Creating a Custom Strategy To Your Definition of Fully Booked with Michelle DeNio

Are you ready to create riches in your work and life? It's time for Shedding the Bitch Radio and TV, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches in life you deserve. So let's welcome your ball of fire host, Bernadette Boas.

Good day, good day, good day everyone, and welcome to another episode of Shedding the Bitch Radio. And of course, I am Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching. How are you today? We have such a fun conversation, especially if you are an entrepreneur and maybe, maybe you're struggling with putting together that plan, that strategy that you need to ensure that you get fully booked in your business, then this is definitely the episode you want to be listening to. And I'm going to be introducing our guests in just a moment. But before I do, I just have a few thank yous. And that would be first to, uh, one of our longtime sponsors, North Georgia Tax Solutions. Debbie Snelling and her team provide full-service financial and tax services to small to corporate-sized clients and actually individuals all over the country. And she does a bang-up fabulous job. And if you bring her onto your team, she will do the same for you. I've worked with her for like 10 years. So when you reach out at ngtaxsolutions.com, be sure to say hi for me. All right. But that is NG Tax Solutions at ngtaxsolutions.com. I also need to thank our latest sponsor that I'm so thrilled about. He's a longtime business associate of mine. And actually he's my own personal roofer. And so he just absolutely has loved what we've been doing here in the Shedding the Bitch community over the last, I've known him for about 8 years, 9 years. And so he wanted to support and he does fabulous. And I'm talking about like top-notch service for his customers. If you should have any roofing or home needs and you can always reach out to him, it's Alvin Johnson, but he goes by Jay and you can reach out to him. At, uh, what do I have? Up-top-roofingatl@yahoo.com. Now I also need to thank our, um, new and ongoing listeners. For the new ones, you've been finding us on any one of your podcast streaming services, on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel, and across our social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter under Shedding the Bitch. At the same time, it is our longtime listeners who have been sharing and rating and reviewing and, uh, subscribing and following, um, across all of those platforms. And therefore our new viewers and listeners are finding us, which is absolutely fantastic. And we, we really would love for you to continue doing that so we can get, um, eyes and ears from as many women around the globe as possible. So they too can create riches in their work and life that they deserve. Um, now let's introduce our conversation for today, shall we? All right. Now the conversation we're gonna have is all around, as I mentioned, creating a business strategy customized to your definition, which is important, your definition of fully booked. Every entrepreneur defines success and fully booked differently. Your business growth strategy should be as unique as your definition of business and success. There is no right way to grow and scale a business. I absolutely love this. We're going to talk about this. Focusing on what you love, where you excel, and positioning yourself as the go-to expert in your industry will get you fully booked with ease. Now, what we want you to be listening for, all right, is defining your definition of success. So start thinking about that, uh, reflecting on what you love and eliminating the shoulds. Okay, interesting. And breaking down your business strategy into bite-sized actionable steps. So let me introduce the— our guest. Michelle D'Aniello is a strategist with a passion for life and business excellence that works with busy entrepreneurs and small business leaders. She helps them reframe challenges to create a bigger impact on the world while sharing their beautiful gifts. She works closely with her clients to get past feeling stuck, accelerate their growth, and move forward with a clear and realistic strategy. Michelle spent over 10 years in the corporate arena, including business operations and development, sales, leadership training, management, time management, and finance, providing her a— with a wealth, a wealth of excellence and experience. Her passion lies in coaching others along their paths to successful transformation, to identify objectives, attain goals, and get fully booked and beyond. So welcome to the show, Michelle.

Thank you so much for being here. What an incredible welcome. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to have this conversation.

Oh, I am too, because there is nothing better than trying to work the shoulds, which I am really anxious to hear about, but really helping individuals, especially female entrepreneurs, um, with that fully booked, with that strategy, with that plan. But before we get there, share with us, if you would, a little bit about yourself, about who Michelle is.

