Today we’re talking about that thing that FIRES YOU UP!
Ever since I was young, I was always driven by making + reaching goals. I always wanted to own my own business, and I’m finally starting to find those things that I LOVE + where I want to focus my time!
Here’s a few questions for you...
What are dreams you have, or things you’re interested in?
I’ve always had a camera in hand. From disposable cameras, to graduating to film, it’s evolved overtime and continues to be a huge passion of mine.
Why haven’t you tried it yet?
Kids? Time? Money? There are millions of excuses, but we HAVE to change the story! You can have more joy, you can do what you love. All you have to do is take that first step.
If there is something that is calling your name, stop the excuses, change your story, and let’s build that together.
Take the first step! Buy the course, register for the webinar… We all have the same 24 hours in the day. Each of us is born with a different passion. Find it.
Change doesn’t always mean completely restarting. Shift. Change your position at your day job, shift your schedule just a little to follow your passion!
Figure out where your priorities are at. Does your money spending reflect your top priorities? Does your calendar?
Who are the most important people in your life?
Surround yourself with those who will help you chase your dream! Catch the thoughts you get when you’re around other people. Keep those people who lift you up, make you feel energized, and make you feel like you can conquer the world! Schedule time in your calendar for those people, for the people who mean the most. Be present where your feet are planted.
If NOTHING is off limits, what would you do?
Test the waters! Think about what makes you excited, and what you enjoy doing. Also, write down those things that you don’t love doing anymore. Make a list!
THINGS I LOVE: THINGS I DON’T LOVE:
If you could solve one problem for someone else, what would it be?
I love setting up action plans with people. I absolutely love being around people and guiding people on where to go. When it’s outside of my own business, I’m able to look more objectively and help fill in those gaps they may have.
Who are you most excited to help?
For me, it’s entrepreneurs, huntsmen + families, hence our businesses!
What’s fun for you?
Just focus on what you enjoy doing! This will be the thing that will point you in the direction you want to go.
Make your list of your good attributes, talents, and interests. Talk to other people, ask what they feel you’re good at, and go with it!
Talk to you next time!
Amanda
We’ve been talking about pushing past fears and moving to the next phase. I want to use the analogy of taking your island and burning your boats. I can't take credit for the phrase, but Tony Robbins sure knew what he meant when he said it!
When we take our island, or create a new habit, we’re often tugged back to what we know, what is comfortable, or what feels safe. Stop it! Take control. Take. Your. Island. Push forward until the new life feels comfortable again, and burn the boats that will take you back.
As we do this by reading more books, learning new skills, and gaining clarity, the new ways become more comfortable for us and burning the boat gets a little less scary until we start rowing to the next island again.
When we started hunting with the kids, we were beginners of course! We missed things that seem obvious to us now -- like a proper food supply. Luckily, we took the leap, took the kids with us, grabbed some food, and made sure grocery stores were near by in case of emergency. We learned a lot the first few trips we took! If we hadn’t jumped to that new island, we would be here today, just as scrambled as we were those first trips.
The same goes for our business! We took a leap of faith, switched support systems, listened and learned, and we are now beginners of this new life. We jumped from our first island to the next! We burned the boat behind us and are only looking forward.
We are all beginners at something in multiple stages of life. Keep rowing to that next island, and burn the boat once the new becomes more comfortable. Never look back. Keep working toward rowing to the next island and burn the boat again.
Never stop learning new things, creating new habits, and working toward building a life you love. Burn the boat baby!
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I think one of the hardest things as a parent is figuring out how to get your kids involved in what you are doing.
Maybe it’s just me, but I never want to force them to do something they don’t love. Just because I’m chasing a dream it doesn’t mean that my dream needs to be the same for them. They have their own minds and love to do their own thing. They are also the reason we decided to jump on the Hunting Fam journey over a year ago + now it has become a way of life and something we enjoy doing as a family.
I feel like when you want to do something like we do which is chasing bear and lion, it’s a lifestyle that isn’t for the faint of heart! It’s getting up before the butt crack of dawn + sometimes means sitting in a truck for hours on end.
Now, if you were five would this sound like a real joy? Probably not, but our kids were the ones that began taking interest first so we decided to take a leap of faith and try it out.
