We hope you enjoyed listening to season 1 as much as we enjoyed recording it! Our intent for this podcast is to throw open the curtain to show you how two entrepreneurs are just figuring shit out.
So how do we figure things out as a small business owner? We figure shit out through purposeful pivoting … which is what we are going to do for Season 2.
What the heck is purposeful pivoting??
Purposeful pivoting is connecting with what matters and taking committed action to make a bigger impact in your world.
We help entrepreneurs purposefully pivot into businesses that bring them success and joy.
Our vision is to inspire you, our podcast listeners, in Season 2 by sharing the entrepreneurial pivots and journeys of some incredible entrepreneurs who we will be interviewing.
The road to success in entrepreneurship is windy. It is our intention with this series to pull back the curtain on some of the ups and downs that entrepreneurs face and normalize the discussion around pivoting and change in your entrepreneurial journey. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review!
Looking for a community to support you in your pivots? Join Rebel On The Go – Our Free Facebook Group for Female Entrepreneurs pivoting.
Grab your free guide now to see if the universe is giving you signs that it’s time to pivot!
Entrepreneur. Small Business Owner. Independent Contractor. Online Business Owner. Virtual Assistant. Businesswoman. Businessman. Merchant. Dealer. Mogul.
No matter how you slice it, at the end of the day it all means one thing: you are a person who is in business for yourself. You don’t answer to a higher authority in your business. You are the person in charge.
So why do people have such a hard time with this label?
Entrepreneur vs Small Business Owner vs Independent Contractor
Since I’m a big fan of definitions I thought we would start there:
Entrepreneur: (n) a person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so
Small Business Owner: the SBA defines a small business as one that employs fewer than 1,500 people and generates a maximum annual revenue of $41.5 million (as of 2017)
Independent contractor: In the eyes of the IRS The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done. If you are an independent contractor, then you are self-employed.
So really, what is the difference?
In theory, the three are one and the same. Yet very few business owners refer to themselves as entrepreneurs.
At Serendipitous Rebel, we believe that how you refer to yourself comes down to the mindset you have when you run your business.
Though there is very little difference between the roles and responsibilities of a person in any of these three positions (outside of, perhaps, scale), there is a huge difference between the mindset of the three.
Most entrepreneurs are risk takers. They hold in scope the vision of the work that they wish to do.
Independent contractors, by comparison, tend to focus on the job that they execute.
They don’t focus as much on the vision. They also tend to forget about the importance of the business systems they need to pull in the jobs they are so good at executing.
Small business owners tend to focus solely on the systems, but forget about the vision and jobs in place that are needed to effectively scale and execute.
To be successful you need to be able to take risks and have a strong vision. You must focus on and build systems that support your business to include marketing systems, financial systems, and operational systems. Finally, you need to be able to execute and love the jobs and tasks that fund your business.
A business is an ecosystem, made up of many different moving parts. At the end of the day your job title has very little to do with the outcome and success of your business. But your mindset and how you execute your business will have everything to do with how successful you are.
You are the owner of your business. It’s time to embrace ALL of the roles and responsibilities that come along with it.
Assessing Your Values & Strengths As An Entrepreneur
How much do you really know about yourself? Scary thought sometimes, right? As personality tests such as Myers-Briggs, and recently the Enneagram, have taken the world by storm – do you take the time to take them? Are you *mildly* obsessed with personality assessments like we are? Here’s something slightly controversial: We don’t think we really have weaknesses.
From here on out, we’re hereby calling them: ‘lesser strengths’.
Rather than looking at something as a weakness that will always be, why not have a growth mindset and look at it as a muscle that can be strengthened and that we can get better at if we put the work in?
And trust us, we doubt you’ve heard about it.
This tool differs from some of the other personality tests out there like Myers-Briggs and Enneagram in that instead of placing a label on your type and putting you into a box, this tool gives a list of universal human values and shows you which ones are your greatest strengths and which ones could use some improvement.
Here is a quick breakdown of our results from our work-cation a few months ago.
What is the difference between a therapist and a business coach?
Another way to think about this could be: What are the red flags you should look at in your coaching relationship?
Mental health and conversations around it are incredibly important. And, dare we say, we are in a mental health crisis in this country. We encourage any one in distress or struggling to RUN, not walk, to book an appointment with a licensed therapist.
