Building Shoppable While Shaping a Choiceful Life | Episode 215

Heather: You want to be able to live life on your own terms, and part of it is operating your business on your own terms. And when you have, I think when you first start a business, sometimes people can think about it like you have to do it in a certain way. As I kind of grew as a business owner and entrepreneur, I realized like, no, when it’s your business, when you’ve created this, you ha. It really unlocks that freedom for you to make all of those decisions, you know, and how do you want to structure it? Where do you want it to be? And it unlocks the freedom for, you know, for your, for your life too. And I think it’s about having, you know, creative freedom of how do you want your day? What do you want your day to look like?

Heather: What do you want your life to be? What are the values that you hold and what are the values that you want to bring to your company and that you want to have with your team?

Stacy: Welcome. Welcome. I am really excited to be with you this week and with this week’s guest. We talk a lot on this podcast about building a business that is in alignment with the life that you want. And this week’s guest will be sharing how to go through those early stages of building a business. She’ll be sharing her own story of entrepreneurship. So I’m really excited to get to introduce you to this week’s guest. Heather Udo is the founder and CEO of Shoppable and an entrepreneur and business coach. She launched Shoppable 13 years ago.

Stacy: Shoppable is an embedded e commerce technology that helps people, brands, retailers, creators and publishers power Shoppable experiences anywhere online. She is also a business coach to early stage Entrepreneurs building tech businesses. Heather, welcome.

Heather: Thank you so much for having me, Stacy.

Stacy: So I know a little bit about your story. Growing up on a farm, getting started with your ebay business, but of course our listeners don’t know much about that. So I’d love for you to share a little bit about your early entrepreneurial journey and what, how that led you into the work that you do today, founding Shoppable and now running it for 13 years.

Heather: Yeah, so I really got started in my entrepreneurial journey, I like to say, before I even knew what that word was. And I would say pretty much based on some kind of outside, little bit of outside pushing from my parents, but without them intentionally knowing that they were doing that. Because when I was younger, as you mentioned, I grew up in the country, in Wisconsin and you know, maybe two, three other houses on my, you know, three mile long road, so hardly anybody around. And my parents, you know, I wanted to go to the movies like all kids did, wanted to, you know, do different things. And they said, like, if you know, want to do those things, you have to figure out how to make money in order to do so.

Heather: And when I first, when I first kind of got into the entrepreneurial, like, space, it was really because of that, because I, there were these things I wanted to do and I had to figure out a path from where I wanted to be at the movies or at the mall with friends or whatever it was at that point in time and where I was, which was, you know, I think I got a dollar allowance a week. And that’s what really kind of made me start thinking about, okay, how can I make, what can I do that creates value for someone and can create, you know, some additional cash for me?

Heather: So that’s really where it first started and you know, from, you know, and at that point in time, the very first thing that I did, I think at that point, I was maybe 10ish and I created, I had a lot of, there was one house next to me, this wonderful Mormon family, had 12 kids.

Stacy: Oh my gosh. Wow.

Heather: I know.

Stacy: You had eight in your family, right?

Heather: Yeah, and I had eight in mine.

Stacy: Good, very good.

Heather: Yeah, eight in mine. And so we had a lot of kids between two houses. So what do kids want? Kids want candy, but they didn’t have access to it. So what I would do is I would go, I would spend my $1 allowance or whatever when I got my parents to take me to a candy shop, buy cheap candy. And then essentially we created a, a club Which I had every. I had half the neighborhood kids in. In the club, and they paid 50 cents dues to join. So I combined that with my allowance, and we’d buy candy and then we’d sell it to the kids that weren’t in the club and anyone else, and even people in the club that wanted to buy it because we didn’t have access to it. Right. So that’s. That was kind of my first foray into.

Heather: Into entrepreneurship and kind of figuring out, okay, what’s the market, What’s. What’s the demand, what’s the supply? And like, how do. How do I kind of figure out a way to. To do this? So fast forward. I, you know, accidentally stumbled upon Beanie Babies during the craze because I was the tech person at my house at about 12 now, I think, and. And I noticed at a local gift shop that they had these Beanie Babies, and I didn’t really think anything of them, but I just, you know, saw there are $5. And then. And when I was setting up stuff on the computer for my household, I came across an ad on ebay and someone was buying that same Beanie Baby that I just saw in that store for $50.

