060 – Success Comes from Clarity says Heather Ann Havenwood the Sexy Boss

Gift biz unwrapped episode 60,

You get money into your bank account for something you created.

It's a whole new,

beautiful world.

Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to gift to biz unwrapped,

and now it's time to light it up.

Welcome to gift biz,

unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop

and grow your business.

And now Sue Monheit hi there.

I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or

are just getting started,

you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your

business. And today we have joining us,

Heather Anne Haven wood.

She is the CEO of Pavan wood,

worldwide LLC,

and chief sexy boss.

She's regarded as a top authority on internet marketing,

business strategies and marketing since marketing her first online business in

1999, bringing together clients and personal coaches.

She has played an active role in the online marketing world

since before even most of us had a home computer,

Heather and currently as the author of sexy boss,

how the Powerment of women is changing the rule book for

sex money and success.

Welcome to the show,

Heather Ann.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

It is my pleasure.

Is there anything we should do to enhance your introduction?

No, that was wonderful.

Thank you for that.

Before we go,

It started,

one of the things we like to do is get a

look at you and understand what you're all about in a

little bit of a different way.

And that is hearing how you would describe your motivational candle.

So if you were to select the candle,

that perfectly represents you,

what color would the candle be and what would the quote

beyond the case?

Okay. Yes,

the color would be pink.

That's my signature color coming from Magnolia steel viewers see that

movie, or there would be the chick colors,

pink. It's not Blesh or bash,

but it's pink.

Anyway. I love that.

You can just carry on with that for awhile.

I could so pink and I'm a Southern girl.

And then as well as the quote,

the quote is,

does this feed my confusion or strengthen my clarity?

It's a business principle and a life principle.

And it's a quote that someone gave to me when I

was in the middle of a massive financial destruction,

a bankruptcy,

foreclosure, I was broke.

I had me and my dog in a car and a

cell phone,

and I had to get rid of my house and all

my belongings.

And it was only seven,

eight years ago at this point.

And a friend of mine,

a mentor of mine said that to me.

And I looked at him like he was crazy.

And the point of it was is that strength comes from

clarity, not chaos.

And the more I was spinning because I was spinning,

I didn't know what to do at N to do.

I was constantly like questioning,

questioning, questioning.

And so I was just causing more chaos.

And so what he did is he said,

start to focus on everything you do,

ask the question,

does this feed my confusion or strengthen my clarity?

And I got down to granular,

like, what am I eating?

Does that feed my confusion?

And my clarity going to this seminar,

does that be my confusion or my clarity?

Like everything,

this particular action towards getting a job or not a job

or building a business or not a business,

like every single thing.

And so nowadays I still use it to this day.

So get on this podcast,

does this podcast feed my confusion or strengthen my clarity?

And my vision of my company is strength is my vision.

So I'm going to do it.

It's little stuff to big stuff.

So I use it every day.

So it does feed my confusion or strengthen my clarity.

I think with women specifically,

we can add drama and we add chaos to things,

right? And we spin sometimes versus adding clarity.

And when we add clarity to anything and attention and mission,

what we want,

then there's clarity in their strength and then there's purpose and

there's action.

So I use it every day.

You're right.

As women,

because we've kind of been programmed since we were little,

hopefully that's changing now with women of today.

When we were younger,

we were the ones who were supposed to do everything for

the family,

you know,

hold the job,

take care of the kids,

possibly pay the bills,

keep the house clean,

you know,

like everything.

So I think naturally we were multitasking all the time,

which you know,

and now everyone says,

you really can't multitask your brain doesn't really work that way.

Right. But that's how you get into this confusion in this

spin, because we've been programmed as women.

That that's what we're supposed to do.

That's why we're here for the good of our family and

everybody else.

Correct. That's basically it.

And it's just a really key principle of when there's clarity.

Some people would call it goals or intentionality or things like

that. Yeah.

Those are great.

That's what I call bigger pieces,

but just little,

right. So for instance,

last year and my 40th birthday,

I actually walked across the stage and did a figure show.

Okay. So got a tiny little bikini and got tanned up

and ask people to judge me on my 40th birthday.

Now it's not what I do for a living,

but it down to,

if my goal is a figure show,

so I have to do certain things workout,

eat right down to,

can I have that chocolate?

It's not about punishment,

right? It's more about,

well, does it feed my confusion or strengthen my clarity?

It strengthened the clarity of the goal that I said that

I wanted.

So it's little stuff like that down to health.

Well-being finances,

every single piece.

I just think it's a profound element.

Now, as someone who's like your show,

your people are,

you know,

they have a gift,

they have a gift at something they create well with that,

it, their intention is to build a business versus a hobby,

which I think is the first thing they have to look

at. Like,

it would be nice if I make money,

that's called a hobby.

A business is I'm going to make a business out of

this. It's a very different intention.

