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Why do so many entrepreneurs start off on a high and later crash and burn? Are you losing yourself in your business? It’s not as obvious as you think… let us explain.
This was originally a Facebook Live by Change Creator cofounders, Adam and Amy!
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Want to learn how to differentiate and create a meaningful brand that converts sales? Join this free masterclass at changecreator.com/gobig
We also recommend:
- Adam And Danielle: 3 BIG Things That Exponentially Drive Sales Online Today
- Renée Garcia: Becoming the Best Version of Yourself as an Entrepreneur
- Adam and Amy: Marketing is Not Just About Numbers and Big Audiences
Transcription of Interview
(Transcribed by Otter.ai, there may be errors)
Adam G. Force 00:03
Welcome to the Change Creator podcast where entrepreneurs come to learn how to live their truth, get rich and make a massive difference in the world. I’m your host, Adam Force co founder at Change Creator and co creator of the captivate method. Each week, we talk to experts about leadership, digital marketing and sales strategies that you can implement in your business and life to go big, visit us at Change creator.com forward slash go big to grab awesome resources that will help drive your business forward. Hey, what’s going on everybody? Welcome back to the Change Creator podcast, hope you all are doing well. And your week is off to a good start. We have a really great conversation that I wanted to share today. And that is a conversation about, you know why so many entrepreneurs start off on a high, but crash and burn leader. It’s a topic that’s come up quite a bit in with people that we’ve been talking to, and things that we’re seeing through some of the, you know, people in our program captivate and stuff like that. So it’s a really important topic, and we want to see people succeed, we want to help just kind of analyze this. So this is just a conversation that Amy and I had. So Amy being a co founder here at Change Creator that we talked about on Facebook, actually, we did a Facebook Live. So I’m sharing another Facebook Live clip, because I think it is an important conversation. And we’ve kind of just scratched the surface here and really kind of start digging into it. So I think it’s very valuable just to wrap your head around some of the ideas that we share. So we want to make sure you’re kind of getting what you need in order to stick with what you’re doing, make sure you don’t crash and burn, and that you’re making progress with your business. So hopefully, this conversation will give you a little bit of that inspiration and insight. If you missed the last episode, it was with Rene Garcia. We love talking to people who are really into the mindset game, right? Not just about being mentally tough, and you know, discipline, but how to think about becoming the best version of yourself. And not necessarily just the best version of yourself, right? We don’t, you know, we’re not trying to get to like Foo Foo here. But the idea is, as we grow as entrepreneurs, we need to become the next version of ourselves in order to be that entrepreneur, with our business, you know, we cannot remain the same person because that person is not the entrepreneur with that level of success, you have to very much lean in and become that person. So how do we break through some of our limiting beliefs and things that hold us back? So we’re going to talk about that. And that’s that was the conversation with Rene Garcia. And we like bringing people like her onto the show to help kind of dig into the mindset game, because it’s so important. So if you missed it, go back and check that one out. I think you’re gonna enjoy it. If you guys aren’t following us on Facebook, make sure you catch us there. Lots of just, you know, inspirational insights, things to like, keep you motivated, good group of people there social entrepreneurs trying to make a difference in the world. And if you want to take it a step further, where we kind of get into some more insights around the online presence, you know, how do we build trust? How do we connect our story and design and really make our brand stand out online and drive more conversions, right, those leads and sales. That’s a deeper conversation we get into in the Facebook group. So if you want to join be a Change Creator, that is our Facebook group, and you can find that right from our page. Alright, guys, I’m gonna dive right into this conversation so you can get started. Hope you guys are having an amazing day today. Stick with it. And let’s kick this thing off. Okay, show me the heat. What’s going on everybody? Adam force here co founder at Change Creator, co creator of the captivate method with my partner, Amy here.
