Listen on…
Why I keep my business close and my friends even closer
I love my friends. I mean, L-O-V-E. I am so beyond grateful for them — they understand me, I understand them, and they’re the type of people I know always have my back.
But as you’ll hear in this episode, this hasn’t always been the case. It’s taken many years, lots of tears, and countless hard conversations to get to a place where I am 100% confident that the friends I have in my life are MY PEOPLE.
Let me back up a bit and explain why.
As an entrepreneur, friendships can be especially tough. Even friendships that you’ve had for years can take a big turn when you make the decision to ditch the 9 to 5 and commit to growing a business.
Your priorities and conversations shift when you become an entrepreneur — your business is your baby, after all. Instead of catching up on the latest episode of Billions over skinny spicy margaritas at happy hour, you’re now rapid-fire texting your friend about your upcoming product launch, or your new copywriter that just can’t seem to nail your brand’s voice.
Over time, this dynamic can wear on a relationship. At some point, you feel like your friend starts to resent you, judges your decisions, or simply isn’t interested in what you have to say anymore.
Can you relate?
And if your friends are ALSO entrepreneurs, that’s a whole different ballgame that’s equally as tricky to navigate.
Regardless of if your friend is a 9 to 5er or an entrepreneur like you, it’s not that you don’t love them or aren’t grateful for having them in your life. It’s that friendships have seasons, and if I’ve learned anything over the last 14 years of having my own business, it’s totally ok to move on – sometimes it’s the best thing we can do to grow.
In this episode, I’ll get really deep about my own friendships, and share with you:
- What I’ve learned about navigating friendships as an entrepreneur
- The qualities I look for in a friend, and why
- How I know it’s time to move on from a friendship or lean into it
I even open up about something I’ve NEVER talked about on the podcast — the challenges I’ve had being a boss to my best friend in the world (and former CMO), Chloe — my Cho Cho.
This shortie episode is SUPER personal and near and dear to my heart, so I hope you enjoy listening.
Here’s a glance at this episode…
- [05:07] Nourish and pour effort into the relationships with people who understand you and understand your priorities. These are people who have similar values, or are at least willing to learn or respect yours.
- [08:27] Being a good friend means being able to talk things out and share when you don't agree. It's important that both parties are willing to have those hard conversations.
- [09:20] Your values also need to align with your friends' values. If they don't perfectly align, you both need to be willing to hear each other's sides.
- [10:17] One type of friendship that entrepreneurs often encounter is being close with someone on their team, which can be very difficult. We are all human, and disagreements in these types of relationships will happen.
- [14:47] I've had to set boundaries with friends around saying yes to them. One important thing that I’ve decided is that I don't have to say yes to everything just because that person is a friend. I only say yes to things that really light me up.
- [15:44] On the journey of entrepreneurship, we'll have friends who come and go. Protect your heart. You don't have to be friends with everybody, but show up for those true blue friends who show up for you.
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