And so then you come from a different place of,

does this feed my confusion of just making it a hobby

or does it strengthen my clarity of like,

I really want to create a business.

So you actually make decisions based on the quote.

Right. And it becomes to use your exact word.

It becomes very clear.

There's a lot of clarity around your actions,

what you're doing and what you're not,

if you're going against what your goals are and what you're

trying to obtain.

Yeah, absolutely wonderful,

well, long description of quote.

But no,

I think it was really important because it's a really significant

direction that we're going here.

I want to back up just a little bit,

you know,

you lay up a bomb on us in terms of,

you know,

you had some issues,

financial issues,

all of that.

Take us back a little bit to the start of Heather

Ann in terms of you going off on your own and

building your own.

Thanks for that.

I'm a serial entrepreneur.

Now, what does that mean?

That means that I've built and crashed a couple of businesses

along the way.

Nowadays, we hear a lot of people in the news.

Like they built a business in Elvis and they're,

you know,

kind of overnight successes,

the Facebook's right.

I don't really believe in that model because I don't think

it's necessarily the truth of entrepreneurship.

It takes what I call skinning of the game.

You know,

your get skinned up and get beaten up at the game.

So let me explain.

being in the direct response marketing business and was a consultant.

And at one point I started a business partnership with a

gentlemen and I built the business.

So as females,

you probably recognize this.

He was the front man.

And then I was the one doing everything in the background.

What do they say out behind every great man is a

great woman.

That was the situation I wasn't married to him.

We weren't into a relationship that way.

But I do look at business partnerships as a marriage.

The thing about this particular,

what I call business relationship marriage,

I was young and I didn't ask a lot of questions

about the legality piece.

I just jumped in.

I was in the honeymoon stage.

I'm like,

Oh, this is exciting.

You know?

And so I jumped in and I built him up and

he actually has this business today.

And I did a very good job.

And we went from zero to a million dollars in a

very short period of time in the information marketing business.

What that means is we did seminars.

We did books and products and things like that,

where they learn something to make the money.

That was my background.

It has been for a long time.

So we built it up quickly.

And then I went out to an event for three days.

It was a barking event.

I came home cause we worked out of my home and

there's this thing called everything was gone and the merchant accounts

were gone and the bank accounts were emptied.

And I didn't have any recourse mainly that was because this

thing called legality stuff,

I just jumped in.

There was nothing that could do.

And so that spun me into lost my house within 60

days and then complete wipe out.

Cause I had all the debt from the business and I

had zero cash.

Like overnight,

everything was gone and bank has her days.

I had no backup plan.

And so this really spun me because I was single.

I still am.

And I kind of had this view of like,

you know,

how did this happen to me?

I'm smart.

We weren't married.

Like, you know,

that happens to other people and other women,

not me,

you know,

it was a lot of victimization for many years.

And I spent three years kind of a first in my

car and my dog at myself.

And I was the only bill I had for a couple

of years and spend it with friends and couches and trying

to figure out,

maybe I'm not an entrepreneur.

Maybe I should just go get a job and forget it.

And I really had a deep spiritual conversation with myself many

times. And I call that from my journey from bankruptcy,

the sexy boss,

cause there was kind of a around three years in and

I was living in Marco Island at the time in Florida.

And I had this moment of,

okay, I want to do it again.

I am,

this is who I am.

I am a fighter and I'm going to go and create

business again,

but it's not going to be just a business.

It's going to be businesses.

And I'm going to create something such that I feel powerful

within myself and empower myself and empower others.

So that's the key.

So that's been my journey ever since I buy now run

four different businesses,

including coaching,

dating, business supplement business,

and some other ones.

And I just want to encourage women.

It's not about necessarily getting your thing out there in the

world. That is one element,

but it's about getting started and making the first dollar.

That was my first aha.

Right? Is that once I make the first dollar in the

business, it's a rinse and repeat.

But the first dollar is the hardest dollar to make.

First dollar is also so significant because it's like,

Oh my gosh,

somebody is actually willing to give me.

And yes,

it's only $1,

but then transaction is being made.

Then you get this confirmation that what I'm providing,

whether it's consulting or a physical product or whatever it is,

is value.

There's proof of concept there that it is value for somebody

and where there's one,

there's more.

Absolutely. And there's a girl here in Austin,

Texas. Her name is Kendra Scott.

And now she owns a company called Kendra Scott jewelry.

And there's a whole story with her about how she started

from nothing.

And I think she was a waitress and start with $500

from a loan from her boyfriend at the time out of

her closet and created this jewelry.

Now she's got like three stores and it's like a multi-million

dollar company.

And it sounds perfect.

Like, Oh wow.

$500 to multi-million.

It looks easy.

It's not,

you know,

it's really not.

But the first dollar I think for her and for myself

is the key piece.

But people ask me,

what was the lesson you learned from the bankruptcy?

