161 | The Power of Embracing Failure as an Entrepreneur
If you haven't failed recently, then it's probably a sign that you are actually staying inside of your comfort zone and you're not taking risks or trying new things
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE:
Discover the power of embracing failure as an entrepreneur in this insightful podcast episode and join Danielle as she shares personal experiences of facing rejection and failure while building the Business Babes Collective community!
So if you want to be someone who embraces failure, tune into this episode where we cover:
Why avoiding failure will hold you back from moving forward.
Embracing failure and using it as an opportunity for growth
Viewing setbacks as learning experiences rather than personal failures
Surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs taking big risks
Viewing failure as a stepping stone
The Price of Avoiding Failure
Building a business, a community or creating your vision isn’t easy. There are going to be moments that challenge you and test you! You’ll experience rejection, failure and so many challenges. Just because you take scary action doesn't mean things magically come together for you.
If you avoid failure, you miss opportunities to grow your business with clarity and community.
Embracing Failure is a Mindset Shift
Embracing failure means that instead of avoiding failure, you understand that failure is inevitable.
If you haven’t failed recently, it's a sign that you're staying in your comfort zone and not taking enough risks or trying new things. Your mindset can sound like: “how could I stretch myself, go for bigger goals, pitch bigger opportunities, and take bigger risks, even if I fail, I’ll be closer to my big goals than I would be if I stayed safe.”
It’s time to view your setbacks as opportunities for growth and learning experiences rather than personal failures. Failing forward builds wisdom, resilience and makes you better.
Failure isn't a dead-end. Failure allows you to reflect on what went wrong, identify your mistakes, and figure out how to improve for the future.
The Power of Community
You are not the only one experiencing struggles and failure! Get support from other entrepreneurs in settings like mastermind groups to help you embrace failure.
Having a community that’s willing to be vulnerable and empowering can push you forward in the face of failure. Another person’s perspective can also help you to grow and level up faster!
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transcript
[00:00:00] Danielle: Building a business, building something that you've been dreaming about and creating your vision, it's not easy. There are going to be moments that are extremely challenging. There are going to be moments that test you. There are going to be moments where you want to give up.
[00:00:18] Welcome to the Business Babes Collective podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Wiebe. In this podcast, you'll learn tangible business tips and strategies on how to grow successfully and sustainably. We'll also interview seasoned entrepreneurs so you can listen in on their stories and see behind the scenes of what it took to grow and scale their businesses.
[00:00:38] Let's dive in as we discuss the wild, exciting, crazy, challenging rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurs.
[00:00:48] Welcome to another episode of the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. I just wanted to share that I am sitting in my home office. I'm looking out the window right now and about to record this [00:01:00] podcast for you. And I am days away from my due date with little baby. And maybe by the time that you're listening to this, I would have potentially already had baby. So feel free to pop on over to Instagram @danilivinglife and see if I posted anything. But I just wanted to say that I am so grateful for the opportunity to get to speak into your life and to speak into your business.
[00:01:26] And I'm so grateful that you listen to this podcast and that you enjoy it. And I know I've heard from some of you who have said "I've been listening"
[00:01:41] And I'm just so grateful for this opportunity to connect with you, and so I truly want to hear from you. So whether that be coming into my DMs and sharing what resonated with you for from an episode or also I would so [00:02:00] appreciate if you would leave us a review. So you can go to the podcasting app and then you can scroll down and leave us a review.
[00:02:06] That honestly means so much because not only does it allow us to reach more people with this podcast, but also helps me to know what topics that you're really interested in, what you want me to speak more about, and what are some of the questions that you have specific to your business. So thank you so much in advance for doing that.
[00:02:26] And before we get started on our topic today, I wanted to make sure that you have gone over to the resource section on our website. We actually have curated a resource section over there and many of the resources that we have put on there for you are absolutely free. So we have everything from free workshops to workbooks to helpful downloads.
[00:02:52] Our two newest additions to this resource page is the 50 plus AI [00:03:00] tools that will help support you in your business to help you be more productive and more profitable, as well as our breakthrough growth workshop that shares our strategy of getting massive exposure for your business. So if you want access to those resources, you can go to businessbabescollective.com/resources and go ahead and get access to those incredible goodies that are there for you.
[00:03:24] Okay, today I'm excited to dive into the topic of failure. So I was reflecting recently on what is something that I want to share with our podcast community, and I think the reason that this topic came up is because I have been speaking to a lot of entrepreneurs lately, as always, but specifically clients who have done VIP days with me, or even some of our mastermind members, or just people that I've talked to within our community, And I think that one thing that I feel is really, [00:04:00] really important.
