Lessons

Lesson Info

Identify Resources to Invest In

Just like we need to set goals based on what we don't know, we also need to set goals or probably, the goals that you've set, means that you're gonna have to fill in some gaps on some resources. You don't have everything you need to have in order to make that goal a reality. So, again, from the 12 week year, Brian Moran says, "The first step, then, to reaching your biggest dreams is to shift from impossible thinking to possible thinking. You do this not by asking How? But by asking What if?" This, I love this. This flip of how, to what if, makes me so happy. It's the same thing, it's the same kind of question that I asked you, when I asked you, if you had to hit that 12 month goal in 12 weeks, what would you do differently? I mean it's literally a what if question. Like, what if you only had 12 weeks instead of 12 months to hit that goal? Now, you start identifying actions you would have to take. The impossible becomes possible very quickly. It's a creative question. When we ask what i...

f, we get creative, but, we also better understand and without freaking out, hopefully, what gaps we have in our plan, where we do need to make an investment and so, as you think about what if that 12 month goal was a reality, I want you to ask yourself also, what are the gaps between what you can do now or what you know now or what capacity your organization has now and what your goal is. What are the gaps between where you are right now and what your goal is? What resources don't you have? What people don't you have? What finances don't you have? What skills don't you have? What knowledge don't you have? So, we're gonna go through that same thing so you can start to prioritize what you might need. You may not be able to invest in all of these resources right away, but, if you don't make a shopping list for yourself of those resources, whether they're things you can actually buy or whether they're things you need to invest in energetically, so, that you can actually go out and get them when you need them and how you need them. So, what are the skills or the knowledge that you need? And, maybe you don't know, very well, even how to define this, so far, but, maybe you know you need to up your marketing skills in order to hit that goal. Maybe you need to learn better management practices because hiring team members is part of hitting that goal. Maybe you need to know better how to build a product, how to license your IP, how to find people who are going to buy a subscription. Those are all skills. Are there strengths of other people that you need to go out and find or maybe are there strengths that you need to learn how to better cultivate in yourself? You know, I believe really strongly in focusing on our strengths and not focusing on weaknesses, but, at the same time, we all have opportunities to learn how to show up differently, right? What financial needs do you have? What financial gaps are there in your plan? Do you need $1,000.00 here or $5,000.00 there or do you need first months and last months rent on a studio space? Those are financial resources you would need. Organizational needs. Who do you need in your company, in your business to help you make this plan a reality? You can write down names. You can write down titles. You can write down, gosh, I just need someone to answer my emails for me. That's all fine. What social resources do you need? Who new do you need to become friends with? (laughs) I also don't think we ask ourselves that question enough, but, every time I've ever asked myself that question, who do I need to be friends with, it's always worked out really well. Not only do I make new friends with people, but, I gain all of these resources, as well. I gain great conversations. I gain industry insider information. I gain connections to other people. I gain bigger questions, bigger goals. So, who new do you need to be friends with and then, finally, in your community, what resources do you need? Do you need to welcome in a new kind of customer? Do you need to tap into local community resources in a new way? Do you need to tap into your industry in a new way? Often, in our industries, there are so many resources that we're not taking advantage of, 'cause we're gettin' by on our own, why would we take advantage of those? You know, even things like coming and sittin' at a CreativeLive class. It's a great community resource you guys have all tapped into today and so, by taking inventory of these things that you need, you can start to prioritize. You can start to say I need to invest in this one first. So, I need to save up for it. I need to make a plan for it. I need to invest some time into it. I need to invest some energy into it. What are some of the resources you guys know you need to fill in the gaps between where you are now and your 12 month goal? Anybody? BJ? Regeneration, Marketing, Design. Regeneration, Marketing and Design? Um hm. Great, so are you thinking people for that or are you thinking learning to do it yourself? I don't know, I've been trying to learn it myself. It's been pretty taxing, actually, it takes a lot of energy out of, you know, from my, from myself. Yeah. I don't know, I was even thinking about potential partnership. Um hm. Whether it's a partnership or hiring someone on a contract basis. Yep. So, I'm still trying to navigate that. Yeah, I think that when you say I've been trying to learn it for a while and it's been pretty taxing, that what that says to me is that you're spending time you could be working with clients, trying to do marketing and that, I bet, if you went out there and hustled for some word of mouth referrals for clients or did some, like, even some cold calling, like, because you know exactly