Lessons

Lesson Info

Introduction and Business Self Portrait

Good to be back with you guys here today I can feel the energy and just like the radiant smiles and so much goodness was surfaced yesterday during day one and I can't wait to continue that energy and today too as we dive a little bit war into some of the left brain stuff but bring our right brain along for the ride to make it fun and creative and exciting so also good morning good afternoon and good evening to those of you watching online really great to have those of you who have come back for more fun and if you're just joining us excited to dive in with you guys and see what else we can uncover with your creative business was really coolly here thie ah ha's that you guys were having from yesterday and I'm curious teo you know if you guys have taken any action I know nathan launched a site yesterday well he was sitting here which is pretty cool it's a big deal I'm just curious if there's any action that you guys have taken that and any you know I'm talking about a real small thing to...

o you know maybe you tweeted an inside or something but just it's even those small actions that help continue progress so we love to hear from studio yeah really just I sat with it because they feel like my biggest problem is taking too much actually so for me I felt like it was great just to sit with it like I reviewed the vision plan again and just kind of develop that felt sense around it and so I just kind of sat with it in my body and great listen to that yeah yeah well I'm glad that you yeah sometimes the action is just to stop everything else and just let it integrate and sit with it perfect glad you gave yourself that time yeah there was severe you have to echo exactly what kathy j experience and did last night because I generally feel like I'm just drinking from a fire hose you know, like building up this foundation and I mean like this coaching program and masterminding and there's just always so much action implement and it's so intense and I feel like I just don't have enough testosterone tio sometimes and so last night I actually is able to give myself permission to just go home and take the chill pill effect and I did I napped for like an hour and then I napped again like so needed, you know it's like who how often do you give yourself that space and that space allowed me to really deeply reflect on just allow a lot of wisdom to surface I didn't have to actively reach for anything it just is ready to break through and it did and it was it was so profound and energizing and I felt more deeply connected to my business than in the past. Wow, it's beautiful that is so beautiful and it's just creating the space for that so oh gosh, I just love that you guys are really picking up on how important it is to create that time and container for just being with your internal process and letting that bubble up into insights and to keep you inspired, you know certainly tapped back into that throughout today and tomorrow because we are going to start heading more into some of the concrete stuff, right? And so if you know you need your left brain there here on one of them is to always connect back maybe take a deep breath look at your big vision collage from yesterday. Anything else here I saw some nodding of people just going yeah, I am agree completely with what with what they said I was had to like, let it all process and kind of sort it all out last night and then and I took a nap too because I thought that my brain was so full of information and like, emotionally, you know and creatively. So then when I woke up from a nap it just felt like all these ideas and emotions are like pouring out of me almost to the point of tears like, you know, you don't allow yourself to feel like that deeply about your business sometimes because it's just go go, go and we don't have time to step in to really reflect so it's really an amazing experience so right yeah I can't agree with everyone here and it was exhausting way just take that time tio just process it all and you know this this morning again I it all came back it's when I process things is early morning and I thought of wonderful new ideas and in mission statements and goals so after process yeah under my nap sometimes we need that like extra space to just let it process let the mind do its thing and then come back and have new insights I imagine there's lots of stuff going on in the online we're also let's hear from our chat folks yes there is we have someone kimberly blue said she met with a group of fifteen photographers photographers after the workshop and they all worked on their price lists for two thousand thirteen she says this workshop was very helpful and giving me the vision for my future and confidence to raise my prices significantly yes way have extraordinary living who says I posted my collage of facebook with a shout out to write a business plan and it generated conversation brilliant you know, I hope we saw I hope a lot of you out there yesterday and you could still do it today where were tweeting out your your vision board your your collages! We're using the hashtag hashtag are bbp as well as hash tag jennifer lives says he didn't do that yesterday tweet those out so we can all see them absolutely to him to creative lives, you can retweet that and also I have someone here who says I posted my big vision on instagram, facebook, twitter and also stopped out and wrote out in my journal some ideas for my goals toward my business this year and one more person cause we ask them what their actions were. Yeah, great honey and johanna, it says I have always resisted taking on the business side of my business, I engaging with it now as a creative project in itself, so I'm super excited about that you got it on, we have daily ruins, he says. I expanded my offerings and created more products, and she watched the reruns three times just showing that permeated by course dollars added to your permanent library. Oh my gosh, those are fantastic insights! Thanks guys for sharing those it's really good to hear and I love I want to highlight a couple of those the person who had said, you know that all you guys came together and were working on your priceless and raised the prices this is why yesterday was so in important for you to tap into the big vision, what makes you really passionate about what you're doing, your values that you can really stand confident and what you're delivering an offering