READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

Hello, my friends, happy February! I’m coming off an incredible month, and I just have to share with you guys how grateful I am. One, for all of you. And just to the incredible response to our Market Like a Pro launch of our new done-with-you program and to the feeling of making it through the difficulties I went through last year. If you listened to The Great Reset series that I shared this super transparent behind-the-scenes about last year, how hard it was for me, the pressure I was feeling of failure, the struggles, all of that. I really just want to point out because somebody right now might be listening and think, “I’m going through a really hard time,” or maybe you are feeling that. The isolation and the pressure and the “what if I fail” and all those things I went through.

And the thing is, the way that you show up and respond in those seasons is gonna determine how quickly and how effectively you get out of that season. And although it wasn’t always easy. I’m so grateful for last year. I’m grateful that it was so challenging and that I was pushed to be better, to expand my leadership, to improve our offers, to look deeper at my business, and try to find the problems and narrow that down. Because if I didn’t go through last year and I wasn’t pushed to that level, I wouldn’t have the success I’m having right now. 

We just had our best month in December. Again, our closing January, even better than December. So that is only because I refused to give up and I had the grit and the commitment to getting through it. But I’m also looking back, I am very grateful for the challenging times, because the reality is the harder seasons that we all go through.

I don’t care if people don’t show it on social media are not, we all go through those seasons. They might be in our personal life. They might be our professional life. They might be both at the same time. We all go through good and bad seasons and the bad seasons are what push us to grow.  I believe we’re given what we can handle so we can get to the next level. I am very hopeful and inspired to see what is going on with my business. A I believe I have gotten through to, what’s gonna get me the 10 million mark, like finally cracked that code. I won’t be sitting on that, teetering on where I was, where I’ve been the last year anyways. I really just wanna share cause I’m feeling so incredibly grateful and emotional and just grateful for my team. And like I shared in those episodes, how some days it felt like, what am I even doing?

I’m working so hard and I don’t have a profit left over and can’t pay myself. And that sucks. Like when you’re working all day and you’re putting everything into what you’re doing and you don’t have that leftover, but you know, you do it for these moments. You do it for the moments where you, where you break through and you create that success that is not possible in a job, or is not possible when you’re limited by being an entrepreneur and sticking through those things. We sign up for those parts. And then we sign up for these times and I’m just grateful to be here. I know I will have another season that isn’t this, but I will continue to learn from that and get stronger. Anyways, today’s episode, it might be a rant. You guys like my rants.

I think I’m in a rant today because I have been witnessing something. This is interesting. So it’s not just in the marketing industry, but I have been witnessing something that I think is a trait of an entrepreneur in the way that you look at your business and the way that you look at your marketing and really determine success versus not being successful. And I titled this episode, “Do the Work Over Waiting for Answers,” and I’m gonna share one of the reasons I’m doing this episode is because I have three younger brothers. They can listen to this if they want, but I have three younger brothers and they all are early on in their career. I’m only 27. My youngest brother’s 18 and the other one is in the middle, but they will sometimes call me. For example, one of them is trying to build a business and he calls me. 

And they’ll say, I wanna run a Facebook ad or something to do with digital marketing because they know I do digital marketing and they’ll call me and I love them, but they’ll call me with the expectation that I’m gonna sit down for two hours and explain to them how to make a Facebook ad. Or have you ever guys had this in your business? Because you’re an expert in some area, someone will come up to you and just basically expect that you’re gonna tell them everything and tell them what to do and give them all the exact answers and make it super easy for them to figure it out. And you’re like, okay, you wanna run a Facebook ad? Like go do it. How do you think I learned? YouTube courses. There’s resources out there, stop waiting for the answers to just do the work.

So I think I was experiencing this and I was giving my brother this feedback. Then later, I’m talking to my dad and I’m like, it’s so weird because when I started my business, I did not expect anybody to give me the answers or to sit down and actually like to provide me with their time. Unless I paid a coach or something, I didn’t expect anybody to solve my problem. I think in our society, but also in digital marketing, there are two types of CEOs. There’s the ones who will constantly be searching for answers or the next thing they should do or somebody to solve their problem or be passive about it. They will go to somebody and they’ll explain their problem. And almost explain it with the expectation of having them solve it for me or tell me exactly what to do.

