Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / Why Your Business Doesn’t Need Another Strategy (It Needs These 10 Gifts)
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
- 0:04Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs, I'm
- 0:06your host, the founder and CEO of my lands.
- 0:09And today on Christmas, I am sharing 10 gifts that your
- 0:14business needs from you. This isn't about tools, goals,
- 0:18or resolutions. Is there really the things that
- 0:21your business needs from you? And if frankly you're not giving
- 0:24them to your business, then no tactic is going to save it or
- 0:28get you to where you want to go. So without further ado, number
- 0:33one is vision. If you don't know where you're
- 0:37going or where you want to take your business, then it's frankly
- 0:42not going to matter how much time, how much energy, what
- 0:45specifically you do because you don't know where you're going.
- 0:48So this is really painting a clear picture of 6912 months
- 0:53from now, where do you want your business to be?
- 0:56And, and you get to be really tangible of revenue numbers, how
- 1:01many customers, how many hours you're working?
- 1:05What kind of role you have in it?
- 1:06Like what, what things do you want to be doing and not want to
- 1:09be doing so that you know where, that you can outsource or hire
- 1:12or really focus on your zone of genius.
- 1:15What does it feel like to run your business?
- 1:17Who, what kinds of clients are you working with?
- 1:20What kind of clients are you not working with?
- 1:22And this isn't just a oh, think about this when you hear Bradley
- 1:25talk about it. This is really writing it down
- 1:30and revisiting it on a regular basis.
- 1:32Like this is something maybe every two, 3-4 weeks you're
- 1:35revisiting taking a look at me like, Oh yeah.
- 1:38Like I remember my North Star. I remember where I'm going and I
- 1:43know my why. I know why I do this.
- 1:46I mean, it's such a big reason of why we started a business in
- 1:48the 1st place, right? Like we wanted the flexibility.
- 1:51We wanted to be able to choose our customers and our clients,
- 1:53pursue a mission we really care about.
- 1:56Sometimes when we get in the weeds, we forget about all of
- 1:58that. So number one is vision.
- 2:00Where are you going #2 is letting go of what isn't serving
- 2:08you. So a lot of times, the growth
- 2:11that we want to have in our business and in ourselves
- 2:14requires a letting go. It requires subtraction of the
- 2:19things that aren't serving us anymore.
- 2:22Maybe they did at one point. So this could be releasing the
- 2:25low value clients who aren't paying you your full rate.
- 2:29Letting go of clients or customers who don't respect
- 2:32boundaries are a drain on your energy, are difficult to work
- 2:36with. They don't value your true
- 2:38experience and expertise for some reason or another, they're
- 2:42out of alignment for you. And so letting go of them moving
- 2:46forward is one of the best gifts that you can give your business
- 2:50because what you keep tolerating, what you don't
- 2:54change, you promote. So if you're not willing to
- 2:58change it, then honestly, you can't complain about it.
- 3:00So you get to really let go and so you can move your business
- 3:03forward that's in alignment with you #3 is higher rates.
- 3:08So as you let go of, let's say, lower rate clients and
- 3:12customers, you get to raise your rates and really listen to what
- 3:16the market is telling you. Because people are saying yes to
- 3:19you easily and repeatedly. Then you're most likely under
- 3:24charging. You're actually searching for a
- 3:27no and multiple Nos for multiple clients because that shows you
- 3:31that you've really hit the limit of your pricing.
- 3:33If everyone's saying yes to you pretty quickly, pretty easily,
- 3:36then you're literally by definition not charging enough.
- 3:39When you charge your true value, you actually are creating
- 3:45alignment with your clients. They will respect you more.
- 3:48They will be aligned with the value that you provide.
- 3:51They'll be less pain in the butt clients.
- 3:53It'll just be an easier business and you will make a lot more
- 3:57money. So it's a really a gift to
- 3:58yourself by charging higher rates to your clients. 4 is a
- 4:04little bit more on the emotional side.
- 4:06Is nervous system regulation really one of the best gifts you
- 4:11can give yourself? You can give your business is
- 4:14regulating your nervous system and being in a state of calm and
- 4:19where your nervous system isn't fried, you're not in a fight or
- 4:22flight, you're not freaking out, you're calm, you're peaceful,
- 4:26you're grounded. You are making decisions from
- 4:30your higher self. You are getting good sleep.
- 4:32You're not like overthinking everything.
- 4:35And whatever you are doing to create this, whether it's
- 4:38meditation, whether it's yoga, whether it's frankly just taking
- 4:42some deep breaths throughout the day, some stretching, gym, all
- 4:46those kinds of things, they help your nervous system to be
- 4:49regulated so that you can take steps forward in your business.
- 4:54Gift #5 is confidence. So everybody has imposter
- 4:59syndrome, right? Like, let's just normalize it
- 5:01across the board that every single person questions, am I
- 5:05good enough? Am I in the right person to be
- 5:07doing this? Can I really make that outcome?
- 5:10Or some version of am I good enough?
