The Power of Perseverance in Business

In this episode, Brittany talks about the importance of perseverance in business. She shares two personal stories from her trip to Sweden that demonstrate the concept of perseverance. The first story is about navigating through a foreign country and facing obstacles along the way. The second story is about trying to ride a scooter despite having a fear of falling. Brittany emphasizes the need to overcome obstacles and fears in order to achieve success in business.

Takeaways

Perseverance is crucial in overcoming obstacles and achieving success in business.
It's important to have a clear plan and be resourceful when facing challenges.
Fear can paralyze us and prevent us from taking necessary actions in our business.
Coaching and mentorship can help us overcome fears and navigate through obstacles.
Being vulnerable and asking for help is a sign of strength and determination.

Brittany Hagemann (00:00.686)
You are listening to the Estheticians Earning More podcast with Brittany Hageman, episode number 154. Hello, hello. Happy Monday and welcome back. I am so excited to be back here with you today and to talk to you about perseverance, which is the topic of today's podcast. I last week was in Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden to see Taylor Swift perform. Actually, it's now like a week and a half ago. It's been almost two weeks.

It was incredible. It was such an incredible trip to Sweden, to Stockholm. I had never been to Sweden. Stockholm was such a fun and beautiful city. I highly recommend visiting in May because the weather was perfect. It was really like they called it Swiftholm because so many people had traveled to Stockholm to see Taylor. And so like everyone went on tours and restaurants and…

on the bus in the metro, it was just Taylor Swift fans everywhere. And so it just felt like this community of people. It was just unbelievable. It was unbelievable. So I had a really phenomenal time. It was one of the best trips I've been on in my life. Probably my favorite trip next to my honeymoon. I went to Bali with my husband and our honeymoon, but that was a while ago. So this was just such an incredible trip. And I feel great and excited to be back. And...

I was thinking about this episode before I went that I was going to talk about perseverance and how important it is to have perseverance in your business. And that I had two different things that happened around the things of perseverance on my trip that are not all business related that will kind of demonstrate some of my ideas around it and my points that I'm trying to make. Because I do think that sometimes when we talk about ideas, it's easier to understand them.

if you're not talking in business terms. And so that's what we're going to do. So I'm first going to talk about… So when I got to Sweden, I flew Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. And, you know, I got into Sweden at like 7 a and I had to get on the train from the airport to like the main central station where you could take so many trains out of. And I had… My friend and her husband were meeting me there.

Brittany Hagemann (02:26.414)
My husband, we decided for him to stay home with our daughter because my daughter doesn't stay well with people. She doesn't like, she, it would have been too hard for her. We both have been gone that long. So he didn't come. So I was meeting my husband and her husband, I was meeting, I was meeting my friend and her husband and they were coming in in the afternoon. And so I got in first thing in the morning and I knew what I had to take. It was like very simple. There were so many signs, like the main train, the Orlando Express.

to the central station. And then we were staying in an Airbnb in Stockholm. And the Airbnb owner was like, listen, this is like the instructions of what to do. You take the metro to the station. And then you had to walk to her apartment that we were staying in. And on the way, this is like so European and also so like this is where the perseverance really had to come in. You had to go by a 7 -Eleven where her friend was working to give me the key to get in to the apartment.

So I had like gone over this with my friend. She's the one who made the reservation. I had access to the reservation and all the information. And you know, I'm a pretty resourceful person. I, you know, I can read maps really well. I know that in, I knew in Stockholm that most people spoke English. And so I was like feeling pretty like, yeah, no big deal. And I also was so excited about this trip that I couldn't really think about it or talk about it or plan it.

up until like a few days beforehand because I wanted to go so badly that I was like convinced something would happen and I couldn't go. And so I kind of wouldn't allow myself to really spend that much time researching it, which I should have done because I get from the Orlando Express, from the airport to the central station and there were like, I'm exaggerating, but like a hundred trains. There were so many. There was not a hundred trains, but there was...

like it was huge and there was like train over here, train over here, train over here, train over here and she just said take the metro and I'm looking at the signs like nothing says metro. So I like go over to a map, I'm looking at the map, like still can't even find like on the map her like the name of the stop or anything was Odenplan if you're from Sweden or if you know any of the Stockholm stations.

