Wildly Intentional

13. K.I.S.S. Keep It Super Simple when it comes to your business

Season 1 Episode 12

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0:00 | 35:54

In this episode of Wildly Intentional, Flick and Verity dive into a powerful reminder for every growing business owner: not everything needs to be complicated to be effective.

Off the back of some real-time challenges Flick is experiencing with clients, this conversation opens up into an honest look at how overcomplicating your offers, processes or communication can create unnecessary friction in your business. It’s a relatable moment that many business owners will recognise — and a chance to step back and reassess what’s actually needed.

Verity leans into her coaching expertise in this episode, sharing practical, no-nonsense advice on simplifying your approach, tightening your boundaries and creating more clarity — for both you and your clients.

If things have started to feel messy, overwhelming or harder than they should be, this episode is your reminder that simplicity often leads to stronger, more sustainable growth.

 Subscribe to Wildly Intentional for weekly bold conversations on business growth, mindset and building a business that actually works for you. 

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Don't forget to join us in our Facebook Group to continue the conversation and let us know your thoughts on this episode and if you have ever felt the same as we do here.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Wildly Intentional, the podcast for business owners who refuse to play small.

SPEAKER_01

This is where we have bold talk, honest conversations, and dig into what it really takes to create big breakthroughs in business and life.

SPEAKER_00

Replick and variety, two business owners who've built, broken, rebuilt, and grown businesses in our own ways.

SPEAKER_01

And we're here to share the lessons, the mindset shifts, and the unapologetic decisions that helped us to level up.

SPEAKER_00

So if you're ambitious, growth focused, and ready to do business on your own terms. Thank you in the right place. Let's get wildly intentional. Hello.

SPEAKER_02

Hiya.

SPEAKER_00

I literally thought earlier I was like, I'm going to start the podcast by saying something different than hello or hire, or I was like, no, no, I failed that. No, it's going to be that. It's going to be that. Start button and um we get a hire.

SPEAKER_01

That's all right. It doesn't matter. That's kind of the theme for today, I think. It's alright, it doesn't matter. Because just for anybody listening, I'm going to give you a little bit of context about yesterday. So we started the call this morning. We had a conversation. Flick's a little bit peed off, not gonna lie, because things aren't going to plan in her business. Um, and we're kind of halfway through the conversation. I'm like, let's talk about it. Why aren't we recording this? And she said, I don't want it to be a big rant fest. But you know what? That's what we're about. We're about keeping it real. So, you know, when things aren't going right, then let's talk about it because we know, Flick, our listeners are going through exactly this problem. So let's talk about it. It's okay, and it can be a rant, it's not a problem. Doesn't matter, it's okay, whatever. Clearly, you're in a better mood than you were in the last episode. I am, I am. But it was the one before the last episode, actually, where I had no energy and just left it to you and came across a little bit aggro, I think. It was like, don't meet me down a dark alley on that day.

SPEAKER_00

Whereas I'm I'm getting I'm getting towards that point. I'm not yet at that point, but yeah, it's it's oh, it's just getting frustrating. Um, so I was just saying, you know, it gets frustrating as a business owner when you've got leads coming in, you've got people making inquiries, people um, you know, looks like you've got green light go, all systems go, all that kind of stuff. And then suddenly something happens in the process, and you're trying to figure out because they just disappear. Go to you. Yeah. And I know that's like I know it's a standard thing, and most business owners will face this, but you know, I've just had a a few of them at the moment, and it's just really maddening and frustrating. And I just want to reach through a laptop, email, computer thing, and just throttle somebody and be like, just just tell me what's like give me an answer. I don't I don't care if the answer's no, but give me an answer. Don't go to it's just maddening. It's it's so aggravating and frustrating. And I'm gonna come up with all sorts of words, and I'm trying I'm trying not to sound really grumpy and angry.

