How to use STRATEGY in business and life....w/ Bernadette Boas

Hello and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negative mindsets so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches you want in life. Join us here live every Tuesday at noon Eastern and dialogue with us at 818-572-2910. You can also chat with us at blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitch or share your stories on our website at sheddingthebitch.com. What Whatever the bitch is that's holding you back from living your life to the fullest, it's not worth giving up the riches in life that you deserve. So call in now and let Bernadette Boas know what's holding you back. 818-572-2910. Good day, good day, good day everyone. How are you on this one wonderful Tuesday? It's Tuesday at noon here in Georgia. It is hot and it's getting even hotter. We had actually a great break over the weekend, beautiful low 80s type weather, but now we're back into, into the heat of the summer. But I hope you are having a beautiful day wherever you might be around the world. I have to admit, today's been one of those up and down type of days. I get woken up at about 6:00 AM, not far from my actual alarm time, so to speak, with Coco. So my new little dog that you hear now, hear about and might hear from, because she has quite a little bark on her. But all of a sudden I wake up to her, what seems to be like gasping for breath, and it went on for a good several minutes. And actually then stopped and started again. And I recall someone explained to me that, you know, it might be reverse sneezes, which Charlie never did. In the 12 years I had Charlie, he— I never had him experience that. So it was kind of freaky. And Coco is a tiny, so I text and called my sister who has a Chihuahua, and she kind of filled me on in what was going on. But quite a little scary episode, but it also proved to me how much in this short period of time I've had her, and I've, you know, when I found her tied to a trash can, how much she already has impacted my heart. Because I was shoes on, bra on, as you can imagine, waking up, you know, a deep sleep. You're not really dressed to go running to over to a vet office, but fortunately my sister was able to calm me down and just have me wait it out, and, and I did, and she was back to normal. So then, not even, I don't know, maybe an hour or 2 hours later, there was great celebration when the final last 3 or 4 of the 13 boys and their coach in Thailand were trapped in a cave for over 2 weeks were actually freed and rescued and all in hospital and on to see their parents and all those wonderful things. I mean, what a— what an experience. What a heroic deed. What an opportunity to really celebrate. I don't care what anybody says, the ones that want to live under you know, the negative black doom of the world. That this was definitely a demonstration in the last couple weeks of how people from different religions, different cultures, different beliefs, you know, different everything, can come together and really just do it for love and do it for boys and their coach and a country and the world. And it was an amazing thing to be watching for the last couple weeks. Later I'm sitting there thinking, okay, you know, this could make an awesome, you know, great story, great film. And of course someone's already kind of swept it up, and we'll be seeing, I'm sure, a number of documentaries and maybe even a cinematic movie around it. It was quite the feat, let me tell you. So congratulations to the boys. Congratulations to the Coach, congratulations to all the rescuers and all those people, even out there like yourself and myself, who were praying each and every day throughout the day that this ended in a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful result. And hopefully— I understand a couple of them might be dealing with some lung issues, and hopefully that's just very short-term and they're able to gain their health and, and go back to playing soccer and just life. So hip hip hip hip hooray for everybody there. At the same time, this past several days, this past week, there's been quite a display of even sports between the Wimbledon and the World Cup. As I was watching both of them and various games, various players various backgrounds, I also realized that sports is a great, great learning ground and great place to learn lessons about life, about business, about humanity, about even kind of lessons learned about how we are actually unconsciously talking and treating and behaving So let me explain what I mean. So I was watching Wimbledon, and fortunately Wimbledon, you know, the network, I'm not going to say who it is because I can't even remember, don't want to get it wrong, but they were able to do split screens for the many, you know, games that were going on, the many matches that were going on at the same time. So I happened to be watching the Halep versus Heshawi, and I hope I don't get that wrong. I listened to how you pronounce it multiple times this morning, but it was the women's top 16, and so Halep was the seed, you know, the top seed, definitely to win. So I'm watching this match, and between the first and the third set— and they each had one set— even in the set where Hesh Sui was winning that set, the commentators, which was a Patrick McEnroe, I don't know the woman's name, but they both— oh, Chrissy Everett. They both only spoke about Halep, only. Only about her strokes, only— not her strokes, only about her shots, only about her wins, only about her misses. And I sat there for a good half, and I'm thinking, you know, what unconscious bias is that that here this was someone probably— I don't know where, uh, he was ranked, but someone that they just didn't think they had to pay attention to because, you