Expand Your Fempire Podcast #78 Transcript

Upgrade Your Thinking & Expand Your Fempire

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: Welcome back to another episode of the Expand your Fempire Podcast. I am your host Caterina Rando, and you know I am blissing to be with you today. I am also blissing because today we are going to talk about a very important topic. When we think of being in business, we think of what we need to do to get ahead: our strategies, our tactics, even our to-do list.

[00:00:56] What I want to talk about with you today is not about so much you’re doing, I want to talk to you more about your thinking. Are you thinking like a CEO? Are you thinking like a woman who wants to expand her Fempire? Are you thinking about efficiency? Are you thinking about managing your disappointment? Are you thinking about what can I give to somebody else to do so I don’t have to do it? This is what we’re going to look at today.

[00:01:35] Today we’re going to look at eight different areas where I would like you to upgrade your thinking, to really move you towards mastery with these eight areas. Because when you move towards mastery with these eight areas, you will be running your business like a business. You will be having the mindset of a CEO. Hopefully, you will be moving towards mastery in these areas that are important for thinking in order to run a successful enterprise.

[00:02:14] Bing bing bing. Alright, let’s take a deep breath, and let’s get our party started.

[00:02:20] Here’s the first thing: organization. Are you organized? Now, if you’re like me, you’re very creative. Maybe you have piles. These days I don’t have so many piles, I’m more spread out all over my dining room. I actually have three offices in my house. Since the pandemic started, I have been spread out in the dining room, on the dining room table, and I’m very, very happy here so this is where I’m staying for now. It’s not that you are organized like everything in your office is in a pristine place, it’s more like your to-do’s are organized, your thoughts are organized, meaning anything that you want to capture is organized. You’re organized with your calendar, about when you’re going to be where the organizational aspects of running your business like a business. Again, doesn’t mean that everything is in its place. However, clutter is not good for thinking. Clutter distracts and weighs on the mind. If you are a cluttery person, I do encourage you to get some support with your clutter, because you do want space and ease in your environment.

[00:03:53] Now, one of the reasons why people are not often organized is they don’t do this next, very important thing. They don’t take time every day for thinking and planning. Every day. This is a daily success practice, a daily moving towards mastery practice that women on a mission who are building their Fempire do. You take time every day, planning today for tomorrow, planning this week for next week, planning this month for next month, this is what successful women do. And this is what I want to make sure you are doing. And you say “okay, Caterina, that’s good, but what do I do in my thinking and planning time?” I’m gonna tell you right now. You review your goals. You review the next week. You review the next week. You review the month. You look at your projects. What projects are you working on? What projects are coming that need your attention? And then you know what you do? You do the very important thing, which is the next thing I want you to put your attention on, which is you ask yourself “Hmm. Who can do this?” It doesn’t have to be you. This is something we’ve emphasized a lot. I’m going to continue to emphasize it here. You want to get good at delegating, and part of getting good at delegating from the thinking perspective is asking yourself “who can help me get this done?”

[00:05:29] For example, we are sending out some boxes this week for one of my special VIP programs. It’s called the Blissing Program. It’s for the women that are coming with us on our next Bliss Retreat in 2023.

Well, guess what? I’m asking myself “who can send out the boxes? Who can make sure we have all the different ingredients that we want to put in the boxes?” Not me, someone on my team is going to help me with that. Now, sometimes I have them write the cards. I tell them what to say. This time I’m going to write the cards myself. You’re always looking at where can you have more support. Let’s continue.

[00:06:19] Next one. Do you meet deadlines? And guess what? Before you can meet some deadlines, you need to set some deadlines. Do you set deadlines for every project? There might be a big project that you’re doing right now. I’m about to be delivering our Train the Trainer program for Thrive at Sales. I have ladies that are working with me right now. We’re doing the pre-calls and we’re going to have a live and in-person training in a few weeks at my center in San Francisco, where they’re going to learn how to teach the Thrive at Sales class that I teach on a regular basis. They’re going to get to take that class. They’re going to get to use it for their own business, with their own brand, then call the class anything they want and they get to teach sales to their clients. Well, what’s involved in this training? Have to get the workbook ready, have to get the training guide ready, have to get the center ready because it’s been dark since the beginning of the pandemic. All of these things have to be done. Let’s make a plan, let’s write it out. And then every action needs two things. Who’s going to do it? And then by when does it need to be done? And are you always giving yourself a little extra time related to what needs to be done? Meaning giving yourself a few extra days in case there’s anything that doesn’t go great, or anything that falls off, or somebody gets sick so that you can with ease, get your projects done.

