049: Having Big Dreams, Keeping Them Alive & Preventing People Crushing Them with Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing

Change feels funny. Whenever you do anything different, it’s always going to feel funny, it’s going to feel awkward, it’s going to feel uncomfortable, and you have to be willing to allow that funny, awkward, uncomfortable feeling into your life. Knowing that it will get better when you practise, you get better. When you first learn to walk it was awkward and uncomfortable but you do it and you progressed. Your first job, it’s uncomfortable, your first radio interview, it’s uncomfortable. You don’t like it, you want to resist and go back into your comfort zone. But if you want to succeed, you have to get out of your comfort zone, feel uncomfortable, and do things you need to do to move you forward. And then you get comfortable and it becomes easy and then another challenge comes along, and you need to face that challenge, and deal with that one, and you need to feel uncomfortable, awkward and self-conscious all over again, and it was just that process.

#00:01:31-1# Neil: Hello it’s Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me today on the entrepreneur way, the entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneurs journey, the vision, the mind-set, the commitment, the sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, Susan Sherbert. But before I introduce you to her, I have a quote for you. Larry King said, ‘I love doing what I do, I love asking questions, I love being in the mix, the entrepreneur way asks the questions, so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses, Susan, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

#00:02:19-3# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Oh absolutely, I have got plenty of stories and insights to share, so I am absolutely ready to go.

#00:02:24-5# Neil: Thank you for joining us today Susan. Susan Sherbert is a storyteller with unique message about the power of childlike thinking. She helps adults embrace their dreams, remove limiting beliefs, and discover the magic found in the mind-set of a child. Let Susan take you on a journey back to your imagination and beyond. Susan, can you provide us with some more insight into your business and personal life? to allow us to get to know more about what you do, and who you are? #

#00:02:59-6# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Sure, I am a writer and an author and a speaker, and also a business owner. And my passion that I write and talk about is about helping adults learn to think like a little child. It’s about the power of childlike thinking. And as a business owner, a lot of times that turns people off, but there is so much power in your life if you could think like an excited little child. So Neil, if you don’t mind, I want to start with a story that will help set the stage. And the story is called ‘a scary jelly bean’ and if you remember the movie Harry Potter. There was a scene where they were talking about Jelly Beans every flavour, dirt, grass, sardines, just every flavour jelly bean you could talk about. Now, they made a box of these, and I happened to find a box of every flavour jelly beans, and I was excited and I had a whole bunch of adults sitting at my table, I think it was thanksgiving or something one year, and so I thought I am going to share these jelly beans with all these grownups, just kind of keep things a little bit exciting, entertaining and as I was putting the jelly beans in the bowl, I could not tell the difference on the speckles, between the tutti-frutti and the vomit. And it was gross, it was really bad, but the tutti-frutti and the vomit, everything all the flavours went in the bowl.

#00:04:17-4# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Now, if I hand that bowl to a four-year old and I use a four-year old as an example because if we can all think like a four-year old, I mean our life would be very different. So if I were to hand that bowl of jelly beans to a four-year old, they would take one, they would be excited, they would hope they get the tutti-frutti and they would just be full of emotion and joy. Even if they got the vomit, it’s still, ‘oh yeh, I got the vomit, gross look at the …’ their life is exciting and they enjoy it and it does not matter what it is, they take what life comes, and they are excited. Now if I go back to those table of grownups, and I hand them this bowl of jelly beans, they don’t even want to take one. Just the fact that there is one bad bean in the whole bowl, the resistance and the fear is so strong they don’t want to play, they don’t want to take one, they do not want to risk getting that bad jelly bean. So, the whole point of the childlike thinking is, when life hands you those flavour full bowl of opportunities, do you react like the excited little child? or do you react like the fearful adult that we have grown up to become?

#00:05:22-1# Neil: Mmm hmm

#00:05:22-1# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: And I use that story because to me it’s very symbolic and it shows how we have changed. Because we were all little kids once, but we have grown up to become fearful adults that complicate things and make things a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

#00:05:41-5# Neil: Ok and how do you make money from what you are doing at present Susan?

#00:05:47-0# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I am selling my book, and I am starting to do speaking engagements, I have got like a couple of like women’s group that I am speaking. I have got one event in about three weeks where I am speaking in the morning, in the afternoon and so right now it is all about selling the books. And it’s a passion I have been working on for about 20 years, and I am now ready, I could say I was not ready before, but my dream is now ready, I have got a very quality book. I got an endorsement from entrepreneur magazine, I have got a publisher that is involved, so pieces that I have been working on for years are finally coming together and I thoroughly believe in this book. And so it is on Amazon, it’s there, it’s ready I am getting a lot of positive feedback, people that are reading it, they get excited, then they want that word-of-mouth. So I am just getting ready to start the dream on something that I have been working on for 20 years.

