The difference between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail 

Akua Konadu: One year ago this week, we launched the Independent Business Podcast. And what better way to celebrate than by doing our very first episode roundup. Now, you know, every episode we end with the question, what’s the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail? Well, we gathered some of our amazing answers by some of the incredible guests who have been on the show.

Their responses are going to leave you empowered and inspired. We’ve shared a soundbite from each episode along with the name of the guest and the episode number so you can go back and listen to the full conversation. Not only that, all of the original episodes will be linked in the show notes. Now, this is a huge milestone and we are just so excited that you have been here with us through this incredible journey.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. Now let’s get into the episode. Hey everyone. This is your host Akua Konadu and you’re listening to the independent business podcast. More people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process.

So on this show, I get to sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs, and creators to break down the science of self made success so that you can achieve it too.

Our first tip is from episode 32 with Instagram growth coach, Brock Johnson and his episode. We talk about his learnings from losing 14, 000 followers in one week and his take on business success. It’s not as complicated as you think. Let’s check it out. 

Brock: The difference between the business owners who are successful and the ones who aren’t ultimately, it comes down to consistency on Instagram, on social media, consistently showing up.

It also comes down to not overthinking it. Like stop trying to make perfect content. Stop overthinking everything you post. Is this good enough? Most people aren’t even paying attention to you anyway. Well, I have this one hair out of place. Well, this filter isn’t right. Well, I made a typo here. Who cares?

No, one’s going to notice the vast majority of your followers. Ain’t paying that much attention to you. They’re too busy worried about themselves and their own mistakes and their own imperfections. So the creators, the business owners who are successful are the ones who first They’re willing to bet on themselves.

They’re willing to rip off the bandaid. They’re willing to make the jump, take the leap, whatever cliche expression you want to use here, they just get started. Like they, they stop overthinking it. They have the superpower of under thinking it and just taking action. And then once they take that action, they just keep doing it.

They keep showing up, they keep hammering, they keep putting in the work day after day, and. They learn as they go, they have that 1 percent improvement. They’re constantly making little tweaks along the way. Like there’s all those little things that will add up over time. Sure. But ultimately like 95 percent of people will fail because they just stay consistent.

They just give up. They, they get dejected because of bad results or whatever. And so they just give up when ultimately the ones who are successful and seem like they’re overnight results and seem like they’re overnight successes. They don’t. You look back and those are the people who have actually been consistent for like last 14 years.

The person who’s like writing the book about their a hundred million dollar business. They’re actually, they’ve been doing this for like 20 years. They didn’t just have like one viral TikTok. They’ve been doing this. They’ve been putting in the work. They were willing to bet on themselves and ultimately they were willing to just get started.

Akua Konadu: Tip number two is from episode 46 with Denyte Bearhay, who is a messaging and positioning strategist. And we talk about how to create an empathy forward sales strategy in your business. And her hot tip, to remember that you are the secret sauce to your business. I think 

Danait: it’s really being able to carve your own path and seeing that everything else is a tool.

If you can see everything else, social media, chat GPT, strategies and tactics and hacks as tools to enhance your business. What you do and how you do it, then that mindset is everything in business because you will be the person who’s going to be okay if like the internet shuts down tomorrow and you’re going to go, you’re going to be able to be the person who’s going to go, Put a stand outside your house and be like, Hey, this is what I do.

This is how I help people. And you’re going to, you’re going to find a way to make things happen. And I think that’s just like, I think entrepreneurs are just naturally like that. We have that grit, that ability to be scrappy and to figure things out. And so if you can lean on that more than you lean on all the tools that are available to us.

That is what will continue to, those are the businesses that I see continue to succeed regardless of what’s going on in the world. And the ones that kind of fall to the wayside, because unfortunately they’ve relied so heavily and think that the tools are the key to the success when in reality, you are the key to the success.

It’s you and you, what you’re bringing to the table and what you’re bringing to the world. And I think when you can really tap into that, like, You become unstoppable as an entrepreneur. And I think there’s nothing more magical than that. 

Akua Konadu: All right. So tip number three, we pulled from episode 20 with wedding photographer, Caitlin James.

She sat down with us to give us the inside scoop on what it really takes to make 250, 000 a month in her business. She reminds us that in order to have a successful business, you need to have a vision and purpose that goes beyond the bottom line. 

Kaitlyn: I think the businesses that succeed in, from my perspective, I think they have vision.

Beyond the bottom line, I think they have purpose and maybe statistically this would prove me wrong, right? Cause there’s always people that can have a business with no heart and people are, you know, duped into buying from something that they don’t really believe in and I’m sure there’s exceptions, but that also goes back to, well, what is success because Success for me, someone said recently, um, we buy raw milk from farm out in Lexington, um, Creambrook farms.

And we were actually with the owner the other day and we were talking about business and he’s like, it seems like everybody just, when did business become about acquisition? He’s like, when did that become a thing? You build a business just to get it sold and make a lot of money. He’s like, I thought you built a business to serve your family and to serve your life and to do something you’re passionate about, make money doing it.

And I’m like, You’re right. You are so right. And so if that is success, then it does have to be rooted in purpose and how you’re changing people’s lives, which is all rooted in the vision of it. So maybe I am right. Maybe this is, maybe this is what I truly believe. I do think that it has, you have to have a vision that goes beyond yourself.

And if that is true, then. People attach on to that and sometimes I think people attach on to that before they even know why they’re attracted to you. We’ve had people say this before they will say things like I found you on YouTube and I don’t know why but I just keep watching all your stuff and then they’ll see one video or hear me explain one thing and they’re like I Resonate with you.

Thank you for caring about what you’re doing. And I do I think that is At the heart of a business owner, I think ultimately it’s when their purpose aligns with their passion, which is what I aim to do with the rest of my business running years. 

Akua Konadu: Tip number four, we grabbed from episode 39 with the owner of Currently Events, Christiana Yibra.

We learned in her episode, the systems and strategies she implemented that led to her side hustle generating half a million dollars in revenue and her key takeaway, being prepared is essential to business success. 

Christiana: I think it’s that preparedness. We’ve talked a lot about that. Um, I think, you know, I, I love listening to podcasts that give real tangible, true advice for someone who’s listening right now to actually implement.

And if anybody can advocate for the power of having a side hustle drive, some financial freedom for them, I feel really confident that I can actually Probably years ago, I don’t know if I would have been able to stand on a metaphorical stage or a platform and tell people, but I think one thing that I’d love to share with people is that no matter what your full time role is, if you have a passion that’s elsewhere, being prepared and researched and thoughtful about how to bring those passions to life is It’s not a, it’s not a pipe dream.

It’s not something that’s so far away that you can’t attain it. The photo booth for me, again, not the most groundbreaking work I’ve ever done, but it is something I love. I’m so proud of and having the, the preparedness now, now to start wasn’t so prepared. So having infrastructure like what HoneyBook offered me, um, allowed me to really, Focus my full time efforts on my W2 role, but man, I felt really good when those inquiries came in and I wasn’t worried about who was going to respond to them or how we were going to get the contracts out to them fast.

That gave me a peace of mind to just get ultra creative and lean all the way in. And without it, I would not be able to have afforded, um, some of the incredible things I’ve been able to do the last several years, having that side hustle, but be a full time passion is something I think that there’s a lot of people who are trying to figure out how they make that next move.

If you have the. It’s less about the money that you have and it’s more about how prepared you can be and how willing you are to dig deep. The one thing I’ll say to people is that there’s a lot of research out there and people have shared their stories about what works and what works well. So listening to podcasts like this, like if you’re thinking, Hmm, I gotta figure out what my next move is, you’re already a step ahead.

Of a very large amount of people who are in the similar step, listening and learning and seeking out these resources, um, are what’s going to differentiate you and the others. So I’m, I’m proud to be able to say that finally. And, um, I’ve loved to be able to share more with the creatives that we work with here in Dallas and, um, and beyond.

So platforms like this, give me a reach beyond what my photo booths can do just here in the DFW area. And I know that our impact is, is there as well. 

Akua Konadu: Tip number five is from episode 31 with Jen Olmsted, the CEO of Tonic Sightshop. We did a really fun case study breaking down how Starbucks turned the pumpkin spice latte into a major lifestyle brand that we all know and love.

