Expand Your Fempire Podcast #90 Transcript

Reflections from a Wandering Woman on a Mission

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’m your host Caterina Rando. Today, I want to share with you some insights, some ideas, some reminders of things we’ve talked about in the past that I want to make sure you’re embracing in your business.

[00:00:49] I’ve just come off a 15-day cruise from San Francisco, around the Hawaiian islands, down to Ensenada, and back up to San Francisco. My friend, Tracy, who is my travel partner, she plans all of our cruises when we do our cruise retreats, she invited me to go as her guest. Now she only invited me six weeks before we took sail. I already had a ton of classes scheduled to teach on my calendar and I was not sure if I could do it from the ship.

[00:01:29] I’m sharing this with you because in your life, opportunities will come up and you may have things planned and scheduled and you may think “there’s no way I can do this while I’m supposed to be doing that.” Or you might be thinking “I can’t get someone to sub for me” or “who could I get to sub for me?” or “could I possibly get good internet?” I want to let you know that I was so committed to going on this trip that I put my thinking cap on and figured out how to make it work.

[00:02:08] I’m sharing this with you because this is what I want for you. I scheduled people to sub for any of the classes that I needed to teach. Now, I still planned on teaching them. The idea though, was that I would have substitute in place in case I could not get my internet to work. Now, you might think if you’re running group programs “Caterina, my people don’t want to have a sub. They signed up for the class to be with me”.

[00:02:41] Here’s what I want to be very clear on. Sometimes having a guest presenter, a guest speaker, a guest facilitator, is exactly what your group program needs, because it adds some freshness, some fresh ideas, some different energy, a different perspective, and someone who is a different expert than you to share ideas and answer questions. I had subs with me for all of my things.

[00:03:12] Now, fortunately, the internet worked great on the ship. I did all of my things, all my classes that I was scheduled to teach, except for one with the time change, that was really early. And I had my marketing person teach a class on marketing to my clients. And of course, her name’s Angela, they always love to pick her brain and it worked out great. I want you to think about what you can do so that you can be a yes. You can have subs. You can also reschedule. You can take a week off. You can move your class out a week at the end, whatever it takes to be a yes for those amazing opportunities that come your way.

[00:04:00] Part of the reason I wanted to go on this trip was because I love to snorkel. I love, love, love to snorkel and with the pandemic, I have not been snorkeling in a really long time. We went snorkeling one day and I have to tell you, it reminded me how much I love to snorkel, how much I love to be in the water. And the truth is this was probably the worst fish viewing day I have ever experienced when snorkeling. Because I had not been snorkeling for so long, I loved it more than any other time. I did actually see a huge turtle for quite a while, and that was super fun and enjoyable. When I got back on the boat after snorkeling, reveling in how much fun it was and how much I enjoyed it, I made a decision that I’m going to snorkel more in my life.

[00:05:06] Now more might be once or twice a year, because really I haven’t done a lot of snorkeling in several years. I’m not sure how I’m going to get more snorkeling in because you have to go to places where the water is warm. And I live in San Francisco. The thing is though I will figure it out.

[00:05:27] And this is part of what I want to share with you today. You are super smart. You can figure out whatever is a challenge for you in your business. This trip reminded me of that very, very much.

[00:05:44] I want to ask you though, before we move on, what is it you want more of in your life? What is it you want more of in your business? I’m always talking to you, our podcast listener, I’m always talking to my clients about paying attention to how you’re spending your time, and really focusing on what not only is the highest and best use of your time, but what brings you joy? What brings you bliss? What makes you bliss in your business? That’s what I want you to do more of.

[00:06:27] For me, I love to speak. I love to be with people. I love to share ideas. I want more and more and more of that for as long as I’m on the planet. I’ve just mentioned, I want more snorkeling. I want more vacation days. I love going on a little getaway over the weekend. What do you want more of? Make a list, my friend, right now make a list of just three things that come to mind, and then figure out how to get more of that in your life. You can do it. You’re super smart.

[00:07:07] While on the ship, I so enjoyed going to the jacuzzi, I did karaoke twice. Very interesting to realize that the second time was way better than the first time. A good reminder that the more you do something, the better you get. Really this trip was a lot of personal growth and transformation when I really was only expecting it to be fun. And it reminded me of the power of getting out of your own environment. This is why I am such an advocate for women’s business retreats.

