What We Can Learn About Business & Life When We Travel

INTRO: After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host, Katherine Thompson takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you're ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen her and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry, without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you're in the right place.

Be the sought after entrepreneur podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter one size fits all approach to marketing and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this. You can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life.

Welcome to be the sought after entrepreneur podcast. And here's your host, Katherine Thompson.

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey, super stoked that you're tuning in this week's episode and I cannot wait to [00:01:00] dive into a topic because I'm going to be reflecting on my solo trip that I took this summer to North Carolina. If you are. on Instagram, you would have seen a photo or two. That's really all I have on my phone, which is kind of funny, but not really funny because I was at this festival where I was a second shooter.

So I was photographing alongside the primary shooter that had been photographing that festival since its inception. And so I was there to support her because the festival has just grown so much over the last three years and she needed support. And so. It was a really cool opportunity that sort of came into or fell into my lap, which is often how things happen.

And I've talked about it a little bit, but I just sent out an email to my email list reflecting on this story. And I wanted to talk about it here as well. Um, and dive into it a little bit more, more than what I was able to express in the written word. And if you're not on my newsletter, [00:02:00] I highly recommend that you do.

If you've watched Selling the Invisible or taken the quiz, you know the drill. When you opt in, you're going to get some emails from me. And then after that, you kind of go into my main email list and I'm not sending weekly emails. I'm not sending two a days. I'm not sending, you know, three emails a week asking you to buy things.

Um, I send emails from like once a month, maybe twice a month. It just depends on what I'm inspired to share or what I feel inspired to share. So I think in August I've sent two so far, but I felt really inspired to share this reflection because I feel like it ties in so much with business and entrepreneurship, but in a way that is nuanced and kind of is not really talked about.

And something that I believe will reduce crazy amounts of stress in your business. and really help you be nimble, which is [00:03:00] so interesting because when I was working in corporate in my early days, I remember my mentor who was my boss at the time, but he was mentoring me as well. I was a junior consultant.

And one of the things he said to me was, we want to be nimble in business, not reactive. And it's so interesting because I think a lot of business owners are reactive, they're reacting to markets, they're reacting to low sales, they're reacting to, um, things happening in the world, in the industry, whatever it might be, and we're always sort of on this like eggshell y place.

We're in this eggshell y place and it's hard to sort of not make knee jerk reactions from that energy. It is really sort of like a dysregulated nervous system in a lot of ways. We're in that sort of flight or fight, always on defense and not really nimble to what's going on. And I want to reflect on my story of traveling solo for the first time in a very long time and something that I didn't [00:04:00] really realize I needed.

Until it all sort of transpired and happened. And so, back in December, this opportunity to photograph this festival came into my lap. And if you know a little bit about my story, you know I photographed professionally for six years, shooting weddings, families, newborns. And when I hung up my camera, I didn't hang it up with the idea of like, I'm never gonna do this again.

I just didn't want to shoot weddings anymore. And I didn't want to commit to shooting consistently. I kind of wanted to pick the camera up when inspired, when an opportunity came that I was really excited about. So when this opportunity presented itself, I was really excited. Number one is I get to travel solo somewhere that I've never been.

I get to experience something that I've never experienced before, and I get to be surrounded. by amazing women doing amazing things and offering these really magical and [00:05:00] powerful workshops, classes, you name it. And I get to be a second shooter, which if you have done photography or know anything about photography, There's a lot less pressure on the second shooter because the primary shooter is there to capture the event, right?

I always loved being the second shooter at a wedding, but that primary shooter, they have to get the first kiss at a wedding. They've got to get those moments between father daughter, like though it's up to them to get it. And the second shooter is there to just support and capture some of the filler photos and whatnot.

That the primary shooter just couldn't because of the size, the time, all of those sorts of things. So I absolutely loved that I got to be a second shooter because I just got to go with my camera and shoot. I also didn't have to do any post processing, right? I got to come home, dropbox the images and the primary shooter made the images [00:06:00] like look like hers, right?

