758 How to Stop Over-Delivering Without Feeling Like You’re Letting Clients Down

Welcome to the Next Level Life Podcast with Christine Corcoran. This podcast is made for the powerhouse business women who are ready to ignite their fullest potential. This is where we will dive deep into mindset breakthroughs and sprinkle in some kick up the butt motivation so you can scale your business with confidence and clarity. Whether you're craving more income, impact, or inspiration, this podcast will be your ultimate resource for all things next level. Listen in as we have authentic conversations with game-changing female entrepreneurs as we reveal the secrets on what it takes to rise and thrive. 5. So go ahead, ignite your inner fire, and let's get you taking massive aligned action. Are you ready to elevate? Let's go. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you had a lovely long weekend, and I hope you had a lovely Easter with friends or family. Uh, I am so excited to bring you today's episode. I feel like this is one of the things that I've had big lessons around over the years, and it's something that I know a lot of people still struggle with— overdelivering. And we want to talk about where the feeling or the sense or the urge of wanting to overdeliver comes from, because that is actually the key to overcoming it and changing it. Because your value doesn't lie in being accessible all the time. Your value doesn't lie in all the things that you give people. It's really being able to be consciously aware of where your value lies, and then also recognizing where some of your people-pleasing behaviors are coming into play, where you're worried about letting clients down, disappointing people, or just people pleasing out of a need to prove your worth. So firstly, overdelivering feels like a right thing to do. I just want to start there. Like, I know it feels like the right thing to do because you are giving and people are receiving, and it feels like that's how you're going to get a result for a client. And it is something that's hard to stop. I will say that is something that I still struggle with. I find myself go through stages where I'm doing really well with my boundaries, and then other times where I'm like recognizing that I've fallen back into old ways. Where it's like, oh, I'm doing that again, I'm overdelivering. And I always have to bring myself back to recognizing, like, is it necessary? And also, is it helpful? That question, is it helpful, is a really good way to determine whether you're actually overgiving out of a need to prove your worth or to feel like the value exchange is equal or to feel like that person is getting enough from you. Sometimes by overgiving and overdelivering, it's actually not helpful. And why do I say that? Because it sometimes feels like the right thing to do and it feels like it's being helpful. But really, if we think about it right down to the bare bones of it, honestly depends on the relationships you have with your clients and what you're trying to cultivate. With the clients that I work with, like as a coach, so if you're a consultant, a coach, anyone that shares their knowledge, shares or supports people to be able to overcome a certain problem or achieve a certain result, we want to give, like we actually do want to help. And it feels helpful to give and to overdeliver. But the relationship that you have with your client will either determine whether they become codependent or whether they determine they walk away from your experience of working with you feeling less than or feeling that they'll always need to rely on you to get a certain outcome or result. So I want my clients to walk away from any experience with me feeling better about themselves, feeling more confident, feeling stronger in their belief about the value that they bring to the table. And they have this self-discipline. So this self-accountability, because a lot of people have this belief of like, oh, if I had the accountability, then I would take the action, then I would do the thing to get the result. But really, we want to become self-accountable, really. And so that relationship with— as a coach to a client is really important to me. And so I want people to walk away with that belief in themselves that they're more than capable of doing it themselves. And working with a coach is just a mirror, like it's a supporter, a mirror. And yes, sometimes you're going to learn, you're going to have strategy, and that's something that maybe you don't have the skill set to do, and that's okay. But ideally, especially in business, like, there's so much that you can learn just by being coached and recognizing the underlying frameworks that they're teaching you, and then you can replicate those frameworks, right? So I just want people to walk away with being more self-accountable, have more self-belief, more confidence within themselves. And so I recognized a while ago that being overly helpful or always being accessible or overdelivering doesn't actually help. The purpose of that relationship, doesn't actually help them become self-accountable and to believe in themselves, right? Because for someone to believe in themselves, they've got to take the action themselves, right? So if I did something for every— if I did everything for all my clients, they wouldn't ever walk away feeling that confidence within themselves. So when someone actually— someone sent me a message last week and I'll read it to you. She said, one, I'm totally grateful for this group and having you in my corner, Christine. And