SPEAKER_01

You can sound grumpy and angry. I remember what this was like, and it is really it is really frustrating being ghosted, and there's so many layers to this. As you're speaking, there's like different perspectives, different different layers, and I think we should just lay it all out because you'll have people listening to this who've done this, and their reasons for doing it are legitimate. There is almost a fear of saying no to somebody, and then you've got people who just haven't had time to come back to you and they're not realizing the impact on the business, but you've also got the business owner who sat there going, I could create this space for somebody else. This is not okay. And I think, I mean, my first my first reaction when we started talking about this like 10 minutes ago was send them an email and tell them they've got 48 hours, or you're going to release the space to somebody else. Hardline, just you know, either create the urgency or they go. You're you're not at a loss anyway. But it took me years and years to get to that stage before that being ghosted was just a regular occurrence, and there's nothing more frustrating. You just you just said it, just tell me no, I'm okay with no, just say it. Yeah, it's it's the limbo.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's the limbo that's awful. And I'm I'm the same now, isn't that that because I've I've you know I've had this situation before now, obviously, obviously I have. Um, and now if like I've got somebody and I know I'm in I'm in their onboarding process, and then something changes, or something, you know, uh whether whatever it changes, circumstances, finances, whatever. And I have to go back and look, go, look, I'm really sorry. I know I always full systems go, but things have changed, and when they change back, or you know, when things improve, or whatever it is, um, I will be coming back to you. You know, it's a no, not right now. Like that that's you know, or uh no, it's it's actually in my business has shifted and it's not right for me now, or whatever the answer is, but I always go back and say no and why, because it's just common courtesy and decency, right?

SPEAKER_01

It's it is, however, I'm gonna flip it a little bit and put it a bit of a different perspective for anybody who's listening who's sitting there going, oh god, I I hate saying no, so I will ghost people because it's just easier to just bury my head. It's it's not okay. Any business owner would much prefer you come to them and say, Look, I just can't do it right now. Situation has changed. Can we just put things on hold or can I just cancel for now? We would much rather that than just sit here wondering and wait it. And so if you are sitting there, you know, and there are two sides to this because I don't think anybody's ghosting you because you know they just want to piss off flick. That's not what they're trying to do. No, absolutely not. Something has happened. Yeah, and it's either that they just got really busy and they haven't had time to come back to you yet, but they fully intend to, or something's changed and they don't know how to tell you no. But it's not okay to leave you hanging like that. So if you're in that situation, no, from business owner perspectives, we would much rather have the no, whether it's no completely or no, not now, it doesn't matter. Just pick up the phone or drop a message and say it's not the right time. I'm really sorry, didn't want to mess you around, but can we just hold? That's much better.

SPEAKER_00

It's fine. Like I'm I'm not I don't know. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not gonna be angry of like, oh, how dare you you've messed me around. I put all this business proposal in place. And so that like that's not that's not who I am as a business owner, but um yeah, just I'm I'm just in that frustrating limbo at the moment because it just leaves you just like, well, I've got other inquiries coming in. And I'm like, well, if they all come in and they all suddenly go off over the line, I I'm gonna be going, oh shit, my uh capacity. Um I was about to apologise for swearing then, but I'm not going to.

SPEAKER_01

No, don't apologise. No, but definitely no apologies today. We're not in the mood to apologise today.

SPEAKER_00

You'll all notice about that that took Verity about three seconds to remember that. Oh yeah, we say no apologies in this podcast. No, you don't need to apologize. No, you don't apologise in this podcast. Um that's a nice problem to have to know that you you're reaching capacity. But yeah, it's just that um it's just I'm just frustrated at the moment.

