Suz Chadwick [00:00:00]:

Welcome to the Brand Builders Lab Podcast. I'm your host, Sue Chadwick, certified business and mindset coach, author, and speaker. Each week, we'll be talking about simple but powerful business and mindset strategies that will help you build a lean, clean, and profitable business so you can learn to get out live your own way and pay yourself more. Forget average. It's time to level up. Hey, gorgeous. Welcome back to the the podcast. I'm so excited to share this with you.

Suz Chadwick [00:00:30]:

It is something that I have been thinking about, and I sat down, and I'm like, this is how I wanna share this. This is how I wanna talk about this. This is where I am. This is where I see my clients at. And so today, I'm sharing with you what I am calling the strategic action to results measure. I might come up with a better name, right now, we're going with some. Don't you love the random things they come it's so fun. I have to tell you that I do love creating and thinking about new ways of educating you, sharing with you how I think you can work better in your business, how you can measure what's working for you, how you can see where you are in the scheme of things when it comes to building being a powerful brand and a profitable business.

Suz Chadwick [00:01:31]:

You know that's what I'm here to do. And so this just I don't know. This just came to me, and I'm like, I have to tell you about this. Yeah? And I was talking about it in club done the other day as well. And, you know, one of my one of my bizmates was like, oh my gosh. I'm at this level, but I wanna be at this level. And so now I'm gonna be accountable to you for me to go to it, the next level. So when we talk about going to the next level, no longer is it a random intangible thing, but now it's like a measurable, this is what the next level looks like.

Suz Chadwick [00:02:09]:

I should so be recording this video because, can I tell you, the hands the hands are going? I am expressive today. So that's what we're gonna dive into. You're probably just like, Sue, what are you talking about? It will all become clear in just a moment, my friend. It will all become clear in just a moment. Now what are the things that I need to tell you? I've been talking to you about the Amplify Mastermind. I'm so excited about this. We are gonna be opening the doors to the Amplify Mastermind in January. You can join the wait list now.

Suz Chadwick [00:02:41]:

It's got all the details. It's got how much it is. It's got what's in it. It's got everything that you need to know, and I wanna tell you who it's for. The Amplify Mastermind in 2024 is for women who are beyond a 100, a 150 the grand a year who want to be in a community where we challenge you to think differently, where you can have next level conversations, where you can have conversations around how you consistently build and grow your personal brand, your business, how you attract better clients, how you attract more money. Yeah? And we are going to be supporting you with weekly group coaching. You get a 1 on 1 with me every month. You get a strategy session when you start.

Suz Chadwick [00:03:28]:

We are gonna have not master classes, but live training, and and we are gonna have people that come in, and they are gonna get you thinking differently. One of the things I love about a great mastermind, and I don't. And I actually think that I have been in a couple of masterminds, and what I'm really trying to create within Amplify why is what I have not had in other masterminds. So I'm trying to set a new benchmark for how you experience, a mastermind for a full 12 months where you get the coaching, the support, the community, the next level thinking, the conversations where you're like, oh my god. That was so good. That's what I want you walking away from our sessions with, like that feeling. And so if you wanna build a powerful and profitable personal brand, you may have been in done for you, and now you're ready to maybe continue to do some of that, but you're like, I wanna speak, Suze. I wanna become known.

Suz Chadwick [00:04:27]:

I wanna share my thought leadership. I might wanna start a podcast. I wanna potentially do digital products. I wanna potentially do coaching. If you're looking to shift your business model away from just done for you so that you become the person who people wanna work with, who they know, who they talk about, who they're like, I wanna work with you because you're awesome, then Amplify is for you. It's about amplifying your message, amplifying your thought leadership, amplifying what it is you wanna do in the world so that you can create the income, the influence, and the impact that you really want. If that sounds like you, if you're like, yes, Suze, preach, then come and join the wait list. Yeah? If you've got any questions, DM me in Instagram.

Suz Chadwick [00:05:10]:

Just head to suezchadwick.comforward/ Amplify, but I am excited. I am, like, clear. I'm excited. I know what I wanna build. I'm like, let's go. So without further ado, let's dive into this week's episode. So today, we are having a honest conversation about business. Some people might disagree with me.

Suz Chadwick [00:05:34]:

I'm okay with that, but this is something that I found to be true from being in business, branding, in this world of sales for over 25 years. Yes. It's been that long. I know that I look like I'm 18, but it's been a while. And the thing that I've learn is the harder you work, the more success that you have. Before you jump down my throat, before you switch off, I wanna talk about what hard work means. Hard work does not mean hustle. It does not mean giving up your life.

