(IHMIY) I Haven’t “Made It” Yet - and That’s Okay! - Ep 1
Feb 12, 2024
Chantelle Dyson
Welcome to this *NEW* second of style of podcast within the Big Vision Business Owner world called “Haven’t Made It Yet”.
It’s the side I’ll be sharing as the new business owner, navigating her way through business life on a path to “Making It” as someone who hasn’t yet made it.
It’s an invitation to join me on this journey - one which you may be further ahead than me, or following in the footsteps of. Wherever you are, you’re welcome to join me, Chantelle Dyson, as I peel back the curtain on a business that hasn’t even hit its 5 figures yet!
You’ll hear all the juiciness as I share my transition from being a teacher (still in as 2 days in the day job) to launching a podcast training and agency.
You won’t be hearing for any 7-figure CEO right now. This is from business owner that hasn’t made it yet, that’s muddling through, getting it wrong, and finding the happiness in solving all the problems along the way.
And I’m starting it off with a discussion to tackle the question of what 'making it' truly looks like, challenging the benchmarks set by society and instead, defining it on our own terms.
Expect personal growth, business mindset, plus a whole lot of humility and vulnerability… It’ll be an ongoing conversation of ups and down, lessons and learnings, and in this journey of milestones, goals and growth, the narrative never truly ends—it only transforms.
Welcome to this *NEW* second of style of podcast within the Big Vision Business Owner world called “Haven’t Made It Yet”.
It’s the side I’ll be sharing as the new business owner, navigating her way through business life on a path to “Making It” as someone who hasn’t yet made it.
It’s an invitation to join me on this journey - one which you may be further ahead than me, or following in the footsteps of. Wherever you are, you’re welcome to join me, Chantelle Dyson, as I peel back the curtain on a business that hasn’t even hit its 5 figures yet!
You’ll hear all the juiciness as I share my transition from being a teacher (still in as 2 days in the day job) to launching a podcast training and agency.
You won’t be hearing for any 7-figure CEO right now. This is from business owner that hasn’t made it yet, that’s muddling through, getting it wrong, and finding the happiness in solving all the problems along the way.
And I’m starting it off with a discussion to tackle the question of what 'making it' truly looks like, challenging the benchmarks set by society and instead, defining it on our own terms.
Expect personal growth, business mindset, plus a whole lot of humility and vulnerability… It’ll be an ongoing conversation of ups and down, lessons and learnings, and in this journey of milestones, goals and growth, the narrative never truly ends—it only transforms.
Welcome to this extra podcast episode that I anticipate I'm going to do each week because it ties in with doing a weekly email, and, of course, I do a weekly email for the main podcast anyway. But there was another side that I wanted to share a little bit more about. So one side is big vision business owners, which predominantly focuses on supporting people that have big visions for their business to get seen online. That's what specialise in marketing, podcasting, content creation and, lo and behold, here I am again with more content being made and thinking carefully about how best to make it in a way that will get you listening for longer. Let's not lie about it. But at the same time, this is the side that is less about the business per se and more about me and where I'm at, and I think also, therefore, more about you and where you're probably at. Maybe you're a little bit ahead, maybe you're a little bit behind, but there's no real sense of time to that, just more a case of wanting to find people that are in the same phase or the same situation. And I call it the haven't made it yet podcast newsletter, whatever version you're going to be experiencing of this, which, if you're listening, is the podcast version, and that's because there's this whole idea around.
Speaker 1:
Well, I'm not one of the big entrepreneurs, you know. I'm not running any kind of company that you could ever float on any kind of market. I don't have a team per se. Bless my partner's soul. He helps me out with bits and pieces in an effort to train himself up in another skill. And also, if there are any plans to expand, then that's which there are, of course. But if that's something that I can do once I've achieved the first goal, then so be it. But when you're in that early stage and in my safe predominantly I would call it a solo prener phase, which many stay in for a long time it feels different. And when you listen to and yet again, somehow I'm still not going to avoid mentioning this on this version of the podcast but when you look at the likes of what are on Diorover CEO who are invited on to talk, it is wonderful to hear the highs, the lows, the progress and, whilst I think some of it's become a little celebrity focused, it's great to hear from the CEOs that I've basically had heard of before and have been exposed to so many wonderful people, but they're so far away from where I am now I know other people have expressed this where you just don't feel like that's close, like that's near or achievable, and that's not because it's not, but it's because your hundred steps away from that, where something that's 10 steps, five steps, two steps away Feels much more reasonable within your reach, that, okay, I could probably get to that. I could probably get to that, whereas people that are running teams and have multi seven figure turnovers, it's different, it's a different ball game up there courses and it's a completely different game when you're first time out and you're on your kind of journey to, maybe the first time, generating your own five figure turnover I not doing it through a paid job and then making it multi five figures, as it would maybe be described, on the road to earning your six figures. So this is what these podcasts are for.
