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EP365 Are You Fixing the Wrong Problem in Your Business? · Profit With A Plan

• 0:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You see sales slowing down, a team that isn't performing, customers dropping off, or a business that just feels harder than it should.
• 0:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So you jump in and start fixing things right in front of you.
• 0:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But what if that is only the symptom? Because when frustration takes over, it's easy to make assumptions, react to what feels urgent, and spend time, money, and energy fixing something that was never really the issue.
• 0:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So how do you separate what is actually how do you separate what you actually know from the story you've built all around it?
• 0:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And, more importantly, how do you find the real root of the problem, identify the change that could make, that would make the biggest difference, and decide what to do next without creating 5 more problems along the way?
• 1:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, guess what? That's what we're talking about on today's Profit with a Plan podcast.
• 1:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey, entrepreneurs. Are you working too hard for too little profit? Well, welcome to Profit with a Plan podcast where we help business owners grow smarter, increase profitability, and build a business that's worth more whether you plan to keep it or sell it.
• 1:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I'm Marcia Riner, business growth strategist and the profit booster behind Infinite Profit.
• 1:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Each week, I bring you practical strategies, expert insights, and real world steps to help you grow revenue, improve margins, and build a stronger business.
• 1:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Today's episode is brought to you by Infinite Profit, where strategy turns into profitable growth.
• 1:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But before we jump in, I have something special for you.
• 1:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If you feel like your business is just doing okay, but you know that it could be growing faster and producing more profit.
• 2:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I'd like you to go grab our free Profit Booster Growth Map.
• 2:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: In just a couple of minutes, you'll uncover what may be holding your company back for your growth and where your profit may be slipping away and where your best opportunities are to make more from your business that you've already built. My mouse stopped working. Sorry about that.
• 2:23
  SharonHess.com: Yeah.
• 2:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Go get your free Profit Booster growth map after the show at profitbooster.biz. It's quick, it's free, and there is no sales call required. Now.
• 2:33
  SharonHess.com: Let's.
• 2:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: into the conversation.
• 2:35
  SharonHess.com: today.
• 2:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: My guest today is Sharon Hess, a private adviser to entrepreneurs and business leaders, seasoned entrepreneur herself, and the author of Profit Without Pressure, How Leaders Win Without Losing Their Edge.
• 2:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: With more than 40 years of real-world business experience, Sharon helps leaders step back from the noise, challenge the assumptions they may be making, and see what is actually getting in the way.
• 3:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Her work is especially valuable when the obvious problem isn't the real problem, and when frustrations start driving decisions.
• 3:13
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: We're going to talk about how to recognize when you may be solving the wrong problem, and how to separate facts from conclusions, and how to figure out where the next move actually matters. Sharon, welcome to Profit with a Plan podcast.
• 3:28
  SharonHess.com: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I got something popping out.
• 3:32
  SharonHess.com: Get it off, okay? I'm ready for you.
• 3:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And.
• 3:35
  SharonHess.com: Ma'am, let's go.
• 3:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's great. I love it. I love it. You know, it's always trying to adjust everything that comes in on it. You know, we were talking earlier that all the alarms go off, the gardener goes by, the dog starts barking right when we start recording. So.
• 3:48
  SharonHess.com: Yeah, exactly.
• 3:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It is what it is what it is. It's natural. So, let me ask you. I always like to kind of figure out how you got into this space. So tell me really where you got into this kind of energy work. Right? Or I use the term energy work, but, how?
• 4:04
  SharonHess.com: No. It's fine. Yeah. So for, like, forty plus years, I worked in traditional business, helping start businesses. I love startups, because I love creating something from nothing. But I also have studied and taught personal development and spiritual.
• 4:21
  SharonHess.com: Teachings for 30 years, and I always kind of kept them a little bit separate. And the prop my Profit Without Pressure really pulls all that in together. Before that, I did Soulful Success.
• 4:35
  SharonHess.com: So it's a matter of what I've discovered working with people. I'm sure you've seen this as well, because I know you help a lot of businesses.
• 4:42
  SharonHess.com: if it's a business problem, it can also be a personal problem, because we bring who we are, no matter where we go or what we're doing. So, this past year, I really kind of pulled all of that together, and just made it all-encompassing, so that it all works together, so I can help the person with
• 5:00
  SharonHess.com: all the tools I have in my tool belt.
• 5:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Love it. And the flip side of that, when you have a business problem, it's often because they're stuck in their personal side, right? So… Exactly. It could develop from one side to the other side, and because we, you know, we blend our life with our business as owners so often, I mean, you know, I don't know where the.
• 5:23
  SharonHess.com: Right.
