338 The 7 Must-Have Character Traits for Successful Online Entrepreneurs
The 7 Essential Traits Every Entrepreneur Needs To Cultivate
In today's episode, we're diving deep into the vital character traits that every entrepreneur should cultivate in order to thrive in their business growth journey.
We'll explore the importance of resiliency, decisiveness, and the art of balancing multiple life areas to avoid burnout.
PLUS I share practical time management strategies, including how I block my day to fit in work, family, and personal growth and why believing in oneself is crucial amid the unpredictable nature of business success.
The Reality of Running a Business is not always as glamorous as what the Social Media Influencers tell you!
There are going to be days when you wake up with low energy or you're under the weather, and days when you wonder 'does anyone even care about what I'm creating?'
It's during those times that exercise these 7 character traits because by building them up, we can stay the course, and recommit to the vision of why we started this business to begin with.
If you're someone who feels like they're meant to defy traditional norms and forge their own way - this episode is for you!
We talk about :
Prioritizing activities to move the vision forward
7 character traits for Entrepreneurs
Importance of investing in self-growth
Achieving balance in life areas such as hobbies and health
Finding expanders who broaden belief in possibilities
Episode Time Stamps:
[00:00] Entrepreneurship is tough; don't fall off track.
[08:05] Positive experience fosters essential entrepreneurial character traits.
[13:52] Believe in yourself and keep pushing forward.
[18:12] Entrepreneur's clarity influenced by sleep, diet, environment.
[23:28] Consider ROI before deciding whether to send.
[25:09] Balancing personal life and business sucess is crucial
[33:07] Seek advice, persevere, success takes time
[39:28] Entrepreneurs seek wealth in unconventional ways
[46:30] Make time for priorities and embracing mistakes
To connect with Kelsey:
Access the transcript for this episode:
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You are listening to the Visionary Life podcast. I'm your host, Kelsey Riedel. Each week, I'll bring you conversations with the most visionary humans on this earth in hopes that you'll be able to absorb their wisdom, avoid their failures, and feel less alone on the roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship. This season, I'll be chatting with creative thinkers, masterful marketers, brick and mortar shop owners, brand builders, and people just like you who have a story to share or a vision that inspires. If I can share one quick secret with you before we get into the episode, it's that we all have a little bit of visionary inside of us. You know, that spark that nudges us to pursue our full potential in this lifetime. But perhaps somewhere along the line, it got covered up. I'm here to tell you that it's never too late to explore that inner voice and access the brilliance deep down, down inside of you.
It's in you. It's in all of us. Let's dive in. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the visionary life podcast. I am so excited to sit down with you today for a solo show. And today we are talking about the character traits that you'll want to cultivate as an entrepreneur to stay in the game long enough to see major momentum and major success. And these are kind of unexpected character traits.
So I'm not talking about things like, you got to get really good at using AI, or you need to figure out how to write a viral TikTok caption. These are character traits that are innate. These are things that you need to work on as not only a professional and as an entrepreneur, but as an individual in your personal life. Things that you can cultivate over time that are going to strengthen your ability to be an entrepreneur and to be a successful entrepreneur at that. So, as a business owner, I'm going to assume you're a business owner. If you're listening to this, you probably already know that starting and running a successful business takes a lot of hard work, it takes dedication, and it takes a lot of determination. Right. Things don't always skyrocket as fast as we want them to.
And I wish that I could say that there is, you know, a 90 day Runway, and then you just have all this consistent revenue coming in. But it's generally not the case. Right. But what the Instagram influencers will tell you is that running a business is glamorous and that you can just make an online course and it'll sell millions. But in reality, there are going to be days when you wake up with low energy or you're under the weather, but you have a full day of clients, or where you feel like you're publishing content nonstop, whether that's a podcast or a blog. But sometimes you just wonder, is anyone even listening? Or maybe you start working for clients and then one of your clients offers you a high paying corporate job and you start wondering like, should I just burn it all down? Like these are things that happen to all of us. And sometimes without cultivating these character traits that I'm going to share with you today, it can be tempting to just go off course to go back to the corporate world, which I'm the first to admit I did, that I got offered a very high paying job after I had left corporate, started my own consulting business, and then I went back because I had this shiny dangling carrot in front of me. But again, it can be pretty grueling to employ yourself.
But honestly, most of us wouldn't have it any other way. I feel like so many of you listening to this would identify with the fact that we are unemployable, which is why I want to equip you with some insider info. As someone who has been in this game for eight years, I feel like I can offer a touch of wisdom around what it takes to stay the course, around what the character traits are that are going to give you an edge in this constantly evolving world of entrepreneurship, and some tips that will keep you on track even when you are frustrated as all hell. From the way you make decisions to the way you move quickly to believing in yourself and really cultivating a sense of it doesn't matter if I fail in public. These are just a few of the things that I'm going to be touching on today, so let's get right into it. Hey visionary, I want to interrupt this episode to share a little bit more about one on one coaching. I work with clients who want to stay on top of the latest marketing trends, who want to bring more ease into their marketing funnel or just build a marketing funnel in the first place because maybe you don't have one yet and ultimately take the effort and overwhelm out of your marketing plan. I know your energy is limited and you just want someone to tell you what to do.
