#227 - Q+A Part 2: Scaling, Seasons, and Sales Funnels

Emily recently hosted a Q&A session in the Being Boss Community, and now we're publishing her answers in a two-part series. In this second episode, Emily answers questions about scaling a business based on highly personalized services, dealing with the lack of inspiration, readying your business for starting a family, and more.

Get full show notes for this episode here

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Transcript

Emily Thompson: 0:45

How are you doing Boss, I know that many of you are feeling an edge, an edge to make the very most of this downtime and to move your business along even if things are feeling slow, to prepare for what I truly believe is going to be a new economy, and to connect with a community of business owners who are figuring this out as we go. Well, the being boss conference is now online, making it accessible to every one of you, no matter where you are. And in light of world events, we're shifting our content in ways that will make it most helpful to you now, focusing on time management and marketing in this new world of doing business, keynotes panels, breakout sessions, Live podcast recordings, and more. Making up three days of a virtual conference for creative business owners that is unlike anything that's been done before. Sure, we won't be sipping Zaza rocks in the French Quarter, not this time, but you can wear your yoga pants and still get insights and tactics from top creative business owners, who are also navigating this disruptive moment in history and connect with creative business owners from all over the world. Get your virtual ticket and join in, make the most of this time and figure out how you and your business are going to make it through to the other side at better than before. Learn more and join us at being boss club slash conference. I'm Emily Thompson.

Unknown: 2:12

And I'm Kathleen Shannon.

