[SOUL]idified

How to Reframe Failure: The Unknown Lotus Life Story

• Kim Fischer • Season 4 • Episode 16

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Ever dream of expanding your passion into a thriving business, only to watch it crumble at the eleventh hour? Join me, Kim Fisher, as I recount the rollercoaster journey of Lotus Life Yoga Center’s lakeside expansion that taught me resilience in the face of unexpected adversity. Imagine the excitement of flowing through yoga sequences as the sun sets over the lake, the painstaking preparations leading up to a grand opening that promised to be the toast of the town. Then, the dream dissolves. I open up about the emotional turmoil of seeing plans unravel, sharing how this setback wasn't just a stumbling block but a crucial pivot pointing me toward my true calling.

Navigating the precarious balance between personal bonds and business agreements, I reflect on a tough lesson learned when close connections obscured the need for formal contracts with partners. This episode isn't just a chronicle of trials; it's a beacon for anyone facing similar tribulations in their entrepreneurial endeavors. 

It's also where I introduce the Quantum Mini Mind program, a beacon of hope for entrepreneurial spirits seeking guidance. This riveting episode peels back the curtain on the often bittersweet symphony of entrepreneurship and the unexpected harmonies that play when we embrace the challenges as much as the triumphs.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Solidified, the podcast that discusses what it means to be authentic, alive and on fire with purpose. My name is Kim Fisher. I'm a holistic empowerment and entrepreneurial coach, and my goal is to weave my two decades of yoga, entrepreneurship, studies in psychology, cognitive science and human-computer interaction, plus my passion of pushing ahead into the unknown all into this podcast. I believe that when the soul is made solid through embodiment, creative self-discovery, intuition and action taking, we are unstoppable and life feels fantastic. I'm so excited you're here. Let's go get it. Hello everyone and welcome to the Solidified podcast. It's great to have you here.

Speaker 1:

I've got an awesome story for you today. That happened to me back in 2014, it's 2015, when I had my yoga studio for the first time Lotus Life Yoga Center. This is a story that really is here to remind you that when things don't work out, they are working out in fact. Have you ever had that happen, where you were so certain something was going to go a particular way and then it doesn't and it's actually kind of crappy at first? You feel awful about it and you're really let down and you're like what the heck? I thought this was going to work out to this degree. I thought that was going to make that money. I thought I was going to get that job. I thought we were going to fall in love and have babies together, I thought. But life just doesn't work out like that sometimes and ultimately, when you can look back and say, okay, that now working out is the reason I'm here right now, you understand that there's a larger working at large. There is a larger piece of the puzzle that we are part of, that is moving us. There's a larger energy that's bringing us along in our lives and when you really can feel that and hopefully feel that even more through this story I'm going to share with you, you can relax a little bit into knowing that, even if something doesn't work out, it's working out. So let's get into it. It was probably around, like I said, 2014, 2015. My current location at the time, lotus Life Yoga Center, was amazing. It had three different studios inside the one building. Any given week, there's 500 plus students walking through the door. We had acro yoga, aerial yoga, inversion class, hot yoga, yin astanga, meditation everything you name it. We taught it. Trips to Costa Rica, yoga teacher training programs. It was a Macca. It was incredible. I'm so very proud of those days.

Speaker 1:

Well, I wanted to expand, as any good entrepreneur wants to do, right, take it further, take it bigger, and I really wanted to bring it into this really very beautiful lakeside town and I found the perfect spot. And I found the perfect spot because one of my friends at the time her boyfriend who is now her husband I believe still her husband owned the property, and so she was like come on out, check out this piece of property. I think you're going to love the location. It's a little bit smaller what you're looking for, but we can make it work. So I showed up, saw the spot, loved it Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

I was like let's start talking about the lease and negotiating them. The first issue right there I'm going to. I'm going to let you in on the red flags along the way so that if you're ever in this situation, you could totally button it up and do it differently than I did. I want to definitely shortcut you around all of this pain so that you don't ever have to go through this again. But the first thing is don't have your friend ever negotiate for you. Don't have them be the moderator. Make sure you're talking directly to the landlord itself.

Speaker 1:

But I really assumed that my friend had my best interests in mind so I didn't worry about it too much. I said everything that I was saying. She said she was communicating back to him and he was talking to his lawyers and the the lease was getting drafted and everything was working out. So I started moving things in because I was told to, I was given permission, you can access the site, you can come in and get stuff set up. And then I started making plans for the caterer on opening day and the. I ordered some balloons and I got some cards that were going to be sent out in the mail, ready to go to sledding. People know oh my gosh, guys, lotus life yoga center is coming to your town. This is going to be incredible. Get ready, guys. We're expanding. Look at this beautiful lakeside location, glamorous, luxurious. It is going to be awesome.

