Ep 85: The Real Reason Your Business Isn’t Growing the Way You Hoped

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and recently I did something a little unhinged and I'm going to share that with you today. I gave out my personal cell phone number and I asked people to actually text me the one thing that they wish that they could fix in their business. Now, I know this might sound a little bit crazy and honestly it was not the first time I've been a little unhinged and radical and a little bit of a disruptor, so to speak, but the responses that came in from this absolutely blew me away.

And what happened next actually completely shifted how I think about connection, clarity, and what we really need to focus on in our business. And so in this episode, I'm going to share with you what people told me was their one thing, what most people were talking about, as well as some individual one offs as well, why most of the time what they're telling me is their one thing isn't actually the real problem there and the surprising ripple effect that comes out from or that came out from this little experiment that I did. So if you've ever thought

If I could just fix this one thing, everything else would finally fall into place and this episode is for you. Okay, so let's start off with backing up the truck here a little bit. Did I actually give out my cell phone number? Yep, I sure did. I emailed every single person on my email list, which is in the thousands and gave them my personal cell phone number so much so I actually had one person who responded to the email. She was like, is this actually real or did I just get spammed here? Like, or like scams, sorry, not spam, scam.

And I reply back, no, no, is legit. Tell me your one thing. Like, let's do this. Now, I also did share this on social media, but I did not give my cell number on social media. I just told them that they could DM me. But on email, I also know that sometimes it's easier if you can just text someone or send a voice note. And I wanted to create a more real connection and make that barrier a lot smoother for those people who are not as comfortable typing in email. And some people did just reply to the email, which was also totally OK.

Nonetheless, they still have my cell phone number. ⁓ what I will also say, especially if you are listening to this and you are one of the people on my mailing list who got my phone number, can I just say a massive kudos to everyone because no one abused it. Not one person was spamming me. Now, I mean, mind you, guess time will tell whether or not I end up on some list somewhere where I'm getting a million phone calls a day. But nonetheless, everyone was very respectful and I really, really appreciated that. But.

I really wanted to, like I said, I wanted to connect with my audience. I was doing this a little bit for Market Research. I had a webinar that I was working on and I had had some conversations leading up to the webinar where people had said to me in various different ways, like, you know, if I could just fix this one thing, I just know everything else will fall into place. And I have had those same thoughts. And in fact, I was on a call just a week before this webinar with my own coach and I was saying the same thing like I just need to do this.

And I caught myself like, all right, first of all, when we're saying we just need to do that one thing, if that's all we needed to do, why haven't we done it already? Right. But let me put a pin in that for now. So I wanted to send my cell number and have people text me not only to find out the one thing, but I also just wanted to honestly see what would happen. Would people actually text me? What are the things that they would share with me? Would I connect with people I hadn't connected with previously? Or would it just be people who

Already knew me fairly well that we're going to connect and I wanted to just change things up. I was thinking to myself, you know, as a business coach. I do the things that other business coaches do. I'll be honest. I do the free discovery calls or coaching assessment calls or success session calls or whatever you want to call it. I do those and I do the ⁓ follow people on social media. I do the lead magnet swaps. I do the you know.

all the different, the website, the, all the things we're told to do as business coaches, let's be real. And, you know, I kind of just started thinking of, if I woke up in the, in the business coaching community tomorrow and no one taught me anything about the industry, if I didn't ever have a business coach myself, if I didn't know anything about it, what would I do? And that's, that's where this idea came from. See, when I was a home stager,

So my first business, for those who don't know, was a home staging business that I started in 2008. I began the journey in 2007 when I started taking my certification training. And here I was thinking that taking this training was going to give me everything I needed to successfully launch and operate a home staging business. And boy was I wrong. Now, mind you, certification has come a long way since then. In fact, it's one of the reasons I introduced my home staging certification training.

to make sure that I had something that was super comprehensive to give people the real tools they need to operate in the industry. But I digress on that. The point is that I entered the industry. I didn't know how to do a consultation. I didn't know what information I should be giving. I didn't know how to operate my services. I didn't know what was included. I didn't know how to price them. I didn't know anything. I knew some basics, but that was about it. So I started taking a look at things. I had fresh eyes on this. was actually looking back at it. It seemed hard at the time.