Emily Thompson: 2:13

And this is being boss. Welcome to the second part of a two episode series here on being boss where I am sharing my live coaching answers to real questions asked by real bosses and are being boss community. You see I love taking live q&a from coaching and masterminding to webinars and even speaking on stage I love diving in with creative business owners in real time to figure out the pain points in their business. Not only do I feel that I really find my flow what I'm doing live q&a, but I know that when answering one business owners question and a crowd, I'm not just helping that one person, almost every person in their room or on the call is gleaning value from both the question being asked, and and the answer. Many of us feel as if we're all alone in our business, that we're the only ones dealing with these problems are having these kinds of thoughts or feelings about what's going on. But that's rarely true. And listening to other business owners pose questions about their business can help you see that you're not in it alone. Likewise, hearing the answers to other people's questions will help you out as well. In the rare event that you're experiencing the exact same problem and looking for the answer, you get it when they pose the question, but what usually happens is that you can shape the answer to fit a similar problem you're having in your business. Or you're given a new way of looking at something you've experienced before, or my favorite, you get to put tools in your tool belt for when the struggle comes up in your business in the future, because it likely will in some form or another immense amounts of value comes from attending and taking part in live q&a with business experts. And I have no doubt that a countless number of you listening will find at least one nugget of help in your business and the questions I'm answering today. In this episode, I'll be exploring the topics of working with community organizations or other small budget clients in ways that don't include pro bono work. I'll be talking about scaling a business based on highly personalized services and dealing with feeling uninspired in your work. I'll also be diving in on allowing for seasons of productivity, readying your business for starting a family and allocating time for different streams of revenue. And I'll be wrapping up with introducing your clients to your team and building a sales funnel. As always, you'll find all the tools books and links we reference on the show notes at WWW dot being boss dot club. Our first question comes from Lindsay Winkler angle, she asks, I'd really like to work with organizations from my local community schools, libraries, etc. But graphic design budgets seem to be very limited if they exist at all. Any tips for working with small budget clients other than pro bono? Yes, I feel like this came up slightly in the community the other day, this is a slightly different question. So I'm glad that you're touching on this. But there's not so much making room for pro bono and that's doing work for free. And especially that usually happens in these sort of situations like local community stuff, especially when you get Do nonprofits, you may find yourself in a position where people are wanting things for free and needing things for free. But also, lots of organizations also have budgets. But you're right here, they're usually pretty small budgets. So if this is important for you, and working with small budget appliances, small budget and clients is important, then make it a part of your business model. And you do this by creating a package that you have built specifically for the small budget of clients. And you create some boundaries around how many of these that you are willing to do in any given month, quarter or year. So you can think, let's just say for illustration sake, that a graphic design project they usually do is $500, like they all range or they all average out at about the $500 price range. But these small budget clients are all looking for projects in about $150 price range. Obviously, if you just like went all willy nilly and did half of your projects at$150 price point, then your annual revenue would sink. And that's not good for you, if you can't show up to do the work that you're there to do, you can't help these local community organizations. So you need to create that boundary around that$150 price point project that you're willing to do for these these organizations and say, let's say you're only going to allot yourself the ability to do three of these a quarter. So that's one a month, all the other projects that you book need to be at that 500 price point. But that gives you the ability to show up for these local community organizations at that smaller price point. And then I would also recommend being very mindful whenever going out these projects doing these projects, if your idea of what that small budget is actually factual. I think a lot of times we go into working for nonprofits or local community organizations thinking that they have no money to spend, when often they do and not that you need to go like take advantage of all your local community organizations, but don't let them take advantage of you. Especially if you are making it part of what you want to be known for part of what you're great at. Part of what's going to make you a living. Don't undersell yourself to these people just because of what you believe their money situation is. But otherwise Make room in your business to make this happen. And you can do it in a way so that it doesn't put you wonder. Caroline here says I make an excellent living from nonprofits. I'm a fundraising consultant. Some of them have significant reserves and need professional expertise so they can help more people. Oh, snap. Hope you heard that Lindsay. And anyone who's I often find that that's the mindset whenever you you want to give back and be supportive of whatever calls or community but there's always that money belief that they have no money. And that's usually just something that you believe, for whatever reason and doesn't necessarily mean that it's true. So thank you, Caroline, for uncovering that one for us. Our next question is from Lexi rehlat, owner of Alexandria astrology. I would like to move away from client work eventually to do this. I would like to scale the thing I do one on one and probably put it into a course the issue is that what I do is highly personalized astrology and Human Design. So I have no clue how I can put that into a course. Aside from teaching the systems I use it before to get to the application of the systems. I'm not sure how to scale to serve many at once. ideas or things I should think about my first thought for you Lexi is that you're thinking inside the box. So I really see okay, you do put in here astrology and Human Design astrology. I'm assuming that the the one on one work you're talking about his natal chart readings for basically any human that was born on the planet Earth. Okay, Lexi says yes. Um So what? I think the thing he inside the box is fine enough for the moment and that I think you're right. You need to think about how you can scale what you're currently doing and teaching others your system for doing what it is that you do, whether that's for themselves or you can also think about teaching teaching other people strategy for reading charts for others. So think about think one is like b2c, and one is b2b. So business to consumer, you're teaching people how to read their own charts, perhaps, or b2b, you're teaching other astrology readers chart readers how to read charts for their clients. So you can think of either of those things. Alexey says and then I use that for business coaching. That's wonderful and fascinating. I love that. But my challenge for you is to think outside the box, like what else could you do with the skills that you have? So maybe it's not even scaling what you're currently doing, but instead, branching what you're doing into something else? I think outside the box, I think you're thinking very much so inside. One of the things that just came to mind for me, it was like doing astrology, astrological writing elsewhere. So becoming a writer of some sort, for astrology article somewhere else on the internet or a magazine or something similar. I think that I think I might have to sit on this one Lexie, and be of other astrologers that I know and who do amazing things. One is Rachel from Aeolian Hart, who is in the community, she's actually attended our she attended my being Boston, New Orleans mastermind retreat this past October. And as a friend of mine, we've done some fun things together in the past. She teaches courses on all kinds of things. So it's not just like teaching a course on the thing that she does for people, but it's teaching sort of broader astrological concepts and many courses. So like, that's one thing, and then charging a premium for the one on one work. Next would be just thinking of Stephen forest, who's like,