• 5:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: go anymore, right? For years, I wore that when I was in mortgages back in the 90s, I wore like mortgage broker on my forehead tattooed.
• 5:32
  SharonHess.com: It was.
• 5:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Terrible, but it's like.
• 5:34
  SharonHess.com: Yeah, yeah, so you wore a t-shirt everywhere you went. Let me talk to you about mortgages, you know.
• 5:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, exactly! I was, you know, and that's where the clip… that's where the lines disappear. So, I think it's, I think it's really important that we…
• 5:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: make that aware, you know, bring that awareness up and and start to talk about how we can really deal with the challenges of everything we're doing and trying to do it all in. However many hours we're awake a day. Right.
• 6:02
  SharonHess.com: Right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 6:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah. So what are some of the signs that that we may be reacting to the frustration of a problem instead of dealing with what it actually is causing it?
• 6:15
  SharonHess.com: Okay, so to begin with, I'd like to say, you know, we all look at things from our own perspective, right? And that's why that personal who you are and how you operate and all of that all plays into what goes on in your business, right? So, what'll happen is.
• 6:30
  SharonHess.com: Maybe sales are down. So there's actually two sides to that coin. One is, as a human being, we're going to do the easiest, quickest thing that we can think of to do.
• 6:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right?
• 6:43
  SharonHess.com: Right? I mean…
• 6:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: For sure.
• 6:46
  SharonHess.com: Yeah, because if it's something we don't like doing, or we don't want to just dig in and figure it out, then it's just, well, let me just do what's the easiest thing, and see if that fixes. And then, you know, 9 times out of 10, it doesn't. But then the other thing is, is we'll think that there's a specific problem.
• 7:03
  SharonHess.com: But like you, said a little bit about earlier on, it may just be the symptom.
• 7:09
  SharonHess.com: Right? And so you really need to dig in and figure out what the root problem is. And here's why. You know, our brains work a certain way. And whenever you ask a question, your brain starts to answer it.
• 7:21
  SharonHess.com: So the minute you say, I have this problem and it's coming from this, your brain is going to look for a solution for what you just asked it. And you may.
• 7:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: what.
• 7:33
  SharonHess.com: looking for that solution to what really isn't the problem.
• 7:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That is so true. So if we think about ourselves, let's put ourselves into today's current economy with AI all over the place. Our brain is an AI, right? You know, if you give it the wrong prompt, it's gonna go down a rabbit hole that that you don't want to necessarily go down. So.
• 7:54
  SharonHess.com: Perfect. Because, you know, it's the old saying, garbage in, garbage out. You know? Exactly. I heard that when I was really young. And I think, you know, what you feed your brain is what's going to come out. But it's the same thing, particularly with AI. And, you know, I don't know about you, but I argue with it a lot.
• 8:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You and me both.
• 8:11
  SharonHess.com: Yeah!
• 8:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, my God! Yes, yes, I mean, I do. I'm like, what are you doing? I just gave you the prompt, and you're going down the wrong thing. So yeah, we have to think of our brains.
• 8:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: As another AI, which is…
• 8:25
  SharonHess.com: Yeah, it is.
• 8:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, and that kind of thing. And so what we're looking for is, is the, the signs. So when we're doing that, what are some of the signs though that we're, we're going on the wrong path? I mean, is there some.
• 8:38
  SharonHess.com: Well, if you're getting more frustrated, if you're not seeing any kind of results.
• 8:43
  SharonHess.com: Another thing would be, well, a lot of times other people will tell you, but we don't like to hear that. I laugh. I say, if you tell an entrepreneur something's wrong with their business, it's like saying, hey, your baby is ugly.
• 8:57
  SharonHess.com: Because we become emotionally attached to our businesses, which is fine, because you are part of your business. However, you have to have the emotional intelligence to step back and realize when it's just
• 9:10
  SharonHess.com: Your stuff, and when it's actually the business stuff.
• 9:15
  SharonHess.com: They go hand in hand, but sometimes one needs the attention, and sometimes the other needs the attention.
• 9:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay. So, so how do we know when…
• 9:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I mean, what kind of signs, what kind of signals are gonna pop up that says, oh, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
• 9:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know you mentioned frustrations, but that's the everyday life, you know. We start to blur those frustrations out because they they kind of happen more frequently than we want. Is that the sign that's telling us that?
• 9:42
  SharonHess.com: I think it's a different kind of frustration.
• 9:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay.
• 9:45
  SharonHess.com: Okay. Like if you're at the point that you're sitting back and saying, "Oh crap, nothing I'm trying is working." Then maybe you're working on the wrong thing, right? And then that's when you can step back and say, "Okay.