Amy Aitman 04:12
Hey
Adam G. Force 04:15
You know, we’ve been talking and we want to talk about one important reason so many entrepreneurs start off on a high right like, it’s like sugar and getting a high but then later, you quickly crash and you burn. We see this happening a lot. So we wanted to just talk through a couple important things that kind of play into it. But before we dive into all that stuff, just to let us know you’re there. If you guys are catching this on a replay, hit replay in the comments. If you have questions during this or after. Go ahead fire those questions off, we will get back to you. No problem there. So let’s dive into this because it’s such an important topic. I mean, more than ever. People have this massive Access to become an entrepreneur, which is exciting. We typically will feel discontent in our life at some point, right? There’s this, this yearning for this raw life more meaning more in line with who we actually are, right? And when we get more in line, we feel good. When we wake up every day, we’re doing something that we actually give a crap about. Yeah. Right. And so that’s a great first step, because we’ve worked with so many people, you know, in our program, and they are like, Hey, I made this decision. And I made this bold move. And they’re, they’re doing something right. So they take that first step, which is the hardest, most people can’t get past the first step, which is yes, action, and say, screw it, I’m starting my own business, I’m doing it. I want that money. I want that, like, you know, access to my life that I live my own way. But what happens quickly after that high as you get this ambition, and you get into what’s what is important to you. But then, you know, we’re like an artisan, we are an intellectual with certain on intellectual property that we want to share and teach people whatever it might be. But over time, we realize, wow, how do I actually start getting traction? How do I, you know, you might get a sale here, no sale there. Because we’re passionate, you know, we have good intentions, we, we get some word of mouth, some referrals from friends and family, which is always a great start, right? You validate people are interested, they’ll put money down. But there’s certain things that happen that sooner or later you you realize, okay, now I’m stuck, though. It’s inconsistent. I’m not getting enough sales. How do I, how do people actually get to six figures a month? Like, where does that come from? Right. Mm hmm. And so over time, we start doing things that take us away from our original intentions and who we are because we get panicked, right, Amy? Yeah, thinking about what and when that leads to this, these bad decisions? So I’ll let Amy tell. I know, she has a little bit of a story just to kind of demonstrate like what we’re talking about here.
Amy Aitman 07:08
I mean, yeah. So when I first started my own business, I had a lot of reasons to start a business one was, nobody would hire me. So I literally wanted that freedom of money. I’m still not very hireable. Right, Adam? I’m not a very good employee. But like many of you, I started my business for reasons like I wanted freedom, I wanted to have more time and money. And being able to be with my family, I had a little a little baby at home. And I wanted for him to look at me and say my mom is doing something with her life. And I had these really core values. And I worked really, really hard. And I got to a place in business where Yes, my company was making six figures, I was like, rocking and rolling, but I was taking on so much. And so yes, I was making more money. But that freedom that I had originally wanted, that time with my son that I really originally wanted was missing. And a lot of us entrepreneurs are really sold this lie of this, like hustle lie that really takes us away from who we are and our authentic reasons to be in business like autumn started Change Creator for a specific reason to to the Alliance’s values, and most of us are most of the people that we work with, and the captivate method they have, they have this big vision, this, these gifts that they’re given that nobody else in this world can do. And that’s why they’re there. But when we’re talking about this point, when we’re getting to this disconnect point, it’s like Adam said, we started off so excited, we started off like so good, we’re starting to get sales, and we hit this point where it’s like, our business isn’t failing. In fact, it could be doing good in some areas, but our whole our life, and what we looked at, and what we want from our business is failing on a bigger level. So we lose ourselves in our business. And we’re told the lies of like hustle. And if you work hard, work harder on your business, you will grow. But these are really myths that I want to dispel. So there’s three ways that we can lose ourselves in our business. And I can tell you personally, I lost myself and my business all three. So time, energy and money. And a lot of us think, you know, it’s like, it’s good to lose time, it’s good to lose to, you know, if we’re going to make more money, or it’s good to lose money if it’s going to give us back time. But that’s really not the core of what we started this business and we start to lose ourselves and start to make, you know, decisions in our business and our marketing and our life that we wouldn’t normally make, to sacrifice to get to that next level. And we think that’s what we have to do.
