Insight: Scaling lessons from the street

In this episode of INSIGHT: Scaling lessons from the street, mindset expert Megan O'Neill has picked a topic that most of us can probably relate to: Perfectionism. 🤔

Megan and her co-hosts, Andrea Henry from Henry Business Law; Shelagh Cummins, shelaghcummins.com; Wendy Brookhouse from Black Star Wealth; and Susan Diaz, cp.digital are going to share some hard truths. What is even UP with perfectionism? Why is it so insidious? And WTH with its tendency to rule every single aspect of our lives? 😡😡😡

Here’s what we know about perfectionism and perfectionists (hint: it’s NOT good):

🌟 Their standards are so high they either can’t be met or are only met with great difficulty

🌟 They lean toward the idea that anything short of perfection is a horrible catastrophe

🌟 Over time unreasonable, difficult to meet goals can cause mental and/or physical illness

🌟 And entrepreneurs who are perfectionists, who should seek constructive criticism from others when growing a company, will often instead get defensive, discouraged, and angry

It goes without saying that NONE of the above is ok. So why do us women struggle with this so much? How come fewer men seem to get blocked by perfectionism?

And why do people actually believe being a perfectionist is something to AIM FOR??

If you tend toward perfectionism, you’re not alone, as these five incredible entrepreneurs and business leaders can attest. 👯‍♀️👯‍♀️👯‍♀️

But it’s also time we ALL take steps to put a stop to it. 🛑 For more, click here and have a listen to today’s episode.  

Or, keep reading, for a sneak-peek at the perils of perfectionism! 😈😈😈 

You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Have an Impact

“On the technical side of things, I'm still a perfectionist. People telling me you should do video. And I was like ‘You have to be an artist to do video, I need to have, you know, I need to hire a videographer and they need a special place in the background looks needs to look nice. And I'm going to have to have a copywriter do the script…’ and I had so many things that needed to happen. And so, it never happened. And then one day, I promised that I was going to put out a video by the end of that month - and so I did it. And the reaction was really good. And that really was a bit of a turning point in my head. And what I put out, it was good. It certainly wasn't perfect. It wasn't what I had envisioned in my mind of what it would look like. But the response! It was impacting people, people were listening and reacting in a way that they had not been to my written words. And so that experience helped me move past the idea of perfectionism because the perfectionism was stopping me from reaching the people that I wanted to reach!”

Ask For – and Learn From - Feedback

“I think that one of the by-products that I've seen, a consequence of perfectionism, has been the micromanaging which will burn you out. And essentially, your team will hate you.

What helps is asking for feedback. I know that we all talk about, getting feedback from your clients and people you've worked with, or various types of collaborations and partnerships. But I don't think that the understanding existed for me at least on how much that can help feed into my, whatever was causing me to try to be perfect within myself, right. So, opening up questions - whether it's clients or other types of people who aren't engaging with us - and asking them what it is that they want. How will we different than somebody else who might have delivered the same service? Well, that sounds like the same old boring research questionnaire. It's humbling and what you get out of that kind of thing, is it feeds into considering that, you know, I have to do everything I possibly can!! Because if I don't, this project will self-implode, you know, that kind of thing. So those proof-points, that feedback, ultimately helps me.”

Cut People Who AREN’T Perfect Some Slack!

“As much as I'm a grammar Nazi, I've bought from people who've had typos, I bought from people who've made mistakes in their marketing, because I thought that they could help me. And more importantly, I thought that they could understand me because that, for me, that's really important when I'm working with someone. So, you know, I kind of gave myself I try to give myself the same grace that I give to other people. So, if the fact that they made a mistake didn't stop me from working with them, I trust that the people who are going to work with me understand that it's a mistake you know, want to work with me regardless.” 

Perfection DOES NOT Equal Professionalism

“I think we could all do with letting go of the belief around being perfect and I have actually eliminated that from my language with my kids. Because I noticed that when I was talking to them that I would say ‘You need to do the job perfectly.’ And I was like Ding, Ding, Ding, this is something that is not going to serve them well, because what is perfect?? You know, what does that even mean? So, I raised a generation whole new generation with this, but, um, yeah, I think that the one of the things that I noticed was maybe that perfection is is, people will associate professionalism with perfection.” 

That last one is so important. Perfection doesn’t equal professionalism. Don’t flog yourself for days over a small error. Click and have a listen. Then accept you have a million other things to offer beyond perfection.

In this episode of INSIGHT: Scaling lessons from the street, the formidable Susan Diaz - chief content strategist at cp.digital – is throwing the hammer down and leading the charge!!

Today’s topic? Thought leadership! 

Susan and her co-hosts Andrea Henry from Henry Business Law; Megan O’Neill, meganoneill.ca; Shelagh Cummins, shelaghcummins.com; and Wendy Brookhouse from Black Star Wealth are going to dissect thought leadership for what it ISN’T (buzzwords) and what it IS (authentic trust-building).

You’ll learn:

💣 How small businesses can break through the digital noise and clutter and BE SEEN.

💣 Why determining your own unique value proposition is so important!

💣 And the importance of establishing your expertise by PUBLISHING the hell out of yourself.

Why should I care, you might be asking?