Be consistent with her vibe. So there was also that component that really excited me. And so I said yes, and as the months inched up to the festival, this doubt started to creep over me, and this like, what did I commit to? Business was booming, things were happening, and that ego was like, How can you take a week off and go do this and it's not really a holiday because I'm going to be working, right?

So you're actually taking a week away and still working, but not on the business you've created, which is creatively owned. What if you shift your focus and you've made this focus now for the week? Will things start to sort of fall away in your other business, right? This ego that's trying to keep you safe, comfortable, just doing the same things over and over and over again.

And there was this part of me as I got up. I was like, Oh man, like, what if nobody talks to me? What if I have meet nobody? [00:07:00] What if I'm sitting there at supper and I have no one to talk to? Like, that's awkward. And I'm not the human that will go to the movies alone or out for dinner alone. Which is totally weird because I'll fly across the world by myself and put myself into experiences where I'm by myself, essentially.

But the idea of sitting at supper, You know, dinner or supper alone was a fear. Will the car that I'm renting be enough for me to sleep in? Because that was the plan. I was going to rent an SUV in Atlanta, drive to North Carolina and sleep in the vehicle. It is a camping festival. So lots of people looked at me and they were like, Why don't you have accommodations?

You know, like a house to stay in. And I said, well, it's a camping festival. So most of the women camped in a tent, or some people brought in like RVs and campers and stuff like that. And then there was a select group of yurts that were available, but they sold out in like the first hour or less. [00:08:00] And I get why, because they are definitely luxury when you're looking at those yurts.

And you're sleeping in the back of a vehicle or you're sleeping in a tent. And so that was the plan. You know, I was going to do that and, and show up there and shoot. And I did, but there was a fear going into it. Plus, I don't think I realized that I hadn't really traveled solo like that to the extent that I was traveling.

without Craig in like a decade it feels like I think unless I'm missing a trip somewhere in there, but I think basically I travel with him in a lot of ways and I want to, you know, but I equally love solo trips, you know, when I jetted off to India or the Philippines, like those are really memorable trips because.

I was going solo, so I had to navigate things on my own and figure things out on my own. It's just really fun. A really great learning in a lot of ways. So as I'm gearing up, you know, [00:09:00] it's interesting and funny because I don't really plan things. And again, if you've been following me for a while, you probably are getting this and trips.

For sure are the things that I go in probably not prepared to the outsider looking in, but I feel really prepared going in. Like I had the plan of sleeping in the back of my car and Craig thinking and saying to me, are you sure? Like, Is that going to be comfortable? And I'm like, I slept in the, like a village in the Philippines with literally no bed and I survived.

It's fine. I'll be good. He was like, yeah, but that was like 2014. That was like almost a decade ago. You know, you were a lot younger, like things were different, all those sorts of things. And so I was like, no, I can totally do it. I'd way rather sleep in a vehicle. Then a tent, set up a tent and you know, I just didn't want to do that.

Plus I didn't have the capacity. I was flying to Atlanta and then driving, like to pack a tent and all the sorts of things. I was already [00:10:00] packing a blow up mattress and things like that to put in the back of the vehicle. And then he looks at me and he says, Do you want to bring your poncho? And this poncho in and of itself has a ton of memories to it because we got it while we were hiking Machu Picchu and it was the best, I don't know, 5 we ever spent.

And I remember finishing that hike and being like, I'm taking these bloody ponchos home and it came into good use. Um, but I looked at him and said, I'm not taking the poncho. I said, it's so hot there. Every festival they've done, it's been like scorching hot. If anything, I need a fan, which I did buy a portal fan, which is my best freaking investment to date.

I love my fan. But he was like, are you sure? And anybody who knows Craig knows that he knows the weather where we live all the time, but he knows the weather of the location that we're going to. any trip we're taking for the time that we're going to be there. [00:11:00] And so I knew he knew the weather and I'm glad I didn't look at it because I never do.

I never look at the freaking weather because it's something I can't control. However, knowing it can help you prepare to some degree. Anyways, pack the poncho thinking I'll never pull it out of its bag. I pack everything up. I catch my flight. It's It's slightly delayed out of Saskatoon, and it gets more and more delayed out of Saskatoon.

