If your sales and marketing aren’t getting you the results you want, it’s probably because you skipped or quickly brushed over a crucial step. 

And it’s the step that makes almost every entrepreneur want to roll their eyes and throw their computer out the window: the business 101 stuff. You know, your ideal client, the problem you solve, your offer… 

While it’s the least exciting part of business, it’s the stuff that, no matter how advanced and successful you are, you gotta have the answers to. 

Avoid the resistance, get clear on those business fundamentals, and watch your sales and marketing become easier (and more fun!). 

Head over to iwannacollaborate.com and let us know what you took away from this conversation.

Music credit: The Funkster by Sweet Spot

A Subito Media production

Hello and welcome to the eavesdrop on us podcast.

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I'm your host, Jessica.

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And this week you have just me.

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I am hosting my first solo

episode here on the podcast.

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Normally it is me and my co host and

business partner, Susan, but this

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week she is out on a trip to Savannah,

Georgia with my younger sister.

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Rachel.

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So one of our values here in the business

and in our family is spending time, you

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know, outside of the business, doing

things that are enriching and fun.

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And so she is often Savannah and

that's why I'm recording solo.

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So.

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This week, what I'm going to be bringing

to the table is a topic that has come

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up pretty consistently with a lot of

our business consulting clients, as well

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as in some of the business masterminds

that we're in, and one of the big

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conversation points, so many business

owners are coming to us with even the

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more successful business owners, those

with teams, those who are grossing, um,

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You know, significant amounts of revenue.

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It's a matter of how

can I continue to grow?

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How can I get more?

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And I think as many business owners

are feeling the pressures of the

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economy and thinking about how they

can continue to grow their business

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and find more customers and clients

and do more marketing and just gain

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more visibility online and in person.

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that has been a very interesting topic.

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So what I want to unpack and dissect a

little bit here is I think an important

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lesson for you, the listener to be

thinking about, because one of the

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things that we were noticing, Susan and

I, as we were reflecting on our clients

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and thinking about the conversations

in some of the masterminds that were.

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Part of is that no matter how far you get

in your business, no matter how advanced

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you get, no matter how big your team gets,

no matter how much revenue you're bringing

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in, there are some core fundamentals, some

core foundational pieces in your business

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that you always have to have clear.

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And so it's interesting because.

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Sometimes we'll be interacting

with business owners who are

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much newer in their business.

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And we interact with the, you know,

the vast majority of our clients

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are very successful and established.

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And the thing that both

have in common is this.

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So when I talk about the business one

on one, the business fundamentals,

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the business foundations, you know,

all of those are pretty much saying

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the same thing, which is, you know,

you have to be clear on who it is that

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you're serving, your ideal client.

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You have to be clear on the

problem that you solve with

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your products, services, offers.

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And you have to have clarity about

your, your goals, where you want to

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go, what you want to do with your

business, who you want to work with.

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And those are just kind of three examples

of those core foundational pieces that

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we often talk about with our clients.

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And the thing that newer business

owners and experienced business

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owners seem to have in common is.

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I don't want to say resistance, but this

frustration, exasperation, eye rolling

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energy around like, uh, the ideal client

conversation again, or the messaging

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conversation or like sales goals.

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It's all the stuff that you

think like, Oh, well, I already.

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You know, I did it once.

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I don't have to, I don't

have to get back to it.

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And I think newer business owners get

frustrated with, with some of those

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conversation points, because what is

first it's frustrating, you know, it's

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one of those things where a lot of those

foundational pieces get fleshed out and

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ironed out and clear with experience.

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And so there's this, like, I

just want to get that part done.

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Cause it's hard.

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And I want to be bringing revenue in,

I think experienced business owners

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get frustrated with it because it.

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It seems like it's such a basic.

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It's such a fundamental that

they're like, I'm beyond that.

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I don't want to go back to this.

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Like I figured it out and what I want to

share with all of you today is a really

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interesting lesson that actually I.

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brought from one of the

mastermind calls that I was on.

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And, before I get into that story, I

think what prompted this was, you know,

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Susan and I were reflecting on like, why

is it that, people are so resistant to

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these fundamentals and these foundational

pieces, the business 101 part of business.

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And no matter sort of

what stage they're in.

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And I think a lot of

it is because it just.

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Feels like hard work.

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It feels like, you know, I've already

done this and I want to get to the

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good part, which is help me figure

out how to market better or get more

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leads in, or like tweak this email.

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And what's funny is that no matter

what, no matter how skilled you get,

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you have to have those pieces in place.

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And as Susan and I were talking about

that, we were called one of the.

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I think one of our very first mentors

shared this lesson with us, and it

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was from legendary basketball coach

john wooden wooden, which I hope

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I'm pronouncing that correctly.

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You could tell I'm clearly not.

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I'm clearly not a someone who knows a lot

about sports, but he was really, I think.

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He was so successful as a coach, not

just because of his strategy, um, but

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because of one of the techniques he,

he taught his players very early on.

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And I want to read this to you.

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it's a quote that Jon Wooten

was relaying to an interviewer.

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And it's titled how to put on your socks.

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And I just want to read this.

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It's like a short little paragraph here.

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And he says, I think it's the

little things that really count.

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The first thing I would show our

players at our first meeting was how

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to put a little extra time putting

on their shoes and socks properly.

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The most important part of your

equipment is your shoes and socks.

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You plan a hard floor, so you

must have shoes that fit right.

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And you must not permit your

socks to have wrinkles around the

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little toe, where you generally

get blisters or around the heels.

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It took just a few minutes, but I did show

my players how I wanted them to do it.

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Hold up the sock, work it around

the little toe area and the heel

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area so that there are no wrinkles.

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Smooth it out.

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Good.

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Then hold the sock up while you put the

shoe on and the shoe must be spread apart,

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not just pulled on top on the top laces.

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You tighten it up snugly by each eyelet.

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Then you tie it and then you double

tie it so it won't come undone because

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I don't want shoes coming untied

during practice or during the game.

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I don't want that to happen.

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I'm sure that once I started

teaching that many years ago,

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it did cut down on blisters.

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It definitely helped, but that's

just a little detail that coaches

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must take advantage of because

it's the little details that

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make the big things come about.

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And so if you think about it.

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Now I'm not going to get into explaining

the intricacies of a basketball game, but

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we could all kind of imagine basketball

players on the court in the middle of

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a game, you know, trying to do, uh,

advanced plays or trying to, you know,

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score during a really important game.

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And what happens when they are

sort of slowed down by a blister.

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We've all probably had

a blister at one point.

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We know how painful that is and how that

slows us down and how it distracts us.

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And we all have sort of felt like, you

know, we've all had a shoelace come

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untied and you're in the middle of

something and you don't want to get

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slowed down or delayed by having to stop,

interrupt what you were doing, tie your

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shoelace or worse trip on it and fall.

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And so you could see the

metaphor sort of building.

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Right now, which is if you think

about this, how it applies to your

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business, so many business owners

knew and also experienced as I just

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talked about are, in the middle of

like, how do I get more customers?

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How do I get more clients?

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How do I, you know, bring

on this team member?

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How do I do this?

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How do I do that?

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Sort of these, the, the impulse

is to jump to, I want to try this

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sophisticated advanced thing.

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I want to move up to the next level.

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I want to, you know.

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do this and that in my business.

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But when the foundation is shaky,

when the socks are not put on

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correctly, when the shoelaces are

not tied properly, you could already

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see the challenges in front of you.

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So let me show you what this looks like

in terms of how it shows up in business.

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So I was on a mastermind call.

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And what I love about this

particular mastermind group that

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we're in is that it's a variety

of different business industries.

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So, I mean, my gosh, there's like

a pet stain, product, you know,

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they have like different sprays and

cleaners that help, pet owners clean

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up, you know, pet stains there's.

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People who do like, um,

custom made gift boxes.

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There's people who are in, you

know, the legal field, there's,

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um, someone who's an architect.

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So it's a really cool,

diverse group of people.

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And some of whom have achieved massive

amounts of traditional success.

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You know, the, the revenue, the, you

know, they've, they've skyrocketed

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in terms of following online.

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And so by all markers, you're like,

oh my gosh, they are so advanced.

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They're so they've got it together.

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And what fascinated me.

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Was one of the members today

was working on a web page to put

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online to attract more people, to

attract new people into his world.

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So it was a marketing challenge.

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And one of the questions he brought to

the table was, he was like, I don't know

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how to make this page more attractive.

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I don't know how to get people to

once they land on this page to want

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to sign up for something or want

to have a conversation with me.

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And one of the key things that the

mastermind leaders pointed out was

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like, well, okay, we could get into

the, into the weeds of like, okay,

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you need this section, or you need

this color instead, or you need to

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use this word instead of that word.

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You know, all the stuff we think is going

to really make a radical difference.

