In this solo episode of the One Small Change Podcast, Yvonne McCoy delivers a powerful reset for entrepreneurs seeking encouragement and clarity at the start of a new quarter. Drawing on almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience, she explores why more effort doesn’t always lead to better results, how to realign your actions for impact, and the value of being found rather than continually trying to fix yourself. Through relatable stories and actionable frameworks, listeners will learn to leverage what they already have, navigate growth’s cycles, and confidently build sustainable momentum moving forward.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Accelerated Alignment Month

05:40 Building Momentum with Past Experiences

07:35 Finding patterns in experiences

12:24 Understanding your business lens

14:21 Refining my energetic post style

19:57 Using productivity models

22:58 Importance of community involvement

24:38 Networking and prioritizing opportunities

29:59 Embracing change and self-discovery

Quote:

"You don't need to be fixed, you just need to be found."

Links:

www.bookacallwithyvonne.com

www.yvonnemccoy.com/workshop

www.yvonnemccoy.com/summit

Welcome to the One Small Change, and I'm thrilled that you're embarking on this journey

of exploration, transformation with me. I'm your host, Yvonne

McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience,

and I have a passion for discovering growth through the power of

seemingly small change. And I want to thank you for joining

me today because this week we are going to go back

to the clarity check in. It's been a while, so it's

only me, but I'm excited to talk to you. Lots have

happened since the last time we did this, and one of

those things was that I got a concussion, which made me really take a look

at where I was spending my time and my energy.

But that's not what I want to talk to you about. I want to talk

to you. We're starting the second quarter,

and I have named April Accelerated

Alignment Action Month. Doing the right things at

the right time. And so what I want to talk to you about is the

fact that one of my strengths is that I recognize

patterns. And so what I will say to

you is that a lot of people get into January

and they're very excited and they are,

you know, all fired up. You know, they burn hot,

and so they burn out fast. And so by the time they get to

February, they haven't reached their goals and

they're feeling a little bit like.

And by March, a lot of you have defaulted back to what worked

before. Right. You, you know, you get to February, you think,

maybe I'll put more effort in, but you're not seeing the results. So

I want to make April reset a

time for you to reset, capture your mojo,

go forward, get the things done that you need to get done.

So the first thing I want to say to you is it's not unusual

when things happen that you fall back on what's familiar.

We all do it. It's the path of least

resistance. The other thing is that

more effort doesn't necessarily fix what's not

working, especially if that effort is not aligned. And so

you've heard me say it over and over and over again.

It doesn't matter how fast you're going

if you're going in the wrong direction. And April

can actually be that reset that will

help you change the direction for the rest of the year.

So maybe you haven't gotten the results that you want for the

first quarter, but we've still got three more quarters to go, and

we can do this. And so this is a perfect time for us

to pause and look at what's actually Working. And I know that

that seems counterintuitive. It's like, no, I gotta do more. I gotta do more. I

don't need to pause. Okay? So part of

the problem is not knowing what the real problem is. Right?

The real problem is not that you are not

doing enough. The real problem is not that, you know, you

haven't tried things. Part of the real problem is

really situational awareness. Where am I in

my business and what's going to work best for me?

Most people are not doing the wrong things, but they're not

doing the right things at the right time.

So, you know, one of the things that I think we all

suffer from is following advice out of context. Somebody

will say, this is a great thing. This worked for me, and not take a

look at where they were in their business. Right?

The other thing is

that whatever we pick that we're doing, we're not being

consistent with it. So instead we end up doing more

rather than refining what is actually working for us.

And I say that this is kind of like having a mobile store

that you keep moving every time you, you know, the person who saw you on

Monday comes back on Wednesday to buy from you and you're no

longer there. The other thing that happens is, you know, in

order you to have visibility, people

have to see you more than 12 times. So if you keep putting things

out, each thing that you put out, you now have to do 12

things, 24 things, 36 things, 48 things.