• 9:58
  SharonHess.com: Let me look and see if this is really the root or if it's just the symptom. And you do that by asking, you know, intelligent questions. And the biggest thing is stepping outside of it emotionally, which is hard to do, but.
• 10:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay.
• 10:15
  SharonHess.com: When it's not working, you have to be able to say, okay.
• 10:19
  SharonHess.com: It's a business. I'm in business. So I have to be able to Step outside of the business.
• 10:27
  SharonHess.com: and take a look at it from an outside perspective, because, like I said earlier, you know, we look at everything from our own perspective.
• 10:34
  SharonHess.com: And one of the biggest things I learned in personal development, I'll share this, and I love it because it's just, like, so true.
• 10:40
  SharonHess.com: It doesn't matter if a belief is true or not.
• 10:43
  SharonHess.com: If you believe it, it's true for you.
• 10:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, really, really poignant. That's good. You know, and that's it. I mean, when we're dealing with, you know, as a business owner, we're wearing, I keep promoting this guy's book because I just love it. 57 hats, right? You know, we are literally wearing all these hats and doing all these things.
• 11:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But…
• 11:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: If we're if we're if we're focusing on the wrong thing, right? If if for an example, right? So our sales are down. So what do we immediately do? Do we go to, oh, I have to do more marketing, or I have to make more sales calls, or I have to lower my prices, or I have to, or I have to, or I have to, right? We start going through all the other things that could be, and it may just be.
• 11:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That maybe we're talking to the wrong person.
• 11:34
  SharonHess.com: Well, or maybe you're trying to sell something that your audience just doesn't want.
• 11:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly.
• 11:39
  SharonHess.com: And now we we're really good at and, oh, I need to create another program, or I need to I need to redo my sales page, or but you're yeah. And you're right, and you're not reaching your so it could be one of two things in that.
• 11:52
  SharonHess.com: Context. Either you're not reaching the proper audience or the audience that you have doesn't want what you decided they did. Exactly.
• 12:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly, exactly. Which is really, which is really the, the, you know, the things that we deal with every day in, in business. It's like, okay, so do I really need to hire this person? Yes or no? Do I really need to, market? Do I need to be on all the social media platforms?
• 12:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Do I, you know, it's all these questions that we have to make decisions on all the time, and they're all little problems that.
• 12:28
  SharonHess.com: Right. You have to be a ninja. I always say you have to be a ninja in business. Right? Exactly. Because you have to and you have to be able to shift and move and pivot and, you know, take off this hat, put on that hat. You know? It's it's just a part of business. But it can be so much fun.
• 12:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes, it can be, it can be fun. It can be, you know, crazy and all that at the same time. But yeah, I mean, we, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're masochists as, as business owners, right? We, we self-inflicted pain that we do.
• 12:57
  SharonHess.com: But we do it for a reason. There's something within us that wants to. I said I love creating something from nothing, so it's like
• 13:07
  SharonHess.com: You know, why why didn't you wanna be a surgeon?
• 13:12
  SharonHess.com: Yeah. Right? It's like there's so and not everybody wants to be an entrepreneur. There are a lot of people who are even business just in leaders. They don't wanna be responsible, and they don't want and they want that that given
• 13:27
  SharonHess.com: You know, like, oh, this is my solid, I'm gonna get this amount of money for doing this amount of things, and… which really isn't true anyway, because even if you have a regular J-O-B, it can end tomorrow. So, but there's something in an entrepreneur… I love working with entrepreneurs, because their brains work differently, right?
• 13:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So much fun.
• 13:45
  SharonHess.com: double-edged sword, you know, because it does, then they're very, well, yourself, actually.
• 13:51
  SharonHess.com: Actualize, I think that's the word to use. Self-actualize. So you actually, you love doing things yourself, but sometimes it makes it hard for you to ask for help, number one, or to look at it from an outside perspective. Right.
• 14:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So let's talk about that.
• 14:08
  SharonHess.com: John.
• 14:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah. Let's talk about when we're so close to the situation, how do we really separate the truth, right? How do we know what it is? Because like, I mean, you know that, that, that's the line, you know, you can't see the forest through the trees 'cause you're still.
• 14:23
  SharonHess.com: Right.
• 14:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I mean, when we don't necessarily have that person, that resource like yourself that can help walk us through, what are some of the steps we could do to kind of.
• 14:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: kind of get.
• 14:34
  SharonHess.com: So you have to ask the right questions to try and get to the root of what the real problem is. So that's the first thing is is asking the right question, and then also you can reverse engineer, which means look at what's happening and then go backwards from that.
• 14:53
  SharonHess.com: And see where it actually started from.