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to. So I am Michelle Denial. I am in Southwest Florida. I'm originally from Upstate New York. My husband and I were born raised in the coldest, one of the darkest, grayest cities in upstate New York. And we just decided, um, about 7 years ago that we had had enough of winter. And we literally packed up our lives. We left our homes, we left our jobs, we left our families, everything, um, strictly to live retirement. We had, you know, we realized that like life is very, very short. We had some things kind of go on and we realized just really truly how precious life is and how short it is. And waiting for the 'when we retire, when we retire, we're going to go to the beach and we're going to, you know, go golfing.' And it's like, why wait? Why wait? Let's live retirement. And so we moved to Florida with no jobs, no home. And so we've completely revamped and made our lives here. It's been 7 years, and I cannot even imagine life differently at this point. And it was scary, and it's been a wild ride, but it's It's been absolutely amazing. So that's me kind of on the personal side. And on the business side, I've been, um, a business strategist and coach for 4 years now. Um, actually heading into my 5th year. It's been— that's been a wild ride too. I think any journey of entrepreneurship is a wild ride, but again, I wouldn't change it. I've learned a lot. I've, you know, failed forward a lot, and it's been, uh, It's, it's just, it's been fun. I, I've met some of the most amazing people online that I just can't even imagine my life without.

That is, that is fabulous. Just absolutely fabulous. And to think, because between all those words, everyone, was courage and bravery and self-belief and just being kind of open to, you know, kind of jumping in and seeing where, where she lands. And I just absolutely have to applaud that because she's being humble not to say all those words, but I will for her.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, so you have this corporate career and it's fabulous around all the key, key areas that someone would want to come to you for: business strategy, sales, leadership, time management, finance. Was it all of that anchoring there that made you focus in this one area around business strategy, or what really propelled you to kind of take that on?

Yeah, for me, it was always, you know, the strategic side of everything is what is it? What are we trying to accomplish? Where are we trying to go? I mean, I think in your corporate career, any, any time I worked in manufacturing and production. So with manufacturing, it was always a like, what do we have? What are we trying to get out the door? How can we do it in the most efficient way, prof— you know, and profitable way possible? And so that all falls into play with entrepreneurship in the same way, is like looking at everything. I just realized as I started coaching people, it was constantly the question of what are you trying to do? Where are we trying to go? Why are you trying to do this? And there's always a strategy behind everything, whether it's a small little strategy or a really large, like full long-term strategy. It's understanding what is the operation that needs to happen. Is this profitable? You know, is it going to take you where you want to go? And how are you going to get there? And all of those key, you know, the key roles, obviously sales, leadership, time management, productivity, all of those things play a role into entrepreneurship as well. Because most of the time, those are things that we don't necessarily have, right? Like most entrepreneurs, they have a skill, they have a passion, they have a love for something. But understand understanding the actual strategy for growth, um, is not always— and so being able to just ask the hard questions is really where it came in.

Yeah, no, that's fabulous because, you know, what I hear on a regular basis, and I'm sure you do too, is I just want sales, but with every more clients, right, more clients without the foundation that you're talking about, without that strategy, without that plan, it's just going to be an uphill battle, wouldn't you think?

Yeah. And the thing is, more clients doesn't necessarily mean more money, and it doesn't always necessarily mean more time. I see it all the time where people are— they're saying yes to every client, and next thing you know, they're working 60, 80 hours a week. Well, that isn't— you're not really making the money that you think you're making when you're putting in 80 hours a week. If you were clocking into a job at 80 hours, you would never do it. So, yes, there's a level of extra commitment when you're trying to grow a business, and I'm all for that, but it's also making sure that you're doing it efficiently, that you're being profitable, that you really truly are making money, right? Like, that you're growing your business. You're not just being busy, right? Right.

And you're just not serving without being compensated for it, right?

Exactly.

How many, how many of your, how many of your network Do you see going down that path?

A lot. A lot. What I also find is a lot of entrepreneurs don't really track their time. They don't track their hours. So they just look at that big number at the end of the month and it's like, oh, it's a— but on paper it says I made $5,000 this month, whatever it is, the number. But then when you calculate it out and I'm like, okay, but how many hours did that take you to get there? Do you realize you've literally made $11 an hour?

And I have to ask this because this has been a common theme of conversation over the last several weeks. How many of them have also, speaking about profit, have also are still like even in their early stages to mid stages, they're still thinking they could try to get everything free, like they can get that free app they can get without making the investment. How much of a struggle do you see that from your, from your potential or your clients when they come work with you?

Yes, yes, yes. It's actually funny. I just actually posted about this. I think yesterday on LinkedIn about the investment, you know, in understanding. I think it's a mindset shift. It's a mindset shift from understanding that it truly is an investment when you take action versus an expense. And so many people just view it as an expense, that it's just going to hinder their bottom line, it's going to take away money from their business, when the reality is, is that when you actually take action behind the investment, the return is so much more than what you can actually take for an expense. And, you know, free is good, you know, there's a lot of free apps. There's certain things I have a lot of softwares where I still use the free version because I don't need, I don't, you know, so there's a fine line between people paying for things because they think it's going to make life easier and it's going to magically grow their business versus understanding where and when and how to invest properly. Yeah.

