Chisa Pennix-Brown is the founder of the business education and business consulting group Lady Bizness, The Black Biz Group and the Executive Director of Real Glow Getters. On this episode, Kara and Chisa discuss the common business mistakes people are making and how to stop and fix them, how she started her business, and why it matters for your success to show up and show out.
“You need to get people to understand the value you provide and then get them to give you dollars for that value. It takes time and it takes actions. ”
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Follow along using the Transcript
00:00 Introduction to The Powerful Ladies Podcast
00:22 Meet Chisa Pennix Brown
00:52 Chisa's Business Journey and Philosophy
03:21 The Importance of Showing Up
04:17 Starting and Growing a Business
06:22 The Contractor Model and Business Flexibility
08:56 Overcoming Overwhelm and Taking Action
15:35 The Value of Time and Productivity
18:05 Balancing Creativity and Business
39:32 Personal Responsibility in Business
44:28 The Business-Dating Analogy
47:09 The Importance of Personalization
52:38 Creating Effective Systems
58:09 Planning and Future Orientation
01:06:38 Maximizing Existing Products
01:10:12 The Power of Delegation
01:15:27 Defining Power and Success
01:23:38 Final Thoughts and Resources
Being able to help somebody even though you don't know you're helping them, like to me that is amazing. And then you see it come back to you when you get those types of messages. You see it when people actually reduce those products and then money that they're looking forward. So our job is to really help other people and to be servant leaders and you know, that's sharing our power.
That's Chisa Pennix Brown and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.
Hey guys, I'm your host, Kara Duffy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast where I invite my favorite humans, the awesome, the up to something and the extraordinary to come and share their story. I hope that you'll be left, entertained, inspired, and moved to take action towards living your most powerful life.
Chisa Pennix Brown is the founder of the Business Education and Business Consulting Group, lady Business, the Black Business Group, and the executive Director of Real Glow Getters. On this episode, we discuss the common business mistakes people are making and how to stop and fix them. We also discuss how she started her business and why it matters for your success to show up and show out all that and so much more coming up.
But first, if you're interested in discovering what possibilities and businesses are available for you to create and to live your most fulfilling life, please visit the powerful ladies.com/coaching and sign up for a free coaching consultation with me. There is no reason to wait another day to not be living your best life.
When you instead could be running at full speed towards your wildest dreams today.
Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you so much for having us. Appreci. K. Being
on.
Of course. I am so excited to, to get to know you. Because, um, one of our past guests, Chandra, was so excited about you being on this podcast that she skipped every sip of, of possible, and I was like, here's the link.
Sign yourself up, book yourself. And I was like, wait, who? Who just popped up into the calendar and you were like, no, no, no, it's good. She, she sent me, I'm like, all right, let's hear it then. Yes, let's hear it.
Yes. I was definitely vouched for, so I definitely a co-sign in advance. And so that's always good though.
I think like when somebody is just like, yeah, just, they're good. You know, don't worry about them. They'll definitely give you what you need. And that's, that's always a good sign.
Well, let's everyone who you are and what you're up to.
Alright, so I'm Chisa Pennix Brown and my company is Lady Business. I'm based in North Carolina.
I am from New York. So, um, one of the things, and people always laugh, my husband calls me a new Carolinian, so I definitely have like all of the New York swagger and attitude, right? And you also have the nice sweet like slight stuff and bell kind of thing going on. So, uh, you get that combination of things, which is, um, to me a good combination.
So I help people with their marketing and branding so that they can show up and show out online. And um, you know, my biggest thing is really for people to just kind of be confident in what they do. So whether it's starting a business or raising a family or being at a job to just make sure that you shine through with the things that you do.
And you just said something I think is really great to show up and show out. What does that mean?
Well, this is the thing, um, you know how people miss so many opportunities? Because they don't wanna go somewhere. They don't wanna do something. And for me, that's always been like the magic, like the part that happens is either getting there early or staying late, right?
So anybody can be there when something's happening because you know, you have that set time. But if you get there a little early, you'd be amazed at who you can meet. Especially like if you were to, you know, be helpful to somebody. And then when you stay a little bit later, that's when you get the stragglers.
But sometimes those are the people that are the most influential when they come really late. So I always think of it like, if it's real life and you just show up sometimes that's the biggest thing is being out of that comfort zone, being in a place. And so, even if it's online, you have so many people that wouldn't even jump on a podcast.
They'll like, oh my God, showing is who you're, mm-hmm.
How did you get into the business that you have today?
Wow. So I started actually managing poets, which is like a crazy thing from back in the day. And then it just transitioned into me wanting to do this business and wanting to help women. Mm-hmm. So I started by teaching and just really showing people what to do online and then it just continued to manifest into where we're now, which is very media-based.
Definitely content creation based. So it gives like a combination of things, but all of it still circles around confidence, education and just empowering people to, for my, my biggest thing is for people to start a business, whether it's a side hustle, however you consider it, something else that's gonna make money.
So that's the really, the big thing is I don't know what your it is and everybody has a it something that's really like mm-hmm. Transcendent, whatever that it is, let's monetize that. It.
I agree. That is the business I am in, like it is. People don't realize I have their it and so. You know, to me, once you realize what your, your thing is, or sometimes you have multiple things getting to, to work in that space and make that be how you spend your time and how you make your money, it's so much easier that way than than helping somebody else do their thing.
It is, but you know what I've learned too? What if you, it's helping somebody else, right? So you have a lot of people that are helpers, but what they do is they keep giving away everything. Mm-hmm. And it's just like people keep coming to you because that's your it, and sometimes they don't realize it. So monetize, whatever that is, you know?
And so I think if people really just try to say, what do I like? What do I wanna do every day? Even if I didn't get paid for it, what you think of that thing and you're really good at it, then go ahead and then put a number towards it.
Well, and and I think it's so smart to be thinking about things that way because.
You know, in the old model or the still existing corporate model, if you hire someone to do one task, that person is always limited to having a salary cap. And then, um, they're also limited to only working with one person or one business doing their thing. And as an employer you usually want people who can do a lot of different things.
So I love that things are flipping into this contractor model. Yep. Where you're hiring people out. Because if you're great at, you know, putting together a database. Like, why? Like if you could do that for a bunch of people and that's how you start to grow your income and expand and get your financial freedom, why do the other companies care that you're working for somebody else when you can be committed to doing it perfect for each of them, and then get to expand yourself, your brain, you know, your, its your money.
Um, I, I am excited to see where this shift is happening because it's, it seems so silly to, to limit people to what they can do.
Definitely. Well, I think people oftentimes when we're looking at like what's happening now with this whole shift, um, companies are realizing, wow, if this person is really good at this thing and this is what I need, let me just hire them for that.
Mm-hmm. And let's see what else they have. Um, and what it's doing is it's making sure that this way they don't have to pay insurance. Right? Yeah. 'cause if you're a contract, they don't have to worry about that. They know about how many hours you're gonna work or you give them that contract in the beginning so they know exactly what they're spending.
And the thing is, when you're coming to a contractor, what happens is that person should already be pretty much an expert in that field. And what I've learned is that the contractors often connected to so many other things that then it helps your company to grow because they're bringing in new insight.
And it's not the same stagnant kind of thing that's been going on because now you have somebody that's totally on the outside and then you're bringing them into your own culture. So when you do that, you just spread so much more wealth of knowledge, wealth of information. And it just depends, like as a contractor working by themselves, or do they have to work with new teams in the company?
Either way, that energy that the contractor brings is something new and it's something fresh. Mm-hmm. And that new perspective allows you to be able to then get a little bit of that and then continue to grow your company.
Yeah. And, and so often in, in the past you had to hire someone who'd been at a bunch of companies to get that same experience level, but to your point, there's so much value in them seeing the same, uh, task or need in different scenarios.
Suddenly you're smarter about how to use it. So I'm all for it. Like I, I think it's freedom to me is so important and freedom with time and money, and we forget to include our brain in that freedom. And so, um, I just think, uh, I'm excited about that. I'm excited There's people like you out there that are helping people find their thing and just letting people know it's possible.
Like, uh, you know, how much of a, how much of the hurdle do you have to get people over just like believing it's actually possible.
You know what? This is what I, I, and it's just crazy. And I think it depends on where people approach me. So because I teach classes and now because the world is online, I get people from all over that are taking classes.
And one thing that is consistent that people say is, you just made it much easier. Now I understand it. Now I don't feel, and actually the craziest thing is after I finish a class, they usually do tell me they're overwhelmed. Overwhelmed in a good way. They always say, oh my God, I'm so overwhelmed. Um, and it's just like, I don't know where to start.
And I'm like, every class that I do, I give you a logical progression. So you do know where to start. That's not the issue. Mm-hmm. The issue is now, I've given you so many ideas. Yes. It's so much creativity that it's opened your mind and expanded past where you thought you were gonna be in the start of like a one hour webinar to the point where you're just like, it's not that I don't have a starting point.
What do I wanna do first? Like I'm so excited about it. And I think that a lot of people don't realize, and I say this consistently, that they already have a lot of things in there. It's just now. Oh, I didn't even think about monetizing that. Oh, well I didn't think I could do that. I didn't know what app to use for that.
