Happy Career Formula with Jette Stubbs

3. How to sell yourself from entry-level to six-figures to starting a business and avoid the top progress killers at each step

February 24, 2021 Jette Stubbs Season 1 Episode 3
Happy Career Formula with Jette Stubbs
3. How to sell yourself from entry-level to six-figures to starting a business and avoid the top progress killers at each step
Show Notes Transcript

You're ready to take your next step to job search or start and grow a business, but you're not sure where to start. There's so much conflicting advice online and you feel like even though you're working hard, you're not making the progress you'd like yet. 

You'll discover:

  • which stage you are at in career or business growth 
  • top 3 progress killers at each stage (and what to do about each one)
  • next major goal you should set to achieve a breakthrough in professional growth

You'll learn the 5 stages to go from "no idea" about what you want to do to having "systems" in place to sell yourself to clients or employers. 

These 5 stages apply from entry-level to six-figure roles to starting a business. 

  1. No Idea
  2. Idea
  3. Offer: Knowing Exactly What to Sell
  4. First Clients or Employers
  5. Systems to Get Hired or Sell


Jette Stubbs: Today I want to talk about a major mindset shift that I want you to make when you're the about  how to sell yourself and building out your career or your business. 

[00:00:08]You're listening to the happy career formula 

[00:00:11] with Jette Stubbs 

[00:00:12] where we talk about how to find what you love to do and turn it into ways to make money, whether that's a job, freelance service or a business, so you can live life on your own terms.

[00:00:24]So whether you want a job, a freelance service or a business, or to take your next step in professional growth, the principles for selling yourself are the same and they're those five phases we all go through.   

[00:00:38] Let's start with the mindset shift.  When you want to think about making money. Every time that somebody is paying you money, it is because you have a benefit to their life or to their company. 

[00:00:48]  So on the outside, we all look like we're normal. I don't like the word normal, but let's use the word normal. Like we all seem okay. But the reality is we all have this tension inside ourselves, between where we are now and where we want to be.

[00:01:03]  You pay a doctor because the doctor takes you away from illness and towards health. So they're taking you away from the negative concept of illness and towards  the positive idea of health.  you pay for a Netflix subscription because it gives you entertainment  or you pay for guitar lessons because it gives you some benefit to your life.  You're either being moved away from something negative or towards something positive. 

[00:01:28]So that goes back to the idea. We all have this tension . Something negative, maybe happening in our lives. And we want to get rid of that negative situation. Or we want to move to something more positive, like the Netflix subscription or the guitar lessons. So everybody has this tension. Companies have this tension too.

[00:01:47] When you're thinking about  making money, I want you to think about the transformation that you were going to be creating. people will pay you for creating some sort of transformation Where you're taking them from something negative  or towards something positive. You're either helping a company survive or thrive. You're either helping a person or a client survive or thrive.

[00:02:09] when it comes to finding a job, you're either helping to maintain a company, help it survive, avoid bankruptcy, and keep the business going, or you're helping the company to grow and build  if you go into marketing  helping it to attract new clients. 

[00:02:22]the mindset shift.  When we see people, we just see the surface level of, okay, this who you are. So let's say you are a professional, trying to take their next step in career growth. If you're listening to this podcast, you're some kind of professional who is trying to take their next step in career growth, right?

[00:02:38] So who you are as a professional.

[00:02:40] in your situation,  the tension that you have is you want to take your next step in career growth.

[00:02:46] As somebody who's trying to come up with a business idea, you can't go to somebody and say, I solve all of the problems that you have in your life, regardless of what that problem is, because nobody's going to believe you.

[00:02:58]solve a particular task or one particular thing. If I came to you and said, I can solve all of your life problems, you're not going to believe me. So instead, what you want to do is you want to say you solve a particular task or one particular thing. Your skills, qualifications experience can add up to help solve one piece of the puzzle that they need to get to where they want to go in life.

[00:03:21] Then you're going to paint a picture of the actions that you can take to help them get there. Step one, for example, when you come to me, if you were to book a coaching appointment with me, the first step I'd say is, okay, where are you stuck? If you're looking for a job, are you stuck in narrowing down what you want to do?

[00:03:39] Are you stuck on landing interviews or are you stuck on turning those interviews into job offers? Are you stuck on salary negotiation? Where are you stuck along the process? If you were trying to start a business, I would say, do you have a concrete business idea?

[00:03:53] Can you explain to me in one or two sentences exactly what you do? Do you have packages built out so people can see exactly what they can buy from you and how they can pay you? So  there's who you help and on the outside they'll seem normal, but the truth is there some situation that they're trying to solve a problem that they're trying to solve, or a goal they're trying to achieve.

[00:04:14] You have one particular task in helping make their life better.  You're going to walk them through action steps of how you can make their life better.  You're going to break that down into what that will look like in a story format, something they can visualize you walking them through, and then you will take them to a result, which is a better situation.

[00:04:32]You don't want people to feel like you're taking them on a treadmill. So this isn't the perfect analogy or metaphor. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but. Imagine a treadmill versus running on a pavement road. When you on a treadmill, you're putting a lot of work in, but you're not actually physically moving anywhere further.

[00:04:50]As far as weight loss goes. Yeah, a treadmill is great. But as far as getting to a new destination, you haven't actually moved to a new destination. You haven't actually run a physical mile on the pavement. So when you look around you, you're still in the same place. People don't want to feel like your actions have them on a treadmill where you're constantly doing tasks, but you're never getting them to a new place.

[00:05:13]So you want to show them that you can hit that ground running and you can help them to get to a new, better destination where they see and they can feel a new surrounding around them. So this framework situation, task action result is called star, and you could also Google it's star or car framework.

[00:05:31] And it's a process for both talking about what you do, but also thinking about what you do in the transformation that you deliver to people. Those people will pay you for the transformations that you deliver. You want to know how you were taking people from point a to point B and what that

[00:05:46]before situation looks like for them in their own words, how they talk about that and what that after situation looks like for them in their own words.  You are the gap, you were the gap to help them fill a piece of that puzzle to get them from point a to point B. You are filling in that gap and your skills, qualifications experiences, the product or service you build are the building blocks to filling in that gap to help them get to where they want to go. 

[00:06:14]So there are five phases that we all go through while we're building out our careers or our businesses, and 

[00:06:22] the first phase is no idea.

[00:06:25]The second phase is idea.

[00:06:27]The third phase is offer where you have a clear idea of what you sell.

[00:06:32]And the fourth phase is first clients. So you get your first people to pay you. 

[00:06:38]The fifth phase is systems. So you build out systems to both attract and serve clients. 

[00:06:44] I'm going to talk to you about. What exactly these five phases look like, how it applies to a job or a business, the top three mistakes that we make at each phase and what your end goal should be at the end of each phase.

[00:06:58]If you ever get stuck while you are building out your career, I want you to come back and listen to this podcast episode, because you were probably making one of the mistakes that I'm talking about at each one of these phases. Okay. 

