Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / Why Pushing the Needle Is the Only Way to Win as a Fractional

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Why Pushing the Needle Is the Only Way to Win as a Fractional · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

• 0:00
  Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
• 0:03
  Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
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  I'm your host, the founder and CEO of Mylands.
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  And today we're going to talk about playing big.
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  And frankly, it's the only way to do it.
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  And we're going to talk about why.
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  Why playing small is actually a recipe for disaster.
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  A recipe for, I don't say failure, but your business is
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  going to be so much more challenging to run.
• 0:28
  It's going to be smaller, it's going to burn you out.
• 0:32
  And that's the opposite that we want to happen.
• 0:34
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• 0:55
  All right, let's dive in. First, let's talk about what
• 0:58
  playing small actually looks like.
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  What it looks like is saying yes to basically any project that
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  comes your way. Playing small is agreeing to
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  rates that are lower than really feels comfortable, lower than
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  your value, or lower than you're just really looking to earn.
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  It could just be like, I want to make more.
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  Playing small means not doing active business development.
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  It could be not posting content on LinkedIn, not doing any kind
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  of outreach, not doing lots of networking, whether it's live
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  events or in communities where your ideal customer might be.
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  Playing small is also a mindset. It's like how you talk about
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  your business, right? If you say, oh, I'm a consultant
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  and I do XYZ versus I'm a business owner that makes
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  impactful change. It could be working for free to
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  quote, get experience. And the last thing I'll say,
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  it's not making time for the move the needle business
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  activities like, you know, the things you need to do, but
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  you're not making the time because we all have the time.
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  You're not making the time to do the things your business needs.
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  And maybe because you just don't like to or you're scared or
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  there's some sort of subconscious programming that's
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  holding you back. But the end of the day, you're
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  not doing those activities. And, and so that combines into
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  you playing small. And what ends up happening is
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  you probably have a number of clients that aren't paying you
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  that much. And so you're super busy.
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  You're not making the money you want to be making.
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  You're kind of burnt out and you don't really see a path out.
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  You're like, how do I do this? And you kind of think like this
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  is the only way it can be done. One of the ways that we get into
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  this is when we rely only on referrals and we don't ask for
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  enough money from our clients. We're kind of in this like, I
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  don't know how to go, go get new clients.
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  So I kind of have to take what falls in my lap, what comes my
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  way. And I don't have enough
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  experience in my head, right? That's not true.
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  But I'm thinking I can't really charge more.
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  Like this is all these clients can really afford.
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  So I'm stuck taking like 2345K retainers.
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  So I have three clients. I make 15K, maybe 12 KA month
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  and I'm like, shoot, like I'm not making what I was making in
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  corporate. I'm not making nearly what
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  Bradley talks about or what other people talk about.
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  Like what am I doing wrong? And you feel stuck.
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  And the reality is we do this. I'll just throw myself in there.
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  We do this because it feels safe, right?
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  Like when we were in corporate, most people that have gone out
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  on their own, they had a job in corporate or tech company or
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  even a start up at some point. But there was this kind of like
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  safety built in, right? Like if the company didn't do
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  well, it wasn't your fault. You had very clear roles and
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  responsibilities of like what you needed to do.
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  You got feedback, you had managers, you had teammates,
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  people to fall back on. You had there was basically so
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  much built in infrastructure. And so there was a lot of safety
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  built in. And when we go out on our own,
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  we pretty much lose all of that safety.
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  Right now, we're totally on our own.
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  If we succeed, it's because of us and if we fail, it's because
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  of us. And so there's a normal
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  inclination to not take the big risk because risk feels like
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  rejection or the potential of rejection.
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  And so we don't want to quote UN quote get rejected.
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  We don't want to hear the no, we don't want to quote UN quote
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  fail. And so we play small and we keep
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  it safe. And we end up in this scenario
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  that I described earlier that 100% leads to burnout or worse,
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  you're like, make the decision that I can't do this.
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  And so then I need to go back to corporate or reevaluate.
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  Do I need to go find a job or find clients that frankly just
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  that I don't even want to work work with?
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  And I want to paint a scenario for you.
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  There's this scenario where you have one consultant who is in
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  the category I'm describing. They're kind of playing it safe.
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  They take clients that fall in their lap.
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  They're a little scared to charge too much because what if
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  they're told you know, you're not worth it and they're not
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  really doing a lot of outreach or business development or
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  LinkedIn content creation? That's consultant A and then you
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  have consultant B and consultant B is like has no ego, no fucks
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  given, and is playing the biggest game that they could
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  possibly play. Meaning they're doing outreach,
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  they're creating content, they're asking for rates that
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  are way higher than the market average.