#00:06:44-5# Neil: Yeh and obviously you have got your printing business as well that you make money from as well, don’t you?

#00:06:49-4# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Right yeh, so it’s kind of really balancing that. It’s running that printing business and when I look back, I can see how the two like work together. I did not see it at the time of running the printing business, and trying to pursue my passion of writing, and I did not realise how the two really work together, and now that they are working together and ones keeping me, you know getting the money going, but it’s also allowing me the freedom and the passion. And like you said, you get stuck in things and you just do not see it, but now I realise the value along the way.

#00:07:25-1# Neil: So you have told us the story and I get the message, I understand what you are saying, so how do you fix people with your book in terms of this story you have told us?

#00:07:41-7# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: So this second book, the first book is about adults having fun, and obviously I could not sell that to businesses, because businesses are not interested in about fun. If you were retired or an adult that is just had a boring life and you want to get out of your rut, that first book was good. The second book developed because the power of childlike thinking, that freedom, that creativity, that passion. All of the qualities of a child, I could not let it go, I had to keep pushing and pushing because I knew there was a lot of value in it. So the second book is called ‘A white hat, and rose coloured glasses’ and it’s all about clarity and action. You need to wear the rose-coloured glasses so you can see what you need to see, you need to see where you are stuck, you need to see the obstacles, you need to see the reality and the truth. And you need to see what you need to see, and then you need to put on the good guy hero white hat, and do what you need to do, you need to take the right actions, you need to never give up, you need to just keep trying, you need to just face your fears. You need to actually combine the awareness, that aha moment, follow it up with the right actions. And if you have clarity and action, that will change just about anything.

#00:08:53-2# Neil: Yeh absolutely. And what do you enjoy most about what you do?

#00:08:56-4# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I think it’s helping other people. And it’s taking that inspirational moment, where I can simplify things down, I mean that story of the jelly bean, I think my strength is being able to take something kind of complicated, simplify it so that adults can say, ‘ah I get it, I see what you mean.’ And so that is sort of my unique ability, which I really like to be able to do that, creative side of taking complicated things that adults do, why are adults being so silly like that? and simplify it down and say ‘oh I get it.’ bringing that awareness to people and businesses so that they can make the changes necessary, I can’t make the changes for them, but if I can bring awareness, so that they can make their changes, that’s you know, I’m successful.

#00:09:54-9# Neil: Yeh. So why do you think adults do things like this?

#00:10:00-8# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: The number one reason I believe, is fear. And it all comes, I have done a lot of thought and reading and researching and everything for the book. And to me, it comes down to the fact that as little kids, our parents kept us safe. We did not have to worry about fear and the things that hurt us and harm us and bad feelings and everything else, as a little four-year old, none of that came into your world. You just lived your life, the way you wanted without fears and anxiety because your parents took care of your fears. But what happens as adults is our adult brain is programmed to see the negative information first. Our nice dreams and the things that we want and that excite us, are good and we like them. But the positive message aren’t threatening, they are not going to hurt us or harm us, and so our brain is programmed to focus and see the negativity. And so what happens as adults is we just forget our dreams, and we have to push them aside because that negativity becomes our focus. So we forget to dream, we forget our imagination, we forget to create, all of those fantastic, positive, emotions, and thoughts that we have, get pushed aside because our adult brains have this need to protect us and try to make us safe. Which is a good thing, and that is what we need to do as adults, but my whole point of the rose-coloured glasses is that I believe we need to see both the positive and the negative.

#00:11:36-7# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: There are two sides, and that negative is so powerful and sticky, I just want you to say ‘hey ok, it’s maybe not as bad as you think, there’s probably a lot of positive things to go with it, let’s look at both sides and make a good educated decision based on the fact that outcome could be positive or negative without that negativity … that is very much in the adult world.

#00:12:03-8# Neil: And what is it that drives you?

#00:12:11-8# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I have this passion for, I think like a kid. I realised this early on, that my brain processes the world, like a little kid, and I just for years and years and years could not understand why adults do such silly things. You know I have a party I say, ‘come and play croquet?’ ‘Nah I can’t, I won’t’ so adults they don’t want to play, they forget to dream, and I have a psychology degree that I started out with a psychology degree, and I think the whole passion of everything started with me helping adults, almost shaking them saying ‘look at what you are doing, why are you so negative, why can’t you enjoy life and be fun and live your dreams?’ and things like that, so it is really that passion of helping people understand that you can have a dream, you need a big bold exciting dream. And I want to help you find your dreams, and make the world a better, happier place.

