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Transcript

April’s Action Plan for Entrepreneurs Seeking Growth · The One Small Change Podcast

0:00
Welcome to the One Small Change, and I'm thrilled that you're embarking on this journey
0:04
of exploration, transformation with me. I'm your host, Yvonne
0:08
McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience,
0:11
and I have a passion for discovering growth through the power of
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seemingly small change. And I want to thank you for joining
0:19
me today because this week we are going to go back
0:22
to the clarity check in. It's been a while, so it's
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only me, but I'm excited to talk to you. Lots have
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happened since the last time we did this, and one of
0:33
those things was that I got a concussion, which made me really take a look
0:37
at where I was spending my time and my energy.
0:41
But that's not what I want to talk to you about. I want to talk
0:44
to you. We're starting the second quarter,
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and I have named April Accelerated
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Alignment Action Month. Doing the right things at
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the right time. And so what I want to talk to you about is the
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fact that one of my strengths is that I recognize
1:02
patterns. And so what I will say to
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you is that a lot of people get into January
1:10
and they're very excited and they are,
1:13
you know, all fired up. You know, they burn hot,
1:18
and so they burn out fast. And so by the time they get to
1:21
February, they haven't reached their goals and
1:26
they're feeling a little bit like.
1:29
And by March, a lot of you have defaulted back to what worked
1:33
before. Right. You, you know, you get to February, you think,
1:37
maybe I'll put more effort in, but you're not seeing the results. So
1:41
I want to make April reset a
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time for you to reset, capture your mojo,
1:48
go forward, get the things done that you need to get done.
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So the first thing I want to say to you is it's not unusual
1:56
when things happen that you fall back on what's familiar.
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We all do it. It's the path of least
2:03
resistance. The other thing is that
2:07
more effort doesn't necessarily fix what's not
2:11
working, especially if that effort is not aligned. And so
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you've heard me say it over and over and over again.
2:18
It doesn't matter how fast you're going
2:22
if you're going in the wrong direction. And April
2:26
can actually be that reset that will
2:29
help you change the direction for the rest of the year.
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So maybe you haven't gotten the results that you want for the
2:37
first quarter, but we've still got three more quarters to go, and
2:41
we can do this. And so this is a perfect time for us
2:44
to pause and look at what's actually Working. And I know that
2:48
that seems counterintuitive. It's like, no, I gotta do more. I gotta do more. I
2:52
don't need to pause. Okay? So part of
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the problem is not knowing what the real problem is. Right?
3:00
The real problem is not that you are not
3:03
doing enough. The real problem is not that, you know, you
3:07
haven't tried things. Part of the real problem is
3:11
really situational awareness. Where am I in
3:15
my business and what's going to work best for me?
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Most people are not doing the wrong things, but they're not
3:22
doing the right things at the right time.
3:27
So, you know, one of the things that I think we all
3:30
suffer from is following advice out of context. Somebody
3:34
will say, this is a great thing. This worked for me, and not take a
3:38
look at where they were in their business. Right?
3:42
The other thing is
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that whatever we pick that we're doing, we're not being
3:49
consistent with it. So instead we end up doing more
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rather than refining what is actually working for us.
3:56
And I say that this is kind of like having a mobile store
4:00
that you keep moving every time you, you know, the person who saw you on
4:04
Monday comes back on Wednesday to buy from you and you're no
4:08
longer there. The other thing that happens is, you know, in
4:11
order you to have visibility, people
4:15
have to see you more than 12 times. So if you keep putting things
4:19
out, each thing that you put out, you now have to do 12
4:23
things, 24 things, 36 things, 48 things.
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And your message is totally lost because they're not really
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aligned with what you're doing. So consistency
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without clarity just creates more noise
4:39
and. And more chaos. So what I
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want to say to you is it's not that you're not putting out enough
4:46
effort. It's not that you're behind. It's just that what you're
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doing is not aligned. But here's the other
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thing I want to say to you. Whatever you've done in the past, you
4:58
haven't wasted, right? There are either lessons to be
5:01
learned or things that you can
5:04
repurpose and use again. And, you know, recently
5:08
I was decluttering my office and just thought I was
5:12
going to chuck a whole bunch of stuff and decided to go through it, which
5:15
is, you know, the kiss of death when it comes to decluttering. But
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some of the stuff that I developed and the
5:23
content that I wrote when I first started in business and
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I was an entrepreneurial virgin,
5:31
right, was really good. I was
5:34
like, oh, I got to save this. Oh, if I update this, this will make
5:38
a Lot of sense. Oh, this is really good. So what you've done in the
5:41
past, you haven't wasted. All right? So
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the problem or the solution that
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you're looking for is how do you put the things that you have
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in the right place and at the right time? Some
5:57
things you may have outgrown, but you can tweak it
6:01
so that you can make it, you know, more.
