Janet Fish 0:08
Hi, and welcome to the breakaway entrepreneur podcast where we explore the entrepreneur mindset and the characteristics and traits that lead to success. I’m your host, Janet Fish. In this episode, we talk with Eva Lyle and her thoughts from the heart. Eva speaks from her heart. She shares her experience as an entrepreneur creating and running two businesses with her husband, john, we talked about the importance of community, how to leverage networking to grow your business, and more importantly, how to become a better person to more effective communication. I hope you enjoy our chat. Evil aisle. How are you this morning?
Eva Lisle 0:46
I am really good. I’m so
Janet Fish 0:48
excited to be here. I was so excited to have you. I know I’ve been trying to get you on this podcast for a while so I’m glad we finally made it happen.
Eva Lisle 0:56
Well, me too, and I kind of like the zoom format because I get to two Watch you and see you and so no this is perfect.
Janet Fish 1:02
Yeah, I am loving it so I had previously my first I don’t know half a dozen dozen episodes were all just audio and then once we’re always here at home I started doing and it’s it’s so much different I think it really changes the dynamic of the conversation because that’s like literally kind of sitting with you in my living room which was my first five or six podcasts were all actually sitting in my living room I
Eva Lisle 1:29
was how fun well next time you get to finally have us back in your living room. I want to come back and beat in your living room because that sounds fun. Yeah,
Janet Fish 1:37
I would I would much prefer that and we’ll usually try to do it later in the day so we can you know, enjoy a little
Eva Lisle 1:42
little ya know? Exactly. Alright, so
Janet Fish 1:46
welcome and so let’s just start by share with us a little bit about Eva and what you do and not just workwise but the EVA personal to
Eva Lisle 1:57
Eva, personal to Well, God That’s, that’s kind of a fun thing to do. I do so many things, I’ll tell you the the thing that probably tells the most about me is that I do everything kind of through my heart. And that’s great. And it’s really sometimes kind of exhausting. I, you know, I got into business because I was trying to help my husband who I loved and he was exhausted and I thought, well, he can’t do this alone. I work with our people in our business in a way that it’s just because I really like them. You know, I like our members. I like our clients. Even the clients that I don’t like, I appreciate and I just, I kind of like to hang out with people and, you know, obviously, you want to help people in whatever the thing that they want to get kind of further ahead with. I just so enjoyed people that you know, that’s that’s kind of what I do. So I, I work at the Crocker as an art docent, and I love art. And I think the thing I love about art is that it is a really physical visual way to express that thing that’s inside us. And that kind of describes how I do everything. That’s what I love about business, that it’s this thing that happens, you know, first there was nothing. I mean, you’ve had this idea, and you get this thing that comes out of you and gets expressed. And then you’re, you have this enterprise out in the world. So I’m very much influenced by that inner voice, and how it gets expressed in the world, you know, whether it’s art, or business or a family, or a relationship. You know, I love relationship talks. So, and I don’t mean just like with your spouse, but you know, friends and how businesses relate to each other and countries relate to each other, so
I don’t know if that’s, I feel like I’ve gone off on my own tangent, but well, so. So
Janet Fish 4:08
explain or take go step further into. I mean, I know that you’ve got the docent I don’t know that that’s a paid thing. That’s probably no, that’s my gift. That’s your gift to the world. But he was also got to two businesses that I know of. So talk a little bit about the journey sounds like it involve john in getting to that. When that happened, how long you’ve been, you guys have been in a business, you know, by yourselves. Talk a little bit about that journey.
Eva Lisle 4:38
Okay. Um, our, our, well, funnily enough, we almost started both businesses simultaneously. Outback solutions, which is our web design company, we create and manage and design and do SEO work for all kinds of websites, you know, businesses, nonprofits, Churches etc. And when it was a brand new business john was invited to something called DNI. And it was a brand new chapter of this thing called being AI which we’d never heard of. And he was like the fourth person in the room here in Sacramento when it was beginning here. And he was very excited because it introduced him to other people. And even from you know, he had passed military background. We knew that to grow business you had to know some people so he was excited and very quickly, was asked to be the person kind of in charge of DNI in this area in its infancy. So this was you know, kind of one chapter and then another chapter. And very quickly, because DNI which stands for Business Network international is a is a way that businesses can learn how to refer business to each other, and essentially become kind of like an extension of your own Salesforce. So we knew that we needed that. And so when john started, it was so new in this area and had never been here before it was very successful grew very quickly. And in a fairly short space of time, he was, in fact, starting multiple chapters at the same time. And this involved, you know, training and going to meetings and finding people and helping them, you know, grow a chapter, but I could see, even he couldn’t be in his own chapter, and grow these other chapters at the same time. So, I in fact, became the member in BSI for Outback solutions. So, what was really cool about that is a I was learning about business itself, you know, and I was learning about our business out back solutions. You know, I didn’t build website sights or anything like that, but I was the person who would, you know, I was kind of artistic director and the person with, you know, that kept an eye on the money and the people and that kind of thing. But it was a really good way to learn what the and I was like. So at that time, john is off growing chapter so I became a member. And I’ll tell you a little secret that I learned about business. That was a huge shock to me. I actually thought that people in business, absolutely knew what they were doing and that I was new and did not know what I was doing. What I learned about fellow business people in my DNI chapter, which was really important to me, was that everybody was kind of figuring it out as they went. And that allowed me to relax a little bit because I had in my mind, okay, this is what a business person is or does Or knows. And I didn’t know any of those things. I didn’t know what to do. We, you know, it’s on the job training. And so what was kind of neat about the early days is, we were all learning together, you know, being i was growing rapidly all over the world. You know, now it’s in, like 78 different countries. But when we started here, it was just beginning that really sharp growth period. Because it was such a new idea, I think. And so the great thing was after had been been, you know, in the army life, john was an officer, and I was really awesome, awesome. Army wife. I even had a badge that said army wife, and but I realized it was absolutely fantastic training for business because when you train in the military or you’re, you know, the spouse of someone who’s in the military, there’s a lot of discipline involved. There’s a lot of working for the benefit of the greater good involved. There’s a lot of I’m gonna say effort, but I don’t mean like straining, although there was plenty of streaming. But just like, there’s enterprise, you know, even in the military
years, you’ve got a bigger vision for what’s going on. And I think that was such a good idea coming into business because we didn’t really honest to goodness, knows how to run a business. But we knew people were awesome and that they could be led. And that if we did something that benefited them, that it would benefit all of us. And so the givers gain philosophy and DNI really attracted us. Of course, I loved my husband. So I thought, well, whatever I can do to help him Which, you know, these days practically you almost can’t even say that because it sounds like I’m, you know, letting the feminine side down. But honestly, that’s, that’s not you know, I I really like it, you know, I really appreciate it all he was doing and honestly it dragged me into the business world because I would have probably been quite happy like in the nonprofit world. I always was interested in business. But I never saw myself in business because I always had this very, I don’t know, weird idea of that I, I mean, this was something when I was little, I always thought before I did something, I should know how to do it. Like I can remember as a child, my mother offering me ballet lessons, for example, in my little, you know, kind of six year old head I thought, well, I can’t take ballet because I don’t know how to do ballet.