then secondly, she went on to speak about how she conducted a sales call with a high-level CEO that she'd never met before. And sold a solution that they haven't even yet delivered with absolute confidence and conviction. And she said, 8 months ago, I would have flubbed. That's her word. I would have flubbed it. I've grown so much in this area, right? That lit me up. Like, that gave me so much joy. And I was so happy to hear that. I was so excited to hear that because that's ultimately what I want for people. I want them to believe in themselves and to back themselves and have that confidence. So I recognized a while ago that over-delivering was not helping that. right? If I was always there for the answer, if I was always there to be like, now do this next step, now do this next step, they would never actually develop that confidence within themselves. And also, it's extremely costly. Like, it's extremely costly on your own energy. I got to a stage of almost being burnt out because I was overgiving, and it felt like this heaviness that I was just constantly give, give, giving and always trying to be accessible. Like, I remember, like, in the early days, I had people having access to me via a voice messaging app they were able to have access to me from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM every day. Every day. What was I thinking? Like, you can't even get access to a doctor of those types of hours or a lawyer or a psychologist or like anyone. If you think about anyone in the business space serving other business owners, you don't get like 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM access to them to ask them any questions at any point in time and have them chat back and forth with you for hours. Like, that is not something that is even available from— for a lot of other businesses. So I was like, well, why do I believe that I have to give that to my people? And I recognize it was because it was my insecurity. It was actually me thinking like, hey, I just need to make sure that they're okay. And that was my need to rescue, and that was my need for people pleasing that I really had to work through and heal, because having that relationship with a client wasn't serving the client, and I needed to recognize that. And so then also when I started to scale my business, I recognized it was one thing that I could not scale. It was one thing that was actually the most exhausting and the hardest thing to do. And so I want you to really recognize, like, by you overdelivering, what is it costing you in time, in money and energy? Because I guarantee you it's probably not outweighing the value exchange that you're getting. Which then brings me to the next piece, right? The difference between high value delivery versus overdelivery. What had to happen was for me to recognize the value in what it is that I do, the support that I offer, and what I do give people, and how I perceived that value. The reason why I was overdelivering was because I was trying to prove my worth. So again, it came down to the identity and my belief systems about my worthiness. If I'm always looking externally for that approval, I will always be waiting for it. And you will also create those types of codependent relationships. So if you have an underlying belief that you're not good enough, or you have an underlying belief system of like, I have to keep proving my worth, or you don't believe that what you're charging is worth what you're charging, you will most likely overdeliver. And so we want to recognize like where your value actually lies. And I've done this with so many clients before because it's something that happens I think it's always the case as a coach, like when you've healed your types of wounds, you attract people who want to also heal very similar wounds. And so I remember a client that I worked with a while back where she was really not valuing the level of strategy that she gives to her clients. And so what she was actually doing is she was giving like a 19-page document of strategy, and then she was then following up with all the things to help them actually execute on it. But she was only getting paid for the strategy, and she was being paid very little for the strategy. And I remember doing this with her and looking at, looking at her pricing and being like, why are you only charging a couple hundred dollars for this strategy? And she was like, oh, because it only takes me an hour to do. And then the document, like, I can repurpose parts of it, but you know, maybe only takes me another 2 hours to do that document. And then, you know, I was already like, the hours are already adding up in the back of my mind. And she was like, you know, and it's something that they can then take and then try to do themselves. And so I try to give as much detail as possible so then they can try to do it themselves. But then what was actually happening is that they weren't, they were getting super overwhelmed with the document. It was too long of a timeframe that she was delivering the strategy on. So then they weren't actually executing on it because it was too overwhelming. And what would also happen is that then she, they wouldn't come back to her because they thought that they had to go and deliver to, to implement all this strategy first before they came back to work with her. And she was like, when I worked out this was happening and she was like, oh, actually that's not the case, but I haven't also told them what they could do with me next. So there was a missing sales piece. But coming back to the strategy piece, she didn't value the strategy. She didn't believe it was worth much. And so when we actually mapped it out, not based on her time, right? Like her just acknowledging like, okay, it takes me an hour to do this and a couple of hours to do this. And then I run the strategy session with them. It's about 90 minutes. So it wasn't just the time, like a couple hundred dollars for what was already starting out to be 5 hours of time. I was like, no, like this is not one, it's not scalable. 