173: How Adjusting Your Vision Helps You Elevate Your Business

Andrea Liebross: Hey friends, welcome back to the podcast. What's going on at your house today? So today at my house, I am actually feeling at home. But later on today, I am driving to Bloomington, Indiana, where my kids are both at Indiana University. It's about an hour and 20 minutes or so, and I am taking them out to dinner.

My daughter's birthday was Saturday, today's Monday. So we're celebrating her 20th birthday. Then after that, I am speaking to her Women in Business group about digital footprint and personal branding.

Then after that, we are heading back to her sorority house, Kappa Delta for a little Cake Bake birthday cake. If you don't know what The Cake Bake Shop is, you should go Google it. Yes, there are cake bake shops in Indiana, but there's also one at Disney World, if that gives you any idea. Her favorite is the lemon blueberry cake.

So we are having lemon blueberry cake for her birthday at Kappa Delta this evening if you'd like to join us. I have candles packed, plates, napkins, and plastic forks. I better bring a lighter now that I just thought about lighting the candles.

All right. So that's what's happening in my world. But today what I want to bring you, I want to bring you the conversation that Nicole Pence Becker had on stage at She Thinks Big Live with three action-takers.

Terri, Aileen, and Nicole Teal are all action-takers. They've all taken a lot of action in the past year. I think it's important to share their stories with you. You might have heard their stories in previous podcast episodes, but not in this context, and not with really explaining how your vision can turn into action and how often we need to adjust our vision or our action as we go along.

We kind of have to, what I call shift the dial or turn the dial, shift in what we're doing a little bit because maybe it's not working or maybe you're at a new growth stage or whatever that is.

So sit back, buckle up, and listen in to this conversation, and see if you can see yourself in any of it.

Here we go. I'm going to let Nicole take it away with our big action-takers.

Nicole Pence Becker: All right, ladies come on up. Come on up. Let’s go. Let's welcome them to the stage. Okay. Perfect. So we're talking action and I think what's really cool about the group assembled is there've been some of you who've been taking action for a while.

You've been in the game, you've been kind of refining, you've been working on your business and there's some people that have taken action more recently into developing kind of their next journey, right?

So ladies, let's go around, introduce yourselves to everybody, who you are, what makes you tick, and a little bit about your business.

Nicole Teal: I'm Nicole Teal. I live in Johnson City, Tennessee in the East Tennessee mountains. I'm a mom of six, ages 19 to 10, and I launched my business four years ago. It was a home staging. I'm shifting into more of a design, and I also have a storefront where I sell furnishings, home furnishings. I've been working with Andrea all over a year.

Nicole Pence Becker: All over a year. Okay, Nicole, thank you.

Aileen Paszek: Hi everybody, Aileen Paszek from Chicago, the North Suburbs of Chicago. I've got five kids, so you've got me beat by one. Got a Brady-bunch household in Chicago. I own a company called Joblink. So I help executives in transition, whether they've been laid off, whether they're just looking for a new challenge with their personal branding, LinkedIn, or resume, and also like the job search methodologies that work to land in something that they want to do.

Terri Fisher: I'm Terri Fisher. I reside here in Indianapolis. I'm a mom of three.

Nicole Pence Becker: Oh, yeah, three, four, five, and six. There you go, everybody.

Terri Fisher: Yeah. I just started my marketing strategy company Strategy Light, and we work with small businesses to make sure that their dollars are working for them. So helping them put together a strategy and an execution plan so that they can go out there and grow their business.

Nicole Pence Becker: I love it. So again, all kind of indifferent. Well, wait, remind us how long are you into your action-taking? So how long ago did you start your company? Four years, a year ago? Oh, a year with Andrea. Yeah, and then four years for your business.

Nicole Teal: Yeah.

Aileen Paszek: A year and a half.

Nicole Pence Becker: A year and a half.

Terri Fisher: I'm at four-month mark.

Nicole Pence Becker: What working with Andrea helped you?

Terri Fisher: Yeah. So Andrea and I've been working together for a while, 100 years.

Andrea Liebross: Terri was probably the only person when I put that wire up earlier when I said this was the first time I did anything, I don't know if you were that but you were around that was her year of those. She was at some of those over that 18 months.

Terri Fisher: It's been an evolution.

Nicole Pence Becker: Okay, very cool. Then four months ago, you launched it.

Andrea Liebross: She’d been thinking about it since 2018. But she just didn't.

