April 7, 2020 • 43 mins
Emily recently hosted a Q&A session in the Being Boss Community, and now we're publishing her answers in a two-part series. In this second episode, Emily answers questions about scaling a business based on highly personalized services, dealing with the lack of inspiration, readying your business for starting a family, and more.
Get full show notes for this episode here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Emily Thompson (00:00):
How are you doing Boss,
I know that many of you arefeeling an edge, an edge to make
the very most of this downtimeand to move your business along
even if things are feeling slow,to prepare for what I truly
believe is going to be a neweconomy, and to connect with a
community of business owners whoare figuring this out as we go.
(00:20):
Well, the being boss conferenceis now online, making it
accessible to every one of you,no matter where you are. And in
light of world events, we'reshifting our content in ways
that will make it most helpfulto you now, focusing on time
management and marketing in thisnew world of doing business,
keynotes panels, breakoutsessions, Live podcast
(00:43):
recordings, and more. Making upthree days of a virtual
conference for creative businessowners that is unlike anything
that's been done before. Sure,we won't be sipping Zaza rocks
in the French Quarter, not thistime, but you can wear your yoga
pants and still get insights andtactics from top creative
business owners, who are alsonavigating this disruptive
(01:03):
moment in history and connectwith creative business owners
from all over the world. Getyour virtual ticket and join in,
make the most of this time andfigure out how you and your
business are going to make itthrough to the other side at
better than before. Learn moreand join us at being boss club
slash conference. I'm EmilyThompson.
Unknown (01:27):
And I'm Kathleen Shannon.
Emily Thompson (01:29):
And this is being boss. Welcome to the
second part of a two episodeseries here on being boss where
I am sharing my live coachinganswers to real questions asked
by real bosses and are beingboss community. You see I love
taking live q&a from coachingand masterminding to webinars
(01:52):
and even speaking on stage Ilove diving in with creative
business owners in real time tofigure out the pain points in
their business. Not only do Ifeel that I really find my flow
what I'm doing live q&a, but Iknow that when answering one
business owners question and acrowd, I'm not just helping that
(02:14):
one person, almost every personin their room or on the call is
gleaning value from both thequestion being asked, and and
the answer. Many of us feel asif we're all alone in our
business, that we're the onlyones dealing with these problems
are having these kinds ofthoughts or feelings about
what's going on. But that'srarely true. And listening to
(02:35):
other business owners posequestions about their business
can help you see that you're notin it alone. Likewise, hearing
the answers to other people'squestions will help you out as
well. In the rare event thatyou're experiencing the exact
same problem and looking for theanswer, you get it when they
pose the question, but whatusually happens is that you can
(02:57):
shape the answer to fit asimilar problem you're having in
your business. Or you're given anew way of looking at something
you've experienced before, or myfavorite, you get to put tools
in your tool belt for when thestruggle comes up in your
business in the future, becauseit likely will in some form or
another immense amounts of valuecomes from attending and taking
(03:20):
part in live q&a with businessexperts. And I have no doubt
that a countless number of youlistening will find at least one
nugget of help in your businessand the questions I'm answering
today. In this episode, I'll beexploring the topics of working
with community organizations orother small budget clients in
ways that don't include pro bonowork. I'll be talking about
(03:43):
scaling a business based onhighly personalized services and
dealing with feeling uninspiredin your work. I'll also be
diving in on allowing forseasons of productivity,
readying your business forstarting a family and allocating
time for different streams ofrevenue. And I'll be wrapping up
with introducing your clients toyour team and building a sales
(04:05):
funnel. As always, you'll findall the tools books and links we
reference on the show notes atWWW dot being boss dot club.
Our first question comes fromLindsay Winkler angle, she asks,
I'd really like to work withorganizations from my local
(04:28):
community schools, libraries,etc. But graphic design budgets
seem to be very limited if theyexist at all. Any tips for
working with small budgetclients other than pro bono?
Yes, I feel like this came upslightly in the community the
other day, this is a slightlydifferent question. So I'm glad
(04:48):
that you're touching on this.
But there's not so much makingroom for pro bono and that's
doing work for free. Andespecially that usually happens
in these sort of situations likelocal community stuff,
especially when you get Dononprofits, you may find
yourself in a position wherepeople are wanting things for
free and needing things forfree. But also, lots of
(05:08):
organizations also have budgets.
But you're right here, they'reusually pretty small budgets. So
if this is important for you,and working with small budget
appliances, small budget andclients is important, then make
it a part of your businessmodel. And you do this by
(05:28):
creating a package that you havebuilt specifically for the small
budget of clients. And youcreate some boundaries around
how many of these that you arewilling to do in any given
month, quarter or year. So youcan think, let's just say for
illustration sake, that agraphic design project they
(05:51):
usually do is $500, like theyall range or they all average
out at about the $500 pricerange. But these small budget
clients are all looking forprojects in about $150 price
range. Obviously, if you justlike went all willy nilly and
did half of your projects at$150 price point, then your
(06:16):
annual revenue would sink. Andthat's not good for you, if you
can't show up to do the workthat you're there to do, you
can't help these local communityorganizations. So you need to
create that boundary around that$150 price point project that
you're willing to do for thesethese organizations and say,
(06:37):
let's say you're only going toallot yourself the ability to do
three of these a quarter. Sothat's one a month, all the
other projects that you bookneed to be at that 500 price
point. But that gives you theability to show up for these
local community organizations atthat smaller price point. And
then I would also recommendbeing very mindful whenever
(06:59):
going out these projects doingthese projects, if your idea of
what that small budget isactually factual. I think a lot
of times we go into working fornonprofits or local community
organizations thinking that theyhave no money to spend, when
often they do and not that youneed to go like take advantage
(07:20):
of all your local communityorganizations, but don't let
them take advantage of you.
Especially if you are making itpart of what you want to be
known for part of what you'regreat at. Part of what's going
to make you a living. Don'tundersell yourself to these
people just because of what youbelieve their money situation
is. But otherwise Make room inyour business to make this
(07:40):
happen. And you can do it in away so that it doesn't put you
wonder. Caroline here says Imake an excellent living from
nonprofits. I'm a fundraisingconsultant. Some of them have
significant reserves and needprofessional expertise so they
can help more people. Oh, snap.
Hope you heard that Lindsay. Andanyone who's I often find that
(08:04):
that's the mindset whenever youyou want to give back and be
supportive of whatever calls orcommunity but there's always
that money belief that they haveno money. And that's usually
just something that you believe,for whatever reason and doesn't
necessarily mean that it's true.
So thank you, Caroline, foruncovering that one for us. Our
(08:26):
next question is from Lexirehlat, owner of Alexandria
astrology. I would like to moveaway from client work eventually
to do this. I would like toscale the thing I do one on one
and probably put it into acourse the issue is that what I
(08:48):
do is highly personalizedastrology and Human Design. So I
have no clue how I can put thatinto a course. Aside from
teaching the systems I use itbefore to get to the application
of the systems. I'm not sure howto scale to serve many at once.
ideas or things I should thinkabout my first thought for you
(09:09):
Lexi is that you're thinkinginside the box.
So I really see okay, you do putin here astrology and Human
Design astrology. I'm assumingthat the the one on one work
you're talking about his natalchart readings for basically any
(09:29):
human that was born on theplanet Earth. Okay, Lexi says
yes. Um So what? I think thething he inside the box is fine
enough for the moment and that Ithink you're right. You need to
think about how you can scalewhat you're currently doing and
teaching others your system fordoing what it is that you do,
(09:52):
whether that's for themselves oryou can also think about
teaching teaching other peoplestrategy for reading charts for
others. So think about think oneis like b2c, and one is b2b. So
business to consumer, you'reteaching people how to read
their own charts, perhaps, orb2b, you're teaching other
(10:13):
astrology readers chart readershow to read charts for their
clients. So you can think ofeither of those things. Alexey
says and then I use that forbusiness coaching. That's
wonderful and fascinating. Ilove that. But my challenge for
you is to think outside the box,like what else could you do with
the skills that you have? Somaybe it's not even scaling what
(10:36):
you're currently doing, butinstead, branching what you're
doing into something else? Ithink outside the box, I think
you're thinking very much soinside. One of the things that
just came to mind for me, it waslike doing astrology,
astrological writing elsewhere.
