Wendy McCallum (00:40)
Hello, coach. Welcome back to the Coaching Edge. I'm your host, Wendy McCallum. I have a sweet little episode for you today. I have a feeling it's not going to take a full half hour. It's going to be a shorter one. But it's a topic that has the potential to move you in a way that probably a longer episode might not. We're going to be talking today about this challenge that I know that so many of you are up against, especially in the first few years of business. And I know that because
That's who I work with all the time. So I see coaches in the first five years of business all the time. I support those coaches in my business building bootcamp, which is my annual membership. I support them in the CCC, my coaching course creator program that runs twice a year. I support them in the Confident in Coaching Skills intensive program where I help coaches hone their coaching skills. I see this come up over and over and over again as a problem. You have a million ideas, but almost no momentum. You feel completely stuck.
You're spinning. You're maybe even a little bit ashamed that with all of these great ideas, you haven't moved forward with any of them in a real way. I wanna take some of the pressure off today and I wanna offer a way through this that feels a lot more doable than trying to build everything at once or forcing a clarity that you don't have yet. I wanna help you cut through the noise, get out of the overwhelm that is the early years of running a small business.
and help you actually get into action. So let's start with the truth that you probably need to hear today, which is that you're not scattered as a business owner because you're broken or bad at this. You are scattered because you care. You care about helping people. That's why you became a coach. You care about doing it right. You care about creating something that's aligned and meaningful and probably also a bit original.
And so of course your brain is gonna generate lots of options. It's probably thinking, what about a podcast or how about a group program or I could host a retreat or maybe I need to change my niche or this freebie that I've got going isn't great. And I think maybe the solution is a new lead magnet or my website isn't where I want it to be. You know what this feels like. You have a never ending to-do list and you have this huge bank of ideas of things that you want to do.
But the problem is, is that when everything feels important, nothing moves, nothing shifts, you stay stuck, you don't get anything done. So I wanna talk today about the advice that I give newer coaches all the time and frankly more established coaches who get stuck around how to get yourself unstuck, get yourself out of this sort of like.
calm above the water, ducks swimming along, like legs, like beating them, you know, a thousand miles an hour underneath the water. Like that's how it feels often to be a small business owner. And I wanna help you move out of that and into a place where it feels like you're actually calmly moving forward. You have a plan, you have direction, you feel confident and good about the decisions that you're making around what the next right step is for you. Now.
Before we get into this, I want to remind you that I offer something called the Clarity Compass Audit. It is designed to help you with exactly this. So that is a one-time session with me. You will fill out an intake form before you come in. You're gonna tell me a lot about your business and then we're gonna get together and we're gonna do a really kind of intense review and audit of your business, where you are now, what you have done, what you haven't done yet.
And I am going to help you create a plan for the next three to six months of your business in terms of what makes sense and where I would recommend as somebody who's been doing this for 15 years and has now supported hundreds of coaches and knows a lot about the nuts and bolts of building a successful coaching practice. I'm going to tell you where I would suggest you spend your time in the next three months and where I would suggest you don't spend your time. And I'm going to give you some really specific strategies for action in each of those areas. And then I'm going to send you a
Clarity Compass audit report afterwards where all of this is laid out. So that is an option for you. So if you're listening to this podcast episode and you're thinking, yeah, that's me, I'm in overwhelm, I'm struggling with like what the right next step is to do. I feel like there's so many things and I can't get them all done. And it's causing me to feel paralyzed in all of this. Consider booking that session with me. It's the only way to work with me one-on-one right now, you know, in terms of...
other than being like already being a BBB member, for example, and booking a private session with me. So I normally don't work with coaches that I'm not supporting in a group program one-on-one, but the Clarity Compass audit is for anybody. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, I would love to get Wendy's eyes on my business, I'd love to have a strategy session with her, that is always available and I will put the links to that offer in the show notes as well. Okay, so let's get into this. How do we get unstuck?