Likewise, a business coaching relationship can be incredibly rewarding as an entrepreneur. It can be the thing you need to push your business to the next level, hold you accountable, and give you clarity and a clear path forward.
At no time should a business coach tackle issues with mental health. Coaches do not handle mental health issues, or handle someone in stress. Unless they are also a licensed mental health professional, they are out of line. If you are in distress, or struggling with mental health, that’s work for a therapist.
We like to think of it in terms of having a baseline. A therapist works with you in distress to bring you back to baseline. A business coach works with you from baseline to thriving.
Baseline to Thriving
When you work with a business coach you are forward focused. You are working together towards a goal. If at any time a coach senses that there is something from the past that is stress or trauma induced that needs to be addressed in order to move forward, they should then refer you to a therapist.
Therapists look at old wounds and works to help you heal things from the past that may hold you back. If a coach is working with you in that territory it may be a red flag. A therapist is licensed and credentialed to be able to handle different traumas and issues that can arise from picking at old scabs. A business coach is not trained to handle trauma. Period.
Personal VS Professional
There is a fine line to dance between the personal and professional as an entrepreneur. There are mindset blocks issues that need to be worked around often. There are things from our past that informs how we tackle our professional goals and problems moving forward.
So where is the line?
A coach may help identify blocks or issues that impact your ability to achieve goals, and then will work with you to take steps to move forward. But they do not pick that scab. They do not diagnose. They do not bring up past family dynamics.
If something comes up, they can say “I hear you” and see how we can move forward. But they don’t go backwards to try to figure out what happened in your childhood to bring you here.
Just like any profession, there are bad coaches out there. Buyer beware.
It is so important as a consumer to be aware of what we are buying into. While we at Serendipitous Rebel find coaching to be incredibly helpful and foundational to a being a small business owner (hello! We provide coaching!), we also firmly believe that you need to be aware of a persons credentials before you buy into their program, and know as a consumer where the line is.
We have both found ourselves in uncomfortable coaching situations where our coach has crossed a line. We’ve witnessed coaches cross the line and diagnose other peoples trauma. We’ve witnessed coaches try to tackle other peoples trauma without proper licensing or medical credentials. We’ve witnessed coaches liken themselves to therapist.
NO. NO. NO.
DISCLAIMER: A person’s personal experience with therapy does not make them a licensed therapist, nor does it give them the ability to diagnose other people’s mental health issues.
Just like we don’t seek business advice from our therapists, we don’t ask personal advice regarding our past traumas from our business coach.
It’s important to ask yourself, “What are the dynamics between the coach/client? in this room?”
While we all end up drinking the Kool-aid at some point or another, it’s important to ask yourself before entering in a coaching relationship “What do you notice about power dynamics between a coach and their clients/following?”
Coaching programs can often present themselves similar to cults. While we love the raving fans of Serendipitous Rebel, we would never encourage members to speak poorly about people that have left the program or who have decided to move on and do other things. Likewise, we would be wary of any blind followers in our community that would be afraid to question or push back on tactics that we were suggesting. Finally, we continue to keep in touch with people and cheer for their success even when they are no longer a part of our community. The idea that we would cut them off forever and never keep in touch goes agains why we do this in the first place. However, we have both sat in programs where this kind of behavior runs rampant.
Raving fans are awesome! Blind followers that aren’t allowed to question or leave without being totally ostracized are not.
In the end we are big fans of both coaching and therapy! Both can serve incredibly important functions in your life. Knowing the difference and being able to recognize healthy versus unhealthy relationships only helps you have a more successful outcome in both your personal and professional worlds.
Grab your free guide now to see if the universe is giving you signs that it’s time to pivot!
Have you ever thought about the role that your fur baby plays in your life as an entrepreneur?
Whether it’s a puppy running through the house like a toddler without a diaper, or a cat that simply must lay right on top of the computer while you’re trying to work, our pets are there with us as our constant companions as we work every day in this virtual world.
Our pets are also a great way to connect with others. They’re so much a part of our family and what’s more relatable than swapping stories about your snoring dog or how you came up with your pet’s name?
We love sharing pet photos and pet stories so come on over to our Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/rebelonthego) to introduce yourself and drop a picture of your fur baby.
Grab your free guide now to see if the universe is giving you signs that it’s time to pivot! 