Janet Fish 10:55
And we’ve never learned anything if we had that philosophy right?
Eva Lisle 11:00
This is what’s so weird. I mean, I still have this very weird backwards way of thinking and the fact that our businesses have been successful, you know, very much john has been amazing. But what has my part in this has been that anybody can be amazing if you just keep doing it. You just keep showing up, you keep loving your people, you keep caring, you know, about the greater good, more than you just care about, like, Can I make a buck or whatever. And I realized this forced me into an on the job training that I kind of had to do because that’s what was happening and, and I did learn on the job and I learned from my fellow business professionals. This is why I love what you do here, Jim, it is. This is how business People learn from each other, right? Even though there’s business school and there’s Harvard Business School and Stanford and all these different things. The reality is we learn from each other, how to survive, how to drive, how to succeed, you know, and so you are looking, I mean, when I first started, the whole idea of coaching was just brand brand new, like we’d never even heard of a coach. When we came from Australia. We’d never even heard of it. And but I quickly got the idea that this was super cool for one thing, and obviously really needed and so we latched on pretty quickly and you know, decided, having someone kind of outside your own head. Coach, you guide you ask you good questions. So anyway, I love what you’re doing because this is how we sell a business people survive is
Janet Fish 13:00
learning from each from each other. It’s interesting because I got I have an MBA. And I then I went into a W two job and I worked in corporate America till oh five, and I didn’t use. And then I became an entrepreneur and even then I didn’t use what I learned in business school. I mean, because well, they might teach you how to do some accounting and some things like that. But to be really be an entrepreneur, and be a successful person. You I always say it takes a community, and it takes other entrepreneurs. I mean, business coaches are awesome and great, obviously, I think that’s true. But even without that, just the learning from other people who and being able to talk about the challenges that you the two encounters is really important. So you guys, run two businesses, and I know that that’s challenging. I’ve run multiple businesses myself. How do you how do you maneuver that? How do you know where To focus I mean, granted, there’s two of you, which probably helps. But running two businesses is a challenge. I’d love to hear how you guys have done it so successfully.
Eva Lisle 14:09
That is a great question. And one that is being answered literally every day. As we figure it out ourselves. The thing that makes the biggest difference is we have grown a team in both of our businesses. We learned in about five seconds that you’re absolutely right, in entrepreneurship is not you alone doing something? It might be you that had an idea of something. But we were counseled very early on in our business, you know, in fact, the then CEO of our CFO, I guess, of DNI, norm Domingo sat down with this instead, because we were asking the same question. How you know, being is all about we had a business and we were promoting our business through bi and then we started growing DNI and then we had these two things, you know, like, How the heck is this gonna work? And so norm satis down and he drew this little piece of paper and he said, Tell me all the things you do you know, whether it’s accounting or look for new clients or build websites or start chapters and all and he said in the beginning, your names and all the boxes, he said, Your job is to get your name out of the box. Yeah. Well, and so we started first thing we started with was someone who could do our accounting because I was so far behind that, who even knew if we were making any money, so we quickly, you know, hired an accountant and got that started. And then we started growing our bi team and what was really great is that was the fun part. You know, the fun part is the people that you now get to meet, both in business. And just personally I mean, our friends are Are fellow business people? Oh yeah, our fellow business people are our friends. They’re our family now. And in the beginning, I saw other people with that, and I really wanted it. I didn’t know how it happened. But I loved the fact that, you know, people would walk in and know their dry cleaner by name or, you know, wish somebody a happy birthday at a store. And now that’s me. And I never realized that, that you could kind of purposely make those relationships that would be that meaningful. Surrounding business, which is often seen as me particularly coming from Australia. I’m American, but my husband’s Australian, and spending 20 years in Australia. And sometimes, you know, a couple years in England, there’s a certain type of way that people look at business that kind of they look down on it, like it’s just about money making or it’s the trades, whatever that supposed to mean. And I have come to have such incredible respect for people that are working on behalf of some idea, whatever the idea is, I don’t care if it’s a, you know, I know a an entrepreneur who her big idea is, through need has been to create this kind of a walker, you know, for someone who needs a walker, but with a little toilet seat in it, you know, like, that changed people’s lives because of what they needed. So I love helping a great idea. Get further. Yeah. And so when in two businesses, the team is the thing that you have to have and rely on them heavily. I think the fact that john john and i both work in both businesses. I don’t I work with the people though I don’t work with the design. Part of being a mean of Outback. And I don’t even start chapters or anything in DNI, but I, I support our network that supports the members. Plus, I pal around with members because I love them. Yeah, well, Oh, thank you.
