3 big moves in the last 3 months (and what I've learnt)
Welcome to the first episode of the LionHearted Marketing Podcast!
This is an episode with me, Sophie, spilling the beans on the 3 big moves I've made in my business in the 3 months since I last released an episode (under the previous podcast brand, Growing Pains).
What’s this episode about?
The last few months have been a time of big change, personally and in my business, and I can't wait to share some of what's been going on.
In this episode I cover:
Big Move 1: Rebranded my entire business (including business name and podcast!). How did it come about? Why couldn't I just evolve the previous brand? Who has helped me?
Big Move 2: Big changes to my services. Stopping my very successful group programme (Bloom). Being guided my client requests. Overhauling my services just 1 week before relaunching my new website.
Big Move 3: Investing in support (big time!). What I've invested in. What I'd invest in again - and what I wouldn't. My plan for the next 6 months.
Join me every Tuesday for more LionHearted marketing to help you navigate those big moves, stay focused on your goals and ultimately, take your business to the next level.
Links & resources mentioned in the episode
Previous podcast episode talking through my tricky 2022, an ADHD diagnosis and how I rebuilt my business from scratch - Episode Details
For my rebrand I've worked with, and highly recommend:
Graphic Designer: Kayleigh Lloyd - lloydcreative.co.uk
Website Designer: Hannah - shinyhappy.digital
Website Copywriter: Sarah Ellis - sarahelliswrites.co.uk
Hester Barnes Brand Photograher: hesterbarnesphotography.com
Dubsado: Toyah Wilcox: thebusinessbean.com
The coaches that have made a huge difference to my business are:
Mindset Coach: Bec Haydon - rebeccahaydon.com
Evergreen Programme Coach: Gemma Gilbert - gemmagilbert.com
Messaging & Storytelling Coach: Colette McBeth
If you enjoyed the podcast, here are some ways you can be a part of my world:
Social:
Love Instagram? Click here to watch a video I made on the Warm audience trap (hint, it's something almost every client struggles with!)More of a LinkedIn fan? I'm there too! Come and follow me here: Sophie Griffiths
Free Resource:
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Email me here: hello@sophiegriffiths.co
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Read the transcript:
NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors.
[00:00:00] hello, and welcome to Lion Hearted Marketing. This is a podcast for bold businesses who are ready to go from a slightly scattergun marketing approach to connecting everything they're doing to create joyful, repeatable customer journeys, that build connection and consistently convert new clients. That's called a funnel. If you fancy.
If you have that nagging feeling, you should have more of a grasp on your marketing, more of a plan, more of a system to support your pretty successful business. You're in the right place. This isn't about trying lows and new strategies. It's about taking what you've got and making the most of it.
I'm Sophie your host. Self-confessed tea superfan marketing strategist and funnels or joyful journeys, as I like to call them, demystifier. Join me every Tuesday for my Lion hearted approach to marketing. To help you navigate those big moves, stay focused on your goals and ultimately take your business to the next level.
Let's jump in to today's episode.
Hello. And welcome to the first [00:01:00] episode of lion hearted marketing podcast. If you were a listener of growing pains. A big welcome, and thank you for coming with me on this journey to a slightly different podcast. You're going to notice a lot of the same things around here, obviously still me.
And still a mix of solo episodes and interviews. I loads of great marketing content. In a sentence, the main difference between the growing pains and lighthearted marketing is that with growing pains, we were looking very much at the early stages of deciding the kind of marketing that might work for you. We looked at things like Pinterest or your website or email marketing Instagram. If ads would be a good move for you or not
in this podcast, we're just going deeper into some specific strategies. So rather than having that sort of slightly. Shiny object syndrome, always thinking there's a marketing strategy that might just be a little bit better or might just suddenly turn your business around.
We're actually looking at what you're already got and how to optimize it, make it work together, connect the dots, [00:02:00] and then really amplify it and get out to as many people as possible.
So we'll be covering things like email marketing, Facebook ads, social media, and optimizing your website. Those are the core things we're going to be focusing on. The other difference with lighthearted marketing is I want to delve a little bit more into behind the scenes of running businesses, scaling businesses, what does it look and feel like to scale to a 15, 20 K a month business? Bringing you kind of inspiration from people who were doing it or I've done it. I'm really looking at what it takes to get there. Both from a knowledge perspective, but also from mindset business structure. Outsourcing, all those sorts of things that you need to be able to grow your business. We're going to be looking at that as well.