SPEAKER_01

I know, but we are living in this society where aren't we, where ghosting is an actual thing. It's just something that people do a lot. And it's it's just I don't get it. Because I'm quite straight to the point, you might guess that I'm I'm quite, you know, but it took me years to be that direct. You know, I used to sit there going, oh, I don't want to message them, I don't want, I don't want to do the sense of urgency thing. I don't want to, I don't want to wind them up by sending them an email. Whereas, you know, now I'm very much and ironically, actually, now I've come out of the business world. If I went back in, I'd be even worse because I've seen it from a different side. And I'm like, no, come on, let's just just lay it on the line, tell me where you are, it's fine. But I think there is a massive fear, and I don't know whether it's a fear of letting somebody down or if it's a fear that we're gonna get pushed. And if it's the latter that I have to say that never happens, or it very rarely happens, particularly when you're dealing with small business owners. We don't push back when we get a no, we understand it. So it's that's fine. It's a no for now. Let me know when you know you want to talk about it again, and I'm there, it's fine. There is never any like real pushback, it's only when you're dealing with massive corporations that you're gonna get some kind of heavy sales pitch where it's I know I understand where you're coming from, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No. Um, but you're not gonna get that from a small business owner. But what you are doing is hugely impacting a small business owner's business. Yeah, you know, we rely completely on honesty from people, and you know, we have huge autonomy for both both sides. I don't know if I make any sense, but it's just we rely so much on people telling us the truth and being honest and up front with us, that it really sucks then when we're just sat here twiddling our thumbs, waiting.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And and I I will send that email, I will send that message to to a couple of the ones that are at the moment keeping me in limbo and and give them the hard deadline of like, look, if I haven't heard from you by X date, whatever that is, you know, I'll I'll consider the hours. Um you know, I'll consider the the the the dealings, the deal, like you know, the the situation close. Like, you know, um I will say that, but at the same time I'm like my brain's sort of fighting against that, going, oh that's that's too that's that's too harsh. Like I'm not I'm not a harsh business owner.

SPEAKER_01

To who I know, I know because nobody's considering how harsh it is to you as a person who's like making a living from this, who's gotta pay the bills at the end of the month.

SPEAKER_00

I know that. But now you're gonna watch as Verity coaches me because she's watching me on his screen.

SPEAKER_01

This could turn into a coaching session.

SPEAKER_00

We've got we've got yeah, we've got back to Verity in a coaching mentality. I can see the face that's just come over her. She's like, come on, Flick, the eyebrows are rising, the head's tilted. She's like waiting for me to give the answer.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. But the first thing I said to you when you said it is talk me through your process. It was just instantly back there. Because for me, I mean that is something to consider actually. That's another layer of it. I know your processes are fine because obviously we've been through your processes many times over the years. But again, if you are a business owner in this situation, if somebody does ghost you, the first thing I would say is what is your process to onboarding them in the first place? Because there could be something really simple missing that you're giving them too much time, you're not giving them the contract quick enough. Your contract's too big, they're not reading it. The onboarding terms are too big. There could be masses of reasons that people aren't actually going over the line, and that could be down to your processes. So there's a lesson there. Obviously, in your situation, it's not because I remember probably about a year and a half ago, we went through your processes and we refined everything. So it was it's a seamless process.

SPEAKER_00

And the only advice I would be fair to make them better. Because some of them I was like, well, that bit feels a bit clunky, and that feels a bit doesn't feel as seamless as as it once did. So it's you know, I've updated it and refined it because of situations like this where I go, right, okay, so I I haven't got that contract or I haven't got that client or whatever it is, where did I lose them? Why did I lose them? Yeah, where where is where are the cracks? Where are they if they've fallen through the cracks? There's obviously cracks showing in your onboarding process, right? And you need to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01

And I think that's where this needs to go this morning. Because it's like, let's give some real, like good advice on this. And I think the key, and again, this we're not talking about you here because we know your process is seamless. This is just a case of typical ghosting. Um, but you've got to keep the customer journey in mind every single time. And I would always be asking the questions that you just asked. If somebody ghosts you, or suddenly you think you're about to get them over the line and it all comes crashing down, there is a reason for that 99% of the time, and probably 90% of it, you are in control of. It's only about 9% that you're not in control of, and it wasn't to do with you, but it is something to do with your process, the way you've onboarded them, or your sales pitch, what something went wrong somewhere. So you have to, if you're repeatedly being ghosted or you're repeatedly not pulling people over the line, then you have to have honest conversations with yourself and say, What am I doing wrong? Because almost all the time you are doing something wrong. But the thing with doing something wrong is you can rectify it and do it right next time. So it's okay.

