Hello friends, and welcome to uncomplicating Business. It has been a minute because December ate my lunch, and I am so happy to be back with you and with one of my favorite people today. What we are going to talk about today is a little different. We're going to do a little bit of trust, but we're going to also talk about planning, because the way we're going to structure the podcast in the new year is going to be a little different. I'm going to tell you all those stories over time. Don't worry, it's still going to be great. 

So you know, 15 minutes into her and I talking, we hit record. Please, please chat. Please, welcome my very, very favorite friend who I literally know from the internet, and I have no idea why, but I love her. And if we were neighbors, we'd be in jail together. My friend Tracy beavers, who is a CEO and a founder, and she helps people grow businesses, particularly through organic marketing. She does visibility, she does sales, she does speaking, she does writing. 

She has a podcast that's fabulous called create online business success. She runs a group. She runs a mastermind. She does like there's literally nothing she doesn't do, and she does what we do. She has kids and dogs and parents and chaos, and she's just fabulous, and you're gonna like her as much as I do so friends, as I remind you every time I have somebody on, you know, she's a human being. She lives on LinkedIn, you can go find her, and you can send her a note and say, Hey, I heard you on Sara's podcast. I'd love to actually have a conversation with you, and she would not be like, Oh my gosh, you're the devil. She'd be like, cool. Let's do that. So please reach out to her.

Hi, Tracy, Hi, I'm so excited to be here. You make me laugh so hard. Every time we get together, my face freaking hurts because I smile so much and laugh so much,
but we also like, we smile and we laugh and we get, like, wound up about the same crazy things. I know, right? I know. So first, let us talk. We're going to do a little bit of trust. So, yeah, first, tell people a little bit about what you do, and particularly the role of trusting yourself in what you do as a business owner.
That's deep, wow.

And we just like, jump right off the cliff right here. Hi, hi, welcome to the podcast. Let's have big thoughts. Let's get into your feelings that now we don't do that. Yeah, I mean trust as myself and a business as a business owner, right? Yeah, that one took some time, and so my backstory for for the listeners who haven't met me yet, is, backstory is corporate. You know, over 20 year award winning sales career in corporate, I was really climbing the ladder, doing big things, and worked for a company that didn't know how to compensate at Salesforce, monkeying around New People's commission structures. And I was like, Oh, dang. I thought I had control over how much money I could make. Well, no, turns out you can't. So that's when I had to make a pivot and decide, do I want to keep going down this corporate road, or do I want to trust myself and start my own business? And I it took some really good friends of mine to say to me, Tracy beavers, people are always coming to you asking, how you are so successful in sales? How are you growing these businesses? How are you gaining market share? What do you mean? You can't do this. And I was like, oh, sometimes you
can't see. Oh, god yes, I'm always last famously, right?

You're like, What do you mean? You know, what do you mean? Sara, think you're good at that. And Sara is like, oh, wait a minute, yes, I am, yeah. And, you know, when they pointed it out, I was like, they're right. People have been asking me that for years. People are coming to me with that question. And I didn't even know coaching was a thing. I mean, I'm in Arkansas. We are slow on every single trend. Name a trend. We're the last ones to know about it. The six seven thing didn't arrive here till, I don't know when. You know, with the middle schoolers, we're just now using it here in Arkansas, the six seven. But I was like, coaching that's a thing. And they're like, Yeah. And I was like, okay, but I really had to, I had to go inside myself and say, What do you really want to do? Because if I really wanted to leave corporate, I had no choice but to trust myself. And so sometimes I think trusting yourself comes with you don't have any other choices, yep, well, but I think that that's one kind of trust like that is the large scale meta, I can do this, yeah, yeah, I know this is going to work. And then there is the day to day minutia trust that I think, I think people come into business. 

Think, like, I can do this, right? And well, so either they're really good at, like, the minutia. Trust, like, I'm going to do this thing, and I know how to do this, I'll figure it out, whatever this little thing, right? Or they're really good at the big scale, meta. Trust, yeah, yeah. And they fight the other one. Like, did you find because you had that big one.

 You fought the little things like tell me that, oh my gosh, the learning curve on the tech almost made me want to give up, because Tech's not my jam. I'm a wordy girl. You give me a microphone and a stage, I am happy, same happy talking to people, you know, all the stuff. And I had a Kajabi for goodness sake. What is that? Why is it named that? Landing Page, funnel, register. I mean, like, I was like, I don't know about this. That was a big trust gap for me, because I had to, I once again, I had to say, okay, Tracy, are you going to trust that you can figure this out? And what I had to do was take it kind of like what you're saying, that the small trust. I had to take those trust steps, step by step. I couldn't make the leap to I'm going to be the next tech giant. You know what? I mean? I couldn't do the big sweeping, yeah, I'm going to trust myself with the tech I had to trust myself that I was a smart enough girl that I could figure it out, trust myself that I knew the resources I could go to find, you know, like back in the day when we were in college, it was go find the textbook that's going to or the encyclopedia that's going to help you learn the thing you want to learn. 

