Episode 381: Who is keeping you accountable in your business?
How can the right connections help? In this episode, Fiona emphasizes the importance of cultivating a support group. Discover how a supportive network can be transformative for your business journey. Tune in!
You'll Learn How To:
The significance of having a supportive group
Accountability and support in personal and business growth
Insights on the benefits of sharing goals
Encouragement for listeners to invest time and money
Reflection on the ease of letting things slide
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Odette Barry - Podcast
Welcome to episode 381 of the My Daily Business Podcast. Today, it is a quick tip episode, and it's really where I share a tip, tool or tactic that you can implement immediately. Today it is a really important question because I think this particular question, if you can answer it and better put systems in place around this particular topic, then you have a much greater opportunity for success in your business than if you do not. Now, before we jump into that, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which 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. If you're reading this in real time and you are a First Nations person, I would just like to remind you of support systems like 13Yarn.
This is a really hard and complex time in Australia at this point, especially following the referendum last year. Just know that there is help available. 13Yarn is run by Mob for Mob, and we will link to that in the show notes. The other thing that I wanted to mention is that group coaching is open, and we have had people apply and we are getting ready to interview some people already. And it is just wonderful. I know this is going to be a beautiful group as they all are. Group coaching is just something that keeps developing and keeps evolving over the years. This next round is just going to be magical. Honestly, I just love meeting these people and I love bringing together this small group of people for a year who get to know each other, really get to trust each other and work on what I'm going to talk about today. If you are keen to be part of the next round of group coaching, which kicks off in March 2024, please check out all the information at mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching. Now, if you're reading this at some other point in time, then you can always sign up for the waitlist, which is at mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching as well. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
I had my first child in the UK, I had him 11 years ago now. It was January 2013 and it was freezing, it snowed. It was a horrible winter, and I'd been living in the UK for about four years. By that point. I'd lived there previously in my early twenties. I was born there. We'd gone back and I was living with my husband and we decided to have a child, and we were very lucky to get pregnant quickly. Anyway, had a great pregnancy. But once my son was born, I realized that because I had no family in the UK and I had lots of friends, none of them had kids. I signed up to a paid maternal kind of, I don't even know what you call it. Well, it's called the NCT National Childbirth Trust.
I think that's what it stands for. It was where they would cultivate a group of people that were in a similar area to you and also in a similar stage of their pregnancy. We met up, I think it was like a weekend or a couple of weekends. I can't remember exactly now, but you met up and then I formed this group with these women and we became such good friends, and we all would go to somebody's house every week, if not twice a week. And I'm still in contact with those people. I went to London last year for work and managed to meet up with a couple of them for dinner. We have a WhatsApp group that's still or it's on Facebook Messenger. Anyway, we have a group. We still chat, we still share photos, and we've got plans to all meet up at some point with our kids, which will be amazing.
But I'm saying this because when you have a group that is supportive of you, especially when you're doing something new, like having a child, it is amazing for your personal growth and confidence. Anyone who's had a child for the first time knows that you question yourself with everything. I think even if you have subsequent children, you question parenting is like 20 years of questioning yourself and if you're doing the right thing. But when you're first starting, or even maybe it's your second or third child and you've never had a second or third child before, so you have this constant need to kind of, yes, you trust yourself, but also run things by other people. And I think that having that group was amazing and essential for my confidence as a young mom in London.
I wanted to say that one of the women in that group, I would go for a walk every single morning, and we are still in touch. She was one of the people who came for dinner in London last year. What would happen is that both of us, whether we felt like going for a walk or not, would turn up and we would go to this park. It was near us. And even so, it was freezing. If it was cold, even when it was snowing, we would get outside. I mean, as long as the children were warm enough, we would get outside. We would go for this walk, and we would talk and talk and talk. Often we would stop at the end and have a cup of coffee in this park, this little cafe. The reason that I'm saying all of this is that group and that accountability of having somebody that was like, “We're going for this walk.”
