The Transcript

Brad Wolff: 00:00 

Welcome to the “It Is About You Podcast”. Today I’m honored to have as my guest Karyn Greenstreet with “The Success Alliance”. Karyn, welcome to the show! 

Karyn Greenstreet: 00:17 

Great! I’m so happy to be here. 

Brad Wolff: 00:19 

Absolutely! So if you would tell me a little bit about yourself and “The Success Alliance”. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 00:26 

Well, I started in my world of self-employment and being a business owner and I say for the month after I graduated college, my roommate and I started a photography studio, which we ran for 12 years. So it worked out really well. But over time I began to morph away from that and to do Small Business Consulting and help other people to create businesses.  

And then about maybe 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I became interested in “Mastermind Group”. And so I started to create them and run them and teach other people how to run them. And then I created “The Success Alliance” from that. So my evolution toward being a business owner has grown one business after the next, just this natural progression. But I think at heart, really, I am a business owner. I can’t imagine being employed. I probably would just like to kill myself as an employee somewhere. So I think I’m probably better off as a business owner. 

Brad Wolff: 01:19 

Would it be fair to say you’re not employable? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 01:22 

Yeah! I think so. You know, cause I’d always want to be like offering suggestions. If they didn’t want to do what I wanted to do, I’d get all upset. So that’s probably best that I owned my own business and a secret swim on my own merit. Right? 

Brad Wolff: 01:34 

You know what? I would put myself in the category of unemployable myself, so I definitely can relate. 

Brad Wolff: 01:41 

So you mentioned Karyn that the focus has really evolved to primarily the “Mastermind Group” area. Would you share a little bit about what that is and why people would want to join a “Mastermind Group”? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 01:58 

Yeah! So a “Mastermind Group” is a group of likeminded people that get together on a regular basis to brainstorm with each other, to help each other with their problems, to help each other set really good goals, make really smart wise, usually business decisions. And to then hold each other accountable for getting things done.  

I often say to people, being your own boss, being a small business owner can be really lonely. There’s so much going on in your head. It’s helpful to be around a group of other business owners who also get it and understand what really happens inside of the business. And so, “Mastermind Group” allows this group of people to come together to help each other. And usually, it’s run by a trained facilitator. They have a good skill set, not just in keeping the group going and keeping the discussions going, but taking those discussions deeper. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 02:51 

And so what I find ends up happening is people are able to shorten the learning curve when they’re in a “Mastermind Group”, sort of like, you know, you could have the bookstore, it was like a gazillion books on business. You’re like, I don’t want to read a million books. I just want the answer to this one question that I have burning in my head today. And so you bring that to your “Mastermind Group” and your “Mastermind Group” helps you with that. But they also, because people join “Mastermind Group” for lengths of time. They get to know each other’s business. And so when you say in January I want to do this, well each month they’re paying attention.  

Are you going towards that goal or do you keep procrastinating? Or do you keep getting distracted? And so that piece of it I think is crucially important because when you are a business owner, you’re really only accountable to yourself and it’s easy to be running around putting out fires all the time. So your “Mastermind Group” helps you to kind of put your CEO hat on and to think strategically and to get away from those fires, even it’s only for an hour or two and allows you to really be the owner of the business instead of the worker being who’s always running around. 

Brad Wolff: 03:55 

So basically, if I’m understanding you correctly, Karyn, it allows business owners to work on their business instead of just working in their business? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 04:07 

Yes! It allows them to be strategic and to step back and to take a bigger picture view of their businesses. And the other thing that I really like about it is that sometimes you just need another set of eyes and ears on what you’re working on. You could be in a situation where maybe you’re working on a project or you need to generate a whole bunch of really creative ideas and having another group of people who really get you know, your real tribe, your community of people who understand what it’s like to be a business owner. Perhaps even understand the industry you’re in to be able to say to you, well, let’s all take a look at that.  