- 5:13Like, is this right? And we get to normalize that and
- 5:17say, you know what, that's not going to hold me back, that
- 5:20every single person is kind of faking it till they make it.
- 5:24And I'm not going to let my imposter syndrome hold me back.
- 5:26I'm going to bring confidence in what I bring to the table.
- 5:29And if I don't know, go ask for a reminder.
- 5:32I'm going to go ask my network, my community, hey, can you
- 5:35remind me who I am? Remind me what I'm good at?
- 5:38Like we all need that from time to time.
- 5:40And I know every single person listening to this has people in
- 5:43their corner that would happily say, hey, Bradley, like you're a
- 5:47fantastic entrepreneur because of these three things.
- 5:51Don't forget that, right? Remember when you did this
- 5:53really cool thing at Uber? Like there's everyone.
- 5:56We all have those people in our corner.
- 5:58We just need to have the courage, frankly, to lean on
- 6:01them and say, hey, like, I'm kind of struggling.
- 6:03Like, remind me who I am. You're never going to feel
- 6:07ready. You're never going to feel like
- 6:09you have it all together. You're never going to be
- 6:11perfect. You're never going to have the
- 6:13perfect clarity. You're just going to make it up.
- 6:16You're just going to keep going. One step forward, one step
- 6:19forward, one step forward. And trusting that every step you
- 6:23take forward is a path, is a step closer to the path.
- 6:28Because either you're taking a step that ends up being a lesson
- 6:32of learning and iteration, or it's a step forward in the right
- 6:35direction that rewards you. Either way, you're moving
- 6:40forward, right? Even if it's a learning of
- 6:42what's not the right direction to take.
- 6:43And that is the beauty of having that confidence that everything
- 6:48is perfectly designed for you to get to where you want to be,
- 6:51whether it's, again, reward or whether it's a lesson.
- 6:55Gift number six is honesty. It's honesty with yourself,
- 7:01honesty with your business about what's working and what's not
- 7:04working. I'm going to say, and I might be
- 7:07challenged on this and I'm open to being challenged, but I
- 7:10believe that every single founder, entrepreneur, business
- 7:13owner holds their business back in one way, shape or form.
- 7:17And if we look at our businesses from that lens, it's not this O
- 7:22negative thing like, Oh my God, I'm holding my business back.
- 7:25It's actually empowering because where I hold my business back, I
- 7:30can change, I can grow, I can work through anything.
- 7:35But that requires that honesty. It requires the honesty of being
- 7:38able to look within and saying, hey, maybe I'm scared of
- 7:41rejection, rejection, or I'm scared of judgement, or I'm
- 7:43scared of judgement, or I'm scared of actually like wild
- 7:47success. Owning that those fears are real
- 7:51and that they translate into some sort of action that holds
- 7:55our business back from really being what we want it to be.
- 7:58And so being honest with yourself of what you're
- 8:01avoiding, what decisions you're not making, what conversations
- 8:05you're avoiding, all those kinds of things are the things that
- 8:09are going to unlock your next level of growth both in yourself
- 8:13and the business. So honesty is one of the best
- 8:16gifts that you can give yourself and frankly, in my opinion,
- 8:19mandatory gift to give yourself. Give your business where you're
- 8:22holding the business back, what's working, what's not
- 8:24working from a total place of objectivity.
- 8:27Like it's not a big deal. There's tons of things that are
- 8:29not working. That's OK.
- 8:31It's just information. It doesn't mean anything about
- 8:33you or you're worth or how valuable you are or your level
- 8:37of success or anything like that.
- 8:39Every single entrepreneur goes through ups and downs, have
- 8:43things that work and doesn't work.
- 8:44And the more honest we can be with ourselves about that, then
- 8:48we're able to combat them and actually move forward in the
- 8:50right direction #7 gift is systems.
- 8:54So motivation in and of itself is totally unreliable.
- 9:00We cannot rely on ourselves to be motivated every day, every
- 9:04week, every month, every year. And I admit, I'm very honest
- 9:08that I literally hire people to help hold me accountable,
- 9:12including for this podcast. If I didn't have my producer
- 9:15bugging me literally every week. Bradley, I need another episode.
- 9:18I need another episode. I need another episode.
- 9:20There is no way I would have been consistent for the last 90
- 9:23plus episodes in a row. There's literally no way.
- 9:27So that is one of the systems that I set up.
- 9:30The other things that I set up are calendar reminders, our time
- 9:34blocks, our emails that I like send back to myself of like,
- 9:37hey, reminder to do these things.
- 9:39I have a lots of tracking systems, whether an air table,
- 9:43Google Sheets and CRM that create stability and consistency
- 9:48for me and easy tracking so that I can always see quickly what's
- 9:53going on in the business, what's working, what's not working.
- 9:56Creating LinkedIn posts, blogs, newsletters, whatever it is.
- 9:59I have systems for all of it. I didn't create those overnight.
