Vanya Wryter Consulting Services
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“…the Snapchat generation may produce more writing than any group of teenagers before it, writing copious text messages and social media posts, but when it comes to the formal writing expected at school and work, they struggle with the mechanics of simple sentences.” – Dana Goldstein, The New York Times
For more on writing and technology, check out this post on writing skills.
Why did you become an entrepreneur? You most likely wanted a challenge, income security, financial success, or you weren’t happy with your situation at work. No matter what your reason, developing a wealth mindset is important to becoming successful as an entrepreneur. One way to develop that mindset is by reading Robb Report.
What is a wealth mindset and why Robb Report? To start with, here are some important stats you should know. In the world, there are 582 million entrepreneurs. You’re not alone! And as of 2016, 25 million Americans had already started or were already running a business of their own. Sounds positive, but also consider this: within the first year, 22.5% of small businesses fail.
To avoid becoming a statistic, or a cautionary tale for entrepreneurs, it’s important to develop a wealth mindset. Contrary to what it may suggest, a wealth mindset isn’t just about getting rich and having money. Wealth is also about abundance.
Do you read or hear about people complaining about how expensive the cost of living has become? What about people complaining about their salary and how they want to be paid more but they aren’t? I read negative comments about costs and salaries and prices all the time. It’s easy for people to complain.
The problem is your mind gets cluttered with the negativity. You could be hearing a voice in your head saying your career goal is out of reach, that your income goal is impossible, or no one wants to buy what you want to sell.
The entrepreneur wealth mindset defeats those thoughts. You want to see the world as abundant. You want to start believing that there is enough money to go around, and there are enough customers to go around.
No matter how dark those early days are as you struggle with the first few years of your business, you must believe that wealth is totally attainable. You have to believe that one day, your business will start to turn a profit and you can tell your friends and family, “I did it! I told you I would.”
My business mentor taught me reading the Robb Report is one way to develop a wealth mindset. The Robb Report is both a print and online luxury magazine about luxury vehicles, vacations, dining, and fashion. The target market is the superrich, those “with an average income of $1.25 million and an average net worth of $7.5 million.”
What if you’re nowhere near that income bracket?
No worries if you’re short by a few million. It’s all about the mindset. Read what the wealthy read about. According to Robb Report, the top three most popular articles for 2019 were about a $250 million dollar yacht, American restaurants rated by Michelin, and America’s biggest 3 million square foot mall in Rutherford, NJ. Most of these popular topics are quite relatable to us all. Many of us like to eat and shop.
The amount we spend when shopping is a bit different in the Robb Report universe. The magazine is not at all squeamish about listing the price of an item. A Frette Chains Wool Blanket, for example, is described in a highly desirable way:
“Frette is not a new name in the world of luxury textiles—it was one of the official purveyors to the Italian royal family back in the late 1800s, after all—and this grey throw readily fits in with the brand’s storied oeuvre. Made of soft virgin wool, it’s a dream to curl up in.“
Underneath the description is the price: $1067. No problem! The typical Robb Report audience does not bat an eye when dropping a few hundred – or thousand – on an item. Many of us more humble entrepreneurs might balk at spending over a thousand on what better be the blanket of the century.
Read more: Why You Should Charge More to Keep Customers Happy
However, when you start reading these articles, you can train your brain to think with a wealth mindset. You start to think differently: Money comes to you in abundance. One day, you will be able to afford what you want without calculating how each purchase will impact your finances.
You don’t have to start buying thousand-dollar accessories for your home. But you can start to think of things that you thought were expensive as being more affordable, more within reach.
Think about how you view wealth. What do you consider a low income? Middle income? High income? Most people think of six figures (even 100,000) to be high income and unattainable. Now consider why you have this income scale in your mind.
I remember a friend of mine once said she was in the high-income bracket because she cleared $100K. To her, $100K was the upper end of the income bracket for people. Many would agree with her. I once read an article about how “most people” can’t afford a house in Vancouver. They also say you should expect to be thousands of dollars in debt after college.
These types of thoughts adjust your income scale in your mind in a certain way. Being in debt from buying a $800K house, or in debt from college means you expect to be only generating so much income from your career, your business, your investments, etc.
Retrain your brain. Set your goals higher. Redefine what you think of as your middle-income goal. Your high income goal. Why should a high income be just $100K? Why not $500K? Why not a million? Set higher goals for yourself, and your perception of wealth will change too.
For example, yes, you could be in debt when you first start a business. But eventually abundance will find you and you will find the income you are looking for. Tell yourself you can afford luxuries. You deserve it. You deserve abundance, whether that wealth means more money, more free time, better health, or achieving your dreams.