And let’s see if there’s anything that doesn’t quite work so that when you produce anything in the world whether it’s a product or a service or I don’t know, a sales page on your website that, you know, you just have this confidence that it’s the best it can be because it wasn’t only you putting it together. There was a whole team of people who were there to support you and to give you insights and feedback and to try to be strategic thinking about your business as you are. Of course, the other half of it is because this is a group, you’re also helping them and you’re sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, and your experience as well so that everyone is benefiting at the same time from being a part of this group. 

Brad Wolff: 05:23 

So you mentioned earlier that you started a business back I believe in 84, 1984 I was going to say 1984. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 05:31 

Yeah! Back in the back of the dark ages. 

Brad Wolff: 05:35 

Well, you know what? Well, it was quite different back then. I was around then too. So and then you became a business, small business consultant and coach. Can you share a little bit about what caused you to really fine-tune your focus to where it really, The Mastermind Area is your main area of focus now? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 05:54 

Okay! Yeah, I think like a business owner you often start out in one place and as you grow as a business, you realize I need to leverage my time. I never need to leverage the resources that I have. If I have a team, I need to leverage them. I also need to leverage my product and service. I need to be able to get it out to more people with less effort on my part and less craziness, less stress because it can be mind-boggling. There are so many things you have to think about as a business owner. And so when I first started out I could only just grow so far when I opened my photography studio, I was doing 50 weddings a year by myself plus portraits and all this other stuff and I was just burning out. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 06:37 

Of course, you know, I was in my twenties I had tons of energy, so it wasn’t that bad. But then I got married. I said, well, do I want to spend my weekends photographing other people’s weddings or do I want to spend my weekends with them? My husband was like, yes. So then I had to more if I had to change and I had discovered the coaching world, I said, Oh, I would love to do coaching. And I started to do small business coaching for other business owners. And what I realized is that they needed coaching, they needed consulting, and they needed training. So I started to create some classes and me, and that naturally expanded. And then at one point, I was working with about 30 consulting clients a month. And again, I hit a ceiling. I was burning out, it was too much. And I said, okay, how do I leverage myself? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 07:18 

How do I leverage my time? And I started to put them into “Mastermind Group” and that worked really well and I started to teach people how to create “Mastermind Group”. And that worked really well. And then about four or five years ago, my husband is my business partner and we sat down and we said, okay, where is this business going?  

Because I think sometimes you have to do that. And I talked to my “Mastermind Group”, I mean I’m a member of a “Mastermind Group” myself. As I talked to my master, I grew up and I said, okay, I need to think big picture here. What’s possible for the next 10 years? And I was kinda stuck and my “Mastermind Group” said to me, well, what would excite you? What would fulfill you? What would make you feel like it was worth getting out of bed every day? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 07:59 

And I was like, Oh, well now if I change the vision for what I want and expand it and, and make it really palatable and really exciting that’s a vision that I can get up every day and go into my office and really work hard at. And so I said, I’m going to let go of the business consulting. I’m going to focus just on “Mastermind Group”.  

But it was an evolution for me. It wasn’t like me, you know, woke up in 1980 and said, Hey, I think I’m going to, you know, I’m going to be in a “Mastermind Group” expert when I’m older, you know, it doesn’t work that way. So a lot of us get to that place where we know something has to change. We realize perhaps there’s more potential in us as a business owner and as a human being, we have other things we want to bring to the world.  

And so sometimes when that happens, it’s time for an evolution of your business. Sometimes you have a really great business, but it’s, again, it’s up against a brick wall. There’s, you’re stuck. You can’t grow your business for whatever reason. And so you need to then figure out, well, what change am I going to make? Cause if I keep doing what I’m doing, I’m going to stay stuck. And so this whole evolution of a business I think is a really critical phase in every business owner’s life. 

Brad Wolff: 09:14 

Absolutely! So that explains what’s happened. And it sounds like every time you reached a point where it just seemed overwhelming and you couldn’t see a blending in well with your family life. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 09:29 

Right? 

Brad Wolff: 09:29 

That was a trigger point for you to reevaluate. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 09:32 

Yeah! And it’s always something different for everyone. So for me, it was that my values of freedom and independence and having the work that I do be really emotionally and mentally fulfilling for me. Like I needed it to really tax my brain. I needed to have to think hard. That was just a value that I had. That was my motivation for other people they’re like, I want to earn more money, I want to take more vacations, I want to feel less stressed. I want to sell my business one day.  