#00:13:08-4# Neil: mmm hmmm in fact your dream has to be that big, that when you tell other people it makes them laugh.

#00:13:12-7# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Ok that’s perfect segue and perfect stories. So here is the story about the dreams, and once again is that adult/child thing, so I was reading all of these self-help books and everyone says, ‘you need a big bold dream, you need something that is a dream, not a goal, because goals are manageable and they are much more in the adult realm.’ Because the goals are reality based, but dreams are child based where they are big bold huge, almost impossible. I’m like, ‘I need a big dream, something that is going to push me, something that is beyond the reality.’ And so one day, I had just taken up golf, and so I came and I said, ‘do you know what? I am going to go off on every golf course in California’ that’s the state I live in. I am excited about that, awesome, I have a big bold dream, I am going to go off every golf course in California, how fun is that? it’s going to take me a lifetime to do it, and I am excited and all of that childhood energy comes, and so I go to my golf, my golf buddies who are very reality-based adults, and I take this big bold exciting dream and say ‘guess what? I am going to go off every golf course in California.’ And my grown up buddies, who are my friends, did what most grown-ups do, and they squashed your dream, both the reality saying ‘you can’t do that, how are you going to get on the private courses? how are you going to get onto that course? You don’t have time to do that. There are just too many, do you even know how many courses there are?

#00:14:35-6# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: And so adults, even though we are trying to be helpful, it’s that negativity, focus on the negative and they squash people’s dreams. Well I could talk about the awareness, it’s my dream, I need to keep it alive, I need to keep that little spark, and not let reality based adults squash it so I decided I am going to keep the dream alive, I don’t care what you say, I am going to pursue that. So I went out and I found a book, 864 courses in the book. That’s awesome, so now I have sort of that guideline or the adult goal of ‘ok now I have got 864 courses to go’ and I just kept keeping that dream alive despite what my friends say, and a very unusual thing happened, is that once they realised that I was going to pursue my dream with or without them. Suddenly they became believers in my dream, they are ‘oh who do I know who could get you on to that private course?’ Well this week lets go off someplace else, so we can check another golf course off your book.

#00:15:39-9# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: And so with these whole dreams, it’s one you have to have that dream, you have to keep it alive, and so I was telling this story to a group of women golfers, and I was telling that and one of the women, I asked a lot of the women, ‘do you have any dreams? is there something that you would like to do?’ and I said to one of them, ‘would you like to golf maybe Pebble Beach California Course?’ she says, ‘I can’t do that, I can’t afford it.’ And I looked straight at her and I said, ‘you squashed that dream before you even gave it a second to grow, you did not even think about the possibility that it is possible for you to do that. You did not give that dream one even ounce to grow, you squashed it, and throughout lunch you sat next to me, ‘I did squash it, oh my gosh I did, look at that. I did.’ You know she could have her family give her a round of golf for an anniversary, she could win the lottery, who knows, the possibility. The sure power of a possibility is enormous.

#00:16:37-6# Neil: Mmm so what you are really saying is, with your dreams you have got to be careful, beware of dream stealers and also self-sabotage,

#00:16:47-4# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Yeh people do not mean to do it, but you cannot take it personally, they are not out to get you. That is just them being adults and it is up to you to take that dream and when you first have a little dream, it is a teeny tiny seed that is very very infantile and it needs nurturing and protecting, and you just cannot listen to them and you just have to say ‘that’s my dream, I am going to do it, I don’t know how.’ Because adults are very, how are you going to do it, how are you going to do it? I don’t know but it’s my dream and I am holding on to it and I am not letting go. So it’s one finding the dream, and then two holding on to it and keeping it alive. It might take you six months; it might take you six, twelve, fifteen years. But you need that dream and you need to keep it alive, no matter what other people say, even whatever life brings you, even my first book, it took almost 20 years. Either take it to a publisher, or get it rejected, put it in the drawer, sit in the drawer for six/ eight months, and then I would go back and get it out. Revise it, make it better, improve it, send it off to a publisher again, and the process just went on and on and on, and what I realised was how much growth I had. Every time it went out, it was better, I was stronger, it did not defeat me, and it just kept going and going and going and now my second book is just about ready to explode, so it’s good, you have to keep those dreams alive.

#00:18:08-4# Neil: Mmm absolutely, and how do you relax when you are not working in your business? you are going to say playing golf aren’t you?