Nicole Pence Becker: So I point that out because I think that's a really important piece, right? There's a varying level of how long people have been in their businesses, how long they've really been trying to stand this whole thing up and make it turn and make it work.

Then there's newer people who finally said, "This is my time." So what is the very level of how they got to take that action? So Nicole, let's start with you. So when you think about taking action, what would you say was mentally, physically, emotionally, or whatnot in your way initially when you go back to four years ago of really going for it?

Nicole Teal: What was the hurdle in your way?

Nicole Pence Becker: Yeah, what's self to be in your way?

Nicole Teal: I think just really a vision like, “Where am I going? What am I doing? What am I building?” It really wasn’t until I did the VIP day with Andrea that she gave me permission to dream and I was like, “What?” She was like, “What do you want to be in five years, ten years?”

I was like, “I don’t know.” I mean I couldn’t even really even think about it. So I think that for me like starting four years ago, it was almost just like I was living in the day and I'm the moment, like, “Oh, this is working, let's keep doing this,” rather than looking five years ahead, ten years ahead and going, “This is where I want to go.” So I would say just lacking vision four years ago.

Nicole Pence Becker: So now here you are four years later and you kind of made a comment about you started in one spot with kind of the vision of what the business would sell or products, service, or goods, and now you're kind of going a different lane. How did that happen and that action, why was it necessary? Share a little bit about how you knew, “I'm going to turn course here just a teeny bit.”

Nicole Teal: I think circumstances as well as just the business itself. Staging is how I began the business, but even four years ago, I knew that I wanted to offer design services and I knew eventually I wanted to do a boutique furniture store. It just all happened way sooner than I really thought it would because I moved into a new building that was a storefront and I was like, “What? Oh, wow, we're going to do this now? Not in the future.” So I think that opportunity presented itself earlier. I think just like success in staging gave me the opportunity to also look at design and offer that service as well.

Nicole Pence Becker: So in a way was design kind of the dream.

Nicole Teal: Yes.

Nicole Pence Becker: And staging was the goal.

Nicole Teal: Yeah.

Nicole Pence Becker: So she went for what was right there, available, knew that would lead to the dream and was excited about it, could do it. You had to have the chops. I think that's one thing about all these conversations. You're not making something up in your skill set. You're making sure that it aligns very well with your rare and valuable skill sets, then you're just compounding by putting on what you want to do. So you've met your dream, kind of.

Nicole Teal: Kind of. I’m getting there.

Nicole Pence Becker: Yeah. More to go. More to go. Aileen, you talk about yours. So how did you even get started on taking the action to take the leap and do the things and then say, “This is something people need,” and figuring out a way to communicate it to your prospective customer?

Aileen Paszek: Well, it definitely was a leap. I mean, it was so scary for me. I have a hard time taking risks.

Nicole Pence Becker: Oh, okay.

Aileen Paszek: I’m more of a safety girl. But I had been in corporate for 20 years, over 20 years. It was a push-pull situation. I felt like really not challenged anymore in my corporate career and I got to a period of my life where I just didn't want to report to anyone anymore.

I'd been doing a lot of Joblink work on the side, I had the LLC already created, so I knew I could do it. I just didn't know if I could do it full-time. I finally just jumped off the cliff. Then by happenstance, I met Andrea through my cousin, who I'm having breakfast with tomorrow. He's like, "You know, you're both coaches, you should probably chat,” and I had a call with Andrea and I was like, “Oh, I guess I need a coach.”

Just immediately, we connected. We had the half-day intensive too, and that was huge for me because when you're on your own as a solopreneur, you don't necessarily take the time or think about what your vision and strategies should look like, you just dive in and just do, and working with her allowed me to do that. Still, that's my Bible right now. The first month I started working with Andrea, I had my best revenue month ever.

Nicole Pence Becker: Love that.

Aileen Paszek: So I'm like, “Huh, I guess this is a good thing.”

Nicole Pence Becker: Why? What were the mindset takeaways that you were like, “I remember jotting that down,” “That really moved the needle for me,” or “Because I heard that from her, I could articulate myself better,” what was it?

Aileen Paszek: Well, a lot of it was about the belief, which that's the hardest part for me is the belief that I am–

Andrea Liebross: Not the dreaming.

Aileen Paszek: Not the dreaming. Not the dreaming.

Andrea Liebross: So I would say, because I know Nicole and Aileen are very good at dreaming, like seriously, but the belief part, that's something you both have already done.