[00:08:03] I have found over many years that sometimes the creative juices start to flow 24 hours before things are done. Well, guess what? That might be the truth, that it’s when you have a deadline fast approaching that the creative juices come. That’s also called desperation. Okay? Ideally what we want is for you to plan to get things done way before they’re due, because remember that we want to bliss in our business. I want you to bliss in your business. And what does that mean? That means that you’re not stressing. You’re not doing everything at the last minute. And in order for that to happen, you have to do the planning for when you’re going to get this stuff done.

[00:08:50] Your calendar is your best friend as a woman in business. Everything goes on your calendar. You don’t have a to-do list and a calendar. Everything is on your calendar, when you’re going to do it. And sometimes even if I need to give somebody a quick phone call or send a quick email or send a quick Facebook message response, I put that on my calendar, even if I don’t know when during the day I’m going to do it. It still goes on my calendar above my schedule. So then if I have a break, if somebody needs to move an appointment, then I take that to-do, I put it at that time that just got opened up and I get it done. And then of course, sometimes there’s more to-do’s than the day has allowed time for. Have you ever had that happen to you? I would imagine it happens all the time, because when you’re a high-achieving woman, you got a lot of stuff to do. You got many ideas, often more ideas than time to manifest. And that’s where all you do is just move it to the next day. Very, very important though, that you have one place where you are capturing your to-do’s and I recommend your schedule. This will change your life when you start to do this.

[00:10:11] Let’s recap what we’ve discussed so far, we’ve discussed four important thinking skills that we don’t only want you to do — we meaning me– I don’t only want you to do, I want you to master. They are being organized, taking time every day for thinking and planning, not only getting good, becoming masterful at deadlines, and also taking time and planning, using that time and planning skill, to make sure that you’re meeting deadlines. Now, this is important because a lot of you, I know because I have a lot of fabulous clients, and some of them don’t make deadlines. “Well, we’ll get to it when we get to it.”

Well, guess what, sometimes when you’re saying we’re going to get to it when we get to it, you know what’s happening? You’re pushing off the revenue from that thing. You say “well, Caterina, I don’t know when I’m going to start my class”. Okay. Well, you’re not making a decision, so guess what? There’s no revenue from the class that you haven’t decided to start. Hello? And that’s the next skill we want to shine the spotlight on.

[00:11:27] Successful women make decisions quickly. And for you. I want you to ask yourself, how do you do at your decision-making? Do you make decisions quickly or do you have to talk to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, Mary Jane, and Sheila, and get their opinion before you decide what you want to do, or do you decide and do it? This is what successful people do. This is what I want for you. And by the way, the better you get at making decisions quickly, the better you’re going to get at making more decisions quickly. And also here’s the other thing. Super tip alert. You can also make a decision right. What I mean by that is if you think “well, gee, I don’t know what the right decision is”. And then you make a decision and you’re not sure about it. Well, you can decide to make the decision right, because you’re super smart. You can figure it out. And this is really the underlying idea that I want to make sure that you are remembering. You are super smart. You can figure out whatever it is that needs to be figured out. You can pivot, you can adjust, you can get support mid-project whenever you need to. Just because one thing doesn’t go great doesn’t mean that you can’t make changes and adjust.

[00:12:58] Let me give you an example, my friend. And by the way, this is the next thing I want to shine the spotlight on: managing your disappointment. Now I mentioned to you a little earlier that we’re going on our bliss retreat in 2023. It’s going to be a 10 day Mexican Riviera cruise. Round trip San Francisco. I love doing these kinds of retreats on ships. COVID has meant that we have had to cancel a few, and unfortunately, we had to cancel the one that we were going to take in the next couple of weeks. Now, this is very disappointing to me after we’ve canceled so many. Guess what? It’s also what’s necessary. It’s also what’s best for my clients. And that means, of course, that’s good for my business to take good care of my clients. Yes, I’m disappointed. Yes, it’s a lot of revenue that is being postponed. That’s okay, because I’m super smart. I can figure it out, how to recuperate the revenue. I can figure it out, how to make sure my clients feel like they’re getting even more massive value, even though we’re having to postpone a year. What did I do? I came up with the Blissing Program, which is going to be a virtual retreat every month for the ladies that we don’t get to go on the ship right now. They’re going to have an amazing virtual retreat that is going to have them get to know each other and be engaged in the community even more. And they’re going to be so more excited when we get on the ship next year. I’m sharing this with you because there will be disappointments du jour in your business. And let’s make sure that you are managing those with ease, that you are recognizing this is fine. You can figure it out. You can move through it. You can modify whatever you need to modify so that your business is thriving, your clients are blissing, and your business is doing very well. I really want you to look at how you’re doing on managing your disappointment.