6:05
More elevated to be in the where you are in the business now.
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So I think this is
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a core distinction. The right things at the right stage
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builds momentum and carries you forward. The wrong things,
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even if they're good, take more effort, burn you
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out, and leave you rebuilding. And one of the things that's the first
6:28
to go is your confidence. And, and unfortunately,
6:33
with our confidence, when things are not working right, the first thing we
6:37
say is, what's wrong with me? Okay, there
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is nothing wrong with you. Right.
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Which doesn't mean you can't evolve further. But
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basically, you don't need to be fixed. The problem for most of us
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is that we just need to be found and that there are people out there
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that are looking for us, that want. Want to
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find us. Okay? So it's not
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what you're doing, it's how people
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recognize themselves and what you're doing.
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So more effort doesn't necessarily mean more clients,
7:15
but recognition creates connection,
7:19
and clients need to see themselves. Nobody
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wants to work with somebody that they think is perfect,
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right? Nobody wants to feel like,
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you know, they're not on the same level that you
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are. And when I say that, I mean not, not necessarily with
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expertise, but in terms of life experience. You want
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them to have that. She gets me, he
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gets me, right? So my
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strength happens to be patterns, right?
7:53
I put together things that other people
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don't. I happen to work, I live in the Venn
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diagram or the mind mapping space. I like to say,
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here are things that are important. How can I connect them?
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How can I connect them in a way that people will see
8:12
themselves in that? And then you refine it so it is
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looking for patterns. How can people use those patterns? How do
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they connect to people's everyday lives? And how do I refine
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them so they're even better? So your best
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message is already there. It just hasn't been
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unlocked. You don't necessarily have to create more.
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You need to refine what you're already doing. And let me just
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give you a really simple example. So some of you may
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have noticed. If you haven't, this is a really good time that
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I have shifted my branding and it's now be
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found. Okay? You don't need to be fixed. You just need to be
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found. And the way that I came to this,
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I mean, you don't get clarity in a vacuum. The best way
9:02
to get confidence and to get clarity is to get out and get
9:06
among other people. Right. I was in a
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networking event, and
9:13
we were trying, you know, the. The purpose of the.
9:17
The room that we were in was to help people get
9:21
clarity, help them get a solution to what they were
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struggling with, yada, yada, yada. And
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there was a lady that everybody was generously trying to
9:33
help, and the more they tried to help her,
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the more frustrated she got and the more frustrated
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I got. And finally, I. I think I probably had
9:44
an outburst almost because I was, like, trying to hold myself
9:47
back. And I said to her, let me just ask you,
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do you have paying clients? She went, yes. And I said, the
9:56
people that have paid you, are they happy with
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the results they're getting? And she said, yes. And I said,
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then you don't need to be fixed. You just need to be found.
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And everybody in that room went,
10:11
that was my message. And I didn't know it.
10:16
Right. I hadn't found it by myself. So that's what
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I want to say to you, that
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you have enough stuff. It's not
10:29
about getting more stuff. It's not necessarily about doing
10:33
more things. It's really about streamlining it
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so that you can get clarity that's crystal clear
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to the people who are hearing your message.
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So, for instance, people who. I have a
10:48
client who said, if I say commander's call,
10:52
anybody who's in the military knows exactly what that means.
10:56
When she suggested it as a title for something, I was like,
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tell me more, because I don't share that background.
11:06
Right. You want to be able for your
11:09
people to automatically start to trust you and know
11:13
that you have had some of the experiences that they
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have had. Right. Or that they're going to have and
11:20
go through. And so that is what I
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mean when I say be found. It. You know, it's. The be found process
11:28
is fairly simple. You
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know, the first part is be yourself. It took me a really
11:35
long time to figure that out. I mean, we all have these
11:39
veneers that we have that if we're here, we're like this, and if we're here,
11:43
we're like that. That just takes too
11:47
much energy. I mean, I remember when my kids were young,
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I was like a business person on the outside of the door of my house,
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and I was, you Know a family person on the inside.
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Sometimes I talk to my kids like they were my business colleagues. Sometimes I talk
12:02
to my business colleagues like they were my kids.
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It got to be a lot. So what I want you to think about
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is what would happen
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if you streamline what you were doing
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and it was very aligned and
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you repeated it, you rinsed and repeat. So let me
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talk a little bit about what that means to me.
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So the first part is that you anchor where you are.
