Kai on EforAll and beyond

we're going in all right let's do it here we are good morning hi I got a new camera I was down here futs him with it this morning that's why I pushed you off a little bit later I was like let's just make sure it works well I saw the thing that was like 7 30 and I was like oh was I supposed to be there at 7 35 unless I have time for another cup of coffee perfect yeah you're gonna need one for me yeah I'm four cups I have the Pint glass size Yeti and I did two of those perfect I'm ready so you're on board you're ready for this day ish hi everyone I apologize to you for our broadcast that ended abruptly yesterday with some audio maybe some video and we just said bleep it um so I apologize to Dave Milligan he's talking about Cape Cod cold we're working on a cold plunge that is gonna happen at knock about but apparently it's like a reset and so good for your mind and body and they're doing work with veterans and whatnot on on the benefits of it that sounds great I would rather stay fuzzy fuzzy for me thanks no I'm good on the Arctic Waters thank you so we've got kind of child who is joining us today our e for all Guru thank you so much I see you got your little e for all merch on I'm representing right I love it I'm a professional damn it so tell everybody who uh may be joining us that doesn't know anything about e for all what a frawless so what I do is I help ambitious Cape coders turn their dreams into businesses or level up their existing baby businesses by connecting them with basis basic business skills training a team of mentors and a community of other entrepreneurs who are also trying to do the same thing so it's you know taking you from the jump and getting you into a place where you have the foundational skills to have a really successful business I feel like your pitch and value prop has also evolved I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie I had been working for you for all for like a year and I was like I keep making these people do their elevator pitch I should probably do one too so I actually took the template that I use with you guys and I actually did mine yeah I was like all right I know I gotta walk a lot good morning Lauren thanks for joining us also Morgan thank you come on the show we were supposed to get together I don't know what happened um but let's reschedule that one because I know you guys are making some new music and I would love to have you on and she yes nice pitch well I warned my entrepreneurs like there it never stops like some people have gone through the accelerator and they're like oh well I don't need my pitch anymore and I forgot about it and then like two years later they show up at an event and I'm like okay so let's hear your pitch and they're like really really I know I do it's ever evolving all the time and especially since my business is always evolving and we keep adding and subtracting and I have people now I have people now so excited for you it's not gotten any better but I have people now well you know growth you it's just new problems right exactly for sure good morning Rachel thank you so much for joining us I keep telling Rachel I want her to do e for all it's one of these yes it's a cult yes yes we do help each other we multiply I prefer fam cult and then tomorrow Israel was like oh you know we're we're the E for all cohort she's like we sound like a white collar criminal gang I'm like no it's not wrong listen it works for Martha white collar crime will do me better and get my business jump started I'm thinking about it something of the mission in the translation good morning Paul Leiden Frost um okay oh thank you very much Yarmouth police Communications thank you for joining us good morning you want to see how it's done right Paul and then why would he tune in here jokes for days so uh yeah guess what it's cloudy again today I am so fed up with this weather it's like a good afternoon though it was so extreme over the weekend there was what I think seven inches of rain and 45 minutes in Pennsylvania five people died like it was wild oh my God you've got the Acropolis that keeps shutting down they're like um no it's and then Italy is completely closed they're like nope it's too hot we're not doing anything this is a global issue I love the Italian I just after this though 100 just nope I'm gonna nope out of here no we've got parts of our country where we're like no water breaks for you but Italy's like now I think we're good we're closed we're just gonna stay at home seriously pour yourself some white wine and just be done yeah pasta that was my favorite thing that I learned when I was in Italy where everyone tries to wash your windshield wipers and the guy beside us said just say pasta It's get lost stop doing that and I'm like I love that I need a Boston approach in my life that one's worth filing away so I did I I bossed it away this weekend and we had a small moment where I was like do I not have work for two full whole days we're going away you couldn't have made that happen on purpose if you tried no no it was just a hole in my schedule and I was like what what I'm glad you got away I'm taking it I'm taking it we even took an extra day off of it and I just called one of our our partners and I was like hey look can we just push like I just need an extra day and they were like absolutely go it looks good fun it was it was really nice we got away with the kids and they actually were the least amount of annoying that two teenagers can be in a room so wow that's High Praise right right talk about being damned with fake Praise Jesus and it was just a good swath of America it made thank you very much you don't disappoint we did what I feel like was uh Fort Lauderdale and some Floridian Town only it was Old Orchard Beach where the place where time Stood Still laughs where it was all right oh it was just tip I felt like I was in Atlantic City like it was just one of those places that was I was it was magical to visit but happy to leave see but I love those places yes like people watching Central so I have I went we found like some random I had like a free week for something and it was like you can go to Timbuktu or you can go to the bass backwards of so I was like all right so I found this place that's like on the it was on the outskirts of the Poconos and it was like it was it was Dirty Dancing 50 years later yes right so it was like it was you could see it was Peak 1960s and there was like four people there and they were all 85 and I swear to you I swear to you at the end of the week they had a talent show there had been they had been having they had had like semi-finals in all of the weeks leading up to it and it was like this is somebody from week 12. I was like are you kidding me like this is to the left it makes me so happy it really does good morning Sethi thanks for joining us I love the things that I love the places that you forgot so yeah I had one of those days and then I my best friend from high school happened to be 10 minutes away and I said this is not even real we're meeting at the beach so she came with this little rolled up hundred dollar bill from her mother that I guess her mother dropped it on her desk and said do something really fun with it you deserve it with this little like note and she goes I'm using this for fun my mom will be so excited it's with you and so we just walked around the town of Binford which is where um the University of New England is so it's not College time so it's cool College places with no college kids and it was just so laid back I didn't wait in line for anything I enjoyed a couple of beers we had a band it was like this queer Brewery with a band and I was like where am I this is so magical I get to see it on a Saturday night and I'm not finding people isn't it great to be entertained for once instead of being the entertainment I I didn't know what to do with myself you're like just give me a mic I don't and I was so thrilled to not be on we played cards we played like and just sat in the back of all of the hubbub and it was just so nice to be entertained you're right and it's been a long time since I just got to enjoy it and not be it yeah so I was like yes you were like oh I understand why people show up for this nonsense right I really really felt so energized when I left there and I know it's so lame but taking two days to it's absolutely necessary Sony well this is this is my life this is what I get for getting anything this is I think this is us and our ability to blow hard because this happened last time I was here too something fell over shit's blowing up people are dying I don't know what's happening welcome Kai hey at least it's consistent at least I know what to expect Stephanie absolutely I agree good morning Danielle thank you for joining the show this morning um you're a gamer yeah did you see the Call of Duty drama oh I don't I don't Call of Duty so apparently I was just like more intrigued on the story of the rivals of Microsoft and Sony fighting over this dumb game whatever it's now gonna stay on PlayStation for the next decade oh but it made me laugh of like that's a big deal it is because it PlayStation and people like the people who are hardcore they will only do Call of Duty and so if that I can see that if that went over to Xbox that would be that would be a situation that would be tough yeah yeah because then the whole new gaming system situation for people and well and Sony loses some of their competitive Advantage I feel like you know my kids have all he has one of all of the things yeah but you know you're rich yeah oh yeah wanted I have no money in my bank account but very much you got two puzzles but I've got plenty of consoles to go around god seriously these kids have no idea they really don't no although my daughter is working right now the other day she did make me laugh my 17 year old who's cleaning houses by choice this summer because it quiets our brain and it's an activity that she doesn't have to deal with people so that's what she needs which makes me laugh because she's my child yeah um we are learning new things I'm learning how to deal with a person who doesn't people it's different it is very different she comes out of work she's like oh my back oh I was like oh wait 30 years it doesn't get easier I'd love to give you some sort of feeling but it doesn't it doesn't get easier so here we are Monday the the Barnstable County Fair is going to be here I don't know if anybody saw the meme you had one job in the town you know what's funny is I went by it last night and there was another misspelling there was a it was a different like it was you instead of your and I was like this is you can tell this is a kid who grew up with autocorrect because you have to plug it into the digital sign and they have no idea how to do it without the autocorrect I just They're bringing back cursive writing into kids curriculum oh really because they took it out I forgot what I think 2005. so um anyone older in that age bracket doesn't even know how to even begin to do it so they're bringing it back into the curriculum I don't know if they need to but I just I I never thought that I would live to see the day where I would be old enough that I'm like writing in hieroglyphics that people can't read like we need an anthropologist to yeah translate my handwriting I you know nobody warned me that that was a thing that happens when you get older calligraphy I don't know Ye Old time are we going to start using wax sending things via carrier pigeon just because we should know how to do these things I don't know where to start I'll tell you what I've been trying to like I think I talked about this last time I'm trying to do my like digital detox thing so I'm like turning off my phone at night it's weird like I've gotten so used to being available 20 like somebody texted me and they're like hey you want to you know have a drink tonight and I didn't see it until the next morning I'm like oh my God I need to apologize to them I'm like when did this become a thing that I have to be available I know I mean they were fine it wasn't anything it was just my own crazy head I was like oh my God I missed a text a whole night I had a whole night out where my phone was dead and I was like huh yeah and I didn't have a meltdown like I need a charger I didn't ask for one once that's I even reminded my husband later right you you crackhead right it literally was whole night I was like you didn't even congratulate me he's like what I was like I went the whole time and I didn't need to ask for a charger I didn't have a phone didn't care and didn't have it ruin my night yeah which you might think that that sounds crazy but to a business owner who is completely attached digitally it was a big deal well and it can it can literally ruin your night because there's some things that you're like I can't do anything about this until tomorrow so I'm just going to Stew about it all night ah that sounds healthy yeah right but I mean that's the kind of conversations that you have with you for all yeah those are the things that you talk people off Ledges for when you start this whole process so maybe start from the beginning since you've got a new cohort coming up yes and we're we're starting this whole process a lot of new things for E for all but this is one of the big ones yeah the so the next accelerator is this fall so we're we have applications open right now I think through like August 6th and it's it it really is the basic business skills but a big piece of it too is that like how do you have that entrepreneurial mindset and we tend to think of the entrepreneurial mindset as just like the grind The Hustle but it's more than that too it's like having to keep your sanity and that is surprisingly difficult and I'm a big fan of auto replies like I'm a big fan of have your your all of your social media set up to auto reply and be like thanks we got your message we'll get back to you in 48 hours so that people are acknowledged and they know that they've been heard but so that you don't feel like you have to be on every second of the day we're so used to I mean just as a culture we're just used to everything being 24 7 because it's all you know it's digital it's on the tip of our fingertips and all that stuff but the reality is if you're one person you can't do that and so you have to figure out how do you make people be heard without driving yourself insane yeah and harder than it sounds um where the heck oh I'm gonna text my husband who is blocked in apparently you're gonna have to use another car sorry oh no he can have my keys you're gonna have to use another car or hold please never ends my son has football camp today where he's going into high school so it's like I know I hate it but I'm also like bi yeah I was gonna say you're gonna hate it and then you're gonna be like oh I know lovely well I ran into his gym again I was DJing a party last night for um it was a family reunion get together with a bunch of Falmouth people and I was like wait a minute I know that woman oh Miss Mitchell she's like how is Cody his gym teacher that's retired and I'm like uh yeah throw the keys perfect ta-da this is why I need my own business space we're working on it right on top of that any day now Mari thank you very much for she's looking for a good space for us oh good give any leads to my real estate lady Mari Senate she's on here people we're working on things yeah we've actually grown to the point where we need our own space which is crazy but my husband also has a baby business so the two of us are he has the top floor right now and I have the bottom yeah you know a house with a family two teenagers two businesses it's a miracle and two day one and two J1 it's it's a miracle everybody's still alive oh yeah it's been one of those Summers it has and I am really learning to go with the punches I've not becoming an entrepreneur was a big deal for me I have always my entire life been a work work hard get a paycheck that's the end of the day so changing that mindset this has been an exploration for the last two years of I don't I don't like this I I don't like it it's really hard I'm glad that you talk about that though it's important it is because it's like oh you know I think our natural inclination is when people are like how's business going you're like oh it's great it's great okay you're right and then with the tear coming out of the side of my face and I'm fine this dumpster fire behind me but then when when someone else is going to do their business and they're like oh my God this is hard and I'm struggling some days they feel like it's them and it's not like no it's it's if it feels hard it's because it is yeah it's hard yeah you can do it but yeah that's normal it's just a different mindset and I'm really it's taken me a long time to kind of have that aha moment of okay I'm not alone okay everybody else can live like this I can do this yeah it's so uncomfortable and it's just she says with a giant smile I love you because it is growth is uncomfortable change is uncomfortable and I'm making that uncomfortable part of my day-to-day so it's getting less uncomfortable but still it Bears repeating and talking about because it's part therapy and also part you can do this I've started I've actually started talking about that yeah during the accelerator like at the very beginning like I I'm gonna ask you to get comfortable comfortable with being uncomfortable yeah you're gonna be uncomfortable in this process and like just just sort of roll with that and get comfortable with the fact that this isn't always going to be sunshine and rainbows but you're still gonna be okay I like sunshine and rainbows I know everybody does hi Dan good morning Gail and hello Liz thank you so much for joining us yeah it is not always sunshine and rainbows for sure but yeah but still good stuff in the end totally and at the end of the day it's yours and yeah I was gonna say and you get to decide which you know that is one of the huge parts that I hear from people is like just having complete control yeah of what you decide the the course of your business is what you decide your priorities in life are like being able to put your soul and your values into what you do every day does make it worthwhile yeah for sure I was sitting with my girlfriend over the weekend who I haven't seen in a while because life gets in the way and she is small kids and I've got this whole Endeavor here and she's well only an hour and a half away uh we really just haven't been connecting across the country legit seriously though and so she's like you're just different you're she's like you're lighter you're you're just in a different mindset she's like oh you just look happier oh that's great and that was nice to hear because I emotionally I am if that makes sense emotionally I'm and my parents are you work so hard you work so much you're out there all the time and I said but you know what Mom I get the amount of sleep that I need to do I'm getting all the things I'm not on any medication right now for the first time in my life I'm not using substances to make me feel better about anything for once in my life I'm just kind of on an emotional even Keel yet being the freaking busiest I've ever been in my life but I'm okay yeah and that's that's the difference it's a trade-off for sure I'm not emotionally beholden to anybody else than anybody else's crap that was that was very good I heard you I heard you going for it no it is it you get to choose your stress right pick your problem yep there's always going to be there's always going to be things in in life but you just you get to pick yeah what your problem is and there is a surprising amount of satisfaction in that honestly though not easy but there's a surprising amount of satisfaction for sure so take somebody through the accelerator uh I graduated if I can do it you can do it Lauren just graduated you could do it yeah no Lauren's like Lauren's like a seasoned Pro now she's awesome accelerators back yeah um so it's uh it's a little bit like a business 101 boot camp it's like a mini MBA right so it's a year-long program but the first three months are the Intensive period so that's that's the that's the meat and potatoes so there's classes twice a week most of which are virtual there's a few that are in person but it's Tuesday nights and Thursday afternoons and those classes are divided into like three units so the first unit is a deep dive into who's your customer what drives them how do you build your business around what your customer needs versus what you think you have to offer it doesn't matter what you have to offer if nobody's interested in it that it doesn't matter right it's learning how to do customer data gather customer data for the first time and then the second unit is like the stuff that makes you twitch which is like budget projections and insurance and legal entities and like all that stuff that just makes you your palms sweat and then the third one I see you or in the corner of my eye the third one is the marketing sales and marketing 101. so you know a lot times I think when we have this idea we want to jump immediately to selling it and the reality is you have to do all that foundational work so that you can sell it effectively I still have aha moments every single day as to oh that's why that never got done yeah oh that's why that never happened yeah now I get it so we have shameful some things you can't do immediately uh-huh so we have subject matter experts from the community who come in and they give an overview of the topics and some tools and resources but then the entrepreneur has to go back and actually apply it to their idea or their baby business so like it's a dual track you've got this classroom learning where you know you're you're actually doing materials and then you have to go do the practicum where you actually apply it to your business and then we come and we you know we keep moving forward throughout the thing so it's it's you know all in is probably 20 hours a week oh I forgot mentors yeah so you also get matched up with a team of three mentors and you meet with them once a week for 90 minutes and that's based on schedule availability for everybody but that's your team right yeah that's like all right I went to this class they tell me I have to apply it I have some vague ideas of how to do it let me ask you guys some questions and so you have this team of people that is there to like bounce ideas off of sometimes they're there to draw your tears depending on the day um but they all have some kind of different level of expertise um you know either technical skills or connections or just experience and that's your life for three months yeah and Mari I'm glad that you said that she's like I still I was up since 4am thinking about all the things I didn't do yesterday we still have that I still have that we all do well one of the things that never goes away I don't think no it doesn't and one of the things that I found is like people who come in they're like okay I'm gonna do this in the next three months and like after a couple of years of it I I can look at it and be like okay that's not going to happen in three months that's going to happen in a year yeah and then they're like by the end of the year I want to do this and it's like that's more like a three-year plan if I but it's it it's all you're good about not deflating someone though no kind of like okay maybe focus on this area well because you know what people Define my expectations all the time yeah so I'm not going to be the person that tells them no like all right go for it but yeah it takes three to five years that's okay too yeah um and it's it's we had you know the ideas that we hold in our head There's real power in saying them out loud to other people getting other people's feedback and help but there's also real power and actually starting to implement it because once you start to implement it it's like oh I need to do this one thing but I didn't know that there was these four other things I had to do to get this one thing done yeah and like that's the norm and so I think it can get frustrating because you're like I have all of these things and it's like I'm a big I you know I give people this big poster board and I'm like stick posted notes on it yeah and just if you have an idea stick a Post-It note on it and add a box that says three to five years or the not now box and get it out of your head so that it doesn't take up space but put it somewhere so that when you're ready for it it's there and it's available and you haven't forgot about it but you're giving yourself permission to say I don't have to think about this right now and sometimes that's a really powerful little thing to say to say like okay I know I need to think about it but not right now yeah put it on a sticky and come back to it and see I I'm so that's been a really hard part for me because I'm one of those people that is like all right here's the plan and I've bought all the materials for the plan and it's gonna go to the plan and then when you're like oh well we uncovered this and then you're like well and I don't like it and we're gonna just you know tape over that and move on I understand but then you go okay well I kind of needed an outlet there so we're gonna have to cut that back open and redo that and I don't like that either but I'm doing it hit it damn it so much and I'm like oh that's so cliche but it so is well and that's the thing is like we plan God laughs right so we have you have that three months where we help you build this whole beautiful operational plan with all these goals and all these things you want to accomplish and then at the end of the three months if your idea stage we hope that you're in a position to launch or if you're in an early stage business we hope that you're in a position to do whatever you want for your next level of growth but then you have nine months where you can continue to meet with the mentors you can continue to meet with us and the idea is you're going to launch that plan and then something or multiple things are not going to work the way you expect it and so now you still have that support system to say okay I did this thing I tested it I tested this idea here are the results and I need to now I need to rework it and it's it's rethinking that it's really hard and you know this when you're running your own business you pour so much of yourself into it that when something doesn't work it feels like there's something wrong with me and I'm the problem and if I was better and I knew more or whatever and it's it's like it's trying to reframe that as things are never going to work the way we expect it it's all data data not drama right we're Gathering data and when it doesn't work when it fails that's a data point okay now I can take that data and I can rework this and I can do I can approach it in a new way or with whatever but taking that information and trying to make it less about oh my God I suck and more about like okay great I good for me I actually I learned something check that one off the Box won't do that again I learned something from it and I can make it better next time yeah but that's that's hard too it's hard it's hard not to take every failure personally or every data point personally it's just hard to do but then you have but especially when you think you have something killer and everybody's gonna love it and then everybody doesn't and then you're like an idea now yeah and you know it happens the idea the overnight success it's like oh my God this person they just hit the news and their success overnight like um Centerville Pie Company right overnight successful how long were they doing it before Oprah found right right and it's so there's no such thing as the overnight success it's just sort of what we we know from the narratives that are out there in the modern day myths but the overnight successes come from the people who just try and reiterate try and iterate try and iterate and you know so that's my thing you've been iterating a lot lately that's just a lot it is and sometimes you'll find success in spaces that you didn't think were even the success part like me with my games I'm like I don't like gigs do these things now I'm like what that's what everybody wants but give the people what they want but because working it out it's good for you for leaving yourself open enough to say I'm gonna try this thing right because it's easy to just be like screw that I'm not doing that yeah and you actually stopped to listen to the voice of the customer which is it sounds so basic but you would be amazed how many people forget to talk to their customers forget to ask their customers what are important to them forget to gather the data about what the customers like and it's just you get so wrapped up in the day-to-day of running a business that it's really easy to forget to do that yeah and I work with three or four other really amazing entrepreneurs people that are really changing the space of where we live here on Cape Cod and I think it's really incredible to be able to work under them and kind of see how they are and they're kind of leading by example because they're like I don't care go ahead and do that yeah I'm like but I can do that go you've proven yourself you can do it go do it and I'm like okay okay so I it's been exciting to just accept that I'm in charge a little bit but also a little bit scary because I'm like I don't have anybody else what do you mean I don't have anybody to blame who am I gonna blame assess me oh thank you Dan I appreciate you so much and I think that that is um a little bit of a scary space to give me credit for that but I appreciate you I was I finished top three for person of the year we don't know who is one but to be in a room with zaros and Mark Petrolia I was like I feel okay yeah you know that makes me happy that my name is being thrown around with other community leaders absolutely which is really really exciting because that's always what I've really ever wanted to do from my show for the last 20 years is to be able to be in that space of just being a community leader because people are that don't speak up for themselves or don't have a platform to be able to talk to other people about what it is that they do because we have so many cool people on the cape making cool things yeah and that's been one of the bonuses for me in this job is like all of the people that I've had a chance to discover and all of the cool Niche ideas and you know things that I would never know that we had here without having the chance to have you know sort of participated in this community and it's I'm I like to be the connector so I uh like it's just fun like Lauren's on today and I I like just dropped something on Facebook and I was like you need to meet you you and Kayla need to talk it's like you're the same person so you're either gonna be you're either gonna be new best friends or you're going to despise each other but I'm curious to see this she experiments with people a good social experiment I like it though also where you can help each other I'm all about collaborations and I really think it's so important to be able to get over yourself well and have that collaboration our competition in my opinion our competition is rarely each other on the cape our competition is the big box stores the Amazons like that those are the the things that we really need to compete and differentiate ourselves from because that is the thing that will make or break our communities but in terms of each other on a local level I'm so much more a fan of collaboration versus competition there's so much business here though well and even if you're doing the same thing you're doing this you know even if you're both doing lashes right you're probably doing them in different areas or you have slightly different things approaches or you have like or you both have customer you know you both have your customer pool bring them together yeah double what you both can do I had a great conversation I was doing my um Sunday thing over at knock about and another trivia host from town we're not competing we're in different areas but he came and we just sat there and chatted about getting people on board getting more people to host other games or if I had somebody that was wanting another night or here and there then we could share a staff like it was real it was amazing yeah like that's your area this is my area you know we'll kind of appreciate each other and we all have our regulars once again plenty of business to go around there are 13 towns like we have plenty of space for everyone to be able to succeed um but it was so nice to be able to share Personnel even because I've only got 10 hours here you've got somebody that needs five hours or vice versa to be able to share a staff in that collaborative way from someone that's not even to just not I'm just so used to that mean mine mentality for the last 20 years that coming out of that as like it's eye-opening game changing I feel so much lighter mentally for be able to do that it's it's nice and that's the part of when you've done a really deep dive into who your customers are and what's important to them you know what ones you absolutely must say yes to and you know which ones you can say it's okay to share that yeah like this is my core group and I need to hold my core group and I need to really you know cater to them and take care of them but this is my secondary or tertiary group and I can I can share a little bit yeah or we can collaborate here and so there's there's power in taking the time to do some of that front-end work that you've done so talk a little bit about the picked competition because it's not really so much of a competition but it is I mean you're going for money you're going to see if your business is viable you're putting your best self out there and seeing who jumps on so I should mention everything we do is free for the entrepreneurs so we are a 501c3 everything we do is supported by private donations or sometimes foundational grants those kinds of things but people donate and that's also pretty cool people donate to make sure sure that these resources are available to entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs on Cape Cod at no cost and then there's also some cash prizes that go out with the accelerator and also the pitch contest so we have another pitch contest coming up in November um we haven't decided where yet I'm thinking we're thinking Mid Cape upper Cape we haven't done anything and I love that you moving it around yeah get different people to come out yeah so we're working on that but the theme is going to be healthy communities and it can be any kind of Health right so it can be physical health mental health emotional health Financial Health you know what makes us a healthy community and um so the pitch contest I call them um shark tank without the teeth right so you come in you have two and a half minutes to pitch your idea we do pitch training so we'll help you actually like here's the five things you need to talk about so we help people get set up with the pitch and then you know there's six or eight competitors and we have four cash prizes and so you might get 500 to a thousand dollars and it's just enough sometimes to get some validation for your idea or to do that one thing for your business so I'm gonna I'm gonna shout out Jen Christian of Cape of um car seat mama so she came to actually her and um Jamie deal of birth Vibe they both came to a pitch competition last summer that we had I think it was last summer time starts to blur yeah right so they came to a pitch con competition um they did their pitch for their businesses at the time Jen's work was all volunteer she was only volunteering and she was like I don't know if anybody's actually gonna pay for this like that was her worry yeah and so she did the application she got some feedback on what she could do to differentiate herself from other people so that it was actually worth it for people to pay so she did the pitch contest she then applied to the fall accelerator she got into the fall accelerator she graduated from the fall accelerator she then came back to me in the spring and was like you know what this was great I loved this experience it would have been really nice if there was like an Alum who was there to sort of like dry my tears and hold my hand and let me know that I was normal and I was like that sounds like a wonderful thing for you to volunteer for I love it the job write your job description so to her Everlasting credit she did and she came back that's awesome we were originally we were going to call her the Alum support specialist yeah and then we did that math on that and they were like oh maybe peer support specialist is better than ass so I love acronyms yeah I'm a fan yeah well you would be former military you would be so she came back as a pure support specialist perfect for the spring and then after it was done I was like so how's your mental health after doing this with me are you coming back for the fall so she agreed to come back for the fall awesome so it's great she was just there as like a cheerleader and it was really nice because I do office hours which is like okay so you did the class and now you're thoroughly confused come to the office hours and we'll do one-on-one and so she did she did some study halls too so it was just it's just but it's nice for people to go all the way through the progression of I have an idea I'm gonna try to pitch it and see if it's insane get some positive response from the community some feedback on some ideas go and then flesh that idea out into a actual business plan yeah and then go and implement it so she went from I I don't know if I had to catch myself she's not Cape Cod car seat Mama anymore she's car seat mama okay I can actually expand geographically yeah exactly so she's you know she's started to implement that and and as much as we love throwing Cape Cod in front of every business name that we own because we want it's ours we licked it yes uh we get it Global branding we're working on it so November will be the healthy pitches of the healthy healthy communities pitch contest and that'll lead into our spring accelerator so right now applications are open for the fall we're doing we're actually actually taiki had a great idea I love taking I know he's awesome so taiki is our part-time timer and he's just like he's The Party Guy and so he came on board and he's like I think we should be doing like more networking and like get togethers and I was like that sounds great sounds like you just volunteered sounds like you're doing that wonderful so he had a great idea which is like sometimes it can be intimidating to try to put the application together and ask questions and sometimes you're like I don't I ran into somebody in in one of our makers markets that said she's halfway through the application she stopped yeah and I said all right make sure you go back to it yeah and if you need help with it I offered help with it that's awesome as I mean obviously it's not my space I'm not the one filling out applications but also it seems daunting it's a lot it does it can be so like one of the questions that trips people up a lot is like what are your financial projections for your business in three to five years you might be like um hi I have an idea no clue and it's like it's okay to write that down it is because part of what we're trying to evaluate is not only evaluating the applicants but also evaluating like do we have something to offer them there's no money involved like it doesn't cost you anything financially but it's a lot of time yeah a lot of focus and so we need to make sure that we're actually bringing something of value and so we want to know that there's gaps and you're also vetting people and championing them and making sure that they can handle it emotionally and there is there are are people that quit like they're it does happen it's not often yeah but it does happen where people are just like so they did not know what they were getting in I do try to warn people yeah and then you're really good about like that's not acceptable you're gonna do this and 99 of the time they're like okay I will well they do they'll do it with love and support 100 love and support but you you can do it and you will do it and we'll we'll make it we'll help you yeah we'll help you get there you don't have to do it alone but can do it you can do it yeah so like some of those questions it's like oh tell me what you want like you don't have budget projections for three to five years that's fine but I bet you can you can tell me how you want your life to be right like what do you do you want to hire two employees do you want to be you want to stay small and be a solopreneur do you want to be able to pay your mortgage like just tell me what you tell me yeah and girls are and that's fine we'll help you our goal then is to help you reach your goals but you know you don't have to have all the answers and then those change too so it's okay right so also true so taiki's idea sorry that's okay I'm following so taiki's squirrel yeah thank you um was let's have a party and so um I think it's July 25th I should really we'll double check on that sound before I come on your show Smith family has their their beer garden right so the new beer garden on Main Street The Smith Family Beer Garden we're just gonna go and like bring your laptop and we'll help you we'll answer your questions if you've already done your application you want us to look at it and give you know because you can up until the deadline you can all we can always kick it back to you yeah it changes and um you know if you're part of the fam come party with us um if you're part of the fam and you have somebody you've been like trying to talk into it come bring them and like we'll show them even though this is you know intense we're not scary Lauren said that was a place to shed your tears and also laugh a little she loves study halls yes yes study halls are good that was a great thing that she did so there you know it's hard like I said if it feels hard it's because it is the difference is you don't have to do it alone you don't have to feel like you're crazy you can get help and you can have a place where you can go ask questions like I still have alums who years later are in the Facebook group like okay I'm here now and I need somebody was like I need contracts like who's got examples of service contracts somebody sent them the example of the service contracts that they use so and weird things like where do I get a banner how do I have this like just baby questions that pop up in your business that you're just like oh I don't want to Google it I don't want to do all the research does someone have somebody here locally that has already been through this problem to save me five hours it's like when you go to your townie page it takes just a little tiny bit of that overwhelm out yeah so instead of having to Google it and sort through your 12 results and look at the reviews and look at the pricing and you can just be like who's got a guy you were correct by the way it is the 25th and Seraphina made sure that thank you Seraphina I appreciate you you're fabulous we're also doing Tiki and I are doing um what I lovingly refer to as our world tour of Cape Cod over there okay a few weeks so he's in Orleans today at the community development partnership the CDP and so what we do is we do these blocks for a couple hours and he and he's I'm so happy he's here he's taking mid he's taking lower cape and Outer Cape and I'm making is this your ask me anything Susan the ask me anything so for two hours you can come in you can ask anything have you been asked the most rent what's the most random thing you've been asked about nothing nothing I'm sorry but it's like I wanted something crazy no I got nothing it's it is it's just like the mundane questions that it's just like you just need somebody to be like is this a thing like how does this work and and just connect it because there's so many free resources on Cape Cod even Beyond us there's so many free resources and so we've teamed up with all these different resources we'll go for a couple hours you can talk to us you can talk to them so CDP is great if you're on the lowercase or Outer Cape they're another they do business one-on-one consultation we've teamed up with some co-working spaces like 358 Main and Cape space so I'm gonna set up shop somewhere and you can come ask me anything but I will just answer with a magic eight ball just come see me so we've got we've got like then I'll point you in their directions we've got like 15 of those over the next couple of weeks where like I said you can come in and you can ask us you can learn about the different everywhere where we've set up is also another resource so yeah it's that collaboration idea right of you know there's all but even you're not afraid to collaborate with people you have mentors that come from score and you have mentors that come from all different organizations that find some other way or have other business programs that um they're not competing but they're also with you and you're all working together which I think is so important the collaboration once again yeah to be able to just freaking ask for help well we're all talking to the same people yeah right we're all talking the same people but we all do it in a slightly different way right we can caters to females yep score caters to people who need to do it on their own time they can't do our structured schedules same with the msbdc the Massachusetts I always have to say that's good right yeah I remember what the hell is Massachusetts Small Business Development Center right CDP is out in the Outer Cape in the lower Cape so they have those contacts out there and so it's you know finding those people and just recognizing what are our strengths what are our weaknesses like I run if I do say so myself a fabulous business accelerator I agree but it's structured and it's a lot of time and if you're somebody who's already working full-time and you're you know if you've got two full-time jobs you can't do my schedule yeah right but you might be able to say I want to meet with somebody once a month for a couple hours so use those resources too and there's nothing that says that you can't do those things together right we have people who come through e for all and have a score mentor on the side too yeah right so they have their e for all mentors they have their score Mentor they go to weekend and they do the grow program they actually the grow program I love the grow program as a follow-up to our accelerator so we cans grow program for female entrepreneurs is like peer support your female numbers have been staggering the amount of um women businesses coming to the cage it's almost 80 it's incredible that's exciting to me it is it's super yeah I I I'm such a geek that the the stats stats I know I am that person it's not bad for the people because instead it's quantifiable you can see the market of difference well we just had our five year anniversary so I was so sad I missed that party I like a good party it was a good party I'm not gonna lie like a good party we were we were we were busted at the seams at Cape Cod beer we had a fun time love yeah so we did we did some number crunching for it and so we've graduated 116 people in the five years of those 70 are still working on their Adventure or some business of their own Which is higher than the national average by a good yeah um by a good bit and our our alums we do a survey every year 40 of them reported back on that survey of those who reported they generated 4.25 million dollars in revenue for Cape Cod last year and that's a 98 increase from the year before when they had 2.1 million dollars in Revenue so our little baby businesses are growing up and they're contributing to Cape Cod in a significant way and so one of the things that I said to this past cohort is when you're having those moments when you're feeling discouraged when you're having a bad day and you're like I'm I'm so small and I'm just it's just what am I doing just remember that every tiny bit that you're doing is contributing to those numbers and you are part of that bigger thing and you are small business is the driver of the the economy on Cape Cod so when it feels like you're having those days where you're like what the hell was I thinking it does actually make a difference yeah it does actually matter to the fabric of our communities and how Cape Cod operates and what it feels like to be here there's a big difference between a busy fun bustling Main Street and the Tumbleweeds are going through this Ghost Town yeah and that's that's everybody who's struggling and having those hard days and having so you know the hard days are hard it's natural but it's it matters not only for personal the personal growth of the people but for what they do for us as a community it actually matters and we saw that with covet yeah you know when everything shut down all of a sudden you were like oh my God these businesses that I took for granted that you sometimes forget are even there when they're not there God my my town my Village my city feels really different and I don't think I like it right and so you know not forgetting those lessons that people matter yeah and I'm loving the people that are in our our space right now and they're making some cool things so that's pretty exciting to be around yeah yeah so I'm definitely enjoying this space um how do people get a hold of you if they want to do it yeah okay so let me do that so um if you want to talk to me directly the easiest way is I'm an email person chaity for all.org so k-a-i at e-f-o-r-a-l-l.org Coyote for all.org if you want to check out if you want to just kind of like have a casual conversation and you want to check out the ask me anything that's funny you're not gonna just have a casual you're in you're coming on in it is a little bit I do whatever she's good she's good well you know what but again that finding your mission I love what I love being part of this so yeah um if you want to check out the ask me any things that there's a bit leaf for that so the bitly link is uh EFA AMA summer 23 and that's got all the locations and times and dates and all that I'll drop it in the chat afterwards if Seraphina doesn't beat me to it she's good like that um if you want to come to the party we're on it's on Eventbrite it's on Facebook or just show up on the date and time that Seraphina put up for us I love you Seraphina thank you she's awesome she really is I had her on the show and I said I need to go to Sandy neck and then I said by this date and she's like okay make a note of it yeah and she was my accountability partner for making sure that I was doing self-care which I appreciated and she did check in and that I did the thing I did the thing yep one of our alums one of our mentors just gonna say it our fam is fabulous um if you want to apply for the accelerator if you're just like I'm sold already you can just go to efrall.org and if you go into communities find Cape Cod and the application is there it's not a black box yeah so it we're not trying to trip anybody up if you look at it and you're like I have no idea what this question means shoot me an email and I'll be like here's what we're trying to get to um and don't let not knowing the answer to something stop you like if you don't know the answers talk about what you want talk about what your dreams are talk about what your goals are because we want to get you there yeah and you never know which person that you talk to is going to help you get that way yeah get on your road so okay so here's my here's my new my newest thing that I completely stole from someone else okay I love it yep repurpose yes yeah sure but it's the it's the the four C's of being an entrepreneur right so the first is concept you have this crazy idea and you're like I wanna I wanna try it but I don't know you got you have the concept the next is courage so that's Having the courage to actually step out and try the thing and stumble and try and fail and pick yourself up back and do it again and then the next step is confidence where you start to actually learn how to do it well and you start to get better and you start to gain some knowledge and some skills and then the last step is confidence and that's where you actually can be like yeah I'm a business owner yeah I have people I do the thing and I think we often start from well I need to be completely sure about what I'm doing and I need to have 100 confidence in what I'm doing and that's when I'm gonna go for it and that's not the reality oh Lauren uh confidence you do have it though it comes it comes with time right and we confidence comes last and so we want that to be the thing that comes first like I'm I'm sure this is a great idea but confidence comes when you are brave enough to try the thing despite having the fear when you stumble and fall and learn along the way and that journey is confidence is the byproduct of that yeah and it sucks because you want to start from confidence but that confidence comes last and so that's why I say don't let not knowing something stop you like yes go learn don't be you know don't be ignorant but you you can't you can't start from there unfortunately it would be so much easier yeah so take the baby steps that's really what it is for me it's like I've already had the confidence but then I take the baby step and I'm like oh okay I'm working it's working yeah it's like that that big swirly yes the chart does not go straight up no no yeah we're unfortunately looking like the stock market my personal growth right now and it's but that's you never know what you're gonna get that day you're welcome all right well we're gonna wrap things up here yeah I'm sorry you got me talking about this no I love it though I love my people so I'm sorry it's so important I just want to make sure that we covered all of the things that we've got coming up perfect we've got Smith's people are saying amazing hearing me talk right now but it's not you're you're accelerating to the accelerator we're almost starting a new cohort once you're in you're in that is true that is true and so yeah that's an no no talk about that well you know 70 of our alums are still operating their business in some way 30 have made the decision not to do that right and sometimes that's for really rational reasons sometimes you go through the accelerator and you're like um this is a fun hobby but it's too expensive like this is not a business yeah or you go through it and you're like I don't like being in business for myself I want to be the worker be like you so there's 30 who come through and say this is for whatever reason this is not for me or it's not the right time or it's like it's okay yeah or I tried it I didn't like it I'm gonna do something in the future whatever but it's the that 30 is still part of the fam right so you're still there you've still gone through the accelerator you've still done all the work you've still had the courage to step out and try something that's my most fun to see what entrepreneurs have done afterwards even though they're pivoting in their business or ones like still haven't figured out what I'm actually going to do for a business yet there's one of those that keeps popping up that makes me laugh yeah but it's still like just the entrepreneur you're an entrepreneur that's what you're doing and some people are serial entrepreneurs like yes the whole point of it is they don't want to be stuck doing one thing yep or some people that grow one thing and they're like all right that's running now I grow another thing that's running yeah just out of boredom or just to see people completely pivot or do something really cool like Lauren's trying she's got this VW magical bust she wants to get and she's now doing a swim across the I just mentally think of my husband in the English Channel and then I think of Lauren trying to do these things to raise money for the VW bus that she has she's excited our friend Laura from Laura and Tony's who did a crowdfunding thing to get the garden of her dreams that she wanted in front of a restaurant because she knew that she was not going to be able to afford it with her seasonal business but she I love what she did which is make the donation and get a yeah you got a pie you got a gift card you get a cake you get this big thing like it was an in-kind way to stay in touch with her and I just love watching what people are doing to forward their goals yeah and it's so everybody's different and it's really really cool it's like oh what's what am I gonna do right but even even good even if you look at it and you're like okay this I'm not gonna do this still have something to offer yes right you still you still have the experience you still have the information you can still come back and Mentor you can still come back and volunteer you can still come back and just hang out yeah you can you're once you're in you're in right just you're part of the fan but it's nice to have a good cheerleading group behind you no matter what it is and no one I just love it made my heart so happy here I am doing music Bingo we added video to it that's another iteration and I've got three tables of e for all people and it was just so it was so wonderful to look out and know that I had people that were there not only to have a good time but brought other people within our group to come and and support even if it wasn't there for me and they know that that was going to be a good time it was just nice to see all the people well and that's the thing thing too like when you start to build those relationships and you're trying to do it too you know how important it is like 90 of life is just showing up and you know how important it is to you as a business owner when people show up and so you're likely to show up for others and from different cohorts too it's kind of a magical evening and it made my heart Happy I know I missed it I was bombed it was very cool and I have Laura on the show on Friday and she's such a busy bee in her Market but came down here because she was doing the lavender um Farm because they were harvesting over at Cape Cod lavender farm and then she's like I'll swing through them see Stephanie and she brought me some preserves and she's one of those artists oh I got the blueberry one that's like hot off the presses and then I got the pear one which I'm really excited for a grilled cheese today that's been like the most excitement I have where is that stored in your house right now it's tucked away in my fridge oh way in the back hidden behind things because I had to hide it from my kids I'm not gonna lie she did she did usually hide things behind vegetables if you're looking for something in my house because my kids will never find it there she did these pickled jalapenos that was like a mint which I was like that's a weird combination and then I tried it I was like oh my God yeah so good she's she's a unicorn flavor profiles so okay it is like she's got funky flavor profiles and stuff that again it without the context of ephraol I never would have like I wouldn't have picked it up and bought it right and I was and I'm like all right well I gotta support my people and I was like oh my God this is so good right so it's like finding these little these little golden nuggets of unicorns of things yeah fun unexpected yeah goat yoga was another one I went and did the goat yoga I love Tanya yeah she really she's fabulous I have my little feather in my hair oh yeah yeah I got feathered she's like a happy yellow one I saved her for you oh I know but I love the fact that it's actual like rooster so I can style it with a flat iron and whatnot not that I'm ever styling this mess right now however I have the ability to and that just made me happy in theory if you wanted to you you could but that's one of her five side hustles because when you have a farm and when you've got animals those are the you find other things so many I was talking to somebody last night and they were like I don't why and I was like oh because they're like these tiny little pygmy it's way less yoga more goats well and and they're like and I'm like but they're like they're pets yeah so they're like groomed and they have their little vests on and they come over yeah they're giving you kisses and you're like I don't do I need to it's about your mental Wellness do I need to do exactly did the yoga and half of it I was just like hugging the goat yeah one of my favorite photos though was Tanya was look watching you and Tanya's face was like is she gonna oh okay we're doing this so she leaves time at the end to be able to do photos and she she likes to suggests pose so I saw everybody doing it I'm like cool photo so I have one move I have one semi-impressive yoga move where I can do the wheelie where you're up on your hands yeah when I was younger I could actually do the backbend right now I lay down on the blanket and I sort of like shimmy myself up into the back bend I can't do that I die so I got myself up into it and I'm and she's gonna need a medic so she's like all right I'll I'll place the goat you just are you strong enough I'm like I'm fine I got the goat she's like I got to Goat on it and the Goat was like you know they like to perch on on high things but the goat was just like what is this squishy thing I'm on and just like jumped off but we have somebody was taking pictures so we have the sequence of pictures and it's like you see Tanya's face in the background she's like putting that I love it on and then you can see the goat like starting to jump off me and Tanya's kind of doing like the scared face and then you see the goat on the ground I'm talking it's like oh it's like that am I gonna get suited the best and then we did it the second time and the Goat stayed the second time and she's like beaming in the back who doesn't want to pose with goats guys they're missing out it is a good time for all definitely support her and all of our e for all businesses and if you see that little e for all symbol definitely go and talk to them yes because they've been through it ask them their value prop on spot yeah I'd like to hear your elevator pitch please can I send to me I'll be here all day no problem hang out with us I gotta thank our sponsors today Rockland Trust make sure you swing through and grab yourself a lemonade stand kit and start raising some money for Tommy's place they do amazing work with kids with cancer and they just offer them a place to go and chill with their whole family they've got two locations so they need twice as much money now Falmouth and Centerville go and support them there also uh Asset Management resources thank you so much go and see if you've got wealth and you want to keep it talk to Chris Boyd he'll take care of you and also we have got uh Bruno who is absolutely fantastic and such a supporter of our show and if you need pavers if you need a stone walkway if you need anything to do with that make sure you visit them at MBR landscaping.com you can give them a call 508-280605 tell Bruno Stephanie sent you and have a wonderful day Amanda Kai Childs is where you can find her for E for all and if you think about growing your business starting a business what the bleep am I doing with this business she's a girl we'll talk soon have a great day everybody bye so fun foreign