[00:07:10] The first phase is no idea when you are lost.

[00:07:13] So when I started, I had 90 days to find a job or leave the country. I was a recent graduate international student. I've talked to you about this. If you listen to some of my previous podcast episodes, I had no idea what type of job I wanted. I was totally lost for a job. You could be asking yourself, What jobs should I have or what career should I have or for a business you could be saying, what business should I start?

[00:07:33] Or can I do this? What will people realistically pay me for? And when you're in this no idea phase, You have no idea how to connect your skills between any kind of way to make money. you don't even necessarily know what fields you want to work in.  And you feel stuck. So one of the things that I want you to do, or one of the common mistakes that people make is they think they have to come up with an idea.

[00:08:04]You think you sit in your room or in your apartment and you're trying to figure out what career should I have? And you're asking yourself all these questions, what business should I start? And you may be Googling things. You're trying to come up with this idea, and then you're getting frustrated because it's not working.

[00:08:19] It's not turning out into what you want . And the truth is you shouldn't be coming up with the idea yourself because making money, it's partly about you. But it's really about helping to solve other people's problems. And in return, they give you money to help you fund your life goals and live the desired lifestyle that you want.

[00:08:37] And it's negotiation between those two things. So ideally what you want to be doing is , instead of thinking, you have to come up with your right, your own idea. You want to be listening to people's problems. Then strategically choosing. Which problems you want to solve. So that's the first mistake that we make thinking, it's your own idea, and you have to come up with it versus listening to problems that clients or companies are facing and choosing which one of those problems you want to help solve.

[00:09:06]The second mistake that we make, and this is these are the top progress killers. So the second mistake that we make, when we're trying to go from no idea to idea, Is you try and just follow the steps that you were told to. So let's say your parents said you should become a doctor or lawyer or an engineer.

[00:09:26] You do what society or like the world is telling you, or what your aunt or uncle said is the safe path for career growth. And it's not based on understanding people's problems, but more importantly, it's also not based on your own goals and what you want your life to look like, because my definition of success and a happy life is different from your definition of success and a happy life.

[00:09:51]My definition of success now is different from my definition of success five years ago. So if you're not defining success for yourself and you're going off of having a fancy car or. If you say, if I achieve X, I'll be happy, then you're going to feel stuck because whenever you do build out this career, if it does work out, you're not going to actually have the things that you want to have in life.

[00:10:16] And you're going to  have potentially have a bunch of money in that bank, but be really miserable. Cause you didn't define your life and build out your career based on your definition of success. And then tie that to a way to make money by solving the problems that you want to solve for other people.

[00:10:30]So the second problem to recap is society's goals versus your goals and expectations. You don't want to focus on society's goals. You want to focus on your own goals and expectations for your life and tying that to real-world problems that clients or companies are facing.

[00:10:45]The third mistake that we make in the no idea phase is we think that we cannot have it all. We think that if we are going to be rich or successful, then we're going to hate what we do. Or we think that. If we pursue our passion, we won't make money and we won't be able to afford the next iPhone or buy a fancy condo or be able to do the things that you want in life.

[00:11:14] You think you'll either be a starving artist or an unhappy rich professional, or you think you'll just be a dreamer that never really goes anywhere. And you're stuck in your career or stuck in some dead end job because you can't figure out a way to pull all your skills together. And the truth is if you build out a system, if you build out a process, you can combine all of these things into a concrete way to make money that funds your life goals.

[00:11:40] But the issue is we were never taught how to market ourselves. We were never taught how to. Sell ourselves. We were never taught how to build careers or businesses. We go to school and we learn algebra and we learned math and we learned English. Then we are taught to continue our education, but we're never actually taught how to turn it into a way to make money, to help us achieve the things we want in life. And so we end up feeling stuck. So to recap, the third mistake at the no idea phase is to think that we cannot have it all. And negotiate and build out a strategy to make that happen for ourselves.

[00:12:16] At the end of the no idea phase, what you want to do is to build out a strategy, make concrete list of the things that you want in life.

[00:12:26]That's what you desire. You then want to look at the skills that you'd like using on a day-to-day basis, the skills, qualifications, and experiences, the things that you like learning about. And you want to build that out into a work product or service that's tied to real world problems that clients or companies or are experiencing. So you want to be listening to their problems that they're experiencing. I'm not going to get into how to listen to their problems on this episode, but  yeah, I'll talk about that later in future episodes.

[00:13:00]once you have an idea of what you want to do. So I want to work in this field. Let's say you want to work in marketing then at the idea phase, then you're on stage too. 

[00:13:11] Stage two is the idea phase. So you have a field that you want to work in. Let's say it's marketing,  but marketing is too broad.

[00:13:21]You struggle to explain what you do because you don't have a concrete idea yet you don't have a concrete thing that you offer. So you're going to be going from the idea to offer phase that's the next step. When you have a concrete idea of what you sell and at the idea phase. Whatever your idea is it's typically too broad.

[00:13:38]It's not a concrete or a specific problem. You can't directly say this type of person is going through this type of situation or problem or goal that they're trying to achieve. And this is where they want to go. This is how I help. It's too broad. So when somebody asked you, asks you, what do you do?

[00:13:55]You can't explain it in a job setting. If you go to our networking event and somebody asks you, what kind of work do you do? Or what type of work are you looking for? You stumble and you fumble, and you're nervous to explain it cause you can't clearly articulate how you help a client or a company and who they should be referring to you because ideally you want to be known for helping to solve a certain type of problem.

[00:14:18]When you design a LinkedIn profile or a website or whatever, you want to explain how you help to solve a certain type of problem. And at the idea phase, you can't explain that all you do is you just genuinely you've found what you're excited about. You found what you want to do, but you don't know how to turn it into a concrete job or freelance service or business.

[00:14:39]If it's a business idea, you may be. If somebody, if you went to.

[00:14:44]okay. If it's a business idea, if somebody came up to you and asked you what do your ideal clients look like? Am I your ideal client? What do you sell? What's the pricing. You have no idea how to answer those questions you fumble. And you're like, Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

[00:14:58] And you just can't explain what you do. So at the idea phase, it's very vague. Typically, like you just know you want to work in this field, but you don't know how to identify the job freelance services or business businesses that you can build out to help you make money so that you can achieve your life goals.

[00:15:15]And the top mistake or the progress killer that we make at the idea phase is you think you need to build out more education and experience. You think the more credentials, like if I just do what I think I'm supposed to do, if I build out, if I get more degrees, if I get more experience, then someone will recognize all of my hard work and choose to pay me.

[00:15:40]And that's not how it works. So many recent graduates are coming to that realization that's not how it works. Or they study fields that are oversaturated like law. There are too many lawyers in North America and so they graduate and they weren't ever taught to tie what they do to real-world problems.

[00:16:00] They weren't ever taught how to do that. And so they feel stuck. And what you really should be doing is building out proof that you can solve a problem. You should be choosing a problem that you solve and building out proof, testimonials, references, examples of portfolio that shows that you can help solve that problem.

