the bossbabe podcast - 203. How To Bridge the Gap Between Your Day Job And Daydream with Sarah Fontenot

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

You have a dream of what you want your life to look like. But how do you make it a reality? And what can you do to overcome the imposter syndrome, procrastination + road blocks that keep getting in your way? Self-love + business guru, Sarah Fontenot, has built a life where work feels fulfilling + she is able to do what she loves every day. But it hasn’t always been this way. In this episode, she’s revealing how shifting to an abundance mindset + embodying your worthiness might just be the secret to building a life you love. Plus - she’s sharing what you can do today so fear of failure doesn’t keep stopping you from trying.  Highlights: The ONE mindset shift you need to make to turn your fear into faith Why so many entrepreneurs waste time + how you can be different The unexpected correlation between curiosity + success What you can do right now to create real trust with your clients The secret to breaking out of a procrastination loop and getting more done in less time Links: Join The Société Episode 192: How To Build Confidence + Attract Opportunities with Maria Menounos The Ultimate Self Love Guide  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey The Sacred Search   Follow: BossBabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Danielle Canty: @daniellecanty Sarah Fonteno: @mssarahfontenot

Worthiness is our birthright. It is not something that we earn. It is not something we achieve. It is not a certain clothing that we have to wear. It is our birthright. And sometimes people, they mix up worthiness with the value that they offer. And they're very different.

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 Babe podcast, the place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving big performance and learning how to balance it all. I'm Danielle Canty, co-founder and president of Boss Babe, and your host for this week's episode.

Now, it's really important for me that this podcast really talks about the ups and the downs of being a career woman, being an entrepreneur, and everything that goes with it. Not just like the tactical skills of what it takes to build a business, but the mindset, the health pieces, the routines, like that's how we choose our guest experts. But one thing that's also really important is that we have people on who are vulnerable, that they share about the ups and the downs on their journey and they don't sugarcoat things. They share how it is and actually what tools that they utilize to get through those things. And that's why I invited my friend Sarah Fontenot onto this episode, because while she is now a serial seven-figure entrepreneur, that wasn't always the case. And she hasn't been an overnight success. Her entrepreneurial journey has been

over eight years, has taken on all different forms, and she's gone into lots of different industries along the way. And I think there's a lot of powerful messages within this episode that, you know, it doesn't happen overnight, that you do have to change direction and also what it means to be successful. And that isn't just a number in a bank account. It's a feeling and what you can really embody and do to feel successful no matter where you're at on this journey. And I think that's really, really powerful. So I know you're going to have a ton of notes from this episode, but I really also challenge you to think about how some of these lessons could be applied to your life for the better. So before we dive in there, I just want to ask one quick favor.

It's really, really important that we get the message of this podcast into the hands of more women and I would really love your help with that. So if you enjoy listening, please click subscribe. And also please share it with someone. If you know someone going through certain challenges, or if you know another ambitious woman, please share this podcast because it's a free resource for everybody. And we really want to help more women build wealth, but also feel successful in everything that they're doing. So that's just a little favor before we dive into this episode, subscribe and please share it. It's really, really appreciated. Thanks so much. Sarah, welcome to the podcast. It's such an honor to have you on today. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you. So I want to dive right in and talk about how people can bridge the gap between their daydream and their day job.

Because both you and I have been on that journey ourselves. And I think there's a lot of people listening and watching who really struggle with that. And there's a misconception that it's all around skill set and knowledge. But you and I were having the conversation that actually a lot of it is about your mindset. And there's that Pareto's law that's saying that building a business is 80% mindset, 20% skill. And I wanted to gain your insights on this. Yeah. Well, in order to be successful in anything, in my opinion, I really and truly believe that you have to cultivate a success mindset. And so for me, what that means is number one, do you believe? And number two, do you believe you're worthy? And so to do the latter first,

I think it's important to say that sometimes people think because of their circumstances or their situations or their upbringing, or, you know, the people that are telling them that they can't, they start to wear those labels and think that they can't do it. And the truth of the matter is worthiness is our birthright. It is not something that we earn. It is not something we achieve. It is not a certain clothing that we have to wear. It is our birthright. And sometimes people, they mix up worthiness with the value that they offer. And they're very different, you know? And so when you can remember who you truly are and start to create an alignment with

that, that brings us to the first, which is belief. And we hear it all the time because I feel like entrepreneurs always tell you, you've got to believe, you've got to believe. And like, that's all good and great. But like, what does that mean? When I was struggling to pay my rent every single month, when I got sued for $3,500 worth of late fees because in four years living in my apartment,

