Latest / The Matriarchy Would Never | A Promote Yourself to CEO Podcast Series / Aligning Your Business to Work For You!

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Aligning Your Business to Work For You! · The Matriarchy Would Never | A Promote Yourself to CEO Podcast Series

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't have to hustle and grind in order to have a successful business, I hear from so many women entrepreneurs who started their business hoping for more freedom, more flexibility, more financial independence, but instead of experiencing any of that, it feels like there's always another emergency in their business.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like they have to work all of the time and trying to depend on someone else becomes too challenging.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why would I do that when it's just easier and faster if I just do everything myself?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Friends, I am here to tell you that panic is not a business strategy.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if your business is constantly in emergency mode, it is likely because you have set up your business to be running by default instead of by design.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And when you learn to run your business by design, you become more proactive in how you're approaching your business instead of reactive.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle if you truly want to have a life first business.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So with that, in today's challenge, we are going to consciously design a business that actually works for you.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to grow from solopreneur to CEO?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the right place.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Rachel Cook, founder of the CEO Collective, and I've spent the last 15 years helping women entrepreneurs to sustainably scale life-first businesses.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you're serious about building a life-first business that actually allows you to prioritize sustainable business growth while at the same time having the freedom and flexibility to fully love every aspect of your life, to have the time and energy to put back into your family, your health, the people who matter most to you.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Then it's time to put the strategy, systems, and support in place to make it happen.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Join me each week for candid conversations about stepping into your role as CEO, the hard lessons learned along the way, and practical, profitable strategies to grow a more sustainable business without the hustle and burnout.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: All right, CEO, we are on day three, so you know the drill.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is your reminder to go get the workbooks and actually sit down, put your thoughts on paper, and create your plan for the new year.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I know how easy it is to listen in to podcasts like this and think about planning, but that's not the same as actually planning.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that every hour you spend planning can save you up to 10 hours in implementation?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: That pretty much guarantees if you spend a couple of hours with me, you are going to free up so much time, energy, and attention to be actually doing the amazing things you want to do next year.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So go ahead and head over to the CEO Collective.com slash BYE, get the workbooks, and then let's get into today's challenge.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there, welcome back to the Plan Your Best Year Ever Challenge.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Rachel Cook, founder of the CEO Collective and host of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we are officially at the midpoint of this five-day challenge.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And today is one of my favorite parts of the challenge because today we are moving on to designing your business.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So far, we have completed day one, which was your year in review, learning the lessons this past year had to teach you.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then day two, getting crystal clear about what you want your life to look like in 2025.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now you might be wondering, why are we doing business design after lifestyle design?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is a huge part of my methodology and my life first business philosophy, because too often I hear from entrepreneurs who are just burned out.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: The number one reason women entrepreneurs start small businesses is because we want more freedom and flexibility.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: But it's so easy to find yourself leaving that ideal behind because your business can just take over.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then suddenly it feels like you're working all the time, you're squeezing work in the weekends and the evenings, you're feeling constantly like you have to be on call to your business.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then over time, after a few years of this, of your business just kind of creeping into all the areas of your life, you start to get burned out.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're not motivated or inspired.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And your dream business, the one that you set out to have with all that freedom and flexibility, it kind of becomes a nightmare.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to avoid that, right?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: We want to make sure we're starting with our life first and then making sure our business is fully set up to support the life and the lifestyle that we truly want.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So now that we have that painted picture for our life in 2025, we're gonna slip on our strategic thinking cap, our CEO hat, and do a little bit more strategic planning.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna make some big decisions about our business in the year ahead.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: This strategic planning exercise is the same one that I share with my clients inside of the CEO collective to ensure that your business is 100% aligned with your version of success.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And this is so crucial because as entrepreneurs, we easily get excited about new ideas, about new things we want to create.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes those ideas are actually shiny objects that are distracting us from what really matters most.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they distract us from focusing our time, energy, and attention on things that not only are gonna help us grow our business and move our business forward, but that are actually gonna allow us to live the dream life that we really, really want.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So to get started, we have to make sure we are crystal clear about your personal definition of success.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is essential because it brings top of mind what really matters the most to you.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: This becomes a decision-making filter.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Anything that's gonna happen in your business that takes you away from something that is a huge part of your personal definition of success, to me, that is an instant no.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be really, really worth it in order to pull me away from something that truly matters to me in my personal life.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to consider what success mean in your relationships with friends and family?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: What does that look like for you?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I encourage you to get really specific.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like success for me with my friends and family means I'm going on a weekend trip with my girlfriends at least once a quarter, or I have a date night with my husband every single week.