Nonprofits and new beginnings

You and I have a big decision to make. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. And welcome to the Weeniecast. Hear ye, hear ye. Listeners of the Weeniecast, we need to talk. And I know that's like, no one wants to hear that. No one wants to hear the. We gotta talk. Okay. I swear I'm not breaking up with you. This isn't that kind of conversation, but it's kind of that

conversation. We are solid. Two years into this relationship, we've been talking about ADHD and how it holds you back in your business and how to get over that, how to really work with how your brain works, to go and start a business and scale a business and do all the things in the business that are required for you to be massively successful. And it has been one of the deepest pleasures of my life to be able to do that for you. And also, I have

ADHd. And my hyper fixation on talking about ADHD has come to an end. And the weenie cast isn't going anywhere. The weenie cast will always be here. But besides the fact that I'm feeling just complete with really focusing on ADHD, I realize I've been being a massive weenie in my own business, and I've been playing along with how I think you're being a weenie in your own life and your own business. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. What does it mean

to not be a weenie? It doesn't mean that you're not afraid. It doesn't mean that you're not nervous about doing something outside of your comfort zone. It doesn't mean that you don't have doubts. It means you have all those things, they're still going on and you do it anyway. One of the things that I love about each and every one of my clients is that, yeah, they want to make a lot of money, but they want to do it while they're doing something good for the world. They want to have actual

impact. And part of it is they want to have impact with the clients they work with. They want to genuinely help these. These people, these companies, whatever it is that they're up to, to be better in some way, shape or form, to have a better life, to get better results, and also they want to have a greater impact on the world around them. You know, a lot of my clients want to make more money so that they

can donate to causes that they deeply care about. Other clients want to have a really successful business that can kind of fund a nonprofit that they want to start while others want to use their influence in their business to impact their communities. You know, maybe by running for office or supporting people who are running for office. All things that I have been doing with my life in the last year. And guys, that's where it's at. Being successful in your business. Big whoop.

A big piece. I feel like we've been missing in the weenie cast is the why you want to have a successful business. What's the reason? Right? Because knowing how to do something is only going to be so helpful if you really understand why you want it. Because if you don't know why you want it, you're never going to go and do it because you won't have the motivation to get started. You know, the cool thing about being me, if I'm going to say this, is thankfully I don't

attract a whole lot of narcissists or sociopaths into my world. If you're listening to this, I pretty much can guarantee you're not a narcissist or a sociopath. At least I hope so. If you are, then stop listening now. Go away. Leave us alone. You're not welcome here. And because there aren't a whole lot of narcissists and sociopaths here, what are they driven by? They're driven for their own goals. They're driven for the things that they want, which, I mean, I'm not

saying that that's wrong. I think we should all let go of the shame of going after what we want. And also, like, just because you want it is not going to be be enough of a motivation for the typical weenie cast listener to go after their big goals. The motivation is I want to create a better future for my children. Motivation is I want to be able to provide for my parents in their retirement. The motivation is I want to be able to give back

to my community. I want to be able to support causes like women's rights, like racial equity, whatever it is that you are super passionate about, that's going to be the thing that's going to push you to be more successful in your business. So going forward, the weeniecast is really going to be focused on how can you have impact? What can you do in your own business as you're growing it to have impact in these

areas. Another element of this is that we're no longer looking at the minute little things that you can do to get 1% better each day. Not to say that those aren't important, but we've covered them. We have over 100 episodes teaching you how to do those things. What we're focused on going forward, elevating the business you already have. And it might mean scaling the business, which a lot of people don't even know what scaling means. It's not a skin

condition. Scaling means you've designed a business that can make more money without you working more. You know, for my coaches out there, I know a lot of us have been sold this idea that scaling is like, oh, well, you work with clients one on one now run a group program. A group program still

requires you to show up. It still requires you to show up and be present in that group. Teaching, coaching, whatever it is that you do, it's not scalable. And the longer you're chained to this business, needing to be present in it every single day to make sure that you can make more money is less time you can put to having an impact in the world. It's less time that you can donate to a good cause, less time that you can, you know, do other work that'll actually change

the game. So we're gonna be talking about how you can actually scale a business, how you can take a business that's making a measly 2000 a month and grow it to half a million a year and more. Not only that, we're going to be talking about how you can acquire other businesses, how you can become a fully fledged entrepreneur who isn't just a singular business owner. You know, what you can look at that will be complementary to what you already do.

