Author: Lisé Kuecker

I’m a runner. No, not just the pavement-hitting kind, I’m a dreamer who when she has a new spark or stroke of brilliance, I run with it.

While this ability to harness an idea and take action on it fast is a gift in many ways, boy does it teach you a lot of lessons by virtue of hindsight being 20/20.

And it didn’t take long into my entrepreneurial journey to discover that crystal clear vision after-the-fact applies not just to life, but business, too.

But just like in life, we must look at our mistakes through the lens of lessons learned so that we can pivot and progress ever closer toward our visions of success for our businesses.

In episode 249, I kicked off this series of my biggest business mistakes with a few of my bumps in the legal and property realm of studio ownership, and now in Part 2, I’m diving into my few biggest mistakes around building a team.

Without a shadow of a doubt, I can say I couldn’t have grown the companies I had {and have} or achieved the freedom I desired without the teams I’ve built.

Over the last decade I’ve hired well over 100 people, but of course, that experience didn’t come without its own lessons learned from the rearview, which I’m sharing with you in today’s episode so you can sidestep my bumps in the road and hopefully have a smoother journey to success.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why you need to stop “DIY’ing” and hire smart to take catapult you to a place of growth

• Getting clear on defining the roles within your business and finding the right time to hire

• How to be direct about the expectations you have for your team and how to address struggles with your employees to preserve and strengthen relationships

• Understanding your role as a leader within your business and why you should never stop seeking out mentors to help boost your leadership skills

• The importance of reaching out for help and why it’s mandatory for your success

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Business Brilliant: Surprising Lessons from the Greatest Self-Made Business Icons by Lewis Schiff

• Episode 249: The 10 Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made Growing My Businesses {and How to Avoid Them} – Part 1

With Grit + Gratitude,

Lise

Losing your mom rocks your world.

Losing your mom tragically when you’re young?

Well, that’s tougher to bounce back from. You suffer from the ugly trifecta of anxiety, stress, depression. Sometimes out of that black night of grief is born an idea so true, beautiful, and honest you can’t help but follow it anywhere.

Including back to your hometown.

That is exactly what Maggie Yeung, owner of Homegrown Yoga, did. She’s my guest in this brand-new episode of Ready. Aim. Empire.

After graduating from high school, she did what any girl from a small Kentucky town does: go explore that big, exciting world. Now, she owns a yoga studio ½ mile from the neighborhood she grew up in. You’ll wanna hear how she got from there to here.

In the wake of her mom’s death, she says, “Yoga was the one thing that helped me keep on track.”

That’s exactly what she wants her community to find. She wants them to discover the mental yoga practice — not have a 1-sided physical practice.

Her mission: to break down the mental barriers her small town has against yoga {like “I’m not flexible enough,” “I’m not thin enough,” “I’ve never done it before”} in marketing experiments. And she’s doing it in some pretty doggone fun ways like yoga with pygmy goats or on a castle’s roof.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What Maggie’s athletic background is {and why it tee’d her up perfectly to teach yoga}
• Who in her life introduced her to yoga
• Why she picked the small town of Pawleys Island over Charlestown as her first studio’s location
• How she’s spicing up her studio’s marketing, tapping into her creative side, and connecting with her community in unexpected ways

With Grit + Gratitude,

Lise

Perfectionism does not exist.

Let me repeat that because this was a hard truth for me to learn.

Being perfect? Not an option. What is important is knowing where your weaknesses are.

In the past years of growing our businesses, I’ve many many, many mistakes. And I know I’ll go on to make more. Which I intend to learn from and move on from.

Because mistakes, y’all, are some of the best doggone teachers you can ever get.

Some of the biggest, craziest, baddest mistakes I’ve made in building our businesses have been some of my best opportunities to learn. They caused Dan and I to make radical changes in our businesses… for the better.

In this part 1 of a brand-new episode of Ready. Aim. Empire, I’m sharing my #8-10 mistakes out of my top 10 worst mistakes.

Trust me, some of these are real game-changers.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How I know that perfectionism doesn’t exist and what we should be focusing on instead
• What these “mistakes” taught me and how they allowed our businesses to flourish
• What can happen when you enter into an agreement with the wrong landlord and why your intuition is truly your BFF
• Why successfully negotiating a lease is one of the most crucial steps in getting your studio off the ground
• The #1 question to ask yourself when deciding between several business paths
• What you’ve gotta consider when developing a solid exit plan {and why it’s a must-have!}

With Grit + Gratitude,

Lise

“It’s not rest when you feel bad about it. I finally granted myself permission to take a breather.”

This is Angie McDermott’s philosophy when it comes to her health and it’s for good reason. She has fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue as the owner of Konscious Body Fitness, an athletic training studio.

She takes naps.

She ensures her body gets enough sleep.

She drinks gallons of water.

She said buh-bye to her jeans due to them being uncomfortably painful. And she “doesn’t even drunk dial them.”

We could steal a page from her self-care manual, y’all. Too often we ignore our own h
ealth.

Guys, it’s not an either/or situation: Either I’m healthy or I have a successful business. Instead, it’s a both/and situation: I’m healthy and I have a successful business.

Angie embodies that mentality.

That’s not the only reason I invited her on this new episode of Ready. Aim. Empire.

Because a couple years into her career, she took a 6-month hiatus because of burnout. Her health was suffering — that impeccable self-care routine we just talked about was not in place. She’s rebounded from that place of reevaluation into success’ golden seat and, oh boy, she’s got some tasty secrets to share on the mindset needed for that leap.  

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What made Angie decide to focus on athletic training and how she got the confidence to succeed in her chosen field
• How a burnout led to her next business endeavor
• The role that mindset and the mental game has played in the development of her career
• How significant her health issues have impacted her physically {and mentally}… but haven’t prevented her from building a thriving business
• Her suggestions on finding the support to help you succeed

With Grit + Gratitude,

Lise