Yep. Now it's like, I'm going to trust myself that I can go to YouTube and I can find enough videos to teach me how to use Canva, yes, I can find enough videos to teach me how to use Trello, or I can go hire an expert that can teach me how to do it, yeah, and help me baby step this. So that was, that's a great example of a baby step thing. And then I think also the minutia, the small trust things are, is my offer going to sell? You know, I know that I have the skills to teach people how to do this. Is my marketing messaging, what it needs to be. So there's a lot of there are a lot of small business decisions that take those small trust steps in order to get to grow the business.

Well, in there all different flavors, right? Like the is my message, correct? Is a different kind of confidence than I'm going to figure out the tech side is a different kind of confidence than I know I can teach people. This, yeah, is a different kind of confidence than I know I can hire somebody to help me with that, right? Like they all require sort of a slightly different flavor. It's like the Baskin Robbins of trust, a slightly different flavor, right? Like 562, flavors and, and you, like you, we almost have to practice them each separately, which is so interesting, right? Like, it's like, I trust myself here and now. I have to trust myself here. Oh, there too.

Yeah, and I think, you know, it's also labeled imposter syndrome, you know, I don't, I'm not a fan of that word, those words, but I do it kind of plays into this, because one of the things I heard was early on, was imposter syndrome never really goes away. And I think what you and I are talking about here is the trust, the small trust, things never really go away. Because I still have times when I'm like, Okay, I'm going to go make this podcast episode. Okay? Is this going to be what is this going to resonate with my audience, or here we go into launch again, because we're headed in as the at the time of this recording, we're headed back into the launch of my program next week. 

Yeah, and there's that trust factor of, do you have everything right this time? Tracy, you know, where the audience do you is the trust that you know your audience well enough that even if it's not perfect, it is gonna you trust that the offer is the best thing that you can give them. Yeah, right. Like, I It's interesting. I often find that I try not to think about like, Did I get it right? Or is it, is it the version that I think, is it the best version I can put out right now? Because I don't know. Like, depends on who I run into on a Tuesday, and then we could fall down that rabbit hole. I could be sliding through that rabbit hole until 2029 like, that's a big ass rabbit hole. So it's interesting. So it's interesting. You talk about launch mode, talk to me about
trusting your offers.

There's been a learning. Covered with that too. What I will say to that, what I've learned is, when I help a client or a student work through an offer, I want them to do the market research first, because if our offer is based on what we think or feel our audience wants. We run the risk of doing what I did in the beginning, which was creating a course that I thought was going to be a million dollar seller, and it wasn't based on actual market research. I didn't really talk to the audience very much. I just made a lot of assumptions.

Well, yeah, it's I and I think the idea of market research, quote, unquote, scares people, but it's really like, go talk to people and see the patterns Correct, yeah, like, find the patterns and the problems right. So often people do see those patterns and then think up a thing and think, like, now I have to go do research. And you're like, No, no, you did all the talking, and you see the patterns like you're making that decision based on the patterns you're seeing. So I think it is like, but, but then there are people that are like, No, I'm gonna invent this widget. And you're like, No widget.

I mean, you know, okay, but you might your widget might not sell, because if it's the weirdest widget, nobody's ever seen or wanted, right?
And if it solves a problem that isn't actually a problem that's tricky, yeah, do you what is something that you're working on and trust right now? Good question.
What comes to mind is because we're at the time of this recording. It's this, it's like January 8. We're just, we're just dipping our toes into 2026 we're just now finding our brains.

And we're like, do we really want to do 2026
I don't know. 2025
I know 2025 for me. You know, Don't come at me with the pitchforks, but 2025 for me, was actually my best revenue year ever.
Yep, there's plenty of those. I've met. I know a lot of them.
And so going into 2026 there's that voice in the back of my head that's going, Are you going to do it again? Are you, are you going to are you going to meet or exceed 2025 Can you repeat this? Or was it a fluke? Oh, you know what I mean, yeah. Were you a one hit wonder? And you peaked in 2025 and it's all downhill from here, and before you know it, you're going to be singing in casinos instead of on stage at MGM grant. You know what I mean? Yeah, Madison Square Garden, right? I felt like I was singing at Madison Square Garden in 2025 and now am I going to Sara Cinna in padlock, Arkansas? I don't know well.