I'm really excited for this part because this is a journey that I'm on in this moment. And I want to show you behind the scenes as I'm scaling, as I am buying other businesses, as I am starting other businesses. Cause for me to sit here every week and tell you to stop being a weenie and do the thing that's outside your comfort zone. I better be doing that, too. And let me tell you, this is way outside my comfort zone. It's very uncomfortable.

But I know doing this is going to be the key to me having the impact on the world that I want to have. And the impact I want to have is going to be different from yours. But

let me share with you what I have envisioned in my vision going forward for my life and my business and the work I'm gonna do. One of the things that I'm gonna be sharing with you as I build it is this nonprofit that I'm launching this month called the Gay Birthday Club. Now, it sounds silly but there's a whole population of folks in the LGBTQ community who don't get a call from their parents on their birthday saying, happy birthday, I love you, or singing a cringy happy birthday song.

And it's something that I saw someone on LinkedIn shared about how they no longer get a call from their dad on their birthday, and it's really made their birthday a hard day for them. And as someone who has taken for granted that I've always gotten a birthday call from my parents, both of them, and from other family members singing happy birthday and celebrating me, it's something that I realized would be so simple to fix in the world, to reach out to people on their day

and say, hey, you're special. There are people thinking about you, and there's so much love coming your way. Part of this nonprofit will also be a huge fundraising arm where we're raising money not just for our operations, which I'm anticipating will be fairly minimal, but also raising money for organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and the Trevor Project and organizations that are doing far more serious work in the LGBTQ community. That's the nonprofit I'm

launching. Whatever nonprofit you have wanted to start, I want the Weenie cast to not only be the battle cry for you to just go out and get started, but I also want it to be a resource for you to be able to turn to, to come up with the idea, to figure out what your first steps are going to be, to understand what kinds of people you need to call upon for help and to really see that because you have this idea, I want you to be able to see that because you're identifying this need in the

world, that there is need, and that there is a way for you to become the change that is needed in whatever community you want to support and to see how that one thing that you do can have a ripple effect. It can have a greater impact on the world. You know, the other aspect of my work that I and really growing is doing some political consulting and working on political campaigns. You know, because right now we're coming up. If you're living in the United States, you're aware of

this. We're coming up on a very serious election. Women's rights are at stake, where the safety and security of people of color, of the LGBTQ community, of folks who weren't born in the United States, they are literally on the line, along with a ton of other issues and, well, no, like, I'm probably not running for office. It's not an ambition of mine. I know I can have impact by using what I know as a business owner, what I know as a business strategist. What

I know is someone who does a lot of marketing consulting. I know I can help. I know I can do work that will actually make voices stronger and make it far more likely that good people who have a sincere desire to protect the most vulnerable people in our society, I know I can help them get elected. And so I'm going to be doing more of that. And I will be sharing behind the scenes to show you how I'm doing that. So you can see how you can use your own

skills to have similar impact. If you want to get involved in politics or in your local community along with all of this, that's a major aspect to elevating your business and taking things to that next level. Ooh, what am I gonna say next? Well, you'll have to keep listening to find out. But first, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.

