Lessons

Lesson Info

Create Your Guiding Principles

All right all right but let's find out more about how to make our businesses stand out so the goal for this lesson is to make decision making easy with guiding principles based on your personal values. So first let's recap what we did in the previous lesson what works for you doesn't I'm sorry what works for other people doesn't seem to work for you in other words, you can do all the marketing things right you can follow all the gurus and find out exactly how you're supposed to be posting on facebook or twitter you know, cold calling or doing this and doing that and somehow it still doesn't feel like it works for you well there's a very good reason why you have a unique language of fascination you have a unique way that you are more compelling and sometimes those tactics that everyone else is using don't jive with that language so we examine the seven languages of fascination and discovered how you are uniquely compelling now let's get into the next lesson so this lesson is about creat...

ing your guiding principles again we live in a very noisy world we are constantly bombarded with information with ideas, with people telling us what we're supposed to be doing you should do this you should do that you really really must do this other thing and r and that noise can make it very difficult to make decisions in our business how many of you feel like decision making is pretty difficult? Yes alright decision making feels hard you want to do things the right way but sometimes the right way doesn't really feel right to you have you run into that before in all of that noise with people telling you you really really must do this you think I won't but I don't wanna I don't wanna andi think sometimes only when we feel like wanna that there's something wrong with us that we really should do things the way other people to tell tell us to do them but that's not that's, not the case or ninety nine percent of the time that's not the case? Sure, there's sometimes when you need to push your comfort level a little bit where a little bit of discomfort can help you bust through some edges that's not really what we're talking about here what we're talking about is going against your personal values going against the principles that really guide your business to just do things the way you really, really must do them. I want each of you to be able to run your business on your own terms because running your business on your own terms helps your business stand out when you decide you're not going to do things the right way and instead do them your way you've naturally got a story that's going to stand out more in the market every business needs a set of guiding principles to direct its action and help it impact its customers the way it wants to because that's the other piece of this puzzle is it's not just about you it's also about your customers and when you know those guiding principles when you know what is directing your action every single day it's much easier to impact your customers and create amazing experiences for them when you create amazing experiences for them that fit into their personal values and their guiding principles, then that's goingto also help your business stand out because those referrals are going to come more easily. Those testimonials are going to come more easily and you'll really be able to see the story that you're business is telling as truly unique and really stand out so your business is guiding principles come from your personal valleys have you guys done personal values exercises before? Cool? Well, we've got a special guest coming up in just a couple minutes that's going to take us through another kind of personal values exercise so you can identify those words that your unique brand of joy your unique brand of values so what kinds of decisions are guided by your personal values some big ones, some really big ones like what sales techniques to use how to represent your brand visually howto format or package your products who to hire and what goals you set all of those different things can be influenced by your personal values. In fact, really, every decision you make in your business can be or should be influenced by your personal values, wondering if you guys have any stories that are coming to mind right now about a decision you made in your business that went against your personal values in one way or another. Melissa is nodding her head voraciously, so I'd love to get the details on this one. Yes, this is not my current business, I do have still have this business, but it's now become a side business. I am. Before I started my current business, I have another business as a tuba artist making jewish marriage contracts and that business really tanked in the recession in two thousand eight and in my desperation to build the business back up, there was one situation where I had burned through all of my savings and I was now deeply in debt and I didn't know where my next mortgage payment was coming from, and I had customers are potential customers who had been in conversation with me, but none had given me a credit card and I was getting so desperate, and this one bride was on the phone and this has been going on for weeks and they finally said okay, we're ready to go ready to place the order and they were going not just order a tuba but also a quaker wedding document and the invitations I mean it was going to cover my morgue two more and I she said, well, I just I still want to talk to my husband one more time my fiance one more time and I thought, oh, all those gurus that I've been, you know, researching and studying lately they all say create a sense of urgency so I offered her some special well, if you if you buy right now, I will I mean, literally it wasn't quite that it wasn't like you'll get us that of ginsu knives, but it was, but it was like, so wrong it was so wrong for this like slow development relationship of trust building over weeks and to say, well, if you buy right now, I'll throw in some special bonus something or other and I could tell on the phone I could tell that that wasn't gonna fly she got off the phone pretty quickly and she e mailed me later that night and said I felt very uncomfortable from our conversation we've decided