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's to me all about quality time and even more specifically, how much time do I want?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: What does that time look like?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: What are we doing?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: How am I really putting my time, energy, attention into those relationships that helps me feel like I'm being a great friend, I'm being a great wife, I'm being a great mom.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you do this same process looking at these different areas.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you might also want to look at your lifestyle, lifestyle.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: What makes you feel successful here?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it's definitely about my environment.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: My environment is a huge uh piece of the puzzle that helps me feel pulled together and in control.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So having my home decorated the way that I want, having my home taken care of, and having people to come clean my house or take care of the yard, those are parts of the elements of my lifestyle that just make me feel successful.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is how a successful CEO should be living.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Think about your health, your wellness, your well-being.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be really clear here, this is not about fitting into a certain size at all.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is not about weighing anything on the scale.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're very, very potty positive here.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is about feeling the best you can.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is about having the energy, having the mental clarity, having the stamina to do the things that you truly want to do in your life and in your business.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, a lot of this is around managing my chronic health challenges.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's about having amazing sleep.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's about taking care of myself by doing the things that help me manage my chronic conditions.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, this all again, what does that specifically look like for you?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: For me, it's acupuncture, it's going to see my chiropractor, it's getting massages, it's taking my vitamins.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So get that level of clarity around what helps you show up as the best version of yourself.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: I love thinking about hobbies because to me, your hobbies are a creative outlet that are just for you.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does that look like for you?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: How do you feel successful here?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: For me, y'all know I'm a reader.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love to read, I love to craft, I love to crochet little um stuffed animals for my nieces and my nephews.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I do it just for the joy of creating something with my hands and trying something new.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: What about you?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, your spiritual and emotional success.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: What makes you feel connected to yourself, to your higher power?
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: What is important to you in that area of your life?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So all of these now become decision-making filters as you are clear about your personal definition of success and what really matters for you personally, what makes you feel successful in all of these areas of your life.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can use that to filter big decisions that you might need to make around your business.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And same with your professional definition of success.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to get away from just revenue being the only metric for success because revenue is actually not the best metric for success for small businesses.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know plenty of people who make great money in their business, but they are incredibly unhappy with their business.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to get clear about what matters to you and how do you feel most successful?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: When you're thinking about your clients, who are the clients you absolutely love working with?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Who are the ones you wish you could clone?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking about your creative outlet.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like you are successfully being creative and bringing your ideas out through your business?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Does your content and visibility currently make you feel successful?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any way you would improve that to increase how you feel about that?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: What about your support system and team and your leadership?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: What makes you feel successful with your team behind the scenes and how you are managing that team, how you're running that team and inspiring that team?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, just overall growth.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: What makes you feel successful here?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: What are the outside of revenue?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: What are the metrics for success as you're running your small business?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Again, these all become decision-making criteria.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're going through these sections in the workbook and thinking, okay, maybe I feel great about my clients, but I don't feel successful with my content and my visibility, like it's helping you highlight where you might need to put more attention, or it might even be helping you highlight where you need to get some support and get some additional resources.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: We want to think about our dream clients because nothing can make your business more stressful than having clients who simply aren't a fit.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: And as you go further along this entrepreneurial journey, there is always levels of refinement here to calling in those dream clients.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is not about the demographics.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't about their age, their race, their sexual orientation, if they're married or not married or have children or have don't have children.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is not about the demographics.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is about the characteristics of clients that you absolutely love working with.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to think about who are the clients you want to serve next year and what are their top attributes.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're going to shift into looking at the money.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're pulling back up the get paid calculator because we want to start to put together a real revenue plan for your business.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yesterday, we did an exercise to figure out how much it actually costs to live your life and what you want to take home from your business in the future, a year from today.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So using the get paid calculator, we were able to plug all those numbers in and get really clear about the salary that you need your business to pay you in order to really be living in alignment and take care of yourself.