Latest / Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós / Building Smart Growth Strategies for a Sustainable Business

Transcript

Building Smart Growth Strategies for a Sustainable Business · Smart Business Growth with Nicky Miklós

• 0:04
  Nicky: Welcome to the Smart Business Growth Podcast with Nicky and.
• 0:08
  Nicky: Ness.
• 0:11
  Ness: We would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of country, the Turrbal and Bunurong people of Brisbane and Melbourne respectively, where Nikki and I both work and live, both work and live.
• 0:31
  Nicky: Hey everyone and welcome to the very first episode of Smart Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:33
  Nicky: Say hi, Nicky, hello everybody, beautiful listeners, beautiful watchers.
• 0:36
  Nicky: It is so wonderful to be back.
• 0:38
  Ness: It absolutely is, and we wanted to just take some time to talk to you today about what this podcast is going to be about.
• 0:45
  Ness: It's a fresh season.
• 0:47
  Ness: We're talking about smart business growth and really what we're not going to be doing is having just a far side chat, you know, although sometimes it'd be quite entertaining, but what we want to deliver you is something that's pragmatic, that it's actionable, that's strategic, so that every single episode that we do delivers real world, high value, high impact advice that empowers you to work smarter and not harder, because we are not about hustle culture here.
• 1:15
  Ness: Absolutely, it's a hill we're willing to die on.
• 1:18
  Ness: It's about working smarter, not harder, and it's really about finding a way to balance having a successful business or leading a team to create an outstanding result and still having a life that you love, that is fulfilling, that allows you to spend time with the people that matter the most, and then those two work hand in hand.
• 1:42
  Ness: So many of you will know who have worked with us or know us and those who don't what Nick and I are all about in business together is installing smart growth strategies and people performance sorry, people leadership for peak performance, and really what we see is when we have that combination of those two, then your business thrives, your team thrive and you thrive, and that's really important to us, because this is not about the 5am club.
• 2:15
  Ness: It's not about go, go, go, work harder, work harder, and we are so not into burnout.
• 2:19
  Ness: You know we want to avoid that and we know that when we have smart business growth, when we have strong leadership and people strategies, those two combined can really give us back some time freedom.
• 2:33
  Ness: It can really help us step away from being everything to everyone in the business, and I just think you know the ability to really deliver in this fast-paced world that we're in is about working smarter and not harder, and that's no longer a luxury.
• 2:50
  Ness: That really is about how we make a difference in order to be able to love what we do inside of work and love what we do outside of work, and it's just something that we're really obsessed about, because we want to empower you as business owners, as leaders, to take control back and feel like you're in charge of what's going to come next, which is pretty exciting really.
• 3:16
  Ness: What about you, nick?
• 3:17
  Nicky: absolutely, nessa.
• 3:18
  Nicky: I couldn't agree more.
• 3:19
  Nicky: And you know we've got to reframe what business success looks like.
• 3:23
  Nicky: We've got to show it's kind of a duty of care actually for us as business leaders whether you are a business owner, whether you're leading a team of people in somebody else's business or in a big business, it's our duty of care to show that there is a different way and redefine what success looks like because, let's face it, it's pretty damn challenging sometimes between navigating.
• 3:47
  Nicky: I mean, we've got economic uncertainties, we've got global and local impacts of world events.
• 3:54
  Nicky: How is that impacting our mental health, our team's mental health?
• 3:58
  Nicky: Meanwhile, you still have to keep the business afloat or the team afloat.
• 4:02
  Nicky: You're managing day to day operations.
• 4:04
  Nicky: You're ensuring consistent lead flow.
• 4:05
  Nicky: You're delivering for clients have to keep the business afloat or the team afloat.
• 4:07
  Nicky: You're managing day-to-day operations.
• 4:08
  Nicky: You're ensuring consistent lead flow.
• 4:10
  Nicky: You're delivering for clients.
• 4:10
  Nicky: You're supporting and engaging your team.
• 4:11
  Nicky: I mean, oh, my goodness, there is just so much and it is really easy and to feel stretched, to feel pulled in a million different directions.
• 4:19
  Nicky: And we see so many business owners, so many leaders that are drowning in that day-to-day whirlwind of business.
• 4:28
  Nicky: But we know you.
• 4:30
  Nicky: We know that you are a high performer.
• 4:33
  Nicky: We know that you want success and, most importantly, we know that you don't want to let the people around you down.
• 4:38
  Nicky: And so, despite feeling pulled in a million different directions, you're going to get up again tomorrow and you're going to do it all again.
