the bossbabe podcast - 120. Who Are You Really? How to Reimagine Yourself for Success with Ivirlei Brookes

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

We’re joined by special guest, Ivirlei Brookes, an actress, serial entrepreneur, and business and mindset mentor who helps creatives and entrepreneurs build thriving businesses and master their mindsets for meaningful success. She is passionate about educating and using her voice to empower people to cultivate deeply intentional transformations. Ivirlei’s entrepreneurial evolution is nothing short of epic. From being the creator of a women’s magazine (that interviewed Drake before he became famous) to starring in a series based on her magazine (which never aired because the production company went bankrupt), and then starting her coaching career as a dating coach for men to now mentoring people in their lives and businesses. She knows all about loss, rebuilding, and understands that entrepreneurism is the ultimate rollercoaster ride. You must master the mindset of resilience to really roll with the punches and become a success. Tune in as Ivirlei shares actionable tips on how to hack it when things don’t go to plan and how not to equate your work with your worth. According to Ivirlei, the key to leveling is to constantly be reimagining and redesigning your version of yourself - which takes a lot of deeply transformative inner work.   If you’re looking to trust the process more and cultivate the confidence of a successful entrepreneur, listen now.  Get two free months of Skillshare premium membership and receive access to unlimited to over 1000+ classes: www.skillshare.com/bossbabe   

The thing that I've seen work best is journaling and not just writing, but asking specific questions. It's important to observe yourself objectively in the most radical way and to stop owning certain things and paying close attention to whatever comes after I am. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance and learning how to bounce all. I'm Danielle Canty, president and co-founder of Boss Babe and your host for this episode. Now today I am interviewing Ivalee Brooks. She is a

business coach and mindset mentor for creators, entrepreneurs and she is amazing. Now there are so many reasons that you might have heard of her before because she's an actress, she's a Syrian entrepreneur and she had a powerful video go viral during Black Lives Matter. This woman is absolutely amazing. She is a force to be reckoned with. And during this conversation, I know you're going to have so many takeaways. We really dove into all things mindset. We spoke about the highs and we also spoke about the lows, but not only just about the lows, but how to rebuild after them, which I think is really, really important. We also spoke about understanding the labels that we give ourselves and that other people put on us and how that can actually affect us in our lives and how to

remove some of these labels or change some of these labels. And another piece that I think is going to be really powerful and is going to help so many is how to maintain a positive mindset continuing through this global pandemic and the effects around not only COVID-19, but other challenges that have faced many people during 2020. So there's an absolute ton of information in this podcast. And I know you're going to want to grab a paper and pen, get ready to turn this up and please take a screenshot and share your biggest takeaways with myself and Ivy Lee on InstaStories because we always love to hear the things that you have loved hearing about so tag myself at daniellecanti and tag at bossbabe.inc now let's dive in a boss babe is

unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise keep going and fighting on she is on a mission to be her best self in all areas it's just believing in yourself confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. Welcome to the Boss Bay podcast, Ivali. It is such an honor to have you on here today. Thank you. I'm honored to be here. I'm excited. I'm really excited because I know the topic that we're going to be talking about today is on everybody's mind and something that you have a message that women need to hear. And we're going to be specifically talking around mindset and starting your business. So I'm really

excited to get into that because it is like a full on rollercoaster ride when you become an entrepreneur. I know. And I feel like a lot of people don't know about it. They're like, oh yeah, the grass is greener over there. I'll start my own business. And it's so rewarding, but it is ultimately a roller coaster ride. So I always like to make sure people are prepared and they shift their mindset getting into it. So I'm really excited to dive into that a little bit later during the interview. But for now, I really just want to allow our listeners to learn about you. Like what's your background and how did you end up where you are right now living in LA? Yeah, it's been a very winding road, I have to say. And I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to that. There's a winding road before

you get to the business where you belong. But I started out with acting and I was doing like singing and acting. I grew up doing that. And that was my future goal as far as performing. I've always been a performer. And as I got older and realized that I was naturally a leader, I was always put in the leadership position. And I realized that I had those kinds of skills, but I didn't really know what to do with them. The idea of being a coach was not, that wasn't something that people really talked about. You know what I mean? It wasn't on the career list, was it? No, it wasn't. And so as I

got older, I was doing music and stuff. And then I had decided, I'm like, you know what, this is around like the MySpace time. I was like, I want to do a magazine for women. And I've always been passionate about helping women. You'll see the little crumbs that led me today. I wanted to do a magazine for women about just kind of like in women empowerment and there's fashion and beauty and all that. But I had no idea how to do that. And so I was like, OK, so I guess I got to learn how to design. I guess I have to learn advertising.