And I think so many people think even like from client to client, was the last one a fluke? Correct? Yes, right. Like, was that one a fluke? And so, yeah, well, so how are you answering that question for yourself right now? Like, what are you telling yourself?

I am telling myself to shut the f up. Because it's that. It's that icky voice. It's kind of what Anna, I ain't gonna be able to do it again. What? Yeah, and you know that, because that's what she sounds like, yes. So I am telling her to shut it, because if I did it once, I can do it again.

Well, and there's no proof that I can't. The evidence is on your side, correct?
I have proof of concept. I have the things in place, the cog wheels, if you will, of the machine of my business that churned out these results. And so if I, if I, at minimum, if I keep doing what I did to fuel that and get those cog wheels going, then in my mind, I should meet what I did. And if I throw a little more fuel on it, put a little more gas down on the pedal, I should be able to exceed it well.
And the other thing I think about all the time is you might be able to exceed it without more gas because you're getting better at it every time. That's very true. You're becoming more and more efficient. 

That's a true and that is the maturing of offers and the maturing of business like, that's how it grows over time, because we're not new at everything every time, right? Like, I don't have to be new again. It's not exactly the same, right? And the other thing that I think that goes with that is, you know you, you can use just 2025, data, but like, how long have you been in business now?

Oh, stars, let me think so. I started building businesses. I think it was seven years ago, but it was alongside my corporate. Job the business coaching came along about a year ish after that. So maybe 656, years well, and so you're already past the average, right, correct. Yeah, I am. You've been successful for twice as long as the average business data is on your side in lots of different ways. But I think you're like, well, but 2025, was this banner year, and now I have to do it again. Like, well, we could. That's one way to think about it, right? Like, maybe the meanest way. But those voices are there, mine are there. It's like, well, you know, if you would work a little harder, and you're like, oh god,you're mean, yeah, I know she's brutal, right?  

Well, and then the shoulds come alongside that. You should be doing this. You should be, well, look at what she's doing. She's your competitor, and she's doing this, and you should blah, blah, blah. No, see,
I try not to. What's funny is people will say to me like, oh, did you see? What did you see? Have you read this thing that?

No, yeah, I don't want to know such a turtle. I don't want to know. Like, I'm just  gonna do what I do, what I do. Yeah, it can't be any different. Like, I can go read all the things, but then I'm just gonna feel crappy about it. Like, I am very conscious of the amount of business stuff I let in. I let in people, but I don't let in too much stuff, because otherwise I'm like, Well, now I have these 62 ideas that actually aren't even things I want to do, right? Yuck.

That's the other thing I'll say before we move on. Is in in the event that my income and growth is is not replicated this year. There's only so much control I have over that if I am trusting myself that I know what to do and how to do it, I can't, I can't control the outcome, right? So, so there's that trust piece too. It's like, you know, if I want to just stress myself out over the outcome, okay, fine, but you're just going to be a ball of anxiety and stress over something you can't control. So trust myself to do the things that I know how to do, and trust that the outcome will happen.
And I think with that, trust yourself that if you get to April and think like, Hmm, something's funny, yeah, that, you know, and are capable of thinking like, Okay, well, this is the piece I'm going to change. Yeah, I'm going to swap this for that. 

Yes, I know. I saw it in real time. And in to go like, Oh, I need to make a shift here, to trust yourself in advance, to know that that's going to happen, because it's inevitable and you're going to be able to handle it when you get there, is a big deal. Yeah, and that's scary and unknown and also, like completely impossible to avoid. So good luck, right, right, right, exactly. So that leads me to planning, yeah, because here at the start of the year, I think this is where everybody's brain is. Like, let me make my plan for world domination. Some people were doing it in q4 they're like, Well, if you're not planning for 2026 you're behind. And I'm like,
I I, what's really funny is I tend to run the planning event that I do every year in December, just because people get all excited in December. 

And it's fun. I could this year, right? It's in January. But it's also like, I fully admit every December to people that I don't mostly do mine until February, right, right? Like, I really just don't, like, I've done most of mine at this point because I sat down all day Monday and I just needed to, like, figure out how to use my to use my brain again. Yeah, but I don't. I don't do it in December. Dear God, either. I try to start people thinking, yes, good lord. So talk to me about when you think about, like, how do you think about planning? Do you think about it in years? Do you think about it in smaller bites or bigger bites? Like, what is your process like?
I used to think about it in bigger bites. As you know, one of my pet peeves is, what's your three to five year plan just makes me want to, like, like, claw my eyes out. Oh, god, you're like guys. I didn't know. I didn't know 2025, was going to end up in a pile of crazy. So, like my three year plan, good heavens, y'all, I want to still be here.