• 14:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's a good one. I love that. I that's the way my mind sees like when when a client comes to me with their challenge and, and I like I'm like an accordion. I go all the way out and I come all the way back in. I'm like, okay.
• 15:08
  SharonHess.com: I don't know how to do it, right? You know?
• 15:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And that's just the way I think, which is fantastic, but, and crazy at the same time, but it's good. So what are some of the questions that we might ask ourselves to get to that root problem?
• 15:22
  SharonHess.com: Well, first of all, the very first thing you need to ask is what do you think the real problem is? Okay. Because whatever you think the real problem is, that's what you're already trying to solve.
• 15:31
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right.
• 15:32
  SharonHess.com: Whether it is or not, right?
• 15:34
  SharonHess.com: So you have to stop thinking, what do I think the real problem is? So let's say the real problem, let's say you put out a new program, and it just came to my head. And in that new program, you don't have any signups. And you're like, this was such a great idea. It's a great program. Why aren't they signing up?
• 15:50
  SharonHess.com: But you need to… so you need to look back and go, okay, so it's not just that I'm not getting sign-ups, is this what my audience wants? And like you said earlier, or am I…
• 16:04
  SharonHess.com: Presenting it to the proper audience.
• 16:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You.
• 16:08
  SharonHess.com: You know? So you're but you're already trying to figure out how to get more people into the program when you haven't figured out those two things first.
• 16:18
  SharonHess.com: Right?
• 16:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, okay. So… so is it sometimes the question that we're looking at for business, right, is… is the… the solutions and the pieces of that, but could it… could it be something that you alluded to earlier? Is it… am I in the way?
• 16:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, is… is my… is my, you know, can my team handle that? You know, I mean, these are some other questions that I think that could be addressed, right? That…
• 16:45
  SharonHess.com: absolutely.
• 16:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: is.
• 16:46
  SharonHess.com: Plus, it could be, do I have the skills to fix what it is I'm looking at? You know? Because even though we wear all these many hats, there are some things some of those hats, we actually do need to give someone else to wear. So that's a great point.
• 17:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, okay, okay. So I love this kind of questioning. So when do we know that we've hit that note? When do we know that we've hit the root?
• 17:08
  SharonHess.com: Okay, so I do what I call root lever.
• 17:14
  SharonHess.com: The first thing you need to do is, when you hit the root, then you want to do the…
• 17:22
  SharonHess.com: The simplest thing to test it.
• 17:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay.
• 17:25
  SharonHess.com: Okay? And then… and then you look at the results of that, because then the results of that will tell you, did you really hit the root problem?
• 17:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, so now we're, we're going, okay, so we think we've found the root problem. It's me. I'm in the way, right? I, I shouldn't have been doing that, that, that situation. I should have hired somebody.
• 17:46
  SharonHess.com: Yeah.
• 17:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right. You know, we'll go away from the the ideal client kind of thing and say, you know, I'm the problem. So then I'm going to test that to see if that's the fact. So I'm going to step out of the way and give that task to somebody else. Right.
• 18:02
  SharonHess.com: Well, or you're just gonna think, okay, what's what's the simplest, what's one small thing, not like rewrite the the book, you know, what's the smallest thing? Is it just one paragraph? And then let me see if I fix that paragraph, then what's the next move, a simple next move that I can take to test?
• 18:20
  SharonHess.com: If I'm right or not.
• 18:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay.
• 18:23
  SharonHess.com: You know, we don't like doing that. We just like going full… because, you know, we're smart, we're capable, we have our own business, we want to go full speed ahead, and… Exactly. Never slow down and pause long enough.
• 18:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: actually.
• 18:35
  SharonHess.com: Do the little, small baby steps first.
• 18:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, so in that example of if I'm, if I'm causing the bottleneck, right?
• 18:44
  SharonHess.com: you.
• 18:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know? And I'm in the way, as the business owner. Right? What did what would be one small step that I could do to test that if I'm in the way?
• 18:54
  SharonHess.com: Well, it would depend on what you have determined your problem is.
• 18:58
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay.
• 18:59
  SharonHess.com: the.
• 19:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The pro… okay.
• 19:01
  SharonHess.com: Give me an example, and…
• 19:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, let's, let's dig into an example so the audience can understand really truly what that route might look like and what that's, that little problem or that little solution would be so they can move forward on it.
• 19:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, what would be… what would be… let's… let's go with an example. So, an example would be that, Every time.
• 19:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I keep… I want to go… I'm working with a leadership coach, so I'm… I'm thinking leadership right now, so let me… let me flip that switch, and say, okay, so let's go back, I guess, to the sales thing, right? So, if we use your example of the wrong, wrong, wrong prospect that you're talking to for your… for your offer solution, what would be one of the small steps if you think that that's… if you think that the… you're talking to the wrong.
