Kristy Robinson  00:00

You get to choose your version of success. Now, this is a conversation I've spoken about a number of times over. But in today's episode, I wanted to be maybe a little bit more practical in the application of this, and more specifically, helping you to align your success or your version of success to your values. Are you ready? Let's go.

You're listening to the Run Your Business like a Boss podcast. Hello, and welcome. I'm Kristy Robinson, your host. I'm here to advocate for you, the business owner who's knee deep in the messy middle. If you're tired of feeling stretched, overworked and overwhelmed, you're in the right place. My goal is to help you streamline, systemize and create a strategy that enables you to step from stressed out worker to the boss of your business. Now let's dive into today's episode.

Hello, boss, and welcome back to the Run Your Business Like a Boss podcast. I don't think I've done an episode on values. No, I haven't spoken about the importance of knowing your values in the context of your business bedrock. However, I thought this conversation would be really helpful because I specifically talk a lot about the fact that you get to choose your version of success. And there are a number of factors that contribute to this.

One of which is knowing your values and aligning your values or attaching your values to what your success or what your goals are or what your business goals are. The way I see it is there are a couple of different value systems that you can look to, when it comes to defining your version of success. The first one being your personal value system. And the truth is there will be your business values, and there'll be your personal values and there is going to absolutely be the synergy between the two. However, even if you're a personal brand like me, there will be a personal value system that sits outside or beyond your business as well. And those values definitely still come in and will inform your decisions, your business decisions, what your business looks like, but perhaps not at the same level as what your business values will look like.

The thing about values is that values can be an exercise that we do at a point in time. It could be at the beginning of your business, it could even be here in the messy middle stage of your business. And sometimes we go through a process of setting values, and we don't really consider what these values actually mean? And how do they show up in the way that we present ourselves and the way that we act in our business? But also how do they align to the goals that we're setting inside of our business.

And what can happen is that we end up with a value system that just becomes words on a wall. And that thing comes from the corporate world where you would go into any large organisation, and you would see the values printed on the wall. But then sometimes there's not that value system that actually is permeating or happening within the four walls of the organisation. So as a small business, when you have values, it's so important to forever be coming back to those values to always be thinking about, well, what does this actually mean to me, when it comes to the way that we're interacting with prospects or clients or, you know, building things, general interactions with colleagues or collaborators or strategic partners or, you know, so many different things and and I often say that the values of your business is what governs your actions. So if we think about even that statement in and of itself, our values govern our actions, do the values that you have set for your business, are they really aligned to the decisions that you're making one of the examples that I wanted to use, I obviously have my values that are within my business, and I thought I might share with you some examples of how this actually shows up in my goals, as well as you know, just in the general operations of my business.

So one of the things and I might have mentioned this on the podcast before one of my core values is simplicity, simplicity and ease is perhaps maybe a derivative of this. But simplicity is essential. And so when I'm working with my clients, I help to break down complex challenges that exist in their business and create simple solutions. But even for myself when I'm thinking about the goals in my business or even And in fact, my business model, I have a very simple business model. So I'm 100% embodying this value system of simplicity and ease.

But even more than that, when I'm thinking about, say, for example, launching, right, like I've spoken about on the podcast, the fact that I don't love launching, well, I've shifted my mindset around that these days. But in the beginning, I didn't really enjoy launching, so I just didn't launch. And instead, what I did is I had a beautiful sales engine in my business that just worked for me and I had a regular stream of, you know, potential clients coming and approaching me and moving them forward through the sales process. However, when I decided to launch my small group coaching programme, which, of course, is the brand new Run Your Business Like a Boss Academy, I knew on the get go, that I did not want a complicated launch, I knew I had to launch, but I knew I was going to launch on my terms, because simplicity and ease is so important to me.

