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 of your own way and pay yourself more. Forget average. It's time to level up. Hey, Lovely. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm gonna be doing a couple of mini episodes this week and next week as we move into our next live round of BBA because I think that there are some simple things that we can talk about that can really help you to to see your business differently, to think about how you operate your business differently, and how you can start to feel in control, Create strategies that work.

Suz Chadwick [00:00:54]:

Be somebody who's just, like, really agile and a boss, basically. That's what we're gonna be talking about. So I'm gonna be sharing a few episodes that are focused on that. And, obviously, if you're wanting to get in control of your business and have the strategies at work and just be somebody who is a CEO Rather than thinking like you've got no idea what you're doing, then these are for you, and BBA is for you. So that's what we're talking about. But listen. We're not fluffing around. Let's just dive straight into this week's episode.

Suz Chadwick [00:01:33]:

You know when you're little and you've got One of those puzzles with all the blocks in it. It looks a bit like Tetris, yeah, where you've got all the different shaped blocks. It's like a square flat puzzle. And you've gotta work out how you're gonna fit all of those blocks in so that the puzzle works. And I feel like business is like that. I actually have thought about that for a long time. It's like sometimes you put all the pieces together, And then you'll get to the very last block, and it's the wrong shape. And you're just like, I have worked so hard on this.

Suz Chadwick [00:02:08]:

I have spent so much time on this. I have meticulously and carefully, like, placed out all of these blocks. And then I get to the end, and there's this 1 block That is the wrong shape, and it does not fit, and it's the most frustrating thing ever. So what do you do? You tip out all of the blocks onto the floor, and you try again. Yeah? Now, obviously, within our business, we wanna don't wanna be just throwing everything out, But I do think that it's such a good analogy for business in general, don't you, where You have to keep trying different scenarios. You've gotta keep trying different ways to make your business work. And so for example, you might have a brand strategy where, you know, you might have followers on your socials, You're having conversations, all the rest of it. And so that puzzle seems to be working really well.

Suz Chadwick [00:03:06]:

You're like, I'm creating content. The content I'm creating, people are loving. I'm getting new followers and all the rest of it. It's kind of doing what I wanted to do to a certain point. But then the part of the puzzle where you're actually getting applications or clients or sales may not be working. Yeah. And then you could kind of have different parts of your business where you're like, well, I have money coming in, but then I feel Like, I never have money to pay myself, or I feel like I have got orders and I've got clients, but I feel so burnt out and overworked to that this is not working for me. And so when we step back and we take a look at it, you're gonna have Different puzzles.

Suz Chadwick [00:03:50]:

We're just gonna go with the analogy. We're gonna have different puzzles in our business. And I think that the way that I have built my business that I have found has worked well for me. And it's not always It's not always easy. It's not always working the way that I want. I you know, I've had failures, so let's Get clear on that. But one thing that I have learned is that when you can get each piece of the pie or each piece of the puzzle as good as you can, then really it's about tweaking it. When you wanna make your business work for you, you've gotta kinda go back.

Suz Chadwick [00:04:28]:

This is one of the reasons why I love the fact that my Lights have got access for the life of the program, like lifetime access to BBA, to the content, because we always go back to it. We always go back every time the market shifts, every time we wanna evolve our business, every time we wanna change things up, we go back to this. And so the reason that we go back to it is because we go through each piece of the puzzle. And so you've gotta take a look at, you know, your brand strategy. So what is it that I am trying to do here? What is the outcome that you want? Well, I want clients. I wanna build a coaching business. I wanna have people that sign up to my programs or I wanna sell my products or whatever it might be. But getting really clear on, like, what that Outcome is, I think is so important, and knowing specifically with clarity, with, you know, precision, what success would look like.

Suz Chadwick [00:05:21]:

And then you go and you say, okay. In order and one of the things that I did is, I recently sent out an email where I shared an example of when I used to run massive projects, like multimillion dollar projects, and I used to run a brand agency. So the client would come to us and we'd say to them, what is the outcome that you want? And they would say, We need to attract at least 20 to 50 new people into our organization. We want to build a brand that attracts top talent, And these are the things that out this is what else we want to happen. And so we would write down exactly, like, what success would look like, what the outcome would look like. And so I want you to do that. I want you to sit down and say, Okay. So with one of my clients, she's like, I wanna sell this many prints.

Suz Chadwick [00:06:12]:

I wanna get this many commissions. I want to, you know, have these outcomes. Like, I wanna be able to pay myself x. And so now that we've got that written Down. Now we can go back and we can say, okay. Let's start working on each piece of the puzzle or each puzzle. So the first thing is what's the brand strategy? Now the brand strategy, which is all about how you become known, yeah, It's not about maybe getting more followers on Instagram. Maybe it's about increasing the number of subscribers to your email list.

Suz Chadwick [00:06:46]:

Maybe it's about taking a look at, you know, the people who we have in our community. How do we convert them? So how Are we building the brand to build trust so that people wanna buy from us more? How are we really clear on who we are, what we stand for, and what people can get or what the transformation is when they buy from us or they work with us. And so getting Really clear on that brand strategy is one of your puzzle pieces. Now if I was to say to you, what does your brand stand for? What are you here to do? What is the transformation that you give your client? Why does somebody buy from you? What is it about you that magnetizes them and tracks them. That is 1 piece of the puzzle. You understanding that, you taking time to research that, ask the questions, Get the answers. I've told you before I interview my clients, and I'm like, why did you decide to buy from me? What was it that really attracted Did you what, you know, what were you thinking? What was the problem? What was the transformation? All the rest of it. And so really understanding that Means that you can make that more prominent.

Suz Chadwick [00:07:56]:

Means that you can build a brand where you're like, I know that the majority of my clients come to me because they love this thing about me, so I'm gonna amplify that. I'm gonna amplify that in my personal brand. I'm gonna Amplify that in my message because I want more of those clients who said that's why they bought from me. Now you're you may not Go with just 1 message. You may have a couple of messages that speak to different audiences, but really understanding your brand puzzle, Your brand strategy puzzle about how you show up, what you do, who you are, and how you do it is such an important piece of the pie. The 2nd puzzle that you're going to solve is your business strategy. So When you are wanting to make your business work for you, and I've spoken with a couple of people in my community recently where they've got products and services. And products and service is fine.

Suz Chadwick [00:08:51]:

But if it's not working, you can't just, Like, leave things as they are. You've gotta once again, we've gotta go back, and we've gotta rearrange the pieces and go, okay. How can we make this work? What else could work? You know, what else are we gonna try? Let me, like, play with this. Have I had these conversations with clients to make Sure that these are the products and services that I know are really gonna help them to achieve the goal that they're wanting to achieve as well. And so understanding what products and services are working, understanding, like, what you're going to be charging for them and whether that's Going to help you to get to your financial goals is so important. You know, within business strategy as a puzzle, the other thing I talk about a lot and that we work through in BBA is building the momentum. So it's not just about, you know, build it and they will come. It is about how am I looking at building my brand, having products and services that work, Having conversations, understanding, like, how I build momentum, what I'm gonna do, and being able to track all of that so that I can make informed decisions is such an important piece of the puzzle that a lot of people don't spend time on.

Suz Chadwick [00:10:08]:

So for example, I'll say to a client, how are you building momentum? Like, how are you kind of building on what you've got? What are the Activities that you're doing on a regular basis that you have strategized, that you've thought about, that you've planned, and that you're executing. And a lot of times, they're just like, I don't know. I got this. I'm, like, growing my Instagram. I'm like, that's not a strategy unless you can convert it really, really well. And so one of the pieces of the puzzle is your business strategy. Knowing your products and services, being able to shift and change them if you need to, having products and services that meet your ideal clients where they are with their needs and what transformation that they want, and then being able to measure what's working as well. So that is one of the key things.

