The No-Nonsense Guide to Launching a Small Business: Practical Tips from a 20-Year Expert

In this episode of The Tarryn Reeves Show, I sit down with Tammy Johnston, a seasoned business coach with over 20 years of experience helping small business owners build sustainable, ethical, and impactful businesses. Known as the "Hold Your Hand and Kick Your Ass" business coach, Tammy shares her no-nonsense approach to guiding entrepreneurs through the foundational steps necessary to create long-term success.

We discuss:

• The biggest misconceptions new entrepreneurs have when starting a business.
• Why foundational business skills like marketing, financial literacy, and systems are non-negotiable for success.
• The dangers of falling for "magic bullet" solutions and why slow, consistent effort wins the race.
• How to balance ambition with sustainability, especially for parents and time-poor business owners.
• Practical tips for identifying your "20% activities" that drive 80% of your results.

Tammy also shares her powerful belief in building businesses with integrity and offers her unique insights on creating a lasting, positive impact on customers, communities, and beyond.

Stay tuned until the end for Tammy’s book recommendation: The Success Principles by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer—a must-read for entrepreneurs at any stage of their journey.

This episode is packed with actionable advice, inspiring stories, and a refreshing perspective on what it really takes to thrive as a business owner. Don’t miss it!

👉 Subscribe now to hear more transformative conversations and start turning your visions into reality.

Connect with Tammy:

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Transcript

Welcome to the Tarryn Reeves Show, where your journey to empowerment takes center stage. I'm your host, Teryn Reeves, best selling author and publishing expert. Together, we'll dive into the hearts and minds of visionaries, disruptors, and trailblazing leaders to explore the most compelling and thought provoking ideas in life, business, and marketing.

Let's inspire, impact, and ignite. This is the Tarryn Reeves Show.

Tammy Johnston is joining me in the studio today, all the way from Canada. Now, Tammy, and I love this, is known as the hold your hand and kick your ass business coach, because we all need some of that sometimes. She has over 20 years of experience guiding small [00:01:00] business owners towards sustainable success, which is so important, sustainable success.

Tammy is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build businesses that operate with integrity, honestly, ethically, and morally to create a positive impact on their customers, families, and communities. Now, while she doesn't offer shortcuts or magic bullets, she does provide battle tested foundational skills and real world strategies that enable businesses to not just survive, but thrive.

So her approach is really rooted in practical, actionable training designed to deliver lasting results. So important in business, Tammy, welcome to the studio. For howdy, Taryn. My absolute pleasure. I'm so excited to jump into this conversation with you because the coaching industry, the business coaching industry is so unregulated and everyone's like an expert, even though they've never built a business before or anything like that.

But you have your runs on the board. Like you said, your [00:02:00] strategies are battle tested and you've worked with small businesses for over 20 years. I'm curious to know, what do you think is the biggest misconception that new entrepreneurs have when they decide, well, I'm going to quit everything and start my own business?

Tammy: That it will be an awful lot easier than it is. 

Tarryn: Oh my gosh. I'm an accidental entrepreneur. And I was like, Oh yeah, I can do this thing. It is brutal. Entrepreneurship is brutal. I always say being an entrepreneur is only for crazy people because it's like getting punched in the face again and again and again.

And we just get back up and go, Let's do that again. What else you got? 

Tammy: Same thing with parenthood. 

Tarryn: Oh my god. Don't even get me started on parenting. Absolutely. Exactly the same. And we keep going back for more. 

Tammy: Yes. People keep going back for more and more. And I always tell people, like you said, Yes, you do have to be a little bit crazy, but it is a wonderful, [00:03:00] exciting game, but it's going to be a lot harder than you think.

And especially nowadays with social media in particular, pumping out all these, I call the magic bullets don't work going, Oh, you do this one thing with me and we'll turn you into a multimillionaire. They're selling lottery tickets. And then people are wondering why they're not getting rich. Yes. 

Tarryn: Yes. Oh, my gosh.

I briefly dabbled in business coaching actually in my own journey, and I only did it after I'd successfully started out as a virtual assistant and then scaled it to a virtual assistants and website development agency. And then I added in business coaching, but it didn't last long. I think I only coached for like a year because I got so frustrated with the industry pumping out magic bullets and people saying, Oh, you know, I'll make you, you'll earn your first six figure months and I'm like, but you've never built a business, how can you say that?

You're just basing it on a wish and a prayer. And the second thing I hated about it was that people would come back week after week and be like, [00:04:00] I didn't make any money, and I'm like, well, did you do what I told you to do? And they were like, ah, no. Did you do what I needed to do? No, I didn't. I'm like, well, I don't feel right about taking your money.

Like even though it's, you are responsible for implementing it, like I'm sick of turning up and wasting my time each week, if you're not gonna do what I tell you to do. Yes. Do you find that? 