Aileen Paszek: And I'm good at action-taking.

Andrea Liebross: You are good at action-taking. That’s why you’re up here, yes.

Aileen Paszek: We talked through what I do with the business and how I felt very drained by the resume writing. She was like, “Well, why do you have to still do it?” So I wound up hiring a couple of contractors, which by the way, contract resources for the most part can really help take a lot of work off of your plate, especially the work that drains you. For me, in the short term, that was a huge, just big decision for me that I had to make and I did with Andrea's help. So I think that was one of the quick actions that I took that helped me.

Nicole Pence Becker: I was just going to ask you, so that's something that you did, kind of tactically writing down, “Okay, so contractors is something that was valuable,” and Nicole's nodding her head too, I’m nodding my head as well just thinking about my own business experience.

But maybe what was, you alluded to the fact that you just got fed up, you just kind of eventually took the leap, was there anything that was glaringly getting in the way besides your personal position on being less risky? Was there anything getting in the way of taking the action?

Aileen Paszek: Yeah, money.

Nicole Pence Becker: Money, okay, there you go. Okay, do you want to share a little bit about that?

Aileen Paszek: Again, I'm more of a security person in terms of finances. I'm the breadwinner of my family, got a lot of kids. That was a huge risk, financial risk. It still is. I still worry about it now but I'm trying to coach myself too to just trust the process and I know what I'm doing, I've been successful so far, and keep going, keep going along the process.

Nicole Pence Becker: I love that, that is super helpful. We haven't really talked about kind of that insecurity, fear, or worry of “What if it doesn't work financially?” We talked a lot about how we're fearful of failing maybe or we're afraid that other people might observe something being less than, but we haven't talked about that. I think that's a really key part of going from a solopreneur practitioner or someone as an employee to a solopreneur and then eventually to an entrepreneur.

Andrea Liebross: Right. Interestingly we haven't talked about it a lot which kind of goes to that's something that all my clients do think about a lot. But I've recorded now 170 podcasts and there's a whole bunch on money, and my podcast producer can tell that these are the most listened to episodes, the ones on money are the least listened to episodes.

So what's ironic about this is it's something that we worry about and think about a lot but we don't want to think about it. We don't want to think about it in a constructive way a lot of times.

But I think by being around other people that are kind of experiencing the same things, and you can have a multiple seven-figure business, and you're still worrying about money. It is not unique to any level of anything but just surrounding yourself with other people who are also worrying about that because it's a human thing to worry about I think is helpful.

Then just like Stacie comes in and helps people figure out what to focus on in their time, I also have another team of coaches that come in and help all of my clients with money, managing their cash flow, and understanding how that all works.

So that's another aspect that I find like at the break, Stephanie was asking me, “How did you figure out you wanted to bring these other coaches in?” It's just by listening to everybody and seeing what they really need.

Nicole Pence Becker: Yeah, and in a way, if I can add on that, Andrea, too, you are also seeing, “Okay, well, they've got this expertise that could provide a more holistic opportunity for my clients to win,” then in effect, it actually empowers her whole business to succeed more, to what you said, Aileen, having contractors, just very tangibly, that example, you put some people in who have capabilities that maybe you don't fully have.

I'm not an expert, for example, at email marketing, so I've got to fill that on our team to make sure that we have everything we need in case someone raises their hand asking for that. So every business needs to identify kind of what resources are needed.

So Terri, congratulations first and foremost, on starting your agency in town. There's no doubt that it will be extremely successful, walk us through that. I mean how long did it take? What made you rip the band-aid? I mean because if you've been hanging out with Andrea since the early days, since the Starbucks poster board, then I need to know, what was it? What finally made you activate?

Terri Fisher: Yeah. It was probably, I know Andrea will say it was longer for me, I guess when I processed, it's like a full two-year process of like “I can no longer continue doing what I'm doing just for me.” I had to come to that realization.

I looked within my organization and sought out opportunities and when that didn't come to fruition, I looked outside my organization for something that was different than what I was doing today. I think there was like a, just because of where I'm at in my career, kind of like midpoint in my career, there was either it just didn't make financial sense for me to make kind of like a shift backwards into something I wasn't sure about.

We just started talking about it a little bit more. It was funny, because she asked me, probably like our third or fourth coaching session, she's like, “Maybe if it's not about starting your own company,” I was like, “Pfft, no.” I mean, when I'm on vacation, I should be working, like you have to work all the time when you have your own company.

We just started talking about it more and what that could look like, and it really aligned with what I wanted to be doing, who I wanted to be engaging with, and how I wanted to be engaging with those people. Then it took like another six months for me to get myself and my husband on board.

Then it aligned well with my corporate schedule. So yeah, finally, I just kind of decided that it was the right thing. The funny thing was, I told Andrea this literally the day before I Voxered her, I was like, “What do I say? Should I maybe just tell them I'm leaving to do something on my own?” She's like, “No, you weren't telling them you were leaving to start your own business,” and I was like, “Yeah. I can do this.”

I told her after I said that, it was just like all of the fear that I had going into that just evaporated, it was so weird because I thought, "Oh, this fear is just going to keep going, and what if it doesn't go away?" Just like overnight, I felt so much better. I set it out there. I put it out there like in a really big way because there were like 250 people on my team, not my team, but the team I worked with. Yeah, so it was a little bit liberating actually.

Nicole Pence Becker: Well, for sure. Yeah, and then like the weight off your shoulders of just being authentic with everybody and kind of sharing that. I want to talk about, Terri, with you first, and ladies, I want you to chime in because we haven't gone back to this, we talked a lot about making sure your team in your life knows what you're up to and you guys taking big action and moving directly into what you are wanting with your goals and aligning with your dreams.

Terri, maybe talk about responses initially, like the good and the bad, and how that made you feel.

Terri Fisher: Sure. Yeah, it's funny. I think probably the reason I've been working with Andrea so long is I had a lot of mindset work that I needed to get under control. I am my own worst enemy.

All of the feedback I thought I would get, like, “You're crazy,” or like, “Good luck,” that kind of thing, I really only felt support, which was sort of affirming and wonderful from everyone.

I even kind of thought my parents might be like, “Oh, that seems a little risky,” but they were all in. They were like, “If that's what you want to do, we're behind you 100%.”

Nicole Pence Becker: I love that. Aileen?

Aileen Paszek: Yeah. The first about year of the business, I relied on referrals, because I've been doing the same work before in corporate, pretty much. I was kind of like riding high on all the referrals that I had, "Oh, business is great, business is great," and then all of a sudden, at the end of year one, my referrals dried up.

I was like, “What do I do?” I panicked. So I felt panic. But I remembered that there's sort of phases that you go through in a new business where you have to make decisions. I heard Andrea in my head because she always says, “Well, just decide. Decide and do it. What's the problem? Then if it's somewhat of the wrong decision, then you decide again and do something else.”

So I decided to invest in the lead generation service. I also have used Terri's business, and that's elevating me to the next level now. So the panic, and then making a quick decision, and then now I feel a little bit more calm.

Nicole Pence Becker: Excellent. I love that example. Nicole?

Nicole Teal: I would say for me, when I started working with Andrea, I basically added a whole new line of service, which was more design in my storefront. It was probably October when I reached out and said, “Andrea, I've doubled my income.” There really wasn't even a goal that I realized halfway through, like, “Wow, the actions I'm taking are really paying off.”

So I think my city is supporting this new service I'm offering, the storefront, they're coming in. They're buying from me. It really helped, I think, elevate my business as well as give me more of a presence in our city where staging was great through realtors and things, but now I have a storefront, I have a front door for people to actually come in. I think it's doing great.

Nicole Pence Becker: Well, you're incredibly likable, so I can say that that's probably a very easy sell.

Nicole Teal: Thank you. I do like people.

Nicole Pence Becker: Yeah, I love that. I want to read you guys a quote from this book because this was my favorite quote and it really got me thinking, again, just being very transparent about even my own business and kind of where I'm at and what I need to do. I want you guys to respond to this as how you think it impacts where you are today.

So this one says, “Just when you think you've mastered your business, the next version of the business appears.” So just when you think you've mastered your business, the next version of the business appears. Yeah, no. Yes, go, Andrea, go.

Andrea Liebross: Okay. When I decided to write this book, I went to a conference. I just happened to go with Nicole, my publisher over there, that was just like sort of happenstance. I sat in this conference and for like two days, I was trying to draw that, like that same concept. Do you remember this?

I just kept going and I was like drawing these loop-de-loops, and I kept labeling them and I couldn't figure out how to articulate it well. But this is what I was experiencing with my own business and my clients.

