EP74: [REPLAY] What I Learned From Doing 47 Consult Calls in 3 Months

What were the top 3 business challenges 47 different business women had in common?

In this repeat episode, I share my lessons learned that one time (at band camp -- ha!) I did 47 free consult calls for women business owners.

As I sat and tracked the data from all of those calls, I started to notice distinct patterns. All of the challenges women were coming to me for fell into 1 of 3 categories: defining financial success, creating impactful content, and managing time effectively.

Join me as I share the advice I gave during those calls, and how you can shift your own perspectives around these "Big 3" to find more ease in running your business.

Chapters

• 0:01 Success Blocks
• 7:00 Defining Success and Intentional Content
• 14:53 Navigating Business Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, welcome to this replay episode of the Business Blasphemy Podcast. So this episode happened in early 2023. So here's the story At the end of 2022, I had turned 47 years old and so I decided in Q1 of 2023, I was going to offer 47 free consult calls with women business owners in honor of me turning 47. And, believe me, every single one of those calls was snapped up. It wasn't a discovery call. It was a legitimate 30-minute consult call for any kind of problems or challenges that business owners were facing. They got an opportunity to come and talk it through with me and it was fantastic. And you know, talk it through with me and it was fantastic. And this episode really highlights the fact that out of those 47 calls, there were really only three main problems, like three main categories of challenge that kept coming up over and over and over again. And it's those three categories that I share in this episode and hopefully re-listening to it if this is the second or third time you're listening to it, or listening to it for the first time really helps you shift your perspective around what business really requires in order to be successful and maybe helps kind of put into perspective some of those things you're worrying about because maybe they don't deserve the level of importance you're giving them. Anyway, here it is.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast, where we question the sacred truths of the online business space and the reverence with which they're held. I'm your host, sarah Kahn, speaker, strategic consultant and BS busting badass. Join me each week as we challenge the norms, trends and overall bullshit status quo of entrepreneurship to uncover what it really takes to build the business that you want to build in a way that honors you, your life and your vision for what's possible, and maybe piss off a few gurus along the way. So if you're ready to commit business blasphemy, let's do it. Hello, hello, friends, how are you? You know, as we round out Q1 of 2023, I mean, okay, first of all, holy smokes, how is 2023 already a quarter over? It's bananas. Anyway, as we round out 2023's Q1, I have to admit I'm very, very proud of myself.

Speaker 1: 2:23

I did something that I never thought I could do. I decided on a whim and committed to it because I really, truly wanted to give back to my community, a community that has been incredibly generous with their support and their love. So I did a thing. Basically, I turned 47 last December and I decided that I wanted to do free consult calls for women. So why not do 47 of them? It's pretty ambitious and, believe me, it was ambitious.

Speaker 1: 2:50

But I did 47 free consult calls this quarter for women business owners to help them shift something or help them solve a problem in their business. They were not discovery calls, they were actual consult calls where we worked together to address a challenge that they were having. And I left it quite open with respect to what we could talk about and just asked them to give me an idea of what they wanted to cover so that I could mentally prepare. And you know I asked them, you know whether it was content related or strategy related, was it operations mindset hiring? Literally the sky was the limit. Well, I recently wrapped the last conversation. So I did 47 consult calls in the last three months and I was looking back and evaluating all of the help and the support that I was able to provide. And again, this is a huge win and I'm celebrating myself and all of the women who trusted me, because it was a big deal. In just 30 minutes I was able to support on things like identifying the next steps for a pivot that a business owner had wanted to make.

Speaker 1: 3:54

For over a year, I helped clarify how a business owner should spend CEO time in order to make sure that their own business was growing consistently, because sometimes that happens right More than sometimes, we get so caught up in helping our clients that we don't actually focus on our own business and we feel like we tell ourselves that working on a client's business is growing our business. It's not really true, though, is it? I also helped someone map out next steps for a new launch that they wanted, helped create clarity around messaging and positioning, and gave feedback on some challenges that a business owner was having with their team. I even shared with someone my favorite three exercises to use when imposter syndrome pops up, so there was even some mindset stuff that I helped support, and that was just a small taste, right?