Speaker 1:
These little podcasts are the glimmers in and obviously all of the visibility stuff that I talk about is with that kind of person, maybe slightly bigger team, because marketing comes. Marketing has a very significant place in your business but, as I have learned your specialism, which part is your marketing? But getting known for one thing and then being able to sell it Is a really important stage in business and I think that does come first rather than which. I made a resolve, which I'll delve into more, on this podcast in particular. So, where I focused a lot of effort on marketing and got what I would say quite good at it in terms of short form content and long form audio content and video content, but didn't know what to do with all those leads I was generating, which is exactly what I want to share, and I will obviously give glimmers of that on the other podcast episodes that go out. But this one's going to be that very directly my kind of experience, week on week, of whatever it might be that I want to talk about and there's not, at this point, going to be a video for it. So I'm currently currently sat in bed recording this at quite an early time of the day, 10 to 6 on a Monday morning, following the expert empires and elite closing academy retreat weekend that I've just had.
Speaker 1:
And this idea comes as a result of thinking about turning up the dial on email marketing, what that second email would be and, as ever, going well, I don't want to sit here and kind of think up what I would want to talk about. Let's turn to one of my best formats, which is talking live and out loud and hoping for the best with what we say. And I've only had this idea in the last day and the name of it has come to me very quickly. That is very rare.
Speaker 1:
When I was coming up with the idea for the podcast name God, it went through three different versions and I'm almost tempted to change our podcast to be called what I'm talking about now and because of the strength of that name. When I came up with the single girls guide to life, that was very easy and it makes me wonder about the concept of big vision business owners, although I do really like it. It's the whole. Well, hang on. This came much easier and what I'm going to talk about is much easier too, but I wanted to start today to make sure. One, you knew what it was about, so welcome. But two, to also address the name of the podcast, because haven't made it yet.
Speaker 1:
Whilst I think it's a lovely, attractive name and I'm going to stick with it, it also implies that there is a point at which you make it and I think in part, that's a dangerous approach for us to have. And whilst I've had it a little yet on it, which is really good from a growth mindset perspective, that I might make it one day. It makes me think about the fact that what does it mean to inverted commas, make it? I've just spent a weekend with people that predominantly have, you could say, have made it more than I have, that they have more experience, they have had longer in business, they have probably had more businesses and they've had more traditional success. I turn over sales long term longevity, I suppose we could call it and they have teams and there are people there now I don't know if I looked at anyone and thought they've made it like I don't know what the threshold was and I didn't sit there asking what people's turnover was or what level of teams they have, and so it's interesting that I don't have an exact picture of what I would even talk about about that.
Speaker 1:
But then also there's that reality that, from hearing the stories from from Nick James, from Matthew Elwell, sherry Teagueman, as well as the people that were attending like just because you're turning over a certain amount doesn't even mean that that necessarily filters down to your pocket. Of course it doesn't. There's all the expenses of the business to pay and obviously, if you have a team, then those expenses are much bigger than when you're first starting out and you're just paying yourself in the profit and then you've got all of the corporation tax that you would pay as a limited company, as well as your own, then personal tax. So no matter what your turnover is and revenue, there is the reality of all of the expenditure that goes with that, and we have to be careful about this idea of oh, it's an X figure business, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's seen below that. And and also making isn't just about the financial side of things. It's well to me. I was like wait a second, well huh, whilst I might not have quite the cash flow just yet, like hang on, look at what I do get to do in terms of what I determine as what I wanted for my life.