[00:16:20]And, but we're not taught to do that. So we go and we build out our education and experience, and it's an, all of these different things. And we can't actually explain how we help somebody. So we often end up making less money than we should. 

[00:16:33]Before I jump to the next one, problem, the number one problem, the number one progress killer or mistake when you're at the idea phase is thinking you need to build out education and an experience instead of thinking you need to build out a specific history or proofs that you can solve a specific problem or group of problems.

[00:16:57]The second  progress killer at the idea phase is  when you're trying to explain what you do, you say, I can do anything  or tell me what to do and I'll do it. And that's a huge mistake to be making. If you know that to make money you need to take people from point a to point B. And that's why people give you money to create some sort of transformation. 

[00:17:19]When you're saying I can do anything or tell me what to do,  the company or your client will say, okay,  "I don't know how you can help me." if it's a company, the company, either won't hire you, you'll go to the rejection pile. Or if they do hire you, they'll hire you for an entry-level job. And they'll say, okay, I'll give you these repeatable tasks that you can do to help my business.

[00:17:40]I'm going to give you a lot of manuals and instructions because I don't know how you can help me, but I know if you  complete these tasks, it will help my company. So I'll pay you a low level salary to help do these repeatable tasks. And the issue with that is your career becomes stagnant.

[00:17:59] You have trouble experiencing growth because you haven't identified how you can help solve high value or specific problems.

[00:18:07]So when you think of it, think of the example of a entry-level job, like a cashier they tell you exactly what to do. There are steps, there are systems in place. They can train a bunch of people to do the job at once. You're not really supposed to be going in and solving major problems or thinking like high-level strategy for the organization, versus if you're the VP of a company, they pay you more money. Cause  there are a bunch of like undefined problems. They're like, this is a new issue that we're facing. Can you help us solve it? Bring in your expertise. Throughout your career, you want to be building out your history or building out your  skills, qualifications, and experience to solve particular types of problems.

[00:18:50]  Skills are transferable, so you can jump fields. But you want to be telling a story about how you built out the skills, qualifications, or experience to help the company and how you have an in-depth understanding. 

[00:19:03]  So there are a few pieces that you need to really show how you can solve a problem. You need to show that you understand the problem, or you understand the right questions to ask to solve a problem. Then you need to show that you have built out your credibility and authority so people can trust you to solve that problem for them. So that's your skills, your education, your qualifications, your experiences, your references, your testimonials, your portfolio of work that you've done in the past. All of these things, you can get creative and how you build that out. All of these things combine to show. Hey, you can trust me to solve this problem.

[00:19:40]So to recap, the second mistake at the idea phase or the second progress killer at the idea phase is saying, I can do anything. Tell me what to do versus solving specific high value problems.

[00:19:56]So the third top progress killer that we make at the idea phase when we're trying to go from the the idea phase to offer phase. When we're trying to build out the next step, we're trying to explain what we offer. We just talk about what we've done in the past.

[00:20:13] So our resume would be a history of tasks that we've completed in the past, instead of a history of solving problems. Or when you talk about your product or service for a business, you talk about the features of the product or service or what's in it instead of how it helps to solve the client's problems.

[00:20:32] If you were selling internet, you don't want to say 150  megabytes of download speed. You want to say, you can download your favorite movie, your Netflix show or whatever in 30 seconds or less. So this is one of the big career shifts.

[00:20:50]Because  this is game changing for how you can sell yourself and  how you make money

[00:20:56]So to recap, the third mistake or progress killer that we make at the no idea phase is. Talking about tasks that we've completed in the past or features of our product or service, instead of talking about how it helps to solve a specific problem. And at the end of the idea phase, you want to be able to explain what you do in one sentence.

[00:21:21]So for example one of my sentences can be,  I help. Aspiring and new entrepreneurs, recent graduates, career changers, and seasoned professionals. So I help professionals take their next step in career growth by finding what they love to do and turning it into way to make money, whether that's a job, freelance service or business, because the principles for selling yourself are the same. I offer a podcast, one-on-one and group coaching and an online course based on my 10 years of experience in career development and the entrepreneurship space,  so they can take their next step  with confidence, selling themselves and making professional choices for growth with less self-doubt. 

[00:22:08]So that wasn't the clearest sentence. Clearly they came up with what's the top of my head, but it paints a picture of who I help, what they're trying to achieve. The tension that they're having, the actions that I take are the skills that I bring to the table, which is the podcast, the coaching and the online courses, so that they can achieve this better situation for themselves.

[00:22:34]And then I would bring up like results that I've delivered. So I I worked in the career development space for 10 years now. I've helped people, double their salaries, which is really cool. I love those moments. It's not the typical result, but  most people I've worked with have been able to achieve salary increases of like 10 to 15,000.

[00:22:56]So that's really cool. And I would talk about those kinds of results to support what my I help statement or how I add value with social proof, with testimonials, with a history of solving similar problems for other people.

[00:23:12]So at the end of the idea, phase to recap, You want to be able to explain what you do in one sentence or one paragraph, explain how you help. So the next time somebody says, what do you do? Or what does your business do? You can explain it clearly without fumbling too much.

[00:23:30]okay. Now we're onto phase number three and phase number three is called offer. So the word offer often. Confuses people offer is both a verb and a noun. So you offer something to somebody to help improve their lives or their situation. And what you give them is also can also be referred to as an offer. 

[00:23:53] It's a bit of business jargon. Maybe I should rename this phase, but it's essentially, it's being able to clearly explain what you do or sell, including the terms conditions, and exactly what clients will receive or what companies will receive. 

[00:24:09] So terms and conditions for a job would be your vacation, your benefits your key performance indicators, what you would deliver to that company in exchange for pay and what they would give you outside of pay or including pay. So what your salary is, like I said, vacations benefits. 

[00:24:29] An offer for a business would be the different packages that you offer. So what's the pricing of the packages. Are there any 30 day, 60 day, one year guarantees or warranties? Exactly what they'll receive.

[00:24:42] If you buy stuff from Ikea, it has those little images where it shows you exactly what you'll be receiving or what tools you should be receiving, which pieces you should be saving, receiving. That's like a visual outline of an offer for that desk that they sold you. It includes all of the steps to build it out, to make it happen.

[00:25:02] All of those things, that's what an offer is it? Who you help, you know exactly what you'll be giving them. And you've got prices and terms and conditions attached to it. For a job, This is when somebody comes to you and say, okay, can I hire you for a contract? And you can negotiate your price confidently, the value that you'll be delivering.

[00:25:22] So when you get into that interview, you don't see it as people just coming to you and asking you questions. You see it as having a discussion where you're trying to understand where the company wants to go, and then you're bringing your skills, qualifications, and experience, to fulfill a certain step or fulfill one building block that they need to get to where they want to go. And that interview is a discussion of how that can happen. 

[00:25:46]Then with a business, that's when you have an offer together, when people come and say, what can I buy from you? You can say, here's this package one, package two, package three. And this is it. Buy this package if you are here. So intro package for career coaching, for example, could be You don't know what you want to do.

[00:26:07] You have no idea. So first package, first step is finding what you love to do before you choose whether you want to do a job freelance service or business. So we want to get you to the idea phase where you know what you want to do, and you can explain it in one sentence. And another example of a package like I said, it's like the Ikea package or when you buy your Netflix subscription, do you want to just have one screen that can watch it?

[00:26:30] So one you're signed into one device and only one person can be viewing at a time. Or do you want to upgrade to the higher package where four people can view at a time? These are the things that you want to be thinking about when you're building out the offer. That's an offer, include corporates, all the tools, packages that you would need, but they're key mistakes that we make.

[00:26:51] So people often get to this space where they know what they want to do. They have an idea, but they can't clearly say, this is what I will sell you. This is the package. This is what it looks like. This is the work that I'll be doing for you. 

[00:27:04]And one of the main mistakes or progress killer people make is they think they need to be an expert and do everything from the very beginning.

[00:27:14] So they get intimidated. This is one of the top progress killers that I've seen. They were like, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I have all the skills that people would need to help them get to where they want to go. I don't want to over promise. I don't want to not meet my obligations for what I say I can offer.

[00:27:31] And the truth is once you're transparent with people about where you're at and what you think you can do to help, it is a conversation. It is a two-way conversation. So I want you to take a deep breath and  let go of some of that overwhelm. Because you don't have to do everything for somebody.

[00:27:46] You just need to  walk them through steps. And this is often where a concept called minimum viable product or an a minimum viable service, minimal buyable, job contract comes in. So when you're building the minimum viable version of whatever work you were doing, You were saying, okay, what skills qualifications experiences do I currently have?

[00:28:12] And what is the first step that I can effectively help somebody achieve? So you're not going to be a VP of marketing  right away if your goal is marketing. You're going to probably start off with being a marketing assistant. If you're selling a product or service, you're not going to build out the most amazing robust vehicle.

[00:28:30] If you are building cars, for example, you may start by building a skateboard and then you'll build a bicycle. Then you'll build a motorcycle. Then you'll build cars. For example, Tesla. What they did is they did that in reverse. So they wanted to build electric cars. Elon Musk was building out electric cars.

[00:28:49] So he started by selling the most expensive version first, because it would take the most research and development. Instead of dealing with thousands of clients, he dealt with a few  key clients and he served them. He worked out all of the torques with the car.  First, he had to figure out what he was offering, build it out conceptually first. it was the research and development.

[00:29:13]He said, okay,  buy these cars at this higher price. You'll get a luxury electric car. Anything that he needed to tweak was able to be done. Then, he built out more affordable versions once he had fine tuned it. So that there would be less tweaking and less people coming back with questions or mistakes. 

[00:29:33] At first, you want to say, okay, let me start off as a marketing assistant, get in the field get to know the field, get to listen to the problems that companies are experiencing. When they're trying to build out their marketing strategies, then you're going to build out your skills, your qualifications, your experience that may include going back to school.

[00:29:49] It may not, and you're going to build out a strategy to help fill in those gaps for people. And. If you're doing that for a business, it's the same concept. You're going to say, okay, first I'm going to help solve an initial problem for somebody.   When I first started, I initially helped people like write their resumes, but then I realized.

[00:30:09]That okay. Resumes are helpful, but they're only one piece of the puzzle. I can help somebody write a resume, but that doesn't necessarily mean they know how to market themselves in an interview. So I prefer to teach people skills that they can walk away with for the rest of their life. But it depends on where they're at.

[00:30:25] So one phase could be helping people find what they love to do. The next phase could be helping people Be able to write the resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles. The next phase is helping them translate what they do in writing to sell themselves, to translate it to a conversation and interview so that they are using the same principles to effectively sell themselves in an interview.

[00:30:43] And then the final phase is taking them to. This point where that interview is turning into a contract and they're negotiating salaries effectively. So something along those lines, following those steps can be very helpful. And breaking it down into what can I do now? What piece of that puzzle can I help solve for people?

[00:31:02] And then how can I build out a strategy so that I'm building out the network, the training, the experience, the skills qualifications, making my product more robust, or building out that secondary package for my business afterwards. So you don't need to build everything or solve the whole problem right away.

[00:31:21] It's okay to take steps.

[00:31:22]So the first progress killer that I find people make at the offer stage. Or the offer phase is trying to solve it all. Instead of breaking it down into manageable steps that are manageable for both themselves and their clients or companies that they're working with.

[00:31:37]The second progress killer or mistake that I see people making at the offer phase is. They're trying to build out their offer in a silo. So you're sitting in your room again by yourself and you're not listening to the people around you. You're not going out and asking, Hey, what problems are you experiencing?

[00:31:56] How would you like that problem solved for you? You're not having those informational interviews or conversations where you're talking to people to see exactly how you can help them and exactly what they're looking for in their own words. That's super important. It needs to be in their own words. So you don't understand people and you're saying, Oh, for business, sometimes people get caught up cause they could be an example of their ideal client.

[00:32:19] So for example, for me, My ideal clients are often very much like me. They had a lot of goals. Maybe they've experienced obstacles, maybe they've experienced obstacles like discrimination, or they had trouble selling themselves.  They were willing to put the work in to build out a career that they love, but they were never given the tools to do it effectively.

[00:32:39]And so that's why they were struggling and I help them give them the tools. So sometimes when you are your own ideal client, You'll think that, Oh, I know what my client wants to hear because. I'm that client. I am that person. I used to be that person. And honestly, it can be helpful to know your ideal clients so well, because you used to be like that, but you still want to go out and have those conversations. Because sometimes now that you know things now, you know how to help people, or you have more information, you'll use a bunch of jargon or you'll use a bunch of language that you wouldn't have used in the beginning.

[00:33:15]And do you want to be able to make sure that you're still using the language that your client is using today? So you also. Don't want to build something out without talking to anybody. So many people will build out a whole product or service or they'll come up with this idea for what they want to do with their career.

[00:33:37] And they'll never do labor market research. They'll never find out are there actually jobs that will pay me to do this after I graduate from this degree. They'll never find out if there are too many people looking for jobs in this field. They'll never find out if people are struggling with this problem and are willing to pay for it - the amount of money that they want to make to live the lifestyle that they want.

[00:34:01] They won't do this research and planning and they'll build out this career or they'll go to school or they'll build out a product or service or a website, without ever speaking to a potential client or employer or without doing the research on their needs and following up on those needs, as they're building out their product or service or building out their education or experience to start their career or business.

[00:34:27]And then when they have built it out and they're not getting hired, nobody's paying them or nobody's buying their product or service, they're like but, Oh, I thought this would work. Why isn't this working? Because really you should never be building things in a silo by yourself.