I only paid my rent twice on time. When I was putting $3 on pump five in my gas tank, you know, not because I was in a rush, but because that was literally all the change that I could find in my couch. When that was my life and someone was telling me to believe how, and I feel like there are not enough times where people are getting into the how. And so for me, belief breaks down into five really simple steps. I love that we're talking about this because I do really see that as well. There's

that whole thing like, oh, tell yourself you can do it and have this affirmation that you are wealthy, that you are earning this amount of money. And when you do that and you know that there's a fine balance, because when you're doing that and you know it's not true, it actually perpetuates the feeling of, oh my goodness, I'm lying to myself. I can't do this. So how do you think people actually... What, what is the balance that, how, like you say, how do you believe without telling yourself a lie that you might be coining as a lie at the time? Yes. And when you tell yourself a lie, you repel it because we don't attract what we don't feel good about. Whatever we feel strongest about is what we attract. And so for me, it breaks down to five steps. It's a repetitious thought, turns into your awareness, turns into evaluation, turns into action, turns into progress. Well, what does that mean? When

you think about it, and we've heard this a thousand times, a repetitious thought is a neurological pathway that you're creating. I love analogies. So I always think of it as a cornfield, right? If you were to run through a cornfield one time, you would never know that some, you could look at it and you wouldn't know if someone ran through that cornfield. But if you were to drive through a cornfield one time, someone might be able to say, okay, someone was in this cornfield, but eventually corn would start to grow back. Eventually things would go back to normal. But if you continue to drive that same path every single time. Not only would someone know that somebody's in the cornfield, but also corn can't grow there any longer. And in our mindset, it's the same

way that we have to drive that thought so that fear and doubt and the naysayers, they can't affect us there any longer. So when you have that thought, what happens is it creates your awareness. Now, I always like to think of awareness like a radar, right? Like a submarine, like you can see what's close to you. Well, imagine being an entrepreneur for those people that are just starting. Imagine being an entrepreneur and you don't really know where to start, right? We're here in Los Angeles. Imagine we start getting around the people that are talking about Japan, but our entire life, we've only ever heard about the United States. As old as we are right now, we've only ever heard about the United States. So now when we start to go tell our families, oh, hey, you know, I think this is really exciting. I want to go to Japan. Our families have only ever

seen a map of the United States. So what do they tell us? That doesn't exist. You shouldn't do that. That's for them over there. Don't go after that. And the thing about it is the people that love us the most, they support us the least. And it's not because they don't think we're great. It's because they're trying to keep us safe. Safe. It's completely true about safety. Yes. Yes. And so when we can get outside of, you know what? I now have an expanded map and I'm excited to get to Japan. Now you can evaluate. Okay, great.

This is where I'm going. This is where I am or depending on the map, right? And I don't know what everyone's journey is going to look like. Maybe you know the person or are the person that has a private jet. Maybe you have to hitchhike. Maybe you have to pogo stick. Maybe your car blows out. I don't know what the journey looks like, but you can evaluate this is what it takes.

And so inside of entrepreneurship, I like numbers because they're easy to measure. It's like $100,000. You have to know the big goal to reverse engineer it. $100,000 a year is only $8,333 a month. We know some people say 272. I think I did the math on a calculator and it clearly says 277, but I'm like, you know what, whatever. It's 270 some dollars that you get to make each day. And then do you know the action required in order to make $277 a day? What's your ratio? Are you exposing your product? And a bunch of different other

questions come up, but that's where the daily work gets into. So we can then four, get into action. If you only start making $277 consistently every single day, and it takes you six months to get there, you start to be like, Oh, I got more clients today. You start to feel your chest puffs out, you know? And so from there, you have progress. When you have progress in anything, you crave more. It's like, if I got two clients, I can get five. If I got five clients, I can get 10. And the next thing you know, you look up and it's like, whoa, where did this come from? It's the positive feedback. Yes. Being able to like that. I would say like competence breeds confidence. And I think when you start seeing

there's little bits of improvement, like you say, you kind of get hyped up, you puff your chest out and you also take more action because you have the confidence to take that action as well. Yes. So I think that for me is my belief loop.

And then remembering that we're worthy, which I think that's one of the hardest parts is remembering that we were born worthy of all things great and in abundance. And I feel like somewhere down the line, I mean, it's society, it's life, it's indoctrination, it's so many different things. It's not really somewhere down the line. It's a really deeply rooted thing that happens for most people. However, we can take off those labels because they don't serve anyone, including ourselves. And when we really harness onto the fact that we

deserve more, that we're worthy of more, why not you? Why not abundance? Then everything starts to change. Talk to me about your journey with worthiness. Because I feel like, you know, most of us have been through that journey of not feeling worthy and having to find that within ourselves. So what did that look like for you? My journey has been very challenging. And I say that because I'm a small town girl from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Like, where is that on a map? It's North of North Dakota and Montana. And, you know, for me, I grew up here and I didn't even know what entrepreneurship was. Same.

I had no idea. No clue. I thought I just needed to get a job as like... That's it. You know, a teacher, an accountant, a doctor, whatever it was going to be. Yes. I thought the only versions of success that I heard were doctor, lawyer, engineer, or entertainment.

I knew I couldn't be a doctor. Blood makes me super queasy. I'm like, I don't know what happens when kids come in. I actually wanted to be a vet. And my mom was like, well, you're scared of animals. Oh yeah. I was terrified of dogs. I'm the worst vet out. I was allergic to cats. It was never going to work. But your heart was there. My heart was there. So me and you were out for the doctor. We were out for the vet. Yeah. It cannot happen. And then a lawyer, I was like, I have some pretty strong debating skills, but then I counted the costs. What do I have to do?

Talk to lawyers, see what it takes. Most of the lawyers I talked to were like, this probably isn't what you want to do. And I'm not interested in learning about things I'm not interested in. And so I wasn't interested in all the reading. That was out. Engineer, my mom's an engineer.

