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Declare Your Chief Initiative

Wei are heading into one of my personal favorite lessons our goal for today should you choose to accept it? Actually you don't have a choice is to choose the one goal that will focus your business for the next twelve months you will choose today one goal to focus your business on for the next twelve months don't worry there's a system all right in the last lesson we figured out how we're gonna pay attention to what really matters so that other people pay attention to what really matters as well that's how key performance and indicators relate to your stand out style so you created a system for regularly checking in with those kp eyes both how to track them and what story that they're telling it the story that they're telling you so that you could direct your action day by day by day two make those numbers grow to make them move in the direction that you want to move so let's check out where we are in the standout business process we are in the final lesson of session three can you beli...

eve we've made it this far you guys cat? Yes, absolutely okay so this is less and fifth eighteen declare your chief initiative and this is actually an exercise that comes straight out of the quiet power strategy program on this I have seen work over and over and over again for changing the way people see their business and their work and the possibilities that are in front of them now, here's, what I know about you, you're reacting, tow what's happening around you. You have difficulty prioritizing tasks and your focus wavers on a regular basis. What I say about this is that you are in the weeds, you are constantly in reaction mode instead of pro action mode, and if there is one thing I want for you, it is to be in pro action mode. It is to be in the driver's seat of your business it's to feel and act like a ceo like a leader, because if you're not going to be a leader who is going to lead your customers? It's probably gonna be someone else's business. You're having problems standing out. It may be because you haven't taken on that mantle of leadership in your business yet, and it's probably because you're stuck in the weeds our goal for today, other than choosing that one goal is to get out of the weeds and give you a much bigger picture. Look at your business, it's not that you're not driven it's not that you're not productive it's not that you don't know where to investor and it's that you don't know where to investor energy. And that's hurting your business do you wonder about where to invest your energy you are willing to work hard I mean look at all of you you've worked hard just to get here but do you ever wonder if that hard work is being put on the right put into the right things yes there's lots of nodding here yes so what challenges do you face trying to find focus in your business let's hear from some of you guys what challenges do you face when you're in trying to find focus shelly the newest gadget the shiny object syndrome yeah newest gadget a shiny object syndrome absolutely we're all idea people here I think I'm sure you're all idea of people out there a swell and that shiny object syndrome can just mean it could be a deal breaker it khun take your focus off of what's working and put it on something new and then that what's working stops working your chief initiative is a great way to figure out whether that shiny object you have in your in your head is actually the next mile marker or something that's going to take you off track what's another challenge you face in trying to find focus melissa doing projects I want to I want to do and figuring out which one makes the most sense to do now yeah yes the timing, timing absolutely bridget money money I need to make money now and some of my ideas are things that are going to take a longer time to develop, so I'm caught between having this thing that I want to create and focus on, uh, every day, all the time and also the need to make money like now yesterday, yeah, yes, absolutely. So you're chief initiative can help with that, too, because we're going to look at how all the different priorities and your business stand up under that one big goal that's going to keep you motivated so that you know how you khun what you can do now, what smaller goals you can use, what sub goals you can use to make money now that we're actually going to get you closer to where you want to be. Wouldn't that be one of the good? Yeah, cool. What other challenges patrice find the right path to achieve? Whatever that goal is at that time? Yeah, yeah, what is what is the right path? One thing I like to do with the chief initiative, this kind of plot out a couple different past give you some options, maybe you don't meet all of those sub goals may be only meet a few of them, but those few are enough to get you over the hump to that much bigger goal, all right, cool, anything else? Yeah I love living in the level of strategy and translating that back down to the daily and weekly stuff that needs to happen to make sure that it all adds up to that big goal absolute and trent yet so translating the big picture focus into like a a day to day focus yes, absolutely so in section four and five were going to look at what mila for merchant calls the air sandwich the difference between strategic vision and day to day execution and all the stuff that happens in between but our chief initiatives are what put us on that right track to begin with. So thanks for bringing that up. Well, one more what's one more challenge lisa finishing finish so good at starting tell me why you don't finish because I've got so many projects going on and they're all fun and they're all good and they're all creating something but it's like there's a couple of them that I know if I finished them it would create so much more and I just never quiet get to the finishing bit yeah, I need to say no, basically yeah so let me tell you something about me, which is that I used to carry around a lot of shame around not finishing everything that I started and then one day I realized that the reason that I start so many things and don't finish so many