Decisions & Growth: Lessons from Years of Entrepreneurship

518 - There are so many lessons I've had, I would never say regrets, but I am very self aware of my choices when it comes to hiring, mentorship/coaching, revenue and profit and also where I best focus my time.

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Transcript

Crissy Conner: 0:00

There are a lot of things in my business that looking back. I don't want to necessarily say their mistakes because I learned from them. However, the I'm very much more cognizant of them today than I was back in the day, right. And that doesn't mean that I'm not going to make mistakes. That doesn't mean that I'm never going to literally contradict what I say right now in this podcast, because it probably will happen. However, as we learn as we grow as we evolve, we understand so much more of these things clearly. And I didn't actually have this one on the list. And I had a client reach out to me, and I was like, Oh, my gosh, like that has to go on the list. And one of the things that when I wasn't making, I wasn't getting the results, let's just say I wasn't getting the results that I desired. I immediately went into frustration mode, what's wrong with me mode, you know, all the like victim stuff. And the one thing that I have done, and I do differently today, is that I go into complete gratitude. And when I go into complete gratitude, it has been a game changer. I, I believe that when we go into deep gratitude, we can't be in gratitude. And like, we can't truly be in gratitude, and worry, right? We can't truly be in gratitude, but also, in the back of my mind, hope that if I'm going to be in really good gratitude that this is going to spur some more sounds like if those two things just don't work together, right? They're like oil and water, they do not mix. So when we are in complete gratitude, whether we're not getting the results that we want, right? Or we are not getting any results, like how can we find things to be grateful for? Okay, so for example, maybe two people signed up for a program and you want 10? Right? How can I reset my mindset on this, because I'm really, I really need eight more people to sign up for this, I need eight more people, I price this to make the revenue. So you know, and so we go into this like really frustration, energy. And when we sit down and we go into deep gratitude for those two people that did sign up and say yes, to game changer, when we sit down and go into deep gratitude for the people that are clicking the links, the people that are asking questions with people that are interested, but haven't said yes, yet. It's a game changer. When we go into deep gratitude for, you know what, I don't know if this is going to result in the way that I hope it will. But you know, what I am going to learn, I'm going to learn what not to do what to do more of next time. And I'm going to learn so much for this, again, if we can just like pick out those pieces, because there's always something to be grateful for always in every situation, even when we quote unquote, fail, right. And so when we shift to gratitude, again, without expectation, magical things just seem to happen. It shifts our energy, it shifts the way we show up, it shifts our perspective, it shifts the things that we say online. And so that is one thing I would get out of, you know, I wouldn't have spent so much time in my frustration, victim, all of those things that we like to go in energy and go into gratitude. And I'm not gonna say that that's always easy, especially in the moment, it's not. However, we always have an opportunity to be like, Okay, I'm done feeling this way, what am I going to do to get out of it, right. And it's being very self aware. And a lot of these things that I'm telling you, I will always say use discernment, but also understand and understand yourself and be very self aware at the same time. The next mistake that I feel like I made is I over hired, I hired too much team in the beginning, when I did not need that much team. And again, this is just I think we get in this energy in two different for two different reasons, right? We're told to invest, invest, invest, invest, invest, and I'm gonna talk about this more in a different scenario. We're told to invest, invest, invest, invest, invest, and free of our time, and I do agree with all those things. However, I think it can be done gradually. I think it can be done according to the additional revenue that you're bringing in. And also, like, it gets, there used to be a plan. And I am the first person who will say, Oh, I make big moves. And I do make big moves. And I don't think them all through all the time. However, when it comes to hiring someone, I think this gets to be thought a little bit deeper, because you're typically signing a commitment with them right? Like or you are going to get need to give them notice if you're not going to be able to keep the revenue going that you use to hire them. So I think that's also really important. So understanding do you need five people on your team? Or do you just need like a couple hours a week to start out and then you gradually build up as your revenue builds up, as you see how that frees your time, right. And I think, again, we're just so team happy. And a lot of times, I think I was like, again, I'm not using this as an excuse, but I think I was like it was instilled in me that team means you've made it. That is not true, by the way. But like, again, I could have hired one person when I literally hired three, I didn't