Heather: So I’m like, wait a minute, I could go buy that for $50, and then if I sell it here, someone’s willing to pay. Or I could buy it for five. Sorry. And someone’s willing to pay 50 for it if I sell it online. So then I learned about arbitrage and set that, and I would keep going. I figure out what people wanted, and I’d go to this local gift shop and be able to buy these beanie babies for $5. And it would sell them online to people that were creating these huge collections. And that was kind of my next step into this space. And fast forward. At 18, I wanted to go to a big city because I really wanted to be around more opportunities and businesses, and I wanted to go get a degree in business.

Heather: So I ended up moving out to San Francisco and going to school there, and was surrounded by technology and. And tech businesses. And that’s. After I was graduating. I joined a tech startup out there. And that gave me. I joined it when it was just an idea. And they had a PowerPoint, but they had no technology built. They had no investors at the time, but they had a serial entrepreneur that had already sold his first business, so he knew what he was doing. And I worked with them from the ground up, doing anything and everything I possibly could, like raise my hand like, let me do it. I’ll take care of that so that I could learn. And that was the, I would say, the pivotal experience that really gave me the confidence to kind of take that.

Heather: That official entrepreneurial leap and go start my own tech business. So that after that business sold, I stayed with the acquiring company for another two years so that I got the corporate experience, too. And then I took the big leap to go start Shoppable, which is, of course, my software business that I’ve been doing for the last 13 years.

Stacy: Wow. I always love to hear the early story of entrepreneurship, like how that showed up in your life very young. And it’s funny because I’m watching my daughter this week. She’s 12, so aligned with your story, she’s in the middle of building a bracelet stand that she’s going to go down to the beach and sell bracelets. And our plan is to set up, to your point, the location next to the, like, they sell these, like, cold cakes here at the beach that all the kids love. So she’s going to set up next to the cake place and, you know, have this little stance. So she’s been working on that. I’m actually wearing one of her creations right now. I love that.

Heather: It’s so exciting.

Stacy: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I always love to hear those stories of how that shows up really early in your life. It’s interesting at the same time, because I know that you support a lot of people that are transitioning, not necessarily have had a. An entrepreneurial journey their whole lives, but actually they’ve maybe been in corporate and now they’re stepping into their next stage of entrepreneurship, which is very similar to a lot of my clients. I work with a lot of people that have been in corporate. They’ve hit some level of leadership, usually really high leadership in a company, and they get to that place. And one, they don’t love the demands and schedule of it. There’s just a lot to that they can’t imagine being the rest of their life forever and ever.

Stacy: But two, I think that sometimes people get to a place in corporate America and they go, oh, is this really what I’ve been? This is it. Okay, what am I going to do now? And so then they turn outward to go, okay, what impact am I going to make? What am I going to build and how am I going to do that? And who am I going to serve? So I’d love to hear a little bit from you for anybody who’s listening that’s in that place of considering a major transition. Especially for those people who haven’t necessarily had this entrepreneurial thread to their whole lives.

Heather: Yeah. So I think, you know, I think when you’re making that transition, one first advice, don’t quit your day job too soon. Because anyone that wants to build a business, I, you know, what I try to always do as both a business coach, but just as a friend and entrepreneur out there is I try to speak the truth about the process and what happens. Because I do see that some people will go on panels and do a disservice and talk about how like it seemed like an overnight success and they play into that. When that’s, you know, 99.999% of the time that is not the reality. It takes a long time and it’s probably going to like everything you’re thinking about is likely going to take six months to a year longer.

Heather: I’m not trying to be, you know, negative Nancy, but just plan for that.

Stacy: And when you real.