Brittany Hagemann (04:52.59)
I'm looking for Odenplan and I'm like, okay, so then I remember I go down this hallway. I can see a lot of people going towards trains this way. So I go this way and I get to the end of this hallway and it's like this massive hallway too, like underground. And I also, you may know I have a phobia of rats and I've been working on it, but I still was afraid of seeing a rat. Then we were looking to my right and looking to my left and there's people, hundreds of people walking in both directions. And I'm like,

Do I go to the right or do I go to the left? Which train? And I have my heavy backpack with my laptop and I have my suitcase and I hadn't really slept and I'm tired and I'm hungry and I'm just, you know, all the things. So like, okay. This is what I remember thinking. Why did I think I should go to a foreign country where I don't know anyone, I don't speak the language?

I don't really have internet. I only have Wi -Fi because I'm in the train station. But once I get out of the train station, I don't have any internet or ways to contact people. What was I thinking? I'm starting to really panic, right? I think this is what a lot of business owners get. They're like, like me, I didn't really do a lot of research. I just went. I knew I really wanted to do it, right? It's the same story. I just opened a business. I knew this is what I wanted, so I just did it. And then I'm in it, and I was like, my gosh, what was I thinking?

I don't know what to do or where to go. I know this is where I'm supposed to go, but I don't know how to get there. This is like, you can see the parallels, I hope, from owning a business and also what I was doing. I'm just going to go left. I don't know. I go down, I see someone who works for the train, and I ask them, fortunately, I spoke English. I'm like, this is where to go. He's like, yeah, you go through here. Okay, great. I get a ticket. Go down to the station. Again, there's trains, multiple directions. I'm like,

And you know, it's written in letters, so it's not like a different characters. Like I feel like if I was in China or something, I would, the characters I could not identify. I could not identify letters, but I still had a hard time even like reading the map and everything identifying like where I'm supposed to go. So I get on the train. my gosh, it's Odenplan. I hear that I get off. I go up the stairs. I'm like amazing. And then I'm like, which way? So then it takes me like, I fortunately had Google.

Brittany Hagemann (07:13.39)
like you can download the map that you are looking at. So I was able to download it even though I was out of the wifi and like follow the little arrow. So I was like, hey, I'm on the street. I can see it's like up here on the right.

like it's good and I'm like walking and I'm like, my gosh, there's a 7 -Eleven just like she said on the right hand side on the way. Great. So I go inside, there's a woman working there. I like show her what the woman had written. I was like, is this, this 7 -Eleven? I need to find, you know, I need to find this 7 -Eleven. And she's like, no, that 7 -Eleven is back like six blocks behind us. And I'm like, okay. And I'm thinking like maybe the woman is just like turned around. Maybe it's like in front of us.

And so I like walking on cobblestones, I'm like sweating. You know me, I don't like to sweat. Like dragging my suitcase, I get all the way down to the street that the apartment's on and I'm like, there's no 7 -Elevens. So I think this is where a lot of business owners kind of get in their business where they're like, okay, I'm gonna go this, I'm gonna do this. They follow certain directions, whether things that they've read or learned or someone they've told them or a combination of both and they go.

They go and they go and they get to where they think it's supposed to be. And it's like this realization of like, that didn't, it didn't work the way that I thought it was going to be. Right. I thought maybe there's just, maybe she just didn't understand. And there was like another, it was just right there. Another just running around the corner and I run around the corner, but it's not there. Right. And so I remember feeling like, like, what are my options right now? Like my options are I can go back to central station.

which I know my friends would be coming through. I have internet there and I can just wait for like seven hours until they come through the station and we can find it together. Like that's an option. I can go back to one of the cafes and get wifi and like contact the Airbnb person and like ask her like what's going on or whatever. So I have all these different options and I think this is where a lot of estheticians also kind of get to that point where they kind of like...

Brittany Hagemann (09:21.966)
It's like, this is the perseverance part. This is where you have to sit down. You're like, this is the way, the direction I went for whether it was the right direction or the wrong direction. Now I'm here. What are my options? And I think this is where a lot of estheticians will give up in their business and just kind of like, it didn't work, right? Like it didn't work. I followed the instructions of the Airbnb host and it did not work my first try. And honestly, if I had done more research, it still would have been the same answer because I followed her directions specifically.

Like I couldn't have any more information until I had it. And so I think this is where the perseverance really matters and where I think a lot of people will give up at this point. And I was like, okay, I'm going to go back to the cafe, which there's a cafe on this corner by the train station and I'm gonna like call the Airbnb owner or whatever. Like I don't know what else to do. So I start walking back down.

the street and I'm like, you know what, 7 -Eleven's here. I felt was feeling super embarrassed. Okay. So right. Like again, feelings that you may be coming up with you as you're growing your business, right? Like feeling embarrassed that you're asking the same person the same thing again. You're putting yourself out there again. You're putting yourself out in the world in a way that previously I had not, like in my day to day life, I'm not stopping at stores, like showing people like a text message being like, is this, you know, like I have more.

knowledge of how to get around where I live and I have internet and I have all these things that kind of… I'm not so vulnerable. I was so vulnerable. I remember thinking I was so glad it was light outside in morning, not late at night because I was so vulnerable. Someone could have easily taken advantage of me because I didn't have all of my normal things that I would have if I was even in the United States where I spoke the language, I knew I could Uber, I knew I had phone call.