And your message is totally lost because they're not really

aligned with what you're doing. So consistency

without clarity just creates more noise

and. And more chaos. So what I

want to say to you is it's not that you're not putting out enough

effort. It's not that you're behind. It's just that what you're

doing is not aligned. But here's the other

thing I want to say to you. Whatever you've done in the past, you

haven't wasted, right? There are either lessons to be

learned or things that you can

repurpose and use again. And, you know, recently

I was decluttering my office and just thought I was

going to chuck a whole bunch of stuff and decided to go through it, which

is, you know, the kiss of death when it comes to decluttering. But

some of the stuff that I developed and the

content that I wrote when I first started in business and

I was an entrepreneurial virgin,

right, was really good. I was

like, oh, I got to save this. Oh, if I update this, this will make

a Lot of sense. Oh, this is really good. So what you've done in the

past, you haven't wasted. All right? So

the problem or the solution that

you're looking for is how do you put the things that you have

in the right place and at the right time? Some

things you may have outgrown, but you can tweak it

so that you can make it, you know, more.

More elevated to be in the where you are in the business now.

So I think this is

a core distinction. The right things at the right stage

builds momentum and carries you forward. The wrong things,

even if they're good, take more effort, burn you

out, and leave you rebuilding. And one of the things that's the first

to go is your confidence. And, and unfortunately,

with our confidence, when things are not working right, the first thing we

say is, what's wrong with me? Okay, there

is nothing wrong with you. Right.

Which doesn't mean you can't evolve further. But

basically, you don't need to be fixed. The problem for most of us

is that we just need to be found and that there are people out there

that are looking for us, that want. Want to

find us. Okay? So it's not

what you're doing, it's how people

recognize themselves and what you're doing.

So more effort doesn't necessarily mean more clients,

but recognition creates connection,

and clients need to see themselves. Nobody

wants to work with somebody that they think is perfect,

right? Nobody wants to feel like,

you know, they're not on the same level that you

are. And when I say that, I mean not, not necessarily with

expertise, but in terms of life experience. You want

them to have that. She gets me, he

gets me, right? So my

strength happens to be patterns, right?

I put together things that other people

don't. I happen to work, I live in the Venn

diagram or the mind mapping space. I like to say,

here are things that are important. How can I connect them?

How can I connect them in a way that people will see

themselves in that? And then you refine it so it is

looking for patterns. How can people use those patterns? How do

they connect to people's everyday lives? And how do I refine

them so they're even better? So your best

message is already there. It just hasn't been

unlocked. You don't necessarily have to create more.

You need to refine what you're already doing. And let me just

give you a really simple example. So some of you may

have noticed. If you haven't, this is a really good time that

I have shifted my branding and it's now be

found. Okay? You don't need to be fixed. You just need to be

found. And the way that I came to this,

I mean, you don't get clarity in a vacuum. The best way

to get confidence and to get clarity is to get out and get

among other people. Right. I was in a

networking event, and

we were trying, you know, the. The purpose of the.

The room that we were in was to help people get

clarity, help them get a solution to what they were

struggling with, yada, yada, yada. And

there was a lady that everybody was generously trying to

help, and the more they tried to help her,

the more frustrated she got and the more frustrated

I got. And finally, I. I think I probably had

an outburst almost because I was, like, trying to hold myself

back. And I said to her, let me just ask you,

do you have paying clients? She went, yes. And I said, the

people that have paid you, are they happy with

the results they're getting? And she said, yes. And I said,

then you don't need to be fixed. You just need to be found.

And everybody in that room went,

that was my message. And I didn't know it.

Right. I hadn't found it by myself. So that's what

I want to say to you, that

you have enough stuff. It's not

about getting more stuff. It's not necessarily about doing

more things. It's really about streamlining it

so that you can get clarity that's crystal clear

to the people who are hearing your message.

So, for instance, people who. I have a

client who said, if I say commander's call,

anybody who's in the military knows exactly what that means.

When she suggested it as a title for something, I was like,

tell me more, because I don't share that background.

