Alenka

[00:00:00] Thank you.

Hello, scoop believers and woke up to episode number 76 of the undiscovered entrepreneur. And it's me scoop. He coming at you, whatever device you happen to be listening on. Okay. So the school believer of the week, this week is RG Enzon Now RG Enzon I'm not sure if RG is initials or as factual first name. So I'm just going to kind of leave it at that, but he. he actually commented on one of my. Posts. About conversations with PI.

So I really wanted to thank him for being the first person to actually post a comment or anything like that. About conversation with PI. So he is my Skoobeliever of the week. If you want to see anything about his information. Please check the show notes underneath. This week's new entrepreneur is Alinka. Alinka is a brand new entrepreneur that's just getting started. We [00:01:00] have a lot of great conversations. One of the main things we talk about is recognizing and dealing with burnout. Burnout is real it's it happens to a lot of us. And, , we talk about being aware of our physical and mental signs of burnout so we can feel, I know when burnout actually is about to happen. Taking breaks and respecting the body's limits and finding your why to stay motivated and how that interlinks with burnout.

We also talk about checking. Your gut when taking advice from others. I mean, everyone means well, but their advice may not align with what you think or what you know, or anything like that. So you gotta make sure you check it with your gut. Don't just take anyone's advice blindly. I mean, really have to understand where they're coming from. And awareness.

If the advice feels

the right for you. and your business while. So talk about the importance of asking questions And. seeking help. We talk about not suffering from superhero hen syndrome and how asking questions and getting help from others is [00:02:00] not a weakness. Till today. Let's listen to Alinka.

Salutations, school believers. And we're here again with another amazing brand spanking new entrepreneur. Today we're here with Elenka. Hi, Elenka.

Hey, it's so nice to be

here. It's fantastic to meet you. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to be on the undiscovered entrepreneur.

I really appreciate you.

Yeah, I am so grateful that you asked me to be a guest.

Oh yeah, for sure. All right, but before we do anything, I do have one kind of semi serious question to ask you. Okay, you ready?

Ready.

All right, here we go. Are you a Scoob believer? I am. All right. Yes, thank you so much for being a Scoob.

Thank you very much for being a Scoob believer. I really appreciate you.

Yeah.

All right, so what I'd like to do here first is just kind of get an idea of who you are, what your entrepreneur adventure is and kind of how long you've been doing it for. Okay.

Yeah. So my name is Alenka. I've been in the corporate world as a lot of us have been [00:03:00] for almost 15 years now.

And I established the company that I am, working on building earlier this year. And I came up with the idea about a year ago.

Awesome. So what is, what is the, what do you do? What is it about?

I went through a series of health issues. A lot of us have I did everything the doctors were telling me and I, I wasn't finding answers and I decided to do my own research because I don't like to give up on things.

So I went in and I did a bunch of research. I tried a lot of things and finally things started to fit and it started to work and I started to I realized that I could build something. I had the skillset. From my corporate experience that I could build something that would help connect people who haven't found answers in conventional medicine to vetted providers based on shared values and based on where people are today, right?

Because sometimes you just need, to feel a little bit better. And sometimes you actually are ready to, do the work to, like in my case, do physical therapy so I don't trip and sprain my ankles again, right? Everybody needs something at different points. So yeah, so I [00:04:00] decided to build a company to help people with that.

I am in the beginning stages. It's very exciting. Today I was talking with, potential investors and understanding how all of that works. And I've been talking with different people about different things, but it's very exciting to hear people's responses when I explain it. And then there, when they start to share their own personal experiences as well.

That's awesome. My wife has a lot of health issues and health problems. We've been trying to navigate this whole thing. I actually work at a hospital during the day and I thought working at a hospital, I could go walk up to anybody and get answers. And even working at the hospital, I still don't get the answers I'm looking for.

It's kind of amazing to me. And she has a lot of health issues too. I could see how having a way to be able to navigate through all the, all the muck and all the red tape and everything to find the answers to the questions that you're looking for. And I really like the idea of getting the, the positive responses back saying, Oh yeah, I do need this information.

Or, or yeah, I want to help [00:05:00] you, get this information out. What, what were kind of some of the health issues that you're having trouble navigating when you were first getting started?

Yeah. For me, I started, I burnt out for my corporate job and it was navigating and working through that which was, I think a lot of people can relate to.

And then I I mean, this had happened before, but it happened really. Horribly I, I stepped off a curb. It's always not a good story, right? I stepped off a curb and tore apart my ankle. I like I tore a bunch of the soft tissue. I got tendonitis. I smashed the bones together and like it would balloon if it wasn't elevated for like I would drive for an hour and it was like, like a swelling balloon, not to get too visual of it.

It was and very painful, right? Your skin isn't meant to stretch like that, within such a short period of time. And I did get better after advocating for myself and getting an MRI because then the protocol changed because they saw what was going on. But what happened is I kept re injuring myself.

And so I was in a good place, and then I would re tear, and I, [00:06:00] six weeks later, it would happen again, and then three months later, it would happen again. This happened over the course of a year, and at some point, I said, hey, I need to there's something else going on here. So I did a bunch of research and I got different, I got blood tests and I looked into Oh, I was deficient in this.

If I did that, there were, there was a lot of other things, but it started with that and then it evolved into me learning, maybe I should pay attention to where I'm walking and stop thinking and being in my head. Like it turned into a lot of other things and, and reframing the way I live my day to day life.

Yeah, one thing I'm going to talk, I'm going to touch on real quick. Burnout is definitely real. We can push and push and push. Our bodies will only go so far before things start falling apart. I have a good friend of mine who was on the podcast not too long ago, Cliff Ravenscraft. I don't know if you ever heard of him or not, but he he experienced he was doing a 24 hour podcast stint.

Where's a straight 24 hours and he like in the last couple hours, he was starting to get a really bad pain in his back and we finally finished it just before he passed out, he [00:07:00] went to the hospital, found out he had gold stones that have been accumulating in his body for like almost a year and he never paid attention to the pain until it just got too bad and he burnt out and we all learn from that.

I mean, it's, it's something, it's a hard lesson. It's a super hard lesson, but you know, burnout is real.

It is. And it's fast. Like the more I learned, the more I see how it it's interrelated to so many things. Like I, I clenched my jaw so hard that I had extreme pain in my teeth and I didn't realize that's what it was.

I went to the dentist and she's Oh yeah, you just ground your teeth so hard. And this was during the day I had a mouth guard at night, but it shows up in different ways for different people. And sometimes it can show up in like very. Horrible things like, gallstones, but like for me, it showed up in other ways and more of my mental health.

Like I couldn't, I didn't have the energy to do basic day to day things, let alone like work I tried. And it just, at some point it wasn't possible.

Aside from, extreme pains happening or anything that is, or anything we can look out [00:08:00] for if we're starting to experience burnout. I mean, I think you've done a little research on that.

Yeah.

Just a touch. Yes. Yeah, I've done some research on it. Yeah, I think for me, what it started to be about was learning. To pay attention to the little things right and I think that we can because things build up over time we look at other parts of our life and we understand that oh if we eat a certain way it's going to impact you know like our blood pressure eventually right the same thing goes for our mental health.

What are, what, what does it look like for you and that can look like differently for everyone for me, grinding my teeth is a huge one.

​

And I know that that's a big someone was telling me this weekend, it's a big epidemic that people are so sorry. Can you hear the tail hitting the table? I don't know what that is.

Yes, Ella, down. I'm so sorry. No, no. I'm so sorry. Down. It's okay. [00:09:00]

That's what editing is for

usually ignoring me, but today is, I don't know, it's because you're

doing a podcast. That's why.

And she knows my focus is elsewhere.

I'm leaving that in, by the way. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Yeah. So for everyone burnout can look and manifest differently. I think it's, It's paying attention to the little things did I hike my shoulders up? Do I have like tight shoulders at the end of the day? And was that a result of a certain type of conversation, right?

For me, it was a result of talking to my boss at the time, but today even that happens over time. So I'm constantly checking in and saying, Oh, like there's a kink in my shoulder. What was I doing before that happened? Can I try to was it a certain conversation that tipped me off? Was it a certain was I in a sitting in a certain position?

What are the stressors in our life that we can just be aware of and not to judge ourselves and not to be hard on ourselves for that happening? Because life happens, [00:10:00] but to To just be kind of a conscious observer and look and say, Oh, okay. That makes sense. This is clicking into place and not to do anything about it, just to observe it and to see that it is happening.

It does help because. I mean, I can talk about it in other contexts too, but by recognizing the thing and putting a label on it, that's the first step in being able to do something about it, right? Because if we don't understand what it is, it's really hard for us to do something about it. And so just being, allowing yourself and giving yourself the grace to say, Oh, I was like really tired today.

What was so exhausting about my day? Like, why am I so drained? Why do I feel like I need to take a nap or an extra cup of coffee? And I will be an advocate for naps to the end of time. They are right there. The extra cup, like what, what is it that kind of made me do that? Did I not sleep well the night before?

Because if we don't sleep over long amounts of time, that also adds up, right? There's different things that we need to take into consideration. But I think it's just starting to pay attention to your body, which is really easily said and really hard to do. [00:11:00]

Agreed 100%. And to being able to take stock of the situations that happen to you on the daily basis to look back on and say, okay, this happened to me.

And because of that, this is the outcome of it. So let's see what we could do to maybe either avoid that or change the perspective of that particular situation. So if it comes up again, we know how to handle it, but still the same thing you can only handle so much before you experience extreme burnout.

Yeah. And I think, I mean, like to take it lightly, how sometimes you come out of a conversation. I don't mean to take burnout lightly. It is a heavy topic, but to, to kind of put a spin on it in terms of a metaphor, sometimes you come out of a conversation and. You're like, Oh, if I just had that really fun comeback, like that would have been funny in the moment, right?

And that's just our way of reflecting and maybe the next time you'll say it. And it's funny. If you think about that in terms of your body, if you're aware of it, that, afterwards, maybe next time you'll be more aware of it in the moment, right? Like I clenched certain parts of like my shoulders [00:12:00] and now I'm more aware of it.

That's not perfect, but I'm, it's helping, right? So if you kind of think of it in the same way, you can start to. See how it could potentially progress. All

right. Fantastic. Great advice for the school believers out there who might be not sure if they're experiencing burnout or not, or maybe close, but not really realizing it.

We'll definitely take that to heart. I like, thank you so much for that information. I know you said that you, you hurt your ankle. And that's kind of what kind of started this whole thing. But what was the actual catalyst that made you want to start this business? You hurt your ankle starting in this information.

What made you actually think, Hey, this is a business I can get into. What was that like?

Yeah. I had a friend tell me, hey, you need to journal. You're going through some stuff. It's going to help if you write it down, and I was never a fan of it. I never had a diary as a kid. I didn't understand the concept, but for some people, it works great.

For me, it just wasn't a thing that, worked for me. I did because I trust my friend. [00:13:00] And and it came to me very quickly. As I was journaling, I realized, Hey, like a lot of these people that have helped me get better, they are really good at what they do, they're really good at helping people.

They are not great. At marketing, they're not great at figuring out how payment should be processed. And, like all of those kinds of administrative or business, if you will functions, and it's not really fair to them to expect them to do all of that. Some people are great at it and that's good for them, but for a lot of people, it was so draining for them to figure that out that then they spent so much of their energy on that.

They didn't have energy to be good at what they do. And so I was like, Oh, I can, I can fill the gap between those. To, pieces because let's connect people with practitioners who can help them and those practitioners are then getting booked more often and they can be better. At what they do because they're not wasting their energy, figuring out how to set up a Squarespace or a Shopify account or whatever it is that they're using.

Cause it is a lot of work, no matter [00:14:00] what you do.

Absolutely. Yeah. Being, being observant from the people around us just on a daily basis, our own experiences that we have, just like you did and finding that gap that you can feel like, they can use some help doing this. And even you can ask them, you just straight up ask them, Hey, if somebody did this for you, would you take advantage of that?

Just the little questions that you can ask that make the biggest difference, not and not so much in your own life, but in other people's lives too, because once you fill that gap, you realize, Hey, there's more people like this, I could make something out of this.

Yeah. And just getting it, getting a lot of feedback, so much conversation, right?

Like I do this in the corporate. World right where I would get feedback from the end client and understand Hey, if we fix this problem, would this be helpful to you? Because you always see these examples of this is a problem that people see. But if people aren't using the solution, then it does.

It's not applicable, right? It's not a tangible business idea. That's going to go forward. But [00:15:00] When you start to tweak it, and sometimes it's just the initial idea, like where I started with the idea was like, Oh, let's help people with their taxes, which is like great, very complicated and messy, but it's not fixing a bigger problem.

And so it kind of, the idea expanded and evolved, and now it's kind of changed it to something that people resonate with a lot more. And to me, that's great validation, right? When you have a business idea where people are like interested in, that's one thing, but when you have a business idea where people get excited and kind of iterate on it.

In conversation, that's different. And that to me means you've struck a chord.

There you go. That's the way to do it. Market research, just the people around. And it's amazing to me. What you could find out from the, just the most oddest people sometimes, if you just talk to your server, Hey, how are you doing?

I have this idea. What do you think? Or you can get ideas from the janitor, the guy that's walking around with trash. You never know what he would actually know. You wouldn't know that he was been, he's been studying entrepreneurship for eight hours every day in an [00:16:00] earbud until you actually sit down and talk to him.

Cause that's. Kind of what I do. So that's great. Well, it's

so funny you say that. Cause I I think it was how I built this podcast. I can't remember. Maybe it was a different one, but the string garbage bags where apparently the person who came up with that, everyone told them they were crazy and that was not going to be useful and no one was going to use it.

And he So much that it was going to be the best thing and it is that he went forward and patented and did it himself. And it's a beautiful story of yes, talk to those people. Like you don't know what need you're fixing until you speak to people about what their problems are. And it can be, it doesn't have to be as complicated as what I'm doing.

What I'm doing is As some I joke and I'm like, this is it is complicated, but it's it can be something simple and the simplest things are like, I remember like one of the simplest things that I heard that I thought was beautiful, on your gas tank, you have the arrow of which side [00:17:00] that is that was just somebody came up with it and did it as to be nice if they didn't.

It wasn't something they tried to make money off of, but there are examples of that are little things that make huge difference in people's lives that don't have to be, reinventing the wheel if you want.

Yeah, and I have to thank whoever invented that because I was a car salesman for 16 years and when I started seeing that show up, And people's dashboards.

I was like, thank you. Cause I'm always on the wrong side of the car that has the gas tank on it. Who, I mean, a simple arrow will make just the biggest difference. So that, that goes to show, doesn't it?

Yeah, it does. There's that. I mean, I. I will in the Costco line. Sometimes the Costco gas line go on the opposite side, but I really don't like doing it

while you're waiting in line.

And it's ah, do I have to wait in line any longer on this side? Oh boy. Yeah, I can understand that. But what, what are the little things that you do in your business that make the biggest difference? You think, [00:18:00]

I think being open to what you see in the world around you. So I have. I came up with the basic business concept, but then I started to do just to listen to people.

I remember I was, I was standing in line at a restaurant and somebody said something about what they do in their business. And I was like, Oh, I could translate that in a really great applicable way. And I just being able to connect the dots in ways that like not being stuck in. What you do, but there are really beautiful ways that you can kind of translate other people's ideas or what they do and to your business, and they can be proven, right?

They can be something that is successful in the market, what they do, but your spin on it and the way that you. Use that idea in your business can make it grow in a way you would never expect. I think that's one important thing. Another important thing to relate to the burnout is to take breaks, to take breaks, to get up and go for a walk.

I mean, there's a joke, but it's true. The [00:19:00] best ideas are often in the shower, right? And it's because you're relaxed and you're not thinking about it. There's some interesting neuroscience around that, take breaks and get up because sometimes I have so many spelling mistakes. It's late at night. And sometimes it has to get done, but other times it's more worth it to stand up, do something else and come back to it later on.

I think those two things, when you, when you don't try to force yourself to go, go, go, and you are able to understand that my body needs a break and pushing through is only going to make, for example, the spelling mistakes worse. It, when we respect our bodies and understand where our limits are, it does help our success overall and the longevity of what we're working on too.

Yes, 100 percent agreed. You got to take that break. I'm going to take that extra time. It seems and it seems like if I take this extra time, that means time away from what I'm actually doing. But if you were just to keep pushing it forward, your productivity just tanks. And when you take that break, your productivity actually goes [00:20:00] up and you can actually accomplish more with that break than you would if you weren't to take that break.

It's really hard to wrap your head around, but if you really experience it for yourself. You realize that it actually works out a lot better if you do take that extra break.

Yeah. And sometimes it's as simple as getting up and doing the dishes, right? It's something that needs to get done anyways, but it's not what I was doing.

And it gives my brain a second to switch, and give, take a break from what I was doing.

Exactly. All right. So as you're going along, you're just getting started. What are some of the pitfalls and problems that you've actually encountered getting started? And your entrepreneur adventure.

Yeah, there's, I mean, there's so many things in it and I was thinking about today and I'm diving into a world that I don't, I know some things about the world, like I know how to build software and I know how to build it. Well, do I know how different investment strategies work in terms of like somebody investing in my company?

Very little. And [00:21:00] it's. And it's scary because these are really big decisions. And I haven't fully gone through the process yet and I'm sure I'll make mistakes along the way, but I think some of the things that I learned, and this is like a small thing a mistake that I made was I wasn't paying attention and reading the instructions when I was trying to set up my email server.

So to be able to have like at, with your, Your email address instead of a Gmail or something. And I like, I had to reset all of my domain permissions because I just was like doing it too tired at night, making too many mistakes instead of paying attention and doing it well. And I grew super frustrated with it.

And I think that's just one example, but it's been really hard, I think the other thing was taking people's, taking everyone's advice. And everyone means well but I had some people who were like, Hey, you should go this direction. And then I would check in with how I felt about it. And I was like, that doesn't seem right to me, like it might work for them.

And that's wonderful. But for me, I need, [00:22:00] it doesn't feel right. So making sure that Hey, what works for you is different. Your business is not the same as everyone else. So how can you make sure that what you're working on makes sense for you?

Yes, absolutely. It's nice to get advice from other people, but you really have to check with your gut first before going forward.

With the advice. Yeah, everybody wants to help everybody has their own experiences, but those experience aren't always what your experiences are, even if it's in the same subject, even if it happened a similar way, we still got to check in with ourselves with our feeling with our gut. To make sure it's a good decision.

We can't just take everybody's advice and just go with it automatically. It's Oh, that sounds good. Let's go do that. No, no, no, no. Wait, let's think this thing through 1st. So yeah, check with yourself 1st for 100 percent and fear is something that I actually talk about a lot in my podcast. And, and getting into something that you're not always a [00:23:00] hundred percent sure about.

I wasn't a hundred percent sure about podcasting. I can tell you that. But once I actually jumped in there, I realized what I was doing, it seemed okay. I mean, sometimes the best way to figure things out is just to go in feet first and just go for it and just see what happens,

yeah. I agree with that.

Yeah.

Do you happen to know the acronym for fear? Have you heard that before?

Oh, maybe a long time ago. Remind me,

F. E. A. R. False evidence appearing real.

Yes, I have heard that

before.

And that's something I live by. A lot of times if I fear it. I do it. That's just kind of my man. Now. I don't expect everybody to do that. Trust me, but one of one of my main things is if I fear it, I think fear is kind of pointing me in a direction. I need to go this way and and have this experience to make things move forward.

So that's kind of how I think about it.

I mean, I, I, there's a lot of really interesting research that explains how people who are fearful, but still do [00:24:00] it. kind of build this muscle and that muscle allows them to do things they would have never done otherwise. And I think it's really beautiful when you talk about it with grit is like part of it.

Something that's come up with fear for me these last couple of weeks is, is My belief in what I'm doing, my mission more powerful than the fear I have of whatever the thing is in front of me. And that has been something that's been beautiful to come back to. Even if it's like cold, reaching out to somebody that I, I really want to chat with or If it's putting my face on camera and speaking to the camera, right?

Cause you know, I, I'm not an extrovert that way. And I've learned to get comfortable with that. It can look like a lot of different things for a lot of people, but I think it's really important to stick to your, why, why are you doing this? Why is what you're doing important? And that will help get you through a lot of those fears.

Thinking back to your why. Yeah. 100%. You're like, I know it's not comfortable. I don't know if I want to do this, but I got you because this has to happen. [00:25:00]

Yeah, it has to happen. And for me, this is the first time in my life that I have started to work on something and It's a, it is, I wouldn't say fun, but like a pleasure, like I'm, I'm enjoying working on it.

It doesn't feel like work the same way. Other things feel like work. And so if you found something that feels that way to you, fear is nothing compared to that feeling.

Exactly. Exactly. And the thing I always worry about too, is if I don't do that thing, I fear what could have been. What have happened on the other side of that fear?

And that's something I, I used to live with. I don't live with that anymore because I want to experience what I can on the other side of that fear, because it might be something great, not something great. It's something that I could have learned from. It's a, it's a failure that I could have that I could learn from.

So even though I feared and it failed. I still took something back from it that I could carry into my next adventure.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And, and being able to, to do that is, is beautiful and that's how we grow and become better than [00:26:00] we were yesterday.

That's right. All right. Awesome. So as you're going along, we all have We all have mentors and things of that nature.

Do you have anybody that kind of helps you keep moving forward in that kind of aspect?

Yeah, I think there for me, there's a few different you have people in your life and they all are great at specific things. So I have some people who have been around forever and they're like in my personal life and they're Encouraging me whenever I feel down or Oh, I, this is too big or too much.

And I'm exhausted. They have been really beautiful and saying, Oh, it's not that bad. I'll help you with this. Or, I had a friend who's graduating her master's and she's Oh, I'll help you with, that thing that you've been avoiding because I know you didn't want to do it anyways.

And I think that that makes a huge difference in people checking in and seeing how it's going. I've also started seeking and asking for mentorship and asking for. Advice from [00:27:00] people that I don't know. Right? And are asking people to introduce me to people to give me advice. And I think that has been really powerful and also terrifying because it's asking for help and I'm not used to asking for help.

Yeah, we kind of, now me personally, I have something called superhero syndrome. Where I just want to swoop in and save the day and be that guy that everybody wants to go to. But I, I don't ask for the help because if I ask for help, it's like almost like being weak. It's not being the superhero. But the more I get into my entrepreneurship, the more I realize that I have to ask these questions.

I have to get this help because if I don't, I'm not going to get any further or I'm going to experience something that I don't want to experience. That's going to be so negative that it's going to, it's going to put me out. Asking the questions, asking for help. It's not a negative thing. It's actually a positive thing because you're going to learn more in asking than you definitely are than not asking.

That's for darn sure.

Oh, for sure. And [00:28:00] sometimes it's maybe a lot of times when people say, no, it has nothing to do with you. And it's important to learn how you respond to that note too. And that's a whole learning process. But I think asking for help in many ways has been a it's been a blessing to learn how to do it because often if we don't, that can contribute to burnout.

Yeah, absolutely. Cause now you're stressing out about it. I didn't ask this question. I'm never going to figure this out. I've done it for years and days or whatever it is. And I'm still not getting anywhere, but I don't want to ask the question. I don't want that. I can't have to help. And it's just, it just, you start gritting your teeth and your shoulders go up, right?

Exactly. What are we talking about?

Exactly.

Yeah.

Well, and sometimes somebody can give you the answer in two minutes and you've just spent three months figuring it, is it worth

it? It's like me when I was trying to, when I was growing up, My my mom always had that 12 o'clock blinking on the VCR and it took me two seconds to stop it from blinking.

Kind of like that. So

I avoid changing the clocks in my place until my brother or dad visit. I'm like, I'm not [00:29:00] doing

it. I'll do the math. It's fine.

All right. So this is actually one of my favorite questions and I get a different answer from everybody every time. But when do you think you've known you've made it? When do you think you've gotten to that point where this is exactly where I want to be at this particular time? What's that look like for you?

Well, I'm still working my day job. And that's just because I, I'm not making revenue. There's no way I can quit until that happens. And I think for me, I know that this feels right for me because I, There hasn't been any sort of extreme like this is a terrible idea or this is, and it doesn't mean that, there isn't possibilities that it won't go super well, but I think our de definitions of made it often are like that goalpost that keeps moving forward as you move forward that keeps moving forward.

So it's more important that we almost appreciate where [00:30:00] we are today and the work that we've gotten to, to be at that moment and. You absolutely, if you find a place and you're happy with it, when you've set that goal and you've hit it good for you. I know myself, I probably won't, right? Like I'm probably going to say, I want to do this.

And then when you get there, you want to do more, right? Cause we, as humans, we always want to do better and we always focus on the negative. So what can you do today to focus on the progress you made to get there? And I think that's what makes me feel like I've made it today in the sense of I, I am doing something that is terrifying.

I'm doing something I would have never thought I could do. So let me be proud of myself in that moment. And focus on those wins as they come along, instead of focusing on what I didn't do or what I want to do.

100%. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm the same way too. It's I want to have that made up moment, but then after that, it's okay, now what's next?

This is cool. I got here. Okay. What's next. And some of us don't want to have that made up moment. Cause if we have that made up moment, then That's over.

What do you do? [00:31:00]

Well, there's nothing left, right? You, you have, you hit that goalpost. Now what, so you want to keep going. You want to keep moving.

I mean, some people will say, Oh, when I have the big car or when I have the house or anything, I'm like, it's nice to have material things, but we got to keep going. That's just what we do as entrepreneurs. What's the next biggest, best thing that we can do next? Is it a course? Is it getting up on stage? Is it whatever it could be for anybody.

Yeah, I could definitely, I could definitely go with you on that one. 100%.

I mean, one day I would like to have a fun car as well as my useful car, because my car is a tool, but you know, that's not that important. And I can totally live with that. That's fine, but it was a, it's a good example.

That's a good example.

That's all right. All right. So here, I like this question because it kind of goes in, it kind of branches off from another podcast that I do. But if you met somebody that's just getting started in their entrepreneur adventure like you are, what is one piece of advice you'd be able to [00:32:00] give to them?

If you're just starting out, figure out your why, figure out why you're doing what you're doing, because that is going to set the stage for everything else.

And it, you're, the business idea you're working towards. things can evolve and change. But if it's still staying true to why you're doing what you're doing that's all that matters. So I think it's just really hard for us. So sometimes we are like, Well, this would be cool. But that would be cool. And then we just get distracted with so many things and we don't figure out what the Y is.

And we end Cycling or, or going into many directions and, and spreading out our energy and not actually getting, seeing progress because we're not focused. And I think that is really important is to, to figure out why you're doing what you're doing. And then every time you do something, check back in, does it align with that?

Does it fit in with that? Why? And if it, if everything doesn't, then it could be that you're not focusing on it, or it could be that maybe the, why was not, didn't feel right. Like you kind of have to play the game and figure it [00:33:00] out.

Yeah. I mean, I like to write my why down and have it somewhere always visible 100 percent because then I know if I'm having squirrel syndrome, because that's what that is, you're just going all over the place, you can look back on that.

Why? And say, no, there's this, whatever it is, that's gotten my attention over here. Does this fit into my why? Does this fit into the funnel that I've made for myself to get this stuff accomplished? And if not I might write it down and put it in a shoe box somewhere for another time. I have a whole, I have a whole shoe box of ideas that I've put aside for another time.

And then when I get bored or something like that, or if accomplished what I've wanted to accomplish with this particular thing, I'll go into my shoe box and pull out a new. whatever it is that I happen to want at that time. I just close my eyes and just pick one, whatever. But yeah, your why is probably the most important thing you can have to kind of give yourself that focus, that direction of where you need to go.

All right. So [00:34:00] this is one of my favorite questions, but I did steal this from another podcast, so I'm sorry, everybody. What is the one question you wish I would have asked you? I always have one that I never get to that my guest is ready to answer, but I never asked the question. What is that one question?

I think, Hmm, I would say maybe what makes your business different from everything else you see in the marketplace?

That's a good question because we have to have that different kind of variation of whatever it is that we're putting out there so we can set ourselves apart from other people. So what, that's a good question.

So what is the answer to that question?

Yeah. So I went over a little bit about how we're, we're matching people based on shared values, right? And shared values that can mean a lot of things, but like worldview is important, right? You don't, that, that shows that you, when you have that things move forward better, right?

If you're, [00:35:00] Practitioner providers like, hey, here's a pill and you wanted the pill. Great. But if you didn't want the pill, then that's not really helping you, right? Like that, that is a worldview in a way of thinking it is a value. But something that's really important to me that I I think it's really important that care for your health should not be determined based on your ability to afford it.

And I, I, I mean, I'm Canadian. So that comes with the territory a little bit, but but still like we have very similar problems up in Canada as well. Like I live in the States now. I'm familiar with both systems, but so what we've decided to build is a portion of the proceeds from day one are going to go towards a fund and that fund will go towards people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford.

The services so they can get the same access to care that people who are paying for it can. And so what that means is you are paying for service. Let's say it's a some sort of a physical therapist as an example a portion of the proceeds that we take for the platform go,[00:36:00]

it's a dog outside. Yeah. Yeah. So that, what that means is a portion of the proceeds when you. Have your appointment, they go towards the fund. So you are contributing towards someone else getting care. And that means that providers are also be able to provide care to people that need it. And providers usually get into this because they care, but they also have mortgages and they have mouths to feed.

And this allows for that kind of cycle to happen where, where by taking care of yourself, you take care of others and you take care of the providers.

That's amazing. I'm glad that you're being that you're doing that because that's definitely set you apart from a lot of different people.

That's just pocketing all the money.

Yeah. It's nice to be

able to take a portion of that money and be able to help others. That might be in need of that money to be able to get the physical therapy like you said or the pill or you know The medications or anything like that that they need to be able to get over whatever problem that they're having right now And I don't worry a lot guy.

I love dogs my I'm gonna I'm gonna tell a little story [00:37:00] this is way off to off, but I'm gonna tell a little story my very first podcast with with was with a Angela caddy And she was a professional organizer and she had a dog that sneezed in the middle of the conversation And everybody heard it so I just said bless you dog, that's all okay.

So don't worry We like puppies, obviously I like puppies. So That's right. No, i'm

so sorry. She's usually very quiet but today, it's been exciting that's

okay We forget we'll forget. What's your puppy's name?

Her name's Ella.

Ella. We forgive Ella.

So no, that's great. That's a, that's a great answer to a question that you figured on, on your own there. So that's awesome. Thank you so much. All right. So at this point of the podcast, I like doing this with all my guests. In the next [00:38:00] six months, where do you see yourself and your company? What is your goal for the next six months?

So in the next six months, I expect a wild ride. I expect it to be a little crazy. So I'm going to establish a framework for investment. So that people can invest in it. I've been speaking with some angel investors and that might even look like crowdfunding. So people can get a portion of equity, which I think would be really beautiful.

And use that to pay for development, right? Cause there are people coding and I'm not going to do it. I could, but that would take years and be horrible. So we're not good. To build, my goal is, to have something live before the end of the year would be amazing. It is a stretch goal but to have something live.

And so what I mean by something is we would be targeting a subset of conditions and providers, right? So focusing on very specific types of conditions for a specific type of group, probably, women in the 35 to 45 range like something in that because those are generally the most [00:39:00] underserved community and it won't be.

We haven't determined what that is because there's a lot of data that we are going through and we're also getting asking for feedback from people as well. So that's the goal in the next six months is to have something because that would be end of year. And that would be really amazing to have something live by then.

It's going to be a lot of work and a lot of unknowns. But I'm excited

as long as you're excited. That's good. So the, how much, I know, I don't know if you've actually done this working out, but how much do you need to actually get this thing live? What do you think?

It depends on who you go with. There's offshore companies you can go with there's local ones in the U S there are, I spoke with one who they think that I could maybe do like a revenue share, so I wouldn't pay up front, but they would get revenue down the line. There's different. Dynamics you can go. My guess is we're running between 25 to 50, 000 ish, depending on how many features you do just for the development.

And then you need the marketing, which is a huge machine. And [00:40:00] marketing is usually at least double, if not more of the actual cost of development.

So a hundred K basically.

At least. Yeah.

Okay. So here's what I'd like to do. First of all, when you do do a crowd fund, or if you do any of the fundraising, I want you to send me links so I could put them in the podcast notes.

Okay. Anybody? Yeah. Anybody that wants to help Alenka in her dream of being able to do what she's doing, look down into the show notes and there's more than likely going to be a link down there so we can help her out. Okay. Cause I'm going to help you out in this too. Cause I think it's something that's really important.

Thank you.

Okay. So in the next six months, what I'd like to do with you in six months is actually follow up with you another interview, just like this one to see if you've actually reached those goals. See if we've actually got that stretch goal and got this thing off the ground. Okay. Is that all right?

I would love to do that. Yeah, that would be great. And it, and then learnings and what went well and what didn't is all part of it.

Exactly. Exactly. And that way we can all learn from your experience, just like we like to do.[00:41:00]

Exactly. All right. All right. This is the time you're, this is your time to shine here. Link. I want you to be able to. Talk about your business and, and talk about how we get ahold of you, how we help you out, all that good information. Okay. Ready, set, go.

All right. Well, if you're interested in helping, find answers for people who haven't found answers in conventional medicine, you can reach out to me via email info at sahacollective.

com. That's S A H A. The website, if you want to sign up to be part of the waitlist, we're going to be running focus groups. And getting feedback from people is sahacollective. com because four letter URLs are very expensive. It's another conversation for another time. And then on social media, we're saha.

collective on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. And we are on Facebook as well as Saha. Facebook is busy. So yeah, I'm happy for [00:42:00] anyone to reach out. I'm looking for feedback on multiple fronts. I'm looking for, if anyone is like, Hey, I have this great idea that can help with marketing or, have you thought of this from an investment perspective or whatever it is?

Or even if you're like, Hey, I have this problem and no one's been able to give me an answer. I might know somebody who can help, right? Like I'm already starting to collect and talk to providers. So I'm more than happy to make connections today. Okay. Thanks, everyone. Even before the platform gets running, because I think it's the human connection is really, really important.

Actually, before we wrap up, one thing I forgot to mention is the translation for Saha is connection or together or endure. And I believe we endure through the hardest times together.

All right. That's thank you for that. That's amazing. Appreciate that. All right. School believers. Thank you so much, Alanka for a great interview.

It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.

Thank you so much for having me. This was a joy.

All right. Well, let's talk to you in about six months. Okay. All right, school believers. Make sure you stay tuned for wrap up. [00:43:00] All right, everybody. Thank you. Bye bye.

All right. School believers. That was a long cup boy. What a great interview that that went a little bit longer than usual, but you know what, she had such great information. I love talking to her. I love the way she talks too. She had a great voice. We talked a lot about burnout. And what to do to look out for burnout.

I think burnout, like I said in the interview is real and we have to look out for it because we burn out a lot of what we do. A lot of people that depend on doing a lot of people that depend on us for what we do, we let down because we can't do it anymore. We're so burnt out. So we have to kind of keep that in mind.

We talked a little bit about fear and checking your gut with advice. Always check your gut when it comes to advice. Thanks. Very, very important.

I think also [00:44:00] asking the questions and knowing what our why is was really super important in this podcast, figuring out why we do things. So if we do have that point where we're kind of off a little bit, not sure why we're doing this. And kind of like feeling down, we can look back and, Oh, that's why I'm doing this.

And if we're kind of running around like a chicken with our head cut off, Oh, this is cool. This is so cool. I want to do this. I want to do this, but does it fit? Does it fit into our why? Would it get us that step closer to where we want to be in our entrepreneur adventure? And I really want, I really hope.

That Alonka gets that funding she's looking for in the next six months. I will be definitely be looking forward and to, I will definitely be looking forward to talking to her in six months and she actually see if she actually accomplished what she wants to accomplish.

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