And I was like, I don't want to do what you do. So entertainment, yay. And so I love to sing, act and dance. And that actually brought me to LA. I moved to LA at 20 years old by myself to pursue acting. Okay. Let's just pause that for a second. So you are living in Canada. You said, mom, I'm going to move to LA. Let's talk about that Japan, United States analogy then. What was the reaction by your family? Were they supportive at this time or? Yes. Okay. They were. And, and it's such a crazy story. So my parents have, they've worked really hard to instill independence into every single one of us. And not even just by the words that they teach, but by the way of their being.

And one of the biggest lessons that I really hope I don't get emotional, and I'm sorry if I do, but one of my biggest lessons that I learned how to powerfully show up no matter what was going on actually rewinds to a story when I was about 10 years old. My dad had just ruptured a disc in his back. So we went from a two family income household to one. My mom was going to school to get her master's in engineering. She also had a full-time job. I have a million brothers and sisters because my parents love each other too much. And my dad had just had his injury, right? So it was all of these things that were happening. And I remember one night in the middle of the night, I needed to wake up to go to the washroom and I hear something in the kitchen. Now we had

a small, humble home, right? And so if you peek out of my bedroom, I shared a room with my sister, Lauren, and if you peek out of the bedroom, there's a hallway that'll lead to either the living room or the kitchen. So I hear something and I'm like slinking down the hallway to go and look. And I peek around the, so when you come into the kitchen, the fridge is right here. But if you look past the fridge, you can see the kitchen table. And so I sneak around and I see my mom. And my mom is literally crying, like sobbing. It's like two, three o'clock in the morning. And she is just crying over her homework. In a few hours, she'd have to be up to get all of us up to go to school. Just all of those things. And I remember I have goosebumps just thinking about it. I remember

slinking back into my room because I didn't even want her to know that I saw her like that. Cause I'd never seen, my mom's my superhero. You know, she's my role model. Like I look up to her because of her beingness, you know? And in that moment, I thought that was a weak moment, but that's actually one of the strongest moments I've ever experienced in my life. Because when my mom woke up in the morning and she would get us up ready for school, she had a smile on her face. She showed up with poise. She was certain about who she was. And inside of that, it was like, wow, but you're really crying at night by yourself at this kitchen table. And so inside of that, those are the things that were instilled into me.

So when I moved to Los Angeles, my parents are like, my mom was like, God, wrap your angel's wings around my daughter. But I trust my Sarah. My dad was like, if there was anybody to worry about, it's not her. She won't get lost in the sauce. She knows who she is. And so I'm so grateful that I had that experience to decide who I was and know that something greater was calling.

Now, that being said, sometimes the things that we think that we want are actually the indoctrination of society. I'm sure you grew up too. Everyone probably asked you, what do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to be? Well, the what is connected to achievement, which is nice, but who is connected to fulfillment? And so when I moved here to Los Angeles and I went to theater, I was in a theater academy and slipped and fell in entrepreneurship over 10 years ago. When that happened, I started asking

myself different questions because the group and the people that I were around, they started asking me different things. And I started realizing, where am I my own poison? When it comes to worthiness, I've had the ugliest conversations with myself. I've seen the ugliest parts of me and to be okay with that. And sometimes we hear the shadow work or we hear, you've got to be willing to do the hard work and not even the hard work. It's like this negative connotation, but there's nothing negative about all of who we are. It's just accepting there are things that either serve you or they don't. There are things that are not that they're good or bad. It's just newer and higher levels of awareness. And so for me, my journey of worthiness has been a challenge

because I had to change the way that I looked at myself. I had to change the way of what I gave meaning and what was important and what wasn't. And when I was going to allow the trials and the tribulations and the challenges, because I'm sure we've been through it all. Yes, I've been through it all yes i've been through it all and just deciding that you know despite it all i'm worthy you're worthy we're worthy do you think we have a choice to declare we're worthy do you think we each in our own minds have a choice to be like you know what i choose to be what to think i'm worthy i choose to believe i'm worthy. I choose to believe I'm worthy. I think there's a choice to believe it, but I think it's by default, it happens. It's really whether you choose to believe it. Absolutely. Like I agree, like we all are. And I think some people have a hard time

recognizing that within themselves. But I also think that we get to learn how to know that about ourselves. And I think that's sometimes overlooked. You know, everyone looks at the next person going, okay, well, it's all right for them. They're confident. It's all right for them. Like they believe in themselves.

Yeah. But I think ultimately we all have a choice. Yeah. And how we curate that mindset. Like we started this at the beginning, how we curate that mindset to believe in ourselves and that we areate that mindset. Like we started this at the beginning and how we curate that mindset to believe in ourselves and that we are worthy.

Yes. So you moved to LA, you're pursuing your acting career. Talk to me about how you fell into entrepreneurship or how entrepreneurship found you. Because I also find this really interesting. You know, Natalie shares her story about being a born entrepreneur. She was like selling candy from like a young age.

