Hey there! I’m actually here in Laguna Beach – you can kind of see the cove there, there’s some of the houses behind me – and I just wanted to share a quick little tip about how you can create and balance business and pleasure. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
You see, I’m out here for a mastermind – you all know that about me; there’s something you never leave home without, a mastermind – and so I’m here with about 50 colleagues over the next several days and we’re gonna be brainstorming on our business, talking about visions, and trends, and innovations, and doing hotseat coaching, and working on our challenges, and really helping to create and evolve our own businesses.
And I flew out here a day early, I’ve been whale watching, and over the last several hours I’ve gone out with six of my colleagues who are also good friends and we’ve been out there and we’ve been watching whales, we’ve seen a couple whales, we saw some sea lions and a bunch of dolphins, and this is how we have spent our day, so that we can fill ourselves up. We can connect, create relationships and bond, and so I had to tack on an extra day and it’s totally worth it.
I’ve done that before, you know. It’s been four months, I was in Park City, did the same thing. Then when on the Africa trip, did the same thing there. I’m now here in Laguna Beach, and I continue to mix business and pleasure just to create an extraordinary business, and an extraordinary life.
So how are you combining business and pleasure to create the business beyond your wildest dreams, and live the life beyond your wildest dreams? Type that below. I want to hear your secret tips too!
The 3 CRITICAL questions every Successful Entrepreneur MUST ask themselves (and their team) on a regular basis for continued growth and success…
Are YOU asking these questions?
Hey there. You know as successful entrepreneurs, as coaches running our own business, whatever it is the work you’re doing in this world, there are critical questions – three of them – that you must ask yourself almost every day. Probably weekly. Definitely several times a month.
Because – you see – as entrepreneurs, or when we have our own business, we are always working on different projects. Maybe your project is creating your list building funnel, so you can generate new leads. Maybe the project you’re focusing on is all the different ways you can mark it, and generate awareness, so you can find and attract those leads. Maybe your project is creating new content. Maybe your project is doing your first ever series of videos, or your first live event. Or maybe you’re launching a new program.
Whatever this project is that you’re working on, you must ask yourself these three questions. Because the power is in the debrief. I want you to like just to stamp that in your mind, maybe you have a post-it note that you put on your computer, or on your wall. Because the power is in the debrief.
We often focus on the preparation, the research, putting together the project, executing the project. And then once we’ve done it, we go to the next project. And then we go to the next project. And the power is in the debrief. So you should always ask yourself these three questions anytime you do any kind of project.
And you know I was just meeting with my team – we meet every Thursday. Back in the day when I first started it was just Kate and I, right? Two business partners, as Kate calls us: “two little beans on the org chart”. And it was just us, so we just had to ask ourselves these questions. Over the last 15 years we’ve grown and expanded an entire team to help us run, and continue to scale this business and this company. So we were just on this team meeting, and we have this program that we’re in the middle of delivering, and we are constantly in research mode. We’re always researching and we’re always asking these three questions.
Now the power is in the debrief after every project, but if you have an extended project that’s taking a longer timeframe, you can even ask these three questions in the mint of the project. And here’s the three questions:
The first question is: what’s working well? Like what’s really going well? Celebrate that, acknowledge it, like be outrageous with acknowledging it, give gratitude for it. Really look at what am I doing about that thing that’s going really well, and definitely do more of that. Wash, rinse, repeat. Keep that going.
The second question is: what’s not going so well? A lot of people would prefer to put their head in the sand and ignore that, because they may not know how to change it, or what to do about it. You may not know what to do about it, but simply asking the question “what’s not going well?”, by acknowledging that without having to have any solution in mind, you create this space for creativity resources and new awareness to start showing up in your world. So the second question is: what’s not going really well? You might list that out for your project.
And then the third question – and this is my favorite question: what will I do differently next time? It’s what my team and I we call it the “do differently” statement. And so in every project we’re always saying “oh. here’s what I’ll do differently”. And so now myself, and our team, we actually bring that idea to the rest of us. And I bring it to my coach, I bring it to my mastermind, we bring it to each other as a team, and we can brainstorm, and start looking at it from different angles.