Speaker 1:

So we get to the point where we're about a day before the opening and I roll into town, my parents were caravanning behind me with the register and some other big things, like some big objects right and Ganesha, by the way, in the truck was a giant Ganesha. Ganesha is the elephant Hindu God and he has an elephant head and a man's body. And the story of Ganesha. The lesson with Ganesha is that he will remove obstacles for you, but he'll also put obstacles in your way so that you can deal with it and overcome those shortcomings and grow. So he's not just a remover of obstacles. Sometimes he does the opposite. He'll he'll put the obstacles in, because if you don't learn that lesson, that lesson will forever be the obstacles. That makes sense. So he is removing obstacles by having you learn a lesson. That's important here in the story. So we get Ganesha and get the register and come back the next day and now it is opening day. Like we are going to open that night. The balloons have been ordered, the caterer was going to arrive around three o'clock that day for the two to three at their three back to back hot yoga classes that I was teaching. The classes were packed. It was weightless. Only at this point All of the advertisements have been out. Everyone knew we were opening that night and everyone was so excited, including this girl right here.

Speaker 1:

I walk up to the door and I punch in the code and it doesn't work and I'm standing outside with toilet paper. Like it says those are the last things you bring in on opening day, right? Everything, all the big stuff. So now it's like tissue boxes, toilet paper, windex, like the little, the little chachkies, and I guess that's a little. Toilet paper is very important but it's the lighter stuff you put in, you put in last and the door code isn't working. And I tried again, it's not working. I tried again. So I call my friend. She doesn't answer. I text my friend. She doesn't answer. Like okay, give it 30 minutes. Walking around a little bit, call her again. Text text, text. Call. I said hey, I gotta get in, like classes starting tonight. What's going on? She finally gets a hold of me and says sorry, kim, we change the codes on the doors. I said, okay, what's the new code? Well, we changed it because we've changed our mind and we don't want you in. I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1:

But after talking with my, my partner, my boyfriend, his lawyer advised him that there's some clauses in the lease that he doesn't agree with with your lawyer and it was a lawyer's arguing back and forth, and even though the lease wasn't signed, I had every verbal agreement. I had every verbal agreement that I could open my business before the lease was signed. There's another red flag Again, a thing I would never do nowadays, never. But when you trust people and you're young and you don't know any better, you do stupid things like this sometimes. But I was so certain everyone was certain, I do believe, that that we were going to move forward.

Speaker 1:

But here it was, guys, the day of opening, and I was being told you have no place, there is not going to be a business. So I said to her of course I was very irate and probably said some very colorful things at this point to her, but basically that just was well, I need to get in and get all my stuff out, because people are going to be showing up in like four hours and I also need to let people know that we're closing. So she gave me the code, I promised her that I'd get my stuff out and I remember walking into that studio space staring at the Ganesha statue. I turned around and looked at my dad and it was like I don't understand what's happening. This is insanity. I'm embarrassed, I feel gouged Like. I just feel like gutted. I feel betrayed. My really good friend, like how long does she know this? Why wouldn't she stand up for me? Like all these questions going through my head about like why wouldn't, why is this happening and so embarrassed because ultimately I had to let so many people down. I stared at the statue and I turned to my dad and I asked you know, I thought Ganesha was supposed to be removing obstacles and my dad, without skipping a beat, looked at me and said this place was the obstacle.

Speaker 1:

Kim, you dodged a bullet and he was right, opening that location with those two people who were willing to pull the rug out on my own business to do that to me four hours before my opening, when they knew well in advance those were crappy people. Those are people that clearly did not have my best interests in mind. Best case scenario is you let someone know several days in advance. You let your lawyers know hey, we need to get back to her sooner. If there's going to be an issue, she's opening on Thursday or Friday, whatever it was. You don't get back to someone four hours before they open. That is this absolute garbage. But they did and fast forward. There are several other interactions that happen with those people, not specifically To me, but other things that I heard down the road. And you know, sometimes life is looking out for you.

Speaker 1:

I Was not meant to open up my studio there and at first it felt like an absolute shit show. It was a shit show. It Felt like a huge failure. But now I realize that opening up a business there and working with that particular landlord, that would have been the disaster. That would have been a huge headache. And Now, when I look back, the lease was incredibly expensive. The rent was nuts. I shouldn't have trusted my friend to do all the mediation for me and I never should have moved anything in until that lease was signed.

Speaker 1:

It was so naive of me, but sometimes you know what you gotta. You just got to do what you think is right and You'll learn after the fact whether it was. And I'm really proud of myself for going through with that and Trying and doing my absolute best and that's something that I can always rely upon is knowing that if I want something bad enough, I will see it through from to my best of my ability, to the very end. It doesn't always mean the other people will, and I Want you to think about your life right now. Where is it that you may be one like? Let's heed my message when are you making a business decision to personal and Not a buttoning up the seams where they should be? Does there need to be a contract in place? Should you be talking about money? Should you be talking about terms and conditions? Even though that person that you're in business with is your friend, ultimately end up protecting each other and keeping the friendship intact.