Janet Fish 18:19
So it but it’s it’s interesting to me because I understand when I was in corporate America, it was like you went to your job, and then you came home. And yeah, you’d find some friends. Typically I would find friends that I worked with, but then I found once I no longer worked with them, I wasn’t really friends with them. I didn’t hang out with them. Just and that was just a natural occurrence. But what I have found once I became an entrepreneur, almost all my friends are entrepreneurs. I mean, and, and it’s just in it’s a very different way that I live my life. I don’t I don’t hang it up at five o’clock when I punch out. Right? And and I probably will I know I work less I don’t work a nine to five I now I’m playing golf every Friday. So I don’t work a whole lot on a Friday. But I have the the luxury of doing that. But it’s just it’s so much more commingled. I think as an entrepreneur, not that you’re all business, no fun, but it just becomes like I do business with you. And then we’d become friends and then we hang out together and then we have dinners together and we go do things together. It’s just a different to me. It’s a very different relationship that I have with my business and the other people, whether they’re friends or business people, it’s just it’s different.
Eva Lisle 19:48
It really is. And I it’s interesting to hear you say, commingled, I think that commingling, it’s like a way of Being home, when you think about it, this idea of I keep my professional life separate. And I keep my religious life separate and I keep my, you know, physical fitness like you know that all those separate as an entrepreneur and as a business owner, personally, it’s almost impossible anymore because you are personally involved. And here’s a phrase that that I really dislike because it’s not true. This whole it’s not personal. It’s just business that is absolutely Balderdash. It’s very personal. And I understand they’re trying to say, I’m going to just make some money and it’s not you that I’m hurting. You know, it’s not true. It’s all personal. I don’t care if you’re the CEO of a huge corporation. It is very personal. Now, can you make decisions that are Our kind of global perspective and think of the organization. Absolutely. But something that you said made me realize that the thing that we’ve created this business or this enterprise, it’s a living thing. Yes. And so it’s personal to that living, breathing, growing creative enterprise. And what you do with it to it through it matters tremendously. And so it’s very personal.
Janet Fish 21:35
And I might even go as far as far as to say, because I totally agree with that. And I might go as far as to say that the money making part of that living breathing entity is almost the least important part of it. And maybe that’s because I’m a coach and that’s what we you know, we serve and we give and, and all of that We help people but I, I suspect anybody, whether they’re the plumber, or the hairdresser, or the CEO of some, you know, big bank that they created, serves people and helps people. But I don’t look at the success of my business. Now we all have to make money or businesses aren’t viable. Right? But I don’t look at the health and the success of my business through the lens of my QuickBooks accounting. Okay, I just, I just don’t
Eva Lisle 22:31
I think it’s because it’s hard. And you’ve got to have a deeper reason for the weird hours and the the multiple layers because even if you’re a solopreneur, and it’s just you, and your business and your clients, maybe you have a very high end, you know, clientele that you only have to have, say, 100 clients, but it’s so much more layered that you
you can’t,
you can’t kind of let it go. And it’s, it’s very much something that you’re always a part of because a part of you has gone into it.
Janet Fish 23:20
So I want you to go a little deeper because I, I
Eva Lisle 23:25
this I love going deeper.
Janet Fish 23:26
One of the main reasons I started this podcast and when I try to dive deeper in every person that I talked to, to pull out to me, the main reason this podcast exists is to address and talk about the challenges that entrepreneurs have, that every entrepreneur faces, successful entrepreneurs face bigger challenges because they get more successful. And you just said, you know, it’s hard and we have to maintain it. So dig a little deeper in What that’s looked like for you, and you personally are you and john, facing those challenges and how you persevere through them. And I suspect that right now we’re all facing some level of even if your business is booming because you sell toilet paper, or you know, something that people want, but now you’ve got supply chain issues and logistic issues, because you’ve got to get more of something. So whether it’s a challenge that we’re all facing a challenge of some kind, so right, just talk about that, because I’m really curious to hear how people, everybody deals with the differently they deal with the differently at different times. And I’m fascinated by
Eva Lisle 24:45
that. You know, I’m really glad you asked because it’s one of the things that people don’t kind of want to talk about. I know,
Janet Fish 24:54
they’ll try to pretend like it’s easy, and that’s why I want to talk about it.
Eva Lisle 24:58
And I think that
And this, I don’t know if this is a hope if this is the same around the world, but I noticed, because we spent so much time in Australia and various other countries, I really noticed the United States when we came back and how we do things. And one of the things that I’ve noticed when I left, I really missed how Americans would kind of make a big deal about everything, like we could celebrate, and we could do all this. And then when I came back, I thought, Oh, my God, we make such a big deal about everything. And exhausted me. And but I realized that Americans find nature are kind of entrepreneurial because of I mean, even the ones that are working a nine to five as Americans, I mean, think about it. And I see this from a perspective of coming from overseas. You know, we’re taught from little you know, we’re out selling Girl Scout cookies and we’re selling wrapping paper at school to earn money and when we would tell our Australian friends this they Would you have your children in trade?