know, it was just assumed Halep was going to come and win the match. I mean, it was, you know, pretty much assumed. So I, of course, I, you know, get on Twitter and I start texting, um, and I start texting and or tweeting with, um, not with, but Patrick McEnroe, Chrissy Everett, anybody I can get their attention to, uh, the fact that this was happening. And did they even like realize that that's what they were doing? I mean, and when I say not a word, I'm saying not a single word was spoken about who Halep was playing for that first 2 and a half sets. And then it gets— got to the third set and, uh, uh, Sue Wee all of a sudden you could see that this girl is not giving up and this girl is going to play and leave everything on the court and actually may, may have the biggest and the best defeat of a top-seeded individual of the entire Wimbledon Championships. And so I started cheering her on and all of a sudden they have no choice but to start speaking of her. Speaking about her, praising her, and her whole game, her whole, you know, match, there was reasons to praise, there was reasons to talk about her, there was reason to— she had such a— I mean, it looked stepped up and just kind of hit the ball very gently and it would go anywhere that she wanted. I mean, it was quite, um, impressive. And yet not a single word until they absolutely felt like they were forced to have to pay attention to her because she was actually starting to threaten, uh, Halep, and she came out on top, and she came out to win. And then the next thing you know, it's like, oh my God, she's fabulous, and she's awesome, and this and that. And what— what— getting back to the lesson here, the lesson learned is, and the question I would ask myself and you is, how often do we do that? How often do we delete what we think isn't important, what we don't think isn't relevant, even though it's part of the experience we're currently in. And it might even be part of the dialogue or the situation or the encounter that we're having. How often do we just tune others out until they provide us with relevance, until they provide us something that we need and that we want? And I just, I found that very, very, very telling. And then I was watching Federer. Now Federer is 36, 37, somewhere in that area, and he's back ranked number 1, and he's coming into Wimbledon as the, you know, top seed again. And of course Nadal is going to give him a run for his money, but at the same time, watching him, and some people love him, some people hate him. And then opportunity to watch him on— he, I guess— not I guess, he was part of Running Wild with Bear Grylls. So that's the outdoor adventure guy who takes these, these celebrities and puts them through these very trying, very scary, very adventurous encounters to kind of test their, test their degree of fear and courage.. And I was quite impressed because here, you know, Federer, who many people find to be very arrogant, very cocky, you know, blah, blah, blah. And here he's very openly with cameras attached. He's going through this experience of snow climbing, I'll call it. It's mountain climbing and descending, but it's on sheets of ice and it's, you know, a frozen waterfall and it's through, you know, knee-deep snow, and a lot of, a lot of challenges. And yet he was very open throughout the whole thing about his fears, about his insecurities, about the only place he feels safe is on a tennis court, you know, that type of thing. And so again, I was like sitting there thinking to myself, you know, we have a lot to learn from even those, those reality checks, because every one of us, no matter if we're starting off or we're at the top of our game, We all have fears. Fear motivates us. Fear gives us energy and it gives us determination and persistence. It gives us opportunity to be brave and to have courage and to succeed and overcome. And many of us choose to just run from the fear and run from something that's going to put us at risk, and then others just run toward it. And I was just impressed, you know, with his with his attitude and his transparency and honesty about just, you know, the fact that he, that he was dealing with many, many, many fears and the setup that Bear Grylls put him through was testing every one of those fears and insecurities and yet he, you know, was bound to prove it to himself. He didn't, you know, necessarily care about the audience, although that's a good show, right? Um, so anyway, so I thought that was fabulous. And then of course there's the World Cup, and you could be on any side of even the political world and you have your opinion politically even, uh, in regards to who you want, um, to win the World Cup and who you absolutely don't want. So I was asked last night, I'm watching over the week, I watched the England game, so I watched them win, and then I was watching the, the Croatia-Russia tournament. And I'll be openly, you know, open and honest with you, praying Croatia won. Russia's been putting on a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful tournament, you know, and championship, and it's beautiful and it looks awesome. And what they've done to pull the world together and into their country is fabulous. You know, I just personally, you know, can't get past some of their, some of the dictators, some of the leaders, the decisions they make, the roles that they play, and the travesties they create. And I was asked last night at the gym, we happened to be talking about it, and they're like, well, is there any situation where you would want Russia to win, or any competition or any sports situation or whatever the case might be? And I had to tell them, I said, you know, I said no. I said, I don't, because I don't want to, you know, I don't want to support, you know, a