to go elsewhere and it was that moment that led to my forming my now business wow, yeah and you know what not to downplay your story at all, which is heartbreaking but what's so interesting about that story too is that someone else could have done nine and totally nailed it and not in that you did it wrong or that you didn't do it well it was just in it didn't match up to who you are total missile and what you value exactly mis alignment it was a life changing moment it sounds that way that's thank you so much for sharing that that's perfect that was a moment where your business actually slipped into that competition and commoditization trap yes and so because you weren't leaning into your personal values because you weren't leaning into your fascination language you you got beat by those enemies and like I said, someone else could talk like that's how they should be doing every single call like that's that would be their unique style would be part of what makes them stand out because I mean I agree I think you should build a sense of urgency, your personality, your personal values, your unique language has to do it differently totally yeah, so this idea of personal values and then guiding principles which are the things that are based on your personal values that really guide your business your day in your day out and your big picture thinking these are the things that can save you from that kind of situation because I don't want anyone else to have to go through something like that that's how awful all right so guiding principles are what demand work that's timeless an age lists not just transient and disposable actually this plays off of melissa story really well in the moment you were creating something or or you were going down a path that was transient and disposable as opposed to building up that relationship that was going to be timeless and ageless for your business because not only did you lose that client but you lost all the referrals that could have come from her as well yeah so amir hey jk wrote that that guiding principles are what demand work that's timeless and ageless not just transient and disposable. And amir haig is an economist and a business thinker who thinks about business in terms of better ness as opposed to business and that's really what we're creating here is businesses that do and are better not like the sally hogshead kind like like the better in terms of real human worth because I think that that's something that I think that's a personal value that we all share is that we want to create businesses that do you you better that are better for humanity and this world our culture, our society in general so next up we need to start thinking about what these personal values are so we can craft our guiding principles and I would really, really love to introduce you to a dear friend of mine who has also been a magnificent coach with me, and her name is tanya geisler. Tiny geissler is the creator of a methodology called step into your starring role on she's also got a great ted x talk on battling the impostor complex. You guys ever feel the impostor complex? Yeah, I know yes, when when we were talking before we got started today, I was telling our producers that this, you know, the these first moments before I step on the stage is always when it's going through my head, where these people are going to figure out, I'm a fraud, so, you know, it doesn't matter how many times you've been up on stage, it doesn't matter how many times you've launched the program made the sale, you know, developed the new initiative in your business, those feelings can creep up from time to time, and tanya is just an absolute expert on making those things happened, so I'd love to bring up tanya now, and we're gonna have a little conversation about her brand of joy. This is hey, you like magic? I love you know I love this, you know, here, tear it until terrorist until she's getting up and she's still she's still in the experience of one of their going to find out you are in such good company sister meryl streep like what nineteen oscar nominations and she still like what are they going to find out that I can't but the truth is the reason you experience this is because your brand of joy is around mastery right? This is the good news about the impostor complex it's pointing to our values of x silence and mass history and so you're in good company so thank you so much for having me here absolutely thank you so much for taking time out of your date of you with us so let's talk about this brand of joy idea because when we talked before andi I said I'd really love to you to talk to my audience about personal values and lead them through discovering what some of those personal values are you said well sister, let me tell you it's all about your brand of joy so tell me more about your brand of joy and how we confined ours so every so I said brandon joins a little clunky language but remember I come from advertises says we really really specifics so the what I attribute what I feel as joy other people will feel as something out so I think it's really important that we all understand our own sense of that resonance what I relate to as joy so that for me is the governing desired feeling that I have it's it's how I want to feel in my relationships, how I want to feel my business, how I want to feel in my clothes and my food, how we want to make all of my decisions communications, how I want to launch everything so it's how I want to feel and I think that you know, there's actually been a lot of really great conversations and our space would later about, you know, aligning our values and I was hearing was listening to the story but misalignment and we know the cost and the implications of acting out of misalignment, but if we don't actually have that sort of north star, that helps us to discern where we need to go, but we're sort of displayed right like that's really what's happening with those that are energetic like we're just we're not we're not there's no traction, so for me, I have discerned that my how I want to feel on everything is joy and understanding what underpins that joy is incredibly useful because okay, so so it's pause there, okay? So let's, just pause it for a second because I just want to make sure