So becoming a writer of somesort, for astrology article
(10:57):
somewhere else on the internetor a magazine or something
similar. I think that I think Imight have to sit on this one
Lexie, and be of otherastrologers that I know and who
do amazing things. One is Rachelfrom Aeolian Hart, who is in the
(11:18):
community, she's actuallyattended our she attended my
being Boston, New Orleansmastermind retreat this past
October. And as a friend ofmine, we've done some fun things
together in the past. Sheteaches courses on all kinds of
things. So it's not just liketeaching a course on the thing
(11:40):
that she does for people, butit's teaching sort of broader
astrological concepts and manycourses. So like, that's one
thing, and then charging apremium for the one on one work.
Next would be just thinking ofStephen forest, who's like,
Unknown (12:03):
I don't know him, I
Emily Thompson (12:04):
think I love him. Anyway, I love reading his
astrology books. So
Unknown (12:08):
one
Emily Thompson (12:08):
book writing is an option, but who can make a
living on that? But too, he alsodoes like workshops. He does
traveling workshops and thingslike equivalent to mastermind
groups and things. So I thinkthere's there's ways for you to
think outside the box. I thinkyou need to maybe begin settling
(12:29):
on how do you expand what youcurrently do and in what medium?
Those are the two things I wouldget you to really think about. I
think what you've said here isobvious what's not obvious
there's something somethinghidden there. Next up, we have a
question from Erica neumayer, arot, owner of a rare Dirndl when
(12:54):
an idea event or project startsto feel uninspiring, annoying,
or just plain don't want to doit. Any tips for how to pinpoint
if that feeling is coming fromfear or laziness or gut instinct
to drop the thing. The firstthing I always do is check in on
like, personal health. like am Isleeping enough? Am I hungry? I
(13:17):
get my hangry is something elsein my life, like driving me
nuts. So you know, is somethingbroken at my house that just has
me so aggravated that I'mliterally aggravated at
everything? Or is my kid goingthrough a phase that has me just
mad at everything or likelooking at my immediate
(13:38):
surroundings and personal healthto make sure that it's not just
me, it's not just me orsomething else is like generally
happening in
Unknown (13:44):
my life?
Emily Thompson (13:45):
Because there are definitely times when I show
up to you know, work day afterday. I'm like, why do I hate
this so much? And I realize it'sbecause like, I don't know, I
have a cold or like I have acold coming on. I didn't realize
it until you know it was there.
Or, or because home life is justdifficult because being a mom is
hard, or, or anything like that.
(14:06):
So I think number one is justlike check in on your on
yourself and surroundings andmake sure there's not something
else off in your life. In termsof funny laziness and fear. I
think that if you're reallypassionate about something and
most creatives in this space,like if you're listening this if
(14:26):
you want to be boss, like youmay struggle with laziness, but
like you have a passion and Ifeel like laziness. And maybe
this is just me, and I totallyrecognize it. Maybe I've just
trained myself into not beingthis person. But I don't feel
like laziness. And over likelaziness is a issue whenever
your passion is real. Like ifyou are feeling lazy. I think
(14:49):
laziness is just a sign thatwhat you're doing is not
something you should be doing.
There are asterisks there. But Ithink in general, I think
laziness is a good sign. You'rejust done. Fear, though, is the
hard one. That is the really,really difficult one. And that
one I feel takes a long time touncover. And I think of this, I
(15:10):
think fear, I also think there'slike another one here. And it's
that you're not doing the rightthing. Like, you're still a
little off target, if that makessense. But let's talk about this
fear piece. I think when itcomes to fear, checking in to
see if it's fear, that's like,for me, that's journaling.
That's getting really, reallyclear about how I feel in this
(15:32):
moment, what I am scared of whatI think about this project,
that's not really going the wayI want it to either I'm feeling
kind of weird or achy about justtalking it out with myself or
others. Maybe your form ofjournaling is actually like, I
don't know, sitting down with abusiness bestie and talking
something out. Actually, that'sreally another thing that I do
is I sit down with the businessbest and be like, what am I not
(15:52):
seeing? What am I like? What'shappening on my face right now?
That I don't see that tells youeverything you need to know
about how I feel about thisthing. I feel like business
bestie conversations can be veryhelpful, but also journaling to
uncover those things. But I alsofind that usually whenever I
(16:14):
feel usually whenever I can't doanything, it's because it's just
not right. I think the wholesituation there, like the
uninspiring, annoying, justdon't play want to do it. It's
because what you're doing is notwhat you need to be doing. And I
ran up against this whenever,just before I decided to buy
just before I had the idea tobuy Kathleen out of being Boss,
(16:36):
I was working on building my ownpersonal brand back up to do the
work that I'm doing basicallyright here right now coaching
masterminding those sorts ofthings. I was going to build a
personal brand to do that. And Icould not do it. It was the most
uninspiring like angering thingfor me every time I would like
sit down to start projectmanaging it like laying out all
(16:58):
the tasks or actually doing thework. I was livid. Every time I
sat down, I was so angry, I knewthere was something wrong, I
knew that there was somethingoff those feelings come up for a
reason. And there is somethingthere that you need to uncover.
And then the moment that Irealized that the answer to that
problem was not to build aseparate brand, doing the same
(17:21):
thing I was already doing undera brand had already built. But
it was buying kathlyn out sothat I could do the thing that I
wanted to do under the brandthat I had already built. All of
the annoyance and anger and aninspiration just melted away. So
I think that it is telling yousomething, for sure. And I think
that there are multiple check inpoints that you can do first,
(17:44):
yourself immediate surroundings,make sure nothing's off. Second,
journaling, talking out with abusiness bestie and three, maybe
stop overanalyzing it, stopdoing it. Whatever it may be,
because I think that thosethings, those feelings are very
important to the creativeprocess. You are a creative, you
know, the creative projects thatare right or wrong for you
(18:05):
inherently. It's definitelypossible to get started down a
road and find out that maybethis isn't the project for you
now. Or maybe this isn't theright. Maybe it's the right
project, but not the rightoutcome. But I think you know, I
think you always know what'sright for you or not. Okay,
(18:29):
Erica says good point. I think Ilabel things as laziness when
it's actually something else.
That can certainly happen.
That's often how I feel if itdoesn't feel inspiring. It does.
Oh, it's not what I need to bedoing. Thanks for your advice.
Trust that gut. You arecompletely right. Here's a
(18:59):
question from Caroline Danks.
It's cold, dark and wet here inthe UK at the moment, I have 10
years before it my daughtergrows up and moves out, by which
time I'll be somewhere sunny andhot. In the meantime, how do you
cope when the season is notespecially encouraging to
productivity? So one of thethings that my work at Almanac
(19:20):
supply co has assisted me inuncovering is the importance of
one, what it actually means tolive with the seasons and to the
importance of actually doing it.
Because those are two verybeautiful things. And one is
that one it is cold and dark andwet. And at the point of
(19:40):
recording this. We're in winterhere in Chattanooga. Spring is
starting to be banned a littlebit, but it's cold. And you are
not supposed to be hugelyproductive in winter period. We
live in a modern society wherewe have homogenized the seasons,
where spring, we have all thesame As we do in summer, fall
(20:02):
and winter, over and over yearafter year, and it is why we are
all burning out, because humansare from the planet Earth. And
the planet Earth evolves throughthose years in seasonal cycles,
that sort of mirror day andnight. And at night, which is
(20:25):
equivalent to winter, you'resupposed to sleep. And by sleep,
I don't mean you hibernate allwinter, though, we definitely
know that there are animals inthe world who do that. You do
need to reserve your energy, youdon't feel like being productive
because you're a human on theplanet earth who doesn't need to
be productive. This is one ofthe things that I've worked
(20:47):
really hard. And I still havequite a ways to go to build into
how it is that I go at business.