Right. You want to be able for your

people to automatically start to trust you and know

that you have had some of the experiences that they

have had. Right. Or that they're going to have and

go through. And so that is what I

mean when I say be found. It. You know, it's. The be found process

is fairly simple. You

know, the first part is be yourself. It took me a really

long time to figure that out. I mean, we all have these

veneers that we have that if we're here, we're like this, and if we're here,

we're like that. That just takes too

much energy. I mean, I remember when my kids were young,

I was like a business person on the outside of the door of my house,

and I was, you Know a family person on the inside.

Sometimes I talk to my kids like they were my business colleagues. Sometimes I talk

to my business colleagues like they were my kids.

It got to be a lot. So what I want you to think about

is what would happen

if you streamline what you were doing

and it was very aligned and

you repeated it, you rinsed and repeat. So let me

talk a little bit about what that means to me.

So the first part is that you anchor where you are.

Where am I? Where do I want to go?

Right? So what's the dead reckoning? Where do I want to end up?

Right? What part of my business am I in? What are the steps that I'm

going to have to take to get to where I want to go?

Then there's the lens about how you're seeing it.

We each see it different through our. Our experiences and

what we're doing, right?

So if you are, if your audience

is going to be a retired

audience, but of invigorated and

vital retired audience, you may talk about

different experiences and different things than if you're talking

about someone who just, you know, has started having,

having young kids, right? That's the

lens, right? The

input. What are you using? What have you already got?

Right? You've probably done

free lead generators, you've probably done

workshops, you've got talks, you've got

posts, right? What have you already

got that you can now say, take a look at them

and possibly tweak them, right,

in a way that you can reuse them? Because what you

want is to get clear. So instead of saying

a really simple thing, I mean, one of the things that I do all the

time is I take a post that I've done like maybe two years ago

and I'll stick it in the chat GPT and say, these are the

things that I do. I recognize patterns. I cut through

chaos. I get you into action fast. I want my

post to be energetic, adventuresome, and curious.

Here's a post that I did two years ago. Tweak this for

me so that where I am now

is very clear, not perfect,

but much clearer and speaking in a way that I want to speak

right, so that I can get it out there and see what the

reaction is. Is the reaction different

than it was two years ago? Am I, you know, looking at some of the

numbers so that I can then navigate it?

I can adjust. And

let me tell you that sometimes I can be really stubborn. So for

those of you that have been following me for a while, you know that

my workshops have always Been usually you're in

each know first they were anyway, they were about, you

know, using your unique powers to attract

your right clients. All right? My coach, the

wonderful Chuck Anderson, has been at me for, like,

probably a year and a half. He's like, you know, if you're selling a horse,

just say, horse for sale. And I didn't.

So finally, you know, this year, March,

it was like, it's time, right? I.

And so I had found the be found. You don't need to be fixed. You

just need to be found. Right? And so the name of the workshop

now is Be found. Get clarity. Get

confidence. Get consistent clients.

Right? I put my LinkedIn event

up, and within two

hours, I had 30 people who registered.

I put my promotion out for the workshop

and looked at the landing page, and instead of 16%

conversion, it went to 26%

conversion because the message was very clear

and people, I think, related to it

and didn't feel judged.

We all want to be found. It doesn't matter what level you are

in your business. You want clients to find you, right?

So what I want to say to you is, you don't need perfect

clarity. You just need to be clear enough that you're going in the

right direction because you're going to continue to navigate and

adjust. And clarity does not

happen in a vacuum. It happens through

action.

The next thing I want to say to you is

growth is kind of a spiral,

and I think it's something that people don't expect.

Every time you solve a problem in your business, it creates a new one.

Now, if you're on the right track, it'll create a new.

A good new one, right? So an example

of that is you attract more clients

and suddenly you realize that you don't have a system or a

process to put them through or that you're not, you know, you don't have

a framework that you can follow every time and get the same result. You

know, get the same good respond results. And if you're not

expecting that, you think something's wrong. So

one time I decided, you know,

I was doing stuff and it

was like the simplest thing became

very hard

because I wasn't expecting to have to do it

for so many more people than I had done it for when I was only

doing it for one or two people at a time. It was. It worked fine,

but when I started to go to 10 people, suddenly it didn't

work at all. And it was something that I knew how to do very well.