So everyone has a different motivation for what they want. So the question is, are you able to get there doing what you’re doing today? And if you’re not, then what are you going to do? What’s your plan? What’s your strategy to make that shift in your business? And I have worked with hundreds, thousands of business owners. I can tell you almost all of them have at least one thing they want to change in their business, at least a minimum. 

Brad Wolff: 10:32 

I was going to say the word is at least. So, and that gives you quite a perspective that you’ve worked with a large number of business owners that you’re able to really infer certain commonalities, that you’re able to see patterns. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 10:48 

Right? 

Brad Wolff: 10:48 

And that offers a lot of value. So Karyn, what excites you most about what you do now in the Mastermind Area? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 10:58 

I think for me that in the “Mastermind Group” world that I’m seeing, like the tsunami wave coming at us, I have people who contacted me from all over the world. It’s just on the phone this week with a woman from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I mean, I talk with people from New Zealand.  

I talk with people from Canada and Germany that there are these zeitgeists, there’s this energy that people are learning about “Mastermind Group”. They want to form them. And I love being at the top of that wave. It little scary because it’s a really big wave, but it’s coming. And for me, that’s really exciting that if I could get as many “Mastermind Group” in the world as possible, that if I died doing that, that would be a really cool thing to do. Why do I want that? Because to me, I feel like human beings have such incredible potential and a lot of us are stuck. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 11:46 

Because we’re trying to do self-growth all the time and there’s just a limit to what you can do on your own that you need a group. And that I have seen people in “Mastermind Group” when they tap into that group wisdom, that collective genius they’re able to take themselves as a human being and their businesses to another place. And so for me, I’ve seen the results of it and I just want to spread this all over the world. And the cool thing is I use it for business owners.  

Some people are forming “Mastermind Group” for all kinds of topics. They’re not even related to business or they’re bringing them into Corporations or bringing them into Professional Associations that they have “Mastermind Group” just have so much potential and switch legs that different things you could be creative to use “Mastermind Group”. So for me, it’s a big picture of wanting to bring as many “Mastermind Group” to the world as possible. 

Brad Wolff: 12:36 

That’s a great point! And I want to highlight what you said about our own Personal Growth and Development is not something we can effectively do on our own. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 12:48 

I think you get to a place in life where you realize that you’ve been doing the same things over and over again. Maybe you’ve been reading a lot of self-growth books. You’ve been not listening to Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar or you know, any of the human potential folks. And you just feel like there’s more, like, you know it in your gut. You’re like there’s more I can do in the world.  

There’s more. I can be in the world. I want to change something and it’s something important to me. And the thing is for some people that think they want to change is, I don’t know, they want to lose weight. They want to write a book, you know, they want to help their child who has autism. I mean, it’s not just for business owners, but I think as business owners, we’re just these super creative people. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 13:37 

And we and our industries are shifting a lot. And so we have to be even more creative in order to navigate the new world. And it’s hard to do that on your own. And it’s really cool when you can tap into the, into the minds of other people who are also trying to solve the same problems.  

And you know, if you could figure out a way of doing it together, then everybody wins. Of course, you know, people are always worried about competition, you know, well, I don’t want to be in the same “Mastermind Group” with the people who are my competitors. But you’re not. Everyone is your competitor. And so if you get into a good group of people who really are there to support you and you’re not competing with each other at all, that’s an amazing experience. 

Brad Wolff: 14:14 

Absolutely! And the potential that we unleash when there are multiple people working on the same problem at the same time is something that you really can’t duplicate in your own mind. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 14:31 

I tell this story because I think it’s really appropriate because everyone’s had this experience, like have dinner with a friend or a group of friends and someone brings up a problem and everybody jumps in and they’re having a good time. Maybe that a little bit too much wine, you know, and everyone’s being really creative and have all these really great ideas and you’re thinking, wow! Where did all this creativity where all these ideas come from?  