Should you be on thread? Should you be creating on TikTok? How do you grow an email list? What does SEO mean? Anyways, this is why I offer private one on one business and marketing coaching for business owners like you who need help with their marketing strategy. You can head to kelseyreidl.com/privatecoaching to learn exactly what it's going to look like if we decide to work together. And I'm excited because I can give you the precise strategies that will take your business to the next level this year. So if you want to learn more, kelseyreidl.com/privatecoaching of course, it is a bit more of an investment than any of my other courses or offerings, but my private clients are seeing crazy results. Christina landed a six figure consulting contract. Emily signed six clients in one day. Barb had a Black Friday sale that generated a lot of money, and these are all based on the strategies that we've implemented. So kelseyreidl.com/privatecoaching, you can learn all about it.
You can see all of the amazing, visionary businesses that I've worked with and supported over the last decade, and I can't wait to see your application come through. Kelseyridel.com privatecoaching now back to the episode. So, real talk. I've been an entrepreneur for eight years and there are many character traits that I do feel like I was born with that have helped me throughout this journey. I have always been somebody who has known what I want, who has marched my own path, who has had a degree of confidence, likely from playing sports and building that muscle through other things that I devoted myself to. But there are also character traits that I have had to cultivate and work on every single day since I started my business eight years ago. So there's a balance of like, I do feel like I was born an entrepreneur, but I also feel like I am making myself every day into a better entrepreneur. And it's so funny because I feel like what they didn't tell us when we started our businesses was that starting our business is the greatest personal development journey that you'll ever go on.
I'm going to say that again, starting a business is the greatest personal development journey that you'll ever go on. So basically, working on yourself is one of the best spends of time if you are an entrepreneur. And I know that might sound crazy, but it is the truth. And one of the first places that I actually learned this was when I started a network marketing business back in 2016. It felt like a fast track to personal development because I was going to events and I had to learn the skill of networking. We were cultivating our vision and our why and writing our story behind why we use the products. I was getting really comfortable with just getting more visible than I ever had and building confidence in my lifestyle and why these products that I was selling played such a key role. And I know that MLM or network marketing tends to get a bit of a bad reputation.
But my experience overall I felt like was very positive. And it gave me many of these character traits that I feel like I have been able to move forward with in my business. And so what I'm trying to distill down is that as business owners, we need to be agile as the market shifts and we need to be sharp in mind when things are moving in the wrong direction. And all of that takes a person who is constantly working on themselves. And they say that the only way to coast is downhill. And so there is no coasting when you run a business. Like, we are always looking for opportunities and ways to improve and to get better. So in today's episode, I really want to dive into some of the traits that if you have a big vision, if you have a lot that you'd like to accomplish in the coming years with your business, these are traits that you can't outsource.
These are things you need to work on, you need to prioritize. And whether you like it or not, you'll want to get really good at building these muscles because the payoff from working on your personal character traits is going to be immense in your professional life. All right, so trait number one is believing in yourself. I know this one is like, wah, wah. That sounds so obvious. But in the early days of launching your business, expect that nobody is going to believe in you or your idea or even see the vision of where you're going with this. And that can be such a tough pill to swallow. Like imagine waking up to build this vision that you're so excited about, but that the people closest to you just don't seem to give a shit about
And that is leadership at its core. Leaders see a better future and they start walking a new path towards that better future. Even if nobody is following them, they start putting things in place to build a better outcome, to build a better product, to build a better future for them and for those who want to follow. But it's going to take time until others start to walk that path with you. And that's a big smack in the face. Because that means if you don't believe in yourself, if you don't believe in the vision that you are building, the path that you are charting, then you might give up. Because if nobody's following you, when you look back five days later, five months later, five weeks later, it might be like, what the heck is it all for? But if you can believe in yourself. You will sit down and record the podcast even when no one's listening.
You will send the weekly newsletter, even when there's only five subscribers. You will buy a ticket to the conference where you know you're going to network with the most amazing individuals. You will send proposals to potential clients, even though you're scared of getting a no. As entrepreneurs, we have to do the thing with belief and just know that it will all pay off someday. And so that belief really starts with ourselves. So don't be afraid to work on your belief every day. Talk to people in your industry, in parallel industries, and get their feedback. Not their opinions, but their feedback.
Look for clues all around you that you're on the right track, including qualitative and quantitative clues. So track your metrics like are you seeing growth? But also, how are you feeling? Like, are you getting this body feeling that, like that person you just met at the coffee shop? You could really help them. That's a clue. And always keep rewriting the vision of what you are building. What's it all for? Why do I show up every day and cultivate belief? Because I want to change the trajectory of families who have kids with ADHD, or whatever that case is. And it's so important to find yourself some expanders. This is a term I learned from Lacey Phillips. She has a program called to be magnetic.