I was not like that at all. And it was very much something I discovered too in like, you know, my early 20s, 21, 22. And I was like, oh, there's this thing called entrepreneurship. It can be a vehicle to help me create the life that I want. So you were set on becoming an actress. Tell me what happened. Oh, sheesh. Okay. So long story short, I went to a workout. Actually, I've done so many things, acting, I was in pageants. I did the Miss California pageant and I met this girl at the pageant. And because I was always searching, like, what is my thing? What is my thing? What is my thing? And she was like, come work out with me. And I was like, I don't want a workout. Like I'm not interested. I have a whole regimen. So that was the first time I met her. She

was so sweet. I loved her. The next time I saw her, which was six weeks later, she looked like a Barbie doll. And I was like, whoa, surgery doesn't heal that fast. What is happening here? Like, what are you doing? And she was like, come work out with me. And I was like, I don't want your workout. I want whatever drugs you're taking that made your body do this. Like, that's it. And it ended up, I ended up, we became friends, you know? And I went to a workout and it was actually multi-level marketing

that I got started in. And I ended up building the top 1.6% of that company. And what's crazy is inside of that journey and that experience, people were constantly asking me, well, Sarah, how do you, how are you so strong? Or how are you this? Or how are you that? And I'm like, I'm not, I just have an unwavering faith. And so for those of you, if you're just starting and you're listening, you know, sometimes the people around us will tell us what we're good at. And we don't

even know because they're asking how this, how that. And it's funny because when I started, my mom was like, baby, my superhero, right? Person I look up to the most in the world. She was like, get a job, get a real job. And I was like, no, mom, I'm doing this. This is my thing. I'm going to build, I'm going to do it. I'm going to all the things.

And when I started to grow on the side of the company, when I was making a little bit of money, I would send my parents like $50, go to dinner, this on us. And my mom was like, this is so sweet. Get a part-time job. You know, like she wanted me to have what people think is job security, right? Keeping me safe. And I'm grateful because that journey, although I'm not a part of that journey anymore, that was really the opening to doing one-on-one coaching, to having a mindset motivation t-shirt line, to doing leadership executive coaching, to doing it, getting into

investing, speaking all over the world. Like there are so many things that that one thing, had I not been open to a workout, like don't miss the small things, you know, who knows what my life would have looked like had I not done that? Had I not experienced it? Had I not been open or know the fact that I don't know all the answers. I don't have everything right. And there are people out there right now looking to give you the answers that you're seeking, but are we open to hearing them? I love that. I think that's actually really powerful. And I think again, that comes most entrepreneurs that I know are curious and they'll try new things and they're happy for that thing not to be okay or not to be good, but they've tried it and they've had an experience.

And I'm not just talking around like a business sense, but like I say, going to a workout class or just trying something new or meeting new people. I feel like, you know, when people want to go from having a career and want to step into entrepreneurship, one of the biggest things that they need to have is curiosity. Yes. And also not holding experiences to a positive or a negative.

I also think that's really powerful when you go into an experience saying like, okay, this has to be good all the time. You're always going to be disappointed and also you'll be paralyzed and actually taking any action. Because if you're like, well, I'm going to go to experience either way or that's positive or negative, it doesn't matter. But I want to experience that and then I can make a informed decision about something. I think that's actually a really powerful mindset. So like you said, you started your career, obviously being an actress, then you got into multi-level marketing,

which by the way, I kind of feel sometimes gives us a bit of a bad rep, but it's such a great entry point. I agree. For entrepreneurship to actually understand, to become like self-employed, to understand like what it's like to, you know, build something.

And along that journey, like you say, then you went into coaching and other things and you've consistently juggled a lot of things. So I want you to talk to me about juggling priorities, juggling things that you're doing at a time. Because again, when people are making transitions from careers to side hustles to being the main hustle. This is one of the biggest things that people struggle with. So how did you balance all of that during that period of time? Because, you know, that was also a gradual thing. Do you want to talk to us about the timelines actually? 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. 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. Man, yes. So my first five years was really solely multi-level marketing. And then the next three years, this is when I started, cause I wanted to master my craft. I feel like some of us, sometimes we start, let me teach you how to do this, that, or the other, but like, what have we done? You know? So in that first five years, while I was doing multi-level marketing, I was talking about mindset. I was getting into the game, getting my speaking chops up,

you know, going out, doing little things, speaking at small events. And from there, I started doing like, I haven't, there's so many things, long story short, five years is, this is when I started to do the mindset motivation t-shirt line, because I heavily believe in mindset. Like it's vision oversight. You have to, you have to envision it before you see it. Say that again. Vision oversight. And what do you mean by that? Because I think that's very powerful. Thank you. It means if you are not your circumstance or your situation,

but do you know where you're going? Do you have an eye on Japan? Or are you stuck in Los Angeles? Are you willing to see where it is that you want to go, reverse engineer it, and then get to work inside of it? And so for me in that time, actually one of my biggest regrets that I'll say is I learned, and I'm sure you can relate, is that balance doesn't exist. 1,000%.