SPEAKER_00

But only if you see it, only if you analyse and take that time to have a look at that process.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because that's that's something that I think people are, you know, the the they create an onboarding process and the you know, the step-by-step kind of thing. Um, and it works for them as the business owner, and they don't think about it from the customer point of view, from that customer journey point of view. So, you know, take yourself through, you know, if you if you know, if you are a business owner and you're listening to this, and you've probably had onboarding processes from other business owners, have a look at what other people are doing. What did you see them doing and go, oh my god, that's really that was really seamless, that was really smooth, that was really slick. Can I implement that in my business? Can I can I replicate that but in a way that works for me and my customers because it worked for them and theirs?

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. And I think you whatever you do, because this goes to marketing, it goes to every aspect of your business, you've just nailed it when you said we always look at it from our perspective, we rarely look at it from the customer's perspective, and that's where often it goes wrong because we're not seeing it from their view. And I mean, I remember when we looked at it with yours, I remember you sending me the onboarding process you had, and I looked at you and went, Flick, who's reading this? You sent this to me. I'd be like, no, I'm out, I'm done. Because there is no way my ADHD brain or any brain is going to sit there and read through all that information. For you, it was really valuable information. You saw the value in it, but you weren't looking at it from the other side where it just needed to be a quick sign, let's get it done. When do we start? What needs to happen next? So we went through that process, but I mean, I did it the other day. I was on TikTok, right? And I was having one of my my kind of like I like to do random acts of kindness, just really random stuff, just because I just do. It's like the whole being in tune with the universe thing. It's my new, you know, the how I've lived for the last couple of years. Absolutely, absolutely. And there was this girl on TikTok who I'd only come across a couple of times, and somebody, her dad was had created a video. Um, she does amazing things, and she lives on like this. I won't say what it is because I don't want her to come back to me and say you didn't do it, because I decided not to do it in the end for reasons. Um, but she she makes things, and her dad said, you know, that somebody commented, you let her quit you quit university to do this, blah, blah, blah. And it was a video about why he was so proud of her. And I was like, Oh my god, yeah, absolutely. And I've got some credit with somebody at the minute, right? A lot of credit, because I stepped out of my business before we completed that job. So I'm like, I could give that credit, it's a lot of money. I could give it to some random person who I think needs it. So I went and I'd seen the comments. The how do I order? And I looked at it and I clicked on the link because she directed to the link, and I was like, there is nothing there. There is nothing there for me to order. There is one picture, and then it goes in, it's like a Shopify website, but it's really badly done. And it took me, I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to look through her products to then buy the product that I wanted. And I couldn't. And I can I went through the process just to see how difficult she was making this for the customer. And I thought, not a chance are you ever gonna make it in this because you've made my life so difficult. I want one click, see what I want, click buy, done. That is it, and we make and it doesn't matter how passionate you are about what you do, it doesn't matter how amazing you are at what you do. Don't make it your work. Absolutely. We are living in an Amazon world where we just one click and we buy it and it's there the next day, sometimes the same day. That is what people expect now. If we make that process difficult in anything we do in business, they're out. Absolutely yes.

SPEAKER_00

But this goes for you know simplifying everything, and and you know, we've talked about onboarding process, and now you sort we're sort of going into websites, and we're we're gonna slowly go into my wheelhouse and social media. Yeah, yeah, of course. But I was talking to somebody the other day, and um she was saying about the fact that oh, she's trying it on LinkedIn, and I was like, I looked at her her her tagline, her headline on on LinkedIn, and I was like, that doesn't tell me what you do, yeah. That doesn't tell me who you have to put what you do, and it's like they got this really lovely flowery language that sounded wonderful, that was like the opening of, like, you know, a soliloquy almost. It was it was beautifully written in what now? But it was like, but what do you do? What do you actually do?