Yay, correct, right? I want to be upright and breathing. That's yeah. But I mean, years ago, when you and I were younger, out of college, starting careers, I we could make a three to five year plan, but we, I don't think that's possible right now now. I mean, if you want to say, okay, in three years, I want to own I want to be fully retired, or I want to own my own home, or I. I think it depends on the goal. But for planning for my business, three to five years is too far down the road, because this online space shifts like crazy pants. What? And just look at the difference between 2020 2023 into 2024 and now 2025 if you had put together in 2023 or no, 2024 a three to five year plan, it would have been out the door in six months.
Well. And I think there's a difference between a plan and
vision, correct, correct.

And so I think the like, be retiring, be paid off, B, those are goals, but they're more like, quality of life, Vision sorts of things, yeah, yeah. The plan, I think, is different than that, which is what you're really talking about is like, the the details of the process, right? And that is, like, I can't it's the same as, like, as a teacher, I used to like you lesson plan and you program, right? So in September, you sit down, you're like, by December, we should be here, right? Are we ever there? No, do I know what should be happening every day to get me there? Of course. Were there six fire drills, four snow days, and everybody got the flu? Uh huh, right? It may be a couple assemblies thrown in for good measure, absolutely. So no, you're not going to get there like that's not how it works, even in the cases where you have the control over it, and we that's please, even in the best case. So because you're not thinking of it that way, how are you thinking of it?

I'm very I'm short term. Shorter shorter term. How short so I do, like, three to six months in advance, or three to six months down the road, with the caveat of be ready to pivot if needed, so I know what I want to do. And also it took me a couple of years, like I was following people that were like, Well, you got to plan out your whole next year. And I was like, how am I going to do that when I don't even know my offers yet? You know what I mean? Like, it took me several years to be able to plan out a whole year. Yeah, so I do know the intention for 2026 is to launch my group coaching program three times. Yep. So I have that planned out. I actually have the date set, yep. I do know that in between, I'm going to have one to one clients, and about the that I take about a handful at a time, because otherwise it's they don't get the best of me. You know, I want, I want to be able to give the best of me, and if I'm stretched too, then they won't. And then I know in between those launches, there's going to be things I'm doing to build trust with my audience that I'm doing for free. And I know that I plan. I don't know for sure. I'm thinking I will rerun some of the live workshops I did last year that were paid low cost, maybe throw in a new one. That's as far as I've gotten for the year. Yep, and so when I'm looking down the road like I will plan for myself personally, I plan a week in advance, and I've done this for years. It's the only way I stood I stayed on track. As a mom with two little kids, it's the only way I stayed on track. Then as a single mom,

I too am a one week view girl. Yeah.

So personally, I'm mapping out the whole next week, and I'm looking at what do I have for the business, what do we have personally? And then after that, it's okay. I know I want to launch my program again in mid April, but I gotta be ready to pivot, like we talked about, yeah, because if, if what I'm offering suddenly is not what my audience wants or needs, I can't be so set in that plan that I don't see that. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, well, you can't, you can't be attached to it in a way that doesn't serve you in them, right? There's this level of attachment to I created this thing, and therefore it is, and it's not anything, right? That's not how anything works. It's like I created humans that live in my house and they do whatever they want, like they're their own people, damn it, instead of listening all the time like they should. And nope.

 So I think it's a little of the same. Like, once you create the offer, it has a life of its own, and you have to sort of listen to it in the people around it Yes, to allow it to grow correct and be effective, and mush around and do what it's supposed to do. And I think what's interesting about the way you're talking about it is you have put sort of you've got the landmarks, yes, right? Got the landmarks, and I think the landmarks come with more maturity in business, correct? Because, like, you know, for example, I tend to do small groups twice a year. I tend to do like early winter, like February and then October, because I learned over a couple of years that June is a bad time for my people, like, we just don't May. June, we, it's not even worth talking about, yeah, right, maybe someday it will be. It's not for people who have teacher brains. They're like, I'm sorry. I left. We, we cashed out. We were like, bye, I'm going to the beach. Yeah? Like, they can talk to me in August, but they surely don't want to know my name. In May, they're like, Tia, I don't know what happened to my brain, even if I'm not a teacher anymore. 