Speaker 1:
So, in a very quick version, at one point in my life I realized that I had to not stick with being in a job anymore. As much as I loved teaching, I couldn't see the path to being content with it, with what visions I had. I really, really wanted to shake the system up and I can tell you now that, no matter how much you want to do it. It's really hard to do and it's very much a systemic problem that we um far it's trickle down from the top. It's really difficult to have really big change in schools.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, side note, and I'll come back to that one day in my life it was the reality of strangely having an operation and again another story for another time for depth. But the the reality of like going through a major surgery started making me think, oh god, like if this goes wrong with surgery, like what has my life been? Did I really really push myself to the limits of living the way that I wanted to? And I'd gone through the history of my divorce. I had moved past that, I'd left that situation so that I lived to what I thought I wanted and explored as much as possible in this lifetime.
Speaker 1:
When it came to the job, I was like I haven't done this business stuff as much as I want to and I'm letting myself down as a result. So that's what led me to jump into this business life and living the life of not working for somebody else, not being stuck to the 13-week school holidays, having the freedom to go away when I wanted, and that really worked well last year for Eurovision because I had I been in a school, I I would never have been able to boldly buy ridiculous tickets for Eurovision, which was a VIP for a semi-final preview. I mean I'm taking it because there weren't that many tickets to get, but I could never have done that because it was term time and I mean I had a blast. I really wanted to get it's what really, really really top on my bucket list and there's still more to that. I would love to visit another country to go and watch it. But I mean I've have ticked the box of having been at at least an official Eurovision performance, as it were, and I wanted some of that freedom and I wanted to see the reward in my efforts and didn't just want to have to work to a timetable. She says, as she has literally created herself a timetable to make sure she gets stuff done in the week. But I get to decide what that timetable looks like and it can change and flex as it needs to. I'm not afraid of hard work by any means, but I would quite like to feel a significant fulfillment from that work.
Speaker 1:
And it got to the point in teaching where I found the lessons the same lessons. As far as I was concerned, that I had taught for seven years, because you design the lesson and you kind of iterate it and improve it as you go and you cross cross use the lessons across your seven, eight and nine, depending what set you're using. I just I wasn't getting fulfillment from that quite anymore. I wanted to innovate and make sure that all children were experiencing great teaching and equal opportunity and very, very big goals there, with probably not the right support and people also believing in that. So business to me was the answer. And so when I look at where I was two and a half years ago, just go back a bit further three years, because two and a half years ago I was sat on a sofa and following the operation, coming up with business plans. So maybe not the best time to three years ago and think, well, look at what you've done in two years and I'm not talking about revenue at all. I'm still two-day supply work in schools. I am anticipating that will be one before long and zero, zero before the end of the year is the aim.
Speaker 1:
So I now get to go on holiday if I want to, when I want to, and that doesn't mean going abroad per se. It means taking trips like this one. It means being able to flex and put time in to see my family and to see my friends. It takes me to wider places of not just the UK per se, but just even in Essex. I travel around more. I get to speak to other business owners at lots of networking events. At this point in time where I am slightly more time heavy, it's nice to be able to spend that time.
Speaker 1:
I don't have to get up early. Early, I mean. I say that as I say, it's literally just turned 6am as I'm recording this, and if you told me I had to get up for work which I get up for at 7.30, it's not even that deep because I used to get up about this time 6 to get in for work If you told me I had to go to work, getting up at 7.30 is really difficult. When I don't inverted commas have to work, waking up at 6 is so much easier. So I get the opportunity to decide when I wake up and ultimately, if I am significantly tired, then I will. I will sleep in, and to me that was another part of school.
Speaker 1:
I was really worried that my body was under significant stress and that if I kept it up this way then well, I wasn't going to have a life to enjoy because I was just tired all the time and I can still be quite tired at the best of times now, but at least I have some more control around that. Are you going to bed earlier or being able to sleep slightly later in and juggling all those things and just living a life? That is, whilst it is busy, it feels slower paced, or it feels like it is not all crammed into, like living for the weekend, operating in the week, just to have some experience at the weekend. So I wouldn't say I have made it yet because I haven't got the equilibrium. I am not going to use the word balance. I am not going to use the word balance. It is an equilibrium, everything kind of. I don't know if equilibrium is equal to the word balance, but in my head it means that there I think someone else has described before in harmony that they all work together and that has significantly improved and I get to do creative things and I get to help people in the way that I want to help people.