• 19:55
  SharonHess.com: Well, I would reach out to someone that I know, knows you and your business.
• 20:00
  SharonHess.com: and ask for their feedback.
• 20:02
  SharonHess.com: You know, that's another thing, it's like we, we feel like we think that we have to know everything.
• 20:07
  SharonHess.com: And we feel that if we ask someone else for help or their opinion, that we failed.
• 20:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay.
• 20:13
  SharonHess.com: And it's just human nature, right? But it's the farthest thing from the truth. Or you could send out a survey. A lot of people do surveys for that very reason.
• 20:26
  SharonHess.com: Although, you know, not everybody answers surveys. So, yeah. Or if they do, they tell you what they think you wanna hear. You know, you find that out.
• 20:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 20:36
  SharonHess.com: So you would have to be you would have to I would caution just be careful how you word it.
• 20:42
  SharonHess.com: So that you'll know whether or not the feedback you're getting is, you know.
• 20:47
  SharonHess.com: True or not. Or true for them.
• 20:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, for the example, we're going to go to our… We're not getting sales, right? We're not getting people to sign up for our program, so we're going to ask a friend that knows our business to see if that's aligned, or we're going to send out a survey, right?
• 21:07
  SharonHess.com: Correct.
• 21:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay. And then when we get that back, what is that what is that gonna tell us?
• 21:13
  SharonHess.com: Okay, so if they come back and say, well, gee, it's a great program, but…
• 21:17
  SharonHess.com: You have to look and see what are the buts they come back with. Okay? Or it may be, yeah, that's just something that doesn't interest me. Then maybe you need to go back to the very beginning. Why did you create that program in the first place?
• 21:31
  SharonHess.com: what gave you the inclination that people may or may not want it, you know, that kind of thing. So that's kind of reverse engineering there. So a small next step would be.
• 21:41
  SharonHess.com: moving… am I going to move forward, make a decision? Am I going to move forward with it, or am I going to quit throwing good after bad?
• 21:48
  SharonHess.com: You know.
• 21:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, I think that's a big aha. People don't necessarily get to you. They keep, they keep beating the horse, right? They keep going.
• 21:55
  SharonHess.com: Well, yeah!
• 21:56
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Farther, we can keep trying it instead of going, look, nobody wants this. Let's scrap it and.
• 22:02
  SharonHess.com: Because we put time and energy and money and effort and love and caring and all of that into it. And even if people go, yeah, you know, we don't want it it hurts our feelings. So that's when you have to go back to that emotional intelligence, step outside and go, okay, my ego is bruised.
• 22:21
  SharonHess.com: However… However, I did it because I thought it would be fun and I learned something from it.
• 22:28
  SharonHess.com: I learned next time, maybe I'll do a little more…
• 22:32
  SharonHess.com: Questioning up front before I put all the time and energy and effort and love into it, right?
• 22:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know what that's a really good thing is to do that market research in the beginning because, as you said, most of us entrepreneurs just run forward at full speed without doing any of the.
• 22:49
  SharonHess.com: Isn't it interesting we don't do that?
• 22:53
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Everything, right? It's, it's crazy what we do. So cool. So then, you know, this is, this is a really good understanding of every day for business owners, you know, because I'm sure this is happening not just in my space or my client's space or your client's space, but every business owner is facing.
• 23:12
  SharonHess.com: seamless.
• 23:13
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Kind of challenge on a daily basis. Is there any kind of, daily activity or weekly activity we can do kind of like a, a, a stress test or a, a, a check-in, you know, that that would keep us on track and make sure that we're.
• 23:28
  SharonHess.com: Oh, that's a good question. Yeah. Well, I don't know about a stress test though, 'cause I think we all kind of know when we're falling under stress.
• 23:38
  SharonHess.com: Yeah. At least, I mean, I do, but that it's hard because for me to think about not being able to see that and know that.
• 23:44
  SharonHess.com: But I will tell you, absolutely.
• 23:50
  SharonHess.com: Build in time to take a pause, because when you're in that… that chaotic energy.
• 23:56
  SharonHess.com: That's the worst time to make decisions, move forward, figure things out. You absolutely have to take that peaceful pause. You know, like, I have a meditation on my website that's free that can do that. You can just take a walk outside. Seriously, sometimes just going outside, grounding your feet with the earth.
• 24:14
  SharonHess.com: Or, you know, if you love your dog, take your dog for a walk. You know, go throw the ball and and just but give yourself permission.
