Lessons

Lesson Info

YOU Control Your Business

How can you design your day because when you package your goods you have to deliver and maintain your creative flexibility so you've got established control of your calendar by leading your client success and the reason I learned this I didn't I didn't know about this by the way I thought that everybody did things the way I did things and I had a job one day and I invited a colleague of mine to come and join me I said hacking his next repair hands do you want to come out? Sure she came out, she walked in the house with me and I don't remember what I was doing I was placing a sofa and maybe some chairs around she goes your client's lets you do this like, well, yeah, because if they didn't, I wouldn't work with them and she said, oh, I couldn't imagine them trusting you so much I thought was the bazaars conversation I've ever had with anybody and I don't work with people if they don't trust me completely, I don't work with him in design and I don't work with them in their businesses. I'v...

e gotta have your trust or we can't work together. You've got to know that I've got your back you got to know that I got your best interests at heart and you got to know that I'm one to ten steps ahead of you and you've also got to know that I'm never going tio dictate to you, I'm not going to corner you, I'm not going to see you have to do something I'm always going to come up with a plan b c or d if I need to, but if you don't know those things and you don't have that trust, I can't work with you and you want to do the same thing with your clients you are in control of your business, please do not abdicate that control I meet so many small business owners who one of the biggest challenges they face is they're not in control of their business, they're letting their clients run their business and that's incredibly unfortunate and you have the ability to retake control of your business so I would urge you to do that if that's what's happened. Um, this is about making it a sensory experience that perfect day exercise was not it'll idol exercise you really want to think about what you want? Your perfect it'll look like feel like smell like sound like tastes like I think I got him all in there, you know? And this is about you're in charge of the remote when you take control of your work, your talents and your clients, it exhibits confidence and build trust if you're not in charge, it makes them nervous if you start asking too many questions, they're going to be like, oh, shy for whom I work and what she does know what she's doing that scares the pants often don't do that, even if it means faking your way through certain things better that you fake it and they think you know what you're doing, then that you don't and they know you don't know what you're doing, okay truly, truly important lesson there, you know, far more than they do or they wouldn't have hired use if you're going to have an insecure moment, don't do it in front. Your client that's not fair, they hired you because they trusted you and they put confidence in you. So where that mantle proudly, I know we're going into the self esteem thing, I could feel it coming up. So here are five fast ways to stay in charge established your well for a win and what I mean by that is under promise over deliver tell them what you're going to be able to do and then do it even bigger and better than you promised what's that grin for hee hee? I mean, it just makes sense to do that, yeah, because that way everybody is happy, right? You're you're absolutely correct in that we're all pretty well seasoned business entrepreneurs in the is room, but not everybody feels that way about it. Not everybody knows that there are people who escaped by with the bare minimum, and they're also people who promise far more than they ever intend to deliver and it's a huge problem. So I want to make sure that you what you establish your wow to bay you bring in is a win and there's some extra mileage on top of that, you've always going that extra mile just because you want to, because you're engaged in your passion with purpose and a plan going back to module one it's all circular, but that makes a huge huge difference. Templates and tools will save you time if you are not using them, start creating them now they make an enormous difference. I was speaking with somebody the other day, and one of the key pieces in her business is she is really slow to get proposals out the door. I said, do you have a master proposal with all of your clauses in it so that you can then just pick and choose which causes you need per client, customized pop a personal letter and they're in boom out it goes and she goes no never thought of doing that, I said, I've done that for decades. Decades I said when we work together that's one of the first things we're going to do we're going to knock that out so that you've got it in place ready to go and when somebody asked you for a proposal or you're ready to present a proposal, you're going to have that out in twenty four hours not two weeks later and then the other piece of that is we're going to have your follow up for that proposal in place too so you're going to know exactly when you need to call them and check in and the next step after that maybe a tickle by email make sure you're already following him on twitter and facebook so you're keeping up with their conversations because that was the other piece she had no follow up in place those air extremely and they're such time savers we want to cut down on the stuff you don't like to do until you can outsource it the beautiful part about that is if you do that once and you just keep adding with my agreement I just kept adding clauses to it is things would come up look up need to add a clause about that little baby there you had a clause about that problem and you always have an out you always leave yourself