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How fast do you get back up when something doesn’t work?

In this episode, I’m talking about the relentless pursuit of building the impact, business, and life you want without letting anything external stop you.

Because there is no path where you just put something out there and it works. When it looks easy, you’re not seeing all the failures, work, lessons, and experience that led up to that point.

I’m also sharing what happened when another agency charged back $19,000 after we delivered the work, how I handled it with a $50,000 payroll coming up, and why challenges don’t disappear as your business grows.

Key Takeaways

• The only thing that guarantees success in business
• What a $19,000 chargeback showed me about being a CEO
• The one trait you must develop to unlock the next level

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh: 

 There is no such thing as an easy path to making a lot of money in a business, being successful, having the life of your dreams. There is no easy. So pick your hard. No matter what level of success you’re at, there’s always a hard. If you want it, you can have anything you want. And if you want it, but you gotta go make it happen. No one’s gonna do it for you. Pick your hard, though. It’s all worth it. You just have to pick what you’re willing and wanting to go all in on. If you feel aligned with that and you have purpose behind that, you know, then on the days that there are the challenges, it’s like what does keep you going? Because otherwise those things will knock you down. 

Embodied CEOs don’t chase trends. They pave the way. They lead from within, moved by purpose, unshaken by noise. When you are the source, you do not need permission Hello, everybody. 

Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you guys are having a great day and a great week. It is so hot here in Austin today recording this. I think that my phone said it’s a feels like 113 degrees. What in the actual heck? Definitely will not be running today, for sure. I am getting excited for my surprise trip, which will already have happened when this episode airs. I’m getting everything in place. You know when you have, like, a bunch of things that actually only take, like, 15 minutes, but you’ve been avoiding them? Does anyone else do that? Because they feel like they’re not really a priority, but they’re, like, lingering. I’ve been trying to get those things done this week, little things like I gotta get something signed, and I have to go to the notary. It’s like a five-minute thing, but it feels very big and annoying. Or my son accidentally ordered something on Amazon and didn’t change the address, so it went to the location of my event venue, which happened, like, three weeks ago, and it’s been sitting there since. He’s like, “Mom, can you go pick up my thing?” 15-minute thing, but just, like, felt like couldn’t fit it in. 

So I’ve been getting those things done, and it feels good this week. It actually makes me feel lighter, so that’s good. Today’s episode is gonna just be, like, a little bit of a hot take. I feel ins- I just felt inspired to talk about this topic. I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve seen this play out. I, I think that this is something I remind myself in my own business and I think has absolutely contributed to my success. And that is ultimately that I think the most successful entrepreneurs, and really the only ones who make it long term, you know, and truly build success, there’s one trait. 

There is one thing that trumps everything else, and that is the ability to get back up when something doesn’t work. It is the relentless pursuit of nothing can get in my way, not even myself, to creating success. And I’ve been thinking about this lately because two things. I watch, a lot of times, different o- things play out for different entrepreneurs. I watch an entrepreneur, you know, not have the successful launch, something doesn’t sell, something doesn’t work out how they hope versus someone who has the same exact experience but responds completely different. 

And there’s two ways to respond to that. There’s, there’s the one of, like, “I’m a victim to this, and who could I blame? And this should have worked, and it didn’t, and therefore, I’m gonna stop trying.” And then there’s the one that’s like, “All right, like- pick myself back up and let’s keep going. And I truly think one of the biggest contributing factors to success is how, not only do you do it, but how fast do you get back up after something hard, something that didn’t work, some- somewhere that you failed, something that you, you put a lot of energy into and it didn’t work and it, and, you know, didn’t sell or whatever. How fast you get back up and you keep going And I, I saw a thread and it was like not Threads, but like a comment thing, and it was talking about a strategy, like that you could… I don’t know. It was somebody saying like s- “Create your offer like this.” And someone said, you know, “Pick your hard, because it’s all hard.” And I liked that. I don’t like looking at business as it’s hard from the perspective of like you have to force it and like necessarily grind, but honestly, in the beginning you do. And there is no such thing as just like an easy business. There is no such thing as an easy path to making a lot of money in a business, being successful, having the life of your dreams. I mean, unless you’re, it’s handed to you. 

Sure, there’s people who have trust funds and there’s people who, you know, that, that definitely can be someone’s path. But actually building it on your own and building something great, building something that has impact, that makes money, that is the life of your dreams, there is no easy. So pick your hard. And I, I loved that because it is so true. Because then on the flip side of that, I also believe that you can make anything successful, and I tell clients this a lot. Like, we’re gonna choose a strategy that we feel is the best and the most aligned to you, whether that is, you know, you’re gonna do a webinar, you’re gonna do a live launch, you’re gonna sell an offer like this, you’re gonna do high ticket, whatever. We’re gonna figure out based on who your ideal customer is, who you are, your unique strengths, what’s in alignment with you, what the best possible option is, and then we’re gonna make it successful no matter what. Because we’re not gonna stop until it is successful. 