need three people. And eventually I got to the place I needed to rebuild. Why didn't you three people want to hire three people. And so I think understanding over hiring and knowing what you can do, and you can't do without a team, right, and understanding that you don't even have to hire someone on 1020 hours a week, you can literally hire someone for, you know, two to five hours a week, or 10 hours a month to start out. It doesn't need to be this whole go all in thing, unless again, the revenue supports it. I think gradually moving that up in your business as your revenue increases helps that as well. The next thing I will say is over investing. Now, this is a big, this. There's a lot of nuances here. There's a lot of contradiction here. And I'm not going to say that there's not. However, there have been times in my business where I've had way too many coaches, how can you listen to all those coaches? You can't? Well, you can try. But they're all going to say something contradictory to each other, because each of them have their own experiences, right. And I think sometimes what I have experienced and what I've seen is that we're looking for the thing that is going to make it all work, the thing that is going to make it click the thing, there's something wrong with me. So somebody has to figure it out. Right? And that is absolutely not true. There's nothing wrong with you. Now, could there be something we need to tweak in your strategy? Could there be some thing we need to tweak in your mindset? Could there be something we need to tweak in your visibility? Is there something we need to tweak in your messaging? All of those things? Absolutely. It's not me, there's anything wrong with you. Right? And so constantly thinking that there's something wrong with me. And hoping that I'm eventually going to hire the person that's going to tell me what's wrong with me is the wrong. That's the wrong strategy to have. Right? There's nothing wrong with you. And it was interesting, because in my I've never thought there was anything wrong with anybody, first of all, but I always wondered, like, what was wrong with me? I've always wondered what was wrong with me. And it was, it was funny, because even in my, my certification, our job is not to fix people. Nobody needs fixed. And I was just remembered back in years ago. And I was like, dang, I used to be that way. Like I used to wants me to fix me, tell me just what I'm, you know, tell me my problem. Now tell you what you're doing wrong. Right, or not doing enough or not being consistent with totally different strategy and totally different story and totally different question. But knowing that I think is huge. And so I think we don't need to over invest. Sometimes we get shiny object syndrome. And we want everything. And we don't always need everything. We think everything is the answer to the next step in our business, which traditionally, and what I have seen, it's not the next thing in our business, and the shift we need to make in our business is probably something inside of us. Right? Or it's simply strategy, right? So it's the way that we're thinking, the way that we're our perspective on things, the beliefs that we have, because I believe if we believe it's we're gonna fail, and we're literally all our actions are coming from that feeling and that belief, that's going to that's going to affect every every way that we show up in our business. But if I believe that this is going to work, it's insane. It's crazy. It's delusional, but I don't care. Like it's going to work. I don't know how it's going to work. I don't need to know how it's going to work. That's what I have a coach for. They're gonna help me through this, right. But I believe that it's just a different, it's a different energy in every way you show up in everything that you do. You don't know how, but you do know. And you do believe it's delusional, but it's going to work. Right. And so, again, using discernment, those are things that I have found. The other thing is, is that focusing on and this again, kind of goes along with over hiring team and over investing. I think that focusing more on revenue than profit meaning the cash coming in your business versus focusing on what's also going out and what you're left with. Right? So many business owners do not pay themselves because they're so busy over hiring team, or over investing in themselves, and then they get paid nothing. And then they look at the end of the day, why am I doing all this? Right? Again, I am saying use discernment and all of these things that I'm saying, however, I don't, I will sit here and say, even though I have over invested, I don't regret any of my investments. However, there are a lot of investments that I didn't fully appreciate or couldn't fully implement, because I had too many investments going on at the same time. And so I think when that is the case, like, if I can't even do the work, watching the training means nothing. It's gonna give me a motivation boost for like, two minutes, right? And then I'm gonna go about my day and forget everything that was said. So it's like, how can I tap in to knowledge that I desire and a coach, like, you can't hire five coaches and do that, it's just, it's gonna, it's gonna be, you're gonna really struggle, you're gonna really struggle. And when your coach hopping in going from coach to coach to coach Coach looking for the answer, when the answer is truly, inside of you. And the coach just gets to ask you the right questions to help you tap into that. Because