Start With Why But Don’t Forget Who, What, Where, and When

TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED Hey, Hey, so this week I'm going to have a chat with you about something that I have a little bit of entrepreneur shame around when we start our entrepreneurial journey, there are a million different areas that we feel completely unqualified for. Imposter syndrome is knocking on our door every two minutes. There are a few areas where we always are kind of open about our shame, like website shame. Oh, when someone asks for your URL, you give it to them, but you qualify it with like, oh, I haven't rebranded yet. I think we also have like a bit of social media shame. Like I haven't posted in the last six months. But the one I want to talk about today is one that I don't see people talk about that often. And that is why shame. So w H Y why shame? When I started my entrepreneurial journey, I was meeting so many people with these frankly astounding stories of overcoming incredible obstacles in their lives to build their businesses, to turn their lives around, to work with other people, to do the same thing. And I can remember being both in all of their work and. Ashamed that I didn't have that same origin story. I didn't have that rags to riches story. I didn't have that incredible story of overcoming the impossible I began to wonder if I was somehow missing an integral part of being an entrepreneur. This, why was it as important as everybody made out? If it was the thing that got you through when you were having your most difficult times, if it was the thing that got you to your desk, first thing in the morning, and I didn't have a big why. Was I destined to fail and for me, In comparison with these stories of hardship and triumph over trauma and obstacles. My why of never wanting to be in a corporate job of never wanting to feel that somebody else had that kind of power over my future seemed really self-serving and really quite small. And so if that why is so important and I don't have it, how am I doing business? Well, here's the deal. I think a Y is really important, but it's really important to you and comparing it with somebody else's motivation is really not going to do you any favors, but knowing why you put your butt in your seat, in front of your computer every single day. Is important. And as long as it's important to you, you should have no shame around it. However, I don't think it's the only important thing. And because I know you're going to dive into planning and looking at goals and Maybe you're going to say revenue goals. Maybe you're going to set smart goals, maybe going to plan out projects. I want you to build that plan in such a way that you almost don't need your why and the way I want you to think about it is to use all the other W's. I want you to think about. Who you're working with. Do you need to have something in your goals or your plan for the second half of the year around your clients? If you can't hand on heart, say that you love serving every single one of your clients, you need to have a plan that is going to allow you to release those clients who aren't lighting you up. Because business is tough. And if you all using your why to justify taking on clients that you don't like. That don't light you up. Maybe they're really nice people. Maybe they just really pains in the behind to work with. Maybe they don't respect your boundaries. We've all done that with all, got a bit loosey goosey with who we've let in when money has been tight. But when you're thinking about what those monetary goals are, and you're thinking about how many clients that needs let's think about adding in some extra plans around those clients that we'd like to fire. Because I promise you will not need your why to pull you through, to motivate you to get on that call when you're dreading it. If you love your clients, that's going to take care of itself. Secondly, I want you to think about what or what are you offering? You can have the best offer in the world. And if you do not want to deliver it, you will struggle to sell it. Let me repeat that. If you don't like what you're going to have to deliver, you are going to struggle to sell it. So if you have built your business around this business model that was taught to you by someone else, and you're ending the day, feeling exhausted or frustrated, if you all. Constantly tired. If you are drained, when you think about it's time to deliver to your clients or in your group program, I need you to step back and ask if what you're delivering lights you up, because if what you're delivering lights you up, it's going to be a million times easier to deliver it because you're going to show up excited, amped, ready to go. But it's also going to be a million times easier to sell it because you're excited to deliver it to someone new. Then it's thinking about where are you showing up for marketing in particular, if you're not enjoying the marketing that you're doing, you're not going to show up consistently. And if you're not showing up consistently, that's going to have knock on impacts into your sales process and your leads process. So before you make big plans to post on say Instagram five times a week, ask yourself if Instagram is way you want to be. Is it where your clients are? Is there something that's more suited to you and the same for any other social media platform? For example, for me, I know that I don't show up well on a blog. And so I have a podcast. I have chosen the medium that works for me, where I can show up consistently for my people. It feels good to me. And then that translates to the people listening to you and learning from you. And finally, let's think about when, when is really the timing of your business. So the same way, we don't like it when our clients try to scope creep on us and they try to add little bits of extra into what they've promised themselves, I see. Entrepreneurs really allowing their business to scope creep on them, whether it's I'll just quickly check email after dinner, whether it's, oh, I'm just getting into bed before sleep. Let me just engage on Instagram for a few more minutes. And then half an hour later, you're still on it. Whether it's sending emails over the weekend, teaching people that you're available outside of working hours. So where are those time boundaries for your business and how are you going to enforce them for yourself? So as you go into planning for the second half of the year, by all means, go back to what is my, why? What is my mission for being in business, but then also remember ask yourself, who am I showing up for? And do I even like them? What am I offering? And do I want to deliver it? Where am I showing up? And does that feel good to me? And when does my business fit into my life and how am I putting boundaries up for myself?


Your why is important but when you focus too much on it, you can build a business that only serves your why and forgets all about you.

Key Takeaway

Whether your why is big or small, it’s better to be a business that doesn’t rely on it. Consider the other 4W’s to make sure your why is a just a boost not the whole cheering squad.

In This Episode

  • My entrepreneurial shame – no big origin story here
  • Why why is important but not as important as you think
  • Applying the other 4W to make sure you love your business not just your why