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure that you have done that step because it's going to help with the other portions of the get paid calculator.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you start with the personal salary calculator and then you're able to move into the revenue calculator.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: It'll automatically pull in the future salary number to help you determine what your total salary should be.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And this leverages the percentages from the profit first book by Mike McAllowitz.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Additional resources right there in the calculator as you're playing with it.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: We really want to make sure that your business is paying you enough.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the common challenges we run into as small business owners is we simply underestimate how much it actually costs to run our businesses.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, as your business grows, as you hit the next tipping points from 100,000 to 250,000 to 500,000, your expenses are going to grow because you're now probably going to have a team that you're also trying to pay.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure that we have set our goal high enough so that we can pay ourselves consistently and with ease.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to review your offers.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where the sales calculator comes in.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is one of my favorite parts of the get paid calculator, that third tab in the calculator, because now we can actually review our products, programs, and services and make sure that the math is mathing.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: So use the get paid calculator, use the workbook.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: And first, I just want you to plug in the numbers from 2024.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to go line by line your products, programs, and services for 2024.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: You want to plug them in with their current price point and then the number of sales you've made this past year.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: This will help you figure out what amount of revenue each type of offer is bringing in.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: I would recommend also looking at a percentage of how much revenue it brings in because here is where you will realize that you might have an offer that is underperforming, you might have an offer you you put a ton of time, energy into creating, and it just didn't do very well.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you'll also likely see that you have an offer that is bringing in the bulk of your revenue.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of your bread and butter offer.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's the main core offer that you depend on.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: This information is incredibly helpful as you're looking ahead to 2025.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now is the time to make those hard decisions about what offers am I putting out into the world next year?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: What products, programs, and services.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Only go forward with the ones that make the most sense, that align with your definition of success, that are going to help you achieve your overall revenue goals.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great time to look at if you need to adjust those offers, repackage or reposition those offers.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that needs to happen in order to command a higher price point.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: And right now is a perfect time to make those decisions and also to let people know if the price is increasing in 2025.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure we're using these tools, the workbook and the calculator, to get crystal clear for what we are going to put out next year.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: The final part of the workbook here is checking in and again doing some analysis, doing some strategic planning about what is actually working in your marketing.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the best way I know to do this is to actually look at your last 10 clients and figure out where did those last 10 clients come from.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't have this information, um, you can do a little digging.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know that I will actually look into, for example, my email system convert kit, and I will look at when did they sign on to my email list, how did they find out about me.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: I also make sure in all of my intake forms, I'm asking them how do they hear about us.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: This information is hugely helpful and should really give you clarity as to what is working the most when it comes to marketing in your business and sales in your business.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you are going through your last 10 clients and let's say seven out of 10 came from referrals, that is an indicator that we need to double down on getting more referrals.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you had no one who came from social media, but you had seven referrals, that tells me a lot of information about where I would put time and energy to get better results next year.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you are going through each part of the workbook here.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of questions for you to dig into to start making some smart decisions about what you want your business to look like next year.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Again, if you haven't downloaded the workbook, it is available at theceocollective.com slash BYE.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and dig in.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: In tomorrow's challenge, we are going to start getting even more specific about how we are effectively marketing our business in the year ahead.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: You enjoyed today's challenge.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: This was one of my favorite things to dive into, especially with women entrepreneurs, because this challenge is when I start to see some of those light bulb moments, especially where we realize that we might be creating more work for ourselves than we actually need to be.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: You might be spending a lot of time and energy on things that aren't getting the results you were hoping for.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, maybe there's something else that you were doing that you weren't really thinking about, but is actually the thing that works to bring clients in the door.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to make sure that we are following the strategies that are profitable, not the ones that are popular, especially the ones that are popular out there in social media world where everybody's telling you that this or that is dead and this is what everybody should be doing.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is a horrible way to make decisions about your business.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there's always going to be new trends out there that are popular for the gurus to talk about.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: But we want to make sure that we have the clarity we need to design a business that 100% works for you, that is in alignment with how you show up best for yourself and your community and that actually makes sense for your business.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: So let's stop doing extra work that doesn't generate results.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't already, make sure you have downloaded the workbook.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you are putting some of these thoughts down on paper.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot wait to hear how this is going for you.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So connect with me over on Instagram, tag me at rachel.hook.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll see you in the next challenge.