It's not real. It's like this fabricated thing. And when we think it exists, it invites so much shame and guilt. So I like to say harmony because inside of music, you know, there are staccato, sharp stop. There are so many things. Sometimes things are a little shaky with the vibrato, you know, like whatever it may be. There's a harmony that gets to happen inside of our life. Balance isn't it. And if you think about balance, right, if you

have the weighing thing, if you put all the weight on one side, right, or you put the weight over here, that's the opposite of balance. Balance is a straight line. What else is straight line, flat line? Death. What else is dying in your life? That is powerful. You know? So I, when I start thinking about harmony, what does it, what does this look like? Number one, I got really into a classic, in my opinion, Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One of my favorite books of all time. Literally, I live by his efficiency quadrant. Oh my goodness, yeah. And then efficiency over effectiveness that's why even that being like oh like oh this is so true yeah walking into some of those traps oh yes oh goodness it

we're human yeah it happens but i love it because he goes over you know the is it important and is it urgent do it now is it important but it's not necessarily urgent? Plan it. Is it not important, but it is urgent? Delegate it. If it is not important and not urgent, drop it, right? And so inside of that quadrant, most people spend the allotment of their time in quadrant four, not important and not urgent. When people are scrolling on social media, you look up, it's been an hour and a half. And if someone were to ask you, what did you just learn? What did you just watch? They don't even know. Well, it's all this real. And it was pretty funny. And I was laughing. Okay, great. That hour and a half could have been building and starting your freaking financial future.

Why do you think people spend time in that? Because I have some theories on that. I think it's an escape. One thing I've noticed about a lot of people is that they have a vision of what they want, but they've not worked backwards from the vision. And they don't take that time to sit and plan it and look at it. Therefore, they get caught in the loop of the procrastination.

Oh, I'll do that when. I'll take on that content. I need to learn more here. I need to watch what other people are doing. And it's procrastination out of action. Whereas if they kind of sat down and been like, okay, this is where I'm going. These are some of the steps back, but admitting that they don't know all of the steps back from that and admitting that some of those steps might be wrong, but the point is that they take the step forward anyway. Like I was talking, I did some social media posts a little while back where I was like shooting some basketball hoops. I saw. Yeah. And I was just like, it was so funny, you know, you're just like playing in your own world. And I just kept missing, like I'm not touching

basketball in the last 17 years. And I was just playing with this basketball and I just kept missing. I had not touched basketball in about 17 years. And I was just playing with this basketball and I just kept missing the hoop. And I was like, wow, I really want to give up right now. Am I ever going to get this in? It's kind of embarrassing at this point. And I was like, no, I can't give up. And what I was noticing is that I was getting closer and closer. I was like, they were getting more and more close shots. Oh, nearly in, nearly in. Because I was learning from what I was doing wrong. And I was like, okay were getting more and more close shots. Oh, nearly in, nearly in. Because I was like learning from what I was doing wrong. Yeah. And I was like, okay, I can get a little bit closer this time.

I need to hit the top left square. I'm better on the left than I am on the right. Like all these things, I was like starting to get that feedback loop. And I think this is where a lot of people go wrong is that they expect themselves to know all the steps straight away and that every action that they take works, that every action that they take has a positive outcome. But when you put it into an analogy of sports,

that is absolutely ludicrous to think you are going to get every shot in. Whether you're playing netball, soccer, basketball, whatever that is, you're not going to make every shot. No one makes every shot. Even the professionals don't make every shot. Right. But they don't not try. And the importance is you try in the first place, right? and i think that's one of the biggest things that i notice

with people is like how willing they are to take the shot because ultimately the more shots that you take the luckier you get yeah the more chance that you have the probability increases and just like you're saying with like, you know, those categories, I think people fail. Like you say, they kind of don't take the shots. They stick in this like unimportant lower right quadrant phase. Right. They're not actually analyzing what they're doing.

They're not actually, you know, taking the shots. They're looking at the court going, oh yeah, like if I shoot from over here or should I shoot from over here? I'm just going to watch that game for a little bit longer to see if I pick some pointers up, but they don't actually get in and play. And you've got to get on the court. You've got to get on the court to play and then you've got to take the shot. Yes. Couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. And I think that a lot of the times people allow their circumstances and their situations

or their own mental feedback to be the thing that stops them. You know what I mean? Like, and that makes me think of workouts, right? There are times are workouts where it's like, I want to die. Like I literally, everything in my body wants to quit. I'm shaking so hard right now, but nobody knows the mental feedback. You're either that person that says it's okay to give up or you know what, you pushed it hard enough or get back in the next set. Or you're that person that's saying, don't you dare give up. You push know what, you pushed it hard enough or get back in the next set. Or you're that person that's saying, don't you dare give up. You push it. This is where the result comes in. This is where you go. This is where you get it. So it's the mental conversations that we're having with

ourselves. And that's why even going back to the very beginning, I feel like that is exactly why mindset is 80% because are we setting ourselves up from a place of you know what I missed 90 percent of the shots but I made one and that one felt really good because I worked so hard to get it then it feels good are we willing to take 90 percent of the shots and lose them and what else is crazy in baseball if people hit the ball 30 percent of the time those are like some of the most world-renowned baseball players. Wow. See, there you are. You only need 30% of your things in business to work out.

In fact, I'd say it's even less sometimes. Actually. The amount of things you try, right? Yeah. It's like the... Whose rule is it? The 80-20 rule. Yeah, Pareto's.

Yeah. Yes, you said that. 20% is 80% of your income. Yeah, it's true. Let that be. Let that be. Let that be. And motivation for everybody, right? Yeah.