government who, and a country who is known for, you know, hurting us in the United States, hurting humanity. And, and I, that's all I'll say about that because it all of a sudden starts getting people very, you know, charged up and politicized and all don't want I just think the World Cup, the Wimbledon right now, and this whole experience with the boys in Thailand gives us great reason to sit down and really learn from it. Every one of those situations, even learn from how the, you know, players in this case with the World Cup and Wimbledon, how they play. How the divers who are athletes, of their strategizing and how they play. And that's what today's session is about, is all about strategy. And in every one of those situations, even in my situation this morning with Coco, I had to quickly come up with a strategy as to how I was going to handle that. So this question around strategy came up actually during our Ask Bernadette session— episode last week. And so I didn't get a chance to address it, and we were running out of time. But at the same time, I thought, well, that's a great question to be answered as part of our Shedding the Bitch program for many reasons, because strategy is strategy. Surviving and thriving in life is a strategy should we choose to turn it into a strategy and allow it to help and benefit us. So that's what we're going to talk about on today's program. We're going to leverage all all of life's, all of business's lessons learned and best practices and ideas and plans, and we're going to help us all understand what really is strategy and how do we leverage it in all areas of our life. So that's what we'll talk about. And so the rich question I want to leave you with, or I want you to have in your mind while we're having this conversation, and it's kind of one of those questions that I'm hoping is why you're listening to this program. Because it— I'm wanting you to really be honest with yourself about what is it about strategy you need clarification on, or you need understanding, or you need learning and lessons about. I'm often asked, as a strategic planner, as a business coach, as a leadership coach, where does strategy fit in, and what is really because many people look at it as plainly, you know, just a plan you put into place. And they're not wrong, but they're— in my view, uh, not 100% complete. I won't say accurate, I'll say complete, and we'll talk about why that is. So your rich question is going to be— that I want you to be thinking about is, what is it about strategy you need clarification on, you need understanding on? And again, does it apply to just thriving in life, apply to a specific situation or opportunity you have in your career or in— because we will address what business owners need to understand about strategy, what you in your career should be leveraging when it comes to strategy, and then at the same time how life is full of opportunities for you to become strategic thinkers, strategic planners, strategic Livers, livers, lifers, how about that, strategic lifers. So if you want to tweet and Facebook with us and post and all that kind of good stuff, you can use #Strategy, #Strategy, and #ShedTheBitch, of course. #Strategy, #ShedTheBitch. We're going to take a quick break, when we come back we're going to dive into it, we're going to get you understanding what it is, how it is, how you use it, and how it can benefit all areas of life. So we'll be right back.

Bernadette Boas, we are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity so they can create the riches in their career, business, and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette's book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business. Available on Amazon and sheddingthebitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors: TSR Consulting, who offers a broad range of tax services for small to corporate size clients. Go to TSRConsulting.com to learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium size businesses. Email deborahparker@parkerhouse.com. Deborahparker78@gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at mediarelations@sheddingthebitch.com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern Time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

Welcome back everyone. We are talking strategy today and what it is, what it, what it isn't. We're going to talk about how do you use it and how, how it can benefit you in all areas of your life. So let me give you a couple of different definitions in regards to what strategy is. So Wikipedia states that strategy is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim. You can— synonyms for it is a master plan, a grand design, a game plan, a plan of action, a policy or a program. All right, so that's Wikipedia's, and I'm okay, I'm okay with that. I'm okay because it, you know, it states it's to achieve a major or overall aim, and you could take aim out of there, put goal, put objective, whatever you're comfortable with. And then Webster's, the dictionary, has it as a careful plan or method. A careful plan or method. And then devising or employing plans toward a goal. The art of devising or employing plans. I tend to lean toward Webster's definitions, and this is why. We talk a lot on this program, on my, you know, overall my blog, and overall and what I do with Shedding the Bitch and the community. We talk a lot about SMART goals and how to define SMART goals, and I give you tips and resources and whatnot to help you formulate your goals. And I'm passionate, um, in regards to every individual, whether it's for business or for life, having goals, because it's all about having something to pursue and, and get excited about and and attain, and then reward yourself. And then, of course, you know, you're not going to obtain them and succeed without failing, or misstepping, as I like to call it. And those are opportunities for growth and lessons and things you'll do again and things you won't do again. However, strategy comes in even— it comes in after that, in my view. It comes in after you've defined your goals. But at the same time, strategy has a lot of vision and a lot of forward thinking and a lot of initial— what I'll call initial planning even before your goals are formalized. But I tend to even work with my clients and myself both ways. I'll first talk to them about what goals do you have for yourself? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Now a lot of that can be vision as well. And then I'll say, okay, let's define those goals. Then let's come up with a plan to then achieve those goals. So you see how that works? But corporately, in business, a lot of times people will say, well, you need your strategy first, and then you define your— what goals you have against that strategy. Strategy being, again, your vision, your mission, your values, your objectives toward that strategy, and then you would come up with all of your individual, you know, SMART goals, so to speak, your measurements, your actions that you're going to take, so forth and so on. I tend to think, and I tend to feel that I am most successful, and therefore my clients are most successful, when I give them the opportunity to really be simple, even in business, to kind of think about, okay, so what is that goal that you have and why do you have it? And what is it about that goal that makes you excited? And get all of those things out and documented and understood and clear and focused first. And then I say, okay, so based on that, what is going to be your strategy? What is going to be your course of action? What is going to be your plan to then achieve those goals. So that's, you know, that's just a very simplistic view on what strategy is in its most basic form. Now, of course, you can go online and you can Google, you know, business strategy, you can Google life strategy, you can Google team strategy, you can Google whether it's a So some of my clients are a conglomerate. So I have a Fortune 100 client, they're a conglomerate with multiple business units. And then obviously within those business units, they have teams. So, you know, from a business perspective, you could be looking at a corporate strategy, then you could be looking at a business unit strategy that ultimately each of those units would tie back to in some way, shape, or form the corporate strategy, but they might have their own unique strategy, um, based on a number of factors we'll talk about. And then you can drill down from that and, you know, departments. And then even in a department, there might be teams, and all of them have strategies that have a thread that goes all the way to the top. At the same time, they might have some, you know, pieces of that thread that go off in their own unique, distinct modes in order to, to then achieve that individual team or business unit or corporate strategy. They're not necessarily 100% the same and equal. And even if you're a small business or even a middle market business, it may not be, you know, that grand or that wide, let's call it. It might be, you know, more narrow, more focused. And then, of course, if you're an individual— and we're going to talk about from a corporate perspective, from a— or a business perspective, from a career perspective, because you can have strategies for your career, and we'll talk about life strategies as well. But keep in mind, a strategy can be applied to any area of your life. You know, what is your strategy to get promoted? What is your strategy to get married? What is your strategy to, you know, gain new clients or build your business? What's the strategy for winning against your competition? What's your strategy for overcoming or battling through an illness or an injury? I mean, like I said, life is a strategy. Waking up in the morning, you know, there's a strategy, or there should be a strategy behind how you're going to get from point A, you know, or let's call it at 7 AM in the morning to midnight when you put your head on the pillow. You know, what's your strategy for just thriving through your day? And we're going to kind of look at a variation of all three of those things—career, business, and life—and drill into them. So you can look at any of those things as a strategy or a plan. Let's simplify it with a plan. But when someone applies strategy to a plan, a plan is a plan. I mean, it's— you could look at it as a to-do list. You could look at it as a project plan of how you're going to get from point A to point B. I tend to then say, okay, When I apply strategy to it, it becomes like an amped-up, you know, on steroid plan. It's not just average or a normal plan for me to survive my day. A strategy, applying strategy to it will make it a plan that will help me thrive through the day. And there's differentiations between that. And that's why I go back to liking the Webster definition of strategy. They say it's a careful plan or method, and the word that I hang on to is careful. So think about it, what does careful mean to you? Well, careful means to me that it's not cautious plan. It doesn't mean cautious. It doesn't mean that it's a plan reeked with, you know, um, not basics, but it's not a plan that's rigged with, you know, things to make sure that you're avoiding every obstacle in it. It doesn't mean that there's no risk in that plan. It just simply means to me that it's a well-thought-out, well-defined, well-detailed plan versus just a plan that we tend to, you know, that we tend to put together just to make sure that we meet our goal but not necessarily exceed the goal. So