September 8, 2025 • 22 mins
Feeling like you’re hustling harder than ever, yet results just aren’t matching your effort? In this empowering episode, Anna Lundberg unpacks why working harder isn’t the answer in today’s tougher market for independent experts, solopreneurs, coaches, and consultants. Discover how to move beyond “busy work” to intentional business design - so your business works for you, not the other way around.
Key takeaways:
-
The Busy Work Trap
More posts, more offers, more hustle often leads to burnout—not results. Anna explains why ceaseless activity keeps you reactive, scattered, and exhausted, rather than strategic and effective. -
The Time-for-Money Ceiling
Trading hours for fees caps your income and makes true flexibility impossible. Anna discusses how to break free from hourly rates and build offerings that reflect value, not just time spent. -
Complexity Kills Clarity
Adding more services or constantly reacting to every market shift creates confusion—for you and your clients. Simplicity and clear, repeatable offers are essential for expert positioning and sustainable growth. -
Intentional Business Design
Anna outlines four elements for a more sustainable, fulfilling business: Fewer, clearer offers; value-based pricing; simple systems and processes; and seasonal, proactive planning. -
Practical Steps to Simplify and Scale
Consider what your business could look like if you designed it on a blank sheet. Identify one offer or system you could simplify today to make everything else easier.
Ready to stop spinning your wheels and build a business that actually works?
The Business Accelerator is our 12-month programme for experienced experts who want strategic growth - without burnout, and without compromise. Applications are open now for the next cohort.
→ Apply now at onestepoutside.com/accelerate
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Reimagining Success, episode 358. This one is for you if
you feel like you're working harder than ever, posting, networking, delivering
projects, and yet the results aren't matching the effort. And yes, the
market is tougher right now. Budgets are tight, some sectors are slowing,
Opportunities can feel scarcer. But this is not about hustling harder to
compete for the scraps. It's about redesigning your business so
(00:22):
it works even when you don't. If you want to stop spinning and
start scaling sustainably, then this one is for you.
Welcome to Reimagining Success, the podcast that helps you build a
profitable business as an independent expert, one that works for you and your
lifestyle. I'm your host, Anna Lundberg, former corporate insider
(00:45):
turned business mentor, executive coach, and mum of two.
Whether you're a solopreneur, a coach, speaker, consultant,
I'm here to guide you in creating a business that gives you freedom,
flexibility, and the fulfilment you're looking for,
ready to redefine success and build a business that you love.
Let's get started.
(01:06):
Okay, so we've talked about the market being tougher, and
that does happen. You know, there are cycles of this, so it's not the first
time. And I suppose what I see,
whether it's the market that's tough or simply our own particular
situation, for whatever reason, I think the mistake that a lot of stuff
sailorpreneurs experts make is to respond to that by
(01:28):
doing more. More posts, add more offers, more
hustle. Okay? And that's. That's natural because you think, oh, I've got to do more,
I've got to post more, I've got to do more of this, talk to more
people. I've got to, you know, work, work harder. But it's just creating more
noise and ultimately we might burn out, which is not
helping anyone. And because we're sort of just beavering away, we're not
(01:49):
taking that step back, which I know is hard to do, and hopefully you had
some time over the summer to do so, because that's always a good time to
reflect. But we're not taking that step back to think about, okay, what do I
actually want this business to look like? What does success look like for me,
and how do I design that with intention. So, you know,
for me, at least in my world of solopreneurs, independent experts,
(02:10):
we're not going after investment, whether from VC funds or from
angel investors. We're not building products, we're
not building teams and big offices, big
tech infrastructure, software Whatever we
are selling our expertise, being
recognised authorities, doing meaningful work within hours that
(02:32):
work for us and earning a sustainable living from it.
Nice. Right, so if you're here, probably you're one of my gang, you're
also wanting to do these things. And if so, then
the types of our business that are doing
well now that I see are really clean, intentional
models that deliver clear outcomes, attract the right
(02:54):
clients and don't rely entirely on the
founder or the expert's time or energy. Now that's a bit of a tricky one,
so we'll look into that because I'm not talking about passive income, I'm
also not talking about having teams of associates
delivering for you and so on. So let's double click on that to see what
that means. But it's about being intentional for me, but it's about
(03:16):
designing what success looks like and then designing the business
around that. So, three reasons, I
suppose, why working harder isn't the answer. The first one is the busy work
trap. And again, I'm sure I've written articles on this podcast episodes on this
busyness epidemic that we have in our society.
We post just for the sake of posting, because we're told to be consistent
(03:38):
and post every day and we're on all the different channels. And I hold
my hand up here, you know, I upload my videos to YouTube and to
TikTok. When I remember, it's kind of, oh, I should be on there. So I
do it. But I know and I'm told daily by various experts
in my DMs that I'm not doing well there.
Right, fine. It's not strategic, but nonetheless, I'm doing it. So I'm keeping busy
(03:59):
posting there anyway, so posting for the sake of posting,
saying yes to misaligned clients, you know,
reinventing the wheel every time because, oh, that didn't quite. I've spoken to two people
and they don't want it. So now I've got to change the offer completely and
I think I'll redo the website and I've. Now, what about new branding? That would
be good. I'll get some more business cards. You know, actually, this is what I
want to do. Again, not not judging or being critical.