You don't need to get 20% of the things to work. The good things, the good things. Yeah, but when you say you get that good thing, that's what drives things forward. So we were talking about time and we were talking about balance and harmony. And I fully agree with all that, by the way. And I also believe that there's kind of seasons to things. And I think you'll have a season where

you have more time in your business and then you might have a season where you're concentrating more on family. You might have a season where you're actually recharging and taking time off. And all of those things are fine. And I know that you've helped a lot of people kind of segue through what your multi-level marketing is you started off and through your coaching and companies that you have now, you've helped a lot of people move over from having careers and then into actually, I'd say, curating and starting their business. What are some of the key tips that you would give those people as they make those transition other than the mindset and action?

It would be come up with your business hours. When you talk to entrepreneurs, it's like they're 24 seven. I got to work, work. No. And if you break down what they're actually doing inside of their business hours, usually they're not doing much. It's just enough to keep you busy, but burnt out at the same time. And it's not effective. Right. And so for me, when you come up with your business hours of imagine going to a store and you're going walking in your neighborhood and you see your favorite store with all your favorite things for the best prices you've ever seen in your life. Like, wow. Oh my goodness. Right. And it's three o'clock on a Tuesday. You go and you buy things and you're like, I got to go back to this store. So on

Thursday you go back and they're closed and you're like, okay, well let me go back tomorrow. So the next day you go back and the store is closed. It's three o'clock. Okay. They were open at three o'clock on a Tuesday. I wonder why they weren't open Thursday. They don't have hours posted. It just is what it is. Right. The next day you go back and they're like, it's closed. It's like, okay, finally, maybe they're just open on Tuesday. So I'm going to go back the following Tuesday at three o'clock. Cause that's when I was there. And the next week you go back and they're like, it's closed. It's like, okay, finally, maybe they're just open on Tuesdays. I'm going to go back the following Tuesday at three o'clock. Cause that's when I was there. And the next week you go back at Tuesday and they're closed. I would never go back to that store again, because even though they may have the best price, even though they may have the best

things, they aren't consistent enough with their business for me to trust them. And so business hours, not only does it allow for you to allot, when are you doing what you're doing, the income producing activities, but also are you creating trust with your people? Are you creating trust with your tribe? And so I also feel like going back to Stephen Covey's most important and most urgent things, there are specific things inside of business that are the most important. Let's say exposure is probably one of the most important things. Nobody cares about the company they've never heard of. And I don't know if it's going to be boots on the ground.

I don't know whether the campaign is, are we face to facing? Are we doing Facebook marketing? Are we doing ads? There are so many different ways to get your, are you doing influencer marketing? There are so many different ways to advertise and get your product out there. But number one, then do you know your analytics? Out of those people that you've exposed your product and service to, how many of those people are a yes? Now that you know what your ratio is, like let's say Jim Rohn says, where you lack in skill, you make up in numbers. Usually it's one out of 10 people, right? So that's in person. On social media, it's one out of a hundred. And so sometimes I have a lot of people that are like, well, I talked to a hundred people this month in the DMs. Okay. Well, that's about one client because people are skeptical. So are you doing the work where if you need to make $277 a day and your product is only $27, that means you need 10 new clients each day in order to do it. But you've got one client, right? You need 300 to make the goal, but you got one because you've only had the numbers that are not there. You know what I mean? Like they don't make sense. They don't, you're not adding up. So do you know your numbers? Do you know your ratios? Because a lot, so many entrepreneurs,

they go 24 seven on the busy work or on their life work. Oh, well, you know what? I got to do laundry. Oh, I need to do the dishes. I got to pick up the kids from school. Oh, I also needed to drink this smoothie because I'm trying to get healthier. And then I'm going to do this work. And then I'm going to do none of those things then I'm going to do... None of those things are building your business. So can you outsource the things that you don't really want to do and take a lot of time? And can you focus and write down what are the steps that forward your business? What needs to happen? What is the system?

Right? And I think about McDonald's. Conglomerate, right? Absolutely successful. Conglomerate. I don't support their products. However, absolutely successful business. What is their system? Why is it that they can take a 16 year old boy, girl from anywhere and they can plug them into their system and it will run successfully? Because we know when we go to McDonald's, if you get a cheeseburger, you're going to get a bun, a piece of meat, if that's what it is, a cheese, two pickles,

ketchup and mustard, right? With those little onions. So if you have that, do you have that system? So then, and this is a thing too, when you're first starting your business, write down everything because now you can give away your playbook. We get rid of like, sometimes we think that doing it all on our own is bad, but it's actually a blessing because now you're creating the culture of what certain jobs look like. Your email marketing, your follow-up game, you're reaching out to new people, your whatever it may be, like those steps that you get to take. But number one is exposure. People need to know who you are. Whatever you sell, if you sell candles, is it like, oh, that candle girl down the street,

she's the one. Completely. And do you know what I'm also thinking about is like, I think you're right, it's exposure. And also that comes from being able to tell people that you are doing something. Because I also think there's a lot of people who are in this gap. So I'll share my personal experience. So obviously I was a chiropractor and then I went into chiropractic businesses. So I was starting to become an entrepreneur already. But then I stepped into Boss Babe, like an online world.