Mm-hmm. So once you give them that information, then they just skyrocket. And I like to like say, okay, well once you do something, send it to me. Let me see it. Like, let me get excited so I can just celebrate with you, because I see that you not only listen, but the biggest thing is taking action after that.
So, mm-hmm. We can talk and tell you how to do something all day, but if you don't take any action with it, then it's just sitting there. It's like a knowledge base that you're never gonna be able to use. Once you take that action and do it, then you start to see that there is going to be progress and you keep making more progress until you get to a point where hopefully you are making money.
Uh, I am very clear why Chandra connected us. 'cause we are two women on the same path like racing to like get everyone to figure it out right now. Um, no. 'cause I, I laughed when you said they get overwhelmed because I had the exact same experience. Right. When you bust open the door for people that when did you know it's this easy?
They're like, well, now that I know, it's easy. Exactly what you said. It's like all the ideas flood in and it's like this distraction phase again. And I'm like, all right. Just go back to the step one. Just like you said, step one, step one, step one. Because the, um, I, you know, for, for people like you and I who can like start something from nothing and see how to do that logical progression, I'm always caught off guard when people say that they aren't logical linear thinkers and like, how do we map this out?
I have a tool that, um, actually a client of mine just shared with me that's like, saved her life. Do you have a tool for people who are not linear thinkers?
I just listen. And I think that listening is honestly one of the best tools when it comes to that because, um, what I do. And so it's, it's really simple, but I know it seems really complex to people.
And I, I'll tell you, you know exactly what it is I asked them, I said, okay, well what are three goals that you wanna accomplish when the, within the next 90 days? And I use 90 days because I wrote a book called The 90 Day Focus, your Action Plan for Success. So I outline everything in 90 day increments because I feel like it gives you enough time to make, um, better choices, better habits, do the meetings that you need to do, um mm-hmm.
Create whatever it is that you need to create and really start to get yourself on that path to success. So when I'm doing that and I ask people the top three goals, people will often tell me some things that. Are not necessarily a goal that they need to reach right now. Mm-hmm. Or something so far off that they can't get to until they do step A, B, and C, but they're trying to be on wxy.
Yeah. So I look at the fact of, okay, well what do you need now? So based on this thing that you need now, then we need you to see that you need to do this, this, and this. Mm-hmm. So you get there and I think that, um, when people, I even get a lot of people that say, well, I don't have three goals, and I keep talking to them.
And then it's like, no, you're right. You don't have three goals. You have like 30. You know, so you have to, you have to like say, okay, yeah, they're not thinking of all, and then I've had so many people say, oh my God, I wasn't even thinking about that. Mm-hmm. But you can't get all the way to the end unless you put stuff together.
So even if you think about an event. We're telling you about this event. Let's just say for like instance, this podcast, people don't realize all of the stuff that goes into the back end of doing this podcast. Mm-hmm. They're just like, they wanna press play and they wanna listen and that's cool, but what platform are they gonna listen to it on?
Mm-hmm. You had to already make decisions about how you were going to put together to enable them to be able to listen to it on more platforms. If we're doing a video and we're doing a Zoom, you know, you had to decide on what Zoom was gonna be, the time that you were gonna do things. Scheduling thing, like when I'm booking, it's so much that went into this end product that people hear that it's like they don't really realize that that's how everything in business is.
You had to the backend to get to the, to the, you know, the glitz and glamor that people see in the front.
Yeah, completely,
completely. So I think it definitely makes a difference.
Um, now in August we, we've launched our, uh, online course, um, knowledge sharing products, and it's all about same path, same place you're at, right?
Like how to share what you know right now and make money right now. And it's rooted in my 20 years of, of making products like before entrepreneur. Like that's what I was doing for other people. And, you know, in our online community, the whole month of August was also about product creation because people don't realize that they, every business space is rooted in products.
And if you don't do the product creation process correctly, that's where all the things fall apart. Exactly what you were just saying. Like if you miss, um, you know, ans asking all the questions. And so, so often I see people. Running to the end result. You know, like I joke about, like my client that said the first thing they needed was a Twitter strategy.
And I'm like, Uhuh, like Twitter's like at the end. And um, because there wasn't anything to tweet about yet. Yeah. There wasn't a product. There wasn't a thing. And um, I think that's, so that part's the fun part, like giving yourself time to like dream about it and put it into a structure. I love that stuff.
Mm-hmm. Like, that's the fun part. And you know, so many people don't know that that's even a thing to do. And then, you know, it makes me so excited that you're there to help people see this and see what's possible and like, and just get 'em to slow down. Right? Yeah. Because there's like this panic phase of like, I have this great idea, let's launch it now.
And then they, you start asking 'em like three questions and they're like, oh God, I can't do this. And you're like, hold on. Yeah. There's like this middle ground.
Definitely. Um.
So what type of, uh, businesses or clients do you specialize in?
So my specialty is focusing with women-owned businesses and nonprofits.
Mm-hmm. And I think the shift because of COVID has really put it to where I've gotten a ton of women-owned businesses, but there are actually more men that are, um, kind of seeking guidance as well, because they're more so looking at it from a marketing standpoint. Mm-hmm. And so if I were to kind of compare and contrast, um, everybody says that they want marketing.
Okay. That's not what everybody needs because there are things that they're not thinking about. Mm-hmm. So I've been encountering a lot of people who have a product or service, um, and then they're not charging enough. Or Yes, they are not doing some of the other things that could get them where they need to be.
So based on that, the first questions that I'm asking, even when you tell me, okay, well here's this thing that I wanna market. Alright, well how much is this making? How much does this cost? So that I can really analyze that Because then some things are like, you might not need to continue to sell this product because it's not mm-hmm.
Taking you the money. Mm-hmm. Or what's the effort that you're putting in? So I'm having a lot of people too, that they're not understanding about monetizing time. Yes. So it's just like, if I'm gonna do social media for somebody and I say, okay, well this is what my hour of time is worth. I need to make sure that in that hour that I am getting what I want and I'm not spending way over that hour doing something because then I'm still not getting paid what I want.
And I think a lot of people are doing. They're trying to give so much Yes. As if they're really big companies. And it's like, but it's only you. Mm-hmm. So I get a lot of people who are wanting to leave their jobs. I get a lot of people who started something like at the end of last year or the beginning of this year, and now everybody is like marketing, marketing, marketing.
But you're behind the scenes. Your foundation is not necessarily where it needs to be. Yes. So in order for that to, you know, do what it needs to do, that means we have to really strategically look at what's going on in the background and then go ahead and start releasing some products. But I have a lot of people who they, they had products and they were kind of just sitting there.
Mm-hmm. So it's like, well now we need to make that a major focus. And, um, once you start to put that plan together and then they can kind of see how it's working incrementally, then they really, really enjoy it because they're like, well, I wasn't selling really anything. Yeah. Oh gosh. Well, I got more sales.
And it's just like you had to just tweak some stuff. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. No, love it. Love it. Um, I, I'm a hundred percent in support of. Like, let's see if you even need marketing first.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I was gonna ask about you starting in, in representing poetry. Because that, it sounds fascinating.
Oh, it was, um, that was so long ago.
Now it feels like that was like, and it really was, it was like almost 20 years ago. So it's like when you say things and you put like circa this year on it, and then you realize that the nineties were not 10 years ago. It's kind of like, like, wow, you're way older than you thought you were. But, um, the biggest thing that I could say about that is it taught me how to work with people with different personalities.
Mm-hmm. It taught me that I'm very autonomous in my, my role, in my thinking, um, definitely taught me that setting a price is something that is a valuable tool. Mm-hmm. And that people deserve to be compensated. And so when I was doing it in this particular area, no one was trying to pay poets, you know, like, yeah.
I wanted you to come and be filler the same way as they would be a singer or mm-hmm. You know, a musician, but they didn't wanna pay them. And I'm just like, this is a skill, this is an art set. Mm-hmm. So it, um, it enabled me to be able to get them on tv, you know, in different clubs, travel to different things in the states, out state.
It was really good at that timeframe. But I think that, um, what happens is people then. Are either going be on one end of the spectrum or the other, which is gonna be that really artistic side. Mm-hmm. And they just make art, or they're just like, I see this where this could be a business and this could make money.
Yeah. So that's exactly what happened where we had two factions of a group that was about 10 people, and half went to the, I just wanna be creative, you know? And then the other half went to the, no, I wanna make money with this. I recognize my skill, my talent, and I should get the money. And so I went with the people that should get the money.
Yeah. Now, the people that went with the crafty side of things, they're not even doing anything anymore. Everybody that went with the money side is still making money now. They've just transitioned it into other things. So like some of them have transitioned into being professors at colleges. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. You're still essentially doing what you were doing, but now you just said, okay, well how else can I get money from this thing? Yeah. Can't perform, but can perform. It's a really interesting thing. And now to see it 20 years later, you know, it is a difference between a person that wants to have a hobby and just loves it and just, you know, as opposed to a person who wants to make money with it.
And it's nothing wrong with either of them, it's just, I prefer to be on the side of the one that makes money.