#00:18:15-6# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Golf yeh, I absolutely am. Writing and golf, those are sort of my two favourite things and in fact, the golf kind of changed my life because I worked at the printing shop for oh quite a few years and the owner retired and I brought him out, and then all of a sudden, suddenly I became a business owner, but I always thought of myself as a little girl behind the counter making copies. Because that is where I came from, so here I am a business owner with employees and payroll and all the headaches and everything, but I did not own it, I still was that try to be friends with everybody and still sort of that one of the gang and one of the girls making copies. And I thought, I really need to own this business owners, I need to do something to change everything. And it was one of those lightening moments, where it just came to me, I need to take up golf. Business owner’s golf, that’s what business owners do, I went out that exact same day, signed up for five lessons. Took five lessons, learned the basics, started playing at charity golf tournaments. Met up with a friend who wanted me to golf every week? And I am like, ‘I can’t golf every week, I have a business to run, I have things to do. And I had to stop myself because I am the business owner, and if I want to be a business owner, in order to own it, I need to say, ‘yes, I can golf Tuesday mornings because I am a business owner and that is what business owners do’ that’s not what the little girl behind the counter would do, but that is what a business owner would do.

#00:19:48-0# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: So when I signed up to play golf, every Tuesday with my friends, I became a business owner. I can take anything that the whole week gives me, I will work evenings, I will work weekends, but Tuesday morning, I take time for myself, which is a priority because you have to prioritise what is important in your life. And I golf on Tuesday mornings, and that made me a business owner, because I took the risk, I saw the fact that ‘oh no I cannot do it’ and stop myself and be aware to say, ‘I’m a business owner, why can’t I do it?’ and it just changed that whole mentality and I became a business owner and I owned the business. And I was no longer that little girl because I owned it and it all kind of started from the awareness of playing the golf.

#00:20:35-4# Neil: And do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

#00:20:43-3# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Yeh growing up, my father had a couple of businesses, nothing that successful, he is successful now but growing up he was going to Europe and buying cars and bringing back and selling them, and had a couple of other businesses, I was not that involved with. But I also go back to the printing shop, I worked in the printing shop for quite a few years before the owner retired and brought him out. And I remember there was sort of two people and a couple of employees would sit and they would read their entertainment magazines and they would look on their phones and they would do just regular normal stuff. But I always knew that I was going to do something better, so I am watching what the business owners doing, I am studying, I am going to the library and getting sales books, I am reading motivational books. I knew that I was going to do something in the entrepreneur business at some point. So when the owner retired, I was the person that he came to, to say ‘hey I am going to retire, buy me out, I see that you are working very hard, I know that you are ready.’ And so it was interesting, because he used to sit in the back office and so all kinds of paperwork, I always used to think, ‘why is he always here? why is he there every night, he must not have a life because he is always here. Well when he retired and I became the owner, oh my gosh how did do it so fast and so effectively? I never understood half of what he was doing until you get thrown in and become a business owner.

#00:22:07-9# Neil: Yeh absolutely, so I think what you are trying to say there was you, the difference in your mind-set was rather than spending your time working on, catching up on the latest celebrity gossip and things, you were investing your time in developing yourself weren’t you? Is that what you were saying?

#00:22:29-2# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Yeh I always knew that I would do something, I saw the business owner, that I worked for and I am like, ‘I want to be like that, I want to be like him, and I am going to do something bigger and better.’ You know, it kind of goes back to that dream, I knew that someday I would own my own business and that I was going to do something bigger. And so I started practising, I started practising and building my resources and everything else, because I had that dream, of doing something bigger and better, well I better start practising it now, because all the skills you practise now they really come into play later and there are just so many things you just do not see at the time. I did not see all those skills that I was building, but I was building them and they would be very valuable later on.

#00:23:17-1# Neil: Yeh can we talk about the time before you were an entrepreneur? What difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business?

#00:23:28-2# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I always say that the business is like the best and the worst, because you never know everything that comes with it. So when I started the business, so I had worked there, I had a lot of valuable information, I knew the clients, I knew sort of the routine, so I had a little jumpstart, because I kind of knew what was happening. But I never knew behind the scenes and there is so much to learn. There is stress, there is payroll, they are just like enormous things, and I remember the first time I wrote a cheque, I wrote like a $1000 dollar cheque and at like the time, that was like a big deal, as a business owner, it is not a big deal. You still have to balance your cheque book and do all the same things but on a business owner, it is a much bigger scale with much bigger responsibilities, and it also comes with freedoms because when I say it’s the best and the worst, I remember one day I wanted to bring the dog to work, and I am like ‘oh I am the business owner, I don’t have to ask anybody. I can bring the dog to work if I want.’ So I am able to bring the dog to work. But if I want to take a two weeks’ vacation, that as a business owner, that is almost impossible, how do you do that? How do you get away? Payroll? I think one of my biggest problems as an entrepreneur, was the income in the fact that some months it’s up, some months it’s down. Some months you have money, and you struggle, people have a regular job, they would get a regular salary, every month they would know how much money is coming in. As an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to say, ‘some months there is money, some months there is don’t, and I have to be able to handle that.’ That panic of stress when it’s not there, and then it comes and you have to be responsible to manage those resources, knowing that next month it may or may not be there.