Heather: Yeah, when you plan for it, you can handle it. It’s the people that don’t think about the process right from the get go that can be setting themselves up for failure. So my first piece of advice for someone, you know, wanting to make that change from corporate into entrepreneurship is just don’t quit your day job too quickly. The second thing is you have to validate your idea. So I know, you know, if you’re thinking about doing that, you likely have one idea. You might have multiple ideas. Sometimes I’m talking to entrepreneurs and they’re like, I’m thinking about this and this and sometimes they’re trying to execute multiple ideas. So don’t execute multiple things at the same time. I’m now a coach and CEO of a software business, but I’ve been doing it for 13 years.

Heather: So you don’t want to execute multiple things at the same time until you get one business at least over a million dollars. That’s the general rule of thumb. But don’t add two things because you just can’t split your attention and both will end up failing or being really low level revenue generating if you’re lucky. So focus on just one and then you have to validate your idea. So before you get too far down the road, you want to validate the idea. And there’s, I’m actually just about to launch a course and probably by the time this goes live, it will have just launched. But it’s called Build or Bail Boot Camp and it’s essentially helping entrepreneurs.

Heather: This is Something that came up in a lot of conversations because there’s a lot of entrepreneurs that are like, I have this idea but I, I don’t know if I’m ready, like I’m ready to do it if it’s the, if it’s gonna, you know, if it’s a good idea. But what if it’s not? And so many people don’t know about validating your idea. So understanding, okay, kind of fine tuning what your offer is, fine tuning the idea, figuring out who your core customer is. How do you differentiate your business from other potential. Indirect, indirect competitors. And then really you can pre sell too. So there’s a lot of things that you can do at the forefront.

Heather: This is all before you’ve left your job and you can even start making, you know, making money and securing that first customer before you’ve even done a lot of that work that will come later. So there’s of plenty of time to dig in on those details. But you want to start, make sure you’re starting strong with the right idea and it’s crafted properly and massaged to what the audience and the market wants.

Stacy: So much wisdom in there. And it makes me think about in my industry, books, publishing. It’s so hard and frustrating to hear other people that claim to be experts that are just like in my mind scamming people actually of something that should be done well and right and it’s so frustrating. So I totally relate to that. Where sometimes people get up and teach that really shouldn’t be. I have a layer I’d love to dig into on what you just shared and it got me thinking about a conversation I had with a colleague of mine. I’m on the board of. I don’t know if you’re familiar with entrepreneurs organization but they’re London chapter accelerator program and I was chatting with one of the members who’s grown and exited a couple of businesses.

Stacy: Just super successful person and off the back of that he’s built a coaching business. And it was a really interesting conversation because we talked about how, you know, really the difference in that journey of building a product base or even a productized service based business compared to more of a lifestyle business. And you mentioned that number of seven figures and I wonder if that holds universally true depending on the business itself and the person’s goals and what they’re trying to work toward.

Heather: Yeah. As far as the question, does it typically hold true whether it’s service based or a tech business?

Stacy: I guess my question is, you know, you mentioned this idea of building until you’ve hit a certain revenue. My challenge, I think in all entrepreneurial spaces is that revenue in one business looks very different than revenue. Like it means something different in one business than it does in another business. And it’s more scalable, maybe in one business than it is in another business. And then often the financials behind the scenes can be kind of a mess, even though they have this really good top line revenue. So, so I just wanted to dig into that a little more for people who are listening to this and going, okay, that’s really interesting. This is the kind of business I’m thinking to build.

Stacy: And maybe specifically we could talk about coaching and consulting because I think the vast majority of our listeners would be either are building or currently want to build. Consulting, coaching, speaking, you know, delivering corporate workshops, those sorts of things.

Heather: Yeah. So when it comes to that space, one, you can absolutely grow that to, you know, to a million dollar plus business. Right. I think there’s plenty of people within that space that are doing that. So it’s absolutely possible. Part of scaling that type of business is about how you’re structuring it. So, so a lot of people start where they’re doing one to one and where they’re coaching or consulting with one client, they’re on, you know, on the phone, they’re emailing with one client and they’re being paid for your time. Well, you can’t, you can’t scale your business if you’re operating that way beyond the number of hours that you have in a day. Right. If that’s how you’re structuring it.