Well, why wouldn't you wanna be? Right? Like, that's what baffles me. Yes. You, um, two of my specialties are women owned businesses and creative entrepreneurs because I'm good at creating the space for you to like do your thing, which it sounds like that's what you do, right?
Mm-hmm. You like you do you, but here's the rules we have to follow so that you can do that and you can monetize it.
Mm-hmm. And
I just want people to know that like the. I just wanna be creative to me, is a responsibility cop out. It's, it's letting down this gift that you've been given and, and letting down everyone else in the world who could benefit from your gift.
And I'm like, what? Like we, that tells me we have to have a conversation about like what business means because business is not this enemy. Mm-hmm. It is not the enemy of being creative. It is an opportunity for people who wanna be creative. How, how do you handle those situations when you see people with these talents and you see what's possible and they're like, no, I don't, I don't, um, I don't wanna sell out.
Okay.
And I love that question and nobody's ever asked me that. So that's like one of my, now that's probably one of my favorite questions ever. Um, you ask people, or no, you try to help them. Let me just say that. You try once. Mm-hmm. And you try twice. And then by the third time, if they don't listen, you let it go.
Because I have had a situation exactly like that where this is the issue. You want to help so much because you know your ability to help. Mm-hmm. You see where the person could be. Yeah. And see what future they could have. And they tell you they do want the things that come along with being successful, but their actions don't show you that.
Mm-hmm. And how many more times are you willing to go in and continue to invest your time? And a person sounds excited and a person says they wanna do things, but those actions don't match up. So once you see it and you, you try to help by the time you get to the third time, leave it alone because that person either really doesn't wanna do it or they just don't wanna do it in your timing.
And that's fine. So let it go. And then just see, and then you'll either see if the person was serious within a year. They'll actually listen to some of the things that you said or mm-hmm. They'll just still continue to do exactly what they've been doing and not make any money with it. So it's not up to you to make a person do things.
And even if a person is paying you, um, you know, unless they're paying you to do things, that's different. Right. Because then you know that it'll accomplish. But if they're paying you for the advice, for the counseling, for the coaching, and then they're still not doing it, you know, I would just have to let that person go after three times because we're not getting anywhere.
Yeah. And that is not your fault as a coach, as a counselor, that is the person's fault for not taking action. And what I've learned is people will always, and I don't think it's a reason. They'll always make excuses for, unless now that you said I could do it some shit that they didn't do.
No, for real. Um, I, I have a, you know, in my client database, right?
I have a list of people who didn't become clients and I had to move that list to a view. I don't look at when I'm doing my client, like, 'cause I have in my CEO time, I go through my clients where they at, what do we need? And I had to move those people to a different view because every time I saw the people who were a no, and not that like people are gonna be no all the time, right?
Not everyone's at the right fit. But the people who were a no and they haven't done anything since and they're still in that space, I see their name and like, I feel it in my heart. I'm like, oh. It's like this frustration of knowing that there are. These talented people out there, and I'm like, you don't have to work with me, but please work with somebody because one, there's no reason to do it by yourself.
And two, what you're doing is not working if you are not. Like shouting from the rooftops and like running through the streets, looking a little bit like a maniac. There's still room for you. There is still room to be improving.
Mm-hmm. And I, I believe in that like wholeheartedly. And that's why I say, you know, I try to, every so often and every so often might be like once a week, let's be clear every so often to like reevaluate what I'm doing for me.
Yeah. And I'm just like, you know what? This week I was super awesome on this, but because I was super awesome on this, I didn't spend as much time on that. Okay. But it's not time to beat yourself up, it's just time to evaluate. And so if you really look at what you are doing on a daily basis, we all know that we could still be doing something better.
And I think it's good to challenge ourselves in addition to our clients. And so what I see mm-hmm that that helps me specifically is when I'm teaching a class and I'm telling somebody what to do, how to do things, and I just say, okay, well you know what? Um, let go ahead and put this into practice and put this into play too, or let, lemme go back and focus on that a little bit more.
So it's really easy, in my opinion, to tell somebody else what to do. And that's what a lot of people do. I can tell you what to do, what you shouldn't do all day long. Then you have to apply that to yourselves. People don't wanna, so that looking in the mirror, like you can dish it out, can you take it when it comes back to you, people don't wanna do that.
And if you're blunt and upfront, like, I feel like me and you are, then people are, they get offended. How are you offended at your success? Like, I'm offended that you don't wanna be more successful. So, you know, I'm, I'm very offended at your lack of, you know, commitment to doing what you need to do for you.
Mm-hmm. Um, and the thing is, I think we just have to say, okay, we can only take people so far. If they're willing to go further, then let them go further. But to maybe not take it so personal that people don't just live up to your expectations and it's our fault for being so wonderful and so great, and setting all these expectations, you know, but I think we just have to say, okay, well let's see what they do.
Like we, we expect that they're gonna do great things, but let's actually see what happens.
Yeah. We were, um, I was having a conversation with a client. We were talking about like, how, you know, you get so frustrated when people aren't living up to their potential. And I said, you know, I realize that I have to catch myself.
You know, I don't, you know, not, it's almost, um, like a prejudice towards people who are not chasing after what they are, are capable of. And I'm like, how? And I'm like, okay, I had to put this in perspective. And I would be like, oh, like don't be a, don't be a settler. Hmm. And I was like, what is that? What is that coming from?
And I. I realize in the moment that some of us are moving at like lightning speed and you can see it, and you can feel it, and it's causing, you know, shock waves outwards. And then there are people who are like ants, where from our perspective, like you don't really think they're doing anything, they're just hanging out.
But when you zoom in, they actually are moving things forward. And I had to really get that, you know, everyone is moving forward, but they might be doing it in a completely different time and space continuum than I am on. And it is, you know, it still makes me crazy, but also to know like, okay, everyone's moving forward the way they're supposed to.
They'll show up when they're supposed to. Like, there's this whole element of having to have faith and belief in something else that like is gonna get everyone else going forward. And this conversation always leads me into, um, a political perspective because, you know, so often we say. Everyone's equal and everyone should be hustling and everyone should be doing these things.
And I'm like, okay. But I know that there's a bunch of smart people who are working hard, but they could be working harder and they're, and they could be having more fun in life. Like, how do I sleep at night and know that those people are gonna be okay?
Mm-hmm.
And it ties into like, oh, me questioning like what my, like what my beliefs are from how we take care of people as a society because it's real.
It seems like a stretch, but it's in the same place to me. Right? Like the frustration you and I feel about capable smart business owners and like how they just won't do what we know can like change their life is the same. It's the same route of people who are frustrated with an addict in their family who like, just do this one thing and your life can totally change.
And they're like, nah, I'm good. And you're like, I just, you know, all everyone in where they're at. Um, feeling that frustration and wanting the best in people. You know, what do, what do we do when they're, when they're like, no thanks, besides go crazy ourselves.
And that's the biggest thing is that we want to help so much.
So, like I said, me saying, I'm willing to give up until this point. And once that point is reached, I'm not willing to give anymore. So like I even look at, um, like some of the counseling that I'm doing because in North Carolina right now, what we have is this program. Um, and so it, you know how government is giving funds for certain things.
So I'm doing counseling for a lot of the, um, colleges, uh, locally that deal with the small business centers. Mm-hmm. And so some colleges do things differently when they allocate funds. Some will say, well, look, give me a scope of work and tell me how much time do you think it will take to work with that client to get them where they need to go.
And to be honest with you, it is difficult to really give a person a certain amount of hours because some people are really over achievers and then other people are really slow to move. Mm-hmm. And so when you look at that, it's like, okay, well I estimate based on my skills and my talent that if we have, let's say, four hours worth of time, that I can get a person where they need to go.
And I can say that with all confidence from my perspective, but if the person's not doing the work in between the sessions, it's gonna take them longer than four hours. But that doesn't mean you keep giving money and keep putting it into something that is not gonna actually produce results. Mm-hmm. So if you start to look at people like that, the time and the money and the energy that you put in, what is the impact that that person is actually making?
Is that person actually progressing or are they just spending your money and spending your time? Which is why, like if I, if I were to liken it to something else, like let's say children gonna college. Mm-hmm. Some people don't need to go to college, they just need to go to maybe if they're gonna to something a two year thing.
But are there other programs that they could do? Is there something else that they're interested in that could take less time but still yield them the results? There's plenty of people who never went to college and are millionaires, right? Yes. And it's not necessarily saying everybody wants to be a millionaire, but it is saying that you have the ability to be able to get there if you have the right tools.
And so me recognizing even in myself, okay. I can do really wonderful things, but if you don't do the other part of it, then it's not going to really give us the results that we want. Um, I think that you need to look at the relationships that you have and say, well, how much time and money and energy am I really willing to invest in this?
Am I getting the results that I want? And if you start to say, no, I'm not, then you need to pull back. You know? I think allocating that and realizing how important time is, like if nothing else, this time right now should show you how important every day is. Yeah. So don't waste a day. And I'm not saying don't relax, don't take time off.