May, my teacher brains are like, what it's cooked and so like that. But that pattern took a while. So I have landmarks, yes, and I have focal points, which is what it sounds like you have, you have, like, okay, here are the things I want to mix in. Yes, here are the landmarks I want to hit. And after that, we're just going to kind of take it one week at a time.

Yes, I did that last summer. I got to we did the launch of bvme. April, May went just as every other April and May launch is gone. Went perfectly, wonderfully fine. And then I got to June, and I was like, Okay, I've pretty much got June, July, August, until mid September, before we start this engine back up again. What do I want to do with myself? And I kind of flew by the seat of my pants. I'm like, what if you did a low cost workshop, let's see how that goes. And so I literally built it in real time with my audience. I was I announced it to my Facebook group. I'm like, your girl's gonna do something crazy. Here's what we're gonna do. I don't have the idea. I don't even have the topic. Do I have a landing page? No. Do I have a checkout not yet. Do I have the workbook? Not on your life? Do I know exactly what I'm going to teach you kind of, sort of, but I'm not really. And within like, three weeks, I had it all put together, yeah? So we have to leave room for stuff like that.

Well, because it's fun, yeah? Like, you have to leave room for the magical fun.
Yeah, correct. And then I and then I get to the end of it, and I go, okay, was that as much fun as I thought it was? Well, that it was so I did another one.
I tend to, like, I tend to run games like that, where I'm like, Okay, I have this idea, and we're gonna play a game. And then my people will be like, All right, we're in. We'll play because they know, like, it's gonna be useful and it's gonna be some dorky, like, goofball game, way to play it. And so, like I do, but I think you have to have room to do that. Yeah. So it's the difference between, like, planning and over planning, maybe correct, or just being so rigid that you're like, Well, that wasn't on my plan.

Well, okay, so then talk to me about the difference between rigidity and consistency. Ooh, right? Because that's a tricky spot, right? People take and I think the other word in there that fits is regularity. People take rigidity and regularity to be consistency, and then tell themselves they're inconsistent, when really they're just not rigid, right? Like, what do you? What is consistency to you?

Consistency to me is showing up week after week for my audience with my podcast episode, my social media content, my email to them and making sure that it's out there in some form. But I mean, I I was super rigid when I was younger, and I think it just, I don't know, maybe it's my age, but I'm like, but I don't consider myself being consistent with rigidity, because rigidity, to me, means that it's my way or the highway, and this is the way we're going to do it, and there's no room For a pivot, and there's no room for new ideas. And you know, we're going to do the same thing all the time. That's rigidity to me, and I my consistency comes from Was that fun? If it's not fun, let's figure out a way to stay consistent, but make it fun. So consistency, to me, leaves more room for evolution and being open minded and being willing to try new things, but doing the things that will drive your business forward every day.

Well, it's like the consistency of like your commitment is to showing up. Yes. Not to the car you drive to get there, right? That's a good analogy.
Yeah, right. Like, it's like, I don't take the bus. I could walk. I could ride my bike. I could carpool with Sara. We wouldn't get to where we were gonna go.
Say we would be somewhere else. We would end up on a cruise ship, like we talked about, in the middle of the ocean, talking to no one but ourselves would be amazing. But I bright like, I think that what happens when people plan is then they take their plans very literally.

Yes, correct? That's where the rigidity comes in, right? And it's
much the plan, the planning, as a middle school teacher always reminded me of, like, I don't know, I'm gonna man mangle this, but there is a saying somewhere about, like a plan is perfect until first contact with the enemy or something, and the enemy being the middle schooler, right, like, rights are perfect Until first contact, and at which point the plan is like a tiny paper on fire, right? And so I have always felt like plans are great until first contact, yeah, and then, well, we'll see, because you learn very quickly with a room full of eighth graders that first contact might be real painful, yeah. I but I think what happens is people get very tied to, like, on Tuesday, I'm supposed to do this correct. And that's, that's not how life works.

Holy, you and I both are This stinks. You were thinking the same thing, weren't you?
But like so, how do you how do you allow yourself to keep room for consistency and like fun and still do it when you don't want
to do it. Good question. There are times when I my husband, says, sometimes you just have to hold your nose and do it anyway. I have times like that same and, yeah, because I am a SERIOUS CEO, if we are serious CEOs, if we are serious about building our business, there's going to be things in this business I don't like yep and I don't want to do Yep. I don't want to reconcile my numbers at the end of every month. Who wants to do that? Who wants to go track their KPIs at the end of every month? Now this girl, I'd rather be on I'd rather spend that time talking to people. 