Adam G. Force 09:45
But you adapt, you adapt yourself to what you think needs to happen, you know, maybe you’re not a marketer or a salesperson and you’re struggling to get that stuff you don’t know online system. So all of a sudden you’re listening to all these people, doing your research and you got it figured out. And you start saying, Well, if that’s what I got to do, it’s not really what I would probably do. But if that’s what’s working, I’m going to go ahead and I’m going to do that too. Yeah, copy what they do. Now copying people is, is is not good. Because you’re getting a surface level. Look, you don’t know really what’s going on under the hood, you don’t really know how successful it is how much something costs, you know, we interviewed a company one time and we talked to the founder. And he’s like, yeah, we made $30 million this past year. And I was like, holy crap. And he’s like, yeah, we also spent $30 million. I was like, You don’t know that. Right? You don’t know that. So we we start trying this is the key thing is we adapt ourselves to what we think people want. And that is a huge mistake. We adapt our stories, our narratives, and our actions that we take to do things that we think people want, you know, and this could this leads to that discontent coming back into your life. Because now when things aren’t working, you’re doing things that you probably normally wouldn’t have done. And you’re trying a million different things, which you know, trying new things is great, but it’s it’s easy to spend a lot of time doing the wrong thing. So sure, go, hustle, you want to work 100 hours a week, you want to grind as they say, Hey, I can appreciate that hard work is can pay off. But it also can go on for years and years years without pay off if you’re doing the wrong stuff. Because all you’re doing is adapting you’re you start to lose your soulYeah. And and it’s a hard thing to try to like express in a conversation like this until you start feeling that pain.
Amy Aitman 11:38
Yeah. That’s a good question. Like, how do you know that you’re at this point in your life? So something that causes us to start thinking about this as we asked a group question in our Facebook group? What don’t you like about marketing? You know, very simple question. Right. And we saw a lot of these answers about like storytelling seems inauthentic, marketing seems inauthentic. I keep getting I keep seeing all of these really like salesy things. And we said, why is that, because we all know that the universe shows you the things that are internal, the stories that we’re telling ourselves, that’s how we are expressing ourselves, in our business, and in our world. And that’s what actually starts to show up in our Facebook streams. It’s not by chance, what we’ve seen in the world around us is not by chance. So if you are always feeling like to get to the next stage of your business, this is how you know that you’re in this spot. This painful spot is like you’re seeing things that just don’t feel right to you. You’re seeing ads that don’t feel right, you’re seeing story, you’ve seen an authentic feeling, selling seems inauthentic. If that’s you, I want you to leave a comment on this live and say yes, I’m starting to feel like there’s no good marketing, there’s no good way to sell, there’s no good way to serve. And it’s like it’s like a disconnect and a discontent with your business.
Adam G. Force 13:00
That’s how you know that you’re there. And there’s more to that actually, I want to add, which is when you think like that. Marketing sucks marketing benteke these guys are all scammers. We get comments on our Facebook ads. This guy’s a scammer, and I’m like, ever from that, right? But this is the mentality. And when you have that mentality, guess what, you’re never going to be good at marketing and sales ever. Because you’re you are you are holding yourself back with that little thief. And you’re screwed, man. Because that’s like saying, you know, I hate black jelly beans. Well, guess what, I’m never effing eating black jelly beans, dude, I’m never gonna have them. Marketing, you’re not going to get in to become a great marketer. And you know, what we teach and what people uncover in the captivate method is, you know, we, we go through this really elaborate process around storytelling for a very specific reason, because we rely on people to their marketing, because marketing doesn’t take us away from what we do best. It actually brings us closer when it’s done. And it feels good. Because you have to it. It’s a major perspective shift. And it’s hard to like Express. But when you become when it becomes part of who you are. And now it’s like the artists and you are the Craftsman or whatever it is, this person goes after now, you are sharing what you love in a way that aligns to who you are, and people understand you and you get them on board. But these misconceptions, and these feelings of like disdain towards marketing. We know why we know why you feel that way. Right? We even teach it in inside of our own program of the history and the evolution of marketing and what happened. Why do people feel that way? Was I surprised that the comments we saw Nope, no, I wasn’t surprised at all. Actually, it was what I expected to see. But I also will tell you that most people who who say those things will not Never be good marketers, I can almost guarantee it.