Yeah. I had to ask that just because, and I didn't even see your post, but I'm going to go look for it after we're done. That's for sure. So what do you think is the number one struggle that entrepreneurs have in their business?

Yeah, I would say the biggest struggle I see is following the shoulds, following, getting wrapped up in what everybody else is doing, getting wrapped up in what, you know, the shiny object syndrome, getting wrapped up in imposter syndrome and following a path that truly is not in alignment with them. And then they don't see the results. And a lot of times they don't see the results because you're executing on something that doesn't feel good, that is not something you would have ever done. You know, just for an easy example, you know, everybody says you should do video. Well, if you don't present well on video, it's never gonna get— it's never gonna work, right? Like, because your audience is not gonna resonate with it because you're not loving it, you're not putting your best energy into it. And all of these things, like the shoulds, are what is going to keep keep you stuck because the shoulds, just because it worked for somebody else does not mean it's going to work for you. And it also doesn't mean that you can't build your business in the way you want to because they all work. Every business model works. There is proof out there that proves every business model works.

Right. And I do love that part of your whole platform is the fact that Every bit— your business should be custom and designed around you, not around what everyone else is doing, or not even around what, you know, the industry, uh, says that it should. Uh, and, and I would expect that your clients— do they welcome that, or do they get a little bit intimidated by it? Because it is scary to kind of be like, oh, I have to make— be the decision maker of all these things.

It, it can be scary, but my goal is to really try to bring out what it is that they really truly love and how they best serve, right? Because your clients are going to get the best results when you show up in your— and serve in the best way. So if you serve best in a one-to-one format, then stick with that. You know, there are ways to scale one-to-one in time, different things. You don't have— if you don't serve well in the one-to-many, like the group format or the membership or the DIY. So it's really once they figure out, like, yeah, you're right, I don't enjoy that. I don't like serving a big group of people. I don't like having 10 people I have to answer to at one time in a group. Then it goes from, like, a little bit scary to this immediate sense of relief and excitement to be like, wow, yes, this sounds so good. Like, yes, I can show up like this. I love serving this way, right?

Because it's me. It's authentically me versus me trying to be someone that I'm not just because I think that I should. I like that.

Exactly. Should. It really helps to avoid those down, right? Like, for a while, you can stay really high level. Like, you can keep doing what everybody says you should be doing for a while, but eventually you're going to hit a wall because eventually it's just going to feel so draining to have to maintain that level of energy that you just don't enjoy, and you're going to hit a brick wall. It happens. You hit that burnout, you hit that brick wall, and then it's like starting over all the time.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you have other examples of what the, what the shoulds are that people should avoid?

I think should, especially if you're building a business online, I know, I mean, whether it's online or in person, it doesn't really matter, but it's, you know, the shoulds of feeling like you have to be everywhere all the time, right? Like, You don't have to be on all the social media platforms. You don't have to serve every client. You know, the niching down to say you only serve women that are between the ages of 30 and 50. Well, not every female between the ages of 30 and 50 is going to be a good fit for you, right? Like, it's okay to not define your ideal client like that. It's okay to not define your, you know, how you want to work. And the shoulds too, being that you get to define your own schedule. You know, you don't have to get up at 5 AM to be successful. You don't have to read 65 pages a day to be a success, right? Like, there are other things that you can do. It's all these shoulds. And, you know, so many people I see like, I gotta be part of the 4:30 AM club if I'm gonna be successful, right? Well, no, you don't.

Yeah, you'll see yourself at the doctor's office really soon.

Exactly. That landed me actually on bed rest for 10 weeks.

Yeah.

To be part of the 6 AM club. It's just not when my body best functions.

Right, right. Yeah, I've, I've had my burnouts, that's for sure, you know. And, and that's when you learn to kind of what works for you and what doesn't. And, and I'm expecting that you kind of guide them, whether that's one-on-one or in groups., group, uh, what am I trying to say, sessions. Yeah, that wasn't the word I was looking for, but that's what's coming out. Um, but you guide them through this because what would you say percentage-wise is mindset or is the skill and strategy of, of, of being an entrepreneur?