to the world that, yeah, you can raise their prices and feel good about it. So that is fantastic, and I also love that you guys were sharing your big vision collages talking about with other people. I mean, simply posting an image of your collage as a work in progress gives other people visibility to what you're working on, what you're thinking, and it helps you engage in a conversation like they're saying on facebook that, you know, people started to respond and there's a discussion. And so as we go into later on this afternoon, when we do getting the word out, you guys are already doing that just great, you know? And even for the folks in studio, just by showing up and talking about your business, that's helping to engage with, you know, people who can then understand what your offerings are, maybe they're your perfect customers, maybe they know the perfect customer for you. So all of this relates to your business and growing your business, I'm so grateful that you guys are actively engaged in the process, so thank you so much, so, yeah, yesterday we did a big vision, the values passion and purpose proclamation and so that's the foundation for the rest of this process right and so what we're going to be covering today is the business landscape so that's kind of thie competitive analysis piece the market research which I know can get a lot of people like oh my gosh but we'll do it in a you know, a fun wave much fun as we can on will actually go through and walk through an example together to help kind of bring that to life and then later on this afternoon will be doing getting the word out marketing and we also have a guest who's going to be joining us later in the afternoon sharon tests and dori who's here from think from kentucky and she's done this process herself and she's also one of my right brain business plan facilitators so we'll get to chat with her about how she's been using this in her business so cool stuff all right so the business landscape so fun to have this big place she blown up on the law I'm so excited thank you creative life for making that happen this do you guys know I think that somebody here go to business school can't remember no yeah swat yes right e I think they do it like a four box usually is this maybe looking familiar yes strengths weaknesses opportunities threats right um this I can't spell check okay thank you right? So that's, kind of the typical exercise of the mba folks go through to understand how your business kind of fits in with the rest of the marketplace. This feels pretty left brains, like in a box, right? We're thinking in a box here and filling about, so we're going to do it in a more creative way here, using the metaphor of an actual landscape and how your business that's in. So we'll kind of go through some of those same questions, of looking at strength, opportunities and threats and weaknesses, but using this kind of visual pictorial way, exploring it. So we're going toe look over here at the business landscape and what makes up the business landscape. So yesterday, you know, we spent a lot of time doing that big vision, the values and kind in your own internal world, right of what excites you about your business and all of that. So today, we're going to bring some of that internal workings and bring it to the external world and see how you fit in in the world of your business, right in the field that you're in the market they bring in. So the extra elements that make up your landscape include your customers, so well, we'll be filling this out together, and actually for you guys here in studio, you actually have this place sheet in your clipboard and for those of the at home this is one of the free downloads, right? So well, we actually filling this out together right now I'm just giving you an overview so that we kind of have a lay of the land kenneth and I just want to remind people that you do need to enroll for the course I think you could be even then you will be able to download those those top for media great thank you a little left lane detail that alright tio research in case people just doing yeah eso customers and actually this afternoon when we get into getting the word out will be exploring more of your customers but it's helpful to kind of have it all in one place here we'll also be looking at trends and kind of how that fits in with your your market and so things like, you know, social, economic, financial trends and we'll kind of talk through howto find that and we'll walk through an example looking at your competition. So who are the other people or businesses that are filling the same need that your business is thinking? Did you just spent your face it's funny because a lot of people don't like this word and actually I like to think of it as your peers right or your colleagues or people you can learn from yeah something well having a reaction to that anyone who is like oh competition like I don't like that like does it gets more skin in the game and it makes great helps you really find out how committed you are teo in that industry because if you you know if you can play in the game with the competition you're way more invested to make sure you stay on top yes I love that yeah he raises your own standards it totally does yeah yeah so I love that you guys were coming at it from that perspective so that's the external kind of lens that we can look at this then in terms of your landscape there's also some internal elements so looking at your own strength right like what do you good out? What are your skills? What makes you stand out and I think that's really the core piece when we look at the landscape and you'll see there's a question there what makes me stand out and we'll do an exercise here incorporating the three words homework that you guys did to kind of bring that home also just you know, making sure that we're acknowledging the challenges eso where you might be where the competition may be doing a better job and that you can learn from just like what you guys were saying like oh, I better step it up because so and so is doing x y z and then given all that, what are the opportunities now given your strengths and maybe some of the trends where can you really shine on? What are the particular opportunities for your business? Okay, I mean a pause there questions on the landscape that kind of makes sense this is a lot more pretty than that four box right? Okay, a lot more inviting it's more inviting exactly and