Is it going to be easy? No. I have never seen where you just put something out there and it works and it’s easy. And when anyone has portrayed that to be the case, what you’re not seeing is all the failures that led up to that point. You’re not seeing all the work and the lessons and the learnings and the experience that led up to that point. So sure, someone can go, you know, launch an offer. 

People with big audiences, you could launch an offer tomorrow and it’ll work. But the only reason it works is because of everything that led up to that point. So pick your hard, because getting to that point of success for anyone is not easy. And no matter what level of success you’re at, there’s always a hard. And so that’s partly what has also inspired to do this, is I was talking to my friend, and I think that, you know, I, I was talking to my friend and, and giving them kind of like an inside story that has happened, that I’ve been dealing with the last few months in business. And most people think that my life, I think there’s just like, you put someone on a pedestal and they’re like Your business is just successful. Like, everything’s great. 

But we had… And I can share it now. We had three or four months ago, we had a client who decided to hire us and white label us, and I don’t normally do white labels. I actually, like, am against them. A, a white label is, like, where s- somebody, another agency hires you, and then you do the client work, they charge the client, and, like, basically, you’re the middleman. And m- usually, I don’t do them. Usually, I don’t do them. I have one rule with them, which is we have to have communication with the client, and then maybe I’d consider them. So this agency hired us. It was, like, an agency that acquired another agency. They seemed pretty big, seemed pretty legit. I had, like, a connection who knew them, so I had some trust. They hired us, and they put, like, maybe four or five clients. So it ended up being, like, a total of 19 grand. And we did all the work, and we did great. We delivered the work. We didn’t really have as much communication with the client as I had anticipated, and they decided that they were gonna charge back everything, even though we did the work. Like, basically illegal what they were doing. But the thing about chargebacks is it doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong in the, in, like, the immediate. They draw the money, like, the next day while you fight it. So we’ve since won all the chargebacks because we were absolutely in the right, and we had all the evidence of everything we’ve delivered. And they were trying to basically, like, scam it. Like, “We’re gonna charge our client, and then we’re gonna pay you, but then we’re gonna not pay you so we get to keep all the money,” is what they were doing. And I think there was other stuff happening in the agency. Whatever, doesn’t matter. Point being, overnight, $19,000 that I wasn’t expecting came out. And when you have a six-figure-a-month payroll, like, it- it’s not the best thing. It’s, it’s not the best experience. So I was talking to my friend and I was like, “People think that, you know, my business is successful, and so therefore it’s always great.” I think people have that interpretation. And it’s like, it doesn’t matter how big you get. You just have different problems, you know? 

And that, that same day, like, it all worked out fine, and I ended up getting sales. And we won all the chargebacks, which is great. And I had to get a lawyer involved and kind of, like, basically look at it and say, “This is essentially a scam that you could sue them for,” which I didn’t wanna do. I, I don’t really like paying lawyers. 

So anyways, the point is, that happened to me, threw me off for about 20 minutes, and then it’s like, well, there’s nothing I can do about it, so get back up and we’re gonna figure it out. How fast you get back up when facing an obstacle, facing a setback, facing something that didn’t work determines how successful you are, period. Second piece is pick your hard. Because everything great, like honestly, you have to work for it, and building a business that makes six, seven figures that allows you to have the dream that you want, that has a team, there’s so many obstacles with team. There can be really hard days with team, but there also can be a really big upside, and so much payoff and so much reward. And I was telling someone this the other day, I was like, “Having my team is the most stressful thing that I have. Like, the, the pressure of payroll, the you know, just team. 

Like, that is the most stressful part of my business,” I said. But anytime I catch myself in a moment of feeling stressed out about it or upset about it or angry or frustrated, I just bring myself back to gratitude because I know that I would not have the business and life that I have today without my team. I would not be set up to be in the most optimized of me spending my time doing the things that will have the greatest impact without my team, like if I was bogged down by the day-to-day. So when I have the moments of like, “Well, crap, today’s payroll and we just had $19,000 taken out of our account overnight, and I don’t know how long it’s gonna take to fight this, and we’ve got, you know, a 50 grand payroll,” like when I have to figure those things out I bring myself back to, I get to do this. I chose to do this. I signed up to do this. I get to do this, and I’m grateful for this life. And I mean it. 

I’m not just forcing myself to say that. I really mean it, and I can really find the gratitude in that. But that allows me, when I need to, to get back up and to keep going. Now, there’s another option, if I could allow that to I could allow myself to, for days or weeks at a time, to be angry, to be frustrated, to be a victim. And I just look at it as like, this is the game. This is the game of business. This is what I signed up for. And the only thing I can control is how I show up. And so the faster that I am hit with an obstacle, hit with a challenge that is stressful, and the faster I get back up from that, the faster we get to keep moving forward. And you will never stop getting hit, hit down. 

