Episode 379: How will you DO THE WORK this year?
In this episode, Fiona shares insights for small business owners. She also shares the importance of doing the work to create a brand with impact. Tune in!
You'll Learn How To:
The desire of business owners
Importance of emotional fulfilment in business
Addressing the evolving needs of the community
Significance of integrating sustainability
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Welcome to episode 379 of the My Daily Business podcast. Today it is a quick tip episode and that's really where I share a tip tool or tactic that you can implement immediately in your business. Before we get started, I want to let you know that group coaching is officially open and we have got some applications and I'm just excited about this group. I love running this year-long program and I can't wait to see who is in this next group, which will kick off in March 2024. If you're keen to know all about that, you can go on over to buy mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching and apply. If you are keen, please get in fast and apply because we interview people on a first come first serve basis. The other thing I wanted to mention is to of course acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the land on which I do group coaching, I run my business, I record this podcast, and that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.
I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. We are a few days away if you're reading in real-time to the 26th of January. There is so much work that we as a country here in Australia need to do in solidarity with First Nations people. If you are First Nations, I would urge you to check out 13Yarn and to make sure that you've got support, especially over the next few weeks and well all the time. But coming off the back of 2023 and now coming into the 26th of January, I'm sure it's a very complex time for a lot of people. If you are not First Nations, I would urge you to do your work do the work, go and find out more information, talk to your children and talk to your family. I hope that together as a country, we can come and do things that we are all proud of. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
I talk to small business owners all the time. This is literally my ninth year in business and in that time I have worked with thousands of small business owners and I have taught thousands more through our online courses, through speaking gigs. Our book Passion, Purpose, Profit is my first book, the second one is coming out this year. But the first one has sold, I think it's 14,000 or 15,000 copies, I'm not sure, but it has gone all over the world. Plus this podcast, which I think has about 850,000 or beyond downloads, I guess suffice to say that we talk to a lot of small business owners all the time across the globe. One of the things that comes up is that people want to be in alignment with their brand values. Now, these are the types of people that my business attracts.
Some businesses will attract different people who want different things, but a lot of the people that I work with want to have a business that they're proud of that brings in money, but it's also emotionally fulfilling. A lot of that comes from being in complete alignment with their values and beliefs. One of the things that comes up a lot is people saying, “I want to do more for sustainability, or I want to do more for my community, I want to champion these causes, or I want to show up in a way that is more authentic,” just the list goes on and on and on. I guess today in this quick tip episode, really it's asking you to think about how you are going to do the work this year and doing the work.
By that I'm not necessarily talking about your business as such and the revenue streams that go out, but the other parts of your business that are just as important and especially important when you're building a brand and you're trying to live in alignment with your values. For example, let's say one of your values is around community, for example, let's say that's one of your values, community and connection. Doing the work is looking at how are we aligning to that value of community outside of our paid products or our paid services or our paid experiences, how else are we cultivating that community? And are we listening to what the community needs or maybe how the community has changed? Maybe you started your business 17 years ago and the community has very much changed. How are we staying on top of that?
For example, how are we doing the work to listen first of all to what people need? How do we have our systems and processes set up to that? And then how are we reacting to those community needs? Is our community asking for more face-to-face stuff? Is our community asking for a different way to connect? Say for example, one of the things that we did a few years ago now in our group coaching program is that we shifted from having a community outside of the actual hours of group coaching and the one-on-one sessions that people have with me. We changed that community from showing up on a Facebook group to a WhatsApp group. And I have to say that the shift to WhatsApp has been much better.
We had so much more engagement. The community feel like they're there for each other. People can send messages at all hours or whenever and be like, “Hey,” and we will have people that have messaged and said, “I'm going through a really tough time right now, or this happened,” a really practical thing like, “Hey, I want to look at advertising this particular post, or how could I put this into a reel and make it get out there what should I do?”
Or “Hey, I've been given this opportunity with a publication and media, what do you guys think I should do?” There's that community aspect that is not part of all of the things necessarily that we are doing in the paid component of it. I mean it's part of group coaching, but it was looking at our community and seeing that the platform of a Facebook group just didn't work as well. A lot of people aren't on Facebook, A lot of people have problems with Facebook as in ethical and just getting onto the app. It became like, okay, the community needs a better way to connect. Looking at that, but also looking at meetups in real life and taking people out for dinners. We're about to have a breakfast catch-up in Sydney soon for one of the group coaching groups, and it's like, “What does the community need?”
Looking at, say in your community, maybe they want more information from you, maybe they want you to start a podcast. Maybe they want instead of your marketing to be on XYZ channel, that it moves over to something that has more of a community feel. I know a lot of people have moved some of their stuff over to Discord instead of Slack or moving things to Voxer that voice notes work because there's an intimacy and humanity in voice notes that leads to connection. It's looking at what are we doing to align with that value in particular as well. A lot of people will talk about sustainability and ethical manufacturing or the ethical supply chain, or “Hey, we want to look at our waste management processes,” but they're not going further than just having a conversation about it.
It's really going, how am I doing the work? Likewise, maybe there are causes that you want to get behind, or maybe there are groups in your community that you want to align more fully with. It's like, “How do we do that?” For example, I know that various people that I've worked with are diversity and inclusion coaches or working in that space. It's not on them always to be doing the work. Yes, you can hire these people and they're amazing and they can come into your business and give you all sorts of advice, but it's much like a business coach. They can guide you, but you still have to show up and do the work. That might look like investing in more cultural training, it might look like reading more books. It might look like having conversations, getting out into community and being around people that potentially maybe you haven't been.
That might be confronting for you to realize because some of us do live in these little bubbles and it's good to get out. Likewise, if you are somebody who is always doing the work for other people, then it might be that you're pushing back a little bit and being like, “How do I do the inner work of setting boundaries? How do I do the work of saying, no, this is not up to me to teach you how to do this that is really pushing my emotional labour. How will I do the work to set my boundaries this year?” Whether you're looking at your business through the sustainability lens or whether you want to really champion a cause or you want to join up to 1% for the planet, or you want to take some of your skillset and put it towards some pro bono work with a family domestic violence group, or working with women in underprivileged areas who maybe could benefit from your skillset and your education.
Like how are you going to show up and do the work? I often think there's a great consultancy out of the US called Change Cadet. Cadet is the French term that means soldier and Change Cadet is really about looking at anti-racism, diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging. They look at that in terms of organizational structures, but also individuals and businesses. Anyway, they've got a great Instagram, which we will link to in the show notes, but you can also jump on over to it at Change Cadet. So much information there, but it's also something that they talk about a lot and have sweaters and everything else is do the work. I think so often, especially when it comes to, say for example here in Australia, we are days away from the 26th of January, sometimes there'll be things that come up and it's the 26th of January, or it's NAIDOC week, or it's something else.
For those people who are reading who are not First Nations, you might jump on into these things. And as bad as that sounds, that's what reality happens for a lot of business owners. They'll jump into these things and then they won't be doing work the rest of the year. Likewise, we've seen that with many things that come up and you see this sort of groundswell for it on social media and then kind of goes away, or people stop doing it and as if it's one as if it's an option, but also two as if you only have to give and do the work for a week at a time. It's like, “How do I just make this part of my process?” When we interviewed the wonderful Marnie from Elk, she talked about the fact that when they look at their whole business planning and they look at their strategy for the year and the years ahead, they have a lens through which everything is mapped against the lens of sustainability.
It's not something that they just sort of work on for a little bit of time, or they do a campaign and then it's finished. They are constantly assessing themselves through that in the same way that they would assess their finances and their revenue goals. I think when it comes to doing the work, really look at, especially at this time of year, how are we doing the work and how are we going to continue to do the work sustainably throughout the year? That is it for today's quick tip episode, really looking at how do we do the work? It's something to think about because a lot of the people that reading this podcast, a lot of the people that I work with, I am also somebody like this who wants to create a business that has meaning behind it and that has passion and leaves an impact.
It's not just about money. Money is amazing and part of it, but it's about having a meaningful brand that is showing up in the world. That's the question, how will you show up? How will you do the work? That is it for today. If you want to go and check out any of the things that we mentioned, you can find the show notes for this episode over at mydailybusiness.com/podcast/379. Thank you so much for reading. Just a reminder, if you are interested in group coaching, it is open now to apply. And again, the URL for that is just mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching. Thanks, bye.