I've never done it, but I've listened to the podcast before, and she calls an expander somebody who is in your world. Maybe you've met them, maybe you haven't, who has expanded your belief in what's possible. Maybe they've built the business that you want to build. Maybe they're charting an unconventional path which shows you that you can do the same. So if you're struggling with belief in yourself, maybe it's because you don't actually think it's possible to chase this vision. And that's where it's important to find an expander, somebody who you can almost keep in mind anytime you're like, oh, I could never do this. But somebody's already doing it. So that means I can do it for me.
One of my expanders is Ange Peters, the founder of whole fit. I've been following her online. She's a health and fitness coach and just personal brand who has shown me for almost 15 years that it is possible to build a personal brand in the online space. I remember taking one of her kombucha making classes 15 years ago on my parents couch, and she was such an expander for me, because I thought, oh, my God, I can teach health focused classes online through a web portal. And she collected my money through a payment link. And this was like, so early to the online space. But I always thought of her as somebody who has created what I want to create. So make sure that you have expanders.
And I mean, for those of you listening who are like, I have this business, but I just don't know if I have the belief in it. Remind yourself that the act of simply starting your business required you to believe. So just know that you have it inside of you. And that little spark that nudged you to commit to this business or even to consider this vision, is enough to show you that the belief is there and that fire can be stoked. And having that why not me attitude is going to nudge you to keep going. Because you know that if it's possible for others, it's possible for you. And it's not to say that you're being totally delusional, but it's just not letting those mental roadblocks of the voice inside your head saying, who are you to build this amazing online business? Who are you to start a podcast? Don't let that get to you. Cultivate that belief in yourself, because the voice never goes away.
At every level, there's a new devil, and I don't want you to hold that back. In my own experience, I remember back in 2017 having a conversation with a friend, and I was like, I really either want to start a podcast or a YouTube channel. I don't know why I had this wave rush over me, that I could do either of these, because to start a podcast, I had no experience in broadcasting. I had no experience in editing, sound engineering, interviewing, pitching guests, media sponsorships. Like all of that, it was a foreign world to me. But I had this spark of belief. I had this spark that I was interested enough in other people to prepare thoughtful questions, that I had the ability to make a genuine connection with someone I had never met. That I had the ability to figure out the tech and figure out the recording and find a solution.
As Marie Forleo says, everything is figureoutable. And by cultivating that belief every day, I've been able to interview NHL players. I have interviewed nine figure entrepreneurs who have sold multiple companies. I have interviewed some incredible franchise founders in Canada. The founder of 1800 got Junk, who has a company worth almost a billion dollars. And that's all from belief that I could bring their story to life. So before you discount this one, one of the most important character traits that you can possibly have is belief in yourself. And I was watching a video.
I believe it was Mimi Bouchard. And she has an app called what is it? It's like a manifestation app. But regardless, she said that your self image comes from your belief, and we are constantly feeding our brain information through our actions, through our thoughts and our beliefs. So choose wisely. So remember that everything you do, every person you surround yourself with, every time you watch tv, every podcast you listen to, every conversation you have, is either fueling your belief in your future or taking away from it. And if you don't believe, then you have to do something different. You have to change the way that you're surrounding yourself with thoughts and beliefs and different actions to get yourself into that state of belief. So there is character trait number one.
Cultivate belief in yourself. Find ways to do that in whatever way resonates for you. All right, let's get into character trait number two that every entrepreneur should cultivate, and that is clarity of thinking, or thinking clearly. So the truth is working on your brain health. Entrepreneur, as an entrepreneur, is so important. Have you ever thought about that before? Like, this is the vessel to do all of this work? So if you've ever had those moments where you're, like, trying to plan out a launch, but it's not coming together, or you're chatting with a client, but the ideas just aren't flowing, or you're not able to answer their questions clearly, or you have to make a choice to do this software, or this software, but you don't know which one to choose, or you're trying to get through your to do list for the day, but you feel like you're moving so slow. And I'll be honest, I haven't mastered this one yet. Like, full time clarity of thinking.
But I know for certain that thinking clearly as an entrepreneur is a superpower. So if you're an online business owner, you have to work on your in person brain power. And the hard part about this one is that there are so many factors that play a role in having a clear mind. How much you slept. And if you have a baby, like I do, who's eight months old, they still wake up in the night. It's what you're eating. Like, are you eating brain foods? Do you have a lot of white sugar in your diet? Are you drinking too much? Are you getting optimal nutrients? Do you have a lot of clutter in your brain? That could be mental clutter, that could be literal, physical clutter that's outside of your door running to do lists in your head without even really knowing it. Are you good at time management or are you constantly feeling frantic and chaotic that you don't have the time to do all that you want to do? Are you spending enough time in nature because nature has this way of promoting theta brainwaves? Are you over committing to things? Are you constantly walking around your house with the tv and the radio on with, like, toxic news playing? Are you having hard conversations before they overtake you? These are all things that impact your clarity of thinking as an entrepreneur.