(04:22):
I've been and been there, done that, bought many a T shirt,
but especially in a difficult market. Again, this is exhausting and
it makes you super reactive. If you are
then jumping around and let's be honest, nobody really is paying any attention.
So it's possible if you're in luck, then nobody's going to notice your
scattergun jumping around. But if they do, then
(04:45):
you're not going to feel like that kind of safe strategic choice. So we're
kind of people pleasing. I'm very responsive and I'm very
good at delivering to a brief. So I
can work with a B2B client and, and talk to them about their
problems, their outcomes and design a workshop or a talk or an off site,
whatever it is for them. Likewise the coaching. If you come and tell me what
(05:07):
your issues are, then we'll design a programme for that that
works really well for me. It's harder for me, I think, to just a blank
slate go, okay, this is what my one flagship talk
is going to be and this is my one programme independently of what's going
on around me. And to some extent that's good because we shouldn't be designing in
isolation. But it also means that because I'm so reactive, responsive,
(05:29):
and many of us are generalists, multi passionate,
you know, coaches in theory can coach anything. Right? So we could do all sorts
of things. And I meet more and more people who are similarly to me,
doing sort of, on the one hand the entrepreneurial B2C stuff, and
on the other hand B2B leadership and stuff. And it makes sense to us,
but it might be confusing to other people.
(05:53):
I think my point there was that if we're just being
reactive, oh, I can do that. Yeah, I can do this.
That's fine in the immediate short term when we're kind of exploring and just
starting figuring out what we want to do, experimenting a bit where there's
traction. But there comes a point when we need to go, okay, hang on a
second. I've got these 29 offers. What's working, what's not?
(06:14):
Where is my energy? Where is my time best
spent? You know, no longer just
saying yes to everything and trying to be everything to everybody.
And I know, I'm sure you've heard that a gazillion times, but please hear me
now because it's really important. I have to tell myself this again, again.
But the number one point, as I said, was the busy work trap. That's the
(06:35):
key here. It's posting, posting, posting on all the
different channels. It's, I'm going to pitch this and to that and I'm going to
say yes to this. And yes, I could, of course I could do that because,
like, yeah, okay, actually I was promoting this programme, but yeah, I could change it
and do this. Right. You're just kind of contorting yourself to fit for
Everybody. So number one, the busy work drop. Number two,
(06:55):
and this is where it gets a bit tricky, is the time for money ceiling.
Okay? Because the conventional kind of business
advice I suppose is, you know, you shouldn't have your name
on the door because you want to be able to sell your business. And, you
know, you shouldn't tie your time to
money in the sense that people are paying hourly rates or, you know, I
(07:17):
have to be there in person to deliver things. And yes, the dream to some
extent would be at least have some passive income. So let's say
maybe not one book because one book doesn't usually make so much money. For experts,
it's a very small number of books that make the millions, if any, and sell
lots of thousands of copies. But if I have, let's say five, six books, you
know, I've got three books at the moment and they're kind of, you know, there's
(07:38):
a little trickle every month. So if I grew that to more books, some of
them were more successful, perhaps that would be a nice little so called passive
income. Maybe you've got recorded workshops that people can
buy and watch or ebooks or whatever that looks like.
So there's an element of having stuff that works for you even
when you're not there. The
(08:00):
point about selling hourly, I think is tough for somebody and I
think in particular for freelancers. Some clients
will go, what's your hourly rate? And it takes confidence and
having that boundary to set and experience to know that it's okay to say,
well, my rates vary depending on the scope of the project.
Let's go get on a call to talk about what your needs are
(08:22):
and so on. I would argue. And in my experience, if someone is just asking
you for your rates, it's often a very junior person who's just being asked
to kind of check ballpark figures. I had
that, I want to say last year, someone who was, who was junior.
But I managed to ask them, okay, what's your budget? And they said, oh,
we're around this. And I pitched it to just a little bit above that
(08:43):
because it was lower than what I'd usually charge. But because she said that there
was the budget, I was like, I'm not going to go, you know, five times
as high. That would be ridiculous. But I also don't want to just price under
her budget just because that's what she happened to say. But we
don't want to be tied to hourly delivery. That caps our
income. Right? Because there's only so many hours. If you go back to an episode
(09:05):
I did over the summer around term time, working. Hopefully
you've done the maths of understanding, you know, how many hours do you want to
be working, can you be working? And how many of those are billable? That's simply
not going to work if you're earning this small fee for
hourly work. And even if it's a big fee, unless it's a massive fee,
there's a limit to, you know, how much you can earn because you can't add
(09:27):
any more hours on top. And that's where, you know, obviously a group version of
a one to one programme or ideally, you know, repurposing,
redoing. I have some colleagues who have run the same workshop
40 times for one of the big four consulting companies. Right. That's amazing
because that's, you know, you design a workshop, they got a whole amount
of feedback actually from the client, which is helpful. Lots of upfront
(09:49):
work. Once that's done, 40, selling that at whatever fee you
have, you know, happy days. Right. If the, the challenge becomes. If you're
constantly. Every off site, every workshop, every coaching programme
is completely from scratch and that builds on the first one,
which was saying yes to everybody. So then we're having to design new
things all the time. Whereas if we have. Look, my core expertise is in this
(10:10):
area and I have these frameworks and I can draw on those for possibly a
workshop, a talk coaching, but these are the things I work through,
then that makes it much easier these days with my
B2C stuff. The reason I can just babble at you now or do
a workshop with an iPad and a pen and that's sort of just me, is
that I've been doing this for a decade. So of course things have evolved and
(10:31):
my thinking has evolved and things are challenging and the market changes
and technology and so on, but I have so much to draw on. As long
as I've kind of structured roughly what I want to talk about and obviously of
course thought through frameworks and okay, this is selling to the accelerator or to
one to one or whatever. I'm relatively confident and comfortable with that.