#00:25:10-5# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: So it’s little things like that, that really kind of notice the difference between being the employee and being the owner.

#00:25:17-5# Neil: And did you have any doubts that delayed you getting, starting the business or buying the business?

#00:25:25-6# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Oh there are always doubts, I mean as adults we live in doubt, we live in fear, we live in the resistance and you get comfortable. The easy way to go is to get a job, but you have to face those fears, you have to face your fears, whatever it is and the obstacle that is holding you back, you have to face it. My book I talk a lot about sort of fears and obstacles and removing those. I am a business owner and I love it and it’s great and it would never have happened if I let those fears and the resistance take over. One of the things that I find interesting is I was taking a golf lesson and the instructor was changing my golf swing, now when you start golf and you swing the same swing over and over again, whatever in life you do, you build that muscle memory and you kind of repeat it, and so he started to change my swing and I looked at him and I thought, ‘that just feels funny.’ and it almost became a whole chapter in my book, in the fact that change feels funny. Whenever you do anything different, it’s always going to feel funny, it’s going to feel awkward, it’s going to feel uncomfortable. And you have to be willing to allow that funny, awkward, uncomfortable feelings into your life knowing that it will get better when you practise, you get better. When you first learn to walk, it was awkward and uncomfortable but you do it and you progress. Your first job, it’s uncomfortable, your first radio interview, it’s uncomfortable, you don’t like it, you want to resist and go back into your comfort zone. But if you want to succeed, you have to get out of your comfort zone, feel uncomfortable, and do the things you need to do to move you forward.

#00:27:11-9# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: And then you get comfortable, and it becomes easy and then another challenge comes along and you need to face that challenge, and deal with that one. And you need to feel uncomfortable, awkward and self-conscious all over again, and it is just that process.

#00:27:27-6# Neil: That’s a great explanation, thank you, and what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

# #00:27:37-3# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: One of the mistakes I had is when the economy in the business crashed, I knew I had to let some employees go. And the biggest mistake I made in the business was not letting things go when I needed to, I needed to let some things go, I may be needed to change things, it was that resistance, you know, I did not act soon enough. Then you get into debt and it hurts you and everything else. And I read one of the things that quote somewhere that said ‘one of the things about great entrepreneurs, is they know when to let go.’ They cut their losses very soon, and they don’t emotionally hold on to them, they don’t have false hopes, that oh it’s going to get better and it’s going to get better. They react and they are very realistic, and they hope and they want things better but they are not going to let the dream drag them down. The react accordingly, and so it was just that resisting, I was comfortable, it’s going to get better, and I really needed to change faster than I did. So once again resistance is change. I knew that changes had to be made and I resisted them and I did not react fast enough.

#00:28:57-4# Neil: Mmm and what are some of the things you did before you started your business that would be helpful tips for some of the listeners? who have not yet taken the first step on the entrepreneur way?

#00:29:03-2# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Once again it goes back to dreams, you have to have the idea, you have to have the dream, you have to have the courage, ok I am going to tell you another little story about how I became a writer. I was still working at the printing business, I had not quite become a business owner yet, and this all happened right around the same time, and I had some friends visiting me from Scotland, and they had some kids and I do not know how or why but I started out to write funny things for the kids to do when they came to visit. And somehow I ended up writing a 28-page book about how to short sheet a bed. I don’t know if you know how to short sheet a bed? the practical joke where you put your feet in. Anyway, I wrote this book about short sheeting a bed, and I turned it into a 28-page book, it was kind of cute, you can’t short sheet a teenagers bed because they never make it in the first place and I had some humour and I just put it in, because I worked at the printing company at the time. I designed it, put it into a little book, and if I look at that, I go all the along the way and I could see all of the sort of steps in my life, so I just did it, I had it, and there here I had this book, but what are you going to do with it?