strategy for me is amping up anything that you do to, to make it more in the thriving as opposed to just the surviving. So careful plans are different than just basic plans, and what we want to do and what, what we want to apply to our plans, you want to apply to your plans, is how do I take a basic plan that I might have had and amp it up? That's how you can look at it. Just, I want to amp it up. So the first thing I would have you thinking about is how much time do you currently spend on planning out your goals? Now, and again, think about it in your personal life if you want to. If you're in corporate, it might be your career, or if you have your own business, in your business. How much time are you actually working on your plan and then amping it up? So many of us— I spent a great deal of time during the, during the beginning of the year providing both on the radio, on the social networks, in my coaching practice, on my blog, talking about it's year, you know, it's the new year, let's set your goals. And what I'm going to make a note of to do, and it's a great time that we're having this conversation because it is middle of the year, so it's, you know, July, so you've completed the first 6 months, we have another 6 months to go, and what I'll challenge you all to do is to take out your goal plan, your RICH plan, you might have even downloaded it from sheddingthebitch.com, and completed your— not only your SMART goals, but even worked on how to, um, not necessarily amp them up, but I did give you some additional visionary, uh, type of tips and tricks for really maximizing on your goal setting. But what I'll make a note of is that what we want to do this coming year is to really make sure that you're focused on amping it up, applying strategy to your plan, and being very thoughtful, being very careful— not cautious, careful— about how you are planning out those goals. Um, but think about it. So how much time do you spend? And too many companies— and I'm going to go corporate now all the way down to small business— too many companies spend a great deal of time working on their plan at the beginning of the year, and then they don't do anything with it for the rest of the a year. I remember, you know, even in my 20s having these big consulting firms coming into our company to help us work on, you know, our yearly plan or maybe our 3 to 5 year strategic plan, and they would leave us with these binders full of paper, and they'd go on the CEO's shelf, and they'd never see the light of day after that, and that is not what we want. What we want is you purposely, intentionally, carefully laying out your plan and then amping it up and leveraging that plan, revising it, adjusting it, shifting it as the year goes on because you'll see a huge difference in your results by doing so. And it's only because the way you amp up your plan, your basic goals, is you really consider anything and everything around you when it comes to that plan. So you're looking at pros and cons, you're looking at desired outcomes, you're looking at the— you're looking at the differences that you want to create between yourself and maybe competition, between yourself and someone on your team, between yourself and another woman that you might be pursuing a in. You want to consider, as they call it, outside the box, all the different things that go into making your plan strategic than just a basic plan. That I can tell you without, you know, quoting an exact stat, but I can tell you more than 90% of companies and individuals when they say they have a plan, it's a pretty basic plan, and it's a plan that they might, like I said, they might do at the beginning of the year, but then it doesn't come out and see the light of day for the rest of the year. And that is the first things I ask when I meet with an even prospective client, let alone a client, is can I see your plan? Can I see your goals? Can I see your, you know, strategic plan? And many of them will say, well, I have to find it. And then I'll say, well, how often do you go back to that plan and work on it and assess it and shift it? And majority of them, and I'm talking more than 90% of them, will say, well, I really don't. So that's what we want to change by having this conversation. All right, so we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, I'm going to talk about the different areas where of your business career life that you can establish strategy around. So you can apply now strategy to those plans that you have regardless of what they might entail. All right, we'll be right back.

You are listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. We are inspiring individuals around the globe to discover, confront, and shed their bitches of fear, insecurity, and negativity. Productivity, so they can create the riches in their career, business, and life they deserve. Be sure to check out Bernadette's book, Shedding the Corporate Bitch: Shifting from Bitch to Rich in Life and Business, available on Amazon and sheddingthebitch.com. We also want to thank our sponsors, TSR Consulting, who offers a broad range of tax services for small to corporate-sized clients. Go to TSRConsulting.com to learn more. To learn more. And Parker House Virtual Services, who provides virtual assistance and social media support for small to medium-sized businesses. Email Deborah Parker at deborahparker78@gmail.com for more information. To become a sponsor or advertiser on our program, email us at mediarelations@sheddingthebitch.com. Shedding the Bitch Radio airs every Tuesday at noon Eastern Time. Be sure to go to blogtalkradio.com/shuttingthebitchradio and follow the program for all of the updates and announcements of our guests and show topics. Now let's return to Bernadette and Shedding the Bitch Radio.