Janet Fish 26:03
Oh, we were,
Eva Lisle 26:04
we were, you know, kind of earning money for the PTA or something. But I think the hard part is it truly is up to you. No one is going to pay you or follow you or even be interested if you don’t show them what it is that you do quite a bit interested. And they used to, honestly really irritate me, because I was someone who thought very deeply about things. And here’s a good phrase that every man and woman will understand. My husband would or wouldn’t do something. And he would know by the look on my face that he missed the boat somehow. And he would say, What’s the problem? And I would say, Well, if you don’t know I’m not going to Tell ya, that’s helpful like, Well, firstly, the worst way to run a relationship we, you know, obviously we got through that, um, but this, it’s, it’s that, that the freedom is you get to decide all the way around all the time. And like the current climate that we’re in, we each and you know, we talked about this early on we each got to decide Are we going to kind of sit this one out I mean I know people that dissolved their businesses at right at the beginning and said look, you know, I’m or I was ready to retire so I’m going to sell the liquor store Anyway, you know, I had a friend who, you know, that’s kind of the route they went. So the glory and the pain is the same thing. I get to decide and for the people who I think that tend to follow that inner voice can’t help but be entrepreneurial in nature. Even if you’re Volunteering, you know, like I do for the Crocker, you know, you’re going to come up with ideas and enterprises, which just means it’s an idea that’s got legs on it, and it’s, you know, going somewhere. And the hard part is, you feel everything, particularly for someone who feels. I can remember the very first way back in the day, when a bi chapter eventually just had kind of run out of steam, this little group of people left and they said, We just don’t want to be a chapter anymore. I cried as if there had been a death in the family. I kid you not. And we felt like we’ve failed them, that we’ve done everything we could and, and, and we were failures, because we didn’t know that this business includes failure. Yeah, that’s just part of the deal. And we didn’t know that at that stage. Now we do and we try to do as much as possible to not have as many failures, but the thing about Businesses The hard part is, if you just keep going, you’re gonna have more successes and failures. That’s it, you’re gonna have more successes. And I remember a time a friend of mine had said, I can’t remember what it was we were talking about, but I was hesitant to do something. And I said, I guess I’m afraid of failing. And she said, No, you’re afraid of succeeding. And I thought, what does that even mean? And what I realized is succeeding means one thing after another. It’s not like, I get an Academy Award or I was named, you know, businesswoman of the year. So it means I keep doing it. Yeah, you just keep going. And that’s why it’s so important to have a relationship with other entrepreneurs because we for each other, when we kind of, there are days and everyone will have days like this. Usually at least once a week that you think, forget this. I’m going to be a truck driver, you know, how hard can that be? Of course, truck drivers have days like this too. But I think that that’s the thing that you just have to keep going. And
you know, the rules changed.
I mean, do you find that Janet, the rules of the game change? Oh, yeah.
Janet Fish 30:25
Well, and, and I agree with you, I was just thinking of I don’t know who whether it was Superman or who says but with power comes responsibility or and and I think that’s what I was thinking when you were saying that with success comes more responsibility, especially as you’re growing a team of people who now are working for you. They’re maybe not as entrepreneurial and they depend on you for a paycheck. So responsibility comes as you grow successfully, and I think that the The thing that I think hit me and that just goes back to one of my Achilles heels, is I don’t like to be vulnerable. And that goes back to you know, I’m sure some way I messed up from my childhood. We could go through therapy for that. But But so, the at the beginning for me, the thought of asking for help, was just really, and I still struggle with it. In fact, I did. I did go in and browning who I don’t know, you might know she’s been on. So she’s on future on the podcast, but she, I was working with her through like, this deal I have with vulnerability. And she said so every day for a week or however long it was. You have to ask somebody for help. And I ended up having to make up things to go ask my neighbor for help or whatnot because I was going Do what I committed to do. But I find that a hard thing for a lot of entrepreneurs to do. And I think that I see it in my business. People who have this outward, everything’s rosy in the business is great. And then they come to me and they show me their financials, and they’re just making it all up because it’s not true. And I just think it’s really important and I that’s one of the things many things I love about DNI but it is, at least in my chapter, and getting to know a lot of people in other chapters. It is a place where I have absolutely no qualms about calling somebody up and say, Hey, I need some help.
Eva Lisle 32:45
You know, that. I learned so much in the very beginning. The chapter I was in, in fact, Dr. Chris Gibson, who is a chiropractor is still in DNI. He’s one of our 20 year members. He was in that very first chapter. And what was so powerful about Rick Murray was also in the same chapter and he’s still a member. Those people you know, you Firstly, you can’t show up weekly with someone, I don’t care what capacity whether it’s a bi chapter or an A a meeting or whatever, you cannot keep showing up with a group of people and not eventually get to burying yourself and and finally saying, well, this is really hard, or I can’t do this, or I don’t know what to do next. And I think that learning to recognize that someone else could do a thing better than you is really powerful, and that you can meld them together. You know, it’s not an either or that you’re better than me. Thank God, you’re better than me. What if I can take your better and my better and you know, weave them together to something. And I think that that’s I think this is why chambers are so important, you know, a chambers of commerce that you know, I mean, their chambers, and they’re better worse chambers obviously. But why they’re so important and why any way that you can kind of gather together and support one another. It’s almost I mean, to me, this is another spiritual expression, quite honestly. Because Yeah, you got to make some money or it’s technically not a business. Well, according to the IRS anyway. But you’ve taken this kind of, you know, idea or philosophy or product or what someone’s had an idea, they’ve had a thought, and then they have to get it out into the world and it’s really kind of amazing how it works and I’ve come to I used to really annoyed by business because I felt I didn’t like the people that you were describing. The people never told you the truth about how they felt in the process of business, I have to be perfect. I have to whatever that’s been my role is to not be that way in our business. Now, I don’t know if John’s appreciated, burst into tears and said, Well, this just isn’t going to work. But I think that it’s like, I wish that character in the Greek drama that would come along. This too shall pass or what about this thing, you know? Because I apparently have to have things explained to me like some kind of kindergartener. But I think that’s the blessing that I bring is I gotta have it made simplified to me. Yeah. And when I think it’s helpful, I mean, maybe not. Oh, I I think
Janet Fish 35:54
it absolutely is one of the things that I’ve seen, and certainly through coaching, but also I’ve seen through one to ones and B and I, or just any chamber, any networking, but if you sit down with another entrepreneur, and hear where they are, and have a conversation, and explore because I think what we do what entrepreneurs do sometimes is we just get stuck in where we are in our tunnel. Yep. And when we talk to other entrepreneurs, oftentimes it allows us to stop and take a look at our business or some part of our business and look at it in a different way. and analyze, you know, you think, I can’t tell you how many business owners that I have worked with, and we always work on what are your marketing strategies and oh, I’m doing this I’m doing some social media and I’m placing ads and blah, blah, blah, although whatever it is, and I’ll say so which one is the most effective? I don’t know. You don’t know what Yeah, or like, you know, I’m running an ad. In a, I’m a restaurant owner, and I’m running an ad, and for people to come in and get a discount, and then they don’t even track to see whether the money that they spent actually, you know, the return on their investment was in so so it just is interesting to me that sometimes we just get so running on our treadmill, then we don’t that we don’t even take a step back and say how might we even just analyze what we’re doing and what we might do differently? But that’s a powerful thing that I see come out of conversations with entrepreneurs, because I can sit down What are you doing for social media? Let’s have a conversation. Oh, I let’s try that or, I mean, so I just think that that’s so powerful in the conversation between entrepreneurs is just to get new ideas or to look at things differently.