And that’s what Napoleon Hill was talking about. He was talking about a thing called “The Master Mind”. So sort of like this extra person, this extra brain that’s in the room. When a group of people gets together, it’s, the whole energy is elevated and they can be so much more creative. And so much more big thinking than they could on their own. But the problem is then dinner’s done. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 15:17 

You go home and you might not have dinner with these people again another six or eight months. Well, the last one group mirrors that same situation but in a much more structured way. You meet on a regular basis so that you can have that experience more often and you can keep that energy high. Because I think part of what happens as a business owner is it’s easy to get frustrated. It’s easy to feel distracted, it’s easy to feel stressed.  

And if you could have that kind of experience in a “Mastermind Group” on a regular basis, you can keep your mindset positive and everyone knows. It’s like if you can keep your thinking clear if you don’t get lost in biases and assumptions or just negative thinking, you know, limited beliefs. If you can have a group of people that helped to support you to keep your mindset in a really positive place and to the insights that would be really helpful to you.  

That is definitely something worth trying to create in your life. And we don’t, we don’t always get this at the office and we don’t always get this at home. And yet we crave to have a group of people who are really gonna help us at that level. 

Brad Wolff: 16:23 

And I liked what you said that you know, we get those experiences on occasion and we don’t know how quiet it happened with a group of people in the topic comes up and all of a sudden it’s like everyone’s thinking is elevated. There’s new energy, but you might get together 10 more times and not do it. And the idea of a well-run “Mastermind Group” is that you have set up a structured environment that continuously can tap back in and recreate that energy that people just spontaneously get together, don’t know how to create by design. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 16:56 

Right! 

Brad Wolff: 16:57 

I want to really highlight that it could be done by design if it’s done properly. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 17:04 

Yes! And so that’s why having a trained facilitator is so important. You want to have someone who has a background perhaps in coaching or something like that who has a background, who has been trained as a facilitator because the other people in the group, they’re just business owners. They’re not trained in helping people to find clarity. They’re not trained in helping people to be focused.  

They’re not trained in helping people to manage time juggle priorities. That’s not their skill set, but a trained facilitator, that’s exactly their skill set. So they come into the group with this immense skill in human behavior and as well as in business ownership, they often come with a background in business owners themselves and they’re the engine that makes the group work. Well. I mean they’re trained in group dynamics and leading discussions to make them deeper and richer. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 17:58 

So just getting a group of friends together and saying, hey, let’s meet once a month. You’re going to have a problem because the people in the group are not trained to work within that structure, to really help each other at that really deep level. And yet we all know that that’s the place where we’re really have weaknesses is theirs, there are things inside of us that are holding us back.  

There are ways of thinking and patterns of behavior that are holding us back. And you need to have someone who’s trained in recognizing those things who can gently point out to you, Hey, have you noticed you keep doing this or you keep saying this or that you keep doing it this thing in this way and you’re getting the same results and you’re getting frustrated.  

You need to have someone who’s kind of looking at your situation. I’m from a very 360-degree approach instead of, you know, let’s only talk about the task you have to do today, 

Brad Wolff: 18:58 

Right? So they’re both in it, but they’re in a place that they’re observing it and that observation, so they’re not just in it allows them to notice things and say things. So it’d be very hard for people just to spontaneously get together on their own without a trained structure facilitator that can be efficiently and effectively move things along until everyone really able to operate in that zone. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 19:20 

Yeah! I mean, I’ve seen people try to put together “Mastermind Group” and I would say 80 to 90% of that fall apart after a few meetings because the commitment’s not there, but the structure of the meeting is not there. And there’s not someone who’s trained in those sort of coaching and human skills. Not really psychology, they’re not, I’m not, we’re not looking for a psychologist around these things, but someone who just really understands human nature and human potential and how to help people become the best version of themselves, whatever that looks like. 

Brad Wolff: 19:58 

Absolutely! So Karyn, with your vast experience working with business owners, what would you say are the one or two key commonalities that they share that lead the ones that are most successful? What is it that they share that others don’t? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 20:16 

Well, the first thing they share is grit. I mean they just are, they persevere. You know, anytime I’ve owned five businesses, sold three of them, so I have a lot of experience in this. People that are running a business, you have to be willing to get up every day and do the work. And sometimes it could take a year or two years to really gain traction in when you’re working on maybe starting a business or whether you are, I’m starting a new project, launching a new product, new service, anything like that.  