the coach can give you all the answers in the world, especially when it's internal, and we're trying to tweak something, they can tell you all the things to do. But until you make that decision, internally, I get to shift this, I get to decide, I know this is within me to do this, you're going to keep looking for that void to fill. But when we make the decision ourselves as the client, it's a massive game changer. Right? And a good coach can help facilitate that. And if your coach isn't helping you facilitate that, ask them flat out. I feel a disconnect here. Like I feel like I'm missing something. I feel like I'm not tapped in to the amount of greatness that I could be. Now at the same time, these questions are not easy to answer. And this was interesting when I went through my coaching certification. On one of my calls. One of my case study clients said, let's just ask me the hard questions. And I'm like, Are you sure? Because they are not. They're powerful questions, right? But you have to be open to answering these questions. And I think sometimes that we don't always like the answers to said questions that we're going to say. It's like what I've asked, you know, clients, when I've, we've done one on one calls with clients, and I'd say rate yourself on a on a scale from one to 10. Like, how all in are you to do this? How all in Are you? And you rate a seven? And why did you rate that? Because I don't know if it's going to work, okay, that's not going to work. So we got to dig deep on why you rated yourself this, and why you rated yourself a seven, because at the end of the day, you really don't know that it's going to work. So you don't want to go all into something that's not going to work because you don't have the belief there. I mean, there's like a lot to unpack there, right. So, again, I will say this multiple times, using discernment on all of these things, but understanding that over hiring, team over investing, and coaches and mentors, when you literally cannot listen to multiple of them at the same time. Right? Is not I think it puts a lot of people in overwhelm, and puts a lot of people in lack. It's like I've talked about in we have Omni VIP and we have Omni and Omni VIP gets everything whereas Omni gets what's current incoming up while they're active in the program. And the reason that I do that is because a lot of people get overwhelmed. They're like, don't know what to do with all this content. What am I going to do with all this content? What am I going to do with all this? Like, I don't know where to go. Some people feel very abundant, having access to all of that, right? And so again, it's one of those things, you can watch a million trainings, but if you're not implementing the million trainings, does it do you any good? If you're not doing the homework or the I call it aligned actions, does it do any good, right? I remember used I had invested when I invested in my first mastermind I was like, yes, I've made it. This is so good. But until I did the work technically I didn't make it All right. And so that's the hard thing is that a lot of us don't follow through in the things that we truly desire, we want the results. But we're just hoping that there's a magic pill somewhere. So we keep investing in team over investing in team, we keep saying the same thing over and over and over. And I don't mean this, like, you guys know, I love my repetition strategy. But we keep saying the same thing over and over and over, hoping that we're gonna get different results, right in our launches, and our selling and things like that, when we need probably need to ship, probably the energy behind our messaging before we ship it, and even our messaging, too. And also, we are over investing in coaches, again, hoping that something's just gonna click and make me magically be successful. And so understanding these things, is huge. Understanding, I think I forgot this one, but understanding that revenue and profit are two totally different things. You can make all the money in the world, but if you're spending all the money, right back out, and you're not able to pay yourself, why are you doing this? Now, I'm not saying at first, you're probably not gonna be able to pay yourself, you're not gonna be pay yourself much, right? Because I do believe in investment investing, and I do believe you invest money to make money, I 100% agree with that. It's just when we get this addiction to invest more and more and more, and yes, that is a, that is a huge thing that I see in this industry is that I'm just gonna keep investing, something's gonna click, I'm gonna keep investing, I'm not gonna stop investing, I'm gonna keep investing. And again, I don't think you should stop investing, I think you should stop over investing, over investing in things that you can't truly, you can't truly take the time to implement, you can't truly take the time to do you can't truly take the time to follow five coaches direction, if five coaches right now had five different challenges, could you do all of them? I mean, you could try. Trust me, I've been there. Because I like to win. And I like to show I'm capable of all the things, but you're gonna burn it burn yourself out, right? So you may, you may do five challenges, but you're gonna be exhausted, you're gonna burn yourself out. And then you have to take a look and see like, what did that do for my business? And the last thing, and this is a long episode, the last thing that if I had it to do all over again, like this is the thing that I think I would