So I went from a chiropractor, brick and mortar businesses to Boss Babe online. And I remember those like transitioning times where I was juggling both because I couldn't leave my clinics because I had patients and I had commitments there as a shareholder, all those pieces. And I was trying to build Boss Babe on the side. But the first thing was, I wasn't really telling people a lot of people really struggle with when they've already got that career and they've already got that thing that they're doing to admit to somebody to admit to family to admit to friends to tell people that they're transitioning i think it'd be really hard and really nerve-wracking to be like oh like this might fail like this might you know oh should i should i tell people because if i don't tell them I can fail and still have my

dignity, but if I tell them about it and I fail, then they're going to think less of me. Right. And I think just like what you're saying is like, yeah, you need to go and like do those numbers. But I think it also starts with like just telling people around you what you're doing. And that can be scary and that can be really daunting. But ultimately, I kind of feel like it drives you a little bit more because you don't want to fail. Yeah. Do you agree? I do. And what is failure? Like what? Oh my God. Great question. Don't quit. You can't fail. Yeah. Truly. Truly. You can have like missed opportunities or missed attempts. Yeah, you're right.

And the fear around it, like, you know, fear is a very real thing in the sense of instinct where you have to keep yourself safe. But fear inside of entrepreneurship is like a smorgasbord cluster of worst case scenarios that we build in our mind. Yeah. And just to remind me as well, we had a woman and she was saying that for her, living is that like moment of fear and doing it anyway, like that living on the edge. Yeah. Oh my God, am I going to do this? And then I do it. And I was like, oh, really? I didn't know for sure that thing. But at the same time, I'm like, yeah, she's right. Like it's about what is fear? Like it's actually fear and excitement are very much experienced the same way on a somatic level. In the body, they have very similar feelings.

And really what differentiates them is how they're processed in the mind versus how they feel to the body. Same with anxiety. They're all on the same kind of like, you know, sympathetic nervous system, like raising your heart rate, feeling a bit sweaty, a little clammy,

like the breath shallowing, all those pieces. So I think, I just think it's a really interesting conversation because I feel like, you know, again, those people who are transitioning or to be an entrepreneur, you have to get used. You have to get used to living a little bit in that sympathetic nervous system, that little bit of fight and flight.

And I think that takes a little bit of adaption for a lot of people, but knowing that it's okay, that it's not actually the danger zone that we all anticipated. And one of the things that it's not actually the danger zone. Yes. That we will anticipate it. Yes. And one of the things that I personally do is I feed everything. I have like five life mantras that I live by.

Shall we? Oh my goodness. One is, this is all a part of my story. And this stemmed back when, so I was living in Hollywood, California and my mentor was in Torrance, California. And I used to have a car that would squeak on every block. It was awful.

I hated it so much. The gas gauge pointed downward. I had to count kilometers because it was a Canadian car. Just all the things that could have gone bad. It was awful. I hated this car. Called her Get because she was ghetto. Hated her.

That was her name. Literally her name. So I was, I, we better be careful what we curse because that car crashed itself on the freeway while I was driving. Don't ask me any questions. That's just how it happened. Car crashed. And so I had a choice in that moment, right? This is back when I couldn't afford to put gas in my car. So the 45 minute drive each way with no traffic was already a struggle. Now I had to take two buses and a train to three hours one way and two and a half hours the other way to get to

my mentor because success doesn't come to us. We have to go to it. And the people that I was around, I didn't want what they had. And so I got to decide, okay, so many of us inside of fear, we're looking to God saying, well, maybe this is the, this just isn't for me. Maybe this just isn't my time. No, this is God saying, how bad do you really want it? Like, just because you, just because you decide on what you want, doesn't mean that it's going to get easier. And so when I crashed my car, I was like, this is all a part of my story. And that same girl that I met, I got robbed at the bus stop. It may not even seem like a lot of money now, but at the time, it was all the money that I had. And $200, which is what I was robbed for, is when the rent is due, I was struggling to pay $781 for my rent.

You know what I mean? Like that was everything to me. And when I got robbed at the bus stop, I remember crying to my girlfriend that it introduced me to the company. And I was like, oh man, like it's not supposed to be this hard. Like, oh, it's not supposed to be like lit. I even, I still have like that feeling of like, it was never supposed to be this hard, which brings me to two points. Number one, if you have never wanted to quit your business, you haven't really started yet. Amen to that. Yeah. Every entrepreneur I think could agree. If you've never wanted to quit,

it's still cute. You're still in honeymoon phase. You know, when it gets real and big things start happening and it doesn't have to be crazy things. Maybe it's money things. Maybe it's mental things. Maybe it's opportunities that get shut in your face that were supposed to happen. Things are going to happen, which brings me to my second one. Things go wrong so that life can go right. So when my girlfriend was telling me all the time, when I was telling her what I was going through, she was like, Sarah, it's not supposed to be this hard. Maybe you should do something else. You don't have to struggle like this. You could whatever. So we've got to get around the people who pull the soldier out of us and not just be around the people who pacify us. We have to make sure that our environment is saying, you know what, this is hard, but what's the exit strategy?

This is a challenge, but what are we going to do about it? Where do we go from here? What are those action steps? And so for me, and I didn't even know at the time, when I said, this is all a part of my story. The thing about a good story is there are ups and there are downs. And there are times where we will cry. There are times where we will wail. There are times where I was crying myself to sleep at night. And then there are times where it's like, yeah, this is amazing. This is totally awesome. It has everything.