SPEAKER_01

But we used to train on this, and I'm sure you train on it. Like, because I used to do courses on on like your profile of LinkedIn, and we used to spend the most amount of time on that headline, and I remember saying, stop, like there was a phase that all like big influencers went through where they put these really flowery sayings on their blah blah blah. Actually, what you want, if you want to get on page one of LinkedIn, which it works the same way as page one of Google, your headline needs to give the keywords. So if you're telling me that what was it? Somebody used to put like in marketing something like I'm a um content wizard or something like that, it's like it's ridiculous. That doesn't know what you're doing. You mean a different content wizard? No, nobody's putting in the search bar, find me a content wizard. No, they are putting social media, content management, marketing, put the basic words in and tell people what you want to do. One sentence about how you the experience people are gonna go on with you, the rest of it is keywords. Keep it simple. Yeah, but we don't we overcomplicate everything, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Looking at your website, looking at your LinkedIn profile. If I can't tell what somebody does within three seconds of landing on their LinkedIn profile, I'm gone. I'm connecting with the next person because I'm I'm like, I if I've got to figure out who I'm connected with, yeah, I'm not gonna connect with you because I have no actual genuine connection, like forget the the word connection in terms of LinkedIn, but actually I want to feel like I understand you and know you within you know a few short seconds. But your website is exactly the same. I see you know, people design these really like wonderful, elaborate websites, like you say, that have got these, you know. Oh, I'm a um scheduling guru. Great. What does that mean in the world? That's another one. Scheduling guru. Are you a VA? Are you gonna arrange my diary? Are you gonna schedule all my content? Yeah, what what do you what do you what do you do? Like there's a reason why we call it kiss logic, right? Keep it simple.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we never said that last word though. We never said it. It was always I in fact, I rechanged it at one point. Keep it super simple. I changed it too because I never liked keep it simple, stupid. But it's it's true. And if you think, you know, if we're comparing this to LinkedIn headlines, imagine the rest of our business. If we're doing that with one single headline, what are we doing with everything else? So if you are sitting there and you're like, why aren't I getting people over the line? Why aren't people coming into me? Why isn't this happening?

SPEAKER_00

Do you remember when you used to run the networking thing? We used to think Verity used to run a networking group every Friday. Um, and a shout out to some of the people that we I met through that because that was a fantastic networking group. It was. But the last Friday of every month, we used to call it Freaky Friday, didn't we? We did. And what Verity would get people to do was to they had to give another person in the groups, they'd allocate another person in the group's 60-second pitch, you know, that that 60-second introduction, whatever it was. And it was really interesting to understand who knew what other people did because of how simple they've used their 60 seconds. If they were talking about like, oh well, this week I was talking, you know, this massive conglomerate corporation stuff, and I help implement, you know, really strategic processes, and it's like great, about what what is it that you do? So this the the Freaky Friday, I've I've tried like nobody else is like into like interested in doing it because I think actually it's a really beneficial exercise of going, can you deliver somebody else's 60 second introduction? If you can't, that means that they haven't introduced themselves in a way that's understandable to other people. So if you're listening to this podcast, I would say find a friend, find a business friend and give them your 60-second pitch, yeah, and see what they come out with. Find a family member because that's the other one that I get is the fact that my family or friends will go like, I didn't realise that's what you do. Yeah, and it's like, how do you not know that that that's what I do?

SPEAKER_01

And and so yeah, it's and I bet there's a lot of people listening right now who've heard somebody say to them, I didn't realize you did that, or what is it you do? I don't know you know what you do. It's because you're not telling them and keeping it simple. I know that exercise I loved Freaky Fridays because it always drew out a lot of information for people, it was a lot of light bulb moments because very often we'd have people pitch it back and they'd go, That's not what I do, and it's like, but that's You've been telling us for weeks, but it's not what I do. Then the clue is there.