There are three mindset shifts and strategies that I really wanna walk you through today. The first is how to prioritize when everything feels like a five alarm fire, right? So how do you prioritize when everything feels important? When you can make an argument for why you should be doing every single thing on your list now. How do you prioritize? I also wanna talk about why clarity is not a prerequisite
it's actually a result of taking action. So oftentimes coaches will say like, I'm not gonna start this thing until I know how I wanna do it, until I have some clarity around what this offer is or clarity around how I want to show up or whatever it is. And they're waiting for that in order to take action. The thing is that the clarity comes after the action. And we're talk about that. So you have to take this leap of faith in business all the time. And that leap of faith into action is what is gonna actually give you the clarity.
And the third thing I wanna talk about is the beta mindset, which if you're listening to this podcast and you have been listening for a while, you've probably heard me talk about beta mindset before, but it is directly connected to this stuckness and getting unstuck thing. So the beta mindset is a lighter, faster way to make progress and learn as you go. So we're talk about those three things. So let's start with how to prioritize when everything feels really, really critical.
You're probably getting advice from all over the place. You're seeing things on the internet. You're seeing coaches and influencers tell you, you've got to do this. You need a really great welcome sequence. You need to create an online webinar and have a funnel that way. You need to be posting content every day on social media or Instagram, or the way to build your audience best is with a podcast. And you're feeling overwhelmed with all of this stuff. I get asked all the time by the coaches that I support, how do I know
what to do first when every idea feels urgent or essential. Here's my take on this. Not all ideas are created equal. So all the ideas we have, they're not created equal. They can feel that way, but when we really dig into them, we can see that some of them are shiny. They look exciting and bright and shiny, but there's not a lot of substance to them.
Some of them are strategic. Some of them are just distractions, honestly. Some of them are things that we think we need to do or we should do. They're just should do's as a result of what we're seeing other people do. Some of them are truly meant for later and some of them are meant for right now. And so when I'm helping a coach sort this out, we're gonna look at three filters. These are the three things that I suggest people look for. So you would write out the five, your top five ideas of things that you think might.
all be of equal importance and then ask yourself these three questions about each of those ideas. What of these is closest to cash or revenue? So which idea has the most potential to bring in clients or revenue in the next like 30 to 60 days? So from which of these ideas am I most likely to make the most money the fastest? It's a really good question to ask.
which of these is actually directly connected to increased revenue? Because if you're not making the revenue, you're not gonna stay in business. So you always wanna be prioritizing those things that are closest to the revenue. Okay, so that's the first question.
Secondly, what feels easiest to deliver? Like what can I create and bring to life with the least amount of resistance? We're not talking here about something that's gonna involve like learning how to use a whole new tech platform and has a 30 step funnel or like 20 email sequence. Like what is the thing that you can bring to life with the least amount of resistance? And there's gonna be some balancing between these things. You might have on your list some things that are
closer to cash, more likely to create revenue, but it's gonna take you a lot longer to get there because there's so much involved in actually bringing that thing to life, right? And you're have other things that might have a slightly lower revenue potential, but are a lot easier to bring to life. So you're have to do some balancing here when you decide which ones to actually go forward with. The last piece though, this last question is the question that often tips the scales for the coaches that I support. And that is like, what are you genuinely excited about?
Like what lights you up on this list? What is interesting and exciting to you that you're actually looking forward to doing? As opposed to feeling like it is an absolutely enormous chore. If your energy is not behind it, your audience is gonna feel that. So always, always factor in what's gonna bring you joy as a business owner. So again, when you're trying to decide which of the...
thousand things on your list is the actual priority and the next right step for you, ask yourself these three questions. What is closest to cash? What feels easiest to deliver? And what am I genuinely excited about doing? What is my level of joy associated with this task? And then pick the idea that scores highest on those three filters. And if you need to use a scale here, use a scale of like one to five.
