Entrepreneur Talk with Theresa Smith

Today’s guest is Theresa Smith.

Here’s our Job Talk with an Entrepreneur.

Welcome to The Job Talk Podcast.

Where we talk with people who love their jobs.

Our guests open up about their challenges, surprises and secrets to success in their industries through conversation and we explore their careers, past work experiences, and the education that got them to where they are now.

Theresa, did you always know that you were going to be an entrepreneur or a business owner? No, I thought I make a really good I thought my dream job growing up was probably more like executive assistant I think I would cater to someone who really knew what they were doing and by keeping them on track and organized and I didn’t really realize at the time how much that would apply to what I’m doing now.

But it was a lot of, of like I wouldn’t mind like dressing up really nice and going to work and then, you know, like doing what executive assistants did in the obviously late nineties, which was like pick up dry cleaning and make appointments and, and kind of do that.

That was kind of just my thought process is kind of what I would be or something along those lines.

But mostly I think I did it for the fashion, not necessarily for the job, although the job kind of was exciting.

I wanted to work with professionals.

I wanted to feel professional, I wanted to be able to do that kind of stuff.

But I always thought I would be more of like more of an assistant or more of someone to help a professional in that regard, not necessarily own my own business, but for the support to the person who owns the business.

OK.

What was your first post-secondary experience like after you left high school? I didn’t go to post-secondary, actually.

So I didn’t.

So I took some courses when I wanted to be a wedding photographer, and I did a bunch of courses through I can’t even remember.

I don’t even think the school exist anymore, which is really sad.

But yeah, I took some courses through there and then took there was a couple of people that were in the photography department at MIT actually, and I took some courses through, I think it was house through McBain Camera so some people that were like teaching at NAIT they would teach there.

And so I took some courses through there as well.

But that was like as much post-secondary as I took.

I did a lot of like on the job training for what I did, and post-secondary was never in the cards for me.

I never even thought about it.

I didn’t want to go to post-secondary I only wanted to learn about things that would apply directly to what I wanted to do at the time.

Yeah, the opportunity certainly was there, but the marks probably weren’t there from high school.

And so then I just kind of kiboshed it right away and was like, you know what? Like, I’m not interested in going to school.

And I didn’t know what I wanted to do specifically and I didn’t want to waste my time and money going into post-secondary without having a plan.

And I’m not necessarily a superstar planner, but I do like to have some sort of end goal.

And that was I didn’t have an end goal, so I kind of just fell into working instead.

OK, and how long was your photography career? Was this a long career? Um, so photography was, I think four years I was a wedding photographer.

I owned Fresh Light Studio, which is no longer going to I don’t Google it and yeah, so I did family, mostly wedding photography.

I really loved wedding photography and that was kind of like a passion of mine.

And I still really do like photography, which is like before Instagram kind of became a thing, you know, it was really exciting.

And I would post we had blogs blogs were a thing, and so we kind of did that and I really loved it.

And a couple of friends that I had were doing it as well.

Um, yeah, and it was really good.

And then as I was kind of transitioning out of photography, um, that was just one of the jobs between high school and, and where to do photography was right up until I moved into dental.

OK, and why did you feel that you wanted to transition out of photography? I didn’t actually.

And I joke about this all the time.

I got tricked into working into dental.

So my, my best friend is a dentist and his wife was supposed to be working in the practice and she got pregnant.

And so then she couldn’t And I had worked in optical for a while previous to being a wedding photographer.

And so he said, why don’t you come into the practice and like take, you know, just see what you can do and if it’s something that you can help us with.

And so then I did.

And then it was supposed to be just one day a week and then it turned into like two days a week.

And then he’s like, you know, can you work full time? And so then I ended up working for him for eight years.

Okay.

Yeah.

So that’s kind of how I found the dentistry in that regard.

Yeah.

What was your what was your position? What were you doing for? For him for eight years.

So I worked reception for a couple of years and just kind of like helped build the care systems and patient care systems in the practice insurances, you know, billing, making sure that patients were feeling cared for and were booked back into the practice.

So I just basically was like extreme amounts of customer service.

And it was a very small practice that he had purchase and it was just like trying to get it off the ground and get it grown.

And so it was started off just four of us.

And then we grew that over the eight years from four to ten, OK? And I became an office manager at year two and then I just continued to grow the practice.

And it was a pretty cool experience.

And because we were really good friends, I got to be really involved in what was going on and he would share a lot of information and I just buckle down and learned a tremendous amount about dentistry over that eight years and then really learned that all of the kind of jobs that I had leading up to it going into dentistry were able to apply into this role.

And then it’s kind of I just really excelled and yeah, and, and that was kind of my start into dentistry and that clinic is still going and they added another OB and they’re still an amazing practice.

So I really love that clinic and I still get my dentistry done there.

So it’s really good.

Well, I’m going to ask you about what your business does and what you do in your day to day work.

While you were going through your eight year career working with him, did you think that that was going to be your career? Or did you start to have an idea that you were going to take off and and do this as a business for yourself? So I would say about a year or maybe two years before I left, we had our last child and I went on my leave.

And then when I came back from that leave, I decided that, like, I needed to figure out what I was doing because it was just a kind of a job.

I mean, I was good at it, but it was just a job up until that point.

And then I decided, you know what? Like, this kid came late in life and we just kind of were just not, like, plugging along.

But I was like, well, I need I need to do something.

And this is a chance to kind of reevaluate what I was doing.

And I decided, you know what? Like, I’ve always talked about doing consulting or like, training, and and I but I just didn’t feel like I had enough experience and enough talent and enough clout, I guess, to go out on my own.

And so then I left that practice and went into corporate dentistry where I took over a clinic and kind of rehabbed it because it was a bit of a hot mess.

And so then kind of fixed it all up, got it back up and running.

And I did that in about six months.

And so then I kind of proved to myself, no, I can do this and I’m good at it.

And so then that was kind of when I took this this corporate job, I was very much driven at that point, like, I’m going to make this work.

I need to make this work.

I really want to be this this is my career now and this is what I’m going to do, and that’s my end goal.

And so then I did that, moved up, and then I managed six practices at the same time.

Wow.

And that was hard.

And we did that during COVID and what COVID was like and COVID like during dental was a little crazy.

And we had to like redo operations and Systems and IPCs, which is like infection control and all that kind of stuff.

And so I had to write manuals for people and protocols for people.

For the six clinics I had, plus part we had the corporation had 16 clinics, so ten other clinics in different provinces.

We had to accumulate them across different provinces.

And I just gained a wealth of experience.

And then I decided that I needed to kind of I proved myself that I’m capable of doing all this stuff and I could do it well.

And I decided, OK, I’m going to go out on my own and kind of just do this on my own.

And so I broke off and I manage a specialty clinic for root canals, which I know everyone else will.

It’s better now.

It’s not like the old days when it was extremely.

painful, right? Yeah.

I mean, now we just block freeze and you feel nothing and it’s great.

And, you know, specialist the root canals are a lot faster because that’s all they do all day, if you can imagine.

So they can rip through a root canal in like 20, 30 minutes, whereas most general are a little bit longer and we use microscopes and we have found the equipment and it’s just a lot more success through specialty.

And so, yeah, so we did specialty and I still to this day manage that practice and it’s wonderful and I love, I love love, love that clinic.

Like it’s my favorite.

It’s amazing.

The people there are so wonderful and it’s really good and then got it kind of like ramped up and going like it should have been because it was having trouble coming out of COVID and then I, you know, the Dentist and I struck a deal that I could do this on the side whenever I want it.

As long as this clinic was running good.

And we’re good to go.

So then I started off on my own and it was just like a nice breeze way until like opening up and the training and education and systems and operations that we do for other practices.

And it’s been just going wonderful ever since.

So, yeah, we’ve, we’ve really done quite well.

OK, and so what is your business name and can you describe the services that you provide? Sure, sure.

My business name is Optimized Dental and a co-founder of it.

So I have a business partner and she’s amazing as well.

And we have one employee who was also an office manager for a long time and administrative for surgical clinic in Edmonton and she’s awesome.

And we basically will go into practices and what I like to call rehab.

So sometimes they’re struggling with systems and protocols or they’re struggling with team members that aren’t trained enough or well.

And so we’ll go in and help train and assist them.

We also do business advice and we’ll teach them how to run their business effectively so that they can advance and grow their practice.

Because dentistry, most people know it’s private practice.

So it is partly health care, but it’s also privately owned, which means it’s still a business.

So we teach them the balance of clinical care, which is like taking care of patients.

We teach them the balance of culture, which is taking care of their employees and their team.

Members, and we teach them the balance of the business, which is you need that to support the other two.

So that’s kind of the triad, and we go in and help make sure that the the balance is set and then and build the systems and structures in place so that that practice can grow healthily and not have too many hiccups along the way.

How do you know that your business is going to work? Do you think like you come up with the idea, you came up with this idea and then the next day you start on your journey to build this businesses, this business? Yeah, you know, it’s going to how do you know it’s going to work? You don’t you really don’t it is the most exhilarating and exciting time of your life, but it is also the most terrifying and like it gives me heart palpitations, thinking of like what we do.

It’s like jumping off a cliff.

And, you know, you might have a bit of a bungee cord, but you don’t know if that bungee cord is going to hold.

That’s what it feels like.

And it’s good and it’s scary and it’s exciting.

And, you know, all of that kind of excitement kind of pushes you through because you really have a strong desire to make it work.

Yeah.

And you just work through issues as they come up and you kind of build through that and it’s it’s a lot about resilience.

You know, if you’re going to fail at things and it’s, it’s going to be terrible, it’s going to be so terrible, and you just feel awful and, and just picking yourself back up and going, OK, well, what did I learn from that? And how can we move forward and, and how do I continue to make this company better? And how do we build this? And you’re looking at, you know, helping helping dental teams, but you’re also looking at how do I balance my business and you’re also looking at how do I balance my family life? Because that’s all those three things come into play.

And so you have your own triad that you work with.

And and then how do I make sure my employees are staying happy and how to make sure that my business partner and I are in a healthy situation? There’s a lot of things that go on in that and then also making sure there’s enough money to pay everyone and making sure that there’s, you know, like those kind of stress and making sure the accounting gets done and invoices are done properly.

And and that all kind of falls, you know, in, in my spot.

And I just have to, like, work through it.

And it’s just, yeah, it is part of what we do, but it does take a lot of resilience and it does take a lot of…

I want to say grit, grit and, and determination and and you have to be able to let things go.

Some things just don’t work out.

Yeah.

So I was going to ask I mean, obviously doubts may enter your mind as you’re setting out on your venture.

How do you manage feelings of doubt.

The support system? You need a strong support system.

So obviously I have a very supportive spouse who is just amazing.

And he’s always like in my corner, always in my corner.

Business partner always in my corner, and I’m the same for her.

We’re 100% just like the backup crew, right? Like yeah, like West Side Story, backup crew.

We are we are there.

We got knives.

We’ll make sure that you feel like you’re you’re supportive.

And it’s it’s the tricky part.

Is it still hurts things hurt you to got to deal with it.

But if you are feeling doubt and you just got to like work through it and doubt sometimes is a mindset it’s just things that you’re telling yourself that aren’t true.

And you have to be able to cipher that out and be like, is this is this what I’m telling myself because I’m scared? Or is this what I’m telling myself because it’s true and then you just have to decide, no, it’s not true.

This could work out.

This could this could work out well and try it.

Or if it doesn’t work, out, then you go, that’s fine.

We learned and now we move on.

And just to mitigate a bit of risk in, in the, in between, you know, it’s just it’s all kind of together with that.

Can you remember any specific lessons that you learned? I don’t want to call it failure.

I don’t think.

Oh, I failed.

I failed.

But you always.

When you talk to an entrepreneur, you always hear them talk about learning more from failures than than success.

So do you have any specific examples of where OK, we’ll call it failed.

You failed.

What did you learn? Oh, yeah.

There’s lots of things that I failed at.

But I think you’re right.

There’s like learning from it.

And it’s super important to be able to learn from them and kind of have that grit.

