6 “gurus” and thought leaders, including myself, share their biggest fears
6 “gurus” and thought leaders, including myself, share their biggest fears they battle with as successful entrepreneurs… can you relate?
More tips & best practices from 50 successful coaches and transformational thought leaders…
…and the two questions that were my most powerful takeaways from this Thought Leader Business Summit…
Hey there! We have just finished the Thought Leader Business Summit. I’ve been here with fifty of the industry’s leading thought leaders, highly successful coaches and entrepreneurs. And I wanted to share some of the takeaways and tips and best practices that we talked about from day two and three. We were so jam-packed for the past two days it’s hard to keep track of it all, but here’s the highlights that I want to make sure you have for your business.
We spent a lot of time talking about the criteria for referral partners. A lot of times we see in businesses that people are just like: “give me a referral, any referral, and anybody that wants to pass me a referral.” That’s great and that can be a great place to start. And as you evolve, it becomes very important to pay attention to what type of referral partner is going to send you, not only a good quantity of leads and referrals and new clients, but good quality as well. So really pay attention to what kind of referral partner is the ideal referral partner for yourself.
Another thing that we talked about – and we spent quite a bit of time of this on day two – was making sure that you take time to acknowledge what got you here. Especially as coaches we spend so much of our time with our clients looking forward, and what’s the next goal, what’s the next desire, where’s the nex t transformation, that we forget to take stock of what got us here. We wentaround the room and there was over 50 different elements that people listed. And when you can do this in a group like in a mastermind, or a group coaching setting, or within a circle of trusted colleagues and confidants, you will have ideas that maybe something that got your colleague to where they are right now, maybe you haven’t tried that yet. And it can be a source of inspiration for new strategies to grow and expand your business. But take time to acknowledge where you are and what got you here.
Another trend that we talked about was that the market, the buyers, people looking for transformation in their lives, they’re yearning for a deeper, more personal connection. So how can you usedifferent tools and resources at your fingertips to create more personal contact, communication and interraction. We talked a lot about using Facebook Messenger and different chat tools to create that know-like and trust factor as you’re building the relationships, that might be something that you could integrate into your business as well.
And then we spent a large amount of time – I’ve got my notes here because I don’t want to miss a tip or a best practice – but we spent a lot of time on looking at your sales team. Now you might be sitting there saying: “Melinda I’m just getting started. I don’t have a sales team.” I totally get it! You are the sales team. So whether you’re the only sales team, or you have one or two people or a whole team helping you, spend time every week to look at your sales team. What is working, what’s not, what do you need to do differently. Take stock with where you are right now and get a baseline for how you are converting prospects into paying clients, and then identify steps that you can improve and enhance along the way to increase your efficiency. This was a big eye-opener for me.
We have a sales team, but we have coaches that help us with our clients to make the next right decision for them coming into our programs. And we don’t spend as much time consciously looking at how can we better support our community, and making those decisions for themselves.
Then we spent a lot of time mixing business with pleasure – you know that’s one of the values that I have; how can you mix business and pleasure. The first night we got dressed up as if we were going to the Oscars, and we had dinner on a private yacht going around the San Diego Bay. It was so much fun to connect with our colleagues in that way, and just have a fun evening together. Andthen the second night we had a little pijamma party. So people are in their yoga outfits, and they’re in sweatpants, and just some comfortable clothes. And we go to this place together, and we’reall piled into a living room. And a Mentalist comes and we just have an extraordinary mind-blowing event! Think of the movie “Now you see me” – I think that’s the name of it, yeah. And this guy was in that movie, and in the second movie – he was a consultant for it – and it was incredible how our minds blown! And the message that he gave to us is: “with your clients, don’t only give them what they expect, but go beyond what they expect, surprise and delight and dazzle them beyond what they’re expecting from you. That’s where powerful referral partners are created, that’s where raving fans are created.”
Then we had day three. I want to share a couple quick tips before I head out. I got ahead to the airport to head back home to Virginia. But one of the things that we talked about in the morning of day three was something called “entrepreneurial burnout”. Are you experiencing this? And the key characteristic that we identified, that leads to entrepreneurial burnout – and this is when you start resenting you passion, and feeling guilty about the gifts, and not loving what you’re doing. And that is… it’s when you’re doing it all. Right? When you are doing everything! And it’s important to really pay attention to where can you leverage your superpowers and your gifts, and where can you get other resources. And that might mean to create more efficiency in your back end; it might mean add more automation to some of your funnels; it might mean bring on a virtual assistant or some other team members to help you. But as you grow, you must be conscious of your entrepreneurial burnout, or it will get the best of you, and you won’t be successful. And that’s not what we want.
