This series of blog posts has been discussing the important lesson I’ve learned from the experience of working with my dog, Kailee, and her trainer Susan. Susan made the point that “Yes, Therese. You can outsource having Kailee exercised…But you cannot outsource being the leader.”

Too often we get so good at and have such great results by delegating tasks, that this simple example with Kailee really showed me the downside to this way of being. We are over using delegation to not face the music or take personal responsibility when we use it to stick our heads in the sand and not have the courage it takes sometimes to be a powerful leader and work through the situations that are challenging.

Let’s break it down further….

Here’s a list of things you can and should outsource:
Marketing activities
Sending out newsletters/articles
Booking appointments/scheduling speakers
Research
Bookkeeping
Social media content
Client support
Word processing/data entry
Graphics/web design
Copywriting
Setting up teleseminars, events
Follow up via cards, etc.
Database management

But this is what you absolutely can’t give away:
Being the leader for your team
Speaking the truth when things are hard
Creating the culture of your company and sharing that
Visioning for the future
Raising the bar for expectations
Communicating what’s real
Taking responsibility – the buck stops with you

For me these are some pretty powerful distinctions. Leadership isn’t easy at times. It takes courage. You may not be popular and loved by all. Yet there is no more important asset to you as a business owner. And I also know it’s like a muscle that you can work to strengthen.

So that’s my challenge to you this week. Look at the places in your business where there are opportunities to outsource, and then find more opportunities to lead. What’s gonna change in all of this? YOU! You will find strength in yourself you didn’t know, and a resolve that will serve you well. Step up and step out! We need your gifts in the world.

Blessings,
Therese

In my last post, I gave some background about my relationship with my dog, Kailee, and Kailee’s trainer, Susan. I had been struggling with the dog training process. Kailee, Susan, and I had been out walking together when I had the thought, “This is the feeling that I used to have before I outsourced all the areas of my business that I don’t like and I’m not good at.”

I was having a de ja vu moment that all entrepreneurs go through when they hit the wall from not working in their strengths. With my clients and those I teach, I always talk about creating a business that you will love. And doing tasks that are not in your skill set will drag you down faster than anything.

In that moment I knew why I was such a champion of outsourcing. In fact, I said to Susan, “If this were my business, I’d outsource this because it’s not fun, and I’m not doing a very good job at it. Plus I’m super frustrated!” If it were a business task it would definitely be a thing to turn over to a trusty VA, don’t you think? That was so powerful because truthfully I have such an outsourced business today, that there are very few things that I do that I don’t love. So in that moment, I felt the pain that many of you may be going through if you don’t have a team to take away some of the tasks that are dragging you down.

Now let’s fast forward. The next time Susan was over I proudly shared the parallel that dog training and delegation meant to me. And she had a brilliant response the deepened my entrepreneurial connection and understanding of what to give away. She said, “Yes Therese, you can outsource having Kailee exercised…

“But you cannot outsource being the leader.”

In that moment, it all shifted for me. I had recently watched a colleague’s business almost go down the drain because this person didn’t embrace being the leader when things got hard. And I realized that we are all at risk if we take this too far.

I’m excited to share with you in my next post the final lesson that I was able to take away from this experience, and how it has impacted my business.

Blessings,
Therese

This is an article on how an experience in training my dog taught me a huge lesson in business!

Ok, I’m really, really good at some things. Parenting, coaching, speaking/training. Even pretty good at singing….but when it comes to owning a dog, I have to give myself a “B” or maybe “C+” in this area. Not that I don’t care for my sweet pooch, cuz I adore her, but truthfully, I haven’t put the time in to train her to be quite as socialized as she should be.

Maybe it’s because I’m such a fierce advocate for bold self expression that I don’t stop her from getting on the couch, sleeping in my bed, and wanting to be in everyone’s lap! Or maybe it’s that we got her as a VERY WILD rescue dog the month before my ex moved out and for that first year, let’s just say that I didn’t have the energy to put into getting her trained. Of course that’s now been over four years, but who’s counting? The funny thing? Today I have a great trainer who comes over a few times a month and works with Kailee. (She’s fabulous if you need a referral!) Here’s how it goes….When Susan the trainer works with her, she’s like a show dog. We have discovered that I’m the problem. Since Kailee is so energetic, you can’t just put a leash on her and take her out. Susan has a whole process of steps which serve to show Kailee who is in charge. That’s about 10 minutes in the house, and then ten more minutes zigzagging the cul-de-sac before the walk even begins. AHHHHHHHHHH….This is where my impatient “never-mind-I’ll-just-take-her-for-a-drive” attitude comes in.