an out you never want to be attached to somebody at the hip who goes crazy on you it will happen. It will happen. Okay? Faa cues because all clients have them if you do not have a frequently asked questions, you're really making it hard on yourself because you're having answer the same questions over and over and over again, aren't you? And how great would it be to have that at the ready in a file? So that when you include that proposal, you shoot the faa cues there with it boom done. I think I thank you for forever. Okay, these pieces will really make a difference in how your packaged because not many people are doing on an escape clause. That's escape clause you gotta have the escape clause. You too. We've all dealt with loonies, ok? You have a right not to work with lunatics. You have a right not to work with people who are going to rob you of your peace of mind. It's too precious you cannot put a price on that don't let it happen. I had a client starting out at one point she called every sunday morning eight a m I never answered the phone not the first time, not the twenty first time. Eventually I wanted flannery her for a lot of other reasons, but that was a nonnegotiable for may I wasn't working weekend hours for her. There are rare clients that I have and I knew that if I let her know that I would do it once should expect it again and again and again you are in charge of training you get to train your clients ok symbol to follow directions for your clients from the first touch make it clear what you expect of them if they're not clear that's where the confusion is going to come in and the relationship will deteriorate when you make it crystal clear and if you need deliverables from them you got to ask him for those deliverables you've got to get those flying in the door this is my favorite I love this because really you are the business owner and they are the client and you get to train them okay if I had trained her that I would answer the phone at eight o'clock on a sunday morning oh my gosh she would have been calling me every night of the week nine and ten pm and expecting a response now if you want to set forth hours an agreement you can certainly do that or if you just want to train him along the way whatever works best for you I've actually set for hours and agreements before I am available between these hours it is beyond the eight hours you could expect a phone call back the following day be clear this is your life you get to run it don't allow your business to swallow you whole and I know that sounds kind of contradicted to some of you were thinking oh wow, I just want to be available to them no not to this degree you don't you really don't in fact the less available you are, the more enticing you are because it makes you seem a lot more valuable when you are too accessible you're giggling over here e yeah I mean you know there's things everybody has to have boundaries if you don't have boundaries it's not a very good relationship a lot of people don't have boundaries you know I have much stronger boundaries in my in my professional life than I do in my personal life I can't get myself out of two long a dinner date state my life ah horrible time with that oh, I guess from tips in excellent I look forward to those I truly dio but this is about training your clients yes ma'am something a while ago and served me really well and that is that I can reach choose anything in my life at any ties yes and I love that word reached you. Yes you can it's not that I'm changing my mind it's that I reach is choosing a better way that's awesome rochelle thank you so much you can re choose a better way at any given moment in time you're not changing your mind is rachelle beautifully pointed out you are re choosing ah, better decision it's going to work better for you. And so if anybody says your fickle are changing right to tell him no, you're just re choosing what's in your best interests that makes a big big difference. Thank you for sharing that that's a that's a great great point now when it comes down to staff, I'm not a big one on staff, but we obviously have decided that I graduate a lot of things out. I delegate all the time, I don't play to my weaknesses, I cater to my strengths instead, so the question about staff becomes how do you get to be a cz large is you need to be without having a whole bunch of staff and I managed to do it because I have a lot of vendors and suppliers could do a lot of things for me and I don't have tio bring them into my company full time that's the beautiful part, I'm big on having a very large team and I've had people say me how how big are you like how big do you need me to be? I can be is bigger small is you want me to be because I have the resource is at my fingertips now these air not untested resource is the's air tested resource is do yourself a favor if you need to test out resource is, for goodness sakes, do it before you need them, because if you wait until you need them, you could wind up backed in a corner without the right resource on hand and that's a scary place to be so it's timeto higher when your best work is suffering because you're having a lot of other work get in the way, it's, in other words, when you're not operating out of your zone of genius, but you're barely operating and excellence because you're getting caught in all of the details and mired in the paperwork's. I'm so tickled that that person would got a bookkeeper. Yes, I love hearing that I want to hear more of that. I want twenty people in there to say I got a bookkeeper, or at least I'm starting to use quickbooks, too. That would be great. Um, it makes a really big difference. I'm big on virtual I think virtual is a great way to go now. Are there caveats and how you do it? Yes, absolutely there are, and virtual khun b a minefield, a mind field if you're not used to doing it, so success with a team virtual or real