Expand Your Fempire Podcast #149 Transcript

Refresh and Reboot Your Business, Mid-Year Review Live Session

Welcome to Expand your Fempire with Caterina Rando, the podcast for women in business on a mission. Sharing ideas to support you to grow and thrive. Now here’s your host, Caterina Rando.

[00:00:00] Caterina Rando: This is Caterina Rando. Welcome back to another episode of the Expand Your Fempire podcast. I’m blissing to be with you today. We are covering in this episode a very important topic. Every year I meet with my clients in the middle of the year and we do a mid year refresh, reboot, check- in, check- up, with a checklist. That is what this episode is on today.

[00:01:03] Before we dive in to some live segments from that session… a while back, I was in Sedona, Arizona. Beautiful place. Red rock. Cactus. Some people say the energy there is one of the best places in the world. It’s beautiful. Beautiful.

[00:01:24] I’m in my hotel room. It’s early in the morning. I’m getting ready to go to an event. I open the glass door. I’m on the ground floor to look at the beautiful red rock and let in some fresh air. I go about getting ready, walking around my room in my bare feet, and I notice across the room a little black spot on the carpet.

[00:01:54] I think, hey, maybe It’s a hair clip I dropped, or maybe it’s something garbage to pick up. I go over and just about as I’m leaning down to grab whatever it is, I notice that it’s a black scorpion. Ah! Well, you know what? I’m a woman of action, like you. I walk over to the bar, I grab a glass, I walk back towards the scorpion, just as I’m about to put the glass over the scorpion, this little voice in my head says, “Caterina, are you an expert at catching scorpions?”

[00:02:40] “Well, no,” I thought to myself. Then I thought, “okay, well, Caterina, have you ever caught a scorpion?” The answer was an emphatic no. Then I said to myself a very important thing. I said to myself, “Maybe we should get some help. Maybe I should get some help.”

[00:03:11] I called the front desk. The gentleman in his engineer work suit came. He was very experienced at capturing scorpions. He had done it many times. He scooped up the scorpion. He put it outside in the red rock. I thanked him profusely. He went on his day and I went on with my day.

[00:03:41] I tell you this because one of the things I want you to look at as we have our discussion today on your mid- year review is I want you to also be thinking, where can you use help? And what’s not your job?

[00:04:01] Because I don’t want you, my friend, to be wrangling scorpions, if that is outside your purview as the queen of your fempire. Listen here, in on our discussion, and think about what upgrades you can make. Because one of the guiding principles I’m hoping you’re embracing in your business is to always be upgrading.

[00:04:30] So this is our mid- year check- in, checklist, check- up, because what is one of the guiding principles for our business? We are always upgrading. Did everybody hear that? We are always upgrading. This year I am celebrating 31 years in this business. And you know what? It is a steady stream of upgrading every day, every week, every month, and every year.

[00:04:58] Like, one of the things you’ve heard me say, my friends, probably, is when you give a talk, you ask for the Insta Rebook. You know, do they want to book you again? Okay? And guess what? I’ve only been doing that for a couple years. What was I doing the first 29 years?

[00:05:15] And the whole thing about when you’re on the call, make sure you book the next call. That’s, that’s a newer thing too. Right? So all we’re always upgrading. We can always be more effective and efficient.

[00:05:28] One of the things I want to start with is as we look at our business in the middle of the year, there may have been some things that you didn’t do In the beginning of the year.

[00:05:40] Now, if you did them great, if you didn’t do them, let’s do them now.

[00:05:44] First thing is You have the list of values by which you run your business. And I’m hoping you have a list of values by which you run your business, which is somewhere where you see it all the time. Now, I’m going to ask you to look at that list right now if you have it, or if you don’t, whip one up right now.

[00:06:09] I’m going to tell you a few of mine, and then I’m going to tell you one that often gets missed that I want you to add. As you know, I run my business with integrity, with generosity, positivity, and another way I say that is an attitude of uplift. That is how I run my business. That is how I operate my business.

[00:06:30] Community is a value for me. These are some examples of values by which I run my business. Now, you get to choose how you want to run your business. Because guess what? It’s your business. You get to do it any way you want. Adventure is a value, by the way. Fun is a value. Play is a value. Okay, you get to decide.

[00:06:58] Now, we can have a whole five sessions on this, but I want you to take this time right now to review or create. What are the values by which you run your business?

[00:07:09] Because values inform decisions. Are you with me my friends?

[00:07:15] Innovation is a value. Risk taking is a value. Upgrading is a value.

[00:07:23] So take a moment to think about the values by which you run your business. And is there anything missing? Is there anything that you said, you know what? This is not important to me anymore. Joy is a value. Bliss, pursuing bliss, goes right along with that. That you know I like, right?

[00:07:42] Values by which you run your business. They inform your decisions. Here’s the value I want to make sure is on your list. Some years ago I’m at a conference And I’m hearing a speaker and the speaker, she’s my girlfriend.

[00:08:00] I’ve known her for years and she’s talking about values. And she says this and this and this and this, and she operates her life with integrity. But she did not have integrity on her list. Sometimes we are so much something that we don’t even remember. We don’t even think about it.

[00:08:22] Now, your business may not be family centric, but your life is family centric, so guess what? Your business values and your life values, when you have your own business, same same, okay, same same. No distinction with how we run our life and how we run our business. Everybody vibing?

[00:08:43] So I said, my friend, you’re missing a very important value. And we had her add integrity to the list. But she had a value on there that I did not even think about. Oh, by the way, profit and massive monetization values. Hello. Do you have profit on your list of values, my friends or massive monetization? Cause if not, let’s add that one. But here’s the one that she had that I was like, why did I not think of that?

[00:09:17] And I’m talking about it to all of you because many of you are so creative that you probably are not on top of this one. Some of you have what I have, which is what we call brilliant idea syndrome. What is brilliant idea syndrome? You got more ideas than you got time to implement. Now, is that just me or does anyone else suffer from this malady?

[00:09:40] Hello, my friends. Okay, last night I was with my friend Michelle, my friend Allegra, Cynthia, Varkavister was there too. We had a Polkadot powerhouse happy hour for our San Francisco chapter. And they heard about my, I’ll call it my scheme of the week. Which is that in July I had just met with another dot from another chapter.

[00:10:06] We’re gonna have a plus size clothing and accessory exchange at my center. By the way, if any of you would like to come, you’re invited. You do have to self identify as plus size and my, my other friends, save you for another opportunity. I put in my AI thing yesterday, give me some names and here’s the one I liked.

[00:10:30] “Summer style swap and soiree.” That’s what it’s going to be. Okay. Now this is my latest brilliant idea. And by the way, we’re going to still make it monetizable, 20 for charity. Okay. Here’s why I’m talking to you about this, me and my brilliant ideas every five minutes is not efficient for my business.

[00:10:56] Are you vibing with me on this? Now it’s summer, we’re going to have some social fun, I’m making an exception, but my point is efficiency is a value I want to make sure you’re embracing in your business. Is everybody hearing me on this?

[00:11:11] And so as we talk about your business, I want you to add that to your list, efficiency, and I want you to hold it As a value that you consistently look at.

[00:11:24] And you say, yes, I want to do this new brilliant idea. Does that support the efficiency of my business?

[00:11:33] And by the way, efficiency and profitability, do they go together? My friends. Yes. They go together. Would you agree? So we want to always be looking. How can I be more efficient? Because you know what? I do want to go hang out with the ladies. I don’t want to be in my business or my office all the time.

[00:11:55] And the more efficient, the more time you have for travel, which I would put under the adventure value.

[00:12:04]  So let’s take a moment and let’s look at this section here on efficiency. Is your sales process efficient?

[00:12:13] So what does that mean? Do you have your SOPs? For when you give a speech. Six speeches this week. Very exciting. But guess what? Gotta make sure I’m getting that follow up in after each one, right? What are the SOPs? Take a screenshot in the meeting. Save the chat. Go look up the gals on social.

[00:12:38] Send them a direct message on LinkedIn or Facebook. “Thank you for being with me at the XYZ. Here’s a link to my next workshops. Would you like to schedule a time to connect?”