Now, this was a bumpy road in the beginning, I'm not gonna lie. It’s not Khloe’s cup of tea + still she’d rather stay at camp and play! However, the biggest thing we have learned is that we need to just do it and keep doing it on repeat.
Just keep on going + putting one foot in front of the other and pretty soon, you won't have to try so hard to get them to join!
Listen to this week's episode to hear more...
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I wanted to talk about getting over fear and jumping into what you wanna do with both feet. I mean, let’s be real here, we don’t ever get OVER our fear, but there are a few things we can do to push through and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
As the hubs and I jumped into our journey of building this product-based business in 2020, there was SO MUCH FEAR associated with it. The further we got along on the journey, the bigger the numbers got and my fear climbed with it.
I felt like a total beginner again at everything. Sure, I had a photography business, but I had never taken charge and marketed it like I needed so I was starting from square one in the new business as well.
As we began, we wanted to take things slow so we didn’t get slammed with all the things at one time!
We became beginner marketers, beginners at learning cash-flow, and beginners at where to begin when designing our own product line. It was scary because as we started to dive in, money started to jump out!
When we got overwhelmed, we learned to take a step back and then come back again. Fear will never go away, we just have to learn how to keep putting one foot in front of the other when it creeps in so we can rise above it to keep going.
When we are asking fear if it is serving us let’s look at it like this… is it keeping you paralyzed and unable to move forward? If the answer is yes, I would say that it is not serving you one bit!
It may cause you some relief in the short term to say, “Ok, fine!” This is awful and I’m not going to do it, but in the long run will regret come back to bite you in the buns? I sure hope you said yes, because there’s nothing worse than getting a year down the road with the shoulda, coulda, wouldas hanging over you.
So let’s take the leap, push fear aside, and do the damn thing. Think about all of the opportunities that will pass you by when you sit where you’re at and not move forward.
2. The second thing is becoming aware of where you carry fear in your body. For me, I tend to clench my jaw and tighten my shoulders. So this is my reminder to you to take inventory in this moment as to what you are doing.
Let’s take a deep breath together + relax those shoulders and our jaw. Ah, that feels better right?
Ok, so a few times each day I want you to take inventory as to how you are feeling or where you are carrying fear in your body and take a deep breath + relax.
3. The third thing we can do to conquer our fear is to write it out. When I started coaching back in January, she had me start journaling daily, but not just any journaling. She had me writing my thoughts down daily… anything that came into my mind. I would sit down for ten minutes and just write all the thoughts passing through.
At first I didn’t really think I would have much to say… or think, but as I got going, the thoughts started flowing and before I knew it, I had filled over three pages full of thoughts that were passing through my mind. It was crazy!
You better believe I haven’t stopped either! I have never had a clearer direction as to where to go in my life until I started implementing this again. After a few days, my mind started to open and I began to see the direction I needed to go and steps I needed to take in my business.
The ideas came flooding in between the lines and my direction became very clear rather quickly.
I would write out all the fears running through my mind and scribble them out immediately then I would follow that fear with something I was grateful for or rephrase it into I’m learning to do _______ instead of I can’t do this.
Your brain just needs to release all of your thoughts somewhere so if you aren’t a journal writer, I challenge you to either put them in the notes in your phone, record a voice memo, or speak them out loud.
Whatever you do, just get them out of your head so that you are aware of them in a way that feels more real.
It’s like having a bunch of fireflies in a jar with the lid on tight. What happens with them? They continue to fly around in mass chaos because that’s all they can do. But, when you open that lid… they fly free and are no longer in the chaos right?
It’s the same thing with our thoughts. If we keep them in our brains with the lid on tight, they have nowhere to go so they continue to swirl around causing us to not take action + for me, they get overwhelming and I can’t seem to figure out what I need to do next. Then I spiral in my feeling lost-ness and nothing gets accomplished.
So let’s give them a place to go. Take five minutes today and write out how your feeling, fears you have about a big decision you are making or something you want to do in your life, and write down those future goals!
As you dive deeper into the journaling hole, you will begin to see patterns with fear, direction will become clearer and soon you’re gonna be rocking it!
