Suzanne Chadwick
Hello, my lovelies, how are you? Welcome back to another week amazing to have you here, I have to tell you that I was gonna be recording a totally different episode for you this week. And then I remembered a thing that I used to do when I worked in London. And I felt like it could be really helpful for you. So I kind of changed this at the very last minute, which is okay, you know, we love a bit of an impromptu content. So I hope you're doing well, I had to tell you that today this morning, I went out for a coffee with one of my Bizmates. And it just is so important to find people be around people, where when you get together and you talk about things, and if these are business friends, obviously, it just is inspiring. And it's exciting. And it challenges you and you can like learn from each other and have amazing conversations. And that is what catching up with my biz mate Kay was all about this morning. And so I felt really pumped all day actually where I was like, yes, she's really into the numbers. And so we talked a lot about, like, what we're doing and what's working and sales strategies and what she's seeing in the market and what I'm seeing, and it was such a good conversation. And I think that it's so easy just to get stuck behind the desk doing what you do. And I just want to really encourage you to find your people find people who inspire you and who you want to have great conversations with because it just makes such a difference. And the other thing I want to say is that if you want to be friends with somebody to say, Hey, want to be friends kind of be that, you know, that seven year old in the playground was like, Do you want to be my friend, I think that were really hesitant sometimes to maybe build new friendships and that and I just think, you know, connect with people have great conversations, and really nurture friendships that you want more of in your life. I think that's a really important thing to do. Totally off topic got nothing to do, or we're talking about today. But before we dive in, I just want to remind you that if you haven't grabbed the freebies, there are a couple of freebies that I have created, there's a couple of new ones as well, that you might want to check out. So all you have to do is go to Sue's chadwick.com. Forward slash freebies. And you can see which one speaks to your soul. And you can grab it. Yeah, so there's free trainings, there's webinars, there's downloads, all the rest of it. And you can check that out at Suzanne chadwick.com forward slash freebies. So make sure you do that. And obviously, if you're not part of my E being epic and extraordinary community, then make sure that you subscribe as well. So CS chadwick.com forward slash subscribe, look at me giving you all the links today. But listen, without further ado, let's dive into this week's episode. So today, I want to talk to you about finding the gap and filling the gap. So this was something that I think I learned when I used to work at Deloitte in London, it was conversations that I used to have with the partners around when I was managing recruitment for the UK for consulting, we used to take a look at what parts of the business we needed, like consultants for how many they needed, what was working well, what wasn't working well. And one of the things we used to talk about was find the gap fill the gap, it may have been a bit of a play on Mind the Gap, if you've ever been in London is obviously what you will see in the tube station Mind the gap. So this is a method of finding the gaps and filling the gaps. I actually think this is a simple concept. But it may not always be the easiest thing to do. But it is a way that I think in my business is it is definitely a question that I'm always asking myself. And so it's just a really simple question that I often ask, which is what's the gap? So when, for example, we were reporting back when I was managing a team, my managers would ask, you know, we share our numbers, we'd share our wins. We'd be sharing what's working really well what we had achieved. And the question would be that's amazing what To the gap. And so the gap could be with people in the team, it could be the revenue shortfall, it could be issues with our stakeholders. So what was the gap between where we were now and what was working really well and where we wanted to be, and what the gap is that we might need to fill. And so it's really taking a look at identifying pitfalls in your business, that are outside of everything that you're already seeing. I hope I'm explaining that, right. So right now, you might be looking at a certain amount of information, you might be looking at things like your revenue, you might be looking at maybe some of your stats, you might be looking at your following numbers, you might be looking at, you know, a standard range of information in your business. And so my question to you is, is there a gap? Is there another gap that where you're not looking at the information? Or is there a gap between where you want to be and where you are now. And so this, I think, is a fairly simple concept. And I hope that it definitely helps you to think differently in your business. And I think for me, that's one of the things that I really want to help you to do is think differently in your business, like, think about all the things that you're not thinking about. So I'm going to break this down into three sections, mine the gap, find the gap and fill the gap. So the first one, which is mine the gap. So as I said before, what's not working right now in your business, and I think that one of the things to really look at is your gut feel. I think that a lot of times we know what's not working. And so actually taking a look and saying what is what do I feel is not working right now. So start evaluating things in a really methodical way. Is that obviously means my revenues down and so why is my revenue down? What does that look like? What products and services are doing? Well? And what do I need to focus on more? How is my website traffic? And what's the traffic traffic to my sales pages? You know, what are my conversion rates? What is making connections? What can I try, etc. So minding the gap is really that assessment of understanding all the different elements in your business. And I think one of the things that I like to focus on are the simple business buckets, which obviously I've shared before, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you can always go grab the free training, which is Suzanne chadwick.com, forward slash buckets, and check that out. But it's really me taking a look and saying, Okay, where do I need to mind the gap when it comes to building my brand awareness? You know, what else could I be doing here? What's the shortfall, and what's working and what's not working? And so this is the assessment, and then I might take a look at my marketing. And I'll say, okay, so I'll give you a really perfect example is that we have run Facebook ads for a long time. Right now Facebook ads are just not working the way that they've worked in the past, lead costs are really high, not getting the traction that we were getting. So that for me is an assessment that this is a problem. So do we keep doing what we're doing? Do we change up our strategy? What what is it that needs to happen here? And so I'm in that assessment piece? Also taking a look at? You know, I talked about getting creative in business a little while ago. And so it's taking a look at what Where are my products and services? What was the revenue that I've had every month for the last few months? And where is that revenue? Now? You know, do I need to mind the gap? What does minding the gap look like? What

is the assessment that I need to really think about when it comes to this? And so this is your thinking, time minding the gap is the assessment and thinking time, it's recognizing and seeing what's the problem, articulating the problem, assessing the problem, and making it really clear that this is something that now you need to potentially look to find exactly what the gap is. So you know, there's a gap there. So now it's about finding exactly why there is a gap. So for me let we'll use the ads example, again, is that the finding of the gap is that maybe I need to change my audience's finding the gap is, do we need to test you know, how a lot more creative? Do I need to get somebody else to take a look at it for me? Like what exactly am I going to be doing? And how do I need to start to look at this. The second thing is to find the gap. So let's use website traffic as the gap but you would obviously go through you know each one of the elements in your business. So if your website traffic is down, you might look at when it was up and where that traffic was coming from. What's changed maybe you were sharing more content or you were more active or maybe you were paying for traffic just know the reason for the change. if you can. And so when you were an assessment, you might be like, you know, website traffic's down now find the gap is to understand exactly what elements have contributed to your website traffic being down. So when you know where there is a gap, then you can start to decide what you're going to do about it. So you can start sharing things more, so maybe write more blogs, get on more podcasts, create something that generates energy and activity, get in more groups, pin it to Pinterest, share more links in your stories. So it's really now looking at, you know, once I've established, assess what the gap is, now it's finding out okay, what were we doing, what do we need to do now. And once again, planning that out. And really, like, if we are talking about website traffic, looking at your distribution, looking at your Google Analytics, understanding where things are at so that you can find what that gap is? Yeah, so we assessed to figure out what the issue was. Now we're getting down into the detail of what the issue looks like. And then the third thing is to fill the gap. And so now that you know the problem, and you've worked out a few things to do, so you want to create a activation plan, where you're going to work through each of the things or get somebody to help you where you can start to fill the gap. But you want to record where you are now. So say the metrics, then what you want to do so that you can clearly measure what's working now. And I think that's one of the biggest things is that the market is shifting, the market is changing. We've got AI, there's a lot more content creators, there's a lot more people just in the market in general. And so you've got to really start to take a look at what is it that's really working for us? How can we continue to build on this? And what are we going to do to fill this gap? And so this is your action strategy. And so with everything, this is something that I work through quite quickly a lot of the time is I'm like mind the gap. So if there's a problem in the business, what like, what exactly is the problem? fill the gap? What are the strategies we're going to use to, like try and rectify this issue, and then fill the gap is what is the dedicated action plan that I'm going to take that I'm putting in the diary that I'm making time for? That I am absolutely like prioritizing to be able to fill this gap. And so as far as running your business goes, I think that as a practice, this is something really worth understanding and starting to use. Because what happens is that a lot of times people might find issues in their business, or they'll know that there's an issue. But they don't take the time to assess exactly what the issue is. All they know is that let's just say ads aren't working, and it's costing too much. And so my initial thought, or the usual thought maybe we'll add start work anymore. But that's not what we want to do. We don't want to throw is there another saying besides throw the baby out with the bathwater? There must be another say, That's not. That's not as that's not as I don't know, whatever is that. And so I just really want you to think about how you're doing that. Is this something that is not working your business where you're putting a general blanket statement over and going, just doesn't work anymore? Nothing works anymore. Like, you know, my traffic's down. And so you just accept that. Well, my website traffic's down. That's just how it is. Whereas if you're like, Okay, website traffic's down, what's the gap? Where were we? Where was traffic coming from? Why are we not getting traffic there at the moment? Yeah. What are some strategies that we're going to do to fix that? What are other strategies that we're going to do to fix that? And now let's take action on it. Yeah, so that's website traffic with ads. It's not working at the moment. Why is it not working? Do we need to change things up? Do we need to change our budget? Let's talk to people who are in the know. Okay, let's figure out an action plan. Now let's implement the action plan. When it comes to so for example, Instagram, I am in a love hate relationship with Instagram at the moment. I love stories. I love connecting with my community. I just don't love at the moment posting. But the thing is, is that like, that's important to my business. And so, mine the gap assessment is I don't really feel it. Take an emotional one. I don't really feel like posting to Instagram. Okay, so, uh, says, is this important to your business? Do you get traffic from Instagram? Yes, I do. Do you get clients from Instagram? Yes, I do. Is it then for important for you to post it Instagram? Yes, it is. Okay, so let's talk about the gap. All right, well, and this is something I talked about with my coach as well. Well, let's start creating like seeing what the analytics say. So right now my static posts get a lot more engagement and comments than my reels. So let's spend some time on how we do that. So now to To fill the gap, I spend at least an hour a week going and creating high value content for my feed. And then I schedule it. So, you know, I assess the problem, I understood what it was going on, I looked at my analytics, and then I've now created a strategy for how I'm going to actually do the thing. So you can do this with anything in your business, I want you to mind the gap, assess, find the gap, come up with strategies, fill the gap take action. Like that's the simplest way to really think about it and break it down into smaller things. Yeah, so maybe don't take like, you know, my marketing's not working, like as a general assessment of mine the gap, what part of your marketing is not working? Yeah. Is that is it for one particular product? Is it that a particular channels not working for you is that a particular campaign and messaging is not working for you, like what exactly is not working, get specific with it, so that you can really drill down and assess that particular thing. So you can find the gap and then fill the gap. And I think one of the main things that I would really love people to take more time with is finding the gaps. So not only understanding the problem, but then spending more time to brainstorm more solutions. So think about how you can do things differently. You think about strategies, you may not you have used, like ask other people who you really admire respect, have, you know, value their opinion, or who are experts in this field? You know, and say, like, this is the problem that I have any thoughts on it? Like if you're in communities, like if you're in bold, Business Academy, amplify etc. Like, I know, my clients are always asking like, this is a problem. I need ideas, thoughts, etc. So that's a really important element is finding the gap, and working out exactly what you're going to do within that. And then obviously, you've got to take action, because there's no point seeing that there's a problem, and then coming up with some solutions, and then never actually implementing it. And I think one of the thoughts that I hear and see a lot is that it feels hard. Like people just find that hard. And it was really interesting, because I was in a community, like meet up chat thing online last week or this week. And the question in the discussion was, how do you eat the frog? Which is obviously how do you do the thing that you don't want to do first thing in the morning so that you get it out the way etc? And I was just sort of thinking, like, as we were having the discussion, it's such a mindset thing. Yeah, is that there's this thing that I don't want to do. And I just, a lot of times, just don't think like that. Like, it's, it's not whether I want to do or not eat, do I need to do it. So let's just book it in the diary and do it. I think sometimes we ask ourselves if we want to do something or not. And so for example, there are some weeks where I'm like, I don't really want to record the podcast. But it doesn't matter whether I want you or not, it doesn't matter whether it's hard or easy. The point is, is that I've committed to do it. So I just get on and I do it. And so I just really want to I guess make you aware of your own thinking around things where the more that you think about something that you think that you don't want to do that you

tell yourself that you don't want to do, the harder it's going to be to do it. And so just change your thinking. And when I say just change your thinking, I love some people, they're just gonna be like, Suze, it's not that easy just to change my thinking. But it actually is like, you can work on this. Yeah, it may not happen overnight, but it will happen. I don't think about what I don't want to do I just think about what needs to get done. I don't think about do I want to do it or not. I just think about like whether it needs to happen. So Instagram is a perfect example. Do I want to create those posts? Not always, is it something that needs to happen? Yes, it is. Okay, well, then let's just book it in the diary. Listen to some music, do something else, grab, grab a great crop coffee and just get on with it. And so I really want to encourage you to take a look at areas in your business where you're telling yourself you don't feel like doing something or it's going to be too hard. And I really want you to look at how much mental energy that takes up. Because that's actually where the hard stuff is, is when you create mental distress mental weight, mental load, because you keep telling yourself that you don't want to do something when you have already assessed that you've got to fill that gap if you want that result. Yes, I just want you to think about whether you're creating mental load that's stopping you from minding the gap, finding the gap and filling the gap. If you've got any questions, let me know. I hope that all made sense and also just want to let you know that obviously if you've not checked out my freebies page then you can check out the simple business buckets you can check out my free masterclass, you can check out the best year yet planner as well. All of these things are going to help you to I'm gonna say it to mind the gap, find the gap and fill the gap all of those three things. So head to Suzanne chadwick.com forward slash freebies. And you can grab all of them and get started. And obviously if you want to come and actually get support with it, then you can come and join me in either BBA or amplify depending on where you are in your business. But otherwise, have an amazing day and I'll speak to you soon

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