Eva Lisle 37:50
You know, I think that that’s one of the greatest side benefits of being AI. It’s not any, it’s never why someone would join Because they don’t realize that that’s so helpful. But the thing that you get is a to see a perspective from multiple different types of businesses. And all the different ways of doing business, because there’s no just one way, you know, there’s there’s just not, and there’s no one good way because it kind of depends on who you are and who your products and services and all that kind of stuff, but that you get the perspective. And you track I mean, not as a person who’s not a numbers person. I would never have included this. But you know, thank you for closed business or tracking the number of referrals or something. But what’s very powerful about that, is it does exactly what you just said. It forces you to pause and say, oh, wow, either the AI is really working. For me, or it causes you to say, I haven’t gotten a referral in six months, what the heck’s going on? You know, am I not sharing my message? Has my chapter fallen asleep? Or is it in the middle of a pandemic? You know, like, what’s going on, but it forces you to notice, because you’ve asked yourself the question, you know, it pops up on your phone, you know, referrals given or whatever. And you think, geez, that’s kind of low this week, or, you know, I’m not being out there on the behalf of my members or something, but
it really is.
Got up. Ask asking.
gets you out of yourself. And asking, opens yourself up and puts you in a place of willingness to hear something different. Yeah. If we don’t ask, we hate to ask because it makes us feel stupid or look unsuccessful, or, you know, think we don’t have the answers. I think if I tried to really praise anyone who asks for help, I mean, seriously. And I’ve given, particularly members of our team that struggled with the same thing, because we’re all like entrepreneurs hate to ask for help, right? And I’ve given just like you did, I want you to go ask three people for help in the next 24 hours. What and they call? Okay, I asked so and so, you know, I asked my husband to pick up milk on the way home or you know, whatever it was, um, I remember when I was working with the coach A number of years ago, Jennifer landers who’s no longer in DNI but absolutely fabulous, kind of creative coach. And one of the things that I had to commit to and I don’t even know exactly how this got on, but I think it was to overcome my fear of what will people think, you know, what about if I do that thing, I committed to wearing no makeup For a week,
and you know what, nobody noticed.
I thought, Well, that was like wonderful and sort of disappointed. Me even notice, a couple of people said, Are you tired?
I realized I didn’t have you know, bright lipstick or siding. But what was really great about it is, again, it got me out of my, you know, place my, whatever that perspective was like, Oh, you know, people are gonna really look at me in that way. Turns out, nobody’s looking at me. They’re looking at their own thing. And that was freeing, you know, really? And then I could ask, so far, What’s your idea of vulnerability?
Janet Fish 41:45
I mean, I, I don’t like it, but I certainly know its value. For sure. So I want to inter connect a couple of things. I want you to talk about the colors and tags. Okay, and I want you to weave that into the, I’ll use the word intuition, or our thoughts in our heads. But I want to if you can, can you kind of weave those to explain what a coach what I’m talking about and then weave them in because I think that I know as I’ve coached over 1000 people and I know that one of the biggest traps that people fall into what and whether it’s an entrepreneur or any mother or anybody, but we tend to we tend to not stop and think or feel, we think more or not feel more, we tend to keep running and not stop and we tend to
Eva Lisle 42:51
Yeah, so I love it.
Colors, the integris colors is something that I think fell in love with at a DNI conference a couple of years ago I was speaking as we do in DNI, one of the best ways we get information about business is creating relationships with other people. And so I was talking to a wonderful gal from Minnesota, who we just both had a love of color I showed up at this coffee meeting. And we both had colored pins on the outside of our notebooks. And we kind of went, Oh, what’s that all about? Well, it turns out that her company integris was a company that helped train people in how, honestly how to notice and listen, who they’re with, so that they can speak the language that they need to be heard. And if anyone has ever taken a disc personality or behavior test, it’s based on the disc system. And the colors, kind of replace the you know, I can remember Remember what this stands for? But it’s like direct, intuitive, something, something I can’t
Janet Fish 44:05
I’ve done it but I don’t remember what it stands for either. So much easier.
