NAME: Ep 374 Money Why You’re Not Making Progress in Your Business_podcastaudio.mp3
DATE: 2023-03-10
DURATION: 1904
————————————————–

SUMMARY:
Selena Knight, a retail growth strategist and multi award winning store owner, introduces her podcast, Bringing Business to Retail. She explains how most people don’t move forward because they are not prepared to deal with the short term discomfort for the long term gain. Selena then talks about her own experience of her business imploding last year around this time and how she had to go to the dentist many times for a root canal, a tooth removed, and a new implant put in. She emphasizes that the outcome from dealing with the short term discomfort is always far greater than the pain it causes.

The speaker was feeling overwhelmed and stressed due to the chaos and lack of responsibility within his team. Deadlines weren’t being met, customer experience was terrible, and projects were getting pushed out. This was causing him to wake up in the middle of the night with anxiety attacks. He was feeling the pressure to keep things running smoothly, and he was struggling to find a way to cope with the situation. He realized he had to go back to the basics, and that he needed to take responsibility for his team and get them back on track. He decided to take a step back and refocus his energy on fixing the problems and ensuring that everything was running properly. He also realized he had to take care of himself and not let the stress take over his life.

The speaker talks about a time when he had to consider shutting down his business, and how he quickly realized that it was his own fault for not keeping people accountable. He then reflects on how, as you grow in life and business, you naturally alienate people and that this is normal. He acknowledges that financial status can be difficult for some to come to terms with, and he talks about how sometimes the people you need to take your vision to the next level are not the same as the ones who got you to where you are now. Finally, he notes that he’s lost many friends and even family as he’s pursued his big dreams, as they don’t share the same lack mentality.

The speaker was discussing their experience with their business twelve months prior and how it had gone from strength to strength. They discussed how they had to rebuild the team from the ground up and had become more strategic with their hiring process. They then discussed how many business owners are stuck in the same position, putting in a lot of effort but not making the progress they want. They argued that the reason for this is often because business owners rely too heavily on their determination and enthusiasm, which can lead to chaos and overwhelm. They concluded that business owners need to be more strategic and thoughtful when it comes to their approach to growing their business and that being busy isn’t the same as being productive.
————————————————–

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00:00 “Uncovering the Benefits of Short-Term Discomfort for Long-Term Gain in Business”

0:03:03 “The Impact of Poor Team Performance on Mental Health”

0:05:36 Reflection on Taking Responsibility and Moving Forward in Business and Life

0:09:00 Reflection on Business Growth: Twelve Months On

0:14:29 “Uncovering the Path to Business Growth: Making Hard Decisions for Success”

0:18:25 Creating a Roadmap to Focus Your Energy and Achieve Business Success

0:20:33 “Gaining Clarity and Confidence to Take Control of Your Business with the Five X Framework Program”

0:25:34 “Guaranteeing Results: How Phoenix Rising Can Help You Reap the Rewards”

0:27:39 Invitation to Join the Five X Framework Program

0:29:15 “Gaining Insight from Selena Knight: How to Take Action and Scale Your Ecommerce Store”

TRANSCRIPT:

0:00:00 A: Because just imagine how it would feel to know that you wake up next week a little less frazzled. You fought a few less fires this week, and gosh darn it, you started to see some results for the effort that you put in. And that happens every single week until you look back and your business is unrecognizable. But it’s unrecognizable for the good, because it no longer drains you. So let me ask you, do you really want to keep feeding more and more and more chaos into your brain?

0:00:42 A: Or do you want to be happier? Do you want to stop fueling that frenetic energy and instead start to breathe a little easier? Start to fight a few less fires? Hey, there, and welcome to the Bringing Business to Retail podcast. If you’re looking to get more sales, more customers, master your marketing, and ultimately take control of your retail or ecommerce business, then you’re in the right place. I’m Selena Knight, a retail growth strategist and multi award winning store owner whose superpower is uncovering exactly what your business requires to move to the next level.

0:01:31 A: I’ll provide you with the strategies, the tools, and the insight you need to scale your store. All you need to do is take action, ready to get started. Most people never move forward because they aren’t prepared to deal with the short term discomfort for long term gain. Now, that’s a pretty harsh comment, isn’t it? But for most people, when faced with the threat of something exploding or imploding, we will do everything we can to avoid it. I mean, we are naturally hardwired to do that, but just like going to the dentist and getting that cavity filled, the short term discomfort is always a better situation for the long term gain. The outcome always far exceeds that discomfort that you might have to feel for 30 minutes in the chair.