- 10:03It took years, but the point is as you start building them,
- 10:08that's what creates reliability. The system creates reliability
- 10:12and then consistency. And then I have people in my
- 10:16corner that I have put there in order to keep me accountable so
- 10:20that these systems continue to execute every single week.
- 10:25Gift #8 is consistency. It goes right along with #7 but
- 10:29the end of the day, showing up consistently is actually more
- 10:34important than being perfect. You're never going to be
- 10:37perfect. Like, yes, we want to have
- 10:39quality. Quality is so, so, so important.
- 10:42But we cannot rely on, you know, the constant burst of energy or
- 10:47inspiration striking or whatever it is.
- 10:49We need to find a way that we are doing the consistent action
- 10:54every single week. So marketing, right?
- 10:57We well, I published a podcast about what the B to B buying
- 11:01experience is like and you can bet your butt there's no way
- 11:06someone looks at your post one time, your website one time and
- 11:10says like, oh, I want to buy with them.
- 11:12I want to work with them. That's just not how it works,
- 11:14right? They look at it, they see it,
- 11:17they get reminded about you. Then they have a problem in
- 11:19their business and they're reminded about you and they go
- 11:22check it out again, but they're not ready to pull the pull the
- 11:24trigger. And then they see you a seventh
- 11:26time. They're like, Oh my God, I got
- 11:27to talk to Bradley. That's how it goes.
- 11:30And so you need to stay consistent over those seven
- 11:34times, otherwise you lose that buyer, right?
- 11:37You're, they're gone, they're working with somebody else.
- 11:39So you have to stay consistency. And you cannot rely on your
- 11:43willpower or motivation or anything like that.
- 11:45It's actually the boring, repeatable actions that build
- 11:48trust both within yourself and with your buyer gift #9 is a
- 11:55clear point of view. This is why we narrow down.
- 11:59This is why we niche down. This is why we get super clear
- 12:02on the value that you add, the problems that you solve, and the
- 12:06differentiators you have in the market.
- 12:08Because if you are a founder or fractional, that serves B to B
- 12:14businesses that are tech enabled and you do operations for them,
- 12:19right? You are talking to nobody.
- 12:22Literally nobody. You're like, oh, I just don't
- 12:24want to, I don't want to filter anybody out.
- 12:26It's like actually you have filtered everybody out.
- 12:29So the clarity, the narrow, the niche, that's what actually
- 12:34creates resonance with your ideal customer where they see
- 12:38what you're doing and they're like, oh, this is for me versus
- 12:42I have no idea who that's for. So giving your business the gift
- 12:45of clarity and a clear point of view is one of the best things
- 12:49that you can do for your business.
- 12:51The 10th and last gift for this Christmas episode is ownership
- 12:56and self trust. This is where frankly,
- 12:59everything is created because we never fully have the full
- 13:04picture. We just don't.
- 13:06At some point you get to trust yourself.
- 13:09You get to make the decision with the information you have.
- 13:11You get to take the trust fall. You get to take the leap.
- 13:14It's not about the market, it's not about the algorithm, it's
- 13:17not about the timing. It's not about what your Co
- 13:19founder did or didn't do. It's not about anything else.
- 13:22It's about you creating momentum because you said so.
- 13:26Because you are in authority. You're not a victim to anything.
- 13:30You are the sole uncontested author of your life is one of my
- 13:34favorite phrases. And you have the power within to
- 13:37take a step forward, create momentum and move your business
- 13:41forward knowing that you're just going to figure it out.
- 13:43You don't know the right answer. You don't know the right way.
- 13:45There is no right way. There is no right answer.
- 13:47There's no bad. There's no bad answers.
- 13:50You get to trust yourself. You're going to figure it out.
- 13:53And that is the one of the best gifts.
- 13:55And these are all great gifts, frankly.
- 13:57But one of the best gifts you can give your business is that
- 14:00the end of the day, you are in charge.
- 14:02You have everything you need within you.
- 14:06Your intuition, your knowledge, your expertise, your ability to
- 14:10learn, your ability to take feedback, your ability to grow
- 14:13and evolve and serve your market.
- 14:16Frankly, like your, your business doesn't need more from
- 14:18the Internet this year. It needs more from you.
- 14:22Not an effort, but an honesty, presence and leadership.
- 14:26That's what it needs. These 10 gifts are your guide
- 14:29going into 2026. I am so honored to work with all
- 14:34of you who I've gotten a chance to work with in 2025.
- 14:37Our LinkedIn thought leadership product is evolving, it's
- 14:40growing, it's adding tremendous value, and it's helping our
- 14:44customers become thought leaders and attract their ideal clients
- 14:48using their authentic, genuine voice.
- 14:51Genuine, authentic stories. No self cringe, no promoting
- 14:54stuff out there. It's been a beautiful experience
- 14:58to work with these customers and I'm honored to grow it in 2026.
- 15:02With that, I hope you've had an amazing holiday season.
- 15:05I hope you enjoying either time with yourself or friends or
- 15:09family, whatever that looks like for you this holiday season.
- 15:12And with that, I will see you in 2026.