And I arrive in Toronto, I don't know, 1. 30 in the morning when I should have arrived at 9pm. And my flight isn't, is leaving at 7am that same day now. And so by the time I got checked into my hotel, had a shower, laid down, I had about three hours of sleep. And so I get up, I go check in, do all the things I need to do.

My flight out of Toronto to Atlanta was completely on time. It was the only flight in my whole stretch that was on [00:12:00] time, but we'll get to that. I landed in Atlanta. Things are great. I go to the rental car company. And the other big risk that Craig kept pointing out was you never really know the vehicle you're get, right?

So it says like a Ford escape. Like a Highlander, but you might not get the Highlander. You might not get the Ford escape. And I rented through Hertz and I walk up and they do this beautiful rental experience, by the way, like it was so fricking seamless. And I roll up and they bring me to this parking lot and they're like.

These are the, all of the, uh, intermediate SUVs that you can choose from. And I was like, brilliant. Right? So I'm walking up and down the aisles looking and everything was pretty small and small in that I knew I had to lay the seats down, sleep in it, but my big bag also had to fit and I wanted to be comfortable because I was going to be sleeping, the plan was I was going to be.

[00:13:00] sleeping in the back of my vehicle for five nights, which is a long time, right? You want to be comfortable. Plus I would be working and walking around the festival grounds, taking photographs. I also wanted to be rested. So I spot this Chevy Equinox and it's the only thing that I feel in the whole lot.

That is going to work for me. So I lucked out because there was two other people kind of walking around the lot too. And I could see some people looking at it. I don't know if they were camping too. So they were probably just going from point A to point B and probably didn't need something to recline and space and all of that.

So I would have probably begged people had we both been fighting over the same vehicle, but it didn't work out that way. Set up my Google Maps, roll out, and I trust in Google Maps to take me on the most perfect route to this piece of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains, um, that is absolutely so beautiful.

And whether Google took me on the, you know, most direct route, I have no clue, [00:14:00] but it did take me on a very scenic route and these winding beautiful roads with lush green roadsides with these quaint little communities that just kind of appear out of nowhere. And these colorful mailboxes at the end of dirt roads, like it was just really cool.

It kind of reminded me of British Columbia in a lot of ways, riding, you know, driving through the island, maybe to Tofino or something like that. And if you haven't driven that or even visited that part of the United States, it's a really beautiful place. I'd never been to Atlanta. I'd never been to North Carolina.

And it was just a beautiful two and a half hour drive. And I roll up. Uh, to the festival grounds, which is down this like dirt road once you turn off the kind of the main road and I'm driving really slow down this dirt road and I pull up to this big fence with, you know, there's staff there to let you in and I roll in and I find my where I'm going to park my vehicle and I pull in and I get settled [00:15:00] and I'm about to text Craig to let him know I've arrived safely.

And I realized I have no cell coverage. I had expected there would be spotty Wi Fi, but I did not expect that there would be no cell coverage. So I was sitting there like, okay, this is going to be interesting. Because I also didn't expect to be completely disconnected from my clients, that I would still be in contact with them.

I had let them know that there would be spotty Wi Fi. But if they sent me a message, I'd be able to reply. That was not the case. There were a few spots on the property too, to be exact, that I would get one bar that I was able to send a text message. One was in the kitchen or the pavilion, and one was up on this hill.

And what's really funny about this is that the same was true for the Philippines. Where I was in the Philippines, there was no wifi, no cell coverage, no electricity. no running water, none of it. It was rule, rule, rule, remote, remote, remote. But the [00:16:00] Filipinos that were there had found a few spots in the region that you would have to like hike to for 45 minutes or something, where you could get a bar, right?

So they would make that trek, you know, and go sit there to like text a family member, like, I'm okay, things are great. So while I was in the field there, I had really no connection with Anybody, you know, my family, nothing, the outside world. And so it kind of brought back this memory, this nostalgia of like being in the Philippines.