0:02:34 A: Now, last year, in fact, I think it was pretty much about this time last year, that’s exactly what happened to me. Not the dentist. Although I did have to go to the dentist many times last year as I got a root canal and then a tooth removed and then a new implant put in. Oh, my gosh, I hate the dentist. But the business imploding. The imploding thing that happened to me pretty much about this time last year.

0:03:03 A: Now, if you listen to the podcast, I did talk through that whole situation, but essentially, I went back to zero. But it was 100% self induced. The catalyst to all of this was that my team was getting very sloppy when it came to work. Deadlines weren’t being met, customers weren’t being served correctly. Our customer experience was terrible. When we pride ourselves on customer experience, people just weren’t taking responsibility. And as a result, projects were getting pushed out.

0:03:40 A: Things like the podcast were going out a week late. Everything that was supposed to go to schedule, nothing went to schedule. And it was all chaos. It was stressing me out to the point where I was waking up at 03:00 in the morning, which I have not done for a very long time, but I was waking up at 03:00 in the morning with my heart pounding, having anxiety attacks about stuff that hadn’t been done. So for example, the podcast not going live on time. I mean, the world is not going to end if the podcast doesn’t go live.

0:04:19 A: But when that is one of the key business drivers for your business, then it’s like not sending out a marketing campaign when something goes on sale or when you’ve got a promotion running just failing to do stuff. And so the pressure on me was so great that I lost all sense of being and was just completely overwhelmed. And I’m not the kind of person who sits in the corner and rocks when things get tough. I think if you’ve been listening for a while, you know that I’m just kind of like smash it in the face. Let’s keep going.

0:04:56 A: But at this point it was so all consuming, I didn’t know what to do. And in fact and I said, I’ve talked about this, it was like, should I just shut the entire business down? On reflection. And pretty quickly I worked out that the whole reason this all happened was my fault. And it’s easy to blame other people. That is the really easy way to make ourselves feel better, is just to blame everybody else. But the simple fact is, as the leader of this business, as the CEO, as the visionary, it is my job to keep people on track. It is my job to keep people accountable.

0:05:36 A: And so I had a few weeks where it was a bit dicey and then I had that realization like, this is me. This is my job. If I want this business, if I want my people to do the things I want them to do, if I want to get to the places I want to go, I have to step up and take responsibility. And I did. And that meant putting targets in place. That meant sitting the team down and letting them know what was expected of them.

0:06:09 A: And I didn’t know how it would go. It didn’t go well. Within the space of two weeks, I lost all but one person on my team. And the last person who stayed actually had put their hand up and said I was saying I was going to go for completely different reasons, but I will stay until we rebuild this thing. I’m prepared to stay and commit and that’s pretty much rock bottom. When you lose your entire team in your business, it’s one of those moments when you have to decide do you check it all in or do you rebuild? Do you do the whole Phoenix thing? And I talked in some of those podcasts around this time last year. I talked about how as you grow in business and in life, you alienate people.

0:07:03 A: Just think about it. When you went to school, you’re probably not friends with all of the people you went to school with. There might be one or two, but you don’t socialize with all of those people like you did when you’re a teenager. And that’s just because you grow as a person. You grow the things that you want change. Let’s be honest, your financial status can change and that can be really difficult for some people to come to terms with. That whole thing of your net worth is the sum of the average of the five people around you. That comes from fact.

0:07:39 A: And so there can be this disconnect when you move forward in life and other people don’t come with you. And as a result, you have to let things go. And so for me, in business, and I did a podcast, I can’t remember what it was called, but something about leaving people behind. I’ll find it and put it in the show notes. But I realized as I moved forward that the people who had been with me up until this point were the people I needed then, but they were not the people I needed to get me to the next level.

0:08:18 A: They were not the same people who were going to take this vision of what I had and embrace it and do something more. And along the way, I have lost many friends, parted ways for whatever reasons. But I’ve also lost family because as I’ve become a different person, as I’ve moved ahead in life and I have big dreams that’s my family have not been on board with, that they think very, very small. Many of them come from a really lack mentality, and it’s everybody else’s fault that they aren’t financially secure.

0:09:00 A: And that’s not the same things, that our beliefs are different and that can be really difficult. But let’s fast forward to now, twelve months from now, twelve months on, I can tell you that the business has gone from strength to strength. We did rebuild. Revenue has at least tripled, maybe more. I have built the team back up from scratch with people who embrace the vision of the future. We have a very lean team now, but it’s growing. And these days when I hire, I am way more specific about who I hire, what they’re going to be responsible for, when they’re going to come on board, and what they’re going to bring to the business.

0:09:44 A: Whereas before I kind of did that, but it was kind of like, oh, you’re a nice person, I think you could help our business grow. It’s much more strategic these days, and that happens with growth. So in a nutshell, twelve months on from imploding, I’ve got a better business, it makes more money, it doesn’t need all of my energy to move forward. And I’m excited again. And I can actually see now how these huge ideas that I have always had can really actually manifest into reality and that makes me super excited.

0:10:23 A: So why am I telling you this story? Because like me, twelve months ago you might be putting all the effort in and not making the progress in your business that you want. Now maybe it is revenue, maybe it’s cash in the bank profit or maybe like me, your team just aren’t doing what the heck they are supposed to. It can manifest in so many ways. But if you are hearing this right now, you already know the thing that is not working in your business or you already know that there are sticking points that you are going to have to change and you so want that change.

0:11:04 A: You are ready for it. But if you’re like most of the business owners that I meet, the whole reason that you have managed to get this business this far is because you will jump in with both feet and take a chance. And that constant flow of new ideas, that enthusiasm, that determination and your unrelenting attitude to just say stuff it, give it a go and let’s see what happens that has driven your success up until now.

0:11:38 A: But this is the point where I have to ask you has what used to fuel your growth, that determination, that tenacity, that chaos? Has that now started to manifest as overwhelmed, lack of focus and pure chaos? Because that is what happened to me and there’s a pretty good chance that if you are listening to this, it might be happening to you too. If that constant, let’s just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks is how your business is operating right now, then it is time to ask yourself is that really what your business needs from you right now?

0:12:29 A: Because you are not startup anymore and that scrappiness is the stuff that I associate with startups. When you have to go all in, you have to pull all nighters, you have to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. But if you’re listening to this podcast, the people who listen to this podcast are not startups. You’ve been in business a while and there comes a point of maturity in your business where that doesn’t serve you, it doesn’t serve your customers, it doesn’t serve your business and it certainly does not serve you as the CEO and the visionary.

0:13:04 A: And what I tend to find is that people are just throwing stuff at the wall because they know they should be doing something and something is better than nothing, right? But the reality is it is just staying busy because you kind of hope that the more things you throw out the wall something has to work. But I don’t think that for you guys listening that will be what fuels your business. Because I know right now, without a shadow of a doubt, the reason you’re not making the progress that you want isn’t because you’re lazy. I know that you will put ten hour days, twelve hour days, 15 hours days in if your business needs it.

0:13:54 A: It is not because you’re not smart. I mean, if you have made it this far in business, you got some smarts behind you like the world is your oyster. And it’s certainly not that you lack tenacity or bravery because it takes guts and determination to get to this point in business. But if your business isn’t making the progress that you want, the biggest problem that you have is that you don’t know what that missing link is.

0:14:29 A: What is that next step that you need to take? And what ends up happening is that keeps you thinking small and playing small. Because when you don’t know what the next step is, you default to busy. You default to throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. And that takes energy. That is freaking chaos from someone who has been there. And I don’t have to tell you that busy does not mean productive.

0:15:02 A: Busy does not necessarily mean growth. And so can we change it? Well, yeah, you can always change stuff. So the good news is yes, the bad news is that it is probably not as easy as you think. But bear with me, stay with me, stick with me because I have some answers for you. I stole this quote that I’m about to tell you from super smart dude called Alex. Homosey, super bad dresser, jim junkie, super smart.

0:15:39 A: And he said, and this sticks with me. And in fact, if you’re in any of my programs, I’ve probably said this about 47 times this week, success is on the other side of a few very hard decisions. I’m going to say that again. Success is on the other side of a few very hard decisions. Now, the vast majority of people who go into business, even the vast majority of people who buy a program or get coaching, they aren’t prepared to make hard decisions because it’s freaking uncomfortable. And we don’t like being uncomfortable.

0:16:24 A: But here’s the good news. The good news for you is this is a great thing because it means that the competition, the people who aren’t going to succeed, they’re not prepared to focus. They’re not prepared to sit in the uncomfortable. They’re not prepared to do the boring work. They’re just going to fall away. Like, given enough time, they’re just going to fade out into the distance. They’re just going to peter away.

0:16:47 A: They’re going to close up their business. You’re going to see the post on Facebook. Someone trying to get rid of the whole garage load of stock because they’ve had to close their business down. I mean, that’s kind of best new scenario. Worst new scenario is they just continued to push and push and push in their business and they never really make any progress and they become bitter and resentful because they’re not prepared to just give up and say it’s not working.

0:17:11 A: Recently I’ve been in this same situation. And so if you’re resonating with what I’m saying, I know from experience that right now you can probably cope with about this much strain on your brain. And if you aren’t watching the video, my fingers are just about touching there’s. Like I can just see daylight through my thumb and my pointer finger. That is about how much you can add to your brain capacity right now. Am I right?

0:17:42 A: And so what I believe my job is, is to uncover or to teach you to uncover the one project, the one focus, the one thing that is going to pay dividends in your business growth. Before you get bored and before you lose interest and before you run out of money. What you really need is a way to get all of this chaos, all of this frenetic energy that I’m going to go so far to say the bad chaos get the bad chaos that’s surrounding you right now and use that energy.

0:18:25 A: Pile it all together to create a roadmap that focuses your energy onto the things that will make progress in your business. Now, if you are listening, hopefully my hand gestures are coming through in my if you’re listening rather than watching, and I’m doing, like, a superhero moment here where I’ve got, like, my hands cupped on either side of my head and I’m creating a focus beam to light the way to know where all of my energy is going to go.

0:19:02 A: One step at a time, one little bit at a time. Because just imagine how it would feel to know that you wake up next week or next month a little less frazzled. You fought a few less fires this week and gosh darn it, you started to see some results for the effort that you put in. And that happens every single week until you look back, say twelve months later, which is where I’m at right now. And your business is unrecognizable, but it’s unrecognizable for the good because it no longer drains you.

0:19:44 A: The chaos has subsided. The future looks exciting and filled with profits and opportunities. And here’s the fun thing. When you can get out of the rut of just trying to make enough money to keep the business afloat, when you get past that and there’s money in the bank and you don’t have to put all of your energy into that, making money is freaking fun. It is. You get so excited about it. So let me ask you, do you really want to keep feeding more and more and more chaos into your brain?

0:20:33 A: Or do you want to be happier? Do you want to stop fueling that frenetic energy and instead start to breathe a little easier, start to fight a few less fires? Start to feel excited about business again? Well, if that sounds like something that you could see helping you make progress in your business, then I might have what you’re looking for this week. If you are on my email list, you’ll already know this because you got a sneak peek. But this week I have just opened my new twelve week program called Five X Framework.

0:21:19 A: Now, the mission of this program yes, it has a mission. The mission of this program. See all the things that I have learnt, focus, energy, putting the results on the table, making it very clear what is expected of everybody or everything. In this case, my program. So the mission is to help you create a clear roadmap to scale your retail or ecommerce business again and again and again. So in 90 days or less, you will understand how to confidently diagnose which of the pillars is holding back your business.

0:21:58 A: And then build out a quarterly plan that allows you to take control of your business, reduces the overwhelm, stops creating fires. Instead, it puts the fires out. In fact, it stops the fires from even happening in the first place. And it will give you more sales, more customers, and more growth on repeat. Now, I don’t know about you, but for me that has been life changing. So let me be super clear here.

0:22:27 A: This is no silver bullet. It is not a get rich quick thing. It’s not going to be. You come into the program and all your troubles are going to disappear. If that’s what you’re looking for, don’t even bother going over to the page because instead what we’re going to do is we’re going to take the energy that you have. I know you’ve got the energy. We’re going to take that energy, that determination and that tenacity and that don’t give a damn attitude and focus it just like a superhero would focus it on the places that your business needs that attention right now.

0:23:10 A: One step at a time. And that will give you clarity, that will give you confidence. And the confidence just today, literally, I got off a call with one of my clients and having that clarity of knowing that next step to take in just four weeks has had two months where she has exceeded their targets by more than $10,000, which is ridiculously amazing. Comes to the calls so happy and eager and just like, what’s next?

0:23:52 A: This is so great. What is next? But also the confidence to make decisions, the confidence to make the hard decisions, the confidence to sit in the uncomfortable and know that if you can make these hard decisions and you can push through, the results are so freaking rewarding. And those results are everything that you ever built this business for. Having that roadmap, knowing what step to take gives you the clarity, gives you the confidence.

0:24:22 A: And when you have confidence, the funny thing happens. You take back control of your business. Success is on the other side of a few hard decisions and I can guarantee you that you are going to have to make some hard decisions and if you don’t, if you continue to avoid them, that’s where you stay in chaos. Chaos reigns when you won’t make hard decisions. And trust me, there’s a pretty good chance when you make big decisions it all will implode like mine did.

0:24:58 A: But it was like the hindsight that you get when things just fall apart. And I’m not saying your world has to fall apart like mine. I’m saying let’s get to you, the help before your world falls apart. Because at the time I didn’t have the help to help me do that. I’ve changed that now I’ve joined my CEO club and I have all the help I need. But I didn’t have that right at that time. So I don’t want you to have to go through Phoenix Rising. I want you to take the energy before the implosion, correct the course and then reap the rewards.

0:25:34 A: I will say that as much as I said, this is not a get rich quick silver bullet, all those things. I do guarantee results. I am so confident in what I produce in this day and age that I guarantee every single one of my programs that if you don’t make what it cost you to invest, I will give you your money back. Of course there’s caveats around that you got to do the work right? But I don’t know anybody else in this industry who is prepared to with such conviction with their own money on the line to stand up and say if you don’t get results, we’ll give you your money back.

0:26:15 A: But we should, right? Because if we believe in what we sell, just like you, if you believe in what you sell, you let somebody return it if it’s not what they’re looking for. And so I am so confident that within our programs that if you break your business down before it implodes and you build it back up again with the right foundations, the right tools, the right systems and the help from my team. Because that’s the difference with this program, is that you will have my team there to guide you through the entire process.

0:26:51 A: That I put my money where my mouth is. And if you don’t get results, I’ll give you your money back. So if you have ever caught yourself thinking, I just wish I knew what to do next, or I just wish I knew, out of all these things on my to do list, which one is the one that is going to get me the results? If I just put my energy into and you are so ready to leave the chaos and the confusion and staff that don’t do what they want and everything having to run behind schedule. If you are ready to leave that behind, then I would like to invite you to meet with my team to talk about the Five X framework.

0:27:39 A: Here’s the thing, you can’t just buy it. There is no payment page to send you to because my money is on the line. Because my team has to know that when we help you, you are going to take the action. So that means you’re going to have to get a call on a call with my team and convince them that you’re prepared to do the work that you want to be part of a program that is going to help you build a roadmap to give you the skills, not basic skills, that just disappear.

0:28:11 A: It’s not social media, trust me. We don’t teach you what the latest social media algorithm is because that’s going to be gone next week. That is not knowledge that is going to grow your business in perpetuity. We are going to give you the foundational business knowledge that you need for where you are at in your business and we’re going to give you a team behind you to make sure that you do not stumble along the way.

0:28:36 A: And I even make you be accountable. Yeah, you actually have to turn up two calls and report back in an accountability session. So if that’s the kind of kick up the butt that you need, then I would love you to have a call with my team and see if the Five X Framework is something that you might like to be part of right now. I do have it not going to say discounted, but I have put a specific price in place before I start advertising because I know what it costs me to acquire a customer when I use social ads and so I have taken that amount off for now.

0:29:15 A: If you are on my podcast, on your email list, the pricing that you’re going to get is different to when I start advertising, which is next week. We already have. I think we were booked when I had a look today. I actually asked my team to open up some more slots on the weekend because we were booked out for people on our existing email to try and get on a call with the team. And so what I would say is if this is something that sounds good to you, there’s absolutely no obligation and you may not even be invited into the program.

0:29:50 A: But I would say book a time in. You’ll see, if you go to Selena knight.com forward slash Five X for X ray, you’ll see a page there where you can book it a call in with my team. If there are no spaces, please send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram, we’ll work something out for you. But like I said this week, we actually ran out of interview places. So if you think that this is something that would be good for you where you are right now, I would urge you to head over to selenanite. Comfivex, jump on a call with my team and we can chat to you all about the program, whether it’s right for you or not, and we can take it from there.

0:30:35 A: All righty, you guys have a fantastic week. Focus, no chaos, and I will see you back here same time next week. So that’s a wrap. I’d love to hear what insight you’ve gotten from this episode and how you’re going to put it into action. If you’re a social kind of person, follow me at the Selena night and make sure to leave a comment and let me know. And if this episode made you think a little bit differently or gave you some inspiration or perhaps gave you the kick that you needed to take action, then please take a couple of minutes to leave me a review.

0:31:15 A: On your platform of choice. Because the more reviews the show gets, the more independent retail and ecommerce stores just like yours, that we can help to scale. And when that happens, it’s a win for you, a win for your community, and a win for your customers. I’ll see you on the next