It wasn't. Something was wrong with me. It was that my business

was not growing, that, you know, the systems behind the scene were

not growing. That's a good problem to have. That's a problem

that you want to have, right? So every

solution gives you more clarity

or, you know, and then it reveals the next problem. Every

solution creates a new problem.

And that's how your business grows. It does not grow linearly.

It's more like a cycle. Or really it's. If you're doing it right,

it's like an upward spiral. Okay?

The moment that something starts working

and then something feels off,

that's not a failure. That's growth.

And the key is knowing which problem you're actually solving for

now. So one of the things

that's really important is as

your business grows, you don't really need more time. You need to make

decisions like the expert that you are. And so

there are a couple of tips that I want to give you about that.

Like I said, you don't get 24 hours for life

and 24 hours for business. You have the same 24 hours.

And so you can't change that. There are

ways that you can be more productive,

right? But that, again, comes down to making sure that you

prioritize and that you focus.

The other thing is, I

found that when I have models that work in both

my personal life and my professional

life, it makes life so much simpler, right?

Because you're using the same models, you're using it more,

right? And so you get comfortable with them and it works.

Right? So, you know, one of the things

that models that I had when I was doing productivity was

called make it, you know, productivity ahead. And it

was first situational awareness, what's going on,

you know, that that's making me need to do stuff.

Then the next thing is, what can I put on hold?

The next thing was, what can I eliminate? And if I can't make the decision

to eliminate, stick it in the hold box. The next

thing is, what can I automate? And the problem is that most people think of

automating as being something that's technical, but it doesn't have to be.

Can just be a system that you use, right? Something that

becomes a habit is really an automation.

And then there's delegation. Most productivity models

have you delegate first, but the problem with that is

that when you delegate first, you're delegating the

unimportant stuff. And what you really need to

delegate is the important stuff, because that's really. You're

really training somebody to help you run your business, help

you run your Your. Your personal life.

So you're teaching your kids how to do the things

that you want to have happen in your family. You're teaching them

how to make your famous, whatever recipe. You're teaching

them how to take care of their own, you know,

laundry. You're teaching them how you make decisions and

manage money so that they can grow to be responsible

adults. But also, you know, when you give them money for

things, you know, you teach them that if you need so much money

for a project and your allowance isn't enough, you teach them

to prioritize and make decisions. And

so that's what people

need. You need to build on what you already have

so that you can grow your business and use it further.

So there just a couple more things I think

that I want to share with you.

Entrepreneurship is hard. It

requires a lot of you. It requires

your heart and soul, really. Right?

And one of the biggest

mistakes I made was, you know, like I said, I like models,

and I came up with a model, and it, you know, and

it talked about clarity and stuff. But the fourth step in it was community.

And I came to realize very late in the game, the community

should be the first step, right?

Too many of us spend time getting ready to get ready to get

ready, okay? At the point

you are now you are ready, and you are ahead. You will

always be ahead of somebody, and you will always be behind somebody.

The object is not to, you know, judge

yourself by that, but the object is to understand

that you're not alone and that there are people that are out there

that you can help and they can help you,

right? And so I would say to you, if

you are not in community, whether it's a community

networking, whether it's networking, whether it's going to meetings, whatever,

where you can speak about what you do,

you are missing a huge opportunity to gain

clarity, right?

And so that, I think, is probably one of the most important things that I

can say to you. Don't hide you.

If you want to be found, you have to be seen,

right? And you have to be seen in a lot of places.