And this is why, as you go further down your entrepreneurial journey, you will get so good at saying a really clean yes, like, yes, I can commit to that. Yes, I can eat that yes, I can stay up late for this. But also, you'll get really good at a no, no, I don't want that piece of cake at two in the afternoon before I have three more hours of client calls. No, I don't want to go out to this party that's going to keep me up till midnight, you know, you name it. No, I don't want to book in this event that I'm not that excited about attending. No, I don't want to speak on your stage because it's going to take me away from thinking about my next big project. These are things that we get really conscious of. And honestly, it starts from a state of, like, I don't feel clear.
And then you really start to cull through, what have I done to get to this state and how can I make it better? And this is why I think every entrepreneur should work with a health coach. Because if your body is not in great shape, I don't think your business is going to be performing at an optimal level. So the question that I would ask you is, on a scale of one to ten, how clear do you feel today? Zero, being I'm a total fog. And in which case, I don't think that you're going to have a great day working in the business or on the business. And ten being crystal clear, like, my routines are dialed in and I think for all of us, there's so much improvement that can be made there. So that is trait number two. Let's get into trait number three, which is decisiveness. So, if you cannot make a decision, or if you can't make a relatively quick decision, you should probably work for somebody who can.
That's a bit of a bold take, but decisions move your business forward. That doesn't mean you're always going to know the right answer, but when you have to make a decision about your future, about the day to day operations of your company, about what to invest your time and your energy in. You get really good at taking calculated risks and just making the decision so that you can move forward. So very similar to clear thinking. I believe that decisiveness is a byproduct. And when you're thinking clearly, so when you've got treat number two dialed in, you can actually be decisive because your brain is able to be like, okay, we've seen something like this before. I know what decision I want to make. It might not be perfect, but at least you've made a decision.
And I feel pretty lucky, because I feel like decisiveness is something that I always had as a trait. I even remember as a kid going to the shopping mall with my mom and sister. We would be going back to school shopping or something, and my sister and I would both go into a store like American Eagle, and we'd have, like, six shirts and two pairs of pants. I would rush into the change room, and I would put on my outfits, and as soon as I put on the shirt, I'd be like, no. Like, toss it and be like, no. No. Yes. No.
Whereas my sister, I would be sitting outside of the change room with my mom, and we'd be waiting and waiting and waiting. And, like, 40 minutes later, she'd come out of the change room and go, do you think this one, or. I'm not sure about this one. And I realized at that point, like, I knew within a millisecond if I liked a shirt or if it fit me. And I also knew if it was like, a no go. So I have this, like, decisive quality. Or if you ask me, like, what do you want to have for dinner? I could probably come up with something. Do you like this software or this software? And I'll tell you what I like, and I'll tell you exactly why I like it.
Whereas I find that some people, they're kind of like, well, I don't know, maybe. And they sit in indecision for a while, which is totally fine. But I think that being decisive and making quick changes and deciding what to focus your precious time on is a superpower. Sitting in indecision is not necessarily the best spend of time. So practice making decisions. If this is not something you're good at, give yourself a this or that. So if you're sitting in indecision, give yourself two options. Okay, so in this situation, I could send this email.
Or I could send this email. Which one do I want to send and then send it. Um, ask yourself, what's the return on investment if you can't make a decision, if you're like, should I do a course? Launch in September? Ask yourself, okay, well, what do I think the return on investment or immediate benefit could be? And write out, okay, I could make money. I could get more visible and practice my social media content creation skills. I could prepare a launch plan so that come January, I already have it. And then maybe some, like, worst case scenarios. Okay, so if I launch in September, worst case scenario, I am really busy and I have to pull shoot, or I don't make the sales that I want to make. But at least you made a decision.
You forecasted the return on investment, you forecasted the worst case scenario, and you made a decision. So trait number three that I believe all entrepreneurs should cultivate is decisiveness. The decisive people tend to make more decisions, but more of those decisions lead to incredible results. Trait number four is do not, or entrepreneurs who are successful do not measure their worth on their business success, because that is a roller coaster. So I need to share a reminder here that you are not your business, and therefore, you are not a less valuable person in society if your business is having a slow month. So we are affected. All businesses are affected by either seasonality, the changing seasons, the economy, right? There's ups and downs, recessions and booms, personal commitments. Right.
Maybe you're, like, training for a marathon right now, or maybe you are taking care of a loved one. And outside of work, you just have a lot going on. These all play a factor in whether we're able to show up for our business with full dialed in attention, the same each and every month, or whether it's unrealistic in certain months or certain seasons or certain economies to feel like the business is going to be equally or more successful as it was last month or last year. So it's so important to not measure your personal worth on your business success, because that can be a really slippery slope towards months where you just feel deflated, like you're not winning and like you are a complete failure, because there will be months when you sign ten clients and you're making tens of thousands of dollars. But there will also be months that are just crickets. And maybe it's unexplainable. For example, I had the weirdest situation. I was talking to a couple of my friends about this, where I went to all this work to turn on some Google Ads, because I'm just coming back from maternity leave and I'm working a little bit more than I was when my son was first born.