who your client is, right, which is really helpful in this case. You could hustle for those first few clients that would bridge the financial gap to being able to hire someone to do that stuff for you. Yeah, yes. Yeah? That fits, yeah. Some other resources you know you need? You guys are all set? (laughing) So, like, I should expect very big things tomorrow. You guys are going to be hiring people. Well, no because you don't need to hire people, I guess, 'cause that's a resource you don't need. Alright, well, I'm gonna put someone on the hot seat then. So, you know what, BJ why don't you come on up. I'm totally gonna hot seat you. Alright. So, I'm gonna actually pull up my workbook so, let's... Do I need a notebook? I don't need it right? No, you don't need yours. We're just gonna talk it through. Alright. Um, 'cause I'm just curious. I want to, kind of, get, give everyone, like, a big picture of where we want to be at the end of this lesson. So, what is that 12 month goal that you set? What's the one thing you want to have created or accomplished by the end of the year? It was 20 clients on retainer. 20 clients on retainer? Yeah, at least 20, whether it's individual consultanting retainer or group consulting, yeah. Perfect, alright, awesome. Remind everyone what your five year mission is as well. Five year vision is to have a couple hires, have a sales and marketing department, have an assistant and be, kind of the big picture strategic visionary building strategic partnerships with other entrepreneurs, other larger psychotherapy organizations. Yeah. And, then, having other consultants work under me, work in an office like CreativeLive, making, I will make at least four million dollars of revenue and one million take home. What else? And, so, what you're really building in five years is a whole consulting firm? Firm, yep, yeah. Yeah, it's a firm? Um, I think that's, yes, awesome. Alright and so, getting 20 clients on retainer, you feel, gets you the step closer that you want to be by the end of the year to that goal? Yeah, I think that if I get to 20 on retainer, at least 20, I'll be able to have my, at least my first hire. Okay. And then, maybe two hires. Do you know who you want your first hire to be? Not person, but, title and role? Um, I don't yet, no. I think, you know what, I'd like to clone myself. Like someone, not like personality wise, but, someone that has, like the same vision as me, but, is maybe doing, um, I don't know, actually, yeah, that a good, yeah, yeah. We'll talk about that. I can pull up a recommendation for you. (laughs) Alright, perfect. So, you'll know when you have achieved that because you went and was very, we were very smart. You put a nice 20 number on there, right? And, what do you think the next step after achieving clients, 20 retainer clients, would be in terms of getting you closer to your goal? In other words, what do you see being the path from this goal to your vision? I would say, um, making that first hire like I said and then, getting into an office space. I'm working out of home and just, kind of, on the road right now. Yeah. And so, getting into an office space would give me some credibility to make even my next hire and then, you know, maybe double my clients again for the following year. More resources. I love it, I love it and, what do you anticipate revenue wise from 20 retainer clients? At least a hundred gran. Okay. Yeah, at least, yeah, so, I think, I mean, that's like the smaller financial. I think, if I have at least 20, it'll be at least a hundred grand of revenue, I figure. Okay, um, I'm gonna challenge you on that? Sure. You have 20 clients on retainer, I want you to make your plan so that on the high, well, I want you to make your plan for a quarter million. Okay, that's good. I can do that, yeah. Alright, good. (laughing) Just for pricing purposes, I'm a just, you know, throw that out there, um, if you had to do your 12 month goal in 12 weeks, what would you do differently? I would, probably get rid of the podcast because that takes a while to build a community. Maybe not, but, I'd probably get rid of that. Do you get clients from your podcast? Not yet, no, yeah. How long have you had podcast? Oh, like two months. Oh, okay, alright, I'll give you time on that one. (laughs) I would cold call. I would door knock. I would send out mailers. I'd do Facebook ads. Not for an email list, but, for a consultation with me and just do it locally. I would build strategic partnerships with other people that know psychotherapists, so that they can refer to me. So, basically, all sales stuff, less activities. What of those things are you going to do this week, 'cause those were all really good? This week, complete a mailer. Mail it out to a list of psychotherapists that are local within 15/20 mile radius. Start my first Facebook ad, not for email list, but, for actual consultation with me and sending them to some sort of landing page where it shows a video of some sort of value. Door knock. I definitely agree with the Facebook ad. I think for what you do, with where you are, the, I wouldn't say this for everybody, but, the conditions are totally right for you to just have like a five dollar a day Facebook ad that's going out to the local community with a very you know, you can target people by title and obviously, by interest, but, you can even target people by title so, that works out really well for you. I'm gonna challenge you on the mailer. Okay. Because I think the mailer feels easy, but, it's not going to get you results. Yeah, yeah. I think it's a good, like, follow-up. I mean, obviously, direct response still exists for a reason, but, I think in the scheme of things and getting the first say, 10 clients of that retainer, you're gonna be much better