It's really just like a spiral. You have one challenge in one era of your business and there's a messy middle and you figure out and you get through it and then you get to the next loop and the next loop is probably bigger and better but there's still a messy middle but relatively, where you are, it gets smaller and more manageable but then you go to the next thing.

I think it's inevitable but if you have the right mindset, you're going to get through it easier and faster and with less stress. But I have a vision of me sitting there drawing loop-de-loops, like, “Nicole, what do you think of this? Is this good?” She's like, “I don't know. I think you can do better.” That's her favorite line, “I think you can do better.” Like, “Okay, I can do better.” So that's how I came up with that, but I'd be curious, how do you feel about that?

Nicole Pence Becker: And as people that know now, you have to take action, you have to take action to start, you have to take action to evolve, you have to take action to turn it on because initially, you said, “Everything was coming in because people knew I knew what to do,” but now you're in turn it on mode, you're in startup mode, and you're in evolution mode. So it looks a little different, wear you, confuse you, scare you, overwhelm you, all the things.

Nicole Teal: I loved that section of the book. That drawing really gave me comfort because I'm like, “Oh, I'm never going to arrive.” Because I'm like, “I'm going to get there if I can just get there,” and it's like, no, because once you get there, there's going to be a mess there too to walk through, “That's going to be challenging. I'm going to figure that out and I'm going to move to the next.”

Andrea Liebross: Something to look forward to.

Nicole Teal: Yeah, yeah.

Nicole Pence Becker: See, but I'll be really honest, as somebody who, I was joking, like I could read a teleprompter, I was a television news anchor for 13 years, I didn't have any experience in a corporation or like in a business, so I actually thought you kind of arrived, and then you were in the zone, and then you were like good. So, it is a little foreign to me.

Nicole Teal: Well, it was with Andrea's Coaching this year, because I'm like, “When am I ever going to get there? I feel like I've been working and managing,” and I'm like, “I want to go here but I can't get this manageable to move up.”

Nicole Pence Becker: Well, I think you have to be okay with the analogy this morning, which is like, you're climbing a set of stairs, how high do you want to go? It's okay wherever you want to go, but how high do you want to go? Because there's always another stair to climb.

Andrea Liebross: Right. Climbing the stairway to heaven.

Nicole Pence Becker: It's like the stair stepper thingamajigger at the gym. You're like, “Does this have an ending?” You're like, “No, it keeps going.” So what did that make you feel?

Nicole Teal: I think it gave me comfort because it's like, “It's okay, I'm going to continue to have to work through the process.” But I do think it gave me hope, like it's going to get a little bit easier because I'm going to gain more confidence in myself and there will be systems in place to support the management of where I am, and then this new vision of where I want to go.

There's going to be a crazy middle, but I can look back and go, “But I made it through. Look, I made it there so I can make it here.” So I think it gave me confidence.

Nicole Pence Becker: Are we talking about this beautiful drawing?

Nicole Teal: Yes.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah. I think there's another drawing.

Nicole Teal: There is another one.

Andrea Liebross: The spirals.

Nicole Teal: Yeah, where it loops and loops.

Andrea Liebross: I don't know.

Nicole Pence Becker: Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Andrea Liebross: So I want to add on to what Nicole said. There's this messy middle in “What do I do next?” but there's also this messy middle in “What do I need to know next?” So you've been trying to figure out your finances, that is a quest that you want to have a better understanding of and you're working on it.

I think you're seeing it will come. It will come, I understand one thing, now I'm going to understand the next thing, now I'm going to understand how this all goes together. So it's truly like actions, physical actions, we’ll call it, or external actions and internal actions of managing your mind around new things.

Nicole Teal: I was going to say too, I feel like what I'm learning is that I would love to be an overnight success. So we all just want to go, “Boom, look at me. Look at what we’ve done.” But I feel like what I'm learning is that no, time is on my side because life gives us opportunities to grow and it shapes us and if we just, like I was sharing with someone, if I just go into a room and I have three days to like to figure out who I want to be when I grow up and I have no distractions or I have three years to figure that out and I'm going at a slower pace that life is helping me flow and grow and I’m adapting, I feel like that end product is going to be better than the three days of like crunch time.

I'm trying to look at it like, “Nicole, give yourself some grace here. You're doing a good job.” It's taking longer to figure it out like where am I going and how do I do this, but it's not a bad thing. Sometimes going slower, you build a stronger foundation, and that's what I keep telling myself. Well, I hope that's true. That's my belief system. I believe I'm building a stronger foundation.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah. Totally true.