As the boss of my own business,I have the pleasure, the
opportunity, the privilege ofbuilding my business and my work
year in a way that honors thoseseasons, more and more every
(21:08):
year, which I super appreciate.
And I'm grateful for the abilityto do so again still have quite
a ways to go. Because unlearningwhat we've seen our parents do
what we've seen our grandparentsdo what we ourselves have done
for decades, is a long anddifficult process, especially
(21:30):
when the rest of the world isstill hustling it out all winter
long. So give yourself somespace, some permission to just
rest and chill and not beproductive because it is very
important to reserve conservethat energy so that in the
spring, the actual part of thecycle, when you're supposed to
(21:53):
get up and start beingproductive, you have the energy
to do so. burnout is a result ofusing up all of your fuel and
not giving yourself time torefuel, you refuel in winter.
And when is the last time anyoneactually did any of that. So
(22:15):
it's important to embrace it.
Take the time for yourself inthese cold, dark, wet months to
enjoy your daughter's company.
And then you wake up and startworking when it's sunny outside.
There are ways for you to startbuilding this into how it is
that you work. Whenever you'redoing your CEO day kit whenever
(22:36):
you're planning out your yearahead. Think about peaking in
summer with the work that you'redoing sort of sloping off in
autumn, and thinking about howit is that you can grant
yourself some time off or atleast some time less. And those
winter cold, dreary monthsbecause you're not ever going to
(22:57):
feel like busting it out and thedead of winter.
Are you loving this q&a as muchas I am diving in on questions
that cause distress for creativebusiness owners It has been my
fuel for over a decade. So muchso that I'll be doing it more.
Just this week. I haven'trebooted our sister podcast 10
(23:19):
minutes to being boss, a weeklybite sized show for creative
business owners, where I'manswering questions from bosses
like you giving actionableinsights, tools and tactics and
around 10 minutes each. So ifyou're enjoying this episode,
you're going to love 10 minutesto being boss. You can search
for 10 the number 10 minutes tobeing boss or wherever you
(23:40):
listen to podcasts and subscribenow. We've launched with our
first three episodes and we'llbe back each week with another
question from a creativebusiness boss to help you build
your business to next up we havea question from Colleen Keith, a
graphic and web designer atColeen Keefe design. And in the
(24:02):
follow up, you'll hear metalking about resources from
Kelly Edwards, who is the ownerof June mango design. I'm
planning on starting a familythis year or early next, I run a
little design and web businessthat really only has enough work
for me. So I'm not sure how tohire contractors to take over my
work while I'm on a shortmaternity leave, while still
(24:24):
getting a paycheck. worriedabout losing clients while I'm
away or contractors stealingthem. excetera Kelly says she
made a whole bunch of resourcesfor this after dealing with the
exact same thing when I wasprego happy to chat with you
more about it another time. AndColleen says sure I love that
you guys are already likeworkshopping this without me.
(24:44):
Perfect. Um, Kelly did do this.
So definitely snag some of thoseresources. And I think half of
this is worry. Half of this isworry and you Say you're worried
about losing clients whileyou're away or contractor
stealing them for thecontractor. So if you can do non
(25:04):
disclosures, non competes all ofthose things to contractually
cover you in terms of themstealing them, but like and just
like that people don't hire anasshole. Though I'm well aware
that you don't always know thatsomeone's an asshole on that
first interview or two, I say,do your due diligence, as much
(25:25):
as you can otherwise, trust theprocess, trust the process and
give yourself as much wiggleroom and freedom as possible, be
very open with your clients thatyou're taking maternity leave.
And maybe it's not even having,I'm not really sure what you're
planning here. But it's nothaving projects going,
necessarily, or, or starting newprojects while you're on
(25:50):
maternity leave and having themrun whole projects that maybe
it's just having someone onretainer who can service those
servers, any retainer ormaintenance clients that you
have. So websites that arealready built, but you are going
in sort of keeping your clientshappy, or being a support
contact,having someone be that person
for you. while you're away,maybe that's why you're even
(26:12):
planning on doing. But likeunder extreme emergencies, only.
Potentially, you can draw thoselines however you'd like. I also
love the idea of you using yourpregnancy as a marketing tactic.
So to to especially once youfind out you're pregnant, to use
(26:34):
that as a marketing push to getnew clients so that you can get
them done before you go onmaternity leave. That way,
you're not again, working whileyou're on maternity leave as
much as possible. Because everywoman I've ever met, it's like,
oh, it's fine. I'll be back atwork in like a week and I'm just
gonna hustle things out. And I'mlike, Girl, no, you're gonna be
(26:55):
so sleep deprived, you're notgonna know which end is up fat.
So even though you're like allrosy glasses at the moment, once
you're in it, you want to beprepared to be completely
disconnected as much aspossible. So my, my
recommendation is to keep yourworkload, especially if you're
(27:17):
just a small web design company.
Keep your workload as light aspossible. during those months,
or weeks, whenever that you aretaking your maternity leave,
have someone that you trust bethe point of contact. And
otherwise, try to disconnect ascompletely as you can. And give
yourself a larger window thanyou think you need. That way if
(27:38):
you do want it or you do inanini is, Lord forbid, let's say
health concerns come up.
Whatever you need to have areally good buffer there. in
case something comes up or ifyou should decide you want to
take another week or two tocuddle that baby. Whatever it
may be. Plan more than you thinkotherwise get with Cali because
Cali Cali This is right upKelly's alley. that rhymed. I
(27:59):
like it. Colleen says, Okay,thank you. Love your
suggestions. I'm planning totake three months completely off
and then come back for two halfdays a week to start. I love
this. And if I'm not mistaken, Ithink Kat Kelly did something
similar sort of tiptoeing backinto the workload, which is a
good idea. Lexi says manybusiness owners report business
(28:22):
growth during pregnancy, you'regrowing so your business is
growing true that Kathleen willeven attest to that, it can
definitely happen. But you canstill be very strategic about
it. Growth doesn't necessarilymean like expansion, so much as
maybe you start charging morefor your services, so that you
can be more selective about thepeople that you are working with
as opposed to having bulk. Thereare lots of lots of meanings for
(28:46):
growth. And next we have aquestion from Dana Kay, owner of
Kay publicity. I have twoprimary revenue streams in my
business done for you PRservices, which are high price
with tight profit margins, and amembership site, which is low
price with a big profit margin.
(29:09):
It's clear to me that growing mymembership site is what's going
to allow me to serve more peoplescale my business and increase
overall profits. But itcurrently accounts for only a
small percentage of my overallrevenue. How do you approach
time allocation for yourdifferent revenue streams? What
factors do you consider? Oh,this is such a good question.
(29:30):
Dana always comes with the bestquestions. I love this. Okay. So
I think time allocation needs tobe set around. So many things.
One, what you're promising todeliver. So even if you're low
(29:51):
margin, offering, even if youhave a low margin offering that
requires a lot of input, youbetter give all of that input.
And if the high margin one needslittle, don't do more of it if
(30:13):
you're doing a disservice towhat you've promised to the low
margin, that makes sense. Like,like that made sense. So don't
stiff anybody is what I'msaying, number one, deliver on
your promises, first andforemost, to think about your
goals. And think about yourgoals in context of your sales
(30:40):
funnel. So we talked about thesales funnel and CEO day kit.
And pretty Yes, I think Dana isa member of that. So she she
knows she knows what we're goingout here with the idea of what's
at the bottom of the funnel. Sofor example, if your high touch
engagement, is what creates thereferral engine that fills your
(31:04):
community, your membership site,then
understand that putting yourenergy in that high priced
endeavor is going to feed yourcommunity or membership site or
vice versa. So let's say puttinglots of energy into that
membership site is going to getyou more of those high price but
(31:27):
smaller private profit margin.
clients, then put your energythere think about how clients
flow through your business andput energy in those right
places. So number one, make sureyou're delivering on your
(31:47):
promises and making sure timeallocations Have you delivering
on all of your promises. I knowDana, I never have to worry
about that with you, too, was,huh. I don't remember what two
was. But I think three was whereit falls in your Oh goals.
Sorry, two was goals. So whatare your business goals, and
making sure if your businessgoal is to get more and more one
(32:08):
on one clients, then focus yourattention there and both
delivering so you get word ofmouth referrals and marketing
that so you can get more ofthose people. Or if it's the
membership site, then makingsure you are allotting time to
grow that as per your goals ifas both of them 5050 is fine.
(32:29):
And then three is where it fallsin your business funnel. If you
put all of your energy, not allyou should never put all of your
energy in any single part ofyour business funnel. But let's
say for the moment, and I thinkthat's a key there too, is this
can ebb and flow you don't haveto focus all of your energy on
any single part for an extendedperiod of time. Let's say one
(32:53):
month, you are really bustingout some one on one client
engagements. And then nextmonth, you're really going to
focus on nurturing, nurturingcommunity or your membership
site on a deeper level on top ofwhat you've already promised
them. And growing that throughmarketing and it can ebb and
flow month to month, quarter toquarter whatever it may be. But
(33:13):
those are the three things thatI would consider making sure
you're always delivering on yourpromises, making sure that you
are allocating your time so thatit supports your goals, your
growth goals, and three, makingsure that you're thinking about
how it affects your entirefunnel so that you are you can
sort of indirectly accomplishyour goals by focusing on
(33:34):
separate or different parts ofyour funnel. So if you really
want to grow those one on oneengagements, but your which is
usually bottom of your funnel,but you are instead going to
focus on growing our nurturingrelationship to the very top of
your funnel because it will flowinto those bottom of funnel
engagements. It's not alwaysdirect. So those three things
(33:54):
easy, right? It comes as Dana isbringing it doesn't she always.
And Caroline says I'm in asimilar place to Dana at the
moment. This is reallyinteresting. growing my digital
course is more of a side hustleat the moment with odd days
where possible, right focuswhere you can. Oh, yes, clearly,
(34:17):
Karolina sharing it. Clientsmust take priority because the
money they generate and thatword of mouth is real, real. But
also there's benefits to growinglike the membership and aren't
your membership people, yourclients as well just in a very
(34:38):
different capacity. It alldeserves attention. I think it
should just ebb and flow basedon based on goals based on
goals. You can probably hearthat I'm quite familiar with
many of these bosses in theirbusinesses which gives me such a
valuable context for offering upJust the right insight they need
(35:00):
to work through their strugglesand opportunities. How do I know
them so well, because we hangout in the being boss community.
And because I've got to hang outwith a couple of them in real
life at being boss events too.
And the being boss community, wetalk business a lot. we dive
into business models time andmoney allocations. We
(35:20):
troubleshoot problems, and moreon the setting of a beautiful
membership site that's built tokeep you focused,
Unknown (35:27):
but informed.
Emily Thompson (35:28):
So if you're craving a place to meet creative
business owners who are in it,and a safe space to ask
questions, and work throughwhat's going on in your
business, comm check us out foras little as $11 a month that
you can get access to ourcommunity of bosses, inspiring
and actionable content, businessbuilding prompts and occasional
calls like this one, learn moreand join in by going to being
(35:50):
boss club slash community. Next,we have a question from Kelly
Edwards, a web designer andfounder of June mango design.
Any recommendations for talkingto potential clients about your
team on a sales call, wonderinghow to position the conversation
if I may not be the primarydesigner for their project. I
(36:14):
think you do it naturally,early, often and confidently. So
what whenever it comes totalking about other people on
your team who will be servicingyour client, and especially as
someone who either in the pasthas positioned himself as a solo
(36:37):
creative, or service provider,which I know you have Cali, or
maybe even currently do, thereare plenty of people who have
very personal brands who youdon't really realize that
there's a whole other team backthere doing the work, it can be
very difficult to one start itand to continue to doing it if
(36:58):
you're positioning is very muchso like I'm a one boss show. So
that naturally part can bedifficult, but you should do it.
Talk about them, like just bringit up part of the conversation
like Yes, I'm gonna pass thisover to my, you know, design
assistant, so and so and they'regonna give these I'm gonna send
it over you, we can talk aboutit, like, just throw it in
(37:20):
there, like it's nothing likeit's just part of the
conversation, it's totally fine.
Um, I'm early, talking about itvery early in the conversation,
don't get even half a phone callthrough, I don't think or half a
half a conversation there whereyou're telling them about your
process, we're finally you throwin that you have a designer
working with you, or that yourassistants going to get to that
(37:41):
thing, or your developers goingto do it, or your whoever early,
talk about it early. Often keeptalking about it. And whatever
part of the process that youhave people stepping in to help
you with, make sure that theyare mentioned. And continue
(38:02):
bringing up throughout theentire process, not just in that
first phone call that you'rehaving with a client, but in
every calm phone call after thathas to do with that part of the
process. And then finally,confidently knowing what your
process is, knowing that whenyou're handing it off, when
(38:22):
they're bringing it back to youhaving confidence in their
skills along the way, is ofutmost importance. Don't
question it, don't even thinkthat they're gonna question it.
So a lot of the confidence whocan come or lack of confidence
can come from the idea thatthey're expecting you to be the
only person who's doing it. Soyou're like, oh, but I actually
(38:43):
have someone helping me do it.
No, you have someone helping youdo it, it's gonna be great. All
the way through your designer isone of the best you've ever had.
She's a great communicator. Andshe's really great at taking,
you know, your thoughts andmission and turning into visual
representation. Talk about itwith confidence, and they won't
question you. And if they everdo, answer with confidence,
(39:06):
because not all businesses aresingle owned or like single
worked in for the most part,people accept that. But that is
such a good that is such a goodquestion. It's something that so
many bosses struggle with. andrightfully so, again, most of us
(39:27):
spend a lot of time alone in ourbusiness. We build a business
based on our skills, but at somepoint we need to grow and
changing a conversation, a salesconversation that we've gotten
really great at because we havebeen doing it for years. having
this conversation about howwe're going to serve them
switching that to how someoneelse is going to help serve them
(39:47):
can be difficult. So practice,practice it and follow those
things. Naturally, early, oftenand confidently and no one will
ever ask any questions? They do.
answer them, if they don't likeit, they are not your ideal
customer.
(40:10):
And finally, we have a questionfrom Stephanie Peterson. Any
thoughts on how to tacklemapping out your services in a
customer lifecycle style, to layout what to offer customers
next, given their stage to keepthem in your sales funnel, I
understand the value of doingthis, but would love some ideas
for organizing all of mythoughts around it, for example,
(40:33):
creating a full funnel marketingstrategy. Stephen, Stephanie, my
first and kind of only, becauseI think that you should just do
this first, before you literallydo anything else, is to talk to
your customers about what it isthat they need from you. So no
matter what it is that you'redoing, and it's customer
(40:54):
feedback, that will tell youeverything that you need to know
about how your skills canbenefit them, whether that's pre
the first time they work withyou, or after they work with
you. And you can ask them aboutthings like, what sort of
content Do you wish I weresharing, and we'll help you make
(41:15):
better use of the services thatI offer? What other services can
I offer, whatever it may betalking to the people that you
are, who are already yourcustomers is the number one task
and the only task to do untilyou get to until you complete
(41:35):
it. And then beyond that, one ofmy favorite tools for this is
actually in the CEO day kit. Ithink as the second is the
sharing and selling
Unknown (41:45):
section
Emily Thompson (41:46):
of it, it's a really great worksheet that lays
out how it is that you'recurrently servicing your
customers so that you can fillin the holes, both the holes in
the content that you're sharingand the services that you have
provided, but also how they fitinto your sales funnel. So you
can think about or it's agraphic representation of a
sales funnel and you fill in theholes or you fill in the blanks.
(42:07):
And then were there any holes,that's things that you need to
create to better serve as yourcustomer. So if you haven't
already checked out CEO day kit,you will find the answer there.