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And I think in many cases, those

elements do, but you'll never

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guess the question that they asked

this person, you'll never guess.

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Who is your ideal client?

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Who are you trying to target?

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Now, you could feel sort of the, the

frustration and, and I don't want

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to say he visibly eye rolled, but

he probably did internally, this

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person, because he was like, Oh my

God, this question again, you know?

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And so you could see, Very clearly,

he kept asking all these questions to,

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you know, not necessarily dodging the

question, but you could see him being

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like, okay, so, but what if I tried,

um, you know, this, this lead magnet

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instead of this lead magnet, or what if

I tried reorganizing the page this way?

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And it kept coming back to the same thing,

which was, well, who are you trying?

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To serve, who are you trying to help?

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And until you have clarity around

that question, they were saying

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to him, you know, it's, it's

not going to become any easier.

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We're still going to, to have these

challenges because one of the things

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that he was coming to the table with was,

I just want to get more, more people.

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I just, you know, I haven't had

to market before cause we had such

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a solid referral based business.

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And here I am needing to really, you

know, beef up my, my online marketing.

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And so he's like, well, I just

want to target, you know, anyone

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who needs like this kind of

frantic, very reactive energy.

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Like, I just want to find anyone

who needs, you know, a house.

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And the, the question again, came back

to like, who are you trying to serve?

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Who do you want to work with those

fundamental questions that so many of

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us tackled at the very beginning of

our entrepreneurial journey and think

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that like, well, I figured it out.

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I know what I'm doing.

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Like, I don't have to come

back to this conversation.

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And so I'm sharing

these examples with you.

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I'm sharing the metaphor from John Wooten.

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I'm sharing the example from this

mastermind, because no matter how

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far along you get in your business,

you have to have these things clear.

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And I think this is a And I think that's

especially important when we think

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about the decisions that many business

owners are going to be making as we wrap

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up 2023 thinking about the next year.

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if you don't know who you are trying to

work with right now if things are shifting

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in your business and you're trying to,

evolve into your next phase or whatever

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that looks like in your business or

you're trying to find more you're trying

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to do a new thing in your business, like

doing some online marketing strategies,

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you got to have those things clear.

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Right.

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So as you're thinking about your

own business, are things feeling

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a bit challenging because you are

trying to do things without having

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the foundational clarity, right?

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Have you been trying to, I don't know,

try, I'm trying to think of all the things

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that so many of our clients have, have

said that they want to do, are you trying

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to create more content on social media?

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Are you trying to get

more visible in that area?

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Are you trying to create

a new product or service?

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Are you trying to trim and, and remove

a product or service from your business?

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Are you thinking of hiring a team member?

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You know, all of that goes back to,

you got to have those pieces in place.

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So I, I would encourage you to.

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Just resist the eye rolling and really

think about how can I, over the next,

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what today is November 10th, as I'm

recording this over the next couple

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of weeks, as I am preparing for the

end of the year, really thinking

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about 2024 for my business, have

I been skipping the foundational

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business one on one elements because.

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I want to get to the good stuff and I

want to kind of skip the pieces that are

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going to, get me to my desired outcome.

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Am I resisting those because I really

don't have clarity and you know, if

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someone could just give me a perfectly

packaged, answer through a marketing

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strategy or a team member that who

just magically appears at my door,

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you know, that would be wonderful,

but that's just not how it works.

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And so funny enough.

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Right.

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Of all the things Susan and I thought we

would be talking about with our clients.

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It's, it's all of those basic pieces

in your business, really creating, you

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know, if we, if I go back to the John

Gooden metaphor, it's really making sure

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you've got the socks on, so they're not

wrinkled and are going to cause blisters.

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It's really making sure those

shoes are on tied properly.

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So you don't trip yourself or have to

stop in the middle of doing something, tie

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your shoes and then try and recalibrate

and get back into the zone of things.

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So really get clear on those things.

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And what you want to achieve more

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finding more clients, which is

probably having offers and services

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and products that are profitable.

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It is freeing up more

time in your business.

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You got to have clarity

around those things.

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So with that in mind, I'm

going to wrap up this episode.

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This is a short one, just solo, just me.

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I hope this has been helpful.

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I hope that if nothing else, this has

given you that light bulb moment to

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remember that no matter how far you

get in your business, there are certain

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questions that you can never really escape

from never really, polish and finish one

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time and then never have to revisit it.

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Okay.

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So with that in mind, have a great rest

of your day, your week tune in next time.

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And we'll have another exciting topic.