Episode 31: Tips for Small Business: Do You Believe Everything Your Brain Tells You?
In this quick tip episode with Fiona, she shares a story on making assumptions. In many situations, we find ourselves overthinking without knowing the other side of a story, thus affecting our mindset and how we deal with our circumstances. Fiona gives us three questions to ask ourselves to help us avoid thinking too much.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction [00:54]
Contest Reminders [1:25]
Believing What Your Brain Tells You [2:33]
Example [3:06]
Making assumptions [4:29]
Three questions to ask yourself [6:39]
What does your data say? [6:57]
How can you validate your assumptions? [10:07]
What does your gut say? [13:50]
Conclusion [16:28]
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
Welcome to episode 31 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. Gosh, every time I say an episode number, I'm like, Oh God, wow, we're here already. So just a side note, if you're thinking about doing something like a podcast, like writing a book, like starting something new in your business, just start, just take action. Just do the thing. I sat on this podcast idea for so long, too long, too long. And now I'm like, why didn't I just start earlier? It is not as hard as I made it out to be in my head. Anyway, side note, today, let's go back to the actual podcast today. You are listening to a tip episode, so it's a quick episode with a tip, tool or tactic to help you in your small business. But before I dive in, I have to remind you that today is the last day to enter the competition where you could win one of five signed copies of my new book, passion, purpose, profit, and you could also go into the draw to win a one on one coaching session with me, completely free.
So if you're listening to this in real time and it's Tuesday, the 22nd of September, you have today until the end of day - Australian time: 11:59 AEST to leave a review on iTunes about this podcast, or share the podcast over on Instagram and make sure you tag @mydailybusinesscoach. So good luck if you're listening in real time, make sure you do that so that we could potentially work together. I'll be announcing the winners in next week's tip episode, which will be episode 33. All right, let's get back to today's tip episode. What is the tip? Let's get stuck in and find out.
Alright, so I have a question for you. I know I say that a lot. Don't I? And actually, if you've ever worked with me, I'm always like, I've got a question for you and my poor husband, he has to deal with my questions all the time. But do you believe everything your brain tells you? I know this sounds like a trick question, but do you do believe that your thoughts are real? Now, I'm not going to go to woo-woo in this episode. I'm very practical when it comes to business, but I do want to have you kind of consider that for a minute. Do you believe everything that your brain is telling you?
Well, a while ago, maybe like a year ago now, a good friend and I were chatting about the stories that we make up in our heads. Now she runs her own business. I run my own business and a friend of hers had seen her sitting alone in a cafe that week, the week we were talking, and this is pre-COVID times when we could all just sit around in a cafe and chat. Anyway, now the woman had seen my friend in a cafe and she had waved at my friend through the cafe window. And then she had been very upset when my friend didn't wave back. So this woman then proceeded to send my friend a detailed email asking, you know, why are things been so tense between us these days. And you never get back to me and an outlining just how disappointed she was that my friend had "completely ignored" her. The issue was that my friend hadn't even seen her. She told me I didn't see anyone waving. To be honest, I was deep in thought about which brekkie I was going to order. You know, when her email arrived, my first thought was, Oh, it's so nice to see her name. We haven't caught up in ages. She had zero idea that this woman had been outside the cafe, waving at her through the window. We can see gaps in stories all the time. And what happens is that our brain rushes in to fill them up, depending on our mood and our stress level.
And let's say we all have a lot of that going on right now on 2020. These plot twists will be positive or negative. So I see the same situation happen all the time with small business owners. We may only have part of the story of our audience or part of the story of our customers or part of the story about clients or potential clients. And we fill in the gaps with these assumptions. Again, either positive or negative. We stress out about sales, not happening or email lists not increasing, or followers not liking or tickets not being bought. And we make up all sorts of reasons as to why this is. I know that I have been guilty of this. I'm holding my hand up, even though you can't see me, I have totally been guilty of this. Like sending a DM to somebody and not hearing back and making up stories in my head or, you know, even when I was interviewing people for my book, I sent some interview requests out and some of those people in it, they're busy.
They don't get back to you straight away, but I'd, I'd imagine in my head are, you know, they think that it's a stupid idea or they don't want to be part of my book cause it's mine or all sorts of things. And then they all came back and were like, yes. Oh my gosh, thanks so much. So you're just rushing to fill in these gaps. And again, like I said, depending on your mood, the way that you feel those in will either be positive or negative. Likewise, when we pitch to a podcast or a media outlet, or we send a DM to a potential collaborator, or we suggest a partnership to a brand that we think aligns so well with our own. And we don't hear back immediately, we tell ourselves all the reasons, all the reasons why this is, and literally I am a queen of this.
