Building Unshakable

We are back! When I say "we," I'm not talking about just me. On this week's episode, I have my integrator, Robert, who will be joining me in this episode, and more episodes to come!

We've got a lot of great things coming, and I'm thrilled to share them with you. 

Living an entrepreneurial life means countless opportunities, countless challenges, countless decisions. And those decisions aren’t always easy when you don’t know the outcome. But as you focus and devote your time to scaling your business, it's also important to take a step back and reassess your priorities.

That’s exactly what I needed to do last fall, and in this episode I share more about why the podcast went on a hiatus and what's been happening behind-the-scenes in my business since then.

I've been making 7-figure moves in my business - and I’m challenging you to do the same!

What You’ll Learn from this Episode: 

• Why the podcast went on a hiatus
• Recent 7-figure CEO moves Kathryn has made in her business
• The difference between a CEO and COO
• What Kathryn is focusing on in the short-term to set her business up for more growth in the long-term
• Kathryn's journey in rediscovering her priorities and the lesson you can learn from it

Featured on the Show:

• 7-Figure CEO Power Move Quiz

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Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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Do you really know your target audience? On this week's episode, I talk about how you can go beyond the facade and understand your target audience on a deeper level.

Learning about their demographics isn't enough. You might also be figuring out their psychographics (values, attitudes, pain points, desires) or behaviors (where they hang out, what they like to do, their hobbies, their daily routine). But again, is this enough if you want to change their lives? You need to understand how they are thinking, before you try to sell them anything. Buyers are liars, but not necessarily intentionally.

"To understand what you need to tell your audience, you must first understand what they are telling themselves. Many people are telling themselves a story - a story that may not even necessarily be true." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

For example, a potential client might say, "I'm going to try doing this on my own". A typical entrepreneur might try to sell them something and explain how it'll get them results faster. Meanwhile, the prospect is doubting whether the result is even possible for them at all and is feeling afraid to waste an investment.

"It's your job to know what your audience is thinking. You need to become a mind reader. Mind readers change lives. Knowing what your audience is actually thinking will help them get out of their own way and start getting results." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

Do your research. Talk to your audience, put yourself in their shoes and plan ahead to really understand what they may be thinking.

You need to focus on the very next step - what's the smallest next step that you want them to take? It's just clicking on an ad, just opting in, just reading the page...

Here are 5 things you need to understand about your target audience before you can ask them to do anything:

1. Current Situation

Where are they now? What's their current situation? 

2. Thoughts

What are they telling themselves? What are their fears? doubts? What do they need to think to move forward?

3. Feelings

How do they feel now? How do they need to feel to take action? How do they want to feel?

4. Actions

What are they currently doing (or not doing)? What actions do they need to take?

5. Results

What are their current results? What results do they want? What results can they expect? What's possible for them?

You can change lives and make a difference by looking behind the curtains and reading between the lines. Knowing your target audience at a deeper level is how you can get them to take action.

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
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• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
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Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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As the new quarter kicks off, this episode talks about asking the question WHO instead of how when planning to achieve a new goal or milestone in your business.

A typical strategic plan usually looks at where you are now, where you want to be and HOW you're going to get there. But I realized there's a step that traditional strategic planning skips.

Before you decide how, focus on WHO. Who do you need to become to accomplish your goals?

"The rate in which your business grows is dependent on your personal growth. Before your business can grow, you must grow." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

I encourage you to do these 3 exercises to help you explore who you need to become in order for your business to grow:

1. Million Dollar You

Let's say that your next revenue milestone is hitting your first million.

If your name were Molly, ask yourself: Who the Million Dollar Molly would need to be? What characteristics does she have? What does she spend her time thinking and doing? How does she make decisions?

Where do you need to grow to develop into Million Dollar Molly?

2. The Hat Exercise

Imagine different hats you could wear - firefighter, detective, surgeon, party hat, etc.

In order to reach your goals, what's the one hat that you should: -keep wearing? -stop wearing? -start wearing?

Maybe you need to keep wearing your party hat and focus on having fun in your business. Maybe you need to stop wearing your firefighter hat and stop running around and putting out all the fires. Maybe you need to start wearing a detective hat and figure out where you can optimize to get better results.