And Google Ads are part of my strategy. I've used them for a few years. I turned the Google Ads on, and all of a sudden applications stopped coming in. I didn't get a single application for like three weeks, and I was like, is something broken? What's going on? Honestly, there was no rhyme or reason other than the fact that it was July and maybe in Ontario, where my target market is, everybody's on vacation. And then on August 6 and August 7, in a 24 hours period, I got four highly qualified one on one applications out of nowhere. Not consistent. This is not what we would call consistent over the course of a month. Yes, but normally I would like to see one application every week.
But consistency is not reality when we're an entrepreneur, right? That is not what we've signed up for. And so we can't measure our self worth on consistent success in the business. Stability we can ask for, right? Like, I want a stable income, but to have perfectly consistent income. Consistency is literally defined as unchanged in nature, standard over time. And as an entrepreneur, you may have months where you make 100 million and then months where you only make 100,000. Right? That's okay. We don't necessarily want consistency that could actually pigeonhole us and hold us back from success. So your income will be changing, hopefully in a favorable direction.
But you do have to keep your head high during the inevitably unpredictable months. And to really make sure that you don't measure your self worth on your business success. I always encourage my clients to make sure that you're winning in other areas besides just in your business, so that you can ride high even when your business isn't on a rocket ship, so that you have other things that are lighting you up, that are showing you you are a badass human being outside of work because there will be slow months. But if you are winning the day in other ways, or for me, like, I love to go mountain biking, and if I can climb out a new trail, if I can get up a hill without falling, I am winning. I don't care if I had a slow day in business, because as soon as I hit the trails, I can have a winning day. And sometimes I may not have a winning day. I may have the worst day on the mountain bike. My legs feel tired.
My friends are all faster than me, but at least I can try one of my favorite, like, social media personalities to follow. She's not just a personality, she's a person. Her name is Cody Sanchez. You might have heard of her? Gotten her TikTok content or Instagram content? She's kind of blowing up. And she buys and sells blue collar businesses. But she says a quote, that's so simple. And she says, you win by winning the day every day. So where else in your life are you pursuing high performance? And if the answer is nowhere, you have to find somewhere that you can also win outside of work.
So win the day, no matter what. For me, how I win the day is I always have a plan each day. I love mapping out my to dos and what I'm going to do. I love having a scheduled block for work. That's a win the day strategy for me is knowing I have 30 or 60 minutes to pour into my work. I win the day by eating well. I just finished a plate of oranges. Before that, I had a green smoothie, and before that, I had roasted chickpeas.
I'm eating well, which helps me feel like I'm winning. And that also helps with the clarity of thought and being decisive. I win the day by getting outside every day. So I always make a point to get outside, hopefully first thing in the morning. I win the day by listening to a podcast and shifting my mood and, like, turning on these ideas by listening to other people's conversations around marketing. So, again, you're not your business. So when your business isn't doing great, please keep that separate. And almost have a stoic mentality, like, when things are riding high, don't assume that, like, everything's easy, and I'm just gonna always be riding high.
And when things are low, it's like, oh, a client canceled. All good. It's gonna happen. A small portion of clients will not want to finish out their contracts, and that's okay. So I feel like I've seen so many people go so hard on their business, give up all hobbies and social time approach or reach burnout, which is a scary place to be. And when they're not winning anywhere in their life at that point, because they've abandoned all joy and then the business isn't doing well, they just feel like they're dead inside, and they quit the business, and they have nothing going for them outside of work. So I know that's a harsh reality, but. But it's really important to be winning in multiple areas of your life.
All right, let's get into trait number five, which is to not quit prematurely and to stay consistent and to know when quitting is the right move versus when quitting is just you getting in your head and deciding to quit prematurely. So from my experience working with hundreds of clients, a lot of the people who quit their business or shut it down, they do it prematurely. And right before it's about to get good. And don't get me wrong, I have quit many things in my life when I knew it wasn't a good fit. I mentioned my network marketing business earlier. I did that for a couple years, but I woke up one day and I knew this is not the path I want to take for it. I don't see the potential in keeping this business alive, even though I loved it. So it was a hard decision.
I was making money reoccurring revenue. I had a great community, but I knew that it was a good quit. So there's nothing inherently wrong about quitting. And knowing when to quit is actually a great quality. But when you've built something, when you're growing an audience, when you have a vision that you're trying to bring to life, you're passionate about it, but you maybe are not, like, building it as quickly as you perhaps thought you would. Remind yourself that it's going to take time, a lot of time. Most businesses are not profitable in the first couple of years, and it takes showing up day after day, week after week, hour by hour, to see the results of consistency paired with passion. And honestly, guys, it's not always fun to show up when you feel like nobody's paying attention and you'd rather just go lay on your couch.