And it was like lush green grass. And a lot of people thought when I was in the Philippines, it was going to be this like hot weather, you know, like beach weather. Amazing, but I was in the rainforest. And so a lot of it was, it was beautiful weather, but it was a lot of like misty, rainy days and different things like that.

Lots of mud. I remember walking in flip flops and people were like, you're crazy. But my idea of putting running shoes on and being in like mud that covered your ankles also [00:17:00] felt crazy to me. And this is going to relate to the story that I'm about to tell you because I packed the poncho. So it was drizzling rain.

I expected the rain to pass, set everything up. I was exhausted. So I knew that I wasn't going to have connection with the outside world. So I wouldn't be able to hide behind my phone when things got awkward or I felt awkward, or I didn't have anyone to talk to. I knew I had to disconnect from the outside world, but I was also being forced to connect in a different way to the people around me.

To nature, as cliche as that might sound and cheesy as it might sound, it was an opportunity for me to really disconnect and really not be scrolling and different things like that or occupying my time, even if I was laying in the back of my vehicle, occupying my time with what? You know, I would sit on the back of the hatch instead and have these beautiful conversations.

With women I would never meet otherwise. So I crawled into bed pretty quickly that [00:18:00] night. I think it was 8 o'clock. The sun wasn't even down because I was exhausted. And I knew I wanted to go into the first day of the festival feeling super rested. I also was like really hopeful that the rain was going to stop.

But I woke up the next morning, and it was like, totally socked in. I was like, this doesn't look like it's gonna pass. So I whip out the poncho, life is grand. And in that time, I hadn't really done a full walk around of the grounds. So I didn't realize how muddy things were gonna get. Um, and long story short is it rained pretty much every day and it was so muddy.

And after the first day of the festival, I could not bring myself to put my running shoes back on. Like my feet were so soggy, so gross, they became almost itchy. And I was like, what am I going to do? The only other thing I brought was flip flops. But I also was thinking, how am I getting out on a flight?

If my flip flops are [00:19:00] destroyed and my sneakers are disgusting, I can't get on a flight. Like I won't even get through security. They're going to be like, what the heck? So I opted to go barefooted and I walked around for the next four days barefooted. And I can tell you that my feet are still recovering from it.

But like I said, The women that I camped next to, like, one of them made me coffee every morning because, of course, I didn't bring coffee, which is, I love coffee. And one lent me socks and said, like, here, if you ever want to try to put your sneakers back on. She actually gave me the socks. One gave me dishes because that was the one thing I did not bring was a plate, knife, and fork.

I thought, for sure because the meals are provided that they would have dishes, but they did not. So the women around me definitely saved the day in that they were, you know, giving me the things that I needed that maybe I forgot and all those sorts of things. And then the conversations, you [00:20:00] know, I met some women that I feel like I was old friends with, you know, somebody actually said to one of us, how long have you known each other?

And we're like, We literally just met yesterday and they were like, well, the banter between the two of you is like, you've been old friends. And it was just this beautiful thing. Cause like I said, I, I would never have met these women otherwise. So long story short is the festival was beautiful. There was so many beautiful workshops and sessions and classes and conversations.

And it was just lovely granted by the end of it. I was getting very, very tired of sleeping in a car, walking around barefoot. My body was a bit sore. And one woman said to me, you have a lot of energy. I was like, really? Because I feel so tired. And so on the last day of the festival, the design or the idea was, is that I would spend the night one more time, get in my car, drive to Atlanta airport and catch my flight.

And I was covered in mud. I felt gross. I hadn't showered. I'd showered [00:21:00] once. I know that sounds gross, but It is what it is. And I was like, I have to get out of here today because I want to get into a hotel, have a proper bed to sleep in and have a proper shower. So I went up to the Pavilion. I texted Craig and I said, can you find me a hotel near the airport?

And Craig's a detail guy, right? So he's like, well, what kind of hotel? I'm like, I honestly don't care. Like I have one bar. Like it's just something I need to sleep in. I probably won't get there until 10 at night. Like just find something new ish, maybe a holiday inn. So he goes to book at the holiday inn.