Any big initiative like it can take time to gain that traction and you just have to have the guts to do it. So bravery, grit, courage, determination, whatever you want to call it. Persistence is critical. The other thing I think is really critical is self-knowledge. You’re the captain of the ship. If you don’t understand yourself, you are going to create just disasters all the time. You know what?  

I’m going to realize that you’re doing it. And so that kind of self-knowledge I think is crucial. I also think, frankly, a great sense of humor is important because boys, some days you need it. So this is heavy stuff, you know? 

Brad Wolff: 21:26 

It doesn’t have the downsides that go into substances would have are enough times. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 21:31 

Yeah. So I think the other thing is, is that you have to be a good leader and if you don’t have a staff of employees and you still need to be a good leader of yourself, you’re still the CEO of your business. Whether you have, whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or whether you have a team of 50 around you’re still the leader. 

 And so you have to understand some things about leadership and about being able to step back and be a strategic thinker and not get yourself mired in the day today. So yeah, those are just some of the traits I think that small business owners really need to have in order to be successful.  

The other thing, quite frankly, is they need to be resourceful. Everything is pulling at your attention. And so if you can find solutions to things as quickly as possible and get the help you need as quickly as possible, you’re just being resourceful and taking care of problems that are rising and getting rid of them as quickly as possible because being able to juggle your time and being able to juggle your projects and your tasks is huge for small business owners. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 22:34 

And so you’ve got to have the skill set that allows you to manage your calendar, manage relationships and kind of hold it all together. And so when you’re the leader of yourself and the leader of your business, those are the kinds of things you end up working on. 

Brad Wolff: 22:51 

So based on what I’m hearing from you, Karyn, what you’re really saying is it’s the Personal Development of the leader slash business owner. That’s the key component in their success. That’s what I believe In essence, what I’m hearing from the things you were saying. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 23:11 

Parts of what you need to acquire as a small business owner. And part of that is just plain old business knowledge. You need to understand marketing, finance, hiring, firing. I don’t know, product development, marketing, branding. I mean you need to know the business, but the other half is you need to know the human side of it, whether you’re managing a team.  

So you need to do that. You need to communicate well with your clients and your customers. The human side of dealing with yourself that you just have to have this knowledge of people and this ability to work well with people even if you’re a solo entrepreneur. Because I don’t know any solo entrepreneur who doesn’t interact with another human being. You know you have to including spouses and family and friends who are hopefully supporting you in your business. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 23:59 

But if they’re not, how do you negotiate that? And so you’re dealing with human beings all the time. 

Brad Wolff: 24:05 

So you’ve shared some really key value to a “Mastermind Group” for any business or any individual the key is that it’s for a specific focus. They’re not just saying, I just want to talk about anything. So where do coaches and consultants fit in? Or is this the be all end all for everything? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 24:30 

No, because I think that some people need or want one-on-one to work one on one with somebody. And so, I don’t know if your audience really understands what a coach is according to the “International Coach Federation”, but a coach’s job is really supporting the human and they’re not supposed to give advice. And yet business owners often want advice too. They want to work on time management decision making, problem-solving. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 24:58 

They want to work on those things. That’s the human side. But they also sometimes just want someone to say, you know, how do I update my LinkedIn profile? Just tell me, you know, I don’t want a big discussion around it. Just give me an answer. 

Brad Wolff: 25:10 

They want advice too. I don’t want to do a lot of research. Well, I want opinions, I want a number of opinions, 

Karyn Greenstreet: 25:16 

Right?  