The biggest lesson I learned is as an entrepreneur,

as a female,

you have to surround yourself with advisors.

Not necessarily always mentors,

advisors, advisor,

like a tax accountant.

Okay. A legal team,

because if you're in business,

therefore you need to have these things.

That was the first piece of me as a woman,

I just trusted my business partner.

And on top of that,

he was a lawyer.

Right. So he knew right.

Well, and you thought he was Out for your common good.

Not just his own good.

Exactly. And his business is still thriving today and you know,

good for him.

And I wish him the best,

but it's honestly the,

as a female,

it was like,

I it's almost like as a female.

I didn't want to question him.

He's the man.

And I didn't allow myself to question him and go,

well, I need to take this to,

I know you're an attorney.

That's great.

But I need to take this to my attorney.

Right. My advisor.

And so now I have those what I call kahunas.

Right? So anytime I have an agreement just like yesterday,

I'm like,

well, that's great,

but this isn't in it.

Great. I trust you to know.

I don't put in writing as a female,

as an entrepreneur,

you start to be a little more decisive in your language

and asking for what you want.

You have to,

that is the art of business.

The reasons I was so excited to have you on the

show, Heather Ann is that so many people and we all

know this.

We'll run into people who will say,

Oh, I'm going to write a book or,

Oh, I'm going to start a business.

Or, you know,

it's always in the future.

It's always,

they're going to do it.

They're going to do it.

And the majority of cases people never do.

If I take you back into Florida,

when you had that aha moment where you're like,

okay, I'm going to do this.

It's not just going to be one business.

It's going to be businesses.

What was the trigger that got you to take action at

that point?

Hm. I'll say it this way.

The whole business happened in Florida.

There was Orlando and you got to get the timing.

So I had a house.

I tried to sell it,

2007, if you don't know here from the United States,

that was when the crash was happening.

Everything was going backwards.

Right. Nevada and Florida specifically.

I mean,

my house went from a $350,000

house to like a $200,000

house in like a six month period.

Okay. So like,

so I literally couldn't get out of it.

So I just released everything and went to a hundred percent

bankruptcy. So I'm sitting in Marco Island,

a friend of mine lived there and I guess took a

year off.

And I,

I kind of did the,

I woke up when I woke up,

I went to bed.

When I went to bed,

I looked at a ton of sudden sets.

That was my big thing.

Go look at the sunset every night.

And it's beautiful.

It's just stunning.

And Marco Island is gorgeous,

but I really realized that by the way,

the average age is 80 and Marco Island.

So you can get the energy of our grads gorgeous.

And the average age is 80.

Okay. So there's a particular view of the world surrounding me,

which was death.

A lot of the end,

the other side of life.

And here I am in my thirties.

And so I really looked at that and I started to

kind of ask all these kinds of questions to these random

strangers and people in their eighties and seventies,

you know,

cause they're surrounding me.

Right. And they're willing to talk to you.

And I realized something.

I realized something really unique.

I realized that people that were what I call retired from

a company,

like let's say a government company,

or they're a policemen.

Or they work for government for 25 years or something like

that. I say this in a loving way,

they were miserable.

They are the ones who were just like sick a lot

more. They were it's like they retired.

And then they started to die.

Even though they're surrounded by this beauty.

The other side of that,

I met some amazing people that were entrepreneurs.

Like they had a business that now the businesses off to

their grandkids or whatever it was,

or they sold it or you know,

their son or whatever the situation was.

But they were creators.

They had something that they left to the world,

even though they were still in Marco Island,

they still were what I call active in and their brain

was active and they were doing things still.

Like I notice it's not about working for 25 years.

It's about what you create in the world.

And that was the aha.

And so I said,

you know what?

I want to create again,

I want to build something again.

I want to look at when I'm 80 go.

Like, yeah,

I built that it might've failed or might've,

it's still there.

But I built that.

Like, I'm proud of that.

And so the first choice I made was that the second

choice I said,

well, I can't surround myself with people who are on the

other side of life.

I had to surround myself with people that are at the

beginning of their life.

So I moved to Austin,

Texas because the environment is entrepreneurship.

The environment is created.

The environment.

People are building things and having families and.

So I wanted to move the energy.

That was the second piece.

And so that's what I did.

And I didn't know what I was going to do,

but I knew that those were the two choices I had

to make.

I love how you said this,

because this is a perfect example of what you're talking about

in the beginning.

Clarity versus confusion.

Because the first thing you did was you analyzed your environment

and you had a discovery.

You discovered that people who were working for someone else for

so long,

probably weren't happy when they were working,

but certainly weren't happy when you were interacting with them.

Correct. And they probably are used to just taking orders from

people and doing what they're supposed to do for their whole

life. They've never been able to look inside and identify something

that jazzes them you're that they really want to do.

And then you took action.