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Where am I? Where do I want to go?
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Right? So what's the dead reckoning? Where do I want to end up?
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Right? What part of my business am I in? What are the steps that I'm
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going to have to take to get to where I want to go?
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Then there's the lens about how you're seeing it.
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We each see it different through our. Our experiences and
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what we're doing, right?
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So if you are, if your audience
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is going to be a retired
13:09
audience, but of invigorated and
13:13
vital retired audience, you may talk about
13:17
different experiences and different things than if you're talking
13:20
about someone who just, you know, has started having,
13:24
having young kids, right? That's the
13:28
lens, right? The
13:32
input. What are you using? What have you already got?
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Right? You've probably done
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free lead generators, you've probably done
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workshops, you've got talks, you've got
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posts, right? What have you already
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got that you can now say, take a look at them
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and possibly tweak them, right,
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in a way that you can reuse them? Because what you
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want is to get clear. So instead of saying
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a really simple thing, I mean, one of the things that I do all the
14:11
time is I take a post that I've done like maybe two years ago
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and I'll stick it in the chat GPT and say, these are the
14:18
things that I do. I recognize patterns. I cut through
14:21
chaos. I get you into action fast. I want my
14:25
post to be energetic, adventuresome, and curious.
14:30
Here's a post that I did two years ago. Tweak this for
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me so that where I am now
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is very clear, not perfect,
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but much clearer and speaking in a way that I want to speak
14:45
right, so that I can get it out there and see what the
14:49
reaction is. Is the reaction different
14:53
than it was two years ago? Am I, you know, looking at some of the
14:56
numbers so that I can then navigate it?
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I can adjust. And
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let me tell you that sometimes I can be really stubborn. So for
15:08
those of you that have been following me for a while, you know that
15:12
my workshops have always Been usually you're in
15:16
each know first they were anyway, they were about, you
15:20
know, using your unique powers to attract
15:24
your right clients. All right? My coach, the
15:28
wonderful Chuck Anderson, has been at me for, like,
15:32
probably a year and a half. He's like, you know, if you're selling a horse,
15:35
just say, horse for sale. And I didn't.
15:40
So finally, you know, this year, March,
15:45
it was like, it's time, right? I.
15:49
And so I had found the be found. You don't need to be fixed. You
15:53
just need to be found. Right? And so the name of the workshop
15:56
now is Be found. Get clarity. Get
16:02
confidence. Get consistent clients.
16:05
Right? I put my LinkedIn event
16:09
up, and within two
16:12
hours, I had 30 people who registered.
16:17
I put my promotion out for the workshop
16:23
and looked at the landing page, and instead of 16%
16:27
conversion, it went to 26%
16:30
conversion because the message was very clear
16:34
and people, I think, related to it
16:38
and didn't feel judged.
16:42
We all want to be found. It doesn't matter what level you are
16:45
in your business. You want clients to find you, right?
16:50
So what I want to say to you is, you don't need perfect
16:53
clarity. You just need to be clear enough that you're going in the
16:57
right direction because you're going to continue to navigate and
17:01
adjust. And clarity does not
17:04
happen in a vacuum. It happens through
17:08
action.
17:12
The next thing I want to say to you is
17:17
growth is kind of a spiral,
17:21
and I think it's something that people don't expect.
17:26
Every time you solve a problem in your business, it creates a new one.
17:32
Now, if you're on the right track, it'll create a new.
17:36
A good new one, right? So an example
17:40
of that is you attract more clients
17:45
and suddenly you realize that you don't have a system or a
17:49
process to put them through or that you're not, you know, you don't have
17:52
a framework that you can follow every time and get the same result. You
17:56
know, get the same good respond results. And if you're not
18:00
expecting that, you think something's wrong. So
18:04
one time I decided, you know,
18:08
I was doing stuff and it
18:11
was like the simplest thing became
18:15
very hard
18:19
because I wasn't expecting to have to do it
18:22
for so many more people than I had done it for when I was only
18:26
doing it for one or two people at a time. It was. It worked fine,
18:30
but when I started to go to 10 people, suddenly it didn't
18:33
work at all. And it was something that I knew how to do very well.
18:37
It wasn't. Something was wrong with me. It was that my business
18:41
was not growing, that, you know, the systems behind the scene were
18:45
not growing. That's a good problem to have. That's a problem
18:48
that you want to have, right? So every
18:52
solution gives you more clarity
18:56
or, you know, and then it reveals the next problem. Every
19:00
solution creates a new problem.
19:03
And that's how your business grows. It does not grow linearly.