one being the lowest potential and five being the highest potential. And you can actually give your ideas numbers. Add up the numbers and let that be the guide for you in terms of where you get going. Commit to that thing and only that thing for the next few weeks and park the rest of it. Don't lose the rest of it, keep it in the vault. You guys have heard me talk about the vault before on this podcast. The vault is that list of great ideas.
of things that you know you want to do in your business that you cannot possibly do all at once, but you don't wanna lose, that's your vault. I have a vault right now, I'm looking at it in front of me, I've got a whiteboard and one half of the whiteboard is called vault and that's where the great ideas go that I don't have time to execute right now, but I don't wanna lose, right? So you don't lose the rest of the things on your list, you just choose one thing and you focus on that and you get that thing done, park the rest of it.
Sometimes you can be working on a couple of different things at a time. I usually have like two or three things that I'm working on actively. But if there's one thing that you know is gonna get you to cash quickly, that you are excited about doing and that is pretty easy to deliver, just get it done. Okay, the second thing that I wanna talk about is why clarity is not actually a prerequisite. In fact, it's usually impossible until you take action. So,
It's a really big one because so many new coaches tell me some version of like, I'm waiting until I'm clear on this before I launch it, or I'm waiting to get like real clarity on my avatar client before I niche down. And I am here as like, this is how my BBB coaches always describe me. I'm sort of like kind, no BS.
So I'm gonna call BS on this thing in a really kind way. This is something that we do, all of us do it, I do it. We do this as a way to avoid something that feels a little scary for us, right? We're avoiding taking that leap. It feels somehow safer to stay in inaction, but it's not safer because you're jeopardizing your business if you're not taking action on these ideas. So if you're saying like, no, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wait till I know for sure I've got this nailed.
you're not doing yourself a service and you're not doing your business a service. And it's actually scarier to say to stay in that stuck, paralyzed place in your business than it is to take action without having complete clarity yet, which as I've said is never going to be available. Here's what I know for sure after like 15 years or so in the coaching world, clarity does not come from thinking, it comes from doing. Let me say that again.
Clarity does not come from thinking, it comes from doing. It comes from testing, it comes from putting something out there, seeing what lands and adjusting. It's feedback driven. So creativity and ideas, those come from thinking for me. And for me, the most creative ideas I have of my business usually come when I've created space.
for that creative thinking. So where I don't have a bunch of other things on the go. So oftentimes these big ideas come to me, for example, when I'm on vacation or in the summertime. But the actual clarity on the idea, what it's gonna look like, what the best version of it's gonna be, what I'm gonna price it at, how it's gonna be best delivered, those things, I don't have them in the beginning. And I am actually really great with that. I actually embrace that. And that's gonna take us to our third point, the beta mindset.
I do not wait for clarity on that stuff before I take action. And that is what makes me a very successful business owner. And so I am encouraging you, if you are sitting on something right now that your gut is telling you is a great idea for you, but you feel like you don't have all of the answers yet as to how it's gonna go, all the details, all the nuts and bolts, all the clarity, I'm encouraging you to get off your sweet little behind and take action anyway.
because that is what's gonna lead to the clarity. Getting out there and testing it is what's gonna lead to the clarity. I often put programs out there and I think to myself, like, I know the idea behind this is great and I know the thing that I'm teaching or coaching around is awesome and really needed by my audience, but I'm not quite sure what the best way to deliver this is. So I'm gonna try it this one way and then I might change it going forward. I might turn this group program into, for example, a series of one-off master classes or workshops that I offer.