You said,

I'm not going to stay here,

surrounded by all of these people.

Not that they're not wonderful people.

I'm sure there are many wonderful people there,

but you needed to be in a place that was lively.

That was more clear and in line with your goals.

Yeah, absolutely.

And Marco Island's gorgeous,

but just from an energy perspective,

if you're surrounded by people that are what I call they're

in their eighties.

So they have a different view.

They're looking at different things than surrounded by the youth as

they call it.

Right? So surrounded by people that are in their twenties and

thirties, that they're craving and developing.

So the energy around an Austin and other places where the

energy is growth,

you get caught up in that energy.

So that's why I moved here when I'm also from Texas.

So it was kind of coming home as well.

But I definitely chose Austin because of that.

Cause I figured,

I don't know what business I'm going to create.

I didn't have that figured out.

I just knew I'd done it once.

I'd built a business before that was number one,

number two,

I said,

I'm going to move myself into an energy.

Other people are doing the same thing and I'll figure it

out. And so I did,

and that was a key piece.

If someone said to me,

Heather, you built that business,

that business with that business partner,

you can do it again,

except this time you're going to do it for yourself.

You're not going to do it for another person.

And I think that's a key piece for women too.

We are so good at lifting people up and supporting.

And then those people leave the home are they get divorced

or whatever they move on.

And you're over there left with what did I do for

20 years?

So what are you going to build out for that?

You look back in 20 or 30 years ago,

I built that.

I created that and I added that to the world.

That's my value.

And I think that's something to be proud of.

Not only just the value that you add,

the art,

the painting,

the jewelry,

whatever it is,

the gift is that you're actually adding commerce to the world

and value.

That's a key piece.

I make money.

That's a key piece as entrepreneurs.

Totally. I agree with you there.

So on a psychological end digress,

I'll say,

let's talk about jewelers or someone.

Who's doing something for a hobby,

regardless of what it is.

And they're thinking they want to take that next step,

but they have a full-time job and there's nothing wrong with

turning a hobby into a part-time income making capacity.

But so many people like we were talking about before get

stuck. It's that book,

it's that hobby.

They want to turn into a business.

How do people cross over and actually take that first action

that will make that first dollar.

That's a great question.

So I'm going to first talk about technology because I have

a background in marketing.

So the first thing is leveraging two companies,

Shopify and Amazon.

And the reason I'm saying that is because instead of building

everything from scratch,

right, there's other ones out there,

but Amazon has amazing traffic and you want to leverage that.

And then Shopify is very easy use.

So the first piece of when you have someone to an

artist and try to get their product online is they get

really caught up in the technology.

So let's get that out of the way.

Okay. And be able to use a third party system like

an Amazon and then a Shopify to be able to move

it to the next level.

So just remove that barrier right there.

The second piece is figuring out exactly.

If you want to do this as a hobby or a

business, now that's a big shift.

Some people go well,

I'll make some and then see what happens.

No, no,

no, no.

It's all about intentionality and clarity.

So if you want to make this a business where you

make a product,

by the way,

here's what a business is.

You make a product,

you make a profit,

okay? So it's not about a hundred thousand dollars or $50,000

a year.

And then all of a sudden it's a business.

There is no like,

well it may 25,000.

So it's a hobby.

And then it's 26,000.

So as a business,

no, you create a product and you make a profit profit

enough to make another one that is now a business.

Okay. And then you had things like copywriting and patents and

you want to make sure that your art or whatever it

is is protected.

Like sexy boss is trademarked.

Okay. So you want to be smart about the product or

service so that if it's really good,

someone out there will,

by the way,

we are in a society where people rip things off all

the time,

you want to be covered.

You want to be smart.

You want to have some legalities around it.

Okay. So those are some things,

but the first piece is making the first dollar.

And what I mean by that is that someone purchased your

thing, product or a service,

and then you get that money and that goes into your

bank account and you look at it and you feel it

and go,

I created something and they just gave me money for that.

I'm going to do it again.

What did I do?

How did that happen?

I'm going to do it again.

How did that happen?

I'm going to do it again.

And the mindset of the first dollar.

I think is my first new business,

my dating business.

And it was an affiliate and I sent out an email

and I had an affiliate link.

And then I got this thing in my paper.

You've made a sale and I'm like,

it's like someone out there bought that.

It's just a whole new experience that they bought.

Part of you.

They bought something that you created.

It's a different feel that,

like I say,

you worked in retail and they bought whatever.

Like there's no feeling there,

but when they purchase and they just swipe their credit card

and you get money into your bank account for something you

created, it's a whole new,

beautiful world.

And I think that's the key piece.

And so the getting started is just that getting started and

making your complete clarity of mindset where you're gonna do.

Now, let me give an example in my book,

someone said to me a long time ago,

Hey, sexy boss.

I think you do great doing women entrepreneurship.