Whereas if I suddenly go, oh, I'm going to picture, I don't even know what
(10:53):
could that be like an empathetic leadership
keynote to consulting companies or the
financial, I don't know, whatever that I haven't done before, then that would
be possible, don't get me wrong. And I do an amazing job, but it would
take a whole more lot more time and energy. So I guess
the balance is between if we're just doing the same thing all the time. It's
(11:14):
really boring. But boring is good if it's paying you well. Right?
So the second issue, I suppose is this time for money
ceiling. And obviously if clients are delaying
projects, if they're paying later and so on, that's not good either because there's no
room to scale or step back or things are just kind of dragging on.
And then finally, and we talked about this a little bit last week around sort
(11:37):
of the perception problem, if we're over complicating things,
working harder and harder, we become harder to buy actually, because again,
decision makers with tighter budgets want clarity. They want simplicity. You're the
expert, you're going to tell them. Okay, based on what I've heard, you'd be ideal
for the accelerator. Actually, I think you're too early on, I think you're too
advanced or you know, with the B2B client, they've asked for a
(11:59):
keynote. Oh, we could do, but in my experience you'd get more
impact from a series of workshops or it would be great if we get the
whole lead team to go off site and we do
XYZ facilitation or whatever or it's one to one coaching or small
group coaching. Obviously if you can't deliver those things, there's no point in having
all these things to offer. But that's the whole point. If
(12:22):
I am a decision maker with tight budget, I don't want you
to go, hey, these are 10 different things I could do. Bespoke sounds
great, but it's also very confusing. Oh yeah, I'll design it for you. Okay, but
what works? What has worked with your other clients in this
industry? You're an expert. So tell me, what should we be doing?
So those are three kind of issues, I suppose, where we can get trapped
(12:45):
in working harder and it's not going to get us the results, even though it
feels like it is. So that busy work trap, doing more, more, more,
the time for money ceiling, we just can't add more hours and so we therefore
can't add more money. And then that kind of perception
problem, if we keep adding complexity and so on, we're actually
again creating more noise and not coming across as the
(13:06):
confident, expert, thinking partner that we need to be in
order to work either with B2B or B2C. Okay,
so, okay, what does a better business model look like? And I hesitate to use
the word better, but let's call it a more intentional business model.
I am a huge fan of being multi potentialite.
Portfolio, career, renaissance woman, like
(13:30):
to call myself that. And yet
it's better to be more intentional
and have fewer, clearer offers that are then easy to buy. And
to repeat, you're not reinventing every proposal. So that's what I was saying. If I'm
doing an off site here and a workshop there and it's all on different topics,
you know, that's much heavier for you than if
(13:52):
you have certain frameworks, things that by all means can be tweaked in the format.
But this is my framework, this is what I do. And when I've seen successful
speakers, you know, I was surprised years ago to see these adventurers just, they delivered
the same talk every time. I was like, ugh, that's so boring. But as long
as they're finding it entertaining and, and in the meantime, you know, they're talking to
different audiences every time and each time you hear it actually you hear something different.
(14:12):
So you know that that's really powerful. So yes,
portfolio, career and yes, having these different income streams,
but ideally they're building on each other. You know, same
message, different audiences, same audience, different messages. But it all kind of
fits together coherently. You're not doubling, tripling, quadrupling your work
by having four different audiences, four different channels. I'm doing this LinkedIn
(14:35):
and that Instagram and also the networking here. And I've. Depending on who I'm
talking to, I'm going to introduce myself in a totally different way. That is, it's
exhausting, take it from someone who's been there and still,
still finds myself there sometimes. So fewer clearer offers is a
big part of that intentional business model. The second is
pricing and that's obviously linked to the offers. And I know this is something that
(14:58):
sounds really empty but should reflect value, not the hours,
but it's really important that that is the case. We're thinking of what is the
impact that we're having here, what is the roi? And
maybe we don't have the data on our particular thing, but there is data that
the ICF provides on coaching, on the return on investment
and there are studies, of course, that managers who get proper leadership training are X
(15:20):
and Y percent more so successful or, you know, etc,
companies that invest in this are going to. And that's
all there. There are case studies, all sorts. Right. So
it's not about justifying it, but it's demonstrating the value and,
and having that there. Ironically, when we undercharge, if I go to a
massive company and say, oh yeah, I can run a workshop for, you
(15:42):
know, 500 of your top leaders for £500
that they're not going to take you seriously. It's sometimes hard to know where exactly
the number is. And obviously we need to start where we're kind of a little
bit uncomfortable, but also relatively comfortable. I. I can't go in going,
yeah, no worries. 500 million to work with me, that's like too much.