Unknown: 12:48

I don't know him, I

Emily Thompson: 12:49

think I love him. Anyway, I love reading his astrology books. So

Unknown: 12:52

one

Emily Thompson: 12:53

book writing is an option, but who can make a living on that? But too, he also does like workshops. He does traveling workshops and things like equivalent to mastermind groups and things. So I think there's there's ways for you to think outside the box. I think you need to maybe begin settling on how do you expand what you currently do and in what medium? Those are the two things I would get you to really think about. I think what you've said here is obvious what's not obvious there's something something hidden there. Next up, we have a question from Erica neumayer, a rot, owner of a rare Dirndl when an idea event or project starts to feel uninspiring, annoying, or just plain don't want to do it. Any tips for how to pinpoint if that feeling is coming from fear or laziness or gut instinct to drop the thing. The first thing I always do is check in on like, personal health. like am I sleeping enough? Am I hungry? I get my hangry is something else in my life, like driving me nuts. So you know, is something broken at my house that just has me so aggravated that I'm literally aggravated at everything? Or is my kid going through a phase that has me just mad at everything or like looking at my immediate surroundings and personal health to make sure that it's not just me, it's not just me or something else is like generally happening in

Unknown: 14:28

my life?

Emily Thompson: 14:30

Because there are definitely times when I show up to you know, work day after day. I'm like, why do I hate this so much? And I realize it's because like, I don't know, I have a cold or like I have a cold coming on. I didn't realize it until you know it was there. Or, or because home life is just difficult because being a mom is hard, or, or anything like that. So I think number one is just like check in on your on yourself and surroundings and make sure there's not something else off in your life. In terms of funny laziness and fear. I think that if you're really passionate about something and most creatives in this space, like if you're listening this if you want to be boss, like you may struggle with laziness, but like you have a passion and I feel like laziness. And maybe this is just me, and I totally recognize it. Maybe I've just trained myself into not being this person. But I don't feel like laziness. And over like laziness is a issue whenever your passion is real. Like if you are feeling lazy. I think laziness is just a sign that what you're doing is not something you should be doing. There are asterisks there. But I think in general, I think laziness is a good sign. You're just done. Fear, though, is the hard one. That is the really, really difficult one. And that one I feel takes a long time to uncover. And I think of this, I think fear, I also think there's like another one here. And it's that you're not doing the right thing. Like, you're still a little off target, if that makes sense. But let's talk about this fear piece. I think when it comes to fear, checking in to see if it's fear, that's like, for me, that's journaling. That's getting really, really clear about how I feel in this moment, what I am scared of what I think about this project, that's not really going the way I want it to either I'm feeling kind of weird or achy about just talking it out with myself or others. Maybe your form of journaling is actually like, I don't know, sitting down with a business bestie and talking something out. Actually, that's really another thing that I do is I sit down with the business best and be like, what am I not seeing? What am I like? What's happening on my face right now? That I don't see that tells you everything you need to know about how I feel about this thing. I feel like business bestie conversations can be very helpful, but also journaling to uncover those things. But I also find that usually whenever I feel usually whenever I can't do anything, it's because it's just not right. I think the whole situation there, like the uninspiring, annoying, just don't play want to do it. It's because what you're doing is not what you need to be doing. And I ran up against this whenever, just before I decided to buy just before I had the idea to buy Kathleen out of being Boss, I was working on building my own personal brand back up to do the work that I'm doing basically right here right now coaching masterminding those sorts of things. I was going to build a personal brand to do that. And I could not do it. It was the most uninspiring like angering thing for me every time I would like sit down to start project managing it like laying out all the tasks or actually doing the work. I was livid. Every time I sat down, I was so angry, I knew there was something wrong, I knew that there was something off those feelings come up for a reason. And there is something there that you need to uncover. And then the moment that I realized that the answer to that problem was not to build a separate brand, doing the same thing I was already doing