Episode 1: Create a vision for your brand and business (Transcript)

What’s up y’all. Welcome to The Shontavia Show, where my goal is to help you start a business based on your life’s vision. This ain’t going to be your daddy’s business advice. I’m laser focused on entrepreneurship, in the 21st century vision, and breaking the traditional mold. If you can get with that and you can get with me, be sure to visit shontavia.com for more episodes, blog posts, and other content. Thank you for listening. The show starts now.

All right. So, Hey everybody. Welcome to The Shontavia Show where I want to help you start a business based on your vision for your life. So this episode is all about vision. And, it’s a little weird to be talking about vision with a podcast about entrepreneurship and business. But trust me on this, I don’t work with anybody unless they have a clear vision, and they can tell me where they want to go. And I want to talk to you a little bit about why.

So when you search for the terms business vision on Google, you get like more than 3 billion search results. So this is an important topic. This is something people are writing about, talking about, and interested in knowing more about. But, It’s hard sometimes to know what kind of vision do I have for my life? What kind of vision do I have for my business? Most of us are so busy with the day to day that we never really even stopped to think, what is the vision that I have right now for my life? How does a business even fit into this and where do I get the time? All that different stuff. So I want to talk a lot about vision in this episode because I think once you have a good vision, the rest of this stuff is water under the bridge. It’s just a matter of getting the right tools and resources to figure out what my vision actually looks like.

So in my opinion, brainstorming, which is one of my favorite things to do, is one of the most important things you can do for your business. About a decade ago, I read this book by Michael Gerber called the E myth revisited. And one of the things he said in that book, and it has stuck with me for so long, is he asked this question of the readers: he asked, “with no clear picture of what you wish your life to be, how on earth can you begin to live it?” And this made so much sense to me. So like even if I use Google maps, I need to have an address before Google can tell me where I’m going. So, duh, of course it makes sense for us to know at least generally where we’re going. That can help you avoid traffic, flat tires, accidents, all those things just by knowing your destination.

So for entrepreneurs, one of the first things I suggest people do is get a vision together. Yeah, you can get lucky and lots of people have gotten lucky, but doesn’t it make sense to have some directions on your path? So I really actually would like to start with a story.

So this is maybe, I don’t know, at a point when I was working full time at a law firm and not very happy, one of the things I used to do when I got home is, watch YouTube videos of the Oprah Winfrey show. I don’t know how many of you, you know, watch the Oprah Winfrey show when it was on in the, in the 90s and early 200s. I did not actually watch it then. I was out, probably live in my life being 20 or whatever. But uh, I started watching these episodes and there was an episode on YouTube about Oprah’s favorite guest. And her favorite guest was a woman named Tererai Trent.

She was born in what is now Zimbabwe. Then it was called Rhodesia. And, Tererai Trent was born in this rural village. She was not allowed to go to school. Girls were not allowed to go to school in this village. And at 11 years old, she was married off to a much older man. This much older man who was her husband, beat her every day. He was physically abusive and by the time she was 18 she had four kids and was married to this really abusive guy. This nonprofit came to Zimbabwe and started working with Tererai Trent’s village. And one of the folks working in this nonprofit said to Tererai one day, “what is your vision? What do you want for your life?” And Tererai had to think about it and this person told her, write these things down and hold onto those things. Write these things down. Don’t forget the vision that you want for your life.

So Tererai got a piece of paper, wrote three things down. She said she wanted to get a bachelor’s degree, she wanted to get a master’s degree and she wanted to get a PhD. She folded up this piece of paper, put it in a can and buried it under a tree and never forgot about that vision. And then shortly after she wrote that vision down, I think it was a few years, she had the opportunity through this nonprofit to come to the U.S. So with four kids and this abusive husband in tow. She moved to this new land to the United States and she got the opportunity to get her bachelor’s degree, which seemed, you know, impossible nearly, you know, 10 billion miles away from this poor 11 year old girl who was being beaten by her husband every day in Zimbabwe. At some point her husband went back to Zimbabwe and she got a master’s degree and she got a PhD and now Tererai Trent.

Dr Tererai Trent now is one of the most well known women’s empowerment advocates on the planet. She received a million and a half dollars from Oprah Winfrey to create a school for girls. She is doing really dynamic work. She’s written books. She’s a successful speaker. I actually was blessed to hear her speak a few years ago. She’s actually also a member of my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. So OOOO-OOOP all the Deltas out there. So, so this story just really encouraged me when I heard it because as a person experienced all of these obstacles, the thing that really kept Dr. Trent going was writing this vision down. And it was something I frankly hadn’t done in my own life. I was kind of floating through not really thinking about what I wanted. I just knew I hated where I was at the time. So I did the same thing. I got, well actually I use the laptop, I didn’t write anything down back then.