because I can't I can't actually see you, so are you nodding? I am not a yes indeed, and so is the audience they're nodding along and very happy I love okay okay okay so you know for some people what I what I attribute his joy somebody else might attribute of success on dh terror with your permission we need to talk to her that's your brand of joys mastery that's how you feel what I feel when I am enjoy so understanding what that word is and then understand the underpinnings because when I you know if I'm out of joy it's just too big for me to go well I'm not feeling joyce also let me just go get me some more of that joy way easier for me to go to the joy store just get that doy store right like why not but for me to be able to understand what underpins what supports that that's really that's really how I get back to my superhighway of joy has me back on track has no back in alignment has me understanding what's next for me yeah yeah so what are some of those underpinnings for you that that sure up your joy foundation connection, generosity and gratitude this is holy trinity if I'm not feeling connected I don't feel joy not to ingratitude and feel joy not feeling generous not feeling joined feeling something else and it's a close approximation but it is not for me uh it's not bang on for me you know what I mean? Absolutely absolutely so can you lead us through a little exercise about thinking about what our unique brand of joy is and what those things are that underpin it yeah so I want you to just think back to a time so just like when everyone to close their eyes that's right with tonya because I can't see you anyway breathing in and breathing out firing your way to get this relaxes you possible can I just want you to think back to a time when you felt like your most essential self you thought time could stand still I am and flow I am perfectly me something popped up for your just there and don't judge what came up it doesn't matter that it wasn't the birth of your child on your wedding day or whatever don't worry about what it was but in that moment that did thurtell up what you were feeling that complete quality of resonance so just spend when you have a little bit of time to yourself why to spend a little bit of time trying to reenact what was going on who was there? What was that essential quality in that moment and so so I would like for you to have a little bit of time of journal this we don't have the time right now but go back to it when you can maybe when you're in your break and then I want you to fill in this sentence in that ideal, in sweet moment, I felt blank, and whatever that blank is that you filled in, it might be joy. It might be freedom and might be mastering might be success and maybe some other word that has no meaning to me, but has a deep, deep deep deepens you, and these words won't be mutually exclusive, you know, they really won't. It will have the meaning that you have imbued in these words will be different for everybody else. So then I want you to once you know what that word is approximately is cool, that waisman the next little bit of time after you've discerned, but that is over the next day or so, and then start to notice where else that word shows up for you and then allowing it to sort of spread out noticing what other values are alive and well, when you are feeling that moment. Eso again for me when I feel that joy it's inextricably linked with feeling connected to someone or something, or an idea or an o, r or emotion, whatever it is, there is something that is definitely feeling that connection. So what are those values that show up for you when you were feeling that absolute rest it's, that I call joy, that terror calls mastery? Okay beautiful, beautiful let's real quick before he before we have to let you go let's get a couple of brand of joys from in here. Uh amy what's your brand of joy um I felt like power power yeah, totally in my power. Yeah. Beautiful shelly creativity creativity meghan group I felt alive alive beautiful michelle created creativity wonderful. We have some very different brands of joyce in this room, todd yet I was holding holding, holding because once you know what that is and then you get to sense what is underneath, then you can you know, when you're feeling out of power when you're feeling out of creativity that he can go back to this underpinnings. Okay, well, so what I need to do to feel a little more innovative say innovative is underpinning your creativity. Say say expansiveness is underpinning your creativity what do I need to do to feel livermore expanse of a little more innovative little for love like maybe that's what underpins creativity for you and that will be different from thie other person's creativity beautiful, so tiny where can we find your online everywhere? Tanya guys lor tanya guys there dot com at tanya guys ler tom, you guys the coaching you're beautiful and you've got you've got a free gift on your website too, right? I do I do it's I've got we're talking about the joy pages no, we're talking about the impostor complex way twelve lives impossible complex and one truth from one truth yes the twelve lives of the impostor complex and one truth you could get it for free on time you're tanya geisler dot com tanya thank you so very, very much for sharing this with us. Tichy power tv power awesome. All right, so you guys have thought about your personal values? I want to take a minute and look at some examples to to business examples here and see if you can pull those personal values if you can pull these companies unique brand of joy out from the page sound good so we're going to start off by looking at male chimp mel champ is a company that I just love and I am so excited that they are a part of this boot camp we're going to be hearing from them later on much later on down the line in our lessons but male chimp is a company that I have been using force six over six years I love them to pieces I love everything that they stand for and personal values are a big part of that how many of you guys already used male chimp? Oh yes beautiful so what kind of values inspire male chimp? What is male chimps unique brand of joy fine fun play absolutely that would probably be there big word any other personal values values come to mind that