And one day, when you see a PieCaken holiday dessert, “one cinnamon buttercream-encased package” you’ll say, “$99? I’ll take it. Looks delicious.” Like they say, in Robb Report, “It’s the perfect confection for those among us who simply don’t want to choose just one dessert.”
Developing a wealth mindset is an important first step in your road to success as an entrepreneur. Reading magazines like Robb Report will retrain your brain to visualize wealth – abundance – as an attainable goal. You will tear down mental walls and redefine what you think is possible.
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Let’s say you’re a typical entrepreneur. And like 80% of entrepreneurs, you use your smartphone to run your business. Now let’s say, for a challenge, you lose your access to your favoured piece of technology. Would you still be able to do business like normal if you didn’t have it? Would you be able to survive without your smartphone?
According to PeoplePerHour, “over 80% of entrepreneurs use smartphones to run or manage their business.” Without their smartphones, how different would life be for entrepreneurs? In most cases, as you will see, it’s like a throwback in time.
In 2018, 51.9% of those aged 24 to 44 checked their phone every 30 minutes. – Statistics Canada
Entrepreneurs run their business using calendar apps and messaging services to keep track of their schedules, take and receive calls, and schedule and attend meetings. When it’s almost time for a meeting, an alarm on their phone will go off as a reminder.
Getting ready for business trips are a no-sweat, easy activity with apps to remind you where you’re supposed to be and when. You can book a hotel, a car rental, and a plane ticket from the comfort of your phone, no matter where you are. Even if you’re in the bathroom.
Virtual meetings already structure a part of your day, but they don’t limit where you have to be. There’s no need to rush to the office to attend a meeting. You can turn on your smartphone camera and attend from the inside of your car in between running errands.
If you want to send a message without making a phone call, you can type a quick text. If you’re in a rush, and you want to send a long (ish) message, you can send one by voice. All these tasks are convenient and quick to do.
But an entrepreneur without a smartphone would be working quite differently.
Without their calendar apps, entrepreneurs would be keeping track of all the events in their day with a day planner or a wall calendar. They would need a pen to jot down all their notes in their day planner, and have a purse or a small bag to keep the planner with them when they leave their desk. Planning one’s day already requires a lot more stuff.
A wall calendar is also handy for keeping your month organized, but unless you take your calendar with you, you may need to memorize when you have some of your appointments and project deadlines. And for all those random thoughts, ideas, and memos you may have, you’ll need a little pad of sticky post-it notes. Your wall or desk will become quite colourful.
Video conferencing will have limitations if you don’t have a smartphone. When you’re at the office, you’ll need to go to the meeting room, where the screen, telephone, and speakers are already set up for your call. You probably had to book the room in advance as well.
If you have a call at your home office, then you need to be back at your desk, where your camera and speakers are set up for an optimal meeting experience. You might have a virtual background set up. Everything that is in view of your camera in your room is quite presentable.
You may have had to kick out your cat or put your pet in the next room. Same with the kids, although it will be harder to kick them out of the room. At least with a smartphone, you can easily move yourself to a new location wherever there is WiFi or data. You can even hide in a brightly lit closet.
No matter which option the entrepreneur chooses for doing business meetings without a phone, they are limited by the location of their laptop or tablet, and WiFi connection.
Organizing yourself, messaging others, and attending meetings is still survivable without a smartphone. You just need to rely more on other types of technology, a big laptop, and good old paper documents like planners and post it notes.
Security has improved to the point that we can share files in the cloud. We can access the same document from our smartphone, our tablet, or our laptop. Not only can we access from any device, but we can also access our files from anywhere.
Mobile payments have also become a cinch to do from mobile devices. You can make a payment or do your banking from your bed. Or make an online purchase while watching TV. You can be a lot more spontaneous than if you have just a laptop or tablet.
Got a few minutes to make a mobile payment? You’d have to take out that laptop, set it up, find a place to set it up, and so on. If you don’t have a laptop, you would need some time to walk over to the bank to make a payment.
It’s not so long ago when entrepreneurs would get creative with getting documents prepared. You could lug your heavy laptop with you to do a presentation at a meeting with a client at their office.
And before we had data plans, you could bring a backup of your files on your USB drive in case your WiFi connection failed. You also had the messy alternative of printing out a copy of your file to put in a file folder or portfolio for safe keeping. Not only does this option affect our tree population, but it just means doubling the amount of stuff you have to bring with you.
No matter what option you choose, USB or paper, not having your smartphone means requiring access to more devices and a lot less flexibility. Laptops require more space. Paper copies take longer to navigate because you can’t skip directly to a section you want unless you already know which page it’s on.