She shares with us that the most successful businesses are the ones that are able 

Jenn: to pivot. I think the number one thing that I see and that I’ve experienced is the biggest differentiator, but that between brands that succeed and brands that fail is the ability to pivot the ability to learn and grow and to make different decisions over time.

And so Starbucks is a great example of us. They saw something that was working. They said, okay, let’s lean into this. Every year we’re going to find out a new way to do it and do it better. And one of the reasons that we at Tonic exist is because we say that you guys need a website that moves as fast as you do, because in this economy, nothing is a guarantee anymore, right?

There are certain things that used to be a guarantee. Facebook ads, great example, felt like you were printing money with Facebook ads a few years ago. No longer the case. Apple changed a few things. That’s gone. Instagram, right? We were like. Instagram sure thing I can send a photo to all my friends.

They’re gonna see it like Jokes on us. No, like we’ve all got to create video content now. So when you can figure out as a brand, what do I need to do to still reach my people? No matter the medium that I’m experiencing, no matter the kind of content that I have to create that ability to pivot, I think is absolutely everything as a brand and it requires listening to your audience.

Knowing who you are in your marketplace and then being willing to shift when it’s working and when it’s not working over and over again. 

Akua Konadu: Tip number six comes from episode 27 with Emmy award winning designer and CEO of The Future, Chris Do. In his episode, we explored how to determine your rates, select the right clients to work with, and cultivate community.

He gives us so many gems in this next clip and it will leave you absolutely speechless. Let’s take a look. 

Christiana: Number one, I think is focus. Businesses fail because they’re not focused. They are, they have a case of the shiny object syndrome. And like, squirrel, okay, that’s cool. I’ll do this and I’ll do that.

And they lose track of their core business. And this happens especially in this age when we have so much distraction available to us and the next big idea seems better than the current idea. What we need to do is we need to figure out what we want to do. And we need to commit. And this will be my third and last reference to Seth Godin.

In his book, The Dip, he talks about this and there’s a little graph, right? So when you start out, you get results right away and it’s really fun and exciting. So the results are high, the effort and time is limited. But what happens is it starts to hit a peak and you go into the trough of this curve.

You’re entering the dip where, you know what, I was messing around with tennis, but now it’s like, it’s a chore. I don’t want to learn how to serve. My backhand sucks. And my foot placement is all wrong. And it’s like, it’s just too much work. And I’m not seeing the same kind of progress in fun. So what people do is they quit.

They quit in the dip because it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of time and they’re not seeing that same return on investment of time. But here’s the thing, this is what Seth talks about. So in the dip, you have to have the courage and the commitment, the determination to get through it, because it’s difficult to get through.

And then you put in your thousand hours or ten thousand hours of practice. You hire a coach. You go to workshops. You read books. You watch videos. You train up. You level up. You skill up. And you start to climb that steep ascent and it starts to get good again until you get to this very rare place where only a few people exist.

The masters, the experts, the thought leaders. So instead of looking at the dip as your enemy, look at it as your friend because difficulty creates natural barriers to competition and it creates scarcity. If only a few people can become a doctor, if only a few people can be a brand designer for global companies in the fortune 100, that creates value because you’ve reduced the competition by just going through the dip.

So maybe there’s a couple things on pack here. You need to focus and commit, you have to put in the work, you have to find joy in the difficult, because if you don’t, it’s going to be really hard to get through it. And the last thing I’ll say is, and I put this on a tweet recently, you have to be kind to yourself when you fail, because every journey is full of failures, and what happens is we hear the voice, Of whoever’s most influential in our lives, oftentimes one of our parents, when we mess up, when we lose a job, when we totally eff it up and clients yell at us, we’re like, Oh, we’re on it, we’re in our mind, just destroying ourselves.

And the thing is, you’re going to need that resilience to bounce back up and to wake up tomorrow, full of determination and say, you know what, instead of just dogging myself on this, I’m going to ask myself this question. What was the learning opportunity here? What was the teachable moment? The thing that the universe sent to me to learn and knew that I had the strength to get through.