things is because I realized halfway through starting one that it's not getting me to where I ultimately want to go and that if I got my eye on that prize if I know my destination if I know my destination then it doesn't matter if I don't finish everything it only matters if I finish the stuff that's getting me closer to their I used to really wrestle with the fact that people that I have this reputation for being highly productive and all I could think about was the stuff that wasn't getting done the stuff that wasn't finishing the brilliant ideas that I had that I just was not bringing two for wish him because all all get an idea and I'll spend a half a day the whole day like building the website for it on that that that was such a source of shame but you know what sometimes those projects workout sometimes those projects are the next big thing and sometimes you just gotta let it go so I'm going to challenge you in this in this activity to be thinking about what things you're working on right now that would actually be better for you to just let go and which of the things that you'd like to finish are going to get you closer to your ultimate goal okay is that a common problem yeah I find that a lot absolutely so let's remember how knowing our destination helps us stand out when you know your destination, your super focused and focus doesn't just change the way you work, it changes the way your business is percy see ved when you know your destination people know what they're supposed to remember you for they know what you're known for because you're already working on that direction you're are working toward that reputation and that kind of intense focus that goal oriented intense focus helps your business stand out in fact, I would say it's probably one of the biggest things that you could dio to stand out people really respond to that intensity they respond to you knowing where you're going and doing the things that are going to get you there. So having a clear vision gives you something to be known for and we started this session with this with vision and having a chief initiative gives you something to direct your actions uh part of the problem and this is kind of alludes to what brianne was saying is that vision visions too far out like it's a very important tohave but it's also slightly intangible your chief initiative gives you something toe work on right now that directs your actions. One thing we talked about many lessons ago was that something that a lot of us are looking for in our micro to small businesses is a manager we're actually looking for a boss we're so accustomed to having that outside direction that we go looking for it and our businesses today we go looking for the guru the expert bleeder that's going to tell us what to dio I don't want you to have to rely on those people anymore it's not that you may not still read their blogged may not be that you're still not a part of their programs or you know go hear them speak I don't want you to feel that dependency because your chief initiative and the control that you wield over it can be your own personal sense of leadership you khun b finally your own boss we've tricked ourselves into thinking that I've got my own business I'm my own boss now how many of you guys actually feel like you're your own boss okay thank you tiffany I always appreciate your honesty yes what if you could take back that control yeah and it's not about like not serving your customers or not being in relationship with them but it's about being the leader and all of us have a capacity to lead just like we were talking about fascination languages some of us lied in different ways some of us lied through trust and loyalty and dependability some of us lead with strength other others of us lied through listening but we all have a capacity to lead so I've been saying this a lot but I want to say it again focus looks good on you how many times have you seen and maybe it's your friends? Maybe it's her colleagues maybe it's you? How many times have you seen people putting out, you know, ten different unrelated messages on facebook in a week or in a month and you don't know exactly from week to week, month to month what their business is actually about what they actually stand for, what their difference is. I see this all the time when you can create focus, you may sound sound, you might feel like you're saying the same things over and over again, but what everyone else hears is clarity whatever one else sees is focus it's one of the reasons I haven't minded telling you fifteen times that focus looks good on you. I want you to know me for encouraging you to find focus that's one of my key messages focus perception, discernment so the three touch points of quiet power strategy and so focus is super important to me. So as I've been saying today, you'll declare your chief initiative. Your chief initiative is the one goal that your work towards for the next six months and we choose one goal that feels like a stretch that feels like something that's going to regularly inspire you and motivate you that that goal that's going to keep you waking up in the morning, hopefully lots of things are keeping you uh you know getting you up in the morning but this is the thing that you wake out of bed tow work on that's her chief initiative so having one goal adds up tio relief from the tireless hustle of just trying to keep up actually you know won one challenge you guys didn't mention with your inbox you know your inbox is not just a kn overwhelming place of communication for most of us because we're doing it wrong myself included it is a source of people telling you what they need from you what two d'oh and so we wake up in the morning we check our in box and it dictates our day how many of you does your inbox dictate your day yeah well some of you have much better habits than I do I'm very impressed I'm much better at it than I used to be but that's one place that kind of personifies this idea of always just trying to keep up ah one goal also adds upto having confidence in your plan because the plan is all lined up you know you might not know day today what it looks like but week to week