But I'm saying don't waste a day. If you had an idea or a thought and it took you 20 minutes to do it, and that's all you did for that day, at least you did something. But don't take the whole day of, I'm just not gonna do anything all day. No. Do something every day to get you closer to the goal that you wanna reach.
And, and most of the things that we need to take action on, they don't take that long. You know, we, we are horrible at. Underestimating how long it takes us to do. Daily, daily tasks like get ready or drive somewhere. We're really bad at, at estimating that time properly. Like we always underestimate that.
But when it comes to actually doing the thing, it usually takes less than 20 minutes to do the thing. Mm-hmm. At least to get the momentum going. And then all of a sudden you're sucked in and you've been there for an hour, like, you know, and you can't
stop Right. Then you can't stop two days later.
Exactly.
Exactly. So, um, we, we just wrapped up in, um, July, a whole time management series in our powerful Ladies online community. And I talk a lot about doing sprints and planting seeds. Like how do you plant your seeds when that's like, when you, when you have to like, be more relaxed about it. And then how do you give yourself sprints?
We're like, all right, I'm gonna do this. And honestly, it's rooted in how we were raised. I'm one of four and we weren't allowed to watch TV at night unless during every commercial break we did a cho. So the commercials would start and we'd have to run around and like brush our teeth, pack our lunch, get our school bag ready, pick out our outfit.
And so literally between every commercial break, you'd see us like sprinting around the house trying to get it done before it started back again. And it was genius on my parents' part because they, it was
excellent.
Yeah, they made it a competition. But now I also know, oh, to unload the dishwasher, it actually only takes two minutes.
I love that though. And you know what? To me, I think that that is excellent. Tell your parents kudos on that. Like, I wish I would've thought about that a long time ago. That's really an excellent way to think. But you know, like, this is how I think now too. Um, because back in the day okay, you couldn't see how long a commercial would be, right.
And now on the television, it actually tells you how long it is. So it's like, I know if I can do something in between that time too. It's like, okay, you got two minutes and 30 seconds and it gives you that. So like you can answer an email, you can do such and such and then still be enthralled in a show.
Like that's a great way to do stuff. I love it.
Yeah. And, and you know, my mother would, would, she wouldn't, she wouldn't get up. She would sit there and have a relaxing time, so she'd be yelling, it's on and we're like running back before we could like miss it. Um, but it's like, yeah, we, I don't know why we, we complain and stress out about what we have to do, especially as adults.
We've chosen it at all. We've chosen all of it. Um, especially when you could get it all done. Like, just, just get it done. 'cause you know, I, I like to play the game before 10:00 AM how much can I get done before 10:00 AM
mm-hmm.
Because then like, if, if most of my to-do list is done before 10:00 AM then I can choose to take a project on, I can choose to take the afternoon off.
I can choose to do whatever I want. Um, and it aligns with, um, a lot of the studies they're doing in the Nordic countries about when you're most productive and most people are productive between 7:00 AM and 2:00 PM like after you go to lunch. You pretty much have two hours before you're done. Your, your mental capacity is done.
So it's really important to get done as much as you can before lunchtime.
Yeah. I think people need to have, um, some type of structure and like mm-hmm. Throughout this time I've been talking to a lot of people that's just like, look, I've been sleeping so late. I don't know. I wake up and then next thing I know, it's two or three o'clock in the afternoon and I'm just like, I can't possibly live like that.
Mm-hmm. I can once a week or so, like if it's a down day or something. Um, but I mean, you know, what I started doing specifically during this time was doing a thing called Jesus Corona content. So every day at 11 I would go ahead and get up and that was the motivation that I needed to have a time every day that I would get up and put on clothes, and then I would, you know, put a little face on and look halfway decent for the camera because it was like.
If you didn't, if you were at home and you didn't have anywhere to be, it's very easy to get into the cycle of doing nothing. And if you're running a business, you still have to realize that other things still run on that eight to five timeframe, eight, nine, just depending on whatever it is. So there are still things that you need to do within those constraints.
So if you said that, then well, what else do you have to do? And so like for me, if I'm teaching classes during the evening, during the daytime, it's all different times. Time is like my, my friend, it keeps me structured and it keeps me, I even scheduled time for naps. Yeah. So I'm just like, okay, well I have a good hour and a half here, let's go ahead and hit this nap off.
Hey nap, how are you? Right. And it's just like me and the nap, we're great friends because it helps you to be rejuvenated and to get your mind somewhere. And it's like, it used to be difficult to say, okay, well I have all of this time. Um. I'm gonna take a nap. I used to feel guilty, and I know a lot of people still do, but it's just like, if you don't take a nap, you might not be able to go those extra couple of hours.
Mm-hmm. At little bit of time as far as a nap. Don't you feel like you deserve that? You know, if you can do it, how many people wanna take a nap? They can't. So as a business owner, I think you need to not feel so guilty about if you did take time off, but if you take time off because you're really productive the day before or the day after, it's okay.
It's just, you can't do that every day and be lazy. You know? You really have to say, I need to put in some effort, you know, every day. And then keep it moving. And it, and it makes it easier because when you get behind, one day can just trigger your whole week or your whole rest of your month.
Yeah. Uh, and you know, for me it's like when you, when you're an entrepreneur, or if you have a weekend, let's say you work for somebody else and you get a weekend.
Like I am waking up as early as I can on those days that are a hundred percent mine. Um, and you look at success habits, right? If you know, every millionaire, every person that we admire, they have a lot of things that they do in common. They wake up early, they go to bed early, they eat clean. Um, most more people than you would think, don't drink.
Mm-hmm. They don't talk about it. They're just, they are like, Nope, it's a distraction. It, it doesn't leave me where I wanna go. Mm-hmm. And I think sometimes, you know, we get, so I don't know where this idea of like sleeping in is, like what life is for. Like, I think we get into these cycles and habits and, you know, really look at where that's coming from.
Is it, is it that you aren't living the life you want and that makes you tired? Versus, you know, I need, you know, I'm not getting enough rest. Like, what choices are we making that are actually. You know, um, sabotaging what we want and sabotaging who we want to be. 'cause you know, I'm a full believer in the underdog mindset.
You know, you brought it up earlier, like, not everyone needs college. You know, lately it's been real expensive and you could have done a lot, could have spent that money somewhere else. And, um, you know, saying this as somebody who has more degrees than most people, I realize that's a little hypocritical, but like, it's true.
Mm-hmm. And it's like, what are you gonna do with your time? Like, I want more than anything else, people to be excited about their life. And I think you see it as well, like, whatever, whatever things you put in practice, questions to ask habits, um, the way to look at things. If it can work for business, imagine what it can do for your own life.
Like, just imagine what it can do for your own life. Um, you don't need to start a business and benefit from talking to a business coach or consultant or taking a business class.
No. I mean, I think when we look at this and we say, okay, well what's happening with people and why do they wanna start businesses in the first place?
Some people just want money. Okay. And the biggest thing I think about starting a business is that with the money aspect, you do have the potential to make, you know, exponential amounts of dollars. Mm-hmm. Um, but what is it really that you're looking for? And so, you know, one of the things I ask people is, what does success mean to you?
And it doesn't mean the same thing to everybody. Um, and, and what is, you know, 'cause people, the other word they used, you used it earlier too, is freedom. What is free? I keep telling people, starting a business does not mean freedom. Mm-hmm. It means you don't have to go clock in somewhere else, but every time that you don't clock in for yourself, you're not making any money.
And you have to understand that everything's not gonna make money at first either. So you have to get people to understand the value that you have and then get them to give you dollars for that value that they believe in. Um, and that's a hard thing and something that does need to be worked at every day.
And this is one thing I think too, is that social media as people believing that everything is so easy. Yes. And we're not saying, we're not saying it's not easy on certain levels, but it takes time and it takes the action to get you to the part where everything flows easily. Like I would say now. A lot of things flow super easy to me.
Yeah. But it's because of all of the work that I've already put in in the past that allows things to flow easier. So people are like, well, how did you do this? Well, how did such and such? Well, what did you? And I'm just like, well, because I knew a person and how did I know that person? And because I did X, Y, z, some things I may have volunteered for, you know, and not even got paid back in the day.
Some things I said, listen, I won't do unless I get paid. Um, and so when you start to say, okay, well what is it about business that even makes you wanna go into it? To me that has to be the motivation. So let me just tell you this quick story. I have this one lady, she was disgusted with me by the time she left.
She was not a happy camper, but everybody else in the classroom is looking around like, what is wrong with her? So this lady is talking about how she wants to start a nonprofit because, um, she wants to help children that are in foster care. Okay? Sounds great. Right? So she wants to raise money, you know, to do stuff for the kids.
So as we go deeper, the lady adopted two kids. Admirable. Right? Sounds good. Mm-hmm. But she wanted to start a nonprofit to raise money for the kids. Now the problem is they're your kids now once you adopt. So just think about your parents. Were like, I wanna start a nonprofit because we have four kids, so give us money to take care of our kids.
That's essentially what this lady was doing, and I told her, ma'am. You cannot just start a nonprofit just to raise your kid. That is not what the nonprofit is for. Mm-hmm. Now, if your kids had some type of medical problem or learning disability or something like that, where you were trying to do stuff and help other people, right.