• 4:45
  Nicky: We totally get it.
• 4:47
  Nicky: And, again, this is why this podcast is here to help you with this.
• 4:52
  Nicky: We don't want to add to your frustrations.
• 4:54
  Nicky: We don't want to add to your feelings of guilt sometimes when you're trying to juggle all the balls and dropping some.
• 4:59
  Nicky: What we want to do is we want to introduce you to this concept of smart business growth, and that's why the entire podcast is called this, because it is literally everything we do and talk about is about this smart growth in business.
• 5:13
  Nicky: As Ness said, it's leveraging that people leadership component.
• 5:17
  Nicky: So I would love to take a moment to share a little bit about what actually is and isn't smart growth.
• 5:23
  Nicky: What do you reckon?
• 5:24
  Ness: Ness.
• 5:25
  Ness: I think that's a brilliant idea.
• 5:26
  Ness: Let's go for it.
• 5:27
  Nicky: And I'll keep it really simple because again, we're introducing this concept and we're redefining what success looks like.
• 5:33
  Nicky: But, as an example, smart growth is not just focusing on vanity numbers, just focusing on those high level, surface level numbers, sales targets, revenue, turnover.
• 5:45
  Nicky: It is about focusing on those numbers as well as profit in business.
• 5:50
  Nicky: So when you're only focusing on one and not the other, that means you're not focusing on smart growth.
• 5:56
  Nicky: You're going to find that your wheels are turning and it might negatively impact cash flow.
• 6:00
  Nicky: Another area that you know if you are not in smart growth is that your team are a team of doers.
• 6:08
  Nicky: Now, of course, we want our team to do.
• 6:11
  Nicky: That's kind of the point.
• 6:13
  Nicky: But when you do have smart growth, you also have a team of decision makers.
• 6:17
  Nicky: So, the difference being a team of doers, they're constantly looking to you for guidance.
• 6:22
  Nicky: They won't work autonomously without you in the business doing the do, whereas a team of decision makers are empowered, they're autonomous and they are not relying on you being tethered to the day-to-day to actually take action.
• 6:37
  Nicky: Make sense?
• 6:38
  Nicky: Yep, totally Excellent, good, okay.
• 6:41
  Nicky: The other thing is that we see a business or a business unit or team that is not embracing smart growth are very reactive with their sales marketing legion, and by that I mean maybe it's purely relied on word of mouth, it's relied on people coming in, versus a smart growth business is actually being proactive in terms of how they're doing sales activities, how they're following up, what's their marketing strategy.
• 7:08
  Nicky: They're proactively reaching out and they're proactively efficient with their sales strategies.
• 7:14
  Nicky: And then the final tip I'll give is that a business that's not smart growth.
• 7:20
  Nicky: You find that the leaders and the individuals in the team they're kind of winging it.
• 7:26
  Nicky: So they're rocking up to work that day and they're kind of going, oh okay, where's my to-do list?
• 7:31
  Nicky: And just picking a random task.
• 7:33
  Nicky: They're winging it throughout the day.
• 7:35
  Nicky: Not smart growth people.
• 7:37
  Nicky: A smart growth business, the team, the individuals and the leaders are really clear on what are the top priorities that week that they need to focus on so that, no matter if the whirlwind happens and spoiler alert, the whirlwind happens and spoiler alert, the whirlwind is going to happen.
• 7:54
  Nicky: It will.
• 7:55
  Nicky: It will Guaranteed.
• 7:57
  Nicky: It's never not going to happen.
• 7:58
  Nicky: But no matter if that happens, you're still getting to the end of the week where you've perhaps got your top five or top three tasks completed that are going to help move the dial in terms of achieving goals.
• 8:10
  Nicky: So there's a couple of different ways that you know if you are or are not embracing this concept of smart growth in your business.
• 8:18
  Nicky: Ultimately, it comes down to four key areas.
• 8:20
  Nicky: How are you embracing the sales aspect, including systems, not just conversations your profit aspect, which again, we could go so deep into and we will within the podcast episodes in future.
• 8:31
  Nicky: How are you embracing your planning and your strategic vision and actioning for your business and team and your team?
• 8:41
  Nicky: How are you creating a empowered, autonomous team?
• 8:45
  Nicky: So smart growth comes into those four key areas and categories and you might want to rewind and listen to those key contrasts that I shared and see how many yeses or no you received to kind of start to think about is my business embracing smart growth?
• 9:02
  Nicky: But we're going to help you take it even a little bit further, aren't we, ness?