Tammy: Not so much with the people that come to me because my title scares off a lot of those, 

Tarryn: right? Is that why you've titled it that way?

Tammy: Actually, my clients are the ones that called me that hold your ass and kick your ass business coach. Because they say, we know that you love us and you support us and you're very encouraging, but you don't let us get away with nothing. 

Tarryn: Yeah, but you have to as a business coach, because otherwise they're not going to get results.

It's that accountability thing that most people need. They really do. 

Tammy: Yes, they do, especially when you're busy because life will get in the way and it will keep you from doing the things that you know that you need to do, that you [00:05:00] want to do, but you need that support. And yeah, it's been very fun watching all the different business coaching.

Cause like you said, it's not like regulated. Anybody can say that they're a business coach and there's a lot of awesome ones out there. There are, but what I found with the awesome ones, a lot of them are what I call ologists. They're very good at their one area, their specialty. And that is not appropriate for everyone.

Like when you get to that point, well then they're amazing. I put my focus on what I call the new businesses, like ideas up to two years, because that's where I can have the most positive impact because that's where most people fail. 

Tarryn: Yeah, 

Tammy: and they're not failing because there's a problem with their product or the service of the owner isn't working hard enough.

Most of the time, it's the fact that they're missing the business skills that they need to survive. They don't even know what they don't know. So I'm going, okay, let's build it properly. Let's build your foundation. Let's do the morning. Stuff pouring of the concrete and making sure your studs are put [00:06:00] together properly and your electrical is done.

And then, when it's all put together, then we can go to the ologist and make you have the most beautiful living room possible. They want the living room that's going to be a home, better homes and gardens. When they have no foundation, there's no roof and there's only one wall up and it's wobbly. 

Tarryn: Oh my gosh, I love you already.

I could not agree more. And honestly, I made this mistake when I first started out in business. And now my motto really is do it once and do it properly because I'm not religious at all, but I do love the analogy of building your house. There's the person who builds their house on sand and there's the person who builds their house on rock.

And there's the person who builds their house on mud. Like you have to, you must have that solid foundation. You must have that. Start at the very basic ground level for people like me with like undiagnosed ADHD and OCD and all the things like there's 7 million thoughts happening in my head at once. I find that incredibly boring, but I know it's important, but I don't want to do it.

And so when I first started out, [00:07:00] even though I knew I should do it, I kind of like did it. And then like just a little bit. And I was like, I take that box, move on, move on to the fun stuff, like the creating and the visionary. And then every two years, three years, four years, I would have to circle back and rebuild and circle back and rebuild because the foundations couldn't handle what I was building on top of it.

That it crumbles, and then I'd be crying at 1am on the floor in my office going, Why is this so shit? And it's like, well, this was your own making. You did this because you didn't do the foundational work. 

Tammy: I like taking people, if you go to a large urban center anywhere, and go and find where they're building the next skyscraper.

And you watch that, and you can tell how tall the skyscraper is going to be by the size of the hole. 

Tarryn: Yes. 

Tammy: And it typically takes them, I don't know how fast they build them in Australia, but here in Canada, it typically takes them four years to build a skyscraper. The first three years, all they're doing is, they dig the hole and they're doing all of that foundational [00:08:00] stuff, and then as soon, like, that's done, then it shoots right up.

Tarryn: Lego brick, yeah. 

Tammy: But they have to have proper foundation first and it isn't sexy and it isn't flashy. And so people don't want to put the time and effort in. Oh, they go, I just start building. Well, yeah, you can build it. You can get that nice tall skyscraper. And the moment the first wind comes up.

Absolutely. 

Tarryn: I love what you said there about, You can tell how tall the skyscraper is going to be according to how big the hole is. And it is true for business. If you are planning on building a big empire, having a big impact, then your foundational work is going to take longer. If you just want a few coaching clients here and there, then it's going to take less time, right?

And success looks different to everybody. And I think that's important to note there. But regardless, the foundational work has to be done. Now. You talked about base business skills. Most [00:09:00] people are lacking those basic business skills. They have these amazing products and services and they go, yep, I'm just going to do it, I'm going to start selling and everything's going to be magical.

I'm going to have this my first six figure months within first starting out because that's what social media tells me. And the reality is vastly different for most people. What are those base business skills that you believe people need in order to be successful? So first thing mindset, 

Tammy: like an employee and an entrepreneur, like polar opposites and we're all trained how to be employees.

That's how school is set up, how everything and having to change that thinking and also getting rid of like magic bullet. It's the slow and the steady and the plodding along and the consistency is huge. It doesn't it doesn't matter what you do once. Every now and then, it's what are you doing day in, day out, week in, week out that's going to be building.

It's putting together your habits. Because when, when you're an employee, you have your boss and everybody telling you what to do, when to [00:10:00] do it, how to do it, all of this stuff. When you are the boss, you have all that control, which is a blessing and a curse. Because the blessing, like, yes, you can choose what you want to do.