3. Self-Concept Exercise

Think of a mentor or an influencer or a successful business owner - someone you look up to who has achieved what you'd like to achieve. Then, think of a goal that you want to reach this quarter- it can be launching a mastermind, writing a book or doubling your revenue for example.

Choose one goal and have one specific person in mind. Imagine that this person had the same goal as you. I want you to notice your thoughts about this person trying to accomplish what it is that you want to accomplish. (For example: it would be easy for her, she'd sell out in a day...)

Now, examine your thoughts about YOU achieving that goal. Does it feel different for you? Why do you think differently about what's possible for you? It all comes back to your self-concept. Who do you need to be to make it easy for you to accomplish your goals?

Ultimately, your personal growth is the key to executing well, following through on the how, and scaling your business. Set clear goals for the quarter, but don't forget to look at who in addition to the how.

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
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• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
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Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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Not having enough time, working too much, facing multiple distractions, over delivering, managing client expectations.. are these familiar to you? Those are just some of the symptoms of lack of boundaries. If setting proper boundaries is a challenge you face, this episode is for you.

First, let's look at a typical work day for a business owner struggling with boundaries:

• Wakes up and immediately checks and responds to email/messages
• Dives into urgent tasks and ignores top priorities
• Hops into a meeting that took longer than it's supposed to be
• Says yes to a client's request that is out of scope, and even volunteers to do more
• Accepts a client's request for an impromptu meeting
• Immediately responding to notifications from team members, clients and potential clients

Before you know it, it's 5PM and you haven't even touched your so-called "priorities". So you either push them to tomorrow or sacrifice personal time to get them done.

Is this you??

"Boundaries are not about changing someone else's behavior. They're about communicating your request, and what you will do in response." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

There are two things that I want you to keep in mind about boundaries:

1. Boundaries are for you. It's about what you will do, not trying to change others. 2. You have to be willing to follow through. You have to stick to your set boundaries.

I encourage you to take some time to audit your day through the lens of healthy boundaries. Look at how you can better communicate and follow through on the boundaries you have set in both business and life. See you next week!

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
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• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
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Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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There's something very interesting that happens when we start anything new. With any new program or project, our brains immediately judge the idea and decide whether to move forward. Often, our brains decide it's too hard. In this episode, I share with you how to figure out what will feel easy, fun, light and inspired so you can move forward.

What's feeling hard to you right now? Maybe you're like the clients I work with every day who find it hard to make pivots in their businesses or to manage their teams or to sell their programs. I want you to think of the thing that you're putting off and spending countless hours on, letting it drag on way longer than necessary, or the thing that you're dreading.

Do you have something in mind? Now, what if it were easy? Because it gets to be easy! In fact, it is easy- it's your brain that is making it harder than it needs to be.

A client of mine recently told me how easily she can book clients into her program, but a week later she came back and told me how hard it was to sell that same program. It's funny how she had a change of heart, so I reminded her and we talked about how it could feel easy because truthfully, it's just all in her head.

She wanted to change the program she was promoting, but I saw a thought pattern. I predicted that if she switched gears, she would get excited again in the short-term, and then as soon as things weren't going perfectly - she'd decide it was hard again.

"When we have the mindset of things being too hard, we continually come back to it. We can change external circumstances thinking that's going to solve the problem, and it doesn't." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

Again, it gets to be easy. It's your choice to make it hard or to make it easy. When it starts to feel hard, ask yourself, "What if this were easy?" Then start moving forward! Don't hold yourself back from taking any action because you feel it's too hard. It doesn't mean it will always be easy. Of course, there will be discomfort and struggle sometimes, but you need to push through. Stop overcomplicating things and start having some fun! Choose easy. Go ahead, take action and get it done. Keep in mind, it gets to be easy.

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
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• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
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Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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Do hiring and delegating take more of your time instead of freeing up your schedule? Before you get frustrated, listen to this episode! 

This topic reminded me of a conversation I had over 2 years ago. Does this question sound familiar to you:

"I'm feeling like I'm quickly closing my openness to outsourcing. I keep wanting to take everything back. What do you do when something you've outsourced is not what you want and you feel like you'd rather no one touch it but you?"

My response is this:

"Bear with me here. I've been there and done that, and learned some things along the way that may be helpful. I have high expectations. Quality is extremely important to me, and I've had a tendency to pull back in the past and just do it myself. Sometimes, doing it myself felt like the right thing to do in the short term.. but long term, it didn't payoff."