And then there are the ones who are like, I don’t care what it’s gonna take. I’m gonna go be successful and I’m gonna do the work. I’m gonna buckle down and I’m gonna figure it out. Whether that means taking a course, getting my hands dirty myself and figuring it out. Watching a video on how to do it or paying a coach, like whatever it is I’m gonna do the work required to get there. And I think there’s like two types of people in the world, you know, one who waits and one who  figures it out. And you know, when I go to hire employees, I find the people who are gonna do the work. Don’t ask me a question, you can Google. Don’t ask me something that you can figure out yourself. It’s so disrespectful. Do you think I have time?

Why do you think my time is not valuable? I have time to sit down and you’re entitled to this explanation for me. Maybe I’m being rude here, you guys, but I think this is something to think about.  Sometimes we think if  we can find the right person to just tell us the answers, tell us what to do, solve our problems, and help me then X, Y, Z will happen or I’ll achieve X, Y, Z result. But the reality is nobody cares about your problems and what you want in your life the way that you do. So you will never get somebody who can come in and care that much to solve your problem, nor can they, because they don’t have all the information because they don’t know all the variables. Especially with business, somebody might  give you an answer and tell you to go do something and it’s a terrible idea.

So the type of entrepreneurs I can tell you that are gonna win, that are gonna get results. And it doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or if you are trying to get to the next level, the people who are willing to just go do the work, to just buckle down and do what is required and not wait for someone to come save them, solve their problems, or give them the right answers. Those are the ones who are gonna succeed. When I reflect and look at the successful business owners that are around me and are much bigger than me, they’re willing to just do the work. They’re not waiting on anybody. Their success is not dependent on anybody but themselves. And I think the sooner you come to that realization that your success is a hundred percent dependent on you.

If you’re not meeting your goals, it’s because you’re not doing something to meet your goals. I don’t mean that to be mean, but I did a podcast a while back of what if you had no choice but to achieve the goal that you want to achieve, what would you have to do to get there? And it might not be doable. It might require you to work 12 hours a day or give up something that you don’t wanna give up, which is fine. But you have to know what is required for you to achieve those goals. The sooner you realize the reason why you are not achieving your goals today is because of you. The sooner you’ll take action. And what I mean by let’s think about our business. If you’re thinking, I’m not achieving my marketing goal because I don’t have a completed funnel or I haven’t figured out how to generate sales or I’m not getting consistent leads, or I don’t have the knowledge to set up my funnel.

You either have to figure out how to do it on your own, or you have to take the action to get the right support and bring it in your business and get it done. I see this with hiring too. A lot of times people will reach out to me and ask, “Hey, do you know a VA? Or do you know somebody who I can hire?” And it’s like, if I knew somebody really good, they’d be on my team. What makes you think you can shortcut your success to having to recruit and go hire team members? We put a massive budget into hiring and recruiting and putting people through a process and I’ve spent years doing that.

And so it’s fine of course, to ask for recommendations. But what I see people do is in that example is they know they need support, but they are not willing to do the work to go find the support. They’ll maybe put up a post or they’ll ask a few friends. And then they’re like, well, I couldn’t find anybody. It’s like no, you didn’t try hard enough. You didn’t do the work required to accomplish that goal. So if you’re looking at your marketing and those things are not happening, you’re not achieving those goals. You have to figure it out. What are the actions you’re not taking to achieve those goals? And this goes for life. This goes for business. And I just feel like there is just this entitlement. 

When I was talking to my brothers, I said,  “what makes you think you’re entitled to me explaining you how to do this?” He called me four times asking about how to set up Facebook. And I asked, did you go on YouTube?  I’m not gonna teach you how to do this. Nobody taught me how to do this. I figured it out. And I think that happens a lot in business. We’re just looking for that one person to come save us, or just tell us the right answer or give us this lucky solution and then solve whatever problem we’re trying to solve. The reality is that it doesn’t exist. The only way out of whatever you’re experiencing, whatever problem or growth cap you’re on,  or you’re not hitting your goals or you’re not achieving that growth, whatever that is, it can only be solved by buckling down and doing the work.