It's full. He finds a holiday in express, books a hotel room, and then texts me and says, I really hope that hotel exists. And I think, this doesn't sound promising, all I frickin want is a hotel bed and a shower. And I said, well, why do you say that? And he said, well, when it comes up on the map, it says the Red [00:22:00] Lion.

I'm like, Ooh, that doesn't sound promising. Whatever. I get in the car at the end of the day, I roll out, I arrive in Atlanta. Like I said, about 10, I'm starving, I'm exhausted. And I pull in, and it's a Holiday Inn Express. Thank God. I roll in, it's brand new. It's gorgeous inside. I'm super stoked. I check in, I go to my room, and I crank off the AC because I hate AC really.

I hate it pumping. I'd rather be a little bit warm than it be pumping. Uber eats me some pizza. I get the pizza. I'm sitting there curled up in my bed, nice and cozy. Eat my pizza, know I'm gonna, I'm about to have a shower after. And out of the corner of my eye, I see this black thing moving really quickly.

Or black, I thought. But I couldn't put my eye on it. So I actually at one point was like, am I going delirious because I'm so tired? [00:23:00] No, it was a cockroach. There was probably more than one. But, I was standing then on my bed like, what the hell do I do? Do I call the front desk? Do I just deal with it? I've traveled around the world.

I've slept around critters that were a lot worse than the cockroach. But I just wanted a good night's sleep, and I also wanted to have a shower. And I knew... That I would really struggle to get from the bed to the shower without freaking out that more cockroaches were just going to scurry around. So I called the front desk.

This guy comes up, he's got these gloves on. He's like, doesn't really speak a lot of English. And he asks if he can come in and he's kind of laughing, right? It's Atlanta. It's the South. It's warm. It was so freaking hot in Atlanta and of course there's going to be cockroaches, right? Like it's what, you know, what's this person freaking out about?

But I'm not used to cockroaches. So he comes in, he's looking, he's shining his light everywhere and I'm trying to explain where things are. I don't [00:24:00] think he really understands. And then he says, why is your air conditioning off? And I said, cause I don't really like the air conditioning. He says they're in the air conditioning.

He's like pointing and he hasn't looked at that point. I'm like, how do you know they're in there? He's like, well, they're in there. I just know. And so then he flashes his light, and sure enough, freaking cockroach just scurries out, goes in behind the baseboard of the bed, and then he's like, Oh, it went there to sleep.

And he kind of puts his arm up and I'm like, Uh, I don't think I can sleep now. So I said, Can I get a new room? Knowing full well that if there's a cockroach in that one, there's probably one in another one. Anyways. I get a new room, I, I crank up the AC, it's like freezing in there, and I'm like in layers of clothes.

Finish my pizza, have a shower, jump into bed, go to bed, wake up to a notification on my phone that says, your flight's delayed at like 7am. And I'm like, ah, damn it. So I, I'm like, okay, well, this isn't, this isn't [00:25:00] great. So... I sit in the lobby of the hotel and I'm sitting there waiting. Luckily I got the notification before I went so that it was like I could sit in my hotel room.

I get ready to pack up and I drive to the airport, drop off my rental car, get on the bus and the guy right beside me on the bus is going to Toronto. And he said, did you hear our flight was delayed again? And I was like, no, really? I'm like, I thought it just said it was on time. He's like, yeah, it just came through.

He's like, and I do know that usually when there's like one or two notifications, that's not going to stop. And I just kept thinking, I've got a big window between this flight that land then flies to Toronto. I've got a really like a three and a half hour layover. So I was like, it's okay. If it's delayed like an hour.

even an hour and a half I can make it to my connector. So we're waiting, we get on the plane and this crazy storm system moves in and it's like socked in and we're [00:26:00] sitting in the aircraft and the pilot's like, it's going to pass in 10 minutes. And I'm looking out the window going, there's no freaking way it's going to pass in 10 minutes.

