[00:00] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Sudddhart here aka the focus b. And on this show I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.

[00:36] You. Let's dive straight into this pillar on profit and the topic of today, which is alignment and coherence, how being aligned in your business will help you to generate more sales, to be more profitable and to be more fulfilled also in your life. Because I believe that it's fundamental to not just look at one aspect of the coin which might be profit, but also to look at the other aspect on the other side, which is fulfillment, joy, peace, well being. Let's look have a holistic view of running a happy, healthy and profitable business. What does it mean to be aligned and coherent? Maybe this is a good place to start. How do you know? Are you aligned in your life? Are you aligned in your business? One way to look at alignment is to check that what you're thinking, feeling and doing is in the same direction. Let's give you an example here. Let's look at an example. If you're thinking I really want to exercise, it'd be really good for my body, I'll feel so great. You're feeling motivated, energized, enthusiastic about it and as you're in action, you're exercising, then you're aligned. On the other hand, if you're thinking I really want to exercise more, it'd be great for my body. But then you're feeling a bit of resistance, you're not sure, you're procrastinating and as an action you're not exercising, then you're not aligned. It's exactly the same thing in your business. If you're thinking you want to have a very customer friendly business and you want to deliver great results for your customers and you're feeling kind of enthusiastic about it, but sometimes a bit you have doubts or imposter syndrome or lack of confidence. And then as an action, you are so focused maybe on getting new clients that you ignore customer service and you don't deliver great results for your customers, then you're not aligned and you're not coherent. Because what you feel is important for you and is important in the business isn't actually being fulfilled. Another way of serving this is to check that you are aligned with your values. And values simply mean behaviors that are important in the context of business. And yes, this can also be done with your personal values also. But we're focusing here on business and profitable businesses. Example of values can be honesty, generosity, kindness, joy, creativity, innovation, freedom the list goes on. There are many. If you're unsure about your values in your company, do some work on it. I work also as a consultant for Business Harmonist and they cover this in depth as the idea behind business harmonist is to harmonize your company. And they look at things like values. So if you're not familiar, do some work on it with business harmonist, me or other people. But either way, make sure you are clear on your values. And this is also the case if you're a solopreneur, entrepreneur, business owner, it's fundamental for you to know your values and we'll see why in just a few seconds. Your values are how you are driving, dictating, leading your business. Maybe leading is better than dictating, let's remove that one. Leading your business, looking at the behaviors that are important. For example, if your business highly values innovation, like I'm sure one of Apple's values is no doubt innovation, maybe also creativity. That means that in everything they do, they seek to be highly innovative or creative. Same if in your business you highly, highly value generosity, then you'll make sure you always over deliver for your clients, that they get maybe some free support here and there, that you ensure you bend over backwards so that they get a lot, a lot of value. Because generosity is so important for you. If you value agility, flexibility, then you won't be too strict or too firm in the way you do things and you'll allow some room, some space for changes, change of behaviors, for other things to happen. If you're not aligned with your values in your business, it will show because you will be on the one hand saying hey, we value flexibility or freedom or joy. And then if all of the employees are miserable or if you're not showing up with joy in your business, people will notice this incoherence. It's another aspect or another way to observe this because you'll be able to notice oh actually what I'm saying isn't aligned with what I'm doing. Remember when I said a few minutes ago your thoughts, feelings and actions need to be aligned. Also what you're saying and what you're doing needs to be aligned. If you're saying on the one hand that your mission is to be super sustainable and to transform the way the world sees whatever industry, the car industry through being sustainable and then you have this really unsustainable car as a product, it doesn't make sense and it's not coherent. How is all this related to profit? By working on your company culture and this values is a huge part of it and alignment, it translates in your marketing, the way you deliver your message online and offline in your branding, what your business stands for, what the mission is, where it's going in your sales, the behaviors you have when you do sales. And all of this will be a mirror of how aligned you are in your business. So if you're listening to this and you're the CEO of a company, whether you're a solopreneur or the CEO of thousands, thousands of people, it's the same idea. Your values are the key pillar. And then you want your marketing, your branding and your sales to be a direct reflection of these values. And if that is the case, people will pick up on it. And guess what? They're more likely to buy because they know what they're buying. If they understand your brand, if they understand what you stand for, if they get what your values are, and then they see it in action on the sales call, on a branding message in a post on social media, then they think, oh, I get this. For example, if you highly value I've said creativity before as an example, but let's say creativity and all your posts are super creative and engaging, and you're targeting clients who like this approach, who like this creativity, maybe you're even in a creative field such as music or film, and then they see your creativity stand out. They are more likely to buy because that's why they like you, because they like your creativity. And this is what I mean with alignment and coherence. So a direct correlation between how aligned you are and coherent in your business and your sales is obvious. It's obvious the correlation is massive. So if you feel that there's room for improvement in your profit, you can listen to the previous episodes on Profit First, which is amazing concept from the book Profit First. You can think about your pareto, how you're spending your time, and you can look at your alignment and coherence. Are you delivering what you're saying matters to you? If you think that joy or freedom or creativity or flexibility are important for you, does this translate? Can people see it? A great test for this would be to ask someone you don't know to look at your website, your posts, anything that you've done, and ask them, what do you feel this company or my business values? What do you think is important for my business? And if they can guess from reading your posts, then you've done a pretty great job. I interviewed Alex B. Sheridan months and months ago, I think over a year ago. He's one of the first people I interviewed, maybe in the top the first.

[09:29] 50 episodes or so.

[09:31] And on his LinkedIn, it really stands out how much he values creativity. Other things too, I'd say probably efficiency. And he has a very sort of direct way of speaking and it's very engaging. But you can tell because all his posts finish with unleash the creative and he uses creative approaches to do his films. So you just know this is one of his key values. And that builds trust, that builds connection, and that builds sales and profit. So if you're looking to optimize your profit in your business, why not take a moment to check your values, check the coherence. And also, do you feel good? Do you feel you're working with the clients that you want to be working with? Another sign of alignment. Do you feel that you have the personnel, employees, assistant working for you and that feels aligned. You want everything to feel good, aligned, flowing, and no resistance or icky feeling or feeling that it's off. And this will translate in a lot of well being, a lot of growth and a lot of profit. So yeah, important, important for sure. Maybe this is something you're doing already. Continue doing it, optimize it, and if it's not, maybe this is the opportunity to tune in and check it out. Thank you for being here today. If you want to share this message with the world and help other people find it, I'd highly appreciate a review. It's the way the podcast becomes profitable also from other people listening to it and helps other people to be more profitable, to manage their time, to optimize their energy. It makes a world of difference. So thank you so much for tuning in and wishing you a great day.

[11:22] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Bee Show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you, and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day ahead.