Eva Lisle 44:10
The reason that I got excited about it is that I wanted to bring it back to both our DNI region and just people in general, is that what what I noticed, it was the hard part, both me and I working with chapter members, or in Outback solutions, working with clients, etc. The hard part is when people don’t communicate, and friction happens, and if there’s a little bit of friction, either someone just fades away, whether it’s a client or being a member, or they come out fighting, you know, and they you know, want to tell you a thing or two and you don’t know anything and there’s upset well as a person, you know, I’m a Libra, a born you know, that lovely balancer. I don’t like that. upset, extra. There’s very few people who love upset a few people the stirs that kind of love it. But mostly people accidentally fall into upset and the colors gives you an gives you a way to realize we’re all listening for something different. For example, a red wants to be very direct. Give me three bullet points and tell me what you need me to do. Or, you know, ask me what is it you need me to do? A yellow is someone who’s more people oriented. You know, a red is more task oriented and is faster. A yellow is speedy and fast and wants something but they’re more people oriented. So the yellow person is more concerned with their team. The people in their Chapter The people that they work with in their mortgage firm, their family, but they see it from the team perspective. A great When you kind of move around the clock is someone who’s very people oriented. But they are more considered they take a little bit more time. They don’t make a decision immediately they want to check with their business partner or their spouse or check the school schedule before they commit to a meeting at 7am in the morning, and you keep moving around the clock of blue is very considered and more interested in that the task and the information part of things. And how that is expressed to them as these are the people who love good systems. They create systems, they maintain systems, they appreciate them. So how does this work when you know in communication, if I’m communicating to a red and I started my very yellow green self, and I as my husband so beautifully describes that I will start with the birth of G Some work forward and he will say, what is it? You need me? You know? And that used to really make me mad, I have to tell you, um, but now, having done the colors and having worked with integris, I realized, oh my god, how does he survived me for so long? And how have I, you know, you know, he would say he would be direct, and I would burst into tears when we first met. And we were kind of opposites on the color wheel. But love brought us together. And I’m going to say that intuition is a very powerful place where love resides. And intuition is that real thing inside you, the real part of you, that knows what to do next. Color simply help you notice, oh, that person may be different than me. Maybe I could try something else. And your intuition kind of guides you You know, you might learn what a red does or what a green does or what they need to hear or what they don’t need to hear. But your intuition is when you’re finally willing to believe that there’s something in each of us, that’s very powerful. And if I could speak from that place, to that place in you, then we’re going to connect. And so the training brought into the DNI world was to help people communicate better within chapters, to help people communicate with anyone they’re going to communicate with. Because if you can connect
to the real place inside of you,
firstly, it’s more delicious, and it’s more fun and it’s more interesting, and it’s just real, and people recognize real and I think in business, if you can come from a real place A real place of caring about your client or your customer, or your patient. Even if you have one tiny you know, maybe you sell nail polish, you just want to sell really good nail polish. And I’ve just had to buy nail polish for the first time in 10 years because like there’s no one to do my nails and I’ve had to do my own, which I know firstworldproblems but I found this little company that sells these great little nail polishes and and they come from this real place. We believe everyone should be able to have beautiful nails no matter what. You know, no matter that you can’t afford a manicure no matter that all the men curiouser clothes and all day long, you know. So that real place is where intuition lives and intuition. The more I think we can encourage each other to trust that intuition. And with colors, it just points the way, you know, hey, yeah, if I listen and notice, and I realized that I’ve completely gone off the reservation because you would probably prefer me to be succinct.
Janet Fish 50:11
But while I’m, I’m a read so I would answer your question quite differently. But this is fascinating.
Eva Lisle 50:18
I don’t know if I’ve answered at all kind of what you, you know, we’re interested in but I, I love that you asked Firstly, I mean, I think it was kind of intuitive to see that the colors and intuition really do work together.
Janet Fish 50:34
So can I say that for the when I have a red? I probably have some yellow in me too. But
Eva Lisle 50:44
I’m
Janet Fish 50:45
wet. So what I went through that I’ve been through the color training a couple of times, so I’m no expert in it at all. But I but I, what I gleaned out of it was a couple of things. One is it’s a great way to craft A marketing message. So let’s say I’m going to go do a Facebook ad or any kind of an ad, I’m going to make sure that something that I say in there touches all four of those colors, right? So there’s got to be something that draws in each of those, those people. So I really approached it from the standpoint from a marketing message, because I’m really focusing on online marketing at the moment. So so there’s that the second piece of it, which is why I kind of thought about the intuition part. If I’m having a conversation with somebody who is the blue or at or, you know, if I’m having a conversation with a red, we’re probably more on the same page. We’re both synced and but if I’m having a conversation with a blue, and I’m not a detail girl, and I don’t want to go through all of that, but I if if I’m listening to what they’re not saying I can just tell by their body language or the look on their face that whatever i’m saying is not connecting with them. Right. So to me the intuition part also comes into play when I’m having a conversation with you. And you can even have that conversation over zoom. And oftentimes, you can tell over the phone, but I’m skilled in that because I’m a coach, but but you can’t but you know, you can. Your intuition if you’re listening for what they’re not saying is saying, all I’m hearing is bla bla bla bla bla bla bla, you’re not talking to me in a language that I can understand. Right? And I think that’s what the two of those also are super powerful when you come combine the two of those.
Eva Lisle 52:32
I absolutely agree. And I love that you brought it back to the marketing message because honestly, everything’s Excuse me. It’s kind of a marketing message when you think about it. I want you to listen to me. I mean, I want you to listen to me because it’s more fun. But I get more out of it. If you do listen, and you get more out of me if I listen to you and Even though we may not all speak the same colors, we all are capable of all the colors. And I find that my color training. Sims really helped me be appreciative of all of the colors so that like you, if I see, there’s a lot of like, I can tell that I’ve somehow I’ve missed the train, and they’re just out of deference or kindness. They’re still here and they’re not asleep, but I’ll try to either bring it back or ask a question to kind of get, like, get me back on point or what it is, what do you need from me? And I think that that’s probably one of the greatest things that I’ve learned with working with my husband. Who is that we’re so opposite in how we communicate, which, you know, that’s probably what attracted this because like, well, that’s something fun and new him I’ve learned to finish a sentence more quickly. And to get something done. We used to joke that we are the, you know, immovable object in the irresistible force, you know, like what happens when, when that meets, but we’ve learned so much from each other. And I think the more that you are aware that other people are different than you, um, and you appreciate that and you value it, and you even say, okay, details may not be my thing, but I’m talking to someone who really needs details. So even though details are not my thing, I’ve had to learn to know You know, when something’s happening and send them the appropriate zoom link and tell the time and you know, all of those things, because it matters to them. And the reason I do it is because I love them or you know, I want to connect
and that
just makes it more fun. Really. Yeah. So
Janet Fish 55:00
let’s see, we’re, we’re almost done an hour. So I’m going to try to wrap it up. Okay, because actually, I could just sit and talk to you all after Well, we could and, and we’ll, I’ll have you back at that for sure. And so I’m thinking the answer is I’ll just tell you what I think the answer is and then I’ll ask the question, you go in whatever direction you want to go into.