Speaker 1: 4:38

There were so many other things that we talked about, and the beauty of these calls was twofold. Number one I got to stand in my zone of genius and hone my craft, which is important to me, right? I don't want to ever be in a place where I'm not constantly learning or practicing or improving, because I think that if you're not constantly growing, you're stagnating, and when you stagnate, you die. And number two I got to help women who didn't necessarily need to hire long-term support, you know, but they wanted someone with fresh eyes to look at their problem and see it from a different perspective, maybe help them get a little bit of traction so they could kickstart their momentum. You know and I'm not silly, I know that 30 minutes is never enough to solve anything completely, but hopefully, like I said, I shifted their perspective enough for them to consider trying something new or looking at their challenges in a different way. You know, for real breakthroughs to happen and for changes to take hold, I know they require time, they require consistency and, for a lot of people, they require accountability.

Speaker 1: 5:37

So, as I was looking back at the things that I'd helped with and that we talked about and was reviewing everything that I helped with because, let's be honest, I am marking them down all as wins and a goal accomplished but I also want to be able to follow up with these women and to see how they're getting on so as I was reviewing things, I started to notice patterns. I started to notice that all of the challenges all 47 of them that these incredible women were having fell into one of three categories Isn't that interesting. They were all having challenges around one of these three things Number one, determining financial success. Number two, figuring out what their content should be and how to make it stand out. And number three, what to do with their time that was more effective than what they were already doing. So I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts, because if 47 women unconnected and not having sat in a group or anything like that if 47 women were feeling these three things, odds are you might be too. And the truth is all three of these things kind of go hand in hand. They kind of go together. So let's talk about them. Let's start with financial success. Several of the women I supported were feeling imposter syndrome around how much money they were making, given how far along they were in their business or how long they'd simply been in business.

Speaker 1: 7:00

And there is so much crap in the online space about what success should look like, particularly financial success Like is it five-figure months? Is it six-figure years? Do I need to be making seven or eight figures? Or I'm not a true entrepreneur Like what is the benchmark? If you're breaking even every month and you're covering all of your expenses, you're technically successful. I know that doesn't seem true to a lot of us and I know that some people are probably listening to that statement and going, ah right, but it's a weird noise, sorry. We have been conditioned. We've been so conditioned to see success as linear, right or tied to a specific dollar amount. And when I say linear, I mean well, if you're in year one or year two or year three, you should be at this point or this point or this point financially. But I promise you, if you are covering your expenses, you're technically successful. I promise you that's true. If you are not going into debt for your business, you are successful. Now, point of clarification. That doesn't mean that you never take on debt, but you are also able to pay it off consistently and without too much difficulty. You're not crippling yourself financially to keep your business running right. True financial success is very subjective. It really depends on how you define it. What's influencing that definition? Who are you comparing yourself to? Do you live in parallel lives? Or maybe they have way more support than you do? You have to be really honest about what you are benchmarking your financial success against.

Speaker 1: 8:46

I love a recent example of something that I talked about the mistaken idea that we all have the same 24 hours in a day is like Beyonce or Mother Teresa. We should be able to accomplish big things like both of them did. Now listen, beyonce had a team of people who were helping her when she was in Destiny's Child. She had parents who were fully all in. She had, you know, support from her studio and from all like all there. She had a ton of support, right, and she got famous and she had money. And then she got married and had kids. So people who say, well, she, she did it with three kids or two I don't know how many kids she has, but she did it with her kids Like, let's be honest, she already had a shit ton of money by that point and she probably has an even bigger team now who are helping her, do what needs to get done, people to look after her kids, support around the house, right All sorts of support and privilege that other artists don't. Now the same goes for you and your money-making capacity.

Speaker 1: 9:37

You have to determine what your definition of success is for you, not compared to anyone else. What do you need to survive? How much are you willing to charge? How much do you charge? How much time do you have to deliver services or work on your business? Is your business model a retainer model? Are you an agency? Are you a solopreneur who's delivering services on a project basis? Like do you need solid lead generation? Are you underpricing yourself? There are so many factors that go into this and there's no clear timeline of what you should be making when you reach a certain time stamp in your business, like you must be making six figures after two years or you're on a success Like. It's bullshit, right. So this is when we start to talk about things like capacity, yes, but like values and whatnot.