When it's predictable, I hate those movies. I'm like, this is the worst movie I ever saw in my life. I am not inspired and I will never watch this again, right? As opposed to a classic. No one wants that flatline. Right, yeah, flatline death, right? Cannot do it. So I fed everything through that.

Everything, you know? And another one of my mantras is things go wrong so that life can go right. I said that one. This is all a part of my story. I'm like, what are my other three? I can't even, I'm like, now I'm like blanking on the things that I live by.

But essential, all things are happening for my good, even the bad, even the bad. And because I have these glasses, these soldered, this way that I see life, no matter what comes from me, I know it so that I can get better, wiser, stronger, faster, period. All things are happening for my good, even the bad.

I've been engaged twice. Third time's a charm, you know? Like there are, I've failed so many times, but that's why I succeed because I'm not afraid. What is it? We look stupid. We fail. Who hasn't failed at something? Imagine going into a surgeon room when you've being a doctor and you've never done surgery in your life. And now they're telling you to do heart surgery. Probably not a good idea. Should probably learn how to do it first because then you put lives at risk. And, you know, we were talking earlier and one of the analogies that I

use all the time, I got it from this book called The Sacred Search, which is a, it's like a faith based relationship book, but relationships are relationships, you know? And what's crazy inside of the book, this man has climbed Mount Everest twice, right? He's climbed Mount Everest twice. And he says, if a 300 unhealthy man came to him and said, I want to climb Mount Everest, I'm so ready to climb Mount Everest. Just tell me what to do. I'll get the stuff. I'm ready. I'm excited. Let's go. Game time. The author says, I would respectfully decline. And not because he doesn't want that man to climb Mount Everest, but because there's a conditioning required first. And some of us just need to get

conditioned. But what most of us do is we take 300 pound energy and we put it on our backs. If that man tried to climb Mount Everest with the author, not only would the man die, but he'd probably kill off the author on the way because he's so unprepared. And that's what happens inside of our journey. We take that energy, we put it on our back and we try to climb Mount Everest or get to the pivotal peak of success. And we wonder why we're killed off on the journey. Our job is not to carry people with us. Our job is to go do the climb and leave a ladder. And if they want to come, ooh, baby, I got it for you. You know, I've got the blueprint. But if they don't, that's okay. That's not up to us, you know? So when it comes to fear,

when it comes to failure, again, feed it through your mantras. What conversations are you having with yourself? How are you looking at these things that are happening? You know, so for me, life mantras have completely changed my life. Another one of my mantras is faith and fear both require us to believe in something that hasn't happened yet. Choose faith. You know? That's powerful. Faith and fear.

So that one again, faith and fear. Both require us to believe in something that hasn't happened yet. I think a lot of people listening to that, they'll be like, wow, I hadn't actually thought about it. Because you're right, fear comes from like that worry of that, the what ifs, that what ifs, that what ifs. And having that faith, that hope, same thing. What if this? What if this? Turn it up.

Yes. So powerful, just like how we can turn the feeling of anxiety and oh my goodness, something's going to happen to, oh my goodness, something's going to happen. You're right. I'm excited about this. You know, I think this is a really good way to tie this interview because for me and this conversation, it's all come down to

mindset and the choice of your mindset. You can choose where your thoughts lead you, choose what thoughts you take actions on. And I think sometimes we can give away too much control. And this has been a really good conversation around how we take back control, how we take control of our mind, how we take control of those thoughts, how we use those thoughts to inspire us and give us hope

and take action versus give us fear and anxiety. So thank you so much, Sarah. Thank you so much. This has been absolutely amazing. I know there's going to be so many people who've had incredible takeaways. So can you share with us how people can follow you, where they can find you? We're going to put the links in the show notes as well. Yeah. So Ms. Sarah Fontenot, M-S-A-R-A-H-F-O-N-T-E-N-O-T, essentially across all platforms.

And then all of my links are on my Instagram if you're an Instagram person. And yeah, that's pretty much it. And click the links below. I have a website, so you could click the website with a lot of really cool things. And one thing that I will say, if it's okay for me to say, I just released a really fun little audio book. Oh, we love an audio book. Yeah. It's an ultimate self-love guide, but it's action steps. It was one of those things where it's like, just do it. you know, like just do it. Get out of your own way because we have these stories that block us

from all of the blessings that are waiting for us. And through action steps, like literal, I'm so passionate about action. They can really start to get out of their own way. So if they want to check that out, there's an ultimate self-love guide audio book. It's $7. So made it super obtainable for every person.

That is amazing. I'm going to say we'll put the links in the show notes for that as well. Thank you so, so much, Sarah. This is actually absolutely amazing. I'm really excited to getting tagged in everyone's takeaways as they're listening to this episode as well.

Thank you. And if you are joining us on the YouTube channel, I think you're also going to really enjoy the interview with Maria Menounos, which we referenced actually in this conversation. So I'm going to put that link for you to listen next. If you enjoyed this episode, we would love it if you subscribed and left us a review. Let us know what you enjoyed, what your main takeaways were, and who you'd like to see appear on the show. As a special thanks, we'll send you a copy of our Boss Babe 25. Now this is an awesome resource.

It's the 25 essential things that you need for personal and professional growth. We've included everything from must-have products to books to rituals. This guide literally covers it all and I know you're going to love it so if you want your