So it's important to reroute in that vision and to always ask yourself, like, do I think I've created a good product? What is a realistic timeline? Like, ask your peers. Get connected in the industry and say, oh, you also created an online course. How long did it take you, number one, to amass a following on Instagram, to amass good website traffic, to get your downloads on your podcast up, and ultimately, to sell 30 online courses in a year or in a month. Get the real story from people, because there's too many people sharing B's online and just doing something once, like posting on an Instagram or, you know, sharing your story on LinkedIn, if it doesn't work right away, it's not because you should quit. It's not because the content's not good. It might just mean it's gonna take time. It's like Simon Sinek, he shares this story on the Diary of CEO podcast. And it's like, you know, if someone decides to go to the gym, they don't come home that day for the first gym session that they had ever and have abs right away.
Then they go the next day, they come home, still no abs. Then they go the next day, then they go the next day. Then all of a sudden they've been 600 days in a row. And all of a sudden people are like, wow, you're my fittest friend. You must have always been fit that way and you must just be born with that body type. But the truth is it was just consistency and not quitting. So, you know, going to the gym for a intense session where you're like, I'm just going to sit on the spin bike for 32 hours. That's not going to transform you.
That's not going to produce the result long term. But going to a spin class every single day for the next 600 days, you become the spin master. Your power output is insane. Your strength on the bike, the watts that you output are insane. And that's consistency. And the only reason you have the amazing body is because you didn't quit on the goal. So before you quit anything, before you quit your business, especially, ask yourself, how can I make this more fun? Why did I start in the first place? Do I care if in the first few months I have one person listening or 1000 people listening? Is it still important to show up for that one person? And my hope is that, yes, it is. All right, let's get into our next character trait.
I believe this is character trait number five. The next character trait is the ability to march your own path. So if you're an entrepreneur, perhaps you feel like you don't quite fit in the box. Hey, I also feel that way. Whether that's that you don't like being told what to do, you're not good at following rules. You don't want to be forced to hang out in an office full of people that you don't really want to be around. And I know that that's not possible for everybody, but I remember this visceral feeling of like, I can't be in this building anymore. I will do whatever it takes to get out.
Or maybe generally you just are not okay with the lack of freedom in your life. You want the freedom to create, to explore, to build, and you're willing to do whatever it takes to chase that because you know that you thrive when you're allowed to march your own path and when you're not being told what to do. I'm reading a book right now called ten X is easier than two X. And the author, Dan Sullivan, he says that entrepreneurs actually do start marching a different path. From an early age. And when he asks, a lot of the entrepreneurs that he's worked with, they can remember around the age of six or seven or eight that they were on a solitary path earlier, whether that was choosing to spend their time in unconventional ways, or starting a little lemonade stand or dealing Pokemon cards to their friend. For me, I remember begging my parents for a paper route when I was like, eleven years old. I saw this advertisement in our local newspaper that our neighborhood was looking for paper delivery people for the Sunday Star.
There was no age limit. You just needed to either walk around the neighborhood and drop them off by 07:00 a.m. every Sunday or like, get someone to drive you. Obviously at eleven, I couldn't drive. I remember reading that ad and being like, I need this job. Like, begging my parents to allow me to have the Sunday Star paper route. And even though I didn't need to work at that age, my parents weren't putting pressure on, like, this tiny child. But I wanted to contribute.
I wanted to have responsibility. I wanted to do something that nobody else my age was doing. I wanted to make money and be able to have my own little pool of funds that I could spend on things that I wanted, even though it involved me at a young age getting up at 06:00 a.m. on a Sunday. So if you feel like you were that person who has been engaging in money and business ideas and opportunity since you were quite young, and you're like, I'm just not the type of person to be raised to be like the good girl or the one who just follows all the rules. You are innately someone who is meant to follow your own path. And don't ever let society tell you otherwise, because society is constructed to fit in a box. Follow rules, do things this way, don't question what we tell you, listen to the news cycle.
And there are some of us who simply don't live that way. We check in internally. We have a different measurehood for wealth and what that means in our life. And the greatest wealth that we can possibly have is our freedom. Freedom to do what we want to do when we want to do it. And that's not just freedom of finances, it's freedom of time, it's freedom of energy, it's freedom of relationships. And so if you are just purely financially motivated, I don't think that's the best character trait of an entrepreneur. Yes, that's good.
But be in pursuit of more, be in pursuit of money so that you can choose how you spend your time. And it's funny, because I feel like most entrepreneurs I know who are the most successful, they're not in pursuit of the fancy things, the expensive watches, the expensive cars. They don't flash their wealth. They're more the ones that are, like, wealthy in all the subtlest ways. It's so, so cool to see the classic example would be someone like Warren Buffett, one of the most famous investors. They say that he's lived in the same modest house since 1958, has never upgraded. He still eats McDonald's every day and drinks a coke every day. Like, his wealth is not in pursuit of physical objects or, like, the next latest, greatest thing, because he's doing what he wants to do, because it's the most easeful path for somebody like him who thinks outside of the box and who doesn't want to be in a construct.