Oh gosh, I think they go hand in hand. I would easily say they, they 50/50, probably mindset outweighs strategy in maybe probably even closer to like 70/30 in a lot of ways because a lot of what we're doing is flipping our mindset. Being an entrepreneur is a mindset shift that we're not necessarily accustomed to. I mean, all of it's all new. It's all a learning curve, you know, it's all an experience for everybody. Even if you've been an entrepreneur for 20 years, that next level of growth requires a whole new mindset. So for me, I like to ask a lot of questions. That's a lot of where I'm— is why, you know, I might— I probably will ask 7 layers deep about why. Because what I find too is that we answer, we tend to answer with the surface level, you know. And then when you can ask that question again, why, and you can ask it again, but why do you want to do this, when you can really get to the heart of it and the root of it. I mean, even for— if I'm giving an example, a client of mine wanted to try a new offer. And I kept asking her, but why? Like, what is the point? What are your— what's the goal? Why do you want to do this? And she finally, like, I think it was probably 20 minutes, she finally said to me, I don't know, it just seems easy. It feels like it's an easy option. And I'm like, but is it easy? Because you got to do this, you've got to do this, you've got to do this, you've got— and she's like, no, I guess you're right, you know, I don't know. Like, she didn't have— so when you can keep asking yourself, why am I really feeling called to do this? Is this something I really want to do, or is it something I'm feeling like I should? Somebody else is doing it.

Why? Why? It's like being a kid. Were you like— you were one of the kids, like, you know, when you were a kid?

But why?

Why, Mom? Why? Why, Mom?

Probably.

Yeah, I think all kids are.

Now, You—

your— the intro also talks about the fact that you really help, uh, people not only to define their business and, you know, the approach that they want within their business, but then you get really niched and specific about the fact that you can define what fully booked means for you. And I love this. Um, and so can you kind of explain that more? And, and then how do you go about getting your client to really think about how they want to define fully booked.

Yeah, absolutely. I would love it. It for me, what I saw a lot in the online space when I, if over the years was a lot of people fight for big numbers, right? Like these big revenue numbers, $10K months, $5K months, you know, whatever. It doesn't matter. Right. But the reality is, is like there's not a lot of context behind that. How many clients does it, you know, do you have the time and, you know, do you even have the capacity? Is your business even set up to hit those numbers? And so the reality is for me is that when you really look at what it is is fully booked. My definition, how I help clients define fully booked is how many hours do you wanna work? Not how many hours do you have available? How many hours do you wanna work? Mm-hmm. How much money do you wanna make? And how many clients do you need to take on to make those two be in alignment? Right? Like to say I'm only working 15 hours and I'm making XYZ number of dollars and they're in alignment. That is to me that definition of fully booked.

Mm-hmm.

But that looks different for everybody. Everybody wants to work a different hour. Some people want to work 40, 50 hours. Some people only have 10, 15 hours available because they've got little ones at home.

Right.

You know, so really looking at that definition and making sure they're in alignment, because what I oftentimes see too is that your revenue number does not physically match up. We like, there is, it's physically not possible for you to take on the number of clients based on the packages or services that you have and the hours you have available. To hit that number. So really looking at how do you define that and getting to a place where they are in alignment, one that feels exciting, and then knowing that once you get there, then you grow and you change, right? There's a different strategy once you get there, whether that's raising prices, whether that's adding passive income streams. I mean, there's a slew of different things that you can do, but it's really about looking at how many hours do you want to work, How much money do you want to make and how many clients do you need to fill those two things?

Yeah.

And does—

when I hear that, especially when I hear about making sure your revenue and the number of clients align, that it comes down to pricing, right? And then all of a sudden when it comes to pricing, one's worthiness comes into effect. How much work do you— you talked about, you know, what percentage do you think, 70/30? But what have you found to be the biggest challenge when it comes to worthiness that a client feels of themselves?