[00:07:47] When you get out of your own environment, when you mix up your daily routine, when you’re with different people in different places, doing different things, you will find that it’s very good for your creative brain. It’s very good for solutions. It’s very good for self-reflection and noticing who you’re being and how you’re being in the world and seeing what you want to be different. It’s also very good for healing, because we all have had challenges during this pandemic and earlier in our life, and healing happens in layers. I want to recommend to you that you plan one or two getaways every year, not with your spouse or your children, not even with your best girlfriends, unless they are also your business girlfriends, because being on a trip with other businesswomen is wonderful because the conversation naturally goes to business even if you’re doing other things.

[00:09:00] Do you know what was super fun when I was on this ship? I ran into one of my fabulous clients, Kimberley Coste, she was on the ship too. And of course, that meant that her friend and my friend and myself, we all spent some time together, and we talked business, we talked not business. It was wonderful. When are you getting together with some of your business friends and having a getaway? And if you don’t have one on the calendar, come talk to me, because we have already started back up with our women’s retreats for women leaders on a mission.

[00:09:41] One of the things you’ve probably heard me say is that in business, there are going to be disappointments du jour. I was reminded of this at one point while we were on our fabulous getaway because part of the reason we were excited to go on this particular ship was because this ship has a big conference center and I’ve been planning for several years to do a conference for women in business on a cruise ship. I find cruising to be an amazing way to build community, to manage costs, to have a great getaway, without having to worry about all kinds of things that you have to worry about and pay for on land. It cultivates community more than anything I’ve ever seen.

[00:10:35] Unfortunately, we toured the conference center and I was so excited about it, we got a call that the ship we’re going to be on that was scheduled for the conference time next year, that we had already had dates for, I’d already shared with people, that they changed ships and there’s no conference center on that ship. I have to tell you my friend, this was a big blow. After all the planning, after all of the excitement to finally get to launch my next dream, to have to put it back on the shelf was pretty deflating.

[00:11:16] And I kept reminding myself what I tell you what I tell the women that I have the privilege to serve in our Thriving Women in Business Community: “hey, take your disappointment, put it in your universal translator, and turn it into determination”. One lady said to me, she said: “Caterina, you got to take your frustration and make it your fuel”. I love that, but I was having a little bit of a difficult time doing it. That’s the truth.

[00:11:45] Then a few days later, I got home, I got off the ship. And you know, one of the things that I do is I get flowers delivered every Monday from Instacart, because I love to have fresh flowers, not only in my home, I love to have fresh flowers behind me when I’m speaking virtually. Because when I got home on Monday, I immediately started teaching, I did not get a chance to order my fresh flowers. Then I was in bed Monday night and I realized, “oh my gosh, I’m teaching tomorrow. I’m giving a speech. I need fresh flowers.” But you know, I’m not an early bird. I didn’t get up till 8:30, I was teaching the class at 10. I went online to order them and you know what it said? It said “your order will be delivered at 9:55”. I was so excited and then I pushed the button to place the order and it spinned around the page spinned around, and then it said your order will be at your location by 10:30. I said “oh no, that’s half an hour into my speech”. And I was trying to figure out what am I going to do? What am I going to do?

[00:13:05] And then, I realized I could message the person who was putting together the order and delivering the order. And I sent him a direct message, his name was Ricardo. I said “Ricardo, if you can be here by 9:50, I will give you extra $20”. And Ricardo responded right back “I will take the challenge”. And you know what? After I sent him that note and he responded, I jumped in the shower and I reminded myself, “Caterina, whatever challenge you’re having, you can figure it out”. And that’s what I’m saying to you.

[00:13:50] Whatever challenge you’re having, you can figure it out. Whatever disappointment you have, you can figure it out, but you got to take that disappointment and turn it into determination. And sometimes when we have wins in one area, it infuses another area and gives us more fuel. That’s how I felt after I talked to Ricardo and he said he’d be here by 9:50. I felt reinvigorated and re-energized not just for my conference that I still haven’t figured out yet, but for my whole business, because it was an example of me figuring something out. So let’s take a deep breath, my friend right now. And where in your business do you have something to figure out?

[00:14:48] Ricardo arrived with my flowers, and I had said to him he would get a $20 extra tip. Well, of course, I only had $17 in my wallet. And then I had a couple of hundreds leftover for my trip. He didn’t have any change. So I took a couple of minutes to go all over my house to find the last $3. And he said to me “oh, Caterina, you don’t have to do that”. I said “my friend is very important that I keep my agreements”. And so I took a couple of minutes to find the last $3 in change, which I gave to Ricardo. And you know what he said to me? He said “Oh, it’s been nice to meet you”.