Speaker 1:
One of the trainings we experienced yesterday actually is that happiness comes from solving problems, specifically problems that you enjoy solving. So when I get to work with people on strategy, you know, even in school it was about less about the specific teaching that needed to happen so that people could teach your children, but it was about the overview of the experience for the children and mapping out this curriculum and and how you could weave these topics into real-life things. That we had this Booklet, as we had a topic called I got bills. It was predominantly there to teach about money and teach about fraction decimal percentages and I was wrapping that up, quite obviously so, but into, you know, working out tax on bills, being able to Look at a pay slip, I also rolled in and then I expanded that into Getting parental involvement and asking them to sit and explain an energy bill to children. If they didn't feel comfortable, I gave them a template, one to use an example.
Speaker 1:
But this whole element of really building a curriculum that was for the children as opposed to for the test, and that was what I like to solve then and it was creative and it was fun and I bring that across into what I do now, which I specialize in podcasts because my background is sound engineering. For those that don't know, worked on the West End, have a degree in sound. That that's my life, was my life for my teenage years and early 20s and and and. Now I help people with marketing specifically for podcasts. But ultimately, when anyone's saying to me like I'm working on my marketing straight away and talking to them about what problem they solve for people and who the people that they would really like to work with, are very difficult. When I get a very general answer and straight away, I would be like I think we might need to work on that, because you just want that one person and it's that that bit I love to do.
Speaker 1:
Teaching obviously comes into it in terms of the podcast in and Actually the side of it that I'm contemplating from the weekend and I've always contemplated, but I think that really is going to be an update is having that dumb for you service even in the launch phase, because the tech just puts people off. It is it? It's watching people try and, try and do it and I look it and go. This is something that they need to. Some people will need to and want to offload because To upskill themselves in this area. Whilst I don't think is impossible, but if there is a time constraint or that's going to be a block to them actually, then during a podcast, then there's going to need to be that support. So these episodes are always going to be a little bit more whimsical and around the houses it's going to be a genuine conversation with me. Not that I don't think the other podcast episodes that you get that kind of feel, but they're much more intentional in what they're about.
Speaker 1:
This one's a little bit more into what I've experienced in the week, what I'm thinking about, topics that intrigue me, and you'll probably find that this then becomes some sort of podcast, podcast episode. That is incorrect. It is probably going to end up as some sort of little email and there's going to be these little nuggets and maybe one day I will record them with video. But right now, there for my convenience there, to let people know what it is like and share that experience of not having made it yet, whatever that quite means to people, because I think I'm on my way to making it in terms of having an equilibrary in my life, but I haven't yet mastered that financial side. The way the business works, the way that will support me, support the people that I care about, that isn't there yet.
Speaker 1:
So, rather than being like it's a financial goal specifically, or having a team goal, and also realising that there's never going to be that end like once you get there, it will always be something else, but I've made it in terms of taking control to some degree of what I get to do.
Speaker 1:
I feel like that's a little tick next to that one Having enough to fully leave the teaching world officially like I haven't made it yet in that sense.
Speaker 1:
Having enough to support friends, family, whoever wants to get involved and have roles and build a great team.
Speaker 1:
That is a plan that is there and I haven't done that yet.
Speaker 1:
But it's not about doing it yesterday. It's about doing it at the right time and it's okay not to have made it yet and it's okay to define what inverted commas making it really means to you and everyone's making it is going to keep changing once they keep getting there, and I hope it encourages you to understand that there are ways that you have already made it in your life and ways that you can still make it that are within your reach, and that you don't have to be as big as the people and diaries CEO to be making it, to be in the making or to have made it. It's going to be fun because I haven't thought about how I'm going to end this. Normally I go very formal or have a little catchphrase, and I don't think that matters for these ones. I think it's a case of me deciding that I'm not going to ramble on for too much longer and say I hope you've enjoyed this first one, I hope it's given you a little insight and I'll see you next time.