And it was frustrating at the time. But looking back, man, was it ever amazing for me to just have no benchmark to try to weigh myself against? I saw what other people were doing in the industry, but I didn't think they had it all figured out. I didn't think that everything was just clicking for them. So I was looking to bring the business background that I already had to the home stage in industry. And how could I change things up? And I won't get into the weeds on all the nitty gritty details of the things that I did, but.

For example, back in 2008, most people weren't operating home staging businesses with a full out team. And if they did have staff, they were assistants that helped on the day of staging, but didn't have any actual responsibilities. I wanted to build a team. I wanted to have someone in the office answering the phone. I wanted to have other home stages who are fully autonomous running their own projects start to finish that could do everything that I could do. This was a radical idea.

I also had things like where I returned to essentially fluff pillows and prep for photos for no additional charge. Now, sidebar, of course, I actually made money off of this, but I technically didn't charge for it. Two different things, of course. Not going to get into the details of that. That's a conversation for another day. But I had my own inventory and rental terms on that inventory that no one else could match. No one else could beat it. I created a welcome package for my clients that

pre-sold not only what I was going to do in that consultation, but pre-sold my return services for them. I there were just, I can't even begin to explain how many of these things I was doing. That completely changed how the home staging industry was run and many things that I have continued to teach other stages to do over the years. The point of this rant, if you can call it that, is that I want to tell you about how I'm looking at things fresh today as a business coach.

I feel like how I work with my clients has always been a little bit different. I have followed some strategies that I have learned from other coaches that I felt worked really well when I was working with them and I find inspiration from other coaches as I'm speaking with them and I find new ways to change things. But I'm someone who always wants to be adapting and innovating and ahead of the curve a little bit. And so I thought what if everyone could have this instant access to me that was truly personal? And so I gave up my cell number.

And let me tell you, this was one of the best experiments I ever did. It was so much fun. Basically, what I said is if you tell me your one thing, I will reply back with real actionable tips, potentially a resource that I have or maybe an introduction, but something that will actually help you to move the needle in your business. So what were the results? Well, here's some of the answers that I got. I want more clients. I need more consistent business. I want to pay myself consistently.

I need more time. I need less noise. I need to not be over consuming data or information or over learning over analysis paralysis, so to speak. All of these were really helpful for me. They're incredibly relatable, right? As I'm naming all of these, you're probably thinking in your head, yeah, no, that would help me too. Yeah, no, that one thing. Yep. If that clicked, that would make a ton of difference in my business. Everyone who's listening to this and even myself, of course,

has probably felt at least one of these, if not more. And while these all sound like they're different things, they're often actually just symptoms of a bigger thing. The root issue of what you actually are dealing with here is a lack of clarity and that clarity of what you're building, who it's for, and what problems you solve. Because all of these things can come back to that. If you don't know who you're going to be serving,

who you're actually solving problems for or what problems you're solving. You're not connecting with your ideal client. Every one of these comes back to you need to be bringing in the revenue in a way that is sustainable and scalable for your business in order for you to make profit, in order for you to have more time, in order for you to have more autonomy, in order for you to grow.

And it all comes down to if you can't get that first step right. So listen, if I'm speaking to you and you are what I love to affectionately call my accidental CEOs and you know who you are, where you followed more passion than plan, then this is probably hitting home for you. And I'm going to apologize if I'm making you a little uncomfortable with it. But it's the truth, because when you set out on your journey of whatever your brand of genius is, whatever that amazing thing is that you do.

that you decided I'm going to make a ton of money doing this because what I do is so skillful, so powerful, and I love doing it. And so I'm going to monetize it. Whatever that thing was, you entered into it with more passion about it than you did an actual strategic business plan behind the scenes. And so if you were just like, if people just give me money, this is my ultimate plan. Just give me money for what I love to do. Cool. That's great. But how are you going to get that money? We need to know what it is that you're building and

Whether that's an absolute seven figure empire or the just enough mentality. If I just want to stay boutique and just make a few dollars a year and just be able to pay for some holidays, yada, yada, yada, whatever that is, you still need to know what that grand plan is. Now, of course, if you've listened to the podcast before, you know, I would like you to push beyond just what you're thinking in terms of I just need enough because I just enough mindset is keeping you stuck and is keeping you from having the incredible wealth and freedom that you deserve. But that's a conversation.

for another time. So when we get that clarity, that clarity will help us to actually build something pretty powerful. When we chase the surface level fixes, though, we're just going to keep spinning around and around and around. And we're not actually going to solve the problem because we keep listening to the latest influencer and what their idea is on the latest marketing hack or the latest social media algorithm. And we try to plug into that. And that is not going to fix the problem. Do you need to have some of these strategies? Sure.

