- I don't deserve these responsibilities
unless I'm prepared to accept them.
So by accepting all the good and the bad that come together
is super important,
'cause 90% of business problems
are personal problems in disguise.
Whether you're doing 10 bucks a year,
or whether you're doing 10,000,000 a year,
it doesn't matter.
What happens out there, doesn't care about you.
(upbeat music)
- Good morning, good life.
Welcome back to Amy TV,
where we come together
to help you go after the life you want.
I'm very excited about this.
I have been saving this gem of a video for you
for a little while now.
If you remember,
I just took a vacation a little bit ago, couple months ago,
where I went to Italy,
got to drive all over the place in Italy,
it was so much fun.
And, on one of my stops,
my friend and great business mentor, Matthew Kimberley,
came to visit me because he's just that awesome.
I was like, "Hey, I'm gonna be in Italy."
And he's like, "I'll be right there."
And so, we sat together in Siena, Italy,
and had a great conversation about
what does it actually take
to be somebody who is successful in business,
who starts a business and takes it to the next level,
who gets to the point where they beat the odds,
and they don't fail in those first critical years.
So I wanted to share that conversation with you.
So let's just jump on over, back in time,
and over the pond to Siena, Italy.
I'm so excited to be sitting in Siena, Italy, right now.
I can't believe I'm even saying that
and making a video in Siena, Italy.
Not only that,
can't believe I'm gonna say that I'm sitting
with one of my dear, dear, dear friends, Matthew Kimberley.
Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
- Well, thank you for having me.
I couldn't be happier to be here.
- 'Cause you love me so much, and you'll do whatever I ask.
- Come to Siena, I'm like, "When?"
That's the only question.
- Exactly, okay, so I wanted to chat with you,
because I think there's a lot of people today,
who are thinking about a business
or are currently fully engaged in a business,
maybe they accidentally ended up there
because of something that they chose to do online,
whether it's become a thought leader, an author,
influencer, or something,
but they're trying to figure out
how to make it a sustainable business,
which is actually really challenging,
trying to figure out how to continuously make money
and support yourself, stay creative,
and keep the business going.
What would you say it takes
to be someone that goes into business,
no matter how they're doing it, creatively or otherwise?
- Well, I think for a lot of creatives
who start in business,
they end up accidentally in business,
and a lot of the people that I hang out with will say,
"They're creatives trapped inside an entrepreneurs body,"
and they're very interested in the creative side.
And actually, the business side is almost a necessary evil,
although they get excited
by the potential of the business side,
because hey, fast cars, swimming pools, trips to Siena,
but, that's not actually where they naturally fall
into the scope of how am I best expanding my energy.
And you can only get so far on creative energy alone.
Creative energy is the va-va-voom,
it's the drive.
It's the, "Oh my God,
"I'm so excited I've got this project to work on,"
and you have all of this energy,
and then you've got a few late nights,
but you can power through, and then you find actually,
you can't quite power through and you crash.
And so, the difference
between those who manage
to sustainably maintain a creative business
and people who do creative projects,
are those who are prepared
to cater for the boring, non-creative stuff,
because vast tracts of business,
despite what you have been told by dancers on Instagram,
is boring.
Vast amounts of business should be boring and predictable,
because if you, the creative,
want to have fun to expand your creativity
and work on these creative projects,
you've gotta make sure that there are backend systems
for people to buy your stuff.
You gotta make sure there are backend systems
for marketing your stuff.
You gotta make sure that your customers are looked after.
And all of this is the stuff
that takes place in board meetings,
where everyone is sitting around bored,
so you need to identify the areas, and the best people,
the people who do this the best are those who say either,
"Look, I'm not the right person for this,
"so therefore, I'm gonna put the right team around me,"
or those who are prepared
for reward to come with responsibility.
And there's a correlation between responsibility and reward,
rather than risk and reward.
Creatives are natural risk takers,
but they're not necessarily natural responsibility takers,
speaking from my own experience.
I feel like a creative, so.
- Well, it's so fun to say, "I'm a creative."
It's so fun to say, "I have to stay in my art,
"and I have to focus on this thing,"
and then, to just discount business, like it doesn't matter.
But then, that's what keeps you up at night is,
you're trying to stay creative,
and you like being in that zone,
but you also need to figure out, okay, but then how is,
how is this actually gonna make money?
How's this gonna continue to make money,
and how is it going to be fun?
So you kind of have to take the ego out of both sides.
- Absolutely, and useful systems of patronage,
like, seeing as we're in Tuscany,
kind of disappeared with the Renaissance.
The Pope would sponsor Michelangelo for his entire lifetime,
but that's not gonna happen today.
You've gotta be your own sponsor.
You gotta go out and make sure
that everybody does this for you.
So, no matter which stage of business you're at,
whether you're just getting started,
or whether you've been doing it for 10 years,
and you're not feeling the love anymore at all,
you're encountering new levels of,
I don't know what to do next.
That's guaranteed.
You're always encountering new levels of,
I don't know what to do next,
And the problems that you faced 10 years ago
are gonna be completely different
to the problems you face today.
You're thinking about employees issues,
maybe you're dealing with lawyers for the 1st time,
or the 2nd time, or the 5th time.
Maybe you're thinking about insurance premiums,
so you're thinking about purchasing,
maybe you're thinking about financing,
maybe you're thinking about debt ratios,
and all of these things, which when you were like,
I'm gonna be a graphic designer,
or I'm gonna be a Pinstagram influencer,
these weren't questions that came to your head.