Eva Lisle 55:23
Okay?
Janet Fish 55:27
So I think the answer might be something around Zoom Zoom networking. But I what I want to know is what so we have been two or two plus months in this, you know, shut down new world of communicating through zoom. Trying to still trying to stay relevant to our clients still trying to get new clients. We were all in that boat. And so I’m just interested what’s next in light of the what transpired and I think you asked me the question, what are you going to keep doing? When this is Oh, all over? So, somewhere in that question of what’s next what’s, what are you going to keep doing? What’s next for for Eva?
Eva Lisle 56:18
You know, um, the answer is sort of Zoom Zoom networking. What I, what I noticed in all that we were doing is that I was only talking to people I already knew, you know, B and I members, my family. You know, the person that came to fix my internet, and I thought, How on earth are we ever going to meet a new person? Not that I’m not satisfied with people I know. But in business, you know, if you’re already a client that you can’t be a client twice, right. So I thought, also, so how do we meet some new people? And also, can we just Make a can we could declare there’s enough business for everyone if we would work together to do it. So Zoom Zoom networking is something that I just started just last week. And it’s we gather on zoom. And we asked some Quantum Questions to kind of ask ourselves, you know, what are we doing? What do we need to do? Um, how can we help one another? What do I need to notice about what’s going on within me in relationship to you know, my business or the community or what’s happening? And then we spend some time in conversation in kind of breakout rooms. And I thought, then the bonus is, we invite other people that are not in tonight. That are other networking groups. Zoom Zoom is actually a Hebrew word, which is talks about the creation of the world and to Xin zoom, means you’re holding a space for someone to zoom. So networking is a way to hold the space for other networking groups or individuals, and then kind of invite them in, let’s meet each other. Let’s play. It’s like a playground. You know, for people who can’t go to a networking event that has 200 people there. And to kind of hold the space for networking and to say, networking, which means creating and holding a space for relationships that lead to business and profitability and sustainability for our community. Our community needs us right now. The thing that I want to bring forward is the fact that even as a networking group that has been quite successful, both for our members and in the world, we don’t stand alone. We need each other in the community. I would love to have You know, kind of shared networking time and that’s what zoom is with other chambers with creative mornings with, you know, professional attorney groups or you know, real estate agent groups and just a place that people can come and that we network, but we network kind of with the purpose of almost like a little mini coaching session, although I’m not doing any coaching because the really best coaches is I know, you know, ask a really good question, then I answer it myself. I can hope because you’ve connected with my intuition or my inner knowing. So Zim zoo, is a place that we have fun, that we create a space that networking with other networking groups is possible. And it’s, I think it’s going to be something that even eventually when we go back to our face to face ways of networking, which I We’ll all love, you know, the chamber lunch or early morning DNI meeting, you know, all the different things that we get to do together. I would love my vision for this is a year from now, you have Zoom Zoom kind of over the lunch hour on your calendar, because you know, it’s a really easy way to get a little bit of heart food, about networking and meet two or three new people. That is super easy. And then we know Oh, I’m going to go visit that chamber, ooh, I’m going to visit that DNI chapter or something.
Janet Fish 1:00:34
So I liked it. I’ve only read Well, you’ve only had one. But what I really liked about it is it’s not just I go and I do my 15 second or 45 second infomercial, it’s it which you know, is all valuable. But most networking events, you go in and you talk about your business and that’s it and that I’d like the heartfelt piece of it the Quantum Questions the stopping and thinking, what do you really need in your business right now? So I thought I thought that was a great thing and I can definitely see a value for it going forward as as a standalone networking experience, but I could also see it as a great lead generator for people for being I chapters, they go and they meet the people, hey, come check out our chapter, that kind of thing. Okay, so I am going to ask you one last question. Because one of the things that you and I have talked about is the experience and I think I’ve experienced it as well but you communicated communicated it to me Have we had to stop are our life. Right and our lives were very busy. And now we don’t, we’re not as busy right? Or maybe we’re as busy but we’re not doing a whole A lot of the same things we were doing. So you had expressed an experience of when I go back, I’m going to look at it a little bit differently of what I no longer feel like I need to do. So share that thought because I loved it.