I remember, I think it was, you know, this year, Alex Hormozi shared on a podcast, he had all these lawsuits and things that he was facing. It’s like you just don’t know what is actually happening behind the scenes of a business. But I promise you there is challenge in every single one of them, and honestly, the bigger they get, the bigger the challenge is. And that’s why to have a bigger business, you have to build capacity to hold those challenges, because they are gonna grow. As the revenue grows, as the team grows, as the infrastructure grows, as the a- as the business itself grows, the problems get bigger. And not in a scary way, because you, you have the capacity to handle them. 

Because through experience, through lived experience, through getting knocked down and getting back up, and getting knocked down and getting back up, you have built capacity. There’s no other way to build capacity but through actually living it. And there’s a part to it that is your actual nervous system and what it can handle. And could my nervous system, you know, f- five, six years ago have handled that? I don’t know Now, I keep myself so regulated, but I also have the tools of understanding how to bring myself back to regulation so fast through lived experience, through teaching myself that. A book isn’t gonna teach me that.

A coach isn’t gonna teach me that. A leadership program isn’t gonna teach me that. I have to live it. So I want to bring you guys to a place of reflection of when something doesn’t go wrong or right in your business, how- however big or small it is. When something doesn’t work how you want it, it doesn’t work how you planned, and you feel those emotions of disappointment, rejection, failure, frustration. And you question if you should keep doing this. Absolutely are there times where you go, “Okay, is this still in alignment? Is this a sign for something?” Like, when there is a ton of resistance, sometimes that resistance is a sign of, we gotta look at this differently. Like, it’s, it’s forcing us to look at it through a different lens. It’s forcing us to make different decisions. Absolutely. But when that happens, how quickly do you get back up? How quickly can you not make any of that mean anything about you, anything about what’s possible, anything about how good of an entrepreneur you are or how big of a business you’ll be able to have? How quickly can you get back up and show yourself that you will do whatever it takes, that you will be relentless in the pursuit of building your impact, your business, and the life that you want? Because the more you do that, the more successful you’ll be. I truly think that is the number one secret. 

Like, if you were to line me up and say, “Here’s 10 entrepreneurs,” and tell me within minutes if they’ll be successful, I swear to you, the one trait I would look for is this. Because you can’t teach this. This is a choice. This is a choice that you will not let anything external stop you from being successful. When I have a team member, I don’t… I look for this. Determination. Relentless pursuit. Like, I will figure it out. Nothing can stop me. That is the most powerful Trait, skill, belief that you could absolutely have. And I’m so grateful that my parents did instill that with me as a kid. Like, my mom would always say, you know, “If you want it, you can have anything you want if you want it, but you gotta go make it happen. No one’s gonna do it for you.” And I think that is such a you know, powerful thing to have in business, ’cause I watch this play out especially with beginning business owners, where they have this idea that it should be easy, that I will, you know, launch something, and it’s just gonna work. And I was on my peer mastermind this week, and I was thinking about, you know, the very successful. There’s people way more successful than me in terms of business size and revenue, and consistency of just showing up. Showing up, trying new things, making mistakes, getting back up when something doesn’t work. Every entrepreneur you meet is gonna have these stories, and what defines them is their response to the situations and the challenges 100%. 

Like, that’s what defines your success. And so guess what? The only person that can hold you accountable to that is yourself. And it’s way easier to be a victim. It is way easier to say and to blame, “Oh, you know, Facebook ads didn’t work for me,” or, “The Instagram algorithm sucks,” or, “My clients aren’t buying, and the economy sucks.” Like, okay, that just takes all the responsibility and all the accountability and places it away from you and onto external circumstances that you have n- really no control over. But you do have control over how you show up, and there is no easy business. 

There, there isn’t. Pick your hard. I love that. Pick your hard. So if you’re looking for, you know, what offer and what structure and y- Like, yes, there are ways to set up a business that creates ease, but to get there is not easy My friend asked me the other day and was like, “I built this AI tool and I wanna market it. You know, do you think I could just, like, run ads to it and it would sell?” And I was like “No. Like, you don’t understand the level of work that goes into messaging, and offer positioning, and a brand, and building trust. Like, there is no just, like, pop it up on an ad and it’s gonna be successful. It doesn’t exist. 

It doesn’t exist.” Pick your hard, though. It’s all worth it. You just have to pick what you’re willing and wanting to go all in on. And do you have alignment with that? Because if you feel aligned with that and you have purpose behind that, you know, then on the days that there are the challenges, it’s like, what does keep you going? Because otherwise, those things will knock you down. So some food for thought today for you guys. And just sit with and maybe go back to, like, the last time something didn’t work in your business or it failed and, and what was your response? And how much did you take accountability for versus, you know, get in the dri- in the passenger seat and go like, “Well, it means this. Whatever.” You know? Or how much are you looking for the easy path? 

Every entrepreneur I look up to has this fire in them of like, “I am here to do big things, and I will do whatever it takes to build this, and I will continue to do that.” It’s like, it’s a love for the game. It’s a love for the impact and for the game. For the game. It’s a game. It’s a game that if you play it, if you play it well, you build something quite incredible. So alright, everybody. Hopefully that was helpful, something for you to think about today. Thanks so much for tuning in. I will talk to you next time.