Coaching Call: Where should I focus my time and energy for results?

Today I am coaching Kirsty Allen who is a candle business coach helping new and experienced candle makers transform and grow their business. Whilst coaching others, Kirsty is still mindful of growth within her own business and is seeking clarity around setting goals, moving towards her vision, and where to best spend her energy, time and money.

In this episode we explore:
– The value of drilling down on your marketing strategy and really capitalising on free marketing strategies to nurture your audience
– How creating business structure and habits in the early days can help maintain focus, motivation, and consistency in the long term.
– The importance of identifying the big picture vision to create smaller action items and long-term goals whilst promoting sustainability in your business
– Why being comfortable with all that you ‘are' doing is so important to overcoming the feeling of ‘needing to do more'

 

Today, I'm coaching one of my Launch Magic students, Kirstie Allen on finding focus and clarity amongst all of the different things that she can be doing and that she is doing to market her business. To really achieve the goals and the vision that she has for what her business will look like in the future. Now, if you are somebody who is feeling a little bit scattered, maybe you're also new to business like Kirsty, or maybe you've been in it for a little while and you really aren't quite sure how to find that clarity. 

You're doing all of the things you feel like you could be doing so much but you don't know what to do you don't know where to focus your time you don't know how to actually move the needle. 

I'm the candle business coach and I help new and experienced candle makers transform and grow their candle businesses. As part of that, I obviously have my own business and need to grow and transform it at the same time. And so I wanted to speak to you today about the best ways to move forward with. Spending energy and time and money and where that could be best placed to help grow my business. 

 

Start with how would you want that business to run and what would you like to be. 

To be honest, I'm not the best at long-term vision or big vision. But this is the first time I've really come across, I guess a gap in the market that I'm filling where it really is. So I think for me, in 12 months where I'd like to be is to have a sustainable business, first and foremost.

One where I'm not constantly tied to the business. So ideally I'd like to work however many hours it takes. But less than eight hours a day so that I can have free time to spend with my family and my friends. But in terms of a five-year goal, I think that would look like unlimited travel opportunities.

Speaking gigs around Australia, potentially even the world. Earning as much money as I can possibly earn, not in an arrogant way, but just having limitless money so that I can give back to others and make the world a better place. 

Now that we know what that end goal looks like, the first thing is, how are we now going to start setting up that first Launch for success? What are you going to start to do to make sure that you are bringing enough people in so that when you have that first Launch, great people buy, and then we can look at launching it again and then potentially adding other offers into the mix?

 

First launch preparations

I'm heavily relying on social media, so Instagram and Facebook. I'm posting one post a day each morning and also doing one story in the afternoon. Obviously responding to comments and messages along the way.

But I've also launched a podcast as well, so I'm hoping that will generate some interest and some traffic back to Instagram, but also build on an email list as well. So I've sort of got those three pillars, the social media, the podcast, and the email list, which is growing. And I have a daily motivational email that I send out as well, which is getting a lot of traffic as well.

I'm kind of dabbling in a few different areas just depending on trying to increase the touch points. I don't feel overwhelmed, but I probably could be streamlining. I'm reaching out to other podcast hosts in an attempt to do an interview exchange so that I could appear on their show and appeal to their audience and they could do the same with me.

Also in the Facebook groups, the candle Facebook groups, whenever there's a particular question that someone asks that I have a podcast episode that can help, I'll jump on and say, have you seen this podcast episode? I think it could really help you or I'll say, I've got a podcast episode coming. Would you like me to let you know when it's live? 

 

What's working and what's not working?

I guess I'm lucky in that there's nothing so far in the business that I'm not enjoying. The entire process has been just so wonderful, and it's been literally only a few months since I began Launch Magic and the development of the course. 

From that perspective, it's been quite a positive journey. What's working has been when I reach out to people. So rather than generic posts on the internet, would I actually connect in with people like in the DMs or if I'm emailing them? That's where I'm finding a lot of traction. I've got nearly 20 people on my course wait list so far, so I feel like that part of it is working really well.

A part of me just feels like I could be doing more, or I'm just worried that I'm not doing the right things. There's that feeling of I could be doing more. But I think when we try to add more, more, more, that becomes a recipe for overwhelm. It becomes a recipe for burnout rather than looking at what can I do sustainably, not just now, but ongoing. 

Are you finding that you have everything, and you have all of the time to do all of the things?

Well, I'm a stay-at-home mom as well. I've got three children and I fit in all the different tasks in and around nap times and what is required with being a Mum. So, on one hand, I do feel like I have a bit more free time than say someone that works full-time and is trying to build a side hustle. That said, it's still tricky to find that balance day to day. 

I may or may not have a little bit of OCD but I find that because I'm so passionate, and I hope this part lasts because I'm so passionate about what I'm doing, it gives me energy. I'll wake up in the morning, do the regular house chores, take care of my baby, do what needs to be done in the morning, and then when he goes down for his nap, then I'll get on the computer.

Write out the content for the following day, prepare a podcast episode, connect with my followers and do the needful for my business. And then it'll basically be just slipping in and out of the business as the day goes on. And there are a few late nights as well, but I'd rather work on the business than say, watch Netflix.

You're so excited and so motivated about your business right now, and you also need to have that switch-off time because it's going to protect your motivation and your energy for the business into the future. It's not just one email. It's never just one email. It's constantly in your mind, right?

Running a business, even when you're just replying to one email, that one email might suddenly sit in your brain for the next few hours and it's taken up all your head space for the next whole evening, and you can't switch off, you can't relax, you can't be present with your family. Over time, that builds up and then you hit this point where you're just like, you have nothing left to give.

And it's so important to manage that especially when you're still early on setting that, getting those habits into place so that as the business grows, as the emails become more frequent as everything else becomes bigger. It's not taking up so much of your brain space, you can switch off.

And then maybe another thing would be to hire a virtual assistant. Really starting to think about like, what are those goals? What are the action steps that you need to do that will help to bring a lot more focus into where you need to be spending your time? And then also, remembering that you don't need to be doing more than enough and that feeling of, oh, I could be doing more.

I could be doing more, will always be there. It will never go away. You can be doing so much and it will still be there. So really just accepting that what you are doing is enough and really doubling down on the things that are working so that, rather than spreading that energy so wide, you are narrowing it down onto the things that are moving the needle.

 

Pin it?