But sometimes a business owner wants to work one on one with a coach or a consultant in order to really dive deep into what they’re doing. I can tell you that there are times that I might do a four or six-hour strategy session with someone just, you know, bring in lunch and just dive deep into it. Because you can get an awful lot done and it’s completely focused only on your business. And so if you’re doing any kind of big planning, you’re trying to make a really huge change. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 25:42 

You’re launching a big product or a big service, anything that’s really going to be intense, you might want to work one on one with a coach or a consultant. Or if you’re just feeling like things really aren’t working in my business and I don’t even know why they’re not working, it’s probably best to first start with a coach or a consultant because you need to unpack everything. And that takes time. It takes someone on one focus. 

Brad Wolff: 26:05 

So it sounds like this is a piece that’s an important piece, but there are multiple important pieces to get the most out of your potential and to get the best results for your organization. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 26:17 

So let me think about your body. It’s like, well, you’ve got, you know what you eat, you got exercise, you’ve got medical reviews. I mean, there are all pieces that help you to have a healthy body. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 26:28 

Well, it’s the same thing. Have a healthy business. There are all kinds of different services that you might want. You know, you wouldn’t go to your “Mastermind Group” for help with your tax law. You’d go to your CPA, you know, so we often need an array of professionals and professional situations. Sometimes you just need to go to a training class. 

Brad Wolff: 26:46 

And the “Mastermind Group” may be the thing that helps you clarify where you need to go? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 26:51 

Yeah! 

Brad Wolff: 26:52 

So it’s like a pure advisory group. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 26:56 

Yeah! I think of my “Mastermind Group”, like your board of advisors and they might say to you, listen, you know, that problem is so big that that’s not something that the group can help you with. You need to go over here and take this class or read this book or talk to this coach and then know this other problem or this other thing you want us to be. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 27:13 

Absolutely! We can look at that inside the group. So your group should be able to help you to discern when you need another professional. 

Brad Wolff: 27:20 

So Karyn, what is a great success story that you’ve been part of with “Mastermind Group” and anything that comes to mind that really sticks out? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 27:31 

Yeah! Well, let me share with you my own story because I think it’s really helpful. I think that in every business owner’s life, they come to a place and it seems to be a certain phases, like after a year, seven, after year 11 after a year, 18 1920, something like that in a business, they, they sort of stick their head up out of the sand or they look around and they’re like, okay, what’s next? And for me, I had two choices. I could go in one direction or the other direction. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 27:58 

And so I brought that to my “Mastermind Group”. I said, well, you know, if I take my business in this direction, here’s what your, the pros and cons. I’d already thought about that. And if I take my business in this direction, here are the pros and cons and I just need help making this decision.  

Which direction do I go in? And it was my “Mastermind Group” that said to me, why do you feel you have to make a choice between these two directions? Isn’t there a third way? Isn’t our way of marrying these two ideas together? I had never even thought of that. And the minute they said that I got like tingles up my spine, I was like, Oh my goodness. I was so, I had blinders on so much that it had to be black and white, A or B. And that was, that was my choice. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 28:36 

I never even considered that there was another way. And so that kind of insight I always say gentle, loving and strong insight. And people telling you, well, look, you’ve got blinders on, you’ve got limited beliefs about what’s possible, what if, and they asked the what-if question. And all of a sudden I started asking myself to what-if question, well, what if he did it this way?  

What if you combined the two together, that kind of stuff. And that’s what led me on this journey. And now I have let go of my Small Business Consulting. I’m focusing completely on “Mastermind Group”. I’m loving every minute of it and it’s grown hugely over the past four years because someone said to me, what if, and you know, that’s not something that like my family is going to say to me or you know a friend who’s not a business owner, it took people who understood my business, understood me and also kind of understood my weaknesses and said, Hey, she kind of thinks black and white. We’d get her to think a little gray. 

Brad Wolff: 29:43 

And that’s true with all of us? We don’t see 360 degrees. We see in the direction we’re looking and we don’t see what we don’t see. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 29:51 

Right! 

Brad Wolff: 29:51 

So, I mean, that’s always the case. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 29:55 

Yeah! I mean our brain is structured that way. We have electronic neural pathways in our brain that once we start thinking a certain way, that pathway truly the electronic neural pathway enhances and get stronger. And the other ones almost die away so that you habitually, you’re going to think one way because that’s the way your biochemistry and your brain works. So to have someone else’s bio biochemistry in their brain works differently gives you insight and gives you ideas that you can possibly have because your biochemistry is resistant. 