Let’s again recap what we’ve discussed so far: being organized, meeting deadlines, being good at delegating, thinking and planning, managing your disappointment. Before that we discussed making decisions quickly. These are all skills that you want to master that support your CEO mindset, that support you moving towards mastery in your business. Not just about doing, it’s about how we are thinking. And there’s two more skills that I want to discuss with you.

[00:15:50] Here are the last two that I want to strongly encourage you to shine the spotlight on, improve, upgrade, and move towards mastery with.

The first one: communicates effectively. This is a huge area where we can all move towards mastery more with our communication. There’s asking for what you want. There’s delegating. There’s acknowledging your team. There’s being patient with people and being a good listener. All of these are things you can put your attention on to communicate more effectively. We talked earlier about meeting deadlines. Well, guess what? Communicating clear deadlines to those you’re working with is also part of communicating effectively. Even though I am very much a verbal communicator, I would much rather have a phone conversation than send an email any day of the week for any conversation. It’s important that when we want to communicate effectively, that we look at, “okay, what’s the purpose of this communication?” If I’m telling my team that I want something done, it’s really better if I put that in writing. If I want to wish one of my clients happy birthday, it’s better I call or send a video or something that is more personal than an email or a text. Depending on what the purpose of your communication is –to cultivate a relationship, to get to know someone better versus just get things done– is something to consider when you’re looking at how you’re going to communicate. Meaning what method: is it going to be a direct message, a text, an email, a call. Video messaging is something a lot of people use that is fabulous. Up to you. Ask yourself though, of these things we’ve discussed, in terms of communicating more effectively, where do you see an upgrade?

[00:18:10] I’m going to tell you, one person on my team, I would communicate with her and I would say “Hey, okay, what do you think about this? And what do you think about this? Can you get this done by five o’clock?” And she would say “yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay”. Well, she was simply communicating that she heard me with her “okay” and her “yes”. She wasn’t giving me agreement, which is what I thought she was doing. This is an example of me, in that case, not being clear that she was agreeing to get things done by a certain time.

In the beginning of relationships, you have to pay attention to how someone communicates. There are certain people, perhaps if they’re more introverted, you have to ask them a direct question. “Do you understand that I’d like this done by five o’clock? Do you understand the different steps in this process? Do you understand what I’m asking you?” You could also have them reiterate to you what they heard, make sure they heard what you requested. Again, this is why written communication can always be helpful, but don’t think just because it’s in writing it can’t be misunderstood. You can miscommunicate in writing too. And this is where the patience part of being an effective communicator comes in. I have a friend who used to tell me all the time ” you’re interrupting me, you’re interrupting me”. Well, guess what, when you pause for 30 seconds, I think you’re done talking. Very important that you begin to understand that different people have different styles and that you have consideration for their different styles, because the better you communicate with your clients, with your team, with your vendors, with your loved ones, the better your life will be.

[00:20:13] And, you know, cause I know we’ve talked about it in other podcast episodes that my favorite communication skill that I want you to improve is acknowledgment. You want to acknowledge people for what they’re doing, how they’re being while they’re doing it, and most importantly, the part that we mostly forget, is how it impacts you.

For example, I could say “Sheila, thank you so much for listening to my podcast”. That is a very nice thing to thank her for doing. I could say “Sheila, thank you so much for listening to my podcast and being so excited about my latest episode.” Not just what she did, how she was being while she was doing it. If I’m really savvy, though, I’m going to say “Sheila, thank you so much for all your enthusiasm and for listening to my podcast, you have totally inspired me to keep going with my podcast” or “you have warmed my heart with your kind words” or “you’ve made my day”. The part people usually miss is how, what people are doing or how they’re being, how it impacts us. And when we begin to communicate that on a consistent basis in our relationships with everyone, guess what? They feel seen, heard, valued, welcome. They know that they matter. They know that we get them. It’s huge. Do this with everyone, not just your loved ones, your clients, your vendors, your team members, do it with everyone. Because this is going to uplift all your relationships. You know I’ve got the best mailman in the world, Antonio. Guess what? I frequently have my attention on acknowledging him. Of course, it’s very easy because he’s a great mailman. He’s very nice. And guess what? I let him know that I appreciate all of his support.