• 9:05
  Ness: We absolutely are, and I think that this is really on the back of some work that we've been doing over the years that we've been in business not just in business together, but in our previous roles and what we're seeing out there in the business landscape, and it's really that awareness of identifying at which phase you're in right now when it comes to smart growth, so that you can be on the front foot, that you can build up to this space, which we like to call momentum.
• 9:35
  Ness: But there's a few phases that we go through in order to get there, and I'd love to share the first as we go through that in relation to what we call crisis mode.
• 9:44
  Ness: Crisis mode is a business that's just in survival, and you're going to be able to understand whether you're there or not, because if you're feeling like you're just running off fumes, if you are focusing only on the loudest thing that gets your attention, which usually doesn't have anything to do with what you want to do and everything to do with what everybody else wants you to do, so that you're starting your work at the end of the day, when everyone else has taken all your energy out of you right, when everyone else has taken all your energy out of you, right, it's just getting through day by day.
• 10:16
  Ness: It's just that exhaustion of the alarm's gone off.
• 10:17
  Ness: I really just want to stay in bed, but I have to get up.
• 10:19
  Ness: I've got to get moving, I've got to be there.
• 10:22
  Ness: I'm the one who's going to either make or break this business being there, even though I've got a team, and it's really frustrating.
• 10:31
  Ness: So I would imagine that you know when you're in that space, and what we hear from our clients who have been there, is that you just feel like you don't have any direction.
• 10:42
  Ness: There's it's chaotic, it's a it's.
• 10:45
  Ness: The whirlwind keeps sucking you down.
• 10:47
  Ness: You're in this vortex of just doing, doing, doing all day, but no breath to come up and look towards the future, because we all started business or went into our careers for a reason right, there was the vision that captured us into this, and that's what our passion is about.
• 11:04
  Ness: As business grows, as the team come on, you've got to deal with people.
• 11:08
  Ness: My God, how complicated are we as human beings.
• 11:11
  Ness: The challenges of you know, the external factors, your clients like it all comes into this big ball and you're just starting to feel a little bit adrift.
• 11:20
  Ness: So chances are, when you're in that space.
• 11:24
  Ness: There's no forward planning, there's no 90 day goal, there's not even a reconnect backed into your vision, back into why you're doing what you do and how that helps you to live the life that you want to live.
• 11:34
  Ness: And, ultimately, I think it's that feeling of frustration with a lack of autonomy and the poor communication within your team which spoiler alert is a reflection of you, because of course it's going to be, if you're feeling exhausted, sapped of energy and all of the above.
• 11:56
  Nicky: Do the Smart Growth Survey in under 60 seconds to get your hands on our Smart Growth Blueprint.
• 11:59
  Nicky: You'll get immediate access to our four favourite strategies for sales, profit planning and team, and you'll identify which phase of smart growth your business is currently in, whether it's crisis, build growth or momentum mode, so that you can move your way to the next phase with ease.
• 12:17
  Nicky: All you have to do is click the link in the show notes.
• 12:22
  Ness: So that is the starting point that we don't want you on.
• 12:25
  Ness: We want you to move through from really quickly from crisis mode to build phase.
• 12:31
  Ness: So, Nicky, do you want to talk about build phase?
• 12:33
  Nicky: Yeah.
• 12:33
  Nicky: So when we look at the four phases of smart growth, as Ness said, we want if you're in crisis mode, we want to help get you out, and that's also another purpose of this podcast.
• 12:43
  Nicky: When you move from crisis to build, you know you might be still feeling some of those things that Ness talked about.
• 12:49
  Nicky: You know you're feeling like you're spinning the wheels and you're definitely still juggling all the balls, but the difference is that whilst some days you might feel like you're holding on by the skin of your teeth, other days you're starting to see the light.
• 13:03
  Nicky: You can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
• 13:04
  Nicky: You might have some really great ideas and you've got the space to ideate, but there's not a lot of space to actually execute the ideas.
• 13:13
  Nicky: There might be some clarity on the business goals, on the business vision, but perhaps it hasn't translated to empowering the team, so the team aren't necessarily autonomously striving towards hitting those same outcomes or those same goals.
• 13:29
  Nicky: It's almost like there's a lot happening in your mind and the planning, but perhaps it hasn't translated to the people around you to help deliver that.
• 13:36
  Nicky: Definitely what we talked about before.
• 13:38
  Nicky: The team are delivering, but that's reliant on you being in the business and there's probably some inconsistencies with sales profit communication.
• 13:47
  Nicky: The communication is better than in crisis mode, as Ness ness talked about, but it's still hit and miss and there's.