Most freelancers, business owners and entrepreneurs appreciate the fact that smartphones offer them the opportunity to quickly check their emails, upload new products to their websites and even interact with their customers, all on the go. And while this is great, it is the addiction and the urge to always check your smartphone every other second that is worrying. – PeoplePerHour
Keeping up with the trends is quicker and easier with a smartphone. You don’t need to stop for the morning paper when you’re on the way to work. You don’t need to surf the internet on your work computer for news headlines. One click on your smartphone news app and you can quickly scan all the biggest headlines, check out sports scores, and the latest numbers for the stock market and real estate market.
Who has the patience these days to scan a newspaper for headlines when you can Google search what you want? Why slowly read through everything on a page when you can move from one item to another in seconds with the flick of a finger?
In fact, the availability and abundance of information, has affected how much time we can spend on things. Our attention span has dropped by 4 seconds in just four years.
A 2016 Microsoft consumer study claimed the attention span for human beings had dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds (lower than the notoriously ill-focused goldfish) mainly because of the effects of the increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain. – PeoplePerHour
Solopreneurs who work on their own social media marketing can check the status of social media posts, look for leads and potential clients on Facebook, and see what their friends are up to on Facebook and Instagram.
When it comes to personal social media use, men and women are looking for different things. Men are more likely to use social media for news and see who they can meet on dating apps. Women are more likely to use social media to see what their friends and family are doing.
Without a smartphone, entrepreneurs would have to wait until they are at their workstation to check for social media and news updates on their laptops or tablets. It’s not as convenient as checking while on a bus ride, during a commercial for a TV show, or when sitting around having a tea or coffee.
Entrepreneurs can continue to do business without their smartphones. They can survive without the convenience of this technology. But they will also lose many of the conveniences they are used to, making it more difficult to run a business from anywhere at almost any time.
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Have you ever tried learning entrepreneurship skills by watching a movie? The other day I watched a show about a character who was trying to make money without finding a job. So I thought, how cool would it be to learn entrepreneurship by watching a bunch of movies! But… the movies that leapt to mind the quickest were all about Caucasian entrepreneur-minded people. After much digging, I found some movies about people of colour (POC) that teach top-notch entrepreneurship skills.
To compile my list, I did a search for movies about entrepreneurs. To my disappointment, these were lists of male entrepreneurs. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, I tend to focus on female entrepreneurs. I decided to refine my search further, and I had no difficulty finding lists of movies about female business minded people. For example:
Encouraged by my findings on female entrepreneur-minded people, I wanted to go a step further and find female entrepreneurs of colour. This next search yielded fewer results, so I decided to look for any entrepreneurial movies about people of colour (male or female) and I came up with six titles.
These titles were selected solely on what the movie could teach us about entrepreneurship. Their historical accuracy and quality as a movie (plot and character) were a less of a consideration. I also kept the selection to movies, and not documentaries, to keep the playing field even. Time to bring out the popcorn and grab a good seat!
Related read: Leadership and Race: Are Leadership Skills Affected By Our Identity?
First, let’s begin with my favourite topic, women who are amazing for their business talents and skills. These women show how their first-rate entrepreneurial skills help them to achieve their goals and become successful.
In Lionheart, Adaeze Obiagu wants the opportunity to run a transportation company when her father, Chief Ernest Obiagu, has health issues. She and her father’s brother work together to save the bus company from debt and possible takeover.
Lessons to Learn
Okay, so this isn’t exactly a movie – it’s a Netflix mini-series. But the story about how a woman becomes tired of her job, finds a product to sell, and builds her own empire from cosmetic and hair products is worth watching from a business standpoint. Madam C.J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove) is recorded as the first female self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Lessons to Learn
Laurel Ayres is a talented and smart African American woman trying to climb the Wall Street corporate ladder. When she is passed over for a promotion, it is because she is a woman. Determined to be taken more seriously in the male-dominated Wall Street world, she pretends to be Robert S. Cutty, a white man.
Lessons to Learn
These next three movies teach excellent lessons about the business of entrepreneurship and the mental toughness it takes to become an entrepreneur. Again, these people demonstrate first-rate entrepreneurial skills.
This movie is based on the real-life story of William Kamkwamba, a 13-year-old boy who cannot attend school when his family cannot afford the fees. The village is suffering from extreme poverty from famine and drought. To save his family, William sneaks into the school library and learns how to build a windmill to end the drought.
Lessons to Learn
This movie is based on the story of Chris Gardner, a failing bone density scanner salesman. His wife works double shifts to support both them and their son. Eventually she leaves them, and he and his son become homeless. To change his life, Chris works as an unpaid intern for six months until he is chosen for the one full-time paid position. Eventually, he forms his own multimillion-dollar brokerage firm.
