Suzanne Chadwick 0:00
Welcome back to the podcast. Awesome to have you here this week, we're diving into something that I'm doing a lot with clients, which is problem solving. Yeah, problem solving when the market goes down, when the algorithm goes down, when things are a little bit all over the place, you've got to be a problem solver. And so that's what we're going to talk about today. I'm going to take you through the six stages of problem solving that I go through, that I take clients through, that. If you are sitting there in your business right now and something in particular isn't working, I want you to go through these six stages. Yeah, the other thing that I want to let you know is that we are shaking these up a little bit. We're doing quite a lot of one on one business growth consulting work with clients right now too. So if you are wanting somebody to come in and hold your hand, keep you accountable, work with you in your business, to help build things out. And what that means is that we'll help you with the strategy, but then we will also help you bring people in that can execute on things. If you're somebody that's like, Suz, I don't know how to do the thing, like, I just need somebody else to do it for me. So we are working with a few clients right now where we're going to that level with them to really help them to execute things quickly, simply and without you kind of being the barrier, yeah, to getting things done. So if you're interested in that, then go to Suzan chadwick.com, forward slash discovery. But listen, let's dive into today's episode. Okay, so we're talking about problem solving. I have been problem solving in my business. We've had things that kind of broke and haven't been working that were working for a long time. And I just think as a business owner, it's just a core skill. It's a core skill that you need is to be a problem solver and also be somebody that you work on, the ability to kind of not really care too much when things fail. And what I mean by that is it's not that you don't care. Obviously we want things to work when we work on them, but just be somebody that doesn't get knocked down when things do not go the way that you want. We've gotta be able to take action and learn from mistakes, learn from things that don't work, and then get right back into problem solving mode and testing mode and trying mode and all the rest of it. So let's walk through the six stages of problem solving that I want to take you through today. So the first one is absolutely the audit. I almost feel like the first one is pre this, which is the realization. So when you see that something isn't working, it's about then auditing it. So what have we got in the business? How are things performing? What is still working well and what is not working well? So I'll give you an example as we go through all of these. Is that we have had funnels set up in the past. They have generally worked well. We've got a good return on our investment, but in the last six months, they've just not been working, not been working. So we had to shake things up, change things up. And I was talking to a marketing consultant just the other day, and he was saying, yeah, there's like a 12 to 18 month burn on things that you might have out there in the market. So I think that's a really good gage as well to always be thinking about and measuring. How's this working? What have we got going on? What do we need to tweak and change? So one of the things that we did is that we changed our webinar that we were doing, and I'm actually also going to be doing a very short video funnel as well, because I know that that is working too. When you're auditing what's going on in your business, I think it's also really important to know what good looks like like. What do we want to be getting out of this? What are we not getting out of it? And how can we start to really think about what good would look like? Take a look at how clients are coming into your business. Is that working well at the moment, yes or no. Are you able to deliver to your clients right now? Are they getting the results that you want them to get? That could be another area of your business. And looking at money like, how's your money management, how's your cash flow, and can I just say sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down. And I think that if you can build a reserve. That's great. I've borrowed money from myself personally before to invest back into the business, and then paid myself back. So there's different ways that you can obviously make sure that you've got the reserves that you need, but just know that at times there'll be massive abundance, and at other times, you might be a bit thin on the ground. And can I just say I know really, really successful people that go through this same roller coaster ride when it comes to cash flow in their business as well. So the one thing I don't want you to think is if we're not either making money, or we've got really amazing amounts of surplus, or we've got this incredible cash flow, then something's wrong in the business. Now, obviously you want all of those things to be up, you want all of those things to be flowing. You want all of those things to be positive, but just know that all businesses go through feast and famine, and if we can kind of increase the fat during the feast, amazing. But also, just know you will go through those iterations in your business. And I really want to normalize the ups and downs from a cash perspective of what happens in your business as well. Because I think that, you know, if we were just to go by social media, then everybody's always got, like, you know, $100,000 months and money coming in, and it's all amazing all of the time. And I just don't think that's true. I've spoken to so many business owners who are making a lot of money in their business, and they're like, we've been through periods where we were not paying ourselves, where our profit wasn't there, where we had to massively reinvest it back into the business, and then we were able to kind of come out of it again, and that's and that is the ebbs and flows. So I really want to normalize that. If you're feeling that right now, just know that you can come out of it, and that there is the ups and downs of that that you just need to ride. The second thing you need to do when you're in problem solving mode, once you've audited what's happening, what's working, what's not, is to research. So you could research online. I research through conversation. So I have a lot of conversations with different business owners, and I'm like, what's working for you right now? You know which markets are working for you as well, especially if you're on the in the online business space. I

was having a chat with a girlfriend yesterday, and she's like, the market seems to be a bit more buoyant at the moment. And she's like, 50% us, 50% Australian, as far as her market goes. And so just knowing what's working, I've been watching a lot of marketing videos that are from the last month or the last three months, in order just to really see what's working in the market, what people are saying, just keeping on top of your industry and understanding who might be great people to listen to and watch, who you can learn from as well. And so as I said before, you know, we've had funnels that have worked well. We've had list growth, and then there have just been times when all of that kind of just fell in a heap. And so it's then researching what needs to change, what do we need to do? What's working now, so that we can really start to look at it. So I'll tell you some of the things that I've seen that are working really well. So for example, let's say that you've either got a freebie, a lead magnet, etc. So there's two things you can do. You could have a lead magnet that then goes to a landing page. People sign up and on the set thank you page, you might have, like, a five to 10 minute video that speaks directly to their problem and what it is that's happening for them, and then a book, a call. Or you could apply depending on what the product or the service is. And so you want to be catching people right in that buying cycle, because when I go and I download a freebie, that is a pain point that I have right now. So it's really understanding that the other thing that I'm seeing is that people are advertising or sharing something that might be a training, but the training is no longer 30 to 60 minutes. So training is like anything from 1020, 25 minutes, if that. And it really is just showing the method and the model that that creator, that coach, that service provider, uses to get the client and outcome, and then it's literally like, book a call or apply instead of teaching. And so that's something that I'm seeing now, is the really direct sell, rather than somebody going through a whole lesson and learning. Now obviously, when you do teach somebody, if you're marketing to a cold audience, then that's going to be trust building, so that's definitely still worth it. But I think having both of those Funnels is worth taking a look at and testing as well. And from my research, that's definitely something that I'm seeing a lot more that seems to be working well, like people just want to make a decision. I don't want to sit through a really long webinar, especially if I already know you. So for example, you could have the shorter funnel to a warm audience and the cold funnel to a master class, where you're building trust. So that's something to have a think about and see whether you want to test that out. The third stage of problem solving is just to decide. So for example, exactly what I've just shared with you, we've decided we're going to be updating our funnels doing that. The other thing, as I mentioned earlier in the podcast, is that we're going a lot deeper with our clients to help them to execute on things. So one of the reasons that I started bold vibes consulting was because I work with a lot of my clients around building a personal brand, and content creation is a problem for them. It's something that they don't really want to do. They may not have the technical skills to do it well, and so BBC just made sense to me, especially because I used to run a brand agency before I started my business, it was kind of just like riding a bike. It's going back to having contractors, hiring spaces, working with clients on strategy and then helping them execute it. And so this is really a extension of that, where we've seen clients who either want to run ads, want to set up landing pages, want to create programs, but technically and motivationally, they just find it hard to execute on that, and so now we're working with more clients to help them to do that with the support of me and the team as well. So I think it's really looking at, when you make the decision, why are you deciding that? Like, what is it that you want to happen? So you've gotta have your hypothesis. What do you want to happen right now, and what do you need to do in order to make that happen? Do you need to build more of a team? Do you need to change your funnels? Do you need to take a look at how you're having conversations with clients? Do you need to up the ante on your lead generation? If sales are slow right now, and what could be the different things that you test? So decide exactly what it is that you're going to do, so that you're not overwhelming yourself. You're not trying to do a million things at once, just do one thing at a time. So we did our SLO which has our self liquidating offer, which is the magnetic brand storytelling and marketing playbook. And so we've released that out into the wild. And if you want to check that out, you can go to Suz chadwick.com forward slash playbook to get your hands on that. But that is paying for our marketing. We're then also taking a look at our short form funnel. And so that's something I'm doing this week. It has to be done this week. Once again, project managing yourself when you're in a space of problem solving and shifting and changing is important. How do you not overwhelm yourself? How do you know what it is that you need to do and you want to do, and then you map it out for yourself and your team, or for yourself, I do a lot of this myself. Can I just say it's not like I've got loads of people in the background doing this for me. I do have a VA that helps me, but I just want you to know that you can do this as well. And so just deciding and then taking the action so so action is the fourth thing, where you map out your project, you start to execute on it one thing at a time, so that you don't overwhelm yourself, so that you can make sure that you're getting it done. And I really want you to think about if there are elements that you're like I just don't know how to do that. I also want part of your problem solving to be right within the next 24 hours, within the next 48 hours, if I can't do that, if I can't learn to do that, I need to find somebody that can help me to do it as well. So, for example, I had a consultation a couple of months ago with somebody that was going to set up all of the funnels as far as upsells and down cells within my tech. And I'm just like, that is not something that I wanted to so I had a consultation with her. I've let her know, like, I want to move forward with that so that I can get somebody else to do something that I'm just like, that is just not something that I want to do for myself. So really taking action to either do it yourself or get somebody else to do it so that you're not holding yourself back, so that you're not held up because you're like, Well, I don't know what that looks like, or I don't know what to do there. Like, figure it out. That's what we're doing. We're problem solving. You figure it out. You find the person. You either learn the skill yourself, or you get somebody else to do it for you. So really take action to make this happen. And I just want to say that when you're problem solving, you really want to give yourself a set amount of time to do things in. You don't want things to drag out for months and months. You want to be like if I've got a problem in the business, how do we fix that problem in the most time efficient way? How do we fix the problem in the next week or two, not in the next six? Month, because you've got to remember, Money loves speed, so we want to be moving fast to get things done. The fifth thing is to measure. So when you are implementing new strategies in your business, you want to know what good looks like. And then you want to be measuring on an ongoing basis. So you don't want to set things up and then be like, Okay, we'll measure it in three months time. No, you want to measure it next week, and you want to measure it in two weeks time, and then in four weeks time, like, you want to be looking at it and measuring it all the time. And so, for example, when we put our ads up, when we do anything, we're then looking at, Okay, how many people do we have on the wait list? How many conversations Am I having? You know, what's our conversion rate? What's our cost per lead? Whatever it is that we're doing, we're checking in on it on a regular basis, because you don't want to get to a month later and it hasn't worked, and you've either spent money given time, like just knowing what it is that is happening, can then help you adjust your strategy a lot faster, rather than waiting. So I really want you to think about, let's say that you've got a new lead magnet. I'm thinking of one of my clients. You've got a new lead magnet. You've put it out there. Now the question is, what do you want to happen? So really thinking about, okay, ideally, we want to get at least 50, at least 100 people to download it, and we want to get at least 10 calls booked. So then the strategy is about measuring, what are all that well, taking action as to where you're going to be posting it, how you're going to be putting it out there. Is it organic? Is it ads? Is it referral? Is it getting your community to share it, whatever it is, and saying, okay, my goal is to get 100 people to download this and get 10 calls booked. So let's create organic content about it. Let's maybe put some ads towards it. Doesn't have to be big. So I'm gonna say ads do not have to cost you a lot of money, yeah, because you want to test it. And then if it's working, then you can obviously put a lot more on it. What else are you going to do? And then every week measure, how are we going? Like, what else could

I do to get more people to opt in, or get more people in the funnel, or have more conversations, etc? So really think about what success looks like, so that you can measure it as you go, and you're not leaving it till the last minute. And the sixth stage of problem solving is to adjust so once you have looked it, so let's go through it, once you've done the audit, what's working, what's not, and then you do the research what's working now that I might need to adjust my strategy to so that it does work. Then I decide what it is I'm going to do. I take action. I project manage it, I measure. So I look at what does good look like, and then measure if I am achieving what good looks like. And then adjust. So if you measure and you're like, now that's not working, hopefully it is. But if that's not working, okay, what are we adjusting? Do we need to tweak the copy? Do we need to be a bit more out there with what we're talking about and leading people to the thing? Do we need to be following up and connecting with old clients, whatever it is that your strategy is, how do we adjust to get the results that we want? And once again, like I said, when you are a business owner, being a problem solver, a very action orientated problem solver, is so important, like it's so important. It is a skill that you've got to build so many skills, the skill of managing your mind to take action, the skill of managing your mind to, like, let go of failure and just know that you're learning in the process, and you need to just adjust and try something different. The skill of problem solving is just key in your business. You want to be a problem solver. You want to be an action taker. Do not let things just languish. It's like I heard Alex Amos, I did a post on this the other day. He said, businesses don't fail. Business owners fade. And I think that that's exactly what we're talking about today. Don't fade like fight for what it is that you want, figure out the problems, get help when you need to, and then decide, take action, measure, adjust as you go. Yeah, I hope that that has motivated you today. I hope that it's a bit of inspiration. If you need help, then let me know if you want to come and work together and you're like Suzanne, I don't know what to do with you. Then get in contact. Let me know what your budget is. Let me know what problem you're looking to solve, and we will be able to accommodate and work it out and help you. Have an amazing day. Have an amazing week, and I will see in the next. Podcast.