[00:34:42] You should be going out and talking to people and listening to people and selling something. Ideally before you build. So you want to make sure if you're going to go to school and get a master's degree or get an undergraduate degree or continue your education, any context you want to see, is there a demand for this?

[00:34:58] Are there too many people in this field? And if there are too many people in a field, you need to go in with all eyes open. You really need to be making sure that you stand out from the rest that you are going and looking at job descriptions and saying, okay, what do employers need after I graduate from this law degree so that I can be employed right after I graduate?

[00:35:19]How can I build out a checklist of things that I should be working on while I'm studying for that degree? How can I build out a checklist of features that my clients will need for my product or service so that  it can do the things that they need .  You don't want to build out an app for somebody that's supposed to be helping them.

[00:35:37]Translate English to Spanish, but the app doesn't have a good keyboard cause you never tested it or you never did any user analysis  to see how do people actually want to use this tool? What do they need from me? And this is a mistake that people make. 

[00:35:50] To recap the second top progress killer at the offer stage is to try to build out your career or business in a silo versus selling before you build and talking to people as you do it.

[00:36:06]the third top progress, killer or mistake at the offer stage. Is allowing other people to set the price for what you offer. So you want to determine your price by stacking the deck on the value that you offer. So stacking the deck is dragon. I'm going to break that down. So whenever you buy something, you want it to create some sort of transformation for your life.

[00:36:31] We've talked about that. If you feel like you didn't get that transformation, you feel like you didn't get the value for your money. And you're a disgruntled client. If you feel like you got more value for the money that you paid, or for the effort, time and investment that you put in that you feel like you got more than what you put in, then you're like, Oh my gosh, that's such a deal.

[00:36:53] And you're starting to tell your friends and it's word of mouth. Ideally when your clients are working with you, you want them to feel like they're getting more value for their money, effort or time that they're putting in to hire you as an employee or  to choose to become your client.

[00:37:10] The mistake, a lot of people make is letting other people choose how much their services are worth. So they keep on driving their price down to compete. When really you just need to be saying, okay, This is the transformation that I'm going to help create in your company.

[00:37:26] This is how I'm going to be helping your company, or this is how I'm going to help improve your life as my client. This is how much this is worth. So once that value, whatever picture you're painting of the future that is going to be created for that person is higher than the price. So value is different from price.

[00:37:47] Once that value is higher. Then the price, your client will be happy and they'll be referring people to you. If it's fair, people will be like, okay, you know what? This is a good deal. It's not the best deal. If they feel like you totally blew them away and you helped them so much. And you did exactly what you said it did and aligned up with everything you said for the terms and conditions of your offer, they're going to be like, Oh my gosh, I love you.

[00:38:10] I want to work with you again. And again, send my friends, send my husband, sent everybody. I know they need to work with you. And that's ideal situation that you want to be in, right?

[00:38:20]Yeah. Be showing that there is a return on investment from working with you so you can negotiate how much  your work is worth because this isn't about your worth as a person. It's about the problem that you solve for that person or the goal that you're helping them achieve. The goal or problem for that client or that company, that transformation that you're giving them.

[00:38:42]That's what this is about. That's what negotiating your salary is about. It's not about, Oh, my life expenses have increased or I want to move into a bigger house. So you should pay me more because I need to do these things. That's not how it works. You want to be negotiating your value? Ideally I would love it if everybody got a basic amount of money so that they could survive and nobody was starving, but unfortunately with capitalism, that's not how it works.

[00:39:08] The idea is you're supposed to give value to the world and then people give you value in return. A bit of a tangent, but that becomes an issue when we don't  certain things as being worth money. So if people are doing work for example, you can do work in like the Philippines versus the USA or Canada, and you could be doing the exact same job, but you're going to be paid differently because of where you are located and how much that dollar value is worth.

[00:39:38] So it's not just about. The work that you do, it's does your client, the people who you work with, the client or company that you work with, do they have a lot of disposable income? Do they have enough money to pay you a lot of money? Because somebody who's a millionaire is going to value $200 differently than somebody who makes $20,000 a year.

[00:39:56]So you need to think about those things and how you're positioning yourself. And that goes into the, a lot of like inequalities that we have in the world, but you need to strategize those things as you're building out your career or business and how you make money.

[00:40:10]Okay. So at the end of the offer phase, what you want to be able to do. Is say here is exactly what I will be giving you in exchange for the money that you'll be giving me. This is the terms and conditions for what I will give you. Everything that's included. And here is what I want you to give me in return. These are the terms and the conditions that I have to work for you or to help you. So you've set something that creates a win-win situation for both you and your client, the client or company that you're working with.

[00:40:46]the next stage. Once you have an offer, the next phase is first client. So you want to get your first clients. And at this phase, you want to go where groups of people who have the problem that you solve, or the goal that you were trying to achieve, where groups of people who are in that situation, that you helped to improve, where they're hanging out.

[00:41:06]If you want it to work with startups or new entrepreneurs, you would go to a new entrepreneur conference, or you would go to a Facebook group where they hang out and you want to put out your message.  If you're looking for a job, you get your resume, your cover letter and your LinkedIn profile together. You go out to a networking event or you'd apply for a bunch of jobs online, or you would do informational interviews and network with companies who need the type of skills that you offer. 

[00:41:33]You'd have a clear message from your idea phase to explain in one sentence what you do so that when they get interested and they want to interview you to talk about the terms and conditions of the offer, you can have that conversation with more confidence.

[00:41:49] It is partly. So a lot of people when they're applying for jobs, they'll think it's just a numbers game apply to as many jobs as possible, a hundred jobs, 200 jobs, and then see who gets back to you. It is not a numbers game. It's all about quality over quantity. So you want to apply for a specific set of jobs for things that you really want to do where you meet the skills, qualifications, or experience that they're looking for, or you can show, you have an equivalent combination of skills, qualifications, and experience to help them get to where they want to go. 

[00:42:20]And then you want to create really tailored offer letters, your resumes, like an offer letter saying this is the history that I have of solving similar problems so that you can help the company get to where they want to go.

[00:42:31]Or if it's a business and you're at the first clients phase, then you're going to get on. You're still going to go out to where a bunch of your ideal clients are hanging out and you're going to pitch to them, or you're going to have consultation calls where you reach out for one-on-ones and  you can say something like I think your company may be struggling with this.

[00:42:49]If you are this is how I can help. These are some examples, some testimonials, if you're interested, please reach out and book a call with me. Something along those lines where you're starting to have that conversation. And again, it's going back to that one sentence pitch of how you help, that you would have come up with during your idea phase, and then.

[00:43:09]That conversation, that consultation call we'll be talking about painting a vision. So telling that story that we talked about at the very beginning of, okay, is this who you are? Are you my ideal client? Is this the situation you're in ? These are the action steps I can take to help you get to a better outcome and painting a story that they can actually visualize.

