Scale or Fail

Most of us who start a business know we can make money by leveraging our talent and passion. But when it's time to scale, talent alone won't get us there. (There's a great book about this called Talent Is Never Enough, by John Maxwell.)

At an early age, I knew my talent was connecting with people and getting sales--2 critical components to business success. When I started my barbershop, that talent served me well. But when I tried to go beyond my first $500K by doubling down on that talent, it was a big fail. I needed to pivot from doing, to managing, and developing people, not just connecting.

COVID shined a blinding laser beam on every business' weakness. CEOs were forced to realign, rethink, refocus, pivot and adjust. The ones who survived not only pivoted best, they were also the ones who had their systems and processes in place already.

Now watch this: My real estate agent client is killing it. She's phenomenal at connecting with people; awesome at customer service; amazing at closing deals. She knows her numbers. She has talent not everybody has. In my W2J assessment, she scored between a "Flamingo" and a "Chameleon", a very extroverted, creative multi-tasker.

But now COVID hits. She can't connect face to face anymore, her zone of genius. Instead of coaching her how to "get out there bigger," I coach her on how to dig deep inside herself to develop new skills to adjust, adapt, realign and refocus to stay afloat and grow. Moving forward, whether we shelter in place or the world opens up, she's prepared.

If you're ready to add new business skills to your zone of genius, there are 3 ways I can help:

1. Take a free W2J Assessment. It's an eye-opening assessment that leverages the attributes of 4 animal behaviors to give individuals and business leaders personal tools to ramp up productivity, improve team culture, improve communication and substantially increase earning potential.

2. Join our free Coffee Q&A every Saturday morning at 8am EST. It's where our business community connects on all things personal and professional growth. (Ask the group your most terrifying business question.)

3. Schedule a Connection Call. Positive change happens through self-discovery, which starts with a conversation with someone who's been there.

Keep learning new skills and don't get comfortable doing just one thing. You never know what skills you'll have to dig out of the box when something unexpected hits.

Kendall

(Coach K)

Close The Gap

Who you are and what you do should be the same. When there's a gap between the two, your mojo suffers. So, close the gap. Here's what I mean. As a business coach, everyday I'm asked...

Can you give me a framework, Coach?

Can you help me with strategy, Coach?

Can you train me to be better at _____, Coach?

I absolutely can. But most of the time, my best framework, strategy, tactic, training--while it may be great--resonates only when you're in the right season of life. If you're somewhere else, your state of mind won't let you execute on it. Your story says one thing, which confuses your state. You may think you need more strategy, more information, but what you really need is to change your story.

Let's revisit a client of mine, the former technology sales rep. Her story started with her parents telling her to "go get a job and make money." So she went into sales. She didn't particularly like the job because, inside, what she really wanted to be was a singer. So the story she sold herself was, "I can't make a living by singing; it won't let me take care of a family, so singing isn't an option."

When her husband pressured her to quit her job and join his business, she resisted. It was his passion and another step away from hers. So we changed her story. I coached her on finding a place to sing for fun once a month, even if it was just karaoke. She did, and she immediately witnessed the impact she has on others' lives by doing something she loves.

Now she's a supportive partner both at home and in the family business because she's found a way to show up as her authentic self.

So, how's your mojo? If you're ready to change your story, there are 3 ways I can help:

1. Take a free W2J Assessment. It's an eye-opening assessment that leverages the attributes of 4 animal behaviors to give individuals and business leaders personal tools to ramp up productivity, improve team culture, improve communication and substantially increase earning potential.

2. Join our free Coffee Q&A every Saturday morning at 8am EST. It's where our business community connects on all things personal and professional growth. (Ask the group your most terrifying business question.)

3. Schedule a Connection Call. Positive change happens through self-discovery, which starts with a conversation with someone who's been there.

When you close the gap between who you are and what you do, your possibilities are truly endless.

Kendall

(Coach K)

The Bucket Question

I have a married client who came to me for straight business coaching. The first thing I asked was, "What buckets (priorities) in your personal life and in your business life do you want to fill?" He had 4 personal, and only 1 business bucket.

After digging deeper, it turned out he couldn't really focus on filling business buckets because he was in conflict with his wife at home. She had recently quit her job in sales (where she made lots of money) because they had 2 new babies, and he wanted her to be a partner in his business.

Turns out, her side of the story was, "I love my husband, and I love the business. But I don't have the same passion for it that he does. Taking care of my family takes all my energy, but I don't know what I should be doing now. I just feel like I lost my identity when I came into his business."

Knowing this dynamic allowed us to pivot away from business consulting and to relationship management, where I am able to coach them both. "What do you love to do?" I asked her.

"I love to sing," she said. So I asked her sing for me on the phone, right there. And she sang good! So I invited her to sing on stage at my The Circle CEOs retreat. She came, she sang, people cheered and cried! Which allowed her to experience the impact she can have in people's lives doing what she loves, too.

Business owners have a vision, a passion to do the thing they set out to do. And, more often than not, our loved ones get sucked in with us because sometimes we believe our sacrifice must also be their sacrifice. Well, that's a mistake.

Are you ready for your Bucket Question? Let's see where your priorities are and if there's a pivot we can make to help you better balance the life to business dynamic.

When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you have a breakthrough with your business and personal relationship buckets:

1. Take a free W2J Assessment. It's an eye-opening assessment that leverages the attributes of 4 animal behaviors to give individuals and business leaders personal tools to ramp up productivity, improve team culture, improve communication and substantially increase earning potential.

2. Join our free Coffee Q&A every Saturday morning at 8am EST. It's where our business community connects on all things personal and professional growth. (Ask the group your most terrifying business question.)

3. Schedule a Connection Call. Positive change happens through self-discovery, which starts with a conversation with someone who's been there. Ready to have that conversation?

When our personal life is a mess, our business will be a mess. If we don't learn how to communicate, connect, and resolve conflict at home, then there's no way we'll perform consistently at work.

Kendall

(Coach K)