#00:30:19-8# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I could put it in a drawer and ignore it, or I could do something with it. And somebody had said, ‘well take it to one of the bedding and linen changes, they might like it.’ So I made decision number one, I decided to do something with it. Take some kind of action. So I went into the bedding and linen store and I could not see it on the shelf, so I went and made a phone call and I got a number from somebody in the marketing department, so here I was, I had this book and I had the phone number of the marketing person. And once again, I could have let that go, I could have put it in the drawer and forget and stopped it and not even pursue my dream, but I thought, ‘what the heck, I’ve got a number so I am going to have the courage, and I am going to write a letter.’ So I wrote a letter and said, ‘here’s your cute little book, you could use it as a gift with purchase going back to school. With the kids going back to school with sheets or whatever.’ And I put that envelope and that letter and I put a stamp on it, and I mailed it out. And that took courage, because I had a dream, I took the risk, I took that chance, I actually did something, I put in action. And action was, there was no risk, you know, other than emotional risk, but ok I am going to take action. And I put it out, I had no idea what was going to happen. But two weeks later, the woman called me back and said, ‘we love the idea, we are going to go with it, we want 2,000 copies.’

#00:31:51-1# Neil: Mmm

#00:31:51-1# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: And that was awesome, that was fantastic, I took a chance, I put it in the letter, she loved it. But now she wants invoices, she wants packing slips, I have to actually produce 2,000 copies of these books. I have to be able to ship them to her. All of these things, I had opened a whole box that I did not even know and see, but she liked my work and I became a writer that day because I took the chance and the risk to send it out. And look what happened? I became a writer, to this day I am writing because I took one chance by putting something in the mail and sending it out.

#00:32:32-4# Neil: Mmm you have got to step over the line, haven’t you really? I think that is what you are really saying. So can we talk about the entrepreneurial journey a little bit Susan? Do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business?

#00:32:48-8# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Yeh it I mean, culture is people, and people are your business. You know they are working for you, they are your customers, you know there is I mean, you have to be able to work with people. And people are different and they create, people can be the best and people can create problems and you have good customers and bad customers, and you have good employees and bad employees. And every employee I have ever had, I tended to give them a lot of freedom, and one of the things I realised is that they would always kind of push that line of freedom, almost like a little kid. Where they push the boundaries, and I could see it coming and I knew they would step over the line, they do something you know, take advantage of me in some way, and I would always be able to manage them by saying, ‘hey I gave you that trust, you just betrayed it because you stepped over the line, let’s not let that happen again.’ And so I think a lot of it, is how you manage people as resources. People that you work with and also your customers, you have to get them to trust you. I have a whole chapter in my book about the truth, and I think the truth is hugely important.

#00:34:04-3# Neil: Knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

#00:34:17-1# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Yeh, people talk about their parents, like what their parents did right or wrong, or whatever. And as a kid, growing up, my parents always said, ‘you are going to go to college, you are going to go to college. I always knew I was going to go to college, but nobody ever asked me, ‘what do you want to do in college? What do you want to do in your life?’ I probably would have majored in journalism, had I been asked ‘what do you want to do? rather than just be told, ‘you are going to go to college.’ and so it’s that awareness at an early age of what’s your passion? What’s your desire? What do you really want to do? And that kind of awareness of you know, don’t just get stuck in the first job that you get. Really, if you have a passion for any kind of industry, try and get your first job in the industry that you desire. Rather than taking the first job that’s going to stick you to where you want to go. If you enjoy cars, try and get a job somewhere sort of in the automotive industry. If you enjoy animals, get a job in that. It’s kind of being aware of what you enjoy and try and get something in that direction, because very often you get stuck in some place you don’t want to be in and then it’s really really hard to get out.

#00:35:38-0# Neil: And how much does gut feeling influence your decisions in your business?

#00:35:45-4# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Ah that’s very interesting, how does gut feeling? you know it kind of varies because sometimes you get it right and sometimes you get it wrong. You have to go with your gut, with all of my books and my passion, I have always known I was going to do something. Even when I was working as an employee, I knew I was going to do something better. So I suppose that is that gut feeling, even when the business was really really struggling and it was a down time. I knew that I was going through that struggle for a reason. And I think the gut feeling is if you can see a possibility bigger, then the chaos that you are in, that’s what will help you get you through it. Kind of that dream or that vision or just knowing internally that there is something bigger and better, beyond the chaos of the problems at the moment.

#00:36:51-6# Neil: Life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not, in fact you talked about change feel funny earlier, some people say the only constant is change. So how do you try to keep up with change Susan?