I might take a program that I thought was gonna work really, really well as self-guided and convert it to a coached program because it doesn't work as well as I thought it would self-guided. Like, I don't need to have all of those answers when I start. What I do need to have is confidence in the fact that the idea is a good one and worth exploring and testing, okay? So that's really important. Clarity is not a prerequisite, it is a result of action. And the question that really matters
is not what should I do, it's what can I try. It's all about trying new things, small business. again, I'm saying this all the time to my BBB coaches, what can you try? What is something, how will you know is another question I ask. How will you know if that's the thing? The only way to know is to get out there and try it. So that's a really, really important piece of this, I think of getting unstuck is just.
recognizing that, like if you need to put a post-it note on your wall or on your laptop or on your desk or something that says like, clarity only comes after action, put that somewhere to remind yourself of this. Okay, the last piece of this little puzzle of getting unstuck for coaches is really embracing the beta mindset. And again, I have talked about this before, I've had coaches as guests on this podcast who've talked about how the beta mindset has changed everything for them.
And that's why I'm gonna keep talking about it. And I'm gonna keep reminding you of it because it is the best way to actually make progress and learn and grow your business and create things that you're actually incredibly proud of and that are very successful, that work. So when you're overwhelmed with options, the answer is not to go big, it's to go beta. The beta mindset is something that I teach all of my coaching clients and it's game changing, especially when you're new.
but it's something that I still use. I use it all the time. What does it mean? It means that you don't launch a polished perfect program. You just test a simple version of your idea. So when you are launching something for the first time, you actually are not attempting to launch a perfect version of that. You are aware of the fact that perfection in the beta is not possible. It's not the goal.
The goal is to put the best version of it out that you can based on what you know now, which is not very much because you haven't actually tested this thing yet. You put it out there, you test it in usually a simpler version. So with like less bells and whistles, less bonuses, of the content already recorded. It's just a simpler version. And then you invite some people to test it out for you. You are really clear about the fact that it's a beta.
That sets expectations, but it also creates interest. Usually price it at really attractive beta pricing so that you can get people in. You might only offer this to like a warmer audience, a safer audience for testing. An audience that you know is already invested in you and interested in supporting you and helping you grow. So for example, my betas always get offered to my BBB members first because those are my core people.
They absolutely have bought into the approach that I use as a business coach. They are invested in it. They're invested in their businesses. They already like, know, and trust me. And they are looking for the next thing that I have to teach them or offer them. So they're always excited to join in the betas. Plus it gives me an opportunity to reward them for being such sort of loyal.
clients or customers by offering them something really, really valuable at a really terrific price, right? So then what you're gonna do is you're gonna run that beta test and you're going to collect feedback and you're going to stay mindful and pay attention and you're going to figure out what's landing, what's working really well, what's not working as well, what needs some tweaking, you're gonna ask your...
beta members, what they wish was included that's not included, or what is maybe not as helpful as you thought it might be to them. And you're going to ask them about the format, and you're going to ask them about the method of dripping the content, you're going to ask them all the questions, and you're going to gather all the feedback. And you're going to use that to tweak and change the program going forward. So that's it. That's the beta mindset.
That's the beta approach. So again, the answer is not to go big when you're overwhelmed. The answer is to go beta. Try something. So go back to what we talked about before. What's closest to the cash? What's easiest to deliver? What's going to bring you the most joy and then get out there and do a beta with it because you have also learned that clarity will not come without action. So you don't want to wait for the clarity. You just want to know, I have a great idea. I think it's pretty close to cash. I think it was going to bring me some joy to do it. And I think it's going to be relatively
easy and doable. And then you just got to get out there and take action and create a beta with it and test it. It's also how you build your confidence in the value of the programs by running it with people and learning, wow, people are really responding well to this. They're loving it. They're talking about it. They're giving me terrific feedback. And that is going to allow you to get out there and market it in a bigger way with more confidence.
when you run this for the first time in a non-beta form, right? So this approach will get you out of idea overwhelm and into real world's progress and it'll do it really quickly. You're not married to the offer forever. You're just dating it. You're testing the fit. And that alone is really freeing, right?