month the month you know what that plan is? You know what mile markers you need to be shooting for having one goal adds up to a sense of purpose a greater sense of purpose you know why you're doing what you're doing on a daily basis it also adds up to the ability to quickly make decisions, prioritize and act on the right opportunities, and one goal adds up to getting attention from the right prospects. If you've had trouble pinpointing the right clients for you, you know who they are, you know who you want to be attracting, but sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't focus is probably one of the core problems, and so when you have that clear focus, when you know what you're working toward, when you know what your chief initiative is, you're going to get more attention from or of the right people. So as I've been saying, focus doesn't just transform the way you work. It transforms the way people perceive your business. Now, here's, the chief initiative plan, I'm gonna work, walk you through it, and then we're going to hot seat someone, okay, so that you can see it in action, you're going to start by choosing one big thing you'd like to accomplish over the next six to twelve months. Start by choosing one big thing you'd like to accomplish in the next six to twelve months. It may not come to you right away don't worry you've got twenty four hours to work on this, so start by choosing one big thing you'd like to accomplish in the next six to twelve months here's how you cope, lisa some examples like what is a big thing because that's very variable for mae sure and it's very variable for everyone um one of my first two chief initiatives wass landing a uh finishing a book proposal okay, so that was the one thing that was like with keeping me going every single day and it directed all of my actions even when I wasn't working specifically on the book proposal it changed my strategy it changed my business model it changed my marketing and so my actions were dictated by that and eventually I got to that point where I could finish the book proposal hadn't have my agent shop it to publishers okay? Another one that I worked on last year was launching my business coach training program and so I was working up to that for quite a while trying to figure that out building my building my base so that it made sense and again it was dictating all of my actions and also if I didn't get it done like I wasn't going to be able to move on to the next thing like it had to get done so what, whether it was by the deadline I had chosen arbitrarily or another deadline it had to get done because I couldn't move on in my business until that happened okay uh how do you know if this is the right goal? First of all it should make you uncomfortable it should not feel like something you could accomplish tomorrow if you could accomplish it tomorrow. It is not your chief initiative should make you feel uncomfortable. It requires a lot of different things to fall in line. This is not a if I follow this one two, three step plan, then this thing will happen. That's not a chief initiative, your chief initiative has a lot of moving parts. This goal requires you to accomplish a lot of other things to make a lot of other things happen. It excites you, you know, it's it's, that feeling of discomfort that is half ana and half woo that's, your chief initiative and it's also highly unlikely that you could make it happen in the next six months. I really want you to think beyond the six month mark. Um, you know, part of this problem with the constant hustle and constantly being in the weeds is that you're not looking much further than next week. Or maybe you're not looking much further than the next mortgage payment and you will find there is a huge shift in your business when you start setting goals even just six months out, when you could start to see that far ahead on the horizon, I'm not asking you to create a five year plan, all I'm asking you is to look out six months ahead so you're chief initiative should be something that you could not make happen in the next sixty six months. Now, if you happen to make it happen, please, I would love to celebrate with you that would make me very happy. Now, once you've pinpointed that one goal, you need to think about the conditions for your success, consider the conditions of success. Now you want to think about what it's like to have reached that goal. What's your environment, like, how has your environment around you changed? Has your is your office different? Is your home different? Maybe you're living someplace completely different. What relationships are in your life or work? Did you have to meet new people or strengthen relationships, or hire people to make that chief initiative happen? What new relationships or changes in relationships are going on in your life and work? Maybe you need to go home and have a conversation with your partner about how he or she is going to be involved in making this chief initiative happen. How is your day to day schedule? Different when you've achieved your chief initiative? How will yield? How will your day today schedule be different? So lisa's question about, you know, what's, an example of a chief initiative, and I gave the ah book proposal one of the things I knew is that I couldn't spend nearly as much time on the phone every day when I had achieved my goal because ideally my book proposal would be done and I would be on too writing the book and so I needed to create that space in my schedule so that was what led me then to reworking my business model and how how will you work differently how do you work differently in this success so same example doing more groups instead of more one on one selling more books e books instead of doing one on one so replacing streams of revenue how would you work differently if you if you made your chief initiative happen now the next question with this one is how can you start making these changes now how can you start making these changes now? Like I said, I needed to clear space in my calendar so what did I do? A cleared space in my calendar? I said no to new clients and I said no to new clients before I had completely