And then we spent the afternoon talking about leveraging stages to get in front of your audience. This is one of my favorite topics! I’m brand new at speaking on stages. We’ve been virtual for 14 years, and I just love being in front of large groups of our people that are struggling with the same challenges, and want the same results. And how can I support them in their journey? And so we spent a lot of time. So how can you leverage sales, whether it’s in your local area, at associations, whether it’s at a regional area, at conferences, maybe a national level, public speaking, maybe your own events that you’re doing? Or like this, on Facebook live. Like where are your stages, so you can be seen and be heard? The world needs your voice, the world needs your presence, the world needs your gifts. Get yourself out there!
And then we wrapped up with my two favorite questions of the entire event: who do you need to become for your dreams to be a reality? And the first question that we asked ourselves was: what do I need to let go of that’s keeping me playing small, maybe keeping me stuck, maybe keeping me in a story that’s no longer serving me? What do I need to let go of? And we all really contemplate it and meditated on that for a while.
And then the second question was: what do I need to take on? What skills, what mindsets, what perspectives do I need to take on to support me in my journey? Make sure you’re asking yourself those two questions as you continue on your journey.
Here’s to your success! Make sure you’re mixing business with pleasure. And post below what are some of the things that you need to let go of? What are the saint’s some of the things that you need to take on to become the next greatest version of the next grandest vision that you can have for yourself? I can’t wait to hear about it!
It can be as easy as 1…2…3… to get into Group Coaching…
It can be as easy as 1…2…3… to get into Group Coaching… but don’t take my word for it… look who I found…
https://mls.isrefer.com/go/plc2/a185
Melinda: Hey there! Oh my gosh, we’re here at the Thought Leader Business Summit. We’ve been spending three days together, and I’ve got my friend Michelle Scheibnell here.
Michelle: Hello!
Melinda: And we come together several times a year to mastermind our business, and we have been having a lot of fun. And one of the things that I’ve shared with you is a resource that this amazing gal has put together. If you are interested in group coaching, maybe you’re just getting started and you want an easy way to leverage your business right out of the gate, maybe you’ve hit a plateau and you want to grow to the next level. Group coaching is a way that you can expand your business model. So I thought, while we were here – we don’t have much time because we’re getting ready to start our session – but I thought: you want to give us a quick tip well?
Michelle: Yeah, what I what I definitely want you to do is be sure to download the free ebook that Malinda post the link to right here, below us. A lot of times people ask
me like “how big should my group be?”, “how long should it run for?”, “how should I price it?” And the fact is there a variety of different group coaching models that can work for you and your business. The key is really identifying what are your goals and objectives when it comes to groups, and then figuring out the right group option for you. So definitely go ahead and download the ebook, because I’ll walk you through the three most proven and profitable group coaching models, and then you can see which one will be the best one for you to choose to get started with groups.
And that’s actually just part of a hold free training series I have. So I hope you take advantage of all of it, because I am on a mission to help more coaches help more people, and make more money in less time by coaching groups. So love to be able to serve you and share more group coaching resources with you!
Melinda: Awesome! Thank You Michelle! So click that link below; you’ll see the link in in this post. And it’s a free download.
She also has a video training that she’ll go a little deeper into some juicy nuggets, and some of her greatest tips that she has in there. So if you’ve been struggling, or you kind of have that “I
don’t know what to do about groups”, here’s your chance! Go grab it, get it now (she’s got an upcoming training for it as well), and have a lot of fun with it!
We’re here to serve you and support you to your outrageous success. Let’s have a lot of fun!
All right, bye bye!
The Top 4 Success Tips From 50 Successful Entrepreneurs at The Thought Leaders Business Summit…
Hey there! I just wanted to pop in real quick. I’m actually at “The Thought Leader Business Summit”. It’s one of the masterminds that I attend. You guys know me – you never leave home with a mastermind – and this is one that I’ve been coming to, I think, for about the past seven years.
Every April, about 50 of us thought leaders in the industry come together to look at the industry, to look at our businesses, to brainstorm for hotseat coaching, to challenge each other, to celebrate, just all of that stuff. And it just started today. So I wanted to give you the top four takeaways from the 50 successful entrepreneurs that have been in this room. And the entrepreneurs in this room, they range anywhere from… you have to have at least a million dollar business to be in the room. Some of them go up to multi millions. One guy that we heard from today started with
his company when it was $1,000,000 and has grown it to a hundred million dollars. And I want to share a tip from him.
The first thing that we started with today is “what are you playing this game for?” We continuously ask ourselves that on a regular basis. And we’re always asking ourselves “how can I, while I’m doing the work that I love, and getting paid generously to do so, how can I increase the quality of my life?” Always check in with your “why”. It’s your beacon. The “why” for creating the impact, the “why”… maybe your “why” is time freedom, maybe it’s money freedom, maybe it’s to create a legacy, maybe it’s just to play a bigger game – whatever your “why” is for doing what you’re doing, make sure you know how to articulate it and always ask yourself “why am I playing this game, and how can I increase my quality of life while I do it?”
So that’s how we kicked the day off to get us in the mindset, and then we heard from a global leader, Sean Stephenson, a dear friend of mine. And he shared and he spoke on the “human connection formula”. And he talked to us about really paying attention whether you’re speaking at events to your clients, whether you work with your clients one on one, whether you do it on the phone, or inperson, or webinars, or online, or however you connect with your clients and contacts, and make sure that you are paying attention to creating the human connection. Our world has been saturated by technology and getting impersonal and detached. And now this trend is moving, how can you create that human connection?
And I just want to share three notes that I took from what he shared. How can you unify the people that you like, your community, your tribe? How can you unify them? How can you give them permission to go, for it for however you’re serving and supporting them? And then, how can you also create rapport and build that know-like trust factor? As you do that, you’re able to create – in
creating that know-like and trust factor – you’re able to serve and support them in bigger ways, to help them get the results that they’re looking for.
And then we heard from Reed Tracy, another dear friend. He and I are actually in another Master Mind together. He’s the CEO of “Hay House”, the biggest publishing company in our industry. And he shared with us his journey from taking the company from 1 million dollars to a hundred million dollars. And there was so much in his presentation, but one of the Nuggets that he said was so important that you have to pay attention to, as you’re building your business, growing your business and scaling your business – and I don’t care if you want to take your business to 100 million, maybe you want to go to 10 million, maybe you want to go to 1 million, maybe you’d like to go to a hundred thousand, heck maybe you’d like to hit 50 thousand – whatever that is for you, the thing that he shared that really stood out was: create a container for your time and be very mindful of it. Be very conscious of how you spend your time, what you include in your time, be very diligent in that and you’ll map your success much faster than if you just kind of leave it up to chance.
And then the last thing: I got to be in a panel. I was so excited I got to be on a panel with myself and two other colleagues of mine and good friends, Lisa Charney, and Marisa Murgatroyd. And the three of us talked about creating great client experiences. And there’s three things that you have to pay attention to.
What we called the “stick rate”: like as soon as somebody says “yes” to working with you. That moment that they say “yes” is when everything just begins for you. And in that moment that you want them to stick as a client. So what can you pay attention to as soon as they say “yes”, what can you do in the first hour after them saying “yes” to really get them engaged in creating momentum, and having a lot of fun, and validating their decision, that they just invested in themselves? Once you have them stick as a client, then you want to pay attention, and put all of your attention and resources on making sure they get the results that they want, and working with you. And you have to pay attention to whether you work with somebody just one time, and that’s it whether you have a … maybe it’s just you spend the day with them, maybe you have a coaching program and you work together for six weeks or six months, or maybe it’s a year-long program that you offer, whatever it is – how can you pay attention to the entire client journey to ensure and provide structure and fun, to make sure they’re getting quick wins, consistent wins throughout the whole experience?
And then the final thing is retention: how do you retain your clients, because it costs a lot more money to get new clients than it does to keep the old ones. And so, what can you do to create
retention and keep people engaged? And one of the things that we do in our business is: we create anticipation. We like to, whenever we’re offering something to our clients, rather than just giving them the template, or the module, or the lesson, or the training, we like to, in advance, create a little anticipation, tease them a little bit to build up the excitement for what we’re about to deliver. And creating that anticipation, they’re always looking forward to the “what’s next”. And in the “what’s next” – that’s when they stay longer to look forward to what’s coming. So how can you pay attention to the stick, how can you pay attention to creating results with your clients, and how can you pay attention to retaining them and engaging them over the long haul?
So that’s just a little bit from our day today. We’re actually have a quick break, and then we’re heading out to a surprise. I have no idea what it is, but we were just told to dress up like you’re going to the Oscars,. And we’re gonna have dinner together, and that’s one of the things that I love about these masterminds. Is that while there’s a lot of learning that happens in the room, it’s all of the connections that happen at lunch, in the lounge, at dinner, in between, going to the airport – that’s where a lot of amazing ideas begin to happen. And so make sure that whenever you’re going to masterminds, whenever you’re going to networking events, whether they’re local in your community or big events once a year, make sure that not only are you at the event itself, but the in-between times where a lot of the magic happens.
I got to go get ready. I’m gonna find out what this surprises. I’ll fill you in tomorrow with some more tips and what happened tonight.
How a successful coach entrepreneur balances pleasure and business
Hey there! I’m actually here in Laguna Beach – you can kind of see the cove there, there’s some of the houses behind me – and I just wanted to share a quick little tip about how you can create and balance business and pleasure. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
You see, I’m out here for a mastermind – you all know that about me; there’s something you never leave home without, a mastermind – and so I’m here with about 50 colleagues over the next several days and we’re gonna be brainstorming on our business, talking about visions, and trends, and innovations, and doing hotseat coaching, and working on our challenges, and really helping to create and evolve our own businesses.
And I flew out here a day early, I’ve been whale watching, and over the last several hours I’ve gone out with six of my colleagues who are also good friends and we’ve been out there and we’ve been watching whales, we’ve seen a couple whales, we saw some sea lions and a bunch of dolphins, and this is how we have spent our day, so that we can fill ourselves up. We can connect, create relationships and bond, and so I had to tack on an extra day and it’s totally worth it.
I’ve done that before, you know. It’s been four months, I was in Park City, did the same thing. Then when on the Africa trip, did the same thing there. I’m now here in Laguna Beach, and I continue to mix business and pleasure just to create an extraordinary business, and an extraordinary life.
So how are you combining business and pleasure to create the business beyond your wildest dreams, and live the life beyond your wildest dreams? Type that below. I want to hear your secret tips too!
The 3 CRITICAL questions every Successful Entrepreneur MUST ask themselves (and their team)
The 3 CRITICAL questions every Successful Entrepreneur MUST ask themselves (and their team) on a regular basis for continued growth and success…
Are YOU asking these questions?
Hey there. You know as successful entrepreneurs, as coaches running our own business, whatever it is the work you’re doing in this world, there are critical questions – three of them – that you must ask yourself almost every day. Probably weekly. Definitely several times a month.
Because – you see – as entrepreneurs, or when we have our own business, we are always working on different projects. Maybe your project is creating your list building funnel, so you can generate new leads. Maybe the project you’re focusing on is all the different ways you can mark it, and generate awareness, so you can find and attract those leads. Maybe your project is creating new content. Maybe your project is doing your first ever series of videos, or your first live event. Or maybe you’re launching a new program.
Whatever this project is that you’re working on, you must ask yourself these three questions. Because the power is in the debrief. I want you to like just to stamp that in your mind, maybe you have a post-it note that you put on your computer, or on your wall. Because the power is in the debrief.
We often focus on the preparation, the research, putting together the project, executing the project. And then once we’ve done it, we go to the next project. And then we go to the next project. And the power is in the debrief. So you should always ask yourself these three questions anytime you do any kind of project.
And you know I was just meeting with my team – we meet every Thursday. Back in the day when I first started it was just Kate and I, right? Two business partners, as Kate calls us: “two little beans on the org chart”. And it was just us, so we just had to ask ourselves these questions. Over the last 15 years we’ve grown and expanded an entire team to help us run, and continue to scale this business and this company. So we were just on this team meeting, and we have this program that we’re in the middle of delivering, and we are constantly in research mode. We’re always researching and we’re always asking these three questions.
Now the power is in the debrief after every project, but if you have an extended project that’s taking a longer timeframe, you can even ask these three questions in the mint of the project. And here’s the three questions:
The first question is: what’s working well? Like what’s really going well? Celebrate that, acknowledge it, like be outrageous with acknowledging it, give gratitude for it. Really look at what am I doing about that thing that’s going really well, and definitely do more of that. Wash, rinse, repeat. Keep that going.
The second question is: what’s not going so well? A lot of people would prefer to put their head in the sand and ignore that, because they may not know how to change it, or what to do about it. You may not know what to do about it, but simply asking the question “what’s not going well?”, by acknowledging that without having to have any solution in mind, you create this space for creativity resources and new awareness to start showing up in your world. So the second question is: what’s not going really well? You might list that out for your project.
And then the third question – and this is my favorite question: what will I do differently next time? It’s what my team and I we call it the “do differently” statement. And so in every project we’re always saying “oh. here’s what I’ll do differently”. And so now myself, and our team, we actually bring that idea to the rest of us. And I bring it to my coach, I bring it to my mastermind, we bring it to each other as a team, and we can brainstorm, and start looking at it from different angles.
So what will I do differently next time, based on my experience? Because everything being an entrepreneur, you’re always researching,: you take action, you research, you do differently; you celebrate what it is, you do differently. And you continue to grow. And when you look back over the last week, the last month, the last quarter, the last year, all of a sudden all those baby steps have added up and you’ve had monumental shifts and big change in your business.
So always ask yourself these three questions because the power is in the debrief. What project are you working on right now that you can pause and ask yourself these three questions? Or what
project did you just complete, and now you’re already in the next project, but you didn’t do the debrief? Make sure you give yourself time and space to do the debrief, and for any project – like for our launches, for our big promotions, when we had our live event – before that project ever started, we scheduled the debrief on our calendar. Make it be an integral part of your planning, and it’ll make for better growth in the long run.
Have fun with those three questions!