Because as a small business owner or entrepreneur, being able to say to the world “Hey, look, folks. Here’s what I know. Here’s what I believe in. Here’s what I think is broken. And here’s how I can fix it!” will raise your online trust-quotient and result in pumped-up  lead-generation.

But it takes work. A LOT of work. And a certain amount of vulnerability. So, click to listen to real stories of thought-leadership growth, and get yourself started on the path to becoming a thought leader in your vertical!

And for those of you who want a snapshot of what you’ll hear during this episode, read on!

~~~~~

Eff the Trolls - You’ll be JUST Fine!

“I think the biggest barrier for women is what if what if somebody judges me what if somebody rejects what I'm saying? What if someone takes me to task? What if someone trolls me and leaves nasty comments and, you know, is my reputation going to be damaged? And I think that there comes a time where keeping yourself safe can be the enemy to your success, essentially. And that if you're going to step into this arena as a business leader, a business owner who has something to say, we have to be okay, knowing that people may jab at you, and people may not agree with you. And people may say nasty things, but at the end of the day, you're going to be okay, no matter what! Putting out these ideas and forcing ourselves to grab the microphone and teach because that is essentially how you're going to be creating a client base. It's the fastest way to build trust with someone is to teach them something. And if we sit there, fearful of the ‘what ifs’ we're actually doing a disservice to those who need us the most.”

Yes, Everything’s Been Done Before – But Not With Your Unique Spin On It!

“That's why it took me so long to even make baby steps into thought leadership. Yeah, there's very much a feeling of, ‘Oh, what am I like? There are so many lawyers and so many articles written about the law and business, what would I contribute that’s new?’ And also, I feel sometimes like even saying the things you feel - I'm just boring myself. Like, I’ve already said this or that! And I feel that everyone has heard it and why am I saying it again? But what I've noticed recently is no, it is actually making an impact and maybe other people have said it - but they haven't said it in the way that I’ve said it, right? They haven't used the same words, or they haven't had the same experience to bring to bear on whatever that concept is! If I can actually move people to action because of coming from a different perspective, then that's valuable and having confidence that it is valuable!”   

Shake Off Childhood Beliefs About Lady Leaders!

“I think the word leadership is loaded for a lot of women as well. You know, I've talked to a lot of women about, you know, in terms of what would be the blocks to scaling their business, and it often has to do with leadership. I'm always going back to our conditioning, but essentially, why I go back to conditioning is because that's when your big beliefs are formed, when you're a kid. I grew up in the 1970s. That's kind of when I became conscious as a human being and who were the women around me and I did not see a lot of, for example, women leading businesses and opening up businesses. I saw women in very traditional roles. And, of course, the leaders (were men). I think leadership, we still need to define that for ourselves. I think women need to take out our beliefs that we are emulating men, and that leadership as a female can be what we make it.”

Do What Works for Your Industry

“We've had chats around this, some establishments, certainly finance, legal and many others. You do need, in order to ‘enter the room’ a certain set of expertise, credentials, but once you actually get there YOU - you are the expert, nobody's questioning this, you're just as much of an expert in this room as everyone else in the field. But how you choose to deploy your expertise or the tone of voice, and the messaging is kind of where the opinion comes in. Right? Like you're not saying that you believe there's a different way to add up numbers or a different way to interpret the law. You're merely saying, ‘I can do it while having fun,’ you know, establishing that expertise, and then putting the tone voice and articulation on it or that opinion, so to speak, is going to resonate with the right people.” 

Most of All, Be an Inspiration for Others

“A lot of it has been motivated by the desire to be representative, right? Because it's important for everyone to be able to see themselves reflected in leadership roles. And whereas personally, sometimes I would much prefer to just sit in my office and do the work, I think it's important for people to see someone who looks like them and sounds like them and has had a similar experience to them. You know, stating their opinion and being bold and then making change in their industry or entering their world.”

Amen, sister. AMEN!! Click here for more on thought leadership, the good, the bad, and the ugly – but most importantly – to understand just what an incredible TOOL it is it to have in your business toolbox!

In this episode of INSIGHT: Scaling lessons from the street – can we get a SHOUT OUT for self-care?? 🥰🥰🥰

The old analogy holds true – if you’re on a plane, and the oxygen masks drop – put YOURS ON FIRST before you help anyone else. Because if you’re oxygen deprived – you’re pretty much effed 😜😜😜!

In all seriousness though – self-care is extremely important and never more so than when you’re a busy entrepreneur taking care of business – never mind the kids and house and dog and partner and so on!!

Sadly, societal norms STILL expect women to do the bulk of the work. It’s because we’re so damn nurturing and organized! 😆 But it takes a toll! 

Fear not, because lawyer Andrea Henry from Henry Business Law is in the house today – and she and her co-hosts Susan Diaz, cp.digital; Megan O’Neill, meganoneill.ca; Shelagh Cummins, shelaghcummins.com; and Wendy Brookhouse from Black Star Wealth are here to PREACH 🙏 the importance of self-care, for yourself AND your business!

Make sure you:

🌟 Listen to your body

🌟 Know your limits

🌟 BELIEVE your business will NOT collapse if you prioritize your health!

Your first step toward self-care is to click here, and take a half-hour break to listen to these ladies inspire you to take a stock-check of yourself.

Andrea Henry’s story alone might just stop you in your tracks and motivate you to re-evaluate what’s important – and what isn’t. 🛑 

Want a sampling of what you’ll hear? Read on!