I guess I have to learn what press even is. So I taught myself everything for about a year. I worked on creating a magazine and I dove in, learned Photoshop. I designed it myself, got some friends to help, got my mom in there, my sister in there to help. And I was really passionate about it because I was like, I think women need this. They really need this magazine. And when I get focused on something, there's no stopping me. I was up till daylight and I learned pretty much everything I learned doing that, I still take with me today about starting from the absolute home office ground up of starting a business. Once I started it and once it started rolling, it started doing well. We started to have actual like real celebrities.

Wow. Yes. Get interviewed in the magazine. We were one of the first women's magazines to interview Drake before he was the superstar he is today. He was still just starting to make waves here in America. And it started to take off. And when I say take off, I mean, there were brands sending us product and wanting to buy advertising. And I started making an income off of it. Because what year was this? This was like, what, 06, I believe.

I was going to say, you're talking about MySpace. I'm like, this is early. Oh yeah, this is early, girl. You won at the beginning. I'm giving you this. I love it. Right? But I always include this story because people ask me certain, I'm like, I learned it from making mistakes with the magazine. I learned a lot of the things that I still hold on to. I learned from doing that. But while I had the magazine and I was excited to do it, I ended up with a hired staff.

Like it was going well. I was very unhappy. I didn't get that one-on-one connection that I really wanted. I didn't get to inspire the way that I wanted to. That makes sense. Something was missing. And so I was still acting, just taking acting classes, doing theater stuff, but I just wasn't feeling fulfilled. And so an opportunity came for me to do sort of a, like a TV show for the magazine,

right? And so I'm like, this is it. I'm on camera. Like I like to be, I get to talk to people in person and I got really excited to get that deal. So I pretty much shut the magazine down like, all right, guys, jump ship, time to go. We're moving on. And I poured myself into doing about six or seven episodes of a TV show called This is Glam with a production company. And it was all about the magazine just in video form. And the company went belly up and they took all of the content with them. And I was just lost. I was lost. I mean, I literally had put in day and night trying to create and the show was great. I mean, it was really, really great. And it was gone. And it

taught me a lot about loss and about rebuilding and also about putting every egg that you have in one basket. I hear that last time. I've been there. It was a lot. And not even just professionally was it devastating, but personally it was devastating because I felt like, well, here I am. I'm a failure. I'm like, what am I even doing with myself? And it took a lot for me to try to rebuild myself back up and get to the essence of why I was doing it to begin with. And what I realized during that time is that part of the fun of it and part of the passion came from working with the staff of starting the business itself, of inspiring the women who were interns I was working with. And I realized,

I'm like, I'm really good at teaching people. I'm really good at inspiring people. I don't know exactly how I want to do that. And so this is where the story gets a little crazy. The guy who I was with at the time, he's like, well, you're always helping my friends with their dating problem and the guys. And he's like, and you're really, really gifted at it. Maybe you should just make some money doing that. Just try it. And I didn't take it seriously at first. I'm like, OK, guys, I'm going to charge. Next time you guys come asking me for these hours and hours of advice, I'm going to charge.

Right. And believe it or not, I started charging for it. And it became a real thing. I started letting people know that that's what I did. Very out and proud. Mind you, in my mind, I'm like, what am I even doing? But it was working that that's what I did. Very out and proud. Mind you, in my mind, I'm like, what am I even doing? But it was working. You know what I mean? And I was actually helping people. I'm like, wait a minute. I'm really good at coaching. I'm really good at this.