I can go down a shame spiral when I want to, and I can make up all sorts of things. I remember when I was a child, my parents used to always say, gosh, you've got such a good imagination. And my mum used to be like, Oh, in her Irish accent, you have such great, great imagination, Fiona. And she'd say things like, you know, you'll be a writer and you'll be able to do this. But I also think on the flip side, that imagination and that ability to make up these stories has actually been a negative thing in some instances, not all, but sometimes.
So what might be a better option if you're a small business owner and you're listening to this and you're like, Oh yeah, I can do that too. What I think is really important to ask yourself and what I do myself as well and with clients is to take the time to ask and answer the following three questions.
So the first one is what does your data say? And if you're listening to this in the gym or you're somewhere that you can't take notes, don't worry. You'll have a full transcript over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/31 as this is episode 31. But back to the questions, the first question is, what does your data say? So a decade ago I worked at Amazon in the UK and I headed up the marketing for the entire kitchen and home category. And we had literally millions and millions of products. And I often joke that you cannot say hello at Amazon without having analytics to back up why you're saying it. But while that wasn't entirely true, analytics played a huge role in making decisions for the business, from which emails to send. And at what time through, to which words to test in the navigation, you know, rugs versus carpets, we referred to numbers as often as possible.
So if you're finding yourself filling in the gaps a lot, when it comes to why something isn't working in your business, consider looking at the data or even creating the data, if nothing exists for sure do that first, if you don't have it. And one of the best tools for doing this is Google Analytics. And I'll link to that in the show notes, if you're not sure what that is, but most websites will have Google analytics coding within them, or you've attached it to the backend. And that can tell you pretty much anything about what's happening in relation to your website, including, you know, your eCommerce site. Now you can set up a range of goals within Google analytics. And again, I'll link to that in the show notes of how to do that. But those goals will actually enable you to see exactly what people are doing or not doing on your website. So for example, a goal might be - arrives on the home page clicks on this particular page, clicks on this other page, fills in the contact form and hit submit form and goes through to a thank you message. That is one example. So that you'll be like, okay, for every hundred people that came to the website, how many achieved that particular goal? And from there, you can start seeing where the drop off happens or look at what you're not telling them or what you're not giving people to help guide them through the next stage of the buyer cycle.
Now, if you're unfamiliar with the buyer cycle and what it is, it's kind of the five key stages that people go through when they transact with you. And I did an entire episode about this. It was episode 24 and it was all about how to measure your marketing and how to look at the buyer cycle. So if you need refresh on the buyer cycle, go back and listen to episode 24, but for now consider what are you giving people to guide them through the stages of the buyer cycle and tools like Hotjar. And FullStory, again, I'll link to these in the show notes can show you a range of information about your site, giving you insights into why something is or isn't working.
So that's the first thing that you really want to work out is what is your data telling you? And therefore you're not suddenly being like, Oh my website's crap or people don't like that image or whatever it is that you're telling yourself. Cause you've got the data to actually back up what you're saying, or actually uncover totally new things that you hadn't even realized were happening. So that's the first one.
The second one is to how can you validate your assumptions? So we all do it. We all do it. We make assumptions in all sorts of parts of our life, not just in small business. And then we feel like an idiot when those assumptions turn out to be incorrect. So one way to rectify this is simply to validate your assumptions and how might you do that? Well, there's lots of different ways, but some of them might include asking your current customers or clients for feedback or insights using a survey, a phone call or direct email. I recently did this with my Sunday email that goes out on every Sunday surprise, surprise. And it's really interesting to see the feedback. I asked a lot of questions about the actual email, but I also ask questions about if you've worked with me, you know, how much influence did the email have on you deciding to go forward and, and pay for something really.
And then I had, if you haven't worked with me yet, what are the reasons as to why you might not have worked with me? And I had in my mind what the majority of people would tick and a lot of people didn't tick that. And they gave answers that were just incredibly insightful into all sorts of things in my business. So that's one example of how you could validate your assumptions or unvalidate them. I guess if, if what you find out is actually different to what you thought. So to do a survey again, with the survey, you can use tools like Google Forms, they're free. You can use Survey Monkey. I think they let you ask 10 questions for free. And then there's a bunch of other ones that you can pay for like TypeForm, but asking customers and clients for feedback is always a good thing.
The second idea might be to use social media. So using things like polls on Instagram stories, like would you rather X or Y when say choosing your engagement ring online. A third option might be to people in real life, work through your website or your physical space, like look at where they think they should be moving or touching on an iPad or something like that versus where you would like them to be moving. So when I worked in head office for retailers, we would often go into stores and give customers an iPad and ask them to find something in our online shop and then watch as to how they navigated the site. Because you, especially if you work in head office somewhere, or if you have a large company and you've got staff, you might all be like, Oh, it's so obvious where the button for that is like, why aren't people buying it?