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  They are pushing the needle. They are testing this niche and
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  then that niche and they are asking for big proposals and
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  they are saying no to any kind of small client.
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  They're like, Nope, I don't work with anyone less than 7 KA
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  month. And they are just like balls to
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  the wall outreach and they have No Fear.
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  Like let's just assume there's zero fear of rejection or
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  failure. So you have consultant A who's
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  kind of playing it safe and allowing things to come in their
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  lap and consultant B who's balls to the wall, no ego, No Fear,
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  just like going for it. And it's pretty obvious, right?
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  If you had to pick which consultant is going to be more
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  successful in their in their business, you'd almost guarantee
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  consultant B. And when I lay it out in the A
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  verse B, it sounds pretty damn obvious, right?
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  The person that's going balls to the wall and gives no fucks
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  about potentially being rejected, they're going to crush
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  it, right? Like they're going to get told
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  no a lot. Don't get me wrong, they
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  absolutely are. But as they get told no and they
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  let it roll off their back, they're almost definitely going
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  to get yeses. And when they do get those
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  yeses, they're big yeses, right? It's a 20 KA month client, a 15
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  KA month client, a 30 KA month client.
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  So instead of having the like, you know, 3 clients at 5 KA
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  month that gets you 15K. They can have one client that's
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  15K, which means if they have three, it's 45 K.
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  They would easily be making triple what consultant A would
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  be making. And I lay this out to not if
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  you're a consultant A right now, not to make you feel bad is to
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  say that there is another way. And I'm not saying it's easy
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  because if it were easy, everybody would do it.
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  Certainly not easy. But there's a piece that can
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  change the entire equation. And it is all around mindset,
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  right? It's who we are, right?
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  It's always been AB do have like the person I'm being results in
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  what I do and then I have right? So we get to be embodied in
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  Consultant B and so those take the mindset shift.
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  So we're going to talk about those mindset shifts and how
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  that translates to tangible action items for your business
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  that's actually going to set you up for success.
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  So the biggest thing, the most important thing is realizing the
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  value that you bring. When you are so incredibly
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  cemented in the value that you bring as a consultant to a
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  business, then you are so much more likely to say no to clients
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  that undermine your value and only say yes where the value is
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  truly there. And this is a really easy
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  exercise because every single employee, and we're going to
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  talk about employees for a second, every single employee at
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  a company, they drive more value than their salary.
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  I'm going to say that one more time.
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  Every employee at a company drives way more value then their
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  salary. And the reason is because you
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  wouldn't be hired if that weren't true, right?
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  A business makes money and if they are hiring people that
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  don't drive value. And look, there's exceptions to
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  this of course, but the point is that you have learned a skill
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  set that drives way more value than you've been paid.
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  And as a consultant, you have the opportunity to capitalize on
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  a higher share of that value because you are the one setting
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  your own rate. And if we just take a really,
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  really simple example, right, you could talk about if you're
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  in marketing or sales or business development or any kind
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  of top of funnel growth function, you know, revenue OPS,
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  CHCRO and anything like that. If you are adding value that
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  acquires X more customers, those customers depending on of course
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  like the LTV and you know Enterprise Oregon B, you know, B
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  to B or B to C, whatever it is. But we know those customers are
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  worth an insane amount to the company, right?
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  Let's say every single time you move the needle on acquiring
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  234510 more customers or 100 or 1000 or 10,000 customers, you
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  are probably adding 10s of thousands, hundreds of thousands
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  or millions of dollars in value to that business.
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  So can you really think about like, oh, I'm going to take
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  $3500 a month for from the business when I'm adding $40,000
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  a month to the business, Like really just think about that for
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  a second. So you don't need to go prove
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  yourself anymore, right? You've already done that.
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  You already had the experience. And so it's really just knowing
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  fully embodied. It's one thing to think, it's
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  another thing to really have it believe it in your body that the
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  value that you add is so much more than the price that you
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  charge. And it makes it a hell of a lot
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  easier to actually go after it and frankly say no very easily
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  and respectfully when it's not there.
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  This same principle also applies to doing business development.
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  Because when you have that in, in your body knowledge of the
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  value that you add, you're like, okay, now I want to find clients
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  that have this problem so I can go add this value to them,
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  right? It's not about like, oh, I need
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  to go make this amount of money. I need, I need, I need, it's
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  actually what do you need you as in the business, right?