And so what I've recognized through this is that entrepreneurs, like, we're not needers per se. This is a concept from ten x is easier than two x as well. The book that I mentioned previously, needers, they live in this world of, like, scarcity and security. And I need a job, and I need my pension, and I need x amount of money each week. And that's all well and good. There's a time and place to have that certain structure, but that gets you into this rat race of, like, well, I need a bigger house and I need a better car. But then there's this other concept of wanters. And wanters are like the people who just have this innate sense of belief that there's more.
There's more of me that I'm able to give and I'm meant for more. And wanters tend to live in this world of abundance and freedom and creativity, where their successes are more internally motivated. So you might want more peace in your home. You don't need it. But it's like, well, I want it. I want to, like, live this incredible life. I want no stress around money. And so the ability to march your own path, to chart your own vision, to look at life and decide exactly how you want to live it, that is an incredible trait to have and never lose that spark as a business owner.
All right, let's get into trait number six. And this is never saying limiting thoughts like, I don't have time for that, or there's just not enough time in the day, or, I could never do this or that. This one was inspired by my friend Krista, and she brought this up when I asked a couple of my girlfriends, you know, what are some of those character traits that you had to drop as soon as you became an entrepreneur. And I really love this. It's checking our thoughts and the words that we say and the stories that we have in our head. Like, I don't have time for that. Well, here's the thing. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you can create something out of nothing.That is literally like the definition. You look at something and say, I can make it better, or you look at nothing and say, I have an idea and I can bring it to life. And we can always find a way to make things work. Everything is figureoutable, as Marie Forleo says. And if we have essential tasks, we can always fit it into a workday, whether it's a three hour workday or an eight hour workday. And one area where I have really felt this one of not saying things that aren't true, like, I don't have time for that, isn't a construct. Because 24 hours in a day, you have time for whatever you want in that 24 hours for the most part. Um, or at least you have some time that you could reschedule.
But I think for Krista and I, this one is so resonant. And by the way, Krista is the founder of the dietitian success center. So go look her up. Her and I both became mothers for the first time in 2023. And I think for her and I, it really forced us to look at our businesses from a whole new lens and to never say, I don't have time for that, or there's not enough time in the day. But what is a priority at this point, and what do I want to create space for? Because I can create space. After Freddie goes to bed, I can create space. If I wake up a little earlier and work on the one or two things that I know are important.
I can ask Dave for 45 minutes on a Saturday morning when he's at home and not at work to build something out. So I do have the time, but I only have time for the right things. And telling myself these looped stories of there's not enough time in the day, I can't get around to that. It's actually a false narrative. And I never want to get caught saying these things because it limits me from doing the important work and also knowing what's not important work. Something that I found really helpful. I was watching a YouTube video with one of my favorite youtubers, Sarah Therese, and she's a homeschooling youtuber with five kids. And I know Ed Milet who's a business coach, he also talks about this is actually looking at your day in multiple blocks.
So instead of looking at a day as a 24 hours cycle, you could actually look at your day as multiple blocks. So, I know for Sarah Therese, she looks at her day in four different blocks. Like, the first block is before the kids get up. The second block is her homeschooling block. The third block is homemaking. The fourth block is after the kids go to bed. For me, I have a whole new system now that I'm a working mama. So I have mama days, which are Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, which are very different from my working days.
So, working days, I have four to 6 hours of childcare. So that's great. I can focus. I can get my work done. I know what my priorities are. But on a mama day, I love to work in blocks. So, block one is from seven to 10:00 a.m. and I'm present with Freddie, so I have time devoted.
I do have time to be a present mama. Block two is the nap time hustle. That's usually from ten to one, a three hour nap. So, block two, I have time to work. And notice I'm not cleaning the house. Like, things are a bombshell. Laundry's not done. The dog maybe hasn't been for a walk, but that's the work block.
Block three is from, like, one to 05:00 p.m. and that is, again, my time to be present with Freddie. Maybe to do a little cleanup around the house while he sits on his play mat and hangs out. Maybe he has a short nap, so we have time for all that. Maybe we do an activity with a friend, and then block four is family time when Dave gets home. And so maybe he takes Freddie out by himself. But most times, I want to spend time with him. And so instead of catching these stories of, like, I don't have time on Mondays to do that, I now look at my days in different blocks, and I fit everything in accordingly.
There's always time for things that are going to move your vision forward, which I think is a very refreshing perspective. And I know that that might sound totally crazy to someone who's like, but then I got to take the kids to sport, and then I got to blah, blah, blah, and then I got to work on the business, and then I have to go take care of this person. But again, we always have time for our priorities and our final trait that I want to wrap up on today. Thanks for sticking with me all this way. Is a character trait to cultivate. If you're an online entrepreneur, a business owner, somebody who's even starting a business for the first time, is to get used to making mistakes in public, failing forward, and perhaps even looking silly in front of people. Because when we're decisive, when we are moving about our day and doing the things we know we need to do, there will be mistakes, there will be disasters. And thank you to my friend Stephanie Long for adding this one.