Thanks for listening. And hey,if you want more resources,
we're talking worksheets, freetrainings in person meetups and
vacations and more. Go to ourwebsite at www dot beambox dot
(42:29):
club. Do the work the box
How are you doing Boss,
I know that many of you arefeeling an edge, an edge to make
the very most of this downtimeand to move your business along
even if things are feeling slow,to prepare for what I truly
believe is going to be a neweconomy, and to connect with a
community of business owners whoare figuring this out as we go.
(00:20):
Well, the being boss conferenceis now online, making it
accessible to every one of you,no matter where you are. And in
light of world events, we'reshifting our content in ways
that will make it most helpfulto you now, focusing on time
management and marketing in thisnew world of doing business,
keynotes panels, breakoutsessions, Live podcast
(00:43):
recordings, and more. Making upthree days of a virtual
conference for creative businessowners that is unlike anything
that's been done before. Sure,we won't be sipping Zaza rocks
in the French Quarter, not thistime, but you can wear your yoga
pants and still get insights andtactics from top creative
business owners, who are alsonavigating this disruptive
(01:03):
moment in history and connectwith creative business owners
from all over the world. Getyour virtual ticket and join in,
make the most of this time andfigure out how you and your
business are going to make itthrough to the other side at
better than before. Learn moreand join us at being boss club
slash conference. I'm EmilyThompson.
Unknown (01:27):
And I'm Kathleen Shannon.
Emily Thompson (01:29):
And this is being boss. Welcome to the
second part of a two episodeseries here on being boss where
I am sharing my live coachinganswers to real questions asked
by real bosses and are beingboss community. You see I love
taking live q&a from coachingand masterminding to webinars
(01:52):
and even speaking on stage Ilove diving in with creative
business owners in real time tofigure out the pain points in
their business. Not only do Ifeel that I really find my flow
what I'm doing live q&a, but Iknow that when answering one
business owners question and acrowd, I'm not just helping that
(02:14):
one person, almost every personin their room or on the call is
gleaning value from both thequestion being asked, and and
the answer. Many of us feel asif we're all alone in our
business, that we're the onlyones dealing with these problems
are having these kinds ofthoughts or feelings about
what's going on. But that'srarely true. And listening to
(02:35):
other business owners posequestions about their business
can help you see that you're notin it alone. Likewise, hearing
the answers to other people'squestions will help you out as
well. In the rare event thatyou're experiencing the exact
same problem and looking for theanswer, you get it when they
pose the question, but whatusually happens is that you can
(02:57):
shape the answer to fit asimilar problem you're having in
your business. Or you're given anew way of looking at something
you've experienced before, or myfavorite, you get to put tools
in your tool belt for when thestruggle comes up in your
business in the future, becauseit likely will in some form or
another immense amounts of valuecomes from attending and taking
(03:20):
part in live q&a with businessexperts. And I have no doubt
that a countless number of youlistening will find at least one
nugget of help in your businessand the questions I'm answering
today. In this episode, I'll beexploring the topics of working
with community organizations orother small budget clients in
ways that don't include pro bonowork. I'll be talking about
(03:43):
scaling a business based onhighly personalized services and
dealing with feeling uninspiredin your work. I'll also be
diving in on allowing forseasons of productivity,
readying your business forstarting a family and allocating
time for different streams ofrevenue. And I'll be wrapping up
with introducing your clients toyour team and building a sales
(04:05):
funnel. As always, you'll findall the tools books and links we
reference on the show notes atWWW dot being boss dot club.
Our first question comes fromLindsay Winkler angle, she asks,
I'd really like to work withorganizations from my local
(04:28):
community schools, libraries,etc. But graphic design budgets
seem to be very limited if theyexist at all. Any tips for
working with small budgetclients other than pro bono?
Yes, I feel like this came upslightly in the community the
other day, this is a slightlydifferent question. So I'm glad
(04:48):
that you're touching on this.
But there's not so much makingroom for pro bono and that's
doing work for free. Andespecially that usually happens
in these sort of situations likelocal community stuff,
especially when you get Dononprofits, you may find
yourself in a position wherepeople are wanting things for
free and needing things forfree. But also, lots of
(05:08):
organizations also have budgets.
But you're right here, they'reusually pretty small budgets. So
if this is important for you,and working with small budget
appliances, small budget andclients is important, then make
it a part of your businessmodel. And you do this by
(05:28):
creating a package that you havebuilt specifically for the small
budget of clients. And youcreate some boundaries around
how many of these that you arewilling to do in any given
month, quarter or year. So youcan think, let's just say for
illustration sake, that agraphic design project they
(05:51):
usually do is $500, like theyall range or they all average
out at about the $500 pricerange. But these small budget
clients are all looking forprojects in about $150 price
range. Obviously, if you justlike went all willy nilly and
did half of your projects at$150 price point, then your
(06:16):
annual revenue would sink. Andthat's not good for you, if you
can't show up to do the workthat you're there to do, you
can't help these local communityorganizations. So you need to
create that boundary around that$150 price point project that
you're willing to do for thesethese organizations and say,
(06:37):
let's say you're only going toallot yourself the ability to do
three of these a quarter. Sothat's one a month, all the
other projects that you bookneed to be at that 500 price
point. But that gives you theability to show up for these
local community organizations atthat smaller price point. And
then I would also recommendbeing very mindful whenever
(06:59):
going out these projects doingthese projects, if your idea of
what that small budget isactually factual. I think a lot
of times we go into working fornonprofits or local community
organizations thinking that theyhave no money to spend, when
often they do and not that youneed to go like take advantage
(07:20):
of all your local communityorganizations, but don't let
them take advantage of you.
Especially if you are making itpart of what you want to be
known for part of what you'regreat at. Part of what's going
to make you a living. Don'tundersell yourself to these
people just because of what youbelieve their money situation
is. But otherwise Make room inyour business to make this
(07:40):
happen. And you can do it in away so that it doesn't put you
wonder. Caroline here says Imake an excellent living from
nonprofits. I'm a fundraisingconsultant. Some of them have
significant reserves and needprofessional expertise so they
can help more people. Oh, snap.
Hope you heard that Lindsay. Andanyone who's I often find that
(08:04):
that's the mindset whenever youyou want to give back and be
supportive of whatever calls orcommunity but there's always
that money belief that they haveno money. And that's usually
just something that you believe,for whatever reason and doesn't
necessarily mean that it's true.
So thank you, Caroline, foruncovering that one for us. Our
(08:26):
next question is from Lexirehlat, owner of Alexandria
astrology. I would like to moveaway from client work eventually
to do this. I would like toscale the thing I do one on one
and probably put it into acourse the issue is that what I
(08:48):
do is highly personalizedastrology and Human Design. So I
have no clue how I can put thatinto a course. Aside from
teaching the systems I use itbefore to get to the application
of the systems. I'm not sure howto scale to serve many at once.
ideas or things I should thinkabout my first thought for you
(09:09):
Lexi is that you're thinkinginside the box.
So I really see okay, you do putin here astrology and Human
Design astrology. I'm assumingthat the the one on one work
you're talking about his natalchart readings for basically any
(09:29):
human that was born on theplanet Earth. Okay, Lexi says
yes. Um So what? I think thething he inside the box is fine
enough for the moment and that Ithink you're right. You need to
think about how you can scalewhat you're currently doing and
teaching others your system fordoing what it is that you do,
(09:52):
whether that's for themselves oryou can also think about
teaching teaching other peoplestrategy for reading charts for
others. So think about think oneis like b2c, and one is b2b. So
business to consumer, you'reteaching people how to read
their own charts, perhaps, orb2b, you're teaching other
(10:13):
astrology readers chart readershow to read charts for their
clients. So you can think ofeither of those things. Alexey
says and then I use that forbusiness coaching. That's
wonderful and fascinating. Ilove that. But my challenge for
you is to think outside the box,like what else could you do with
the skills that you have? Somaybe it's not even scaling what
(10:36):
you're currently doing, butinstead, branching what you're
doing into something else? Ithink outside the box, I think
you're thinking very much soinside. One of the things that
just came to mind for me, it waslike doing astrology,
astrological writing elsewhere.