But those are on the execution side of things. And right now we need to get into the internal aspect of your business. And we're going to do just that right after this quick message. All right. Welcome back to the Real Women Real Business podcast where we are talking about getting clarity as to what it is that you are actually building. Now, the fancy term for this is your vision.

And I've spoken about this before, but here's the thing when I use the word vision, your eyes gloss over, you tune me out because you're like, yeah, yeah, I know. I worked on my vision earlier this year. And what did you do with it? You wrote it down in a notebook or you put it onto this beautiful PowerPoint and you filed it away. It is collecting digital dust or actual physical dust somewhere. If someone asks you to spew out the details of that vision in an instant, you probably don't know. But I kind of want to do this and I guess I kind of want to do that.

And I will also tell you that most of the time when I see people with their vision statements or the visions that they've created, unless they've gone through my process, they have not dug deep enough because we want to ensure that what you're doing is actually following your passion, but that it's also making an impact. OK, so here's the cool thing about this one thing that I mentioned is that I didn't just stop at collecting answers. I actually looked for ways that I could help them.

not with any expectations by any means, but just how can I help? And this is kind of getting back to the root of why did I get into coaching in the first place? I want to genuinely help people. And that's what I kind of kept coming back to. And I can do a bunch of discovery calls and sign people up for my programs. And that's all great, but not everyone can afford my program. And I also want to just extend a little bit of a reach beyond that. Now, listen, if you are thinking that you need more handholding, more hands on support,

a more focused and strategic route than listening to my podcast episodes every week. I am more than happy to set up a call with you, figure out exactly where you could use that support and create a plan with you to achieve it. But I don't want to be doing everything that I'm doing just to get you into my program. If I'm getting you into my program or if we're going to work together, it's because I genuinely know that I can support you and I can help you. So I wanted to extend that beyond

the services that I'm currently offering and just see what else I could do if I just genuinely went out there to help people. And it was pretty incredible. So I ended up connecting a PR virtual assistant with a copywriter because she's looking to build her agency out and needs a copywriter on her team. So that was pretty great. I connected a tech VA with a new startup, which is creating a new prototype and beginning beta testing in the next couple of months and needed a tech VA to help to tie all those things together.

helped to connect an investor to a lead. So a buyer with a seller of a business essentially. I helped to provide some strategies for a rental business. I helped to provide some lead generation options for a new coach. I helped to provide a time tracking template for a busy mom and entrepreneur. And so, so, so much more. I have been actually on an introduction machine. I've been an introduction machine basically lately. I have been

finding so many ways to connect so many beautiful people. And it's amazing when you put it out there into the universe that this is what you want to do, how many people end up coming into your orbit. And it's been such an honor to be able to help every single one of these people. Now here's the really cool thing. This had a little bit of a ripple effect. Here's what happened as a result. I ended up getting actually a couple of new clients. I got a new collaboration partner who I'm gonna be working on onboarding very soon. I...

managed to schedule two new podcast guests for this show, who you will hear coming up in the coming weeks as well. And I was invited to guest on another podcast. Now, here's the thing. This wasn't my goal. This wasn't my intention. This wasn't my motivating factor. This was simply the byproduct of leaning into very real connection. OK, so what's the point of all of this? Am I telling you to give out your cell phone number to your entire email list? I mean, you could. Is it the worst idea? Not necessarily.

I'm not telling you though to do the things that I'm telling you to do. I'm also not telling you to do the things that the other gurus or influencers or business coaches are telling you to do. And in fact, when I work with my clients, I don't actually tell them what to do. I give them the tools to figure that part out themselves and then make the strategic action that they need to put in behind that because that's what a business coach really does. It's not about your one thing. You want me to give you some marketing ideas? I can give you some marketing ideas.