Heather: So in order to move to that next level, you have to start being able to think about how do I run this business in a one to many style and strategy. So if you know, depending upon how, what type of business you’re doing, you can structure it different ways. So, you know, within the coaching space, it’s about taking on either less private customers or private clients or none at all, and transitioning everybody to group coaching so that you can be coaching multiple people at the same time. And then you have to figure out how do you make sure that you’re transitioning the value that you’ve been offering people into in a way that makes sense.

Heather: And of course you’ve got to do your back of the napkin math of okay, how does this make sense and how do I, what’s my goal for my revenue this year and how do I get from where I am today to Where I want to be to make that work. So if I switch to group coaching, what do I charge for that? How do I adjust my time and effort? Do I do multiple groups, different things like that, but then how many do, how many people do I need in there for it to make sense and to get me to that goal? So you want to be able to work backwards from that and if you need that plan and the path to be able to achieve it.

Heather: Because if you don’t have a plan, you don’t know where you’re going and you’re probably not going to get there because you won’t know where there is. Right. So I would say that’s kind of one of the biggest things. But for other types of businesses that are non coaches, you want to, you need to think about how can you build out. There’s kind of two different processes you can take depending upon where, like where you are as a, like a level of business. One is if you’re the really early stages, you want to think about how do you scale yourself and part of it is about processes. So you want to create repeatable processes. You want to automate everything that you can. There’s a lot of different tools depending upon, you know, what you’re using.

Heather: But think about, okay, what can I automate and take the time to automate that and then what stuff are you doing that you can start delegating? And you. I, I know that a lot of people think about, you know, expanding their team and stuff that they have to bring on full time employees and oh my gosh, it’s such a, like a big weight on my shoulders to hire that first employee and I don’t feel like I’m ready for it. I’m not sure if my revenue is going to stay stable. There are all these concerns with that. You don’t need to jump there that quickly. You can hire part time consultants and pay them hourly, you know, or experts in whatever space that you need and that’s going to help you create more time leverage that you can use for your day to day business.

Heather: And then that gives, opens you up to being able to scale additional revenue within that space. And then the other piece, part two of that, I was just coaching one of my clients on this but it’s, you know, if you are more of like an agency type of business, you need to think about your business as the, if your business is called xyz, you want to think about it as the XYZ process and the XYZ standards. And this is, and that’s what you’re packaging and that’s what you’re selling versus, you know, the agency of Heather Udo. And that I have to be the one doing the work and I have to be the one on every customer call and I have to be the one all the time.

Heather: You have to be able to move yourself out of it and make sure that you’re, you have the systems and processes to train your team to know the, you know, the standards and the process that you would do it so that it’s the same thing and that your clients are really buying into your standards and not you specifically. So that’s the other piece of how you would be transitioning.

Stacy: I’m so glad I asked that question because that was so rich and so much information that I know will be hugely useful to listeners really regardless of their business type. But again, I know that a lot of our listeners fall into that service based or productized service. And I can speak also from experience, having been in business now for almost 16 years, moving from that one to one, just me, which I did for the first, you know, eight years. I think of my business into hiring my first person into now having a team man, it is a journey. And what an amazing thing to be able to jump in with that knowledge. That wasn’t even in my really line of sight when I started my business.

Stacy: So I, I hope that this is hitting somebody at the exact right time that it will really serve them. I’d love to switch our conversation a little bit because you have this great quote. You say that entrepreneurship is more than building a business. It’s about creating the freedom to live life on your own terms. This really resonates with me. We talk a lot on this podcast about location independence. You know, I started my business in the Dominican Republic, moved to Vietnam, came back to two different US States, moved to Thailand, now we’re here in Portugal. And having that freedom to be able to move around the world and bring my life with me and my business with me, my kids, my husband has been such a gift and something I can’t even imagine not having in my life.

Stacy: What does freedom to live life on your own terms mean to you and how do you think about that? You know, you’ve built Shoppable, obviously, but you’re also now coaching, so this is a different aspect of your work. And how are you keeping that piece of it in mind in all that you’re doing as an entrepreneur.