So becoming a writer of somesort, for astrology article
(10:57):
somewhere else on the internetor a magazine or something
similar. I think that I think Imight have to sit on this one
Lexie, and be of otherastrologers that I know and who
do amazing things. One is Rachelfrom Aeolian Hart, who is in the
(11:18):
community, she's actuallyattended our she attended my
being Boston, New Orleansmastermind retreat this past
October. And as a friend ofmine, we've done some fun things
together in the past. Sheteaches courses on all kinds of
things. So it's not just liketeaching a course on the thing
(11:40):
that she does for people, butit's teaching sort of broader
astrological concepts and manycourses. So like, that's one
thing, and then charging apremium for the one on one work.
Next would be just thinking ofStephen forest, who's like,
Unknown (12:03):
I don't know him, I
Emily Thompson (12:04):
think I love him. Anyway, I love reading his
astrology books. So
Unknown (12:08):
one
Emily Thompson (12:08):
book writing is an option, but who can make a
living on that? But too, he alsodoes like workshops. He does
traveling workshops and thingslike equivalent to mastermind
groups and things. So I thinkthere's there's ways for you to
think outside the box. I thinkyou need to maybe begin settling
(12:29):
on how do you expand what youcurrently do and in what medium?
Those are the two things I wouldget you to really think about. I
think what you've said here isobvious what's not obvious
there's something somethinghidden there. Next up, we have a
question from Erica neumayer, arot, owner of a rare Dirndl when
(12:54):
an idea event or project startsto feel uninspiring, annoying,
or just plain don't want to doit. Any tips for how to pinpoint
if that feeling is coming fromfear or laziness or gut instinct
to drop the thing. The firstthing I always do is check in on
like, personal health. like am Isleeping enough? Am I hungry? I
(13:17):
get my hangry is something elsein my life, like driving me
nuts. So you know, is somethingbroken at my house that just has
me so aggravated that I'mliterally aggravated at
everything? Or is my kid goingthrough a phase that has me just
mad at everything or likelooking at my immediate
(13:38):
surroundings and personal healthto make sure that it's not just
me, it's not just me orsomething else is like generally
happening in
Unknown (13:44):
my life?
Emily Thompson (13:45):
Because there are definitely times when I show
up to you know, work day afterday. I'm like, why do I hate
this so much? And I realize it'sbecause like, I don't know, I
have a cold or like I have acold coming on. I didn't realize
it until you know it was there.
Or, or because home life is justdifficult because being a mom is
hard, or, or anything like that.
(14:06):
So I think number one is justlike check in on your on
yourself and surroundings andmake sure there's not something
else off in your life. In termsof funny laziness and fear. I
think that if you're reallypassionate about something and
most creatives in this space,like if you're listening this if
(14:26):
you want to be boss, like youmay struggle with laziness, but
like you have a passion and Ifeel like laziness. And maybe
this is just me, and I totallyrecognize it. Maybe I've just
trained myself into not beingthis person. But I don't feel
like laziness. And over likelaziness is a issue whenever
your passion is real. Like ifyou are feeling lazy. I think
(14:49):
laziness is just a sign thatwhat you're doing is not
something you should be doing.
There are asterisks there. But Ithink in general, I think
laziness is a good sign. You'rejust done. Fear, though, is the
hard one. That is the really,really difficult one. And that
one I feel takes a long time touncover. And I think of this, I
(15:10):
think fear, I also think there'slike another one here. And it's
that you're not doing the rightthing. Like, you're still a
little off target, if that makessense. But let's talk about this
fear piece. I think when itcomes to fear, checking in to
see if it's fear, that's like,for me, that's journaling.
That's getting really, reallyclear about how I feel in this
(15:32):
moment, what I am scared of whatI think about this project,
that's not really going the wayI want it to either I'm feeling
kind of weird or achy about justtalking it out with myself or
others. Maybe your form ofjournaling is actually like, I
don't know, sitting down with abusiness bestie and talking
something out. Actually, that'sreally another thing that I do
is I sit down with the businessbest and be like, what am I not
(15:52):
seeing? What am I like? What'shappening on my face right now?
That I don't see that tells youeverything you need to know
about how I feel about thisthing. I feel like business
bestie conversations can be veryhelpful, but also journaling to
uncover those things. But I alsofind that usually whenever I
(16:14):
feel usually whenever I can't doanything, it's because it's just
not right. I think the wholesituation there, like the
uninspiring, annoying, justdon't play want to do it. It's
because what you're doing is notwhat you need to be doing. And I
ran up against this whenever,just before I decided to buy
just before I had the idea tobuy Kathleen out of being Boss,
(16:36):
I was working on building my ownpersonal brand back up to do the
work that I'm doing basicallyright here right now coaching
masterminding those sorts ofthings. I was going to build a
personal brand to do that. And Icould not do it. It was the most
uninspiring like angering thingfor me every time I would like
sit down to start projectmanaging it like laying out all
(16:58):
the tasks or actually doing thework. I was livid. Every time I
sat down, I was so angry, I knewthere was something wrong, I
knew that there was somethingoff those feelings come up for a
reason. And there is somethingthere that you need to uncover.
And then the moment that Irealized that the answer to that
problem was not to build aseparate brand, doing the same
(17:21):
thing I was already doing undera brand had already built. But
it was buying kathlyn out sothat I could do the thing that I
wanted to do under the brandthat I had already built. All of
the annoyance and anger and aninspiration just melted away. So
I think that it is telling yousomething, for sure. And I think
that there are multiple check inpoints that you can do first,
(17:44):
yourself immediate surroundings,make sure nothing's off. Second,
journaling, talking out with abusiness bestie and three, maybe
stop overanalyzing it, stopdoing it. Whatever it may be,
because I think that thosethings, those feelings are very
important to the creativeprocess. You are a creative, you
know, the creative projects thatare right or wrong for you
(18:05):
inherently. It's definitelypossible to get started down a
road and find out that maybethis isn't the project for you
now. Or maybe this isn't theright. Maybe it's the right
project, but not the rightoutcome. But I think you know, I
think you always know what'sright for you or not. Okay,
(18:29):
Erica says good point. I think Ilabel things as laziness when
it's actually something else.
That can certainly happen.
That's often how I feel if itdoesn't feel inspiring. It does.
Oh, it's not what I need to bedoing. Thanks for your advice.
Trust that gut. You arecompletely right. Here's a
(18:59):
question from Caroline Danks.
It's cold, dark and wet here inthe UK at the moment, I have 10
years before it my daughtergrows up and moves out, by which
time I'll be somewhere sunny andhot. In the meantime, how do you
cope when the season is notespecially encouraging to
productivity? So one of thethings that my work at Almanac
(19:20):
supply co has assisted me inuncovering is the importance of
one, what it actually means tolive with the seasons and to the
importance of actually doing it.
Because those are two verybeautiful things. And one is
that one it is cold and dark andwet. And at the point of
(19:40):
recording this. We're in winterhere in Chattanooga. Spring is
starting to be banned a littlebit, but it's cold. And you are
not supposed to be hugelyproductive in winter period. We
live in a modern society wherewe have homogenized the seasons,
where spring, we have all thesame As we do in summer, fall
(20:02):
and winter, over and over yearafter year, and it is why we are
all burning out, because humansare from the planet Earth. And
the planet Earth evolves throughthose years in seasonal cycles,
that sort of mirror day andnight. And at night, which is
(20:25):
equivalent to winter, you'resupposed to sleep. And by sleep,
I don't mean you hibernate allwinter, though, we definitely
know that there are animals inthe world who do that. You do
need to reserve your energy, youdon't feel like being productive
because you're a human on theplanet earth who doesn't need to
be productive. This is one ofthe things that I've worked
(20:47):
really hard. And I still havequite a ways to go to build into
how it is that I go at business.
As the boss of my own business,I have the pleasure, the
opportunity, the privilege ofbuilding my business and my work
year in a way that honors thoseseasons, more and more every
(21:08):
year, which I super appreciate.