I'm like,

ah, I pondered it for,

I don't know,

a couple of years.

And then one day I was like,

I'm going to write a book.

And it takes me 90 days from concept to 100% completion.

And what I mean by completion,

it was not only written.

It was edited.

And it was up on Amazon and an audio book on

audible. No kidding.

90 days,

All of that within 90 days.

90 days.

Okay. So let's back that up.

This is a good example.

I'm not going to ask you all the specifics of how

you write a book and get it on Amazon and all

of that.

But the very first things like what did,

okay, so you made this decision.

This is what I'm doing.

Yeah. Then what was the very next,

tangible step that you did?

So for the book I structured it,

I put it in time versus esoteric me saying,

I want to write a book with you is esoteric.

There's no structure around that.

When I actually put it in my calendar that I'm going

to be meeting with my friend twice a week at three

o'clock on Skype.

And he's going to schedule his life around that.

And I'm scheduling my life around that.

And then we're going to go out there and make the

thing happen.

That's very different.

It's like a personal training.

People always go,

I'm going to go work out,

hire a personal trainer.

That's waiting for you at one.

O'clock at the gym that you're paying for a whole nother

world. So you're Very specific action.

Structured action.

Yeah. Structure.

The key is structure in time.

In reality,

you have a meeting you're going to the meeting.

That's the key.

That's what I did now.

What's interesting about the book.

All right.

So, and I come from a world where people are constantly

doing big launches and making Amazon bestsellers overnight and doing this

whole thing.

And I could have done that,

but I didn't.

Here's why I wanted to just get it out.

So I got it out and put it up there November,

2013. And I did a little bit promotion.

Don't get a rise in promotion,

but I didn't do like a big,

huge, like push people,

push for me so I could raise it to number one.

None of that,

this year,

a friend of mine said to me,

Hey, you know,

congratulations on being bestseller on Amazon.

And I,

I said to her,

I said,

Oh, that's very sweet.

I'm not,

she's like,

no, you are like,

no, I'm not.

Yes you are.

We had this whole discussion.

I went online.

Boom. I am three years later.

I'm more proud of that than I am a big push

Because it's organic.

It's real people.

Real Years later.

It's real.

I was so proud.

I had no idea.

I literally had no idea.

Someone else pointed it out.

So the point is I just got it out.

And then I worried about the other piece later,

I focus on the promotion later.

Like I'm promoting it right now,

three years later.

That's what you need to focus on.

Get it out,

just, just get it out,

get it out there so people can actually purchase it.

I think the first person hurts.

It was my boyfriend.

You know,

like, Hey,

I purchased it.

I'm like,

well, he darn well better.

You better.

Right. But it was,

I'm like my sister,

I purchased your book.

I'm like,

Oh, you know?

And then of course now strangers purchase it.

Right. And people that I get to know at the same

time, I didn't focus on,

Oh my God,

no, one's going to buy it.

Oh my gosh,

I do it because no,

one's good.

If you focus on that is what's going to happen.

And so with your jewelry or with your gifts or whatever

it is,

get it out,

just get it out there and get to a point where

people can purchase it.

That's another thing I'm sure you probably recognize is people create

something and they go,

Oh, that's great.

Where do I purchase it?

There's no place for them to purchase.

How do I,

how do I purchase it?

You know?

You're like,

you're cutting that off.

So that's the key piece.

Does it help?

I explained that correctly.

Yeah. I wanted to ask you one more question on the,

just get it out there.

Where do you stand on perfection?

Or do you feel like it has to be a hundred

percent perfect to get it out?

Or did you just Stop waiting for perfection stop?

You just got to stop because I can honestly say my

book, sexy boss.

I probably could open it up and re edit it a

thousand times,

but you just have to get it out and put it

out there.

So no stop waiting for perfection.

So at some point you just say,

okay, this is great enough.

I mean,

it can't be incomplete obviously,

but at some point you just say,

okay, this is it.

We're done.

It's rolling.

You know,

who does this really well,

software companies,

beta that's in beta.

It's in beta.

Right? Cause they just get it out there because they know

this, getting something out there,

they're going to get the feedback or they're going to get,

Oh, it sucks.

Or it's great.

Or, Oh,

I like this.

I don't like this.

And then from the beta,

they know where to move.

Right. So that's what happened to me.

I didn't even sexy.

Boss has got people like it or not.

And so from the concept,

sexy boss,

other things started to open up.

I'm like,

Oh, people wanted this.

Oh, have you tried that?

Oh, okay.

Boom, boom,

boom, boom.

So it's about getting out there.

Think of it like your beta.

You can always do a version two.

If I wanted to,

I can relaunch sexy boss in two years if I so

choose. Right.

I can make it better if I so choose.

But at the same time,

it's about getting it out there,

make it beta.

Don't worry about it.

Wonderful. All right.

So we've talked in terms of bringing anything that you're looking

at doing to reality.