This episode is all about catching you up. Really it's been about three months actually been there for four months, but that wasn't quite such a good title. For three big moves in the last three months. I'm going to be catching you up on everything that has been going on behind the scenes in my business. Since I last released a podcast.
Which was [00:03:00] actually late February, I think. There's been a lot going on and my business looks totally different to how it did in December, nevermind a year ago. And you'll know if you listened to my behind the scenes solo episode in February you'll know that this time last year was it was really tough. Actually. I was really.
Really struggling. To find my groove. To the point where I was considering getting a job. But a lot has changed in a year on.
And in this episode, I just want to talk about. What's been going on, the good, the bad, the exciting, the terrifying. And how I've got to where I am today so let's jump in. Well, I'm going to be talking about in this episode is the three things I feel have made the biggest change and impact in my business over the last three to four months.
Now they're all quite linked. I'm going to start off talking about why I decided to change the podcast actually. Because changing the podcast was a massive trigger for a big business. We brand a that actually then turned into a relaunch. [00:04:00] It's triggered. Yeah, huge amounts of changes in my business. So I'm going to start talking about the podcast and then a little bit about the rebrand. If you're listening to this on the day that it's come out, you will see that the rebrand went live yesterday.
And I've had loads and loads of lovely feedback on it. So I want to talk to you a little bit about how that came about the process, how I've managed the rebrand, like things that it's brought up for me, things I've had to work through. Because as always with business, it's never just about the shiny stuff on the outside that you get to launch at the end.
Often there's a real journey behind it. The second thing I'm going to talk about is some big decisions I've made with my services. We've got to look a little bit about where I was at Christmas. What I've introduced, what I've stopped.
And where I am now, what I launched yesterday.
And the final thing I'm going to talk about the third move. Is investing in support and you might think that's a bit of an odd one. That's not really a move in itself and there's not one specific thing that I've invested in. However, I have invested a lot and I've been trying to take a real growth mindset on what can I learn? Who can I bring into my business? What gaps can I [00:05:00] plug? How can I make my business a bit more rounded rather than it just all relying on me? And actually I find that incredibly difficult.
I'm going to talk a little bit about why I find that really difficult and what I've kind of done to overcome that who I've invested support in the ones that have gotten really well. The ones that I probably wouldn't invest in again. And I'm why that was so. That's probably enough for the intro. Shall we jump in to it? Let me just take you back a second to February.
I'm I've got these incredible podcast episodes that are waiting to go out. I recorded the summer before and. When I recorded them, I was in a space of working with parent and baby brands. That was my niche. And I was working with e-com actually primarily some service businesses, but primarily e-com.
And I'd recorded these amazing podcast episodes. When I look today at where my business was at this point. So I had bloom, my course for service providers wanting to grow [00:06:00] their audience using Facebook ads. I was working one-to-one with clients on growing the audience. And I was really working with people who knew exactly what they wanted to do. They had their marketing strategies and they just wanted to accelerate them, like amplify them. So grow their list faster.
You know, get more clients quicker. And when I was looking at grain pains, I was like, I just, I don't really feel like it's reflects me anymore. I'm not in the parent and baby niche anymore, which obviously growing pains , the name really spoke to And I feel as well, like the content on growing pains whilst is incredibly useful. And honestly, I still get people messaging me, like probably almost every other week, even though there's no promotion for it.
Telling me how useful they find the podcast. And I'm so grateful those episodes out there. However, what I really felt like I was doing. I actually was avoiding my own expertise. So what you will see in the podcast wealth, there's a lot sailor episodes. There's actually not a huge amount of Facebook ads, content, and there's even an episode about growing your [00:07:00] audience without using Facebook ads.
I was really, really struggling to step into that expertise, that position of authority and kind of giving my thoughts on Facebook ads and putting them out there, I felt massive imposter syndrome. And so what I did with create a podcast that really was nothing to do with Facebook ads. Despite the fact that I really wanted at that point in February, I really wanted to work with more Facebook ads clients.
So spoke about it with my coach. Bec and we really dug into why I felt this need to hide. Behind the fact that, you know, All the marketing strategies, you know, you could do ads, but here's loads of other ones as well. And we decided to actually, or I decided that. I needed to have a little bit of a fresh start with a podcast.