replaced that revenue because sometimes you have to do that sometimes we make little sacrifices in honor of a much bigger goal and so I changed some things around so I didn't have to make so much money for a while and I started saying no to one on one clients and I started you know putting them channeling them into other offers so I could still serve them in one way or another just not with my hour devoted to them on the phone so what changes could you start making now? One of my chief initiator might not one of theirs only won my chief initiative for this year is to do a lot mohr speaking I would like to be a nationally recognized speaker on business and entrepreneurship by the end of the year. One thing I've done or one of my conditions for success is that I've got a wardrobe of clothes ready to go so that at a moments notice I could do the keynote at a fortune five hundred business, right? Yes so I've got a wardrobe that reflects that I don't have gigs book to the out for the rest of the year I had a lot of gigs buck but not you know, not clear out there I don't need maybe all of the clothes that I have, but you know what? Those clothes make me feel confident that when that opportunity comes along I don't have to do anything. All I have to do is show up it's a pretty good feeling kind of law of attraction and I don't even do that all right, so uh then identify what else you'll need to accomplish to make your chief initiative closer to reality those are your sub goals what else do you need to accomplish to make her chief initiative closer to reality? Let's go back to the book proposal example from for me to not only finish the book proposal but to make sure that when I finished the book proposal a publishing house would be willing to look at it. I knew I needed to grow my email list and I don't know if there's a different magic number now that the magic number of few years ago was about five thousand I that was my sub goal I wanted five thousand people on my email list so that when we you know did the marketing section on the proposal I could say there are five thousand people that I can reach with one email that may be willing to purchase this bach because publishers want to know whether you can actually sell the book that you wrote they don't care so much whether it's a great book or not they do but you know, marketing is extremely important so that was one sub goal that I had that was something I needed to accomplish to make the much bigger goal happen if if I didn't do that, the bigger goal wouldn't happen all right, so here's how you find your sub goals your sub goals are the mile markers for your journey maybe you need to build your email list maybe you need to land an agent maybe you need to complete a big program, maybe you need to develop some software. What are the small things that you need to accomplish? Were small and big things that you need to accomplish in order to achieve your chief initiative, those air sub goals. Now, I want you to look for opportunities to create systems to make achieving your sub goals maur efficient. The thing about sub goals is that they can take a lot of our time and energy a lot of time and energy that could be better spent elsewhere, and so we want to look at how we can build systems to make those sub goals happen. So if one of my sub goals is to build my list, then I need a system for list building, so I need to schedule into my calendar. I'm going to do a webinar every month where I'm gonna partner with ten different people and work their audiences through a certain ah certain exercise with me. Uh, maybe I'm going to do a certain number of guests posts and I create system for doing those guest posts, or maybe my system is actually hiring a pr firm and getting some big some major media placements so that I'm list building that way, but just look and see what opportunities there might be. To create systems hard or soft that allow you to reach those sub goals, mohr efficiently systems essentially helped to automate your progress toward that big goal. What tools could you use? Maybe instead of you spending your hard earned time or your hard your time and energy, you khun swap it out for some tools and better software. Uh, maybe you could just look at how you could optimize your current workflow. We waste lots of time doing things we don't need to dio. What could you edit out of your current work flow to just make it work more easily for you? What busywork could you and eliminate? And maybe you eliminate maybe it's busy work that has to get done. And so you eliminate that busy work by outsourcing it to someone else. Maybe you just say, you know what? This is just not important. You look at your key performance indicators. You look at the rest of your chief initiative. You say this stuff doesn't have to get done, and you stopped doing it. Finally, this is the last piece of the chief initiative. Get support from your team and we all have teams. Whether you are working in your business alone or whether you pay people to work with you, we all have a team business is social, so for you guys, you might ask the help of the other people in the audience. You guys are all like best friends now so you can ask these people for help. You can ask me for help you could ask the communities that you're a part of you can ask your colleagues for help you might ask your influencers for help. There are all sorts of different ways that you can build up a team around your business so that even if you're not paying anyone, there are people that you can go to for support for information, for a leg up, build your team and ask for help because you won't do this alone. So do you need to hire contractors or employees? Do you need someone who can be that frontline customer support person, which is often the first contractor I recommend people hire? Do you need a customer support person? Do you need a virtual assistant? You need someone to do your scheduling for you? Do you need someone to do your website updates for you, those air, all contractors you can hire really easily or employees, can you enlist your friends or colleagues? And can you, uh what can your existing community or customer base