[00:15:29] I have a beautiful money tree that my coach gave me right outside my front door of my house, and he said, “that reminds me of my mom. And she passed away three days ago.” And I could see him getting emotional, and you know, I was rushing around to get ready for my talk, and in that moment, I said to myself, “there is no place on the planet more important to be right now than right here, talking to this young man who has just lost the most important person in his life”.

[00:16:04] And so I took a few minutes and I gave him whatever words I could of encouragement. You know, what do you say with such a big loss? I liked his spirit. I liked his attitude. I took his number so that I could call on him for any future deliveries. And when I closed my front door, I was reminded business is about being of service. Business is about uplifting other people. It’s not about rushing to get stuff done. It’s not even about getting stuff done. It’s about being of service and helping others on the planet.

[00:16:47] I hope that in your business, you are running your business with this attitude in mind, that it’s about helping people. And part of what this means to me is that it’s not about the bottom line. It’s about the heart line.

[00:17:06] What I mean by that is I just did this again today. I allowed someone to not make several payments based on a contract because their whole life has changed and I’m not going to be able to serve them. And if I can’t serve them, why would I want them to pay for the service that they can’t take advantage of? Now, you might think that that is not smart in business, but here’s what I want to tell you. I think it’s super smart. You know why? Because I have a long-term view of my business. And I have seen many people who have been bullied for lack of a better word by high-end coaches who have told them they have to make all these payments and fulfill the agreement of their contract, even though their situation or their life or their business, or whatever has super changed. Businesses about being of service.

[00:18:09] And I can tell you that all of those people in all of those situations never went back to those same coaches and invested with them again. And I can tell you that that’s not my experience. I have people come back year after year. I have people go away for five years and come back. I just had a client who has not worked with me since 2014 sign up with me last night again. Why? Because I know it’s all about service. It’s not about the bottom line, it’s about the heart line. I’m not about earning a few extra thousand dollars. Every year, if it causes hardship for someone else. And I want you to think about that.

[00:18:58] If your business is your mission, we could even say, it’s your ministry. Now my friend, I am not a religious person, I do like that idea though. Your business is supposed to be your bliss and how could your business possibly be your bliss if you’re creating hardship for other people. Think about that. I want you to wear your heart all over your business, not just on your sleeve. And that means you wear it where the bottom line is, and you wear it when you’re talking to people, and you don’t sign up anybody that you know you can’t serve or is not a great match for you. You don’t try to serve people that are not quite where they need to be to benefit from your massive value.

[00:19:41] If you know my history, you know, that there have been times when we’ve had a lot of surplus in the business and there’s been times that were much more challenging. I’m very happy to say, in the lean times, we still contributed to the charities that were committed to supporting. I still ran my business with the heartline as priority more than the bottom line. And as a result of that, surplus has always come back.

[00:20:13] I want you to reflect on your business and I want you to think about if there’s any place in your business, any aspect of your business, any policy or procedure in your business that doesn’t have you bliss, that doesn’t make you happy, that doesn’t feel like an authentic reflection of you and your heart. Because when you are the CEO of your own enterprise, your business is an extension of who you are.

[00:20:45] It is a reflection, it is a manifestation of the person you are. And I want you to make sure that everything about your business is in alignment with your personal values. Notice I did not say your business values, because in my opinion, your personal values and your business values are the same because it’s your business.

[00:21:15] One of the topics I teach regularly is achieving sales bliss. By the way, if you have not joined me for an achieving sales bliss, free workshop, I do them once or twice a month, 90 minutes, super info-packed, you will leave way more uplifted than when you showed up. I invite you to come because I want your business to be your bliss. I want your selling to be your bliss. I want you to be blissing all over everybody with your business.

[00:21:49] One of the things we talk about in achieving sales bliss is I really don’t want you to take clients until you’ve talked to them. You know, this idea of let me market my programs online and get people to sign up. I want to talk to people to see if they’re a match for me, to see if I can give them massive value, to see if they’re a match for my community. I’m sharing this with you because sales is talking to people and seeing if they’re the right match for you and you’re the right match for them.