And I didn't understand it. I didn't know what, it didn't look like what was on the vision board, girl. You know how when things start going left, you're like, what is happening? But something inside was tapping and letting me know that I was moving in the right direction. It may not look like what I wanted it to, but it was moving in the right direction. And so once I started getting real clients and setting up an actual business, it just took off. I was dating coaching, I would say about four years. And I had clients that were everything from high school students who their mom recommended them to recent divorcees who were just out of marriages. It ran the gamut. And I really got my coaching legs from working with men. I was a dating coach for men. And when people hear that, they crack up laughing. They're like, what? You did what?

But I did. And I got to a place where I realized that I was really good at helping people transform their own version of themselves, who they thought they were. And after that, I moved to LA. I was still doing small acting stuff, still coaching guys. I had some clients when I first got here, which was great. And a friend of mine, her mom asked for me to help her with her business to get it started. And since I had the experience, I did. And once I helped her do that, I was like, why am I not helping women start their businesses too? This is easy for me. And so I started doing both pretty much. And it just kind of started leaning more towards helping women.

And that's where I've been ever since. I've been working with women to start businesses. And it's been one of those journeys where you feel like, oh, okay. So everything that I learned was supposed to lead me here. It was supposed to lead me to this part. I love that. And I think that there's just so much power in this story. Just a few things that I'm really picking up is like how it sounds like in your story you've really been open to allowing what's next to flow

through to you like everything you're saying it's like you know it wasn't necessarily really thought out on plan that that's what you were going to do but that's kind of where you ended up and you threw yourself into it and I really admire that about your personality that you have that kind of mentality and that mindset that you'll give things a go and not only will you give things a go but you are willing to show up and learn along the way like you touched on it earlier like you're the type of person I think is always going to be successful in businesses because you learn things as you're going. And that's one thing I see in women who are successful in businesses. They don't necessarily know how to do it, but they are willing to learn. And I remember Natalie and I in the early days when we were just a team of like four,

two of them being me and her. So we had two other people with us and we were just like, how do we do this and then we would just google it and so sometimes a team would come and ask us and they'd be like how do you do this I'm like uh I don't know google it because that's all we're gonna do when you're asking us right now and it's just like I feel like that's so important and to have is that kind of willingness to just research and learn and give it a go and I'm curious like is that kind of willingness to just research and learn and give it a go. And I'm curious, is that something that you've always had or is that something that you have learned along the way? I've always been a natural information seeker. I'm passionate about communicating and I'm

passionate about teaching things. And so when I learn something new, my first inclination is to share it. Like people who are close to me know where I'll be like, girl, call me right now. I got to tell you about this new video. I'm the one who always does that. And so learning new things excites me and it's helped me with coaching because I usually have to know what's new in order to help my clients. And so luckily I enjoy learning it. There's nothing like when I ask someone, Hey, have you ever heard of so-and-so? And they say, no, what's that? Is that a program? And I'm like, girl, I'm about to change your life. I get a lot of joy out of that. I would do that for free, honestly. I mean, I won't, but I'm just saying, I love it I love that it's so true though isn't it and like spreading that knowledge

is is a gift of being able to absorb it and pass it on as well and so in your story you touched on it in a couple of places that so if we take it back to the magazine like that was super successful and then you put like you said all your eggs in the basket of the tv and it didn't work the way you had had planned like what went through your mind because i know like we chatting just before we came on now about the roller coaster journey of entrepreneurship but those highs are doing really well and those dips that you don't even know are coming sometimes. And there's loads. And so take us back. I want you to tell me about your mindset during the good times. And then let's go into the mindset during the bad times. Well, not bad times, the challenging times, let's say. The challenging times, yeah.

For you, like what shows up for you when things are going really well? Well, first, a lot of it has to do with where I was at the time, because like the growth of my company felt different back then than it would today. So back then I was just excited and so driven. I was up until like it would get light blue outside and I would be falling asleep at my computer because I was excited and I couldn't wait for people to see it. And it was almost I was self-promoting everywhere I. Like, you guys, have you seen the magazine? You know, I was just really, really, I was on a high because I had proven to myself, I guess you could say, that I could create something from nothing. And for the people who were upset with me for not doing music or something, I was trying

to prove myself a bit. And that's a tricky thing because to answer your question about how it felt when things went bad is that I realized I had attached a part of not only my identity, but my sense of self-worth and everything else to how well my business was doing. And I had to learn a really hard lesson about that. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is

simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible possible I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students so if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial that's kajabi.com slash boss babe I love that can you share more about that?