SPEAKER_00

I actually have to admit that the reason why you and Alison hired me was because of the one freaky Friday, and I you couldn't get me to go into a room to do a three-way swap or something like that with the freaky Friday. And I ended up having to deliver your 60 seconds because it just I got stuck. And I watched your faces go. Wow, you've described our business better than we ever could.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And and that was the day we decided, like, just so you know, that day where you pitched our business. And obviously, we got it right. We had got it right because you knew exactly what we did, but you pitched our business so well for us in that far better than we'd ever pitched it. So it was like that girl needs to be hired, she needs to come work for us. Absolutely. But it is eye-opening.

SPEAKER_00

But I do think that is a really good exercise for people to do because I've been working with um, you know, in a in a coaching group for a while, and there's still some people in there, and I'm like, don't I understand the premise of your business and what you're trying to help, but I don't actually understand the fundamentals of physically how do you do the thing. And it's like if I don't if I can't answer that, I'm like, I'm not going to become one of your clients. And I'm not going to be one of your promoters as well when somebody says that they're struggling with such and such. Because I'm like, if I can't answer physically, how do you do the things you're and when we don't know things, we're scared of things.

SPEAKER_01

So if we don't know what somebody does or how things work, we will not enter into any kind of agreement with them because we're kind of scared of what's in the middle. Is that going to cost us loads of money? Is that going to cost us loads of time? We don't know. We fear the unknown. And it's the same with websites. You know, I often heard people say, Oh, but you know, people will get to page two of my website, but they would never go to the end, or they put something in the basket, but they'd never check out. So what are they doing in between then? What is your website? Where's your website taking them? Because it's your fault if somebody is not clicking by, if they're not emptying that basket into their hands, there is something stopping them from doing it. And it's never them. It is always something on your website.

SPEAKER_00

I've I've I'm literally in the in the process of consulting with a company on on this, and they're like, Yeah, but we've paid for we've done this many ads, and we've got this many click-through, we've got click-through right here and stuff. And I'm like, Great. Are they converting? They if they are if they are clicking through on your ads, if you've done your A-B testing on your ads, brilliant. You know which one works, which one's getting them the more click-throughs, they're then landing on your website. Analytics will tell you how long are they sat on your website. If they're sat on there for less than three seconds, that means something on your website is instantly putting them off, whether it's load speed, whether it's whatever. And if they're then not buying, it's because you've made that that website, it doesn't attract them to click the buy button. People people are, I mean, we used to say this, didn't we? You know, and I still say it. I'm like, it sounds harsh, but people are stupid. They do need a simple process to follow because if they get lost, they'll walk away. Yeah. It's if it's too complicated.

SPEAKER_01

It needs to be super simple. And you're it just it goes back to what we said at the start, you know, whatever you do in your business, every single process you have, and you should have processes, by the way. That's another whole lesson. You should have processes for processes in your business. And and we don't, as small business owners, we don't think we need them, and we do. Do you remember with IMC when we started to put processes in place, proper processes, things started to shift massively because we literally had processes for processes, we knew everything.

SPEAKER_00

So it made onboarding for me really easy for when I came on on board with you guys is the fact that I knew your processes because you could just hand me a file and go, this is what we do, and this is how we go.

SPEAKER_01

And there was always a customer journey process for everything. So we had about eight different customer journey processes, because depending on whether they came on for content creation, if they came into the content academy, if they came into um the coaching, whatever they did, there was a process for each separate, you know, customer journey. And that's how minute detail you need to go in. If you really want to grow your business, if you want to go from you know a one-man band to an agency or a bigger business, whatever you want to do, you've got to start thinking like a bigger business. Apple do not think about how things work for them, they think about how their customer is going to react. What does their customer need? How is their customer gonna feel? How easy can we make it for our customers to buy? And you know, believe me, you can buy Apple products incredibly easy. I know because I bloody got them all. It is so easy to buy from Apple.

SPEAKER_00

It's just you'll never convert me. I'm a Samsung user through and through.

SPEAKER_01

Oh no, I converted to Apple a few years ago and it's I just can't, I can't look back now. I have to, I just have to do everything. In fact, it it really winds me up that my work laptop is not an Apple laptop because it's just I like my Apple, but you know, I am currently on that.