So the important thing is
that you have the right person with you
at each step of the journey.
And typically, you know,
nobody who's started a business has known
how to do all the things,
but they've been very good at identifying the right people
to do the things with.
And that's why things, like cashflow management,
are so important,
because if you can't afford the person to do your books,
then you're gonna end up doing your books.
And if you can't afford the person to clean your apartment,
you're gonna end up cleaning your apartment,
where you could be making fun things.
So cashflow management, budgeting,
being really careful and responsible
for the revenue generation side of things at the beginning
is gonna allow you to put the systems in place
with the right people, as you continue to grow.
And hanging around with the people
who have got you this far,
isn't gonna get you to the next step, most frequently.
You know, I'm going to encounter problems, I don't know,
$100,000,000 problems, I don't know how to solve,
so I need to call somebody and say,
"Hey, you have experience
"of solving $100,000,000 problems."
They'd be like, "Yep."
"Can we talk?"
"Yep."
But, if you don't have those people on team,
and it's still your mother or your father who is saying,
"You, just go to sleep on it, sleep on it,
"go take a break, have a think about."
- There's always a plan B, it's okay.
- Exactly right, yeah.
- I love how you put that.
I think I just had an aha moment in that.
We know that when we go into business
that there's gonna be a struggle, but that's just,
that's the story we've told ourselves,
But actually, framing it as the struggle being,
always being in a state of I don't know what to do next,
and there's always somebody that has done what you've done,
or needs to do what you've gotta do,
or has done what you need to do.
And being able to call on those people,
to be able to ask for help,
that's been one of my biggest weaknesses,
I've said since the beginning,
is the ability to ask for help, so.
- The way that you look at these challenges,
as well, is super important.
So, I was speaking to one of my clients recently,
who's gone from nothing to something
in a very short period of time,
and she runs a creative agency with lots of employees,
and at the stage now where, you know, there are law,
one of her ex-employees is threatening to take 'em to court
for unfair dismissal,
which is gonna happen to anybody
who is prepared to take responsibility.
They're gonna reap, not only the rewards,
but also the risks associated to that responsibility.
And then, there's payroll issues, and there's, you know,
want to fire the biggest client,
but don't know how to say it,
because they're a great referral partner as well,
just problems that,
basically all of your problems at that stage
are dreams that you once had.
And her approach, which is super fresh, is,
"I feel powerful.
"I'm getting to deal with grownup problems."
You know, it's almost like, this is I don't get,
I don't deserve these responsibilities
unless I'm prepared to accept them,
and so by accepting all the good
and the bad that come together is super important,
'cause 90% of business problems
are personal problems in disguise,
whether you're doing 10 bucks a year
or whether you're doing 10,000,000 a year,
it doesn't matter.
What happens out there, it doesn't care about you.
Only what happens up here affects how you respond to that.
- And everyone thinks their problem is special,
which is how you get back to
every business problem is somehow personal
or egocentric.
Ah, I love that, Matthew. - Good.
- Matthew, thank you,
I think that really helped a few people who are thinking,
you know, am I able to do this?
Am I able to keep doing this?
Is this the right thing for me?
And I think if you can continue to tell yourself
that you still wouldn't go out and look for a job
or work for someone else, then you're on the right track,
and you're just saying every single day,
"I'm willing to take the problems that come my way,"
and say, "I get to fix them, I get to figure them out,"
instead of, "I have to figure them out."
- And you know, if I wanna make a quiche or a pizza,
and I don't know how to make a pizza,
I'm calling a friend, I'm saying,
"How do you make a pizza?"
- [Amy] Yeah. - He's gonna say,
"It's gonna cost you a few beers,
"but come round, and I'll show you."
And I'd be like, "Okay,"
because I've just solved a thousand problems
by the right people.
- Love that.
Okay, I want you to check out the description below,
because Matthew is a very good friend of mine.
He knows what he's talking about when it comes to business.
Specifically, if your biggest struggle
is not necessarily some of the things we talked about,
but maybe it's just like, how do I get more clients?
How do I get more business?
How do I get more people to approach me,
to help me grow my monetization, revenue streams,
and things of that nature?
You're gonna wanna check out
what's in the description down below,
if you potentially wanna work with Matt and me
on solving these problems for you.
Thanks for being here, Matt. - Thank you for having me,
always a pleasure.
- Oh, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did.
It was so fun to be able to like sit down and do a video.
I know I was supposed to be on vacation,
but it just felt right.
It just felt good,
and it was like back when I got to sit down with people
and make content, like just really fun.
And I thought he brought a lot of great information
to the table.
Make sure you check out all of Matt's information.
I will link to it in the description.
If you'd like more information about working with us,
you can find that down there as well.
That's all for today, thank you so much for tuning in.
I appreciate it, as always,
remember, subscribe for good vibes,
kiss the ones you love,
and go after the life you want.
Cheers.
- Well, thank you for asking me.
(Amy laughs)
- Stop making me laugh. - Okay, let's do it.
- I haven't done this in a really long time.
- Me too, hang on, how do I look?
- Good, how do I look? My face okay?
- I have any bits?
- No bits. - Okay, nothing there.
- No bits, no.
- This is the B roll.
- This is the,
what we call,
outtakes.
- You're gonna slice it together at the end
for a little bit of. - Yeah,
comic relief.
- Chop, chop.