It might be called something different the next time you offer it. It might be, the content might look completely different. The delivery method might look completely different. The number of people in the group might look completely different. The pricing will probably look completely different. Like so many pieces of this, maybe all of it might look completely different down the line. Or you might decide not to offer it again right away and to spend some time looking at it and figuring out how you can make it better.
And occasionally you might beta test something and decide to scrap it because you just realize, this is not joyful. This is not actually easy. I don't love doing any of this and nobody's responding well to this, right? Like that has not happened very often for me. And I haven't seen it happen very often for coaches. Usually what happens is you run the first iteration of it and you realize it's not exactly right yet. And you work on that and you tweak it. And the next time you launch it,
your messaging changes a little, your content gets a little more focused, you refine things, it just gets better. And over time, you can stay in that beta mindset throughout the course of running whatever that offer or program is and be continually changing and tweaking it. So here are the takeaways for today. You don't need to chase every idea. You don't need to do all of the things. In fact, trying to do all of the things is what's keeping you paralyzed. But you do need to choose one.
take action and learn from the results. And you can do that in a way that's simple and aligned with your values. Like there's a way to do that that feels good to you, that's not overwhelming, it doesn't feel like you're shortchanging it or juggling too many things at once, or not able to spend the time that you wanna spend with the people that you love, because you're spending all your time in your business, there is a way to do this. And it's by taking things like...
one thing at a time and by applying those three filters. Remember the three questions. What is closest to cash? What's the easiest to deliver? And what excites me right now? Then go to beta, keep it light, make it real because action creates clarity always. So I hope that this resonated with you and I hope that if you're...
you know, one of the gajillion of us out there who's trying to build a small business and who's feeling overwhelmed at all of the pieces that are involved in building a business that this helps you to take action, to get out of, you know, just that overwhelm and doomsday feeling of like, don't even know where to start and actually gets you into action. I'd love to hear.
from you if this resonated with you. I'd love to hear what your beta testing next. Like I'd love to hear what programs coaches are launching. You can always come and tell me on Instagram at Wendy McCallum Coach. Just send me a DM or you can shoot me an email at wendy at wendymccallum.com. If you're looking for guidance, templates or feedback on your next step, that's exactly where I come in. Again, the Clarity Compass audit is a really great sort of low commitment way to work with me, get to know me a little bit, get my eyes on your business and get some really
practical straight strategic advice and support around what to do next and where to focus. And you can bet your bottom dollar that in that Clarity Compass audit, we're going to be reviewing those questions. Like what is actually lighting you up on this list of ideas and which of these is closest to cash and how can we figure that out? And which of these is actually something you can practically deliver in a short timeframe. We will be looking at all of those things and then I will be helping you make the decision and come up with a very structured plan.
with very specific action steps for the next three to six months of your business. So that's an option for you. And of course, the business building bootcamp, it's always open for registration. You can join us anytime and join the next office hours call. You get access to the entire content library, the master class vault, which is now enormous. There's so much value in the library and in those weekly live coach sessions with me. And in addition to that,
You get access to this amazing community of coaches who are feeling the way you're feeling, who are so excited about building a business that gives them the flexibility and the freedom that they have always wanted and that allows them to do this thing that they just think is the best job in the world, but are also feeling all of the pressure and overwhelm that comes with being a small business owner. The vibe in the BBB is amazing. I think it is unmatched, unparalleled. I feel so privileged to be able to coach that group. It's my favorite thing to do.
So if you're looking for some more continuous longer term support, if you're looking for resources, templates, cheat sheets, all of that, I give you everything. I am not a gatekeeper. I will share anything I learn with you. I'm constantly learning new things and bringing them back to the BBB and teaching my members. If that's what you're looking for, then consider the BBB. I'm always happy to get on a call with you to chat about whether it's a good fit for you. So just reach out.
I hope that you found that episode helpful.
and that you're able to take it and cut a little bit of the overwhelm and just take a little bit of a load off. And I will see you the next time on The Coaching Edge.
