From startup idea to full-time business can feel like a long road. Truth be told, it usually is.
What we want to do in this episode is help you along the way. We’ll give you insights into our own journey’s as well as what you need to know (and do) to build your business and chase your dream.
Key Take-aways
How to conquer your fear and get started.
Identifying your avatar and target market.
The wisdom from mistakes we made (so you don’t have to!)
How to push through fear.
Essential character traits of a business owner.
A starter’s guide to taxes.
About Justin
If you’re new to the podcast, welcome!
My name is Justin, and I’m an Elite-Mindset and success coach. Throughout my career, I’ve been a pastor, educator, and serial entrepreneur. I help entrepreneurs, business owners, and world-changers attain elite mental performance through burnout prevention, habits, and compounding daily wins.
About the Mastermind
The Bakersfield Mastermind is a collaboration between Dr.’s Scott Thor and Juanita Web.
Regardless of your industry, one of the best things you can do to generate more sales and a better customer experience is to know and define your ideal client.
Many businesses identify the ideal client through:
Look
Smell
Thought process
Spending habits
Driving habits
Interaction with key relationships
Self-expression tendencies
Exercise
Eating habits
Drinking habits
Self-care
This is only a small list, but it dramatically transforms the way a business chooses to market and sell its product.
When businesses are clear on their ideal customer, it becomes easier to say no to distractions.
Clarity is freedom.
Notice the difference between Department Store A and Department Store B target demographics, both of whom sell perfume in their beauty section:
Department Store A
We target women.
Department Store B
Our ideal customer is Jane. Jane is a woman between the ages of 30 and 45. She has some college education, a husband, children, and is contemplating making a career change. Jane has always felt a little self-conscious and is looking for an unobtrusive scent that also gives her the confidence she needs to ace the interview.
Will both companies try to target Jane? Absolutely.
Which one will Jane feel most at home in? Store B.
Smart businesses always try to understand their ideal client.
But, there is one more area where your ideal client understanding needs to take center stage: how you design your own life.
You are Your Ideal Client
One of the great tragedies in life is a failure to understand our own ideals.
In coaching, we look at the ideals of morals/values, goals, calendar, and commitments. In each of these areas, we make sure we paint a perfectly clear picture of what it is you are trying to accomplish in life.
Morals and Values
As a person, what are the morals and values you cannot have infringed? Do you value family more than anything else? What about your freedom or autonomy? A flexible schedule. Do you need a set routine that doesn’t vary much?
A lot of internal conflict and tension happens when we work in a place that doesn’t honor the core values of who we are. A morals and values assessment can help you diagnose those problems and create solutions to fix them.
Goals
What are your ideal goals? Where do you want to end up in life?
Is the promotion you’re consumed with getting what you really want, or are you trying to please someone else?
I’ve worked with a number of clients who have reached the top of their profession, surveyed the landscape, and realized they didn’t want to be there. Part of their obsession with getting to the top was to seek validation from a parent, spouse or loved one. (Each of those is a poor reason….)
Make sure that the goals you have set are to help create your ideal life.
Calendar
What does your ideal calendar look like? Do you want every Friday off? Looking to work remotely, after 10 am. Want to be off by 3 every day to pick your kids up from school?
One of the great problems of our modern society is the bombardment to fit as much into our calendar as possible.
It’s absolute lunacy.
Smart high-performers know that they accomplish more by doing less. They strip away the fluff from their lives and pursue only that which is meaningful.
Fill your days with intention and purpose, not more stuff.
Commitments
What makes you, you? Do you want to work less and volunteer more? How much time do you want to spend with your children and grandchildren? What long-term legacy do you desire to leave on the world?
Answering questions of commitment, similar to our calendar, tell us how to spend our time. Smart financial advice is to make your money work for you, instead of you working for your money.
The same is true with time. Make the time of your life work for you, and not you work for time.
Once you know these foundational elements of a great life, you can set about understanding your ideal client … you! …. and create the life you’ve always wanted to live.
In this episode of the Bakersfield Business Mastermind, we talk about the changing landscape of workplace culture and finances.
Join Dr.’s Juanita Webb, Scott Thor, and Justin Hiebert as we discuss how workplace culture and finances impact important things like employee satisfaction, the bottom line of your business, and what you can do to improve morale.