So it went away and thought, okay, that's fine. I'll just rename the podcast, do a bit of branding and we don't chat. I think I told everyone as well. We launch it Easter. It'll be great. Then I started digging into it and I was like, well, okay, so I can [00:08:00] rename it. It was going to be called big ambitions, limited time.
And so I had the name. I was kind of ready to go with it, even booked in guests and everything. And then I spoke to a couple of people about creating a, some branding for it. And I was like, mm. Well, this is tricky because my brand essentially is a logo, which is just a written. Text.
And. Oh, some colors and some sort of shapes. It really didn't have a brand identity at all. They because I've usually used that brand on growing pains or songs. It's going to be quite tricky to create a different feel, look and feel without, but still have it as part of my overall brand. So I started thinking, well, actually,
If I'm going to step away from hiding and actually stand in my expertise and put myself forward and, you know, take away that imposter syndrome. I actually have never loved the name, the social pod. I actually think I'm going to move to my own name. So I was like, right. Okay, that's fine. So I need a new, new logo.
And new podcast [00:09:00] artwork. Well, if I'm going to do that, then I'm going to have a look, a rebrand, like just, just, just a little rebrand. So I started speaking to a few people. I. You know, started looking on Instagram and interestingly enough, about this time last year.
I had interviewed one of my guests on email marketing eman, and she had been going through a rebrand at this point last year. And she had, when she'd launched it, I saw her branding. I thought, oh my God, that was just so up my street. It's so colorful and bold and bright. And I absolutely love it.
And . I wasn't in a position this time, last year to be rebranding. I had no idea what I was going to be doing. But I sort of put the name of the graphic designer on a little list I have got and thought I'll come back to her in the future when I'm ready.
So this was Kayleigh. So I had a call with her. We really got on. We really connected. I thought she totally gets me. And what I want to kind of achieve with this. So that was it. So started working with Kayleigh. And the first step designs that she sent Ava.
There were two options and in [00:10:00] it, she'd done this as a sort of logo icon that said unleash your business. And I'd already talked to her about how I love lions. I love. Leopard print. There was a song that I couldn't get on my head and like lyrics in network, fearless, like a lion heart, everything was just pointing to this sort of bold energy and way back. When I did my values, when I started this business about three years ago. I had written down my values as warm, bold, courageous, and expert.
And I kept coming back to this, like this courageous energy, this bold energy. My big energy has been something I've struggled with for quite a long time, because as a child and when you're younger, you're kind of. You know, told to. Be less in a be quieter. Loud. Don't we say clumsy. So big, you know, big energy like calm it down. And I haven't really ever felt safe enough to bring that big energy back out again, but having worked with Kaylee and I kind of [00:11:00] just got to that point where I was like, yeah, I think I'm ready to bring the big energy.
So that triggered all sorts. And then as she showed me the designs, his incredible lions came through. I'm a goodness. I was like, right. This is it. I am all about this big, bold energy of the lion. So yeah, I went all, all in the services renamed to lie and names of like, The services, we named a lion names.
I wanted it to feel like it had a bigger pitcher brand. So if I do services or I pivoted, or I added something new, it would be really simple just to slot it in because I already had like a naming convention and a way of working so that all came together so well,
and Kaylee has done the most incredible job of the branding. And if you name me you, I hopefully will see that really the branding is like me on a page. And I'm won't lie. There's definitely been some times where I've thought, oh my gosh, is this. It's too much too. You know, too bright, too bold, too colorful. Is it going to be a bit overwhelming for people?
You know, is it going to put people off? And I just, [00:12:00] I keep coming back to this feeling of like, I want to work with people with a similar energy and who are attracted to that energy. So I've tried to just stay confident and come through it. But essentially that's the background of the rebrand. That's why I rebranded to start with.
And the reason why I feel like this was a big move and one that has really impacted my business is because already I feel myself stepping into that brand, stepping forward, being more visible. Being more vocal. Being bolder being brighter. And really
it feels probably for the first time since I started working for myself. Like a real business. Like I am. CEO. Of a business rather than I am the business. And it's helped me have that slight distinction between me being the whole business and me running a business. And that has actually been massively.