But the nonprofit is not just to help you with your kids. What you shoulda done was made a real plan when you knew you were gonna adopt those children, and you knew that there wasn't gonna be any money coming in from the state anymore to be able to really take care of those kids. But sometimes people wanna start things for the wrong reason.
Mm-hmm. And then they, they want you to be like, well, woe is me. Because I, and I tell people all the time, like, think about it now. People have gotten really, um, I, I offend people a lot because I tell the truth. That's offensive thing. Tell the truth. I said, well, what government? Not money. You decided to a business so you mad at a government that you didn't get approved for something.
And they didn't even have to do this. Mm-hmm. Now I understand that morally, ethically, it makes sense. Surviving, keeping people alive, you know, all of that makes sense. But if they never did it, you started this business and you need to continue to think of a way to make money. So, you know, if you worked for a job and they had you on as an employee, they could choose to let you go too.
Mm-hmm. They don't have to keep you on, you know, think about some of the systems that we have that are built in. They're built in kind of like safety nets, like insurance. Mm-hmm. But what if they didn't exist at all? So if they didn't exist and you decided to start this business, you don't have anything to fall back on other than your own work, other than your own sweat and tears.
And I'm really big on personal responsibility. Mm-hmm. If it, if something's not working, fix it. Get rid of it. Start over, do something new. Change your market. And I think we need to analyze, like our, and I don't wanna use this word 'cause it's thrown around so much, but our kind of privilege. Once we say we start a business, for us to just think that people are just supposed to flock to us because we got a domain name or because we have, um, some business cards.
No. Show me the value. You know, let me feel like I can spend with you and I should spend with you and let me see that, you know what you're talking about. And now the floodgates are open. Um, well, people just, I think have a real sense of entitlement once they start businesses to think that people should just spend with them, but you have to give something.
Mm-hmm. That makes me feel like I'm connected to you.
No, I totally agree. Um, it, it makes me think of the analogy I use a lot about business, which is dating. Mm-hmm. Uh, because you know, just 'cause you show up. You know, looking, smoking hot somewhere does not mean you walk out with a husband. Like, that's not how it works.
And so what do you have to do? Like, what do you have to do to, to get people to, what does that look like? There's a, there's an entire courting, uh, courting relationship that happens. Like you have to court your customers, they wanna know, they can trust you. They wanna know you're not crazy. They wanna know that you know you, who you are, what you say you are.
They wanna know that. Um, you know that this is actually gonna work. And what, you know, there's so many things that people wanna know before they give you their money. And sometimes that process happens faster than other, um, situations, but just 'cause you build it doesn't mean anyone's gonna come. And, you know, coming, going back to what we were talking about earlier about like the marketing piece, most of the time you don't need marketing because you only need like 20 people to make your business work.
You know, if, you know, as a coach or a consultant, I don't need a million customers. I couldn't handle a million customers. So, you know, I didn't have a website when I launched. I've never had social media for my coaching business. It's all been me picking up the phone or emailing people to like move it forward.
Mm-hmm. I
mean, granted, there, there was more behind it than that, but so much of it is just like you, you just need to get up and do it. Like, just like dating, you gotta get up when you're allowed to. You gotta go to the bar or go to these events or go to a dinner party. Like you have to go out and meet people and it's, you know what's, it's the phrase you said that caught my attention at the beginning.
Right. Wow. Show up and show out. Mm-hmm. That's what it is. Like you gotta show up and show out and you can't do that hiding behind a computer. You can't do it hiding behind Instagram. Like most of the time Instagram equals zero ROI zero.
So,
you know, quit telling me that we need a social media strategy is going to save your business.
Ugh.
I mean, but I'm encountering, um, I would say that, you know, like based on what we're talking about, I think that part of the issue is people not realizing what they actually need. And so your actual needs are an important thing. And then people being honest about what amount of work they're actually really willing to put in.
Yes. Because that's part of it. And then a lot of it, um, results in the follow up as well. Mm-hmm. So it's like, I can tell you how great something is and then you ask me to send you something and I'll send it. Whose fault is that? Mm-hmm. You know, so, and I'm just giving you like a simple example. Um, and so it could be in that extra email, it could be in that extra little message, that little text that you send.
And I think that some of the things where it's a little bit more personalized, that's, that's me, my. I think, um, my little kind of thing is that I do try to personalize things and so mm-hmm. I know that if I'm gonna sit down, and this may sound out of control, but usually the emails that I like to craft, because I like to think about letting you know about what's happened since the last time I sent you something.
Um, this is what's happening, that's new. And then putting together some type of offer that I feel like will resonate with you, that you, for me, that always makes it easy for you to, to pay me. That's how I look at it. Mm-hmm. It might take me about two hours to create that, and I'm saying two hours because I wanna make all of the graphics.
I might make a video, I wanna content, I wanna give you links, I check everything to make sure everything works, all of that. Every time I do that.
To the fact that you can just tell me, boom, boom, boom. These are the things that I wanted to know. Oh, this is what you've been doing. Oh, you've been working with such and such, like that then yields the results. And so it's like I do that for more of the high level things and you know, I always evaluate, well, what if I did this for some of the lower level things too.
Not to say spend as much time, but just recognizing like in what could be improved. To me, that's where a lot of the, the part that you're missing. It's in that communication. And so if yours is, and I tell people all the time, sending individual messages to people, it could be the same message, but a copy paste, right?
Mm-hmm. Oh my God, you sent that. You'd be surprised at how that turns into dollars very quickly. And I've had people that don't even need my services just send me money, like just send stuff in a just send. And I'm just like, they're just like, oh, I just saw what you were doing. It was so wonderful. And they just send money.
And I'm like, yes, this movie, it. But people, if they see you working and they see what you're doing, and they see that you're really about what you say you're about, mm-hmm. Um, it resonates with them in a way that. Makes them wanna part with their dollars. And so my goal is I need you to part with your dollars.
Like, I mean mm-hmm. If that, if that right is not as far as a, a cash thing, but it's as far as engagement with people listening or watching or sharing something, it leads to that because then that shows the influence that you have. So I think that the personalization probably needs to come back a little bit more because you actually have more time.
So how about we do that? You know, like, yeah. Yeah. I, I try to look at that part of it.
Well, no, and you know, all people freak out about sales and marketing and it's like, it's all communication. That's all it is at the end of the day. And. You know, I love that you said it might take me two hours to make this email, but it's gonna give me money.
And that's where I think people get tripped up is like the actual tasks that you have to do to, to get the money. Because spending two hours and getting a new client is like the best ROI ever the best
worth it.
Two hours to hundreds, thousands, you know, whatever dollars. That's great. So instead of thinking, how do I do every single one of these things faster, like, no.
Like, that's, that's the thing to spend time with. That's the thing to sit with for a second. Because, you know, again, just like dating, if you send a text like that's not, not thought out, it's not gonna land the way that you want it to. And so how do you dazzle people? That's how you dazzle people. Like giving someone two hours for a personal message is a dazzle.
Making it as easy as possible for them is a dazzle, right? Like, um. My, there's a couple great marketing books and one of them is the brand story. I dunno if you've, uh, read that one. But I love how it just talks about like, people just want, everyone has decision fatigue. Mm-hmm. Just tell me what to do. And marketing that works just tells people, click here, buy this, just do this.
It's made just for you. And so you feel like, okay, thanks. Like suddenly you're doing someone a favor and they're paying you for a favor. And you know, I just, we getting clients back to remembering why they're doing it and who they're doing it for. And you know, to be excited about each individual customer that changes things.
And I hear that you do that with yours and it doesn't surprise me that it's a success for you.
No, I love it. I do because I think this is the, what's happening is then, and, and, and I try to tell people, it's like, you just gotta listen. And I love to tell somebody what to do. Like that's a skillset, um, to be able to really tell a person mm-hmm.
Just do this. Um, but people oftentimes, and, and everybody is different of course, but I think that if you say. Well, this is all you need to do. It's like a magic, like, well, that's all I need to do. Oh my goodness. And look, that, that's all you need to do. Maybe 10 steps. Okay. Once you get done, now it's done.
And you don't have to worry about it again. That like the light bulb just goes off the switches there and it's like, wow, that's it. You know how much better I feel? I wish I would've known this beforehand. And I'm like, yeah. So now you can feel better every day, but you still have to do whatever that thing is and, and keep repeating it.
Some things, you know, maybe you said it and forget it, but if you can get people to understand that something can be easier. Mm-hmm. I think for a lot of times there's a system to doing things and so what order are you gonna do things in? So if you look at this and you say, okay, well what are my operations?
And I just look at even my business. So if I'm doing, um, uh, let's just use the podcast for example again. Mm-hmm. What, what do I need to do? When do I record? What's the time of when this is gonna go out? What are the graphics that are gonna go with it? Do I have a bio for the person? Like, you have to think about all of these things and then you have a system.
So I like to kind of write my systems out so that if something were to happen to me, it's pretty much an operations plan to show somebody else how to do something. What if I, what if I, you know, couldn't do something at a timeframe? Does that mean that my business should shut down? No. It means that you have to have a plan in place and then you need to be able to articulate that to somebody else.