Nicole Pence Becker: Aileen, what do you think about that?

Aileen Paszek: Yeah. Everything Nicole said and having a community of peers who are doing the exact same thing and feeling the exact same pains that you can share your successes with is critical when you have a very small business.

I miss having a team at work. That's kind of a big thing that I miss. So this feels like that to me. So that's all I have to say. Just from a community, support perspective is huge.

Terri Fisher: The one thing, and Aileen mentioned it before, I think when you think about the evolution and whatnot, the one thing that I've realized through this whole process is just getting better at making decisions. I don't always make the right decision, but I don't sit so long on making a decision. It's like, “This idea seems good, let's vet it out, let's try it,” kind of the experiment thing.

It went well or it didn't go well and move on as opposed to sitting. I used to just sit and think about things forever and ever. Nine times out of ten, it just never came to fruition.

Nicole Pence Becker: So I have a good example there. Candidly, this summer we've got a team of about 11 at my business and I feel like I got every single hire right. Everyone was perfect. We were good to go. Then this summer, hired the wrong person. I remember my husband saying in that similarity of, "Well, what's the worst that could happen?" I'm like, "I would feel horrible." Then he said, "But the business might not need that. That might not be a good alignment for that person or that business."

It didn't turn out to be the right decision. But I think it's a good example of guess what? I'm not crying on the ground, business isn't worse, and sometimes you do not make the best decision for certain circumstances, but guess what? The next one, you can make a better decision.

So it is kind of hard to kind of zoom out sometimes with business ownership and say, “Wait a second, am I just over-indexing how much that's going to impact my situation?” and the answer is probably more often yes.

Andrea Liebross: Yes. Yeah. I like that over-indexing. I like that. But I'm famous for saying, “What's the worst thing that could happen?” “Oh, it might not work. Okay,” or, “That might not make money. Okay, then we just try the next thing.” The worst thing that can happen is usually not worse than not trying it at all, and you learn something like that wasn't a good hire, so whatever character sticks.

Nicole Pence Becker: What's fun about that experience now looking back, and I use the word fun very loosely, is it made me go back to the process. There were pieces and parts of that process that I did not do as well as I’d done the other eight times, and to be very candid, having shared my son's medical journey in the last year, I got completely distracted.

So I made some bad decisions because I was overwhelmed. My pendulum was all the way over here and I couldn't get it back so I was just kind of firing at random shots. That's never a good place to be. I think that's a good reminder for all of us.

So as you guys look at the next year ahead and your December 2024 goals, whether they are trips, bathing suit goals, or business goals, what is a business goal you've got for this year that you can share with us? Because remember, if we say it, we help manifest it. Since you guys are the big action-takers, I guess I'm kind of putting you on the spot. So who wants to say one of your goals for the year? Big or small.

Aileen Paszek: Well, the revenue goal that I hit the first month I met with Andrea, I haven't hit quite there again. So that's my goal for the whole next year is to hit that.

Nicole Pence Becker: So you have like a very clear number goal?

Aileen Paszek: A specific number, yes.

Nicole Pence Becker: That's pretty cool. I love that.

Nicole Teal: I would say that too. I have a specific revenue goal. I'm also adding another service.

Andrea Liebross: Nicole just likes to add things by the way.

Nicole Teal: I'm just, yeah. But I've worked very hard to establish my retail or my showroom in the city and I really want to see that grow. I want to be the place where people are coming for design services and furnishings, home furnishings. So I'm putting lots of things in place: email marketing, things like that, so I can reach more people and hopefully see a return on that. So that's a big goal.

Nicole Pence Becker: And they could come to you.

Nicole Teal: Yes.

Nicole Pence Becker: Whether they're in Johnson City, whether they're not in Johnson City, you're kind of like a destination. So like Magnolia Springs or Magnolia Home.

Nicole Teal: Yeah.

Nicole Pence Becker: Let's do that. I'm here for this. I'm here for this.

Nicole Teal: Not that big.

Nicole Pence Becker: Oh, why not? You're so likable.

Terri Fisher: We'll see next year.

Nicole Pence Becker: Yeah. Terri, what about you?

Terri Fisher: Yeah, mine is 20 clients this year.

Nicole Pence Becker: I love that.

Terri Fisher: So, hopefully, the revenue tracks with that.

Nicole Pence Becker: I love that. Andrea, anything else you want to ask our panelists?