But, I started writing what I wanted to see happen in my life. And back then it wasn’t even about business necessarily. It was that I wanted to get out of the job that I had, that I wanted. Uh, I had one child at the time. I wanted a son. I wanted his name to be my maiden name and I wanted two or three other things. And uh, it made me number one feel better, but it was something nagging in the back of my head all the time that, you know, these are the things you want for your life. So I would just start making incremental changes and taking opportunities that got me closer and closer to those things. And now I have just about all of them. I don’t have $10 million in the bank yet, but I’m getting there.

And so, so writing down a vision and having this vision was so important to me. And over the years I figured out how to take this lesson I actually learned watching the Oprah Winfrey Show and turn it into a more formal thing.

And so this episode is all about how you can also create a vision that gives you direction about how to create the business that you want. So it asks you to really do one thing, which is daydream. I’m going to walk through kind of the questions you need to ask and the things you need to think about in terms of creating a vision.

So one of the first things you have to do is pick a time frame that’s not too far away. So most people think, okay, if I’m going to have these big audacious goals, it’s going to take me 5, 10 15, 20 years to do it.

No timeout for all of that. This is, you know, the 21st century, things move really quickly. And for the most part, I’m not saying you get out there and crash and burn, but there’s so many things where we just make these bullshit excuses and we don’t actually take the steps to do the things we need to do.

I don’t want you to do that. So pick a timeframe no more than three years from right now. It can be three months, 12 months, three years, whatever. And I want you to literally daydream about what you’d like to see happen in four different areas.

#1: So first your life. So, so many of us get caught up in work that it’s all about the business and it’s all about this and all about that. But no, I want you to start first with your life. So what do you want your life to look like? Your family, your day to day, your health? Because if these things aren’t good, I don’t care what you want, it’s going to be really, really difficult to have the support system, to have the physical capacity, the mental fortitude, frankly the health to get all this stuff done.

So first, what do you want your life to look like? Like the people who love you and care about you? Oftentimes if your support system is not good, you ain’t gonna be good either. So what’s your life look like?

#2: Number two, what do you want your professional reputation to look like? So this is something I actually kind of struggled with as I am from a small town in South Carolina. At the time that I started doing this work, I was living in a small town and I wanted a national reputation in what my field was at that time, which was intellectual property law: patents, trademarks, copyrights, that kind of thing.

So this really seemed impossible to me. I had never been in a magazine or on the news, I didn’t even know any lawyers actually before I went to law school. So I didn’t really know how I was going to make this happen, but I knew I wanted a national reputation. And my wish at that time was to be in like, I think the Washington Post or actually no, it was Fortune. I wanted to be in Fortune Magazine once. So I wanted to create this national professional reputation. So for you, what kind of reputation do you want? I’m not saying you have to want the same things I did, but what are you known for and to whom are you known for those things.

#3: Then the third thing, like what do you want your business to look like? Why are you starting a business? And if you haven’t gotten there yet, why you’re starting, um, what steps are you taking to start at this period? So I usually do like a three year time period, but why are you starting a business?

And if it’s just to make money, think a little deeper. Like who are you helping? Why are you wanting to do these kinds of things? How are you making money? How are you sustaining yourself?

Women entrepreneurs, in particular, give away so much, that it’s hard to even think about asking people for money for, you know, whatever it is they’re doing. So how are you actually making money? And to the extent you can, put dollars to all of that.

#4: And then the fourth thing, so we’ve talked about your life, your professional reputation, your personal brand, if you will, your business.

Fourth, what do you want your energy to look like? How do you feel? Where are you spending your energy? So like for me, I wanted to start a business, but I don’t want to work 24 hours a day. I have three children, I have a husband, I have extended family I want to spend time with. I don’t want to be on the road all the time. And so I’ve created a business where I don’t do that.

I, I am at home many days. I can pick my children up from school many days. So I want the kind of energy where I am, you know, generally very relaxed. I don’t like to be stressed. I don’t work that well that way. Some people do. Some people like, like these high stress environments.

So, so they dream about these things. What does your life look like? What does your personal brand look like? What does your business look like? And, what does your energy look like?

And so as you do this, I have a couple pieces of advice for you. Number one, get out of your usual location. Don’t do it at home, don’t do it in that office or whatever that you hate. Don’t do it on the train that you take to work or the bus you take to work. Go to your happy place.