Suz Chadwick [00:11:01]:

So when I worked with my Clients back in corporate and within the brand agency, we would have these you know, we'd be like, okay. Well, if we want 50 New candidates. We want 50 amazing people, and we know that usually we need to get at least Twenty applications in order to whittle it down to 10 that we might send through to the hiring manager. We then Interview 5 at 1st round. We interview 3 at 2nd round, and then we might interview 2 at final round, and then we make a higher, then I know what my stats need to be. And so your business strategy is also taking a look at, well, how many of these do I need to sell? And if I need to sell A 100 a year or 50 a year. What does that look like? Like, how many people need to see this in order for me to convert that number? And so really understanding what that is is going to help you make your business work for you. But you've gotta do the work first.

Suz Chadwick [00:12:00]:

I'm just gonna say that. If you want your business to work for you, you've gotta do the work first. Another piece of the puzzle that you really need to work on as well is your pricing and packaging. And so sometimes we and I was looking at, one of my community's Products and services the other day, and it just listed everything that somebody gets. It didn't actually speak to the emotional needs. It didn't speak to the desires. It didn't package it in a way that was, like, really sexy and exciting, and, yes, I want that kind of thing. And so when we're talking about pricing and packaging, it's not just about what is the price gonna be, but it's about How do I package it, wrap it up in a bow, and talk about it in a way where people are like, oh, it's a no brainer.

Suz Chadwick [00:12:52]:

Like, this is give it to me now kind of stuff. And so and so you can have a great business like, a great brand strategy where people like, yes. Like, I love what you talk about. A great business strategy where you're like, okay. We know what we're offering, and We know what we're gonna do to build momentum and measure it. And then you bring all these people in, and then they look at it, and it's just a bit like thumbs down Kinda kind of feeling where it's like, nah. Doesn't really appeal. Yeah? So I think you've just gotta think about which one of these pieces of the pie you need to be working on or pieces of the puddle puzzle.

Suz Chadwick [00:13:35]:

We're now, like, in a puzzle and pie analogy. Are you still with me? We could have, like, a a pie that is a puzzle. Let's not get too complicated. Anyway, the next piece of the puzzle that we need to work out is your marketing and sales. Now I just wanna remind you, this is Something that you're doing like all of these at once. Each one of these is a puzzle that you have to solve for your business. Each one of these is something that you need to sit and work on. Each one of these, you know, you could have, like, 4 of them that work really well and one that doesn't work well at all, and that's like that last janky piece that, like, stuffs your entire puzzle up.

Suz Chadwick [00:14:14]:

So it's really important to, like, look at each one of these. So your marketing and sales, really looking at Marketing strategy, marketing foundations, content strategy, when are we selling? You know, I love my memos, my monthly energized marketing offers. It's like, what are we doing this this quarter. So for us, we've got the BBA launch. We've got webinars. We've got ads running. We've got, like, we're talking to other people who we're collaborating with. Then we're gonna look at, like, Amplify launch before the end of the year as well, and then I also wanna get Bold Speakers Collective up.

Suz Chadwick [00:14:47]:

So It's like, okay. Over the next 90 days, what are we doing? What are we doing specifically? When are we doing it? How are we doing it? How are we talking about it? What are we putting out there? What's our monthly energized marketing offer? And really being able to measure and see what's working with that. Another puzzle that you have to master is your systems. So we've been reviewing our systems as well, and I'm like, do we change From Kajabi, do we move to something else? Right now, we're not. But it's like, how do we simplify it? How do we make the business easier? Are we using everything that we're paying for? Is there a better way to do what we're doing? And the answer might be no. Like, you might assess and be like, Okay. We've looked at it. It's actually gonna be so much more work to change over, and the benefits of that change may not be worthwhile.

Suz Chadwick [00:15:40]:

So So we're gonna stay with what we have. Otherwise, you might decide to change. But we're looking at that, like, on a at least a 6 monthly basis. Like, is everything still working Well, do we need to add anything? Do we need to change anything? So thinking about how, you know, you are looking at the systems in your business is super important. It is one of the key pieces of the puzzle as well. And you know what is the biggest piece of the puzzle? My friend, my beautiful, gorgeous, amazing CEO, it's you. You And how you move the pieces of the puzzle, you and how you think about the pieces of the puzzle, is what will determine A lot of it's success as well. And so I really just want you to realize that you are actually the puzzle master.