Like it was so socked in, but I'm like, maybe he knows something I don't. So we're sitting there. Sitting there, sitting there. Two and a half hours later, we're finally ready to take off. That storm system grounded all flights out of Atlanta, and we were 36 in line once the runways opened again. Meanwhile, I've, I know I've already missed my connector, which is the first time in my entire life, out of all travel experiences, I've missed a connector.

We take off, we land in, I land in Toronto. at like 11 30. I stand in line for an hour to try and figure out like, will my baggage Be in Saskatoon tomorrow or like, do I need to pick it up and recheck it in? And if you don't know anything about Toronto airport, it's been a bit of a shit show since [00:27:00] COVID and everything.

And when I landed and got like to customer service, you could see hundreds and hundreds of bags in between the carousels that had just not being claimed or picked up or anything. And the last thing I wanted to do was that happened that I leave the airport, go to a hotel, come back. And my bag stays in Toronto and is never found again.

So I waited in line for an hour with all of the other, you know, people waiting and they tell me my bag is going to be tagged to Saskatoon. And there's this part of me that's like, there's no fricking way. It was kind of the same feeling I had when I landed in India and I heard my name. Over the intercom and I found out my bag never made it and them telling me that my bag will arrive at my hotel in the next day or two.

And as I'm driving to my hotel, if you've ever been to India, you probably will resonate with this, but like driving to my hotel. And it's this beautiful thing between chaos [00:28:00] and beauty in a lot of ways, right? It's a very unique country, but there's a lot going on there. And I remember pulling up to the hotel and it's like off this street that does not look like a touristy location, but the driver was like, you're in the tourist location.

I'm like, this does not look like a tourist location. And I pull up to this hotel. I'm like, there, my bag is never coming. Like, I'm just going to have to like deal with the fact that it'll never arrive. It did two days later. I had that same feeling. I'm like, I'll probably never see this bag again. Go check into a hotel.

It's midnight, like, you know, one o'clock in the morning. I'm even more exhausted and all I want to do is get home and I have no luggage. And I have this clothing that I've been wearing at a festival. That I'm like, I have to wash, like I cannot put this on tomorrow and fly. So here I am in the sink washing my clothes and hoping to God that they dry for the next day.

Set my alarm, I wake up and I've got another notification on my [00:29:00] phone. There's a bad weather storm moving in and we don't know if you'll have a flight today, basically, is what it said. And I just was like, you've got to be freaking kidding me. So I go downstairs, I have breakfast, I'm just like, fingers crossed, please don't send me a notification my flight is cancelled.

I don't want to stay here another night. I also did not bring my computer on this trip because I knew I wasn't going to use the computer. So I didn't actually even have a computer to resume work. I had my phone, which was. A bit annoying if I was going to be stuck anyways, I decided to upgrade my flight because I was like they had me at the back of the flight because it was a rebooked flight in between like row 30 in the middle.

And I was like, do I upgrade? Do I not upgrade? Do I upgrade? Do I not upgrade best fricking decision I ever made? Because at three and a half hour flight. In a comfier seat with a meal was just was everything I needed at the end of that flight, but that flight out of [00:30:00] Toronto was delayed like three hours.

I eventually got home at like, I don't know, six o'clock Monday night after having left the festival Saturday. I'm sharing this very long winded story with you because there's so much reflection that we can take. from travel. I think travel can be one of our greatest teachers. And I know that can sound really freaking cheesy, but it's so true.

There's so much that goes unplanned. There's so much that goes that doesn't go as expected. There's so much that that we can't control. Like, Weather or travel, right? As I sat there on the tarmac in Atlanta, the woman behind me was literally freaking out. Why aren't we taking off? Like this, this is brutal.

I'm missing my connector. And then she was like speaking loudly to the flight attendants. And her husband's like, you can't talk to people like that. And I'm sitting there going, thank God. We're not taking off in this. I don't want to take off in [00:31:00] this weather. You know, it's just so interesting how. We all sort of, you know, react or respond to things not going the way that we wanted.

Um, and if there is one thing I know, shove us in a metal tube and sit us on a runway and tell us we can't leave on time. And every update is like, in 10 more minutes we'll be going, in 15 more minutes we'll be going. Thank you for your patience. You know, and people. Like increasingly getting rattled.