• 13:54
  Nicky: You know we like to say that what often happens in build phase is there's this bury your head in the sand strategy.
• 14:00
  Nicky: It's like, ah, it's.
• 14:02
  Nicky: It's easier for me to bury my head in the sand than to actually do something different, although it's just there's a lot of discomfort in how things are working.
• 14:11
  Nicky: It feels scarier, it feels like more time than to try and do things differently.
• 14:15
  Nicky: So you kind of stay as you are instead of changing.
• 14:19
  Nicky: And I might jump into grow mode as well, ness, while I'm here, because what we find is that a lot of the clients that we work with are getting out of that crisis mode and they're in the build and the grow phase.
• 14:31
  Nicky: And you know there's really some commonalities there because, again, growth is building on build, if I can say that.
• 14:38
  Nicky: So you're starting to see more consistency with the team, but it's still a little bit wobbly.
• 14:44
  Nicky: There's more clarity of outcomes and autonomous with the team, but you're still tethered to the business in order for results to happen, despite the external challenges that are happening around you.
• 14:57
  Nicky: You're starting to get some good systems in place.
• 15:00
  Nicky: In growth mode, you're starting to put systems in around sales, around profits.
• 15:05
  Nicky: So again, it's creating a little bit more space for you to be able to step back.
• 15:10
  Nicky: Now in growth mode, there's definitely some really good things happening in business.
• 15:14
  Nicky: The danger zone is that you fall into a space of it's good enough Now.
• 15:20
  Nicky: That can be the thing that causes a plateau or a decline in the business, and there's still so many spinning plates that you're a bit nervous as the business owner and leader, that if you take your eye off one of those spinning plates then all of them will be dropped.
• 15:37
  Nicky: So what we find in growth mode is that, even though the team is starting to step up, communication is starting to get better, there's a bit more autonomy.
• 15:46
  Nicky: You might have a holiday.
• 15:49
  Nicky: You might be at the point where I feel like I could have a holiday, but success is still really relying on me.
• 15:55
  Nicky: You might have a holiday, but you feel like you have to work on your holiday or you've got to check in on your emails or have your phone handy in case you're needed.
• 16:05
  Nicky: So that's a really big tell that you're in growth mode.
• 16:08
  Nicky: It's almost like you've got one foot in and one foot out.
• 16:12
  Nicky: In terms of by out, I mean, you've got almost a little bit of freedom in the business and it's just a few tweaks to be able to really be able to step back.
• 16:20
  Nicky: That danger of good enough is by staying stuck in the business.
• 16:25
  Nicky: For example, the business is still achieving results, or it might be that, ah, we've got some good systems over here around sales, we've got none over here.
• 16:34
  Nicky: But you know what, it's fine, it's good enough.
• 16:36
  Nicky: And when you can, if you find yourself thinking that, when you can catch yourself in those areas, when you can put strategies in place in those areas, that's when you can move to the next stage, which I'm going to hand back to you.
• 16:49
  Nicky: Ness, because this is the golden ticket of where we want to end up.
• 16:56
  Ness: Well, we like to call this momentum, and really what we want you to do when you're in momentum phase is to take time to acknowledge that you're there.
• 17:05
  Ness: Step back, celebrate this result.
• 17:08
  Ness: Time to acknowledge that you're there, step back, celebrate this result.
• 17:12
  Ness: Reflect on what it is it's taken you to get here.
• 17:13
  Ness: What's the secret to success in your business, or if you're a leader in your team and we know, as you do too, that it's not a done and forget.
• 17:24
  Ness: Right, we don't clean our teeth once and then we have great dental hygiene for the rest of our lives.
• 17:29
  Ness: It is something that we have to continue.
• 17:32
  Ness: I know how good that would be.
• 17:33
  Ness: Imagine how many minutes of every day we get back, but it's that whole.
• 17:38
  Ness: No business is 100% consistent and 100% steady all the time, because you could be at that phase and then something can happen.
• 17:46
  Ness: In the market, you could lose your highest paying client, you could have team members that leave that are key people in your business.
• 17:55
  Ness: There's always going to be something out there or for yourself, something could happen in your life that's going to take your attention away.
• 18:01
  Ness: So this is why we call where you're at momentum, because, as we know, momentum builds, and once momentum builds, it is easier to move forward, but it's important to look at what's working and make sure that those plates don't drop.
• 18:17
  Ness: So what is it that we need to have in place in order to be able to continue at this level?