time in an interview reply, or if they have to submit their resume to you asked for an odd word. It's kind of like you may or may not have heard the story of it's one of the major rock bands does this every time they have ah contract they put in a clause that they get eminem's every performance, but all of the green ones have to be removed. The reason they do that is because the organizer that flags that they know paid attention to detail and they'll continue to do business with him if it is not flagged as something unusual they know they're not paying enough attention. Something will go wrong in a much bigger way like maybe they're lighting tanks so there's an audio issue and they won't do business with him was a clever way to do it now I'm not saying you wonder the eminem trek. What I usually do is is if I'm vetting people online is all simply say when you reply to this, please put this word in the subject line and I put something weird or spelled differently or something kind of wack a doodle that if I get replies that, don't say that don't even open them don't even open them because why might give somebody a second chance to make a first impression? I'm not ok so that's a simple neat trick clear expectations emanuel and examples if you've been dumped doing something for a really long time and you're ready to delegate it out you need to take the time to write down the steps to get it done. Now, if you don't care how it's done, you just carry that it gets done and you can give them an example of the finish of what? What it's supposed to look like, that's? Fine, too that's, your other alternative, but if you're not willing to do these pieces, then you're setting somebody up for failure and I think that's a big waste of time on everybody's parts, I don't want to see you do that assign one small project or task at a time this is hard to do were really inclined his hand off an enormous piece at once, and what will happen is they'll say sure, I could do anything. And then all of us said you wanted backed into a corner with a deadline looming, and they're completely panicked, freaked out and unable to do even a portion of it so only one tiny piece of the time when you're delegating whether it's online or offline and review their progress along the way, don't wait till the end always give a false deadline also always give a false deadline you needed on friday telling you needed the previous wednesday because you need time to punt as the case may be. All right, very, very important. Any comments online on any of this? No, people are sharing their different experiences of what they've been using for different virtual assistance, and I think everyone has their own level of comfort, but they want to delegate to people on what they want to be in charge of. Yeah, and there are resource is you can use thes air just a few of them elance, dot com ods, dot com five or dot com e a help? What about fiber like they're so handy fivers off its group now the cool thing about five years people so you get what you pay for it, yes, but this is a very important but because five or is five dollars for anything on that site, including building a full web page, you can generally comfortably afford to have four separate providers do the very same task for you. One of them is bound to come through well, so that makes a big difference. The reason it's so cheap is not because these people don't know what they're doing instead it's because one of two things eh they're in third world countries and five dollars to them is like five hundred to us or b because there, locally or domestically based and this is a side avenue that they either want to pursue ultimately full time or that they're just wanted to try out and get some extra income in the door so it doesn't necessarily have any do a skill set what's very interesting is read the reviews and for goodness sakes read the replies to the reviews of the providers because I have seen some humdinger za comments come through from providers to reviewers and if there's a hunting or I'm out of there because that's somebody who is not willing to take the criticism and say I'm sorry I take ownership of that I should have fixed that and taking care of it that makes a big difference um I did find a really fantastic power point talent on fire who's now going to be starting his own business because I was coaching him into it I don't taking him off five or I feel terrible about this but my gosh, I just shot myself in the foot but he really is terrific office angels is, um actually based out of atlanta and their coal company to work with uh a help is another one that virtual assistant assistant which has ratings of all of the virtual assistant companies really, really helpful because that could be a real burden to go through and figure out which company does what um yeah are using all these different services I think it's important to remember here that everyone's gonna have a different experience each of these services may work for some may not work for others so as we're giving these examples it's important for you guys to do the work to test these out and we have madeleine completely different experiences, so try it out yourself, see what works and share your examples in the chat room and let us look success you've had you think noise on their behalf, people having bad experiences, you know, I think it's just important to know that just because a lot of people have had success on, say, one of these, maybe other people wouldn't have success so it's important to try them all out see what's going to work right for your personal business and share your examples with us? Yeah, the other key is that more clear you are and what you expect again, the better experience you're gonna have when you're not clear and you say to somebody, well, I think I kind of need a document I have no idea what fun I have no idea how long I want I have no idea