It's, yeah, it's value. And pricing to me is so personal. It really is so personal. What one person perceives is very expensive, another person is going to perceive as affordable, and another person is going to perceive as cheap. And so it really falls back to Understand where do you feel the most confident? Because you're going to be able to sell your product and your service or your offer when you feel the most confident. If you've got it priced too high where you feel like you're constantly needing to give a discount or you're constantly, you start to shy away and, well, my price is, I mean, I had this the other day with, I was like, well, what's the investment? And she was like, mm, and I finally said, just tell me your price. Like, just own it. If you feel good about it, just own it. Tell me what it is. Like, it's okay. But whatever that is, is that you have to own your— and feel confident in it, knowing that you can always raise it up, right? Like, you can always raise it up as long as your industry and your market— obviously you've got to have a market that is ready and willing— but when you can own that and you can own that confidence, there is a— the perception of value and the perception of worth to me really gets eliminated because your confidence in it, in yourself, speaks volumes to your client. You're not getting on, you know, it's, here's who I am, here's what I do, and here's how you can work with me. That's my goal. When you can speak those 3 things so clearly, so confidently, and with such execution, there is really no question of value. And if somebody does question it, then they're not your right fit client, right? And it's about finding that balance of Where is it that you feel confident? Because it's— I'd rather see you price yourself a little bit lower, obviously still with value, and you're still valuing your time where you're not making $10, $12 an hour by no means at all, but knowing that you're going to confidently sell it and then raise it up, you know, 3 months down the line, 6 months down the line, versus putting yourself in a position where you're pricing yourself so high because again everybody says you should and then you can't sell it.

And it's much more effective and easier to go up than it is to come down.

It's kind of right. And if you feel like you constantly have to give a discount or you're constantly running a special or something of that sort, then you're creating a culture around that where nobody's ever going to value you at full price because they're just going to wait for your next, your next special.

Retail knows that really well.

Exactly.

You know, retail commodity, they know that really well because they just kind of all commoditize themselves very, very quickly., by being a follower and not a leader. Yeah. Um, now what do you feel is most important for your, uh, clients, uh, when it comes to getting clarity? What, what process maybe, or steps do you send them through to help them kind of really discover what they might not even really understand for themselves?

It's a series of questions. I have a workbook that is It's, it's deep. It's a, it's a lot of questions. And again, it's diving beyond that surface level. But really, one of the things that I find gives the most clarity is really defining what you don't enjoy. The clients that you didn't have the best experience with, the services that you don't love, the things that you find yourself procrastinating on, because those are the things that are telling you this is not a good fit for you and your business, right? You can look at it and a lot of times there's, well, there's two sides to that. You can look at it and say, do I not enjoy this because it's pushing me out of a comfort zone that I'm not willing to go out of? Or am I not enjoying this because I just don't like it? Because if you just don't like it, the reality is, is that it's not a good fit. It's not. You're never going to like it. You know, there are certain industries, there's certain niches, there's certain personalities that you just are not a good fit for. So identifying those is sometimes an easier path to really figuring out what it is you do love.

Right.

And because it's easy to say, like, oh, I love this, or I like this, or like— but when you can look at the things that— what are the things that sit on your to-do list forever from a client standpoint? Like, what do you find yourself procrastinating? Is it just because you don't enjoy it? Is it because you don't understand it? Do you feel like you need help there? Then you can ask yourself, those questions, but sometimes it's, I just don't like it. And that in itself creates so much clarity, and it's actually so freeing and so uplifting to be able to say, no, you're right, I don't enjoy that. I don't ever want to do that again.

Right, right. And, and so what has your kind of list included in the past as you've worked toward building your business?

Yeah, there's certain industries that I don't excel in. Um, it's— I have found that if I cannot be a client of my clients, that is really important to me. Um, the photography industry per se, like, I just— it's not one that I can understand from the consumer perspective so much, so I don't— it's not one that I like to be in. There's certain social media channels that I do not enjoy being on, and I don't need to. I don't care that everybody says that every— oh, you could find clients on there. I don't like it. I don't want to be there. I don't love doing the one-to-many in a sense of having a group program that serves 20 people at the same time. It's not my style. I don't enjoy it. I've been there, tried it. And I don't like it. I don't enjoy putting out DIY offers. I really love to be and know that my clients are like, I can help them. I want to see them implement. I want to ask some questions. So putting out passive DIY offers, not something I enjoy. You know, they take a lot of time to create too, right? You know, and I don't like being in that creation zone. I don't like being wrapped up in the tech side of things to get things. So I realized I love being one-to-one. I love doing coffee chats. I love getting to know people. I love networking. So those things are what fuel my business. Created packages around the things that I know that I best serve. I best serve on video. I best serve when I can dive deep with you. I best serve long-term, so I don't have a short-term package really. So there's a lot of those, those things that I think when you can look back at, no, I'm not excited about this group program. Well, why? Because I don't like serving that way. I find it very difficult to give good feedback to everybody, and there's usually one person that dominates a group, and it just, it doesn't, I don't like it. And so I think when you can identify those things, it's easy, but I love my one-to-one program, so I could talk about it all day long. Yes, we can.