[00:22:20] And I say this because I do want you to have sales bliss. And I’m wondering, I know this from all the workshops I’ve taught on this hot topic, that many women are so concerned with not being salesy, that they don’t ask people to be their client, that they don’t even ask people to have a conversation with them. That is what I want for you, is for you to up the amount of people you’re asking to talk to about whether or not you can serve them. What did I just say? I just said, ask them if you could talk to them. That’s what we call a reach out. When I was on my Hawaiian trip, one of the things I did was I spoke in Honolulu to a group of women in business assembled by one of my fabulous new clients. Her name is Vince and she came to one of my workshops a while back. And she wanted me to come talk to her virtual group, which I’m actually talking to her virtual group tonight. And she said ” hey Caterina, can we schedule a time to talk about you coming and talk to my virtual mastermind group?” I said, of course. And we scheduled a time to talk. We got on the phone, we chatted about the mastermind group, we booked me to talk to her group, and then I said to her, “thank you so much for coming to the workshop. And I’m wondering if you want to talk about the Thrive at Sales program”.

[00:23:56] Now, the reason I said this was because there was never any indication that she wanted to talk about it. And guess what? She wanted to talk about it. We talked about it. She insta-signed up for the class, and it was a reminder that you always ask. You don’t wait for the verbal cues or the physical cues, even the nodding of the head that they’re clearly getting it. You simply ask everyone.

[00:24:24] I remember way back when, when I used to sell jewelry, you may have heard me say this a hundred years ago, you would ask everybody if they wanted to book a party, whether or not they gave you any indication. And I was often surprised that the person that made no eye contact or barely talked to me, wanted to book a party.

[00:24:46] Are you asking enough people if they want to be served by you? Are you asking enough people to talk to you? And by the way, let me remind you right here of the influence equation. I don’t ask anybody if they want to talk about being my client until I have built some influence. And sometimes that happens quickly, and sometimes that takes time. Are you though asking enough people?

[00:25:15] Now if you’re not sure what is enough, let me suggest this equation to you. If you want five new clients this month, then you’re going to talk, invite to work with you, 20 people. You times it by four, that’s a 25% close ratio. You might do much better than that, but that’s a good number to work with, also because some people might start this month, some people might start next month, which is why we need that 25% ratio to join us this month. And then we might get another 25 next month and another 25 the month after. So you take the number of new clients you want, you times it by four that tells you how many people you want to talk to. Those are actual conversations about working together. You need to take that number, in this case 20, and you need to times it by 4 again. And now that comes out to 80, and 80 people is the number of people that you’re going to reach out to and invite to your workshop or invite to talk to you. But those people are not cold, those are warm. Those are people you’ve built influence with. And if you’re saying to yourself “well, Caterina that’s a lot of people, and I don’t have that many people to reach out to,” guess what? You know, I got to answer for you, because it’s all figure-out-able, right?

[00:26:36] Here’s the answer. You speak, you host your own workshops. Because when you host your own workshops, just like I do every month, it gives you something to always have to invite people to, where they get to come and be with you and get a sense of you and you get to build influence with them. And then you invite them to have a conversation with you.

[00:26:59] The other thing that’s really exciting is when you give a speech or a talk in a virtual room or an association where you’re the guest speaker, guess what? If there’s 20 people on the screen, you just did 20 reach outs. If you get to invite them to join your list or come to your workshop or have a conversation with you, all of that counts.

[00:27:23] I hope you’re blissing as we’re having this discussion, because the point of my conversation with you today is that in our business, we’re always upgrading. And we’ve talked about blissing in your business before, we’ve talked about sales before, we’ve talked about some of these things before, but the thing is, the goal is not only to learn some stuff. The goal is to master whatever we do. And when you operate your business with an attitude of always upgrading, you will continue to move more towards mastery at everything that happens in your business, how you work with your team, how you work with your clients, how you sell, how you deal with all the other aspects of money, all of this.

[00:28:14] Having the attitude of always be upgrading and embracing that as a guiding principle by which you run your business, will support you in moving towards mastery more and more in all areas of your business, and also amplify your bliss in all areas of your business.

[00:28:36] Remember to look at what will bring you more bliss in your business and your life. Maybe I’ll run into you on a snorkel boat, at some exotic location. We don’t have to wait for that though for us to connect. By the way, I have a new Facebook account, reach out to me on Facebook, reach out to me on LinkedIn or Insta or Clubhouse. Join us for our Clubhouse rooms that we have in the Thriving Women In Biz Club twice a week. Join me for an upcoming workshop.

[00:29:10] If you haven’t looked at my caterinarando.com/links resource page with all my free things, check it out because I’m here to support you to sell more, serve more, bliss more, and uplift more lives. Bing bing bing! Can’t wait to be with you again and see you Expand Your Fempire.

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