Ep. 29 The Stern Truth: It’s Time to Stop Horsing Around and Grab the Reins

I share a rather interesting story on this episode of the Stern Truth. It’s the true story of when I went to a horseback riding ranch years ago.

The day started off with the instructor teaching us how to guide the horse. As we ride, I’m in the middle of the pack. We reach a big open field, and I end up passing a big oak tree to the right.

I wanted to go into the field, but the horse turned right, straight into the tree, which had a huge, dangerous branch sticking out. The branch ended up clipping my shoulder, and I was thrown to the ground.

The instructor stopped and came back to check up on me. They said I could go back with them on their horse or that I could lead it back. I said I’m going to climb back on that horse. And I did, literally AND figuratively. At that moment, I had a choice, and I made the harder one.

Maybe you've been kicked off your own proverbial horse in your business. You could even be questioning if this is the time to quit, give in, try to get a regular 9-5, and get out of the entrepreneurial world.

If you’re busy taking care of your customers yourself, you’re not growing your business. You have to eventually ask yourself, is it better to pack it in? Or is there a better way to do my business?

There will always be times that we’ll be knocked off the horse. It’s up to you to either stop riding or get back on the horse and choose a different path.

Invest in yourself because, my friends, that is always an investment that pays off.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] So in today's episode, I tell one of my favorite stories of all time that happened to me many years ago. It's really all about perseverance and leadership and determination and grit and inspiring story. So I really want you to grab a piece of paper and pen and be ready to take some notes and really just be inspired.

[00:00:23] Also last call, we still have a couple weeks of the ONtrepreneur Bonfire. If you missed our first session, we have another one on August the 13th, and again, the third one on August the 20th. So send me an email or you'll find the link to actually register and you can get in there and do that today. Enjoy today's episode.

[00:00:50] I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows. 

[00:01:09] I've been there, and I get it. This podcast is here to change that every week. I will bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar-coated. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place. This is the Stern Truth.

[00:01:37] Welcome back everyone, to another episode of The Stern Truth Business Unfiltered and today is Storytime with Marshall. Yes, I'm going to tell you a story, a true story, which I think you're going to actually enjoy, but there's a lesson. But before I get to that, let's talk about the Stern Truth. Let's talk about what's going on in the economy right now.

[00:01:58] At the time of this recording the economy for many people is challenging, and I've been through it. I've been through the ups and downs. Recessions, obviously the pandemic, whatever. We're calling this economy. For many business owners. It is a challenging economy. I run a few Facebook groups for business owners and I see the comments. I see the posts.

[00:02:22] I see the struggles. Some people, and it might be you are struggling to find clients, to create clients and maybe even to keep clients. Others have no problem with the client getting the clients. In fact, they have too many and they're stuck doing the work and they're exhausted. Is that you? They know they need some help, but they don't know when or how to go about it.

[00:02:50] They think that they don't have the financial resources to bring someone on, or at what point do you take that leap of faith and bring someone on, or bring on a VA or outsource more so that you can grow? All great questions. I've been there through all of it, and I see it with some clients that I coach, whether it's our one-to-one coaching in Business and Life Mastery, or our Momentum Group program, and in the Facebook groups.

[00:03:18] I've said this before and that's one of the reasons why we started this podcast. Business is hard. There's no doubt about it. There's no sugarcoating that, but it can also be freaking rewarding. Okay, so the story I'm going to tell you today is a true story that happened to me, me, yours, truly many years ago.

[00:03:40] I won’t tell you how many years ago, because it’ll age myself, but it did. It happened a while ago. I went with a group of friends of mine to a horseback riding ranch. Yes. Can you imagine me? Horseback riding. Cowboy hat. I do have cowboy boots. It was a great weekend. It was a fun weekend. Well, it started off to be a great weekend, but it was a great weekend.

[00:04:03] But what happened in or during this weekend is something that I think we all go through in life in different ways. So I'm going to paint the picture for you. I'm going to set it up. We have a guide. There's probably 20, 25 of us, not friends. I was with a group of like six of us, six friends, but about 20, 25, maybe 30 people, I don't even remember, in this group that was riding out into this field.

[00:04:28] And we had the guide, the leader, get up on my horse. I don't even remember the horse's name. I'm sorry for your, for you horse lovers. I don't remember my horse's name. 

[00:04:39] I do remember when I was a kid, I rode a horse and the horse's name was Socks. I do remember that. You'd think I'd remember this one because of the story I'm about to tell you.