Number one is specifically market in time in terms of making

specific points and specific actions.

Whether it's meeting with somebody,

whether it's doing a first draft or an outline buying product,

for something that you're doing,

setting up your company as an official business name,

all those tangible things.

Number two is getting it out there,

actually doing it,

producing that product,

writing that book,

creating the seminar,

whatever it is.

And then third point,

which I'm really,

really happy that you talked about Heather Ann is making sure

people have a place to go and buy it from you.

Yes. Yeah.

That's a key one.

So that's the technology piece.

That's why I said Amazon.

You someone else's platform.

Okay. There's Amazon.

There's AC there's other ones out there.

You put into them more than I do.

But I just know that one of the barriers sometimes for

business owners online specifically is they get caught up in all

the different technology pieces and they get swirling around that.

It's easy to get swirled.

There's so many shopping cards and this and that and merchant

accounts and blah,

blah, blah,

blah. I always say what's the easiest way to get it

up there so someone can purchase it now.

And so then you test it.

Good example of that.

I have a cellmate company to lab.com.

Now we have four of our products on Amazon,

but we only had two for a while.

And the reason I did that,

because my boyfriend's like,

why are you doing that?

There was nobody,

you know,

no one knows our products.

And I'm like,

it's not about that.

It's about giving people the option.

And I'm not right now interested in building out an entire

new Shopify system.

I just want to get it as fast as I possibly

can and that people can purchase it,

you know?

And yes,

are we not going to make as much money as we

do ourselves?

Like is our cost and our fulfillment and our profit going

to be smaller.

Yes that's okay.

It's like,

just get it in the hands at people.

That's the key.

And so then now we're actually in the process of rebuilding

our entire Shopify account,

but the key is just getting it out.

Yeah. And even a perfect Shopify account.

Or if you're going to use WordPress,

you know,

whichever it is,

there are so many kind of quote unquote done for you

platforms where you just have to slip things in.

If technology gift biz listeners is where you're saying,

I just don't know you got to get over that because

there are people that can help you.

It's not that hard.

You don't have to be the one to know all about

that. So if that's the issue in terms of where you're

stalling, we got to talk some more,

that's not the right place to stall for sure.

Yeah. Nowadays with Amazon and Etsy and Shopify it's,

I mean,

nowadays 10 year olds are building stuff,

you know?

So you'll get a little late.

I've redone my website several times over.

Are you going to upgrade over time and modernize it and

maybe your images changing and evolving a little bit.

So again,

I think the whole point here is taking action.

Getting started,

putting it out there so you can see,

and like Heather Ann is talking about just getting that first

dollar in.

Cause boy,

does it feel good?

It does feel good.

And I want to go back onto the hobby versus business

for just 30 seconds.

Sure. Is that when you have the mindset of I'm a

business owner with a product that's very different than a hobby,

you think differently,

you take different actions around that.

That's the shift,

especially when you're an artist or a creator of things,

you have to make that mindset of a,

this is my business and structured in that way.

And that's just a critical piece.

So you actually look at advertising differently.

You'll look at if someone asks you to an event,

you'll when someone says,

Oh, I love your piece.

You won't give it away.

Like, well,

I will give you a discount of 20% if you purchase

right now with your credit card.

Cause I have a little PayPal swipe while we're sitting here

at lunch,

you know,

I mean,

you know,

you should be prepared it seriously.

It's like,

Oh, you're sitting with your girlfriend,

have a glass of wine.

She loves your earrings.

That while sound to you for 25 versus 35.

And I have,

by the way,

look at that.

I have my swipe right now,

give me your credit card and just pay for your lunch.

So you gotta think like a business owner and not just

give your gift away.

And once more reinforcing that,

that doesn't mean that that's your full-time profession.

You can turn a hobby into a profitable business and be

doing that on the side income supplemental,

you know,

enough to take the family on vacation or,

you know,

whatever it might be.

So yeah,

A business doesn't have to be million dollar business.

It could be a $20 business.

It's still a business.

And technically under IRS,

there's all kinds of good things.

So yeah,

you have to just focus that as a business,

not a hobby.

And I honest,

here's a distinction,

hobbies cost more money than they make.

So you get a lot of hobbyists or they spend all

this money because it's a hobby and they're not making any

money off it.

A businesses.

They're actually making a profit.

They're turning a profit.

You are singing my song for sure.

All right.

Let's swing over now into the reflection section.

This is a further look at you specifically in terms of

some of the things that have helped you to get to

the success level that you're at.

Now, if you look at yourself and you go internally,

what do you think is a trait that you've had all

along since you were little that has helped you to take

the actions that you've done Stubborn and type a derivate.

I'm buried dur I'm a driven personality as they call it.

So when I went to Marco Island for that time and

I was doing nothing,

people would go,

Oh, that sounds great.