[00:12:51] Now that’s not for every Mary Jane and Sheila, that’s only for the ones that I would like to follow up with.

[00:12:58] These are SOPs. Then I take those gals that we just did a DM, and they go on my prospect list.

[00:13:06] And then it says where they were that we found them. We track what we did. And then I put three days later, circle back. Okay,

[00:13:17] I had six speeches this week. I still got another one tomorrow. How am I going to do all that follow up without anything falling through the cracks? Well, not easy with other stuff to do. So creating support helps you be more efficient. And some of you are still getting ready to get ready to be thinking about getting going with your support.

[00:13:38] Let’s start with a few hours a month of support. And before and after your workshops is a great Time for support. Okay. But then are you having your CRM? Are you having your onboarding client checklist?

[00:13:52] So that anytime a client comes in, we don’t just want to have a client. We want to have long term and lifelong clients. Yes, my friends? Long- term life long. So with long- term life long, we want to make sure they get integrated and they’re taking full advantage of whatever it is they signed up for. Nothing worse than when somebody says, “Oh, I got that. Oh, I’m supposed to get that. Oh, I’m supposed to get that?” And they’re, they’re not taking full advantage.

[00:14:20] So now it’s time to renew. And they didn’t take full advantage and then what does that mean? Now they’re not going to be lifelong client. Okay, this is what we want. Long- term and lifelong clients. Bing, bing, bing.

[00:14:33] All right, next one. How’s your client care? Are you insta responsive when a client has a question? If not, let’s make an upgrade.

[00:14:42] Do you have systems and checklists everywhere in your business? If not, where can you use some systems, some checklists? Okay. Do you have the CRM? Do you have the accounting software? Are you stressing about your books? Cause you’re not getting support with that. All of these things.

[00:15:03] By the way, how are you doing with your calendar? Does everything go on your calendar? Are you loving your schedule link? Are you using your schedule link? Is it working for you? Okay.

[00:15:16] And by the way, are you taking time every month for thinking and planning? So if I was to look at your calendar right now for the rest of the year, am I going to see sales time on there for every week?

[00:15:31] Am I going to see after every speech or every networking or after any social event, am I going to see follow up time on there? Am I going to see time scheduled for getting booked for speaking? If I look at your speeches and your workshops, am I going to see time to fill them and post after time for follow up?

[00:15:58] If not, these are part of your efficiency. Because we can’t make more money last month or last week, or we can’t do more sales calls last week.

[00:16:10] And by the way, are you tracking? Do you know how many calls did you do last month? Do you know? Because if you know, then you know, okay, I did this many calls. I got this many new clients.

[00:16:25] Was that enough new clients? If not, let me increase my number of calls.

[00:16:31] How many speeches did you do? Are you tracking it on a monthly basis? If not, let’s get tracking. Bing, bing, bing.

[00:16:40] Oh, by the way, here’s another thing that’s very exciting that we know about productivity.

[00:16:45] If you do the same thing at the same time every day, you become more efficient at it. If you do the same thing every time, every week, you become more efficient at it. Did you hear that?

[00:17:03] So you want to look at what do I got to do every week? And can I do it at the same time every week? Because you’re going to get more and more efficient.

[00:17:11] Your subconscious goes to work for you. If your subconscious knows, okay, friday mornings, we’re going to do some reach outs. Your subconscious is getting busy because they know it’s coming. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.

[00:17:26] My friends, sometimes I’m in a meeting with gals, and I’m sure you’re having this experience, and there is a lot of Story and there is a lot of extra words and we do want to look for how to be efficient.

[00:17:41] Like when the, when you call people, I’m hoping that they think, okay, they don’t look at this, look at your calling them and think it’s going to be an hour conversation. Okay. It is important to look at being efficient with your, with your emails, with your messages.

[00:18:00] So look at being efficient with your communication.

[00:18:04] This is really important because sometimes for women People are like, I don’t want to talk to her because I love her, but she talks so much.

[00:18:13] Okay, my friends, next thing we’re going to talk about. We are going to talk about sales. Because this is the middle of the year. How are your sales? Are they where you want them for the middle of the year? If not, where is there an opportunity for an upgrade? Because you might have to make up in the next six months what you didn’t do in the first six months.