2, there is so much value in that strategy that she wasn't believing in it and she wasn't charging accordingly. And so what we did is actually started to map out exactly what she was putting in that document and what value that would then be able to return on her, on their investment. And so we looked at them, what would they be able to achieve with those types of strategies in place? And she recognized that it was worth well over what she was delivering. And then the price point also was only attracting clients at a lower level stage of business that really weren't able to execute on the strategy the way that she wanted to create it because she had much more experience. And she really, again, wasn't believing in the value that she delivered based on her level of experience and knowledge. Like, oh, it was so good. And so once we did that, she started to really acknowledge, like, hey, actually I should be charging much more for the strategy and then also be charging for the implementation. But also the strategy needs to be smaller and shorter. So forget the 19 pages, that was way too overwhelming for people. We needed to break it down to, like, what is actually valuable of being in this document? And what's needs to— what do I need to go through in the strategy session again for it to be valuable to the client? And when we did that, her strategy sessions were much more enjoyable because she was like, I stopped overwhelming people. Because you know how sometimes, like, when you're overwhelming people, you see the glaze go over their eyes and they kind of like shut down, or they kind of just sit there and take it in, but they're not really processing it. She recognized that that's what was happening majority of the time she did a strategy for someone. And she was like, now I pay attention to that. If that ever happens, I stop the call and I question them and ask them where they're at. Where do they get confused? Where are they stuck? Where are they feeling overwhelmed? And she's finding that now they're able to take a few of the strategies, very small short-term strategies, and start implementing them, then see the value of that even more to then come back and wanna do more strategy or get her to implement part of the strategy as the marketing strategist. Right? So, it helps support the long-term reinvestment from clients to come back. Because she increased her price of her strategy, so her people valued it more because they were paying more for it. Two, she made it more value by not adding more, but actually taking stuff away. So I want you to think about, like, where are you overdelivering and where are you actually placing, or placing the value? What do you believe the value is in that service, in that offering? Because I guarantee you what you think it is is actually not what your client thinks it is, and it's probably not where the value lies, right? And so for me, if I go back to that experience, that, that situation I was talking, talking about, like being accessible 7 AM to 7 PM, I was like, that's not where your value lies, Christine, right? Like I had to come back to like, you just because you're accessible does not mean they're gonna get the result. So again, I had to come back to what do they need in order to achieve the result they're looking for? They need the coaching. Absolutely. So we really focus on in-depth coaching sessions in their one-on-ones. They need the strategy. Great. We need to make sure that they understand the strategy and able to know what to do next with the strategy. Great. I mapped that out, got clear on that, deliver that in different type of document. And then I was like, okay, they need their accountabilities. They need to know exactly what to do that week in order to keep making progress. And I was like, great. And I can also help them become more accountable by them setting their accountabilities rather than me setting it for them. Because if I set it for them, then again, that's developing that codependent relationship, whereas I want them to be self-accountable to their own business. So they come to me like, this is what I'm doing, right? And sometimes I prompt it. So I'm like, hey, what's your, what are your top 3 priorities for this week ahead? And it helps them think clearly, focus on what's important. And then I remind them of something else, of anything else I recognize they haven't put in their accountabilities that I think needs to be there. Then they are the ones setting it and choosing to take action on it. That's a much more effective relationship for a coach, for a consultant, for anyone in business, because no one really wants to be told what to do. And then not believe in themselves after they've experienced that relationship. So come back to where does your value lie and get really clear on that. So then you can absolutely back it with absolute confidence and transparency, and then you can set clearer boundaries around that. So then you're no longer overdelivering, which then brings me to the next little piece around the fear of