But yeah, I know specifically, I think well, there’s one particular situation where we were going to go and contract and do infection control protocols for this practice, and we talked to them and this is, you know, what they wanted.

And I let my employee handle it all.

And I was, OK, you can do this like here you are.

Just go figure out what they need.

And we’ll do it that way.

And so she went in and like like this is what you want.

Yup.

OK, this is what I can do and I’ve I was like, OK, we’re just going to experiment.

Like, because at that point I wasn’t super worried about the contract.

We could have it or we could not have it.

It was an experiment.

We didn’t know if we wanted to get into that, but we’re just going to try.

And so we went in and you know, she went and spent, I think, ten, 12 hours doing this.

Thing and, you know, getting her what she wanted.

And, and at the end we’re like, OK, this is what it is for her.

And she’s like, Well, that’s not what I wanted.

And I was like, I was like, OK, so what did you want? And then she’s like, Well, I wanted this.

Or like, if you want that, it’s going to be way more expensive because it’s a lot more entail entail than what you were asking.

You specifically asked for this and then she like just ghosted us.

And I was like, OK, so we learn.

What did we learn from that? Get it in writing exactly what they want.

Make sure that the contract is specific.

To what we what we’re going to be doing and what we’re doing.

So, yeah, so it was a bit of a failure, but now I just learn this is what it is.

If you want to do business with me, this is how you do it and this is what you have to do.

And we learned to clean up our act a little bit.

I mean, I feel like entrepreneurship is just a lot about growing yourself and maybe that’s why a lot of people like it.

They’re more keen to it or it seems exciting because you are constantly having to level up.

You don’t get a choice your market, your people that you cater to demand higher level, and the more expensive you are, the higher level you have to be at and so you’re constantly leveling up.

And it’s it’s very rewarding to to be that to do that and kind of get that growth out of yourself.

Can you remember the first time you got paid when you launched your business? Yeah, it was so great.

Me and my business partner did a happy dance because we were like we got our first contract and it was like four months and we were just like, yes, like that’s like a long term contract or so excited.

And it was like not very much money, but we like, we were like wrote a big number on there and we’re like, wow, we get this.

We’re like, we’re like golden, right? And we wrote.

And the number was like, I don’t know, it’s like a third of what we charge now, but I just like laughs because we put we were just like, Oh yeah, we should throw this number out there.

OK, yeah.

Like, OK, we like threw it out there.

We got it.

And we’re like, oh my gosh.

Like, they know how to fix it.

And now I still have the check.

We have it.

We keep it because it’s important to us to have our first check and say that five years we’re going to get it framed and that will be our thing.

But yeah, it was it was not very much money now when I look at it, but it was a massive first contract for a fair amount of time.

And I spent, I think, 3 hours, you know, doing a consultation with them and like it was intense, you know, because they had to buy into me, which was it’s different, right? I really had to learn to sell myself.

So it’s like a very a lot of work that went into it.

And we put a massive dollar amount on it.

And it was really nice actually.

Not that big.

But yeah, that’s what it felt like were just like, oh my gosh.

And we got we were really when we got the contract, we both just like cheered and we were like on a high for days.

So is it framed or is it in, is it in a drawer somewhere? No, it’s in our file system.

Yeah, yeah.

And that five years we’re going to get it framed.

And, and hopefully if we have a location by then, we’ll have it in the location because.

OK.

What year are you in now? So we’re in year two.

So we just finished our first corporate year, but we were in business, not we, we had to incorporate.

So before that was another six months or something.

So yeah, we’re like we’re about halfway through year two.

OK, so that first contract cedes some money into your company.

Into your business.

Yeah.

What kind of risks were you looking at? Are you looking at did you have a business loan? Did you have to take a loan out? No.

So we’re quite lucky because our, our we don’t need a location.

We don’t need we have very little overhead overall that we pay for my mileage that I have to drive and my hourly wage when I’m doing in clinic service.

So it’s pretty pretty low overhead.

And at that time, I was still working full time at the end of dentist’s office.

So I would just drop out one day.

We can go see this clinic.

And so it was pretty there was pretty low risk.

And that’s why we started that way because I’m a pretty low risk person.

Yeah.