19:07
It's more like a cycle. Or really it's. If you're doing it right,
19:11
it's like an upward spiral. Okay?
19:15
The moment that something starts working
19:19
and then something feels off,
19:23
that's not a failure. That's growth.
19:27
And the key is knowing which problem you're actually solving for
19:30
now. So one of the things
19:34
that's really important is as
19:38
your business grows, you don't really need more time. You need to make
19:41
decisions like the expert that you are. And so
19:46
there are a couple of tips that I want to give you about that.
19:50
Like I said, you don't get 24 hours for life
19:53
and 24 hours for business. You have the same 24 hours.
19:57
And so you can't change that. There are
20:01
ways that you can be more productive,
20:05
right? But that, again, comes down to making sure that you
20:08
prioritize and that you focus.
20:12
The other thing is, I
20:16
found that when I have models that work in both
20:20
my personal life and my professional
20:23
life, it makes life so much simpler, right?
20:27
Because you're using the same models, you're using it more,
20:31
right? And so you get comfortable with them and it works.
20:35
Right? So, you know, one of the things
20:39
that models that I had when I was doing productivity was
20:43
called make it, you know, productivity ahead. And it
20:46
was first situational awareness, what's going on,
20:50
you know, that that's making me need to do stuff.
20:55
Then the next thing is, what can I put on hold?
20:58
The next thing was, what can I eliminate? And if I can't make the decision
21:02
to eliminate, stick it in the hold box. The next
21:06
thing is, what can I automate? And the problem is that most people think of
21:09
automating as being something that's technical, but it doesn't have to be.
21:13
Can just be a system that you use, right? Something that
21:17
becomes a habit is really an automation.
21:22
And then there's delegation. Most productivity models
21:26
have you delegate first, but the problem with that is
21:29
that when you delegate first, you're delegating the
21:33
unimportant stuff. And what you really need to
21:36
delegate is the important stuff, because that's really. You're
21:40
really training somebody to help you run your business, help
21:44
you run your Your. Your personal life.
21:47
So you're teaching your kids how to do the things
21:51
that you want to have happen in your family. You're teaching them
21:55
how to make your famous, whatever recipe. You're teaching
21:58
them how to take care of their own, you know,
22:02
laundry. You're teaching them how you make decisions and
22:05
manage money so that they can grow to be responsible
22:09
adults. But also, you know, when you give them money for
22:13
things, you know, you teach them that if you need so much money
22:17
for a project and your allowance isn't enough, you teach them
22:20
to prioritize and make decisions. And
22:24
so that's what people
22:28
need. You need to build on what you already have
22:34
so that you can grow your business and use it further.
22:39
So there just a couple more things I think
22:42
that I want to share with you.
22:46
Entrepreneurship is hard. It
22:50
requires a lot of you. It requires
22:55
your heart and soul, really. Right?
22:59
And one of the biggest
23:02
mistakes I made was, you know, like I said, I like models,
23:06
and I came up with a model, and it, you know, and
23:10
it talked about clarity and stuff. But the fourth step in it was community.
23:16
And I came to realize very late in the game, the community
23:19
should be the first step, right?
23:25
Too many of us spend time getting ready to get ready to get
23:29
ready, okay? At the point
23:32
you are now you are ready, and you are ahead. You will
23:36
always be ahead of somebody, and you will always be behind somebody.
23:40
The object is not to, you know, judge
23:43
yourself by that, but the object is to understand
23:47
that you're not alone and that there are people that are out there
23:51
that you can help and they can help you,
23:55
right? And so I would say to you, if
23:58
you are not in community, whether it's a community
24:03
networking, whether it's networking, whether it's going to meetings, whatever,
24:07
where you can speak about what you do,
24:12
you are missing a huge opportunity to gain
24:15
clarity, right?
24:20
And so that, I think, is probably one of the most important things that I
24:24
can say to you. Don't hide you.
24:27
If you want to be found, you have to be seen,
24:31
right? And you have to be seen in a lot of places.
24:35
You know, you have to be seen with other people. You have to be
24:39
seen. And the benefits of that are
24:43
amazing. I mean, I'm. I'm totally surprised
24:47
by the people that do outreach to me and
24:50
say, I'm doing this. Would you like to be a part of it, or
24:54
can you come to this? Right? And so, you know,
24:58
at some point, the question becomes, again, to prioritize, because you
25:01
can't do everything but the fact that you Know, like I said, it
25:05
shows up in the weirdest way. Like, I was surprised the very first time
25:09
I was in a network. I wasn't. It wasn't the first time I was in
25:12
that group, but in that group, you know, we were, you know,
25:16
talking about stuff and somebody in the group said, you need to talk to
25:19
Yvonne. The 30 minutes you spend with her is going to be
25:23
worth it. I mean, that is
25:28
validation that you can't pay for.