off picking up the phone. Yeah. So, cold calling? Cold calling, yeah or cold showing up. Yeah, door knocking, yeah? Yeah, door knocking, yeah, totally. Well, I've done it in the past, I mean, that's one of the strengths and advantages I have is I've done sales for... Before this, you know, breaking off into entrepreneurialship, I was doing sales, so, I found out what's, yeah... (laughing) So, the next question is what resources do you have. So, you're a sales professional? I'm a sales professional in my nine to five in the past, yeah, yeah. (laughing) That's all you should be doing right now. Yeah. You could get, you could totally get to 20 retainer clients in 12 weeks. You could do it! I could yeah. So, why don't you? I think there's still some like, mental blocks to be honest. Yeah, let's talk about that. It's easier selling someone else's... I thought it'd be easier to sell my own service for myself, 'cause, hey, I believe in that so much more than somebody else's dream, right, but, there's still something holding me back, whether it's confidence, leadership, like I said before, you know, stepping into that leadership role. What else? Like, oh, I'm not a psychotherapist, you know, so, why would they get advice from me, but, I do have 10 years of sales experience, so, it's like, it's just my own mind garbage, you know, my own blocks that are holding me back right now. There's nothing else holding me back 'cept myself. Yeah. That's very true. (laughs) I mean seriously, with your resources, like, we don't even have to go into the rest of the resources, but, just, I mean, the people I know who have that kind of sales background and who've just decided I'm gonna apply that to my own business and I'm going to go after this... Like, you know, being a sales professional, you know exactly what you need to do to get to 20 clients, right? You may not know all of the, like, you might not know what your close rate is going to be at and all of those things, but, you know how to figure it out. Yes. You know what the process is for improving your close rate. Once you know what your close rate is, you know how many calls you're gonna need to book and how you're gonna book those calls, so that you can close the people you need to close. So, what I would do if I were you and we'll get into this in the next lesson, but, I would start looking at your weekly schedule and see what is the balance, how many clients can you actually take if you're the primary salesperson and make sure that that math works out, so that I am, so that I'm not, like, putting you down a path of misery in terms of working 16 hours a day because you're working and you're selling. But, look at what, look at what that would actually look like and then, judge the other resources you need to invest in based on that knowledge as well. But, yeah, I, I would seriously... I'm gonna challenge you to do so much more than a quarter million this year. I really think that you should go after 20 retainer clients for 12 weeks. I mean, what happens if you only get 15? Like, that doesn't suck, right? Shoot, shoot. You're saying shoot high, right? Shoot high because you know what you're doing and that's why you take an inventory of your resources. So, if you were then, to get or when you get retainer clients by the end of this quarter because you have put all of your effort and all of your history of sales professionalism into play, what resources would you need going forward from there, 'cause that's going to be a lot of work. Yes, I probably need sales and marketing so that I can just focus on the consulting, right? I'm not sure. What do you want to be doing in this five year vision? You personally, how do you personally want to be spending your time in this business? Leading, you know, leading and inspiring, coaching my team. Coaching your team? So, that they can consult. They can do the sales and marketing. So, basically, like I said, being visionary, being the CEO and the owner of the company. Yeah, so, in the pattern of businesses growing and scaling up, one of the last things, typically, I'm not going to say that this, this isn't a rule, there are no rules, but, typically, one of the last things that founders give up is sales and marketing and so, I want to put out that, you're being influenced by this whole digital marketing world of, you gotta, you, you know, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing and then, hire this person and do this thing. I don't think you need any of that. I think you need to perfect your sales process. I think you, as a sales professional, should develop a sales process for this company that you can replicate yourself for the time being, so that, again, you know, you know the script, you know the numbers, you know all of those things and then, I would start, actually, training consultants, looking for consultants, looking for people to actually do the work for you and maintain your part in the sales process up until the point where you get the sales process, your sales process, ready to train somebody else on. I'm not saying that, obviously, I'm not saying that all of this digital marketing stuff doesn't work and that landing pages and pop-ups and funnels doesn't work, but, I think you actually know more about the hard stuff and the more effective stuff, than the stuff you're trying to learn about right now and I, that resource is going to be the key to actually getting you to where you need to be instead of chasing all of this other stuff that you're being told you should be doing. Um. Does that make sense? It makes complete sense, I'll do it. Okay, awesome. (laughs) So, I think we've covered everything. We covered what you need to, yeah. Cool, thank you. Thank you, that was great. Absolutely, yep, thanks.