Cause if I don’t learn that lesson, this will be all in Maine and I’m almost destined to do this again. And I’ve had many failures in my life. Code them in my mind as failures. I just look at them as learning opportunities. Sometimes they’re very expensive learning opportunities and I want to grow because I don’t like making the same mistake and failing again.

Akua Konadu: Tip number seven comes from episode 44 with the CEO of Elevate Visuals, Shay Cochran. She pulls back the curtain to show us how she was able to build multiple six figure businesses while only working 16 hours a week. She keeps it short and sweet with this tip that the key is discipline to business success.

Shay: Discipline. Easy. I have a quick answer to that one. It’s not the funnest word, but it, listen, it’s not your marketing strategy. It’s not your product. It’s not even whether your product is that good or the best. It’s, it’s discipline. It’s disciplined thought. Discipline in your thought process, which is what we’ve talked about.

It’s disciplined focus. So here’s what I can be good at. Here’s what’s working. Here’s where I can win. I’m gonna, here’s the platform I can win on. Like it’s, it’s disciplined focus. And then it’s disciplined action. It’s an, it’s one thing to know what you need to do. But we all know as an entrepreneur, it’s a whole nother thing to sit down at your desk and actually do it.

Actually do the thing that’s the most important in your day. And not email. And not the other things. You know, to actually do it. So discipline, discipline, discipline. I think it’s the disciplined people who win as entrepreneurs. Disciplined people. Thought disciplined, focused, disciplined action. 

Akua Konadu: All right.

Tip number eight, we pulled from episode 14 with Maddie James, who is a best selling author and a lifestyle expert and her episode, she encourages all independent business owners to embrace your own magic, her tip to running a successful business, don’t give up. 

Mattie: Anybody can give up. Anybody can give up, but the people who say, okay, you know, I might’ve, I might’ve missed the mark here, but I’m going to still show up.

I’m gonna show up even though I looked stupid in front of some people last month when, you know, my email went out and I didn’t actually put in the names of people and it just said, you know, first name. I’m gonna show up even though packages showed up to people’s houses late and I told them that they were gonna get their product this time.

I’m gonna show up even though I didn’t get selected in this list that I wanted to be a part of. I’m gonna show up. You just have to keep on showing up. Again, there are so many reasons why you shouldn’t, but the people who keep on going, they are the people who win. They are the people who win and I mean and you can see this in so many different examples in music in sports In movies certainly in business, but in life the people who keep showing up not only for themselves But they show up because they know that they’re gifting their light Their magic is to give other people permission to show up in their gifting their light and their magic as well That is what will never fail You That is what we’ll never lose because when you start to show up at a service for others and not just to please yourself, it’s really impossible to win and I really truly believe that the brands and the companies and businesses who decide to do that, they are the ones who break through the noise and make a real difference.

Akua Konadu: Tip number nine is from episode 35 with photographer Hope Taylor, and we dive into what she learned from building a multi six figure passive income streams. And what is Hope’s tip? Don’t be afraid to try things again. I feel like 

Hope: in the vein of what we’ve talked a lot about, about like not being scared to start something new and about kind of using your failures just to learn and treating new things as an experiment and just helping, letting that content help you to move forward and figure out what you need to know about your audience.

I think one of the biggest things, especially in this passive space that differentiates people is your ability to change with the times and try things again at a new angle if they don’t work the way you thought the first time. Because one of the things I see so often in like my mastermind students who are incredible that they’re in that high level coaching program where I work really closely with them is that they put so much work into a first launch.

Like when you’re creating a product for the first time, it’s a lot of work, right? Like, it’s hard. baby, but it’s our pride and joy, right? Like we’re putting this thing into the world and if it doesn’t go exactly how we thought it was going to go, it can be really easy to feel really defeated by that because we’ve put a hundred percent of our heart and soul into this product and it would be really easy to then just put that product on a shelf and never talk about it again and kind of have your tail tucked between your legs.

Like what I talked about earlier with my first course launch. And I think the differentiator is the people that are willing to look at that in every way. Analyze it and be strategic about it and then do it again. And that’s just, I hate how like fluffy and like typical that sounds of like, just get back up and keep trying.