[00:43:29]This is what you're doing at the first clients phase. And the same thing applies, whether  you're trying to land interviews and setting out your resume or cover letter, or you're trying to land like consultation calls or contracts for your own clients .

[00:43:40] So the top progress killer that I see people making at the first clients phase. And this is a huge mistake is you get nervous butterflies whenever you go into that networking room. And it's not the butterflies that's the progress killer. The issue is a mindset. So you're thinking, okay, now I have to put myself out and I'm going to be pushy or sleazy or salesy.

[00:44:03]And that's not really what you're doing. So when you're going out into that networking event, I want you to make a mindset shift where you're thinking, okay, I help people. I'm going to go out and help people. So I'm going to ask everybody in that room. Okay. What are some of the problems that you're experiencing?

[00:44:20]What are some goals that you're trying to achieve? Why are you at this networking event? Tell me why you're at this event. And if I meet anybody who I think you can help, or I think the two of you should connect with each other, I'm going to be exchanging your business cards. You're exchanging information and introducing the two of you.

[00:44:37] So a year or two later, This person will still remember you as this helpful connector of people. And because we are human beings and we care about each other, what we will do in return is say, Hey, thank you so much for asking me about me and my goals. How can I help you? What are your goals for being at this event?

[00:44:53] Then you'll give them your, I help statement. I want to help. Or I held these type of people who are struggling with these types of problems to help achieve these types of goals. And that becomes a totally different conversation.

[00:45:05]So to recap  the top progress killer or top mistake that I see people making is a nervous butterflies. It's about what I wanted to do. And how am I going to push this on somebody's mindset? Versus I am a helpful problem solver that is listening to people's needs and goals and finding ways to help them get to where they want to go. And in exchange, they're going to find a way to help me to 

[00:45:28]the second top progress killer is very much related to the first one. So it's saying I want. Versus I help. So when you go out there you say, I want a job that is this. So I can grow my career. I want to use my skills, experiences or qualifications versus saying, I help these types of people who are struggling with these types of problems so they can achieve these types of goals, which is clearly adding value to their lives to these companies or clients lives.

[00:45:57]So that is the second progress killer saying  I want versus I help. 

[00:46:03]The third top progress, killer or mistake that people make is talking about their life history. So you get into an interview and  the interviewer asks you to tell them about yourself.

[00:46:14]And you go back to like time Memorial, you go back to, Oh, I went to university here and then I did this and then I did that.  And then I made this career change and you don't really know when to stop or what information you should be giving them. So you just ramble on about your history. And people are just like okay.

[00:46:34]When really you should be giving that. I help statement. I help these type of people, or I want to help these types of people. And this is some examples of when I've done that in the past, and this relates to your company because. This is how I want to come in and help your company. That's what you should be doing.

[00:46:50]You should be telling relevant stories of solving similar problems and painting a picture of how you can help that company. But instead, most people revert to a life story or a history of tasks that they've done instead of a history of giving a return on investment.

[00:47:05]So at the end of the first clients phase, if you make those three mindset shifts, you should have more confidence going out and finding your first clients and clearly explaining to them how you can help them so that they'd be willing to pay you. 

[00:47:21]Making money is not just about building on your education and experience. It's about finding specific high value problems that you can help solve. Building out a strategy, a step-by-step strategy to build out your experience, your proof, your credentials, to solve that problem, and then understanding how to ask and negotiate how to be paid in return.

[00:47:43]Yeah. Then once you have worked with enough initial clients, you'll start to notice trends. You'll start to notice that people are starting to ask you the same questions or that companies are starting to ask for the same help over and over again. And these trends, you're going to take this and you're going to build it out into something where you can help people, even when you're not there.

[00:48:07] Or you can take a step back from what you do. You're going to start to build out methodologies or systems or processes. To help people so that you are doing less repeatable tasks. Anything that you're repeating that you're saying over and over again, you're going to start to build out into systems.

[00:48:25]And that takes us to phase five, systems. So systems, like I said, These are when you're taking  those repeated tasks, that information that you tend to be repeating over and over again - those trends that you're seeing in the problems that people are facing. You build it out into a systematic process. You don't always have to have the one-on-one conversations, but for your clients, it's going to feel like they're having one-on-one conversations with you or for companies that are gonna feel like they're having one-on-one conversations with you because you've spoken to so many people who have that problem that they have, that you just understand the problem so well, and you understand the common mistakes that people make.

[00:49:02] So if this even this episode that I'm giving you right now, If I was talking about, Oh, this phase in this problem. And you're like, Oh my gosh, that's me. It's because I've been doing this enough. So I see the trends, I see  the common mistakes that people are making. I see the steps and I'm building that out into a system so I can help as many people as possible.

[00:49:24]So there are two types of systems that you're going to build out. Systems to attract new clients and employers and then systems to serve those clients or employers once they choose to work with you. When you're getting into business jargon, if you ever do decide to start your business. One of the things that really like super confused me in the beginning was I kept on hearing this terminology front end and back end.

[00:49:46]So front end are the systems that you are going to use to attract people to come and work with you. Back end are the systems that you use to serve clients or companies. So if you build out any methodologies, if you build out any frameworks those are often  a part of your backend systems. It's about the operations, how you will be serving those clients to make sure that they get the results that you promise them when they choose to pay you.

[00:50:12] And you don't necessarily need to guarantee that they can achieve those results, but you are building out some sort of process that is systematic and helping people get to where they want to go.

[00:50:22]And when you're thinking about these two systems, the systems to attract and the system to serve.

[00:50:30]For a job, this could mean that you have employers coming to you. So you set up your LinkedIn profile. So it has a bunch of keywords that recruiters are looking for because 95% of recruiters are on LinkedIn and over 70% of jobs are in a hidden job market. So they're not posted online and recruiters are tapped into that hidden job market. If 95% of these recruiters are looking online, you need to have an online presence, which is, and if you're using the right key words, the right words that recruiters are using, they can find you online and choose to work with you. 

[00:51:05]For a business, this is a system to attract and serve clients. So that means you find a way to get your message out there consistently. It could be you're on Instagram, you're on YouTube or you're on some sort of social media platform.  You have built out a way for people to find you - find this content that you're putting out consistently.

[00:51:30] You could be going into networking events where a bunch of your ideal clients are hanging out on a regular basis. And then you're saying, okay if you want to learn more, I have this free offer that you can access. Or I have this PDF that you can download that will help you take a mini step in getting to where you want to go.

[00:51:50]And once they take that mini step and they achieve some success or they find it helpful, they're going to be much more willing to hop on a call with you and choose to work with you. Or  depending on how you build it out, you can then get a group of people on a video call or a webinar, and you can say, okay, I'm going to teach you.

[00:52:09] We're going to have a really great dialogue where I help you. At the end of it, I'll show you how you can continue to work with me if you choose.