You know, you have to be seen with other people. You have to be

seen. And the benefits of that are

amazing. I mean, I'm. I'm totally surprised

by the people that do outreach to me and

say, I'm doing this. Would you like to be a part of it, or

can you come to this? Right? And so, you know,

at some point, the question becomes, again, to prioritize, because you

can't do everything but the fact that you Know, like I said, it

shows up in the weirdest way. Like, I was surprised the very first time

I was in a network. I wasn't. It wasn't the first time I was in

that group, but in that group, you know, we were, you know,

talking about stuff and somebody in the group said, you need to talk to

Yvonne. The 30 minutes you spend with her is going to be

worth it. I mean, that is

validation that you can't pay for.

Right? And it's only throughing, showing up and making

the connections and making the relationships

that that happens. So the question is,

this is April. April. This is

Accelerated Aligned Action Month. We're already halfway

through. So what is it that you're going to do right now?

So there are three ways that you can. I can help you. The

first is the fastest. And I know that you're listening to

this, so it's going to be in the notes. If you want

clarity quickly, the fastest way to that is to book

a call with me. And that's the, that's the link, you know,

www.bookacallwithevon.com.

in addition to that, if you want structured support.

Right. If you want to learn and apply why

you know how to be found, then you should come to my be

found workshop, which is every month. It's the third Wednesday of the month, typically,

and you can find that@yvonne McCoy.com

forward/workshop. So if you're at the podcast site,

it's the same URL. Instead

of podcasts, it is workshop.

And the third way that I only do three times

a year, typically I do it in April, August and

December. So there's one coming up now,

or you just missed one, I guess, is the Get Growth

Focus Summit. And it's not just about learning,

it's about applying. And again, the website is

Yvonne McCoy.com summit.

So there are three ways that you can work with me,

three ways that you can get clarity. The call

is meant to just give you an idea about the

why. Why you. Why are you unique? Why

you know, are you. Is. Are you describing what you do in a way

that the people who need it relate to you, that they

can, they can find you. Then it's about, where are

there gaps in your client attraction process? And then we

talk about other, other opportunities that maybe you've left

on the, you know, on the table because you didn't realize you had these

superpowers? So I would say the fastest way

to get results in April is to book a call with me.

It's not a sales call. But obviously, if you want to work with me,

I will talk to you about that more. So I am so

glad that you joined me on this call.

I'm so glad that I got it together to

be able to do this, because I think this is so important. I think there

are points in our in the year that you can springboard

what you're doing a lot faster than usual, and I

think April is one of them. And I think that you're missing

an incredible opportunity. This one for me has been

amazing. I've. I've had a speaking

engagement almost every week, and I.

One of the things I love about speaking is I learned something and then I

get to share that with you. So before

I run out of time, I just want to say

I'm glad that you joined me for one small change. And I

hope that one of the things you'll do is subscribe, share and engage

on social media. About this podcast I did it to help

you supercharge your business through connection, and it's my way of

giving back so that you can fuel

your quest for growth and impact and bring people into your life that

you might not normally meet.

Obviously, it's me this time, and I do

like to talk. So that's why I try to do the clarity

call four times a month, four times a

year. And for those of, of you who go,

she's, she seems a little off. You may not know that I'm

recovering from a concussion, but I'm definitely getting better,

so stick around. You know, they're going to be great episodes that are

coming up. There'll be another clarity call

for July. And the last thing I want to say

to you is,

you don't need to be fixed, you just need to be found.

And isn't it better to, if you're

going to be moving fast, that you're doing the right things so that you're going

in the right direction. So the last part to this is,

remember that change is simple, but it's not always easy. And it requires

a certain amount of courage and resilience and a

willingness to step out of your comfort zone if you

do not feel a little uneasy, if you don't have butterflies in

your stomach. For me, that means I don't care if

I'm speaking someplace and I'm not

like, how can I make this better? How can I make this, you know, people

understand this better. It means I don't care. It means that I'm on

autopilot and thank God that doesn't happen very often.

So I encourage you to feel uncomfortable. It's a good sign. It's a

good thing. And so with that, I'm going to let you go. And

I hope you will continue to join me for one small change on a

regular basis. And until then, I hope

you will stay very, very curious.

Bye.