But let’s talk a little more on conquering our fears by moving onto the next point…
4. The fourth thing we are going to do is ask ourselves what’s the worst that could happen.
So, for the business we are starting, my biggest fear is failing. So here’s what I asked myself:
What’s the worst that could happen? We fail and lose all of the money we put into it.
And then what? We don’t have any more money to put into it.
And then what? We still have our inventory
And then what? We reevaluate and come at it from another angle
And then what? It could work, it could not.
And then what? We give up or try something new
And then what? Put one foot in front of the other in the new shift.
Do you see where I’m going with this? When we ask ourselves these questions and go through all of the fears we think are SO big and scary, we realize that life still moves on and we can always try something else or pivot and move in a different direction.
We can also ask ourselves these questions:
Is it 100% true?
Could it be true?
What is the likelihood?
You might find out that the likelihood of your worst case scenario isn’t as possible as you may think.
So, you put yourself out there and think you make a fool out of yourself? I’m here to tell you that others are thinking about you a lot less than you think they are. We all have our own stuff to worry about so I promise you that other people probably aren’t thinking about you and what you’re doing as much as you think they are!
Once we really break these fears down, we begin to realize that maybe they aren’t so scary after all.
I’m here to tell you that we are cheering for you + we'll be your biggest fans when it comes to conquering your fears. If you have dreams and have been too afraid to start just ask yourself these questions and let’s get to work because if you stay stuck in the now, you’re going to regret it later!
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I’ll be the first to say that as a mom at 19, it was so easy to lose myself... I was a postpartum hot mess to say the least.
Let’s talk about some small + some big ways we can do some things for us mamas! Take a nice bath, go on a walk, or just do something that is just for you :)
Learn to care for yourself just as much as you do for other people!! You’ve got this!
Now I wanna tell you a little bit about my story. My childhood wasn’t all skittles and rainbows, but if there’s one thing I learned by being raised by a single mom, it was how to work hard and what I didn’t want.
Now I got pregnant at 19 and married the man I still call my husband today, but believe me, that route came with its own set of challenges. We were young, dumb, and thought we knew what love was at the time.
Dustin was constantly on the mountain and I buried myself into being a new mom. To say our marriage was rocky may have been an understatement. Neither one of us knew what we were doing and neither one of us was happy.
He knew why this happened at this point in our lives and I had yet to learn why my life needed to play out this way.
We had both been born into your traditional Utah Mormon family, but had very different experiences. I chose to go to church and he had to go!
Now I’m not saying either way is right or wrong, but it had him leaning on the wild side of life during our high school years and I was the naive goody, goody as I’ve been told by him on multiple occasions
Needless to say, I thought my life was over, temple marriage over and all the things that you set your sights on when growing up in the religion we were in
Marriage wasn’t getting any better, but if there was one thing that was strong enough to keep me there long enough before pulling my head out of my rear, it was my why.
My mom had now been divorced twice and I knew I wanted a good guy + good dad in my kids lives and Dustin was both of those.
I had friends with great parents in which I spent many days and nights at their houses. Life at home wasn’t always sunshine and skittles so having that escape was what kept me sane through middle and high school.
I knew that the marriages modeled in these homes was something I wanted in mine and come hell or high water, you better believe I was gonna get there!
I was stubborn, I mean, I’m sure my mom will vouch for that! I had made up my mind that I didn’t want to get a divorce if I was married to a man that was a good guy and knew that we could make it work.
Now if you listened back in episode ..... on marriage advice I should have taken... this didn’t take until we hit seven years, but it didn’t truly get great until about ten shortly after I started on my personal development journey.
I’ll be the first to say that as a mom at 19, it was so easy to lose myself. I bought everything for kenna and gave up on myself. I was used to eating cold food and making sure her needs were always met first. To this day cold food doesn’t bother me because I had done it for so long, but I kept going deeper into the rabbit hole.
I was constantly giving everything to taking care of Dustin and the kids, assuring anyone that offered help I was fine and great because I didn’t want to put them out of their way, and then I’d cry wishing someone would just show up and take them to go play.
I was a postpartum hot mess to say the least. I was constantly with the kids, handling everything at home, making sure all the bills got paid, and working 24 hours each week.