So like for me, my happy places, water, my, my, my sign is cancer, which is the crab, the water sign. So I love water and I think best when I’m near water. I don’t live anywhere near water right now. Well, there’s a river. So the last time I did this exercise, a couple of months ago, I went actually and sat by the river or, and then actually the pool. So, so go to your happy place, get out of your usual location, don’t do it at home, if you can help it. If you love Starbucks, go to Starbucks, go to your happy place. Also write things down. So I’ma go back to Dr. Tererai Trent and writing things down. Writing things down makes it real and it’s something you can go back and look at.

So I prefer like a pen and paper to a laptop. I started doing this kind of stuff with laptops, but I actually realized I think better when I am handwriting. Also, there’s research that shows when you write things down, you actually, um, kind of internalize them more and you facilitate things to make them happen more. Cause you’re thinking more when you’re writing than when you’re typing.

But, if you need to type, fine, I understand that we live in a digital world, right? But whatever method you use, do this without distractions. Turn off your cell phone, turn off the notifications, close all the apps, your browser windows, get a babysitter if you need to. Get a babysitter, do whatever you need to do to do this without distractions.

Also, I talked a bit about including your life goals, but personal goals like include all of these things. What do you want your life to look like in all these different spaces? Cause this stuff builds on each other.

If you’re not in a great relationship with your significant other, if your children are unhappy, if your parents aren’t happy, if your friends are not supporting you or whatever. The people you love in these personal relationships are usually the ones who are most impacted by your work. And so make sure you’re thinking about them too because your support system is critical.

And not only think about the other people in your life, think about the people you are going to be selling to your customers, your clients. Think about how you’re going to positively impact their lives. So you know, a lot of people start businesses because they need to make more money or they want to leave their jobs or whatever, and that’s an okay starting point.

But the more meaningful work, at least the people who I enjoy working with the most, is how they’re going to impact the world, how they’re really going to take the things they know, the things they’re good at, the things they’re going to learn about, the services or products they’re offering, how you’re going to positively impact the world.

And frankly more people want to work with you when you are realizing and communicating that it’s about other folks, not just about you. So include professional and personal goals. Think about yourself, but think about other people too.

And then the final thing, which is the most important thing is don’t make excuses. Don’t look at whatever you think your reality is. Kids, marriage, divorce, money, illness, whatever. Yes, those things are important and you’ll have to kind of deal with them, but screw reality or whatever you think is realistic because it doesn’t….

What is realistic is what you want to be realistic in many instances. Picture the ideal situation free from whatever limitations you think might exist. I mean, yeah, you may have to take a little bit longer than six months if you’re going to, I don’t know, in a time travel machine or something, but LET YOURSELF DREAM.

Give yourself permission to do this, especially to the women who are listening. We do not do this enough. We don’t let ourselves dream about what we actually want. It’s often about who we have,um, professional and personal obligations to first, but this is about you in some regards and you want to let yourself dream. And please know that it’s okay if you don’t have like a set in stone and a crystal clear picture of what you want in all these different areas. It can take days, weeks, months or longer for you to really feel like you have clarity on this. The point is really just to get started.

So one of my favorite entrepreneurs, male or female, is a woman named Marie Forleo. And one of the things that she famously teaches in a lot of her classes is that clarity comes from engagement, not thought. So you sitting around thinking about things is not going to give you clarity about what you want in your life and your business, in your energy and with your family.

You have to actually engage with that stuff. So I want you to first engage with your dreams and with your desires. Get your thoughts out of your head, and onto paper or onto a screen. This exercise really just wants to get you thinking about what your reality can be.

So a lot of times we don’t even think about what we want. So as you’re taking care of everybody else and getting people and places and other folks ready and together, think about yourself to take some time for yourself and think about a vision.

So like my own vision, if you want to see examples of what visions can potentially look like, if you visit my website, shontavia.com you can find an example of a vision, my own personal vision. And there are others, other women who I work with and who have developed their own new visions for their life and their business have agreed to share their examples too. So you can see different examples of what visions can look like for your life and ultimately your business.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Shontavia Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to like, subscribe, and leave a comment wherever you’re listening. You can find me on social media everywhere, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and wherever else @ShontaviaJEsq. You can also visit me shontavia.com to find a transcript of this episode along with other show notes.

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While I am a lawyer, though the information I provide is not legal advice and does not create or constitute an attorney client relationship. The Shontavia Show is a LVRG Incorporated original. The show is recorded on site in South Carolina and produced at Sit-N-Spin studio in Greenville, South Carolina. Original music and sound design is by Matt Morgan and Daniel Gregory. Mixing and mastering is by Daniel Gregory and the video is by GVL Media.