But if you don't know what you need to be doing, you're going to be wasting your time. As I say, shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic as it's sinking. 

Tarryn: Oh, that's such a beautiful visual and it's so true. I mean, I've been there many times. I'm like, yeah, I'm doing stuff. I'm doing things. It's going to be fine.

And meanwhile, the water's getting higher and higher and higher and I'm getting more and more stressed. And colder and colder. Oh my gosh, absolutely. And then you just want to throw in the towel, right? You want to wave a white flag and go, Can someone send a lifeboat now? 

Tammy: Yeah, you have to have your marketing.

You have to have your systems put together. You have to understand your financials and be actively involved. That's the number one thing that I find that people will avoid. And then the moment, if they start getting some business in and things are starting to go, first thing they abdicate. I don't say delegate because they go, I'll never have to think about it [00:11:00] again.

And then they're wondering why things aren't going well. Yeah. We're advisory team. Most people, especially when they're starting out are taking their business advice from the broke ass friends and family. 

Tarryn: And I just want to jump in there and add, and who also don't understand entrepreneurship. 

Tammy: Yeah. But like I said, they've never set foot in the arena.

They might love you, some people will actively try to sabotage you, but even the ones that love you, if they have no idea what they're talking about, their best advice isn't going to be very good. Because, like, don't ask me how to knit or sail a boat or, because I don't know anything. Yeah. And that's the type of people they're getting help from.

And then understanding cash flow and profit, you need to have both, they are very different and how do they work. Those are the eight foundational pieces that absolutely every single business from a brand new solopreneur up to Apple and Amazon and Google all have. They have all of those eight pieces.

The more of them and the stronger you are in them, the [00:12:00] better your chances. The more of them that you're missing or weak on, your odds aren't so good. 

Tarryn: Can you just give me a summary of those eight points for the people listening? 

Tammy: So mindset, habit, marketing, advisory team, financial, systems, cash flow, profit.

Tarryn: Yes, couldn't agree more with all of those and I have been guilty of Ignoring all eight of those things when I first started out. And it's now, like I said, with the motto, do it once, do it right. I honestly think if you're listening to this and you're new to starting out, please go and do the work. Make sure that you have those eight foundational pillars really strong because it is worth doing.

I spent nine months. Just researching my competitors and my ideal client and where the hole in the market was literally nine months. The whole time I was pregnant with my son, that's what I was doing as I was doing that foundational work so that when it came to scale again. [00:13:00] I had that solid because I was so sick of SW back around and having to redo it and I didn't enjoy it.

Not gonna lie, didn't enjoy it. Hated every minute of it. Was it worth it though? 100%. 

Tammy: But if you have proper support, you can like, you not necessarily mean you love it, but you'll understand it a lot more. Yeah. And you can make it a lot more fun. And it's learning, like you said, the stories that the numbers are telling you and the data and making it a lot more.

human and expressing your creativity, but in a smart way. Yes. Yes. 

Tarryn: Now, one of the things that I admire about you, Tammy, is that you emphasize honesty, ethics, and morality in business. Why is that? Was there an experience that you've come, I'm assuming that you've been in the industry for 20 years, but I'm assuming you weren't always a business coach.

Tammy: No, I haven't always, my background actually is in the financial services industry. [00:14:00] And when I was fired from a job, I absolutely hated and decided in that moment to finally start my own business and go into sales, like people have been telling me for years. Yeah. That's when I started and I started working with a lot of self employed small business owners and helping them understand like their personal finances and stuff.

One of the things I was discovering very quickly was. They were having problems in their business. They were technicians, like most people are when they start. They technically know their product or service, but they were lacking the business skills. Yeah. I'm going, my background is on the business and I love business.

I've been studying business since I was like seven years old. I'm going, I have a greedy motivated self interest to see them succeed because broke people can't afford investments or insurance, which is the stuff I actually get paid on. 

Tarryn: Yes, I 

Tammy: started helping them and they loved it so much that they started sending me their compatriots and all of that.

And it came up very, very quickly that I'm going, [00:15:00] okay, I need to start doing this on a larger scale. Because it's a lot of time and effort doing it 1 on 1. so I designed my 1st small business class almost 20 years ago. And have been going strong and learning and expanding and growing through all of that.

But why the honest ethic, because when we're looking at the world as a whole, the problem isn't for much of a small business side, but it's all the corporate entities that have become. It doesn't matter what lies, how we horribly treat our employees, how we rip off our clients, how we're constantly downgrading our quality and our delivery and increasing our profits so that we can up our profits for this quarter.

So all of the CEOs and the executives can get massive bonuses. And then we can do stock buybacks. And it's the race to the bottom where they're making lots of money. And I'm going. They're parasites. They're destroying the [00:16:00] world. And yes, it's working for them for now, but just like a freaking tapeworm. 

Tarryn: We 

Tammy: end up killing the host where a lot of these businesses started out properly with actual people that know we want to provide a good product and service and we want to look after our employees.

And we need to come back to that. And there's so many people that think that they need to lie and cheat and steal and cut corners and do all of this stuff in order to be successful. And no, you don't. You might be successful in the short term, but it always comes back to bite you. Where if you're building it properly, ethically, honestly, morally, it might not be as fast, but you're going to be the one that sticks around as long as you're doing The work and not only you're going to stick around, you're gonna be able to look yourself in the mirror and not go, ew.

Tarryn: Yeah. Yeah. I love being an entrepreneur for that very reason. You know, having that capacity to change the face of business and to do it in a way that. Aligns with who I am and what I believe in, [00:17:00] um, because I came out of corporate as well, and it's just toxic. It really is. And, and being a mom as well, you look at it and you go, well, what kind of a future are we creating?

What kind of lessons are we teaching our kids? If we condone this sort of behavior by big corporates and even other entrepreneurs as well, they're not guilty. Some of them of this either. Now we was talking about magic bullets. Yeah. I see all of these on social media all day, every day, but I want your opinion.

What are some of the most common quick fixes, magic bullets? 

Tammy: Yeah. And I've had so many people that have ended up working with me that they knew that they needed help to begin with. And they saw the flashy ads because these guys are good at marketing. I know how to put together the beautiful flashy ads and bring people in.

They use all the psychological tricks. And sometimes they have a great product, but it's just, they'll sell it to anybody who'll give them the money, whether or not it's [00:18:00] appropriate. 

Tarryn: And 

Tammy: then people have gone through and yeah, I did all this and then I'm still paying for the course or I pay, I dropped 10, 000 or whatever, and I got nothing out of it 

Tarryn: and 

Tammy: I'm going, yeah.

Cause you bought the magic bullet. Somebody promised you the winning lottery ticket. Yeah. And then. You're upset because it didn't go through, like, they might have one or two success stories that people actually consistently perform at that level, out of like a few thousand people that go through. So are they lying?

Not necessarily.

The very gray area where I'm going to know it's the moral 

Tarryn: gray area. 

Tammy: The moral gray area. I'm going, I am not gonna promise you anything. 'cause like you said, are they going to do the work? Because you have to do the work. I like you wanna lose weight and get strong. You can't hire somebody else to do your pushups.

Yes, you are going to have, but if you put in the time and effort consistently, you will get the results. And [00:19:00] I have, yeah. Years and years of climates that have done that and they're going, it's amazing how slow and how fast it went all at the same time. 

Tarryn: Yep, and this is Why? So I own a publishing company and I teach people how to use books to position themselves as the authority in their industry, but also to act as a lead generator for their business.

Now, I could just front with the messaging of, oh, you know, get a book and you'll make millions of dollars, right? Which, yes, is a huge possibility. But in the intake forms, in the one-on-one coaching in the Mastermind, we spend huge amounts of time on going. Tell me what your business model looks like, what are you selling, how are you selling it, and who are you selling to?

Who's your ideal reader? Who's your ideal client? And then we seed the books, we strategically write the books so that they act as warmly generators, like they warm your leads up from a cold audience, right? But, You cannot just go, I am going to write a book and [00:20:00] everything's going to be amazing. No, you have to spend time looking at your back end business model and making sure that that's solid and you understand it because anyone can vomit words on paper.

Is it going to make you money though? Not so much. 

Tammy: And you can have the absolute best book in the world, but you still have to market it. And that is an ongoing effort. And then what, what are you doing? And what, what is your system for making sure you're doing it consistently? And for a long enough time and, cause a lot of people, well, I have this great ad and people need to see it once.

They didn't even see it. 

Tarryn: They didn't even see it. And I flick out one email. I emailed my list, like, I once a month and it's like, well, someone probably was busy and deleted that or you're like me and you started and you're like, yeah, I'm going to come back and read that. Three months later, it's still sitting there as a star.

I haven't done anything with it. And this is when I spent that nine months doing that market research. There was such a Big hole in the market that I've now gone and filled with the [00:21:00] service delivery and why this foundational building that you speak of is so important, because I wouldn't have recognized that hole in the industry.

I would have just fronted with, I was going to write a book because that's what I'm really good at. And I went, no, the publishing companies aren't marketing for you. They're not teaching you how to market. And there's this misconception where it goes, Oh, I'll get this book on Amazon. I'll reach bestseller status.

And then I can sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. And I always say to my clients, I'm like, well, it's like this. Let's say you've got a new product and you put it in and it's a food based product and you put it on the short shelves of your local supermarket. You get in there, but you do no advertising.

People aren't going to buy it off the shelf because they don't know about it. They don't know it's there. It's surrounded by all of these other sources, if you like, why would they choose yours when the source next to your bottle, even if your bottle looks pretty out. Have they seen the TV ad or they've heard the radio ad or their friend has recommended it, or there's a big banner above the source aisle marketing that 

Tammy: their family's been using for 30 [00:22:00] years.

So why would I risk trying something else? That's what they have all the sample things. And people think, yeah, I only need to do one thing or I need to do absolutely everything. Well, there's 27 different ways to market your business. And if you try to do all of them, you're, you're going to go crazy. 

Tarryn: And you will lose and you will do none of them.

Well, 

Tammy: You need to pick like just a few that work for you that fit in with you and do them consistently. Like one of the things I tell people is like, you have to be planning for what is your business going to look like in 50 years and how are you going to do it and plan like you're going to be in it.

Because my personal record from meeting someone to having them finally become a client, guess how long? A record. Record amount of time. Three years. Fourteen. Fifteen. Fifteen. Wow. 

Tarryn: Okay. Fourteen. Well, I mean, if you think about it, everyone buys differently. Everyone makes decisions differently. And some people need more exposure [00:23:00] to your, your brand, your message, your marketing, your offer than other people do.

Like I'm a very on the spot decision maker, but. I don't make my decisions based off people cold messaging me, right? I make my decisions based off who has shown me that they actually know what they're talking about. 

Tammy: And are you ready for it? Because it can be absolutely perfect, but if it's not the right time in your life or whatever, and I always tell you, drip on people.

Gently let them know that you exist. Sharing your message, putting the information out. Drip, drip, drip. So they either get wet or tell you to fuck off. 

Tarryn: Yeah. And this is why that messaging of make your first 10k month, make your first six figures, make your first seven figures is really frustrating. Because if you are not marketing, if the person that you're marketing to, if you don't know who you're marketing to, If they're not making five figures a month, well, they're not ready for the ten figure a month month because they're not even making five.

So it's a nice idea [00:24:00] because of course everybody wants that. Of course people want more money because money gives you freedom of choice, right? But if you're not making five 5, 000, if you're not making 100, if you're not making 50 in your business, how the hell do you think that you're just going to magically get to 20, 000 a month?

It makes no sense. So that's why 

Tammy: you're one of the lucky ones and you have a hot product or whatever, and you're in the right place at the right time. Do you have enough of the foundation to actually deliver? 

Tarryn: Exactly. And deliver well, because you only have that one chance to create that relationship with that client, that first impression, that gold star delivery.

And I think about it as energetics as well. I do talk a lot about that, is that you've got that one choice, and if you do poor delivery, That, that energy is going to seep through into the rest of your business. It's going to seep through into the rest of your clients. And then people are sitting there wondering, Oh, well, you know, I've got such a good [00:25:00] product.

Well, you didn't deliver well, and there are 50, 000 other people offering a product similar to yours or a service similar to yours. People are going to jump ship, word is going to get around, you know, and, and just as the opposite as well, if you do it so well, if you love on that client and you deliver so well, word gets around, that this, if you want quality, whatever it is, you go here to this person, don't worry that this one's cheaper, don't worry about this one's more prettier, it doesn't matter.

If you are delivering well and you have those solid foundations, you are going to get business. It's that simple. And that context at the same time, right? I go, Oh, it's that simple. Nothing in business is easy. If it is, you kind of have to be a little bit worried and go. 

Tammy: Maybe I need to challenge myself a bit more, but yeah.

Yeah. One of the reasons why I love business so much is because I'm going, if you're bored, you're doing it wrong. 

Tarryn: Yeah. If you're bored, you're playing it safe. Yeah. That's right. [00:26:00] Now, in your experience, can we have a practical piece of advice that almost, almost every new business owner, because that's your area of expertise overlooks, but can make a hugely significant difference in their, in the success of their business.

One piece. 

Tammy: One piece. Okay. You always have to ask the difficult questions. Cause I'm going to sit there and 

Tarryn: have an easy interview. Don't be silly. 

Tammy: And this is, this is what I would say, Hey, figure 20 percent activities. 

Tarryn: Can you explain that? Because not everybody knows the 80 20 percent 

Tammy: rule. 80 percent of your activities are going to give you 20 percent or less of your results.

where 20 percent of your activities are going to give you 80 percent or more of your results. Your 20 percent activities when you are in business are what are the things that are going to build your business and make the cash registering. So two things that are always, always, always 20 percent activities are marketing and systems.

What 

Tarryn: you're doing for 

Tammy: the marketing [00:27:00] and systems are going to on your business and how long you've been in business. Like I've been in business for over two decades. I'm going to do things slightly different than somebody first starting off. But if you are not making a point of figuring out what your 20 percent activities are right now and putting time and effort into doing those, you're going to waste your time on stuff that make you feel accomplished because yes, I can put it on my checklist and easily go.