And yeah, so it was not a lot of overhead, but we did when we went in, when we had to finally incorporate because we were making too much money, we incorporated and then that changed everything so now we have, you know, multiple banks and holding companies and we had to learn all the banking system.

We have lawyers that work with us that do contracts and you know, we had, like I said, we really had to up our game and do different things, you know, insurance and all this kind of stuff that you just don’t think about when you just open your doors and like we’re in a business and yeah.

So we had a really aggressive first year learning curve, and I would say we pretty much burned ourselves out for a short period of time.

You know, that holiday in Hawaii they were talking about earlier, which couldn’t come soon enough.

But yeah, it was like it was a lot.

It was a very, very intense first year of business because we went from just a sole proprietorship kind of deal to now we went into like corporations and, and accounting services and all the stuff that we had to do.

So the overhead is a little bit higher now.

We have like a proper website.

We have you know, proper accounts for things like it’s just it’s a lot more attention.

So that kind of stuff, I think a lot of people don’t really pay attention to or know about that entrepreneurship.

They just Oh, I started a business, but there’s a lot of back end that has to happen all the time.

And thank goodness, my spouse really good at accounting because he took over all of that.

So I think I’d be like losing my brains.

I would be for sure.

Your business partner, how did you get to know your business partner? So my business partner and I had worked together in the same corporate corporation, so I actually took over her job when she went on that leave.

And then I left before she came or maybe we worked for like a couple of weeks together when she came back from that leave.

And then I left the company and then I started my business and then she came in about six months later when she left that corporation, she came in and we that’s when we started our corporation made a partnership and did all of that.

So do you guys have similar personalities or are you opposites? And that’s what makes your business work so well? You know, it’s kind of funny because we became friends actually.

Mostly we maybe we became friends while she was on that leave, which is funny because usually in that setting you wouldn’t connect with someone.

But we, we became friends during that her mat leave.

And so we are very flattering personalities I’m pretty chill, laid back, levelheaded, like whatever.

And she’s just like full of ideas and exuberant and like just like like gung ho and really super positive.

And I mean, I’m positive too, but just in a more chill, relaxed way.

Yeah.

I’m much more of like a realist and a low risk person, and she’s like jumping off cliffs and like, let’s go.

And so it’s a really happy balance.

Yeah.

When I’m scared to push myself, she’s like, you got this go.

Like, we got this.

I can back you up on this.

You’re smart, you’re capable, you know? And when she’s like, We’re going to do this, let’s listen.

I’m like, Hold the reins like we need to think about how we’re going to make this work or financially, where is that going to get us? Is that focused on our goals? And so together we are really good team.

How we play each part and we make sure that the company is safe on both parts.

Did Oprah create that aha moment? Say, Yeah, maybe.

Yeah, OK.

Can you remember that time when you felt this is going to work, this is this business is going to sustain? Yeah.

Yeah, there was definitely we’ve had a few.

So we had talked about this business before and then she was obviously wasn’t in a place to do anything.

So I started it and she was like, you got to do this, you got to do this, you got to do this.

And I was like, OK.

So I started it and got going on it and, you know, just ideas, that’s all it was just tons and tons of ideas.

We didn’t even know what we wanted to do.

We didn’t have an end goal.

It was just like, what is the thought process behind this? How are we going to how are we going to make this work financially? What can we charge how to like, what’s our skill levels? And so we just chatted about tons of stuff and and I kind of bounced a bunch of ideas off of her.

And then I was like, OK, so I think we’re just going to start doing some training because people don’t have training and they don’t know what they’re doing.

And often managers in dental, there’s not really a school you can go to.

There’s no education services for it.

It’s literally you just got to learn on the job which is what I did for eight years.

And then I move into corporate dentistry.

I like had no concept of what needs to be done.

I had no concept of the business like it really needed to be ran corporate industry opened my eyes to that, the business side of dentistry a lot.

And so then I was able to kind of figure that out.

And because of that education, I thought people need this.

And that’s where we came up with the idea that we can train people.

And when we had our second contract with a dentist, we said, OK, we want to run this trial project with you and we’re going to do it fairly cheap because we want to see if it works.