disappointing clients. Depending on the type of business that you're in, this is a normal fear. Like, it's such a normal fear. I had this conversation with a different client last week about this. And it's so— actually, she's a marketing strategist as well. And it was really interesting because when we broke it down to be like, okay, what can you promise and what can you not promise? Because one of the things that when we spoke about her communicating of her value and clearly articulating the outcomes that she can achieve for a client and also articulating her type of service, like what she does and what she doesn't do, one of the things that she came back to me with was What if people aren't happy? Right? What if we get to the end and our client's unhappy? So she had this fear about disappointing people. And I said to her, there's a couple of things we wanna acknowledge here is that one, our brain ghost and catastrophizes. So our brain will go to the worst case scenario and think so far out in advance. And we'll think it'll happen, this type of thing, like an unhappy client will happen overnight. But it's actually not the case. You will most likely, and you can actually build into your service touchpoints and conversations to ensure that they are actually on board and on the same path as you and on the same track and getting the value from what you're doing and are happy, right? And so there will most likely be other indicators along the way that'll help you see that maybe they aren't happy, and then you can do something about it. Secondly, if they communicate to you that they're unhappy, then you have an option to actually work, work with them and overcome that because it's probably a small little thing that you can actually fix. So I think sometimes we forget those things because our brain's stuck in fear. And so I want you to know that no matter what, you will have opportunities to either see it happening before it happens, or if you don't see it before it happens and they come back to you and they're unhappy, then you get to choose how you want to handle that, right? And there's always options on how you can handle that to ensure the client is happy in the end. But the other thing I had to actually get clear on her with is what she could promise and what she couldn't promise. Because sometimes when you're in the sales process and you're communicating the results or going through strategy, especially like you can communicate like, this is the goal. This is what we're working towards, these are the action steps we're going to take, and this is what we're going to be working towards, and this is the plan, right? So you can have the strategy and you have the focus around like, this is the outcomes we're hoping to get, but you cannot control fully the outcome. And so I said to her, when you're having those conversations, you can absolutely promise the action steps that you're going to take, but you cannot necessarily promise the specific outcomes you can achieve. You can say, look, I've been able to achieve these types of results with clients in the past, and I'm hoping to do the same with you, and I'm going to work as hard as I can to make that happen. And I can't guarantee it, right? Because we can't guarantee the market, we can't guarantee changes in the world, we can't guarantee what Meta decides to do. Like, there's so many variable factors with marketing that we just cannot control. And so what she could control though was her service, right? How she actually delivered her service, how she would test and measure, come back to it, the client with the data and the reports, and then they can make the decisions together to move forward. She can promise that she'll be on top of the reporting. She can promise that she will be changing, you know, if it's Meta ads, she's changing graphics and she's changing, um, the content of it so it starts to improve. Like, there's so many things you can control, and I think you've got to be transparent with that too, right? It's the same thing with coaching. Like, I can't guarantee they're going to hit certain goals within their business. I can't. Right? They can follow my strategy and I've had clients follow my strategy and absolutely hit $10K, $20K, $30K, $50K, $55K, $75K, $100K months. Like they've been able to do that by executing the strategy effectively. And there's always going to be a little bit of challenge around like the right timing and all the things and whether they've got the clientele and whether they've got the audience. Like there's all these factors that go into play of whether they're going to be able to achieve those results. But I always say to clients, and it's in my contract as well, right? Is that I can't guarantee your results because I can't do the work for you. I can't go into your business and do the action. I can't jump on camera and create the video for you. I can help you with a strategy. I can help you with a topic. I can write the script. Not that I do that, but like, I could help you use AI to help write the script. I can help you really determine what your sales messaging needs to be. Like, I can do all of that behind the scenes and help you with the strategy, but you have to execute on it. And so if you're not executing on it, if you're not putting that lead magnet out there to attract new clients, if you're reaching out and creating new connections and building new leads and building your referrals list, if you're not actually creating the content and putting it out there, then I can't guarantee you're going to get the