The Thrive Podcast

Who else *loves* the start of the school year?

I know I'm not alone in loving that fresh-start feeling that you get when the air turns crisp at back to school time.

Even as an adult, back to school feels like an opportunity to re-set and re-evaluate my goals. I get a new journal, new clothes, and a fresh outlook on where I'm going in my life and business.

Which is why I'm so excited to *finally* share with you my journalling method that literally changed my life.

If you have big goals and dreams, you don't want to miss this episode.

Here's what I talk about:

- How my journalling method helped me dramatically change my life

- How I moved all areas of my life forward at the same time

- Why I think it's *not* healthy to focus on one thing at a time

- How I use goals to get more balance in my life

- Creating goal categories and why you need to set small achievable goals

- Celebrating your wins

- Using daily reminders to keep your thoughts on the right track and maintain a healthy mindset

Connect with me:

https://www.nicolehaney.com/

https://www.instagram.com/itsnicolehaney/

Do you ever think about just throwing in the towel?

Are you still moving towards your goals?

Seems like an easy question, right?

But the reality is that is *so* easy to get off course without even realizing it.

Most of us start our businesses thinking that the pursuit of the business itself will eventually get us to our goals.

But what if it's not? What if - in pursuit of success - you've gotten a bit off track?

This is why it's so important to constantly go back to our game plan and ask ourselves:

Am I still on the right path?

Today's episode is all about pursuing your goals and making sure you are still moving in the right direction.

Here's what we talk about:

- Why it's so important to check in on our goals

- How you can reach your goals in FAR less time than you are thinking

- What needs to be true for these goals to happen?

- Small steps in the right direction every day

Connect with me:

https://www.nicolehaney.com/

https://www.instagram.com/itsnicolehaney/

Do you know who you are talking to with your marketing?

You might be losing a ton of revenue

Most of us are so focused on working on our businesses that we fail to consider the most important thing: Our customers.

I mean, really we're all in the business of trying to sell things *to people*

But often as we start trying to make our businesses more profitable, or make them fit into the lifestyle that we want, we make decisions that benefit us and our businesses - but don't benefit our customers.

And the truth is if you want people to buy things from you, you need to make it easy for them to do so.

You have to give the customer what they want.

And that might cost you some money up front.

But in the long term? You'll earn *way* more than you are currently worried about saving.

Our job as business owners is to figure out how to do this while still ensuring we have the business we want. Here's what I talk about in today's episode:

- My experience buying dog food from a small business

- Why you might be leaving money on the table

- Why you need to stop making it difficult for customers to buy from you

- Finding creative solutions to your problems that both serve your customers and support your business

Connect with me:

https://www.nicolehaney.com/

https://www.instagram.com/itsnicolehaney/

Feeling stuck? In this week's episode, I'm talking all about feeling stuck in your business. From what's causing it to what you can do about it, this week's episode is fiery so get yourself ready!

You can't wait to be happy.

You wake up. It's 2am. Your heart's pounding. You're sweaty. And you can't stop thinking:

Who am *I* to be trying to do *this*?

We've all been there. Imposter syndrome is a freaking monster and it can really take over your thoughts.

Because you're new at this. Because you're making mistakes. Because you have no idea what you're doing.

But here's the secret that no one tells you:

No one knows what the hell they're doing.

We're all screwing up. Over and over again. And doing our best. Making it up as we go.

In today's episode I'm talking about imposter syndrome and how I deal with it when it comes up for me.

Connect with me:

https://www.nicolehaney.com/

https://www.instagram.com/itsnicolehaney/

When we start a business, we all want it to look "legitimate"

We want the big, shiny facility, the commercial packaging, a beautiful website, and a killer social media presence.

We want what the other - successful - businesses in our industry have. We want our brands to to look and feel just like them. We want people to think we're successful. We want other people to take us seriously.

But here's the thing no one tells you when you start a business:

Everyone starts at the bottom. And works their way up.

So when you're comparing yourself right now to people 5 years ahead of you, you're forgetting:

They started right where you are right now.

With the janky website. The product stored in their cars. The long hours standing on their feet making batch after batch with their own two hands. The plastic wrapped, self-labelled, labour of love.

Don't believe me? Take it from Erica Rankin, founder of Bro Dough. Erica started her business at the end of 2019 and now, just a few years later, Bro Dough is offered in over 120 stores across Ontario. But she didn't start out with everything perfect and shiny. Erica shares with us the behind-the-scenes messiness of starting a food business on your own.

Here's what we talk about:

- How Erica went from a desk job to a successful health food business in just a few years

- Why she did things that *don't scale*

- The expensive mistake of trying to make your business look "legitimate"

- Why she went from a big production facility to moving everything back into her condo

- How she leveraged social media to build a community of friends

- Why you should ignore the algorithm, numbers, and views

- The reason she completely changed her product and dealing with negative feedback

- How she's funding her business and why she brought on investors

Connect with Erica:

https://eatbrodough.com/

https://www.instagram.com/brodoughcanada/

https://www.instagram.com/life0ferica/

Connect with Nicole:

GUYS. This week's podcast episode is SO GOOD. This week, I'm sitting down with my friend, Zach, and as always we have such a great conversation! We talk about a little bit of everything entrepreneurial but our conversation seemed to keep coming back to two things: