Show Transcript:
The Big Idea
Redefine success for yourself.
Questions I Answer
- How do I create a business with purpose?
- How do I get my team aligned?
- How can I make better decisions?
Actions to Take
- Do your research. What are other businesses within your industry doing to adjust to the changing market? Take notes on how others are shifting, and use them to brainstorm ideas that may work for you and your business.
- Consider your soul mate clients: Where are they finding the products and services they need? Look to your soul mate clients to consider existing gaps in your business, and adjust from there.
- Remember your ‘why.’ What inspired you to go into business in the first place? Too often, we lose touch with who we are and WHY we started our business. Check-in with yourself, and think about what’s changed for you since you started your business journey.
Key Topics in the Show
-
Creating sustainable business growth
-
Setting your business up for success
-
Applying futurist thinking to your business
-
How to create a business on your own terms
-
The importance of standing out in your industry
-
Doing business with intention
-
Looking at obstacles as opportunities
-
Signs it’s time to shift your business
Hustle grind. Repeat society has been telling us that for far too long, it is a dated obsolete model that desperately needs evolving. Let’s do business differently because you can, you didn’t start your business to work 60 plus hours a week. You’re a business owner because you want freedom, time, freedom, financial freedom, lifestyle, freedom. I’m on a mission to give you that I guide impact driven women,
just like you to simplify scale and strategize. So you can take action double down on your business and yourself without doubling your workload. I shave off time while helping put money in your pockets. I know because I’ve done it myself. Growing a seven figure business while growing a family, it can be done. You can be the visionary, the leader of a team,
the successful woman you were designed to be. It is time to stop operating at ordinary levels and choose to be extraordinary. I’m Tanya Dalton, and this is the intentional advantage. Hello? Hello, and Welcome to episode 229. This is our season. That is all about taking action. And I am so excited about today’s episode. I don’t know if you can tell,
but I have total allergy head today. My voice is a little scratchy. I’m a little bit raspy, but I didn’t want that to keep me from recording this episode because I was really excited about this. Well, I still am excited about it because last week we talked about what happens when our businesses stagnate, when we hit these plateaus and we feel like growth isn’t happening.
And I really wanted to carry on that conversation. And I didn’t feel like having some allergies needed to hold me back from that because I’m really fired up about this. Since I just recently actually had a call with a client where we had a conversation about this very thing. And I feel like with the way things are going in the world right now, there’s lots of shifts and things that are happening in our industries.
And I think this is such an important conversation to have this conversation that I had with my client several weeks back, you know, she was in this situation where she felt like, ah, is it time for me to shift? Do I close the door on this business? How is it I need to proceed? And I know there are some of you who are perhaps struggling with this same question who are thinking to yourself,
what do I need to do to make sure that not only do I survive, but do I have a business that thrives because the truth is we don’t go into business so that we can work ourselves to death. It’s not about surviving. It is all about thriving and creating a business, creating a life for yourself. That is all about that. Thriving.
And the truth of the matter is this. I completely a hundred percent understand this question. We’re going to talk a little bit about how I’ve made some shifts in my own business. We’ll talk about that later on in the show, in the business that I have now, but I have made that big decision of closing down a business in the past. You guys probably know because you’ve heard me talk about it before,
but I started my first business way back in 2008, right in the heart of the great recession, started a business. Why did it to grow? So I could have my cousin, John come and work alongside of me, absorb his MBA income and create a lifestyle for ourselves. And that’s what I did, but I wasn’t in love with the business.
It didn’t really fire me up. It didn’t really align with what mattered to me. And I started really forecasting and looking at what it looked like the future was gonna hold for us. And I had to make a decision. I had to make a very difficult decision of, do I close up and start something new or do I make some big shifts?
Now in that first business, I did decide that was about in 2000 into 2013, beginning of 2014, I made that decision that yes, I was closing up shop and I was going to start something new that something new, of course, being inkwell press, but it was a tough decision. It’s not an easy thing to handle or to deal with because let’s be honest.
Our businesses are like our children. They are our loudest brattiest children out of all of our kids. And we, we pour ourselves into what we create for our customers and our clients. We, we pour ourselves into these businesses and that’s a situation that this client of mine has been in. She’s feeling really unsure. Her business has stagnated, but she’s feeling unsure.
She’s like, you know, I know the industry that we’re in, I know it inside and out. So it feels really good a little bit like set it and forget it kind of thing, right? Where there’s, there’s this comfort that we’re in. She builds a strong foundation for her business and this whole idea of walking away from something that she created.
Well, it just didn’t seem like an option, but the truth is there are always options, not always options that we really want, or we really desire, but there are always options. And I think this is the thing it is okay for your business to not constantly be growing. And I feel like that goes contrary to every single business coach out there.
Who’s constantly Hawking this idea that if you’re not growing, you’re dying, you know, sustaining and surviving constant growth or huge bouts of growth. That can be exhausting. I know because I mean, I scaled inkwell press. Once I closed that first business open up inkwell press, we scaled to seven figures in 18 months. That is fast growth. That is a lot faster than I could really maintain on a regular basis.
We want our growth to be healthy. We want it to be growth that we can manage. And I think what happens is we over romanticize the idea or the concept of growth we over romanticize it, that it seems like this thing that, oh, it’s going to be amazing. And all of a sudden things are going to fall into place. It’s part of that someday syndrome,
you know, someday when I reach whatever level it is, let’s say for me, seven figures. Okay. So I thought someday when I reached seven figures, I all of a sudden everything’s going to become easier. Well, that’s not always necessarily true. And so we over romanticize this idea of growth. So we feel like we want to constantly be growing,
but the truth is it’s okay to not want to be huge. It’s okay to want to be a small business. There’s nothing that says that you have to be the next Amazon or the next giant multimillion dollar company. It’s okay to crave small. It is okay to have that big dream be to have a business that is not seven figures. That’s absolutely.
Okay. Now, you know, I don’t like that word small when we’re talking about our businesses, because even if your business is not a seven figure, eight figure business doesn’t mean it’s small. And I feel like when we use that word small, sometimes that plays into our mindset of how we approach our business and how we allow other people to approach our business.
But the truth of the matter is it’s all about creating a business on your own terms. It’s about designing a business to the lifestyle that you desire. And that might mean having a smaller business. I once coached this woman. It’s a different woman than the one I talked about here at the beginning of the show. But I coached this other woman who told me,
she felt really guilty about the whole idea that she wanted to remain a six-figure business. She had no desire to scale to seven figures, but she was going through the motions because she thought this is what I’m supposed to do. That when I get to six figures, I want to go to seven. Even though it’s not really what I want to do.
And so we had this conversation back and forth, where we talked about this idea that you need to decide, and it doesn’t even necessarily have to be at the start, but it’s good to have an idea at the start, but you need to have an idea of what is it you really want. Don’t get caught up in what everybody else is doing,
what everybody else wants. We want growth. And we want the plateaus. We want him to be on our own terms. If you want to stay six figures, or if you only want to keep a small team. Fabulous. That’s great. If it’s what you want now, the problem is, is we’re not talking here about settling where it’s like,
well, I can’t seem to get the growth to happen. So I guess, guess I’ll just stay here. This is setting an intention, deciding where you want the business to grow to, and then creating the growth and the stabilization on those parameters on those boundaries. All right. So let’s go back to that first coaching calls. When I was talking about where she’s running a business and things have lulled,
and what happened was she and I had this conversation. She said, I don’t know what to do. What should I do? And moving forward. So I asked her about her industry. What’s your industry doing? What are the trends that you’re noticing? What are the things that you notice are happening with some of the big fish in that pond, right?
In, in your industry? What are the things that you’re seeing are happening for them as well? And it’s good to look at those people. A lot of times, the bigger kind of the leviathans in your industry, because a lot of times they have big teams of people. That’s their whole job is to lay out trends and understand predictions and what’s going to happen.
So we talked about what she was noticing if she looked around and she said, we’re on a decline, her sales were down every other business, her size. And that industry was down the big guys there, sales were down as well. And so we talked about this idea that it’s one thing to decide to stabilize after you’ve had a nice bout of growth.
If you’ve gotten to that level, you want to get to, let’s say, I want to get to six figures. Okay. You get to six figures. And you’re like, okay, now I want to stabilize. That’s great. But if you are wanting to be, let’s say seven figures, or let’s say high six figures, and you have a decline and sales are going down and then you stabilize and you look to the future and you say,
it looks like it’s going to stay on the same path. That’s not a good sign because you’re not having your business at the level. You really want it to be at. So start looking at the writing on the wall of the industry. And that was one of the things that she and I talked about is what is the writing on the wall say?
And she said, it looks like it’s not going to bounce back. That’s what we want to know, because then we can make better decisions. So we want to take a good look at the trends, what we’re noticing. And then we create the prediction. We want to use our intuition. We’ve talked about that on the show, in the past,
really diving into what do you feel is right for you. But we also want to look at the numbers. We want to look at intuition and the numbers together. We want to use both. And this is one of the many, many reasons we want to keep a close eye on our key metrics on a regular basis. Because when you have both intuition and the numbers,
that’s left brain and right brain working together to make the decision. So that’s what I advised her to do. And obviously we talked quite a bit more about it, but here’s the thing that I was talking about with her. And that I want you to be thinking about. As we talk about this topic today, there is a silver lining in all of this,
because when you notice a stumbling block, like declining growth, you can see it as an obstacle, or you can see it as an opportunity. And you’ve heard me say this before. Obstacles in your path are not permanent. I like to vision envision in my mind’s eye. When I have an obstacle, I picture it in my mind, like a little wall,
right in the middle of my path. It’s just right there. And you feel like, okay, I’ve hit this wall. I don’t know what to do. Well again, there are always options. I can go around it. I can go left. I can go, right? I can crawl over that wall. I can dig a tunnel underneath it,
or I can burn it to the ground. All of those are options. And you can see there’s more than one, which is why it’s exciting when it’s time to shift, because it’s a chance to really check in and make some intentional decisions about where you want to go. So here’s the thing. And I think, I think you’re going to be a little surprised to hear me say this,
but you need to stop overplanning. I know it’s a little bit shocking, right? I mean, here I am. I’m the one who talks about making plans all the time, but we have to stop over planning when it comes to our goals, our business goals, our personal goals, all of our goals, because the problem is we get caught up in the,
how, how we’re going to get to that goal. So often we’re so caught up in that, how that we marry ourselves to this quote unquote ideal path. And what happens is this idea or this concept of how we’re going to get there, that begins to affect all the decisions we’re making. And it affects how we react to these shifts that need to happen.
How we react to when these walls crop up in our path, because we think, oh shit, I don’t know where I need to go now because this no longer fits what I’ve planned out. So our reaction becomes negative. It becomes, oh gosh, everything is terrible. When in effect, we have so many options. This is an opportunity. Now don’t get me wrong.
There is nothing wrong with planning. I mean, you know that, I feel very strongly about how important it is to plan. It’s important to visualize the steps we want to take and to map out the strategy. This is why you’ve heard me talk about the action roadmap. It’s a key part of my goal setting planner that I have through inkwell press.
It’s actually something we talk about in my upcoming book. That’s coming out in October. We want to create an action plan for ourselves, but here’s where it goes all wrong. What we do is we envision this one way of arriving at this big goal. And we convince ourselves, it’s the only way to get this done. So when we veer off path or when an obstacle pops up,
we get flustered. Let’s be honest. We get indignant, we get angry, we get frustrated. We get all the negative emotions. And we blind ourselves to the opportunities that have just popped up in the form of this obstacle. We cannot stay married to the plan. Yes. We want to focus on the end goal. We want to embrace the what and let’s let go of the how,
or at least can we just loosen our grasp just a little bit. You see, when we focus so strongly on the, how all we wind up doing is convincing ourselves. It has to be this way or the highway. There’s no other way successful, only occur. If we blindly follow this one single path to that destination, we want to reach,
or it’s not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen. So we do things that really allow us to stay just on this tiny little path. So like I said, we over plan to get ourselves on that straight and narrow. We focus in on that one version of how we’re going to do it. Yes. And when we do that,
when we focus on the one way of doing things, we limit ourselves from the opportunities, opportunities that could get us to where we truly want to get to, and maybe even get us there faster or easier. Then if we stay on that path that we created for ourselves, you know, really our fixation with this idea of how becomes our downfall, all of our obsessive,
over-planning trying to map out every single minute detail winds up being to our own detriment. And that’s really two-fold because we’re on this path and we can’t see the other opportunities. And we allow the over-planning to give us permission to procrastinate because we have to get every single detail figured out. Right. And what happens is because we have this so mapped out so meticulously,
we are left wondering what happens when life happens, when we need flexibility. When we pull off the track, when there’s a detour up ahead, we feel like it’s all call for loss. And the truth is we, we get caught up in this idea of, you know, this is how it has to be done. I’m serving these customers. And I need to make sure that everybody who comes in my door feels welcome and I’m talking to them and we’re including every single person,
right? Because that’s part of the plan. We want more customers. So the way to get more customers is to serve every single person that comes our way. And we touched on this idea last week, that really, we want to make sure that we’re speaking directly to our soulmate clients, to those ideal clients that we absolutely love working with. And yes,
we talked about it last week. I want to talk about it again, because I think this is one of those things. That’s feels counter-intuitive. If you’ve not heard it before, this is not gonna be the last time you hear me talk about this because it is so important. You know, honestly, I feel like society as a whole, it convinces us that every customer or client is the right customer.
The customer is always right. Isn’t that the same? I like to say the customer is often confused. Sometimes I’m not right for the customer. They don’t want what I’m offering. That doesn’t mean I need to change what I’m doing for the customers who aren’t really right for me. Right. And that’s what I want you to remember. It’s all about the strategy of attracting those people.
We want to work with our soulmate clients. We want to attract, and we want to repel. We want to be the lightning rod so that when people think about whatever product you sell or whatever service you offer, they immediately think of you because you’re attracting them. But the people who are not right for you, you want to make sure you’re pushing them away.
And don’t worry. We say repel, and it sounds bad. But really what we’re doing is we’re pushing them in the direction. That’s going to serve them better. Because if they’re not the client for you, somebody else is going to be able to serve them much better than you are. They’re going to get what they need elsewhere. So I want you to keep that in mind.
It’s, you know, these opportunities, when these shifts happen, they’re a chance to check in and ask yourself, have I just been selling to anyone and everyone, or am I truly on the path selling to the customers I want to work with? When we don’t have obstacles in our path, we just continue on kind of what the status quo. What we want to do is we want to recognize change,
needs to happen. And that’s what these beautiful shifts do. These obstacles in our path. They’re, they’re like a sign from God that says, hold on a minute, let’s take a look at what you’re doing. This is a great chance for you to check in. So let’s talk about what some of those signs look like, what it looks like and how you can make shifts in your business so that your business does start to align with you and your desires.
All right, let’s talk about that in just a moment. Let’s first take a quick mid episode break. So normally in the episode, this is where I come on. And I share with you a little bit about inkwell press. Maybe I talk about the planners we have out, or I share with you something about our coaching programs or our mentorship, but I’m going to do something a little bit different today for the mid episode break.
I want to give you a heads up that I am taking a little bit of a hiatus from the podcast, just a short one for the next couple of weeks. And here’s why we designed business on our own terms. We’ve been talking about that for well forever. I feel like, and this is about designing the business on my terms. When I think about this fall,
I have so many exciting things happening. As you know, my newest book is coming out with Harper Collins, October 12th. So there is a lot that is happening behind the scenes in preparation for that, we have several really fun events and activities and all kinds of interesting, exciting things that we’re doing. We’re trying some brand new things as part of this book launch.
And so I want to have time to, first of all, step back, breathe just a little bit in preparation for this book launch, because when a book comes out, it is it’s a marathon. My friends, it really is lots of things happening. Lots of press happening, lots of activities and events and all of that. I want to have a chance to breathe.
I want to have a chance to hunker down and spend some really good quality time with my family. Jack is heading off to college this fall, and I want to be in the right mindset. So when I come back from this hiatus in the fall, I am a hundred percent full force relentlessly launching the book. And that’s really exciting. So I did want to give you the heads up on that.
We’ll have an episode again next week, but then taking a little bit of a break, but I’m excited because you know what? This is, this is an opportunity I’m going to use this break to really think about too. What kinds of shows we’re having, how we might want to change the format on the show. And I get a chance to breathe.
So wanted to let you know that’s heading your way. We’re going to have an episode next week, like normal, but this little hiatus, this little breather for me and my team, that’s going to be happening very, very soon. All right, let’s get back to today’s episode. I am excited about that break, but I’m also really excited to talk to you about this whole idea of making these shifts of switching gears of really looking at these opportunities ahead of you.
And I want to share with you some of the signs that you can see that give you those kinds of indicators that maybe it’s time to change things up in your business. And again, businesses never said it and forget it. So this is all really good things. Even if you’re not seeing signs, it is good to make sure you’re regularly checking in with your business.
But let’s talk about what are some indicators that might be showing you that it’s time to make some adjustments. So the first one I want to bring up is it’s going to be one of those, like no brainers, okay. We’ve been alluding to it throughout the whole conversation. And that my friends is that you’re not seeing results. You’re not seeing what you want out of your business.
You’re putting in a lot of effort and you’re not getting a lot on the return. Maybe you’re not bringing in new customers or clients. Maybe the marketing campaigns you’ve been working with are just not cutting it anymore. Or you’re not getting traffic to your site. You’re not moving products and services the way you were, or, you know, maybe you have the wrong customers.
Like we just touched on a few minutes ago with those clients. Are you really servicing the people that you want to work with, whatever it is that you’re seeing. If you’re noticing that things feel off, maybe you work is starting to feel just like, oh, why am I working so hard for such little return? This is an excellent indicator. All right.
Time to take a quick little step back and really step and look at the vision of where it is. You want the business to go. And in thinking about taking that step back, here’s another sign that can be an indicator that it’s time to, to, to change things up just a little bit, really stepping back and taking a look at the industry.
We touched on this earlier in the show, but really looking at how everybody else in the industry is doing. And we talked about this with my coaching client. That was one of the things that I asked her. What are you noticing when you look around at the pool that you’re in, how’s everybody doing? How are the big guys doing? How are the little guys doing?
How are the in-between guys doing, really paying attention to that? Because these are great indicators. It’s kind of like how an airplane uses a wind sock to know the direction the wind is going. We can use other companies and we can use other people in our industry to help us understand kind of which way the wind is blowing. And that lets us know,
is the wind blowing in the direction I want it to, or maybe it’s not at all. Okay. Here’s the truth. There are times where industries as a whole have a full shakeup. We want to be aware of that. We want to understand that what we’re experiencing is it just us and our business, but the marketplace as a whole, because that’s going to affect how we are going to react to these shifts that we need to make.
All right. So I want you to think about those are two really good indicators that allow you to understand one of the third ones I would say honestly, is how you’re feeling about your business. Are you feeling burned out? Are you feeling exhausted by it is the idea of, you know, whatever it is you’re creating, wearing you down. I can tell you right now,
that was one of the biggest indicators for me. When I was closing down my first business, back in 2013, 2014, I loved that the business had gotten me to where I wanted to go, which was taking on my husband’s MBA income. He and I were able to work together. We work across the desk for each other. We still do,
which is great, but I love that part of it, but I didn’t love what I was creating. It didn’t light me up. It didn’t get me fired up. It didn’t didn’t do anything to help me align with what I feel is my soul’s purpose. And so that was my first indicator. Then I took a look back at the industry. I stepped aside and,
and decided, all right, the industry is showing me that it’s not going to bounce back anytime soon, it’s going to, it might even plum it a little bit further. These two things hand in hand that was convinced me, all right, you know what? We’re going to shut this down and we’re going to open up something new. And I’m going to tell you the same thing that I told my coaching clients.
The beauty of this is if you are making a shift and you’re closing up a company, let’s say, and you’re opening up something new. It’s not like you lose all of that knowledge, all that experience you had, you start fresh with something you are fired up. You start sending something that you are excited about with all of that amazing knowledge, which allows you to scale so much faster,
which allows you to really hit that runway at a great speed. So when we make these shifts, I don’t want you to think of it as this is like, oh gosh, we have to close up a business and we have to, there’s lots of options, right? There’s going around the wall. There’s going underneath the wall. There’s going over the wall and there’s burning the wall down.
I made the choice to burn the wall down when I closed my first business. And I’m so happy that I did. So this is the thing. These obstacles are often opportunities, but we got to pay attention to those signs that are letting us know this is coming down the pipes. All right. So let’s talk right now about what does it look like when we’re making these shifts?
So we talked just now about, that was one of the ways that I shifted was I closed my business, but there’s other ways that you can shift and you can pivot, although I’m tired of hearing that word after 2020, let’s all be honest, but I want you to start thinking about ways that you can make some changes to your business when it’s time to do so.
When you see some of these signs, what does that going to look like? Now? Let’s think of these kind of like our momentum builders. All right. So here’s a couple of ways. First thing I want you to do is I want you to do your research and then we make adjustments from there. So in thinking about how we want to shift,
here’s a couple of questions you can consider. What are the other businesses doing to meet the needs of the changing market? So we talked about this idea of looking around in your industry and seeing what everybody else is experiencing and even how some of them are reacting. Now here’s the deal don’t get caught up in comparison to them. Ah, that’s a tough one,
right? Look around, but don’t compare, just look around almost with a scientific eye of, Hmm. That’s interesting. That’s what they’re choosing to do. Oh, look over here at this person. They’re doing this. Start to gather up some ideas. We’re not copying people. We’re getting ideas of how other people are making shifts. And honestly, one of the other things I think is really helpful,
and this does help with doing away with that comparison ism, look at what people in other industries are doing. Pay attention to some things that they are doing. Oftentimes I get amazing springboards for ideas from people who are in industries that are Fastly different than my own. This is one of the reason why when I have programs or have courses or mentorships, I don’t leave it.
So it’s exclusive to a certain industry because I think there is a rich amount of information we can get from people in totally different fields than we’re in, because they have a whole different perspective. They have a whole different pool of people that they’re pulling from with ideas. So start paying attention to some of those things start looking at where are your soulmate clients spending their time?
Where, what kinds of things are they wanting to buy? I’m talking especially about your soulmate clients, not all clients, but the clients you really want to work with. And then what type of products and services are those soulmate clients really purchasing? What are they looking for? This is how you can start to discover those gaps in your business and fill them.
So you can get back on track or maybe back on a totally different track than you were on before. But this is how we scale is we look for the gaps in our business and then we look for ways to fill them. All right, let’s talk about another way to make a shift in your business. This one is one of my favorites because it’s really going back time,
traveling back to when you started your business and asking yourself, why did I start this business? I want you to reconnect with the passion you had. Remember we are solving problems for our ideal customers, for those customers and clients who we serve, we are solving their problems. So why did you feel like this was an important problem for you to solve?
I think so often we lose touch with our, why we lose touch with our mission, our vision, our core values, what I call your north star, because we’re listening to all these gurus or these, you know, quote unquote business coaches with the latest hottest strategy. And we think, well, I need to try this, or I need to do that.
And we veer off path. So really backing up and getting back in touch with who we are and why we started our business. It’s so easy to lose our way because when we reconnect with that, we’re going to be able to reorient ourselves. We’re gonna be able to shift and make the changes to get back on track with that. Why, or it might even be that that why has changed as you have evolved,
as you have grown, you are maybe going to change your why a little bit. So it’s good to check in with it. You know, again, going back to, when I decided to close down my first business, this was a big part of it. I had to really dig in to decide what it is I wanted to do. And I decided to close that business.
I went through this exercise again when I opened up inkwell press. So with that first business, I ended up closing it with inkwell press. When I delve back in, when I felt a little bit lost, when I felt like, okay, I’ve got these obstacles in my way. And I dove back in to reconnect with my passion. I realized that it was really for me with inkwell press,
not just about the planners, it was really about marrying it with that higher calling. I have to teach and empower women around me to find success on their own terms. And honestly, that is what allowed me to start this podcast, which is now what we’re on episode 229. So 229 weeks ago, I started this podcast. It led me to starting my first courses to opening up my programs,
my mentorship, it opened up opportunities for writing my books. The next one of course, coming out in October. And this is the thing is when I made this shift, it did mean that I wanted to attract this client, this certain kind of soulmate client that I was wanting to work with. It also meant that I had to walk away from some of the other customers who didn’t really align with those goals.
And that is a tough thing to do. But at the same time, it makes me infinitely more happy to be able to do the work I love. And clearly it is not affected the bottom line of my business. My business has continued to scale and grow because I have honed in on what I’m most passionate about. And I have let go of feeling like I need to sell to anyone and everyone.
Now the truth of the matter is that transition for me, it was a slow transition because like a lot of entrepreneurs, I was really hesitant to step away with what had been comfortable. What had been safe. I called it turning my cruise ship. My team will laugh when they hear this because they know that they’ll remember that term. All right, guys,
we’re turning the cruise ship. It was a very slow, very controlled turn. I was afraid to shake things up. I was afraid I was going to lose customers and clients who might dislike or disagree with some of the changes. Even though deep down, I knew this is what I wanted to do. And the truth is I needed to make those changes.
But the thing is, is I was afraid to do it. So I did it very, very slowly. And that is honestly my biggest regret. When it comes to looking back at my timeline for inkwell press, it’s this idea that I was turning this cruise ship. So damn slowly, if I could go back in time, and this is actually one of the things I told my coaching clients,
if I could go back in time, I would hop in like a speed boat and jerk the wheel to turn it. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t treat my business like a cruise ship. I would treat it like a speed boat because once I made that turn, once I fully made that shift, I was so much happier. My business flourished because of it,
because now I’m aligned with my purpose. Now I’m constantly checking in with my soulmate customers and clients who I adore working with, and I’m able to truly run the business on my own terms. And that is what I want for you. So I understand if the idea of making shifts, if making changes in your business is daunting. I have been there.
My friend, I have been there more than once. One time I closed down the business. The other time I turned the cruise ship, closing the business was a good move for me because I’m happy that I own inkwell press turning the cruise ship, not the right choice. And I want to be really honest with you. I want you to know that’s one of my biggest mistakes was not truly listening to my intuition,
not really taking to account where I wanted to drive this business. I don’t want you to make that same mistake. I want you, when you start to see these signs, that it is time to change, that it is time to shift. I want you to act on it. I want you to feel confident doing it. Look at the, look at your numbers,
right? Just like we talked about, use the left brain, use the right brain, use them together, and then design the business on your terms, because that is the truth. It is your business. And when you are truly aligned with your purpose, when you gear your business to reflect and support your purpose, that is how you know, you have set yourself up for longterm success,
but that lucrative life we’re always talking about and that my friends that’s when you know you’ve got the intentional advantage. Thanks so much for joining me today. Quick question though, before you go, do you like prizes? When you leave a rating and review of the intentional advantage podcast, you’ll be entered to win my life changing course, multiplying your time. Simply leave the review and then send me an email@helloatTanyadalton.com
with a screenshot. I choose one winner at the end of every month. So go ahead. Do it right now. Just a quick comment with what you loved about this episode or the show in general and a rating and send it our way. Not going to lie by stars is my favorite, but I’d love to hear what you think of the show.
And if that’s not enough of an incentive for you to win the multiplying your time course, I have to tell you the reviews are the number one thing that supports this podcast. And me, it’s the best way to spread the word and get business tips and strategies to all those other women out there who need it. So there you go. Two great reasons for you to go and leave a review right now.
So go ahead and do it, send that screenshot my way, because I want to give you a free course. And thanks again for listening today. I’ll be back next Tuesday and I’ll plan to see you then.
**The Intentional Advantage is a top rated productivity podcast for busy women. The transcript for this episode was created using AI technology.
Tanya Dalton is a female productivity expert. As a woman and motivational keynote speaker, she has a unique perspective on time management, finding balance and setting goals. Her talks are inspirational and actionable.