We need to address this important part of the journey ahead of you; the one that is often called ‘The Inner Game’.

Welcome to True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. In the last episode of this first series, Karen shares the five strategies that have helped her step up and grow over the years.

If you have been listening to all the episodes in this first series, thank you and congratulations! Hopefully, by listening to this podcast, you have decided that you are definitely up for playing bigger and growing your business.

However, your success is ultimately decided by how well you are able to play this Inner Game; how well you deal with the thoughts, worries and doubts you will experience as you go about your business growth plans. It really doesn’t matter how crystal clear your Big Vision is or how brilliant your 90-day plan is, if you let your fears and doubts pull you back from thinking bigger and taking action, you will play small.

When you start to grow and scale up your business, there are four areas of your business model that either move you forward, or stifle your growth.

Welcome to True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. In this episode, Karen is diving into the four choices you have of how you sell and deliver, and how these four choices help you decide which business model would work best for you.

These four areas in your business that can either fuel you or burn you out; these are your top four potential energy, time and profit drainers and/or energisers in your business. We recommend that you get a copy of the True Profit Workbook that accompanies Karen's book and find the worksheet on Page 29 (click here to download a copy).  As you listen to this episode and hear Karen take you through all four categories, make notes on what shows up for you before you decide on what your percentage allocations could be.

There’s one final note to draw your attention to as you listen to this episode. The common response to decisions here are often how-do-I questions. Put these questions to one side for now because they will hold you back and your energy will start to want to Lean In (go back and listen to Episode 5 for more on these energies). Lean Back throughout this episode and ensure you are feeling into what your intuition is telling you, rather than thinking about what action to take.

To explore this further, there are some working examples of how these percentages may work together demonstrated in Chapter 6 of Karen's book, True Profit Business.

Your business model is the way you decide to sell and deliver what it is you offer your clients and customers. There has been a huge push on designing and creating digital businesses in recent years and yet digital is NOT always the right path to take for many entrepreneurs and small business models.

Welcome to True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. In this episode, Karen is be taking you through the four core business models - freelancer, consultant, agency and digital - and will be helping you decide which one could work best for you.

Most people end up with a business model based on one of two things; either a business model based on what everyone else in your professional has or a business model based on what you've been taught to be the most profitable or easiest to run. What this means is that most people's businesses are out of alignment to their True Profit Compass, which can lead to burning out.

Karen dispels the myth that time-for-money is bad for business and helps you see that following a formula that promises you the quickest and easiest way of making money is not always the most profitable or even healthy for your mind, body and spirit.

Once you've listened, make sure you take the True Profit Test and be ready for next week's episode. Click here to find out more. 

Ever wished you could pull out a navigation tool when you find yourself lost in your business and need help making a decision on which direction to take next?

Now you can.

Welcome to True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. In this episode, Karen will take you through this simple yet powerful tool to help you decide what you want and, more importantly, what you need your business to give you to ensure you get the results you want.

It's easy to get caught up with Instagram versions of what business success looks like and not truly connect with what's important to YOU. And this is what the True Profit Compass can help with.

As you probably know, a compass is an instrument used for navigation, but it doesn’t tell you which direction to take. It aligns you to the magnetic North so you can orientate yourself before making a decision on which way to go next. This is how your True Profit Compass works. It’s not designed to tell you which direction to take with your business but centres you in on what your business needs to fuel you with to enable you to grow and scale, without burning out.

Your business instinct is far stronger than you give it credit for and this tool is your opportunity to recalibrate and define clearly what it is you need from your business to enable you to play your bigger game. Once you are clear on what these needs are, you’ll be able to align your future decisions and growth plans with them. This means that when you do decide you need to buy a course, invest in a new marketing strategy or pay for a mentor to help you with a particular project, you will know that the external help won’t distract you with busy-ness but will set the pace and direction to take you on your growth path to create your True Profit Business.

Once you've listened, take the first step to work out what needs to be on your True Profit Compass and take the True Profit Test. Click here to find out more. 

Lean In was a phrase originally coined by Sheryl Sanberg in her eponymous book. The book taught women to take personal responsibility of stepping up and being heard to rebalance diversity in the workplace. However, as Karen discovered over recent years, Leaning In can lead to burning out and exhaustion.

Lean In is a push energy, helping you focus and take action. It's an important energy needed within business growth for solving here-and-now problems, making decisions and confidently moving forward with plans. But, like most things in life, we need polarity to realise our potential; we need to swing back the other way and harness the Lean Back energy to help expand strategic thinking, visioning, reviewing and connection with intuition.

Welcome to True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. Following on from Episode 2, The doing and being of business, this episode takes you through these two energies, Lean In and Lean Back, and gives you a kinaesthetic and practical way of helping you understand how to harness both the doingness and beingness.

After you've listened, we'd recommend you run through the exercises that Karen gives you in Chapter 4 and shows you how to harness both the Lean In and Lean Back energies within your working week.

Business success is often defined by following metrics such as '10X growth', '7-figure business' or 'increasing sales by 20% next quarter'. However, if you have been running your own business for a while, you will absolutely know that growth rarely shows up a steady and consistent straight-line upwards.

Business growth is a flow; an up and down, a roundabout and back again. It is a rhythmical and cyclical process that is often governed by external factors, what's happening in our personal lives, our hormone fluctuations and even the moon cycle and the seasons.

Welcome to True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. In this episode, Karen Skidmore takes you through the True Profit Growth Flow and dives into the Sell Then Create process.

Sell Then Create is the same strategy that Karen has used for the past 15+ years in her own business and although some people can find it quite stressful if they tend to be perfectionists (or control freaks LOL), it is one of the most effective ways of taking a new product, course, programme or service offering to market. It can save you thousands of pounds in marketing mistakes and hours of wasted copywriting and branding.

You can see the Growth Flow model in detail on Page 87 of Karen's book, True Profit Business and read the full story of how she launched her GID School of Marketing and took it through the True Profit Growth Flow over the following three years in Chapter 4.

Is all your focus on sales and marketing?

There's no doubt you need to be thinking and taking action on your marketing plans and sales, but too many business owners only focus on where their next clients are coming from. All their time and attention is on marketing, product creation, launches and selling.

When you do this, you often find that you have designed and created an incredible penthouse business through big product launches and high ticket sale events. But when you've decided to grow and scale-up and tried to do your product launches again and again and again, you suffer from launch fatigue and often feel burnt out. When this happens, it's because you've not paid enough attention to the 10 or 20 floors below to hold up your penthouse business; the infrastructure, systems, processes and people to support your growth.

Welcome to True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. In this episode, Karen Skidmore takes you through the five True Profit Growth Pillars; Purpose, Planning, Power, Process and People.

In Karen's book, True Profit Business, you can more detail of how each of these pillars in Chapter 3, as well as range of practical exercises that will help you review, reflect and plan what action to take to start building these pillars in your business.

But before you go off and do these exercises, listen in to this overview of how they all work together.

Get a copy of the True Profit Test https://karenskidmore.com/takethetest/

Join us in our Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/trueprofit/

Order the paperback book https://www.amazon.co.uk/True-Profit-Business-without-burning/dp/1788600843/

Order the Kindle e-book  https://www.amazon.co.uk/True-Profit-Business-without-burning-ebook/dp/B07W4DLWVZ/

Do you run on adrenaline or realise that you have taken on too many responsibilities to effectively keep up with all the stuff that needs doing in your business each week? Then perhaps you are a Dominate Do-er.

Or perhaps you find yourself procrastinating or find it hard to take risks and are even fearful of becoming visible and getting yourself 'out there'? Then maybe you are a Dominate Be-er. 

Welcome to True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. In this episode, Karen Skidmore discusses the doing and being of business.

Our energy and the way we react, respond and move about our day-to-day lives come from two places; our doing energy and our being energy. These polarities show up in our left and right brains, the sun and moon, yin and yang, and in our heads and hearts.

The focus of most business teaching and training is very doing; marketing metrics, profit and loss accounts, digital dashboards and social algorithms. Success is often defined by numbers and taking action is always celebrated. Yes, there’s no doubt that we need to do and take action on our intentions, but too much doing energy often leads to burn out.

During this episode, Karen takes you through the profiles of Dominant Do-ers and Dominate Be-ers, she tells her story of how she allowed the Dominate Do-er in her took her to the extreme and explains how you need to find a way of using both powers to enable you to play your biggest game.

One is not better than the other. You need to access both to fulfil your potential and grow.

Welcome to the very first episode of True Profit Business, the podcast that dives into what it really takes to create a purposeful, playful and profitable business. 

In this episode, Karen Skidmore kicks off this first series by diving into the topic of playing big and how big your big needs to be when it comes to your business growth.

It’s easy to get stuck on the marketing conveyor belt, focusing your time and energy on launching new products, building more marketing funnels and keeping up with your content sharing on social media. But what’s it all for? Where are you really headed? 

Listen in as Karen highlights the dangers of following the Pied Piper marketing gurus and other people’s interpretations of success, helps you reflect on what you really want out of your business growth and then sets the scene for the upcoming episodes that will not only give you a practical road map to follow but also teach you how to connect and trust your intuition and gut when making decisions for your future business growth.

Further resources available to you

Get a copy of the True Profit Test https://karenskidmore.com/takethetest/

Join us in our Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/trueprofit/

Order the paperback book https://www.amazon.co.uk/True-Profit-Business-without-burning/dp/1788600843/

Order the Kindle e-book  https://www.amazon.co.uk/True-Profit-Business-without-burning-ebook/dp/B07W4DLWVZ/

If you’ve decided to go it alone and grow your own business, you may be finding it tough to make things work. The pace of life is getting faster, our benchmarks for success ever higher, and thousands of micro-business owners are facing entrepreneurial burnout. 

If you are ready to make money, make an impact and thrive in the process, then this podcast will help give you a simpler, more connected path to business success.

Hosted by Karen Skidmore, a digital broadcaster, writer and business mentor with 25+ years’ experience. She’s survived burnout herself and now works with coaches, experts and business leaders to create the right infrastructure, systems and team to grow their business. 

This first series is a solo-series in which Karen shares her insights into what it takes to build a successful business and dives into the content of her new book, True Profit Business, which is available right now from all major book stores and sites. 

Order Paperback https://www.amazon.co.uk/True-Profit-Business-without-burning/dp/1788600843/

Order Kindle https://www.amazon.co.uk/True-Profit-Business-without-burning-ebook/dp/B07W4DLWVZ/