Yeah, I don't necessarily love creating a workbook for the live workshop that I just sold, you know, so there are times when I have to say, okay, Tracy beavers, are you going to, are you going to do this and put your big girl pants on in your hold your nose, or are you going to not do it and run the risk of creating a hole in your business that didn't necessarily have to be there well, and it is that. But I think what you're saying is my commitment is to be serious about my success, correct, serious enough that I'm not willing to bail on myself.

 Correct, right? One of the things that I say to people all the time, they'll be like, Well, why do you do that? Well, it's because I refuse to be the barrier to my own success. Like, I'm going to have a lot of problems, but one of them is not going to be me. Yeah, it's not like, I am not going to be the problem, not going to be the reason it didn't work. I refuse, right? Like, I'm going to have lots of plenty of reasons, and I in one of them won't be me. And so what you're saying is, like you also, because you take it serious, be in serious means different things to different people, yeah, but because you've decided you've made this commitment, you are going to hold up your side. 

I am. Even when there are things that you're like, anything but that, and everybody's got stuff like that, I've got stuff and and people are like, well, we delegate those things. Like, girl, you can't delegate them all. I mean, you can. But then how much are you paying people to I mean, like, you know, well, then you have to manage that. So, like, that's true. You still have to know what's going on, correct. So here's the other question that I think is relevant to all of this, because planning is great. One of the things that I know lots of people, and I know you know lots of people get stuck in, is they like to plan. Planning is lovely. We use our pretty markers and our nice paper and our sticky notes, sticky notes and colors of sticky notes, and then we plan some more. Yes. So. How do you what does it look like for you to go from planning to doing?

Yes, that is something I help my clients and students with, because we can learn ourselves into inertia, correct. Quit learning, start doing. Quit planning, start doing. I mean, there's only and truly, there's only so much planning a person can do, right?

Yes, oh God, I know you run until you're like, I'm just planning again to play it again because I'm scared, right, right? I'm gonna go back and erase that plan and replan it. No, no.

Well, I took one step and then it didn't go to plan. So I need a new plan. Like, no, you don't need a plan. You just need to keep going. Okay, so how do you stop that for yourself?

Oh, it's just it comes back to not get not being the bottleneck, not being the problem, having a goal, having a vision and a goal and a destination I want to get to as a business owner, and if I stay in planning mode, I'm not going to get there. Plans don't pay the bills.

Action, there's the podcast episode title, plans don't pay the bills.

Girl, mic drop, we're done. Thank you all for listening. It's been great.
That was fun. And there we are. I knew there would be one.
Yeah, they don't. I mean, they, I mean, they don't blueprints on an architect's desk.
Don't build the building. Yeah, you can't live inside them.
They don't build the building. You can't order a McDonald's hamburger from a drive through that's not present with people in it fair.
So I always tell people you can't deposit money in a bank account you don't have
correct so you can have the most beautiful planner in the world knock yourself out. But while you're doing that, I'm going to be out talking to people and selling stuff, yep, well, and you have to talk to people.

Yes, you have to talk to the people. I know you have to talk to them a lot. And, I mean, I'm an extrovert. I get it. I can talk to a brick wall and all the all the listeners are going, well, you need to realize that. And, but so I'm, I think I'm fortunate in that respect, but I do help my introverted clients and students overcome that.
And, well, I am an introvert, like, a hard introvert, really? Oh yes, yep, yes. And, and for a minute I was like, Maybe I'm an in between vert, like, what do you call that an ambivert, and my husband was like, nope. Like, I'm not good at parties. I'm great on the internet where I don't have to put on shoes. But like, if you said to me, Sara, come to this thing and let's do it for three days straight, two days in, I gotta go sit under my desk for a while. 

Like, I can't gonna be alone. I do it is bad, like I am not. I play extroverted on TV because I know how to manage my energy, yes, yes, right? And I've gotten really good at doing the things I know how to do and being comfortable with them, but I am not by any stretch of the Nope. About as extroverted, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, not. And so you can still do it.

Yeah, you can. You just have to find a way that feels authentic to you. And that may be a situation for an introvert to hold their nose and do it anyway. Essentially, at the start, yeah, have the coffee, chat, send the DM go to the networking thing, use your elevator pitch, go live on social media. All. It's like exposure therapy at its finest.

And I promise, as an introvert, it does get better, because I've done exposure therapy to all those things like hardcore where you're like, Nope, I'm just gonna do this 30 times, and every time I'm gonna be like shit, right? Damn it.
Like something. I love this. I love this. I love this. I love
sitting in the car, and you're like, Oh, all right, I guess I gotta get out of the car, okay? And then I love it when I'm there and I get back in the car, I'm like, Oh, thank God, it's done. I it's bad, like, I'm bad. So what do you think the hardest part of planning is for you?