Amy Aitman 15:02
And they will never grow their business. And they will do less of what they love, and what makes them so special and go back to those values in their business because of this belief, they’re just going to keep, you know, bringing that into their life. And imagine how your clients feel how your customers feel when you’re not settled. And like, we there’s a reason why storytelling is what we teach, because there’s stories that you tell yourself and their stories that you tell others. And we dig so deep, we have we dig so deep with our authenticity, interviews, to really dig into your core values. Why start this business? So many entrepreneurs kind of missed a step. Or they did this in the beginning, when they first started, I find like some of them really did this in the beginning, especially social entrepreneurs. But then you go back, you go back, and you get to this point where you’re like, I really need to grow. And again, you’re gonna, like get lose yourself with time, energy money. And you’ve skipped this step again, and this is such an important powerful thing for your business. And marketing should be something that brings you joy brings you pleasure, brings you closer to who you can help.
Adam G. Force 16:08
Yeah, no, it’s true. It’s easy to lose yourself. Because, you know, you come in with like a fireball, like we said, you’re high as a kite ready to go get a couple sales you’re cooking. But then it gets to a point where you got to level up. And it’s easy to start going in the wrong directions. There’s so many different decisions, so many different variables, things that work that don’t work all this stuff. Yeah, and you start listening to all these people, and you start trying to adapt who you are, in order to make sure you’re getting these sales, it gets messy. And we’re not saying this, you know, just off the cuff here. This is what we’ve seen for many, many years working with so many different people like this is we’ve experienced it ourselves. See the repeat pattern. And this was a hard lesson for us to learn over the years. You know, I did it. In the first year of Change Creator, no, we spent well over $30,000 in the first year, which is not a lot now.
Amy Aitman 17:02
It was a lot then.
Adam G. Force 17:02
I mean, it’s like that meant everything at the time, that was most of the savings account that I had personally put it all in. And it was me running around like a chicken with my head cut off. So and I was director of strategic marketing at webmd. I know marketing, but I also didn’t have a eight figure brand name behind me. And I didn’t have a million dollar budget to go and do all this stuff that I knew we had to do, right. And all the data and technology. So here you get on grassroots. And it’s like, Okay, this is a very different dynamic. And you got to think of marketing strategies for yourself, not for someone else. And you start going all over the place, like I just want to focus on my my craft, my passion, all those things. But sooner or later, you’ve got to become a marketer. Marketing is storytelling, and marketing. Marketing is business and storytelling is marketing. Right. So like, we always say that because it’s so true. And it’s so important to grasp.
Amy Aitman 17:59
Definitely, and it becomes fun and joyful.
Adam G. Force 18:03
It should be it should be fun, and it should be joy. So we want it to just hang
Amy Aitman 18:08
We talk about that all the time, don’t we Adam, like if we are starting to feel the drudgery of our to do list and all the things that we think we have to do, and all the outside influences that we think we have to listen to, we catch ourselves and we’re like, are we having fun? Is this fun? Is it are we bringing God into it is that the energy that we have, because that’s what our if we know that it feels good, if it aligns our values, we’re having fun, we’re having a good time, we’re not dreading getting up the next day. We’re not dreading our Change Creator to do lists.