what I want to look like. You could figure that out. No, the talent that's not their job, their job is delivered to deliver what you asked for if you don't ask for something specific, you're not going to get something specific and you're not going to get what you're looking for that would be my point. My experience with fiber is that the more definitive you khun b in information, you give them the greater product, you get back. Yeah, and and when I worked with this gentleman on the power points, I already had my slides in place. I just said, I want a little dressing up here and there. I don't know how to do this graphic stuff, and I gave it some examples to follow, and we do that way. And initially, by the close of the presentation, I figured out what he went back and made a few changes, because by then, I was like, oh, I figured it out pilot only took me twelve months, says the guy was it takes some of his creative a little longer to figure it out, but I was also very happy about what he showed me, and he was extremely easy to work with, wildly patient, with me shooting off in eighteen different directions. I try not to do that, but it can be a little challenging. So have any of you had experience with any of these sites? Yeah, yeah, I've used, oh, desk, quite a bit of jihad, both good and not good experiences, I mean, and I think it's, because you're just dealing with a huge huge number of people it's sort of like if you were to say, well, I had a bad experience with a human being, I'm never going to be oh, great, yeah that's a great way of putting it right, you've got to find the best fit for you, and I've tried a bunch of different ones um, you know, my best va is still somebody that I trained into it over ten years ago and she unfortunately, you know, manages ah bank, the largest branch in tennessee for that particular bank full time, so she doesn't have a lot of hours she's ridiculously fast, she takes amazing initiative and she basically manages projects for me, which is extraordinary because I am not a manager it's not something I do well and that's something you want to know about too is do you need someone to manage your projects and the people that you hire? Because if you're not a good manager, get somebody else on board to do the managing for you, I happened and not be a great manager. I am a great big vision person, I'm not a great minutia person at all and I'll let the details go because they don't interest me and I also don't want to deal with different personalities and planted it I'm just like, hey, just get it done you know, that does approach does not always go over very well. I need somebody else who can hand hold a walking through and do all this fun things, so that becomes an online business manager unless you're in in real time doing it and oh, bm and that's a specific set of skills different than just to be a lot of us become obi ems, but to hire va as an o b m that does not have either that training or that experience level is is going to really value up, but good, so you would have to hire anybody you can keep doing it all yourself. The challenge becomes ultimately you're going to run out of steam, and even if it's staging rich, you're going to want to have an intern or a couple of assistance on board to do some of that heavy lifting stuff because there's usually a lot of lifting and hefting and toting and, you know, part's just wear out after a while. It did say that, so that all makes a difference. The key is to be able to build this in a way that is sustainable over the long term, and you don't have to give up something that you love because of physical limitations, you have other people that you can direct and guide into those spaces. Or you don't have to give up something you love because of your weakness. Is that air hindering you from getting it done? Like not having templates that have your proposal. So your proposals were always two weeks late, which doesn't work very well either. So it makes a big difference. Is anybody here hired help or has helped currently on hand? I have in the past. I don't know how someone currently. Okay, I've done it both, um, I had someone who would come in and then could do some of it remotely. That makes a big my bookkeeper works from bentley, and I just let her into my system when we asked him. And yeah, that's one of the that's. One of the big advantages of using either quickbooks or zero is because that way, it's not just you. Yeah, I love that. And I also do the same thing. My tacky, my, my. Because my hardware's techie can come in any time he wants, because I, you know, I'm having issues he's got to get into my system and look at the whole thing and figure out what's going wrong and fix it. I spent hours running code number when I was a cross, so what I want to do next is a fun exercise that you all have with you okay? We do not have this it slide for matt I'm so sorry I'll walk through it there a statements and be statements the scoring on this is you have three points for each item you can a lot those points two points on one one point on another all three on one zero on another however it feels best you go with your first gut instinct ok? This is about determining your best delivery style introvert versus extroverts I am anne and avert I love that yeah, it means I'm about half and half okay means as much as I love to stand here delivered I do gain wonderful energy from you here in the room as well as from you fabulous folks online with me I will get to a place where I'm tapped out and I need to be alone for several hours to recharge, which is a little unusual usually you're all one way or you're all the other but there is that and avert quality now that's working so forty on liners here the two questions and I'll go through at parties I tend to dive in and introduce myself, meet new people and talk a lot this is a bay says at parties I tend to listen more and