Speaker 1:

If you can talk about the tough things, what's tougher is actually you guys like not having a friendship. So if there's some relationship you're in right now and you guys are in business together, talk about those things. Make space for the professional things. Keep your personal out of it, because actually business is business, and I learned the hard lesson of really letting personal relationships come in and Pretending that that was business, but it wasn't. So that's one lesson to think about. Where, where could you level up your professionalism and really like level up the energy of? I'm a business owner, I'm a CEO of my company, I'm a passion project owner with another nine to five job, yeah, but still this side hustle means a lot to me and I'm serious about it. So let's level up the standards of my business.

Speaker 1:

And the other lesson here that I would love for you to reflect on is where are you being shown right now in your life, perhaps, that Something isn't working? And you're reading it as I'm failing. This must work when really life is saying to you no, no, no, you don't get it. You're better off not doing this. You're better off not pushing and Blowing with it and said because, quite honestly, life, you, you are always looking out for you. If you are always focused on what you want, you are absolutely gonna find that life's gonna mirror that back.

Speaker 1:

I so trust it, even if it looks like things are falling apart. Even if you need to cancel the caterer which I had to do, cancel the balloons, tuck my tail between my legs, call everyone, email everyone, let everyone know that I'm so sorry the studio will not be opening indefinitely in this area and be like whatever a joke at that point for the people. But honestly, getting over it. You have to go through that. Go through it. Sometimes things don't work out, but they end up working out so much better after they don't. Things that working out are things working out and you've got to trust that.

Speaker 1:

So I hope that my personal story gives you some peace of mind, if you're going through something challenging, to trust it and when you look back you're going to see that that no was actually a yes. That cancel, that rejection was really meant to put you on your true path and to protect you in many ways. So learn from it. And if you're in some sort of professional relationship that feels a bit personal, heed this warning make it professional. Keep your personal out of it. If you need to do, do your due diligence, dot your eyes, cross your T's, do the paperwork, talk about it. Don't ever sign up. Move in until you sign a lease. Don't let your friend do the negotiation. Really, I went through that so I could tell you what not to do. And then the other side of this is trust how your life is unfolding the no's are really yeses and allowing you to redirect on the right path.

Speaker 1:

Guys, I have so much more to offer you these stories and beyond because I've been in business for 20 plus years as an entrepreneur and the doors to something very special are opening, and they've been open behind the scenes. But now I'm opening it to the public for the last, first and last time, because I want to get people in to this beta program that I have before I launch it full time as a full on mastermind. Right now, the doors are open to the quantum mini mind. The quantum mini mind is a six month container that runs synchronously, runs parallel with the diamond frequency university, the foundation level. This is sort of like you got the foundation level, which is for the newer entrepreneur, and doors closed for that. They've already closed. By the time this episode's out, the doors are closed.

Speaker 1:

But now on top of that floats a mini mind, and a mini mind is meant for a smaller group of women to come in together who all have a certain level of expertise and drive and coach each other, give each other tips and advice, and then I come through every week. Every other week we meet, but there's a curriculum, there's a rhythm, there's objectives and every single time we meet your business and you are getting the spotlight. We're talking about the projects that you want to do. We're looking at your CEO energy and how to get that woo and spiritual in with the do and the tactical and we're marrying both of them so that you are showing up a greater and greater impact in the world. So that sounds exciting and you want to join and click on the link below and read there is a countdown timer. You're going to see, because we run soon.

Speaker 1:

The doors close on the 14th because the 15th is the first quantum mini mind. It's like a mastermind, but it's mini because it's only every other week. So read about it. If you're feeling interested, I'd love to have you in. This is the only time a program like this will ever be offered at this low of a price point and offered in the public. The next time I offer this is going to be a full blown mastermind and we're going to meet every single week and the price point is going to be like quadruple because no longer going to be in beta, it's going to be an alpha and plus. The only time you'll ever be invited in is if you've done diamond frequency university, the foundation level.

Speaker 1:

So the mastermind builds off of the mastermind builds off of DFU. So you'll have to go through DFU and then jump up to the quantum. So right now, though, I'm throwing that rule out the window so I can get women in, get your feedback, you can help me sort of massage the program and build the foundation for the next iteration so that it's even stronger. At the same time, you get my eagle eye attention on your business and you get to run with a bunch of queens. So I've got room for four more women. There's already five inside. Are you one of her? If so, click on the link below. This is quantum. Read about it and get in while you can. Alright, guys, have an awesome day. Thanks so much for being here. I'll see you next week.