Can't we? And we, and we will, we'll continue talking. Um, so we did talk about, we did talk about pricing and we did, you know, and how that really relates to worthiness and value and, um, that, that little, you know, formula of making sure it's, you know, aligned to your, to your goals. But how would you go about, uh, walking someone through actually structuring their their offerings, their products and services to then be able to create a price for them that is, that does work for them?

Okay. Yeah. So I have, I do have a formula that I look at. So it really, obviously it looks at how much money, what is your goal, right? Like what is your target for what are you trying to make? And then what is, how many hours do you have available that you wanna work?

Oh, okay.

And so then there's basic math, you know, it adds in expenses for investments and it adds in taxes obviously. And adds in time off, etc. So this is whole calculator that I have that basically then says in order for you to hit this revenue goal, you need to be making XYZ dollars per hour, which again, I try to get away from the dollar per hour. Yeah. Then we take that number, look at the services you wanna provide for a client. So whether it's monthly, whether it's one-to-one, whether a membership, etc., how many hours are you invested into this said package, and then take that number, multiply it by the hourly rate, and then look at it from a perspective to say, is this marketable? Like, is your market— is this within market industry? Like, people are willing to invest in this? Do you feel confident in it? Is it too much? Is it too little? And then reevaluating the package, looking at from a, um, like, how many hours you're spending at it. So it's like a very generalized pricing structure that I use. It's, again, it's designed to at least look at and make sure that you're setting yourself up to hit those revenue goals. Now oftentimes, sometimes when we put a package together, it's like, oh yeah, but this is going to take me 40 hours, and then the price would be astronomical. Okay, well then let's look at how we can pare this down so that you're still giving the client what they want, you're still benefiting and creating enough value around it, and you're still being fairly compensated and wearing down the—

wearing down the product.

The product. Exactly. Because a lot of people want to give the world, right? Well, you can give the world, but a lot of people aren't going to necessarily match and pay for the world. So you've got to make sure that your industry matches that, right? Like, does that look— and so a lot of times it's paring back. Or in saying, okay, but let's not do this, but we can add this or something of that sort. Really looking at making sure you're still serving your client, obviously in the best way, but in a way that's also not going to nickel and dime you financially or time-wise.

Absolutely. And do you have any views on, uh, for our entrepreneurs, any views on how many? You know, some say only 1 or 2, and then others say have a you know, kind of a pyramid of a variety of products. Do you have any views of your own on that?

I tend to go with like a 3-core offer setup, but I also don't believe in offering all 3 of them at the same time. So it's like a, depending on how you tier your offers and what it looks like, it's either like a DIY, a done with you, and a done for you. Style offer, a, like, a one-off, meaning like a project-based, like for me a power hour versus a long-term coaching commitment versus retainer, you know. So again, like, they might go in together with one another. I do not believe in having, uh, 3, 4, 5, 10 offers that completely negate one another, you know, that doesn't serve you or your client. More is not always better. I really am— you really only need one. You really only need one core offer that you feel good about, um, because there's always room for customization. However, you don't want to be customizing every single offer. So one core offer, maybe two, one that you run all the time, one that maybe you only promote quarterly, you know, it's like a, some kind of program or a workshop or something of that sort. So I definitely, 3 is pretty much my max, what I would consist, what I would consider.

Because have you, haven't you seen entrepreneurs who, you know, if one of those offers doesn't work, then the next thing you know they want to add a 4th different version of that, maybe at a cheaper price, maybe whatever the case, and then that didn't work, so now I'm going to offer this this other one, and they're just kind of flip-flopping all over the place. Have you found that with your potential clients and clients before? Yeah, I just—

I actually just had a client when I started working with her, I said, well, send me everything you have, like send me all your offers. It was 40 lines of offers, and a lot of them were this like similar package, but like, oh, they only wanted 1 session and not 2, or they wanted 5 sessions and not 6. And So it's this constant customization. It's impossible to manage. It's impossible to scale.

Right.

Impossible to track. And it doesn't, you know, you really want to get to a point. Again, this is about, to me, getting fully booked in a way that defines you is that here's who I am, here's what I do, and here's how you can work with me. If that's not a good fit for you, that's okay. Because I want to fill my pipeline and my roster with people that align with what I do, because these offers that I've created are me showing up as my best self in the way I best serve, bringing my skills and expertise to the table in the best way. If that's not a good fit for a prospect or a client, that's okay, because that means you can't serve them in your best way.