And I'm grateful for the abilityto do so again still have quite
a ways to go. Because unlearningwhat we've seen our parents do
what we've seen our grandparentsdo what we ourselves have done
for decades, is a long anddifficult process, especially
(21:30):
when the rest of the world isstill hustling it out all winter
long. So give yourself somespace, some permission to just
rest and chill and not beproductive because it is very
important to reserve conservethat energy so that in the
spring, the actual part of thecycle, when you're supposed to
(21:53):
get up and start beingproductive, you have the energy
to do so. burnout is a result ofusing up all of your fuel and
not giving yourself time torefuel, you refuel in winter.
And when is the last time anyoneactually did any of that. So
(22:15):
it's important to embrace it.
Take the time for yourself inthese cold, dark, wet months to
enjoy your daughter's company.
And then you wake up and startworking when it's sunny outside.
There are ways for you to startbuilding this into how it is
that you work. Whenever you'redoing your CEO day kit whenever
(22:36):
you're planning out your yearahead. Think about peaking in
summer with the work that you'redoing sort of sloping off in
autumn, and thinking about howit is that you can grant
yourself some time off or atleast some time less. And those
winter cold, dreary monthsbecause you're not ever going to
(22:57):
feel like busting it out and thedead of winter.
Are you loving this q&a as muchas I am diving in on questions
that cause distress for creativebusiness owners It has been my
fuel for over a decade. So muchso that I'll be doing it more.
Just this week. I haven'trebooted our sister podcast 10
(23:19):
minutes to being boss, a weeklybite sized show for creative
business owners, where I'manswering questions from bosses
like you giving actionableinsights, tools and tactics and
around 10 minutes each. So ifyou're enjoying this episode,
you're going to love 10 minutesto being boss. You can search
for 10 the number 10 minutes tobeing boss or wherever you
(23:40):
listen to podcasts and subscribenow. We've launched with our
first three episodes and we'llbe back each week with another
question from a creativebusiness boss to help you build
your business to next up we havea question from Colleen Keith, a
graphic and web designer atColeen Keefe design. And in the
(24:02):
follow up, you'll hear metalking about resources from
Kelly Edwards, who is the ownerof June mango design. I'm
planning on starting a familythis year or early next, I run a
little design and web businessthat really only has enough work
for me. So I'm not sure how tohire contractors to take over my
work while I'm on a shortmaternity leave, while still
(24:24):
getting a paycheck. worriedabout losing clients while I'm
away or contractors stealingthem. excetera Kelly says she
made a whole bunch of resourcesfor this after dealing with the
exact same thing when I wasprego happy to chat with you
more about it another time. AndColleen says sure I love that
you guys are already likeworkshopping this without me.
(24:44):
Perfect. Um, Kelly did do this.
So definitely snag some of thoseresources. And I think half of
this is worry. Half of this isworry and you Say you're worried
about losing clients whileyou're away or contractor
stealing them for thecontractor. So if you can do non
(25:04):
disclosures, non competes all ofthose things to contractually
cover you in terms of themstealing them, but like and just
like that people don't hire anasshole. Though I'm well aware
that you don't always know thatsomeone's an asshole on that
first interview or two, I say,do your due diligence, as much
(25:25):
as you can otherwise, trust theprocess, trust the process and
give yourself as much wiggleroom and freedom as possible, be
very open with your clients thatyou're taking maternity leave.
And maybe it's not even having,I'm not really sure what you're
planning here. But it's nothaving projects going,
necessarily, or, or starting newprojects while you're on
(25:50):
maternity leave and having themrun whole projects that maybe
it's just having someone onretainer who can service those
servers, any retainer ormaintenance clients that you
have. So websites that arealready built, but you are going
in sort of keeping your clientshappy, or being a support
contact,having someone be that person
for you. while you're away,maybe that's why you're even
(26:12):
planning on doing. But likeunder extreme emergencies, only.
Potentially, you can draw thoselines however you'd like. I also
love the idea of you using yourpregnancy as a marketing tactic.
So to to especially once youfind out you're pregnant, to use
(26:34):
that as a marketing push to getnew clients so that you can get
them done before you go onmaternity leave. That way,
you're not again, working whileyou're on maternity leave as
much as possible. Because everywoman I've ever met, it's like,
oh, it's fine. I'll be back atwork in like a week and I'm just
gonna hustle things out. And I'mlike, Girl, no, you're gonna be
(26:55):
so sleep deprived, you're notgonna know which end is up fat.
So even though you're like allrosy glasses at the moment, once
you're in it, you want to beprepared to be completely
disconnected as much aspossible. So my, my
recommendation is to keep yourworkload, especially if you're
(27:17):
just a small web design company.
Keep your workload as light aspossible. during those months,
or weeks, whenever that you aretaking your maternity leave,
have someone that you trust bethe point of contact. And
otherwise, try to disconnect ascompletely as you can. And give
yourself a larger window thanyou think you need. That way if
(27:38):
you do want it or you do inanini is, Lord forbid, let's say
health concerns come up.
Whatever you need to have areally good buffer there. in
case something comes up or ifyou should decide you want to
take another week or two tocuddle that baby. Whatever it
may be. Plan more than you thinkotherwise get with Cali because
Cali Cali This is right upKelly's alley. that rhymed. I
(27:59):
like it. Colleen says, Okay,thank you. Love your
suggestions. I'm planning totake three months completely off
and then come back for two halfdays a week to start. I love
this. And if I'm not mistaken, Ithink Kat Kelly did something
similar sort of tiptoeing backinto the workload, which is a
good idea. Lexi says manybusiness owners report business
(28:22):
growth during pregnancy, you'regrowing so your business is
growing true that Kathleen willeven attest to that, it can
definitely happen. But you canstill be very strategic about
it. Growth doesn't necessarilymean like expansion, so much as
maybe you start charging morefor your services, so that you
can be more selective about thepeople that you are working with
as opposed to having bulk. Thereare lots of lots of meanings for
(28:46):
growth. And next we have aquestion from Dana Kay, owner of
Kay publicity. I have twoprimary revenue streams in my
business done for you PRservices, which are high price
with tight profit margins, and amembership site, which is low
price with a big profit margin.
(29:09):
It's clear to me that growing mymembership site is what's going
to allow me to serve more peoplescale my business and increase
overall profits. But itcurrently accounts for only a
small percentage of my overallrevenue. How do you approach
time allocation for yourdifferent revenue streams? What
factors do you consider? Oh,this is such a good question.
(29:30):
Dana always comes with the bestquestions. I love this. Okay. So
I think time allocation needs tobe set around. So many things.
One, what you're promising todeliver. So even if you're low
(29:51):
margin, offering, even if youhave a low margin offering that
requires a lot of input, youbetter give all of that input.
And if the high margin one needslittle, don't do more of it if
(30:13):
you're doing a disservice towhat you've promised to the low
margin, that makes sense. Like,like that made sense. So don't
stiff anybody is what I'msaying, number one, deliver on
your promises, first andforemost, to think about your
goals. And think about yourgoals in context of your sales
(30:40):
funnel. So we talked about thesales funnel and CEO day kit.
And pretty Yes, I think Dana isa member of that. So she she
knows she knows what we're goingout here with the idea of what's
at the bottom of the funnel. Sofor example, if your high touch
engagement, is what creates thereferral engine that fills your
(31:04):
community, your membership site,then
understand that putting yourenergy in that high priced
endeavor is going to feed yourcommunity or membership site or
vice versa. So let's say puttinglots of energy into that
membership site is going to getyou more of those high price but
(31:27):
smaller private profit margin.
clients, then put your energythere think about how clients
flow through your business andput energy in those right
places. So number one, make sureyou're delivering on your
(31:47):
promises and making sure timeallocations Have you delivering
on all of your promises. I knowDana, I never have to worry
about that with you, too, was,huh. I don't remember what two
was. But I think three was whereit falls in your Oh goals.