And I developed an office manager manager educational program to train you how to become a better office manager and how to run your practice and talking all the things you need to know in like five months.

And we would come every week and teach you new things and then help you work through it because that’s the tricky part is you’re as an office manager generally alone doing it on your own.

And so we decided we’d build this program that would support them through the training process.

And so he’s like, Yeah, I’m all for it.

Let’s try it.

And we did it and it and I was like halfway through the program and, and we said, OK.

I asked her some questions about what was going on and she was OK.

I think.

And she listed out all these things that I think I can do this and this is how I’m going to plan it.

And so and I just sat there and I was just like, Holy crap, this is working.

Like, people are getting the information and they’re using the information and they’re actually seeing success out of it.

And I was like, we can, we can train these people and they can run these businesses better just with a little bit of help and a little bit of knowledge that no one else is giving out right now.

So that was like a big moment I remember calling my business partner on the way home and I was like, she got it.

You know, like, I, I didn’t have to like, you know, you know, she applied everything she learned and she was using it and it was wonderful and she felt confident and successful.

And I just got tremendous amount of pride out of that.

And I just thought, OK, this is it.

This is what we’re doing.

We’re training people.

And and that’s what it’s been ever since.

And this is successful.

And the dentist is absolutely that like just loved it and and was like, you know, like it’s super great.

And and now that we’re still running that practice and it’s killing it just absolutely killing it.

And I just we’ve done it now a few more times, and I’m like, this is it.

We’re, we’re doing it.

And this is this is work.

Not only does it make us feel good because it’s helping dentistry it makes us feel good because we’re doing something good for, for another person.

And then it’s successful in our business.

So it makes us feel good because we’re successful in it, too.

Yeah.

I think that ties into my next question.

What do you enjoy most about being an entrepreneur slash business? Owner? Oh, I think oh, I think obviously feeling success is the most wonderful easiest to grab type of answer for that.

But what I do feel like is maybe the feeling I get when I’m able to help someone understand something and and feel successful at what they’re doing.

That’s a lot of it.

Fills my bucket.

Yeah.

The other one feels obviously success.

It feels part part of my bucket, but not like someone being like, I get this, I understand this.

And then they’re like, Thank you for helping me.

Am I that fills my bucket.

That makes me feel good.

Like I did something good for that person.

I get a tremendous amount of value out of helping people, which is like it comes back to that executive assistant, like, you know, teaching, not teaching, but like helping people, assisting them, making sure that they are getting where they need to be and everything’s organized and laid out.

That’s I like it.

I like doing that a lot.

Yeah.

What are some obvious challenges for you, do you think? Oh, yeah.

There’s lots and lots of challenges staying on task yeah.

Like doing the things that I do.

And if you can see my desk around me right now, you can see why that’s an issue.

Don’t pan the camera down there.

Yeah, it’s it’s quite terrible right now, actually, because I was filing because I was behind on filing, because I just threw everything on my desk.

So, you know, staying on task, it’s all the backend stuff that’s not as fun, right? So going into clinic, I love it.

I’m talking to people.

Training people.

That’s easy.

It’s wonderful.

I love it.

I could do that all day.

You know, to be honest, I if I could afford to do it, I would probably do it for free.

Like, I just love that.

I do not love writing up reports.

I do not love making sure that documents are spell checked.

I hate spell check.

And I’m a terrible speller.

I find difficulty in keeping on top of accounting, making sure that invoices are done because that none of that is inspiring.

None of it’s exciting.

There’s zero dopamine for me in that.

So it’s it’s a struggle and a challenge.

I also find it a struggle and challenge to sell myself.

So when I go into consoles, I’m not like an overly like egotistical person.

So I don’t naturally being like, hey, like I can do these things for you.

I’m so great at my job, blah, blah, that’s not me.

So I do struggle with that and I have to like push myself out of my comfort zone a bit and kind of sell myself.

And that that’s a struggle.

That’s, that’s the part of being an entrepreneur.

If you’re selling a product, it might be easier, but when you’re selling a service, it’s, it’s a little different.

And selling a service, especially one you provide for yourself that your self is, is it’s not as easy.