And then when you're not making any money, while you're moving forward, what are your 20 percent activities and how are you making a point of getting them done? 

Tarryn: That's right. Craig Ballantyne talks about this. I don't know if you know who he is, but he talks about this a lot and I couldn't agree with it more, you know, and I've been so guilty of it because the 20 percent often isn't what I find enjoyable, right?

It's those neat, generating, make money now activities. Not make money later activities, it's make money now activities, and those need [00:28:00] to be done first. Like, especially if you're a time poor mama, like I am, like, I only have literally about 90 minutes a day to play in my business, right? And that could be anything from sales calls to lead generating activities, or I could sit there and write, you know, a social media post.

What is going to get me the most results? Well, it's, it's that lead generation, you know, that's my 20 percent and it's different for everybody. 

Tammy: Times tariff mom, that can actually be. A major advantage, because when I got fired and decided in that moment to start my business, I thought my life wasn't complicated enough.

So, shortly thereafter, I got pregnant. I'm sorry, a baby and a business at the same time. I took 30 hours of that leave, hours, and kept going, and I had to figure out how to do it, and because I didn't have unlimited time and stuff, I'm going, okay, she's down for her nap, I've got this, what am I going to get done?

What am I going to get? What am I going to get done? And I [00:29:00] would get way more done than people who have, Oh yeah, no, I don't have to worry about it because I got all the time. No, we have to focus and concentrate. And I learned a lot going through that. And I've like my daughter's almost 22 now and still going, but I learned that, like you said, when she was a baby and the baby stage was actually easier than when she hit toddler.

Needed like, you can't put them down anymore and they say, it's 

Tarryn: a nightmare. I was, I jumped on a podcast interview to record earlier this week and we were having sound issues and I could not for the life of me figure out why. Well, it's because my son who turned one yesterday was sitting behind my desk while I quickly did something for a client and he pulled the cords out of the sound system and it took me literally like 30 minutes to figure out what, because I'm checking all the settings and it's like, it can just be.

Your biggest challenge, but it can also be your biggest motivator, and you [00:30:00] become so freaking productive, which is why things like the Pomodoro Technique work, right? Like, do things in sprints, because when you've got that time pressure, when you've got that window, and you know you are going to get cut off, You can produce amazing things.

Tammy: Well, so I actually, when I started my business, I joined a group coaching program and it was wonderful. And I got a lot out of it. Not so much learning stuff because a lot of that was just stuff I'd already been on. But the people and stuff that I was with, and a lot of them are still great friends and clients, but one of the things that drove me nuts is they're giving you all these productivity tips as a, they talk about productive days and I'm going, are you freaking kidding me?

Like, it would work perfectly for single people or men that have wives. Because, like, I'm on diaper duty and breastfeeding duty and all of this stuff. There is no such thing as a day where I can [00:31:00] focus on one thing. I have pockets and how to wipe new things differently. And then I started talking with, typically, it was the moms.

Now, I'm getting more of the dads because I'm finding with each new decade, dads are typically becoming more involved and stuff and we're having to look at things differently and do things differently. Like, okay, how do I work around raising a young family and building a business and how do I do this?

And also, I don't know. A lot of the advice, especially the older advice, is okay, yeah, you're already successful, you've brought a staff and assistants and secretaries that you can delegate to, and they'll do it. So you can focus on these things and going, that doesn't work for people who are not already at that stage, how do we change things so that it's actually useful for people in like where you are now and where I'm that are living in real life.

That's battle tested. Yes. 

Tarryn: I think that was one of the most [00:32:00] frustrating things for me as well, is that A, like we mentioned towards the beginning of this interview is that people around you who are not entrepreneurs will never understand what it is that you do or how that you do it, especially when you've got a digital business, because that's just the beast, different beast entirely.

People just really struggle who have been an employee to understand what any of that's like. And B, being a. mum, who is the primary caregiver for kids. And then people go, well, you've been doing this for so long. How come you're not seeing, like, how come the business isn't bigger? Or how come you're not earning more money?

Or how come there's all of these preconceived ideas. And then they're like, well, it's not working. And it's like, well, no, it's just not working at the rate that you expect it to. And why is that? I had a coach and it was yesterday actually. And I got furious about it is that he could not understand he being a single man.

With no kids, he could not understand why I only have 19 minutes a [00:33:00] day to do what he was asking me to do. And I explained it to him in finite detail. And he, to his credit, you know, he was like, Oh, okay, well then I get it now. But people just don't understand that being a female in business is very different to being a single young male in business.

And that is not sexist at all. Or even if 

Tammy: it's an older male or a married male. Or even a single 

Tarryn: female. Yeah. Or a female without child responsibilities or other responsibilities. People really struggle to understand that. And it's why success looks different to everybody. And which is why I don't believe that most coaches, the magic bullets don't work.