Beneficial for my mindset as well. Now that leads me quite nicely onto the second big move. And the second bit of move [00:13:00] is multiple big decisions I've made about my services. Now when I first started working for myself, I definitely had the idea that I would set up my business. I would create my services and then that's what I would offer. And that was that.
And I've going forward. I would only offer these things and these are my services. And over time I have learned that. There are services you create and then you've got to market them. And there's also services that come about because clients ask for them or you see like a gap in the market.
And that's kind of happened to me quite a lot in the last six months or so. So in December, I had a chat with someone I was working with in a group program. And she was saying I don't really want to do the 12 week course. I don't have time. I'd have Headspace. I've got lots of clients, like a busy.
However I do really, really want to get some ads up and running. I know I need to do it. It's just always lost my to-do list. Want to commit to an ads manager long term.
Not really at the point where I can sustain that kind of level of investment. [00:14:00] Is there a middle ground somewhere. Normally I would have offered one-to-one training. Valley just had the thought. What if I set up the ads campaign?
I optimize it. Get it running really well. And then I sort of hand over and coach you on how to run it. She was like, oh, that is the perfect combination. I'm totally up for that. Let's do that. So we started working together and we had incredible results. And then over time, I. The word of mouth sort of got out. I mentioned it to a few people. And since then I have continuously had at least three or four clients every month on this program.
And it's been the kind of service that has evolved over time. It's never had a sales page. Haley mentioned on the website. I didn't even have a name. I think I called hybrid one-to-one coaching. I don't really know what to call it. But it's been such a big success and it really made me think like, okay, there's definitely this demand for a sort of mix of done for you and done with you.
Now on the parallel to that I'm running bloom, which was my 12 week group program for service businesses who wanted to grow with [00:15:00] their audience using Facebook ads. Now when I set up bloom. I knew that I needed to niche. I knew that I wanted to get super, super specific so that there was a really clear pathway for them to follow. So it's just Facebook ads to grow their email list.
But while I was putting the course together, I'm so passionate about people getting the best results for me, it's not just about the ads. And I've always known that and I've always worked with clients on that, but so with bloom, Not only was it just about the ads? It was about creating the right lead magnet, getting a welcome sequence set up and really thinking about those connection opportunities once you've got them in your world. So it was this real like customer journey that they were learning.
So I created that whole thing for them to 12 weeks to do take them through all those different steps. And it had incredible results and I've had some amazing businesses through it. I've
I've run it on evergreen that say new people have joined every other month. And I had over 25 people through it in the year over five launches. And it's been the most amazing learning experience running a group [00:16:00] program in this way.
But about Easter time. I started realizing that I, as I got more and more people into it, and it was building momentum and I was starting getting known for it. I was getting great results and it was so much easier to bring people onto the program. I actually realized that what I'd created was a high touch group program.
But at a price point, I couldn't really maintain that level of high touch. So at the moment I review. All the works. I review lead magnets. I give feedback on email sequences. I look as I jump into ad accounts, I, you know, make sure that everything is exactly as it should be because I'm really passionate about people, you know, getting everything set up and it working really well.
However, the flip side of that is there's a limit. How many people I can hold within that really? And I realized around sort of April may time that I had to kind of hit that limit. I'd hit that capacity. . And I just wasn't, I just wouldn't be able to take any more people into it.
But what I realized that the amount that I was charging for it while it was the right price point, I think for the businesses that were coming into it with the cap [00:17:00] on the numbers, it wasn't really enough to create enough of a scalable option for me. So, what I decided to do was make. May my last intake. Intake finished at the summer holidays anyway, so that kind of worked quite nicely with the seasonality of the business. Anyway.
And I decided take a step back and just have a think about how do I want to offer that program? What does that look like? What kind of businesses are going to get the most from it? And what kind of stage are they at? So I decided I was just quite a big move for me because having that consistent income from bloom and growing my expertise and.
Building that community has been such a joy for me this year. I've really, really loved it. And it was quite a big decision for me to decide to pause it because I really did feel like it was kind of having lovely momentum. . I was also finding like with the evergreen, I was really enjoying, not doing big lawn chairs. They burned my nervous system out and I really struggled with this idea of like a big launch and getting loads of people into a program at one time.
