by Tina | May 26, 2023 | General Biz, Leadership
A lot of traditional marketing advice advises us to ask ourselves:
“What makes me different?”
“What makes me special?”
Trying to find what makes you special or different could be the very thing stalling your business. It might sound odd to say but chances are you are NOT special or different from those around you. Especially in today’s crowded marketplace where there can be hundreds or even thousands of people who ‘do what you do’.
When we focus on what makes us different we are automatically measuring ourselves against everyone around us.
We spend our time trying to be unique and to try and find ways to position ourselves as ‘better’ than everyone else. This can put us in an exhausting cycle of comparison and judgment (and we are usually judging ourselves the most harshly when we compare ourselves to others!)
What if instead, we focus on what we do BEST?
What if we really own that and show up in the power of “here’s what I do best” and simply own it?
Yes, there are others out there who do what you do AND folks are attracted to confidence. To ownership. To you showing up and saying “I’m damn good at this and can help you.”
Plus it makes things SOOOO much simpler. It stops the cycle of looking at everyone else around us all the time and puts the power back in our own hands. All I need to do is show up and do what I do best, and tell others about it.
I’m damn good at strategy – at helping people look at where they are, see what is working, what is not working, where they want to go next and how to get there in a way that is 100% aligned with who they are. I’m also damn good at making it super simple (as one client said, cutting through the chaos to find a straight path to profit.)
There are loads of other folks out there who are great at strategy as well. And that is awesome because the world needs us all.
I’ve recently updated my offerings to include some pretty cool new ways to work together – including my Strategic Growth Intensive and Your Backpocket CEO. Click here to take a peek if you are interested in potentially working together.
by Tina | May 5, 2023 | General Biz, Leadership, Team & Hiring
“If you want to be successful you have to focus on offering just one thing”
I can’t do just one thing. I’m simply not wired that way.
I’ve tried… oh how I’ve tried to do just one thing! But every time I try to put myself in a box – to find my “one thing” and focus on just that – I stall. I lose steam. I feel trapped.
Then I start the cycle all over again. “Maybe this thing over here is my one thing!” I focus on that for a while and then the same thing happens again. I stall. I lose steam. I feel trapped.
It hit me recently – what if the “one thing” model just isn’t for me?
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the one thing model. There is a tonne of value in focusing on just one thing. And I do think it’s important in the early stages of business to do just this.
But I’ve been in business now for over 20 years. I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve got loads of experience. And the truth is I like – and am really good at – a number of things!
- I’m amazing at helping business owners refine their offers to focus on their genius, make more money and attract new opportunities that are 100% aligned to who they are. (I did a refinement session on Monday with a client and she signed up a client the next day with her new offer! Hot damn, how cool is that?)
- I’m amazing at helping CEOs develop their leadership, hire the right people and empower their team to run the business without them.
- I’m amazing at helping leaders who have created a body of work turn that into a certification or licensing program that leaves a legacy and creates passive income.
I do all of these things already. I am working with clients in all of these areas at the moment. And I’m going to continue to do so.
No more trying to put myself in a box. I can offer all of these things and still be a successful business owner. I daresay it’s a lot more fun this way too!
I’m curious – do you consider yourself more of a “one thing” kind of business owner? Or a “many things” owner like me?
by Tina | Apr 7, 2023 | General Biz, Systems & Productivity
There are 3 Ds required for implementation:
Decisions
Driving
Doing
When it comes to getting stuff done we focus on the last D – doing. But it’s the first 2 Ds that are often missed and can cause problems.
Who is making the Decisions around what needs to be done? When? How and by Whom?
And who is Driving the process to make sure things are getting done? Managing the team? Making sure folks have what they need to do their best work?
Without the first 2 Ds in place the last D may not happen at all. And this can cause a huge amount of frustration.
If you are the one hiring – it’s important to consider these first 2 Ds. Are you OK to be the one deciding and driving? Or are you looking for someone who is going to take ownership of those first 2 Ds as well? If yes, your hiring process will want to ensure that the person/s you are hiring are willing and able to bring those Ds to the table. Otherwise you may end up hiring folks who are great at doing, but are relying on you to make all the decisions and drive everything to completion. <– This right here is a huge bottleneck for many small business CEOs.
If you are being hired – I invite you to consider: How can you include the first 2 Ds in what you offer?
Do you find yourself waiting for your clients to make decisions before you can move forward? To tell you what needs to be done? When and How? <– If yes, there is an opportunity here for you to bring decision making into your offer.
Do you find that your clients are always asking you for progress updates? Or you aren’t really clear on deadlines and find yourself juggling last minute requests and struggling to stay on top of it all? <– If yes, how could you bring more driving into your offers so that you are being more proactive in getting the work done (vs. feeling like you have to wait for others.)
When all 3 Ds are in place and being owned by the right person on the team, implementation runs smoothly and things are brought to life. Ooooo yea baby!
by Tina | Dec 16, 2022 | General Biz, Success Mindset
Most everyone I’ve been talking with lately has seen this trend occurring – especially in our online marketplace.
What used to work for sales is not working the same way as it was a year ago… or even a few months ago.
Put simply, buying habits are changing for a lot of folks.