[00:22:17] Okay, take a moment. Let’s take a deep breath. I want you to look at how you can be a more effective communicator based on what we’ve discussed. There’s always another level of mastery to achieve with your communication skills.

[00:22:33] Okay. Here’s the last thing I want you to think about related to mastering your thinking in your business. Attention to your numbers. Now here’s the truth. I love to talk to people. I love to sell. Why? Because selling is service. If there’s money in the bank, if there’s new clients coming on, I’ve always talked to myself “great businesses doing great, we’re thriving”. Well, you may or may not know, some years back I got a little bit into a pickle because I had someone else paying more attention to my numbers than me. And as a result with someone else in my money, guess what the money tended to go away rather quickly. And the truth is I have to take personal responsibility for that because it is my job to watch my numbers. It’s my job to keep track of money in and money out. It’s my job to make sure we’re achieving our goals financially as a company. It’s my job, even though someone else might help me pay the bills, it’s my job to make sure they get paid. Are you putting attention on your numbers every single day? Are you looking at money in and money out every single day? Do you look at the projections? Meaning when the new month starts, are you looking at what’s coming in the door the next six months? If not, I want you to put your attention on this. This is all mastering your numbers. I want you to love looking at the numbers for your business. I want you to be numbers confident. I want you to bliss when you look at the numbers and the more attention you have on them, the better.

[00:24:21] My friend, we have a lifetime supply of more things to talk about, let’s recap here. By the way, if you have not listened to many of our other podcast episodes, I want to encourage you to do that because they’re all, info-packed just like this one. Additionally, connect with our amazing community. We are on Clubhouse and the Thriving Women in Biz Club. We have rooms in there every week. We’re adding more rooms. If you can’t make the live rooms, join us by listening to some of the replays that are there on Clubhouse. If you’re not in our Thriving Women in Business Facebook group, please join us. Send me a direct message on Facebook. I love hearing from everyone. Follow me on Instagram. Also, if you don’t have our Expand Your Fempire app on your phone, I encourage you to download it, it is full of additional resources for you. Myself and my team are here to support you to build a thriving business. We want you to bliss in your business. Additionally, please come to one of my free workshops. I do one or two free workshops every month on sales or speaking or a different variety of topics. In your business, want to remind you, you’ve got five jobs: speaking, selling, serving your clients, strategy, and self care. I want to support you to master all five of those. Let’s take another deep breath.

[00:26:00] Today what we’ve focused on here are several different aspects of the thinking part of expanding your Fempire. These eight skills I want you to master: being organized, meeting deadlines, being good at delegating, taking time every day for thinking and planning, communicating effectively, attention to your numbers, managing disappointment, and making decisions quickly. You might say, Caterina, how do I manage disappointment? Here’s something we didn’t discuss earlier. I want you to take your disappointment, because it’s going to come, every time you have disappointed, I want you to see that as fuel for your determination. Determination is a key ingredient in you moving your business from where you are to where you want to be. It is a key ingredient in keeping things going, even when you feel like stopping. And there will be days, weeks, maybe even months, when you feel like stopping. When that happens, I want you to ask yourself the question “what do I need to do to upgrade this? What do I need to do so I feel better? What do I need to ask for?” These are what I would call inquiry questions. You don’t necessarily immediately have the answer. You keep asking the question because you are determined.

[00:27:26] I want to remind you, you have massive value to bring. There is a lifetime supply of people to serve. The more you invest in yourself, you are the best place to invest some dollars. All these skills that we just discussed, you can take a workshop or get a coach or have a program to support you with any of these. You don’t get masterful today only by doing. Doing moves you towards mastery Some skill will accelerate you moving towards mastery. I hope you’re investing in yourself. I hope you’re a part of our amazing community or another amazing community of like-minded like-hearted women that will support you, because the more you are determined, the more you focus on mastery with everything you do, the more you will grow and thrive, and most importantly, bliss in your business. My friend, love to you. Cannot wait to be with you again on another episode of the Expand Your Fempire Podcast. I hope to see you somewhere else before we meet here again. Go thrive, learn more, and bliss.

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