Because I think that what happens is a lot of people with them not being logical, it's the fact that they didn't have a system. Mm-hmm. So they just did what they could do when they could do it, as opposed to saying, well, I'm gonna do it in this order. And even if you change the order up a little bit, you still already had the steps.
So, yeah. You know, it's certain things where like. People can't do things till a certain time. So like, that's why I say within 90 days. So like, let's say you wanted to, to incorporate your business until you fill out the paperwork and send it in. You can't get it incorporated and it's parts that you can't control until the state sends it back to you.
But that doesn't mean that you just wait. You just sit there and just like, well, when, when are they gonna send it back? And you're not checking the mailbox every day. You still do things in between there. So we need systems, um, and, and an order of operations so that this way it makes our business easier.
And if we have a way to continue to do stuff, wow, how much easier will it be for the next time? So templates, systems, those things to me make a lot of sense. And I wish more people would take the time to sit down and say, well, this is how you do something. This is how I do it. Mm-hmm. This is how I want it done.
And pretty much like, think about it, like if you were starting a franchise, that's all a franchise is. Mm-hmm. It's telling you exactly what to do every day. You just need to hire the people and do things. But we need to kind of look at our businesses as if, and even if you don't plan on doing it, if you were to franchise what you're doing, you would have everything written down.
You would know the systems, and it would make it easier for you to market.
Well, it, it would, it's, to me it's everything like an SOP or a checklist is everything. And I think people who are not operationally oriented, it's just the checklist. Mm-hmm. Just a checklist. And, but to me, you can't, you can't delegate, you can't automate, you can't franchise, you can't elevate yourself out of doing all of the work if you don't have a system because otherwise, like, you can't guarantee quality's gonna happen or your consistency's gonna happen.
It all goes out the window. And people have a lot more systems than we think we do. We've just never taken the time to write it down. And so I, I appreciate so much that like you're, you're sharing with people about that because you, you, you literally can't, you can't even hire an intern if you haven't put, made a basic level checklist of what you need done and.
The thing I keep, you know, shouting from the rooftops lately is if a, if a single member business, the average, um, sales is under $45,000 a year, but yet a four person team, whatever that team looks like, contractors, employees, the average annual sales is over 400,000. Like you need a system 'cause you need a team because that's how you cont content x what you're doing.
And I just like, that's one of those easy things. That's three things, three things you can do to make $400,000, like. Ah. Please do it. Please, please stop giving you and I stress.
Please. Yeah, no. What I have learned even with working with my own clients is that miscommunication is often really where you don't, because you didn't have a system.
Yes. So even if you take into consideration, woo, I'm gonna say this and I know this is probably gonna burn somebody up, but if you have a meeting, I need a whole agenda. Like mm-hmm. Those go all over the place. Talk about everything. The kids, I do not care about your children. Okay. Your children working, are they part of this?
People wanna bring in their vacation and they wanna tell you why they couldn't do something and it didn't get done because they were doing. Did it get done? Like I don't even know all of the rest of that. So for me, when it's a business thing, I think that sometimes people pull in too much personal and it's just like, that's too much.
We don't need to know all of the rest of that. So if you are doing that and you're listening to the sound of my voice, please stop doing that. Go in with some type of agenda, and I even mean it for yourself, like mm-hmm. Every week I have an agenda of what I'm supposed to do, so every day there's an agenda of what I'm supposed to do.
It makes it easier for you to make changes if you need to, but then also to delegate to yourself. Mm-hmm. If you know you didn't do something the day before, okay, we need to get this done this week. And so I always tell people I'm one of those anxiety driven people and it's just, it's self-induced. Like, I need to get this done.
And nobody else knows that you need to get this done except for you. Mm-hmm. And it's because you gave yourself a time to do it, and then you gotta get it done. And so for me, it's just like I look at every month. There's certain things that need to be done, but this is what I want people to take away too.
When you start to look at your business and do your scheduling and do things, you have got to be proactive because there are things that are going to happen that you could be a part of. So when you look at your marketing, so for instance, this is August. August is National Black Business Month. Mm-hmm.
Most everything that I'm gonna do this month is gonna have some type of focus that's on that. Now, this is the thing, I was already gonna be black because that was was me. Okay. It was already gonna be August and I was already gonna have a black-owned business. Right. But there are things that align with that.
If you know that and you have the foresight, you can then put into place. So that people more attention. And so people need to like really be proactive in what is happening and then what are people thinking. So, you know, right now it's kind to go back to school season, you know? Mm-hmm. We talking about, okay, it's getting ready to be Labor Day.
Some people aren't taking vacations, some people are, you know, what are those things that we need to look at going forward? And like right now, this is when we should be planning whatever we're gonna sell for Christmas. Mm-hmm. And for New Years. And if you're not already thinking about next year right now, by the time that July gets here, we should already be thinking about what's gonna happen next year.
So focus on what you need to fix now. But also always be future oriented because there's always something new that's gonna come, but you're gonna have your same business. So what do you need to tell people in order to get them prepared to keep spending money with you? That to me, is a big thing.
Well, and we spend so much time doing yesterday's work, which is a waste of our time usually, but we don't book time to do the future work.
And, you know, coming from footwear and apparel where we would be two years ahead, if not longer, on some, you know, innovation based products. When I am working with clients and they're like, what do we do next week? I'm like, I don't know if I care about next week, we might have to skip the next three weeks so that we can start talking about next month.
Like, it's okay in your business to have a, a downtime, like a blackout period. Because if that's what you need to do, take that pause in whatever it is, right, marketing or sales or whatever to fix things so that you can do it better later. You'll never get out of the cycle. It's um. Time and money have so many parallels in how they need to be managed and thought about.
And, um, we give away so much of our power to those two concepts when actually they're there for us to have more power. And we, yeah, like if you, if, if you are not planning strategic time into your weeks or, you know, months for you to be figuring out what's next, you are, you're gonna get passed by. And, you know, COVID has been a great business bootcamp.
It has been, if you
weren't already fit, if you aren't committed to getting fit, if you, um, aren't willing to be resourceful and figure it out, you, you might not exist already. Mm-hmm. It already may have, may have done you in, and it's really interesting to see who is. Who is determined to figure out what it takes to get through this versus who is, you know, playing ostrich and plain ostrich is like, it's so boring in my opinion.
There's so many options. You don't wanna catch up. Yeah. You don't wanna have to catch up. Like, I think you want to be a leader in your space and your niche, um, in your genre. You, you want to be a leader and in order for you to do that, you need to look at the landscape and see what else is happening. But you also need to say, what do I want to happen?
Mm-hmm. And when you look at that, um, it's like, so today I just watched that Beyonce Blackness King.
Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. I started watching that last night.
Mm-hmm. Well, I said I wasn't gonna watch it, but then I was like, come on, let's do it. It was peer pressure, so watched it. Lemme tell you what, it was amazing about that it's not the cinematography, the video, the dance and the outfits, all of that.
But it is knowing that. She had her child or her children in it, right? Mm-hmm. When they were babies, which meant she had already been planning to do this two years ago, maybe three years ago, like whenever these kids were born, right? You had been planning to release something and you put that much effort and time and into it.
Two or three years ago to have something that was going to take time to build and to put together. And then of course, you know, since this supposed to relate to, to the Lion King, you had to wait for that movie to come out. And then let me tell you. What you did was you picked a perfect time to release it.
She could have released it whenever, but she released it when we had nothing else to do. Mm-hmm. We were in the house. Um, everybody's talking about it on social media and everybody's probably gonna be talking about it for at least probably the next week or so. 'cause you know how to cycle goals. But you took about at least two, three years to put this together so that then this way you would have a product.
And what else did you do in between that time you were still working on multiple projects? So it's like, I think that she's a great example of a person that has a system because all of the footage, all of the locations, and I just sat there and I said, how much money did this cost? Like just looking how much money was this?
But you never spend, well, I would say in this situation, you spend the money. Because you have it to spend. Right. And so you can't get to a certain point by not spending the money also. Mm-hmm. So everything can't be free. But the planning and the, and the patience that went into something like this, like I have to respect that above anything else that just shows you that.
Not only was she thinking about this one thing coming out, but everything that's happened in between there Yeah. Has still been something that captivates people. So I think we might need to, yes, have our systems, but also what can we do to keep captivating people? What can we do to keep bringing them in?
What can we do to top our old self? And I've been talking a lot about like my future self. Oh, I love her. She's looking at me like, you better do it, girl, because if you didn't do that today, you wouldn't be here this day. So I'm like, every day I'm like, future self is looking at me like, girl, get this done.
Um, you know, and, and it's like, just imagine like just all you wanna do is top yourself. Mm-hmm. All you wanna do is be better than you. Like that to me is something that I feel like is really amazing. So now we're watching this, right? We're sitting out here on our Disney Plus because we can't watch it if we're not doing Disney Plus paying for subscriptions.
And she's already onto the next thing. Mm-hmm. Who knows what's happening right now. So I think that for us it's like, okay, this is really great today. Where do we wanna be in the future?