Along with all of this, a major aspect to elevating your business and taking things to that next level is demanding to be seen, being terrified to stand up on stage and loudly declare your beliefs, your expertise, and commanding that attention in the next year. I'm actually doing this really exciting partnership with two former clients of mine. One who does pr coaching, the other one who

does branding coaching. And we're going to be leading a group of really brave business owners who don't just want to have a successful business, they want to be a household name. They want to be seen and known as the go to expert in their space. And in our program, we're going to be guiding them. Exactly how do they create a

recognizable brand? We're going to be walking them through step by step. How do they have an ironclad reputation? By getting them featured in magazines, in news articles, on the news, on tv. My next guest is the host of the US top 5% rated podcast, the Weenie cast. We're gonna be showing them exactly how they can leverage themselves into getting featured

for free. And I'll be personally guiding each and every one of these clients through how to create an offer that is truly scalable so that they don't have to work harder, work longer hours to make more money. And as we lead this group to the trifecta of recognition and reputation and revenue, I'll be sharing the behind the scenes with

you. So that even if you're not at that point yet, you can understand what steps you need to take in your business right now to set you up to step center stage and finally, we're going to be talking about what it takes for you to actually believe that you can do this. You know, telling you tips and tricks on how to do something is great, but it's useless if you don't think it's

possible for you. You know, you can read 17 books on how to run a marathon, but if you don't actually believe that you can run a marathon, are you actually going to successfully train for it? That's not how that works. If you don't believe you can do a handstand, you're not going to start training and learning how to do things to do a handstand. If you don't think you can act, you're not going to start auditioning.

The business world and the manifestation world are kind of suspicious of each other, and rightly so, because there are a lot of manifestation coaches out there who talk about, I manifested $5,000 last week, and here's the mantra that got me there. Business people are looking at that and being like, you're a fucking nut job. What do you mean? Like? No, like, that's not how that works. You have to actually just go and make the

money. And the manifestation world's like, cool, like, going and making the money. Like, how do you do that? Energetically? The manifestation world understands that there's an energetic and belief system that's required to make any of those business opportunities possible. You've been with me for a couple years now. You know, I see both sides of this, and one of the main focuses going forward is going to be how do you back up your

belief system? How do you shift your own internal timeline so that when those business opportunities come your way, you're able to identify them and, well, not fearlessly, because we're still wheaties here, right? But how to be afraid of going for it and do it anyway? How do you face the risk of rejection? How do you make decisions that are difficult decisions to make and see them through? I'm doing it right now. You know, I'll show you behind the scenes in this

moment. You know, there's absolutely a side of me that's like, oh, God, I put all this work, two whole years, over 100 episodes, and really, like, reworked all of my branding to really cater to folks with ADHD. You know, that could absolutely be seen as, like, oh, my God, like, I failed. I failed. Like, I picked something that was the wrong niche. That would be a choice I could make in this moment, but it's

not the choice I'm making because there's no shame in changing your mind. There's absolutely no shame in growing and evolving, in realizing that the focus you had for one period of your life or your business has kind of run its course for you. And there doesn't have to be any justification to change your mind. One of the biggest fears my

clients have is like, what if I pick the wrong niche? What if I choose something that, you know, he, like, is successful and I like doing for a while, but then all of a sudden it loses its zhush for me. Like, the goose gets juiced and then there's nothing left. And if we're being real, you know, we're a club of people with ADHD, it's just not realistic for us to stick with the same thing forever. It's just not, you know, I'm

going to change. I'm going to lean in and change when I feel like I'm done with something and I'm going to do it publicly and I'm going to show you behind the scenes of it, because I want you to know that you do not need to have a greater justification for changing your mind on something. You do not need to have a greater justification to say, you know what? This part of my business, I'm feeling complete here, feeling done. I'm going to mix it up. I'm going to change it. I'm going

to move on to something else. Because guess what? Just because you want it is valid enough. That is a good enough reason. And if any of you who are listening right now have had this thought in the back of your mind that, you know, what I'm doing right now just doesn't feel like a fit anymore. Just doesn't. Doesn't scratch the same itch. I don't feel like I'm having the impact. I want to have full permission to change with me. It's

