Nicola's musing, not for the first time, on how important it is to know yourself in business. She reveals some of her less attractive personality quirks and how they manifest in her business life. If you recognise yourself in any of this business behaviour, you might do well to hire a mentor/coach, as talking it through with someone usually helps. A good mentor/coach is not just there for the business strategy / tactics, but to support you work through the emotional side of things too!

Clicks And Leads is a "tongue in cheek" digital marketing Vzine by entrepreneur, author, podcaster, speaker, Nicola Cairncross.

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Okay, well welcome to the V-Zine this week. There's been a big change in my business. A very, very trusty V.A., Sara, has gone off to do her own thing, and passes new, etc. And, I've been training and inducting a new V.A., who comes from the Philippines. I did look at people around Europe, but the standout application hands down on the covering letter was this lady Margelle, so she's on for a month's trial, and fingers crossed that'll go okay.

The whole changeover thing was quite an emotional experience for me, and it made me think a lot about my various personality quirks, and how my feelings are affected by business things, and how that then, in turn, affects my business performance. The middle section this week is all about that, and I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you recognise perhaps some traits in yourself that I could help you get over if I was your coach and mentor perhaps. I hope you enjoy that section. Let me know, as always, I welcome your comments underneath where you're seeing this video.

Good morning, it's Nicola here, and I'm embarking on a set of videos this week that are revealing all the dark, dirty secrets of my personality. Now, I'm going to reveal something about myself.

I am a co-dependent personality type. Lots of reason for this. Didn't have a very great childhood. Mom was a bit mad, disappearing parent, but I think I managed to get on quite well regardless, and I think that I know enough about myself to be able to overcome my shortcomings in business.

One of the first things that occurred to me when I was thinking about this whole personality type and how it affects you in business and me being a bit co-dependent is that I tend to pay myself last. I tend to put myself at the back of the queue for paying myself a salary for my business. I'll pay everybody first, including all my suppliers, and I will very rarely try and negotiate instalments and things like that. If things come along that knock my financial boat off its moorings.

What I've started to do recently, is to go along with the precepts put forward in a book called Profit First by Michael Mich... I can never say his name, Michalowicz. An absolutely brilliant book. It's all about what is the point of being in business if you're not taking a profit out of the business.

Because, if you don't pay yourself first, then you're the most important person in the business. You're the one that has to get up every morning. You're the one that has to make things happen, and if you're not getting paid a decent living wage from your business, then what is the point? You have to ask yourself.

So there it is, that's the first thing. Pay yourself first, pay yourself well, and don't let yourself be at the back of the queue to get paid from your business.

Now, another thing I tend to do as a co-dependent personality type is to put everybody else's feelings first, to take responsibility for the feelings and the happiness of the people in my business. And that's one of the reasons why I've hesitated to hire people.