Brad Wolff: 30:26 

Right? You basically have access to multiple brain wiring patterns as opposed to just your own. That’s why it’s a mastermind. You basically get a master combined pattern of synchronization or coherence of patterns. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 30:42 

Yeah! We just, we don’t know what we don’t know about ourselves as human beings. We can’t. And that’s why having another person mirror for you what’s going on is huge. 

Brad Wolff: 30:53 

So I love talking about successes. I’m a big believer also in failures and challenges and obstacles. Do you have a particular failure or obstacle that you’ve overcome that you feel has been pivotal to your success that you could share? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 31:08 

Yeah! Let me think about that. I think that for me the real failures have been like not knowing enough about marketing or not knowing enough about leveraging my business. I mean, there was a time, it sounds like a stupid and simple business mistake, but I had put all my eggs in one basket.  

Not all my eggs, most of my eggs into this basket, there’s one huge client. It was awesome working with them and I was like, I’m all in. You know, the only problem is when you do that and then they decide that they’re not going to do that business anymore. Where are you?  

And so having to recover from that is huge. And you have to deal with the emotions behind it. I mean, all of a sudden you’re not in this space that you were in before. And then all of a sudden kind of looking around going, Oh gosh, I gotta catch up now. And that’s just so like business one-on-one. But we forget that or we’re willing to take the risk. We think it’s not ever gonna fail. And of course, nothing’s permanent. 

Brad Wolff: 32:10 

Well, that’s part of the assumptions and things like that that we can do when we want to justify it. Oh, it’s all worth it because I’ve got this great client, I’ll worry about what happens later after, you know. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 32:22 

Right! And also just even sticking with things. I’m sticking with business ideas longer than necessary because of the decision making fallacy of sunk cost. I’ve already put so much into it. I really have to keep going. It’s like just let it go.  

But it’s hard to do that and so you can get yourself into a really deep hole doing that. And I’ve done that. So dedicated to a certain project or working with a certain person and I put so much effort into it. I really do need to see it through instead of cutting bait and saying, no, this isn’t working, it’s not going to work. And you can get in that little rut for a long time and you can. 

Brad Wolff: 33:04 

And that really leads us back to the value of having a team of people that you trust, that knows you. That cares about your success that can help you see these things and move past things that you’re otherwise can get stuck in very easily. We all can. So, Karyn, is there anything you’d like to add to our discussion that we haven’t discussed? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 33:26 

Only that I think for small business owners, I just know there’s so much on your plate, there’s so much going on. And if you can find a way of carving out what I call CEO time, I don’t care if it’s an hour or a week or two hours a month or whatever it is, to be able to step back and ask yourself those big questions, where are we going?  

What is it going to take us to get there? What if question, what if whatever, fill in the blank. If you can, if you can step back and think strategically and be the CEO of your business even once in a while it’s gonna enhance your business tremendously. 

Brad Wolff: 34:08 

Absolutely! So Karyn, what is your website? I’d love to share that with the audience. 

Karyn Greenstreet: 34:12 

Yeah! it’s “TheSuccessAlliance.com” 

Brad Wolff: 34:15 

Okay! And are there any books, are there any premiums, or anything else that you want to let the audience know about that you are offering? 

Karyn Greenstreet: 34:24 

Well, I do have a video tutorial. It’s just an hour and it’s on starting a “Mastermind Group”. So if people are interested in that, there are all kinds of information on my blog as well. So if you have any interest in that, if you even just want to understand what a “Mastermind Group” is, then go to “TheSuccessAlliance.com” and right on the homepage was an article on what a “Mastermind Group” is, how it helps people, what it’s not, because I think we need to be clear on our vocabulary, right? To even see whether “Mastermind Group” might be right for you. 

Brad Wolff: 34:52 

Awesome! Karyn, thank you so much for your time and for sharing what you’ve learned and developed over many years. I really appreciate it! 

Karyn Greenstreet: 35:02 

Thanks, Brad! 

Brad Wolff: 35:03 

Absolutely!