It's because they don't understand the unique needs of the individual and what their day actually looks like. So I teach people to write books. Right. I wrote my book, my latest book within seven days. It's a chunky monkey. It's not like a little thin book, but I wrote that in seven days. Why? Because that is [00:34:00] all the time that I had.

And I did it in two halves because I had my son in the middle of it. But what I teach them, and one of the first things we do inside of the mastermind is to go, tell me what your unique week looks like, because nobody has time to go and sit in the woods with a typewriter for three weekends to write your book.

Nobody has that. So the first thing I go is let's identify the pockets of time where you can actually be productive. Is it when your kids are at swimming lessons and you have to sit in the parking lot for 30 minutes? Cool. Where's your laptop? Yep. Let's get it done. Is there somebody who could watch, could you share transport responsibilities to and from school with another mom who lives close by?

Cool. That'll give you an hour back in your day, depending on how far you live from the school. You need to start thinking about those unique individuals, because there is no one size fits all. 

Tammy: One of the things you're talking about is how do you build up your community? How do you build up your business community?

But also how do you build up your support community for the [00:35:00] person life? And one of the things that I've done so much over the years, yes, it's all about the business. How do you set up your home life to accommodate that? Like you said, okay, somebody is in charge of morning and we'll do afternoon or switch off for different things like that.

Or as the kids are getting older, teaching them to be much more self sufficient. Cause that's good for you, but it's also good for them because it breaks my heart how many kids go off to university with my daughter that barely know how to wipe their own ass because mom and dad have done everything for them and now they're legally adults that are useless.

Tarryn: Yes. It happens globally, honestly, and it is a very frustrating phenomenon. We do need to empower those around us to help us as well. And we need to learn to ask for help. I really struggled with that in the beginning. It's like, nah, I can do it all. I, but ask for help, build your community because you need to build a sustainable business.

And one of the things that I see that's rampant in [00:36:00] the digital entrepreneur space is scale, scale, scale, get bigger, get quicker, get faster. And that's not always sustainable, but how would you say. How would you guide your clients in particular to balance that ambition with sustainability? 

Tammy: Number one, taking a realistic look at their life now and what can they do?

Because like I said, when I started my business, Before my daughter was born, like, I was going great guns because I, I had to, I needed to get going, but I also didn't have the demands of a child. And then when my daughter was like, little, okay, I only had pockets now. I don't have to worry about it so that I can do a lot more stuff.

So, like, up until she was like a teenager. Okay, here's my schedule and I'm not doing it. But now, like you said, she's in university. She's still with us and then still help out with a few things, but she's on her own. So now I'm training more and I'm doing my retreats around the [00:37:00] world and different things because I'm in a different state.

So what are, what is your life right now? And I only have one child. So that's different for me than my clients that have more of them. So I'm going, we need to be realistic about what is your life now, and how can we fit in the business, and then what adjustments do we need to be making at home, 

Tarryn: to not just make 

Tammy: it better for your business, but better for everything.

Because we all know that if we're parents and we're stressed out and worried to death about our kids, Nothing else matters. 

Tarryn: Exactly. And that's such an important thing. Like, you only get one window with your kids at the age that they are. And I recognized this this week, actually. I looked at my son and I went, Why am I pushing so hard to do this thing?

Because I have this big ambition and this big vision. I'm like, why am I pushing so hard to do that? When he's turning one tomorrow. He's, he's, he's It's not going to be this baby and it's not going to be like this forever. And it happens so fast. I mean, he could be in daycare next year, depending on what direction I choose to go to.

And I'm like, [00:38:00] and then I will have more time. But today, right now, why am I trying to do this thing? That really is just stressing me and the family unit out. So it is a juggle. It is a balance between that ambition and sustainability in the moment. And it involves understanding what phase of life are you in right now?

Tammy: But it's also, it can also be very motivating. So I've been the primary breadwinner in our family for all but the first two years that I was building my business because I took a major while I was first building. When I was having the hard days where I'm really tired and stuff and going, one of the many reasons why I finally decided to start my business in that moment because it wasn't A brand new idea.

I had people telling me for years going, Tammy, you'd be so good at this. Why don't you should go into sales? You need to start your own business. You do. And I would come up with all sorts. I'm blonde. I'm female and I'm 19. Yeah. Nobody's going to take financial advice from me. Like, 

Tarryn: and 

Tammy: so I had all these [00:39:00] stories, but.

My husband and I, we were talking about starting our family and I'm going, I don't want to get my daughter up at five 30 in the morning so I can drag her off to drop her off at daycare to go to a job that I can't stand because I'm sick and tired of working with incompetent old men and then pick her up at the end of the day, maybe see her for an hour before she has to go down, rinse, recycle, and repeat.

And I'm not going, I'm going to miss out on the words. I'm going to miss out on stuff. So if I create my business. I can do this. So I had clients that went through my pregnancy with me and then I would show up with, with my daughter and they're going, can we hold the baby? And I was able to be pizza mom and field trip mom and heaven forbid, if he got sick and I had to go pick her up, I had the flexibility to do that because it was my business and I built it up and.