[00:04:48] So, listen carefully. The leader, the guide starts, goes in front, they teach us what to do, the reins, they teach us about - I don't even know the terms, right? You know, with your heels kicking with your heels when you want to like, up and go faster or whatever. And then the reins and turning and whatever, and smacking the reins on the horse.

[00:05:05] Not smacking the horse, but like, snapping the reins. So I'm probably in the middle of the pack here, right? We all start off together and I end up probably somewhere in the middle of the pack. Everything's going really well. I decide, you know, they're the people, the horses or the riders in front of me are starting to move a little bit further away from me, and we're going out to this, imagine this beautiful open field, okay?

[00:05:31] Not a tree in sight, open field. Amazing. But I have about maybe 10 horses behind me or so, and the rest are in front of me, but they're moving further in front of me. So I try to get my horse to move faster. So I do my thing with the reins right on the side of the horse, whatever. Every time I do it, this horse-

[00:05:55] Now, if you're listening to the audio version of this, imagine it. If you're watching me on the YouTube version of it, the horse turns around and gives me this dirty look like, what the hell are you doing? And I didn't see the signs. I just thought, oh, this horse doesn't like it. Okay, we got to get going.

[00:06:19] We got to move faster. Did a few more times. Every time I did it, the horse turned around and gave me a stare. It was like the stare of death. And you would think I would've known better. But no. Imagine this open field, my friends. Now I can see this huge open field. And then off to the right is this big, huge oak tree with this big, massive, thick branch sticking out to the right.

[00:06:49] This horse, the one that I was in control of, (so I thought), had a mind of its own, a path of its own. It was going to show me who the boss was and instead of going straight into the open field with everyone else. My horse turned to the right towards the tree and went darted right towards the tree, which at that point was probably about 60, 70 yards away.

[00:07:14] And I was like, what the, what's going on here? And I had some time to plan. I didn't know at the time what this horse was trying to do, but it took me right towards that tree. It was darting right towards the tree with a big branch sticking out. I had to think fairly quickly because this horse was going fast and it tried to clip me, it tried to get me off the horse.

[00:07:40] It tried to knock me off the horse and succeeded. I ducked as much as I could, so I wouldn't - first of all, if I didn't see the branch, I would've been gone decapitated probably at that point. It knocked me off the horse. I ducked, but it hit, it clipped my left or my right shoulder, whichever shoulder it was, and threw me off the horse.

[00:08:01] And I went skidding. It was all like rocks, some sand, some grass, but a lot of rocks. I went skidding, something to laugh at, skidding on my butt. It felt like, like miles, probably a few feet. Okay. But I was alive, or so I thought I was. Don't worry about it, I'm here. Behind me, of course, all the horses behind me followed me because this horse went to the right, took off on a different path.

[00:08:29] So all the other horses followed suit. So as I look behind, I have whatever, nine or 10 horses coming towards me, like a stampede coming towards me. Thank God they saw me and the horses veered around me. Otherwise I wouldn't be here today and that's no laughing matter. So moving along in this story, as I'm sitting there with my life, literally within 20 seconds, flashing in front of my eyes, my horse took off.

[00:09:01] My horse was long gone in the field. I don't know where it was. I didn't really care. I was just like thankful that I was still alive. I was in pain, not the pain that I was going to feel the next day or the day after, but I was in pain. I already had a bad lower back. And finally the guide saw what happened, turned around, came towards me to make sure I was okay.

[00:09:22] Everyone stopped, everyone came around, make sure I was okay. And they then said, do you want to -  the guide said, you can come back with me as I was laying on the ground. You can come back with me on my horse, or we could try to rally up your horse. I don't know the terms in this. 

[00:09:38] You can ride back with that. And I said, yes, I'm going to take the latter. I'm getting back on that horse and I'm going to ride back with the group. I'm not giving in. I'm not giving up. This horse is not going to win. So I did that. I had a choice. And in business we have choices. So here's how I'm bringing it back to business and in life, because it's going to happen to us.

[00:10:00] It might be happening to you right now. You might have been already kicked off the horse and you have a choice. Do you get back up and get back on that horse, or do you give up and give in and just go back home? Look, I don't know where you're at in your business. Maybe you are in a place where you're newer, you're trying to make it, you're trying to find clients, you're trying to find good staff.