You know, oh gosh, that's a good question. I'm wondering if there is anything that's hard for me about planning, because I'm a pretty good planner. I've always been organized. I always I like to have it. My husband will tell you, Tracy likes to have a plan. I a plan. Now I've gotten a lot better about it. It used to be like I wanted to know where we were going, who was going to be there, what I needed to wear, what was on the menu, like I wanted to know the whole thing. Now I'm just like, Okay, what time are we leaving, and what's the. A dress code, and I don't, I don't really need to know where we're going. I just need to know what to wear and what time to get in the car. Yeah, you know so.

But you know what that circles back to? Trust.
You know, he'll plan, we're going to Scotland in April, and he's like, do you want to see the itinerary I put together? Nope, I'm going to pack my bag. I get on the plane.

That's how we did Hawaii, and I was like, I don't care. I want to know
what the weather is so I know what to pack, and I want to know what time to be at the airport. Yes, and then I'll figure it out.

It's bliss. It's bliss marital birth, right there. But I'm wondering if there's anything hard for me about planning I get. Maybe the worry part of is what I'm going to do. Is it going to work? Am I forgetting something like, when I was flying by the seat of my pants putting together that workshop? Oh, I had a checklist. That was one of the first things I did. Was like, Oh, you got Tracy beavers. What are you doing? You got to have a checklist. Yeah, into the Google Doc. We're going to do this, and we're going to do this, and I need one of these. And I of these, and I need one of those, and I need this, this, and this, this and this, and don't forget to do that, because it's soothing to my brain well, and then you can sort of follow it. Then I think those lists are both soothing, but they also take out some of the eventual decision fatigue and the redoing correct so it's, it's like a, like a, like a problem solving in advance.

And it, what it became, was an SOP for the next time I did the workshop. Yep, let me go look at my checklist.

And in the next time you did a workshop, you might have been like, okay, that thing on the checklist I did far too late, right? This thing didn't belong here at all. Right? I forgot that thing because you go back to list. I actually just went back I do, like, a yearly tracking document for the things I'm tracking that I like leave, literally on my desk, because I don't remember it exists unless I can write it on paper. And I just printed mine out this morning, and I went in last year's template, and I was like, oh, yeah, I don't want to track that anymore. Like, I'm not really thinking about that, right, right, right. I've shifted.

 Instead of that, I'm tracking this. I'm like, Well, I kind of pretended to track that last year, but I didn't, so I'm not going to track it this year, because it doesn't really matter. And like, as you've shifted then, but like, I moving those boxes around. I think is interesting, because then you're like, Oh, well, I had a plan, and that checklist help in, the tracking sheet helps. And then I adjusted, I changed gears. But I like that. I now have this pile of tracking sheets over there. They're right on my desk right now, from, like, years and years of me kind of tracking similar things, which is interesting to just have in your hand, because I'm a weird data person like that. What do you love about business right now?

The same thing that I've loved about it from the beginning, which is making people's lives better and supporting them in a dream they have, making sure, doing, doing not making sure, because I can't ensure it. I can't I can't make them think anything but doing my best to be certain that I have reminded them of the gifts and the talents that they have, and that there are people out there that need them. And therefore we have to, we have a duty to use our gifts and talents in the in the furtherance of humanity, in the better, the betterment of other people. And so that's what I keep coming back to, is on the days when it gets hard and I'm like, Oh, I think I might just shut it down and go get a job. I have to go, Nope, it's not what you were put here for. 

You are put here to help people and to make sure they know how great they are to help them make money for their families. Yeah, that's the amazing things they're meant to do out in the world, correct, right? Like, that's, I think the most fun part. It's somebody when we are away on vacation, said to me, Well, what do you do? And I said, I I coach small business owners. Like, I get to help really cool people do really cool things, really well, yeah, right. Like, what's better than that? Nothing in service to the people they're trying to serve, yeah, to make the world better for the people they're aiming to help. Like, okay, no, bad. So I totally feel that, yeah, and the ripple effect of that, I mean, there's in every job, I don't care what job you're doing, there is a ripple effect of your work. And on the hard days, I like to think about that, okay, I helped Carrie save her business. 