That's a really good, you know, human behavior science experiment. But I wanted to share the story with you because for two reasons, number one is travel is a really great form of education and learning when we want to look at it and see what we can garner from it. Because. So, so much of travel doesn't go the way that we wanted, whether it's missed flights or delayed flights or hotels that just didn't meet our standards or, you know, you got a stomach bug.

I remember being in [00:32:00] Mexico and getting a bug on within the first 24 hours and being out for the entire week. That didn't go as planned and swearing I would never go back to Mexico because I didn't want to be that sick again. I was so, so sick. It's these things that happen in an unexpected way. Like I said, we just don't have control over and that is so much of what business can be in a lot of ways.

We don't actually have control over the outcomes that happen. And yet, for many of us, we grip so tightly trying to control the outcome. Trying to control what's going to happen. Trying to predict how many people are going to sign up for my offers or my programs. How many people are going to buy my products or services.

We try so much analytically and logically to predict and to calculate these metrics. And then when one slight thing doesn't go as expected, it's this all or nothing mentality. That's a total failure, [00:33:00] that completely bombed. This isn't working at all when really so much of it's working. I could have looked at this trip and gone, that was a nightmare, and left it as that, and talked, and pulled apart all of the things that didn't go as planned, and oh, therefore the whole experience was a nightmare.

There was so much of the experience that wasn't, right? And that again is, is business in a lot of ways. It's that nuance. It's that ability to experience frustration, delays, not being happy with how things are going, but also equally loving and enjoying the experience. It's that balance. It's that nuance.

It's not the all or nothing. But we live in a world that's so polarizing sometimes. Hyper polarization. And even in marketing, right, it's like, how can I live on the edges and be more polarizing? And what that does a lot of times with our thinking is that it's all or nothing. It's either all good or it's all bad.

[00:34:00] There's no sort of middle point of like being able to highlight what was really good, but equally recognize what was a bit of a shitstorm. And that's why travel can be, like I said, such a great lesson, but a really great reflection on. How to navigate business and more importantly, the ebbs and flows of it because there are ebbs and flows.

That's life. That's reality, right? There's ups and downs, ebbs and flows. And my mentor, when I first started out, when he was talking about being nimble, that's what he was talking about. How can you ride the ebbs and flows? without trying to control everything that's going on around you. How can you be nimble so that you don't react, that you don't shut down Facebook ads because the week's data doesn't look the way you want it [00:35:00] to, right?

Your cost per lead went up today or yesterday and therefore, oh shit must not be working. When we look at the big picture overall, things are actually working really well. Right? So there's this perspective of like, looking at the whole and seeing how things are going from that perspective. Instead of zoning in and focusing in on all the things that aren't working,

but also in the same breath, not having that mentality that everything's just great, all things are fine, right? That positive, that toxic positivity, because that's also not It's not really true in a lot of ways, right? There is going to be good and bad. There's going to be failure and success. They go hand in hand.

And that's what that travel story reminded me of. But it also allowed me to [00:36:00] disconnect in a way that I hadn't in a very, very, very long time and really have some genuine, beautiful conversations and experience something in life that I wouldn't have otherwise. Really come out of that experience going, yeah, like I said, there were some things that were bumps in the road, but on a whole, there were some really beautiful moments and really beautiful opportunities of connection and conversation and just the sisterhood, right?

Like, to have a woman two cars down making me coffee every morning, because there's no way I could have packed a stove or coffee or whatever, and, and just offering that up and from her supply of coffee, right? She equally likes coffee. So I wanted to reflect on the story, one, to share it with you, because I think it's funny and also a really enjoyable experience, but also to remind you that you can have failure and success [00:37:00] simultaneously.

You can have frustration and joy. simultaneously. You can have some things that seem to be a failure and then other things to be going really freaking well. And when we can take the perspective of that in business and loosen the grip and hold the business, And have that ability to sort of look at it from that perspective.