[00:10:24] The money is tight. I get it. I get it. I do. I've been there. Maybe you're at the point where do I give up? Do I give in? Do I just get a job? Maybe I'm not here to tell you not to do that, but I want you to think before you do anything, have and ask yourself some questions. Have I tried everything? Maybe you have enough-

[00:10:49] You're the other type of business owner where you have a lot of clients, a lot of customers, a lot of business, but you're always seem busy. You don't know what you get accomplished. You're always busy taking care of the customer, but you're not growing and you're exhausted. I have questions for you on that as well.

[00:11:07] We have a choice, and maybe for you, the choice is simply this. Maybe it's time to pack up shop. Maybe it's time to fold up tent and start something new. Pivot to something new. Maybe it's not. Maybe you just need a better way. Maybe you just need to talk to someone, get some ideas. Maybe you've lost the motivation for your business because you're exhausted.

[00:11:36] Because that can easily happen. My friends, I said at the beginning of this call, at the beginning of this episode, and I've said in other episodes, it is difficult. Running a business is difficult, but when we surround ourselves with the people who can support us. And have us look at our role in our business differently, and at our business differently.

[00:11:56] Things will be different. So just like myself with the horse, I had a choice. Now. I had to still get back on that horse, which I did, and I completed the ride, which I did. I did act differently with the horse though. And yes, my ride was shorter than others, or my weekend was shorter than others with the riding, because I was not able to ride the next day. I woke up in a lot of pain and then the day after that, even more pain and I had to drive back five hours through a windy highway, but I did it, but I had a choice.

[00:12:34] We're all going to get kicked down. We're all going to get knocked off a horse. We need to determine, is it time to get back on the horse or is it time to go a different path? This horse chose a different path in business that also can happen to us. We could choose the wrong path, like this horse. For me, it was the wrong path for the horse.

[00:12:58] It was the right path. But in business, we can choose the wrong path. We could hire the wrong employee. We can invest in the wrong so-called online expert and give them like $15,000 so we can learn their way, which they never had a way they're making their money. They've never had a business before. They say they did, but it's just all marketing.

[00:13:20] But they tell you, give, you know, invest in my $15,000 program and I will give you all of my secrets of how I built this eight to nine figure business or seven to eight figure business. I'll do the same thing. It'll do the same thing for you. And yet they never had one before. Look, I get it. And I'm not against investing in programs and coaches and mentors, but here's the Stern Truth.

[00:13:43] Invest in yourself. You are the one that will make the difference in your business. No program, no coach, even like me, is going to do it for you. It is you. It is the people you bring onto your team. If you listened to last week's episode with Norm from Genie Senior Services - he built a great business. And in order for it to get to the next level, he brought on people who could help him get there.

[00:14:10] We need to bring people onto our team who are either, who are smarter than us, better in a certain area of the business, whether it's a virtual assistant, a specialist in a certain area, a marketing consultant, a marketing agency, a coach, a mentor, employees, whatever it is. We need to surround ourselves with people who can do the job better than we can so we can focus on growing the business.

[00:14:31] And we can stay on the right path. And having the right accountability will help you stay on the right path. Sometimes, whoever, we don't know what the right path is. So my invitation to you today is if you are not sure which path right now to take in your business, I invite you to reach out to me. Let's have a chat and see if we can help you get clarity on which path to take.

[00:14:59] All you need to do emails in the show notes, but send me an email to Marshall@marshallstern.net and in the subject line “horse”. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. If you don't resonate with this and you just thought the story was great. Good story. Funny story. It is funny in the, now that I've survived it and everything and all these years later, but if it does resonate, if it doesn't resonate with you, but you know people who it might send them a link to it.

[00:15:31] If it could help someone, I'll send them a link. But if it does resonate with you and you're just not sure what to do, and you've tried different things and you're not sure if it's time to pack it up or to change course, or what to do, because it is overwhelming, I get it. Send me an email with the subject line “horse” and we will set something up.

[00:15:51] Okay. Have a great week. I'd love to hear your comments, your feedback, and of course, subscribe, share, all that kind of stuff, and we'll see you again next week. 

[00:16:04] Thank you so much for tuning in to the Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share and leave us a review.

[00:16:12] Also, if you'd like to be a guest in the upcoming episode or join us in one of our Moment Accountability Group sessions, simply email me to marshall@marshallstern.net. That's marshall@marshallstern.net.And don't forget to hit the subscribe button, so never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing forward and meeting with confidence.