Heather: Yeah, I. I love this question, and I love that you’ve used your business, and it’s unlocked that freedom for you to be able to move, you know, move around and. And have your family in these different locations. That’s. That’s incredible. Yeah. I mean, I think to me it’s about, like, you want to be able to live life on your own terms, and part of it is operating your business on your own terms. And when you have. I think when you first start a business, sometimes people can think about it like you have to do it in a certain way. At least when I first was starting it and I started in San Francisco, like I mentioned, surrounded by all of these other tech companies, and it felt like you. Like there’s a set way. You have to go do this.

Heather: You have to raise venture capital. You need to be in the Bay Area. You’ve got to follow, like, these very specific kind of rules and guidelines. And then as I kind of grew as a business owner and entrepreneur, I realized, like, no, when it’s your business, when you’ve created this, you have. It really unlocks that freedom for you to make all of those decisions, you know, and how do you want to structure it? Where do you want it to be? And it unlocks the. The freedom for, you know, for. For your. For your life, too. And I think it’s about having, you know, creative freedom of how do you want, you know, how do you want your day? What do you want your day to look like? What do you want your life to be?

Heather: What are the values that you hold and what are the values that you want to bring to your company and that. That you want to have with your team? And then, of course, it’s about financial freedom and time freedom and that. That flexibility. So for me, having a business is. I mean, it’s an incredible thing for a lot of reasons, you know, and building something from. From nothing is just like, absolutely so rewarding because you see your hard work going into it. But it also gives you that. That freedom to, you know, to design your. Your life and to design your business in a way that is really true to. To you and true to. To your own goals.

Stacy: It’s such an important piece, that freedom when you’re advising people who are in those early stages of building their business, because I know that you really specialize in that first couple of years of people that are in that startup phase and building certainly, clearly, as you’ve demonstrated, have a ton of wisdom for people that have been in business longer. But for those that are in those early stages, how do you help them build that freedom in. Because I just remember so vividly how much I hustled for so long, so many years in my business. And I had to, you know, I had this moment when I was pregnant with my daughter. I’ve told this story on the podcast before. It was like 10 or 11 at night, and I was sitting on the floor.

Stacy: I was emceeing an awards ceremony the next day, and I had volunteered for some reason to like, put the plaques on the trophies. I don’t, I don’t know why I offered to do that. And I was just working all the time, nights, weekends, and I just had this moment where I was like, why am I doing this? What if I just stopped? And I just stopped working nights, I stopped working weekends, and my revenue grew, I was happier, you know, but I think that it’s just so hard in those early stages to really see the possibility there. I think also American culture is very. It glorifies depletion. It doesn’t glorify balance. So what do you offer these amazing early stage entrepreneurs as they’re trying to build into a life that they truly want?

Heather: Yeah, I think so. A couple things. First, I do think, you know, realistically, you have to, when you add something, you have to think about how does that affect your days, right? So if, you know, if you’re still working a 9 to 5 or a 9 to 6, you know, or whatever it might be, and you want to start a business, you have to think, you really want to start with your calendar and think about, okay, what, how do I fit? When, how do I fit this in and when do I fit it in? So at the beginning, you know, when you’re in that idea validation process and before, you know, you’re going like, full all in, it’s not as big of a time commitment as it will grow to be over time.

Heather: And as it grows over time, you can also be hiring other people to help you, right? You can, you can start doing that. But at the beginning, it really starts with your calendar and creating something that, something called the perfect week. So you essentially take a template of your week you put together, okay, what does the perfect week look like for me right now? And usually it’s going to begin with probably getting up fairly early, doing your, you know, getting your workout in or something like that before the day begins. If you got kids, you know, okay, I want to spend breakfast with my kids, or I want to walk them to the bus stop, drive them to school, whatever it might be.

Heather: So you put together your perfect week and then I’ve got my job from this time to this time, figure out when I’m, you’re going to fit in your new job. And you want to be able to, when you’re first starting it, you want to be able to honor that time and not think about it as an obligation, but as an opportunity. It’s, you know, it’s at that time is an opportunity to build this new passion, this new idea and concept that you have. But I would say that’s really where it first starts, is figuring that out. And it might be that, you know, you used to spend, I don’t know, every weeknight watching TV and sitting, you know, and just hanging out. And now you’re like, no, I want to do more. I want to kind of create this path to more freedom.