Speaker 1: 10:28

So, let's say, your definition of success is pretty solid and you're happy with it. Then what? Well, then we look at things like your offers, your messaging, your pricing or something else, even your mindset. But it all has to start with making sure you're chasing your own dreams and not someone else's, and I get it. That can be a challenge, especially if you've never taken the time to step back and truly, truly dig deep and understand what your definition of success is. We are influenced by so many people, not just on social media, but our friend groups, our parents, our family members, our social circle, the clubs that we're a part of. We're influenced by all of these things, what the Joneses are doing. It has an impact on how we view success, and that is sometimes the most detrimental thing of all. Right, that comparisonitis and so doing the work to get really clear on what your definition of success is is a really, really good place to start.

Speaker 1: 11:28

The second common thread that I saw in the women that I was working with was content, and this kind of goes in line with definition of success, but the idea that they had. A lot of women were coming to me with the idea that creating more content was what they needed in order to be seen. Right, they're putting out content. They weren't getting the kind of feedback or engagement that they really wanted, so maybe they needed to put more content out right. Maybe they needed to tweak their content. I mean, this is a really, really common one. So here's what I helped several women understand.

Speaker 1: 12:03

I helped several women understand you don't necessarily need more content. You need more intentional content. You need to share content consistently. Yes, acknowledging that consistent means different things for different people, but instead of just throwing more content out there and creating reels unnecessarily and blah blah like have fun, sure, but just creating content for the sake of creating content is not going to solve anything. You need to create content that is designed to speak very specifically about who you are, what you offer and why anyone should give a shit right. This is why I hate content calendars and content templates. Yes, they're a great starting point to get you in the groove and they absolutely are helpful at a very grassroots level, but they are absolutely not going to help you stand out Not a chance.

Speaker 1: 12:47

You need to understand who you are, what you offer, how it helps people get from where they are now to where they want to be, and how you do it. How you do it. That is different from everyone else. That is the key and that's the hardest part for a lot of us to define. I'm going to pause here and give you some context. A lot of women who booked my calls were women in the same line of work as me, so they offered strategy or consulting or some kind of service based on their experience and expertise. They've done certain certifications or taken certain programs to help them specialize in a certain type of service offer and help them feel like now they've got clout, they've got authority and they're still struggling to stand out in a sea of other service providers who are offering the exact same thing. The truth is, most of us do similar things, most of us sell similar services. Most of our content is exactly the same. So how do you stand out? Well, by figuring out what you specifically support with Basically everything I've already said, and by being you.

Speaker 1: 14:05

This part is the part that a lot of people have fear around doing, or they aren't sure who they truly are. So they keep showing up like everyone else in their space. Because, let's be honest, being your true self in a space that is so heavily curated, even when people are purporting to be authentic, is scary. To be vulnerable is scary. To let the side of you that you've kept hidden for so fucking long to make yourself palatable is scary. But it's also your superpower and the thing that will make you stand out, the thing that will resonate with the right people and finally create content that feels more like you than anything else you've ever done before. Trust me, it's what I had to do Really get down and get deep and uncover who the fuck I was.

Speaker 1: 14:53

I mean, I'd had an inkling most of my life, but I kept her quiet for so long because I was always told and always afraid she would make people run. And when we expend so much of our time and energy throughout our lives trying to attract people, the idea that showing up in any way as someone who could do the opposite is hard. We spend so much of our time trying to make people like us, love us, accept us, embrace us. Showing up on social media and suddenly sharing ideas that people might not agree with or like or hate on, that shit's scary. But the vast majority of people I work with now are people who resonated so deeply with my content and that didn't happen until I started doing the work of really allowing my true self space to breathe.

Speaker 1: 15:39

The truth is I'm still figuring out who she is. I work on her every day, but I've never felt more confident in myself. That doesn't mean I don't get imposter syndrome. It doesn't mean that I don't have days where I feel like a fraud. It doesn't mean that I have days where I want to hide under a rock. Of course I mean it's normal, but I know who I am and I know who I want to be and it's getting easier and easier to show up as her Right. And that's probably the hardest work you'll ever do, but when you do it, everything else gets so much easier. And this ties really really nicely to the third common thread or the third pattern that I was seeing. This is time, this idea of taking your true self, taking your true definition of success and creating a timeframe that works for you with respect to how and when you run your business right, how you set your goals, how you launch, how you define your priority tasks every day. All of that, and how do you do this?