do to help you achieve your conditions, sub goals or your chief initiative? And this is one thing that we forget about a lot is that our customers love to do work for us and that they loved to help us get the word out about something cool that you're doing they love to give you feedback they love teo you know, just be in relationship with you or you know cheerlead you ask your community for what you need they're not the best people to maybe update your website but they could be that cheerleader that you really really need to make one of your conditions sub goals or your chief initiative happen so don't forget about your customer base all right? Let's put this into action we've pre selected amy to come up and get hot seated so amy come on up my pen ran out I was like, this is seo search and I need the most yeah. Okay, so tell us who you are, what you do and where we can find you online. My name is amy smith and I am a life coach and speaker and I focused on helping people stand up for themselves both internally and with others. Yeah, and you can owe you can find me at the joy junkie dot com perfect the joy junkie dot com yes now what did you say to me before we got started on this lesson? I have too many chief initiative? Yeah, you're too many chiefs and how many t finish it is are you allowed what good correct answer. So what do you want to accomplish six to twelve months from now? Well, here's what? I'm really torn so I wrote down kind of like the jumble of things that were in my mind when I said I had too many and there's to that are somewhat in competition with each other because one of them I feel is really crucial to the success of my business long term and the other one is just a complete passion of mine and lights me up ok, can you tell me about them? Sure. So um I've recently undergone a huge brand change which I'm thrilled about and I have a very structured coaching program unlike many coaches, I do a very systematic twelve week process that takes people through a pretty radical transformation. It needs a total overhaul with the new direction that I'm going and and things like that so and I have a lot of ideas for it where I so long story short I want a button that up and it's going to take a decent amount of effort I want to publish a manual that goes with it that things like that the other is really what's always been what I've called the endgame and then a lot of my colleagues air like stop calling it the end game into it now, which is which is really advancing this speaking piece and I I love it but I'm also the most terrified of it so it's I'm terrified of not getting gig after gig after gig I'm not terrified actually speaking ok that's fine yeah I'm not worried about the other part yeah okay, so chief initiatives are all about prioritization and figuring out which piece can lead to the next piece of the puzzle okay, this is a very easy one. Oh, good I'm glad it's easy the way the best way for you to get speaking gigs is to get this program finished okay that that was my gut but then I thought, are you just putting this on hold more and more and more no no because you're not going to put this on hold your chief initiative is going to be speaking, but one of the p sub goals is getting this program redone that's a lot of stuff to dio so what are you going to stop doing? Okay that's easy because for every single thing I wrote like hire someone hires someone hires the one who I think I was talking with rochelle about that like that our biggest achilles heel is that I'll do it myself. I'll do it myself and it's killing me so if you said a chief initiative that you can't do by yourself don't you think that will help get you over that? Because you can't achieve that speaking goal without a team yeah yeah you can't achieve that speaking goal without people doing a heck of a lot of work for you yeah because speaking isn't just about the hour you're on stage it's about the eight hour plane ride and the two hours in the airport in the building in the you cannot make speaking the focal point of your next twelve months without bringing a team on board and so that's gonna be one of your sub calls it's kind of both cause it's team and it's a sub cole okay so you want to identify what kind of roles do I want to phil who are the best people going to be for that you khun you can actually use your fascination results for that you want people compliment you not who our yes women who are the same thing as you right not people who are just gonna work you up what are you again I know the overall was the talent the talent that's prestige and passion passion for steve yeah so you're looking for people who are very high and trust very high and alert and you probably want someone on your team has very high and mystique as well okay passion and prestige is a great combination for speaking on stage I don't I'm not worried about that at all and we need people to help you button up the rest of it and that may include hiring someone who can help you but in this program up on maybe god's a strategist like free an or maybe it's someone who's working with you on a more regular basis uh where you know it is mohr on your team but that's going to be a big part of this a swell so what you want, what you want to look at and the way I did that so fast is that which which allows you to do the next thing more easily if you were to do the program last if the program was your chief initiative one I don't think that you would be getting the speaking gigs um because I think it's just a less much less compelling thing when you consider a I'm amy I'm the joy junkie and I'm the creator of what your process called well, it was called creating a badass life but it's going to be changing to something different? Perfect. So this is amy and she is the creator of this program that's the way an organization or a conference once to introduce you on stage that's how that works so you start with that peace that is the end game it is the end game I don't think it's a problem for you to call it the end game, but getting to that end game starts today and it starts by letting all of the pieces of this puzzle fall into place s o let's go let's, just break