[00:18:41] So let’s look at a few things.

[00:18:43] My friends, what you focus on improves.

[00:18:46] Are you on top of your sales numbers? Are you on top of, we talked about how many people you’re talking to? Do you know how this May compares to last May. Do you know how Q1 of this year compares to last year? Do you know what worked for you in Q1 and the first six months of the year that you want to amplify and do more of?

[00:19:11] Have you evaluated what didn’t work so well? Have you seen where there’s an opportunity for upgrade? One of the things this year, I’ve done a ton of speaking this year, but you know what? I didn’t get in front of enough new groups. So I want to get in front of more new groups in the second half of the year. So now I’m shining the spotlight on that.

[00:19:35] Okay. So we want to evaluate so then we can upgrade for the rest of the year.

[00:19:40] Sales. I see when I look at the numbers, the more weeks I talk to the more ladies, the more new clients I got.

[00:19:47] How about for you? And what’s the average number of gals you’re talking to every week? Potential clients. Do you want to raise that?

[00:19:57] Do you consistently have sales activity on your calendar? How can you use your sales support more efficiently? These are all things for you to look at.

[00:20:07] So right now I want you to take a moment and I want you to think about What are some couple of to dos or a couple upgrades that you can make in this area?

[00:20:19] Is your prospect list up to date? Is your follow- up up to date? Are your circlebacks up to date? Like I said earlier, do you have that time on your calendar for all of this?

[00:20:31] And one of the things I didn’t mention before that I’m going to mention right now that relates to sales, that relates to efficiency is time every week for thinking and planning.

[00:20:43] This morning at 9. 30 to 10. 30 was our, one of our three sales blitzes for the month for all community. We had a good hour session and I love Friday mornings for reach outs to book appointments. I love Friday mornings for thinking and planning. I love Friday mornings for wrapping up all those little to do’s I didn’t get done for the week.

[00:21:09] And guess what? Next year we are going to do blitzes , they’re going to be Friday mornings. Why? Because it’s a great time for thinking and planning. And again, what did I say earlier? When you do something the same time every week, you get more and more efficient at it.

[00:21:25] In your business, when is it good for you? And here’s the other exciting thing. In business, when we’re doing things at the same time, that’s like we make a decision once and it’s good for the whole year, if not the next 25 years.

[00:21:41] Like I told you, I have all my hair appointments for the year. They’re on Mondays. Mondays are a big day for me. Then it’s like, take a quick break, go see Monica, get my hair done. Efficiency. Make a decision once, serves you the whole year.

[00:21:57] If you want something in your life or your business, you got to have a plan for it. And what does a plan require? Decisions. Goals are decisions that have been made.

[00:22:10] So if you’re looking at the rest of the year and you’re seeing you don’t have any sales goals and you don’t have any decisions about how many sales calls you want to have every week, then guess what, my friend, you simply haven’t made a decision.

[00:22:25] And one of the things we know about high achieving women, Okay, I’m gonna tell you, high achieving women make decisions quickly. Successful women make decisions quickly. So if you’ve been looking at, “Hey, what am I going to do my workshops?” And you’re still in the question, make a decision.

[00:22:45] Are they scheduled for the rest of the year? Make a decision.

[00:22:49] Where do you need to make a decision? That’s a good question for efficiency. Where do you need to make a decision?

[00:22:57] All right, so my friends, you are the queen of your fempire. What does that mean? You’re the boss. You get to run your fempire any way you want.

[00:23:10] And we want to take this mid- year opportunity to look at, are you blissing in your business, my friend? How do you want to be different?

[00:23:20] I want to be blissing even more. I want to be more vital. I want to be more out there. How do you want to be different?

[00:23:35] So take a moment, take a deep breath and just do a little brainstorm with yourself. Answer this question for me. How do you want to be different?

[00:23:46] How do you want to be different?

[00:23:52] Last week I had a conversation with Stephanie Flanders Martin. She’s hosting a yoga retreat in Thailand next year. Thailand is not even on my list of top 10 places I want to go to. You know what? She asked and I was an insta-yes  You know why?