Heather: So I’m gonna spend this, these time slots working towards that. And it might be that used to spend like Saturdays and Sundays doing long brunches and you know, and things like that. So. Okay, so maybe I’m gonna, when I first get started, I’m gonna only do Sunday brunches, but Saturdays I’m gonna take a chunk of time and be able to put it towards this idea and, and continue vetting it. So I would say at the beginning it’s more about how do you fit it in with your current life. And sometimes there are going to be trade offs, right, because you’re already living and operating 24 hours a day. So you gotta think, how do I adjust that?

Heather: I know, like for me, when I first started shoppable, I did communicate to like my closest friends that, you know, I love you guys, but you’ll just see a little bit less of me and it’s not gonna be, you know, I will say no sometimes, like, oh, I can’t make it and just, you know, has nothing to do with you. It’s just I’m starting a business and I’m super excited about it and I need to, you know, put a little bit more time each week towards it. And that’s a positive thing. So my friends were all very understanding and like, they followed my journey along the way too. So I think that’s kind of how you think about it the very, at the very beginning when you’re just getting started.

Stacy: I love how practical that is. And it’s funny because what I’m hearing you say is a lot of what I say to people when they start writing their books, right? You have a goal. And if you truly want to make this goal happen, then you have to create the space for it. And it doesn’t have to be forever. Right? Especially in the, you know, in the book writing journey. It’s a finite period of time. If you follow the process, you’ll get your book done in a period of time, but. But then after that you still have whatever the thing is that you’re doing the book for. So whether it’s launching a business or, you know, building a brand or you have an impact mission and necessarily your life has to shift to make space for those.

Stacy: I think the great news there is that we all waste a ton of time every day on things that are not actually even life giving to us. So creating that space, while it’s difficult, it’s highly possible. Of course, there are exceptions. People that maybe I often think about, like single moms, you know, that are doing everything with zero or very little margin. But yet I’ve also seen the busiest people who are on fire are the ones who will do whatever they need to do to make it happen. I mean, have you seen examples of that in your coaching?

Heather: Yeah. Oh, of course. I mean, and I like how like you worded it because every single person’s, like you mentioned is every person’s situation is going to be different, right? And they’re what, you know, what’s currently weighing on them? What’s their current time commitments? If, you know, like you said, if there’s a single mom and she’s taking kids, you know, to and from school into activities and you know, they come right now they’re, we’re recording in summertime and they’re on summer break, right? So there’s different commitments that everyone has. So it’s a matter of like figuring out for you, like, what is the goal and how bad do you want it? And then how do you work backwards with your, to your current situation so that you can figure out like, how do I fit it in there?

Heather: And it might be like you’re sitting in the car waiting to pick up your kids and like you have five minutes, like, you know, delete Instagram, delete Facebook, like whatever, like TikTok, whatever is like a distraction. Your Netflix, delete that stuff and then use that time that anytime you might have used towards that or while you’re waiting for something, you’re sitting there, always use that time like your first Go to open up, you know, your email, if that’s where you’re at, your Google Doc, whatever it is, where you’re working through things and just use that five minutes that you have to put it towards your business and know that, that is working towards that bigger goal. And you keep that. You have to keep the prize, like, keep your eye on the prize at all times. Like, this is what I want.

Heather: And I would even change your phone back, like the background on your phone screen, background on your desktop to like, what is, like what is? How do you visualize the end goal so that every time you look at a device, you see something that to you like symbolizes that end goal and then it just helps you literally keep your eye on that prize. And like, this is where, why I am willing to give up that, you know, extra Netflix, that extra brunch, whatever it is, it’s because this is where I’m going. And that’s what means so much to me.

Stacy: Oh, I love that so much. I love that idea of changing your desktop too. And it made me think about growing up. My dad, he really wanted to buy this specific car. And so he printed out a picture or he must have cut it out of a magazine and put it on his bathroom mirror. And when he finally bought that car, wow. How much more meaning did that have to him than somebody who just went up to a car lot and picked that car that day? He worked for it, he saved for it. And that visualization piece, like seeing it, reminding yourself, is so powerful. The other thing I was thinking about with those little pockets of time is even audiobooks or bringing your Kindle with you.