Listen in to find out how I found myself again:
Back to square one friends…. It sucks. Although a great wave of relief washed over me in my decision to let the first shop go, I also knew it was back to the drawing board.
We had researched and called so many places, but due to Covid, a lot weren’t able to help us.
We tried to recruit some help from our local business development office within the chamber and that was a complete strike out as well. At one point the guy emailed and asked what the purpose was for the pack and if a cell phone app could be a remedy?! Ha He must not be a mountain man and doesn’t know that cell phones typically don’t work when your on the hillside!
Anyways, we still felt good about the decision to let the first shop go, but knew it was going to feel like an uphill battle to find another because:
1. We are learning how to do this and don't have all of these connections.
2. We had been searching for months and a lot of places aren't interested in taking on a start-up or served only the medical field.
We learned a lot while sourcing shops and we are beyond grateful to have the knowledge that we do now even though we wanted to throw in the towel a time or two!
Building a product-based business without loads of capital was going to be tricky and we knew this going in, but we were willing to do the work and we were willing to use the cash we'd saved to go all in!
You can listen to this episode where we talk all the things here:
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Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the excitement of building a dream that you want to jump on the first shop, opportunity or whatever it may be that comes your way.
I'll be the first to tell you that I was on that train in the beginning because going through the year we had, it was so hard to find anyone that was open let alone wanting to deal with a start-up.
So, I jumped on the first shop that was willing to take us on and I'm going to sigh a big sigh of relief that I had the guts to change my mind.
It all started out good, but after meeting them in person because I thought maybe they were just awkward on the phone, it didn't feel right.
The vibe in the shop, the way they interacted with one another... something was off and I could feel it something fierce!
Our designer had been offered a job with them as they liked her designs, but after much discussion, she didn't feel that the quality they were putting out was something we wanted for our customers.
So, I made the tough call and it was back to the drawing board trying to find someone willing to take us on and to be honest.... it sucked!
But, life continues and if we would have continued with them, who knows where we would be now + I'm grateful we aren't finding out the hard way that it may not be somewhere we hoped.
I have learned that when it comes to chasing YOUR dream on your own dime, you cannot be afraid to make someone feel bad just because you've "come this far" or someone is a friend.
If it truly isn't a fit for you, you have to make the call. Decide what is best for you and your business or life and go with your gut so you don't wind up regretting that decision.
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It is my firm belief that no business is successful or can scale the way that we want to without some help.
I used to wonder how on earth business owners "did it all" until I came to realize that just wasn't the case and they actually weren't doing it all on their own.
I've listened to a lot of Brendon Burchard's classes and he always talks about building a team now that you are going to need later. I thought, "Ok, but I don't have money to sink into a team right now!"
Well, the universe has a funny way of giving us what we need if we just put it out there and prove that we are willing to put in the work.
This became the case when we started on the hunt to find people that could grow with our business and it was only fate at how we found our interns that helped us get our business off the ground!
It's kind of crazy once you start putting things out there, getting your mind right, and doing some serious work not only on yourself, but the business as well.
It seems that everything you put in comes back around in one way or another and that is exactly what happened when we found our interns by chance as I was chatting with one of my photography clients!
Listen to today's episode to find out exactly how it all played out + I sure hope it gets your mind going and gives you ideas on how you can do the same for yourself!
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After a frustrating camping weekend and Dustin's GPS getting ran over + screen smashed. It was time to put our heads together and get to work.
We've had the idea to create a pack for quite some time, but never took action... until now.
I have a friend that has done some work for my Photography Business and she is an out of the box thinker that can bring the ideas in my head to life.
We called her up, told her what we were thinking + she came down and helped us get it on paper so we had something to deliver to a shop.
The biggest frustration aside from needing something to carry our gear in was the pants. We were able to find some for the entire family, but the kids were never of good quality, and for the adults, we don't need camo.
Quite frankly, we feel a little hillbilly-ish running around the mountain after our dogs in our camo clothing. It just doesn't fit our niche and what we do.
We pulled together some pants we loved, created our own design from that, addressed some of the negatives + positives from what we did and didn't like, and before you know it, we had a pattern drawn up and it was time to start figuring out what we could do!
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Hello hello!!