But it's probably going to be a higher number than you feel comfortable with, let's
(16:03):
be honest. But it's getting that number right.
And no, it's not an easy answer. And I've got podcast episodes
and workshops galore on pricing, so let me know if that's something you're struggling with.
But the important thing is it's not just like a 50 bucks per hour kind
of thing, because that's not going to work. Third one is systems,
so that could be clean onboarding, offboarding
(16:25):
of clients templates. Again, you have a
setup. You know, you're always using zoom and you're always using, you know, these
slides or at least this kind of iPad, plus whatever app
setup. You know, you've got certain workbooks
that you can draw on. You've got your simple marketing rhythms. I mean, a
really specific example, and this might sound too much for you.
(16:47):
And in fact, by the time you listen to this, probably I will have rethought
this. But for a long time, I've had this flow on LinkedIn that
I do. Mondays is a poll, Tuesdays is a story, Wednesday
is carousel, Thursday is an image or a video, and Friday is a call to
action. And that just, you know, that's a system, that's a process. That just means
I can sit down and go, right, I'm going to write four polls, four stories,
(17:09):
or then what shall I write today? Which is very exhausting. So
I'm not talking hugely complex tech funnels and things, but simple
processes and systems. And by the way, I'll mention that. Now,
where are we at with today's episode? I think it's next week. Thursday, the
18th. Double checking my calendar. 18th. That's
the 18th. I'm running a workshop on this piece on processes and systems.
(17:32):
So I'm going to say email me because I don't know what the
URL is yet. Oh, no, let's make one up. Let's go.
OneStepOutside.com forward
slash, simple systems. There we go. If you go there,
hopefully by the time you listen to this, you'll be able to join the workshop.
So, onestepoutside.com simplesystems.
(17:53):
And that's a free workshop where we'll be talking about the systems and
processes and things that will set you up for success.
And by the way, next week we're talking about how structure was that next week.
Oh, gosh, I'm really losing myself. I think in two weeks time, structure
is, is actually the thing that will set you free because I know it can
feel like, oh, I don't want lots of rigid structure, but actually it's what gives
(18:14):
you the very freedom that you want. Okay, and the fourth one ties back
into our term time piece of sort of seasonal planning.
Front load, your sales cycles. If you know you're taking summer off, or
if you know there are certain times of year when you can't work or the
market is slower, create those buffers. So if
you know, and I'm making numbers up, if you know you need to earn 5k
(18:35):
a month, but you know that July, August, you're not going to be working, hey,
surprise, surprise, you're going to have to earn 10k in a couple of months. Well,
that needs to be, you know, 7K per month in the rest of the year.
Right. So again, it's the maths that needs to be mathing.
Okay, so more intentional business model means fewer, clearer offers,
pricing that reflects your value, not the hours, systems
(18:57):
that protect your time and energy and seasonal planning.
And a few reflections, you know, if you stopped reacting to what's going on
and forgot even what's kind of on the table right now, and you
designed with a blank sheet of paper, blank slate, what would or could
your business look like? Someone asked me this a few years ago when I had
an existential crisis 10 years into running my business. And he said, oh,
(19:20):
imagine if you let go of all this stuff and what if you just did
keynote talks? I was like, huh? And I didn't make that shift.
Although I'm leaning towards doing more talks. But, you know, it's quite an interesting
exercise. Okay, I do 10 talks earning 10k each.
Happy days. Right? That's already a nice little income there.
So those theoretical questions, it doesn't mean you have to then do that thing, but
(19:42):
it's a really nice thought experiment that doesn't
drag you down with where you happen to be right now
and what's one offer or system or something that you could simplify today
that would make things easier. Where is it? Oh my gosh. I just, you know,
when I'm on a call with this kind of saleopreneur, I'm offering them and this
is My own personal example, there's either the academy, there's the incubator, there's the
(20:04):
accelerator, or there's one to one. It's just too complex. How about I just go
all in on the accelerator? The academy might be something I have in my
back pocket in case people aren't ready for the accelerator. I can sell that kind
of behind the scenes, but I lead with the accelerator and that's the thing I
become known for. So what's an offer or a system or something in
the business that you could simplify that would make everything else easier?
(20:26):
Okay, so again, yes, the market may be tougher, maybe not.
But that's exactly why clarity and confidence and this sort
of simple and I say scalable model, it doesn't. We're not scaling to be, you
know, millionaires, at least I'm not, certainly not big team and so
on, but a simple model that can grow
to where you want it to be and help you stand
(20:47):
out and become that recognised authority. I think a lot of us are still
throwing spaghetti at the wall. You do not have to be one of them
anymore, at least. So, next step, I'd
love for you to book a call to map out what that business that works
for you would look like. And of course, whether the accelerator or one to
one mentoring could be the best fit. So if you go to
(21:09):
onestepoutside.com Accelerate is where you can
apply to join the accelerator and that will actually get
you to automatically book in a call and then we'll have a chat and if,
don't worry, if, if you're not sure, you're not locked in, we'll have a chat
about it. And I will always recommend one to one or
say that, you know, I'm not the right person to help you right now and
(21:30):
point you in a better direction or perhaps give you a free resource. So that's
a great place to kind of tell me a little bit about what you're up
to, what your goals are and whether the accelerator might be the
right fit for you. Okay, see you next week. Bye for now.