25:31
Right? And it's only throughing, showing up and making
25:35
the connections and making the relationships
25:39
that that happens. So the question is,
25:44
this is April. April. This is
25:48
Accelerated Aligned Action Month. We're already halfway
25:52
through. So what is it that you're going to do right now?
25:56
So there are three ways that you can. I can help you. The
26:00
first is the fastest. And I know that you're listening to
26:03
this, so it's going to be in the notes. If you want
26:07
clarity quickly, the fastest way to that is to book
26:11
a call with me. And that's the, that's the link, you know,
26:14
www.bookacallwithevon.com.
26:19
in addition to that, if you want structured support.
26:23
Right. If you want to learn and apply why
26:27
you know how to be found, then you should come to my be
26:31
found workshop, which is every month. It's the third Wednesday of the month, typically,
26:35
and you can find that@yvonne McCoy.com
26:39
forward/workshop. So if you're at the podcast site,
26:43
it's the same URL. Instead
26:47
of podcasts, it is workshop.
26:51
And the third way that I only do three times
26:55
a year, typically I do it in April, August and
26:58
December. So there's one coming up now,
27:02
or you just missed one, I guess, is the Get Growth
27:06
Focus Summit. And it's not just about learning,
27:10
it's about applying. And again, the website is
27:13
Yvonne McCoy.com summit.
27:19
So there are three ways that you can work with me,
27:24
three ways that you can get clarity. The call
27:28
is meant to just give you an idea about the
27:33
why. Why you. Why are you unique? Why
27:37
you know, are you. Is. Are you describing what you do in a way
27:41
that the people who need it relate to you, that they
27:45
can, they can find you. Then it's about, where are
27:49
there gaps in your client attraction process? And then we
27:52
talk about other, other opportunities that maybe you've left
27:56
on the, you know, on the table because you didn't realize you had these
28:00
superpowers? So I would say the fastest way
28:03
to get results in April is to book a call with me.
28:08
It's not a sales call. But obviously, if you want to work with me,
28:12
I will talk to you about that more. So I am so
28:16
glad that you joined me on this call.
28:19
I'm so glad that I got it together to
28:23
be able to do this, because I think this is so important. I think there
28:27
are points in our in the year that you can springboard
28:31
what you're doing a lot faster than usual, and I
28:34
think April is one of them. And I think that you're missing
28:39
an incredible opportunity. This one for me has been
28:43
amazing. I've. I've had a speaking
28:47
engagement almost every week, and I.
28:51
One of the things I love about speaking is I learned something and then I
28:54
get to share that with you. So before
28:58
I run out of time, I just want to say
29:02
I'm glad that you joined me for one small change. And I
29:05
hope that one of the things you'll do is subscribe, share and engage
29:11
on social media. About this podcast I did it to help
29:14
you supercharge your business through connection, and it's my way of
29:18
giving back so that you can fuel
29:23
your quest for growth and impact and bring people into your life that
29:27
you might not normally meet.
29:31
Obviously, it's me this time, and I do
29:34
like to talk. So that's why I try to do the clarity
29:38
call four times a month, four times a
29:42
year. And for those of, of you who go,
29:46
she's, she seems a little off. You may not know that I'm
29:50
recovering from a concussion, but I'm definitely getting better,
29:54
so stick around. You know, they're going to be great episodes that are
29:58
coming up. There'll be another clarity call
30:02
for July. And the last thing I want to say
30:06
to you is,
30:10
you don't need to be fixed, you just need to be found.
30:15
And isn't it better to, if you're
30:18
going to be moving fast, that you're doing the right things so that you're going
30:22
in the right direction. So the last part to this is,
30:25
remember that change is simple, but it's not always easy. And it requires
30:29
a certain amount of courage and resilience and a
30:33
willingness to step out of your comfort zone if you
30:38
do not feel a little uneasy, if you don't have butterflies in
30:41
your stomach. For me, that means I don't care if
30:45
I'm speaking someplace and I'm not
30:49
like, how can I make this better? How can I make this, you know, people
30:52
understand this better. It means I don't care. It means that I'm on
30:56
autopilot and thank God that doesn't happen very often.
31:01
So I encourage you to feel uncomfortable. It's a good sign. It's a
31:04
good thing. And so with that, I'm going to let you go. And
31:08
I hope you will continue to join me for one small change on a
31:12
regular basis. And until then, I hope
31:16
you will stay very, very curious.
31:19
Bye.