SPEAKER_00

That was the one thing working for you that I was like, I've got to have because you're gonna think I had an Apple Mac for working for you. It was like, I hate Apple.

SPEAKER_01

But ironically, when I when I worked for IMC, I hated those Apple Macs. I hated being Apple at that point. It is only in the last couple of years I've been like, oh, okay, let me try it again. And now I've got an Apple Mac and I love it. It's like these podcasts are a complete pleasure for me because it's the one time I actually get to work on my Apple Mac instead of my other device that doesn't work as seamlessly as anyway. We're going off topic. We have to do it. But you know, they make it bad, they make it easy, but they start with the customer, they start with the experience. So you need to look if you are in a situation that we talked about at the beginning. If you are in that situation where you are getting ghosted or people aren't quite going to the buy section of your website, or you're not getting people over the line, that thinking has to start with you. The problem is not the customer, it is what the customer is experiencing from you, and you've got to be honest with yourself about it. You have to be. It's the only way you will grow. It's hard, it is a really hard conversation to have with yourself. Sometimes people are assholes, let's face it, and they are going to ghost you because for that reason. But before you get to that conclusion, you have to look at your processes, you have to look at what drove them to the point you nearly got them over the line, but didn't quite and I've had it before where where I've I've I and I I'll hover hand up, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I've had people before that almost got to the line they didn't. And when I looked at that process, I was like, oh, okay, I dropped, I dropped it there. I I can pinpoint exactly where I dropped it and gone, damn, how can I ensure that I never drop another client when they're at that point in the onboarding process ever again? Because, you know, we're gonna learn from our mistakes, right? Absolutely. You can't just keep making them and blaming the customer. No, we have to, you know, we have to look at it and and go, right, okay, how can I improve? How can I better that?

SPEAKER_01

Make that every day, actually in business, we should be looking at that. Every day we should be ending the day going, what can I do better tomorrow? Yeah, even if you've had the best day, the most perfect day, there is always something you can do better tomorrow. That's big picture thinking, that is big business thinking.

SPEAKER_00

You say that I'm just gonna notebook out.

SPEAKER_01

I'm getting I'm getting one of my notebooks out.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I have a six-minute diary. Um, I don't know whether you've seen them. I I fill it in every every morning before work and it's great. So it's like it's a blank diary, I'll just put it from like Amazon or something like that. Um and it you do three minutes at the beginning of the day and three minutes at the end of the day. And I found that it worked well for for business. So I start the day and I say three things that I'm grateful for. It just gives you a little space to write them all down. Um, then it gives you a space to say, this is how I'll make today great. So what you know, basically like what are your to-do lists that you're gonna do? You've got like your positive affirmation, which is always just good, and then at the end of the day, you write in my good deed today. So I'm always looking on the lookout for good deeds to do today because I like to write it in my little diary. What I learned today, and that bit sometimes takes me a few minutes to go, okay, what did I learn today? What new thing? And it's not like you know, what did I go and research or learn more about? Sometimes actually, it's what mistakes did I make that I've learned. I don't want to make that mistake again.

SPEAKER_01

Or even what did I learn that I did really well that I don't normally do, but I did it today and it worked really well. So that goes into tomorrow's pile. We continue to do that. So we're not just learning about the things that we did wrong, we are also learning about the things we did right because we're really good at that as well. We're really good at not hanging on to the things that we did really well and then repeated mistakes when we got it right, it was there. Why can't we just repeat, rinse and repeat all the good things and bin off all the things that didn't work?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. It's um, but yeah, like like I say, we just thought you saying about the what did you like, you know. Um my my uh coach Rachel Hayes, um, she I know Rachel listens to me. So hi Rachel, um, I've mentioned her a couple of times before on this podcast. She'll often say that fail is first attempt in learning.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Couldn't agree with you more, Rachel. She literally says that to me all the time. Like, if I go, oh, I've I've messed this up, and she's like, Did you fail? And I'm like, Yes, yes, I failed at that because it was my first attempt at learning. So the next time I'm not gonna fail because it won't be my first attempt.