But we are talking strategy today. We are talking what is it, how do you use it, and how can it benefit your career, business, or life. And when we left, we left off in talking, you know, the fact that you can have a plan, which many people will call— will say that that's a strategy, is having a plan. But I look at strategy as taking a plan and really amping it up, really applying what many people will call when they're asked they think strategy is. Well, it's outside the box. It's a vision. It's innovation. It's creation or creativity. And I would say it's all of those things then applied to your basic thinking, your basic plan, or the initial plan that you started with. So what I want to do is I want to, from a business perspective, I want to talk to you about all the different types of strategies you might apply in your own business. And then we're going to talk about how you can apply strategy to your career and how you can apply strategy to your life. So if you— and I don't care if you're a stay-at-home mom or you're a corporate professional, you can always apply thinking about a business even if you're not in a business. So for those of you who aren't a business owner, this still is going to be very valuable for you and just put on, you know, a business owner's hat. If you're a stay-at-home mom, you know, you have a business. It is running your household. It's taking care of, you know, all the things that need to be done to have a very thriving household. So consider that your, your business, right? So the various ways or strategies you can apply to your plan, your basic idea of a plan, um, could be, well, What do I want to be strategic about? Where do I want to apply the differences between myself and others? And it could be around value. So let's start with value. So it could be around, well, value to some people might mean, that means the lowest price. And to other people, value might be I want to be sure that I'm delivering top quality, best of service type of results to my customer. So you would want to define what value means to you, but at the same time, you know, value is just not about cutting costs. It could be about delivering, regardless of cost, delivering the best result to your customer. You might look at your strategy when it comes to your products and services. Do I want to mirror my competition when it comes to products or services, or do I want to differentiate myself? Do I want to go narrow in the, the products and services that I offer, or do I want to go wide with the number of products and services that I have to offer? I was having a conversation with my business coach yesterday afternoon. I mentioned her quite often, Joan. And so she said to me we need to kind of consider your strategy for your products and services. You always tend to have a large number, a high number of things going on at the same time that you're working on, that you're offering, that you're delivering on. At the same time, that never allows you to go really deep into any one of those things. She said, what if we changed, even for the balance of the year, We changed the strategy to be that you're only going to offer a narrow set of products and services of which you can go then very deep in. And, you know, so we had this conversation. It was a very out-of-the-box, creative, innovative type of conversation, and that was the decision, was, you know, for the balance of the year, I would go narrow and deep into the products and services that I offer my clients. That is absolutely something that you could be thinking about and doing within your own business. It could be the fact that you're going to change up and consider not a different, but what— maybe you're starting off on your business, but what target client you're going after. It could be your strategy could be all based around finding that perfect client. That strategy might involve, you know, doing tests and doing focus groups and doing research that would allow you to vet out who your best target client is, or it could be that you go about, you know, executing your business toward a certain target client and seeing, you know, the results of that in your own business. It could be that you are— you do research and you really want to— your strategy is to be very different than everybody else. And we're going to talk about something around differentiation in a minute. So you might say, well, the common— I'll use myself. The common business coach, they tend to go after a particular industry, maybe financial services or legal or technology, you know, type of companies. And I want to be different. I want to go over, you know, totally to the right, so to speak, and I'm going to go after construction companies, or I'm going to go after plumbing companies, or I'm going to go after labor type of companies to provide my business coaching services to. I'll never forget when I met I met a landscaper, this was a good 15 years ago. So he was always struggling to define his strategy, what his strategy was. And all of a sudden he came to me and he's like, "I have it." He said, "I'm going to start consulting, coaching on how I created and built my landscaping business. I'm not going to try to continue to grow my landscaping business, bring on more crews, take on more customers." Instead, my strategy to build and grow my business and expand my business is going to be on— is going to be on providing consulting to other landscaping businesses on how I built my business and how I've made it this successful. And that was his strategy. That was his very outside-the-box, creative, innovative thinking applied to his original plan, which was just to grow, and, you know, crew and his team and his operations. So he, you know, changed up his products and services in that case, and then he also then, you know, kind of made a strategy about the target client he was going to be going after. You may have— and like he, you may have a strategy on differentiation. Or on growth, or on a method or procedure that you have. I know from my Shedding the Bitch coaching, for instance, one, very different from anybody else. No one, you know, rarely, I don't think there's anybody going out there, you know, really approaching