 ~~~

Get Your Financial House in Order! 

“I'd like to chime in a little bit - I see on the money side of things and having that house in order is actually self-care. There are studies that show, you know, 74% financial challenges can impact your emotional health, 40% of mental health issues have a root in finance. So, if you're not looking after your money, it is affecting your self-care in a great, great manner. I tell everyone, just get a plan, go see someone who understands that money isn't just math. And that can guide you through that process and help you set up systems because, again, that will help your self-care and allow you just to focus differently. And think about the stress and anxiety around money. This is where I get on my little bandwagon, if you will, because this is kind of my driving purpose. How I will change the world is by increasing people's financial health and their financial confidence.”

Embrace Micro-Moments

“For me, it's in micro moments. I don't have the luxury of a lot of time at my disposal of unscheduled opportunities. And so, I start my day, with a visioning where I'm actually walking myself through my day, and I use my productive planner, religiously, and everything's laid out and I know what’s coming. There's a sense of calm in that. And I find that then sort of goes across all the different facets of my life. But there’s also that whole idea of what I call micro renewal, the energies that we forget to target. I think when we think self-care, we think about, you know, going and working out, eating healthy food, getting our nails done, getting our hair done. Well, I dislike getting my nails and hair done. And maybe I'm different from the entire female population!”

Find Your Number One ‘Value’

“One of the things that I think that happens and we're all women here and I'm assuming that most of the people listening to us will be women - is I think that we get really disconnected. I can get really disconnected from myself. I used to work with couples, and I would sit down when couples came into my office and they were trying to improve their relationship. And I would get them at the end of our time, I used to ask them to list their five values in the order of importance. So, you know, I'll just give an example - one of mine is fun. And I think that listing your values will give you a clue in what you need to pay attention to. So say fun is one of your values? Or, for me, its nature, like being in nature is a big value to me, I need that I've always had it, I didn't really necessarily understand it was a value until I sort of sat down and started to go through what are my most important values. Because whatever is number one, is what you need to pay attention to!”  

Ditch Old, Negative Beliefs

“The way I operate is that I have lists and every single activity would go on the list, you know, and whether it was 10 minutes out the door to pick up my daughter, or whether it was open the door to collect the groceries or whatever it was, I put it on my time. And that was really quite revolutionary to me, because I discovered how much time I was putting into all of these things, which seemed insignificant, and it fed heavily into, you know, my feelings about myself and my beliefs. And I was like, ‘Well, my mom always said I was lazy, and I really must be lazy if I can't get through my four things on my list!’ when really they multiplied into many other dependencies. Right? So that was a big one for me. Doing the work I did - the deep work which is like, you know, spotting the patterns and then doing the belief work and you know, that kind of stuff to see where this is coming from.” 

There’s LOTS MORE where that 👆👆👆came from – so be sure and click and listen. And please – make time for self-care. Put that oxygen mask on! Because if you don’t do it – who will??

In this episode of INSIGHT: Scaling lessons from the street – what are your products and services worth? Feel slightly nauseated just thinking about it?

My friends, you are not alone. SO MANY women entrepreneurs and business leaders find it difficult to OWN their value! Why is that? And how can we shift that thinking and ensure all you bad-ass women are NOT underpricing yourself anymore!

Today, financial advisor and Blackstar Wealth founder Wendy Brookhouse, and co-hosts Andrea Henry, Henry Business Law, Megan O’Neill, meganoneill.ca, Shelagh Cummins, shelaghcummins.com, and Susan Diaz, cp.digital, are going to help you get down to the nitty-gritty of pricing.

There are five KEY things to keep in mind when putting a price on what you do/sell:

• Factoring in overhead
• Actual costs of goods sold
• Time spent doing X
• What will the market bear?
• PAYING YOURSELF ENOUGH TO HAVE A LIFE 

Yeah. That last one. Amiright? We have ALL been there – pouring everything you have (and much of what you DON’T) into the success of your business. Yeah. Stop doing that. Your time is money. And those household bills aren’t gonna pay themselves! 

So, check out today’s episode of INSIGHT , and STOP undervaluing what you bring to the table!

For those of you who prefer appetizers, here’s a scientifically curated soupçon (that’s French for ‘a pinch of’ – and no, there wasn’t any science involved ) of some of what you’re going to learn on this podcast episode. 

Let’s get started!! 

Value Your Years of Experience

“I stopped pricing based on my time and as a coach. Obviously my fulfillment comes in time block but what people are getting is access to over a decade of helping women grow their business, all of my experience, all of my knowledge, all of the hundreds of courses that I've taken, they're getting access to someone who's not afraid to ask really tough questions and call people out on their BS. It is not based on time. Time is a great way for a service-based business to start pricing. But then like you said, we've got to add in all the other factors. And at the end of the day, I am market rate, I am at the top end of the market rate. And that is because I believe so deeply in the results that I get my women and I see it every day and I make no apologies for that.” 

What Would it Cost to Replace Yourself?