Adam G. Force 18:38
I mean, the major takeaway, honestly, is really to understand that we burn out over time because we lose ourselves in our businesses, trying to adapt who we are and what we think we should be doing, based on what others are doing and finding success, we scramble and that panic, because you know, we’re not making enough money or whatever it is, it leads to a lot of bad decision making. So we want to reconnect with our inside world and stop being so focused on what’s going on around us and the outside world because it’s just that reflection, what what’s happening around you is based on I don’t want to get to like Fufu here, right, but like, fortunately, this is just the truth of the matter. And you’re going to hear if you go into any major mastermind, you know, we’re in a $20,000 mastermind. It’s all about this stuff. Okay. These are the conversations that we have. You know, as entrepreneurs, we all face the same challenges, but how we manage ourselves how we address problems. This is what’s going to make the difference. You know, I was listening to Dan Henry the other day and he’s like, he got invited to talk on funnel hacking live for Russell Brunson, which is a frickin sick event that Russell puts on, you know, we interviewed Russell twice. And he’s a super cool guy. Dan’s like, dude, I reached out to so and so he teaches how to be a great speaker on stage. He’s like I was already a good speaker, but I wanted to really level Boom, you know, he drops 10 grand to get in there we were at our mastermind guy comes in and talk about the money mindset 40 people in the room and guess what he had a $5,000 offer for his program. And 50% of the people in the room right there on their iPhones dropped that cash to become part of program. What I’m what the point I’m making is that people will invest in themselves. And they they keep following their own truth. And they believe in these things so much that they don’t even think about that stuff anymore. And they get on board with people that the right people that can help them right.
Amy Aitman 20:33
Yeah, so I have an assignment for you guys. Do this, it’s really, it’s gonna be fun. I want you to spend the next few days and I want you to like go through your Facebook feed, I want you to jot down how the ads are making you feel how the things around you are making you feel and how your business is making you feel. And I want you to look at it and say, am I does this feel salesy to me? Does this feel wrong to me, does this does my like Facebook ad or my facebook group or my offer or my does it feel like doesn’t really align to what I’m doing, I want you guys to go through that. I want you to see what you’re attracting in your Facebook feed what you’re attracting on so on your searches, and literally how it makes you feel. And if it is not aligned to your to who you are, then you know that you’ve lost yourself and your business on some level on some way. You know, for example, one of our students came to us and he really wanted to get to that next level in his business. And he hired a marketing team. And he lost himself in that because he didn’t even know what they were doing. It was any $1500 a month. And he told us firsthand, I think they were using bots. And that didn’t align to what I want. And this is what we’re talking to worse. So the first step is I want you to take this time I want you to like look at what you’re attracting, look at your feed, look at how marketing around you and sales around you is making you feel. And then the next step is like how is that changing your decisions that you’re making? In your business today? Yes, and then come to us and we’ll help you out. To get back to yourself, to really get back to who you are
Adam G. Force 22:07
The mroe we get alligned with ourselves, and and that becomes the business. I’m telling you, the happier you will be. Alright guys, we’re gonna wrap it up. Hopefully, it was just a fun conversation, some food for thought. I hope you got something out of that drop questions in the comments. If you have questions. We’re happy to answer the questions. That’s what we are here for. And listen, let’s put the let’s put in the business impact business blueprint. Yeah, it’s a couple things we can share. So let’s put the impact business blueprint. This will help I know what it’s like to be kind of stressed. And we don’t want to get super stressed and start making bad decisions. So this will help kind of
Amy Aitman 22:46
Allign you
Adam G. Force 22:46
Where you’re putting some time. So that’s free, you can download it, check it out.
Amy Aitman 22:50
We just think even if you’ve been in business for a while that you can realign yourself. And that’s what we’re talking about. It’s that you know, finding yourself realigning yourself to your business. And now we’re here to help.
Adam G. Force 23:01
It’s true. I mean, listen, my last comment here is this is not just about business. This is about your life. This is about everything going on around you is a stimulus, right. And we are constantly told how to do things, how to live our lives, how to create the future, you want family, getting married, buying a house, everything. We focus on those things, the more we focus only on that outside stuff and make decisions based on it, the less we focus on the inside stuff. We’re going to find that discontent again, we’re starting ourselves and we’re going to be unhappy. So again, I always say to people, like listen to what your inner self is saying and get some insights there. We have to have that baked into our lives anyway. All right, guys, let’s wrap this up. We will catch you on the next class. Bye guys. Thanks for tuning into the Change Creator podcast visit us at Change creator.com forward slash go big to get access to free downloads and other great resources that will drive your business forward.