leadership, approaching team building, approaching conflict management by, you know, kind of claiming that yes, we all have to be aware, that people, you know, have these bitches in their head and in their heart that are impacting how productive and how effective they are as leaders. So that was a big differentiation factor that I built into my strategy. It turned into my strategy. And you could apply the same with growth or even with the method or procedure. So even with Shedding the Bitch, I have my Shift to Riches formula that came out of that shedding process that differentiates me. I can go into a company and say, you know, I can really understand and walk your team through this Shift to Riches formula to really get, you know, kind of inside what drives them and what is sabotaging them, and then helping them to shed those things that are working against them so then they start creating and accelerating all the great things, the riches as we call them here, about them as individuals and then about them as team leaders and leaders as a whole. So that differentiates me from other coaches, and therefore that's my strategy. So there's a number of things you could be looking at when it comes to what your strategy is going to be for your own business. And there's no right or wrong in regards to whether you address value or you address changing up your products and services or your target client or even the target market you're in or how you go about executing your business, because that's a strategy. You know, you could definitely see that Chick-fil-A, for instance, has a different strategy than McDonald's. And the reason why I say that is because I have that experience multiple times a week, and I can differentiate what their strategies are. For Chick-fil-A, it is optimal customer service. It's not just about being fast, but it's about being clean, it's about being fast, it's about being friendly, it's about providing really good tasting food. It's about getting you to come back on a day-in, day-out basis. Sadly, I have a McDonald's like 5 buildings down that I'll run in to get, or drive through to get a Diet Coke. Shame on me, I know. But, and their strategy is to really piss you off. And it, you know, no longer is it to, you know, kind of have a narrow menu and deliver, you know, a fast, friendly, tasty product or service, now they've exploded their menu. They've minimized their customer service. And I don't even think they any longer pay attention to the speed at which they're providing service. So everything about their strategy has fallen apart in my view. And I would definitely have a lively conversation with them regarding their strategy, should I ever have that opportunity, though I'm not looking for it. But so, so understand your customer can even experience your strategy, whether it's working or if it's not working. And you have an option to decide on, of all the areas of your business that you can impact, that you can influence, that you can put a plan against, that you can apply strategy to it, and create the result that you want, whether that is differentiation, whether that is great customer service, whether that is uniqueness or distinction, whether that is you're just a really good competitor towards somebody else. Now that brings me to— and I'm not even going to take a break, but That leads me to something that if you are a business person, whether in corporate or you own your own business, and you really want to understand what strategy is all about, there's a great book. It's called The Blue Ocean Strategy. Actually, I think leave off the— I think it's just Blue Ocean Strategy. It was a book published in 2004 by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim. Now, I never even read the book from front to back because it's just such an easy concept to understand. So envision this. You have two oceans. One is red, think of blood, and one is blue, think of the sky, think of clarity. And their concept of the Blue Ocean Strategy is 99.9% of businesses, and I'll even take businesses down to individuals, they spend their time in the red ocean, and the red ocean is filled with their competitors. It's jam-packed, there's no room, it's just packed with people out for blood. And so, apply your business hat on now, and you might be a corporate professional or a business owner, and all you're worried about is what the competition's doing. What is the other person doing? How do I best and beat that other person? So you slash your prices, you change up your products and services on a regular basis and never are committed to them. You hire the cheapest and, you know, so you can get the most plentiful, you know, level of staff. You make decisions based on all the blood that's going on in that red ocean. And you're not in any way, shape, or form separating, differentiating, making yourself distinct and unique from anyone around you, and therefore you're just surviving in this red ocean. And then there's the blue ocean. The blue ocean is clear and it's focused and it's, you know, it's soothing and it provides an opportunity for you to apply strategy to it to your plan and recognize that, you know what, value doesn't mean cutting price. Value might mean, you know, even increasing my price, delivering the best service, the best product, the best quality I can provide. Maybe that blue ocean provides you the clarity and the focus and the opportunity to really differentiate yourself on who you are and what you stand for, and therefore the promise, you'll hear in business strategy a lot about, you know, what's the promise you're making to your customer? 