“I know for a while, I thought that I was profitable. And then when someone said, ‘Well, how much are you paying yourself? And is that what you would need to pay to a lawyer? Like, for whatever reason, if you needed to replace yourself…’ I was like, Oh, no, well, then you're not really profitable. Hey, so…nice! We have a false sense of how well we're actually doing. And when you break it down, when you understand and you really allocate for taxes and you pay yourself or at least you put an intention to pay yourself at the right level, you realize actually you need to be charging a lot more than what you're charging. But often we just say, Okay, well, we just need to pay the expenses and that's it - and that causes us to price a lot lower than we should be. So, I think that's great. I'm so thrilled that you have, you know, a step by step plan!”

Keep a Close Eye On Competitors!

“Know what other people are charging. One of our jobs is to understand who our competitors are. And I mean, I believe there's more than enough work for everyone. So, I don't have a negative connotation with competitors. I love that there's choice out there. And that's what the free market is all about, having choice and being able to choose where you spend your dollars. But we have to understand and know market rates and what other people are charging for similar programs. And then you can choose to go higher if you think your program has higher value, or lower if you think they may be a little bit ahead of where you're at. But I love how everybody's saying, let's just remove the emotion from this pricing thing!!”

Ditch Perfect and Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back!

“You can go to do as much training and personal development as you want. But if you implement nothing, you get nothing out of it. So, there's that unknown factor of the person themselves actually activating on what they've learned and how they're going to do it. I'm not sure how to answer that. But I think we have to try. We have to, you know, take a look at what our goals are and what resources we need and then do our best to find the right resources. And we shouldn't let the fear of picking the wrong one, prevent us from actually trying something - and I think that's another thing that can hold us back sometimes is that we're - this will play into the perfectionist conversation - but it's around trying to be perfect. So therefore, you do nothing.”

Stand Behind Your Price

“Stand behind your price and stand behind the value that you bring. And it is just a number. It represents nothing more than a number. And we can choose to buy into the people around us, the criticism, or you just hold your course and stand behind the value that you bring, which is what I mean when I talk about being in full integrity with the value you bring.”

So, there’s just a brief overview of what we talk about in this episode of INSIGHTS. You really should click the link and have a listen to the whole thing. And watch this space for more from this incredible group of women!

Shelagh Cummins, of Cummins and Co, introduces the topic of pricing. 

How do you price your services? 

This is a two part series. 

This first part talks about about the mindset and the belief systems and what we’ve noticed about women and pricing.

And next week, we'll talk about some really amazing strategies of how to set your prices, moderated by Wendy Brookhouse of Blackstar Wealth. 

On to this episode.

“You know, I noticed there are two schools of entrepreneurs that I see I see that there are those things entrepreneurs who are struggling, and those who are profitable. And the struggling entrepreneurs, I noticed tend to be scared to ask for money or to state their fees.” says Shelagh, getting the discussion straight to the point!

Listen to the episode for the power packed short discussion.

Are we afraid? Why?

Shelagh, joined by Andrea Henry of Henry Business Law, Megan O’Neill of Megan O’Neill, Susan Diaz of c+p digital and Wendy Brookhouse of Blackstar Wealth, tackles the question.

“And I do think it's because they are afraid of rejection. Whereas when I see an entrepreneur who is thriving and profitable, and you know more clients than she knows what to do with, it's usually because she knows that her fees are just simply a filter for the clients that she'd love to work with. And so when we see a struggling entrepreneur, I see them where everything is about money. Money is like oxygen to them. Whereas when I see an entrepreneur that's thriving, money is just simply money. It's a series of ones and zeros. It's just binary. There's nothing to it, it is just money. I noticed that when entrepreneurs are struggling, that they tend to hide and they go back into Take more courses and they're never ready to launch and they're afraid to make a booking they're afraid to make offers. Whereas when a woman entrepreneur is thriving, I feel like she knows that her credentials are irrelevant because the only question that her clients will ask her is, can you help me? So ladies, I'm really curious about you and your connection to pricing. I know that there's many women in my circles and myself included who have struggled when it came to setting a price but increasing their prices so that we met market value. 

Is this something that you've experienced in your business growth?”

Wendy Brookhouse 

“I see it all the time with my clients, but I've been through the journey myself, especially in my industry where we're kind of trained to not ask for money. You know, you're going to get paid by the Commission's on the things that you might sell. And so it's almost like we're expected to do all the planning work on speculation. That, okay, if we do a good enough job on the planning, then maybe they'll use us for all the implementation piece. So even just changing that for me and starting to ask for any dollars was super tough because the industry just doesn't do it. Right. And then I think that the hard part is is how do you ask because even though now that I'm much I'm very confident in the results I I can generate for people and I'm very confident that I know I can make a difference. You still have that butterfly every time you put the price on the table.”

“you know, it's interesting because I feel like when we talk about money, it does tend to be a female issue. And I may be stepping into hot water here by putting that out there, but there are very few men who will who struggle as much about pricing their services as women's do. Why do you think that is 

Susan Diaz 

“It's a it's a lot of conditioning in my case, and in the case of several people that I've spoken to, there's a line that a friend of mine's husband said, which I've taken away and I use it with myself a lot. It's ‘price like a man’. It's like, you know, don't be apologetic to to do the thing that It needs to be done.” 

Start with what is this going to cost you? 

What is your profit margin? 

How much do you have to pay CRA? 

