Yesterday we talked about the number one mistake I made in my business that really caused me a lot of stress in the early years of my business – you can go back and listen to that episode at www.shannonmattern.com/36.
The second biggest mistake I made was WAITING TOO LONG TO JOIN A MASTERMIND GROUP.
Just because I’m a one woman shop doesn’t mean I have to carry the weight of this business on my shoulders. I had come across One Woman Shop while researching ways to grow my business, perused their membership, and didn’t do anything.
A few months later I was nominated for their 100 Best Sites for Solopreneurs list. I perused their membership again and did nothing.
Then I saw how much money I was blowing on Facebook ads vs. how much traffic I was getting from that one blog post on their site and though “Hmm… Maybe my $30 a month would be better spent on a One Woman Shop membership since it comes with ad space…”
I didn’t know that it came with a monthly accountability group and one-on-one coaching. So I took advantage of that right away – and the very first thing Cristina and Sara helped me to do is set some boundaries (and they gave me language to use so I wouldn’t feel like a total asshole), gave me some tools and ideas to automate more and work less, and activate my community to help me market. You can check out One Woman Shop at shannonmattern.com/onewomanshop.
I’ve also had the pleasure of being invited to participate in a couple of small, free masterminds. One was of entrepreneurs in my niche and the other was of entrepreneurs in a different niche and while I found value in both, I felt like the small group of people in my niche at the same level as me or higher was more valuable.
You know the saying that two heads are better than one? It’s imperative that you have a trusted group of people that can help you navigate the ups and downs of side hustling.
And that’s exactly why I created a Facebook group to go along with Pep Talks for Side Hustlers, which you can join for free at www.shannonmattern.com/facebook. This is a space where you can share your struggles, get advice, and boost other people up when you have an experience or advice that can help them.
It’s so, so important to have a group of like-minded people with similar goals to bounce ideas off of. My friends and family while they love me and they’re excited for me, they just don’t get what I do. I see their eyes glaze over when I talk about it.
But the people in your mastermind group, they get it. They can see your blind spots that you can’t see. They can see your strengths, they can help you identify patterns of behavior that are holding you back.
If you go on this journey alone, you won’t have the benefit of learning from others experiences. You’ll have to make all the mistakes yourself instead of learning from others. And it can be very discouraging and demoralizing to feel like you’re in it by yourself. But when you know that others have been where you are and still found success, that’s what gives you hope and helps you keep pushing forward.
The biggest thing I struggle with when it comes to a mastermind is committing to the meeting times. At the time of recording this pep talk, I’m figuring out how to pare down my schedule a little bit and give myself some breathing room for professional development like masterminds. They tend to be the first thing I push off when my workload gets too big, and that’s something I want to get a handle on because they are soooo valuable!
Tomorrow, I’m going to share the third biggest mistake I made on the way to solopreneur success – creating a product without validating that my audience even wanted it first.
Today’s pep talk is brought to you by Bluehost. Go to www.shannonmattern.com/bluehost and get 36 months of web hosting for just $2.95 a month. That’s less than one trip to Starbucks a month – and if you’re anything like me, you’re at Starbucks more than that!
Then you can sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.shannonmattern.com/5day and I’ll show you step by step how to get started building your new website for your side hustle.