I didn't have that same support system in Sweden. And so I go back into the 7 -Eleven and I'm like, hi, I'm sorry to bother you again, but I'm supposed to find a key. And I thought this looks like it's the address, like it's 10 and this is the street and that's what it says here. I'm like, I'm definitely missing something. And she's like, you're supposed to come get your hand out, which is my friend's name. Here is the key. And I like literally…

Brittany Hagemann (11:46.958)
You guys, I wanted to scream. I was like, didn't you realize that I was looking for that? Like I have a suitcase and I'm like clearly an American and I am showing you a message where it like says, get the key at 7 -Eleven. Like how are we, how did this communication not get clear to you? And again, back to your business.

you may be thinking you are super clear in your marketing and talking to people about your business and you're like, it's so obvious how to book with me. It's so obvious what I do. It's so obvious I needed the effing key. Right? Like obviously like the American woman showing up with suitcases at nine in the morning, that was the time I was supposed to be there, and is like looking for a specific 7 -Eleven is probably the person who has like needs the key that you have.

Right? Like...

It's just, it was like, but the thing is, this is the same thing with you and your clients. Like sometimes it's like, I don't understand how they don't know. And it's they don't know cause you didn't tell them. She just didn't know. Cause I didn't say that first time. Like, I know this is going to sound really weird, but I'm looking for the 7 -Eleven cause I need to get this key to get this Airbnb, which I'm supposed to get from a 7 -Eleven person. And I honestly, the reason I didn't is I was afraid that the 7 -Eleven person,

would have gotten in trouble and I didn't want to get any, I didn't know if it was like kind of not kosher, you know, like essentially like kind of a weird situation. And I didn't want to do something that would get anyone in trouble or like jeopardize anyone's job. You know, I kind of was like, I was kind of hoping to be like one of those things where like I showed her the message that she would like self like, yeah, that's me. Here you go. Like, you know, like where it would kind of be like, we would just kind of like figure it out together.

Brittany Hagemann (13:38.478)
I did not realize that I had to be so specific to her. I remember telling my friends when they got there, my husband, I was like, I literally wanted to scream. By this time I'm dripping in sweat, even though it was like 70 degrees outside, I'm carrying all of my stuff. I'm so tired. I just wanna lay down and take a shower. I wanna take a shower and lie down and sleep. It was like three in the morning my time.

No, even earlier than that, it was like one in the morning, it was just wild, right? But this is the part again where a lot of estheticians are like, but I told them, I'm so clear on all of these things, had a book with me, what services I do, all the things, right? Like, no, no, no, I am, but you're not, clearly. I was not clear with her, right? Even though I thought I was clear. So this is a part of perseverance where also I think a lot of estheticians get stuck because,

They're like, I did it and that should have done it, but you didn't. Obviously there's something missing there and you have to figure it out. And if you need help figuring it out, I can help you figure it out. But there has to be some problem solving there where you're like, the thing that was supposed to work didn't, so why didn't it work? And again, as opposed to like letting my embarrassment...

from going back in or letting my own frustration prevent me, I was like, I need to get this key. I need to, like, I am not, I'm not, the, if nothing else works, going back to Central Station and waiting for my friends, that was the last option. I had a lot of things I was gonna figure out before I got there, right?

So I get the key, I go to the apartment, I'm like, yeah, okay, it took me a while to figure out how to get inside, the fob and everything. I'm like going in, the instructions to find the apartment, she didn't say the apartment number, it was this whole thing, anyways, I get inside, fine, okay. Whew, that was done. But that was, I felt so proud of myself afterwards, because I had solved this problem and had perseverance despite all of these obstacles, not speaking the language, all the things that kind of stood in the way of me.