And then you know back to Wendy's point you're taking some of that, you know, personal thing out of it if you will - it's one thing on the rejection side, but on the other side it's like when you put out a number and you're working towards it, it helps to not get personal and emotional as far as I'm concerned. But I do. I do get personal and emotional and then I'm like, how am I making this cheaper? What will my friend think if I say that this is what my service costs?? and oh my god should I forgo my percentage of profit?? 

Well, no! you run a business and you need to make sure that the lights are on and the doors stay open. So I think it's kind of money that has whole lot of emotion. But in terms of approaching it, I find separating that emotion is what helps me get to the place I want to be”

Megan O’Neill comments on the mindset behind what a price represents to people:

“Yeah. And you said the magic word belief. So I, you know, I've been doing what I do, which is mindset. I've been the mindset expert for almost 20 years now. And I have been through this myself, this has been coming out of the gate. I think that one of the reasons why I struggled was two things I wasn't brought up. So the conditioning, like Susan said, I had an employee mom, she was a nurse, no one ever negotiated, never negotiated anything. And for a couple years, when I got to the university, I was working contract and I had to negotiate my contracts. And I, I got everybody else to do it for me. I just, essentially they handed me what I should, should accept and accept. I didn't question it. And it has a lot to do with just not having that. I don't think we have I think women in particular don't think you're in hot water for saying that. I think that's the truth. That we weren't taught how to value our skill set. I don't think that was something. I mean, how many of you had mothers who volunteered as the PTA mom or whatever, and spent a lot of time donating your time. And it was just considered to be a sort of ghost subject money, right and to price yourself. So when I came out of the gates, and I had to charge people right away, I struggled with this a lot. And I think what my go to was was to leave it to other people to determine what my prices were. So they call it price sourcing. I'm sure you know all about this. And you might see this today by people asking, you know, their their group, maybe their mastermind group or their Facebook group or even their spouse, God forbid, don't ask your spouse because they, especially if they're nine to fiver, and because I did that, and they asked everybody else because I think we are afraid of taking responsibility. I think women maybe Wendy will disagree with this, but I think women often don't want to take responsibility for money. I think we're still afraid of it. I think we have a lot of beliefs around that. And I think it's easier to give it to other people or power to other people. I mean, what do we believe about when you ask someone for money and their reaction is, and I was telling my clients this, the reaction of the other person is well, I don't know, I don't know it's a little too expensive, or whatever the reaction is, that's their belief about what they value. I mean, it really comes down to not a personal thing. It's not that there's something wrong necessarily with your price or what you do. It's what people believe about money themselves. So you're taking on their baggage, essentially. No.”

Andrea Henry

“And I think for me, I know for a lot of my clients, especially when women are running service based businesses, which a lot of us run, there is a difficulty to charge for what is a service for what you think You should do for free. And I think as women, we've been conditioned what Megan was talking about, like, seeing our mothers volunteer, etc, we've been conditioned that we should give of our time freely, it's a good thing. It's it's charitable to give of our time. And so it feels icky. To charge for something that you think that you should be given for free. I've seen a lot of plants, and especially people in the alternative health space, who have clever gifts, and who feel horrible about charging for that gift. Because within that community, the idea is that you've received it you have this particular talent or this particular, you know, your senses are heightened, and that you shouldn't make money from it. And for me, it was difficult. I thought, you know, one of the reasons for starting the firm was because legal, legal services are so expensive, and wanting to make them more accessible for people and the way how I got over it The process of getting over it is to really look at the value, right? So what Wendy was talking about, if you see what it is that you can do for clients, it makes a big difference in being able to set prices. The other thing is understanding that people for a long time I was just like, well, these things are expensive. And because I would have struggled to pay for some of the things that I was charging right at the beginning, I felt like no one else had the money to be able to do it. And then I saw people who had said that my services were too expensive dressing designer from head to toe, you know, dry, really nice cars on Instagram and Costa Rica and Bali. And I realized that I know people have money, they just decide where to spend it. And so it kind of removes the this is too expensive or they're rejecting me or I've set my prices is too much tomorrow. Am I doing a good enough job and explaining what the value is?

“Let's remove the emotion from it and just see money as money. Money is just that it's money. Money in itself is an abstract entity. And I think we've seen this happen in our lifetime anyway through the cryptocurrency phase where people are creating banks out of nothing and are trading these invisible coins back and forth. And there's not even a physical representation of it. I mean, money is just a thing. And when we can separate that out and go through a very sequential and structured process to figure out our price, I think that is step one. And I also want to pick up on an undertone of what everybody else said was, and this is something that I noticed I have to do with my clients right away is is help them get in and take greedy with the value that they bring. And when we talk about that, and when I bring up that concept, it is standing behind the results that you bring to your audience. And when you can answer the question, how can you help me from one of your clients? There's nothing about that that's related to money. It's about the health and people will pay for health. And they're allowed to tell you that it's too expensive for them. That's their choice. We can't control that. But we can choose whether we're going to buy into that scarcity mindset or not. I'm really excited to segue into the part two of this podcast in terms of, well how do we set our price give us a structure so that we know that we're at least hitting market rate, if not going above and if there's one thing that I'd love for you to be known for. Its that you might be expensive, but you're worth the investment and the more work that you do that changes people's lives, the easier it will be to offer to do that same work to more people. And that is the difference between a successful and thriving entrepreneur, and an entrepreneur who is struggling. And so if you are noticing that you keep going and taking more courses and you're not talking to people, and you're not making offers and telling about what it is that you do, then I'm going to encourage you to go and look for evidence that the work that you do through either your service or your product, go and find the impact of that on someone else's life. Money is just money. How do you raise your rates? You go in and you change the numbers. That's it. Really excited for part two of this podcast.”

Welcome back to Insights: Scaling lessons from the street, where five bad-ass female marketers, personal development experts, entrepreneurs and business leaders share their real truths!

 I’m Shelagh Cummins (shelaghcummins.com), a business coach and entrepreneur, and today -  alongside my co-hosts Susan Diaz, founder and CEO of cp.digital, mindset mentor Megan O'Neill, meganoneill.ca , Andrea Henry from Henry Business Law, and Wendy Brookhouse, Blackstar Wealth founder and Chief Strategist – we’re going to do a deep-dive into FAILURE.

 YAY! 😂😂😂

 In all seriousness though, let’s be real, failure – or the FEAR of failure – is something all of us have experienced at one point or another in our lives.

 And it’s something we all have to conquer! So, get ready to be challenged!!

 🧨 Failure is a part of business growth, so for 2020, set an IMPOSSIBLE GOAL and embrace the fact that you probably won’t reach it! 😬

🧨 Use every single interaction with failure as a learning point for you AND your business.

🧨 TAKE THAT RISK, even if it means you might fail!

 Bottom line – don’t be afraid of failure anymore. Instead pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and use times of “so called” failure as a jumping off point for more greatness and success!!

 Now, take a sneak peek at how this combustible crowd of creatives handle fear 😱😱😱 – where it has impacted them the most, and how it has changed their business lives! 

“I had a pretty interesting episode involving failure in 2019. For sure. Many of you who know me know that I set out at the start of 2019, saying that I was going to go for a whole million at the end of that year. And that was my goal. And I was obsessed with it. I hired for it, built the systems, I did all of the things. But then it didn't go there. It was something that I made my peace with very early, because that's not the kind of thing that comes as a surprise in the last month. And the reason it wasn't going to that was because I was in that moment targeting a few types of clients that were really not right for the type of business that we were building. We found that we were in touch with the wrong people, things fell through and that kind of stuff only happens when the system isn't serving you as well as you hoped it would. I guess that's my sort of “learning” from that.”

 “Entrepreneurship is risky. You're never going to work harder and put more energy into anything than running your own business. And we have to be okay with not having everything work out. And yeah, a million dollars was your goal. We're going to call that an impossible business goal for 2019. But it's not a goal we're going to remove from your vision…you know, we got to keep the million on the vision if that's what you want, but it doesn't mean it has to be By December 31 2020, but let's at least move forward as if that is a reality!”

 “I hope that the listeners are listening really close as we have to remove who we are from the results of our business. And especially if you know your sales process is either in person face to face or over the phone and having conversations. The reality is we're going to get NO, probably, more often than we get YES. But no is not a reflection on who we are. It's that they are not ready for that offer at that time. And, you know, we can try and coach them through the buying decision, we can do all that - you got to do what works for you. But we have to remove our self-worth from the outcome that we get. Because at the end of the day, if you make a sale or you don't make a sale, you are still the same woman that's sitting on the other side of that table!”

 “I think what's helped me become a lot more comfortable with the concept of failing is viewing it as an experimentation. Susan, you and I were having this conversation recently where it's just like, I want to try! And either it will work out wonderfully which is a bit eternal optimist. I always think it will work beautifully. And if it doesn't, well, now I've learned and maybe I need to tweak this, or maybe this, or maybe that. Now you're like, Oh, I thought I wanted that. But…Actually I don't. I think keeping that spirit of experimentation and not putting so much pressure on the outcome, we can only control the input, right? We can't control the outcome. So, control where we can and kind of leave the rest to the universe.”

 Amen, Sistah. AMEN. 🙏🙏🙏

 Enjoy!!

This week on Insights: Scaling lessons from the street, the indefatigable Andrea Henry from Henry Business Law is in da house 👏👏👏 !! A business lawyer who works primarily with women entrepreneurs to protect their businesses so that they can grow with confidence, she’s joined by her fellow hosts Susan Diaz, founder and CEO of cp.digital, business coach Shelagh Cummins, shelaghcummins.com, mindset mentor Megan O'Neill, meganoneill.ca  and Wendy Brookhouse, Blackstar Wealth founder and Chief Strategist, to talk about the state of Women's Entrepreneurship. 

💥 WHY are women three and a half times less likely to break the $1 million in revenue mark than men?

💥 WHAT is stopping women entrepreneurs from big-time success? 

💥 HOW COME there are so many more restrictions and challenges for women when it comes to funding their businesses?

As Andrea Henry says, “I really genuinely feel we should all be millionaires. I think entrepreneurship is the way to do it.”

Same, girl. Same. 

Here’s just a taste of what these fierce female marketing warriors are talking about today!

“…you know, the most common number I hear is, well, we're just trying to get over six figures. But when you make six figures in your company, that's fantastic. But it is not enough to live. If you go from the adage that we pull 30% of to pay ourselves and no matter where you live, living on a $30,000 salary, while possible is really difficult. And so yes, six figures is a great option if that's what it is that you want.”

“…there are a couple of things that have been active challenges me this year one of them has been funding. It's like the same level of, shall we say, the conservative approach that keeps Canada from tanking is also what prevents the system from investing in the higher risk opportunities, which is really what we are, right, and I've learned how to define myself quite early. And I know that my appetite for risk and growth is high.”

“I do think it goes back to I think we have beliefs about what power means. So, for example, say you reach that seven figure level, I think that we still are creating the new beliefs herself of what that means. What does it mean to be powerful? Because we're seeing it through a male prism? I think, yes, that's my experience.”

“But we as women have to step in and step up and ask for what it is that we need. And I often see women playing small because they are afraid that it's actually going to work and what is that going to cost them. And so, if we can help women see that growing your business requires support and help and the help doesn't have to just be within the business. And if we're going to do this, and if we are in a partnership, asking for what we need from our partner, to be able to support us to step out on this platform is just as critical as asking for access to capital.”

“[To succeed] we need help around the house. We've gotta ask, and stop putting all that pressure on us to do more and more and more and more. And you know, even 40 years ago, there was less expectations on women. The role was very clearly defined. Some people were struggling with two different sets of expectations of both work and at home. But we've kind of done it to ourselves in a way. And so, I think we train people how to treat us. And if how we are being treated isn't working, or how our businesses running isn't working, we have to take the onus and step in and ask for help.”

And that’s just a snapshot of the kind of honest, REAL TRUTH TELLING talk you’ll hear on every episode of Insights! And this episode is no exception!

Enjoy!

IMPOSTER SYNDROME:

Are you struggling with imposter syndrome? 

🔥 Sensing a little self-doubt and self-sabotage creeping in? 

🔥 Are you starting to undermine yourself? 

🔥 Doubting your validity or place in the work or business world? 

🔥 Are you stuck in a pattern of procrastination to where your work output has stalled?

🔥 Feeling reactive more often than proactive?

Well, congrats!! You have Imposter Syndrome! But fear not – you sure as hell are NOT alone.

This week on Insights: Scaling lessons from the street, Mindset Mentor Megan O'Neill talks with fellow hosts Susan Diaz, founder and CEO of cp.digital, Andrea Henry, Henry Business Law, Shelagh Cummins, shelaghcummins.com, and Wendy Brookhouse from Blackstar Wealth about how almost every single woman struggles with imposter syndrome, and walks us through how we can empower ourselves to push through it and thrive as successful entrepreneurs. 👏👏👏

Here’s just a taste of some of the incredible, well, INSIGHTS you will glean from this episode!! 

“Whether you're in the corporate world, whether you are an entrepreneur, it doesn't matter also how much education now, I just think about one woman I worked with, and she had every single Ivy League, you know, sort of letters behind her name, her experience. And yet she was continuing to seek education as a way to validate yourself. Not that I mean, we're always I think we always want to learn, we always want to go on, but when does that become an excuse?”

“I think for a lot of us, it's scary to position yourself as an authority. Because once you are very visible and once you establish yourself as a leader, you open yourself up to criticism, you open yourself up to people not liking you, and criticizing you. And I think in our head, it's been important (for) women to survive by being amenable and pleasant and ‘blend in’able’. And so, to step out as a leader, and to open yourself up to that criticism, even though intellectually you understand it can really hurt you, deep within it feels very scary.”

“The first thing I always ask people to do is look at their beliefs. I mean, they fuel how you see the world. And I think that a lot of the beliefs that we are still running on, is exactly what Andrew was talking about, often childhood beliefs that we inherited, mostly from our mothers in our society that we need to catch ourselves on. So, what is it that makes you feel that you have to be qualified? I know that when they've done studies, that men do not have the same imposter syndrome. I remember hearing about the study…where they created jobs, like for a blue-chip company like IBM or something along those lines….and not one of [the women] applied for the job. But men who did not have the qualifications applied for the job! And when they said to the women, ‘well, why didn't you apply for this job?’ They said, Well, I just wasn't qualified, didn't have enough experience. And when they asked the men who weren't qualified, why did you apply for this job? The men said, well, because I could learn it on my feet. And I just don't think we give ourselves enough permission to learn it on our feet and/or to not know it all.”

“So, I'm a very black and white person. I'm very transactional. Everything is a process of structure. But I have this whole woo woo side that I've sort of been tapping into in the last five years. And for me, visualization for me has been a game changer. And so, you know, visualizing the worst-case scenario like we were talking about before, and understanding how to mitigate it, and then understanding how to fix it, if it does happen - has been huge. But I've also been heavily coached at every step of the way. And even now, as I'm making more pivots and leveraging and scaling myself, I'm still being coached so that I'm not doing it all on my own.” 

That’s just a snapshot of the kind of honest, mean-streets, “We’ve gotten our hands dirty and we’re not afraid of truth telling!” talk you’ll hear on this week’s episode of Insight! 

In this episode of INSIGHT: Scaling lessons from the street – remember Y2K? Sounds absolutely charming in this day and age, doesn’t it? There’s no question technology has advanced BEYOND anything we thought possible 20 years ago – but to what end? Are we better off for it?

