When did you learn to ride a bike, 3, 5, 7?
I was 27.
I mean I tried at age 6, my sister was trying to teach me. On my cute pink bike, we had taken the training wheels off. And were about to begin.
On the street in front of our house she was about to teach me. To help me get started she popped a broom under the back of my seat so I would stay up right while I got momentum.
The problem is she was only 8 and not that much bigger then me.
So not longer after I started moving, she had lost control and I ended up going head first into the neighbours tree.
I was hurt, so she said we should stop. In that moment I developed an irrational fear of riding bikes. So I never did it again. Until I was 27.
On a side note, if you are shocked, 1 in 8 British adults can’t ride a bike thats close on 12 million people. So I’m not alone!
Business is like riding a bike.
I hear that once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget. But I want to disagree with this statement.
As children riding a bike is something most kids do a lot. And its the repetition that makes it stick, not the ease of riding a bike.
And so in principle the statement business is like riding a bike, if taken to mean business needs repetition to success. I would agree.
If taken to mean business is easy, I would proceed with caution. Because while business doesn’t have to be hard, it does take some work input.
What repetition does a successful business need?
This is the ‘easy’ part, the list is not long because I want you to truly implement it into your life.
Repetition in
- Client service
- Showing up online
- Offer
- Mindset work
These 4 areas are the core repetition areas. If you can do each of these each day, then you will be on to a winner. So let’s break them down.
Client Service
First, on foremost, you need to show up for your clients. Any client you have is important. And they will be the ones that give you testimonials, refer other people to you and help you shape your business moving forward.
So what does showing up mean, I love to think about the order in which I serve people. And I work on investment. So the clients that pay to work with me 1:1 will get the most of me. I will be on hand for them within contracted hours. Then my Blueprint to Business group and Mastermind. After that I will focus on single or short contracts. Then my mailing list, my followers online and then lastly anyone outside of any of these streams.
And this could look anything like, running sessions, doing training, creating content, clearing your DM’s, showing up live, answering questions in your groups. Anything that adds value for your clients.
Showing up online
Part of being in business is helping people find you. And while it is great getting referrals and having work come in via word of mouth – what happens if this stops?
Now I know we never want to think about that. But honestly, this is a reality for so many businesses. They work completely through referrals, then the referrals start to slow down and suddenly they are in famine in business.
By having multiple strategies to attract new clients you are opening up the possibilities of continuous growth. So what do I mean by multiple strategies?
The first is the point above, show up for your clients, this will get the referral stream. The next is Social Media. Being consistent in showing up on Social media is really important. This doesn’t mean being on it 24/7. It means having a presence that your followers come to expect.
My best tips for Social Media:
- Pick 1 platform and go ALL OUT – rather than trying to do all the things on all the platforms. Pick one main platform. Mine is Instagram, so I plan my content for Insta, then cross-post it onto Facebook and LinkedIn. This means I only have to create content for 1 platform.
- Just start posting – don’t get too caught up in the purpose or content strategy at first, just for a routine or habit – like I show up in stories every weekday, and post 3 grid posts a week as a minimum. Once you have the routine down, you can then focus on the content and pinpoint exactly what your audience needs.
- Listen to your audience – you have two options, poll and ask them for feedback directly. Or use your data analytics (insights) to explore what they like, don’t like, engage with. You can look at times they are most active.
Offer
Once you start to build a following (I am not talking 000’s, but a 100 people will do). You can then focus on what offer you have to give them. This is really important. This step moves you from just having a follower list, to have a customer list that pays you money.
The best thing you can do is link your offer directly into your customers pain point. And again, ask your customer. Ask them what they want to know more about, what would help them achieve the goals they truly want. And let them help shape the offers that you create.
If you want to explore how you create good offers – check out this previous blog which is all about the Value Ladder.
Mindset work
Last on the list, but definitely not least, is Mindset Work. This is the real game changer.
Everyone has blocks, barriers, beliefs that hold them back. And the more you explore and release them to better you will do in life.
This is about shifting the preceptive, the way you see the world. And looking at it from a new lens, angle or direction. This is the power of success.
Now the mindset work is likely the harder to do, because it is not a step by step. It is not as black and white. You have to feel into it. Which can be really hard when you first start.
I remember starting my mindset journey and always thinking this is TO hard and I will never get a handle on this – that in it’s was a block!
But I want to share a few things that have really helped me start the journey of listening to myself more.
Best starting activities
- Journal every day – I started by setting a practice to journal every day for 100 days. This practical approach made it easier for me to release into the work. Because even if I didn’t feel like I had something to write, I was writing every day. And SO much came up that I wasn’t expecting.
- Pull cards – this doesn’t have to be in-depth, I would recommend starting with an easy deck. Like Gabby’s Super Attractor deck. Pulling 1 card a day and seeing what immediate thoughts or feelings come up and help you notice unhelpful patterns or beliefs.
- Have a support system – This is really important, a group of friends, a network of people on the same journey, or a 1:1 coach to help you work through those really stuck thoughts. Sometimes just saying things out loud can help you shift the energy and move forward.
- Self-care routine – This is something I was really bad at. I never took downtime and it led to me burning out. But realising the importance of looking after myself was a huge part of my business. So now I have slow mornings, no work before 10 am, weekends off completely, and I only do work and work with clients that light me up.
And so?
Thinking about each of these elements is important in order to have a business that is a easy as riding a bike. But remember the easy comes from the repetition. So you have a give yourself a timeframe and stick to the activities you said you would do.
If you can start by adding in one of the habits above, that is new, that will slowly start to shift the outcomes that you get. And that will give you more ability to then add one more small change.
Have the most magical week! And drop me an comment or email to tell me what you will be focusing on.