Because I felt like that's something that a lot of people do. Like what do you mean when you say you attach your identity to the success of your business? So as a whole, I didn't realize it at the time. Let me first say that. I didn't realize that that was what was happening, but I felt like what my magazine was doing as far as getting more press and things like that, it made me feel as though, oh, well, I'm worthy of this, this, this. It gave me my own personal sense of self-worth. Rather than looking at it for what it was, it was an accomplishment and it was something I worked hard on. But the success or failure of it did not determine my own self-worth as a person. And you don't realize that until it goes wrong. It's like when it's

going well, then all seems great. Everyone's happy for you. You feel on top of the world. You feel worthy and you feel like, well, hey, don't talk to me like that. You know what I mean? Like you start feeling like, start feeling yourself. And it's not until something gets taken away, which has a lot to do with what's happening to us current day for a lot of people. It's not until that thing gets taken away that you realize that you were putting your entire sense of your self-worth and your identity into your work or your job. And that's how I was able to find out that that's what I was even doing is when it was taken away. I love that. And I think it's just like you say,

just even highlighting it and talking about it and making people realize it. Because like you said, you're often when you're in it and things are going well, you don't necessarily realize and like you're sharing with the current economic climate, the way it is with COVID-19, a lot of people are having things taken away from them. Maybe they had these hugely successful businesses that are actually really struggling right now. And so what are strategies? Like you teach entrepreneurs about mindset. Let's kind of talk actually, what is mindset first of all? It's a very controversial term. And I do agree. It's very general when you say it that way, because there are different types of mindset coaches or whatever you want to call it. For me,

personally, I focus in on identity and transformation. But mindset in itself, it could be anything from your money mindset or uncovering limiting beliefs or self-confidence. All those things fall into the same category. And so I think that we have to be more specific most of the time when we get into talking about mindset, because it could be habit forming. It could be your productivity, all those different things. They all get placed under the title of mindset. So for me, I'm mostly focused in on redoing, redesigning, re-imagining your version of yourself and your sense of your own identity, really. And do you look at that in a way that's like, okay, making sure it's not attached to anyone else or anything else, but comes within you? Because that's one thing that I see, like you

say, with a lot of people starting businesses or who have business they attach their identity to their business and also people who maybe don't have businesses where they attach it to somebody else in their life I see commonly as well oh yeah for sure I think half the battle really is self-actualization and understanding who you are as far as what you believe, where did that come from? What do you value? What do you even like? What are your authentic goals? What are the things that you want for yourself that weren't taught to you? What do you want that someone didn't tell you you wanted? You know what I mean? That's half the battle really, is finding out just you in the purest sense and then realizing that that can

be molded. I think a lot of times we just accept what we call our lot in life and it just accept that, okay, well, this is who I am and this is how it's going to be. And I'm really passionate about helping people to realize that that is moldable. It's cement true yeah so true okay guys before we continue I'd love to give you some info on our sponsor for this week today's episode is brought to you by Skillshare now if you're as obsessed with learning new skills as I am, listen up because I have something really fun and creative to share with you. Now, Skillshare is an online learning community where millions of people come together to take the next step in the creative journey. There are thousands and thousands of courses around topics like illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and so many more. And this month, I've decided to unleash my creative juices and dig into one on songwriting and composing melodies.