Dr. Scott Thor
Dr. Scott Thor has over 20 years of experience helping leaders get more from their organizations, and individuals eliminate crippling debt from their lives. Scott’s clients have implemented 1,000+ improvements that have led to $150M+ in savings and eliminated over 500,000 hours of unnecessary work. Scott is a Dave Ramsey Preferred Financial coach, certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and has a Doctorate of Management degree from George Fox University.
Questions?
Do you know your biggest workplace culture and finance issues? If you don’t reach out to Scott Thor or Justin Hiebert to talk about what steps you can implement for sustained growth.
Connect with Justin and the #NextSteps Community
Please be sure to like, share, leave a comment, and turn on notifications to keep aware of upcoming events, live streams, and new video releases.
Subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE 5-day course on productivity:
In this episode of the Bakersfield Business Mastermind, we talk about your HR needs in 2021.
Join Dr.’s Juanita Webb, Scott Thor, and Justin Hiebert as we discuss the changing landscape of Human Resources, California compliance, and employee engagement in 2021 and beyond.
Dr. Juanita Webb
Dr. Juanita Webb is the founder and president of J. Webb Consulting, a professional human resource consulting firm, and is a certified HR professional (both CA and Federal), along with numerous other affiliations and designations. She is highly skilled in executive coaching, investigations, HR best practices, training, strategic planning, conflict resolution, and succession planning. Licensed in California as a private investigator/qualified manager, Juanita conducts training and investigations and is often retained as an expert witness regarding harassment/discrimination/retaliation issues. In addition, Dr. Webb advises organizations regarding drug and alcohol testing policies and issues.
Questions?
Do you know your biggest HR needs in 2021? If you don’t reach out to Juanita Webb or Justin Hiebert to talk about what you need to do to stay in compliance.
Connect with Justin and the #NextSteps Community
Please be sure to like, share, leave a comment, and turn on notifications to keep aware of upcoming events, live streams, and new video releases.
Subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE 5-day course on productivity:
In a telling story of our priorities, James Carville and Paul Begala share the story about the lion and the mouse.
As the story goes, the lion is more than capable of hunting the mouse. He possesses the required strength, agility, and intelligence. In fact, it requires very little effort on the part of the lion. The problem is that the energy received back from eating the mouse is not worth the lion’s effort.
This is why the lion hunts the zebra, antelope, and gazelle. Though it requires significantly more strength, agility, and cunning intelligence to do so, the energy the lion receives back is well worth the investment.
The story of the lion and the mouse reminds us to stay focused on chasing big goals.
The BIG Goals
One of the questions I ask myself every day is, “What can I do today that makes the biggest difference?”
When I’m feeling overwhelmed, that focuses my attention on the single biggest task that needs to be done.
Whenever I’m tired, this question reminds me that the best thing I can do might just be to take a nap or practice some extraself-care.
In those moments where I’m conflicted about how to invest my time, asking about difference-making forces me to look at my calendar. Typically what I find is that I’ve been too work-focused and not enough family focus.
When my anxiety creeps up, I can remind myself that doing one thing today to make progress on a goal of significance and meaning helps to lower it.
Then, I invest my energy into the needed area. That frees me up to then say, “What’s next.”
The story of the lion and the mouse reminds me to invest my energy in things that really make a difference. My focus and attention go to things that only I can do for myself and my business.
Business and Life in Balance
What about you? Have you asked those questions in your life?
As a business owner, do you work intently on areas that only you can invest in?
With your spouse and your kids, do you focus on being fully present and turning off your “work brain” or do you only give them the nutritional equivalent of a mouse?
As a leader or community member, do you invest in your projects with the same intensity and vigor you do in your sales and marketing?
One of the first things we do in coaching is to give your calendar a time analysis. We make sure that you spend your time hunting antelopes, not mice.
Far too often, what I see with leaders is that they spend time on the unimportant. The temptation is to become distracted by the urgent instead of the significant.
To counteract this, we work through a priority matrix to make sure you get the most return on your time, your energy, and your passion.
Right now, make sure you’re invested in the right areas. Ask yourself the above questions and spend time on the right priorities. Invest in areas that give you the greatest return on your investment. Ask questions. Quit bad habits. Keep growing. Seek help.