Speaker 1: 16:31

Honoring your capacity, capacity is something I talk about a lot. Being honest about what the realities of your life are actually like. Your day isn't going to look like anyone else's, nor should it, and that feeling of overwhelm that you have because you're trying to do too much all the time is because you're not honoring your capacity, and capacity can fluctuate from day to day, week to week, month to month, like hour to hour. Now let me say here that I'm all for pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, okay, but also don't gaslight yourself into thinking you aren't working hard enough or trying hard enough. Capacity is not just about how much time you have, but it's about how much energy you have, what your emotional and mental state are, and even how you physically feel on any given day. That is such a huge variable, and that is why your timeframe for things shouldn't look like anyone else's. You should honor your capacity Now.

Speaker 1: 17:22

I always suggest doing things, pragmatic things, tangible things like regular time audits, creating project lists, things based on what you want to accomplish and what you're actually spending your time on. Be realistic about that. Be honest with yourself about that. How often are you doom scrolling, social media, that kind of thing? But those things are not really effective until you actually determine what you should be working on, based on what your goals are, what your vision is and what your values and priorities are. Goals are what your vision is and what your values and priorities are. Oh, and your stage of business, and that does not mean how long you've been in business, but what stage you're at from a business maturity standpoint, because you can be in your business for six months or six years and be at the same stage, depending on the maturity of your business. Now, that is something that I'm not going to go into today. That's all part of my corporate rehab methodology that I created last year and that I use as the basis for all of the work that I do with clients, but it's important to understand that your stage of business is not relative to how long you've been in business. How you manage your CEO time or your CEO tasks is another important thing and should be dependent on all of the things I just mentioned.

Speaker 1: 18:34

Too often, the women that I serve are doing things to keep themselves busy, because that's how we were expected to be in the traditional workplace. If you're not constantly busy, you aren't being productive. Right, but being busy and being productive are not mutually exclusive. So what I helped several women with was identifying specifically what they needed to spend time working on each day to move their business forward, based on the capacity they had on any given day, and what they really actually truly needed, based on where they wanted to go. And the beautiful thing about embracing your capacity is that you can still be productive and still move the needle in your business without having to constantly be busy. Even if you manage one thing a day, if it's the right thing, you're still making progress.

Speaker 1: 19:22

So that was quick and dirty, but those are the three common threads that came up time and time again during my 47 free consults this past quarter, and that's what really amazes me the fact that I had nearly 50 separate conversations with separate human beings running very diverse businesses and all of these things kept coming up, which means that it's a very, very, very likely possibility that you're suffering. Suffering Is that the right word? You're struggling with one of these things too. So if any of these things resonated with you and you want to talk about it, book a fucking call, come on. How many episodes in? Are we 12 episodes in? Book a call, let's chat. Details to get in touch are in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 20:03

And if you have been feeling in the messy middle, if you feel like you have all of this knowledge and experience and expertise and your offers are pretty solid and you're selling them pretty consistently, but you're still not quite feeling like you're able to connect the dots, something still feels out of alignment, I want to invite you to check out my new hybrid program, awaken Align Unleash. It's a 12-week program that offers group coaching, one-on-one implementation, support, co-working everything that you need to allow you to offer what you want, not what you think you should. It'll have you showing up more consistently. It'll allow you to feel more confident in pivoting your offers, raising your prices in line with the value that you bring, because you can see the value, you can understand the value and really talk about it. And the most important thing is, it will help you reconnect with the truth of who you are and what you want, and that's the kind of business you should be running A business that allows you to show up exactly as the person you desire to be. If you want more details, head to the show notes or connect with me on Instagram. Now, that's more than enough to be getting on with this week.

Speaker 1: 21:17

I cannot wait to come back next week. Truly, these podcast episodes are the highlight of my working week and I love being able to share with you, and I love it even more when you let me know it's helped, and I wanted to take a minute to thank you for listening, for tuning in, for being here and for being on this journey with me. It means more. Oh, I'm getting emotional. It means more than you'll ever know. Oh, there we go Tears. This has been just such an awesome journey and, oh, we're a long way from over.

Speaker 1: 21:51

So I will be back next week. Have a wonderful week and please, please, remember you can absolutely have success without the BS. Talk to you soon. That's it for this week. Thanks for listening to the Business Blasphemy Podcast. We'll be back next week with a new episode, but in the meantime, help a sister out by subscribing and if you're feeling extra sassy rating this podcast, and don't forget to share the podcast with others. Head over to businessblasphemypodcastcom to connect with us and learn more. Thanks for listening and remember you can have success without the BS.