[00:04:00] And I think something that a lot of people don't really fully understand until they have started their business and they're really trying to grow and scale is that we as entrepreneurs, it's very natural for us to want to avoid failure at all costs, right? Failure does not feel good. It's not fun. It's not exciting.
[00:04:23] But the truth is, is that avoiding failure is actually holding you back often from moving forward. And I see this all the time with clients of mine where, you know, a common question that I get asked is how we have been able to collaborate and work with established businesses and brands and people, whether that be for our in person events or things that we do online.
[00:04:50] And one thing that I always like to share is that when we were first getting started, so when I was starting the business over eight years ago now, I would reach out to [00:05:00] people and I would ask people to go for coffee. I would start building relationships and you know, there was a lot of businesses and brands and people that I would reach out to, to want to collaborate or want to work with.
[00:05:11] And I experienced a lot of rejection and I experienced a lot of people not getting back to me, not responding to my emails, you know, being ghosted, all those fun things. And I think it's important to share that because when business owners first get started, I think there's this expectation that if you do something outside of your comfort zone, or if you start to take this scary action, things are going to come together really quickly for you.
[00:05:38] And that's just honestly often not the case. And so when we're first starting our businesses, we have to realize that we don't have anything to show for what we're trying to create. All we have is the vision. So when I started this business, I had no social media following. I had no real connections in [00:06:00] the business industry.
[00:06:01] I had nothing really to show for the What I wanted to create was, which was this vision of having this thriving community of women entrepreneurs who would come together, who would network, who would connect, share resources, collaborate. But I hadn't proven that concept yet. And so when I would share this vision with people and I would pitch them to, you know, be a part of our events or to sponsor us or to speak at our events.
[00:06:31] Because some people could see the vision and other people couldn't. And so I did face a lot of rejection and quote unquote failure. And I think that the important part of that is that I didn't let that stop me. And I was actually talking to a client recently when we were doing a VIP day together and we were just talking a little bit about you know, when I was first getting started, and she was asking me some questions around that, and I was [00:07:00] reflecting on the fact that I started this community over eight years ago, and during that time there were several other communities that had started at a similar time, or even before my community started, and it was so great.
[00:07:13] We collaborated together, we worked together, we hosted events together, we supported each other's events. But now eight years later, only one of those other communities and our community is still around. And the reason I share that is because building a business, building something that you've been dreaming about, and creating your vision, it's not easy.
[00:07:34] There are going to be moments that are extremely challenging. There are going to be moments that test you. There are going to be moments where you want to give up. There's going to be moments where you experience rejection and failure and so many challenges. But I wanted to talk about why I think it is so important to embrace failure as an entrepreneur, because embracing [00:08:00] failure instead of looking at it as an or avoiding it at all costs, looking at it and understanding that
[00:08:19] So if you haven't failed recently, then it's probably a sign that you are actually staying inside of your comfort zone and you're not taking risks or trying new things. So if you switched your mindset to think, okay, how could I stretch myself? How could I get outside of my comfort zone? How could I go for bigger goals or pitch bigger opportunities and take bigger risks?
[00:08:45] Even if I fail, I'll be closer to those big goals than I would have been if I would have stayed safe and stayed inside my comfort zone. Thinking back to building our community, if I were to have... If I were to [00:09:00] have never embraced failure as we were building, I would have never learned some of the most valuable lessons that I've learned in my journey.
[00:09:09] And I would continue to make the same mistakes because as I have been able to fail forward, I have experienced challenges, I've experienced rejection, all of those things, and things didn't go according to plan. I learned from all those things and I've actually become really comfortable with failure and I know that embracing failure has also helped me build resilience and it has helped me handle bigger challenges that have come our way.
[00:09:43] and has made me a stronger business owner. I think about back in 2020 when we lost 80% of our revenue basically overnight because of the pandemic and we were not able to host events anymore and most of our revenue was coming from our events [00:10:00] and And if I were, if I had never experienced failure or challenges or hard things in the business up until that point, I don't know how I would have handled that type of challenge.
[00:10:15] And You know, I'm so grateful for that challenge as well of experiencing that challenge of losing 80% of our revenue and having to basically rebuild our entire business model from scratch. And the reason I'm so grateful for that experience is one, it has been made me a more resilient. person, a more resilient business owner, it's also helped me to support our community and support our clients because when they're going through big transitions or when they want to do a big pivot in their business, I'm able to help them because I have been through it.
