Creating Professional Respect in Your Animal Based Business
How you present yourself — and your business — matters. Being a professional means you gain respect and confidence. Creating professional respect in your business begins with you and in this week’s episode of The Business Animal Kim and Cara break down three ways you can make the shifts necessary to gain professional respect from your industry, customers, and the public — and gain some important self-regard as a bonus!
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Jaz:Well, welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle
Jaz:up for a gallop to the top of the animal industry, where
Jaz:you'll learn how to tame your wild business beast with tips,
Jaz:techniques, and tools that will take overwhelm to obedience
Jaz:school, and have you wagging your tail with joy. And now your
Jaz:hosts, Kim Beer, and Cara Taylor Swift.
Kimberly Beer:Hey there business animals. It's Kim with
Kimberly Beer:Be More Business
Cara Taylor Swift:and Cara with Fast Horse Photography. Hi, Kim,
Cara Taylor Swift:how are you?
Kimberly Beer:I am doing well. I am on the other side of my
Kimberly Beer:health issue now. Woohoo. I'm feeling so much better. Oh, I
Kimberly Beer:love hearing that I'm back to work the full time part time.
Kimberly Beer:And I'll be back to work full time probably the first week of
Kimberly Beer:July. So very, very happy to be getting out there getting ready
Kimberly Beer:to create more content and definitely feeling much better
Kimberly Beer:and very relieved. So yeah, that makes
Cara Taylor Swift:me so happy to hear I sound a little off
Cara Taylor Swift:today, because I do have COVID My whole family has COVID right
Cara Taylor Swift:now. But I'm on the tail end of it just the part where it's kind
Cara Taylor Swift:of feels gross in your throat. But I feel fine for the most
Cara Taylor Swift:part. So I just want to apologize for folks if I sound a
Cara Taylor Swift:little deeper than normal. But yeah, so Kim and I are in this
Cara Taylor Swift:in this good place right now. And I love it. So we're getting
Cara Taylor Swift:ready to finish up season three of The Business Animal, which is
Cara Taylor Swift:crazy, a couple more episodes to go. So what are we talking about
Cara Taylor Swift:today,
Kimberly Beer:we are talking about something that I think is
Kimberly Beer:a really interesting conversation that maybe you
Kimberly Beer:haven't even thought about in your business. And that's
Kimberly Beer:creating professional respect. So here's a little story in a
Kimberly Beer:background as to where this comes from in my world years and
Kimberly Beer:years ago when I was first getting to be a graphic designer
Kimberly Beer:on my own. And I would work with a client. And I want to remind
Kimberly Beer:you that I was at the time, I didn't have a storefront, I
Kimberly Beer:didn't have like an official title. I didn't go to college to
Kimberly Beer:be a graphic designer, I was just a really good artist. And I
Kimberly Beer:was good with technology. And I was doing a perfectly fine job.
Kimberly Beer:But inside I don't know if something felt off or wrong. But
Kimberly Beer:whenever I would go and I would work with a client, one of the
Kimberly Beer:things that they would say when they looked at the finished
Kimberly Beer:piece is they go Oh, that is so like a professional. That's very
Kimberly Beer:professional. And you know, at first I guess it didn't bother
Kimberly Beer:me. But the more I did it, and the more that I got
Kimberly Beer:accomplished, it kind of got underneath my skin that people
Kimberly Beer:hired me and then were surprised that they received a
Kimberly Beer:professional result. So has anything ever like that happened
Kimberly Beer:with you, Kara? I mean, it sounds weird, cuz honestly, they
Kimberly Beer:were giving me a compliment. But I kind of took it a little
Kimberly Beer:differently. Well,
Cara Taylor Swift:I mean, we're, we're artist as well
Cara Taylor Swift:right now. And so I think any field out there were men. And
Cara Taylor Swift:there's a lot of fields, I think like this where maybe you can do
Cara Taylor Swift:it part time, or it's something you can do on the side, or it's
Cara Taylor Swift:something you can learn on your own. And there are a bunch of
Cara Taylor Swift:fields out there that people will jump into and photography
Cara Taylor Swift:is one of them as an equine photographer. But as a
Cara Taylor Swift:photographer in general photography is one of those
Cara Taylor Swift:areas where maybe somebody is unemployed, and they decide, oh,
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm going to become a photographer. And then they open
Cara Taylor Swift:a Facebook page, and suddenly they're a business and I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:putting that in quotation marks. So it's one of those things and
Cara Taylor Swift:there are lots of others out there, you're probably you can
Cara Taylor Swift:probably think of them in your brain, I'm not going to call any
Cara Taylor Swift:of them out. But that come up that automatically when somebody
Cara Taylor Swift:that can automatically when someone says oh, this is my
Cara Taylor Swift:profession, or this is what I do. People can write it off as
Cara Taylor Swift:maybe not as professional maybe not take it as seriously this
Cara Taylor Swift:topic came up for me recently, however, because I was working
Cara Taylor Swift:with a couple of mentees is that the right word when you're
Cara Taylor Swift:mentoring someone is mentees the right word? It that feels like
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm taking something too fresh in my brand. Mentees mentee.