you associate with male chimp education education sure knowledge wisdom those kind of things yeah aesthetics aesthetics yes design andi even more I would say ease of use because they want things to be both beautiful and easy and that's part of how they bring fun into play too right? So these are values that guide this company and so the values of fun mean that maybe one of their guiding principles is that everything feature they update their system with it has to bring a new element of fun this business strives to include fun with every new feature they develop and maybe they have another guiding principle that says uh that this business refuses to go after new features for features steak it's not about new features it's about creating a more peaceful, beautiful and fun email marketing environment does that sound like male chimp two guys? Yeah, and can you see how whether they're using those guiding principles in the board room or in the marketing department or in the customer service department or in h r that those guiding principles would really guide the decision making in this business? Yes and can you think of any other email marketing service provider that has those kind of values no male champs stands out because of the values and guiding principles behind that business this is such a beautiful example of how your guiding principles can help you stand out let's look at another one this is toms how many of you guys own a pair of toms no really it's this like okay come on people I used to have so many times I don't have them so much anymore it's really hard to live in the pacific northwest and have canvas shoes but do you love me some tom so what what kind of values do you think inspires toms and maybe I should say for anyone who's not familiar with tom's that their big claim to fill it claim to fame is the buy one give one campaign so you buy a pair of shoes and they give a pair of shoes to a child in need in another country so that's that's kind of their thing what values inspire toms okay all right want to decide let's talk with ashley land for you like a freelancer? Yeah okay. Beautiful thank youfor summarizing what ae you teo yeah, exactly. Philanthropy inspires toms what else? Comfort that's a really good one. Yeah I the reason I like tom so much. Yes, I like to be able to buy more shoes knowing that I'm giving more shoes if if you've never checked out at tom's and thought oh I can add one more pair because that means I'm doing something better for the world it's really for fun but I really love them because there are super comfortable shoes awesome comfort is good anything else simplicity simplicity absolutely I would say that for sure so what might some of the guiding principles for tom's bi what are some things that this business really strives to dio good good they strive to do good yeah that could be a stupor simple guiding principle every decision we make we decide we strive to do more good beautiful yeah um I think that there's also probably some sort of value around innovation because I also see them finding new ways to do more good right so it used to just be that they have the plane canvas shoes then they started developing new kinds of shoes you can really buy pretty much any kind of shoe there now high heels ballet flats, boots, sneakers they make everything but not only that they're also selling other people's products now right they have this whole marketplace of products that are buy one give one brilliant right oh yeah and glasses yes sunglasses yes I thank you I totally forgot about that so yeah so I think there's this also this value for innovation on dh decision making that that prioritizes innovation and how to do more good beautiful but it also doesn't say being him being him yeah because they're not going to succeed if they're not not bad I mean just because you give away per shoes if you're yeah yeah absolutely yes and not only do they strive to be hip but I think they strive to define him as well you know there's almost equality of leadership to their brand as well. Really good point so guiding principles are part of your standout style how would you like to be the male chimp of your industry how would you like to be the business but no one else can really compete with on personality yes beautiful um or you know whatever your particular brand of joy is how would you like to be the business that no one else can compete with because of that particular brand of joy oh good that's what guiding principles are all about it's about making top to bottom bottom to top decisions that are regularly backing up what is important to you what is unique about you and your business and what's unique to the experience you want to create for your customers when you have solid guiding principles and when you're making decisions that are completely rooted in those guiding principles your business stands out see how that's related this is not this is not a marketing topic right or this is not a normal marketing topic but this is this is what marketing is all about. This is what having a standout style is all about making decisions internal external top to bottom bottom to top that keep your business in a class of one so how do we go about writing guiding principles for a business so what I'd love for you to do is to take the personal values or the the brand of joy words that you developed with tanya and put them onto your worksheet and I should mention that when you are spp for this worksheet for this boot camp you get this whole set of worksheets twenty five different worksheets one for each lesson right and so on the worksheet for this lesson there's a place for you to jot down what your personal values are your unique brand of joy and then create guiding principles for each so for each value you jot down you're going to create two guiding principles one is going to be my business strives to and the other is my business refuses to sew for each personal value you write one principle that's my business strives to and one my business refuses to now let me give you an example but studio audience I need you to keep writing because I'm gonna put you on the spot in a minute all right this is kyle aroma and kyle aroma is training as a quiet power strategy business coach with me but she's also a designer