Transcript of EP46:The Secret to Making Any Strategy Work Wonders For You

Welcome to the Mothers of Enterprise podcast. I'm your host, Suzy Olivier, mama of three, military wife and successful serial entrepreneur of 15 years, now turned business mentor and mindset coach for women who want it all, minus the hustle and the overwhelm. This show is for the woman who wants to build a wildly successful, high profit, heart centred business and thriving lifestyle, all while raising a family. It's time to harness your feminine superpowers and join me as we dive into all things mindset, business strategy, wealth creation and motherhood to support you in building the business and life of your dreams. Welcome to the Mothers of Enterprise podcast.

Hello. Welcome back to the podcast. So something I have been noticing recently is that a lot of my clients are kind of going through the same theme of struggles or pressures roughly at the same time. And so I can only assume if my beautiful clients are going through it, that a few others in the greater population of us, mums in business community and beyond, are also experiencing it. Now, I sort of unintentionally dedicated all of last week's podcast to relieving the stress and the pressure and the overwhelm in the business. But I want to take it one step further today and really talk about how to make your strategies in your business work really well for you. Now, I've called it a secret, but once I've kind of explained it to you, it's going to seem like common sense.

And if you've listened to any of my episodes, you've probably heard me talk about it, but I wanted to bring it to the podcast. There's no kind of six steps or three ways or anything. Today this is a very casual conversation. I'm talking to you as if you were my client sitting in front of me right now going, Suzy, I am feeling stressed out. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I feel like my to do list just constantly is being added to and getting bigger. I feel like I'm stacking in not only to dos, but I shoulds and I need to be and I ought to be. And it's all just feeling really shitty.

And so I'm imagining that is you sitting in front of me and at the same time you're like, but I love my business and I want to make it work and I want to implement these strategies that are going to make my business work, and I'm going to attract my dream clients, my dream customers and convert them and all those things. How the hell do I do that? All whilst keeping sane. So if you have heard me talk ever, pretty much, you would have hopefully heard me say that the number one, in my opinion, the number one indicator of how successful someone's going to be kind of in their business as a whole or within individual strategies, tactics, processes within their business is are they happy doing it? Does it actually bring them joy? Does it make them happy?

Now, I am not saying doesn't make you happy and never challenge you, doesn't make you happy and never cause discomfort, doesn't make you happy and it's always perfect rainbows and unicorns all day long. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that by large, you actually really enjoy how your business is being run. You really enjoy how your business is growing, you feel confident, you feel fulfilled, you feel in control, you feel grounded, you feel accomplished, you feel like you've got your shit together the majority of the time, not all the time, because it's still something that I go, oh my goodness, I am completely drowning here.

And thankfully I've got a beautiful one to one coach I will turn to in those moments and I would be virtually bitch slapped or I will be virtually warm hugged and bolstered back up and sent on my way. So side note there, if you haven't got a coach, if you haven't got a support system, whether that's networking, a mastermind, a group program, one to one coach, my goodness, please. Beautiful, beautiful soul. Get it? You were never, ever meant to do this business journey alone. Just like I don't think we should raise kids completely on our own, we need our village. Make sure you are in a business village. So when I say, does it bring you joy? Does it make you happy again, I'm not saying it's always sunshine and roses. I'm not saying you never feel stretched or you never feel challenged.

But the real secret to a strategy working for you is your number one commitment to that strategy. And number two, how you actually feel about it. You probably know if you have scrolled Instagram for longer than 4.9 seconds, there are so many ways you can grow a business. If you have scrolled Instagram today, no doubt you have been targeted by several ads, by coaches, by gurus, course creators, consultants, wherever else they want to be called these days about how you can take your business to the next level, how you can crack ten k months, how you can crack six figure months, how you can be sold out the next two days. What was one I saw recently? One hundred k in one hundred days. That was a good one. And all these people peddling their thing, their strategy their tactic, their formula, their method.

Now I've barked on in previous episodes about how that is all total bs, but what I want to bring in this episode that I really want to land. Like when I say land, I want you to really take this in and truly believe it because I know it's really easy to hear this kind of advice, be like oh, that sounds really nice, and then go about your day and go back to your to do list and your I should list and start feeling crappy and overwhelmed all over again. Which is not the point of this episode. I want all my episodes, all the content I create to actually elicit change, to actually have an impact that you can go and put into practice immediately in your business and feel the change and feel the shift.