. I much prefer smaller sort of intakes where it's like a little bit of [00:18:00] energy and get people in and then settle them in and then kind of bring more people in either the next month or the month after. But I was just finding with that cycle. I wasn't really having any time to. Talk to anyone about any other services promote anything else? It felt like I was in a bit of a sales system. All the time and I didn't have the capacity or space to bring anything else into the, into the business and into my messaging and with the hybrid program going so well, this one-to-one, I really wanted to start talking about that and getting more people into that. And.
Working out how I could kind of scale that a little bit. So what I decided today was pause blames that will stop as it currently running the last cohort till the beginning of August. And I will look at bringing that back in, in 2024, because it is an incredible program and all the content is there. It gets amazing results. I just need to think about how I can make it work from a business perspective.
And then I was going to happily focus on my hybrid one-to-one and a few management clients. Then. Plot twist. [00:19:00] I I was really happy that I'd written the website. Ah, the new website ready for the rebrand. You know, we named everything. I knew exactly what I was doing. Then I just have had lots and lots of little signs. I've had people drop me messages saying like, oh, your course is so amazing, but actually it's more of like a funnels course and it is just ads.
Then I went to atomic on, which is a marketing conference. And watched a few of the speakers talk. And really connected with what they were saying about creating trust with people and creating journeys. And rather than just thinking, as you know about funnels and pouring, leads in at the top and just hoping they fall out the bottom of the funnel, you know, working with you, actually creating much more structured, engaging customer journeys, where someone comes into your world and you have these key touch points with them that moves them through that journey in a much more repeatable way than just kind of hoping that they see your social media or hoping they open your emails.
It really, really resonated [00:20:00] with me. Also really resonated with me was a talk by Christo. And he talked about a learning and his business where he got to a certain point and his coach told him. What got you here? Won't get you there. And that's actually the point where I worked with a lot of clients. Is that they have been doing the organic, they have been, doing their social media, sending some emails and, you know, maybe they have ads running as well, and it's working and it's worked so far, but they're ready for the next level.
They're ready to take it up again and they can't work out how to just do more of what they're already doing. And what I'm really good at saying is actually how to do it slightly differently. So connecting what you've got, connecting the dots of everything. And adding in a bit of ads to make sure we can amplify it and reach new people.
It's not a case of just doing more. It's a case of looking at it totally differently. . And honestly the thoughts of that just have like totally lit me up. I am so excited. I came back and spoke to all my one-to-one clients. And I was like, right. I know we're just doing ads at the moment, but I want to add in this, this and this.
Because I think [00:21:00] this is going to help you actually get clients from these ads rather than just get email addresses. And oh my gosh, already. The. The feedback from my clients, the impact it's having. It's so incredible. And I'm just so unbelievably excited to take this to more and more people.
So with a week to go before the rebrand, I decided I decided to completely restructure my services. Change, what I offer Fundamentally, it's just an evolution of what I was offering before, but just packaged in a slightly different way. So there's still the one-to-one hybrid. If you like that night, it's now called raw.
that's all about creating a strategic approach and then me coaching you one-to-one on implementing it. So, you know, helping you deal with social media, helping you with ads, helping you with email, it's a real partnership. It's real like both of us getting stuck in and doing the work.
And me helping you along the way. And then having spoken to my coaches, I've realized that actually for people who are a bit next level, so they already earning in the 15 to 20 K, but [00:22:00] really still need this connection and an amplification. The next level really is , how do I create a service that creates a strategy that allows their team that's already in place? Who has the expertise to implement for them? Or if we're looking at our team who's already at capacity or maybe the right skill sets are not quite there.
Creating that strategy and then just doing the full implementation for them. So that's where I'm at at the moment. And I just can't tell you how excited I am to get started. And just start talking to people about this, sharing my passion for the fact that there's never one thing. There's never one golden bullet. That's going to change your business.
But actually connecting up everything that you're already probably doing at the moment. Is it going to make a massive, massive difference? So that's where we're at with the services and the big decisions. And then really that again, leads me nicely onto the third big move this year. And that is the support I've invested in. And I hope you find this really interesting because I know often you don't see the kind of support people who've invested in behind the [00:23:00] scenes. So I want to really share what I've invested in and how it's helped me or how it hasn't really helped me.
. So the first thing is a lot of this is related to the rebrand because obviously that has been a huge focus of mine in the last six months. So Kaylee, the graphic designer, and I will link to all of these people and their incredible businesses in the show notes as well. Hannah who spent a day updating my website and, making the brand really come to live on it. It's absolutely brilliant.