on she works with bloggers on creating better business strategies for their blawg businesses and she identified three personal values the first is adventure the second is resourcefulness and the third is commitment and she wrote these really in guiding principles and so I had to ask her if I could share them with you so she says in my business I will strive tio take risks and ask hard questions in pursuit of breakthroughs in my business I will refuse to be complacent let things slide or ignore the data resourcefulness in my business I will strive to focus on leaving at all on the court every day in my business I will refuse to drown out fear with courses and training instead we'll sit down with them listen and move forward finally commitment in my business I will strive to fully commit to action to my client's vision for themselves into the highest quality work I'm capable of and everyone's favorite in my business I will refuse to waffle waffles or for breakfast not for business so I think I'll also has some personal value for fun as well. So those air kyla sze guiding principles and personal values does anyone have a personal value and a guiding principle that goes along with it that they'd like to share already tiffany minus connection okay and I believe that jewelry is about connection and connecting to yourself connecting to your beauty but it can also be about connecting teo the products and where it's coming from and knowing and the community and I think julie come bridge that connects people yeah, so your business strives to connect connects women huh? Okay, so here's what I wrote down please okay to make you feel connected creative and beautiful um with the materials where your products are coming from in your community to your creative self to urinate beauty I believe hilary's about connection beautiful I love that I also see an opportunity there for some kind of innovative product design so you've got your you know you've got your normal jewelry collect collection, the things that you design on a on a daily basis the products, the materials that you work with regularly but you know what if there's a jewelry collection that comes out that specifically the connection collection right where these are the products that are you know, maybe they're designed with a special word on them or their designed with a special material that supposed to make you feel more connected to yourself, to your beauty, to your to your personal values, right? And of that u s o there that's a great opportunity so this can help you stand out not just from, you know the decision making perspective but also you know you can use them and let them inspire you to create products that are more stand out as well yeah, cool anyone else have ah patrice um my business will strive to get clients to think bigger and I will use the lots of to leverage my client's creativity who really good and see that and that's exactly what we were talking about in the previous lesson to where your unique language and value for creativity allows you to say things that no other lawyer is going to say right you really could be the male chimp of law profession right? Is marco a beautiful does anyone have a refused to statement that they'd like to share yeah liza to refuse to be predictable and boring nice, beautiful, beautiful so you don't have ah, one of your fascination languages that's not trust no, no trust is boring but it's consistent, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you probably have much more of a value for innovation and creativity. Beautiful, wonderful. Anyone else have a refused teo? Amy, um, waste time with superfluous content. Ah, nice. Uh, I just I feel like there's a lot of, um well, whoa stuff that doesn't really actually lead to any sort of education or change. Yeah, so I just think we can cut down on that and get to the point. And what personal value does that go along with, um, to educate no, no, her education cool. I think that there could also be a value there for honoring your customers time honoring someone else's time honoring their attention almost like a value for respect, yeah, yeah beautiful I mean there's no, this is not a science right? This is an art there's lots of different ways to create and play with this particular exercise but I'm really glad for what you guys have come up with already. All right, so surprise you have reached your first easter egg so this is the first quiet power strategy easter egg if you go to terra gentilly dot com slash egg and the number one tear it until he dot com slash egg one answer the question enter your email address and you can get a free copy of my brand new book which is right there. Okay, so it's a pdf copy? Uh, yeah and you can get that just by going to tear it until you dot com slash one surprised? All right, so moving back on topic consider how your business is already living up to your guiding principles. What are the things that you're doing on a regular basis that these guiding principles are just kind of uh, right the things that you're already doing already how do they match up with the guiding principles that you have? Is there anything that you've been struggling with in your business decision that you've been struggling with a tactic, a formula strategy and idea something that you think you might want to try, but you're not sure something you've been trying but it's not landing well that you could use your guiding principles to make a more solid decision on there's. Something like that. How could you use those guiding principles to stand out more? All right, here's, today's, homework. You ready? Yeah. All right, so choose those three to five. Personal values, your unique brand of joy. Make sure you've got those written down. Then write to guiding principles for each one that is I strive to, or my business strives, teo and one that is my business, refuses tio, then tweet me at tara gentilly. Use the hashtag standout biz with one of those guiding principles, because I would love to know what you guys are all working on, and that brings us to the end of this. Listen, let's, look ahead. Our next lesson is on analyzing the market. We're gonna have a special guest, meghan omine, to tell us how she analyzes her market, to find big, big and exciting opportunities there.