And so what I want you to understand today is that your business doesn't need to be doing anything more than it already is. Chances are your business is doing too much.

Chances are you are trying to spread yourself too thin by being in too many places because of all the I shoulds because of that freebie you downloaded last week which said Facebook groups are the way to do it because of that mini course you bought last month about how email lists are the thing to have and if you don't have it you are leaving money on the table because of that two and a half which tells you Instagram is the place to be and how to do reels and whatever other thing you've been signing up for and parting with your cash and parting with that beautiful email address for lands I shoulds on your list.

Now I have just done some filming for dream business school and a part of one of the modules is client attraction and customer attraction and I went through 25 different ways of attracting clients and customers and that was just off the top of my head. In about a minute or two I listed those things out. I'm sure if you give me five to 10 minutes I could probably add another 20 to that. So that just goes to show how many massive ways there are to grow your business. And it can feel really shitty when we've got all these people screaming at us telling us that their way is the way. And obviously they're very good marketers so they're not just telling us their way is the way, they're telling us that the way that you're doing it is the wrong way. Stop posting Instagram.

Email lists are the place to go. Stop plugging your lead magnet. You need to be in Facebook group. Stop building your Facebook group. They're dead. Go and do Facebook ads. Don't just do Facebook ads. You got to have funnels to go with. Don't just do funnels to go to have trip y and like, oh, it's ridiculous. So, I mean, it's marketing 101, like highlighting your thing as the best and positioning everything else as the evil. And we fall for it. I fall for it on occasion. I think I've got a bit more discernment in my wiser years, but it's so easy, and my clients still suffer with this. We aren't immune. No matter how successful you get or how supported you are in your business, you're not immune to Facebook ads and really effective marketing and really persuasive, well written copy.

And so what I wanted to challenge you today is to really go and have a look at your business. Go and have a look at everything you are doing in your business. Go and brain dump every single thing that has to happen in your business. Go and list out every single thing that has to happen that you need to do. Then I would challenge you to maybe list out things that you don't need to be doing, but you are doing just as like a potential this could be outsourced list. Again, not saying you have to outsource right away, but if you have got a VA, if you have got an OBM, online business manager, or a social media manager, are there some things that you can get off your list? But that isn't the point of this episode.

I have a whole episode about outsourcing, managing your team effectively. Another day, perhaps. Let me know if that's something you want. But the point I want to drive home here is that the secret or not so secret? The quite common sense thing is to really make sure that your strategies are going to work for you in really beautiful, effective and efficient ways is how much you are enjoying them. And you cannot enjoy what you're doing in your business if you constantly feel overwhelmed, if you constantly feel under pressure, if you constantly feel like you just cannot get to that end of your to do list, if you just can't feel like you can get your head above water for long enough, it's such a shitty feeling. I spoke about this in last week's episode. Like, I've been there. I really know how it feels.

And I still to this day feel like it's kind of an underlying default state for me that I'm not careful if I don't kind of stick on top of my mindset work. And I'm super intentional about how I work and the boundaries within my work that I can just very easily kind of slip back into this. I'm going to do it all. I'm going to be everywhere. I can handle it. It'll be fine. But actually it's not fine and I'm drowning here. So I want you to have a look at your business. Have a look at every single thing that you do, literally everything that you have to.

If it's an email newsletter, if it's a blog, if it's your content, if it's making reels, if it's invoices, if it's client follow ups, onboarding contracts, being sent out, making of products, packaging of products, post runs, literally everything. Coaching clients, creating content for clients. Actually, maybe if you like my service based ladies, whether you're a graphic designer or a copywriter, actually doing the work for your clients, list out every single thing and ask yourself what items actually don't have to be there. There's a difference between a good idea strategy and a good for right now strategy. Like Pinterest. Amazing. I think so many businesses could really benefit from having a presence on Pinterest Facebook groups. I think when done well, having that close knit community can absolutely turbocharge sales, especially for my service based ladies, especially on my coaches.

I think having an email list is an absolute crucial, integral part of an effective marketing strategy and I could keep going on with this list for the next 25 items that I've got list in front of me from my dream business school content. The point of it is they all work. They all work. Which is why they've got a whole host, a whole army of gurus behind each of those 25 items and more campaigning for them. The key to them working for you is you feeling really good and you giving yourself permission that you don't have to be doing the other ones. So I would challenge you to really go and assess and refine the strategies in your business.