Yeah. No, it, it's, um, whether you, if you're a product creator, a true product creator, and anyone who has a business that's working is, and if we identify by ourselves that way and really look at the products we're offering, products and services are the same thing.
And really like to ask those questions. You just said, who do I wanna be? How am I gonna make this better? Um, I love to use the word captivating, right? Like, I use dazzling a lot, but captivating is like boom, right? There's like power and weight to that. And you know, I, when we, whenever we would launch a product line, or if I, if I launched something in Powerful Ladies.
You there, there's a danger in how far in advance I've launched it. 'cause two things can happen. I can be over it already 'cause I've already talked about it for three years. And then my energy, I have to like really generate my energy to be excited about it. Or two, like I am so hyperactive, it's finally coming out that I'm like over, like, it's too much.
I gotta like, pull back a little bit. But most of the time if you're, if you're a creator, by the time it gets outta your hands and it's finally released, you're, you're over it because you're like, oh, I would've changed this, done this. I'm already like, you don't realize how fast you can skip ahead of something.
And when you look at what just went out now you're like, oh, that's embarrassing. I hope they know what's coming next.
But you know what? I thought I was the only one. Um, because like even with my book, she's four years old now, and my thing was, Ooh, okay, I'm gonna do this. It's gonna be an anthology. And my plan was that it was gonna be seven of 'em, and each of them was gonna look the same.
But the color of the cover, I had a whole plan. It's four years later, we don't have another book. Now, not to say that I haven't written other things because I've written other eBooks, but another tangible book. And part of it was I thought about the fact of did you do as much as you could have with the first book that you wrote?
Yeah. So I see a lot of people wanting to do more things, just to have more things. But then what I did this year was I just marketed it more heavily and I'm just like, the principles and everything that were in there are still completely valid. Mm-hmm. So, you know, some people are like, oh, well you only have one book.
No, I have eBooks too, but it's not the same equivalence. But, um, you know, why am I worried about writing another book when I don't feel like this one has even reached this capacity? So not to say that I'm not gonna write another one, but to say. Have you really? And so I look at in the business concept, have you maximized what you already had?
If you didn't, let's go back and look at that and then really see, well, what else can we pull out of it? How else can we do better? Mm-hmm. What we already have, instead of trying to create something new, because you already have a product or service that people love. So now let's resell it. Let's repackage it.
Mm-hmm. But it's the same thing, you know? And so if that means change the title, or change the cover, or change the chapter to be the next whatever it needs to be, or maybe some lessons learned, do those things. Maybe there's companion things that can go with it, you know? So how can you take what you already have and then turn it into some extra things, you know?
And so if that means that now you take this and it's a podcast, or it's a blog or, mm-hmm. It's a class, it's a session, it's a bootcamp, it's a whatever. Think about looking at and really evaluating what you have and have you maximize it. And if you haven't, then now's the time to do it, you know, because. If you already have a good standing, then it's easy for us to buy in.
Oh, you got more stuff to go with it. Sure, lemme give you some money. You know, like that's how I kind of look at it and it's been working and I think that sometimes people just want more for the sake of having more and it's not necessary.
I think that you read my mind when I was making our product creation series because I literally have a line in it that says like, honor your time, honor what you made.
Like we have to honor the product development process because it's so time consuming. There's so many res like time, money, resources, the sacrifices we made to make this one product. Why are we compelled to go and make 50 more. Because, you know, some often I see the clients it's because they're like, well, this one didn't sell, so let's, they need more.
I'm like, no. Like if you just keep making more, but not as you're saying, extending it or completing it, or until your product has hit its goals. I al I almost have told people like, don't make another one. Mm-hmm. Like, prove that one can work first. And until you have drug it all around the world and everyone knows about it and you've done all the things you can do to it, then you can like, let it rest in peace.
But until then, it's like the, the hardest part is making the product the, and we tend to slack off. If you are a true creator, you just wanna make, make, make, make, make and have somebody else mark and sell well you can, once you, once you have your Beyonce money, you can Right. She gets to hang out and just make, yeah.
'cause she is pro proven that what she makes people want. So now everyone else can do the other steps. But until that starts happening, like. There's so much potential, like potential left on the table is, um, you know, in humans, in products, in businesses. Uh, I really feel that you and I share that hunger for like mm-hmm.
There's more. There's
more. Yeah. It is, and I think it becomes difficult when. You have to, um, do all of the things. So that's why delegation is important. That's why like when I talk to entrepreneurs and like you mentioned getting an intern earlier, there's plenty of people that need interns and there's plenty of interns that need experience.
But if you can't tell the intern what to do, then what's gonna happen thing with the employee. So unless a person comes in like a contractor with a particular skillset, that's the only way that you're going to be able to do it. But you still need to tell the contractor. Now what I do with my clients is I tell them, this is what I need from you.
When you give me this, then I can go ahead and I can do my job effectively. I'm still gonna have my ideas and whatever, and I don't take on a client that I'm not confident that I can help, but. Um, it's certain people where it's just like, I need you to give me these things, and so mm-hmm. The clients that have a lot more stuff together, those are the best.
You know, anybody that's just starting, that's not, that's not my client. Like, I just know that I work better with people that are already established in some way, shape, or form, because I don't have to build up their relationship with other people because I don't take people that are just like, you know, we don't take trash people.
Like, we take people that have great businesses, right. But they're missing something. And if that something is the marketing piece and they don't have time to do it, then that's when you kind of kick it to the next level. Mm-hmm. For me, it is. You have things, let's take the things and make them work and let's, let's, you know, why are we releasing something new?
Okay. But if we are, it makes sense for us to release something new. And it still goes in alignment with what you are already doing. So it's not hard for people to understand. But this is one other thing I like to think about is if we are releasing something new, can we bundle it with something that we've already had so that we can increase the sales on as far as volume, as far as what each individual sale is?
And if we can do that, then to me, that's kind of where you're maximizing it. So look at if you wanna create something new. Add it in to what you already have and then now bundle it and you can still sell it, you know, individually a la carte. Mm-hmm. But you need to make more sales. Like, that's just it. And so for me, what you're talking about is I want to be more product driven.
Mm-hmm. It's not that I don't have, you know, it's just what I like to call it'ss in the seat. Gotta put those in the seat to do the work. Don't put those sheets in the seat. Um, yeah, it's, it's not gonna happen. So I have a million ideas for things. I have a million things technically already done. But now you need to just go ahead and say, okay, this is gonna be the product that we're gonna focus on.
So for me, my biggest product is me just doing these classes. They love them. Mm-hmm. And not doing live and having them where they're already set up. That's the thing that makes the most amount of money. That's the thing. But it's not to say that there aren't other products that could go along with it. So a concept, like what you're saying to me, I wanna take something like that and have it be more of a subscription based model, because that makes sense.
But this is the thing, and I keep telling people. If you're gonna tell people you're gonna give them something, you have to have it done. Like just waiting, hoping no do the thing. So it's done. And now all you need to do is market and then sell it. Mm-hmm. And then you can keep on going. You need it done. So yeah, getting it done is the most important thing because now we can sell it and now we can market it.
You don't have it done, when are you gonna do it? Yeah.
And I'm, I'm the psychopath that declares the date we are gonna launch it because that's what's holding my feet to the fire to get it done. So I don't recommend this for most people, right. But I will declare out loud, this is coming this day, and then I'm like, shit, okay.
I have to go do it. Um, because it, it gives me that, that external pressure. 'cause you know, even being someone who teaches these things and like has, I've got a lot of the, the check boxes, but I still need that extra push because what are you driven by? Like being competitive, keeping your commitments, all those, whatever it is for you.
Okay, then what's the game to get you to do it and do it, do it right, and do it fast and like get into that laser focus space. So for me it's, it's, the social pressure definitely helps.
Telling 'em, I'm telling you I'm gonna do. No. And I used to be that way, and I kind of am that way. And then I just, I did something earlier this year and I was like, oh, it's not done.
We're gonna figure out something else. And it was a reason it wasn't done, but I'm just like, no. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, of course I sent email everybody and I told 'em, I said, okay, this is not done now because it's such and such, but you know, and I tell everybody, I said, look, if you want me to refund your money, 'cause on this day it wasn't done, you know, we can go ahead and do that.
And everybody was like, oh girl, we trust you to keep the money. We're just waiting for it to come out. Yeah. So a week later it came out. But I'm just like, I need to not be that person that's like, let me give you a day. It needs to be done. And then just release it. And I think for me, that's probably the, if you're trying to be a little bit more in that mindset of Beyonce, oh, it's done.
It's done. Done. Mm-hmm. And now we can go ahead and release it. So for me, I need to have it done because that is like my kryptonite. Me telling you a date and then trying to, no, I, it needs to already be done. Yeah. So people work differently. And that motivation, you know, you are motivated by the date and pushing yourself, and I'm motivated by, okay, it's actually done.
Now all I need to do is sell it. So it's a good thing either way. And we're both, you know mm-hmm. Very, um, pressure on our ourself driven, you know, I don't know what word that is, but Yeah. Yeah. Whatever that is. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We have it. We have it. Well, I
would love to know, I would love to know, what does it mean to you to be a powerful lady?