[00:52:16] You're going to show them okay, if you work with me at step one, step two, step three on the back end or the systems to serve, you're going to build out step one, step two, step three. Here are the resources. Here are the tools that you need. For example, when I built out my online course, the way I did it was I took the information that I would typically repeat over and over again in one-on-one coaching calls that have been helpful. I said, okay, this was super helpful. This was when somebody was like, Oh, this clicked, or this was an aha moment.

[00:52:42]Then I built that out into the online course. So I could teach people useful information that would walk them through each step so that when, if they choose to book a one-on-one call with me, it's more about problem solving to their unique situation or answering unique questions. And if I get enough of those questions, often enough, I'll incorporate that into the online course.

[00:53:02]So it's about building out a system to attract and then to serve and the top progress killer that people make at the systems phase. So this is phase number five. Our last step is they'll say, okay, I need people to ask me questions and then I'll answer. And ideally you don't want to wait for people to ask you questions.

[00:53:24] You want to come up with a list of the most common things that people are saying, and then you want to say, okay, we're going to be collaborating to solve this problem. This is a clear path that people are taking and you want to be doing research to make sure that the problem that you think people are facing is still a problem that they're facing.

[00:53:40]So for example, if you were selling phone booths and you were still trying to be in business today, The phone booth business is not as popular because of cell phones. Everybody has a cell phone now. So why are you going to be selling phone booths? The market has changed. Technology has changed. You need to stay up to date, so you don't want to just wait for people to ask you questions.

[00:54:01] You want to be constantly going out there and staying up to date with what is happening.

[00:54:05]the second mistake that people make when they're creating systems, It's just making it too complex. and I struggled with it. It's  and.   And you'll think, Oh, 

[00:54:13]the second top progress killer or mistake that people make at the systems phase is having a complex system versus a simple system. I'm here. I honestly just got a lot of clarity on my system. This mistake in the beginning, I was like, Oh, first you need to go here. And then here and then here, because I was following I knew how to create a simple system, but I wasn't trusting myself to create a simple system.

[00:54:37] I wasn't trusting myself to say, okay listen to this or read this and then book a consultation call with me so we could talk about what you need. I was creating all of these like complex systems.  So you'll think you'll start to watch all of these like YouTube videos on what you need to be doing. Listening to all of these different quote unquote gurus, and then buying all this like expensive software.

[00:55:01]If you're looking for a job, you'll think, Oh, I need a post on LinkedIn every single day.

[00:55:05] So that employers will find me without realizing that you only have 50 connections on LinkedIn. And it's going to take a  a long time for people to find you.  It's more helpful to go out where people hang out.

[00:55:17], or  you'll think, you need to build out this fancy graphic design resume, and you'll be focusing all your time, energy on all these shiny objects that don't give you results. Instead of having a simple, clear message of how you help that people can easily find and they know what the next step is. 

[00:55:37] And it's not seven steps to get to work with you.  If you start to get into business, you may hear people say, you need to have seven or more touch points with clients before they choose to work with you. But that's not really true.

[00:55:48] It depends on the length of that touch point. So touch point is like an interaction with a client or a company. It depends on the quality of the conversation that you're having and how well you're articulating, how you can help and how much like social proof or results that you're delivering. And  a concrete example.

[00:56:05]As you learn about business, you'll see here of like quick wins where people can get an easy way for somebody to take the first step. And a quick win can be something like I help you save a hundred dollars on car insurance.  Okay, you come to me, I'll give you six quotes that help you save a hundred dollars on car insurance. It's a quick win. It's something that's easy. Or you download this PDF and it will help you to land your next client.

[00:56:34] And I don't know, make 50 bucks or more something like that. I've never seen that one before, but something along those lines where it says you can get this thing done really quickly or.

[00:56:43]Popular one that I think it was Ramit Sethi, who did this. And he said that if you, he helped you call your cable company or your internet company and negotiate a reduced rate on your internet or your phone or your TV. Within a day, right? Like you can make that call. You can get that done. It's a quick win and you save money.

[00:57:08] So now you trust him to give you more financial advice. That's an example of a quick win. So you have this quick thing that shows that you can help give her result. And it gives some sort of concrete example for that client's unique situation and  the best type of example is something that the client can apply to their life or the company can apply to their situation.

[00:57:29] So for a company you can give like a discounted rate on their first product, or you'll see a lot of companies give out samples so you can try the product or like restaurants give out food samples, it's giving a quick win. Oh, this is tasty. This is like low risk for me to engage with. Or people will volunteer and build out their volunteer experience.

[00:57:50] Cause if you're not paying for that person, it's lowering the risk. You're not risking your money. So they're more willing to give you a chance. And then you take that and you build out your experience or you built up that trust that you can deliver results and then people are willing to work with you.

[00:58:07]So this is actually, I would say, I'll break this out. 

[00:58:10] So there's the complex versus the simple story of how you help, like the complex steps that you can give versus a simple message with simple steps and a simple story of how you help simple is always better. You don't want to use a bunch of fancy words and a bunch of fancy jargon. You want to use words that everyday person can understand to paint a picture of how you help. 

[00:58:34]And then this is. One that I didn't even have written down here, but the next one is  just saying you can help versus giving some sort of quick win or some sort of initial step to build trust beyond just the conversation. Conversations can be powerful. If you can show that you ha can paint a picture of how you can help that person. And then you're building out the credibility and authority and your history of delivering results. But the ideal situation is you can give somebody a quick win that's based on their situation and their scenario.

[00:59:04]And then, when you're building out your systems, you want to. Go to where a group of your people are hanging out or you want to reach a large group of people. So a lot of people there'll be building out a way to reach potential employers.

[00:59:18] And like I said, they'll post on LinkedIn to their 50 plus contacts that people they already know  the ideal situation is you want to go to where groups of people who you don't know, but, Are your potential clients or employers are hanging out and you want to share that message with them.

[00:59:33]And in business, this can often be called platform leveraging. So you, somebody else has this audience built out. They spent the time and effort building out this group of people and you're going in and you're accessing their network. So when you pay for Facebook ads, You are accessing the network that Facebook has created on their platform and the research that they've done on their clients. Facebook is charging you to access people who could potentially be your client.

[01:00:03] For a job, this could be you go to like in a conference that's. Based on your topic. So you could go to a marketing conference cause I've been using the marketing example a lot and you say, okay, this, the marketing conference hosts like whoever, whichever group or organization is hosting, that conference is charging you because you will get access to a group of experts or thought leaders who know about your field so that you can.

[01:00:33]Sell to them, or you can learn from them. And like they're leveraging that group of people -  that platform.

[01:00:40]The mistake that people make is just like trying to reach a single and not trying to reach groups. So that's a huge mistake that people make there. So an example of that is you'll post on like Instagram or you post that content that's supposed to be related to help you get a job on your LinkedIn profile.

[01:01:01]And then, you use hashtags too, are a way to get people who were interested in the things that you were talking about to see your content. But the ideal situation is to go out to somebody who's already built an audience in that field and to ask to interview them or to engage with them so that you can tap into their audience, but you want to create it as a win-win situation.