• 24:23
  SharonHess.com: Absolutely.
• 24:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 24:24
  SharonHess.com: I have permission. If you need to, set a timer.
• 24:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 24:28
  SharonHess.com: You know, until this timer goes off, I don't have to think about anything.
• 24:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, you know what, and that's common. We as business owners continue to put the square peg into the round hole, and trying to force that in there, and sometimes you just have to step away, whether it's to go have lunch, go take a walk, you know, get some air, like you said, put your feet in the ground, to really just go.
• 24:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Huh.
• 24:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, you know what? I think I just realized because you gave your brain that time to catch up to.
• 24:56
  SharonHess.com: Exactly.
• 24:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Trying to do, right?
• 24:59
  SharonHess.com: I laughed about the square peg in the round hole because I said what we do is we run in the kitchen and we get a knife and we try to chip it and then we can't get that to work. So we look for a handyman. Can you come fix it for me? You know?
• 25:11
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly. Isn't that funny? It's it's always but but that was never the problem in the first place, right? It was it was something else that had to do with the.
• 25:21
  SharonHess.com: Wrong peg.
• 25:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, with the wrong peg, you know? Yeah, I think that that's… that's such a common, common piece. So.
• 25:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: What I'd love to do is have the listeners to have kind of an exercise that they do. You talk about the root, I think you said lever, and then next move was your process? Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about maybe the steps that they take when they do that, so that way they're going away.
• 25:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you know, With these kind of activities.
• 25:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I believe I'm a giver, right? So I believe that if I give somebody an exercise they can do, it's gonna help them, right? They're gonna learn how to do things, and they're gonna love it more, and they're gonna want more from me. So I'm always, always willing to give. So, if you don't mind explaining the root lever, next move process in a way.
• 26:12
  SharonHess.com: Okay, and also, just so you know, I do have a, a, a…
• 26:16
  SharonHess.com: Powerpoint that's an audio and a workbook that they can download after this, that… Oh, yeah!
• 26:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: better!
• 26:22
  SharonHess.com: even deeper into it. Okay. But basically the first thing is to step back and say, is this the real problem? And like I said, you can ask right questions that way you can reverse engineer, but please understand that once you decide something is the problem, your brain is immediately focused on that.
• 26:44
  SharonHess.com: Okay? So that's the most important thing to do. And then…
• 26:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: think I think we have to continue until we hit that route as well, like is this really it? Why is it it? What could it be? You know, because, like you said earlier, we may cut ourselves short and go oh yeah, it's just this right.
• 27:03
  SharonHess.com: Yeah, that's the old saying about keep asking why until you can't ask why anymore.
• 27:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 27:09
  SharonHess.com: Right? Because it's, you know, like, so sales are down. Why? You know, you just keep going, why? Why? Why? Until there's no other you say why, and there's just
• 27:19
  SharonHess.com: Nothing there, you know?
• 27:20
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, and I think the best way to do that is to find some space outside of work, right? To get away from the problem, to kind of be free enough to do that, right?
• 27:31
  SharonHess.com: Exactly. Yeah, because if you're sitting at your desk with all your…
• 27:34
  SharonHess.com: Stuff around you, you know, you're in.
• 27:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And the phone ringing in the town.
• 27:38
  SharonHess.com: Energy work as well. So, I mean, I know you're in the energy of all of that. So you're absolutely right. Get out of that space.
• 27:46
  SharonHess.com: You know, like take a walk, go sit in if you work from your home, go sit in your dining room, go ride to a coffee shop, and just and just but just get quiet within yourself.
• 27:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: quit.
• 28:00
  SharonHess.com: trying to come up with the answer. Don't come up with the solution yet. The very first step.
• 28:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Ha ha!
• 28:06
  SharonHess.com: The very first step is don't look for a solution yet.
• 28:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That's really valuable, because otherwise, like you said, we're already trying to solve the problem before we even know what the root is. So if we.
• 28:16
  SharonHess.com: just.
• 28:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: focus on the route, then we're going to get to that route. Okay.
• 28:19
  SharonHess.com: Right, and so then the next… the next step would be, what is the,
• 28:25
  SharonHess.com: What's the simplest, smallest little piece of that that I can really take a look at?
• 28:33
  SharonHess.com: And then come up with a very simple next move that you can test it. Don't… but don't make it anything big and grand. You know, it's like, oh crap, I gotta change my whole website! Well, no.
• 28:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right.
• 28:45
  SharonHess.com: That's not the idea, okay?
• 28:47
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Keep it small because yeah, you know, I mean the solution would be to scrap the program. Well, no, maybe you just need to change the headline on the program. Maybe you just need to change the result on the program. Maybe you just need to change the way it's delivered on the program. Right.