Yes. And there's more fish in the sea. There's more fish in the sea.

Yeah.

I'm like, wow. Okay. But there was one thing that that you had just said too, and I'm gonna— oh, um, nope. Oh gosh, you had said it and I was like, oh, I want to touch, touch on that. Um, oh no, it had to do with being fully booked.

Okay, but the right clients. We were talking about the right clients versus all the clients.

Yeah. Oh yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Um, all right, so you had talked about niching and micro-niching, um, and at the same time, I'm sure— have you heard, like, do your clients say, oh, I can serve everyone?

Yeah.

And, um, and you, like you explaining, are like, no, no, no, no, we need to get down to, you know, specific, specific specifics. Um, where do you see, kind of the, uh, strategic partnering, affiliates, um, and other type of joint ventures fit in to, to someone's business strategy when it comes to— they find their niche or they have multiple niches and now they want to kind of expand their reach. And therefore, what do you— do you suggest, um, and maybe it's at a certain stage of their business growth, but do you help your clients with joint ventures, strategic partnerships, affiliates, and that kind of thing?

Yeah, I'm all for that. I mean, I 100% believe in that, even in— because again, I want everybody to look at it as how can I best serve my client. If your package, you know, if you know, like for example, let's say you're a copywriter, okay? But you know that actually the des— like implementing the copy is one of the hardest parts. If you can create a strategic partnership that says, okay, I'm going to write the copy, but I also have somebody that's going to help you implement it, I have a web designer that's going to create the web, you know, or whatever, the social, whatever it is, that increases value to you, to, to your client from you. Because the reality is, is that they know, like, and trust you. We've all heard those three words a million times, right? So Why not be that person that says, no, I know, here's what you need, and I already have the person for you. I know exactly— that is such an incredible value add. So being able to find those people that serve in a way that you don't serve and that have the same level of client, the same type of audience, absolutely. The affiliate— affiliate is not— I, I'm on the fence with affiliate marketing. I think it can be done in a really strategic way. I think it can be done in a really poor, poor way, but I am 100% for collaboration, referral partners, and strategic partnerships. And sometimes even, um, putting it into your price, like bundling it in so you're— the client's only paying one person, and then you either subcontract it out, you know what I mean? So they're not having to come up with additional income to— and additional funds to hire this person in order to implement your plan. That's something that's really, um, really, really near and dear to my heart, because if somebody's paying me to help them put a plan in place, I want to make sure that I don't come up with a plan that says, okay, but by the way, now you need to hire this person, this person, and there's— no, I have them in my arsenal, right? They're in my back pocket. I've got you settled, and you can— that's a huge value add to clients. So anytime you can do that is really powerful.

Yeah, and I, and I did remember my real question. That was kind of That was kind of one of those, I need a mind.

Yeah, a minute.

Yeah. My, my question I really want to also understand is you talk about being an expert, being seen as an expert in your field. All right. And we did talk about, you know, some of the, some of the ways to do that. But when it comes to really being an expert in the field and how you're contributing, where you're contributing, what you're doing to, you know, to kind of stand out like that, what are your recommendations that you make to someone to start positioning themselves as an expert?

Get very clear on one or two things that you want to be known for. What is it? Like, that's my main question is, what do you want to be known for? Um, so whatever that is, whether it's you want to be known as the best conversion copywriter out there for sales pages and launch, you know, whatever, or if you want to be known as the podcast launch strategist, the one that helps you get your podcast from idea to launch, or what is it that you want to be known for? And stick with that. You do not need to serve the masses. Figure out where your skills are best, you know, what do you— how do you best serve? Like, what do you love to do? Again, what do you love to do? If you do not enjoy writing social copy, don't do it. Get known as somebody who writes sales pages only, you know, for example, or whatever that is. And get very, very specific on what exactly it is that you want to be known looking for and pare that down and get very specific to that. It doesn't mean that you can't do other things, right? But it means you're getting seen as the expert. So when somebody says, oh my gosh, I've got this idea for a podcast, you are the first person that becomes top of mind because all of your content, everything you talk about, everything you do focuses around helping people launch their podcast. And so you get known as the expert. That's what you Everybody knows it. And so it doesn't mean you can't help them manage it on the back end, but you're known from getting that idea to launch whatever, for example. And so for me, it's long story answer is get very specific on what it is you want to be known for, what skills you bring to the table and what services you want to provide. That's going to get you known as the expert.