it helps our brain even think of them you know, even the metaphor opportunities is like rays of light are shining or you know, and then the customer needs like the customer's needs are always flowing and changing so you need to be, you know, have your toe in the water so you can understand what's going on, right? So metaphor we love metaphor. Great. So as we go into the market research, I think we talked about this yesterday from chat I can't remember the exact question, but it was something like, well, how am I supposed to know all this information so here's a little something I learned from my management consulting days and it's a very official term all the swag that stands for silly, wild I think I'm allowed to say this word ass yes theme throughout the market research part that will dive into will be taking swags, and so those are silly wild ass guess is in official terms they learned it and my management consulting um you could kind of consider it a left brain chill bill okay, cool we're going to head into an exercise that's going to help us understand this piece of it, right? So it's kind of a great bridge from yesterday because we're doing the big vision values, passion, purpose, proclamation so you're still kind of in that space of like yeah like I'm really getting how I fit in here and so let's kind of get even more clarity here built that up and then we'll flush out the rest okay, so this exercise is creating your business self portrait and it basically is creating some kind of visual and for the folks in studio would probably just do there's some markers and construction paper in your basket so we'll use those in a second I need to get him now, but I'll just show you some examples it's basically a way to have a visual representation of kind of this stuff what makes you stand out? What do you do? Well, you're three words um I know this is hard to read but I just wanted to show you this khun look any way you want and this is part of your right right business plan but it could be a separate actual art piece or a piece of paper, okay so kristen heared written like what are my natural gifts and strength and passions? And she wrote each of the words on believe here I can't read but kind of a cool way to visually represent and rebecca batter here who's in marketing, you know, talked about in her own words to describe her and then this was the words of her friends climbs and colleagues from doing that three word exercise and there's also an exercise in the book that has a questionnaire that you consent to your clients and colleagues and I might touch upon a few of those questions here ok, this one here is a business self portrait from an artist amy crawley, and she did her three words she asked clients and friends and there's a tool called word a ll and I know the folks you can type that and I don't think we have it on the slide but you can go to this web site and you have the ural cannon yeah it's is it? Why don't that its world dot net yeah w o r d e l o e dot net and you type in all the words that came up from your three people or even more and it will spit out a cool word cloud so you get a visual representation of the words that describe you and so amy included that here and she also has things like you know, she wrote her challenges here opportunities I think she even wrote things about her own background and experience stuff like that so the things that go on here could be background skills and experience it's any special talents that you have how you help your customers if you want to list some of your products and services you can put that here tio the word cloud and you know what makes you unique? So I love for you guys to spend just a few minutes here and so that would be on your using the supplies in your basket to do you know, I think there's some markers to just have it be a little bit more colorful and fun, but this is a way for you to really claim who you are because your business is such a reflection of you right and so that you can stand firm and it's really great tio have that kind of external so that if you forget you know how awesome you are, although kathy j will remind us how awesome way I love to hear even before you guys go into that though some of your three words and then we'll have you go into exercise ok? So if just share and then we'll have you and work on your self portrait of words from the home or free yeah so energetic and inspired carrying committed, passionate, nurturing patient understanding suite maybe one more here and then I'm sure there's folks and chat and we'll have the folks and chat share while the guys in studio are drawing that's uncle okay caitlin did yeah yeah a couple of words that I had where when we was aware um another list collaborative resourceful and one was cautious um and when this creative goal also alliteration going on there yeah let's hear him? Yeah, we have some from the chat room today we have a bro jha who has chimed in and she says I'm silly kind creative she actually has more than three I'm going to say I like she she uses spicy and exotic we have shantel who says soulful, passionate, inspiring, vivacious, loyal fair guarded raring tio go intends playful and conviction and we have dreaming big determined tenacious and al dash audacious isis edward and we have ah the rainy day store strong positive and stubborn your friends and family know you well and know that you will be ok with that we have more coming in way could continue yeah tonto just racing half who says a clean clear, free spirited and inspiring cool I'm just I think it's interesting to see and I'm curious to see what people's reactions are out there too the words that people fed back to you because it's one thing to sort of think about the words that you think describe yourself but then another two here yeah, way actually have I am cd said she said all people that she interviewed actually said the same words yes ok that's really cool I love that and I just want to pause there and say that's, one of the cool things about this exercise is you start to see reflected back to yourself, the consistency right that you're showing up in a certain way so it's helpful to get that feedback and just also hearing words that you might not have thought of that are surprising if I can I think you're saying there is some where I didn't think of myself like that so that's why asking other folks you know, for their perspective is really great. Yeah, I have a good question that