meet friends I already know a most people view me as lively and outgoing and be most people view me as quiet and reserved that's your age and your b choice a I express my opinions openly be is I keep my opinions to myself a people think I'm easy to get to know these people think I'm hard to get to know a I enjoy social fund where I can meet lots of new people that terrifies me by the way and to be this would be me I enjoy spending time at home alone and having done myself most people don't realize that about may it's the amber kicking in a statement I often think aloud and speak my mind before I've thoroughly thought things through and see that would be me and b I think things through before speaking and rarely speak without being fully prepared that would not be made when I travel by plane, train or taxi I enjoyed talking with other people and finding out their stories we've established that would be me um when I travel by plane, train or taxi, I stick to myself and bring a book now that is also made because I can go either way on that one so I'm like one and a half point and one and a half point I didn't even mention you could do half points so sorry I figured gee creators would already know that somebody probably one quarter points in there okay, spending too much time alone is tiring. I rely on the energy of others to keep me going. Spending too much time with others is tiring. I recharged by being alone I'm a one and a half and one and a half on that one. And then when I have a decision to make, I like to elicit elicit the advice and thoughts of others when I have a decision to make, I think it through on my own, and I kind of go back and forth on that one too. So that's a one and a half one and a half is and avert showing up in the middle in my neighborhood or apartment complex. I'm friends with a lot of other residents in my neighborhood apartment complex. I know very few people. I'm a complete introvert on that front. I know like no one where I live sad but true. I find it easier to give me a lot more privacy. Nobody's nose even cares what I'm doing. All right, so what are our scores like? Judy, if you got to score down there, you got us go do some additional phone numbers, okay? You guys gonna add these up five really confident reach of you got it all right, which one are you use o b todo great twenty eight okay, so no that's good to know and it makes sense based on what you told us about what happens when you facilitate because it forces you to be in front of others and that's uncomfortable. So what this is going to mean is that you're going to want to create more opportunities where your behind the scenes or where you're directing and designing as opposed to being physically there where and if you're physically there better to ask the plant's not to be there okay are you that I did that all through my design practice whenever I didn't installation? I said here's the rule you either out of the house or you're locked in another part of the home and you are not allowed to re enter the room until I'm completely done I made that it was contextual, but the reality was I don't want to be distracted by other chatter okay easy rule to set in place and it will set you apart because most designers don't use that rule missed danger still, neither they're happy to do it with the purse and here it's really hard to do that it's distracting because the other piece of this is context if you don't have a everything completely done, they'll start questioning what you're doing, which is really a mess so not good awesome okay, so know that cater to your strength cater to your comfort zone most of the time as they push out your comfort samba when it comes to this I really don't want you to do that because it's just going to deplete your energy in a big big way so awesome all right, who else has got there's tallied? Ah, I've got fourteen a and sixteen b wow you're right on that edge I'm really deeply introverted but I really enjoy people and teaching for a limited period of time especially where there's a focus okay, I have you know, three's on I enjoy spending time at home alone to myself spending too much time with others is tiring I recharged by being alone both of those were threes so on that level and you know I'm really clear but I also love there's a part of me that comes out when I'm when I'm teaching in working with people maybe you got it pretty well balanced in your life in your business right now. Um yeah, I would like to be doing more life teaching then I'm doing right now, but I've definitely got plenty of the quiet a long time. Okay? Yeah, I I can appreciate that need to bring in a little bit more of that and I've got tons of contact with people on email and phone and skype too, so so it is pretty well balanced but we just don't have as much of the face to face and that's really interesting because I find that the email and the skype and even texting to be energy depleting for may whereas face to face is energizing. So the technology for me has really made it a challenge because all of that is draining because it is virtual and I derive so much more from live in person that's kind of an interesting balance for shelby you got yours tallied up oh, yeah, you want to guess e I have twenty two and a half in a and seven and a half way are exactly for I have one and a half and enjoying time spend it at home alone having time to myself and to when I have a decision to make I like to think it over my own and then I like to maybe bounce it off someone maybe bounce it off someone but pretty much when I make up my mind it's pretty much made up that's also. Okay, so you pretty much living that serves this? Yeah, yeah, this is pretty much this is pretty much how I live that's, right? It was interesting because we were just talking about this at parties. I tend to dive in and introduce myself me meet new people and like I was a hostess with my