• 29:05
  SharonHess.com: That's scrapping the whole thing. Exactly, yeah, there's so many little components. So just pick one little tiny thing, and then test it. Don't change everything.
• 29:14
  SharonHess.com: Just one small thing to test it to see if it makes a difference.
• 29:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 29:20
  SharonHess.com: I love that.
• 29:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And then, if it does…
• 29:23
  SharonHess.com: historically.
• 29:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It doesn't go test the next thing, right?
• 29:27
  SharonHess.com: Correct, yeah, exactly.
• 29:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah. So you're gonna keep testing until you get to, to the results. And if you've gone through all your testing and you've hit all, all five of the potential ways that you could fix that, then it's probably time to scrap the program, right? If, if people still aren't buying it. But I think a lot of times.
• 29:44
  SharonHess.com: You know we do. We don't want to do that Right.
• 29:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I mean, you know, a lot of times.
• 29:49
  SharonHess.com: You too.
• 29:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, sometimes you have to, because you're just wasting time going… going forward on that, so cool. So yeah, I guess the funny thing is, is, is that if we make too many fixes on it, then, you know, how do we, how do we decide, you know.
• 30:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Where, where we go on that, you know, if we've broken it apart and put it back together again and, and, and it still doesn't work, that's the time to, to pull the plug.
• 30:14
  SharonHess.com: Right. And that's a decision that's hard to make because like I said, once we have invested any of ourself into something, it's really hard to let it go. And that's not just in business.
• 30:23
  SharonHess.com: You know, anything in life, if we're invested in it, if we're invested in it, then we are invested in the outcome. So we have to let go of being invested in that outcome, being invested in the idea, and stop back and say, well, no, what did I learn from this? And then look at what the gift in it was, because, you know, there's a gift in everything, right?
• 30:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah. I learned a skill or I learned what not to do, you know, or I found.
• 30:48
  SharonHess.com: Or I learned something about myself, you know, that I'm I'm just adamant about pushing when I shouldn't be. And you know, whatever it is, it's I I can't tell you what it is because there's so many, you know, that's a that's a whole.
• 31:00
  SharonHess.com: Encyclopedia, if people remember what encyclopedias were.
• 31:05
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Because I know that this is this is something to you know, when you brought that up, you know, when we get invested, I mean, we've all experienced we got invested into a relationship that we probably shouldn't have stayed in that long. Right.
• 31:20
  SharonHess.com: And you stayed longer than you should have.
• 31:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah. 'cause yeah, you know, things like that. I mean, that's a perfect example right there. You know, whether we're, we made an investment in a, a, a marketing plan that just didn't work, you know, and I'm still paying.
• 31:36
  SharonHess.com: Programs that we bought, or memberships that we're a part of.
• 31:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly. Memberships, things like that.
• 31:42
  SharonHess.com: Some people that stay in memberships, they get zero out of it, but just because it's habit, you know, they're used to it.
• 31:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 31:49
  SharonHess.com: Oh, well, I like the people there, but are you getting any clients? Is it really producing? You know, we don't look at our ROI of our time like we look at the ROI of our money.
• 32:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes. Point on. Yes. Because I think that that's really important too, is looking at the whole picture. Absolutely. Getting down.
• 32:08
  SharonHess.com: life.
• 32:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: We have to one of the things that I love about business and working is that we always have to be innovating. And innovating is not always creating something new, but it's fixing and repairing or doing something better or different.
• 32:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: To make it better, right?
• 32:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And so I love this idea of going, let's get down to the root. Why isn't this delivering the way I should? Or why is it more expensive to deliver this service or product than it was before? If we get down to that root, then start testing those pieces out, we can make it better. That is my perfect definition of innovation, right?
• 32:47
  SharonHess.com: Yeah, exactly. You get to be your own handyman in your own business. Exactly.
• 32:52
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly, and in your own life, so that it doesn't translate over to your personal life and make your people you love crazy, or the people you love making you crazy, and now your business is crazy. You don't want that either, right? You know you've got to.
• 33:05
  SharonHess.com: Correct.
• 33:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You've gotta have… and this is an exercise that can be done across the board, I guess is why that example came up in my mind, right?
• 33:15
  SharonHess.com: Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
• 33:17
  SharonHess.com: Yeah, because we're, you know, wherever, that's the old saying, wherever you go, there you are, right?
• 33:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: you.
• 33:23
  SharonHess.com: Yeah.
• 33:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes, you know these are.
• 33:26
  SharonHess.com: And it's also the old saying, you don't know what you don't know. So sometimes you're so busy working on what you do know, you're not giving yourself the opportunity to find out what you don't know.