She is the founder of the next Level Nutrition Biz podcast. And launch your nutrition biz, which is a course for nutritionists who need business coaching. And the conversation that we had here is that it's gonna be ugly for all of us. Sometimes you're gonna get smacked in the face. You're gonna press record on an Instagram live and not know what to say. You're going to send an email that is incomplete. You're going to deliver a workshop in person and feel like you're drawing a total blank. Like starting a business means we need to cultivate that muscle of resiliency and the willingness to fail in public.
Because the truth is, as you get more visible, as you build out your marketing funnel, as you try new strategies, you're going to find that not all of them work. A lot of them are an experiment. A lot of them pull you right towards your growth edge. And you feel stretched and you feel silly, and you feel underqualified, and you feel imposter syndrome. And most of the time, you do it and you're like, yeah, that was awesome. I'm so glad I did it. But there are times when you walk away from a work day going, oh, my God, I don't think that worked, or I said the wrong thing, or, that was not worth my time. And so a trait to cultivate as an entrepreneur is the willingness to learn from our failures to know.
I was even reading Freddie a book this morning, and it basically said to recognize that you can learn from your mistakes rather than feeling shame around them. And I think that's so important to know that behind the scenes, behind the curtains, every entrepreneur is failing, most of us, every single day, maybe once a week if you're lucky. But we have to get used to just failing forward. And if it's a failure in public or what we're deeming a failure, just know that there's so much we can glean from that. And nobody gets to step 100 without tripping on steps one through 99. So that's it for today's episode. I hope this was helpful. These are traits that I would highly recommend cultivating or even just thinking about.
If you are somebody with a big vision, somebody who wants to build out an epic business and I am so thrilled that you listen to the end. So if you found any of these helpful, feel free to send me a DM on Instagram. I am Elsie Rydell. I love talking about these topics. I've been loving recording more solo episodes for you and just being that business and marketing bestie that you can count on to share the real talk, to share the musings from what I'm actually doing behind the scenes, what I'm testing, what I'm trialing, and anecdotes and stories from all of my coaching clients. So if you do want to chat about building out your marketing strategies for the coming six months, I would love to book a free call with you. Head to kelseyridel.com and other than that, I hope you have a visionary day. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Visionary Life.
I love bringing you these conversations on a weekly basis, so it would mean so much to me if you could help me out by rating and reviewing the show on either itunes or Spotify. It just takes a second, and if you don't want to rate the show, you could also just take a screenshot of the episode and share it on your social media platform of choice. Tagging me Elsieridell. I'll catch you in the next episode. Hey visionaries, I want to quickly interrupt this episode to talk about masterminds and why they are so popular. So let me start with a quick story. I used to have such a scarce mindset around investing in my business. I thought that spending money on courses or professional development or retreats, I thought that was an expense against my business.
And yes, technically it is. But when you really look at it, it's an investment in the growth of your business. And something that I'm so super proud of is that I now have a dedicated budget and I recommend this to all my clients, too. For me, it's about ten to 20% of my take home profits that I am allowed and willing. And I am giving myself permission to invest in personal growth, professional development, joining masterminds, going to conferences, taking courses. So this means that if my business was earning a, say, 100,000 a year, I would invest ten to $20,000 into professional development. I know that sounds like a lot. For example, today my business earns a quarter of a million dollars.
So this year I am looking to spend a little over $30,000 in things like going to retreats or joining masterminds, or becoming part of professional networks where I know the up level is imminent. So this is why you've seen me go to places like Park City, Utah, and spend seven days with high level entrepreneurs just dreaming and thinking. Because I had the budget set aside and I thought, you know what? I need to get in the room with people who can see beyond my current limitations. This is why I recently purchased a course on Google Ads, and I wanted to uplevel my knowledge and how I could support my clients even better in this area of digital marketing. And each year, I also choose one mastermind to invest in. So I just invested well over five figures into joining a three month mastermind. And the reason I tell you all of this is because I truly see a trend that those business owners who are willing to reinvest, join groups and not be afraid to get in the room with new people every single month, or at least every single year. Those business owners who are afraid to do so, their businesses stall, they feel lonely, they stagnate in their ideation, and they're constantly trying to do everything themselves rather than finding a group of people who can support them and help them rise up much more quickly.
So this is where masterminds come in. One of my favorite quotes is from Napoleon Hill. He says, mastermind groups multiply the mental powers of all participants, so one plus one does not equal two in these groups. And I could go on and on, but basically what I'm trying to say is business masterminds are the perfect way to up level your business. So if you don't already know, my co facilitator Emily and I launched Wave the mastermind about twelve months ago. And we are so excited to be rolling out fresh new programming. We have brand new content coming at you. Guest speakers like Stu McLaren, who is a membership expert.
We have someone who's talked to us about how to become predictably lucky. We talk about business finances, we talk about how to make sales fun and easeful. There is so much juice coming up, and I don't want you to miss out. So if you're a driven female entrepreneur, find me on Instagram and dm me the word mastermind so that I can invite you to a free session, no strings attached. I just want you to get a vibe for what happens inside of these groups. So again, you can dm me. I'm Elsie Rydell on Instagram. Just send me the word mastermind and I'll send you an invite or head to kelseyreidl.com mastermind
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