results, right? And that's why it's always a 50/50 partnership. It's the same with working with any coach. Can I just say that? It is the same with working with any coach. No matter what, you are obviously going to have to put in the work, right? And so if I was to say, yes, I can absolutely promise this, then that would be kind of out of integrity for me, to be honest, because I can't guarantee it because you have to do the results. So if you get stuck in worrying about disappointing clients, you want to come back to where is my responsibility and what's my client's responsibility? And is the fear of disappointing people really something that you're worried about specifically with your clients, or is that actually an underlying wound? Because sometimes that fear can come from a relationship pattern that you've seen as a kid. So if you're— one of your parents had, you know, a little bit of emotional turmoil, so maybe their happiness relied on you and the way that you acted and the things that you did, and that then impacted how they felt, right? Or if it wasn't okay to make mistakes in your childhood, in your household, if there's certain things that your parents did that made you feel like you disappointed them and that really caused a bit of a wound, then you may have a fear around disappointing others. And so again, we would work on clearing that. We'd work on healing that. So then it's not impacting your client relationships. So if you fear that you're overdelivering, I want you to get really clear on where your value lies, what your responsibility is, what your client's responsibility is. Recognize if there's any underlying limiting beliefs or wounds that you're really maybe activated here while you're listening to this. And you're like, oh yeah, I probably have something there. Cause I got that twinge when Christine was talking about people pleasing or rescuing people or disappointing others, then recognizing that the healing needs to happen there. And then you can do the client work in order for you to put better boundaries in place and improve your communication so then clients understand and really recognize what their responsibility is within the relationship. And honestly, it then comes back to where— how you create better results. And this is something that I'm always looking to improve within my business as well, and thinking like, okay, Your value doesn't lie in your accessibility, doesn't necessarily lie in everything that you give people. The value lies in the results and outcomes that you're able to help people create, right? So in whatever way that you do that in your business. So what we wanna be conscious of is like what is within your control is how you help the client get to that result. And there's always ways to improve that. And I'm doing that within some of my containers at the moment and really thinking about like how, even with AI at the moment, like how do I, support what my client's goal is. Like, if I keep that as my North Star of like, what is the outcome that I want my clients to have, and make sure that every decision is in alignment with that goal, and then go, how can I improve the experience? How can I improve the process? How can I improve the framework? How can I improve the deliverabilities? Like, all of it that will actually support them to get the outcome. That's where your value will lie, because that's where you'll get great results, build a reputation that you get great results for clients, and that will then drive more clients to you because people will hear about it. People will talk about it through word of mouth. So that's where your, your energy is better spent, right? Rather than overdelivering, get better at getting them better results. And you'll find that everything else will shift in a really positive direction for your business. And then lastly, I just want to share about the boundaries piece. And I've done a few episodes around boundaries, so I won't dive into it too much. But one of the things you want to get clear on is like where you are overdelivering and what boundaries you need to pull into line. So for me, I had to change even in like my contracts. I used to have like, I'm available from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Crazy, right? So obviously I've changed that now from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM my time zone. And I have clear boundaries in wherever my clients access me. So I use Slack and I use Kajabi. And in those is when the client first starts with me, I'm very clear with how long a voice note can be. I'm very clear with how many questions they can ask on a daily basis. Actually, I don't really enforce that, but I am clear of like, I won't answer messages after 5 PM or before 9 AM. And if they leave a message like really late in the day, if I don't get to it, then I will respond first thing in the morning. And I always let people know that you can expect a response from me within 24 hours of you leaving the message there. I usually get back to them within the day. I like to finish my day by jumping into Slack, answering all the messages, and then finishing my day. So I'm really on top of it, and I really love that, and my clients know that. My clients, they are delighted by that response, but it's not an expectation. It's a very big difference if you feel like you've got set an expectation. Like, I remember like thinking, if someone's left a message, I better get back to them within an hour. It's like, that's insane. Like, it's extremely impossible to do that if you've got a