And the reason why I wanted to ensure that the launching of this programme was going to be something that, you know, aligned to this value, not only because it's a core value of my business, but also it lines to a personal value of mine, where I don't want to be so stressed out in my business that that then has a ripple effect into my personal life. And when you know, I'm in the launch stage, because we know it's not just the two weeks or the 10 days or whatever timeframe that might be that you're actually in launch. It's also the lead up to a launch. I did not want that period to be a period where I was so stressed out, where I was getting really cranky with my family, where I was feeling really overwhelmed and stressed out and all of the things right. So when I made the decision to go ahead and launch the Run Your Business Like a Boss Academy, I really thought about, okay, what does simple look like for me? How can I launch in a way that feels congruent with this value system, but just feels good, so that I would be able to sustain that not only throughout the pre launch, but also during launch and not have this massive hangover in my business, as I'm starting to, you know, start to work with clients, which is one of the dangers, of course, that can come with launching.

So I put through the decisions that I was making through that filter of simplicity. And so when I was thinking about well, you know, obviously, typical launches would include things like, you know, having webinars, I had no webinars, I've never had a webinar in my business life, even though every single launch expert will tell you, a webinar is the most effective way to bring people through your launch funnel. And that's fine. That's great. That's great for people who want to do that. But I didn't want to do it. Because, again, another value of mine core value, business value, and personal value as well, is integrity. I don't go to people's webinars, I don't opt in for those free things that really is, you know, 50%, informative, and educational and 50% sales. I think that we're quite astute. Now, when it comes to what webinars look like versus the old days, where I think that it was really just a different world.

So I also knew that I didn't want to do a really long, extended launch again, when it comes back to my personal value system, being present as a mother, as a wife, as a daughter, as a friend, all those things, and not creating too much stress in my business. And in my life. I did not want to be launching for you know, two weeks, I have a very simple launch structure. And you know, this might change in the future. But for my previous two launches, 3d pre launch for a public launch, that's it. So altogether seven days of launching over a two week period.

These were decisions that when I'm thinking about my business and thinking about what success looks like, to me, a successful launch is something that I come out the other side and I feel really energised. I you know largely met my numbers I didn't over invest in Facebook ads or meta ads. I didn't feel like I needed to burn myself out with daily lives and I didn't do a single live. I haven't done a single live for either launch. Whether or not you launch your business is irrespective of my point here.

What I'm trying to share with you is that regardless of what you're hearing out there in the online ethos around the way you need to operate your business and what a successful launch looks like. Or a successful whatever insert the thing looks like you get to choose at 100% of the way I was feeding all of my decisions through the lens of my value system. And so this is what success looks like. I think very often, what we think about when we think about success might be the number of clients you're serving, the dollar figure that you're generating, those things are 100% important. But are they the only metric for success? And I think this is the question you need to ask yourself, let's say you are achieving the dollar figure. And to be honest, many people in the messy middle are achieving those dollar figures. But it feels out of alignment with their values, their values might be that they're operating up here. And yes, matching the dollar figure, but then they're maybe not necessarily achieving their values, and therefore they're not feeling successful.

And this is a really common factor with business owners who are in the messy middle, because the growth trajectory has been fairly rapid, maybe in the last 12 months, 18 months, two years. And that has then compromised the value system of you, the business owner, as well as the business, because you've been trying to keep up with the growth and that then creates a little bit of shaky ground.

So the reason why I'm having this conversation with you is for a few different reasons, firstly, is that you get to choose, you always get to choose. And as I always say, you are the expert of your business, and you're the expert of your life, you're the expert of the values that you've set for your business.

The thing is, is that you don't need your business to look like a checklist or template of success. Instead, I encourage you to think about how your version of success align back to the values of your business? This was not an educational episode. Instead, I wanted to have this really informal chat with you about values, and really get you thinking about how values show up in my business? And how do I attach my values or filter through my decisions so that my business is successful in alignment with my values and not out of alignment. And a particular telltale sign that you're not operating in alignment with your value system is that you've fallen out of love with your business.

So I do a quick inventory of what's happening in your business and how closely attached you are operating through your value system. Boss I really do hope that this conversation has given you a little bit of interest to go and explore this topic further. Thank you so much for joining me for today's conversation. As always, I look forward to chatting with you next week.

Thank you so much for joining me. If you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a review and if you're not already doing so connect with me over on Instagram. My handle is @kristyrobinson_consulting and listen up. If you're keen to learn more about how I can support you to run your business like a boss, check out the website https://www.kristyrobinson.com.au/ . Thanks again and I look forward to chatting with you next time.