A few weeks ago I was walking K-dog with Susan and was feeling really frustrated. She wasn’t getting it, and I was not having fun. No matter what I did, she wasn’t settling down, so I was working harder and harder and getting less than good results. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks….

“This is the feeling that I used to have before I outsourced all the areas of my business that I don’t like and I’m not good at.”

In my next post, I’ll share with you the unexpected paradigm shift I experienced as a result of my experience with Kailee.

Blessings,
Therese

Continuing on with our series of 7 Ways to Avoid Costly Marketing Mistakes, check out these simple and effective strategies:

3. Create a marketing calendar. This way you won’t be tempted to give up. Grab your planner, Outlook, or your Post-It notes -whatever you use to organize your time. Make a day each month that you will dedicate to marketing. There is the creation of your project and the implementation as well. For example, if you are going to have a newsletter sent on the 10th of the month, you may need to get your self sitting down and creating it by the 3rd of the month! And you know what I’m going to tell you, my busy business owners………..OUTSOURCE! Don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to do it all yourself because truthfully, you can’t and you won’t! Get yourself a great assistant (either live or virtual) and have most of this stuff done for you. As Nike would say – Just Do It. You’ll thank me later.

4. Systematize or suffer. You may have heard talk about how you need to have systems in place. Well you don’t really, unless that is, you want to have insanity in its place. You get to choose! What I mean by systems is that with the newsletter example, you have a template already created, you have the format down, you have the VA or other administrative assistant primed and ready, so all you need to do is create content. No reason to reinvent the wheel. For each marketing piece you do, create a file detailing all the steps you went through. Yes, there will be more work up front, but in the end, you can hand the file off while you are sitting on a beach somewhere. That’s my hope for you!

5. Don’t guess, test! That’s the biggie in marketing. How do you know what works if you don’t test? You may need to have a “How did you find us” question, or some other way to capture that info. Test your marketing pieces on your target market, and not your husband, wife, friend or neighbor! If they aren’t your market, their opinions don’t count. There are way too many ‘dream stealers’ out there who don’t get what you do and can’t really be a good resource for your questions. Find a group of your target market and ask them if you can run by some marketing pieces with them. You can incent them with freebie stuff, but very often people LOVE to help and give their opinion. Just gotta ask.

Do research to determine what your market responds to. How do you find these???? Check out discussion boards by doing a Google search for your content ideas, or send your clients a survey. I’ll give you an example of why testing is important…One of my clients recently wanted to conduct teleseminars for her market to highlight some classes she wants to offer. She was getting advice from a speaker friend of hers in how to do this, but when we poked around a bit, we discovered that while the speakers target market would participate in teleseminars, this may be a really foreign concept to my client’s market. It would have flopped for her, so we got from her market how they best would like to receive the information.

Are you seeing it yet? A few simple tweaks can make all the difference in creating a focused, successful marketing strategy. Join me next time as I share my final two suggestions.

Blessings,
Therese

Let’s finish up our discussion of the Top 3 Money Killing Mistakes in Business. Finally, let’s talk about those bad habits, ‘eh?

There are many, so let me list them here:

• Saying yes to every opportunity
• Following every guru and buying tons of programs (without getting a good ROI)
• Not following up with contacts
• Being in touch with your list only sporadically
• Thinking that you have to have all your marketing materials just perfect
• Not managing your energy
• Getting swept away in distractions
• Pricing too low
• Spending too much time on FB and Twitter (I’m totally guilty of this!)

I think we could start a list and come up with a hundred or more of these, so I want you to identify your top 10. You can focus on one at a time and make a plan to change that.

All of this begins with awareness. Just a few tiny tweaks will ‘shore up’ your leaky places and get you on the track to keeping that beautiful money that you have earned and deserve to see more of. And not only that, when you take care of these things you’ll feel more empowered, turn into a better business owner, and make a much bigger difference in your life and the lives of those around you. Now how cool is that?

Blessings,
Therese

I’ve been talking about the Top 3 Money Killing Mistakes in Business. Next we are looking at your business model. How is this a place where money is running away from you? Let me give you an example…

Just yesterday I coached a business owner who could charge $400/hr in doing some of the specialized things he does. And when I asked him what he needed to let go of (as we were starting one of my 90-Day Marketing Ramp Up Programs) he immediately went to one activity that took him 5-8 hours a week and in the end, probably generated him $50/hr. When we looked at how much it cost him to do it in terms of time and where else he could put those hours to better use, he agreed to drop that piece of his business at that rate. When he devotes those 5-8 hrs a week to marketing/social networking, he’ll get a far better return of the investment of his time.