What do those words mean separately and what do they mean combined?
Well, um, to me, I think that power is an internal thing. Mm-hmm. And you can turn it off or on whenever you want to. You are still powerful. So if you look at power, like the, um, light switch, right? It's connected to something that, you know, when you turn it on, okay, it's gonna illuminate everything, but when it's off, that doesn't mean that it still doesn't have the potential to illuminate everything.
It's just, it's off right now. And so I look at it like myself. Like I tell people when I'm on, I'm on, I'm 110% wherever I'm supposed to be, but when I'm off, I just need to be at home. And I just need to kind of have that introverted moment. It doesn't mean I still don't have the power, it just means I'm not using it that way right now.
So for me, I like to look at power in that manner of, I'm still powerful. Everything is still there, I'm just not giving it to you right now. You know? And so my, my tagline with my business is, give to the people when it's time to give it to the people. 110% you'll get it. But when I don't feel like it, she's gonna be in the house and you won't see her.
So to me, that power is an internal thing and you control how high it goes. You control when you release it because it's not necessary to give it to people all the time. Sometimes it's too much. But when it's time to give it to the people, you're, you're there. And, and you know, and they're blinded by your brilliance.
They're blinded by the amount of wonderfulness and ostentatious that you can possibly give them. So that's my definition.
I love it. I love it. And when you combine, like, I, I just love that definition because I want people to know that they're, they're, they have it already. It really is as simple on or off.
There can even be a dimmer switch if you, if you want a range,
um. And when you combine your, your definition of power with ladies, does it change for you or like does it, does it give it a new classification?
I think that what it does mean, first of all, the name of my company is Lady Business. So I don't think that it changes. I think that you just need to know that there is a group of people who think like you.
Mm-hmm. And that's the tribe that you found. And you have to understand that you align with those people because of their power. And you understand that just. 'cause your light is shining, that doesn't mean that theirs can't shine simultaneously and that we should all be, you know, there to really try to pull each other up.
I think that when you get into certain situations where people feel like, oh, you are just too bright, girl, I can't stand it. That's not your people. And, and you need to go somewhere else. And even if they were your people and they changed because you changed and they're not their people anymore. Mm-hmm.
So just understanding that and really being able to be comfortable paying attention to the fact that somebody else is having a big win right now and clapping for them when it's their time to shine, that makes a difference. And so, like my clique of people that we have, like I have a nonprofit called Real Blow Getters, um, and the whole purpose of that is to help women start, stay and slay in business.
We all clap for each other. Mm-hmm. So one may may have a whole lot more going on right now than the other one, but do you have a small win? We should clap for you the same amount as we clap for the person that got this humongous win and mm-hmm. That makes a difference and lets you know that a woman is really powerful when she can clap for you, even when her light is off.
Hmm. And so me, you know, be able to let somebody else shine with you, you know, before you, after you, you know, whatever. Because that's really where the power is. And being confident in yourself and knowing that you have that same ability and you're comfortable with somebody else having it at the same time.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love that.
Mm-hmm.
We ask everybody on the podcast where they put themselves in the powerful lady scale, zero, average, everyday human, and 10 the most powerful lady possible. Where would you put yourself today and where do you put yourself on average?
Oh, I.
Today I'm gonna put myself at a eight and I'm gonna put myself at a eight, because Sunday for me is preparation time. So I prepare to be more powerful on Sundays because Monday is my mojo. You know what I mean? So Monday is where I like to call. I like to say I like to hit 'em in the head, you know, as soon as you step and you get up in the morning on, on, on Monday morning, I love to hit him in the head with something wonderful and something powerful and something motivational.
So I would say a eight because I'm reserving my power a little bit right now. Um, on average, I would say that I'm probably still at a eight, and that's just because I try to operate on a high standard, on a regular basis. Mm-hmm. You know, every now and then, probably maybe once a month, everybody has something where, you know, I'll be probably, you know, maybe around a five.
But I never go lower than a five because I always understand the value that I present. And then I'm always reevaluating. So what can I do better? Like that's always my thing, you know? And then this is one question I would love everybody to just think about how are you serving other people? Mm-hmm.
Because if you are helping to serve other people, then there's power in that that you don't even realize, and it will always come back to you. So when you look at that law of reciprocity, serve other people as well in order to get that goodness to come back to you and increase your power
and. Love that you brought that up.
Again, another way that we are aligned, but, and, you know, powerful ladies has that, that tagline and that like, to pay empowerment forward. And I think a great indicator of is a new product or service for your business. A good idea is if it's serving the customers you already have. Um, you know, we can get caught in making products that we want or that make our, make our jobs as CEO easier.
But like, are you serving your people? Are you getting to serve a new person who with the same thing, right? And I mean, the fastest way to turn your light on is to serve you. Just, you can't have your light off and serve at the same time.
No, no, no, no. You gotta turn it on and people need to see it. And I think when people see that light, you don't realize how much impact it makes.
You know, I got a message from a lady this morning telling me about my podcast and she was just saying, oh my God, I don't realize how much this helped her. Her brother died and you know, that was the help. And she's like, she did that. And then, um, you know, she's gonna recoup and kind of do some of the stuff that her and her brother had talked about before.
I was not expecting to get that message this morning, you know? Yeah. I dunno what episode resonated with her. Mm-hmm. But. She's like, I follow you on Instagram, da da da and everything. And mind you, I wasn't following her because she's, I had to accept the message, right? Mm-hmm. And that, to me, that's power because being able to help somebody, even though you don't know you're helping them, yeah.
You're just doing what is naturally innate to you to be, to be powerful. Like, to me, that is amazing. And then you see it come back to you when you get those types of messages. You see it when people actually reduce those, produce those products, and then the money that they're looking for, the prestige.
Mm-hmm. So our job is to really help other people and to be servant leaders and, you know, that's sharing our power. Mm-hmm.
Um, for women who, um, hear what, hear your message, and they're inspired and they're like, how do I do what you do? How do I, you know, how do I find that space? What is one thing that someone listening can do right now to move closer to stepping into their power and finding their thing
Right.
Or frequently asked questions. Get a list, right? What do people keep asking you over and over and over again and what are you good at? And then go ahead and make a business out of that because that means that you have some type of knowledge and some type of skillset because people keep asking you the same thing over and over again, and it's little and minute and infinitesimal as you feel like it is.
That's the thing that's gonna make you the money. So find that when you write that FAQ list and then turn that into a business. And that can be a very easy consulting business. I mean, but mm-hmm. It just depends on what they're asking you. And then that's the business.
I love that. Love it, love it. Is there anything else that you would love to share with our listeners today?
Um, no, this has been really a great experience. So I would say if you are, um, and I'll just throw this out there. If you are a black-owned business, I have a thing that I'm starting called the Black Biz Group and people can go ahead and list it. So if you just look that up on Instagram, you can go ahead and find the links in there for you to go ahead and register.
Um, because my platform is, that particular one is here to help black owned businesses. But if you're a woman-owned business, then I would say if you can look up real glow getters because that's what that platform is there to do. So I try to, sometimes I do think that in order for you to be as specialized as you need to be, you need to separate out the things.
Not that they both can't learn the same things, but I think that it is a difference between us women owned businesses talking and having this space and it is just letting everybody in. And then it's a difference when you start to break it down. So it's two different groups. So I would say, um, if you're looking for inspiration, motivation, classes, workshops, webinars, those kind of things to really improve your business acumen, I would say those would be the places for you to look.
I love it.
Yep.
Well, it has been such a pleasure talking to you today. I love meeting a fellow kindred spirit and, um, I can't wait to have you on again and see how we can collaborate on some really fun things. Oh, definitely. So thank you so much.
Yes, thank you so much, Kara. All right. Thank you so much. And as I tell everybody, always show up and show out and continue to give it to the people.
Love it. Yay. Thank you. Thank you.
I love her energy. Real talk about real business and what success really looks like. All businesses are making mistakes. All businesses can improve and make bigger moves. Having someone like Chisa or myself. Or other business guides to get you to where you wanna go faster, easier, and more smoothly is critical.
Make finding a business coach or mentor your one thing this week. You can connect with me and have a free consultation@karaduffy.com, or you can reach out and connect and follow with Chisa@ladybusiness.com, L-A-D-Y-B-I-Z-N-E-S s.com. You can also follow her on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and she even gave us her email, all of which you can find in the show notes@thepowerfulladies.com slash podcast.
Thank you so much for listening. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of The Powerful Ladies Podcast. There are so many ways you can get involved and get supported with fellow powerful ladies. First, subscribe to this podcast anywhere you listen to podcast. Give us a five star rating and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.
Follow us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, join the Powerful Ladies Thrive Collective. This is the place where powerful ladies connect, level up, and learn how to thrive in business and life. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube page, and of course, visit our website, the powerful ladies.com. I'd like to thank our producer, composer, and audio engineer Jordan Duffy.
Without her, this wouldn't be possible. You can follow her on Instagram at Jordan K. Duffy. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
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Production by Amanda Kass
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