Like I said, it will relieve a shit ton of stress, but more importantly, it was going to help you not be in reactive mode in your business, which is the only, the best way I can describe it is like feeling like you're on eggshells that you don't really have the control, but you don't really just being on the eggshells on that reaction, on the defense.

And when one small little thing goes bad, you're ready to blow the whole thing up. You're [00:38:00] ready to walk away. You're ready to give everything up. It's the worst thing ever. This sucks, right? When we can notice the nuances and ride the ebbs and flows. We know that there are going to be ups and there's going to be downs with our brick and mortar.

There was, you know, it was seasonal in a lot of ways. We had a really big push in the summer months. We had really big pushes into the holiday season. And that January when I'd stand in my store was quiet and it was lonely. Because lots of people weren't coming in. People were on holidays. They're jetting down south to lay on a beach.

They weren't in Saskatoon in the freezing cold. But if I looked at January and made a decision about my business based on January, I would have shut the doors. Within the first six months or seven months because I would've been like, what the hell is this? You know, like this is a shitty month and that [00:39:00] therefore does that mean all the rest of the months are gonna be shitty?

Well, no because there was a lot of really other great months that balanced out some of the shittier months. Let's just say right? And that's what I would love to leave you with today, is this reminder that life, business, is an ebb and flow, and that you can have things that don't go according to plan or as expected and turn out phenomenally, sometimes they turn out Brutal.

And have that, but also simultaneously have some really beautiful moments and success and things that are working. And that when we can recognize that nuance and that duality, the stress in your business will start to dissipate and go away. This natural energy of surrender. But also perspective, because to me, perspective and the [00:40:00] way in which we look at things dictates everything, right?

Somebody who took the trip I took to North Carolina will, would probably say and tell a very different story. Because we're all looking at it through our own lens and our own perspective. And our own perspective creates the reality. And I could have come home and said that was a nightmare, what a waste, I'm pissed, I'm never doing that again, this sucks, this is brutal.

Or I could come home and go, yeah, that was an experience, chalk that up, never missed a flight in my life before, never, you know, I have walked barefoot in the mud for days because I was in the Philippines, but it was, again, it's these experiences, it's taking the good with the bad. And, and, and making it into something that's beautiful instead of expecting everything to be perfect, expecting everything to go according to [00:41:00] plan, expecting everything to just miraculous go the way that you want it to all the time.

And that is a beautiful way to exist in your business. And that's. A grip, I call it a grip, but it's not like the grip I had when I had my brick and mortar and in the early podcast episodes, I share about that grip and how much I was trying to control the business and the outcomes and all of it and how much stress and all of it, it caused on everybody.

Um, relationships, the business, you name it. And over time, having these aha sort of moments and this trip was just this like, yeah, okay, I see you. I get it. This is a beautiful reminder because I have shifted a lot out of that control in business, but it took a while to marry that because that trip, the way that I navigate trips and go on to trips and.

[00:42:00] Sort of just let shit happen and go with the flow of it has always sort of been how I navigated. Like I said, trips, my life, that sort of thing. But anytime it came to business, it was always very serious and I've got to make shit happen and it's got to work and I've got to make it work. And if it's not working, then we're burning it down and starting over.

If it's not working, then I'm packing up and trying something different and pivoting or whatever. And I had a woman tell me a few years ago, she said, your sixth line. As a Manny Jen four six, your six lines begging you not to burn everything to the ground is basically what she said. I said, interesting. So again, it's just a beautiful reflection is that we think that it's this all or nothing all in.

And it, like I said, is that fight or flight? It really is just dysregulated nervous system going, I can't handle this. I'm out with every curve, with every twist, with every unexpected boulder flying at us. that we can have the roadblocks. We [00:43:00] can have the bumps, but we can also have beautiful, beautiful experiences as a result.

So with that, I'm going to leave you. And if you are excited for next week's episode, I know I am. So be sure to tune in the show, subscribe so that you don't miss it. Cheers. 

OUTRO: Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here. Next time. You can also find us on social media at creatively owned and online at creativelyowned.com until next time, keep showing up as your authentic self.