Andrea Liebross: No, I guess one thing, let me ask you this, what helps you decide what you're going to do? What thinking had you done ahead of time? Because there are so many next actions. What guides you the most?

Aileen Paszek: The word that came to my head was growth. So my intention, obviously most of our intentions, is to grow our business. So when I make a decision even when it's investing money in something, coaching, marketing, or whatever, I'm like, “Is this going to drive growth?” That's kind of the question I ask.

Andrea Liebross: I love it. Anyone else have any thoughts on that?

Terri Fisher: Mine's a little more practical. I'm a Full Focus Planner and user and just the mindset shifts on a daily basis to be thinking about, “What are the big three? What are the frogs I need to eat before we move on with the day?” It's been huge, and really thinking intentionally about, “Is this helping me reach my goals?” Because I'm a chronic to-do-lister of all the things that need to be done for children.

Andrea Liebross: Well, you're very good at that.

Terri Fisher: Done for myself.

Andrea Liebross: Children, yes, she's good at that.

Terri Fisher: So systems, I think is one of them.

Andrea Liebross: Okay.

Nicole Teal: Full Focus Planner, it changed my life. Setting goals, using that planner as a guide or structure, Stacie, reflecting back, I'm looking forward, I'm looking at it daily and I'm also asking the question, “Is this goal or action daily connected to some type of revenue? Is it generating more revenue for me or is it just busy work?” There's busy work to be done, but I'm trying to just make sure that every action I'm taking that week is tied to my revenue in some way, most of them.

Nicole Pence Becker: From an action standpoint, so all of you would have done or have thought through or worked on the time tracking exercise or do you cycle around and quarterly do it again? I really found when I was talking to some people during lunch, they really, really liked that just tangible literal to-do. I didn't know if you guys had any comment on that, if it was helpful if you've done it, or how often you do it.

Terri Fisher: So, I resisted for a really long time, and Stacie and I just walked through this, but there's a thing called the Ideal Week where you kind of think through like, “How do you want to spend each year of days?”

I just kind of focused on the work week, how do I want to spend my day? I literally just zoned in on like, “Okay, my work hours, what do I want to be accomplishing?” I told her I had put down numbers as to how much time I wanted to spend on them.

Then when I took it to the calendar, I realized that I had put in more numbers over here than I actually had time in the day. It was like, "I can't do that." But it was just a real eye-opener, like, “Okay, then I maybe need to move and shift some things or I need to rethink about how much time I am spending on things.” Right now, I'm in the process of testing that to say, “Do I need to spend that much time on this?” Is it, to your point, helping me drive revenue, or am I just using it to hide from doing busy work, that kind of thing?

Nicole Pence Becker: I love it. Please give the ladies a big round of applause. Thank you. Yay. Our big action-takers. Again, a reminder on your QR code, I believe, the names first and last of everybody who's here, speaking with us and sharing kind of their insight, I encourage everyone to connect, not only with everybody in the room, but particularly these women who were so forthright with sharing some of their information on LinkedIn. Go connect with them so you can be connected with them in case you need their services in the future or you just need some help.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, just need some help, some inspiration.

So my friends, could you relate to any one of those three women? What intrigued you the most? Was it the fact that Nicole adds things to her business and manages to figure out how to integrate them? Was it the fact that Aileen hired people so quickly? Was it the fact that Terri has decades of and decades of experience and yet still has some fear and anxiety about taking action in her own new business?

What is it? I think this is the hardest part that either you get or you don't get. So if you're someone that is sitting there listening and thinking, “There is no way I could do what those women did or I've tried to do that and it just doesn't seem like I'm getting anywhere,” the good news is you can get somewhere.

Also, the good news part two is that you don't have to do it alone. So none of them are doing this alone. Have you noticed this? None of them are doing it alone. Are you doing it alone? If you are, it's time to change that. It's time to secure support, which is one of the elements of being a big thinker.

So here are my four things I want you to do. I want you to direct message me and tell me what did you love about this episode? Who did you relate to? Number two, I want you to share this episode with someone who is not taking action.

Number three, reach out to me, set up a call. Even if you don't continue on with coaching, there is value in the call itself. Number four, write and rate Time to Level Up Podcast. I would love for you to do that. You can scroll down on your podcast app right now to where the reviews are and there's a little thing that says write a review and you can click it. It doesn't have to be long, but so appreciate it.

All right, my friends, until next time. Now is the time to level up. It's time to take action. It's time to turn that vision into action. Let's do it. See you next week.