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.
Creating a lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams, like what does that even mean? I want to make sure that you’re really clear on that; because if you’re not clear on that, then your life is just gonna get, it’s like a vacuum, its just gonna get filled with the busyness the distractions, the everybody else’s agenda. But when you’re clear on this, now you are in total control of what you do on a regular basis – in your family, in your life, in your business. And that’s one of the reasons that we create our business as entrepreneurs. We don’t go out and get a job is because we want to live a certain lifestyle. One of the greatest benefits of being an entrepreneur is that it takes us on that path to creating the lifestyle that we won. So, one to just kind of outline what does it mean to live the lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams? Now, what I’m not gonna do, cause this is not a cookie cutter thing, I’m not gonna say “here’s the three things and when you do this, it’s going to give you the lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams” because my lifestyle beyond the way I define it beyond my wildest dreams is going to be very different from yours, or, from the next person, or from somebody else in
this community. So, I want to share some attributes that when you pay attention, it helps you to identify, and then cultivate, and, create, and, manifest, and, experience whatever that means for you.
So, the first thing is what I call the next level 10. Another way that I say this, is to become the next greatest version of the next grandest vision of yourself identifying those people around you, that you admire, that you look up to you, that you say wow. I would like to be like that, or, I would like to have that experience because that’s an indicator that they have something that you don’t yet have that you want. It’s a desire within you. So when you can identify this next level 10, and, you may not even be able to articulate it. But just the consciousness of where my life is right now that is set point. That is the one on the one on the scale of 10. Then just to be able to articulate, I want to go to the next level 10 indicates that there is a place that you want to go. Now, your creativity, and, then you’re in operation. You are gonna start showing up and helping you to identify what that even means. So, just having the awareness to identify and ever evolve into your next level 10, and, then surrounding yourself the second element of creating a lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams is to create a conscious community or several conscious communities. Living the lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams is not done in isolation. It takes a lot of courage, a lot of trust, a lot of faith, a lot of hope, a lot of love, a lot of fun, laughter in a like inner experience with each other. That’s one of the the beautiful elements of it all. So, to understand and to be connected into a conscious community, being very mindful of who you surround yourself with, so that you’re giving to them and receiving from them. They’ve got your back, right? So, we want to have that conscious community surrounding us, and, then to always be present of gratitudes and celebrations of what is. So often we live in the fears of what should have been or what could have been, or we live in the future of fears of what we need to do, or should do, or better do, and we forget to be in the present moment. But the more that you can live in the present moment, the more that you can create that lifestyle in this moment the way you desire it. You don’t find yourself wrong for being not far enough along on your path, or not having the things that you think you should, or want, or need to have. You let them be desires without attachment, and you focus your energy and attention on gratitudes and celebrating what is in this moment. That’s like fertiliser, to continue to grow and expand it into even more. And then, to always have at the forefront to do be or have what lights you up, like what is that for you? It’s gonna be different for me. Like travel, that is one of the biggest things I love. Experiencing cultures, people, beauty, scenery, food, music. Experiences from all walks of life all throughout the world. I ask, like that lights me up. For my stepfather, that didn’t light him up. He was not a big traveler. There were other things that lighten it, that lit him up. So, what is that for you? To be aware of what do you want to do, who do you want to be, what do you want to have, or experience that lights you up, and, then just giving yourself permission to want that because it’s something that you want. Don’t find yourself wrong for that.
Another one you’ve heard me say this before, my father-in-law shares this with me. Can you get what you tolerate? It’s a mantra that I use in my life, and it helps me to not be victim when things aren’t going very well, or not the way I want them, or feel kind of funky or icky or yucky. But remember that you get what you tolerate. In that moment, it empowers you to take responsibility, to use the tools, the support, the people, the things around you, to move you out of victim, out of the things happening to you, to be empowered, to take responsibility. Because you are the only one that can create the life that you
want to live. No matter what your circumstances are, whether you have money or don’t have money, whether you have a thriving business or it hasn’t yet, taken off, whether you’re in a funky relationship or you’re in a legendary love affair, like whatever it is. You are the one that creates the lifestyle that you want to create. So, remember you get what you tolerate. Find those toleration to start removing, them changing them, tweaking them, or changing your perspective about them.
So these are the things that that when you pay attention to them, it begins to create and help you identify your lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams. For me, what that looks like time and experiences with my husband – top priority, and my family – top priority, weaving spirituality into everything that I do, my family, my friendships, my relationships, my business, everything has the element of Spirit woven into it. Travel, skiing, going to places on a regular basis that I can’t even fathom, and then daring to find out and investigate new places to go, and, traveling to those places – that’s what lights me up. That’s my lifestyle. So that I can have a thriving business, making a big impact while living that. All of it can be true at the same time.
So, that’s what it is for me. What is it for you? Begin to draft out and I articulate creative vision board. Create a vision wall in your office, or, in your home and put some words, put some images. What does it mean for your lifestyle beyond your wildest dreams? Dare to dream it and then you can become it. I can’t wait to hear what that means for you.
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