California Dreamin'

"When you face your fears, they aren't as big as you thought they were. What makes them big is when you don't turn around and face them head-on.  The longer you avoid your fears, the bigger they grow in your mind." -Steve Harvey

This weekend was all about facing my fear.  Although I'd made up in my mind about 15 months ago that CHOP CHOP Mobile Salon & Barber was something I wanted to bring to Chicago, the thought of actually living out this dream was causing some major anxiety.  No lie, my doctor bills have piled up in the last two months.  I've gotten neck and back X-rays, acupuncture, a sleep test and had a couple of panic attacks. Now that I know I'm not dying I'm just stressed, I can laugh about it LOL.

Luckily, a pure image of stress is hard to capture in a Facebook post, otherwise, my Facebook friends would've seen the "not so sexy" side of entrepreneurship a while ago.  I will say I have a damn good poker face, but on the flip side my body has been showing my hand, exposing all my cards - I'm straight up terrified of failure!

With that being said, my resilience will not allow a panic attack to be the thing that stops my progress, so I say - let's get it crackin'!  This weekend was about facing my fears head-on.  On paper my business concept looked great but will it actually work, can I actually pull this off? 

Now chances are you'll find someone somewhere with the same business idea as you. In my quest to start the mobile salon of course the first thing I did was Googled "mobile salon" to see if the concept already existed. There were a few here and there, but only one that embodied the quality and presence I wanted for my own business.  Although the inspiration behind it was slightly different the overall concept was similar and you'll find that's just life. Very few entrepreneurs really create something brand new and quite frankly if you do happen to stumble across a completely new concept I wish you much luck because the journey is even harder when you don't have a baseline.  Anyway, I digress, that's a whole different post!

As I wrote my business plan and identified competitors I knew if I was going to do this I wanted to compete with the best but with this concept being so new I would need some help if I wanted to execute it flawlessly.  I remember drafting an email to the owner of STERLINGS Mobile Salon and Barber in San Diego, California.  I must have read it over about five times, debating if I should send it or not.  I was scared to death, thinking how could I email my potential competition and ask him for help! That's insane, right! But I did it anyway, I hit that send button and the rest was history.

Kush, the owner responded with such kindness and a genuine interest to help me get started. I couldn't believe it, and for the last 5 months we've been pen pals. This weekend I went to visit him and see his mobile salon first hand and it completely blew my mind.  Not only that I was actually there in the mobile salon but the fact that I got to eat dinner with such a stand up guy. Before meeting him I had read so much about his story and his plight to get his mobile salon and barbershop off the ground. So much so, that I made him to be a celebrity in my mind. This weekend trip dismissed so many fears I had.  Had I not faced them head on, I'd never know that these fears are the same ones Kush had, the same ones most entrepreneurs have before they launch their business.

Key takeaways:

1) Convince yourself that the possibilities that come from facing your fears are greater than you doing nothing. You don't want to go through life saying "What if?" Or "I have this great idea."

2) Reach out to people that are doing what you aspire to do! Pride will either get you killed or stunt your growth.  You can't be too arrogant to ask for help. What's the worst that could've happened, my email would've gone unanswered LOL, so what?!?! Instead, look what happened, the owner of the best mobile salon in the country decided to help me achieve my dream!

3) Believe in people. This crazy world we live in will sometimes make us think that everyone is out to hurt us or get over on us. Sometimes you have to trust in people and trust in the process. For me trust is much easier because of my faith in God. You have to trust that if you put forth the effort and leave it in God's hands, blessings will come.