I think one of my secret weapons, and I was born this way but you can learn this too, is I do not take no for an answer. If I want something, I will figure out — hell or high water — how to go get it. If you were to ask my parents, actually I think there’s this video of them talking about me. If you were to ask my parents, I was probably very difficult to parent because I would not accept no as an answer. There was always a way and I was gonna find the way, and that has carried over. My own kids who probably inherited this but that has carried over into business. And I think that’s such a valuable thing to bring into your business, because if you are not willing to accept that there is no other option, but you’re going to finish that funnel. You’re gonna launch that webinar. You’re gonna create success with your ads. You’re gonna get to the million dollar business, whatever that is. If you’re not willing to have any other outcome, but that, then you’re gonna figure out all the different creative ways that you can get there. 

You’re gonna think through and problem solve as you go. The thing is that success is not linear. It’s not like there’s one way to do this and that’s the only way. You’re just waiting for somebody to tell you or do it for you or give you their time or give you their advice. They’re for sure gonna be right or whatever it is.You’re waiting for someone to save you. Nobody is gonna save you. Nobody cares about your business, like you do. Nobody cares about your health or your happiness like you do.

You should be prioritizing that in your life and in your business and just buckling down and doing the work and not accepting any other alternative, but achieving that goal, whatever that is.

Whether it’s a business goal, a marketing goal or a personal goal. 

I think we’re losing this in society.  I plan on teaching this to my kids. I tell them all the time, don’t wait for me to do this. What do you think the answer is? And I question them on that. Of course they’re still young, so I can only do so much, but I think this is getting lost. Maybe I’m thinking too big about this, but I just had that experience with my brother. He called me four times! I’m like, I’m not gonna teach you how to do a Facebook ad when the answer is on YouTube. 

The other thing is to note on this: if you go and look for somebody to solve all your problems and do the work for you — especially if you’re in the beginning of your business — you miss out on all of those opportunities to actually stumble and make mistakes and learn from those mistakes that contribute to your growth.

The reality is, number one, it doesn’t exist that you can find this linear path. Somebody can completely achieve your success. You can absolutely get support about getting your success and on your way to success. And it’s your job to go find that support and then manage that support and then hold that support to the expectations that you have. You’re driving that. You’re the leader in that, but there is no way that you could get one person or one thing to just solve all your problems. That takes away from you actually going through the experience when that is the, like the most valuable thing you can do, because your experience in failing or not achieving a goal or trying something that didn’t work. That is what leads to success. If 7 out of 10 things you try don’t work but 3 out of 10 do or even 1 out of 10 take off and work really well, you’re fine. 

You’ve still found that successful thing, which comes through that experience.

 I just had to share that for you guys to just analyze. I think that  it’s something to really ask yourself, if I’m not hitting my goals and achieving the success that I want, why is that happening? What is missing and what actions do I personally need to take and then really looking in the mirror and asking yourself, am I waiting for somebody else to solve a problem for me that if I really did the boring work or the work I don’t wanna do, or the things that feel hard that I’m avoiding, if I buckled down and just force myself into the discomfort zone and force myself to do it, would I be in a different place right now?

That’s something to sit with and consider, because I think a lot of us avoid those things, thinking we can’t do it, or we’re not capable of doing something, or it’s just hard, or it’s uncomfortable, or it’s unfamiliar. Then we don’t take action and we don’t do the work. And we wonder why we’re not achieving our goals. Essentially leadership and being a business owner is constantly looking in the mirror and asking yourself, where am I not showing up as well as I need to. The sooner you also realize that instead thinking, I made it and I’m a great leader, you will be more successful.

 I’m constantly thinking, man, I messed up over here and I messed up over here and I could show up over here. I mean, we’re all human, we’re all human. We’re all trying to just improve the way we show up in our human experience. But the faster you can do the work, buckle down, push yourself outta your comfort zone, push yourself to show up when you’re confused, or it feels hard or feels overwhelming. You’re gonna get so many more results by doing that. All right. You guys, I hope this was helpful. Not too much of a rant for you guys. And I’ll talk to you on Thursday!

♥ LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS

♥ LISTEN ON SPOTIFY