I built it the way that I wanted, which would not have been a possibility as an employee. 

Tarryn: Yep. I couldn't agree more. And it's what, everything you just [00:40:00] said was the exact reason I chose to start my own business. I started my first business as a VA when my daughter was six weeks old, because I just couldn't stand the idea of everything that you just said, putting her into daycare and missing out on all those things.

I didn't want that relationship with my kids. And don't get me wrong. Unlike the people who do choose to stay in corporate. That's fine. If you're enjoying that and you were meant for that. Awesome. Whatever works for you. A hundred percent. Now there's a lot of information about there, out there that there's an avalanche of information constantly from all angles, and it can often make new entrepreneurs feel very overwhelmed about all the steps involved.

What would you say to someone thinking about starting a business or maybe just starting out how to overcome that overwhelm? 

Tammy: Find yourself. And this is much easier than when I started because the business, but find yourself a good business coach that works on the foundational stuff and that they know where you are and then can [00:41:00] help cut through the noise.

Tarryn: Yes, 

Tammy: yes. There's no shortage of good information and the internet and social media is a blessing and a curse because there is terms of that. How do you sort through? Because. It is overwhelming, but you find yourself a good business coach that can help you at the beginning and understand that. That is one of the absolute best things that you can do because they'll give you a path that you can start going through.

Is it going to be perfect? No, because perfect doesn't exist. 

Tarryn: Oh, it's never perfect. And you can always circle back and, you know. Revise, you know, upgraded morals, 

Tammy: like your website, all those stuff. These are living entities, like, for my purposes, I've been through 8 different websites with when I split my business into 2 in 2019.

So I still have my personal financial planning company. And then I have KSA business, which [00:42:00] focuses just on the business coaching and consulting. So I've been through four websites in that amount of time, like it's always growing and evolving and, and, and with 

Tarryn: you as a person and the more skills that you learn and you become a different version of yourself and your business changes.

A hundred percent, like I've been through several rebrands. I've been through a name change. I've been through different websites and it's the same thing. And be open to change, be open to evolving because there is no other choice. When I started, social 

Tammy: media did not exist, not even MySpace. Yeah, MySpace.

Tarryn: Yes. 

Tammy: And now everything is social media. You and I connected through social media, which is wonderful. 

Tarryn: Yeah. 

Tammy: Absolutely wonderful. So, like I said, I'm having to learn all these different things, which keeps me fresh and challenged and frustrated, just like when I started out. 

Tarryn: I mean, at least we're not bored, right?

Oh, yeah, that's such an important word. We went wrong. Oh, my goodness, Tammy, it has been such a pleasure [00:43:00] talking to you. If, um, I couldn't agree more. And I think that the main message that we take away from this particular conversation, I'm sure we'll have more in the future because I love you. I think you're amazing.

Is that get the support for where you're at right now. There is no point in dropping 25 K on a mastermind. That's going to teach you to scale. If you do not have the foundationals. Done and busted. Zero cents. You will just go, well, how come I didn't make my ROI, my return on investment from my 25K? Well, you may have learned some awesome things.

Can you apply them to your business right now? Maybe not. Now we have a tradition on this podcast, Tammy, called the book drop before we sign off. I want to know what particular book Has impacted you in a personal life or your business life in some way? 

Tammy: So my favorite book and it's my personal favorite and it's my number one book to be giving as a gift is the Success Principles by Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer.

[00:44:00] And it is the Coles Notes of everything I've been learning, studying, teaching, and experiencing for years. And it was originally brought out in 2005. And then for the 10th anniversary in 2015, updated and improved and all that stuff. And I'm really hoping they put another one out next year. And like I said, I absolutely love that book because, like I said, it's the Coles Notes.

It goes over everything. Absolutely everything in like little snippets and all this stuff. And I read it every single year. It's the first book I read every year. Wow. Okay. So it's like a ritual for you. Yeah. Because it just reminds me, okay, yeah, no, I'm doing good here. Oh, shit. I still have to work on that one.

Tarryn: Yeah. Oh, forgot about that. Got to go back. I love it. And it's obviously a step by step. I haven't read it yet, but I will be adding it to my list of to be reads in case I have 750 years to do absolutely nothing to get through my, my to be read list. I live in eternal optimism. Tammy, thank you so much for joining me today.

It's been an absolute pleasure. 

Tammy: Thank [00:45:00] you for having me. It was great chatting with you.

Tarryn: That's a wrap on today's episode. If you love the insights and inspiration, don't let it end here. Hit subscribe to stay connected and turn your visions into reality alongside our community of changemakers. I'm Teryn Reeves. Thank you for joining me. And remember, your story has power. See you in the next episode.