But I'm gonna need to understand more about your business and how you're actually structured in order to make that really valuable. And what I really need to know is what are we building? Why are we building it? Who are we building it for? How are we serving them? Why do they wanna come to us instead of anybody else that they could possibly come to? And these are the questions that we really need. So that one thing that you think that you need may not actually be the real issue. What you really need

is clarity and then connection. And I think this is the thing that I almost forgot about. And don't get me wrong, we all need little reminders every now and then, but it's that you never know what someone else might have available to you if you don't have real conversations. If you're not sharing with people what it is that you're looking for, what it is that you need. If you're not sharing with them opportunities to help them as well, genuinely, not with anything in return.

That's where the magic really happens. Those true connections, because those people that I introduced to other people, they genuinely want to reciprocate. I'm not asking for that. And in fact, their level of reciprocation might not even actually be helping me with something, but maybe I've inspired them now to introduce someone else to a connection that's going to be valuable for them or help someone else in growing their business in some way. Whatever that looks like.

that it really does have a ripple effect. And that's what's really powerful about this. That generosity creates ripple effects that you can't even begin to predict. So I would ask you to reflect on what is the one thing that you think you need to fix in the business? What's the one thing that you feel like if this all just clicked, what would that be? Then I want you to go backwards. Let's reverse engineer this. And what is it that you're building?

What is the clarity that you need in order to make that one thing actually successful and make that one thing actually happen? So I invite you to share reflect on your one thing. I'd love for you to share it with me. I am not going to give you my cell phone number, but you're absolutely welcome to DM me on Instagram at Shauna Lynn Simon. I would love to hear from you. If you are already on my email list, feel free to reply to any email that I send you. Grab my email address from there and respond to me and let me know what your one thing is.

And if you do, I will help you. I will share a resource with you. I will respond to you with an introduction, a resource, a tip, something that's actionable that you will actually benefit from. Now, if you are listening to this and you're thinking, OK, this all sounds great, but as I'm listening to this, I'm realizing there are a few things that I could probably use some help with in my business, but I don't even know where to start. I've got you covered for that as well. Check out my accidental CEO scorecard assessment. Simply go to

AboutShaunaLynn.com/CEOQuiz that CEO Q U I Z or Z for all my Canadian friends, of course, and go and check that out. It will give you it's basically it takes about 10 minutes to do. I believe it's around 20 questions and it will it's going to help you to pinpoint exactly where in your business you need to focus your priorities first. It's going to give you a little bit of an assessment as to where your strengths are in your business and what might need a little bit of work to build in some of those foundations.

And what building in these foundations does for us is it helps us to create a business that can be more adaptable and agile during turmoil times, like what we're experiencing right now. It'll help you to build a business that is scalable without burning you out because the strategies that you have in place might be more survival strategies and survival systems. And what we really need are sustainable systems that are gonna help you to be able to scale and grow. And so...

Filling in some of these gaps is going to help you to do exactly that. And the first step that we need to take in order to do that is identify where those gaps actually are. And sometimes it's clear as day and other times we just need a little help along the way. So be sure to check that out. Feel free to send me your results. But whatever your assessment comes out with is going to give you a personalized answer as to what your next steps need to be as well. If you would like to have a conversation about where you are currently at in your business,

any support that I might be able to provide or some resources I might be able to provide you with, let's set up a call. Simply go to aboutshaunalynn.com/coachme C-O-A-C-H-M-E, Aboutshaunalynn.com/coachme And I would love to have a chat with you. I'd love to get to know you better. And even if it's not the right fit, let me see if I can give you some resources to send you on your way and point you in the right direction.

All right. That is it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me today. And if what I'm saying here today is resonating with you, I do hope that you will continue to allow me to be a part of your ongoing entrepreneurial journey by tuning in each week. We drop new episodes every Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. Eastern time. Be sure to leave us a review and subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts, of course. And if this is really hitting home for you and you're like, I know someone who could benefit from this. And if we lead with the idea of who can I help today?

Who do I know that could use my help today? Maybe you forward this episode onto them because not only does that help them, it also helps us. It helps with our algorithm. It helps with our viewer, our listenership, helps us to grow and continue to be able to connect with more people and help more people, which is our mission here. So thank you so much for tuning in to the Real Women Real Business podcast. And until next time, keep thriving.