Go and have a look at everything that you're doing to get visible, to reach new clients, to attract new clients, to convert new clients, to get clients onto sales calls with you, all of my product based ladies, get people into your store, get them to that beautiful basket and checking out and work out. What can you refine? What can you make better, what can you streamline and allow yourself to take bits out for now. For now, I'm not saying go and eradicate all those beautiful strategies and ideas and intentions for growth. Just put them on a list somewhere for now and go you know what as and when time frees up as and when I feel like I've got my shit together, I will start stacking in those strategies. I will layer them in. I will enhance my presence.

I will enhance how I'm showing up. I will increase my visibility by being on Pinterest or starting a Facebook group. And when I do stack in those various new strategies, I'm going to have the capacity, I'm going to have the time, I'm going to have the energy, the creativity to give my all to that strategy until it is cemented in, until it is performing well, it is proven, it is working, it feels really good. Then you go and stack in the next one and that is business growth. But the problem is we are coming in as very small micro businesses and trying to do it all. And some tough love and some slightly mean sounding tough love.

For the most part, we're doing shitty jobs at it because we're so thinly spread and because we're so overwhelmed and so busy being busy, you're not actually spending the time crafting the skill around a particular strategy. So example, if you're like, right, I am going to do a reel a day for 30 days, but oh, I'm also going to post on Facebook every day. And I'm also going to send two emails a week. And I'm also going to do a blog post. And I'm also going to start a podcast. And I'm also going to do a YouTube channel. And I'm also going to start writing a funnel up that's going to go really well with Facebook ad. And I'm also going to make a lead magnet for my lead magnet.

I'm also going to have a tripwire so that my leads become self-liquidating when I do Facebook ads. And it's going to be amazing. Guarantee you those reels for your real a day plan is going to be shit. Again, it sounds awful, but it's impossible for you to be showing up in all those places as your maximum potential. And so the result is you are really busy, you are really stressed out. You feel like your business should be successful because you're doing all these things. I mean, look at that to do list. You should be like ten figures a plus. Never mind ten figures, ten k. Wouldn't that be nice? Ten figures a month. Ten k plus months because of how busy you are. But the opposite is happening. I feel like women are busier in business than ever before, but earning less.

And when you look at the big earners, when you look at the women who are doing the ten k plus months who are doing a six figure plus months. Their strategies are so beautifully simple. And they're not everywhere. They've chosen where they want to be. They've chosen where they enjoy. They've chosen the places they're passionate about showing up in, and they have gone all in. And yeah, once you start earning the money, you can layer in the experts. You can get that Pinterest strategist, you can get that funnel strategist, you can get that Facebook ad strategist and get all these beautiful experts within their zones of genius to help amplify what you already do. But when you try and do it all yourself, it's the fastest way to burn out, overwhelm and really crappy results.

So please use this episode as all the permission and not even permission, like a very strong, loving, telling off to go and stop trying to do it all. Please stop trying to do it all. Please go into your business and imagine you kind of having a Marie Kondo session in your business and just go and get rid of the things that don't spark joy. And very carefully and very neatly put in the things that you do use, that you do love, that are effective, that do work for you, and just focus all your love and attention and energy and creativity on those things and work them until they work. Work them until they are bringing results, until they are bringing new clients, until they are bringing you money, until they are bringing you visibility, leads.

Whatever the outcome, whatever the goal is for that strategy, work it until it works, until it's so efficient and so streamlined. It's just a regular part of your business. Then you layer in the other ones. And in fact, I would bring this into life as well. So again, for me, I was that person who was like, no, I don't need any help. I don't need help in my business and I definitely don't need help in my home because you know me, I have to be kind of the Pinterest mummy and the Pinterest wife, and everything has to look perfect and clean and tidy and perfect dinners and the best nutrition, and I'll google everything and everything's organic and everything's made from scratch because that's what a really good housewife mummy does.