under a brand had already built. But it was buying kathlyn out so that I could do the thing that I wanted to do under the brand that I had already built. All of the annoyance and anger and an inspiration just melted away. So I think that it is telling you something, for sure. And I think that there are multiple check in points that you can do first, yourself immediate surroundings, make sure nothing's off. Second, journaling, talking out with a business bestie and three, maybe stop overanalyzing it, stop doing it. Whatever it may be, because I think that those things, those feelings are very important to the creative process. You are a creative, you know, the creative projects that are right or wrong for you inherently. It's definitely possible to get started down a road and find out that maybe this isn't the project for you now. Or maybe this isn't the right. Maybe it's the right project, but not the right outcome. But I think you know, I think you always know what's right for you or not. Okay, Erica says good point. I think I label things as laziness when it's actually something else. That can certainly happen. That's often how I feel if it doesn't feel inspiring. It does. Oh, it's not what I need to be doing. Thanks for your advice. Trust that gut. You are completely right. Here's a question from Caroline Danks. It's cold, dark and wet here in the UK at the moment, I have 10 years before it my daughter grows up and moves out, by which time I'll be somewhere sunny and hot. In the meantime, how do you cope when the season is not especially encouraging to productivity? So one of the things that my work at Almanac supply co has assisted me in uncovering is the importance of one, what it actually means to live with the seasons and to the importance of actually doing it. Because those are two very beautiful things. And one is that one it is cold and dark and wet. And at the point of recording this. We're in winter here in Chattanooga. Spring is starting to be banned a little bit, but it's cold. And you are not supposed to be hugely productive in winter period. We live in a modern society where we have homogenized the seasons, where spring, we have all the same As we do in summer, fall and winter, over and over year after year, and it is why we are all burning out, because humans are from the planet Earth. And the planet Earth evolves through those years in seasonal cycles, that sort of mirror day and night. And at night, which is equivalent to winter, you're supposed to sleep. And by sleep, I don't mean you hibernate all winter, though, we definitely know that there are animals in the world who do that. You do need to reserve your energy, you don't feel like being productive because you're a human on the planet earth who doesn't need to be productive. This is one of the things that I've worked really hard. And I still have quite a ways to go to build into how it is that I go at business. As the boss of my own business, I have the pleasure, the opportunity, the privilege of building my business and my work year in a way that honors those seasons, more and more every year, which I super appreciate. And I'm grateful for the ability to do so again still have quite a ways to go. Because unlearning what we've seen our parents do what we've seen our grandparents do what we ourselves have done for decades, is a long and difficult process, especially when the rest of the world is still hustling it out all winter long. So give yourself some space, some permission to just rest and chill and not be productive because it is very important to reserve conserve that energy so that in the spring, the actual part of the cycle, when you're supposed to get up and start being productive, you have the energy to do so. burnout is a result of using up all of your fuel and not giving yourself time to refuel, you refuel in winter. And when is the last time anyone actually did any of that. So it's important to embrace it. Take the time for yourself in these cold, dark, wet months to enjoy your daughter's company. And then you wake up and start working when it's sunny outside. There are ways for you to start building this into how it is that you work. Whenever you're doing your CEO day kit whenever you're planning out your year ahead. Think about peaking in summer with the work that you're doing sort of sloping off in autumn, and thinking about how it is that you can grant yourself some time off or at least some time less. And those winter cold, dreary months because you're not ever going to feel like busting it out and the dead of winter. Are you loving this q&a as much as I am diving in on questions that cause distress for creative business owners It has been my fuel for over a decade. So much so that I'll be doing it more. Just this week. I haven't rebooted our sister podcast 10 minutes to being boss, a weekly bite sized show for creative business owners, where I'm answering questions from bosses like you giving actionable insights, tools and tactics and around 10 minutes each. So if you're enjoying this episode, you're going to love 10 minutes to being boss. You can search for 10 the number 10 minutes