[01:01:22]And then the fifth progress killer, or mistake that people make at the systems phase is, they'll try to talk to everyone. So they're building out this system where let's say you have you'll build out like your LinkedIn profile, which is more like a general resume. The LinkedIn summary is like a pitch for how you help. And it should be something specific, like an, I help statement with some concrete results behind it, but instead, and you just, you try to talk to everybody and you say, I can help everybody.

[01:01:52] Cause you get nervous. And you're like what if I miss out on people? And the truth is it should feel like you're talking to a specific person. It's like the concept of the pennies add up. So you get one penny at a time, you speak to one person and all of the people who relate to that message, that similar story that person is experiencing and the journey that you'll be walking them through will choose to work with you and choose to pay you.

[01:02:17]For example, I gave you these five steps. If you relate to these five steps in your career development and the obstacles, like for example, people will come to me because I'm a woman of color or because I've experienced discrimination or because I was an immigrant, so I had a lot of international experience and trying to transfer the international experience.

[01:02:33] People will resonate with those pieces of my story and they'll choose to work with me over another career coach, a business coach, because of that. So you want to figure out what is unique to you and your story.

[01:02:43]you don't want to talk to everyone. You want to talk to a specific person and you'll often hear this idea. If you get into the business area of having this ideal client avatar, and that used to confuse me, they used to say, put up a picture of that person and then imagine that you're speaking to them.

[01:03:00] And it's  who is that person? And on the outside they'll say what does a person look like? And yeah. You don't want to be focusing on the demographics of that person. You don't want to be focusing on where they live necessarily, who they look like. You want to be focusing on these group of people or solving this type of problem or trying to achieve this type of goal. 

[01:03:18]I know this specific person, like I know Brittany is trying to solve this problem. So I'm going to imagine I'm just talking to Brittany and walking her through that problem. And your website then becomes a story of how you'll walk people through the problem.

[01:03:33] So this is where you are now. This is where you want to go. These are the steps. I'll take you. These are the packages. Your resume becomes a history of walking companies who were experiencing a similar situation, walking them through those steps. And if you want to do something different with your career, you're going to have to create a different resume.

[01:03:48] It can't be this one size fits all approach cause nobody wants one size fits all. They want something that is unique to them because their main questions are, will this work for me? And my situation? Will I get my value for my money? How will this help me? Where will this help take me to go? 

[01:04:07] Those are the five phases to go from, no idea to systems where you're building out. Even if you are in a job, you want to build out systems to attract employers, to work with you because the biggest risk with a job is you only have one source of income as you start to build out a business or start to grow your career. So you have multiple clients, you can have multiple sources of income.

[01:04:31] So if you lose one client, it's not going to mean you're starving the next month. You still have other clients coming in, who are paying you. But if you lose a job, you lose your source of income and then you're relying on savings. So that's why I say if you look on my website, I'll say no matter whether you want a job or freelance service or business, you will act like an entrepreneur because you want to build out a way that you have people regularly coming to you who would want to work with you and pay you.

[01:04:58]And this is true, whether you have that job or whether you're building out that business. If you are working at a company, yes, you do want to spend your time and effort focusing on delivering results for that company and helping that company. But you also want to be consistently putting that message out there of how you've helped and the results that you've delivered to the company that you're currently working with and the companies that you've worked with in the past, so that new companies will want to work with you and choose to work with you.

[01:05:24]That way, if you lose your job, if your company fires you, which will also become much less likely because you are constantly aware of how you're helping that company and the value that you're delivering to that company. And as long as you are adding value and helping that company grow, and that company has a solid business model that has money coming in.

[01:05:43] That company should want to keep you because they can see the value that you are delivering. And you can explain that to them effectively, and you're showing how you help and you're helping that company survive or grow and you're aware of their needs and you're constantly learning and adapting to help them get to where they want to go. And there are new goals. 

[01:06:01] It's the same thing for a client, as long as you're helping that client grow. People could potentially not have the money to pay you. That is a possibility. But as if people have the income, there's no such thing as Oh, I don't want, or I don't need, it's more like, can you help them get to where they want to go?

[01:06:17] Can you show them, this is the value that is going to get them to where they need to go. Then it could just be a timing thing. Is this the right time for them to pay or to choose to work with you? And that's where that's a different ball game. The timing thing, you can't really influence too much. 

[01:06:32] You can give people some motivation to work with you now, rather than later. But as long as you're following the steps from no idea to building out these systems, to both attract and to serve clients or companies, then you will be building out an effective career or business, and if you ever get stuck, come back here and listen to this.

[01:06:53] And I want you to think about what steps you're making, try and identify which phase you're in. And that's how you can start to grow out your career or your business and get rid of that stumbling block or whatever you feel is like keeping you stagnant or stuck. And it's a huge mindset shift because we weren't taught to think like this.

[01:07:14] We weren't taught to grow our careers or businesses like this, but it's game changing. it can not just help you increase your income substantially, but it can help you have more negotiating points for how you are. Talking about what you want in return.

[01:07:27] So maybe you can say, okay I want to be able to work remotely. Once the problem that you're solving and you can solve that problem, people are going to be flexible on how you solve that problem for them, because they're going to trust you to solve the problem. And they're not going to feel like they need to micromanage you or be on top of you all the time, because they know that you know the value that you're delivering.

[01:07:47] There's either a verbal or written contract that says, okay, once you're hitting these key performance indicators, once you're delivering these specific results to me, I'm happy and you can work however you want, or you have a lot more flexibility in how you work and you negotiate how much money you want, because yes, you understand that I need a return on my investment. 

[01:08:07] I need you to help me so that I can make my life or my company better so that I can afford to pay you. Or that I'm happier and not all results, like some results. I've given the example of Netflix. I've given the example of a passion project, like learning how to play the guitar.

[01:08:23]Not all results need to be financial. They can be passion driven and it like this process. It's huge. If you need to relisten to this, I hope this has been super helpful for you. It took me a long time to wrap my head around this. When I was trying to build out my career, it has taken me about 10 years to get to this point where I can explain this to you so well.

[01:08:47] I know that when I was starting out, if somebody had told me this helped me through this, it would have been so helpful. I'm hoping you're enjoying it. And if you are like leave a review or shoot me a note, I put my speak pipe so that you can send me a voice note and say, thank you or ask a question so I can answer it in a future podcast episode, but thank you for being here.

[01:09:07] I really appreciate it.  Share it with your friends, it's helpful or. Just get the message out. I want this to help people. I want people to make fewer mistakes when they're building out their careers or their businesses. And I want people to have the tools to do that effectively.

[01:09:21] So if you're the one who helps that happen. You're the one who chooses whether this was useful for you or not. And I'd love feedback from you so that I can know that I should keep doing this, that this is worthwhile for you. You're listening to the happy career formula with jet stubs, where we talk about how to find what you love to do and turn it into a way to make money, whether that's a job, a freelance service or a business, hopefully after listening to this episode, that makes a lot more sense.