Later on, we got into running with our prams and everything. There was this accountability of not just getting fit, but like mentally helping yourself by getting out of the house, going for a walk, and talking to somebody who is not just in your family. Doing that, there was this accountability and this support that was there. The reason that I'm saying this is that in today's episode, I wanted to get you to answer this question of who is in your support crew this year. Who is keeping you accountable for what your goals are? I mentioned at the start of this, that the group coaching is now open. Whether it's a group coaching group that you take part in, whether it is some other informal catch-up that you have with other business owners, who is it going to be for you this year?
Sometimes we can think that these things just magically appear, and at some point, we'll get around to getting a group of business owners together or joining a group coaching program or whatever it is. And yet we don't do it, or we don't show up to the ones that maybe already exist in our life. We might already have a group that we were part of. And it's like, “How do I get back into that if it was the right thing for you, or how do I join something and how am I going to invest in myself by investing in that group?” Now that group could be a group coaching program that you're paying for, but it could also be a free thing. You're investing your time or your time and money. The idea of those women and the support that I had from that group, having a child for the first time, and what that group has done over the years, I mean, I struggled to get pregnant the second time, and my God, that group was so supportive.
We've had other people in that group who've gone through really hard things. Those chats and having those women around who support you have been instrumental. And the same with business. Having a group that you can ask questions to that isn't going to judge you, that is not part of your family, that is not part of your friendship circle, that is not kind of biased to just tell you what they think you need to hear, but actually will tell you the truth and be honest about it and be like, “I don't know if that would work.” That is gold. If you haven't got that already, I would be looking at how can you cultivate it so you can cultivate it, like I said, by joining a group coaching program and PS, ours is open.
But also you could decide, “You know what, I'm just going to message a bunch of business owners,” and maybe they're just friends from Instagram and be like, “Hey, we're just going to do a standing zoom, catch up once a month.” Or, “Hey, if you live in the same area, we're going to go to this particular cafe once a month and catch up.” Odette Barry, who was on the podcast some time ago and is amazing in the world of PR, talked about her Byron business friends and how they have, I think there's a cafe, and they know, everyone knows that you rock up on a Friday between this time and this time, and whoever's there is there, and how great that has been for her and her business to be able to talk to these other women in business about her struggles or her challenges or her wins.
Having those people that you can celebrate around and that there's no sort of jealousy or envy or other things that can come up sometimes in say, friendship groups or other groups that you might be part of or family, you can just speak up and speak openly. It's important. In 2024, or if you're reading this in 2025 or 2026 or whenever, really ask yourself, “How am I cultivating that support group or network for myself? And how am I staying accountable?” Because that's the other big thing, say in group coaching, we have people who will share their goals. A lot of people will share their goals at the start. Then we keep people accountable by asking, “How are you going with that?” Where's that up to Regularly throughout group coaching, people have to present, present their content plans, present their marketing plans, present their goals, present their money mapping.
By having to just show up and do the act of presenting, it forces you to get that stuff done so that you have something to show people. We've had lots of people who are like, “I just did this last night,” but it was so good because I wouldn't have done it otherwise if I didn't have this group to have to show this stuff to. As you're going about your business, you might be setting up all these new things and exciting stuff at the start of the year or the end of the year or whenever you're reading this, but ask yourself, “What have I done to cultivate a support group? How am I going to meet up with these people? How am I going to invest the time or money or both into having this support group and who is in it and who is keeping me accountable?”
Because it's so easy to let things slide if it's just you. If you have to show up to a group, particularly one that you're paying for, then you'll do the work. You absolutely will because other people are waiting to hear how you're doing that work and how you're showing up for yourself and your business. That is it for today's quick tip episode, really ask yourself, “How am I going to stay accountable and how am I cultivating a support group around myself as I'm going about my business?” And again, if you are keen to get into group coaching, you can find all the information over at mydailybusiness.com/groupcoaching. Thanks so much for reading. I'll see you next time. Bye.