So now Auntie Therese is gonna come over with her chopping block and ask you to start putting on there all the things in your biz that you are doing that should be outsourced! I feel like a broken record because I say this all the time, but it’s a huge cash flow killer and leads to nothing but overwhelm! Most of us get into this habit at the beginning because we don’t have the resources to do it differently, but moving forward please set a goal to be working only in your brilliance and doing the tasks that you love and that generate you the big dollars.

Blessings,
Therese

You know that feeling…

The one where you sit back and think, “Dang…I have worked, and worked, and worked, but nothing is happening.” You may see no new clients, have gained minimal revenue, and may be at risk for throwing in the towel and heading to the mall to sell shoes for Macy’s instead of chasing the entrepreneurial freedom that normally drives you.

Today I’m here to keep you off that shoe floor!  Don’t give up my friend, because the success you have been striving for could be just around the corner.

Recently, I was having a conversation with my friend Kebba Buckley Button about this very subject and how so many people have had a relatively crappy year, that they are ready to “give up five minutes before the miracle” occurs.  Kebba, being the wise healer/trainer that she is asked me if I knew how a tree grew.  She shared that once you put a tree in the earth, very often you won’t see it gaining in height for some time because it is strengthening it’s foundation – the root ball – and it can take years and years for this process to happen.  Then eventually, as if by magic, it will shoot up a few feet and keep growing and growing. 

I really saw that this is what happens in the business growth cycle.  So these are the things you need to strengthen in your business before your ‘roots’ are strong enough to shoot you out there.

Your vision -does this need to be added to?  Is the same plan you set in motion a year ago still serving you?  Take some time to get crystal clear about what you want, how you will feel, and who you need to be to carry this out in the world.  Write this down, share it, and reference it daily.  Vision boards are also great to keep nearby.

Your offerings – what else could you deliver to your market?  Are there any more leveraged ways to work and get information to the folks who will ultimately want to hire you?  What problems can you solve for your clients?  This can be a really fun survey question!  Just ask your market what else they struggle with and fill what you can.  You can use www.SurveyMonkey.com for this.

Your team – this is a wonderful one to take a look at, because even those of us who have been working with teams for awhile can still find ways where it could be even smoother.  Here’s my tip for you…Have you thought about bringing on a project manager?  I used to have three team members, but I was the one who still was coordinating/scheduling, etc. all the tasks.  When I realized what a drain and time waster all this was, I got a project manager who now manages that piece of it.  She saves me tons of time, and is WAY better at doing that stuff than I am! Look for areas where you can continue to pull yourself out of the operations even more.  (And if you need a recommendation, just shoot me an email.)

Your list – One of the main mantra’s I recite to my clients is, “You gotta love your list.”  But first you need to have a list, so where could you go to connect with more people who are interested in the work you do?  During this time, focus on adding new names to your database of folks who would be better targeted to what you offer.  When you get them on the list, reach out!  Call past clients, call new people you met, send postcards, or friend people on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.  These people aren’t names in a database, they are RELATIONSHIPS waiting to happen.  Connecting is your #1 job.

Your systems – yes, systems.  Not sexy, but necessary.  If you need any help in this area, my friend Beth Schneider is the gal.  During the holidays if things slow down for you a bit, I’d encourage you to go through and see what you can automate/systematize.  Here are some examples – billing, new client contact, newsletter, follow up, speaking engagements, marketing, etc.  The list is endless, and the more you can create templates/checklists, the happier you will be.

Your marketing – are you connecting with your list weekly?  Please know that a quarterly newsletter is not going to get you anywhere!  It’s not overkill to be in the inbox weekly or even more of the folks who opted in, if you are providing great content and solving their problems.  BE BOLD!  I challenge you to move through your fear about upsetting someone and welcome those unsubscribes if they happen.  I just reframe that as clearing space on my list for people who resonate more with my message.  What I know is that the more consistently you market, the  more clients you will get. Bottom line.  End of story.  Just do it!  Remember that 80/20 rule…Eighty percent giving value and information, and twenty percent selling or promoting your stuff.  And another marketing lesson for you?  Don’t give it all away for free!  Think about training your list.  You want them to get used to pulling their wallets out and purchasing something.  This will happen if you have proven to them that you are a trusted expert who ‘has their back’ and will deliver good content.

