These Roads…

No is the road to burnout.
Vagueness is the road to imbalance.
Yes is the road to solutions.

We see this all the time in marketing.

There are the folks who will use what you don’t want as a way of connecting you with their products. They’ll touch on pain points, agitate, make it seem like you have no choice but to buy from them…or else the worst will happen. No more hustle. No more worrying about money. No more feeling like things aren’t working. I’m telling you now, No is the road to burnout.

There are also the folks who will sell you on arbitrary numbers and ideas: 6-figure, 7-figure businesses, 4 hour work weeks, perfect funnels, and no-fail formulas. These vagaries are one size fits all — which you already know, fit barely anyone.

That leaves yes. My question is:

Do you know what you actually want from your business? Do you know what’s actually important in this life you’re building for yourself?

I mean clearly, specifically, positively…what’s important to you?

This is the basis of your business design.

What’s important to me isn’t necessarily what’s important to you. Of course there are overlaps: safety, shelter, physical and emotional nourishment…but moving beyond our base needs, how you structure your business needs to support your goals, your capacity, and your client needs.

For example:

If you have 3 kids under 3, you’re going to want some flexibility in your schedule so you can adapt to the ever changing landscape that children provide.

If you prefer to do your client calls early in the morning and you live in Pacific time, you may want to consider working with people on the East Coast.

If your neurospicy brain enjoys spontaneity, you’ll want to structure your business so you have short projects, diverse clients, or hot seat coaching so you’re meeting your own needs for variation as well as the depth of contact your clients require.

We’re headed into a planning session in the Motorcycle Club this week. We do this quarterly so we can reflect on where we’ve been, celebrate our bigger successes, and plan out doable actionable projects for the next 12 weeks. We use an eagle/mouse approach where we look at our overall goals then break those down into achievable tasks.

Clear. Specific. Positive.

If you’re done with trying to squish someone else’s idea into your version of business, maybe you want to join us. You’re in business for yourself. Let’s make it make sense for you.