Summary

In this episode, I explore how focusing on what you already do well can protect and amplify your business success. I share practical strategies for identifying your strengths, reflecting on your impact, and optimizing existing client attraction methods.

Takeaways

• Identify what you already do well and protect it.

• Focus on one big goal to avoid distraction.

• Reflect on your impact from your client's perspective.

• Audit your client attraction methods for effectiveness.

• Adjust your strategies based on current context.

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👋🏽 Hello! I'm Sumantha McMahon, and I've supported over 100 tutors and education business owners.

As a teacher 'dropout' turned professional tutor, combined with my 20+ years as a business owner, I'm in it with you! Yes, I'm qualified too :-)

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Sometimes, I share links to resources and apps that I recommend. They are all based on my experience - if I don't love them, I don't recommend them. In some cases, I earn a small commission for my recommendation, at no cost to you.

© 2024 Sumantha McMahon

# Podcast Transcript — 30-Second Interval Timestamps

As business owners, we often focus on what we're not doing and new strategies and new opportunities. In short, we're focusing on what we haven't got yet. And it could be related to personal growth, it could be related to professional growth, business growth. But the point is that we are focusing on what we don't have yet. And by doing that, we are neglecting to focus on what we do have and what we can do and what we have done. So in this episode, I'm going to share with you and explore something that my business coach told me.

And that was to really try and identify what you have done to get to where you are now and most importantly, to protect it. So instead of me layering on top of what you already do and adding to your to-do list, let's dive into what you already do so well so that we can protect it. A concept that really made me think of this was a conversation I had with a one-to-one client just last week. We were having our initial conversation where we set our big goal.

I always try and set just one big goal to focus on because it's easy to get distracted by multiple goals. And when we do that in one-to-one sessions, I find that people might get lots of information, they might even get lots of clarity, but they don't walk away with results. So we focus on one goal. And I was having that goal-setting conversation. And the thing with this client is that her goal is to fill her group tuition classes. She wants to build a waiting list so that she has true stability, so that she feels safe, because her ultimate goal is to leave teaching.

She wants to be a full-time business owner. She wants to be a tuition business. But the thing is, she isn't a beginner. She already has so many students. So instead of trying to find gaps in what she was doing, instead we started from the point of working out how she's achieved what she has achieved. And I asked her that question. Let's list all the ways that you have attracted students so far so that we can identify what's already working, instead of trying to add more strategies to that.

The thing I really love about setting targets from this place is that it means that you can be really ambitious, but you know that's totally doable. One way to look at it is that if you've attracted one client, it means you can attract another. If you have 20, you can attract 20 more. So it makes goal setting really exciting rather than feeling like it's something that's out of reach. So I want to help you do that today. Instead of chasing these new strategies, I want you to identify what really works.

And a question that you could start with is why do you do what you do? And I don't mean from your perspective, I mean from the perspective of your dream client in mind. What impact is it that you are successfully making on the people that you work with? And if you haven't started your business yet or if you're in the very early stages, then ask yourself. What impact do I want to make? Now I know that these are really broad questions and they can be difficult to navigate.

So to help you, I'll give you an example based on my situation. But I will say don't use this as a template. Instead, just use it to generate some ideas of your own. If I were to crystallize the impact that I make and that I want to continue making, it would be this. I want to help people change their narratives. If someone feels afraid, I want to be able to help them alleviate that fear. I want to empower them to come from a position of strength, not fear.

If someone is lacking in confidence or self-belief, I want to embed that in the work that I do with them. So you get the picture. Think about the impact that you want to make or that you already make. Now, when you've identified some of these amazing things that you're achieving, ask yourself and think about it from a business angle. What have you been doing that has successfully attracted those customers to you? Specifically, what has attracted your perfect client to you? Those people who are really receptive to how you work and that impact that you make.

And again, if you're at those beginning stages, try mind mapping. all the things that you could do and you could say to attract that dream client. You see, everything is interlinked. So, although this episode is about helping you protect all the things that you do really well, it does leak into thinking about things like messaging. To attract the right people to you, you do have to be able to communicate what you do and how you do it in a way that absolutely resonates with them.

Now, a lot of us business owners have a professional past. I used to be a classroom teacher, and before that, I was a corporate business trainer. And between that, When I was made redundant from being a trainer, I had a stint where I worked as a qualified copywriter. So we all have a professional past. And that professional past might be something we walked away from for difficult reasons, but they were still a catalyst in our lives that helps us do what we do today.