to being boss or wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe now. We've launched with our first three episodes and we'll be back each week with another question from a creative business boss to help you build your business to next up we have a question from Colleen Keith, a graphic and web designer at Coleen Keefe design. And in the follow up, you'll hear me talking about resources from Kelly Edwards, who is the owner of June mango design. I'm planning on starting a family this year or early next, I run a little design and web business that really only has enough work for me. So I'm not sure how to hire contractors to take over my work while I'm on a short maternity leave, while still getting a paycheck. worried about losing clients while I'm away or contractors stealing them. excetera Kelly says she made a whole bunch of resources for this after dealing with the exact same thing when I was prego happy to chat with you more about it another time. And Colleen says sure I love that you guys are already like workshopping this without me. Perfect. Um, Kelly did do this. So definitely snag some of those resources. And I think half of this is worry. Half of this is worry and you Say you're worried about losing clients while you're away or contractor stealing them for the contractor. So if you can do non disclosures, non competes all of those things to contractually cover you in terms of them stealing them, but like and just like that people don't hire an asshole. Though I'm well aware that you don't always know that someone's an asshole on that first interview or two, I say, do your due diligence, as much as you can otherwise, trust the process, trust the process and give yourself as much wiggle room and freedom as possible, be very open with your clients that you're taking maternity leave. And maybe it's not even having, I'm not really sure what you're planning here. But it's not having projects going, necessarily, or, or starting new projects while you're on maternity leave and having them run whole projects that maybe it's just having someone on retainer who can service those servers, any retainer or maintenance clients that you have. So websites that are already built, but you are going in sort of keeping your clients happy, or being a support contact, having someone be that person for you. while you're away, maybe that's why you're even planning on doing. But like under extreme emergencies, only. Potentially, you can draw those lines however you'd like. I also love the idea of you using your pregnancy as a marketing tactic. So to to especially once you find out you're pregnant, to use that as a marketing push to get new clients so that you can get them done before you go on maternity leave. That way, you're not again, working while you're on maternity leave as much as possible. Because every woman I've ever met, it's like, oh, it's fine. I'll be back at work in like a week and I'm just gonna hustle things out. And I'm like, Girl, no, you're gonna be so sleep deprived, you're not gonna know which end is up fat. So even though you're like all rosy glasses at the moment, once you're in it, you want to be prepared to be completely disconnected as much as possible. So my, my recommendation is to keep your workload, especially if you're just a small web design company. Keep your workload as light as possible. during those months, or weeks, whenever that you are taking your maternity leave, have someone that you trust be the point of contact. And otherwise, try to disconnect as completely as you can. And give yourself a larger window than you think you need. That way if you do want it or you do in anini is, Lord forbid, let's say health concerns come up. Whatever you need to have a really good buffer there. in case something comes up or if you should decide you want to take another week or two to cuddle that baby. Whatever it may be. Plan more than you think otherwise get with Cali because Cali Cali This is right up Kelly's alley. that rhymed. I like it. Colleen says, Okay, thank you. Love your suggestions. I'm planning to take three months completely off and then come back for two half days a week to start. I love this. And if I'm not mistaken, I think Kat Kelly did something similar sort of tiptoeing back into the workload, which is a good idea. Lexi says many business owners report business growth during pregnancy, you're growing so your business is growing true that Kathleen will even attest to that, it can definitely happen. But you can still be very strategic about it. Growth doesn't necessarily mean like expansion, so much as maybe you start charging more for your services, so that you can be more selective about the people that you are working with as opposed to having bulk. There are lots of lots of meanings for growth. And next we have a question from Dana Kay, owner of Kay publicity. I have two primary revenue streams in my business done for you PR services, which are high price with tight profit margins, and a membership site, which is low price with a big profit margin. It's clear to me that growing my membership site is what's going to allow me to serve