If you're ready to grow a business that actually works, one that pays you well,
protects your time and reflects what matters most. The business
(21:53):
accelerator is for you. It's a 12 month journey for independent experts who
want strategic growth without burnout and without
compromise, apply or join the waitlist@onestepoutside.com
accelerate onestepoutside.com
accelerate.
Reimagining Success, episode 358. This one is for you if
you feel like you're working harder than ever, posting, networking, delivering
projects, and yet the results aren't matching the effort. And yes, the
market is tougher right now. Budgets are tight, some sectors are slowing,
Opportunities can feel scarcer. But this is not about hustling harder to
compete for the scraps. It's about redesigning your business so
(00:22):
it works even when you don't. If you want to stop spinning and
start scaling sustainably, then this one is for you.
Welcome to Reimagining Success, the podcast that helps you build a
profitable business as an independent expert, one that works for you and your
lifestyle. I'm your host, Anna Lundberg, former corporate insider
(00:45):
turned business mentor, executive coach, and mum of two.
Whether you're a solopreneur, a coach, speaker, consultant,
I'm here to guide you in creating a business that gives you freedom,
flexibility, and the fulfilment you're looking for,
ready to redefine success and build a business that you love.
Let's get started.
(01:06):
Okay, so we've talked about the market being tougher, and
that does happen. You know, there are cycles of this, so it's not the first
time. And I suppose what I see,
whether it's the market that's tough or simply our own particular
situation, for whatever reason, I think the mistake that a lot of stuff
sailorpreneurs experts make is to respond to that by
(01:28):
doing more. More posts, add more offers, more
hustle. Okay? And that's. That's natural because you think, oh, I've got to do more,
I've got to post more, I've got to do more of this, talk to more
people. I've got to, you know, work, work harder. But it's just creating more
noise and ultimately we might burn out, which is not
helping anyone. And because we're sort of just beavering away, we're not
(01:49):
taking that step back, which I know is hard to do, and hopefully you had
some time over the summer to do so, because that's always a good time to
reflect. But we're not taking that step back to think about, okay, what do I
actually want this business to look like? What does success look like for me,
and how do I design that with intention. So, you know,
for me, at least in my world of solopreneurs, independent experts,
(02:10):
we're not going after investment, whether from VC funds or from
angel investors. We're not building products, we're
not building teams and big offices, big
tech infrastructure, software Whatever we
are selling our expertise, being
recognised authorities, doing meaningful work within hours that
(02:32):
work for us and earning a sustainable living from it.
Nice. Right, so if you're here, probably you're one of my gang, you're
also wanting to do these things. And if so, then
the types of our business that are doing
well now that I see are really clean, intentional
models that deliver clear outcomes, attract the right
(02:54):
clients and don't rely entirely on the
founder or the expert's time or energy. Now that's a bit of a tricky one,
so we'll look into that because I'm not talking about passive income, I'm
also not talking about having teams of associates
delivering for you and so on. So let's double click on that to see what
that means. But it's about being intentional for me, but it's about
(03:16):
designing what success looks like and then designing the business
around that. So, three reasons, I
suppose, why working harder isn't the answer. The first one is the busy work
trap. And again, I'm sure I've written articles on this podcast episodes on this
busyness epidemic that we have in our society.
We post just for the sake of posting, because we're told to be consistent
(03:38):
and post every day and we're on all the different channels. And I hold
my hand up here, you know, I upload my videos to YouTube and to
TikTok. When I remember, it's kind of, oh, I should be on there. So I
do it. But I know and I'm told daily by various experts
in my DMs that I'm not doing well there.
Right, fine. It's not strategic, but nonetheless, I'm doing it. So I'm keeping busy
(03:59):
posting there anyway, so posting for the sake of posting,
saying yes to misaligned clients, you know,
reinventing the wheel every time because, oh, that didn't quite. I've spoken to two people
and they don't want it. So now I've got to change the offer completely and
I think I'll redo the website and I've. Now, what about new branding? That would
be good. I'll get some more business cards. You know, actually, this is what I
want to do. Again, not not judging or being critical.
(04:22):
I've been and been there, done that, bought many a T shirt,
but especially in a difficult market. Again, this is exhausting and
it makes you super reactive. If you are
then jumping around and let's be honest, nobody really is paying any attention.