[00:10:53] I have experienced those, those failures and those setbacks and those challenges. And [00:11:00] so I can pull from my experience, my real life experience. experience and actually share and teach what I have been able to do instead of just giving my advice, right? And so I think that everything that we go through as a business owner, we have to really look at that as a opportunity for growth and opportunity to really.
[00:11:22] Um, dive deeper and figure out, okay, what is this experience teaching me? How is this experience making me better as a entrepreneur? And if we can look at it that way, we'll actually embrace failure. We won't shy away from it. We won't try to avoid it, but instead we'll, we'll go into it head on and we'll take bigger risks, which.
[00:11:46] I'm sure you've heard the quote before, no risk, no reward. And obviously, you know, as business owners, we take calculated risks and there's ways to actually look at the risk that we're taking and take those calculated risks. [00:12:00] However, sometimes we do just need to jump before we're ready and we need to take action before everything is quote unquote perfect.
[00:12:10] I know for me, when I was first getting started, if I got a rejection email, or I pitched a collaboration, or I had a client, um, who was excited to work together, who then completely ghosted me, or maybe I missed hitting a revenue goal that I set for myself, I remember being so crushed. And now I honestly see it as just a part of the process, a part of the journey, and it doesn't even phase me anymore.
[00:12:38] Like when I experience those quote unquote failures where to other people it might feel like, oh my goodness, I can't believe this is happening, or you know, a launch doesn't go the way that you want it to, or you don't, you don't have as big of a sales month as you projected maybe. You can look at those things and instead of feeling like a failure, you can actually [00:13:00] look at that and say, okay, what worked, what didn't, and what can we do differently to create a different result?
[00:13:06] For me, what has been really game changing as well is to truly just surround myself with other entrepreneurs who are doing really big things. This has allowed me to realize that I'm not the only one. Who is going for these big goals, and then also experiencing these really big struggles and failures.
[00:13:26] And this is why I absolutely love Masterminds. I think that it is so powerful when you can get together with a group of other like minded entrepreneurs. Bounce ideas off of each other, share your wins, share your struggles, share your failures, and just be super open and transparent and generous about sharing voluntarily about what is going on and in your business and what's working and what's not working.
[00:13:53] And honestly, that's why I love our masterminds so much. The women in our mastermind are just so [00:14:00] open to sharing both what is working really well in their business and sharing that with the group, but then also sharing their struggles and allowing as peers and as, as other entrepreneurs to speak into the, their business and give them our thoughts and give them our feedback and give, give them our support.
[00:14:21] It's such a powerful thing when you can actually surround yourself with other people. Because if you are trying to, navigate these waters of entrepreneurship by yourself, you're going to feel so lonely, you're going to feel so isolated, and also it's going to be so much, you're going to take so much longer to really learn from your mistakes because when you can see it from someone else's perspective and get a fresh perspective on the situation, it is so incredibly powerful.
[00:14:53] So the last thing that I want to share with you is that failure is not a dead end. Failure allows [00:15:00] you to reflect on what went wrong, identify your mistakes, and figure out how you can improve for the future. So rather than viewing failure as a setback, it's important to see it as actually a stepping stone towards the goals and the success that you're looking for.
[00:15:18] So I hope that you found this episode helpful and valuable. I, again, I appreciate you so much. Thank you so much for listening. Let me know what stood out to you from this episode. Let me know what you are taking away, what you're going to be implementing. And if you enjoyed this episode, would you take a moment to leave us a review?
[00:15:38] It means so much to me and it would truly light me up. And if you want more support, if you're like, you know what, Danielle, I'm ready to connect with an incredible group of like minded entrepreneurs. I need other, other business owners to be able to support me and, uh, cheer me on, hold me accountable. And I also want to be [00:16:00] there for other, uh, entrepreneurs as well, and I also want to contribute to others, then I would highly encourage you to apply for our mastermind.
[00:16:09] So to do that, you can go to businessbabescollective.com/mastermind. And at that point, we will book a call with you. See if you're a good fit. If your application comes through and we feel like you're going to be a good fit, we'll book a call. And even if it's not the right time for you, we will support you any way that we can, or let you know what some of the next steps that you can take. So thank you again and we will see you in the next episode. I hope you have an amazing rest of your day.
[00:16:40] If you loved this episode, make sure you screenshot, post and tag us on Instagram @businessbabesco. Want to know when the next episode goes live? Subscribe on your podcast app and while you're there, leave us a review. Until next time, keep dreaming big, setting goals, and taking action.[00:17:00]