it down through the system really fast so that everyone ah watching khun can go through it as well. So we've got your one big thing it's a speaking career or it's a speaking it's making speaking a large part of your marketing and revenue let's say it that way okay okay good. I'm so glad you're uncomfortable with that that's one of the ways you figure out you've got the right goal now what are your conditions of success? What? How will your embodiment of how you your environment be embodied when you are regularly generating revenue and on an out and marketing actively through speaking well? I think also being way more involved with the different groups in my environment that I already have likes speaker associations and things like that I think a lot there's been also I recently did my first life event okay? And that was really confirming that this is the direction that I need to move, but I need to be hired by somebody other than me to speak where you need to hire someone who can create that event for you, right? Right? Taking taking the lead on your own speaking career is a great way t get going come and it can be it can be an investment ideally it's one where you're at least breaking even and I want you to do so then, you know, just see like, where could you have found in the budget to hire someone to be able to do stuff so that all you have to do is show up? My goal in life is to always just show up, you know? So that's what I look for when I'm hiring a team or when I'm looking for what my conditions for success are anything else and it does, so this is what you're talking about with the environment, relationships, schedule processes, bdo I think really everything comes down to that underpinning of of hiring out and just stop doing things myself, and it was also incredibly enlightening toe look at a lot of the things that I've been putting effort into that isn't necessarily yielding results or not, that doesn't have metrics in place to even see if I'm making results, so I'm already looking at there's a decent amount of stuff that I connects all together because I don't even know if it's a productive expenditure of my time perfect, how about sub goals? What what else? Other than completing this program, what do you need to accomplish to make speaking career more of a reality? Well, this is this is another thing that I think some of us brought up earlier in I have this notion that I really need to find the right expert to teach me how to get paid is the speaker or or to just get continuing to get gigs I have a lot of speaking background so the actual formation of speeches the problem so I don't know if that's something or if that's just me looking for other bosses I think you were saying yeah I mean it could be time to hire someone who could give you a real clear path give you the how to on that I think though if you're already really involved in speakers associations that they're going to have the same kinds of sirs I mean sure there are a couple people out there more than a couple of people out there who have really you know, buttoned up programs for these things that I'm going to you know I'm gonna teach you how to sell from the stage or I'm going to teach you how to get gigs or I'm gonna teach you how to position your business for this um I wouldn't call that a sub goal I would say one thing to think about his list building oh yeah definitely because it's not necessarily a prerequisite for being a well sought after speaker or a highly sought after speaker but it certainly doesn't hurt on because you know people people want to hire big names to speak at their events because they're draws right so the bigger you build your platform the more likely you are to be assad after speaker okay okay, cool that. That would be another one. Do you have a number in mind? Because we do want to keep this trackable, huh? A the end of the year? Uh, ten thousand subscribers beautiful. I love it and I think that's a great goal on dh then the other piece of that too is that we really should choose a number for speaking gigs as well. How would you know that you are assad after speaker at what I've always really loved the idea of is one per month. By the end of the year, however, I think and I got how many I'm happy with or so maybe you don't know. Do you want to do between now and the end of twenty fifteen with an eye to doing one per month in twenty sixteen? I think I'd say maybe three feels so like three keynotes actually attainable. Absolutely, absolutely. And then you're setting up systems, which is our next piece gonna be setting up systems to make sure that your regular get lee getting leads in because, you know it will be august at the latest is when people are going to start looking to book speakers for the beginning of next year, you know, so you want to get those systems in place sooner than later, and that could just be a spy you have a speaking page on your website I d'oh doing well with the rebrand that's that's one of the things I was going to say needs to be done is the the real and the one sheet and stuff like that to be agitated, those are all sub goals to yeah, okay, okay, um and you know, a system for that could just be hiring the right person, and that leads us to team building all these things air inter related, like don't get too caught up in the different pieces of it, but that's how that all works together. Another thing is that I would ask your community if they know of people who are looking for speakers to keep you in mind and to recommend you. Okay, okay, and that might be a ps in an email. It might be one email that goes out every few months where you say, hey, I'm hitting the road again to go here, maybe use it as an opportunity. Teo, talk about where you're going to be speaking, and then you say, you know, I love getting referrals from speaking gigs from people inside my community already, so if you're putting on an event or, you know someone who's putting on an event and they need a speaker on x y z topic, okay, think of me okay, let me ask you this to what I have a weekly podcast that ideo that really is my primary marketing avenue at first so I try to state very focused with that as I'm looking