Now, I know some of you are going to be thinking like, what? Seriously, Danielle? Well, a lot of you don't know. I actually used to play the piano and clarinet to a really high level. And it's a real stress reliever for me and I really don't play that much anymore. So one way that I wanted to learn to de-stress was to tap into some of my creative flair and go back to some of my roots where I used to compose music all the time at school and really just dive into this course this month. And what I really love about Skillshare is not only can you do the course, but you can also get in touch with other people who are doing it alongside you,

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forward slash boss babe and we're back let's jump back into today's episode and so I love this podcast to be really actionable so I want to double down on this a little bit more because I think you said something that really speaks to my heart and it's like how do you find who you are because for me even like I feel like I go through regular transformations in many ways like I was actually a chiropractor first and then I transitioned into being the COO of Boss Babe and I transitioned again into being the president of it. And my personal brand is even transforming as we speak. And for me, it's like, I think a lot of people take for granted

or they think that if they know, they know. Or if they don't know, they don't know. Whereas what I've really uncovered that really understanding who you are takes a lot of work. know, they know, or if they don't know, they don't know. Whereas what I've really uncovered that really understanding who you are takes a lot of work. And I would love for you to maybe share some activities or techniques that you have found to be helpful and really, first of all, understanding like, who am I? Yes, absolutely. Girl, we could go on about this is my favorite area. So for me, it's a little different for some people. But the thing that I've seen work best and what worked for me is journ I always say I journal, but I start with

examining my language. And so one of the things that I had to stop doing first when I realized that I did this was to stop owning certain things. So if you're saying I'm insecure, you would change that to I feel insecure. And yeah, and just kind of paying close attention to whatever comes after I am, because you're building, these are bricks that you're building the house of whoever you are, you know what I mean? And so starting to be really objective, you know, when it comes to what you believe, not only about yourself, but about the world and about what's possible. You know, when you hear someone say, well, that only happens to, you know, rich girls or whatever it may be.

And it's hard. I don't think people focus on the truth about it. It's that it's not easy. I mean, I'm in the middle of doing a workshop with people who are trying to come face to face with their own identity as a person who is white. It's hard. It is when you learn things about yourself that don't feel good and you may realize things that you've either done or thought or held yourself back in some way when you realize them, it's not a good feeling. And so people really do have to know when it comes to actionable things is just before you do any type of self-reflection or self-work,

the real kind is going to make you want to close the journal and walk off and be like, all right, I'm done. The real kind is really tough. So I would say start by writing down, instead of just letting your thoughts bounce around your head like ping pong, just start capturing what it is that you're thinking and start examining where did that come from? And where did this set of beliefs come from? And to be honest, I didn't really start this process in a real way until I worked with a therapist. And that's just real deal. Yeah, I think it's so powerful. And honestly, that was a golden nugget in there because I genuinely think so many people are going to be listening to this going, oh, shit, I do that all the time.

Like, I am this this i am that but versus i feel i'm experiencing this in this moment i feel this because you're so right we define who we are so easily easily without actually really considering it and you're right with like we get fixated on labels for ourselves oh I'm not good at selling or I'm not good at this or I am good at this or I am a sensitive person or I am you know all these labels that I'm just coming out with I make you people get attached to it and funnily enough actually I've never mentioned about me being a chiropractor as much as I have on this episode which is funny but um I back um when I was a chiropractor I used to see people addicted to their pains and what I think is really coming out for me in this episode is people you have to realize what you are addicted to saying who you are and like who you are, you know? I know. I love this episode.

Girl, you better speak it. It's true. There are people, and I can say all of us have some of this in different forms. They're so attached to whatever the struggle is. And then they attach to other people who share that struggle. And now there's a struggle bond. I mean, it's so true that there are some things that people don't want to let go of because it's part of their identity. That terrible relationship that ruined you is a part of why this, this, this, this happened. and now it's a part of the identity like there's all kinds of things our parents what happened to us that we hold on to as you know this is this is the the stick we carry wherever we go is because you know it's part of our story now and it really is just all stories it's all stories about you know that we've accepted as you know law pretty much and are there strategies to rewrite the stories? Could I say journaling or watching what some of that language is?

What are some other key things? I definitely think talking it out with people who are on the same journey as you. And to be honest, this is something that I more recently, it kind of reignited my passion for group settings because of what's happening right now. Having open conversation with people you love and trust about this type of journey and, you know, just getting different perspectives is really helpful. And I'm just speaking to kind of what we are able to do in this current climate, right?