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  I want to find businesses that have the problem that I solve
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  because one, I love solving those problems, 2, they need me.
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  3, I have fun doing it for this is my business, right?
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  Like that's what I want to be doing.
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  And so there's kind of this like beautiful value exchange where I
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  get to solve a problem, I still create way more value than I get
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  paid. And I'm hitting my financial
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  goals right. I'm having fun in the process.
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  So in order for us to do this, we have to truly understand our
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  value. And then the next most important
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  thing is being OK with the possibility.
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  And frankly, it's going to happen.
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  Being OK with being told either no, being rejected in some kind
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  of way, or like the worst, worst, worst thing I can really
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  think of happening is someone calls you crazy or you, you
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  know, you don't add that much value or whatever it is.
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  And look, if you talk to 50 people and 40 of them tell you
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  that you don't add that much value.
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  OK, good feedback. And you get to kind of iterate
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  on your offer or go get some more experience or whatever it
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  is. But if one person, two person,
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  two people, three people, four people say that out of 50, you
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  get to throw it out. You're like, OK, thanks for the
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  feedback. Not a fit here.
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  No worries, right? But we have to be willing to put
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  ourselves out there. We have to be willing to get
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  rejected. Maybe look, quote UN quote
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  stupid. We have to be willing because
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  not everyone's going to be a fit.
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  That's just the end of the day. So if I were to ask you, are you
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  willing to get told no, let's say 50 times to build the
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  business of your dreams? Because my guess is if you
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  reached out to 500 people, right, you might get told no,
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  we're totally rejected by even half of them, right?
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  You know, obviously you don't need 500.
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  So simple example, if you reach out to 100 and you got told no,
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  we're rejected by 50 of them, but fifty of them said yes, and
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  then you had clients forever. Would you be OK with that?
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  And my guess is all of you would be.
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  You're like, OK, I can get told no to build a business in my
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  dream 50 times no problem. So being willing to be told no
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  after you know your value. And then the third piece is you
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  being willing to say no. Like when those clients do fall
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  in your lap that just aren't a fit from the value, the niche,
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  the money, the time, the scope, whatever it is.
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  Being honest with yourself of does this get me to my goal?
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  Does this get me closer? And if it doesn't get me closer,
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  then I get to be really disciplined and say no.
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  Like this isn't a fit. So once we have these three
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  things down, we know our value. We are willing to hear no and
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  maybe even look silly along the way.
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  And we're willing to say no. Then the world opens up for us
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  because then we're not scared of doing outreach.
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  We're not scared of asking for our prices to be high.
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  We're not scared of creating content on LinkedIn and looking
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  quote UN quote silly. We're not scared of saying no to
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  a small retainer that just doesn't meet our goals.
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  And we're willing to play big. And I would ask, you ask
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  yourself every single week, what are the biggest things, most
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  important things that I could do for my business that will move
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  the needle towards my goal? And of course, you have to know
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  your goal to do this right? But every week, do it on the
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  weekend. Do it Sunday night, not Monday
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  morning when you're starting to get in the thick of things.
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  Do it the weekend before and say, like, what are going to be
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  the biggest things to move the needle?
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  And who am I, right? You can even like reiterate it
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  every day. I'm Bradley.
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  I'm a badass entrepreneur building awesome products and
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  community and Information Services for amazing
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  fractionals. I know how much value I bring.
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  I love this space and I'm going to be a risky, bold, powerful
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  entrepreneur this week. Boom.
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  And all of a sudden I'm like Crate.
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  I can tackle the world. Anyone can tell me anything and
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  it's fine. I'm going to be unshaken in
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  whatever and I'm of course going to go get feedback of like
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  what's working and what's not working and iterate.
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  But it's not going to I'm not going to make it about me,
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  right? I'm not going to have a massive
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  ego hit. All right, I can talk about this
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  forever, but we like to keep these episodes to about 15
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  minutes. So I'm going to wrap it up here.
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  This is such a powerful topic and I really hope you took
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  something away from this that actually allows you to move
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  forward in a more powerful, in a bigger and a riskier way.
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  And again, come check us out, mylance.co.
• 15:00
  We have this really amazing new product that users are loving
• 15:04
  and creating new content and attracting clients and winning
• 15:06
  deals from. So that's what it's really all
• 15:08
  about. And if you got some value, if
• 15:11
  you enjoyed this, give us a review, give us a rating, reach
• 15:14
  out to me on LinkedIn really means the world and I will see
• 15:17
  you next time.