tio some like text marketing and stuff like that to dr moore optimize from people who just listening mobili right? Because that's tough yeah, the inversion from podcast this time's a challenge although I think podcasting is a perfect avenue especially with the direction you want to take your business yes so I think where I get a little stock is everything seems ho monolithic like teo to create this program teo make the speaking all of the visibility happened on my website for all of these components seem plus marketing it on the podcast and then even just having content creation for the podcast and such all of it feels like huge yeah so you break it down further and speaking pages something that could be done make sure the thie copy is up to date now and then put on your calendar two weeks from now you were going to send out request for proposals from three different videographers who could help you put a real together ok ok um then you know just little things like that now reworking the program because I think this is probably the biggest thing that you're having problems getting your mind around you've been doing this programme one on one with people I have have you done in a group before? Yes, ok, I want you to do it in a group again um and I want you teo basically hand pick the people who are going to be in this group. Okay, I want you to look for people in your community who have been speaking up who you just love to work with but for whatever reason maybe haven't decided to proactively contact you before, okay, I want you to present them with an offer and this is not working for free. This is you're gonna put up a dollar amount on it, but you're going to personally invite them to this and say I'm in the process of reworking this program you are exactly the kind of person I want to rework this for I think you're interested in these results sure, if you are and you'd like to talk more about whether this is for you or not or whether this is the right time I'd love to to schedule a quick call with you. Okay. Okay then I want you to rebuild the program on the fly with the group. Okay. Okay, I've done that before. Too good. Yeah, it will be so much easier this time yeah it's harder to create a program on the fly although I highly recommend it it's much easier to rework a program on the fly on dh then make sure you're putting in place what make it so that it's easiest for you. So if what's easiest for you is recording an off the cuff audio or a video off the cuff video maybe to explain whatever you're doing you know that week then just go and get it transcribed, so then you've got the taxed can you can rewrite the tax if you want to put that manual out. Now you've got fifty thousand words that you can sit through an edit and you can break that up it doesn't have to happen with that group. That group just has to give you the reward methodology. Yeah, and then you can add features from there got hit okay, does that make sense, which will obviously incur a huge price difference to what you know next time? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, but I wouldn't be skimpy on this group. I mean, you're not social proof we've been doing this work for a long time. There's no reason to go below market value. It's just you're not going to command the you know, the higher price tag that you'll be able to command later, you're not going to charge a premium for it in the charge market rate write to them exam when that's really helpful to because the end goal of that to begin with was to take all the one on one and have it always be a group program that that no longer available to work one on one exactly exactly, exactly and that's gonna help correct you're speaking career because you'll have more time yeah, perfect feel better? Yeah okay, awesome! Thank you, baby, thank you so committing to this level of focus can really turn on your quiet power. Quiet power is all about focus when you are just intensely focused on creating a speaking gig or a speaking career writing a book, launching a new collection, putting out a piece of software whatever that intense focus is for you it's going to awake awakened that power inside of you because you're going to know now even if you don't know it's the right path or the right choice, you're gonna have that internal compass that internal knowing saying that you know it might not be right, but this is the right thing for me right now and you're going to be able to lead yourself from point to point to point in that chief initiative plan. It might be scary at first, but it has the opportunity to create big results. So you're chief initiative is part of your stand out style having that one goal that you are working toward helps awaken that leader within you helps you tap into your quiet power and will help your business stand out questions about creating a chief initiative melissa helpful hearing amy talk about her big goals and it seems so easy for you it is your out which one's eyes right chief and I've been doing this for a while so I wrote down a few things okay one is the first of many books get the data done right? Um I also have speaking career visions and hosting a big event so my thinking is because speaking career seems like so crazy far out there uh so maybe that is the chief initiative and the book leads into that can you define big event how many people no, I can't define it yet because I really don't know yet whether I mean ultimately I'd like to be hosting a live event but probably maybe starting with I mean, with other speakers coming in okay, so two different ways I could see this happening I could see your eye could see speaking being your immediate chief initiative with the book actually being a sub goal and then I could see the big event say being your twenty sixteen chief initiative where it's a physical event people are going you're building your list the whole time you're gaining because you can say my goal right now like right now today in march of twenty fifteen is by the end of twenty sixteen I'd love to be able to host you invite you to, you know, the living a creative life experience okay, so and if you would say that now and have all of the work