For me,

that was almost like torture because I'm not used to it.

I want to do something to drive,

drive drive.

So I really had to let myself,

you know,

wake up when I woke up and went to bed when

I went to bed and not do anything that day,

that was really hard for me.

It was good.

I'm glad I did it,

but it was more of a challenge to do nothing than

it was to drive.

So I'm a driven person.

I can totally Relate to that.

Like just relax.

I'm like relaxed for a year.

This is crazy,

you know,

but I did,

I did do it for you.

Do you meditate?

I do.

I do yoga.

I meditate with my body more than just sit.

I meditate with my body and I guess You're farther along

than I,

because I also,

you know,

I can't stay still unless I'm sleeping pretty much.

And I'm always doing a couple of things at once.

I honestly don't know if I could sit still long enough

and watch a sunset without doing something else in addition.

And that's terrible because sunsets are beautiful.

I did do that.

That's what cause Mark Marco wildland is on the West side

of Florida.

And so he gets the sunsets.

It gets these,

I mean stunning.

And it was something that I did do.

That was my one thing to do that day.

I'm going to the sunset and I would just sit there

and it was awful.

It's awesome.

I wish I could Do more of that.

I'm not good at that.

It's something I'm working on for sure.

Can't get that.

No, I don't see that.

I don't see sunsets,

but cause I'm where I'm at in Austin is like a

bunch of Hills.

Yeah. So there you go.

All right.

And what tool do you use as you're working through your

day? What do you,

what is the most important tool that you use during your

business day?

Oh, like technology specifically,

Anything like when I say that Ever comes to mind,

honestly, just technology,

obviously I'm in front of a computer,

a ton and I do a lot of messaging,

you know,

Facebook messaging and believe it or not in Skype.

I mean,

I'm just a lot of,

I'm connecting that way at ton email.

I mean,

that's really the only thing.

But the one thing that I do do all the time

is I have a business coach took on a business coach

almost 10 years ago,

a new one,

about four years ago.

I've always had a business coach and a coach in my

ear. That's something,

that's a tool for me.

She's rock when I'm not a rock,

You know what I've recently taken on a coach and I'm

seeing the value in doing so I never had before because

you know,

I've been in business forever when I was in corporate world,

you know,

we had training and we had this and you know,

I had a boss and you know,

all of that.

Then when I was in business for myself,

I really didn't feel like I needed it until recently.

It's just nice to have that second set of eyes.

People who know exactly where you're driving to.

Yeah. Cause if they're a third party that the intention of

a coach is that they're not your mom.

They're not your sister or they're not your loved one or

intimate friends or they're not your girlfriend.

They're someone that their job is to call you on your

stuff. That's mine anyway.

And then also to say,

Hey, you said you wanted this.

Why aren't going out to that and question that and you

give them that permission to do that.

It's pretty powerful.

In fact,

when I was 26,

I called my dad one time and you know,

I was in tears about something in life who knows.

And I'm like,

Oh, it's all working.

And he's like,

I'm done.

And he pretty much fired me.

It's like,

he fired me as his daughter.

I'm not sure how that whole thing when I was absolutely

devastated. But what I call it the day my dad dumped

me, I hired a coach.

He's like,

you need a coach.

And I think it ended up that looking back I'm at

40. I could see,

he probably was like,

I'm too close.

I'm too close.

And I can't help her.

And so that was about a year later I hired a

coach and I've had one pretty much ever since then.

Even through everything that bankruptcy and all that.

Yeah. I probably wouldn't have,

I dunno,

I probably would've done something totally different and I don't know,

I would become an Uber driver.

Never stopped being an Uber driver.

I think.

I don't know.

But she helped me move through the different pieces in the

processing and it wasn't someone close to me like my mom

or sister,

you know,

it was not family because they had their own agenda.

It's not personal.

They just had their own stuff in the way.

Well, and they know you too well.

Yeah. Yeah.

They know you since you were five.

So they looked you particularly different.

Right. So yeah.

Yeah. No great discussion.

I'm glad you brought that up.

Okay. And in terms of a source,

whether it's a book or a podcast or something,

where do you go to capture new information,

new ways of doing things,

something that helps you advance your business.

Okay. Well,

when you said book,

the book that came up for me is more of a

spiritual book.

It's a,

I call a law of the universe book.

It's called the game of life and how to play it

by Florence,

Scovel, Shinn.

It's kind of a book for me.

It's like,

how do I live my life philosophy on life and wealth

and money is a particular view.

It's like what I call it.

There's laws in our city,

in our town like speeding.

And then there's laws of the universe.

And if you go against the laws of the universe,

you're going to have struggle.

And if you go with the laws of universe,

you're going to have flow.

So that book,

particular talks about that.

As far as business,

I go to an event every year,

traffic and conversion summit I have for the last five,

six years have lots going.

I'm in masterminds all the time.