So it's possible if you're in luck, then nobody's going to notice your
scattergun jumping around. But if they do, then
(04:45):
you're not going to feel like that kind of safe strategic choice. So we're
kind of people pleasing. I'm very responsive and I'm very
good at delivering to a brief. So I
can work with a B2B client and, and talk to them about their
problems, their outcomes and design a workshop or a talk or an off site,
whatever it is for them. Likewise the coaching. If you come and tell me what
(05:07):
your issues are, then we'll design a programme for that that
works really well for me. It's harder for me, I think, to just a blank
slate go, okay, this is what my one flagship talk
is going to be and this is my one programme independently of what's going
on around me. And to some extent that's good because we shouldn't be designing in
isolation. But it also means that because I'm so reactive, responsive,
(05:29):
and many of us are generalists, multi passionate,
you know, coaches in theory can coach anything. Right? So we could do all sorts
of things. And I meet more and more people who are similarly to me,
doing sort of, on the one hand the entrepreneurial B2C stuff, and
on the other hand B2B leadership and stuff. And it makes sense to us,
but it might be confusing to other people.
(05:53):
I think my point there was that if we're just being
reactive, oh, I can do that. Yeah, I can do this.
That's fine in the immediate short term when we're kind of exploring and just
starting figuring out what we want to do, experimenting a bit where there's
traction. But there comes a point when we need to go, okay, hang on a
second. I've got these 29 offers. What's working, what's not?
(06:14):
Where is my energy? Where is my time best
spent? You know, no longer just
saying yes to everything and trying to be everything to everybody.
And I know, I'm sure you've heard that a gazillion times, but please hear me
now because it's really important. I have to tell myself this again, again.
But the number one point, as I said, was the busy work trap. That's the
(06:35):
key here. It's posting, posting, posting on all the
different channels. It's, I'm going to pitch this and to that and I'm going to
say yes to this. And yes, I could, of course I could do that because,
like, yeah, okay, actually I was promoting this programme, but yeah, I could change it
and do this. Right. You're just kind of contorting yourself to fit for
Everybody. So number one, the busy work drop. Number two,
(06:55):
and this is where it gets a bit tricky, is the time for money ceiling.
Okay? Because the conventional kind of business
advice I suppose is, you know, you shouldn't have your name
on the door because you want to be able to sell your business. And, you
know, you shouldn't tie your time to
money in the sense that people are paying hourly rates or, you know, I
(07:17):
have to be there in person to deliver things. And yes, the dream to some
extent would be at least have some passive income. So let's say
maybe not one book because one book doesn't usually make so much money. For experts,
it's a very small number of books that make the millions, if any, and sell
lots of thousands of copies. But if I have, let's say five, six books, you
know, I've got three books at the moment and they're kind of, you know, there's
(07:38):
a little trickle every month. So if I grew that to more books, some of
them were more successful, perhaps that would be a nice little so called passive
income. Maybe you've got recorded workshops that people can
buy and watch or ebooks or whatever that looks like.
So there's an element of having stuff that works for you even
when you're not there. The
(08:00):
point about selling hourly, I think is tough for somebody and I
think in particular for freelancers. Some clients
will go, what's your hourly rate? And it takes confidence and
having that boundary to set and experience to know that it's okay to say,
well, my rates vary depending on the scope of the project.
Let's go get on a call to talk about what your needs are
(08:22):
and so on. I would argue. And in my experience, if someone is just asking
you for your rates, it's often a very junior person who's just being asked
to kind of check ballpark figures. I had
that, I want to say last year, someone who was, who was junior.
But I managed to ask them, okay, what's your budget? And they said, oh,
we're around this. And I pitched it to just a little bit above that
(08:43):
because it was lower than what I'd usually charge. But because she said that there
was the budget, I was like, I'm not going to go, you know, five times
as high. That would be ridiculous. But I also don't want to just price under
her budget just because that's what she happened to say. But we
don't want to be tied to hourly delivery. That caps our
income. Right? Because there's only so many hours. If you go back to an episode
(09:05):
I did over the summer around term time, working. Hopefully
you've done the maths of understanding, you know, how many hours do you want to
be working, can you be working? And how many of those are billable? That's simply
not going to work if you're earning this small fee for
hourly work. And even if it's a big fee, unless it's a massive fee,
there's a limit to, you know, how much you can earn because you can't add
(09:27):
any more hours on top. And that's where, you know, obviously a group version of
a one to one programme or ideally, you know, repurposing,
redoing. I have some colleagues who have run the same workshop
40 times for one of the big four consulting companies. Right. That's amazing
because that's, you know, you design a workshop, they got a whole amount
of feedback actually from the client, which is helpful. Lots of upfront
(09:49):
work. Once that's done, 40, selling that at whatever fee you
have, you know, happy days. Right. If the, the challenge becomes. If you're
constantly. Every off site, every workshop, every coaching programme
is completely from scratch and that builds on the first one,
which was saying yes to everybody. So then we're having to design new
things all the time. Whereas if we have. Look, my core expertise is in this
(10:10):
area and I have these frameworks and I can draw on those for possibly a
workshop, a talk coaching, but these are the things I work through,
then that makes it much easier these days with my
B2C stuff. The reason I can just babble at you now or do
a workshop with an iPad and a pen and that's sort of just me, is
that I've been doing this for a decade. So of course things have evolved and
(10:31):
my thinking has evolved and things are challenging and the market changes
and technology and so on, but I have so much to draw on. As long
as I've kind of structured roughly what I want to talk about and obviously of
course thought through frameworks and okay, this is selling to the accelerator or to
one to one or whatever. I'm relatively confident and comfortable with that.