came in from patrice, who says I asked for three words and I felt like I got a lot of personal self words instead of business words. Is there a difference in terms of the business plan and the exercises that we're doing that's such a great question and I think it's great that the responses were personal because it really is about how you are showing up in the world and that's how you represent your business so I'd be curious to hear what the words are I imagine that there probably relevant to your business so it's a matter of showing up authentically in your work or they're more way have more this yeah, maybe a couple more and then we'll check in with the in studio right? We have ah nique seven one eight one said all people I asked said creative others varied saying innovative, driven, smart, random, fickle and calm and, um I like that we have seen and sydney h said she got to lovings and persistent kind and intelligent on she was surprised with loving but got it from all three people that night school that's really cool so we have we have a question. Okay, we have a question from t cow do you think it would be helpful? Tio also asked people for maybe one negative I think it would be insightful to see if a negative may be consistent. Yes, I think that could be helpful and actually what I'm going to do is also read through some of the questions that are in the interview guide example in the book. So for anyone who has the book, this is on page sixty eight and if you are on kindle or ibooks, I would just search for the keywords sample interview guide and that will bring you to the page since pages are different online, so that could relate teo, you know how people see you differently, like anything they think you might be missing um you could also ask what would you say my natural gifts, strength and passions are how do you think people can benefit from the gifts I have to offer um and what can you see me doing as creative, meaningful, authentic and anything else you'd like to share? But I love that you know that whole idea of what are your blind spots right the negative I would baby phrase it is what are my blind spots don't like criticize me give me a negative work that's what's annoying about me because that helps you know where you might need tio you know, do cem personal work or maybe that's something where somebody else can help you with you know, maybe you're maybe one of the you know, blind spots is attention to details, not there. Well, great, maybe you hire an assistant who takes care of all the details for you so you don't have to attend to that cool. What looks like the in studio folks have been busy scribbling away and I'd love to just check in here and see where you guys are out. I know it's kind of a tall order to be creating your business self portrait in this time frame, but it's helpful just to start getting it on paper and to kind of see it so I'm curious here what you guys air coming up with and what you're noticing are learning I'm catching you like midway in your creative process do you have something frances just to stay true tio what people had told me and I was thinking gosh, you should ask more people for more words it's like it just page yeah even though I asked a bunch of people but a lot of them just kind of said the same words and as faras blind spots I did ask for that from some folks and I've consistently pretty consistently gotten that I should really work on being more my heart and less in my head I'm really brainy like thinking you know, science and stuff and also I've heard that I should be more authentic and I'm like vulnerable just kind of letting myself be seen in a more really a so I'm working on that and then I heard my brother in law so that I'm chatty I don't agree with sorry john if you're watching that's great thank you do you want to show on camera what you're working on? Are you cool with that it's just all the stuff that I just said out loud that kind of in its own little world cup? Yeah very cool you know it's helpful to have the visual I had a someone I was working with who was going to be doing a workshop and I think it was the first time delivering that particular content she's led bunch of workshops before but it was like making sure that she felt really comfortable on strong and who she wass and reminding herself so she kind of did a similar exercise in rode out words describe her of how people saw her and then you know put a really nice picture of herself in there so that's like here's who is showing up as I am you know providing this service or this workshop so it's a nice way to check back in that's nice yeah they're folks here in studio would like to just give us a peek I know you're probably still working on it but just give us some um I'm like way still working on this so I guess what this is helping me realize those what makes me unique yeah travis which is like there aren't many a massage therapist who were once rocket scientists and like owning that and like understanding like oh I get like being a corporate road warrior is really hard on your body and like how to make that transition over and I think that's and that's the one thing that clients that constantly say they're like oh I like your site from the about you section I like your story and I was like whatever and like a hole you get teo right right right seriously so anyway I just thought that was that was surprising it's like when I don't know I feel like I heard it by writing it finally yes exactly that's the purpose of this exercise thank you for demonstrating also anyone else here and then we can check that back into chat or if you guys have kathy to the same words kept coming through all the time our assistant creative intuitive innovative problem solver patient on um kind my mother honest my brother said I was two particular e I like to call it a discerning discerning thanks mike and then I think if this is bringing out helping families and friends celebrate meaningful moments with their loved ones and kind of came through this process I love it yeah isn't it cool to see that that's like what really you know way tapped into that yesterday of how important that is to your right and then to see it reflected back that's hey that's how kathy showing up like how cool to get that feedback yeah we have someone in the in the online audience who said I didn't I almost didn't ask my husband because I assumed he was going to give me wishy words but his feedback was valuable, he