Coffee & Coaching - Advice for changing strategic direction of your business

Good morning. Good morning. And happy Monday, everybody. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. Oh, I was really stoked this weekend. I know that restrictions started easing and every state and every country is also different. But here in New South Wales, in Australia, restrictions started easing. And on Friday night, we got a couple of friends that we went out to the pub. I was way over excited to go out to the pub. I put on like all my sparkles and I even put on high heels, which is random because I committed last year to going on stage when I was speaking and doing all of that with sneakers, not with heels. Hi, Shell. Good morning. Because my feet were hurting all the time. Because I was going on stages a couple times a week. A few times a week. Good morning, Peter. Hi. And so my feet were sore all the time and I was like, you know, bring down the patri patriarchy. I'm not wearing heels all the time. I'm going to be sneakers only. And I got all these gorgeous sneakers and I loved them. And it was so good for, you know, going through all the airports and onto stages and running full day workshops and everything and not having the pain of wearing high heels. But with two months of isolation, oh my gosh, I just could not wait to put high heels on. And so I had on, you know, like all my Swarovski and my high heels for the local pub. Anyway, did you guys go out? Did you go out and take advantage of the restrictions easing? I know we went to the cafe yesterday with the kids and had a cafe lunch. And it's just. Who knew that stuff could be so exciting? Hey, who knew? Anyway, let me know, Let me know if you went out and you did something exciting for restrictions easing. The devastating part that I read on the weekend was that overseas travel may not happen until 2022 or even 2023. And I, hands down, wanted to cry, but I'm still in denial. I think there's no way that that can be possible. Let's hope otherwise, oh, my gosh. It'll be like, let me out. Anyway, so today what I wanted to talk to you about was when you want to make big decisions in your business, who do you go to for advice? How do you actually make those big decisions? Now, I am of the biggest, big belief that you always know the right thing to do. So what you want in your heart, what you feel in your intuition is always the right path for you, even if it ends up being the wrong path. It's like you had to go down it just to know that it was the Wrong path for you. There's always that sort of rite of passage. But the reason I wanted to talk about that was I've been going through a lot of big decisions in my business. So obviously like most people, Shell had a belated Mother's day lunch at the brewery. Nice. Did you all doled up for it Shell? Did you get. Get all fancy? So yes, like most people while we've been going through this whole COVID 19 it. It affects every business. So it's changed the shape of the way we do things and what we're going to do in the future. I had my new membership launch was planned for March. We've now p pushed it back. It's launching June 23rd so in about six weeks time. But looking at that, I was going what we had planned for March and the offer that we had and the and how that was all shaped, should that still be the same or should we make those changes? I'm a massive fan of live events so I love online courses, I love online programs and I run all of those. But I love to incorporate memberships with the community which is in person. I know for one of my memberships scale up. When we got together at the end of last year, I bought all the ladies together in Sydney and we had this beautiful day together and planned 2020 which of course has gone the window. But we had that planning day and really that chance to reflect on the year that was get to know each other when we'd been seeing each other on Zoom the whole time and then have this beautiful lunch out and it was so nice. And so I was looking at that going well can we actually still do that? Because when we commit to things, you've got to follow through on those commitments. So I'm like, do I make it all an online program? Do I still have the in person events and just hope that it's going to come off in time? What should I change? How should I change it? All of that sort of thing. So big decisions in what to do and then if you don't have those live events it makes a pricing change as well. But I'm going to change the price because then when we bring back all the live events, we've got to cover the cost of those anyway. All the big decisions which I know for every one of you that are watching now, there are big decisions that we make in our business every single day. And so a lot of that you get practice as an entrepreneur and really trusting your gut in trusting your intuition in going you can make decisions really, really fast. I do think that one of the superpowers that you have as an entrepreneur is your ability to make decisions really, really rapidly. That's what sets you apart and to make the right decisions, because there are so many of them. For people that I always say, like employees, it's like, oh, my gosh, how do you decide whether you go that road or whether you go that road? Ah, it's going to do my head in. That's what makes you the business owner. But in saying that, there's always the occasions where you go, oh, my gosh, should I take road A or should I take road B? What should I do? Good morning, Helen. Helen has bookcase envy. You have to make your own rainbow bookcase. And so it's always these decisions, A or B. And I've been in business now for 16 years, and so I've had, like, when I actually sit down and think about how many sliding door moments we have where you go, you know, I thought I was making this simple decision, do I take road A or do I take road B? And if I just made that different decision, what a different business it would have ended up like, because it all takes us on all of these weaving paths. And so one thing that I like to do is collect the opinions of people that I respect. And so that's what I've been doing in the last couple of weeks. So I've booked a couple of coaching sessions with people that I really respect that have done the things that I want to do. I've had conversations with a lot of people that I respect and admire. And I wanted to talk about that because I was going, you know what? There's a lot of people in their business, like clients of mine that I'll talk to and they'll go, you know, I was going to do this, but then I decided not to because I was talking to my brother on the weekend and he doesn't think it's a good idea. And I was going, what does your brother know? And so it's really hard not to take on the opinions of others and to know what to listen to and what not to listen to. And so that's really what I wanted to talk about, was, when you have to make a big business decision, who do you go to? Do you have this already established circle that you can tap into to go, all right, I need to make this big decision. I want to get your opinion. Courtney said road A or road B. Super timely it is at the moment, because right now, I think a lot of Businesses are having to change their course and choose their different road and really, really commit to that. And when people say they know 100% what they're doing, it's not true. Nobody ever knows 100%. Everybody's doing the best they can with the information that they have at the time and then hoping that that road is going to end up being the right one. But here's the thing. If we choose the wrong one, we never know it's the wrong one because it always takes us onto something that we didn't even imagine that's usually bigger and better anyway. But in saying that we don't want to make the wrong decision, we don't want to waste time. So when I come to make decisions, the first thing I do is go, okay, who are the people that have done this before that I can learn from? And this is something that I get crazy passionate about, maybe a little too crazy passionate about, because, so, example, I call myself a business strategist, not a business coach. Because I have so many people say to me, they're business coaches, or I meet other people that are business coaches, and I go, oh, awesome. So, you know, like, what's your business experience? And all that sort of thing. And they're like, well, I was in a corporate job up until, like, two years ago, and I decided I just wanted to be a lady boss and read a book on business coaching, became a business coach, and now charge people for me to tell them what to do in business. But they've got no idea of the ramifications of different decisions in business. So my first tip is, when you're making a decision that's important to your business, make sure that you're getting that advice from somebody who has actually done the thing that you're looking at doing. And so who I go to, I've had business coaches my whole business career. So I started when I was 20, and usually every year or two, I would change them up for the next kind of stage that I'm going into. So as I level up, I have to level up my coach so that they've done the things that I haven't done before as well. Fiona said, strategy for the win. Good morning, Fiona Farianne. Love that. Yes. Right. Okay, let me see here. I'll just catch up on the comments here. So Fiona said, I had a business coach many years ago say two things that always stuck with me. He who chases many Rabb catches none. He then told me to always have a strategy. When and when something comes, ask, is this in or out of strategy. Yeah, sure. I'm talking at the moment when you need to change strategy, though, which often happens. We need to reevaluate that and do that. Stacy said, I can't take advice from people who aren't in business. Exactly. So, you know, the people that I have at the moment are so many light years ahead of where I currently am. So I look at them and every time I have a conversation, I go, oh, my gosh, I'm playing so small. I'm thinking so small. And they make me feel like I can do so much better, like I can be so much better. And they're able to look at the different options in my business and go, okay, this is where I was. And when you're looking for a coach, you want. You don't want to get someone too ahead of where you are. You want them ahead, but you still want them to not be so far ahead that they still know the pain of where you're at. Because I do think that that's something. I mean, I don't work with startup businesses because startup was so long ago for me. And so what I mean by that is, if someone in startup mode is saying to me, so I want to start my first business, I don't know where to start. You know, what logo should I choose? How do I make a Facebook page? My response is, oh, my God, just do it. Just start. And of course, that's my response because it's so second nature to me that I've forgotten the pain of what that feels like to begin. So you want to get someone that's kind of a year or two ahead of where you are, so they still know the pain of what that felt like when you're making the decisions that are so important to you right now, but not too far ahead that they're forgotten. So I always go for those people that kind of make me feel like I can stretch, make me do better, make me do bigger, and make me really. I'm aspirational for the level that they're at, so I go for that. So Helen's asked a good question here. Coach or mentor? So there's a lot of debate over what makes a coach and what makes a mentor. To me, people have different definitions of these. To me, a coach is someone strategic that I'm paying, that is like the coach on a football team or a soccer team or a netball team or whatever you're doing and going, here's the play. These are the different options I've done this way and this way if you do this, this is the result you're going to get. If you do this, this is the result you're going to get. Pick your road, A or B, that sort of thing. That's what I see as coaching. So it's giving that advice, that guidance, that strategy, mentoring I see more. Usually mentoring is unpaid, so mentoring is more guidance, more someone who's been down your road that can be like your oracle in a way. So I call my mentors, people that I'm not necessarily paying, but people that are giving me advice and giving me guidance going through that have always kind of been there and are on the same journey that I'm on. But everyone's got a different sort of perception for that. So Shell has said mine is my strategic decision is scale up or scale down. This is an amazing quandary and it's something that, you know, it's a beautiful problem to have because you've got the option to scale up or scale down. But it is nonetheless quite a quandary and it's something that Shell is very timely because this is exactly the conversations that I'm having with my business coach at the moment is scale up or scale down and how to do that, because it is a conscious decision. So you can go bigger, you can always go bigger, but bigger isn't always better. So if I take it back to when I had my franchise, for example, I loved franchising up until I had about 20, 25 different locations around the country. Once we got past that, I didn't love it anymore. It got to the stage where my job had changed, my role had changed, and I no longer enjoyed the day to day. And the day to day is the most important part of the journey because we have to enjoy the day to day or what's the point? You know, there's no, there's no point in doing it otherwise. And so. But if I'd left the business at that level and hadn't grown, it would have died. So there's, there's a saying I love that, you know, you're either green and growing or ripe and rotting. That's something Dale Beaumont says, who is a mentor of mine. So to get back to your question, Helen, mentor. And so green and growing or ripe and rotting. And I really think that you need to consciously be growing or it's going to stagnate, but you don't want to scale so far that it's no longer your ideal business. And so that's a conversation we've been having lately because we're very busy, which is a wonderful position to be in. I know that. But I vowed after I got out of franchising, so we had 120 staff employed by the Beginbrite brand. And it was a lot of humans that saw me as responsible for them in some way. And I vowed to never have more than four employees again. Four is like my sweet spot. I love four employees. It's enough people to, you know, be able to outsource the different things. To have people do your admin. To have people do. Holly. No neighbors, cars come in. She's very excited. Yeah. To have people do. No, to have people do your admin. To have people do your marketing. To have people specialized in their different areas without having so many humans that you can't have that personal contact. And the relationship that is so important to me. I know everyone views team in a different way. I like to be really connected to mine. So I don't have VAs. I don't have people that aren't in the office. I like everyone to be on the same page because the way I like to communicate is to go, hey, what do you think of this? Or I've got this idea. What do you think? And be able to kind of look at the screen together and bounce it off. So that's the way it works for me. And so we're in the situation at the moment where we go, all right, if we want to keep increasing the business, we're going to have to increase the headcount of staff. Do we want to do that or do we want to change the shape of the business so that we can actually maximize. Serve less people, but more quality, keep the shape that we've got at the moment without having to do that. So it's a really good question, Shel. And it's something that you need to strategy plan in a way of scenario planning. So looking at, okay, if we went down this road, here's all the things that we think are going to happen. This is what it would look like from a financial point of view. This is what it would look like from an activities point of view. This is what my job role would look like. This is what each person's job role would look like if we increased. This is what the difference would be. This is what the difference in the bottom line would be. Look at all of those different levers so that you can see the complete pict of every different scenario. And then think, what do you want your day to day be like? What is your values? And then which one is Going to be the right path for you. It really comes down to that. And then you get a whole lot of advice, which is what I'm talking about now from people that really have done all of those different scenarios before. So that it's not just an Excel spreadsheet, but they're giving some practical knowledge too and going, you know, when I did this road, this is the pain that I went through. Because with every decision that we make, with every business journey, with every part of growth, there's going to be struggle there. We're going to have to do things that we haven't done before. We're going to have to experiment in a different way. And so there's going to be struggle. But I mean, the joy is in the struggle, right? The challenge. I mean, one of the main things that people are struggling with quarantine is we're not getting those ups and downs. We're not getting that struggle, that push, that pull, that challenge. And so I think pick your challenge, pick your problem consciously because you want to get one that's going to outweigh and is picking your pleasure as well. Does that make sense? Shel said she capped at 15. Awesome. All right, so who else do you have? So I also have a mastermind that I'm part of, which is like minded because not only do I like to get kind of advice from the person who's at the top, who's done the things that I'm doing, but I also like to collaborate with people who are right there with me, right at the same sort of level in going, here's what I'm doing right now. And we're in real time, all experimenting together and figuring out, what are you doing? I know, I know. What am I doing? Oh, I'm doing that this worked. Or I just did that and oh my gosh, what a nightmare. Or oh my God, that works so well. Let's give it a go as well. So it's great to have a mastermind of your peers and that can be either a paid one. I mean, we have a paid one, so obviously I'm a fan of a paid one. But it can also be a roundup of trusted friends that are in business that are doing similar things that you can get together on a regular basis. All right, so where are you at with all of that? Is anyone else feeling at the moment that they're in that kind of situation where you're going, I've got to relook at my strategy because what has got us kind of to where we Are now. I'm not sure whether that's going to get us to where we want to go or if it has to change shape with the current business climate that we're in. It's a whole lot of guesswork, I think, at the moment because it has been, you know, it's been tough. Even, even without launch in June, there was a big, like it took a couple of weeks to actually decide do we launch in June or do we not launch in June because it's still pretty soon. And are people feeling like they want to jump in and have that inspiration and go to that next level or are people still in healing mode or. It's a whole lot of questions. And as I said at the beginning, with every decision in your business, you can only make the best decision that you can at the time with the information that you have right now. Carla said, yep, absolutely. Good, good. So, yeah, when you're doing that strategy, make sure you're looking at all the different scenarios, weighing it all up, getting all the advice from the right people, be really, really concerting for who you're taking advice from and who you're listening to when I say that as well. So just to, to. I said before with the, with the peer to peer as well, you can get stuck in that stage if you're comparing yourself to a whole lot of people at your level at the same time. So you want to, once you've picked your strategy and once you've picked your road, definitely always have your eyes open so that you're not missing different opportunities, but you want to also stick to your lane. I know I get in a situation sometimes where I'm launching in a certain way. So at the moment, we launch in six weeks, so there's certain things that we'll start doing. And I see other people who are also gearing up for launch that, you know, you can tell something's coming, something's coming. And I'm like, oh, I don't know, have I done that right? Or should I do some extra things? And you start comparing yourself, stick to your lane always. So you don't want to keep chopping and changing. Once you've made your decision up, just go with it. Donna said, yes. It's exhausting. Yes, it is. Fiona's got. Yeah, I have. My business was face to face group training. So we're heading online totally now. Yeah. And a lot of people, judging by how busy my business has been in these last couple of months, there is a lot of people heading online, which is fantastic because there's also a lot of people that are consuming online that previously were not. So the market has got a lot bigger, both from providers and also consumers on there as well, which is absolutely beautiful. Okay, have we got any general business questions that you want to ask? It could be anything to do with what I've talked about today, or it could be anything as random as you like. This is your time to do it, you know, through the week. I always get DMs and messages and different things privately of questions from people, and I'm like, come on, coffee and coaching and ask it on there so that everyone can benefit. And people like, no, I just want you to give the answer to me. But it is really helpful. So if you're one of those people and you do send me private messages, ask it in the forum like this. Because whenever you've got a business question that you're struggling with, you can be 100% sure you're not alone in that. There's many other people that are going through the same thing right now as well. Okay. Nothing's come through there. All right. If anyone asks me that's on here right now. Private questions through the week, I'm going to say, you got to wait till next week. All right, well, have the best week. Remember to take. Take Monday to take today and have that moment where you're actually looking at all the things that you have to do and prioritize. So own the week. Really work out what is most important and spend the time on allocating to that rather than being reactive the entire time. Stacy said, I'm seeing lots of collab opportunities right now, like Ruby Olive. What could my business do? Any ideas? Okay, so. So Stacy is in health and she runs nutrition programs, which there are so many different. So what Stacy's referred to here is collaboration opportunities, like with Ruby Olive. So Ruby Olive is Sky Anderton's jewelry brand, which is absolutely beautiful. And I think what you're referring to Stacy is she's started offering gift boxes. So rather than just selling her jewelry online with just her pieces, she's doing complete gift boxes and having some other people's products within that as well and then selling it as one. So when it comes to collaborations, what you want to do is you want to sit down and write a whole list of everybody who has your target market. So the customers that are your ideal customers to serve, write down a list of every single business that you know and love that has that target market. So when I say every business that you know and love, I think it's important that you work with people that you already know that you have a relationship with, that respect that, respect you, all of that sort of thing. Because that's where partnerships really work really well. And so write that list and then go, okay, look at it from the point of view of, with that list, what could I offer to their customers that would be of great value? So then if you approach that business in terms of how could you help the business and their customers, you're going to get a great response. If you approach it from the, from the point of view of how can I get their database, it's never going to work. So you want to look at who has your target market and then what could you offer them that would be beneficial to both their customers and to build that person's business as well? Because if you go for a win, win all around, you'll get a really great opportunity and being in health, oh my gosh, there is so many different businesses that have your market for that. So get the list going and then start at the top and work your way down. Fiona has asked, how do you free your mind and settle in to make new strategy? Yeah, so I need to clear the decks to do that. So whenever I'm doing like strategy planning, scenario planning, it's not something I dip in and out of. I actually turn everything off. I usually have a whiteboard. I brain dump a whole heap of things. I book in a lot of different coaching sessions. And as I said earlier, I do the scenario plan. So I'll come up with three different pictures of what the business could look like, of what life looks like. And always, this is an important one, is every time you're planning that scenario for your business, you're going, okay, if I've got that business, what will then that then look like for my life? Because often you can do something that may be right for the business, but it may impede your joy or it may take time away from home life, which sometimes is the right decision. Sometimes it's like, you know what? This, this is the business's time. This is time to build that. But then other times you go, oh, hang on a minute, I don't want to take that road because it's really important to me that I don't start work until 10 o' clock in the morning or whatever it may be. So every time you do your different strategy, I want you to look at the entire picture with going, okay, what does it look like from a business point of view? And all the areas of business so what systems do I need to create that I don't have already? What will it mean for cash flow? Is there any investment? And then what will that mean to the bottom line? What do I need team wise? Will I need to hire more people or have I got what I, what I've already got that I need? So look at all of the different things. What will you need to market? What will you need to change about the way you operate now? Do you need to step into your personal brand or do you need to change that image or that perception? And then look also at what you need to change mindset wise? Because it can be very easy for us to stand at a whiteboard and go, you know what, I'm going to step into this new sort of direction, this new strategy and I'm going to do this, this and this and this. But then we keep self sabotaging the entire time because we're like, nah, it's just, it's so far out of my comfort zone and it's so next level. But if you want to go to that next level, make sure that you're willing to do the things that you're going to have to do in order to get there and that you're comfortable with that and then give yourself the time. So turn everything off, phones off, emails off, and just really immerse in it and sit in it. And then don't make the decisions too drastically, but in saying that, don't sit on them too long either. So you want to kind of give yourself a time limit to go. If you're stewing on something, how long are you going to stew on it for? And then just go forth, be bold, go boldly in the direction of your dreams and just go for it. So Carla's asked relaunching online. I know we're only halfway through the year, but I remember you saying last year that there's a limit to how close you go towards Christmas with a launch. Can you shed some light on that please? I love that you are planning that now. Yes, there is. So you, for the people that are watching on Facebook at the moment, you can see, let me turn my screen here. Can you see my calendar there? So it's looking a little more blank than it was earlier, let me tell you that much for sure. But, but I've already planned out with Washi tape. So I have different colors of Washi tape for when my breaks are going to be, when my launches are going to be, when our in person events are going to be, if they shall Return all of the different things. And then what I've noticed with year on year with an online business is it hits into December and then usually for like the first week to 10 days, people are starting to think about next year. So they're starting to go, okay, what are my plans going to be for next year? Anything after like the 8th, 9th, 10th of December out. Not a good time to launch anything because people are then thinking about Christmas. So people are looking after their kids, kids are starting to get off school, hopefully, hopefully our world goes back to normal. My gosh. And everything's action station. So it's not a great time to launch because the noise is so loud. So if you're doing a launch for your online course, for example, you're doing all your marketing, but you coupled with everyone stepping up their marketing for the Christmas market. So if yours isn't pertinent to anything to do with Christmas, hold it anytime after the 10th of December. But then I've noticed massive, like we've got one of our launches starting on 2 January, because people are really quiet and they're in that mindset where they're going, what am I going to do this year? This is my year, I'm going to step into that and I'm going to create the new year, new me kind of thing. So that's a good time to launch things. If, like, Carla, I know your business would be really great to do it at that time of year because a lot of people, you know, you're in the, the image and the health and the wellness sort of area. Great time to do it in the new year. So I would do that and then, yeah, there's no other real times of the year that are no go's, but it gives you a really nice break. So for me, from 16th December till 2nd January, I'll be completely off. Like no social media, no email, no nothing. And no one will notice because everyone's so busy with life that it's the only time of the year that I can completely switch off. So that's a really good thing is to be able to plan that so that you actually get some time in the year. Because although as entrepreneurs we take a lot of breaks and we take a lot of holidays, which is fantastic. Stick. It's different when, you know, even on holidays I'll still be checking, I'll still be Instagram storying, I'll still be doing all of that sort of stuff to stay engaged, but it's nice to have that time in the year where you're just completely 100% in your family bubble. So I would do that. Alrighty, everyone. That brings us to a close. Have the most fantastic week. Do the things that are going to make the biggest difference and give you that business that you want. Make sure you're planning strategy and taking advice from the right people, and I will see you same time next Monday. Have a good week.