And I mean, don't get me wrong, I do enjoy that side of life. I really do. I love being a homemaker. I love cooking. I love baking. But I can't do it all. I can't be that housewife mummy, Pinterest elite Martha Stewart person, as well as over here in the business, building this big empire and running a team. So for me, I had to get really strategic. I had to go right? What brings me joy? Hanging out my kids. That really brings me joy. Spending time with Gabriella and her cute, beautiful, chubby baby-ness, that brings me joy. So if I can get help with my meals, if I can get help with my home and keeping it clean and help with laundry, then heck yeah, I'm going to do those things.

Nothing about that makes me less of a housewife or less than a mum. And same thing in my business. These are the things that really bring me joy. If I wanted to have those extra strategies in, I can now hire the experts. I can hire the Pinterest strategist. I can hire the VA. I can hire the OBM. I can hire the social media manager. So now I've got the capacity because I've got the money that can afford me the luxury of bringing in more people to layer in more strategies to further my business. But that's all been very intentional decisions, not the easiest ones to make. Because like I said, my default is I don't need any help and I can do it all. And it's landed me in crapful way too many times.

So I want you to walk away from this episode with the full intention, if you haven't done it already, to go and brain dump every single thing that has to happen on your business, every single thing that you are doing in your business. And I want you to look at that list and work out. Get your Marie Kondo on what does not bring you joy, that need to be scrapped. Scrapped or outsourced. Some things you just have to do. Like I hate accounts. I hate reconciling my books, my finances. It does not bring me joy. So I literally have outsourced 99.9% of my business's financial management because, yeah, I don't want to do it, but obviously it has to be done. So I'm not saying go and scrap things that actually legally have to be done. Outsource that if you can.

Or at least have it on a list. Like the second I have x amount of money coming in that's disposable, it's going into that, it's going to get a social media manager, it's going to get a graphic designer, it's going to get a va, it's going to get a Pinterest. Whatever your thing is that you want to layer, please allow yourself to quietly ignore all the other I shoulds. Like I said, there's a difference between a strategy that's good for right now and a strategy that's good for later. A good idea and a right idea are different things. Your business can be hugely successful on whatever platform, with whatever strategy you wish. That isn't the question here. The question is, what is going to bring you joy?

What is going to allow you to feel energised and excited to show up for it, and excited to get creative with it, and excited just to stay totally committed to working it until it works. Because that is when results happen. That is when whatever strategy you're working on magically unlocks and just brings a whole world of beautiful results for you. Now, I've spoken about this before on previous challenges of mine and my growth by design challenge spoke about this and my visibility challenge. Please give your strategies 90 days to bear fruits. That is kind of the average. Obviously, it can be shorter, it can be instantaneous, it can be a bit longer.

But so often we are so busy implementing these new strategies, and then after a week or two going, oh, it's not working, and we jump to the next thing, then we try that one for three or four weeks or possibly even less, and it's like, oh, it's not working. And it's kind of what people do a diet, isn't it? We do diets like, oh, well, I haven't lost all the weight I wanted to lose in the past four days. Therefore this diet's not working. You need to give things time you need, just like you have to give your body time to adjust to a new way of eating. You have to give your business time to adjust and your audience time to adjust. So please let strategies play out. 90 days at least. Then look at the data. Did it work?

What was working about it? What wasn't working about it? How can we enhance it? Or you know what? That didn't work at all. Let's scrap it. Let's try something new. But please, 90 days, ladies, as my final little tidbit for you, okay, beautiful soul, please go away and do the exercise of refining your wonderful business, making it as efficient and streamlined as possible with the number one goal of does this bring you joy? Your business should light you up. Your business should excite you. Your business should energise you. It should not be a constant black pit of overwhelm, hard work, and just relentless struggle. Let's break that narrative. Let's start the new one that we can work whatever hours we want to work and have any results you want to have without having to do it all.

Ladies, as I always say, please come over to Instagram and tell me what your biggest takeaways were from this episode. I love hearing from you and I will of course see you same time, same place next week.

Thank you so much for joining me on this episode. If you know someone who'd love this podcast, I will be so grateful if you could share it with them. Because what the world needs more of are mothers stepping into their superpowers and creating amazing success because they're mothers and not in spite of it. If you've enjoyed this episode and found value in this podcast, which I really hope you have, please rate, review, and comment.

I will be so grateful. And as a thank you, we'll be selecting one reviewer each month who will receive a 1 hour business clinic intensive coaching session with me worth over 500 pounds. Thank you again so much for joining me. I appreciate it more than I can say, and I'll be back with you soon in the next episode.