But I actually am somebody that has anxiety and like really struggle with this sometimes of like, okay, but what, you know, this could go wrong could go wrong and people could hate it and people could say mean things on the internet and here’s the hundred negative things that could come out of me trying this again and my therapist actually says this to me, her name’s Maria, shout out Maria, we love her, but she always says if I, if I say I’m anxious about something or come up with, you know, a reason that I’m stressed, she always says, okay, Let’s actually discuss the worst possible case scenario, right?

Because our brain will create 17 worst possible case scenarios and then we’ll just spiral and be stressed and not try again or, or, you know, fear of failure. But if we actually analyze the worst case scenario, like, okay, if I launch this product that I’ve worked really hard on and I don’t make as much money as I thought, what’s gonna happen?

I’m going to be a little sad, right? Somebody could say something mean on the internet. Then what? I’m going to delete their comment. Then what? I’m going to block them. Then what? I’m never going to think about it again and I’m just going to do it again. The worst possible case scenarios are never as bad as we make them seem in our brain.

And I think that that kind of mindset shift and piece of advice has really helped me to look at it like you said. Like an experiment. Try it. See what happens. Analyze it and try again because the worst possible case scenario is never as bad as our brain tries to tell us it’s going to be. 

Akua Konadu: Tip number 10 comes from episode one with Ellen Yin, the founder and podcast host of Cubicle to CEO.

In her episode, Ellen takes us through her journey of quitting her corporate job without a backup plan and turning a 300 freelancing contract as a marketing consultant into a seven figure business. Ellen shares a powerful reminder of how understanding your data will lead to business success. 

Ellen: It is an affinity for failure, a love for it, actually, the desire to fail as often as possible, because like, like we talked about today, Nat, data drives everything, right?

And you cannot, you truly cannot become the person you want to be or grow the business you want to have if you fail. Are basing everything, filtering everything through the lens of your own lived experience, because what you know limits what you can dream, right? And so until you put yourself out there and experience a lot of things, meet a lot of people, fail a whole ton.

It it’s not possible for you to think bigger. And so when I look at all of the most successful entrepreneurs, I admire. They are hand in hand with failure. They are linked together and they’re excited about it. And so I think if you can fail forward and fail fast, you are going to do so much for your business compared to just trying to, you know, navigate everything with as much perfection as possible.

Akua Konadu: Tip number 11 is from episode 30 with LinkedIn branding expert and business coach, Lucretia Davis. She sat down with us to talk about her excitement. Explosive six figure business strategies for LinkedIn. And she says business owners need to let go of their ego in order to succeed. 

Lakrisha: If I could just dish out a few things.

Number one would be ego. I have observed that ego stops a lot of people from succeeding in business. And when I say ego, not ego that we think about on a daily basis, like, Oh, this person got a big ego. They think they’re all that. It’s not that it is. Having the ability to have a, um, a healthy ego in business, which will help you sustain means to understand that it’s okay to listen to someone’s guidance, whether it’s your coach, consultant, or even know, have the humility enough to know that you do need help.

So that is. And when you get in those settings, actually being able to trust someone. Ego in terms of not getting so offended or frustrated that your content isn’t growing like overnight. And being like the heck with this, because I’m not, I don’t like not being good at stuff. That’s one of the biggest things that I deal with, with my audience, because they’re brilliant people and they are so used to getting things right.

And in a quick turnaround time, and it just does not happen like that in business. And so when they don’t get the quick result, then they’re just like, Oh, this isn’t for me or, Oh, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t, you’re not teaching it right. Or, Oh, you know, it’s this and it’s everything else and everybody else, but, but me.

So I would say that is another thing that holds people back in ego in the sense that you don’t have that level of empathy. For your audience, where you’re continuously trying to find ways to improve the value of the service that you’re providing them to ask for feedback and not get offended. Take that feedback and think like a business person and be like, okay, I’m going to consider this.

Take notes on this to continuously improve my stuff. I would say ego is a real big one that separates people. I have humble confidence. Like you cop, you can do this. Like, you know, you know, your stuff, like. I’m good at this. I can, I can change the world. I can make an impact, but humble confidence in that.