[00:24:12] Because adventure is a value. Because I get to be abundant in my life. I get to bliss in my business. I get to have adventure through my business.

[00:24:24] So how do you want to be different in your business and your life? Because your business is your ticket to however you want to be different.

[00:24:38] My friends, I spoke at the New Zealand national speakers convention many years ago.

[00:24:46] Highlight of my life. I spoke in Venice, Italy to women from 87 countries, highlight of my life. Your business is your business. And your speaking is your passport to whatever you want, as long as you can make those decisions and you can get efficient and you can get profitable. And that’s what I want for you based on our conversation today.

[00:25:14] So think about how do you want to be different? Now related to that  is how are you not only being in your business right now, but what are you doing? Are you keeping it to your five pillars? Speaking, selling, serving, strategy, self care, or are you in the weeds? Doing your bookkeeping and your photo editing and your video editing and your podcast editing and your admin and upgrading your websites?

[00:25:48] Now, if that’s your business, like Kaylee, okay, you can, you can do it. If it’s your business and you’re monetizing it, but if you’re not monetizing it, meaning it’s, people are paying you for it. What are you doing it for okay?

[00:26:02] So ask yourself, what are you doing that you don’t want to master? What are you doing that is taking you away from mastery? Because all those things that you are doing that are outside of your five pillars are pushing off mastery in your five pillars.

[00:26:24] Because these are not just your jobs, speaking, selling, serving, strategy, self care. These are jobs that you have to master so that you can bliss in your business and thrive financially.

[00:26:36] Okay, so look at those five things. Which one of them needs more attention? And if it’s sales or it’s self care, you know what?

[00:26:47] You probably need more support in your business and or your life. I got a friend here helping me today. Helping me get my center ready for next Tuesday when we’re going to have a speaker spin off. Gals are going to come, we’re going to network, we’re going to upgrade their speaking. We’re going to have so much fun.

[00:27:08] Somebody else is getting the center ready. Who’s helping me with admin today? Not me, someone else. So I can be here with you. Where can you get more support in your business or your life? Because your job is those five things.

[00:27:28] Now I’m going to ask you a big question. How can you increase your personal fulfillment in your business and your life?

[00:27:39] And you know what the answer is for some of you? Sell something!

[00:27:43] Because having been around the block a few hundred times, not just my own business, but with all of the beautiful women I’ve had the privilege to support and serve, You know what the biggest challenge is? Financial insecurity. I want you to have surplus.

[00:28:07] I want you to have mountains of surplus. What is mountains of surplus? One month, two months, three months, four months of covering all your operating expenses.

[00:28:18] Right now, I’m signing gals up for, as many of you know, our Amp Up Adventure. We’re at 32 gals for amp up. We’re going to have 60 gals. And you know what?

[00:28:29] Because my operating expenses, meaning my nut and little extra is covered for the whole year. When I’m working out gals payment plans, they can be super extendo. They can go into next year because this year’s covered. Are you following me? That is bliss, my friends.

[00:28:51] And by the way, if you don’t feel masterful at selling, let’s put some attention there for you. So you could bliss more in your business. Where do you need more support?

[00:29:00] Okay. So answer that question right now, grab a pen, take a deep breath. An answer this very important question. What would bring me more fulfillment in my business?

[00:29:15] Awesome. Bing, bing, blissing. I’m sure you’ve gotten some great ideas in our time together today on how to make some upgrades in your business. I want to encourage you, take it further and go to CaterinaRando. com slash links where you can download your checkup checklist for the mid year. There you will have more ideas that we didn’t even get to today to make upgrades in your business. Because as we’ve already said, we are always upgrading.

[00:29:56] On that page, CaterinaRando. com slash links, you will also find several other free resources to benefit you in your business. You will also there have information on my upcoming free workshops.

[00:30:13] I am here, and my community is here, to support you to bliss and thrive more in your business. The more you’re thriving, the more your business is serving others. Bing Bing Bing! Cannot wait to be with you again. And remember, my friend, you have massive value to bring. There is a lifetime supply of people to serve. Continue to upgrade your business so that you can sell more, you can serve more, and you can uplift more lives with your amazingness.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Expand Your Fempire with Caterina Rando.