Suz Chadwick [00:06:13]:

It does not mean working ridiculous hours. It does not mean not looking after yourself. What I mean when I talk about hard work is the work that we need to do that is not maybe our go to, something we have to work at doing, work at being consistent, work at being productive, work at being strategic, work at doing the things that are revenue generating. So when you work hard, which is all the things I've just described, when you are focused and you think hard during the times that you're working so that you get more done, or the time that you're working. You get so much out of it. The harder you work, the more success you have. So that is what I believe to be true. And so often, we get into business and we see other people doing their businesses, and it just seems so easy.

Suz Chadwick [00:07:17]:

You start a business, you show up online, and then you get customers. That's what we think happens. And then you get into business and you realize that it's actually not that easy. And I have been thinking about this so much. And so I was thinking about this recently when I was reflecting on some client conversations, relationships, coaching clients that I've been working with over this year and have just been thinking about the strategic action and effort and then the results. So we all want amazing results. We want our business to be booming. We want our business to, you know, bring us incredible leads, to be working with amazing clients that we wanna be working with.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:03]:

We want things to flow well. We wanna, you know, wanna have systems that are working. But a lot of times, we're not Shelly working hard doing the work that's required to have a business that actually runs like that. And so when I have been thinking about some of the work that I've been doing and the conversations I've been having, this is an observation that I have. And I'm gonna say it's an observation on my own business as well. Like, I am gonna put myself in this measurement that I'm gonna share with you. And so what I'm calling it, as I mentioned, it's really around the levels of strategic action to results. So I'm calling it the SAAR SAAR measure.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:49]:

Yeah? It's not very sexy, but we're gonna go with it. But before I the the SA measure or the levels within it that I see after working with and coaching people forever now. Like, it's been a really long time. Can I just tell you that I actually got into, like, I started managing teams when I was 21? Like, 2021. I I was given my 1st management role when I was about 21, I think it was. And I had a team of, like, 12. And they were all in their late twenties, thirties, somewhere in their forties. And so I have been coaching, mentoring, managing people for a very long time, and I believe all this to be true.

Suz Chadwick [00:09:34]:

But listen. Before we get into this, there is a story that I wanna share. You may have seen it online, but it is a story that I heard from Alex Hormozi. If you don't know Alex Hormozi, he is an online business dude. He owns acquisition.com. He is everywhere. If you don't know the name, you would have seen him. Trust me.

Suz Chadwick [00:09:55]:

So he said that when he was starting his business. He had a mentor. So he was starting a gym business. This was, like, his very first business where he had no money, and he was, like, trying to work it out. And he had a mentor, and the mentor told him to put flyers out and get the name of the gym out there. So Alex went and printed 300 flyers, and he distributed them, and nothing really happened. I think maybe he got 1 call or something like that. And he went back to his mentor very disheartened, and he said, this doesn't work.

Suz Chadwick [00:10:25]:

And his mentor said to him, well, what did you do? And he said, I put out the flyers. I got 300 flyers. I put them out. And his mentor said, we test with 5,000 flyers, and then we put out 5,000 flyers a day. So in a month, it's like a 150,000 flyers that he was talking about. Now whilst that feels very extreme, and this was a number of years ago, the point is is that a lot of times, what we think is required or what we think we need to do to get a result, we massively underestimate. We massively underestimate. Alex said, I realized that I may have been doing the right thing all along.

Suz Chadwick [00:11:11]:

I just was doing too little of it. And we do things for too short a time, too little a time, not enough time, and we wonder why something isn't working, and that's where the strategic action levels come in because I believe Eve that there is a correlation. Like, you've got to admit there's a correlation. People who work harder, not longer, but smarter and harder, people who focus on the things that matter. Amazingly, they do quite well, don't they? Because they're problem solving. They're figuring it out. So let's break it down, on and this is going to be dependent on your business, what you do, the uniqueness of it, but I still think that this applies to, like, 90% a businesses 90% of the time. Like, if you're I got a unicorn for a business, amazing.

Suz Chadwick [00:11:59]:

But this is kind of what I have graded or the levels at. Yeah? So the strategic action to result level 0. You might have a hobby business. You're just doing it for fun. I'm gonna Compare these to moving vehicles. You'll you'll get what I mean when when I start talking about it. But the level 0 who is where you've got a hobby. It's just for fun.

Suz Chadwick [00:12:25]:

It's like your business is a bicycle. Like, it's just it's just ticking along. Yeah. It could be a thing on the side. It could be something that you're just thinking about doing, you know, and you're or you might have a job and you're just making some money and you're happy with that. So that's like level 0. The next level is level 1, and I'm gonna call this the slow burn. And this is where you're driving an every everyman brand car, Toyota, Mazda, all the rest of it.

Suz Chadwick [00:12:54]:

Yeah? So you have some sales coming in. You're in your business maybe full time or a few days a week, like you're just ticking along and you're just kind of maybe getting started. So you're in your 1st year, 2 years of business potentially, and you're trying to go from 0 to maybe 50,000, $80,000. So you just, you know, you just got some clients. It's paying the bills. You might be paying yourself a little bit, but in all honesty, it feels tight. Like, you're trying to work it out, and you might be hustling at this stage just to try and get money in your business, get clients. And it's not maybe working either as fast as you want or in the way that you want.

Suz Chadwick [00:13:39]:

So level 0 of the strategic action to results is a hobby, nothing strategic happening. Level 1 is that you've got some things happening. You've got it's a slow burn, but it's really not giving you as much as you would ideally like. And once again, this depends on who you are. You might be like, making 50 k and living the dream, but maybe not. Next, we're moving up to level 2. This is where you're driving a luxury car, but it might be an old model. And so this is like a mid range action taker.

Suz Chadwick [00:14:14]:

You might be hitting a 100 k, 150 k, maybe 200. You're full time in your business. You're busy doing some of the key things. You've got solid foundations and clients coming to you, but not everything is the way that you want. So you know that you could be making things better, more efficient, but you haven't focused on fixing those problems. So I feel like a lot of businesses that I know a kind of in the level 1, level 2. Yeah? So the slow burn of trying to figure it out. And I think one of the biggest shoes that businesses at this stage sometimes face is mindset issues where and focus issues, actually.

Suz Chadwick [00:15:01]:

So they might be in mindset sprint spinning drama, and they let their mindset get the best of them, and they don't have a strategic way of working, and they don't have, potentially professional practices. These are all things that I talk about in BBA. So, you know, if you're kind of either at level 0 or level 1, you're trying to figure stuff out. Then when I think about my business and my products and services, like that level 0 and one, BBA is helping people get the foundations to be able to be more strategic in the way that they're working, to develop the strategies that they need and they wanna have in their business. And it's them actually saying, I'm gonna be the CEO of my business. I'm gonna have professional practices. I'm gonna show up and do the work on the regular, and I'm gonna work hard, which means I'm gonna think hard in the time that I am allocating to work in my business, and I'm going to try. I'm really gonna try.

Suz Chadwick [00:16:02]:

I'm gonna focus. I'm gonna block everything else out to make this a success. And so this is where you're starting to kind of move into that level where you're driving the luxury car, but it might be an the model. Yeah. This is where you're trying to get to that 100 k mark, if not beyond. Next, we're at level 3. So this is where you're driving a luxury jewelry brand car current model. You're in flow.

Suz Chadwick [00:16:28]:

Your business is doing what you want it to do. You have great systems. You might have a team member or a team and strategies in place, and you're sharing content regularly that is getting you the clients that you want. Otherwise, depending on your business model, you might have somebody who's working in sales for you where you've got some sort of strategic proactive sales strategy, SEO, but, basically, you've got things in place that are helping you get new leads every single day, week, month. You might have funnels in place that are working for you, you understand and have a full view of your metrics so that you can make informed decisions, and you have a brand marketing and sales strategy, and you're working to those with a clear growth plan. So level 3 is really where you're now multiple 6 figures moving upward as far as your earning potential goes. Now I just wanna say that you could get to level 3, and you could be like, I am so done here. I'm happy here.

Suz Chadwick [00:17:39]:

Like, it's all good. The business is humming. I'm living my life. I'm traveling. I'm doing my thing. I'm paying myself well, like I've got this business working the way that I want it to. Yeah? So a lot of people, if you are between 23, then I think, generally, like, you're doing better than most. So this about constantly needing to be at that next level.

Suz Chadwick [00:18:06]:

It's a choice because with the next level comes extra responsibility, extra things that you have to obviously be aware of. Because when we get to level 4, basically, you have a driver or a private jet. Okay. So this is where, you know, you're kind of Alex Samosi, Amy Porterfield level. You you are the talent, and you have teams that run your business for you and you're leading the charge. So this is, like, completely different level. If we think about, you know, a lot of the bigger entrepreneurs that we're aware of, you good thinkers, Steven Bartlett, Alex Amozzi. I'm sure all, like, Brene Brown, like I said, Amy Porterfield, Marie Forleo, whoever it is.

Suz Chadwick [00:18:55]:

Like, you've they've got people that are doing a lot of the back end for them, and they are the talent. Now some of us a dream that that will be us one day, and that's what we can build our business to. But this is where you're now way beyond the 7 figure mark when you're at the SAAR level 4. Yeah. So the strategic action to results level 4. And so I feel like like, when you are starting your business, you're kind of in that level 0 to 1 where you're probably starting it out as the bicycle, just try to figure it out, have some fun, and then you decide whether you wanna go up to the slow burn like that next level where you're trying to get to sort of the 50 to 80 k. And then once you get to the level 2 and level 3 or somewhere in there, that's where you wanna be really focusing on perfecting things, streamlining things, really honing in on your your art. Yeah? What what are you doing? What's working? How can we make this better? It's not about more.

Suz Chadwick [00:20:00]:

It's about getting what you have working for you. And I feel like that's something where you can almost go up and down in that, where you can get to level 2 and start to move into level 3 and maybe move back to level 2 and be working towards level 3 again, or maybe you're working towards level 4. Who knows? But I just want you to know there is no wrong or right answer here. It's really about looking at and saying, well, where am I, and where do I want to be? And if I wanna be at that stage, what would I need to do in order to get to that stage. So for example, if you're at level 1 and you're wanting to move to level 2, then you're gonna really commit to your business, like, full time. You're gonna have the solid foundations. You're gonna have clients coming in. You know, not everything's working, but you're getting things moving in the right direction, and you're focusing on being somebody who shows up consistently and is working to make their business work for them.

Suz Chadwick [00:21:09]:

And when that clicks, then you you're in level 3, and you're starting to kind of make that work even better for you. And at the end of the day, to be honest, you could be in level 3 for a few years, you know, or you could be in level 2 for a few years, or you could even get to a level well, then stay at that level. If you're like, I'm actually really happy, paying myself well. The business is working. I'm working with good clients, and I'm okay. So it's understanding which level you're at. It's understanding what strategic action you're taking and what strategic action you need to take in order to get to the next level, and then it's deciding what you want and sort of saying, well, can I just make what I'm doing better? Do I need to be moving to the next level, or would that not really serve me? That wouldn't really work for me because it's not what I want. And and say that it's not to say that you need to be moving up those levels, but I think it's really interesting.

Suz Chadwick [00:22:07]:

And like I said, this is something I've really been and thinking about how I communicate to my clients and how I think about it for myself is if I want to go to that next level, what would need to change? What would I need to do? Who would I need to be? How would I need to show up? Who would I need to get to help me? And making an informed decision about that. So hopefully, that made sense. Because can I say, sometimes, I think of things, and I wanna share them with you? And to me, they make total sense. And I have to say 9 times out of 10, they do make sense to you as well. But when I'm in it, when I'm, like, just thinking through it for the 1st time or in the sharing of it for the 1st time, I do often think, am I making any sense to you? And I feel like when I did the episode a couple of weeks ago on re energizing and reigniting your business. That was so on the fly. And I was like, I hope this makes sense. I'm just telling you what I'm thinking, what I'm dealing what I think is, you know, worth considering.

Suz Chadwick [00:23:17]:

Had so many messages saying this. Yes. I needed this. So I'm kind of hoping that this makes sense to you. I feel like I need to create, like, a visual of it or something like that. But, but that's just something that I wanted to share with you. So we're talking about the strategic action to results, and what those different levels are. I might come up with a sexier name at some point, but that's what we're gonna go with for now.

Suz Chadwick [00:23:46]:

So if you've got any questions, let me know. Send me a DM. Let me know what level you think you're at. Let me know what level you think you're at right now and what level you wanna be at. And I was speaking to a biz friend of mine, and we were sort of saying, you know, you might be at, like, level 2, maybe level 2.5, maybe you're at level 2.9, and you're, like, so close to level 3. So I think it's just I think it's such a great measure to be able to say, I think I'm here, and I really wanna be there. And it's not just like, are you 2 or 3. Maybe you're like, you know, I think I'm, like, 2.5 or 2.7.

Suz Chadwick [00:24:23]:

Like, I think I'm really edging on level 3. Like, I feel like I'm almost there. I've Scott a couple of things to fix. And it would feel like such an accomplishment, I think, to also be like, I'm I feel like I'm really at that next level. Like, I've everything that you've listed here, Soos. I think that I can tick all of those boxes now and be like, yep. I'm gonna keep doing this and keep growing and keep making this better. So so that's what I wanted to share with you today.

Suz Chadwick [00:24:52]:

But I just felt like it's so important for us to remember that the effort and the execution of what we do really does determine the success of what happens in our business. And I really wanna encourage you to work hard according to my definition of working hard. I want you to think deeper. I want you to be focused. I want you to be productive in the time that you're working. And I want you to know what's working and what's not working for you so that you can make a really informed decision and operate like the CEO of your business. That is what we're all about. Now if you need help with foundations, if you're at level 1, 0, or 1.

Suz Chadwick [00:25:35]:

Yeah? If you're at level 0 or 1 under a 100 k, BBA is a great place for you if you are level 2 or 3, or I'm even gonna say 4. Look at me. Then Amplify could be a great place for you as well where you when I have those higher level discussions. But those are the 4 levels that I have identified when when it comes to the strategic action to results measure. So can't wait to hear your feedback. I would love you to leave a review. If this resonated with you, then definitely share it. Thank you so much.

Suz Chadwick [00:26:09]:

Otherwise, I'll see you next time.