Brittany Hagemann (16:02.99)
getting what I really wanted, which was in this apartment and able to take a shower and sleep and things like that. And I think that same thing for you is like, what are those obstacles in the way between you and getting the goal that you have, which I'm assuming is to make more money, have more clients, grow a profitable business? What is in the way and how are you going to solve that? And if the way that you've chosen to solve that doesn't work, what are your next four options? Don't let that one way just completely prevent you from.

taking action. I want to give you another story perseverance or lack of perseverance from the same trip. So also to demonstrate what could also be happening, why you do know what you need to do. You do know the obstacles in the way, but you still can't do it. This is probably what's happening for you, which was also what happened to me on the trip. So we went to the concert. It was Friday night. It was incredible. It was incredible how much public transport.

was that you could take buses and trains to get back home at night. It was still chaotic because there were lots of people and trying to get on all these trains and stuff and finding that, you know, walking to the train from the concert, but from like versus sitting in your car for two hours like I normally do after a concert and everyone honking and getting angry and like is a much positive experience. But I hadn't drank any water. I only drank one bottle of water at the venue because last time I went such a long concert.

I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the concert and I missed a couple songs. And so I like did not want to miss any of this concert. And so by the time the concert was over, I was so thirsty, like the thirstiest I have been in a very long time. And you know, everyone's tired and it's really stressful like trying to get to the train, whatever. As we finally get back to our train station where we got off and it's like a 10 minute walk to the apartment. It's that same walk I did with my suitcase a few days earlier. And it's like,

one in the morning and I'm with my friends and they have the scooters. I don't know if you've seen that, but in a city where they have those scooters or you have the app, you can like scan the app on the scooter itself and then take the scooter and like scoot around the city. And my friends loved the scooters. One of them already had scootered multiple times. My friend really wanted to go scootering. And I like previous to this moment had no interest in using the scooters.

Brittany Hagemann (18:29.838)
for a number of reasons. One, I wanted to have a helmet. I just kept having visions of like falling and then my head like cracked open on Stockholm Street and like not coming home to my child. Like, and I just am not a person who physically likes to be in situations where I could get hurt like at all. Like I also don't want to ride a bike without a helmet. Like I have, this has been since I've been a child, right? So I'm really thirsty. My friends really want to scoot.

And I'm like, okay, I'll try it. Okay. So this is where the perseverance is different because I had decided, okay, I'm going to try this thing and I get on it and instantly I fall. So I don't know how to balance it. I've never done it before. I've never used a scooter before. So I don't even know. I expected the base to be thicker so that like you didn't really have to hold yourself up, that you just could just hold on and go, you know? And I was like, okay, it's like, there's no one out here. It's middle of the night essentially. I can just stand on it and it'll just...

I can scoot 10 minutes back to our apartment. Instantly, I'm like, I don't have the balance for this. I was like, I'm not doing this. I had zero perseverance. As my friend's husband was like, you gave up really quick brainy. You know what? I did. The reason I did is because of two things. One, I knew that the time it would take me to learn how to scoot would be longer than the walk it would be to walk home.

I had no interest. I didn't really care about learning how to use the scooter. It was just a vehicle to get to where I wanted to get faster, and it wasn't going to do that for me. I was so thirsty. Again, I had no interest prior to that, ever using the scooter. It was like, no, I'm not investing five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes. I also know myself, I knew I was really afraid of falling.

It wasn't a skill that I would have easily picked up because my fear of falling was so big. And so again, it wasn't like I could pick this up really quickly, just show me how and like, let's go. The motivation wasn't there because I was very afraid of falling. And so to overcome my fear of falling, it was not going to be a 10 minute lesson. It was not going to be a 20 minute lesson. It would be like something I would have to work at.

Brittany Hagemann (20:55.246)
multiple times over and over again over the course of weeks, if not months, of learning how to do it, having someone on both sides of me feeling like I would be safe, all the things that would take that kind of mentorship and assistance to get over that feeling of feeling like I'm going to fall and crack my head open, which is really the fear that I had.

If you had told me, like I had known there was no way I could get hurt, I probably would have tried more and longer or been like, okay, let's not do it right now. I'm too thirsty, but like I'll try it again tomorrow, you know? But the fear of being hurt completely paralyzed me. And I was okay with that because again, like I could care less about using a scooter. It's like not that interesting or important to me. But I think that is where a lot of estheticians are in their business.

You know you could learn how to use the scooter. You know it would make you get there faster, right? Versus walking. If you're on the scooter, it's going to take two minutes to get back to the apartment or less. There's no one on the street. It's just right around the corner. But if you're walking, it's going to take longer. It's actually a lot more effort. But you are so afraid of falling off the scooter that you would rather walk, take more time.