Yes, we have ALL THE KNOWLEDGE at our fingertips - we learn online, we shop online, we form relationships online, we run our businesses online.

But we certainly don’t live in a Jetsons world of automation and the latest tech making our lives better – in fact, more often than not, especially when running a business, it can really throw a wrench into our days!

When it’s not cooperating, digital technology can end up costing us $$$ in wasted time, lost or unhappy clients, even just the sheer frustration of something that’s SUPPOSED TO WORK not working after all can make you nuts!

So, today, Susan Diaz, founder and CEO of cp.digital, plus her co-hosts Andrea Henry, Henry Business Law, Megan O’Neill, meganoneill.ca, Shelagh Cummins, shelaghcummins.com, and Wendy Brookhouse from Blackstar Wealth are going to share their in-the-trenches experiences with digital technology!

The Good, the Bad, and the UGLY! 

So, let’s get started!

“I want to set this off and talk about something that plagues me…How far have we really come in two decades? How far has the digital transformation that we claim that we're all a big part of really come? What is working for us? How does that sort of slice and dice for small businesses, especially women owned small businesses…on the upside, I think it's opened up a lot of technology solutions…my mind sort of comes back to that idea of being proactive - I often like to talk about how until the end of last year, I hadn't met my largest client or my therapist - like the opportunity in front of us is to take this giant open space, that is technology and see where we can apply it to our businesses and our lives and so much beyond really it goes into.”

Susan Diaz, founder and CEO of cp.digital

Someone who’s one THOUSAND percent embraced tech for her business in financial services is Wendy Brookhouse.  

“I deal with investment companies and insurance companies, and they are just starting to understand digital and starting to deploy some of the tools that we would think would be so natural for them to do….I find digital fascinating and I spend a lot of time actually going to conferences and seeing what's next because I do think there's ways that it can make my job easier and make my clients lives easier…BUT think about how much your time is worth, right, and let's even just go simple as bookkeeping, or you know, social media, whatever it is, chances are someone else can do it better faster than you can. It's their unique ability, whereas your unique ability…earns you a hundred to two hundred dollars an hour! Whatever that number is. You should focus on that. So that if you're paying someone $50 an hour at X task, you know, they're going to do a whole bunch more than you would have.” Wendy Brookhouse, Blackstar Wealth

And they’re going to do it faster and more economically than you would – stay on YOUR genius track, and let others use theirs to help you!

“It’s totally changed the nature of my business, where I can go online and learn from someone in Australia or someone in Europe or someone in Toronto (I'm in Ottawa). The other side of it though, and I love I love the social media platforms. I'm really excited to pretty well have met all of you I think that way. But on the other hand [you] have to learn how to disconnect more That's, that's what I find that is the challenge for me. My mind gets tired quickly. [Systems could be more intuitive, too]… I'm so challenged in this area. I guess as we start to get women who are designing [software] more, hopefully, I mean, this is what we hope the future will be. It will be more intuitive for us, and that it won't be such a frustration. I think a lot of women are also really intimidated. I have women who were older who were starting into their second careers, and they are very intimidated by technology.” Megan O’Neill, meganoneill.ca

Regulated Industries Are Just Starting to Catch Up! 

Regulated industries like finance and the law definitely have a way to go when it comes to shaking off legacy systems and embracing tech – but they’re getting there!!

“I really love technology. It's made a huge difference in my business. it's really allowed for a lot of flexibility. I think, particularly for women, the legal profession would be sort of similar to what Wendy was saying in terms of I don't think the industry has really caught up with all of the various things that we can do with technology. And some of the rules and regulations are kind of stuck 20 years in the past and aren't really reflective of how clients want to do business, right?  People don't necessarily want to have to drive an hour to see you and then look for parking and traffic. Because we're busy people. So, I think some of the more traditional professions could be more welcoming of technology and could understand that this is how the world is. [ALSO], accept technology as a tool, and understand that it can be a tool in our business, but it doesn't need to be a tool that's wielded by us necessarily.” Andrea Henry, Henry Business Law

Yes, Sometimes Technology Can Be Isolating

“In my practice, I focused solely on women entrepreneurs. And what I've seen over the last decade is the ease with which someone can start a business now is tenfold what it used to be. I was one of those people who had to take my parents commute computer to go put a modem in it, because there's this thing called the internet and then you could start emailing! So that's just dating myself a bit (LOL) but…it's been amazing to live the evolution. Because the opportunity that’s sitting in front of us is unlimited. It opens every door and it removes every boundary. It removes geography from the equation, it gives us access to people that we wouldn't normally have. And I think that's amazing. On the flip side, a little bit of my rant, we are living in a world that is completely disconnected [from each other], where the rates of depression are skyrocketing, where people have never felt more lonely and are self-soothing, through very harmful practices of alcoholism, drug use, medicating, you know, shopping, whatever their modality is to help them feel better.” Shelagh Cummins, shelaghcummins.com

That’s just a snapshot of what really is a fascinating conversation/window into our post Y2K, digital technology world – how it impacts women, and especially women entrepreneurs. There’s also a great list of the technology that we all use to help make our businesses run smoothly (well, most of the time!) 😂