On one hand, this can be a freaky thing… especially if we (or our clients) find ourselves in a cash crunch based on fewer sales than we were anticipating (ie: a launch that didn’t bring the same results as last time.) Combine that with the potential of a looming global recession that is being talked about daily in the news and it’s easy to think “yipes! maybe people aren’t buying anymore?”
People are still buying… just not in the same way.
I certainly don’t mean to sugarcoat anything here – especially if you or your clients are currently struggling. There are certainly some industries and businesses legitimately struggling right now.
But I do want to encourage you to also look at it from a different perspective:
When the marketplace changes it invites us as business owners to dig deeper, get creative and look at other strategies to bring in sales.
There are a couple of things that I’ve noticed…
Folks are taking more TIME to make buying decisions. Many of us are simply burnt out and tired – especially at this time of year – and we aren’t willing or able to make decisions in the moment. Now if we are used to or expecting the ‘quick sale’ (ie: lots of folks signing up during a launch) this can feel like a big problem.
I spoke with a woman last week who referred to this as the “slow yes”, which I thought was such a beautiful way to describe it. People may need more time to make a buying decision – so how can you work with them through the buying process to honor this, while also not letting them slip through the cracks? A mix of patience, persistence and solid follow-up strategies can work wonders for the “slow yes”.
Folks are being more DISCERNING with their purchases. I see this as a combination of two things – inflation and folks feeling burned by past investments. The cost of living is going up for many of us around the world, which naturally has us looking to be purposeful with our spending as we may not have as much money to spend as we used to. Likewise, if your prospects feel like they have spent a bunch of money before on past programs or coaches and didn’t get anything from it… they are naturally going to start questioning future purchases.
The solution to both of these things is the same – be crystal clear about the ROI that folks get from working with you. What exactly are they going to get as a result of joining your program or hiring you as a coach? Marketing hype is no longer enough to make the sale – we need to be able to back that up with results.
All of this to say – folks are still buying. I saw a post just this morning on Facebook about a live stream where people were buying $70K masterminds right on the call. I have colleagues that are having their best months ever (yes… even in December 😉
The money may not come as easy as it once did, but it is certainly still out there if we are willing to be creative and open to change. If we are willing to put in more effort than it might have taken before.
by Tina | Oct 21, 2022 | General Biz
I recently had a call with an amazing business owner who reached out to me looking for support around what’s next in her business.
This is someone whose business is in the mid 6-figure range, she takes home half of that personally as her CEO pay and is working only 10ish hours per week. <-- Pretty dreamy yes?
She started the call thinking that she wanted to keep growing the business and was looking for ways to do so. It came clear through our conversation that she'd already worked with other coaches and had some great strategies around how to keep growing her business.... but she didn't feel motivated to do any of those things. So she wasn't taking action on them.
And my response to her was "You don't have to keep growing your business if you don't want to".
<< Silence >> I could see it in her eyes that this had literally never even occurred to her before.
“I don’t have to keep growing my business if I don’t want to? I thought I had to keep grow grow growing and it’s never even occurred to me before that not growing is an option!” Her eyes lit up at this prospect.
I get it. So much of our world is about growing our business. We are supposed to hit 6-figures, then 7, then 8 and so on. And if we aren’t growing then something must be wrong. “If you aren’t growing you are dying” <-- ugh, one of my least favorite success cliches.
Yes, growth can be a good thing! BUT it's not the only thing.
When we hit a place where our clients love us, we are making money, and we aren't working ourselves to the bone.... the default question we are told to ask ourselves is:
"How can I keep growing?"
Whereas I would challenge you instead to ask yourself:
"What is the business I really want now?"
There is nothing wrong with wanting to keep things stable and sturdy - to enjoy the space you are already in without the additional pressure to "keep growing".
It's your business. You get to decide what success is (and isn't!). Even if that means not growing...
by Tina | Sep 23, 2022 | General Biz, Leadership, Team & Hiring
So here’s the thing – if you want to get yourself out of delivery you need to have a framework.
A clearly laid out path for how you create results for your clients. Your own methodology. Your process. Your “way to make it all happen.”
Without a framework one of two things will happen as you try to grow:
#1 – Delivery stays all on your shoulders. I know many a business owner who has an awesome team around them taking care of admin, tech, ops, sales, marketing and all the day-to-day running of the business BUT the delivery is still on them. They are the main ones leading their coaching groups, delivering their training or working directly with clients. If they don’t show up their clients aren’t getting full value.
#2 – You try to hire folks to “do what you do” in the business – team members for your agency or associate coaches for your programs – but it doesn’t work out. They aren’t able to deliver to your expectations OR they are delivering based on their own process & methodology (which may not match with yours!)
Your framework is the key to freedom – and a business that doesn’t rest solely on your shoulders.
It’s the key to creating a certification program. To training effective associate coaches for your programs. To building the team for your agency. Or to offering a combination of all of the above! (I had a call this week with a woman who is upleveling her agency to work with a certain type of business owner, and she is now looking to add a certification based on her framework so she has folks to refer the clients that she no longer wants to work with. )
It’s a way to have your work go beyond ‘just you’ and have it reach so many more folks than you could ever reach on your own.
It’s a beautiful expression of who you are and what you are meant to bring to the world through your work. <3