SPEAKER_01

It is absolutely, and you're meant to make mistakes. You are meant to. There there isn't a billionaire on the planet who didn't mess up first, second, third, fourth, and fifth time round. They learned and they did it differently every single time.

SPEAKER_00

And they didn't let it stop them. That's that's the other thing.

SPEAKER_01

No, you never quit from a mistake ever. You just learn from it. I couldn't agree with you more, Rachel. Well done. Good coaching. She's good, just for the public to know, you know. I don't know her, but she sounds great. Cool. Wednesday wild words of wisdom, then keep it super simple.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna go with Kit's logic. I like I like saying super simple, yeah, because it's it's nicer than the other one.

SPEAKER_01

It is. I never never say the other one. But uh and I think just to add to that, you know, just always look at your customer journey, look at it from your customer perspective, not your own perspective. It's never about you in business, it is about who you serve. So it has to come from their perspective. If something isn't working, it's not on them, it's on something you're doing. So look at your processes, take a fine needle to each part of it and just reassess everything you're doing and figure out where where it stopped and where you need to change.

SPEAKER_00

And we always that's exactly where I am at the moment. That's that's what I've been doing this week of going, right, okay, okay, there's a gap there. Let's let's make that simple. Let's let's smooth it over. Yeah. No more, no more clients through the cracks. But there will be there will be people who don't go over the line. Like, that's not what we're saying. Yeah, absolutely. When we're saying this, like there will be people who genuinely say no, but if you're losing clients through the cracks, yeah, that that's that's always look at yourself first.

SPEAKER_01

We used to have um to to finish, really, Flick will back me up on this. I used to have Kiss on my laptop on a um like sticky note because I was the overcomplicating queen. If I could overcomplicate anything, I would do it. So I had to have that keep it super simple in my mind all the time. And how many times did that pull me back, Flick? When you would say it to me, Ferity, is this simple or have you overcomplicated it? And it was just strip it all back into the city. Like, shut up. Being there, I know, I know what it's like to overcomplicate, but believe me, overcomplicating does not grow businesses. Keeping it simple, the simplest solutions are always the most effective. Keep it super simple.

SPEAKER_00

My onboarding process, you know, just to for that logic, you know, when we we looked at it, was I used to send out a questionnaire to people but for onboarding, and the questionnaire was super detailed, it was super, you know, had fantastic information for me. Yeah. Um, but like you say, it was just overwhelming for for my customers. So now I do now part of my onboarding process is I do an interview meeting where basically I go through that questionnaire, but I ask them because people are far easier to talk about it, to you know, and it's like I've got customers going, you're like, Oh, I'd I'd never even thought about what I would say to that until you asked me in the interview. And it's like, well, yeah, it just made it so much simpler. Yes, okay, it's an you know, it's another hour of my time because uh the reason why I started off with the questionnaire was because it was saving me time because I just send it to a client for them to fill it in, right? But that's not great on a customer journey process.

SPEAKER_01

So it was uh right. Just putting it out there, by the way. That was my idea. Just gonna say I can do it too, Rachel. All right, let's leave it there.

SPEAKER_00

That's our Wednesday Wild Word of the Internet. Flipped it out. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

You're smiling now. You weren't smiling when we first came on this call. I knew we'd get somewhere. I knew if we just talked it through, we'd get somewhere.

SPEAKER_00

I'll have fun trying to create the show notes and the title of this episode, as well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, not sure what this one is about, but you know, kiss, just call it kiss. Kiss. Wildly kissing. That's gonna sound like a very different podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Right, folks, we will see you next time.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for listening. Bye.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for spending this time with us on Wildly Intentional.

SPEAKER_01

If this episode sparks something for you, take it with you and act on it. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and come and say hello online. And remember, bold talk leads to big breakthroughs and no apologies.