#00:37:02-6# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Growing and as kids, kids don’t really bother change because they are not in that comfort zone. Kids like the question why curiosity, I think curiosity is a very good way to deal with change because when something new and different happens, you need to look at that and say ‘why did that happen? how can I fix it?’ and start asking really good questions. I think there was something on your website that I read that you talk about, asking why, asking really good questions. And so, change is constant, and so you when you are confronted with change, rather than resist it and say ‘oh no I don’t like it’ you need to ask ‘how can I make it better? how can I improve it? what can I do?’ all those questions that locate why, kids say why why why. Well that why is curious. And that curiosity to know more, is what will get you through that.

#00:38:09-9# Neil: Mmm it’s a good answer and what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism? business, personal development, leadership or motivation? and can you tell us why you have chosen it?

#00:38:20-7# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: There’s probably two or three, I mean ‘think and grow rich’ is you can’t go wrong with that, I mean that one is a classic. Anything by Tony Robbins, I mean he is one of the classic motivational. And a little more current one is Elizabeth Gilbert who did ‘Eat, prey, love’ she has got a new book out right now, called ‘Big Magic’ and it’s about curiosity and dreams. And kind of that power of why. The power of being curious and moving forward and that’s a recent one that I read that I really am enjoying.

#00:38:57-5# Neil: Ok and how have you applied that?

#00:39:03-1# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Well I have kind of become aware of her and I went back and read some of her older stuff, and I can kind of look at the lessons. Once again, my book is all about awareness, so you take those little titbit’s and pieces of information, you read a book and one little sentence, kind of motivates you. And then it’s what kind of action can I take on that one little thought that I pulled from the book?

#00:39:30-9# Neil: Everyone, when you have a busy life listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things such as driving or when you are at the gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing, to choose your free audio book, go to freeaudiobookoffer.com as long as you have not already signed up then you will qualify. Susan, what I would like to do now is speculate a little bit about the future with you. What one thing would you do with your business if you knew that you not fail?

#00:40:05-3# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I would hire in the experts. I think one of the things as entrepreneurs, that we very often do is we try and do it on loan. And a lot of times we do it on loan because we do not have the money. And so we think we have to do it on loan, I mean one example was when I was doing the second book, they needed a head shot and ah you know with cameras and everything else. I can take the shot myself, or whatever and I had to say ‘no you know, I need the professional,’ and the professional did a fantastic job and I know that, that money was well spent and so much better because I got a really fantastic headshot. But at the time, you kind of think, I do not need an expert, I can do it myself. And really, hire those experts, that is so valuable, you think you cannot afford it but the pay back is tenfold if you just hire the right people that have the knowledge that you do not. Quit struggling on your own.

#00:41:03-9# Neil: Yeh, what skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most to double your business?

#00:41:10-8# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Speaking, I am good on the radio and podcast when I speak in person. I need to take some more toastmaster classes or whatever I need maybe some acting classes. I need to be able to speak on stage. Because I talk, I get nervous, I talk too fast. I doubt myself, I kind of let a lot of self-doubt creep in, when I am standing in front of an audience. You know, if it is just me in a room with a radio, that’s fantastic, but when you put an audience in front of me, I probably need some acting classes, training, it’s right now it’s uncomfortable, I need to practise more.

#00:41:55-7# Neil: It’s almost if you think about it, you have got to change your perspective on that and start thinking about speaking in front of people. If you think about it, you are always public speaking, whether you are speaking to me or you are speaking to somebody you know, or you are speaking to someone on the stage and somehow you have sort of got to make yourself think that it’s all the same. It’s easy to say than do it.

#00:42:14-8# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: And I am doing it, I have got a couple of things lined up and I am doing it, even like autographing the books, I have got terrible handwriting so, I am not even that comfortable autographing the books. But I know I have to do it, so ok you get on with it, and then eventually I am going to be comfortable with it and it’s fine, I can’t tell people ‘oh sorry I can’t autograph your book’ that would be terrible. I don’t like that part, but I know it is part of the whole bigger process, so you just accept it, you move on and if it’s not a 100% perfect, well then they get a book autograph with bad handwriting and that’s just the way it is.

#00:42:50-8# Neil: In five years from now, if a well-known business publication, was publishing an article on your business after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

#00:43:07-1# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I would hope I have another three or four books by then, in fact I have got a third book that is coming. I would hope to say that I have helped the world lighten up, and be a little bit happier, brighter place, because I have changed lives. And I changed lives in very very small ways, by having dreams, I mean who knows who I am going to impact and they may find a dream that they may have given up on, but because they listened to this podcast or because they read my book, you know, I would like somebody to come back to me and say ‘you changed your life, I did this because you inspired me to change.’ I want to be the inspiration, I do not want to do it for anybody but it would be nice if I could be the inspiration that helps somebody else move towards greatness.