Eva Lisle 1:02:14
You know, the thing that was interesting about this whole shutdown is it happens so swiftly that you could really see the difference of before and after, you know, there was no gradual nature, it literally started happening overnight. And the thing that Firstly, I was really relieved, because we had been so busy, that to stop felt really good. And then I started realizing that I can have time and I, I started purposely doing some things, you know, I’ve always had early morning, quiet time, for, you know, prayer, meditation, that kind of thing. But now, john could kind of join We did our separate things, but we could sit quietly in the same room and we really liked how that started. You know, we were having more time for daily walks and bicycle rides and that kind of thing. The thing that I’ve talked to several people about, including eugenics was, how will we know if we’re not doing that and I realized I’m going to keep the things that I know I need to have in my life. If suddenly my, my after can when we go back to the big world, if I can’t do those things, my early morning, quiet time, my walk, eating clean, which I’ve been able to do while we’ve been home, because I can’t go out to eat tonight. I can barely even get food at the grocery store. If I can’t do those things, and I’ve added something too much back into my schedule. And what’s interesting is I had the experience last week of kind of getting Pre like, look at how this is going to be. Last week, we had a death in the family and and we couldn’t go anywhere because we couldn’t fly anywhere and we couldn’t participate. But we still had business stuff we had to do. And so several things kind of got added in, in that week. Part of it was just because, you know, we had to stop and just be sad and all of those things, but what I realized is I quickly moved back into those old bad habits of, you know, I bought too much bread and I, you know, quit walking because I was sad and tired and blah, blah, blah. And this morning, I thought, How do I keep focusing on the good things that I know now I have to have in my life, and I just have to keep looking at the good things that I know I need. They’re not a universal good thing. They might be you know, we’d probably all benefit for eating clean and stuff like that. But we’re going to each No. Some of my friends with young children say, it’s been so great to have time with the children. If we go back and I’m so busy, I don’t have time to sit in color with the children at least once a week, then I will know. You know, it’s too much. But I want to carry forward noticing what my life is like, and noticing whether I feel peaceful or joyful or not. And I think it’s okay to choose peace and joy, even in business, even in marketing, even no matter what we’re doing and scheduling had gotten out of hand, I think all over the world, obviously, I think that’s one of the sideline benefits, too. And I’m kind of thinking that because it happens so swiftly and so completely, that we are now it’s kind of like you know how organizers will tell you in cleaning out your garage, like cleaned out everything, and then put back the things that you want. You know, like your car, the Christmas tree, you know, whatever. We got to clean everything out of our lives, like all at once. So let’s now put back the things we really love. If it’s something that’s not making you feel good, don’t put it back. Yeah, even if it’s like, and this is going to be maybe shooting myself in the foot. But even if you’re saying being a member, and you realized, I can’t be at a seven o’clock meeting anymore, it’s too hard on my kids. If you need to switch to a new meeting, or maybe you need to take a pause on DNI. Yeah, that’s okay. Yeah, you know, I’m after supporting each of us in choosing what’s good and what feels good in our lives and businesses and supporting each other. You know, like, I know, we’ve talked about this, Janet, how can you hold me accountable? Yeah, if you notice, I’m not I’m eating crap all the time. You’re gonna say Eva You put too much back in your schedule. Yeah,
Janet Fish 1:07:02
that’s what I was just gonna say for. For me my experience was I work at home anyway. So but I had all the same shut down, I can’t go and do all the networking and what not networking and all the things I was doing. But I threw myself into I got to work really hard. Because I don’t know, like, I had clients putting me on hold and, and I’m like, the only thing I know what to do when I’m in this situation is to run as hard as I can run. So while I wasn’t out and about, I was running as hard as I could run, and about, I don’t know, a month or so into it, I just hit the wall and we had a conversation. And, and I’m like, I that’s not working. I can’t do that, right. So I’m like, I got to be kinder, kinder and gentler with myself and I’ve got to realize that I can work hard but I can’t put all of the groceries back the five pounds of groceries in the world. pound bag like is not gonna happen. But what I want to end with is holding each other accountable, because that’s what I need. That’s what that’s we all need. And that is all part of us being in this together and understanding what we need or asking for what we need, but looking out for each other because we’re in this together and I would ask you asked me, are you working? Did you put too many groceries back in that one pound bag? Right?
Eva Lisle 1:08:29
Our secret?
Yeah, four pounds in that one pound.
Janet Fish 1:08:34
Yeah, exactly. So I would ask that you hold me accountable and I’d love to hold you accountable as well.
Eva Lisle 1:08:39
I love that. I appreciate that. And my the thing that I’m asking myself is am I enjoy it my end piece if I’m not, I probably added something more back end that I shouldn’t have. Or I’ve not. I’ve not asked the right questions. Or, you know, ask for help in a particular way. But I love that and, and I think just asking one another will be one of the kindest things going forward of truly. How are you feeling today? Do you feel peace? Do you feel joy? Do you feel energized? And when that not really just the asking will be such an accountable gift? Because you’ll know immediately Oh, you know what I did? I said I do that thing that I didn’t really want to know, you know? Yeah. Um, so yes, I say absolutely. And accountability, a joy accountability partner. I think that I would welcome that.
Janet Fish 1:09:45
That’s awesome. So that gives me a reason to check in with you every week. So
Eva Lisle 1:09:49
you know, that’s right.
Janet Fish 1:09:51
So and then one of these days you and john will be sitting on my back patio. Having a nice glass of wine and some snacks.
Eva Lisle 1:09:57
I think it’s gonna be sooner rather than later. If I see restaurants beginning to open, I think, Okay,
Janet Fish 1:10:04
well, I got a pretty big backyard. So we certainly can stay far apart. Whoops. Although it won’t be this week, because it’s gonna be 105. So
Eva Lisle 1:10:14
now we’ll have we can even go to the water.
Janet Fish 1:10:18
Well, we’ll get it’ll get back sooner, like I said sooner rather than later. Eva, thank you so, so much for spending some time with me this morning. You are wonderful. And I enjoyed every second of it.
Eva Lisle 1:10:28
Well, thank you so much, Janet. I appreciate what you bring into the world and your beautiful way of asking questions and just being kind of matter of fact about it, and I so appreciate it. Thank you very much. And I look forward to getting together
on my patio with my wine and enjoying it.
Janet Fish 1:10:50
That’s awesome. All right, thanks so much. Okay. Thank you for listening to the breakaway entrepreneur with Janet Fish. If you liked our show and want more, check us out at WWE. ww breakaway, entrepreneur calm. If you have any questions, please email me at coach at breakaway business coaching. com. I’ll answer your questions in an upcoming podcast. If you’re enjoying our podcast, please share it with your friends and colleagues. I hope you’ll join us next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai