008. Overcoming our Biggest Barrier: The Time & Effort for Money Trap

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello my friends and welcome to episode number eight.

And I am so excited to get to chat with you today about a topic that I think every one of us encounters in our entrepreneurial journey, and especially us as women. I see this really, really affect us. And so I hope that this episode today will help you to think about how you build your business in a whole new way.

And what I want to talk about.

Today is really the one of the biggest barriers that I see for us in committing to building the business that we want and creating the money and the impact that we want. And it is all around the thinking that we will have to sacrifice our lives, our well being, our relationships in order to create the business that we want. It's a very kind of all or nothing type thinking. I hear this all the time and I have fallen victim to this type of thinking. I know that it's something super important that we discuss and for you to think about. And I know I think about it all the time because once I gained awareness that this was happening, I have had to really deal with it and I talk and write and speak about it all the time. And so let's talk about it. So this shows up for us in thoughts like, yes, you know, I'd love to create a six figure business, but I don't want to sacrifice my life and my health and my well being and my relationships in order to do that. Or maybe it sounds like, oh yes, I'd love to build my business beyond a side hustle or beyond a quote, unquote, I'm doing air quotes, little business, which is, this is me. But I only have time to work when my kids are at school. And so that was a story that I told myself for a very long time that I couldn't do more for my business because I had small kids, they needed my attention. My husband was traveling all the time. And so, you know, I just don't.

Have time to, to do what I.

Want to do now. Maybe someday, right? So I don't know if you have can relate to this or if you know someone, but this was definitely part of my story. And so what the issue is with this line of thinking is that it assumes that it takes a lot of time to grow a business and so what I want to offer you today is that that is not true.

And I know that this is not true because I myself have grown a six figure business while having elementary and middle school aged kids, while having a husband that travels a lot, while schooling the kids at home during Pandemic, while my husband was traveling during that time too. And the reason that I was able to do all of that is because I started thinking about what makes money in a whole new way. And what makes money is not time and effort, what makes money is value. And so having that transition, and it's so easy to think that, okay, well, if I'm going to earn a lot of money, I've got to work really hard and spend a lot of time working, right? That is just the way our culture, our economy was built. And you know, our culture still thinks this way. It's, you know, still about punching in and punching out for many people. And so I totally get where this comes from. And I still catch myself thinking this way. And so it's so interesting when you start to transition away from that line of thinking. You know, even now, as I have been growing my business in a much different way, I still get caught up in this effort type of thinking that, well, I have to do.

You know, if I want to grow.

My business even bigger and earn more money, that means I have to be doing more. I've got to be creating more content or have more freebies or spend more money on ads, or, you know, just have greater quantities of things. But that's not really what people want. That's not what my audience wants, what my clients want. It's not what your clients want either. What people, what our clients, our potential clients really are buying? What they want is to have their problem solved. They want to know that they are seen and heard, and they want to know that you understand their problem and that you can solve it. And think about this. If you can do it better, faster and cheaper, or maybe not cheaper, but easier better, faster and cheaper, then that is really what they want, right? And I think this line of thinking that it takes, you know, in order to earn money and earn a lot of money, or create a lot of money and create a big business, you have to sell your soul to the devil or be spending all of your time working, that really affects us as women even more, right? It's so pervasive in our culture and it affects us particularly hard. It hits us particularly hard and keeps us small because it is often us as women that shoulder a lot of the household Responsibilities, right? So we don't have time to work 80 hours a week. We have other responsibilities. We have another full time job when we get home. Right? And so we are less likely to want to sign up for that kind of effort and that kind of focusing on just one thing, because we have the ability to focus on a lot of things. And that's really how we are wired as entrepreneurs, too. And as women, we're much less likely statistically to choose to create a business just for the money. We are, more often than not want to create a business based on our passion, on our purpose, and the impact that we want to have. But at the same time, we don't want that impact, that passion to take up our entire lives. We still have other things that we're interested in being a part of, relationships, families, communities, you know, all of those things. And that is totally okay. And so I want this podcast to really be an eye opener for you, that you can begin to consider how you can create the business and the revenue, the money, the impact that you want to have without having to sacrifice everything in order to do it. That you can build a business as big as you want and create as much money as you want to create while also working between the hours that your children are in school or having the time to go on vacations and having the energy and the time to spend with family and friends. You do not have to sell your soul to the devil. And so what it takes to break out of this paradigm is what I'm going to talk about next. Because it's a lie, you know, and I know we have all been there where we have been in jobs where we were paid by the hour, right? We're not paid by what we complete or what we achieve. We were paid by the hour. And so that for most of us, that's how we got started in earning money, right? We worked in jobs where we got paid by the hour. And so that kind of paradigm just got ingrained in us. But I want to be the catalyst for you to begin to break this cycle in your thinking and in your business and in your life. And so what does it take to break out of this kind of thinking? First, it takes the transition to thinking about value and the value that you offer in your business and quality over quantity. And I know for me, this concept breaks my brain and it may break yours too, but that's okay and just begin to entertain it. And I have worked with my clients on this. I have a client of mine that is a virtual assistant and when we first started working together, she was charging by the hour for her work. And so in order for her to earn what she wanted to earn, she had to be working 50 or 60 hours a week, charging by the hour. She had a large client load. She was overwhelmed and on her way to burnout and thinking to herself, you know, I quit a 9 to 5 job to get away from a terrible boss, and now I'm working for a more terrible boss, which is myself, and I'm just driving myself into the ground. And so there's got to be a better way. And so if you've ever felt that way, this podcast is definitely for you. And so this client is. Now she has been in the process of transitioning, and you know, we've entertained this thought of charging for value rather than per hour. And it has taken her time to get to this point, but now she's at the point where she's transitioning her business to be charging her clients and thinking about what she provides to them and how much it costs based on value rather than per hour. Because what happened was as the years went on, she got better and better at her job and it took her less and less time to do the things that she had committed to her clients to do. So even though she was becoming more valuable in her knowledge, efficiency, etc. And truth be told, her clients didn't really care if she was spending five minutes or five hours to get something done right. They just needed her support so that they could be out operating in their zones of genius. And so what has happened is she has started to make this transition towards charging for value. She has increased her prices, and now she has, I think, about half the number of clients. And she's been able to grow her revenue by 43% in one year. And she scaled back her hours. She's working, I think she's working only about 30 hours on client work and making 43% more money. And with a small stable of clients, which is what she wants, she wants to go really deep and serve very valuably to just a few clients. And so that is what can happen when you transition. Make this transition from thinking about value and quality over quantity and charging by the hour. So how can we do this? What can we do about it? The first step, my friends, is to have awareness that this might be something that's holding you back, have awareness of where these thoughts are keeping you stuck, limiting your growth and creativity. And I'll give you an example from my experience. I like to think my brain goes Back to this. Because it's default thinking, right? It's kind of that default position. Anytime I'm going through a major growth period, my mind, like, my thoughts like to go to how much time I won't have, right? I don't have time for this, or this is going to take too much time is what my default thinking is. And then, because what the underlying thought still is is that it takes a lot of time to make a lot of money, right? So just be aware of how that you are holding back in. In going big, taking up more space, making that vision happen. Because you're thinking that it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort and that you, you know, your family will fall apart and your relationships will fall apart and you won't have time to travel or you won't have time for hobbies. So just start having some awareness. Because then step two is to ask yourself, if it were possible to create and grow the kind of business and kind of income and impact that I want, even within the time constraints that I have, the schedule that I have, would I want to do that? And if the answer is yes, then I can certainly help you. I got you, right? If the answer is, nah, I'm not really there yet, that's completely fine. Just having this awareness is so freeing because so much so often we beat ourselves over the head because we're not doing this or not doing that or not achieving this or not achieving that. But let's just take a step back and have curiosity. Maybe we're not, because we have really good reason not to, and we're happy with our reasons and that's okay. But if you are sitting there with this dream and this vision that's just haunting you almost, right, this is how I have felt. Like you're just compelled to get there and get this company built and this vision built so you can have the impact that you want to have. And you're just being haunted by the fact that you can't because of this, that, or the other thing, then let's question this, that, and the other thing and ask yourself, if it were possible, would I want to do it? And if you feel that, you know that determination growing within, within side of you, let's explore that. And I want you to then entertain and explore your own ideas of what your clients really want. Maybe they don't want more. Maybe they just want more value. And you can provide immense amounts of value in a short amount of time. It doesn't take a lot of time. To provide a lot of value. And that is the magic here, is to just break away, break out of that time and effort paradigm. All right, so how, in a limited amount of time, but a unlimited amount of value, how could you help your clients get what they want easier, better, faster, cheaper? Right. And so what that takes is really understanding what is valuable to your clients. And so, like in the case of my client, that's a va, she thought what was value to her clients was to have her time spent on their business. And yes, that is partially true. Right. They needed her to, you know, launch email campaigns and manage product launches, you know, online course launches, all these things. And that does take time. But what was really valuable to them is to have these things off of their plate that are not in their zone of genius so that they can go and operate as an entrepreneur in their zone of genius and trust and know that she was handling all of the things behind the scenes that she had committed, she would handle. And so at the end of the day, they didn't care how much time that takes of hers. What they care is that it's done and it's done well with high value and high quality, so that it's off of their mind, off of their plate, and on hers.

Right?

So like I said a minute ago, if it takes her five minutes or five hours, they really don't care. They just want it done. Right. And so I want you to start this exploration into what is valuable to your clients. What is the actual problem, the actual result that they want? And I am willing to bet that it has a lot less to do with time and effort than it does with the actual result of what they want. And it usually has something to do with wanting it easier, better, faster, or cheaper. And that's, you know, obviously putting it very simply. And so that is how you start to break this paradigm and begin thinking in a whole new way about your business. And it is a journey. Right? This is not a. Oh, I figured it out. You know, here comes the money flowing in, and I'm only spending an hour a week. No, it is a journey. I know. For me, it has been step by step, asking myself and learning how to provide more value with less time and effort and working on my own thinking and thinking at a higher level. And I have a story for you that illustrates this so beautifully. And it is the story about the McDonald's fast food chain. And we're going to take you back to 1937, when the McDonald's brothers started their restaurant. And these brothers were the ones that were there in the restaurant, serving the food, flipping the burgers, serving customers. But as the customers grew, they hired people and that helped to increase their capacity. But it got to a point where they needed to be able to serve more clients, more customers, right? And they decided, or they came up with an idea, they decided to use their creative thinking and increase the value to their customers. Even a burger flipper can think this way, right? People. They created with their imagination, their creativity, a way to serve more people that they called the speedy service system, which we now know as fast food. And so they created this system and that exponentially increased the number of customers they could serve. Because what they discovered about their customers is they wanted their food faster. At that time in restaurants, you wanted your food slow, but their customers wanted their food faster. So they created this whole speedee service system, now known as fast food, that exponentially increased the value of their restaurant and their way of doing business. So much so that in 1961, Ray Kroc bought out the brothers and paid them a lot of money for the restaurants and for this revolutionary idea of how they serve their customers. And, and obviously we know what has happened to McDonald's restaurants since then. And so this is how the idea of value over quantity can really serve you in growing your business, growing your impact, growing your income, while not sacrificing the rest of your life and relationships. So there's a lot of different ways to scale your business. And this is what I work with my clients on day in and day out, and I absolutely love it. And I think as women, we are inventing a whole new way of increasing value and not increasing the time and effort that it takes to serve our clients really, really well. And what is involved in that is that higher level thinking, right? And out of that comes higher level value. And so that is why it is amazing one reason why it is amazing to have a coach, someone like me, that can help you to go through this process, increase the value that you are offering to your clients, and help you to grow and have that impact without sacrificing your wellbeing, your health, your time. And so I just encourage you today to begin thinking about how you can increase the value that you offer in everything that you do. It all starts at the beginning of our relationships with our potential clients, right? It all starts at the top of the funnel, so to speak. And so think about everyone that you come in contact with as a potential client, or you can think of them as a client that just hasn't paid you Yet. And how can you make this interaction that you're having with them worth thousands of dollars? Right? Thousands of dollars of value to them. And that then trickles down to the way that you do business, Right? The way that you serve clients. How can you increase that value? And it takes knowing who your clients are and what they want. And if you need any help in going through this process, I would love to go through this with you. So reach out to me. Let me know. Let's talk it over. And I would love to help you to see how you can can grow your business, make the money you want to make with less time and effort and without sacrificing who you are, your relationships, your marriage, your travel plans, your life. Okay? That's what I have for you this week, my friends. I hope you have a fabulous week and I will talk to you soon. Bye for now. If you like this podcast and want to take this work deeper, I invite you to coach with me one on one. It all starts with a conversation. Let's get on a call together. And I'd love to learn more about you and your business. And together we can identify what is standing in the way of creating the business and life you envision. And then we'll create a plan to get you there. So visit my website@melissamkellog.com and find a spot on my calendar. I look forward to seeing you.