Cara Taylor Swift:Okay. So I was working with them and and they said, you know that
Cara Taylor Swift:when someone asked them, you know, what do you do? Or tell me
Cara Taylor Swift:you know, what's your business? Or what do you do that they feel
Cara Taylor Swift:oftentimes when they go to answer that they don't know how
Cara Taylor Swift:to answer it or that they don't do themselves a service with the
Cara Taylor Swift:way that they answer to make themselves sound like a
Cara Taylor Swift:legitimate business that they are and so I've really took that
Cara Taylor Swift:to heart and I remember in the early days when I went from
Cara Taylor Swift:working in a brick and mortar and working a nine to five you
Cara Taylor Swift:know in I switched to being an entrepreneur and having my own
Cara Taylor Swift:business and working from a home studio that I even struggled in
Cara Taylor Swift:internally with the idea of taking my own business
Cara Taylor Swift:seriously, and then that then transfers to how if I don't
Cara Taylor Swift:think of my business as or I have second thoughts about how
Cara Taylor Swift:my professional my businesses are legitimate my businesses,
Cara Taylor Swift:how can I portray that to other people in a confident way that
Cara Taylor Swift:makes them not just write me off as another person that's just
Cara Taylor Swift:out there kind of floundering in the world. So I thought this was
Cara Taylor Swift:a really awesome topic for us to cover today. And since it's
Cara Taylor Swift:something we both experienced, and we know firsthand, other
Cara Taylor Swift:people that are dealing with this right now,
Kimberly Beer:absolutely. And I'm thinking of my clients that
Kimberly Beer:I work with on a regular basis, who have their corporate jobs
Kimberly Beer:still, and they are in this weird sort of one foot in one
Kimberly Beer:world and one foot and another world. And they're usually very
Kimberly Beer:accomplished in their corporate job. And in their corporate job,
Kimberly Beer:they have a lot of respect. And it's given to them easily
Kimberly Beer:because they've really been in that for a while, but they're
Kimberly Beer:wanting to step out and maybe be an equine assisted coach, or a
Kimberly Beer:gestalt artist or a photographer, or or start a, a
Kimberly Beer:grooming business or something like that. And because they
Kimberly Beer:don't have their foot completely over here in the world, where
Kimberly Beer:they're kind of side hustling and wanting to get into people
Kimberly Beer:don't take them seriously. And that can lead to all kinds of
Kimberly Beer:fallout for your business. If you really want to know the
Kimberly Beer:truth at the bottom line of this discussion that we're having
Kimberly Beer:today, it has to do with revenue, people will not pay you
Kimberly Beer:as much if they don't respect you. Or if you ask for a full
Kimberly Beer:payment, and people don't think you have a legitimate business
Kimberly Beer:or are full time it's something it's really, really sometimes
Kimberly Beer:difficult to get paid the value of what it is that you're
Kimberly Beer:providing. So being able to create that professional respect
Kimberly Beer:in your business mindfully to me is super important. And it's
Kimberly Beer:going to take a couple of mindset shifts. One of the
Kimberly Beer:things I think that both Kara and I want to impart before we
Kimberly Beer:get on to the big three is that even though all of the things
Kimberly Beer:that we're going to give you to do have a little bit of an
Kimberly Beer:outside action to them, it's truthfully how you feel about
Kimberly Beer:yourself inside that makes the difference. And you've got to
Kimberly Beer:work on your confidence building. And really, if you if
Kimberly Beer:you're one of those folks that straddling two worlds, when you
Kimberly Beer:are standing in the world, where you're where you're wanting to
Kimberly Beer:build your professional reputation, you know, pull your
Kimberly Beer:other foot out of the corporate world and stand squarely and
Kimberly Beer:confidently in that space. Even if you have to jump back to the
Kimberly Beer:other side.
Cara Taylor Swift:There's a couple places I think that we
Cara Taylor Swift:could mention, like where you might hear this, a great example
Cara Taylor Swift:was when someone says, oh, you know, I'm a photographer, for
Cara Taylor Swift:example. And then they say something like, Oh, I'm a
Cara Taylor Swift:photographer, too, or my daughter's a photographer. And
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm using the photography example. Because that's, that's
Cara Taylor Swift:my focus. But I find that to be almost triggering to some
Cara Taylor Swift:extent, because to me, I've worked so hard at legitimizing
Cara Taylor Swift:and proving myself in the industry that I love talking and
Cara Taylor Swift:chatting with other photographers. But sometimes I
Cara Taylor Swift:think that comment, it's probably meant to, like, have
Cara Taylor Swift:commonality, but it makes me feel and this is me inside of
Cara Taylor Swift:myself. It makes me feel like they're writing me off as
Cara Taylor Swift:someone who's not professional. And Kim, I know you have another
Cara Taylor Swift:photography example that you like to give around when people
Cara Taylor Swift:talk about your camera. Yeah.
Kimberly Beer:So for many, many, many years, I would shoot
Kimberly Beer:horse shows, and people would come up to my alongside of me
Kimberly Beer:while I was shooting alongside the arena, and they would look
Kimberly Beer:at my camera and they would say they and they see the pictures
Kimberly Beer:like our digital cameras now have photos that pop up along
Kimberly Beer:the back for us to take a look at to check our settings and
Kimberly Beer:stuff. And they would say things while they were standing layer
Kimberly Beer:like Wow, your camera takes great photos. And that always
Kimberly Beer:just irked me. I gotta tell you, and then somewhere this is not
Kimberly Beer:mine. I don't know where I found it. It was somewhere in my life.
Kimberly Beer:I ran across this statement of I taught my camera everything it
Kimberly Beer:knows. So now when somebody comes over and stands next to me
Kimberly Beer:and says your camera takes great photos, I'm like, thank you so
Kimberly Beer:much. I taught it everything it knows. And that puts the focus
Kimberly Beer:back on me without me being rude about it. It just simply says,
Kimberly Beer:Hey, I learned how to do this. This is my skill, my talent. And
Kimberly Beer:this is a tool that I use and it's the same for those of you
Kimberly Beer:who have any type of thing where you're like the talent behind
Kimberly Beer:the tool. It's a really good little statement to use and it
Kimberly Beer:has Got another adjustment inside my head, the more I set
Kimberly Beer:up that instead of getting kind of bent out of shape, or
Kimberly Beer:thinking I had to buy a better camera, if I wanted to take
Kimberly Beer:better photos, which is, by the way, not the way to take better
Kimberly Beer:photos, you take better photos by increasing your skill level,
Kimberly Beer:but over a period of time is saying that I really got into
Kimberly Beer:understanding that yes, it was me that made the better photo,
Kimberly Beer:my camera was just a tool that I used to create those images. And
Kimberly Beer:I really did each and everything it knows,
Cara Taylor Swift:I love that I think that takes us into our big
Cara Taylor Swift:three, do you want to go ahead and run through those
Kimberly Beer:I do. And so the big three for today is the first
Kimberly Beer:one. And we've already kind of breached into this a little bit.
Kimberly Beer:And we'll get into it some more is to adjust your inside voice.
Kimberly Beer:And by inside voice, I don't mean inside the room, I mean
Kimberly Beer:inside your head, adjust how you're talking about yourself
Kimberly Beer:from the inside out. And then number two is explore and
Kimberly Beer:prepare the right professional response for the situation that
Kimberly Beer:you're in. And then number three is to clean up all those loose
Kimberly Beer:ends out there that make you feel unprofessional. So number
Kimberly Beer:one is to adjust that inside voice. And again, you have to
Kimberly Beer:kind of tweak that on your own. And one of the ways that I
Kimberly Beer:encourage people to do this is to think about where they want
Kimberly Beer:to be. So let's just take that example of that person who's got
Kimberly Beer:their foot in two worlds, right, they've got their foot in their
Kimberly Beer:corporate job, and they've got their foot in the side hustle
Kimberly Beer:that they want to make their living passion at, there's a
Kimberly Beer:point and you have to be diplomatic in that situation.
Kimberly Beer:Because when you're in your corporate job, you can't be
Kimberly Beer:standing completely in your side part. But what you have to do is
Kimberly Beer:you have to think about where is it that I really want to be how
Kimberly Beer:do I want to be seen three to five years from now. And I'm
Kimberly Beer:gonna have all that professional experience, you know, business
Kimberly Beer:owners that are new have a problem with this as well, like
Kimberly Beer:they've just started their business, they don't have a ton
Kimberly Beer:of confidence yet, they've got a big plan, but they're just at
Kimberly Beer:the basic part of it. Think about who you're going to be in
Kimberly Beer:three to five years and how you want your level of respect to be
Kimberly Beer:and give your sales pitches talk from the perspective of that
Kimberly Beer:individual who has all of that experience underneath them,
Kimberly Beer:who's maybe left the corporate job and is now full time in this
Kimberly Beer:with a full quiet slate. So speak from the position that
Kimberly Beer:you've already achieved your goals. So this kind of goes into
Kimberly Beer:that psychological game, we like to play with ourselves as fake
Kimberly Beer:it till you make it. It's not really faking it, though. It's
Kimberly Beer:where you're going to be and when you voice that, and you're
Kimberly Beer:gonna get where we want Kara for a moment, but when you voice
Kimberly Beer:that out into the universe, all the universe will conspire to
Kimberly Beer:make that true for you. So I do firmly believe that one way to
Kimberly Beer:adjust that inside voice so that you're speaking from that highly
Kimberly Beer:professional level, even if you maybe haven't quite physically
Kimberly Beer:moved over to that professional level yet. What do you think,
Kimberly Beer:Kara? Any tips here for people?
Cara Taylor Swift:You know, how do you expect people to take
Cara Taylor Swift:your business seriously, if you don't, right? So I from day
Cara Taylor Swift:number one of my business, I was on board with this, I might have
Cara Taylor Swift:struggled on the inside a little bit with oh, gosh, there's so
Cara Taylor Swift:much I need to do any I have a lot of loosens, I need to tie
Cara Taylor Swift:up. But for me, once I was in the image I presented to the
Cara Taylor Swift:world, I wanted it to be as professional as possible. I
Cara Taylor Swift:mean, I can't even tell you, I probably was a business for a
Cara Taylor Swift:week. And I already had a t shirt. I mean, I was like I had
Cara Taylor Swift:something to wear, you know that. When I showed up at
Cara Taylor Swift:events, people recognize that I was there. I wasn't just you
Cara Taylor Swift:know, showing up in my every day barn clothes. So I didn't waste
Cara Taylor Swift:any time. But I think it is something to be said for how
Cara Taylor Swift:seriously you take your business is what you're going to put out
Cara Taylor Swift:into the world. And if you talk about your business in a serious
Cara Taylor Swift:way and professionally, then other people are going to follow
Cara Taylor Swift:suit. And I think that as a business owner, you have to
Cara Taylor Swift:start thinking about, you know, how do you talk to people about
Cara Taylor Swift:your business when they ask you about it. And you need to have
Cara Taylor Swift:that prepared in advance which is going to kind of roll us into
Cara Taylor Swift:explore and prepare the right professional response. But you
Cara Taylor Swift:know, if you're not confident in what you do in the service that
Cara Taylor Swift:you provide, how do you talk about it? And how do you expect
Cara Taylor Swift:other people to go out into the world and talk about what you do
Cara Taylor Swift:and talk about your business with the folks that they come in
Cara Taylor Swift:contact with. So you know, thinking about your story, your
Cara Taylor Swift:story of origin for your business, what motivated you
Cara Taylor Swift:what got you excited about doing the work that you're doing in
Cara Taylor Swift:the animal industry, you know, all of that stuff is going to
Cara Taylor Swift:come into that response side of things when we get there. So I
Cara Taylor Swift:definitely think that a downside that I see a lot is people using
Cara Taylor Swift:the term side hustle mompreneur boss, babe, like, think about
Cara Taylor Swift:some of this language, you guys, it automatically undermined your
Cara Taylor Swift:professionality, as Kim would say. So when I see that kind of
Cara Taylor Swift:stuff like we use side hustle on the show all the time. But there
Cara Taylor Swift:are things out there that that we do trying to be trendy and
Cara Taylor Swift:trying to be maybe up with the you know, the hashtags on
Cara Taylor Swift:Instagram or something along those lines, but they really I
Cara Taylor Swift:think, take away from the professionalism of our business
Cara Taylor Swift:if we're not careful.
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Kimberly Beer:I agree with that I kind of in some ways, like the
Kimberly Beer:term Girlboss. But I'm going to tell you in the end of the day,
Kimberly Beer:I'm a boss. I'm just a ball in front of it. I'm just a boss,
Kimberly Beer:I'm the boss. I'm the boss of this. What are the things that
Kimberly Beer:you said back when you were talking their care really
Kimberly Beer:intrigued me like you had a t shirt the first week and it
Kimberly Beer:makes me think to how we embody our businesses right so it let's
Kimberly Beer:just use the military as an example. Let's say you want to
Kimberly Beer:join the army. The first thing the army does with you when they
Kimberly Beer:they get you into the Army is they give you the army haircut
Kimberly Beer:and they give you a uniform that you can wear and you become to
Kimberly Beer:embodiment of of what you will become on day one, you're
Kimberly Beer:starting to embody what you will become as you move through the
Kimberly Beer:military. Now I'm not a big military proponent, I would have
Kimberly Beer:been a horrible, horrible private in any army because that
Kimberly Beer:when that five o'clock wake up call came around, I would have
Kimberly Beer:been like, Excuse me, unless there's photographing horses
Kimberly Beer:involved. Why the hell are we up this early in the morning. But
Kimberly Beer:the embodiment of the uniform is part of what you should do. And
Kimberly Beer:uniform can be metaphorical. Okay, I didn't have a T shirt.
Kimberly Beer:But I embodied a graphic designer. When I was with my
Kimberly Beer:graphic design clients, I embodied a photographer when I
Kimberly Beer:was with my photography clients, I embody a gestalt just when
Kimberly Beer:someone comes here to work with me with the horses. So it's
Kimberly Beer:embodiment, it's, it's truly stepping into who you will
Kimberly Beer:become even on day one, and then allowing everything else to
Kimberly Beer:catch up along the way, if that makes a weird kind of sense. But
Kimberly Beer:I love the metaphor of the uniform that you brought up,
Kimberly Beer:Kara.
Cara Taylor Swift:It's just the things in my brain that I felt
Cara Taylor Swift:like I had to do quickly to feel inside, that I was moving in the
Cara Taylor Swift:right direction of professionalism, and honestly
Cara Taylor Swift:setting myself apart from the sea of other people out there
Cara Taylor Swift:attempting to do the same thing. And in the animal industry, I
Cara Taylor Swift:think there's lots of businesses or career paths that could be
Cara Taylor Swift:similar to this where you could start doing it. And maybe while
Cara Taylor Swift:you're doing it, you're still learning and gaining skills as
Cara Taylor Swift:you go. I think about some of the industries like horse
Cara Taylor Swift:training, for example. You know, there's a lot of horse trainers
Cara Taylor Swift:out there. But there's a lot of different levels of horse
Cara Taylor Swift:trainers, and a lot of horse trainers that have gone through
Cara Taylor Swift:some real specialty training and have years and years of
Cara Taylor Swift:experience and have legitimate businesses. And then there's
Cara Taylor Swift:also horse trainers out there that are maybe they want to be
Cara Taylor Swift:horse trainers, maybe it's a hobby, maybe it's something they
Cara Taylor Swift:do personally, maybe it's something that they hope to do
Cara Taylor Swift:down the line and they're starting out. It's the same with
Cara Taylor Swift:photographers, there's a large scale from where one
Cara Taylor Swift:photographer might be to another photographer. So there's a lot
Cara Taylor Swift:of professions I think in the animal industry that would fall
Cara Taylor Swift:under that I mean, anything I think you can do to set yourself
Cara Taylor Swift:apart and show your professionalism. So I think that
Cara Taylor Swift:takes us into number two, explore and prepare the right
Cara Taylor Swift:professional response. So for me, I think about What's the
Cara Taylor Swift:story? What's the story behind your business? Where did it come
Cara Taylor Swift:from? What's the origin? What inspired you to get out there?
Cara Taylor Swift:And to start this business? It's okay, if it's that you're a stay
Cara Taylor Swift:at home mom and you want to bring income into the family,
Cara Taylor Swift:that's okay, if that's your message, but it's how do you
Cara Taylor Swift:prepare that as a professional response? Do you have a mission?
Cara Taylor Swift:Do you have a tagline? What happens when people ask you the
Cara Taylor Swift:question? Oh, what do you do? Or what do you do professionally?
Cara Taylor Swift:How do you respond to that? And I will tell people, it's like so
Cara Taylor Swift:many other things in the business, being prepared to
Cara Taylor Swift:answer that question in advance is huge, and will do wonders for
Cara Taylor Swift:how people view you, when you're talking to him about your
Cara Taylor Swift:business. What do you think about that cam,
Kimberly Beer:I think it's really important for you to be
Kimberly Beer:prepared to talk about your business to the person that
Kimberly Beer:you're in front of. And that means that you need to adjust
Kimberly Beer:your professional response accordingly. I do a lot of
Kimberly Beer:different things in my business. And I have rehearsed or thought
Kimberly Beer:through wrote out memorized to a certain extent, different
Kimberly Beer:responses for the different rooms that I'm in. So whenever
Kimberly Beer:you sit down across from somebody, you have to ascertain
Kimberly Beer:how could what I do benefit them. And I want to have the
Kimberly Beer:conversation from that point of view. Now I know my benefits, I
Kimberly Beer:know my values. I know my story, I know how I can be of help. The
Kimberly Beer:thing that I've done, and I spend a lot of time I spent a
Kimberly Beer:lot of hours in my car to be honest with you by truck driving
Kimberly Beer:around to different appointments into Kansas City and to Montana
Kimberly Beer:and Wyoming. And there's there's a lot hours of endless highway
Kimberly Beer:is what I'm getting at while I'm driving. I practice those
Kimberly Beer:responses to people and understanding how to talk about
Kimberly Beer:the value that I bring to them is really important, rather than
Kimberly Beer:just saying what do you do or answering the question, what do
Kimberly Beer:you do I respond with how I bring value to people. One of my
Kimberly Beer:favorite statements right now is when I'm in my entrepreneurial
Kimberly Beer:uniform, and I'm speaking to entrepreneurs, and they ask,
Kimberly Beer:what do you do I say, I help entrepreneurs get out of their
Kimberly Beer:own way. Because and that doesn't give you a lick of an
Kimberly Beer:indication about you know, do I do it through graphic design? Do
Kimberly Beer:I do it through consultation? Do I Do you know, that opens the
Kimberly Beer:door for them to ask questions about like, Well, exactly. How
Kimberly Beer:do you do that, because I find myself tripping over myself a
Kimberly Beer:lot in this entrepreneurial journey. So it's just a point of
Kimberly Beer:learning how to make those responses, and then rehearsing
Kimberly Beer:them and understanding well enough about where you want to
Kimberly Beer:be, like we said in number one, adjusting that inside voice and
Kimberly Beer:then helping the conversation move forward. And I am also not
Kimberly Beer:opposed into correcting people just like the little statement I
Kimberly Beer:make to people when they comment on my camera. By the way, I hear
Kimberly Beer:that a lot less now because I'm a much more competent
Kimberly Beer:photographer than I was 20 years ago when people were saying that
Kimberly Beer:to me. But it's a point of the confidence now that I exude as a
Kimberly Beer:photographer, people don't ask me that question any longer,
Kimberly Beer:because it's no longer something they think about because they
Kimberly Beer:see me before they see the camera. What I'm getting at here
Kimberly Beer:is sometimes you got to practice that within yourself. Maybe even
Kimberly Beer:if you don't believe it completely, until you do believe
Kimberly Beer:it completely. So peel away the corners, defend yourself. If
Kimberly Beer:somebody says, Hey, that looks really professional, you should
Kimberly Beer:be proud of it. Say, Hey, you know what, I am a professional,
Kimberly Beer:I got paid for that job. And I am super proud of it. So thank
Kimberly Beer:you for noticing that you don't have to be mean about it. But
Kimberly Beer:definitely stand up for yourself and prepare your response in a
Kimberly Beer:way that you feel good about saying it and then defending
Kimberly Beer:that position if you need to. every small business owner wants
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Kimberly Beer:190 minutes session, you'll discover the four major focus
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Kimberly Beer:where your business is getting stuck. You'll leave the session
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Cara Taylor Swift:You know, the more that you do that, the more
Cara Taylor Swift:that you sit down and spend the time thinking about your story
Cara Taylor Swift:and your responses. That's how you're going to find your people
Cara Taylor Swift:anyway because you're going to be working on that with the idea
Cara Taylor Swift:of your ideal client in mind. So that like Kim said, when you sit
Cara Taylor Swift:down next to someone and they ask you that question, depending
Cara Taylor Swift:upon the situation that you're in, if I'm standing at a horse
Cara Taylor Swift:show, I know how I'm going to answer that Question, right?
Cara Taylor Swift:Whereas if I'm standing in a group of photographers, I might
Cara Taylor Swift:answer that question differently. So thinking about
Cara Taylor Swift:that and practicing it, I'm a big proponent of get the words
Cara Taylor Swift:out of your mouth and say them out loud, you know, in practice
Cara Taylor Swift:and privacy, so that when you have to say it, and when you're
Cara Taylor Swift:in a position where you say you can say it confidently, and
Cara Taylor Swift:you're not tripping over the word, so I love that I don't
Cara Taylor Swift:think enough people in the early days spend enough time thinking
Cara Taylor Swift:about those responses. And it's such a big piece to the
Cara Taylor Swift:confidence aspect of it, you know, the first time you put it
Cara Taylor Swift:out into the world. And then, like Kim said, Oh, you must be,
Cara Taylor Swift:you have a really nice camera, you must be you know, you must
Cara Taylor Swift:create some pretty pictures, what a nice camera the first
Cara Taylor Swift:time that happens to you what a hit to your confidence, you
Cara Taylor Swift:know, wow, I do have a nice camera. That's probably why I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:taking such good pictures, or no, like Kim said, I've thought
Cara Taylor Swift:about this. Yeah, I taught that camera, everything it knows, you
Cara Taylor Swift:know. So thinking about those responses in advance and
Cara Taylor Swift:practicing them, so that when the time comes, you're ready and
Cara Taylor Swift:you can be confident about it will set the tone correctly the
Cara Taylor Swift:first time Absolutely.
Kimberly Beer:And the more you practice it, and the more you
Kimberly Beer:work through the bugs of how to talk to people, the less you'll
Kimberly Beer:stumble around, and the more confidence people will have a
Kimberly Beer:new because you will carry yourself differently. I'll tell
Kimberly Beer:you another thing that you don't want people as a business owner,
Kimberly Beer:you don't want people taking a chance on you, you want people
Kimberly Beer:hiring you. And you want to set the expectation that that's
Kimberly Beer:going to be a professional experience for them. Not that
Kimberly Beer:they're taking a chance on your business. Think of it that way.
Kimberly Beer:And think of it how you as a consumer, how you choose to
Kimberly Beer:spend your dollars and money is tight. I mean, we're not in the
Kimberly Beer:greatest economy right now. And there's a lot of choices for
Kimberly Beer:every single one of your businesses out there that you
Kimberly Beer:are the best choice for a certain group of people and hold
Kimberly Beer:that in confidence and make sure that they know you are the best
Kimberly Beer:choice for them in how you present yourself how you answer
Kimberly Beer:those questions, how you respond to the things out there that are
Kimberly Beer:being asked, and the conversations that are being
Kimberly Beer:brought up around your business.
Cara Taylor Swift:So that's the thing, Kim and I think that
Cara Taylor Swift:moves us into big three, number three, cleaning up the loosens
Cara Taylor Swift:that make you feel professional, because we can prepare ourselves
Cara Taylor Swift:to speak professionally about our business, we can plan our
Cara Taylor Swift:story, we can adjust our inside voice, we can do all of those
Cara Taylor Swift:things. But if our business isn't on its way to being
Cara Taylor Swift:actually a professional business, it might catch us up a
Cara Taylor Swift:little bit. And it's gonna make that harder and harder for us.
Cara Taylor Swift:So regardless of if your business is a full time
Cara Taylor Swift:business, if it's that side hustle, we've been referring to
Cara Taylor Swift:something that you hope one day, maybe you can do full time and
Cara Taylor Swift:move away from your current job. Or maybe it's just a part time
Cara Taylor Swift:money making endeavor that you're doing on the side to
Cara Taylor Swift:bring in some extra income, there are still lots of things
Cara Taylor Swift:that you can do to set yourself apart, first of all from the
Cara Taylor Swift:competition, but also give your business that professional
Cara Taylor Swift:appearance that it deserves. So I have a whole list here per
Cara Taylor Swift:usual, first of all, actually go through the steps to set up your
Cara Taylor Swift:business legally. Okay, so get yourself all of those documents
Cara Taylor Swift:in line, every state's a little different. Get yourself your
Cara Taylor Swift:ability to pay your taxes, get yourself a legal business name,
Cara Taylor Swift:go through all the processes, register with your state or your
Cara Taylor Swift:county, wherever you need to do that, get insurance, do the
Cara Taylor Swift:things you need to do get yourself a website and keep it
Cara Taylor Swift:up to date. So just having a website that just sits there and
Cara Taylor Swift:isn't up to date and isn't current is a start. But it's not
Cara Taylor Swift:going to be professional and people go to your website, if it
Cara Taylor Swift:doesn't adequately represent who you are. And what you do get
Cara Taylor Swift:your own domain name, have a business email address, you can
Cara Taylor Swift:have a Gmail or Yahoo, but honestly, if you can get
Cara Taylor Swift:yourself a business email address, it looks a lot better.
Cara Taylor Swift:We've already talked about professional appearance, but
Cara Taylor Swift:think about what you want your image to be, and what you want
Cara Taylor Swift:that to be for your business out in the community. And this one's
Cara Taylor Swift:a tough one because I think about this all the time because
Cara Taylor Swift:I'm the face of my business. And while I'm a horse person, I work
Cara Taylor Swift:with horse people. So I'm not showing up dressed super fancy.
Cara Taylor Swift:I do like to be clean and have clean clothing on and have my
Cara Taylor Swift:boots not be too disgusting and dirty. And I don't like to be
Cara Taylor Swift:caught out in public even when I'm not working looking
Cara Taylor Swift:unprofessional as well are looking super shabby doesn't
Cara Taylor Swift:mean I'm not wearing my jogging pants and stuff like that. But I
Cara Taylor Swift:do keep these things in mind when I'm out and about because
Cara Taylor Swift:we're always representing our business. I mean, I run to
Cara Taylor Swift:clients at the feed store all the time, for example, be active
Cara Taylor Swift:as a business on social media. So not just from your personal
Cara Taylor Swift:page, I highly recommend having a business page and then sharing
Cara Taylor Swift:content that's relevant to your business with high end curated
Cara Taylor Swift:imagery. So actually thinking about your images as well.
Cara Taylor Swift:Making sure that they represent your brand, professionally, take
Cara Taylor Swift:the time to think about your ideal customer and work on your
Cara Taylor Swift:brand and your branding. You know, just being aware of your
Cara Taylor Swift:branding and how people see you in the world and being
Cara Taylor Swift:consistent with a logo and colors and fonts and all of
Cara Taylor Swift:those things. And your messaging is huge, big pieces that Kim and
Cara Taylor Swift:I talk about all of the time on here, be attentive to your
Cara Taylor Swift:business through follow up follow up with people when they
Cara Taylor Swift:inquire first way to come across unprofessional is not get back
Cara Taylor Swift:to people provide excellent service when you are working
Cara Taylor Swift:with people. And then of course, things like testimonials, which
Cara Taylor Swift:we've talked about on the show harnessed the power of those
Cara Taylor Swift:testimonials out into the world around you. The last thing I'm
Cara Taylor Swift:going to just say all of these things we've talked about
Cara Taylor Swift:before, but they all do come together in your business is
Cara Taylor Swift:also focused on that existing customer, because your next
Cara Taylor Swift:customer will most likely come from the people you're working
Cara Taylor Swift:with right now. So how are you treating them? Are you treating
Cara Taylor Swift:them professionally? Are you being professional in your
Cara Taylor Swift:conduct with them, because they will tell the next person what
Cara Taylor Swift:it was like to work with you. And just remember that, you
Cara Taylor Swift:know, being professional and professional action leads to a
Cara Taylor Swift:professional business appearance. And it all comes
Cara Taylor Swift:together if you can do these things and get started on them.