said creative unorthodox though I would have taken beautiful that's from make seventy one eighty one so asking your family is always a great place and I just wanted tio r b b p dash amy m and is in the chairman says it's beautiful how what's unique about us is often in the combo of strength and so I just wanted to remind people because I didn't mention this earlier that we do have some of the right brain business plan facilitators who are also in the chat room and are answering or questions that are specific to that. So if you see those folks, they're using blue font, so thank you, amy, for that and feel free to ask him your questions. Yes, amy eggen burger from minnesota so high, let's see, we also have I had a friend once asked me if he was a certain way, because people already believe that of him, and I think sometimes people force you into a box when elements of your growing self or so bright uh they can't imagine that you have any space left to continue to grow. This is a sister afro who said that so it's also being creative? Maybe when you're asking people about what words they could describe about you being creative, asking different types of people asking your clients friends first, their families, yeah, he's, different results. I love that you're pointing there and I think it's helpful to have it's kind of like you're doing your own market research about yourself, right, and checking in with different demographics to see you know you might show up I know I show differently when I'm around my family that I am maybe with my friends or even with clients so you're going to get different perspectives and yet all of those make up the whole of who you are great so anyone else I know he had a little bit more time to spend anyone want to give voice to your business self portrait before we move on to the next piece did you want to share anything? Yeah, and then we'll yeah, I was just going to say my background has been as media video producer for twelve years independently employed and it's been great working for myself I sometimes I feel like that's like I was destined to do that and being able to have be the master of my own schedule was really important to me is an important value to be available to raise my sons and spend a lot of time with them because I had a father who as a pediatrician I was not able to spend a lot of time with me so all the things he wasn't able to do I decided, you know, when I have kids I wanted to do the same thing um so that's my background is as a self employed video producer and vassal ating between small projects where I would do everything shoot at it script to bigger projects where I would be given a large budget and I would hire other creatives and manage them and I always really enjoyed that aspect I felt like being right brained I could communicate very well with other creatives whether it's shooters editors, graphics people and always deliver a really good product it's great on but I think he had something about the three words do you wantto share a little bit about that? Sure I can yeah I asked my ex wife so as I'm friends with her and as an ex wife you would expect she divided them up in the two categories the positive and the negative eso the positive we'll start with the good news was a charming insightful and uh I don't know if you can say this but palsy if that's a word and the negatives she said stubborn controlling and argumentative so that was two sides from her some other words from other friends were passionate, warm, flawed, intense, creative, compassionate so I guess that you know, I feel like those are all you know pretty accurate what did it feel like to have those reflected back to you? Uh, you know, it actually felt good to feel good that people could communicate with me in an honest way and I think that's really important in relationships is being honest, being revealing, being vulnerable and not pretending and nobody is perfect, and I'd be the first to say that I have flaws and there's issues to work on now as faras, you know, maybe being argumentative and things I just see it all is an opportunity, totally, and I think what's cool about what you shared, and and we're going to actually be able to use you as a key study will jump into the landscape in just a bit, thanks for agreeing to do that. I want to point out, just from what I know about divorce, cafe there's, some things that you talked about in your background and experience that are so important to highlight this whole idea of, like you've been working for yourself, and part of that reason you want to do it was so that you could be there for your son's, right, and how much that is so important to you. And just given what you shared yesterday about, you know, that legacy piece of the work that you're doing, of helping the parents deal with their divorce and get through that so they can then be there for their kids it's like that is a thread that so important. It's, why doing this business self portrait can really help ground that for you, like, this is what I bring to the table, like I lived and breathed this. And here's why I want to help others to do that so I love that you're able to pick up on that highlight that and then the whole thing about some of the you know, quote unquote negative words of the blind spots I think it was controlling was one argumentative, stubborn, stubborn I'm unfocused, theo actually, I was thinking of something else like the thing you were talking about, you have a team of people right? Who you're working with for this site would just started maybe, you know, three, four right now I have to grow. Yeah, so it's just, you know, matter of, like, maybe there's, some management skills to learn or things like that right there you can build in as you flush out your business. Self portrait. Really cool. All right, so are there any and chap that we wantto acknowledge and then I want to move to the business landscape? Yeah, actually, we have a question in chat from my job. We hope I got that right. Can we write adjectives we think describe us? Of course. Yes. Permission to describe yourself and you know, that could be a place to start. Maybe if you feel shy about asking other people certainly, you know, you know yourself pretty well, so add words I know, I added my own words when I did mine, but it's, helpful to just come at it from different perspectives. You get to make this however you want. Truly remember, that was one of my getting principles.