This week kicks off our Building ColdStrike Series on the Podcast and we honestly couldn't be more grateful to have you here.
What a wild ride last week was and we are so excited to share our journey here.
We truly are your typical family braving the mountains with our kids. As we began braving those mountains, we got frustrated real quick at the lack of hunting gear there is for Houndsmen families.
We pieced outfits together from a few different places that we love, but sometimes you feel like a hillbilly trekking around the mountain in camo chasing the dogs.
So, after nearly a year of frustration, mostly when it came to finding stuff for the kids, we decided to create our own.
We had been saving for this for a while and we don't have any investors right now or anyone else helping us... this is us, building a business from scratch with our own hard-earned money and we aim to serve fellow houndsmen and your families.
This is our journey on how we got started + we will be taking you along the journey through the entire process.
Thank you so much for being here and for your support. It truly means the world.
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We were a family that set off on a hunting journey years ago. In 2019 we decided to begin documenting our journey on Instagram, but as we began braving the mountains together as a family, frustration set in.
It was painful trying to find clothing that we could all wear + stand behind... especially for kids! We pieced outfits together from some of the companies that we have always loved, but they didn't serve kids the same way they did the adults and it was frustrating.
Finally, we decided enough was enough and we were going to create our own. With my husband by my side, we set off on our building a product-based business together.
I'm a photographer and have built a business before, but a real imposter syndrome set in when we start talking hunting! So, between the hubs and I, we became the perfect mix of knowledge and business + off we went!
Eventually, I took over Building ColdStrike and Dustin enjoyed stepping more behind the scenes with his help.
So here I am! A mama building a product-based business in a male-dominated industry. I've got a backseat full of kids, hubs behind the wheel, a box full of dogs, and we're off on a journey to build this thing together!
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This week I'm talking about all the steps I have taken to have success in my business in 2021!
I knew I needed to make BIG changes + I knew I needed help. I wanted to broaden my businesses, but I was afraid to take the leap. I knew I was willing to do the work and what I needed to do but I needed someone to push me in the right direction.
So I hired a business coach, and it has been the first best step I took to move my business in the direction I wanted to go.
With her help, I've hired an assistant, a photography editor, and an Associate. These individuals combined have enabled me to create more opportunities for my businesses and have helped me get past the limiting and scarcity mindsets!
It's crazy the things you can accomplish when you get your mind straight and find someone who holds you accountable.
I am beyond excited to start working with these girls, growing two businesses in the small town of Cedar City, UT.
Having the ability for me to be able to stay on top of life while they also have more flexibility to work on their own time as well is what I am aiming for as we grow.
I don't know what the future holds, but I'm sure not going back to the life I was living before! It's time to move forward, dream bigger, and help you along the way.
If you have a dream you've been chasing, this is the year we step-up our game and go for it! Decide what you need to do within your business and in your mind and let's gooo!
Let's make this year the year of change for the better + chase down that life we've been dreaming of living.
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Today’s episode is all about mindset! I will talk about how it is vital to become aware of your thoughts, reframe your thoughts and set your intention.
I will also explain why it is important to recognize why you may think of something a certain way and teach you how to reframe your thinking to reach your goals.
The intention that I chose for myself this year was wealth in all aspects of my life. Wealth in relationships, wealth in finances, and wealth with experiences.
Whatever intention you set for yourself, get to work to make progress toward your intention!
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This is our story, navigating the family hunting life while building a business together.
Here we goooo...
]]>People come and go in our lives and it's up to us to decide what we are going to do with that.
We are there to help each other whether it be good or bad. We learn the things we may not want to repeat as well as things we want to take with us moving forward.
This Halloween party changed the trajectory of our plans because I won't lie, we were losing steam! We had exhausted what we thought to be all efforts and when we were seriously considering throwing in the towel on one item + shifting all of our focus to the other, the stars aligned and it all worked out for the better!
Listen on today's episode how one person stepping onto the path in our lives changed a lot.
It propelled us forward and gave us the momentum needed to keep pushing forward.
I won't lie, this has been a harder journey than we thought and SO eye-opening! We are learning how to make connections, all about cash-flow, and how to get ourselves out there.
We cannot thank you enough for being here on our journey with us! It means the world!
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