There's no, you know, there's not many, you know, groups in person and things like that. So I've always been someone who reads a lot and I've always just started a project of studying myself, whether that be grabbing books, listening to particular, you know, videos or audio books or podcasts about it, just committing yourself to learn, to being curious about who you are rather than saying, oh, I'm going to, you know, jump into this crap, you know, that, you know, instead of having a negative outlook on it, kind of just walk into a very curious, like, hmm, why did I react that way? You know, why, why did that upset me? And keeping that kind of mindset and, you know, being very patient and compassionate and loving towards yourself within the work is, is helpful too. So that was a lot of tips, but I hope they helped.

It's so great. And I think, I think you're spot on there it's just about you said the word work and like doing the work and I just think like just part of the I personally feel and this is just my opinion that to really be a successful entrepreneur you have to do the work as in you have to know what you're triggered by what you're not when you're it's your ego speaking or it is a good business decision speaking like yeah I personally feel like that's the only real way that you can become successful is actually when you really reflect in on what you're doing because if you're like you know we have a program which teaches people how to launch their businesses I'm like you need to let go of the fact you might be a perfectionist in other ways but you need to let go of being a perfectionist

to launch this business you need to get yourself out there you need to try it and you know what your first launch is going to be your worst launch because it's going to get better because you're you're tweaking and you are um iterating from there but that for me is like a really key mindset and being an entrepreneur and doing that work, I think, is like, you just have to know that it is part of it. Yes, it really is. And so you mentioned in your journey, obviously, like I said, you had this, you've had lots of changes and like a twisty windy road along it. But you've also had those ups and downs, right? And so, and as an actress, right, you have a lot of downs, I'm sure.

Like, I don't know what the ratio is of going to auditions. And I want to talk to you about how you have adapted a mindset that is that for me, I never lost my belief that things would go get a job and be at someone's front desk like, thank you for calling blank, blank, blank. Like literally, I just did whatever I had to do. Not because it wasn't so much like drive all the time. It was sort of like, well, I felt like I had a destiny. I felt like, well, I'm meant to be a person who's successful. I know that. And so that must mean I need to do what I have to do. Do you get what I'm saying? Like I had this just blind belief, honestly, in myself and what I was meant to do. And if I'm really honest

about it, it was as a kid, it was an escape mechanism for me because my childhood was really traumatic. And so I sort of hypnotized myself almost to believe what was happening to me was not the end story and that there was a bigger and brighter story for me. And I just hammered that into my mind for so long growing up that it was my default belief system as I got older and that it carried me I love that and I'm curious do you like with that vision like that vision being so strong do you write it down do you put it into a collage like why does that exist for you or does it purely just exist in your? So I had this thing from the time I was about 15 on up where I would take magazines. This is before vision boards were a thing. And I had like a blank sketchbook and I would call them gasoline books because they gave

me fuel to keep going. Don't laugh. Oh my God, I love that. I still have them. And I would cut pictures out to illustrate what I wanted for my life. And it would be in every area, not just like my future goals, but it would be like, what kind of person do you want to be? What kind of, you know, friend do you want to be? What kind of, you know, just everything I could think of. I was excited to get my stick, you know,

my little glue stick and my scissors and my magazines. And I would fill these sketchbooks up to the brim and I would call them gasoline books. And what's so funny is that I have stacks of them now. I have, yeah, some of them got ruined in a flood long time ago, but I have like eight of them and I have flipping through them. It just, I get emotional because they were really just my way of keeping myself from falling off the edge, honestly. It was just writing. I'm a visual. So having these beautiful spreads, I would write fake magazine articles about myself. That's powerful. Yes, I would. I would write them and I would have pictures. And a lot of times I couldn't find pictures of black girls. So I would just like colored pencil the ones that I found.

I would be working on these gasoline books like day and night. And looking back, it's the same as a vision board. Really, I just didn't know that. I didn't know that that's what that was back then. Wow. When did you start creating them? How them? I was about 15 or 16. I would say my brother, he likes to draw. So I would take his sketchbooks and that's how it started. And I would just take magazines. And right now in my mom's basement, there are magazines in her basement stacked up almost to the ceiling because I wouldn't let her throw them away. But that's what, and I always was obsessed with magazines too.