So another way to approach protecting things you do really well is to reflect on the skills and experience that you have developed and gained through that past. What's going to help you make the impact that you are so passionate about making? When I think about my past, I pretty much lived my whole adult life in fear. I say whole adult life, I'm still an adult, but you know what I mean. I've spent a lot of time feeling afraid. Despite knowing from a very early age that being a business owner was absolutely the right thing for me, I was afraid of it because I grew up with that narrative that it was unstable.

So I took what I considered the safer route. I ran a business for a very long time. whilst working full-time for an employer. But in 2017, when I left the classroom, since when I've been a full-time business owner, the journey has really helped me change my narrative. And professionally and personally, I'm in the best place I've ever been in. And you'll notice if you've been listening to this a while or if you work with me, I rarely talk about money.

From the perspective of sharing my bottom line or sharing the kind of revenue that my clients achieve from working with me. Because to me, that's actually underpinned by how we all have had to work hard to change our narratives. To me, that's the success, that's the win that I am most proud of us for. So leaning into that a little more, when you're sharing things like client stories or testimonials, think about exactly what you're sharing and whether that lines up with showing people the impact that you want to make or that you already make.

Because the way I see it, everyone has a different idea of what success means to them. So we have to think about what kind of success story is going to be appealing. Because the way I see it, we all have a different idea of what success means to us. So we have to think about what kind of success story will really connect with our dream client. I know that some people will choose to work with someone else instead of me because they might talk about things like how few hours they work and how much money they earn.

And that message might attract their dream client. There's nothing wrong with that message. It's just not the message that's important to me. And so the people that I work with are attracted to thinking bigger and differently while taking the small actions that lead to incremental progress. So, how do you differentiate yourself from people who offer something similar to you? How do you attract your dream clients? Once you can really pinpoint that, you can keep doing what you already do so well.

So, circling back to the core focus of this episode, one of the most powerful business strategies we can implement is recognizing what works and protecting it, recognizing what we do well and keep doing it. And we can only do that if we couple it with forward thinking and being reflective at the same time. So on that note, let's do the easy task. If you already have clients, how did you get them? Maybe they found you through a particular social media profile and dropped you a message.

Maybe there's a particular Facebook group that you get a lot of inquiries through. Perhaps it came through word of mouth. Maybe it's through all of the above and more. So, although I'm sure you're still doing those things that have worked for you, I bet you're also doing more. So, this is the perfect chance to audit everything you're doing to attract clients to move you closer to whichever goal you're focused on. And when you do this audit, be honest about what kind of traction and results you're getting through all of those different methods that you're using.

Here's why this is really useful. Although there are many things that could work, Do you really want to rely on crossing your fingers and hoping for luck? Or do you want to guarantee results or come somewhere close? I bet it's the latter. So with this exercise, you can do two things. You can drop or pause the activities that aren't really working for you or don't feel worth it from the effort versus results ratio.

And secondly, this releases time. So the second thing you can do is optimize the things that are working. You can do more of it and you can do it even better. So let's say your clients love recommending you to other people. What else could you do to encourage them to do this more? Could you simply remind them every now and again? Are there incentives you could offer to make it worth their while?

Are there little personal touches that you can add when you're thanking them for recommending you? Are you intentionally finding out who exactly recommended you to a new client? That's just one example. I want it to trigger ideas of how you can choose that one thing that you do really well and improve how you do it so that you can get bigger and better results. So, this is a really positive way to work towards your goals because you're protecting all the things that you're already doing that brings you results instead of solely focusing on new ways.

New ways are great. It's a good idea to keep your eye on what's happening around you because things do change. For instance, let's say I wanted an influx of new tuition students. I set up a Facebook page and I just posted content on there. Well, when I first started seven years ago, that worked. But the reality is that that wouldn't work now because the landscape has changed.

So when you do this exercise of reflection, take context into consideration, analyze why what you did worked and decide if it's still likely to work. If I went down that Facebook page strategy again, like I did at the beginning, instead of just setting one up and posting content and expecting inquiries to come through, I would have to think about how I can actually boost my visibility.

And build rapport with people on Facebook. That would be coupled with my original strategy because I know that fundamentally that does work. So I hope you've enjoyed this episode and I hope you've got some ideas. It's a really positive way of you approaching your business growth. You are all doing things that are working. And even if you're at the beginning of your business journey, I bet you've been in a similar situation.

So I hope you've walked away with some ideas. If you're at the very beginning of your journey and you don't have a lot of experience to draw on, think about past scenarios where you've been in similar situations. So it may not be a business situation, but it might be a scenario where you had a challenge and you overcame it.

And think about what you did to overcome it and see whether you can map that to your current situation. So as always, thank you for spending your time with me. And you'll hear from me on Wednesday for a short sound bite.