Stacy: Those are great ways that you can be learning and growing, that maybe you don’t, you know, have the mental bandwidth in that 5 minute window to like do something actually productive. But it is productive to learn or even to just sit and think. Like, if you give yourself just five minutes of silent thinking, you’re now ahead of 99.9% of the population that is constantly putting input in all day long with no space.

Heather: Absolutely. And I love that idea of like audiobooks and that because when you’re commuting like to your job or whatever, you can be listening to audiobooks. Like you said, you can have YouTube podcasts and some of those things you might think like, okay, obviously look up ones that are close, that are kind of around the stage or speaking to, to an audience around the stage that you’re at. But just listening to that is going to help kind of basically like seep into your mind and help you with your mindset as you’re thinking about different parts of your business. Because especially if you’re coming from corporate, there are. You’re trained, you know, you’re trained corporate. You’re. And with.

Heather: With a certain thought process, which is great and like, fine for corporate, but as you’re kind of expanding beyond, you want to start thinking, changing your mindset and understanding. Okay, here’s how I need to be thinking about running a business and growing a business and building a business and not, you know, being, you know, a small piece with a, you know, with a lane within a large corporate organization. So all of that time, your kids could be in the car and you can have audio, you know, audio on at the same time. I. I think that’s a great suggestion.

Stacy: Yeah, I love that. And of course, you can expose your kids to it as well. This is a great transition into my next question, which is around mindset, because as, you know, really stepping into that founder mindset, that entrepreneurial mindset does require a certain posture, a certain, like, certain perspective and ability to really kind of step into that space. For me, as I mentioned, I’ve. I’ve been in business for nearly 16 years. The first bit of it was a freelancer. I was a freelancer. And stepping into that next space for me was actually very hard because I didn’t. I don’t think I really thought of myself as an entrepreneur in the early years, even though I was. It just, I think because I didn’t have a team, I didn’t have, you know, all these things that we traditionally think of.

Stacy: Even back then, even an office space was part of what made you an entrepreneur, like having a physical space that you go to. And so that transition was a really interesting one for me. And coaching made a massive difference for me in my mindset and how I showed up and how I owned spaces that I stepped into. I’d love for you to talk a little bit about that founder’s mindset and what people should know in the early stages of their business. Even if they’re like me, where they’ve been doing something for a while, and they’re really shifting into this next stage of entrepreneurship and really owning that. That founder title.

Heather: Yeah, no, it’s. It, it’s it. It is such an. A transition for people that I’ve. Some people I’m coaching, they don’t put founder and CEO in even like in their signature and like their title. They’ll put. If some will only put founder because they’re like, am I really a CEO if I don’t have a team or if I don’t have this or I don’t have the office, as you said, certain things like that. I’m like, you have to own it and you have to be, you have to step into that new identity and honestly, sometimes it’s true. Fake it till you make it. You, you are really the CEO. You are really building something and you have to start owning that.

Heather: Because if you don’t believe in what you’re, if you don’t show that you believe in what you’re doing and what you’re building, other people won’t believe it. And you need people to believe it if you’re going to get it off the ground. So even if you have like a little bit of a doubt, you know, and again, there’s ways you can reduce that doubt and kind of mitigate risk and things like that when you’re at the very beginning and kind of shifting through processes. But, but you have to believe in yourself and you have to believe in the business and the goal that you’re going to get there because that is how your customers are going to, potential customers are going to respond and you need them to believe in order to buy.

Stacy: What do you advise for people as they are building that belief? Because it’s hard in the beginning, I think, to show up with a really anchored sense of belief in something that doesn’t actually exist yet, you know, as you’re building it. So what are, what do you do? How do you build that?

Heather: Yeah, I think so. It depends on the individual, I will say, and their specific circumstances. Sometimes it’s about increasing their confidence and what in what they’re doing. Because I know for me that was one of my concerns because I came from, you know, I came from working in tech, but I was, I didn’t consider myself technical at the time, although now I realize I should have. But I was primarily doing, you know, business development and sales for that startup. And that was my background. And were not in E commerce and were not in software. The two things that I decided to start my business in.