There ya go.  Six things that you can work on when it feels like things are in the deep freeze.  The biggest thing during this time is to not give up, and not give into feelings of hopelessness, frustration, or self doubt.  Sometimes the best thing you can do is to surrender to what is. If what is is that things are slow for  you, reframe it as an opportunity to revamp and retool your existing business to one that will serve you even better.  It will turn around…just gotta keep the faith and do the right things for your business to water and nourish it on a regular basis.

I don’t wanna hear that anyone in my tribe is giving up and selling shoes these days!  Buying shoes, OH YEAH!

Blessings,

Therese

This is an article I published last year that is good enough to repeat…hope you enjoy!

You know how they say “life imitates art?”  I believe that life imitates business!  Lessons in our lives are the very same ones that we bump into in our business, so in this article I share with you the story of how an incident with my dog showed me one of the problems that business owners run into daily.  This lesson is called:

4 Steps to Leveraging Your Time and Talent

After his recent near death experience and a VERY expensive surgery, I had to take my eleven year old dog Colby back to the vet to get his sutures out. He had eaten a stuffed Easter egg (which didn’t pass through!) so ended up having to have it removed which left an 8 inch incision in his stomach.

On Saturday morning as I was ready to get him in my van, I discovered that no matter what I did, he wasn’t going in. I’d lift, push, cajole, and basically tried everything I could do, but my 80 pound elderly, weak-in-the-hips pooch would just slide under the vehicle. It occurred to me that one of us was gonna get hurt, so I did what every smart business owner would do….I called in reinforcements! OK, the ‘muscle’ in this case was my ex who lives about a mile away. (Yeah, we have that cool kind of relationship….) One quick phone call and in a few minutes the ex popped over and said canine was comfortably in the seat on the way to the vet.

Here is the application for your business … Support = success!

Now why in the world would I share this story about my geriatric dog and my need to call for help? Because it’s the perfect entrepreneur’s dilemma!

I had a ‘project’ I needed to do but didn’t have the resources to make it happen on my own. The theme for this article is to encourage you to see who can do the ‘heavy lifting’ and help you out in areas where you need some more support.

Below is my four-step process for embracing this really important principle in your business.

Step #1: Open your eyes! Take a look around at your business and where you either loose energy (bookkeeping maybe?) or where you are chronically overwhelmed, or when you know that if you just had a few key pieces in place….you’d really be able to take off. Sometimes it will be letting someone do the tasks for you, or maybe it’s the need you have to learn a new skill. What would it be for you? Make a list…………

Step #2: Visualize! The next step is to allow yourself to imagine what would be possible if you had this piece in place. This is where the fun is. If you could design it EXACTLY how you wanted, how would it look/feel/be? Now, everyone knows about getting ads posted on Craig’s List or putting up job descriptions, but what I coach my clients around is to make sure you put in the intangibles.  We all want someone who is skilled, etc, but this is where your values come into play.  Do you want to have your new team members be fun, or creative, or self starters?  Adding this one piece is critical! Your turn…dream big! What would you love to see in terms of support?

Step #3: Strategize! Now where do you find this person? There are two ways of doing it. The first is the ‘inner game’ way of just harnessing energy. Part of the ‘magic’ is if you just set the intention, the Universe conspires to support you. (Anyone ever watched The Secret?)

The next way is to do some research about who is out there that could ‘fill the bill’ for you in this area.

Using the social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn are really fabulous ways to connect.  One of my clients recently needed a marketing manager, so I just put the question to my LinkedIn list and got over thirty people recommending folks! Using other people’s networks and referrals is the best way to go in this case.

Now it’s your turn…after putting out the intention, create a list of where you could find the support you need and a list of who you could go to for help finding it. Don’t forget the power of your network. Ask others who they know.

Step #4: Realize! Now that you have found that perfect person, how is it going to work? What has to happen for you to put them on your team? Maybe you just need an advisory board or possibly a peer run mastermind. In either case, explore what’s the win-win for all parties involved.

If you need to pay for some new team members, do a calculation about how much business you’ll need to bring in to cover the new cash outlay. Truthfully, many entrepreneurs get themselves stuck in the trap of “I can’t afford to pay anyone to help, but I’m so busy doing so much administrative stuff, that I can’t earn more money either.” If you find yourself in that conundrum, ask yourself the following questions -

1. What’s the minimum investment I’d need to make to move forward? (Example, if you can only spend $500/month…what could that money buy you?)
2. How long would it take for me (with the new people in place) to begin to see a return on my investment?
3. What is it costing me to NOT have these additional resources? This could be in time, money, or just stress! Be honest here.

Now it’s time to take action!  Plan for the projects that you need support with, and get the people in place to make that a reality.  Once you begin to work this way, you’ll never look back!