hard. There's a lot of work, there's a lot of links I'm gonna have to be updating. There's a lot of branding that I'm gonna have to do. Like, I'm really happy I have a team that can help me with this, and maybe you don't have that yet, but let me tell you, it's easier to make these changes when you're in a group of people who are also making the change, even if you don't know who they are, even if you're just aware tangentially that

they're doing it, too. I'm now, like, just imagining, like, my LinkedIn feed and my Instagram feed is all these people like changing their niche and changing their business over the coming. But you know what? Like, that's amazing, because what that actually means is that there are that many more people who are being true to themselves, who are realizing, you know what? I've been offering this gift to the world, and you know what? I'm tired. I'm done. I'm just not feeling it anymore. And

I want to shift now to offer this gift to the world. Let's go. You know, in the last few months, I've been talking a fair bit about the favorite self and the difference between the favorite self and the ideal self, right? And if we talk about the ideal self, your ideal self is unattainable. It's a vision of perfection that we're never going to reach because perfect doesn't exist. Your ideal self has already done all the ideal things in their

life that you like. There's no time machine that's going to make you go back and do it. And also, even if you did have a time machine, you have ADHD. It's not like you're going to be able to stick perfectly to a plan. Unrealistic. If I took a time machine back to being in high school, it's not like I'm gonna do all my homework perfectly. It's not like I'm gonna be the best student ever. It's not like I'm gonna get into Harvard and then be the perfect student there. No,

of course not. I'm still gonna be me. I'm still gonna be slightly chaotic. Like off the wall, only wants to pay to, only pays attention to stuff that she's interested in. Katie. And you're gonna be the same you. Right. So ideal me, who has gone to Harvard, who has a high paying job, who does this, this, and this, and blah, blah, blah, and eats salads every day for lunch. Never going to be her even if science fiction stuff became real. Right? So

me trying to channel her every day to do what I want to do, like, it's just going to hold me to a standard that doesn't work for me already versus my favorite self. My favorite self is chaotic Af. You know what? So, like, in big ways where she changes her business on a dime, and in small ways where sometimes she says as f, and sometimes she says Af, and you'll never know when it's coming. My favorite self doesn't apologize for making

decisions. She actually sees it as a major strength that she can make decisions and change her mind. She sees it as a superpower to constantly be checking in with what do I want right now? And what do I want right now? And what do I want right now? And go with it simply because she wants it without needing to justify why it's needed.

As we're talking about you making a greater impact, and as we're talking about resetting your mindset so that you actually believe that bigger things are possible for you, we're always going to be checking in with what does your favorite self have to say? What do they want? Who are they excited for you to be and who are they excited for you to show up as in the world. Because once we know that we have your motivation, there's nothing that's gonna stop

you. Once you really understand what your deeper desire is. Because once you understand what your deep desire is, the thing that you want more than anything and why you want it, what makes it so appealing to you, what's the impact you want to have with it? Once you know that you can actually start making use of all the tips and the tricks that you're already listening to, you know the things that they're like, oh yeah, well that makes

it sound so easy. I should just do that. Is just gonna be come. Oh cool. This is how I go from where I am right now to what I want. Awesome. Let's do it. With this shift in the weenie cast, I'm drawing a line in the sand. This podcast is no longer for those folks are the maybe someday crowd. Maybe someday I'm gonna start a business. Maybe someday I'm gonna change my life. Maybe someday I'll go out and do this really cool idea that I have that like meh, maybe someone else should do it because

I'm pretty busy right now. You guys are not welcome along for the ride. This is the moment where I'm asking you to just fucking do it already. To put the bull aside.