Suz Chadwick [00:16:32]:

You are the person that gets to determine how well you do these things. And I just kind of wanna stop and emphasize that a little bit. The success of your business is determined by your ability to manage your mind and manage the different pieces of the puzzle. If you go into this and you're like, I'm gonna build a freaking awesome brand. I am going to build something that people connect to, they love, they wanna come back for more, they're listening all the time, They're, like, they're in it. Yeah? How do I build that? How do I tell great stories? How do I create great visuals? How do I show up in in my full energy where I'm in state. If you listened to the podcast last week, we talked about being in state. The energy That you give out is the energy you get back.

Suz Chadwick [00:17:22]:

So you as the CEO, your mindset will determine, like, how good you are at that. Your ability to price and package and measure what's working. Your ability to, you know, create the pricing and packaging that's like Gooey, chocolaty, so good. People want it. Give me more. This is a no brainer. Yeah. You've gotta think about how you are doing that and what your thoughts are.

Suz Chadwick [00:17:49]:

So I would even encourage you. Sit and write down. When it comes to building my brand, what do I believe? What's the thoughts I'm having? The thoughts you might be having, which are not helpful at all, is the market's so crowded. There's so many people that do what I do. How would I ever stand out? I'm not as good as them. I don't have as much experience as them. Like, I don't know that I could build a brand that stands out. Like, those might your thoughts.

Suz Chadwick [00:18:13]:

And you're never going to step up and build a bold brand. Remember, bold is about breaking the mold, doing doing things differently, standing out. Yeah? And you're never gonna do that if your beliefs and your thoughts are not ones that are gonna facilitate You as the CEO showing up and actually delivering it from that energy, from that state. So write down. When it comes to my mindset, what do I think about my mindset? What do I believe about it? Have I nailed it? Is it a mess? Do I need to work on it? When it comes to building a brand, what do I believe? What's what am I thinking? What are my thoughts here? Can I do it? When it comes to my business strategy and, you know, knowing what's going on in my business, being somebody who's like, I know exactly what to do, and I'm not somebody who's like, I don't know what to do. I never know what to do. Yeah. Thinking about how you show up in your business is so important.

Suz Chadwick [00:19:11]:

And so If you want to make your business work for you, you've got to decide that you are going to take control, which we talked about a couple of episodes ago. You are going to manage your mind. You are going to be somebody who's like, I am going to make This work. Like, come a hell or high water. I'm gonna make it work. I'm gonna be the master of my puzzle. I'm gonna learn how to do this, and I'm gonna go all in. And if you wanna go all in, then come and join us in the Bold Business Academy on the 16th October.

Suz Chadwick [00:19:49]:

Come and do it. Learn it. Because can I tell you, these are strategies that I learned, like, 10 years ago, and I still use them in my business today? And they still work, and they still help me feel in control. So when you learn how to master the strategies in your When you learn how to master the puzzles in your business, then you will make your business work for you. Does it mean the market changes and you've gotta learn new things? Yes. But these foundational strategies, I don't think they change. I think that the tools and apps and the way that we do it can change, But the actual foundational strategies, which is what I teach in BBA, that does not change because it's an adaptable strategy. Because the question is, where are my clients right now? And what is it that they want? And how do we communicate with them? And asking yourself those questions means that the foundation of the question stays the same.

Suz Chadwick [00:20:44]:

The the answers may change as the market changes, but We're people who are adaptable. We're people who can change with the changing world. And that's what being bold is about. You know, challenging the status quo, doing things differently. So you can make that happen. So that is how you can make your business work for you. Broken down, look at those different areas, decide where you are, Think about what your beliefs and thoughts are. Make a decision to step up as a CEO and decide that you are going to be somebody who takes control and decides that you're gonna make it work for you.