• 33:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly.
• 33:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, so this is a great conversation. What I'd love to have you do is give us one more piece of your wisdom, and I love your sayings and the things that you're doing, because it's really bringing up a reality check for business to say, hey, you need this time to make sure that you're fixing the things that need to be fixed and moving forward in a proper way.
• 33:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: What's your what's your one piece of advice that you hope that every business owner really thinks about when it comes to this topic?
• 34:07
  SharonHess.com: Make certain that you're solving the correct problem before you start doing anything about it.
• 34:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly. Exactly.
• 34:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right? Which is the root cause of everything, right? It's… make sure you're at the root. So, love it.
• 34:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: All right, Sharon, so where can listeners find out more about you, your process, and where they can find out about how to do this root lever and next move process?
• 34:34
  SharonHess.com: Okay, so my website is Sharon Hess.com. I always laugh because I've had it for years and I always say it took me so long to come up with that name. No, I know.
• 34:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: 5.
• 34:44
  SharonHess.com: But I was fortunate enough that I had it for a long time. So and for the process, go to Sharon Hess dot com.
• 34:54
  SharonHess.com: Money problem.
• 34:57
  SharonHess.com: Oh, did I say money problem training?
• 34:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, no, it wasn't money problem. I think it was.
• 35:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You had, you had it up on your screen before.
• 35:05
  SharonHess.com: I did. I did. You'll have to give me a second because I I did this for you guys just so you know.
• 35:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah.
• 35:13
  SharonHess.com: Yeah, and I don't see it now, let me look.
• 35:16
  SharonHess.com: Now hold on just one second. It'll be in the, it'll be in the show notes, I'm absolutely sure, but,
• 35:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Absolutely.
• 35:23
  SharonHess.com: Let's see, it is… -Oh, now my computer's being bad. Okay, share… wrong problem training, okay?
• 35:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That was the answer, see.
• 35:35
  SharonHess.com: That was the answer! Ding, ding, ding!
• 35:38
  SharonHess.com: So it's SharonHill.com slash money. I mean, I want to say.
• 35:43
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: wrong.
• 35:44
  SharonHess.com: I don't know what's wrong with my money. My my mind is on money because I guess I'm thinking all of you guys, it's gonna be a money problem because it usually is. Right? It's something either the money isn't coming in or the money's going out. Okay. But anyway, so sharonhess.com/wrongproblemtraining.
• 36:00
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Love it.
• 36:01
  SharonHess.com: Long dash.
• 36:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Problem, Dash.
• 36:04
  SharonHess.com: It's raining, and that's so funny.
• 36:06
  SharonHess.com: I.
• 36:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it. I love it. Well, thank you for finding that because that's really important and, and having that ability to, to find those root problems in there. And like you said, they're probably wrapped around money in one way, shape, or form, which everything is, we all have it wrapped around.
• 36:24
  SharonHess.com: Exactly.
• 36:25
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But I love that. And so I encourage everybody to go get that training, figure out how to find the problem that really it is.
• 36:35
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: We're always dealing with them, we're always putting out fires in business, so if we can… if we can…
• 36:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: streamline that process and really get to the root problems, then I think the business is going to be better for it, you're going to be better for it, and everything else. So, yeah, definitely go get it. SharonHess.com, wrong problem.
• 36:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Wrong.
• 36:56
  SharonHess.com: Good morning.
• 36:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: wrong.
• 36:57
  SharonHess.com: Wrong training.
• 36:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yay!
• 36:59
  SharonHess.com: I should have made it simpler, I'm sorry.
• 37:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, it's okay. It's okay. It's on point. It is what it is, and it'll be in the show notes. So, all right. Thank you for tuning in today, listeners. I hope you're walking away with some practical ideas that you could put to work in your business right now to be more profitable and more valuable.
• 37:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And I know working through these problems really is a thing, a skill set we ought to have. And if we can do it, we can get our team to do it.
• 37:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Everybody down the line can start becoming better problem solvers.
• 37:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And, it only helps the business in the long run.
• 37:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, so before you go, don't forget to go grab your free Profit Booster Growth Map. In a couple of minutes, you'll see your best opportunities to grow revenue and improve profit. You can get yours now that the show is almost over at ProfitBooster.biz. And by the way, there's no sales call required.
• 37:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And if this episode gave you value, which I'm sure it has, it has for me, be sure to subscribe and share it with the other business owners who need to hear it. And I'll see you on next week's show with more strategies to help you grow smarter and profit stronger. So until then, make your plans and profit with them. Thanks so much, Sharon.
• 38:15
  SharonHess.com: Thanks for having me.