Whereas if I suddenly go, oh, I'm going to picture, I don't even know what
(10:53):
could that be like an empathetic leadership
keynote to consulting companies or the
financial, I don't know, whatever that I haven't done before, then that would
be possible, don't get me wrong. And I do an amazing job, but it would
take a whole more lot more time and energy. So I guess
the balance is between if we're just doing the same thing all the time. It's
(11:14):
really boring. But boring is good if it's paying you well. Right?
So the second issue, I suppose is this time for money
ceiling. And obviously if clients are delaying
projects, if they're paying later and so on, that's not good either because there's no
room to scale or step back or things are just kind of dragging on.
And then finally, and we talked about this a little bit last week around sort
(11:37):
of the perception problem, if we're over complicating things,
working harder and harder, we become harder to buy actually, because again,
decision makers with tighter budgets want clarity. They want simplicity. You're the
expert, you're going to tell them. Okay, based on what I've heard, you'd be ideal
for the accelerator. Actually, I think you're too early on, I think you're too
advanced or you know, with the B2B client, they've asked for a
(11:59):
keynote. Oh, we could do, but in my experience you'd get more
impact from a series of workshops or it would be great if we get the
whole lead team to go off site and we do
XYZ facilitation or whatever or it's one to one coaching or small
group coaching. Obviously if you can't deliver those things, there's no point in having
all these things to offer. But that's the whole point. If
(12:22):
I am a decision maker with tight budget, I don't want you
to go, hey, these are 10 different things I could do. Bespoke sounds
great, but it's also very confusing. Oh yeah, I'll design it for you. Okay, but
what works? What has worked with your other clients in this
industry? You're an expert. So tell me, what should we be doing?
So those are three kind of issues, I suppose, where we can get trapped
(12:45):
in working harder and it's not going to get us the results, even though it
feels like it is. So that busy work trap, doing more, more, more,
the time for money ceiling, we just can't add more hours and so we therefore
can't add more money. And then that kind of perception
problem, if we keep adding complexity and so on, we're actually
again creating more noise and not coming across as the
(13:06):
confident, expert, thinking partner that we need to be in
order to work either with B2B or B2C. Okay,
so, okay, what does a better business model look like? And I hesitate to use
the word better, but let's call it a more intentional business model.
I am a huge fan of being multi potentialite.
Portfolio, career, renaissance woman, like
(13:30):
to call myself that. And yet
it's better to be more intentional
and have fewer, clearer offers that are then easy to buy. And
to repeat, you're not reinventing every proposal. So that's what I was saying. If I'm
doing an off site here and a workshop there and it's all on different topics,
you know, that's much heavier for you than if
(13:52):
you have certain frameworks, things that by all means can be tweaked in the format.
But this is my framework, this is what I do. And when I've seen successful
speakers, you know, I was surprised years ago to see these adventurers just, they delivered
the same talk every time. I was like, ugh, that's so boring. But as long
as they're finding it entertaining and, and in the meantime, you know, they're talking to
different audiences every time and each time you hear it actually you hear something different.
(14:12):
So you know that that's really powerful. So yes,
portfolio, career and yes, having these different income streams,
but ideally they're building on each other. You know, same
message, different audiences, same audience, different messages. But it all kind of
fits together coherently. You're not doubling, tripling, quadrupling your work
by having four different audiences, four different channels. I'm doing this LinkedIn
(14:35):
and that Instagram and also the networking here. And I've. Depending on who I'm
talking to, I'm going to introduce myself in a totally different way. That is, it's
exhausting, take it from someone who's been there and still,
still finds myself there sometimes. So fewer clearer offers is a
big part of that intentional business model. The second is
pricing and that's obviously linked to the offers. And I know this is something that
(14:58):
sounds really empty but should reflect value, not the hours,
but it's really important that that is the case. We're thinking of what is the
impact that we're having here, what is the roi? And
maybe we don't have the data on our particular thing, but there is data that
the ICF provides on coaching, on the return on investment
and there are studies, of course, that managers who get proper leadership training are X
(15:20):
and Y percent more so successful or, you know, etc,
companies that invest in this are going to. And that's
all there. There are case studies, all sorts. Right. So
it's not about justifying it, but it's demonstrating the value and,
and having that there. Ironically, when we undercharge, if I go to a
massive company and say, oh yeah, I can run a workshop for, you
(15:42):
know, 500 of your top leaders for £500
that they're not going to take you seriously. It's sometimes hard to know where exactly
the number is. And obviously we need to start where we're kind of a little
bit uncomfortable, but also relatively comfortable. I. I can't go in going,
yeah, no worries. 500 million to work with me, that's like too much.
But it's probably going to be a higher number than you feel comfortable with, let's
(16:03):
be honest. But it's getting that number right.
And no, it's not an easy answer. And I've got podcast episodes
and workshops galore on pricing, so let me know if that's something you're struggling with.
But the important thing is it's not just like a 50 bucks per hour kind
of thing, because that's not going to work. Third one is systems,
so that could be clean onboarding, offboarding
(16:25):
of clients templates. Again, you have a
setup. You know, you're always using zoom and you're always using, you know, these
slides or at least this kind of iPad, plus whatever app
setup. You know, you've got certain workbooks
that you can draw on. You've got your simple marketing rhythms. I mean, a
really specific example, and this might sound too much for you.