Heather: So when I started it, that was a little bit of, I would say, my insecurity that, okay, what credibility do I have as someone that, you know, came from this kind of community that was selling lead generation, some display advertising, you know, and is now selling E commerce software, you know, and I’m trying to sell something that didn’t exist before. Right. And so part of what really helped me and you know, can help other people too, is that period of like environmental research and environment. I mean, like, what’s going on in the industry? What’s going on? What are people talking about? Like, even you don’t even have to attend all the conferences because I know that costs money and time and stuff. Go to their websites, read the agendas. What are people talking about? What are themes? What.

Heather: So that you’re kind of understanding the, that industry. You have that industry awareness and you’re understanding, okay, where does your idea fit along with what people are talking about? And then you can research. Why didn’t maybe like, for, if you’re in the tech space like me, why didn’t this exist before? Because that was another thing I went through is like, am I missing something? Like, why wasn’t this done with? This seems so obvious, you know, why hasn’t this been done? So you can do little things like that are going to help increase your confidence because you know, okay, this is what’s going on in the industry. People are already talking about X, Y and Z. And my business fits into the industry space because of these other specifics.

Heather: And then here are my competitors, here’s how we’re different, here’s what we bring, that’s why we’re better. And here’s the additional value that we’re offering. And you kind of, as you go through these series of exercises, it’s going to add the confidence to you and that helps change your mindset too, to be able to give you the confidence that, no, I have, I really have something here. And I am a founder. And then of course, when you get that first customer, that first dollar changes hands. You’re a real business owner, You’ve got a paying customer. I don’t care what they paid. That’s a paying customer. And that is going to, like, do so much for your confidence because you’re like, damn, I created something that someone’s willing to spend money on. Right.

Heather: And that is really, I think, a really big tipping point for early stage customers.

Stacy: Yeah, it’s huge. Isn’t it just that validation? And I remember that so well in the early stages of my business. And just when somebody was finally ready to pay me in something other than exposure, that was a huge, huge win. Heather, this has been such a great conversation. I’ll close this out with the question that I ask all of my wonderful guests, and that is if you could recommend one book to our listeners, our viewers, this is one that has profoundly impacted your life. What would it be, I would say.

Heather: For this audience, Built to Sell is a great book. It’s not a new book, but it is a really solid book. And it’s one that really helps you think about when you’re first building your business, how to think about structuring it, how to think about your processes and how to think about it basically being able to be its own entity that is beyond just you as a single person. And when you’re looking to build a business that can unlock that freedom for you and unlock these larger goals, you really want to be thinking about it that way from the get go and from the beginning is how do I use the right systems and processes to be able, you don’t have to sell it, but to be able to sell it.

Heather: Or in other words, you can also, you can also have those operations that your team is able to help run that business for you or run part of it the day to day so that you can take vacations, you can, you know, travel the world, you can leave in the middle of the day to go spend the afternoon with your kids or whatever it is that, that’s thing, that thing that is that you want to be able to do. That’s a really good foundational book to start with.

Stacy: Great recommendation, Heather. Thank you so much. I’d love for you to tell our listeners what you’re most excited about right now and where they can learn more about you, follow you, join your list, all of that, of course.

Heather: So for anyone interested in learning more about Shoppable, you can go to shoppable.com tons of great information there. You can also reach me there. But anything relating to coaching advice, things like that, you can find me at heatherudo.com or on Instagram @eatherudo1.

Stacy: Wonderful, and we’ll be sure to include links to everything in our show notes. Heather, thank you so much for joining me today.

Heather: Thank you, Stacy. It’s been a pleasure.

Stacy: And thank you to you, our listeners and viewers. I am so grateful that you spent this time with us and I know it was hugely valuable. I know it was for me as well. Thank you as always to Rita Domingues for her production of this podcast. As I tell you every week, you would not be listening to or watching this without her. She really makes everything happen and I am incredibly grateful. And since you’re still listening or watching, take a moment to subscribe and rate this show. It makes a huge difference in helping me reach more listeners. And of course, you don’t want to miss out on future episodes. I will be back with you before you know it.