Here's what I learned: setting your expectations upfront is key when leading a team, whether outsourced or not. It isn't fair to expect that everything will be done exactly as you would because they're not you.

"Sometimes, delegating is about getting help from someone who can do something better than you. But other times, it's about freeing you up to do things that ONLY YOU can do or that will bring in MORE REVENUE." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

Weigh the opportunity cost. What does it free you up to do? Are you willing to sacrifice doing things that someone else could do for opportunities which have larger overall gain and more chance to grow?

If your answer is yes, here are the two steps you need to take:

1. Set and communicate expectations - What are the goals, guidelines, non-negotiables and standards they should adhere to? 2. Create a feedback loop - Review and measure their work against the agreed upon expectations. Provide feedback and clarifications.

This is not a walk in the park, especially for perfectionists. Rather than taking control back, take on the leadership role and coach them up to meet your expectations.

Investing in people takes a little time before you see the return. After giving it some time, if they're still not meeting your set expectations, they may not be the right fit. But that doesn't mean you should to give up on delegating or outsourcing altogether.

Give people space to do what they're experts in and shift your role from the one implementing everything to the one leading. If you're struggling to let go, I encourage you to step up into your role as a LEADER.

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
• Follow The Unshakable Company on Instagram
• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
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Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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Before packing your bags for a well-deserved summer vacation, have you made sure that your business can can run without you? On this week's episode, I share with you the steps that you can take in order for your business to run smoothly even when you're away.

Are you one of those entrepreneurs who can't even imagine going away for a day because your business will implode without you? But wasn't freedom the goal when you created your business?

As I record this episode, one of my clients is on maternity leave and her business is running without her. Leading up to her maternity leave, we prepped her business to be self-sustaining for weeks!

To help you achieve more freedom for yourself and your business, here's an outline of the steps that I took with my client to prepare her business for her leave:

1. Create systems.

Everything required to run the day-to-day of your business must be systematized so that the business doesn't depend on you, or anyone else, to know how to do something.

2. Delegate.

Audit everything that needs to be done in your business and if someone else can do it, delegate it.

3. Batch create what ONLY YOU can do.

If there are things that only you can do like recording a podcast or creating a video, batch those ahead of time so that the work is done in advance.

4. Determine criteria for communication.

Limit your contact to ONE person who can reach out to you while you're on vacation- only if needed. Talk with that person in advance on what warrants them reaching out. Then, unplug from all regular forms of business communication so that you'll only be contacted when you're really needed. If you feel like you need to regularly check-in, define specific times and communicate those times to your team in advance so they can be prepared to answer any questions and to give updates.

5. Check out.

Truly back off and let your business run without you! Trust your business, team and processes.

6. Don't expect perfection.

"Expect things won't go perfectly! The only way to see the gaps is to step back and let mistakes happen." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

Let your team work things out and don't step in unless the business will truly implode.

Give your business the freedom test and see if it passes. Enjoy your next vacation!

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
• Follow The Unshakable Company on Instagram
• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
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Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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Dealing with customer service issues becomes more and more necessary as your business grows and scales. Here's a short but sweet episode where I dive in to these issues smoothly as you scale your business.

The number of customer service issues rises when a business is scaling.. and that's completely normal! More customers coming in will naturally lead to more customer service issues.

You cannot please everyone. Issues are inevitable. Here are three rules that you can implement in order to protect your energy:

1. All customer service issues should be directed to ONE email.

Receiving customer service concerns should not be spread out over various platforms. Ideally, there should only be one hub or one email.

2. Someone else should field all those customer service emails.

You should not even see them unless there's an issue that must be escalated and there's no one else to handle it. Your business cannot afford your non-customer service team members to be bombarded with customer issues that will cause them to doubt the transformation that you offer and to drop their confidence level and enthusiasm.

3. Set policies, draft templates to common issues, automate wherever possible and consistently enforce.

"Take the guess work out of your company policies. No special circumstances. No case by case decisions. The rules apply to everyone. It's not personal, it's policy." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

My advice is to implement these three rules now because one day you'll need them. It's safer to be ready now than to be sorry later!