have focused on is what are the things that make me money? And what are the what are the actions that make me money? And where are the actions that don't make me money. And understanding that mindless scrolling on social media does not make me money, focused scrolling on social media, right? And engaging with my ideal person, which I don't always know who that is, right? I don't know if they're my ideal person or not, when I engage with them, and I'm not engaging with them with the intention that they're gonna buy from me anyhow. But intentional engagement, which I would say being present, right? Versus mindless scrolling is a money making activity. checking my email 50 times a day is not a money making activity. Going Live is a money making activity, I attract my ideal person, serving my current clients is a money making activity. waIks, if I'm serving them, they're going to stay are going to be more likely to stay right. I'm serving also my audience at the same time, building relationships, I believe in being seen, but also my clients or my future clients want to feel seen and heard to, and how do they do that with Titan messaging with understanding? Like, again, what are the money making activities, and there are many more like activation events and, and things like that. And it's just knowing what makes money in your business? And what does not make money in your business, and stop doing the things over and over that are not making and bringing in revenue, and start doing more of the things consistently that do overthinking does not bring money into your business. I've been there I trust me, it does not bring money into your business. Right? So what are the money making activities? And what are the things that you can be more focused on today? That are your money making activities? And again, maybe it's just one of those things that you need to write down like a pros and cons list, right? If I do these things, do they bring in revenue? Or do they not? Yes or no each thing? What are you doing every day? Write it down? What are you not doing every day that you shouldn't be doing every day that does bring the money In again, understanding these things, because you know, I talk about working 80 hour weeks, I assure you when I worked 80 hour weeks in my business 100% of those 80 hours, were not needle moving money making activities, I would venture just like the 20% of those things are money making activities, not 100%. And so it's like, making sure that we're focused on more of the money making activities and understanding. And this can look different to your business, and they do to mine, understanding what they are and prioritizing them. In our business as we move forward versus the reckless, I'm just here sitting at my desk, waiting on a sale, I'm going to just start, you know, doing all these things, because I'm waiting on a sale, because I'm waiting on somebody to buy that's not a money making activity, right? That's busy work. And being productive over busy is two totally different things. needle moving and money making versus things that don't, that don't increase your bottom line are two different things. So understanding all those things. So let's recap. Did getting into a gratitude state versus trying to figure out what's wrong with you? Or what's wrong with your launch? Or what's wrong with this? Yes, there could be things that you need to tweak. However, we need to reset our mindset, right. And gratitude can do that. The second thing is over investing in team understanding that you probably you probably don't even need a team until you're at a certain revenue or, or you're at a certain capacity and understanding what that is over investing in coaches and programming that you're not even able to fully 100% do. Right, focusing on focusing on revenue versus profit. You know, obviously, again, I'll reiterate this and discernment through all of this matter of fact, but understanding that at some point, you get to pay yourself, maybe not the beginning, but at some point, the goal is to pay yourself, right. And then understanding what is a needle moving money making activity versus, versus what is, yeah, these things do need to be done, but they don't need to be done every day. And they don't need to be done all the time. Because they are not moving the needle in my business and understanding what those are making a list of those. And then creating a daily, non negotiables of the things that do bring money, right and how I can be doing them and implementing them in my business is huge. I hope this podcast episode served and supported you I hope you had a takeaway from this. If you identified yourself in any of these things and realize what you're doing, feel free to reach out to me I'd love to hear. And yeah, maybe there's a one day telegram or a call that we can hop on where I can support you to shift what you are currently doing. And it shifted in a different direction. So make sure you share this episode and tag me we are going to probably be doing another giveaway. So everybody that shares in that month, we will be putting you in a drawing for a giveaway for that because I love that you love my podcasts and that you listen to these episodes. And I also love that you share them with your friends. It means the world to me, and I appreciate you so much for listening this really long episode because I normally don't do this long of episodes. I appreciate your listening to the end. So thank you so much. And again, I would love it if you would share with your own audience.