(16:47):
And in fact, by the time you listen to this, probably I will have rethought
this. But for a long time, I've had this flow on LinkedIn that
I do. Mondays is a poll, Tuesdays is a story, Wednesday
is carousel, Thursday is an image or a video, and Friday is a call to
action. And that just, you know, that's a system, that's a process. That just means
I can sit down and go, right, I'm going to write four polls, four stories,
(17:09):
or then what shall I write today? Which is very exhausting. So
I'm not talking hugely complex tech funnels and things, but simple
processes and systems. And by the way, I'll mention that. Now,
where are we at with today's episode? I think it's next week. Thursday, the
18th. Double checking my calendar. 18th. That's
the 18th. I'm running a workshop on this piece on processes and systems.
(17:32):
So I'm going to say email me because I don't know what the
URL is yet. Oh, no, let's make one up. Let's go.
OneStepOutside.com forward
slash, simple systems. There we go. If you go there,
hopefully by the time you listen to this, you'll be able to join the workshop.
So, onestepoutside.com simplesystems.
(17:53):
And that's a free workshop where we'll be talking about the systems and
processes and things that will set you up for success.
And by the way, next week we're talking about how structure was that next week.
Oh, gosh, I'm really losing myself. I think in two weeks time, structure
is, is actually the thing that will set you free because I know it can
feel like, oh, I don't want lots of rigid structure, but actually it's what gives
(18:14):
you the very freedom that you want. Okay, and the fourth one ties back
into our term time piece of sort of seasonal planning.
Front load, your sales cycles. If you know you're taking summer off, or
if you know there are certain times of year when you can't work or the
market is slower, create those buffers. So if
you know, and I'm making numbers up, if you know you need to earn 5k
(18:35):
a month, but you know that July, August, you're not going to be working, hey,
surprise, surprise, you're going to have to earn 10k in a couple of months. Well,
that needs to be, you know, 7K per month in the rest of the year.
Right. So again, it's the maths that needs to be mathing.
Okay, so more intentional business model means fewer, clearer offers,
pricing that reflects your value, not the hours, systems
(18:57):
that protect your time and energy and seasonal planning.
And a few reflections, you know, if you stopped reacting to what's going on
and forgot even what's kind of on the table right now, and you
designed with a blank sheet of paper, blank slate, what would or could
your business look like? Someone asked me this a few years ago when I had
an existential crisis 10 years into running my business. And he said, oh,
(19:20):
imagine if you let go of all this stuff and what if you just did
keynote talks? I was like, huh? And I didn't make that shift.
Although I'm leaning towards doing more talks. But, you know, it's quite an interesting
exercise. Okay, I do 10 talks earning 10k each.
Happy days. Right? That's already a nice little income there.
So those theoretical questions, it doesn't mean you have to then do that thing, but
(19:42):
it's a really nice thought experiment that doesn't
drag you down with where you happen to be right now
and what's one offer or system or something that you could simplify today
that would make things easier. Where is it? Oh my gosh. I just, you know,
when I'm on a call with this kind of saleopreneur, I'm offering them and this
is My own personal example, there's either the academy, there's the incubator, there's the
(20:04):
accelerator, or there's one to one. It's just too complex. How about I just go
all in on the accelerator? The academy might be something I have in my
back pocket in case people aren't ready for the accelerator. I can sell that kind
of behind the scenes, but I lead with the accelerator and that's the thing I
become known for. So what's an offer or a system or something in
the business that you could simplify that would make everything else easier?
(20:26):
Okay, so again, yes, the market may be tougher, maybe not.
But that's exactly why clarity and confidence and this sort
of simple and I say scalable model, it doesn't. We're not scaling to be, you
know, millionaires, at least I'm not, certainly not big team and so
on, but a simple model that can grow
to where you want it to be and help you stand
(20:47):
out and become that recognised authority. I think a lot of us are still
throwing spaghetti at the wall. You do not have to be one of them
anymore, at least. So, next step, I'd
love for you to book a call to map out what that business that works
for you would look like. And of course, whether the accelerator or one to
one mentoring could be the best fit. So if you go to
(21:09):
onestepoutside.com Accelerate is where you can
apply to join the accelerator and that will actually get
you to automatically book in a call and then we'll have a chat and if,
don't worry, if, if you're not sure, you're not locked in, we'll have a chat
about it. And I will always recommend one to one or
say that, you know, I'm not the right person to help you right now and
(21:30):
point you in a better direction or perhaps give you a free resource. So that's
a great place to kind of tell me a little bit about what you're up
to, what your goals are and whether the accelerator might be the
right fit for you. Okay, see you next week. Bye for now.
If you're ready to grow a business that actually works, one that pays you well,
protects your time and reflects what matters most. The business
(21:53):
accelerator is for you. It's a 12 month journey for independent experts who
want strategic growth without burnout and without
compromise, apply or join the waitlist@onestepoutside.com
accelerate onestepoutside.com
accelerate.
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