Cara Taylor Swift:Even if it's just one of these little things as you work your
Cara Taylor Swift:way through each time you do that your self confidence in
Cara Taylor Swift:your business and your feelings of legitimacy around your
Cara Taylor Swift:business and growing your business will be so much
Cara Taylor Swift:stronger. So I remember in the early days, each time I set
Cara Taylor Swift:something up each time I made a change. I remember that when I
Cara Taylor Swift:got my own domain name. And then when I changed my email address
Cara Taylor Swift:from a Yahoo account to fast horse photography, it was like
Cara Taylor Swift:look at me, I'm so much more professional than I was even
Cara Taylor Swift:yesterday. So these little things are awesome. And they can
Cara Taylor Swift:do so much for you. In terms of your mindset around this. I know
Cara Taylor Swift:you have things you want to add to that, Kim,
Kimberly Beer:actually, I think you completed that list
Kimberly Beer:beautifully. I think all of those things are so important to
Kimberly Beer:becoming a legitimate business. And when you feel more
Kimberly Beer:legitimate, you walk in a really legitimate way you talk in a
Kimberly Beer:legitimate way. And people automatically respond to that,
Kimberly Beer:you know, we think that communication all comes out of
Kimberly Beer:our mouths, but it doesn't, it comes out in a million different
Kimberly Beer:ways, especially in as being a business owner. So all of those
Kimberly Beer:things are key and important. And I think the list is actually
Kimberly Beer:very comprehensive as to what I would tell a new business owner
Kimberly Beer:to do about the only thing I don't see on there is to write a
Kimberly Beer:business plan. I think one of the things that helps me or
Kimberly Beer:helped me become really professional in my business is
Kimberly Beer:going through the motions of writing a business plan. And you
Kimberly Beer:will hear a lot of people when it comes to this. By the way,
Kimberly Beer:that's not an easy endeavor. I say that like oh, write a
Kimberly Beer:business plan. Not a big deal. But it is a big deal. It will
Kimberly Beer:take you months, it makes you really know your business inside
Kimberly Beer:and out. I always think it as almost a clairvoyance tool
Kimberly Beer:because it gives you insight into things you might have never
Kimberly Beer:ever, ever thought about before. And when you do sit down and do
Kimberly Beer:it, it is a great exercise, people will tell you don't need
Kimberly Beer:to do it. If you aren't going to get alone. I say do it anyway, I
Kimberly Beer:still think it holds a value even if you aren't going to be
Kimberly Beer:asking for a loan. I think having a business plan and
Kimberly Beer:really knowing what you're going to do. Having a vision of where
Kimberly Beer:you want to go. All of those are really important tools and steps
Kimberly Beer:that you can take to make yourself know that you are a
Kimberly Beer:professional to provide evidence to your inner critic that you
Kimberly Beer:are a professional to provide evidence to the person who
Kimberly Beer:doubts you inside you your imposter syndrome. We did a
Kimberly Beer:whole episode on that horrid term. But if you have any of
Kimberly Beer:those feelings inside of you having that plan, writing it
Kimberly Beer:out, knowing your vision, knowing where you want to go,
Kimberly Beer:knowing who you are, as a business owner, it really helps
Kimberly Beer:chase all the shadows out of the system so that you can stand in
Kimberly Beer:the light of who you truly are.
Cara Taylor Swift:I think that's it, Kim, what do you
Cara Taylor Swift:think?
Kimberly Beer:I think this has been a really interesting
Kimberly Beer:episode and I'm going to tell you of all of the episodes we've
Kimberly Beer:done lately, if I were a new business owner, this is the
Kimberly Beer:episode I wished I would have listened to as a new business
Kimberly Beer:owner. I think that if you take some of these things to heart,
Kimberly Beer:it's gonna save you a lot of frustration and heartache. I
Kimberly Beer:wished I would have known a lot of this when I was newer in my
Kimberly Beer:business.
Cara Taylor Swift:I hope that those folks that are out there
Cara Taylor Swift:listening today enjoyed this episode. If you did, please let
Cara Taylor Swift:us know you can hop on to wherever you're listening and
Cara Taylor Swift:rate, review, follow do all of those things. We really
Cara Taylor Swift:appreciate it and if you are online, don't hesitate to follow
Cara Taylor Swift:us at The Business Animal on both Instagram and Facebook.
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