Nice. Well, now I might have some of our viewers and listeners kind of going, Oh my gosh, I'm so confused. I'm so stuck.

What do I do?

What do they do?

Well, start with a series of questions. Start asking yourself, why are you feeling stuck? That would be number one. No, and I do have— obviously I've got some programs that help you get unstuck, but really it's asking yourself— first step is figuring out why are you feeling stuck? What is it? What truly is keeping you stuck? Number 1. Number 2, figuring it out. Where do you really want to go? I like to use the GPS analogy. It's easy. You have a starting point when you get in your car, in your driveway, you're in the driveway and you tell the GPS, I'm trying to get here. And then the GPS gives you the plan to get there.

Right.

You have to know where you're going. Most people just leave the driveway and start turning. They have no end destination in mind. So figure out what that destination is. Your destination should be fully booked, obviously, but how are you going to— if you're stuck, that's the first step, is figuring out why. Where am I starting? Where am I trying to go?

Yep.

Then you can identify the obstacles that are standing in your way.

Absolutely. And since you did mention programs, um, you have one particular program, um, your Destination Fully Booked VIP day. Would you like to share some information in regards to that?

Yeah. So I, like I said, I, I love to use the GPS analogy. So everything to me is, is GPS related. And so I have a 5-part framework called Your Route to Fully Booked, R-O-U-T-E. And it's a, it's a process, it's a framework that you, that guides you through reflection, which is the series of questions to gain that clarity, organization, to really understand and organize everything you've done up to this point, the data that you already have that you probably don't understand how to do anything with, upleveling your offers, defining that target, and executing on it. So Destination Fully Booked is a VIP day, one-on-one with me going through that framework to truly walk you through each step and get that clarity and define what it is, where's destination fully booked, and create the route to get you there.. And it really is a step-by-step, very definitive process, but completely customizable. The framework is there to be your guide. How you, how you define it is up to you. If we're going from Florida to New York, let's do it. If we're going from Florida to California, we can do that too. You truly can customize your route to get there. Yeah.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Sweet. This has been fabulous. All right. Any last tip or two that you'd like to share, or, or closing comments to really help our, um, female entrepreneurs understand that they're worth it, they're deserving, and they can get fully booked?

Yeah, absolutely. My biggest tip is truly look within. If you are feeling burnt out, if you are feeling stuck, if you are feeling like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm never going to get beyond this point, I really encourage you to take some time and sit and really look at everything that you've been doing in your business and identify, is this something I really want to do, or am I doing it because I feel like I should? If at any point you can't answer why with another reason, with anything besides, you know, because I want this, or, you know what I mean, like, if at any point it says, well, I feel like I should, or XYZ person says I should, I want you to really consider eliminating it because I think you're going to find a very empowering level of freedom that comes with eliminating the shoulds and really focusing on how do you best show up? What do you want your business to look like? You're an entrepreneur. You did this so that you could define it. Don't let me define it or anybody else define it. You sit and you define it and look within and start with yourself because when you can start and look within, The rest will follow.

Michelle Denio, thank you so much. I so appreciate it. It's been fabulous.

I appreciate the conversation. Thank you for asking me so many great, amazing questions. And, you know, if anybody else has any questions, I'm an open book. Please, please, please feel free to just hit me up and send me an email, shoot me a message. I'm happy to answer any questions that anybody may have, and I really appreciate you taking the time to have me on your show today.

Oh, you're so welcome. MichelleD'AnielloConsulting.com, everybody. Please check her out and take all these tips, but at the same time, get someone like herself to help you along the way. All right. Thank you so much, Michelle. I appreciate it completely.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Take care. Have a great day.

You too. And for everyone here within the Shedding the Bitch community, thank you so much. This show is being brought to you by Ball of Fire Coaching. NG Tax Solutions and Up Top Roofing. And we will look forward to having you right back here next Tuesday at noon Eastern time for another episode of Shedding the Bitch Radio. Take care, everybody. Bye.

Thank you for taking part in Shedding the Bitch Radio and TV with Bernadette Boas. We would love to know what your biggest takeaway was. Go to Shedding the Bitch on Facebook or YouTube and leave a comment. You can also Also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast and YouTube so you don't miss a single episode of the show. And with your input, we can help other powerhouse women just like you find the show and decide if it's right for them. Learn more about Bernadette at balloffirecoaching.com.