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
• Follow The Unshakable Company on Instagram
• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
• Follow The Unshakable Company on Facebook

Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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Hooray! You survived a launch! But is it really over yet? Many entrepreneurs skip out on the important steps after the launch... which is only the beginning of your relationship with your new customers.

Apart from welcoming your new customers, here are 8 tips for after the launch:

1. Pass the baton.

Even before the launch starts, communicate with the Fulfillment or Client/Customer Success Team to share the plans and tasks that'll need to be completed after the launch.

2. Map out the customer experience.

From the point where customers sign up, every step of their journey should be mapped out and a timeline should be established.

3. Set clear expectations from the beginning and over communicate.

Start communicating expectations and next steps with your new customers from the Thank You page, then continue to provide the important details through the onboarding process. You can do this in many ways including in an email sequence, getting started guide in the members area and posts in online community.

4. Surprise and delight.

Throw in some bonuses or hold a special event like a welcome party. Be creative!

5. Prep the Customer Service team.

Before the launch, establish clear terms and conditions, anticipate a higher volume of people who will need support, and make sure that the Customer Service Team is all on the same page.

6. Hold a formal launch debrief.

Review all launch statistics and talk with the team on what went well and what didn't. This is also an opportunity to discuss what can be improved for your next launch.

7. Archive all launch assets for future reference.

This includes everything (copy, images, project plans, metrics, etc.) that led you to a successful launch and that you will want to have on file for next time.

8. Rest.

After all the hard work, you absolutely need some self-care to recharge!

"After the launch is just as, if not, actually more important than the launch itself!" - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

Remember not to skip these 8 important steps for your next launch. Hope this helps!

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
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• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
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Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

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"Launch Hangovers" sometimes feels like an indescribable high followed by an intense crash... after a launch! In this episode of The Elevate Effect™ podcast, I share the two types of launch hangovers.

My clients who recently had a wildly successful launch caught me by surprise by using the phrase "launch hangover". If launching isn't new to you, you might be able to spill a few post-launch horror stories of your own. I was a bit triggered by this phrase, until I realized there are actually two very different kinds of launch hangovers:

1. The first type is the launch hangover I thought of first. It reminds of a college girl during finals week who had little sleep, wore the same clothes everyday and chugged energy drinks to make it through the week. She was all on her own because it was all up to her to pass her exams. Then one day, she wakes up with puke in her hair after partying too hard.

Does this kind of launch sound familiar to you? It's the kind where you hustle to do too many tasks the day of, stay up until wee hours of the morning and get up early to do it all over again, face tech troubles and forget things. By the end of the launch, you don't care how much you sold because you just want it over.

2. To me, the second type of launch hangover is like the morning after my wedding. I remember feeling like I was on cloud 9. I was exhausted, but in a different way. I planned all the details of my wedding well in advance and I hired people to execute the day of. I just showed up to do what only I needed to do- I walked down the aisle, said "I do", danced, and stayed up late to celebrate it all.

This is the kind of launch hangover that I want you to have! As an integrator, I work in advance to streamline launches- systematizing, automating and delegating- so that my clients can enjoy the launch. This requires planning, assigning tasks, writing and scheduling launch content, setting clear roles for each team member, and prepping everything in advance so that there's time to test before the cart opens.

A launch should look like this: staying up late but only so you could countdown and celebrate the launch numbers, taking note of - but not feeling crushed by the things that can be improved, and feeling exhausted from showing up fully and with wide-open energy and from giving your launch everything you've got!

My clients made over 6-figures in 5 days. The team celebrated every single milestone during the launch. We were literally counting down to our goal and watching as we blew passed it. This is the what-a-launch-should-feel-like kind of a hangover!

"Do yourself a favor and prep for your launch ahead of time, so you can focus on showing up, going all out and celebrating during." - Kathryn Binkley #theelevateeffect

Cheers in advance to your next successful launch! See you next week!

Next Steps:

• Join The Unshakable Mastermind

Let's Connect:

• Follow the Podcast
• Follow The Unshakable Company on Instagram
• Follow Kathryn Binkley on Instagram
• Follow The Unshakable Company on Facebook

Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts:

Are you following the podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to follow today so you don’t miss any future episodes! I have so many topics lined up, and I would hate for you to miss a single one. 

• Search for the podcast in your podcast app (Building Unshakable)
• Scroll down and click 5 stars
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