Yeah.

What would you consider to be good qualities of an entrepreneur? Oh yeah.

So grit and resilience for sure.

You have to be the type of person that I would say can does I want to say doesn’t get affected by things but can filter through and that can be taught and learned.

You can learn that how to filter through stuff so that you are not living with it for long periods of time.

You have to be able to digest it, feel it, and then let it go.

So that’s something that is good.

If you naturally are good at it, that’s great.

But most people generally aren’t naturally good at that, but you can learn it.

That’s definitely one someone who can self motivate, someone who can stay organized because chaos does not lend for good business.

You have to you have to stay organized.

You have to create a pathway you know, if you’re good at puzzling things out, you know, if you’re like looking at this and you’re like, oh, you know, you know, like amazes and you’re like, oh yeah, I can figure out how to get there really quickly.

Or if you can figure out people management, people, management, if you don’t have that, you’re not going to be a great entrepreneur because you have to work with people.

You either have to sell to someone, they have to buy from you, or you have to have people that do that for you.

But either that people management, you have to be able to read people and be able to communicate and do well to be an entrepreneur because otherwise you’re not going to be successful that way.

So it doesn’t mean that you have to be an extrovert.

I figured that out too.

You just have to be able to communicate well whether that be written, whether that be verbal communication.

Either way, you have to be able to do one or the other well so I think those are some top ones that I think you have to have and you have to be able to like find a passion so find something you really like doing.

How do you define success? For me, success whoo! That’s a hard question, actually.

I think I think for me, success isn’t about money.

Prestige.

That’s not really power is not my thing.

For me, success is I did my job well and I go home and know I did my job well and I want to go back and do it again the next day.

Yeah.

That’s for me success.

Because if I still like it the next day, then I feel like I’m successful at it.

If I don’t like it the next day, then, then I might not be successful ever at it because it’s just I’m not saying you’re not going to have bad days as an entrepreneur, but you should always feel like you can get through it.

You can work through this and you’re you still love the job.

If you still love the job, you can get through anything.

That’s what I mean about passion.

If you still love it, you’ll get through a lot.

You’ll put up with a lot.

Yeah.

What an answer to a question that I just threw at you on the fly.

Great job.

I guess my last question and I think you’ve covered it in some of your answers, but what advice would you give to somebody that has a business idea and is thinking about taking the leap and becoming an entrepreneur? This is going to be double sided sword for them.

So, OK.

You my best advice is to find people in that field that are going to be critical of your idea and talk to them about it and let them punch holes in your idea.

But also best idea or best advice is to not take everything they say to heart because when we first presented our idea to very critical people who were in the field for multiple years, we’re like, I don’t know and then it took us a while to refine.

And then we went back and we said, OK, you poked holes, here’s the holes we fixed.

This is what we want to do.

And then they’re like, Well, maybe and then we pushed harder and did it again.

And then we’re like, No, this is that we can do this.

No one’s doing this.

We can make this work, and we push through.

So you have to be able to ask for the advice, but not always take all of their critical advice to heart because if you think it can work through, you can have your dose of reality.

There’s always going to be risk to everything but you.

If you think it will work through, push for it.

And try it.

What’s the worst that can happen? It doesn’t work and you try something else.

That kind of failure isn’t really failure.

That’s just life.

You can just work through that and you use those experiences to build on other experiences.

And you might go two or three businesses without.

They aren’t super successful so like my wedding photography business wasn’t super successful.

I loved it.

It was good, paid some bills, we got some extra stuff out of it, but it wasn’t super successful and I didn’t love, love it.

I mean, I like it.

It’s fun, but I didn’t love it.

It wasn’t something that I was like in love with.

So you might go through a few things and that’s OK.

That is great advice.

Thank you for that and congratulations on your business and, you know, working in a field that you’re passionate about.

So I’d just like to thank you for joining us today.

Thank you, Theresa.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate it.

This has been super great and I love what you’re doing because I like you struggled through that whole high school.

What am I going to do? And I think this is fantastic for your listeners and and just if someone gets a little bit out of this perfect, the ideas are great.

And it will be very helpful for anybody that listens to your podcast.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

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