more people scale my business and increase overall profits. But it currently accounts for only a small percentage of my overall revenue. How do you approach time allocation for your different revenue streams? What factors do you consider? Oh, this is such a good question. Dana always comes with the best questions. I love this. Okay. So I think time allocation needs to be set around. So many things. One, what you're promising to deliver. So even if you're low margin, offering, even if you have a low margin offering that requires a lot of input, you better give all of that input. And if the high margin one needs little, don't do more of it if you're doing a disservice to what you've promised to the low margin, that makes sense. Like, like that made sense. So don't stiff anybody is what I'm saying, number one, deliver on your promises, first and foremost, to think about your goals. And think about your goals in context of your sales funnel. So we talked about the sales funnel and CEO day kit. And pretty Yes, I think Dana is a member of that. So she she knows she knows what we're going out here with the idea of what's at the bottom of the funnel. So for example, if your high touch engagement, is what creates the referral engine that fills your community, your membership site, then understand that putting your energy in that high priced endeavor is going to feed your community or membership site or vice versa. So let's say putting lots of energy into that membership site is going to get you more of those high price but smaller private profit margin. clients, then put your energy there think about how clients flow through your business and put energy in those right places. So number one, make sure you're delivering on your promises and making sure time allocations Have you delivering on all of your promises. I know Dana, I never have to worry about that with you, too, was, huh. I don't remember what two was. But I think three was where it falls in your Oh goals. Sorry, two was goals. So what are your business goals, and making sure if your business goal is to get more and more one on one clients, then focus your attention there and both delivering so you get word of mouth referrals and marketing that so you can get more of those people. Or if it's the membership site, then making sure you are allotting time to grow that as per your goals if as both of them 5050 is fine. And then three is where it falls in your business funnel. If you put all of your energy, not all you should never put all of your energy in any single part of your business funnel. But let's say for the moment, and I think that's a key there too, is this can ebb and flow you don't have to focus all of your energy on any single part for an extended period of time. Let's say one month, you are really busting out some one on one client engagements. And then next month, you're really going to focus on nurturing, nurturing community or your membership site on a deeper level on top of what you've already promised them. And growing that through marketing and it can ebb and flow month to month, quarter to quarter whatever it may be. But those are the three things that I would consider making sure you're always delivering on your promises, making sure that you are allocating your time so that it supports your goals, your growth goals, and three, making sure that you're thinking about how it affects your entire funnel so that you are you can sort of indirectly accomplish your goals by focusing on separate or different parts of your funnel. So if you really want to grow those one on one engagements, but your which is usually bottom of your funnel, but you are instead going to focus on growing our nurturing relationship to the very top of your funnel because it will flow into those bottom of funnel engagements. It's not always direct. So those three things easy, right? It comes as Dana is bringing it doesn't she always. And Caroline says I'm in a similar place to Dana at the moment. This is really interesting. growing my digital course is more of a side hustle at the moment with odd days where possible, right focus where you can. Oh, yes, clearly, Karolina sharing it. Clients must take priority because the money they generate and that word of mouth is real, real. But also there's benefits to growing like the membership and aren't your membership people, your clients as well just in a very different capacity. It all deserves attention. I think it should just ebb and flow based on based on goals based on goals. You can probably hear that I'm quite familiar with many of these bosses in their businesses which gives me such a valuable context for offering up Just the right insight they need to work through their struggles and opportunities. How do I know them so well, because we hang out in the being boss community. And because I've got to hang out with a couple of them in real life at being boss events too. And the being boss community, we talk business a lot. we dive into business models time and money allocations. We troubleshoot problems, and more on the setting of a beautiful membership site that's built to keep you focused,