I worked with a copy writer, Sarah who . Do you help me overcome this issue? Rife? I kind of was being quite formal in my website copy and it just didn't really reflect my social media captions and the way that I spoke in real life.
She really helped me delve into like my personality and how to get that across on the page. I also worked with Toya who did all my DUP Solido branding as well an updated all my workflows to make sure that those were all aligned. And if someone inquires about service, they go through the right workflow.
In my dub Saturday, which is all about like invoices and contracts and shackling. Billing and all that sort of stuff. If you don't know about. [00:24:00] Definitely have a look. It's, it's a really amazing system. And then I also worked with a Colette, like. McBath, who is the most amazing coach? She really focuses on visibility, storytelling, messaging.
I had a session with her and basically. It was brain dumped everything. I felt about my services and who I wanted to work with and how I wanted to work with them. And she helped me come up with the most incredible copy if you want to see or what she helped me with. The services page is probably the best example of that.
I also have someone helping me with relaunching the podcast and then on an ongoing basis as well. Helping with all the admin. For that, because my gosh, there is quite a lot of admin related to that. And then my two, supports in my life or my two co-chairs. So I have one back who is mindset and strategy.
And then I have the other, which is jammer, who helped me go from one-to-one into a group program. Which I always, even though I've paused it, still thinking it was the best business decision I could've made because it forced me to niche. It forced me to [00:25:00] really own my expertise . And become known for one thing. And it's only because I niched and became known for that one thing. I'm now able to slightly on niche. If you like. Into the wider marketing strategy because I have that trust and expertise. So I definitely would do, I would do exactly the same all over again. And I'm now in Gemma's mastermind. Which has incredible group of women. And it's just say lovely to be able to work with other businesses who are going through the same kind of challenges and questions and growth struggles and doubts all together. And it's such an amazing space, both online. And then we meet in person every couple of months as well, which is incredible.
So those two between them have got me through this last six months, kept me going. Kept me motivated, kept me focused. And really, if you haven't worked with a coach and you're wondering about working with a coach, find the right one for you because you know, it really is about that connection and finding someone that has the same values as you, and can kind of work with you in a way that's going to be motivating and kind of help you get the results for yourself.[00:26:00]
Okay, so what else have we got this? Not related to the rebrand. So I started working with the VA this year as well. Incredible investment. I've actually tried to work with VAs twice before. And I haven't been ready. Ah, I haven't known what I've wanted to hand over. I haven't been confident enough in what I'm doing to even hand over, like when you're writing.
Posts day to day. And you know, you're not really sure where your business is going or what your strategy is, or you know, how you do want to respond to clients. Very very hard to help someone else do that. It's only really been the last four or five months, I've actually been able to do that. So that has been incredible working with the VA. She's also helped me massively with content creation. I've realized I love writing the captions for social media and the graphics were actually a massive barrier for me. So she now helps me with the content creation element of social media as well.
The other thing I've invested in massively is in-person events. Now, both from a business perspective, like a workshop days and. Business events, but also on a personal level as well.
I was diagnosed with ADHD last summer and [00:27:00] I am on medication and it's made a huge difference to my life and how I work and my ability to grow this business, actually. However, I'm always looking at ways to work with my brain, to optimize what I'm doing, to, you know, to remove some of the struggles that I have. So I've been to two ADHD in-person workshops. I went to an in-person day in London with Gemma Gilbert. She ran a one off day. I went to the atomic on marketing conference.
I've also been to quite a few networking events and just try to be visible locally and engaging with people in person. And it's been amazing. And actually none of those, I regret all of them have bought something to my life. All of them have helped me in some way that I really, really appreciated.
Now the things I probably wouldn't invest in again has been some short online courses. Now there's, there's a few different reasons why I wouldn't invest in them again. And there's not specifically any one I'm not going to name any of them or, you know, it's not necessarily about the actual courses themselves.
What I realized [00:28:00] is I don't actually have a huge amount of capacity each week. I already have coaching calls. I already have my inclines. I already have my marketing. Obviously I've been doing a rebrand as well. And that made short, sharp. Sprints, if you like really appealing. So, you know, five day sprints, 28 day sprints
However, the problem with that is that I don't have a huge amount of time and then shoehorning in often they're quite lot of content, quite intense. That's the nature of a sprint. Into my diary. It's just really not worked. And it's made me really feel like I haven't got the most out of them.
Also. I've realized is I'm a terrible skim reader and on the sales pages for those. Courses. I actually realized that. Looking back on them. They weren't really what I thought they were going to be. So there was three that I signed up for really probably shouldn't have. And
it's partly because of imposter syndrome. I look at something and think, oh, they're an expert in this. Like, they can teach me this. That'll be amazing. And then I start to do it and realize that, oh, I'm actually, what are you doing? All this stuff. I actually teach this stuff to my clients.
[00:29:00] And when I go back and read the sales page, that is probably quite clear. It's just that I hadn't really grasped it. Or my imposter syndrome kicked in and thought, oh, well, it, it says that, but there must be more to it than that. It must be more complex. There must be other stuff you need to learn.
And this drive just to always be learning. All the time I need to stop this investing in things. That actually, I already know.
I think the final thing for me is that whilst I have loved doing the in-person days and I have got a lot out of them. It's actually been quite a big impact on my personal life and my business, because it's a huge amounts of time pressure on me. On top of the endless amounts of bank holidays in may and the Easter holidays, I'm half term and me going to atomic con for three days.
It's been a huge amount of pressure on the hours that I work. I only worked four days. Two of them are school days. Two of them are slightly longer days, but when you take out. Mondays, which is my longer day for a lot of weeks in a row.
It's had a huge impact. I've ended up working a lot in evenings and trying to catch up on [00:30:00] Fridays, which has meant to be my day off with my daughter. I've really struggled with that, getting that balance between yeah, enjoying these in-person days and finding them a real issue with my work life
and not only that, but after an in-person event, I always feel quite drained and I need some time to rest and recuperate. And I didn't build that into my timeframes. Hadn't built that into my diary. And even if I had, I probably wouldn't have been able to honor it because, you know, taking days out of my diary each week was just becoming really unmanageable.
So what I'm taking forward in terms of investing and support is I, I'm going to be a bit more selective about the in-person events that I go to. We really have a look at the amount of time they take me out for the business. And the impact that's going to have and really preparing for that rather than thinking, oh, I mainly out for one day next week, I'll just catch up.
Actually thinking, right? What do I need to say no to what do I need to move? What do I need to get some support with what can I outsource? So that it doesn't have such a big impact on my energy. And secondly, I [00:31:00] think reading sales hate is a bit more clearly. And also I'm really giving myself, I've got now a list of questions I have to answer before I invest in anything.
To check whether this is a skill that I need. Be a skill. I don't already have and see, do I actually have capacity for it in my diary? And if I don't do it now, Is it, will it be run again? Could I do it later in the year when I have more time and capacity? So I'm really going to try to be a little bit stricter with myself about that. Right. So. Oh, my goodness. So those are the three big moves that have happened over the last three to four months. I hope it's given you an interesting insight into where the rebrand has come from. You know, what's going on with my services. How it's all happened. I get a lot of comments, even on my Instagram. If you look at comments, people will say things like, I don't know how you do it.
I mean, I don't know where you get the time from like so amazing. And actually. I hope it gives you a little bit of an insight into the amount of support. They have had to bring into my business. I don't find it easy PA paying for support. If I'm honest.
It's definitely a mentality that [00:32:00] I struggle with. Outsourcing. I'm actually really quick and I'm pretty capable in quite a lot of areas, which makes it quite hard for me to outsource. It makes me think, oh, it's fine. It'd be quicker to do it myself. It's something that I've really, really had to get over and push myself through because ultimately.
I want to be working my work hours and then spending the rest of the time with the girls. I don't want to be thinking about that Instagram graphic that I need to create myself. So yeah, that's the way the business is going. And I hope that that's been really useful.
I would absolutely love to know if this has resonated with you or you've taken anything away from this. Come over and see me on Instagram or LinkedIn at the links in the show notes. And I will see you for the next episode next week.
Thank you so much for joining me this week. Before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes every Tuesday when they're released. And if you enjoyed this episode, I'd love for you to rate or leave a review wherever you are listening to it. It only takes a few [00:33:00] seconds, but it really does make a massive difference to new people finding me.
Thank you again for joining me, Sophie, in this episode of Lionheart Marketing. See you next time.
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