And that's like safer, so much safer and so much less scary, even though you know it's not the better of two options and maybe not the best option for getting there quicker, which is really what you want. But that fear that you have, it completely will paralyze you. The fear of marketing, the fear of putting yourself out there, the fear of rejection, the fear of raising prices, the fear of saying no to clients and having boundaries.

Whatever the fears are that you have that's so deep inside of you, when you go to do these things, you cannot do it. You cannot do it. You know you see the benefit of it. You know that it would work probably, right? Like if I could learn to use a scooter, I could have gotten around Sweden a lot faster, probably been a lot of fun. You know, like I can see that people have fun on the scooters.

Brittany Hagemann (23:16.494)
Obviously, people like them. That's why they have them. They work. You can get from place to place, you know. But the fear of a car not seeing me on that scooter and hit, no, no, I'm good. No, I don't. That doesn't sound like fun. I'd rather walk. I'd rather walk for two hours. Like, hard no for me. Nope, not interested. And I know that there are people out there that are like, yeah, I don't care. I'm not that scared. I'm just going to go. Right? And I don't understand that mindset. Like,

I've always been risk averse, especially in anything that I could physically get hurt, even as a small child. I could physically get hurt from this. I do not want to do it. And people are like, my gosh, it's so much fun. I'm like, you've lost your mind. It's not fun. It's terrifying, right? And again, I could overcome it, but it's going to be a lot harder for me versus someone else who doesn't have that fear. So if you see other estheticians who are just doing things and excelling in ways that you have not,

They don't have that fear or they've overcome that fear that you have. That is the difference between them and you. It really is. They either overcame it or they never had it to begin with. I remember my husband's aunt, who's also married into his family, was talking about jumping off this cliff with him as a child in Hawaii and how she got to...

of it and she was so terrified and she couldn't come down because of the way that, you know, we climb up. She had to jump off of it and it took her like a long time, like maybe an hour and another woman who she didn't know came up and like held her hand and they jumped together. And my brother -in -law was there hearing the story and he's like an adrenaline junkie. He does like skydiving and he's not afraid of anything. I'm sure like of course he would have been scootering all over the place in Sweden. And he was like, my gosh, but how did you feel after when you…

jumped off the cliff, like kind of like wasn't it worth it, the fun of it. And at the same time, her and I both were like relieved. And that's how I would have felt. I would have been like, no, what did I do? How did I get up here? And jumping off the cliff is not a fun experience for me. I'm so relieved I'm in the water and safe and I didn't die. Like, no, it was not fun to jump. It was terrifying. And so if your body feels that, like it's terrifying to do all of these things you need to do to grow your business.

Brittany Hagemann (25:37.422)
You will not do it. Of course not. You will just walk. You just won't go. It's not happening. So if that's the case for you, then you really do need coaching someone to help you overcome those fears, work through those fears, to approach them in a way that is sustainable, that you can actually learn. If I stayed in Stockholm, if we started living there and I'd gotten in my cell with a helmet, I don't care if I'm the only person in the city with a helmet,

husband's like, I'm not teaching you to use a scooter. Apparently I'm very stubborn. I don't know. I guess this is true. And someone who had the patience to coach me and to stand next to me and to teach me and willing to work with that. And then I, again, am being super vulnerable, being afraid and having my fear, being well known to those around me and people who are watching. That's also a big part of it is this vulnerability of like,

I don't know how to do this and I'm afraid to do this. That's super hard to say. It's embarrassing. I'm almost 40 years old and I'm afraid that I'm going to fall off a scooter. Maybe you're either laughing because you're like, my gosh, this is so silly or you're like, yes, I understand, Franny. I don't know where you are in this. But that's maybe what's happening. The first story I told...

You're like, I can't relate to any of that story because I can't even get on the plane. I'd be so terrified to go by myself. So we have to start there, right? Like all the other steps of perseverance, completely not worth your time focusing on because you can't even get on the plane to go to a country that you don't know anyone and don't speak the language and have to get on a bunch of trains to get to an apartment that you don't really know where it is or how to get in.

So I hope these analogies made sense. I hope it helps you understand where you are in these stories, whether you are the first story where you don't have the fear, you are ready to go, you want to make this work, but you just haven't, you maybe give up too quickly, you're not persevering through these obstacles. You're just like, I don't know what to do, and you just kind of like stop. Or you have like a deep fear, vulnerability, embarrassment.

Brittany Hagemann (28:01.902)
whatever, holding you back and you can't even figure out what the obstacles would be to overcome because you can't even get started. If you need help with this, schedule a call with me and we can see if we're a good fit. That is it for today. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back next week. Same time, same place. Have a fantastic week. Bye for now.