Elaine Pofeldt
speaker
42 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Elaine Pofeldt’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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So he wound up, he got onto TV using a publicist, one of the last contractors he kept, and he wound up selling the makeup and that's how he got through the pandemic. And now he's back to having the studio, but his whole business was shut down and it was not in his plans to do that. It was such a small sidelight. So that's another important thing to just be very,
open to what the universe is telling you. And when you see an opportunity, just jump on it. He did that very, very quickly.
Sure. Well, one is mindset. Let go of everything that you've been told by your school, your parents, et cetera, about being a good employee. It doesn't apply to being an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is about being disobedient.
And I'm not saying do anything illegal, but you have to break the rules that you learn to conform to a corporate system and be willing to be subject to other people's worry and disapproval. They may think you're going to go broke, but you have to prove them wrong. I would say keep showing up because I have literally interviewed thousands of entrepreneurs over the years.
I was a senior editor at Fortune Small Business Magazine. I've written for many publications and none of them get where they're going without putting in a daily commitment. I'm not saying you have to work 24-7. Some of them work four hours a week, like the four hour work week. Others work all the time. It's really a matter of the business and the person.
But if you don't show up consistently, you will not get results. I mean, be willing to get feedback. talk to your customers. They give you so much valuable information if you're willing to listen.
I mean, part of being an entrepreneur is being a little bit stubborn and sticking with your vision, but you also have to be open to what the world is telling you and feedback and be willing to pivot in response. You have to take absolute responsibility for your own success. All these people that are running these million dollar one person businesses have ups and downs like anybody else.
And so do scalable entrepreneurs. And they take responsibility for solving their own problems. Another thing that Jason said on one of the programs I did was no one is coming to save you. And I remember the other entrepreneurs on the call kind of teared up a little bit and you have to have that attitude. No one's going to bail you out.
It's not to say that you can't find an investor to help you or a friend to come in and pinch hit, but you really have to be willing to solve your own challenges. But when you're willing to own that, the rewards of entrepreneurship are fantastic. The freedom, the control over your own destiny, the control over who you get to work with, the control over your results.
There's really no ceiling on what you can do and your impact. And I think that's why it's so rewarding. I mean, I'm sure you find that.
Well, I always tell my kids, get in the ring. And one of the passions that I had over the years was I'm a black belt in taekwondo, and my daughters and I did this together. And you have to be willing to get in the ring and, you know, Get a few bruises and scratches and things if you want to be an entrepreneur, because there's a lot of unpredictable stuff that's going to happen.
And you have to think on your feet and be willing to lose sometimes. If you're not willing to ever lose, you'll never win.
I agree with you about that. It's so important to get out there and not be hidden. If you're not out there talking about stuff that's relevant to your customers, no one will find you. But the good news is if you start putting yourself out there, it magnetizes people who are like-minded. You won't be for everybody. That's one thing people have to let go of.
There are going to be haters and people that post negative comments and things like that, but you have to tune them out. because they're usually armchair quarterbacks and they're not doing anything. What really matters is if the people that you're marketing to are responding. Some people don't like being on social media. You have to find some way to get out there, whether it's in person.
using email. The good news is if you're an introvert, there are so many digital methods. So you don't have to be a pitch man or women on YouTube or something like that. If that's not your personality, some people just are shy, but they're really great entrepreneurs anyway. And it's just finding what is your way of marketing.
I was so excited to publish the million dollar one person business because it was a result of many years of work that I did analyzing census data and things like that, doing dozens of interviews and just getting it out into the world and hearing from people that said it inspired them and helped them create a million dollar one person business just makes my day every single time.
Well, I don't know. I feel like everything is a learning experience. So there was nothing that popped into my head as a failure. I'm not saying I haven't messed things up or done anything wrong, but I feel like it all goes into the computer and helps me learn.
ignore the gatekeepers. There are a lot of gatekeepers in life who can stop people from doing what they want to do. And what I've seen now as I've been out there in the world for a long time is because of tech trends and other things, a lot of the people that were the gatekeepers of the past are gone. The
the people that succeeded and achieved what they wanted to do just went ahead and did it regardless of what anyone said. They found a way to tunnel around whatever obstacles there were or whatever people were saying they couldn't do things. Just one example is if you look at Instagram, there used to be modeling agencies.
I think there still are, but now there are all these Instagram influencers who are like, I'm an 80-year-old fashion influencer or You know, and they're breaking all the rules and they're very popular. They would have never been able to work 30, 40, 50 years ago doing what they're doing. And now they have these lucrative businesses.
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