And turn it around, and which in turn rippled into her employees still having a job, which rippled into her employees still having their houses or being able to pay their rent or being going to dance and everything else. Yep, yep, yeah. And their
kids having a stable home life where mom and dad aren't freaked out and stressed out. And, you know, those kids go to school and they're happy and they make their friends happy, yeah? I mean, just it, whoever's listening to this, if whoever just having a really crap day. I want you to really think about the trickle down, ripple effect of what you do in the good yes, and follow it all the steps. Yep, because it makes big difference. Okay, so here's the last question you get to give somebody. You get to give people a little tiny bit of homework. So if you can say to people like, here's one thing that I think would be really helpful for you to do today. And it can be about planning. 

It can be about trust. It can be about whatever the hell you want. I am often like, Okay, go answer this question, or go try this thing. What would you have people try today or think about, gosh, there's a couple of things. What comes to mind is, especially for 2026 is the word community and connection and relationships, which isn't new, because it's what made me successful in my sales career, career a million years ago, in corporate, building relationships with people, not trying to sell anybody anything. 

No, just like being a human, yeah, correct, just meeting other people and making that connection. And if what they need, what I got, well, then I'm going to share it with them. But so what I would encourage people to do is, if now this may sound like I was going to say five a day, and that's probably too much, this coming week, set two coffee chats with people you have not met before, but you know you have something in common with. I bet you there's a community you're in or maybe you haven't plugged in as much as you should attend the virtual networking session and then set two coffee chats with two people that were in that room. Well.

And if you're not sure how to do it, I do this on LinkedIn all the time. I write people a note and say, Hey, I love what you're up to. I think you're doing really interesting things. I would just love to know you as a human. Are you game for that? Yeah, literally, those are the words totally where you like, see somebody go by and you're like, like, there's this lady who went by in mine recently who teaches teachers how to lead yoga in their classrooms. Cool, tiny breaks, I know. I was like, What the heck? And I was like, this is I was like, hi, I would like to be your friend. Yeah, you're doing is really interesting. And so I like, Goofy. And she was like, Oh, that we could do that. And I was like, excellent. I would like to know all the things so fun. But like, go find the people that you're like, Ooh, what's she doing, and send a note. Yes, best homework ever like. And if that is your habit, in 2026 it will pay you back 100,000 times. It will enjoy and connection and business and ways you never imagined exactly, because that next connection you make, you never know where it's going to lead. And it's so exciting it is, and you never know. One of the things I'm tracking this year officially, which I've done for a long time, but I'm officially tracking this year, I decided, is connections I make for other people.
Oh, I love that. That's so fun, that is, right? And it's so fun.

And I was like, You know what? I that's so fun, I'm actually going to track it, and I'm going to set a goal to it, yeah? Like, that's super fun. So I think that, like, that kind of thing is magic, because then you get to do those kinds of things. When you meet all the cool people, you get to put them together. Yeah, great, yeah. Tracy beavers, um, tell people all the ways to find you.

So you mentioned my podcast, which I'm, I really am loving. It's a It's, gosh, is it over a year old now, I think it's called create online business success. I would love for everybody to listen and follow along and then come join my free Facebook group. We have over 4000 online entrepreneurs. We do, we do allow promotion on certain days of the week, but most of all, we want people to come in and connect and set coffee chats. Ask for feedback. Ask for help. If you're stuck in Kajabi, like I always am, you can post in my group and say, I'm about to throw my computer through a wall. Who can help me? And I guarantee you, one of the members is going to step up and help you. It's called be a confident entrepreneur. Get visible, grow your email list and your income. So just come join us and make some connections, and come join the party, because it's a great place to
be well and friends like, remember one of those coffee chats you could correct? Correct? What word am I trying to use? Curate one of those coffee chats you could create. Could be with Tracy. Right where you could be like, Oh, she's kind of awesome. She won't Melly, this is, like, the cheater's way to win, right here, right there's one right there. You don't know. And if you don't know me, you can ask me to look it's two.

We are the low hanging fruit.
We are it. We are it's true. We are it. Tracy beavers, you are one of my very favorite people. I am delighted to get to talk to you, and I am excited to get to share this with everybody. Friends. 

You can find me all of the places, LinkedIn, you can come join my facebook community, but it is only there for a little while longer. It's called uncomplicating business because we are transitioning into the uncomplicated, whoa. Words, uncomplicating Business Lab starting in February, starting right at the start of February, everything's moving into the lab, all the fun, all of the good, all the best stuff. So come do the lab with us. Yes, it's paid, yes, it's worth it. Trust me, we're going to do all the best things in there and in really, that's the focus for this year. We're going to plan, we're going to connect, we're going to ground ourselves, we're going to sell like hell, and we're going to enjoy all of it, and friends like Tracy are going to come play with us in there, so come join, ask questions, if you have them, and I will talk to you all again in two weeks. Thanks so much for playing.