Okay. But now I need help putting the frameworks in place and actually launch this and getting counsel on how to make this grow and work. That’s not my zone of genius. This is my zone of genius. And I’m comfortable with that. 

Akua Konadu: And tip number 12 is from episode 19 with financial expert and New York times bestselling author, Tori Dunlap.

We break down how she turned a single Tik TOK video into a hundred thousand email subscribers. Her hot take to business success, be controversial. 

Tori: It’s immediately gonna have an asterisk on it, but this is the easiest way I can say it. Be controversial. Like, have something to say. I don’t mean controversial and like, say racist stuff, that’s not what I mean.

I mean like, have an opinion. Especially in 2023. People expect you to have an opinion and people also expect to either connect with you and understand what your business is or, or not. I will use a TikTok trend to explain this. The girls that get it, get it. And the girls that don’t, don’t. Like they will either get what you’re doing or they won’t.

Trying to be everything to everybody makes you nothing to nobody. I’m going to say that again. Trying to be everything to everybody makes you nothing to nobody. That is the probably biggest thing that I see. A general, like anybody entrepreneur, uh, tried to do is they’re like, okay, I need, I need to get clients and I need to get money.

So I am just going to offer everything and I’m going to offer it to everybody. When I like went viral for the first time in 2019, I had a piece go out in market watch, which is like a, you know, financial publication, but it, it blew up. It got like a million views in, I think like a week. For like a news article, which was pretty substantial, especially for MarketWatch.

And um, the interesting thing was, is that 95 percent of the comments on that piece were vitriolic. They hated me. They did not like me. They were men in their 60s named Steve, who were like, I don’t get her. Why does she have to make this a gendered issue? Why can’t she just talk about money? And I had this really Interesting choice then, which is, Oh, am I doing something wrong?

Right? Am I doing, am I doing something wrong? Should I shift? I clearly, I don’t appeal to these people and I’m losing potential, you know, followers or clients, but then I realized actually I’m doing something right because if they don’t get it again, girls would get it, get it. The girls don’t don’t the people who understand what we do at her first hundred K become brand evangelists for us.

If you are turned off by the word feminism, you’re not going to follow me. And you never were going to follow me, you were never going to be somebody who wanted to be a part of this community, right? So, yes, if you follow Dave Ramsey, if, again, you don’t like the word feminist, you’re not going to like me.

Great, there’s plenty of other people out there. There’s also, literally, Tens, probably hundreds of millions of women, people who love what we do, who are very aligned in terms of our customer persona, who will 100 percent get it because we have opinions, because we are speaking our mind, because to some people we might be deemed slightly controversial, and I put that in quotes.

So, trying to be everything to everybody makes you nothing to nobody. I need you to pick the right person. The person, the thing you’re trying to say, and understand that not everybody’s going to get it, and that actually means you’re doing something right. Because the people that will, will tattoo your brand on their forehead.

Like, they will love it and come back and be so excited to engage with you. And that’s the people that you want, just from a business angle. Those are the people that purchase from you and keep purchasing from you. Those are the people who like everything you post, right? The people who are fair weather, You know, followers or people who are like, yeah, I don’t really get it.

You don’t want those people anyway. So, especially when you’re first getting started. And I think anybody at any stage of the business, really important to remind yourself, have the people in mind. Don’t try to be everything to everybody. Understand. You have to connect with the people you’re trying to connect with and they should immediately understand if this is for them or not.

If it’s not cool, they move on. If it’s for them, that’s, that’s the time to start nurturing. 

Akua Konadu: That wraps up our episode roundup. Thank you so much for tuning in and celebrating with us. I hope that these conversations serve as a reminder that you are powerful and the work that you do matters. The work of independent business owners matter.

And we at HoneyBook, we are so grateful to show up with you. every single week to help you create the life and business you deserve. If you have enjoyed today’s episode, help us spread the word by sharing a screenshot of your favorite episode to your Instagram stories. This helps us reach more people and supports the show.

Thank you so much for being here. And until next time, that ends our episode of the independent business podcast. Everything we’ve discussed today can be found at podcast. honeybook. com. Head to our website to access for show notes, relevant links, and all of the resources that you need to level up. And if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss our future content, drop us a review and leave our guests some love on social.

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