Unknown: 36:12

but informed.

Emily Thompson: 36:13

So if you're craving a place to meet creative business owners who are in it, and a safe space to ask questions, and work through what's going on in your business, comm check us out for as little as $11 a month that you can get access to our community of bosses, inspiring and actionable content, business building prompts and occasional calls like this one, learn more and join in by going to being boss club slash community. Next, we have a question from Kelly Edwards, a web designer and founder of June mango design. Any recommendations for talking to potential clients about your team on a sales call, wondering how to position the conversation if I may not be the primary designer for their project. I think you do it naturally, early, often and confidently. So what whenever it comes to talking about other people on your team who will be servicing your client, and especially as someone who either in the past has positioned himself as a solo creative, or service provider, which I know you have Cali, or maybe even currently do, there are plenty of people who have very personal brands who you don't really realize that there's a whole other team back there doing the work, it can be very difficult to one start it and to continue to doing it if you're positioning is very much so like I'm a one boss show. So that naturally part can be difficult, but you should do it. Talk about them, like just bring it up part of the conversation like Yes, I'm gonna pass this over to my, you know, design assistant, so and so and they're gonna give these I'm gonna send it over you, we can talk about it, like, just throw it in there, like it's nothing like it's just part of the conversation, it's totally fine. Um, I'm early, talking about it very early in the conversation, don't get even half a phone call through, I don't think or half a half a conversation there where you're telling them about your process, we're finally you throw in that you have a designer working with you, or that your assistants going to get to that thing, or your developers going to do it, or your whoever early, talk about it early. Often keep talking about it. And whatever part of the process that you have people stepping in to help you with, make sure that they are mentioned. And continue bringing up throughout the entire process, not just in that first phone call that you're having with a client, but in every calm phone call after that has to do with that part of the process. And then finally, confidently knowing what your process is, knowing that when you're handing it off, when they're bringing it back to you having confidence in their skills along the way, is of utmost importance. Don't question it, don't even think that they're gonna question it. So a lot of the confidence who can come or lack of confidence can come from the idea that they're expecting you to be the only person who's doing it. So you're like, oh, but I actually have someone helping me do it. No, you have someone helping you do it, it's gonna be great. All the way through your designer is one of the best you've ever had. She's a great communicator. And she's really great at taking, you know, your thoughts and mission and turning into visual representation. Talk about it with confidence, and they won't question you. And if they ever do, answer with confidence, because not all businesses are single owned or like single worked in for the most part, people accept that. But that is such a good that is such a good question. It's something that so many bosses struggle with. and rightfully so, again, most of us spend a lot of time alone in our business. We build a business based on our skills, but at some point we need to grow and changing a conversation, a sales conversation that we've gotten really great at because we have been doing it for years. having this conversation about how we're going to serve them switching that to how someone else is going to help serve them can be difficult. So practice, practice it and follow those things. Naturally, early, often and confidently and no one will ever ask any questions? They do. answer them, if they don't like it, they are not your ideal customer. And finally, we have a question from Stephanie Peterson. Any thoughts on how to tackle mapping out your services in a customer lifecycle style, to lay out what to offer customers next, given their stage to keep them in your sales funnel, I understand the value of doing this, but would love some ideas for organizing all of my thoughts around it, for example, creating a full funnel marketing strategy. Stephen, Stephanie, my first and kind of only, because I think that you should just do this first, before you literally do anything else, is to talk to your customers about what it is that they need from you. So no matter what it is that you're doing, and it's customer feedback, that will tell you everything that you need to know about how your skills can benefit them, whether that's pre the first time they work with you, or after they work with you. And you can ask them about things like, what sort of content Do you wish I were sharing, and we'll help you make better use of the services that I offer? What other services can I offer, whatever it may be talking to the people that you are, who are already your customers is the number one task and the only task to do until you get to until you complete it. And then beyond that, one of my favorite tools for this is actually in the CEO day kit. I think as the second is the sharing and selling

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Emily Thompson: 42:31

of it, it's a really great worksheet that lays out how it is that you're currently servicing your customers so that you can fill in the holes, both the holes in the content that you're sharing and the services that you have provided, but also how they fit into your sales funnel. So you can think about or it's a graphic representation of a sales funnel and you fill in the holes or you fill in the blanks. And then were there any holes, that's things that you need to create to better serve as your customer. So if you haven't already checked out CEO day kit, you will find the answer there. Thanks for listening. And hey, if you want more resources, we're talking worksheets, free trainings in person meetups and vacations and more. Go to our website at www dot beambox dot club. Do the work the box