So that tells you something. But I think, yeah, I think that is really powerful though. I'm curious, do you still do them now? Because I do vision boards now. You know what? I don't. It's so funny that I don't do them the same way anymore. Right now, I'm a Pinterest girl so this is the beauty of it I mean

beauty of Pinterest as well but like I think like when you have a vision and I think that's like one really clear shift is like when you're an entrepreneur like if you have a clear vision most people literally think you're crazy they're like yeah you're never gonna do that that sounds way too hard like it's actually possible because normally you're doing something out the ordinary like the average person does not have their own business right yeah and so I think it's so important that no matter which way serves you whether you're a visual person or like a like a written person you like to write it out or even just having a playlist. I know some friends who literally have a playlist and they are so attached to the lyrics

to help them create their vision, and that's really powerful. And I think it's just important to like lean in to what helps you hold space for who you are becoming because you need that in the times when it is difficult, like it is now, and like it's always gonna be like I for a long time used to resent the lows of entrepreneurship but I learned that actually if I did not have the lows I wouldn't feel the highs yeah and if I was actually just at this

neutral well wouldn't that be boring and actually if that neutral line was always at a point to even feel a high then the neutral line would feel like if you actually stop and think about it you're like oh that makes sense and so now when I'm in those times that are more difficult my mindset shift has been like oh actually do you know what I'm just feeling this so that when I get that high again, I can really appreciate it and celebrate it because it feels good. Yes. A hundred percent. I agree with you there. It having the vision that you hold on to when things aren't going well, it's, it's having faith, you know, it's, it's however people want to call it, you know, what,

whatever makes them more comfortable to call it, but just holding the vision and not, you know, what's happening right now, you know, just hold on to what it is that you want. And you do have to be careful with that too, though. I was just talking to someone yesterday about, I feel like the people who are doing the best while, you know, this pandemic is happening are the people who are focusing on what's in front of them rather than what they're missing out on um and so you can you can have a vision but you can't let that be the beginning of you just being so unhappy with how things are right now there's a balance that has to be struck with being present and grateful in the current moment while still knowing that you want better you know

completely I could not agree more with that statement that's really really powerful and let's just take a moment to talk about the current climate that we're in right now you know with COVID-19 there are lots of people who potentially you know they were thinking about starting a business but you know it was like down the line and now maybe they've lost their jobs and they're being forced to actually accelerate some of their time frames etc and so I just wonder what advice you've been giving people around you who are starting a business um and how to you know hold a good strong mindset during this time yeah yeah. Yeah, for sure. The first thing that comes up for me is I always tell people to make sure that your intentions are clear and that you're not

moving from a place of fear because that's not going to, it's not going to sustain you. When there's a lot of panic, you know, entrepreneurship happening and people not really knowing what they're getting into and taking all the money they have left and throwing it into things. And I believe in, you know, innovation and having, you know, rough times being the peak point of innovation. However, sometimes people are making moves out of fear and I don't care what's going on. You don't you want to try to find the empowering place to start it from rather than the fear based, you know, area. And because it's you're not going to build much on that. You're going to make decisions out of lack. You're going to make decisions out of fear and then you'll be regretful after things go badly, you know, if they go badly.

So I always tell people to start with that. And then also you have time, do the research. Don't just jump on what you see someone else doing. Because I think a lot of times people know they want to start a business. They have an entrepreneurial spirit, but they're not looking at the audience. They're looking at other people and what they're starting. They're not looking at what's missing in the market or what's something that would be really useful or something I need that I can't find. That's where you look. You don't really need to look at another clothing store on Instagram to start that. Not saying you shouldn't, but I'm just saying, find what it is that is fulfilling a need because it's always a lot more gratifying and profitable,

in my opinion. I love that. So, so true. Well, listen, this has been an amazing interview, I believe. It's literally been. I've got so many notes as well and I just know that so many people listening are just going to feel like, do you know what what I'm ready to do this I'm armed with my mindset hacks and I'm ready to do this so thank you so much as always I would love our listeners to tag us with any of their favorite takeaways so my handle is at daniellecanti and tag at bossbabe.inc and ivarley do you want to share yours yes it's at ivarley which is ivi r-l-e-i that's my personal instagram i love it thank you so much it's been an honor thanks for having me thank you if you loved this episode please subscribe download few more, and please leave us a review.

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