because of COVID back in March, I asked myself, “should we re-open?”
My lease extension was coming to an end, I’d have to sign on for another five years, we couldn’t even open our doors, and we didn’t know for how long the pandemic would affect us (we still don’t, really).
But when I truly considered closure, I became reinvigorated to persevere instead.
Now more than ever, the world needs more female and especially mom business leaders not only to provide for their families but also to allow their compassion, grit, insight, patience, outlook, opinions, and resolve affect our world.
Women are resilient AF and they get shit done. That’s what’s needed in business.
If you have an idea to bring to life, a business to create, or a revenue stream to generate, and you’re a mom, embrace the paradigm that motherhood is not a limiting liability but rather your greatest asset.
at my yoga studio, Hometown Sweat.