#00:43:58-4# Neil: Thank you. We are now at the part of the show where you share three golden nuggets with us, so Susan, what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it?

#00:44:12-3# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Well, there are a couple of quotes, I got a lot of good quotes in my book, can I do a quote that wrote?

#00:44:17-8# Neil: If you like, yeh

#00:44:17-8# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Ok one of the quotes I wrote in my book, like I say, I have got a lot of quotes, but one of my favourite quotes is, ‘to improve your vision, close your eyes and focus.’ and I really like that one because it’s about the vision, but not about the vision what you see with your eyes, it’s about the vision that you imagine in your head, and in your life. And so, if you want to improve your vision, close your eyes and focus. So it all is internal, to succeed and have this big grand vision and life you want, it comes from within.

#00:45:02-9# Neil: I like that, you say you have got a second one?

#00:45:07-7# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I have got a lot of other ones in my book, the ones that I have got right now is ‘your actions are producing seeds, have patience and let your efforts bloom.’ And I think we talked about that with the business, there are so many times in the business where I am doing things and I do not realise that later on, the blossoms and the bloom and the growth, happens later. I mean trees grow and you do not see it. And so often, we are changing, we are growing, our seeds are sprouting, and we do not see it. So that your actions are producing seeds, have patience and let your efforts bloom. Because growth happens, you can’t always see it when you are in the middle of it.

#00:45:49-2# Neil: Yeh absolutely, and do you have any favourite online resources that you can share with us?

#00:45:57-2# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Nothing in particular, I am just absolutely fascinated with the whole internet, the way technology has changed. One of the child-like trait’s is ‘ah’ and as little kids, everything is just ‘oh my god, wow, wow, wow’ the fact that you can go on to the internet and find anything you want, is just almost mind-boggling. The information that you want is out there, so I mean I don’t have one particular resource, it’s just the fact that every resource on the planet is now available to you and I always find it amazing, where you are at a dinner conversation, where somebody, ‘hey do you know so and so?’ and you just get on your phone and you look at it and the answer is to anything are right there at your fingertips, and I just find that absolutely fascinating.

#00:46:45-0# Neil: Do you use google?

#00:46:47-0# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Yeh. I use google, I use Facebook, because Facebook is for the friends, you know I use all the social media aspects. I also go to the library, because there are librarians there and sometimes they are more expedient and they have got no more information than I do. Libraries are good.

#00:47:12-5# Neil: Yeh, I think we have got to a point where people forget that google is actually a tool, it’s almost like it’s become fresh air. It’s there if you think about it, it is an incredible thing and obviously Facebook is similarly incredible, so yeh ok thank you for that.

#00:47:31-9# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Yeh we took it all for granted, you get comfortable, you get used to it, it’s just there and it is not until you do not have your phone, or you do not have access to the internet, and then oh my god you panic and think ‘how did I ever live without it?’

#00:47:45-6# Neil: Absolutely, and what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

#00:47:53-2# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Well, I go back to the title of my book, ‘clarity in action’ it’s finding the clarity, what do you want? what is important to you? what are those awareness moments? what is your passion? what is your internal vision? what is your dream? find that clarity, and follow it up with action. It does not have to be big action, you just have to take some kind of action on the awareness moments that you have. Combine that clarity with your action. See what you need to see and do what you need to do, and your life will change.

#00:48:35-4# Neil: Everyone, if you did not manage to get a note of Susan’s favourite resource or her favourite books, you can find the links on Susan’s show notes page, just go to theentrepreneurway.com and search for Susan or Susan Sherbert in the search box. Susan, is there anything else that you would like to add about your business?

#00:48:51-6# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: No, it’s just growing and changing and I know that there will be book number three because I have so much information and that’s the other thing, is I think once you start, you never know where it is going to go, you have no idea how it’s going to end up, I just know there will be a book number three, and could be even more.

#00:49:18-8# Neil: It’s been an absolute honour having you on the show today Susan.

#00:49:22-2# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: I enjoyed it.

#00:49:22-2# Neil: Thank you. You have provided us with some real insightful thoughts and you have certainly inspired us today so thank you very much for coming on the show.

#00:49:34-1# Susan Sherbert,Fun Happy Enjoy Founder & Owner of A & S Printing: Well thank you, you ask some very intelligent questions, that are great resources for entrepreneurs. So I appreciate all the entrepreneurial effort you put in to helping other people, find their dreams.

#00:49:44-7# Neil: Thank you very much Susan.