• 18:22
  Ness: And sometimes what is actually needed is for you to slow down, maybe step out of the business.
• 18:28
  Ness: What is actually needed is for you to slow down, maybe step out of the business, get away to do that big picture on the balcony, looking and gain momentum towards what's the next frontier of growth for us, what's next, and so really stepping into that visionary role that the business needs you to be, that your team needs you to be.
• 18:45
  Ness: So, really, this entire podcast is going to be dedicated to these smart growth strategies people leadership for peak performance, as I said earlier, so that you're thriving, your business is thriving, your team are thriving, and Nicky and I will be sharing our knowledge, our experience with you along the way.
• 19:03
  Ness: Plus, we will be having some amazing guests that will be joining us over the course of this season, who are going to help us to be able to just look at things from a different perspective or a different lens, or bring a different idea into it that's going to perhaps spark some curiosity in you and maybe some innovation in you and maybe something that you want to take away and apply so that you can continually move through and get out of these sort of crisis and build modes and towards that growth and momentum.
• 19:34
  Ness: So, nick, what do you reckon as we wrap up our first episode of season two?
• 19:40
  Ness: What is the actionable action that we can have our viewers and our listeners do today?
• 19:46
  Nicky: I love it and for those of you who are dedicated, long-time listeners and watchers, you'll notice this ain't changing.
• 19:52
  Nicky: We're going to finish every episode with an actionable action, because we want this to be a pragmatic tool that you can use in your business and life, and what we'd love for you to do today it's kind of a no-brainer.
• 20:04
  Nicky: We've talked about the concept of smart growth.
• 20:06
  Nicky: What are some key areas to identify if you are or aren't embracing smart growth?
• 20:11
  Nicky: And we really think it's important for you to be able to identify what phase of smart growth am I in?
• 20:18
  Nicky: Am I in crisis?
• 20:20
  Nicky: Am I in build?
• 20:21
  Nicky: Am I in growth or am I in momentum?
• 20:24
  Nicky: And, as Ness said, it's very fluid.
• 20:25
  Nicky: You could do this every six to 12 months and you might get a slightly different result, and you'll also know exactly what you need to focus on to move to momentum.
• 20:35
  Nicky: So we've created a 60 second survey, super quick survey for you to do, where you will find out immediately what phase of smart growth you're in, and then we're also going to share with you that will unlock where you'll get immediate access in your email our four favorite strategies and actually I say it's our four favorite, but it's not our four favorite strategies.
• 20:56
  Nicky: It's our clients favorite strategies.
• 20:58
  Nicky: So the four strategies around sales, profit, team and planning one for each that our clients are loving.
• 21:05
  Nicky: That is helping them stay in a place of momentum or growth, moving to momentum.
• 21:11
  Nicky: So we want to give you this because we know how powerful it can be and we understand the chaos that businesses are in at the moment.
• 21:18
  Nicky: So all you have to do is click the link in the show notes.
• 21:21
  Nicky: You will find out exactly where you sit, what phase you're in and you'll have four strategies that you can implement.
• 21:28
  Nicky: And I will say that these are strategies that are designed for busy people.
• 21:32
  Nicky: You can do them straight away.
• 21:35
  Nicky: It's not like a big hoo-ha.
• 21:36
  Nicky: We're not faffing about.
• 21:38
  Nicky: We just want to get in and get some results for you.
• 21:40
  Nicky: So that's your actionable action for today.
• 21:44
  Ness: Fantastic.
• 21:44
  Ness: I encourage you all to jump across to the link below in the show notes and carry that out.
• 21:50
  Ness: Please feel free to reach out to us, as always, on LinkedIn or wherever you may be, and until next week we shall say goodbye for now, see you later.
• 21:59
  Ness: Thanks for listening to today's ep.
• 22:01
  Ness: If you loved what you heard, connect with us over on LinkedIn and let's continue the conversation over there.
• 22:07
  Ness: Connect with us over on LinkedIn and let's continue the conversation over there.
• 22:11
  Ness: Nicky and I are obsessed with helping businesses install smart business growth strategies and leveraging people leadership for peak performance.
• 22:17
  Ness: We bring two business minds and two perspectives into your business, and our number one goal is to make sure that your business is thriving, your team are thriving and you are thriving.
• 22:29
  Ness: We offer a 30-day business diagnostic, taking you from chaos to clarity in just 30 days.
• 22:36
  Ness: Are you curious to find out more?
• 22:38
  Ness: Send us an email or go old school and give us a call.
• 22:42
  Ness: Until next time, happy listening and here's to thriving in business and in life.