catering company for so many years that it's just a natural thing, yeah that's a that's a great thing, I could do it on occasion. Not often, usually if if I don't have somebody to go with, sometimes, I won't go. I just really got that else's uncomfortable, tio. So just pretend like they're just as uncomfortable as you are. And I know I know all that, and I and I and I you can do that on certain occasions, and I love throwing my own parties is just fine, and sometimes what I'll do is when I go to a networking event, I'll pretend it's my party and then have a blast because I like hostess not try to connect people to each other like that. It takes me completely out of being made, but the promise other times when I get to in that space of may that's when it all kind of goes downhill. All right, so I'm waiting for two other scores on a day and twelve one b okay, so that that's been a conscious effort to get more extroverted cause I definitely did not grow up that way. I was very introverted. Do you want to be more extroverted? I I think I'm good where I am. Yeah, I mean, I don't have to be there are some people that cannot be by them, so oh yeah yeah I know, I know I'm not one of those are not close friends no, no, they make me a little nuts so no, I like being out but I like being alone and they like working on my own at times but I also like to collaborate so I'm I think I'm I've got a good balance awesome. It seems like your business is is fueling that properly? Yeah, great, great. Yeah okay, I got size played five and twenty four point thirty way. Yeah, okay and I love working by myself and I'm a great part of it but I think having a little bit of interaction with names like a little bit of interaction each day is fine, but I wouldn't want that to be my whole life. Basically, I love I love the part of just being myself in the studio. You probably don't want to schedule your time and manage your time. You both will want to do that pay attention to when you're most energetic like I happen to be a really early a m person I start to fade fast in the evenings especially once it gets dark but no your own energy levels are where your best and focus on those and your high energy times make that client time because you will derive energy from your creative process there's no question about that and that will energize those lower energy times but you don't want the low energy when we were with clients and designers I won't say all designers are extroverts that's a ridiculous statement but they tend to be very social creatures, which I personally found rather uncomfortable because it's never that social s oh they love to be at parties in the mix luncheons all that stuff they love that at least the ones in atlanta did I'd be very surprised if that isn't, you know, and across the country around the world phenomenon that when you want to work on people's homes, you want to be that social and I love to work on their home, but I can do it completely without all that social interaction, so you're gonna be places for youto to meet them and you want to have high energy for those opportunities, okay? That's they may or may not follow the convenient time of day, but if you can schedule your presentations at your peak hours provided so like seven the morning that way yeah, each one of you if you don't know if you haven't paid a lot of attention, he probably have by now to your own rhythms it really makes a difference. My peak writing hours are yeah, I'll need an alarm clock to do it generally speaking at five a m but five a m to ten a m and then I'm done and then I need to move into something else I can only write for so many hours before I have to start now can I flip a switch if I'm on a deadline and make myself right at five o'clock and evening? Yes, I can absolutely can't affect I think it was ah somerset mom that said something about um ah yeah I have the discipline to write discipline kicks in every morning at nine a m you know, as a great way of putting it you know, you do have to have a discipline about what you're doing, but when you have the freedom and I think everybody here does have that freedom to do it at their own best hours leverage that leverage the heck out of that now if you're working a day job if you're working another job and you need to work it around that, then you have to do that but look forward to that space where you can flex it and make it about what's best for you and your energy levels that's really what makes the best okay now a little reluctant to show the dog here I don't know I'm not going to have tim jumping and get in with a comment I love my dog I think he's so cute I really dio um but pack your bag moments anybody got him online? If you have any questions online well, we had people that were sharing some of their scores when some similar numbers what we had in here, we had an eighteen a twelve b from lillian in the in the chat and then gm corey had a sixteen point five, thirteen point five so people love this a lot of a lot of balance here, a lot of introvert slash extroverts because and they're all over the place yeah, you night, yeah, that's starting with words, we'll have an offshoot facebook job created. It hurts. Ok, any questions I need to address where we do it. All right, I think we did pretty well, yeah, I think we covered most of everything that we had in here, so they were possible. All right, what is coming up next is pricing for best value and profit and those of you that are undervalued will be revalued during this segment. We'll have a chance to look at what is holding you back and tackle some of those money mindset myths that you may be wrestling with. Um, and then you can also find me online. I've not been online today because I've been here or notice no cell phone in my hands, no smartphone handy um so beyond connecting with me uh, you can just build your business success that's the whole point of this