Lessons to Learn
Yes, this movie is a bit different than the others. It’s a cartoon, but I was determined to find a movie about Asians and entrepreneurship. This story has many inventors. Hiro is a robot specialist who invents tiny robots that link to create things. His brother Tadashi invented a medical robot called Baymax who helps treat medical problems. Hiro partners up with Tadashi’s friends after his brother’s death so they can find his killer. One of these friends is inventor Go Go, an electromagnetics expert.
Lessons to Learn
Movies can be a great source of entertainment, but they can also teach you tips and lessons about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. These six movies share first-rate entrepreneurial skills, from mental attitude, to how to start a business. The next time you’re looking for a movie to watch, consider selecting one of these titles about successful people of colour who have a winning entrepreneurial mindset.
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Are you more fit or less fit than before the COVID-19 pandemic? Your fitness routine may have changed this year because gyms have closed and you’re no longer walking to catch the bus to work. If there were a year to gain weight before overeating at Christmas, 2020 would be it. My sedentary job and reduced social life are two reasons I became fascinated by health and fitness influencers on TikTok. Now if you’re an entrepreneur like me, you’ll also want to add the following influencers to your social media must-follow list.
Working from home comes with its health and fitness challenges, especially with winter around the corner. Your community centre or gym may be closed. Your city may have restrictions on your social circle, so you may no longer have a running or walking buddy to keep you accountable. What can you do for your pandemic health and fitness routine?
A pandemic health and fitness routine should fit your lifestyle and be practical and doable. As an entrepreneur, you most likely work unusual hours and (if you’re a solopreneur), you may be working long hours. It’s also possible that COVID-19 affected your business and you’re dealing with not enough work and financial hardship.
No matter what your situation, you still need a physical and mental break. Health is essential, especially if you’ve been working from home and spending hours at your desk.
When you need a break, it’s possible to turn your home into your own little gym. And you won’t need to invest in gym equipment! A health and fitness influencer I discovered on TikTok is @justinagustin, a fitness trainer who teaches you simple workout routines using equipment you can find at your home. For example, you can use a wall, a chair, a towel, a bed, or your sofa for low impact workouts. And practicality isn’t his only concern.
In some videos, he partners with @kathleen_jd to show the same exercise at both beginner and advanced levels. You can choose the level most comfortable for you. These exercises are very manageable for those who aren’t super fit (or became less fit from working from home and not going out as much).
From a business point of view, I thought it was very clever to show exercises to try where you are. Workout videos using gym equipment would require modification if you don’t have it, and if you’re not a fitness expert, you may not know how to adapt an exercise.
If you’re working unusual hours (which some entrepreneurs do), try one or more of this fitness influencer’s videos to exercise with your virtual workout buddy and mentor.
At some point in the pandemic, “non-essential” businesses had to close, including chiropractors. However, if you’re entrepreneurial-minded, you’ll always be thinking about how to pivot your business, adapt to changes, and bring in leads.
Another health and fitness influencer to follow is a health expert who took advantage of the closure of his chiropractic office to combine his expertise in back, neck, and knee pain tips with his love for music. Mixing his career and hobby had amazing results.
Not only did he gain a following by sharing health tips to catchy music, but he also started a trend in which other medical and healthcare experts gave their expert advice to catchy tunes. Jordan Estrada’s success is documented in Insider.com.
From an entrepreneurial point of view, it’s a clever way to warm up the market. He gains clients who recognize him from TikTok, and marketers know that people are quicker to buy from someone they trust. The TikTok star spends about ten hours creating this social media content.
The next time you have back pain from a sedentary lifestyle, it may be time to enjoy some tunes and work on getting your body back into shape.
If you couldn’t attend dance class or fitness class because these facilities were closed, TikTok fitness videos are a great alternative. They aren’t the same as complete lessons, however, because the videos are short. But you learn from health and fitness influencers who break down dance steps or show off dance routines in bite-sized bits that brighten a busy day.
Related: TikTok Influencers that are Perfect for Learning About Careers
You’ll be amazed by jaw-dropping dance routines or risky jumps and leaps. They’re great entertainment if you’re not athletically inclined. There are so many fascinating influencers in this space that I had a hard time choosing just one to highlight for this article.
TikTok also has videos that teach dance moves step-by-step for familiar dances like bachata. These short and easy lessons may be more enticing for those who prefer a slower pace for a workout routine.
These videos are a wonderful inspiration to entrepreneurs. I like to see how the videos display people’s talents and help them to grow an audience organically. I also like to learn from them. Dances and displays of physical skill (including contortion) are breathtaking to watch.
Whether you have a sedentary lifestyle from working remotely or you’ve gained weight from being stuck at home, you can easily spare a few minutes here or there to exercise.
TikTok health and fitness influencers are one source for quick fitness lessons in easily consumable bits. They are also an inspiration for entrepreneurs who want to grow an audience and increase their brand awareness.
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Vanya Wryter Consulting Services