Whatever excuses you've had up until now that you're not doing it. Time, money, energy. Get real with yourself that you actually have the power here. If you don't have the money to start a business, guess what? It costs nothing to go to a neighborhood and go door to door and say, hey, I'm going to be power washing some of your neighbor's stuff this weekend. I have some availability on Saturday. Do you need anything power washed? Do you have any

concrete or a porch or maybe the siding of your house? You know, I can come by, it's $200. And you get people to commit and you set appointments and you say, cool, you know, I'll be by this time to do this, renting a power washer from Lowe's or Home Depot is $100 to $250 a day. Once you have, you know, three or four people committed, you go to Home Depot, you rent a power washer for the day you come back, you do your work, you get paid five Saturdays, you have enough to get started with

a business. You actually have more than enough. And you also kind of have a successful side hustle that you could also just continue doing to make more money so that when you do want to leave your full time job for your business, you already have some side cash coming in. It's pretty cool. So if you get two clients, you're making money. If you don't have time, I call bull. Because if you don't

have time, that tells me that you're not asking for help. You're not demanding that the people in your life step up and take things off of your plate. Did you know that in hunter gatherer societies, women, mothers, grandmothers, do you know how much of their time is used towards leisure activities and not child rearing, not housekeeping, not feeding the rest of the group? Do you know how much time they have? 50 f percent.

50% of their time is used for leisure because they ask for help, because it is built in. If you do not have time to start changing your life into what you want it to be, it's because you're going along with the bull society we've been handed, where you have to do it all on your own because you've bought into this myth that you should be independent and fully self sufficient. No, no, no, no. We're not going along with that anymore. You get to ask for help. You get to create community

around you. And I'm sorry, but if the people in your life are not willing to create this, this all around beneficial community where everyone helps each other and has their back, they don't belong in your life. Adios. Bye bye, Felicia. And if you don't have the energy, and I understand this, I've worked in so many jobs that were soul sucking. I worked in so many jobs for so many bosses where at the end of the day, I felt like I just had dregs of myself left

and I had nothing to offer anyone. And I know the job market right now sucks. I know, I know, I know. I get all the reasons, but there's always choice. When I was in that position, I was not interviewing for other jobs. I was choosing to stay in the job that paid enough for me to survive but didn't give me the ability to have a life where I was thriving. And I

know it's hard. I'm not saying this like it's a simple or easy thing to do, but if you don't have the energy at the end of your workday to put towards setting things in motion that'll take you to the life that you actually want, you have a really difficult decision to make. If you're committed to any of those reasons being the obstacle that just makes it impossible for you to do this thing, then you're no longer welcome here. This is not going to be the podcast for you.

I love you, and I want the best for you. And this podcast will always be here for you. When you choose to believe that what you want is possible for you and when you start acting like it's possible for you. But until then, I don't know how much this podcast is going to help you. We're not doing vision board sh t anymore.

This is a community where your feet are going to be held to the fire so that you can do the thing that you already want to do, so that you can have the impact that you know you can have on the world. And so, yes, you can do it while you're ahead. Still scared less. We were considering calling it something like the Weenie cast 2.0, but it's not. It's still the Weenie cast. It's still the Weenie cast where you get to be afraid and still take action. But we're taking bigger action

now. We're going for bigger dreams. We're going

after the vision that we all have for a better world. And I have this deep belief, and I've had this for a really long time, that we don't all have to care about everything. We don't have to fix every single problem there is in the world. If each and every one of us picked one problem, picked one area where we get to fix even the smallest of issues, like people getting birthday calls, I am convinced we would have a much better world. So I hope with this shift, with this

upgrade, you'll continue this journey with us. And I hope that with this upgrade and shift, you're gonna be upgrading and you're gonna be shifting some shit in your life, and I cannot wait to hear about it. So let's all just stop being a weenie and go for it. What if I. What if I choose something that, you know, I like, is successful and I like doing for a while, but then all of a sudden, it loses for me? Like the goose gets

juiced and then there's nothing left. I love that term, by the way. I have one canadian person who joins my Friday calls sometimes, and she is always talking about juicing your goose. And I'm all about it. And I always love an excuse to use that term. I don't know if that's a canadian thing or just a her thing, you know, could be, I don't know, TBD, Canadians. Can you tell me, is that a canadian thing or is that just a random person who comes to my calls thing? Please tell me in the comments.

Thank you very much. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.