'Cause that's what your company's all about, whether it's 1 person or 100,000 people. What's that promise you're making to your customer? And therefore, the Blue Ocean Strategy is all about separating yourself from all of those people in the red ocean, and you have all the room to grow and to, to build and to expand and to create and innovate and be strategic. And that's a very, very, very simplistic view and understanding of the Blue Ocean Strategy, but it's a great book and has some great resources and great tips and ideas and strategies for you to use in your own business, and I highly, highly recommend it. Again, Blue Ocean Strategy published in 2004. It has stood the test of time even through the 2008-2010 period. And actually, I want to bring up the fact that, very quickly, the fact that that was the 2008-2010 period was an absolute great example of strategy and how to apply strategy. For instance, in 2008 I left my corporate job. I spent, instead of going out looking for customers, I spent 4 to 5 months going out to find other experts, other consultants, other coaches that I can leverage in my practice because my strategy was to differentiate myself in such a way that I'm a trusted advisor to my clients and they come to me even for things that they know I don't do directly. And I might not handle directly, but they trust me enough to say, hey, Bernadette, do you know, or are you able to help me with X, Y, and Z? And of course, if I don't do it, I'm going to say no, but I don't want to say no. I say no, however, I have someone that I can introduce you to, or I have someone that you can interview, or I have someone you can hire, whatever the case might be. And that was my strategy, was to differentiate myself in a very populated coaching and consulting space at the time. The other strategy I had was the fact that I wasn't ever going to use the boo-hoo, humdrum, depressed state of being that 99% of the business owners out there took on as a result of that depression period, that recession period, I guess, 2008, 2010. They were all boo-hooing, complaining why they didn't have any business and why people won't hire them. And I had a full docket of clients in from 2008 to 2010, roughly, before I took on a long-term contract. But, uh, and that was because my strategy was I wasn't— and I wasn't going to allow my prospective clients or clients ever boo-hoo about the economy, about the recession, because we all know that those depressions provide great opportunity for growth, great opportunity for expansion, great opportunity to buy up people, places, and things cheaply that can then expand a business. So that was my strategy, and it worked, and I had a full docket of clients, and I built a roster of experts, to where I never had to say no to my clients. And I had people, you know, about a year down the road wanting to know what my secret was. And I said, well, it was no secret. I was sharing it with you. You just, you know, you just did not want to hear it. So you can come up with any type of strategy that you would want. All right, so we took a look at all of those things, and— but I want to make sure that we finish off with, okay, what can you be doing with strategy even if you're a corporate professional? Well, like I said, strategy is about creating differentiation, creating value, separating yourself from the crowd. So you could be thinking through what can I do to set myself apart from others on my team or, you know, at my peer level because I want to be promoted. I want to be advanced. I want to get a raise. I want to get promoted, whatever the case might be. So, how do you, you know, set yourself apart? How do you— how can you be considered as a risk taker or a high potential or a leadership candidate? What can you be doing to really deliver on great service to not only your external clients but even your internal clients? Because a lot of business people, corporate business people, fail to recognize that every one of those employees in a corporate business, small or large, have customers. It could be their boss. It could be their team member, or it could be an external customer, or it could be a customer inside in a different department. But we all have customers in life, even at home. Our customers might be our family, our friends, our, you know, community. We have people to serve. That's what we're supposed to do as humans is serve. So you— strategy within your corporate career could be, you know, do I just want to fit in or do I really, you know, want to take risks and stand out and be recognized? Do I want to just fly under the radar? And I have friends that that's a strategy in business, is they just want to stay under the radar, especially as you get older and you're nearing retirement. You know, some people will tell you, "I'm just looking to, you know, stay under the radar, stay out of trouble, get, you know, get to my retirement and move on." And if that's their— if that's your strategy, so be it. Just own it, live it, and go for it. But if you are looking also to set yourself apart, get yourself advanced, have yourself recognized for the contributions that you're making, then the question is, okay, so what's your strategy? That you're going to apply against that end goal that you desire. And the same in life. You might have a strategy about getting married, about taking on a new adventure, about how you're going to raise your children. You know, that is a strategy, and people have different strategies of how they're going to school and raise their children and their— you know, what they're going to do about religion and a number of things. So it is all a strategy. Life is a strategy. And some might look at it as they have a strategy for surviving, while others look at it that they want a strategy and are going against a strategy about thriving in life. So whatever your strategy might be, just own it, define it, lay it out, and apply it. And then be always open to recognizing that The strategy you define today does not have to be the strategy that you're living by tomorrow. You're always shifting and considering and assessing and making adjustments as you go. All right, so I hope that was helpful for you, but come back next Tuesday at noon Eastern time for another conversation and discussion in regards to any number of subjects. In the world of Shedding the Bitch. So everyone have a great, prosperous, and strategic week, and I'll look forward to talking to you right back here next Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Thanks, everybody. Thank you for listening to Shedding the Bitch Radio with Bernadette Boas. Join Bernadette every Tuesday at noon Eastern as she helps you shift your bitches to riches and the dialogue The blog is always going on at sheddingthebitch.com. See you next week.