that you're doing leading up to that being obvious what you're showing your audiences that you mean business they will remember you scary thing and if I say this is what I'm going to be doing and I don't follow through so plans change priorities change it's not a big deal you're not wish you want things change, we change our audience changes your priorities change is if you don't want to do a live event twenty sixteen at the end by the end of twenty fifteen no big deal but that's what you're working toward and now if you know you are the kind of person who is a little wishy washy I could totally be a little wishy washy. Normally I'm wishy washy when I actually haven't found that one thing that I want to be focused on, but if if you know that you air on the side or that you you have a tendency toward being a little wishy washy, you don't have to say what it is that you're working toward you don't have to say what it is it's in the two or three year plan you could just, you know, make the actions work that direction like I didn't tell anyone I was working on the business coach training programme until I was ready to invite the the first group in but everyone was like, oh, I get it now, and I had an incredible response actually an overwhelming response to that program, such that I had to turn people away, uh, which I felt terrible about that that was not the plan, but it just made sense so you could go either way. Now, here's, the other thing that I could see you doing, I could see you doing the event first in that it could be a virtual summit, a virtual conference, and you put a lot of time and energy into this thing leading up to you releasing the bucks. You're you're list building through the event, whether it's paid or not and then leading up to the book and then by that time you've built your reputation in such a way that kind of that speaking is sort of like, I mean, that's a no brainer it's just a duck, you start getting asked toe lots of events, whether they're virtual or physical, okay, so that's two different ways I see that happening uh, pick the one that feels most exciting to you he's going to save pick the one that feels best to you, but I don't I don't actually want it to feel good I wanted to feel uncomfortable, so just focus on the one that's most exciting do you like the idea of having living a creative life experience coming at you in twenty sixteen or do you like the idea of just diving in there and making it happen now and using that as a process to build the other things oh you want me to actually and I don't need you to answer that now that's what I want you to think about so I don't mean to leave the pregnant pause but does that help very much think good other questions patrice lts horn on which things should be my chief initiative the first that's been on my mind for a while is I really want to keep my client pipelines so to speak full a quarter at a time okay? Because I want some be ableto use one hundred percent of my attention for my clients and not figuring out where the next client is going to be s o that's the first thing the second thing is that I do ah lot of workshops in chicago for creative entrepreneurs on different aspects of the law and I've partnered with different organizations to do that so I'm actually looking to expand that piece of my business and get contracts with at least three arts based or organizations that sort of creative entrepreneurs generally tio develop and facilitate legal it programming through them s o that's the other kind of thing and both of them are I feel like equally as important. So my overall mission, yeah, and do you see those contracts then also leading toward the individual people who would want to hire you? I mean, I'm sure because part of my reason for partnering in this way is to be able to deliver the information and, on some level, the service to people who couldn't afford to hire me individual leisure and have the organization's fund that so I'm not sure that they would then turn into individual, okay, not sure is okay with him. I would I would concentrate on getting those contracts because I see that building your pipeline on dh, maybe it also encourages you, teo set a sub goal of having an internal way of serving people who may not have the capacity. Teo there the financial capacity no one with you, one on one to which could be interesting and exciting? I don't know if that's something that you're interested in it or not, but I don't see that as a possibility, eso their first, their organization pays for them, and they pay some sort of reduced fee where maybe you're not their lawyer, and you're not giving them legal advice per se, but you're helping them navigate the system, or you're helping them navigate, you know their questions, it's okay, and I see I just see, that is really helping you build that pipeline, whether it's directly or whether directly because that's also really gonna build your reputation as well. You're the go to person for three different organizations soon, there's going to be a lot of people paying attention to you that may not be coming to those events, but no your name and you're going to be top of mind, right? Okay, okay, now I will be happy to talk to the rest of you about your chief initiative later. Let's, let's, let's give her online audience their homework or today so it is to declare your chief initiative. Then, once you've got that chief initiative in mind, identify the conditions, sub goals systems and team support that will help you make progress toward that goal. Then share your chief initiative with us on your facebook page. So I am asking you to share it with your audience. I want you to stay and you don't have to say my chief initiative is just tell them this is what I'm working toward. This is what I'm creating for you. This is where I want to be twelve months by now from now announced that intense goal announced that intense focus to your audience, I promise you it will be very exciting for them. And you will get some serious standout results from it. So announce it on your facebook page and tag. Terror. Gentilly and creative live you can even use the hashtag standup is on facebook as well.