And then when you actually give that, give an iPad or even a phone or a desktop computer or something to somebody else who's unrelated to the business, you watch how they actually try and find something. And it's really interesting because you're like, Oh, okay, they've totally missed this thing that I thought was so obvious. So definitely watching people in real life can be a way to validate your assumptions. Another way is to check feedback on your competitors or any kind of, not your direct competitor, but competitors in your industry via Amazon. You can have a look at reviews. You can have a look at Facebook pages. You can have a Google My Business reviews, always looking at like those that are three star and under, because they can be a gold mine for what people really want from a business like yours.
And then last point test, test, and test again. I mean, that is where you're going to be able to validate assumptions a lot where you can be like, Oh, okay, we did this. And you know, 60% of people did X, Y, Z. So that is a way to validate your assumption. So the first question was, what does your data say? And the second is how can you validate these assumptions? So validating assumptions might take time upfront, but it's far better than rushing into making changes in your small business when you don't actually know if those changes will have the impact that you're potentially hoping for.
And then the third thing is asking yourself, what does your gut say? So the last part of this exercise is to consider, how do you feel about what's going on? You know, what is your gut reading on the situation? Now I know this might seem contradictory to what I've just said, but I do believe that gut feel has to be included when looking at the stories that we tell ourselves in our business, I've had one problem consulting client, and one other problem, coaching clients, since I started this business in 2015.
So I've worked with hundreds of businesses, hundreds of clients, really. And I think that's pretty good to have two out of that that were just painful. And in both cases, I wish that I had followed my initial gut reading of that situation because I wouldn't have worked with either of them. I specifically remember for the consulting one, I remember where I was when I met this person. We met in person and everything about them was just everything in my body was like, uh, you know, maybe you don't want to work with this person. They seem a bit flighty. And they seem a bit like someone who wouldn't pay their bills or things like that, and turns out that's exactly what happened. And I actually had to go down a legal pathway. And then in the case of the coaching client, I again remember exactly where I was when I took the phone call, again, everything about this person, just reeked of just the wrong reasons to be working with me.
They seemed very much interested in who I knew and who my friends were and yeah, and sort of, I wish I had just listened to myself cause I was like, hmmm, this is not, you know, this is not somebody I want to work with but ended up working with them. I must say both of those happened early on in my business. And I think I was in that head space of, Oh, you know, it'll be okay. I'll just say yes. And yeah, in both cases had I followed my initial gut, I wouldn't have worked with them and I would have saved myself some, some pain, but lesson learned. So if you've been in business for some time, you might've experienced things in the past that led you to know intuitively to know why something is or isn't working. And even if you haven't been in business long something internally, maybe telling you that the reason that X or Y isn't working is because of Z.
And when conducting a gut read, you really want to have carved out some space and some time and some space really to think clearly about the situation and come up with the reasons why something is or isn't working. And you also want to measure this against any data, validate assumptions to ensure that it's not just fear talking, but a genuine gut reading.
So those are the three questions too, really ask yourself. If you are kind of making up stories in your head, when it comes to your business, what does your data say? How can you validate assumptions? And what's your gut reading? Consider the stories that you're telling yourself. You don't want to become this hashtag worried waiving woman through the cafe. That's making up all sorts of things in her head that are not reality. How might you utilize these three questions to uncover a more truthful and more helpful story?
So I really hope this episode has helped you. Maybe make some shifts around some blocks that you have or reconsider the assumptions that you make when running your business? I especially, especially think that it's really useful right now when we can potentially take on other people's stress or their frustration. And we can take that personally, even though it may have nothing to do with us or our business, you know, it's 2020. Everyone and everyone's emotions are riding the Corona coaster. So as always the show notes for this episode, including a full transcript and links to all of the tools that I mentioned Hotjar and FullStory can be found mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/31 as in the episode is 31.
Thank you so much for listening. If you loved this episode, if you found it useful, I would really love if you could share it with another business friend, because they might find it useful too. And maybe it'll help them stop getting so much in their head and telling themselves stories that actually are not true. All right. See you in the next episode. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
So as always the show notes for this episode, including a full transcript and links to all of the tools that I mentioned Hotjar and FullStory can be found mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/31 as in the episode is 31.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
Contest:
So if you're listening to this in real time and it's Tuesday, the 22nd of September, you have today until the end of day - Australian time: 11:59 AEST to leave a review on iTunes about this podcast, or share the podcast over on Instagram and make sure you tag @mydailybusinesscoach. So good luck if you're listening in real time, make sure you do that so that we could potentially work together. I'll be announcing the winners in next week's tip episode, which will be episode 33.