fully booked calendar of clients, right? Very difficult to do. And you will always be at their beck and call if you react and respond that way. So you have to remember that you're treating people the way you want to be treated. So if you are that accessible, then expect that people are going to expect that from you. So be conscious of that and go, okay, where do I need to tighten some boundaries? And usually boundaries are just better communicated lines. So we need to over-communicate and communicate how that benefits the client and how for them to best use the resource that they have within your support. And if you do that, especially from the beginning, but boundaries are better set right from the beginning of the relationship. But if you recognize that you have some lax boundaries in place that maybe need to change in order for you to better enjoy your business, and you maybe have taken clients on with those lax boundaries, then it's always— there's always an opportunity to improve them. Like, that's okay. You can absolutely set new boundaries. You just need to communicate the reason for it. And the way that I would say that is you're communicating the boundary based on how it benefits a client versus what it takes away. Because sometimes if you have been lax with your boundaries and maybe been like, you can message me whenever, or, you know, email me whenever, and you're recognizing like you get frustrated by them doing that, then you want to go, okay, what do I need to communicate in order for them to understand my new boundary? So let's say it's emails, right? Maybe you put on an email responder and you communicate that you're in deep work or that you're— you've received the email and you will be working on it and get back to them within 24 to 48 hours. Whatever your time frame is. And then I would normally communicate to the client that change and why that change has happened in alignment with what's in benefit to them. So you might say something like, I've put some new boundaries in place with regards to my email access, and I wanted to share it with you because I want you to know what to expect and when to expect a response from me. And the reason why I've put this in place is that I want to make sure that when I am responding to emails, that I'm doing it with my full attention And I find that if I respond too quickly, then I don't want to give you just a quick response. I want to take the time to give you detailed feedback or a detailed response. And so to do that, I want to recognize that I need— I've set the boundary for myself to not be in my emails all day long. So you can expect an email from me within 24 hours. If it is urgent, please put urgent in the subject line and I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can. Right? Again, don't give a shorter timeframe. Just say as soon as you possibly can, right? Because again, you don't want to set up expectation that if it's an urgent, you're going to get back to them within an hour because it's not always the case. There could be something else happening. You could be in a client session, you could be running a strategy session, like you could be doing many other things. And so be conscious of that. And remember, again, while setting these boundaries, you may need to remind yourself of everything that I've shared with you in today's episode because your value does not lie in being accessible. Your value does not lie in just being super fast responsive. As the example that I shared today. And so you do not have to feel guilty about that. When you start new relationships with new clients, you can set those boundaries from fresh, and then you won't have that problem again, right? You won't have that fear around or feel bad about setting boundaries because you've set them from the beginning, and then it's just about upholding them. Okay, all right, okay. I know that was a lot to cover in today's episode, but I know how valuable it would be for you if you're fearing of letting clients down or that you continuously overdeliver. You will not let clients down if you consider all of the parts of what I shared with you today, right? Recognizing where your value lies, doing the work around your wounds so then you're not feeling that pang of guilt or you're not feeling you're gonna let people down. And recognizing where your value actually lies and then focus on where you need to get better at getting better results for your clients. When you do that, the clients will be super happy, like super happy. So that might take a little bit of time, but it'll absolutely benefit the growth of your business. No matter what. All right, lovely. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. I'm about to open the doors for the Next Level Mastermind, so keep an eye out for that. If you are a woman in business that is scaling towards multi-six figures and you really would love to surround yourself with other incredible women doing the same, if you want that next level strategy to scale your sales, step out and become the go-to person in your industry, and create that business that actually gives you the freedom that you've been wanting for so long, this is definitely for you. Check out the link in the show notes, and I'll see you very soon. Thank you for listening, and if you found any value out of this episode, make sure hit the follow button so you get access to the episodes as soon as they are live. And make sure you come hang out with me on Instagram. You can find me at Christine Corcoran, underscore, coach. Have an incredible week.