So what will I do differently next time, based on my experience? Because everything being an entrepreneur, you’re always researching,: you take action, you research, you do differently; you celebrate what it is, you do differently. And you continue to grow. And when you look back over the last week, the last month, the last quarter, the last year, all of a sudden all those baby steps have added up and you’ve had monumental shifts and big change in your business.
So always ask yourself these three questions because the power is in the debrief. What project are you working on right now that you can pause and ask yourself these three questions? Or what
project did you just complete, and now you’re already in the next project, but you didn’t do the debrief? Make sure you give yourself time and space to do the debrief, and for any project – like for our launches, for our big promotions, when we had our live event – before that project ever started, we scheduled the debrief on our calendar. Make it be an integral part of your planning, and it’ll make for better growth in the long run.
Hey, Melinda here. And this morning I just want to speak to why your understanding of your coaching business is just wrong.
You see, most coaches, it’s an inherent skill that you have to to help people, to create impact to coach and transform people’s lives – it’s a skill you’re born with, it just comes naturally. You use it in your your business that you had, or your job that you had, as an employee, maybe you bring those skills to your family, and it’s just what you do. And so you love doing this thing, and then the natural progression is “well if I love doing this thing, let’s start a business doing this thing”. And that’s where you are approaching this as what I call “the technician”: the doer, the person who is doing the coaching.
There is a big difference in being a great coach versus running a great coaching business. You must know that distinction in order to create success as an entrepreneur in your business. You see, coaching – that is just a third of the equation. There’s three things you must master when you are starting launching and growing your business:
You must master the skills of coaching : how you help people, the way you support them . You must hone and polish those inherent gifts that are are your zone of genius.
The second thing is you must master the marketing: marketing, selling, converting, enrolling. You must master those skills. A lot of us say we don’t like it, but when you really dig deep and look at marketing at its best, it’s just great coaching. Stop convincing; don’t manipulate; be of service to prospects before they become your client, to help them get clear on their next best steps for themselves. Marketing is just great coaching, so you have an advantage to master this second area.
And in the third area that you must master is the skills of business. You must understand you don’t have to be great at them, but you do have to understand what happens behind the scenes, what happens by the scenes to do marketing, to grow your list and find new leads; what has to happen behind the scenes to convert those prospects into paying clients; what has to happen behind the scenes to support your clients, to get referrals, to process payments – you may not like those things, but if you want a thriving business, you better understand it, and you have to be willing to create what I call this “enlightened discipline” to understand the business of coaching.
You must master those three areas to create a thriving and successful coaching business beyond your wildest dreams. If you simply come at it from the coach perspective saying “I love coaching. I want to coach people. Who can I coach?” you’ll only be focusing on where to find the next person to coach – that’s a technicians perspective. There’s so much more, and you’ll hit a plateau or you’ll wonder why you can’t find leads, why you can’t create consistent revenue, and why you can’t can’t create sustainable revenue. Because you’re thinking of it as a technician, as a coach.
So, master those three areas: the skills of coaching, the marketing of coaching, and the business of coaching. And then you have to infuse – as an entrepreneur – you’ve got to infuse all of that with the discipline of self-care and leadership; leading yourself on a daily basis because you are your own boss. You answer to yourself – that’s the hardest accountability that’s out there. That’s why you should have a coach, why you should be in a mastermind.
You also need to master the discipline of leadership when it comes to your team. Because, as an entrepreneur – yes! – you might start doing everything yourself, but you will need to bring on other team members. Maybe a virtual assistant, maybe other team members as you continue to grow, to take care of the areas that you are not skilled at, that aren’t your zone of genius. To keep growing you will need to bring on some team members. And you must master the discipline of leadership when it comes to leading your tribe. So, you’ve got to also be a great leader in addition to being a great business owner, and a great marketer, and a great coach.
So really those are the four areas that you must master. Take that approach, put on the Hat of the proactive business and – I promise you – things will be much smoother sailing than trying to create success only as the technician.
Here’s to creating the business beyond your wildest dreams, so you can live the lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams.
