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Editor:
Today’s guest is Donna Kennedy, an Irish entrepreneur, business mentor and coach who spent decades helping founders build profitable businesses that actually fit their lives. She’s known for blending smart strategy with mindset, leadership, and helping entrepreneurs grow sustainably instead of just chasing burnout. She’s also the author of many books, including DECISION: The Gateway to Your Unlimited Potential, and has a new book, which we’ll talk about during the interview.
She’s all about turning ideas into momentum and actually getting things done. Donna, it is great to have you with us.
Donna Kennedy:
It’s great to be here.
Editor:
Let’s start right at the beginning, shall we? Could we take you back just to the start of your entrepreneurial journey and what led you there?
Donna Kennedy:
I guess I was an entrepreneur at five. I started my first business, selling brooches. I really was always interested in entrepreneurship without realising that I was an entrepreneur. I had a very difficult past, and at a part of my life it was very, very difficult, but I turned it around. And as many people who have successful businesses and go on to help others through leadership, many people have had a rough start or they’ve had humble beginnings. Because there is a point where you get to have desperation, and that desperation is a catalyst for building something better.
Editor:
Absolutely. It must be one of those things where you’ve got a determination in you because of your past. Did you always want to run your own business, Donna, or is this something that you fell into?
Donna Kennedy:
I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. What I mean by that is, as I said, when I was five, I used to sell brooches.
At home, we had this pillar on a wall, and I used to sit on it with a little Fisher-Price record player, and I thought I was a busker. I was going to make all this money. Then at Christmas time I made and I sold yule logs when I was 12 and Christmas wreaths. So, there’s lots of different things all the time.
I’m interested in people in particular and I’m interested in creating things. I’m known for a phrase, “Let’s give it a go.” Anything that happens and I look, okay, well that could be interesting. And then if I really love it, well, why not make money from it? And it’s always a win-win, so everyone… I guess it’s a little bit of an adventure. It’s a journey of fun and everyone makes money.
Editor:
Certainly is that. What did those early years teach you about business and also maybe some of those things that you still use today?
Donna Kennedy:
Definitely that business is all about people. Especially in today’s age, people try to sell product, and they focus so much on the product and on the glitz and the glam and all of that kind of thing. But really, businesses are built on relationships long term. If you think of any restaurants that you’ve ever been to, you’ve probably been to it because somebody has recommended it more so than just seeing an ad in a newspaper or on social media.
So, recommendation is probably the best form of accelerating your business and your life. But I think that comes very much from recommendation, people, and building relationships.
Editor:
As I mentioned during the introduction, you’ve written multiple books. I think just before we came on, you mentioned that the latest book that you’ve been working on is book number nine.
Donna Kennedy:
Yes, it’s my ninth baby, so I’m able to say I’m delivering this into the world. It’s all about action. It’s when there’s only plan A and that involves into action. And many people find themselves giving, I guess, procrastination, hesitation, and they say, well, if it doesn’t work out, then I’ll just do plan B. I guess sometimes people sabotage themselves, it wasn’t going to work out anyway, and this kind of thing.
Whereas if you have literally one plan, it’s plan A, and you make it work. To do that, you have to have action. Again, social media can be responsible for it a little bit. But there’s a lot of not-solid stuff out there at the moment, which are things like you wish for it and it’ll happen, or you have the law of attraction only and it’ll happen, think about it often enough and it will happen. Which is true to an extent that there are universal laws, but personally, I believe that you also have to have action as part of that.
So, you have to visualize it, you have to have the vision, you have to have the passion, determination. But if you do nothing, nothing happens.
Editor:
The book is out now. Where do we need to go to check out the book?
Donna Kennedy:
You can get it on Amazon. You can also get it on my website, which is donnakennedy.com, or if anybody wants to email the website and ask for details, it’s info@donnakennedy.com.
Editor:
Perfect. You talk a lot about building success that’s sustainable. Maybe you could just give us some overview of what that means in practice.
Donna Kennedy:
It’s long term. There’s a lot of people who build businesses. They have the vision, but they don’t do the things that they need to do to get it started, but importantly to maintain it. And when things get tough, which they always do in any business or in your life, people can often… I suppose fail is a bad word, but they just stop. They give up. They don’t push through the obstacles. They blame themselves, criticize themselves, say things like, as I said, “It won’t work anyway.”, or such and such, “A person said it wasn’t going to work out, and they were right.”
If you want to be sustainable, you have to be prepared to know that the fact is there will be obstacles, many. It’s like life. You have to go through those obstacles, go over them, go under them, do whatever you have to do to get through them. And when you do, it’s worth it. If anybody looks back to their entire life and anything they’ve ever got a result… That could be getting 10 out of 10 in a spelling test, so it doesn’t have to be anything monumental… there were mistakes, many mistakes made to get there.