Sorry, two was goals. So whatare your business goals, and
making sure if your businessgoal is to get more and more one
(32:08):
on one clients, then focus yourattention there and both
delivering so you get word ofmouth referrals and marketing
that so you can get more ofthose people. Or if it's the
membership site, then makingsure you are allotting time to
grow that as per your goals ifas both of them 5050 is fine.
(32:29):
And then three is where it fallsin your business funnel. If you
put all of your energy, not allyou should never put all of your
energy in any single part ofyour business funnel. But let's
say for the moment, and I thinkthat's a key there too, is this
can ebb and flow you don't haveto focus all of your energy on
any single part for an extendedperiod of time. Let's say one
(32:53):
month, you are really bustingout some one on one client
engagements. And then nextmonth, you're really going to
focus on nurturing, nurturingcommunity or your membership
site on a deeper level on top ofwhat you've already promised
them. And growing that throughmarketing and it can ebb and
flow month to month, quarter toquarter whatever it may be. But
(33:13):
those are the three things thatI would consider making sure
you're always delivering on yourpromises, making sure that you
are allocating your time so thatit supports your goals, your
growth goals, and three, makingsure that you're thinking about
how it affects your entirefunnel so that you are you can
sort of indirectly accomplishyour goals by focusing on
(33:34):
separate or different parts ofyour funnel. So if you really
want to grow those one on oneengagements, but your which is
usually bottom of your funnel,but you are instead going to
focus on growing our nurturingrelationship to the very top of
your funnel because it will flowinto those bottom of funnel
engagements. It's not alwaysdirect. So those three things
(33:54):
easy, right? It comes as Dana isbringing it doesn't she always.
And Caroline says I'm in asimilar place to Dana at the
moment. This is reallyinteresting. growing my digital
course is more of a side hustleat the moment with odd days
where possible, right focuswhere you can. Oh, yes, clearly,
(34:17):
Karolina sharing it. Clientsmust take priority because the
money they generate and thatword of mouth is real, real. But
also there's benefits to growinglike the membership and aren't
your membership people, yourclients as well just in a very
(34:38):
different capacity. It alldeserves attention. I think it
should just ebb and flow basedon based on goals based on
goals. You can probably hearthat I'm quite familiar with
many of these bosses in theirbusinesses which gives me such a
valuable context for offering upJust the right insight they need
(35:00):
to work through their strugglesand opportunities. How do I know
them so well, because we hangout in the being boss community.
And because I've got to hang outwith a couple of them in real
life at being boss events too.
And the being boss community, wetalk business a lot. we dive
into business models time andmoney allocations. We
(35:20):
troubleshoot problems, and moreon the setting of a beautiful
membership site that's built tokeep you focused,
Unknown (35:27):
but informed.
Emily Thompson (35:28):
So if you're craving a place to meet creative
business owners who are in it,and a safe space to ask
questions, and work throughwhat's going on in your
business, comm check us out foras little as $11 a month that
you can get access to ourcommunity of bosses, inspiring
and actionable content, businessbuilding prompts and occasional
calls like this one, learn moreand join in by going to being
(35:50):
boss club slash community. Next,we have a question from Kelly
Edwards, a web designer andfounder of June mango design.
Any recommendations for talkingto potential clients about your
team on a sales call, wonderinghow to position the conversation
if I may not be the primarydesigner for their project. I
(36:14):
think you do it naturally,early, often and confidently. So
what whenever it comes totalking about other people on
your team who will be servicingyour client, and especially as
someone who either in the pasthas positioned himself as a solo
(36:37):
creative, or service provider,which I know you have Cali, or
maybe even currently do, thereare plenty of people who have
very personal brands who youdon't really realize that
there's a whole other team backthere doing the work, it can be
very difficult to one start itand to continue to doing it if
(36:58):
you're positioning is very muchso like I'm a one boss show. So
that naturally part can bedifficult, but you should do it.
Talk about them, like just bringit up part of the conversation
like Yes, I'm gonna pass thisover to my, you know, design
assistant, so and so and they'regonna give these I'm gonna send
it over you, we can talk aboutit, like, just throw it in
(37:20):
there, like it's nothing likeit's just part of the
conversation, it's totally fine.
Um, I'm early, talking about itvery early in the conversation,
don't get even half a phone callthrough, I don't think or half a
half a conversation there whereyou're telling them about your
process, we're finally you throwin that you have a designer
working with you, or that yourassistants going to get to that
(37:41):
thing, or your developers goingto do it, or your whoever early,
talk about it early. Often keeptalking about it. And whatever
part of the process that youhave people stepping in to help
you with, make sure that theyare mentioned. And continue
(38:02):
bringing up throughout theentire process, not just in that
first phone call that you'rehaving with a client, but in
every calm phone call after thathas to do with that part of the
process. And then finally,confidently knowing what your
process is, knowing that whenyou're handing it off, when
(38:22):
they're bringing it back to youhaving confidence in their
skills along the way, is ofutmost importance. Don't
question it, don't even thinkthat they're gonna question it.
So a lot of the confidence whocan come or lack of confidence
can come from the idea thatthey're expecting you to be the
only person who's doing it. Soyou're like, oh, but I actually
(38:43):
have someone helping me do it.
No, you have someone helping youdo it, it's gonna be great. All
the way through your designer isone of the best you've ever had.
She's a great communicator. Andshe's really great at taking,
you know, your thoughts andmission and turning into visual
representation. Talk about itwith confidence, and they won't
question you. And if they everdo, answer with confidence,
(39:06):
because not all businesses aresingle owned or like single
worked in for the most part,people accept that. But that is
such a good that is such a goodquestion. It's something that so
many bosses struggle with. andrightfully so, again, most of us
(39:27):
spend a lot of time alone in ourbusiness. We build a business
based on our skills, but at somepoint we need to grow and
changing a conversation, a salesconversation that we've gotten
really great at because we havebeen doing it for years. having
this conversation about howwe're going to serve them
switching that to how someoneelse is going to help serve them
(39:47):
can be difficult. So practice,practice it and follow those
things. Naturally, early, oftenand confidently and no one will
ever ask any questions? They do.
answer them, if they don't likeit, they are not your ideal
customer.
(40:10):
And finally, we have a questionfrom Stephanie Peterson. Any
thoughts on how to tacklemapping out your services in a
customer lifecycle style, to layout what to offer customers
next, given their stage to keepthem in your sales funnel, I
understand the value of doingthis, but would love some ideas
for organizing all of mythoughts around it, for example,
(40:33):
creating a full funnel marketingstrategy. Stephen, Stephanie, my
first and kind of only, becauseI think that you should just do
this first, before you literallydo anything else, is to talk to
your customers about what it isthat they need from you. So no
matter what it is that you'redoing, and it's customer
(40:54):
feedback, that will tell youeverything that you need to know
about how your skills canbenefit them, whether that's pre
the first time they work withyou, or after they work with
you. And you can ask them aboutthings like, what sort of
content Do you wish I weresharing, and we'll help you make
(41:15):
better use of the services thatI offer? What other services can
I offer, whatever it may betalking to the people that you
are, who are already yourcustomers is the number one task
and the only task to do untilyou get to until you complete
(41:35):
it. And then beyond that, one ofmy favorite tools for this is
actually in the CEO day kit. Ithink as the second is the
sharing and selling
Unknown (41:45):
section
Emily Thompson (41:46):
of it, it's a really great worksheet that lays
out how it is that you'recurrently servicing your
customers so that you can fillin the holes, both the holes in
the content that you're sharingand the services that you have
provided, but also how they fitinto your sales funnel. So you
can think about or it's agraphic representation of a
sales funnel and you fill in theholes or you fill in the blanks.
(42:07):
And then were there any holes,that's things that you need to
create to better serve as yourcustomer. So if you haven't
already checked out CEO day kit,you will find the answer there.
Thanks for listening. And hey,if you want more resources,
we're talking worksheets, freetrainings in person meetups and
vacations and more. Go to ourwebsite at www dot beambox dot
(42:29):
club. Do the work the box
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