I'm constantly listening to other people in business and asking them

questions and what are they doing?

That's how I kind of keep my ear to the ground

of what's happening because there's just so much going on technology-wise

and you just can't do it all every day.

So surrounding yourself with other people that are in the same

place and listening and adding value,

that's how I kind of keep up wonderful.

And we ask them Question so that we can see other

avenues, other areas in ways people can learn and rub shoulders

with other people,

et cetera.

All right.

And Heather Ann was talking about a game of life.

I don't know if that's an audio book or not,

but you can always check it out.

All right then.

And so give his listeners,

as you know,

I've teamed up with audible and if you would like to

get a book and listen to a game of life and

haven't done so already just go over to gift biz,

book.com and you can select a book for free Me.

My book is audible,

sexy boss.

Super. All right,

sexy boss then too.

And of course we're linking that up in the show notes

pages as well.

So there'll be direct links if you're near a computer right

on the show notes page where you can capture all of

that. Okay.

Heather Ann,

we're swinging into our dare to dream section.

I want you to dream.

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

This is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights

that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside your box?

Oh wow.

So Megan Kelly of Fox news.

I just love her.

And I just feel if I could be anyone it'd be

her or do what she does.

I just love her.

I feel like I've just body her,

you know,

I just try to body her.

I just love who she is,

what she represents.

I've been watching her since the first day of her show.

So I would say like a career like hers,

I don't want to be like Oprah.

Oprah is no,

I'm more like Megan Kelly.

I just really love who she is and her way of

being. So it would be in a career like that.

Be interviewing people and just on the edge of what's happening

and just being a role model for people in women around

the world.

Well, and you know what I mean,

Megan Kelly,

like I said,

I absolutely love her too.

And you can create yourself into someone similar to her,

but your very own person.

So someone someday will be saying,

I wish I could be Heather and Haven would.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah. Well,

I, to me,

she's a sexy boss.

Like she embodies the sexy boss for me,

which is a way of being,

see her.

I'm like,

you know who you are for me in sexy boss,

Megan, Kelly,

if you're ever listening,

I just want to meet you.

But it's only,

I also say as a woman,

it's been very few times in my life.

Very, very rare that I can honestly say,

I really like somebody like,

wow, they're amazing.

I want to be like them.

I can't,

I can't even think.

Well, Madonna when I was a kid,

but that was it.

There wasn't really anyone else.

So Megan,

Kelly's been really the only person in the last 10 or

15 years that I can say,

wow, that is a person that can really honor and appreciate

who she is.

And I would love to meet her,

but only emulate her.

She's an amazing mentor.

I'm not even going to say this.

I mean,

We don't really know each other that well,

but I see similar characteristics.

I mean,

you're very bold.

You're very open.

You're very articulate.

I think we all ought to be watching you and see

what happens with your career.

That's what I think.

Thank you.

I'm honored.

I'm blushing.

Thank you.

I always only say the truth or I don't say it

at all.

So, you know,

I really am sincere what I'm saying,

what I'm saying.

Oh no.

I feel thank you.

So, So if our listeners wanted to connect up with you

now on the show notes page,

there's going to be facing your Facebook website,

all of that.

But if someone wanted to somehow connect up with you,

what would be the single place you would suggest?

They go?

When I work with me,

it's Heather Haven,

wood.com, Heather haman.com.

But I'd like to give your listeners gifts.

I don't even know about this.

I'm curious,

okay. My book is on audible and you can get that

through your link,

which is great.

I give away three free chapters of the book.

Just three,

not the whole thing as a taste.

Cause it's me.

I'm the author of the book and I'm also the voiceover

of the book.

It's amazing.

So I give away three free chapters of the book.

You can text the word sexy to seven two zero,

zero, zero.

So text the word,

sexy SDX.

Why does 72,000?

And you get three free chapters of the book.

And then if you like it,

you can go to your link and you can get the

audio book if you want.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for that.

And most of us who are listening are probably on our

phones. So we're going to be done pretty quickly.

So sexy is the word and seven two zero zero,

zero. So really easy to remember.

Yes. Go for it.

And then tell us you did it in the comment section

of the show notes.

I want to know.

I want to know.

Okay. Heather Ann,

it has been so wonderful chatting with you today.

I really like your perspective because you're giving us a different

angle we've talked about before and I really,

really appreciate the reinforcement of hobby versus a business.

I, we can't hear that enough.

So driving that home throughout our chat today has been extremely

valuable. And we've got to all remember,

it's all about that first dollar,

right? Yes,

it is all about the first.

I'll make your first Dollar.

That's right.

So thank you very much.

I so appreciate your taking the time we are all going

to have our eyes on you and watching you progress in

your career and may your candle always burn bright,

Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business.

Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your business

in life.

It's our gift to you and available@giftbizonrap.com

slash tools.

Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the

next episode.

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