#105: Next Level L.E.A.P
There’s a change coming!
And you might have noticed it..
We have officially changed our podcast name. And it has been a really exciting iteration for a variety of different reasons, but mainly that I wanted a podcast that was more accurately reflective of the type of work that I am now doing with clients.
Scale with Joy was very much a great message when I had a client base that was struggling with overwhelm, struggling with the idea of how to get more joy back in their businesses and lives.
And while I still think that is a very valid concern of many of you who are listening, I'm also starting to work with some incubators, some nonprofits. I'm also starting to help consultants become better consultants or get their first consulting offer built and sold.
And so, as a result, I wanted a name that would more comprehensively depicts the type of work that I do across different platforms and reflects the actual model that I use in my business.
That's what I'm going to be sharing with you today in this next episode of the Next Level Leap podcast.
Listen to the Show:
Laura (00:00):
Hey there. So you may have noticed that we changed our podcast name. This has been a really exciting iteration for a variety of different reasons, but mainly that I wanted a podcast that was more accurately reflective of the type of work that I am now doing with clients. Scale with Joy was very much a great message when I had a client base that was struggling with overwhelm, struggling with the idea of how to get more joy back in their businesses and lives. And while I still think that is a very valid concern of many of you who are listening, I'm also starting to work with some incubators, some nonprofits. I'm also starting to help consultants become better consultants or get their first consulting offer built and sold. And so, as a result, I wanted a name that would more comprehensively depict the type of work that I do across different platforms and reflects the actual model that I use in my business. That's what I'm going to be sharing with you today in this next episode of the Next Level Leap podcast.
(01:12):
Welcome to Next Level Leap, a podcast where we dive into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company and creating a legacy brand. As a top growth strategist, multi passionate entrepreneur membership site, owner trainer, speaker, author, and mom to three. I love exploring the journey of how we as founders can multiply our income, impact and influence by landing on the other side of our next big leap. Let's get started.
(01:43):
So today I want to share with you what it really means to take a next level leap in your business. And this next level leap does create more joy. It creates more freedom. It creates more spaciousness. It creates more profit for any type of business. And if you're consulting to other businesses, if are growing your practice as a fractional chief marketing officer, fractional CMO, or even just as a business consultant, this information is going to really help you become more effective with your consulting clients. And if you're running a business, what you're going to find is that these simple steps, when implemented well will create massive leaps of growth without having to do more stuff without having to be in more meetings without having to watch another course, join another group program, join another mastermind. Cause I know for many of you, you're just past that point.
(02:40):
You're over it. You just want to be told exactly what to do. And it was a really interesting moment recently in growing my own business. And it is particularly with the advanced women's expert network which is a membership that I co-own with my business partner, Kelly Roach. And I realized that I actually had to apply this framework to that business because we had gotten to a place where the delivery of the offer had gotten really complicated. And the ways in which we were bringing people in was, you know, varied with a lot of different, outputs and inputs. And those outputs and inputs had different layers of results. And this was starting to feel really overwhelming to both my, myself and my team. The company in itself had gotten bloated in a lot of ways and we needed
to bring it back to only the activities that were most effective in growing the business so that we could streamline delivery.
(03:43):
We could get back to having fun, really enjoy, um, healthy profit margins, not overinvesting in things that weren't necessarily getting an ROI. And when we're running a business, it is really easy to just bring on things because somebody said, you should like, you should have all of these different traffic sources in place. So you start the YouTube channel or and YouTube's great, right? Like YouTube works really, really well for so many business owners, but it's when we layer them on without tying it back to ROI. And if you really look at the meetings on your meeting schedule, or you look at all of the tasks on your to-do list and you ask yourself, is this either making the company money, saving the company money or creating an amazing experience for our customers that are going to encourage them to stick around longer or spend more, if those activities don't have a direct correlation, I would really encourage you to think about whether or not they're the best use of your time in light of the model that I'm about to share with you.
(04:49):
So when I looked at, okay, what is it that are the most essential steps to creating these leaps of growth? The first is limited focus, which is the L in leap. And this is where I often ask clients like, well, what is it that you want to accomplish by working together when we first get started? And like, they just, just, it's just like a massive brain dump, right? They're saying to me, oh my gosh. And then there's this person that like always comes late to staff meetings. And then like, I can't find anybody to fill my marketing hire. And it's just like the, the brain drains, right? Like all the brain clutter just comes out, which is really normal and natural and understandable. But what that tells me is that we need to limit the focus. And so one of the hardest parts of the being a consultant is getting your client to actually agree on a single stated objective so that we can kind of just ignore everything else for a little while.
(05:51):
Like I want to grow revenue by, you know, 20%. I want to bring on a thousand new customers into my membership this year. Just something that's very simple, but allows us to put blinders on for everything else with that single limited focus. So that's the L in leap. And then the E is establish a plan. And this is where we collect all the, that we can get our hands on, look at all the numbers, see on, you know, what exactly is working and not working in their business. What assets are performing above benchmark, which ones are really performing below. And usually just focusing on what is working and ignoring the things that are below benchmark is one of the best ways to create a big leap in revenue or profitability or, or customer growth or lifetime customer value. But whatever that limited focus is, whatever that single stated objective is creating a 90 day plan where the only thing that we're doing is helping that client get what it is that they really want.
(07:02):
And a lot of times during that 90 day period as consultants, one of the things that we will find ourselves doing is reminding the client of what it is that they really wanted, which when we do it in a really respectful way, they, they actually really appreciate it. They're like, oh my gosh, thank you so much for reminding me of what it is that I wanted because I almost got, you know, totally distracted by that shiny object when you're right. It has actually nothing to do with the limited focus, the single focus that we had established when we set up this plant, there is there's been a lot of studies that have been done on a 90 focus. And if you've done any type of strategic planning in your company, you've probably seen this like 60 days into a 90 day plan, which are very popular with other strategic planning systems like EOS or scaling up or strategic coach is people start to kind of forget, right?
(07:55):
They start to sort of drift, they start to lose their focus. They start to forget what their main rocks were and bringing them back on a weekly basis is one of the best ways to stay on that plan. And so when we set up this 90 day strategy, it is very natural within business cycles to every 90 days really need a new strategy. And the same thing happens when we focus for 90 minutes. Like we can focus for 90 minutes typically, but not longer than that, but a single stretch of a 90 minute focus is actually incredibly powerful. Like if we can just do that once a day, which is what we do in our company. And we, we let all the other periphery tasks and all of the other stuff that doesn't matter happen in the, the rest of the work day.
(08:42):
Then what we find is we create these huge leaps. So it's that 90 day strategy that 90 minute focus to set up the strategy. The 90 minute daily focuses to implement the strategy that is so powerful on creating a huge leap on that single stated objective. And that plan has to be good, right? Like it has to be good strategy. It can't just be any strategy. It has to be the best strategy based on the best assets, your best buyers, and putting that into place where everybody agrees to it and we're going to stick with it. Right? And then we get into committed action and that's the a and leap. So the L is limited focus. The E is establishing a plan and then the a is committed action. And this is where we decide that we're going to test a single strategy one step at a time.
(09:39):
And as we are creating these committed actions, we are actually as a byproduct, also creating these assets in our company. So whenever something works really well, we are building out an asset with these actions. So let me give you a clear example. Let's say that we are building out a sales process. And what we find is that we could actually increase the cart value or the amount of money that people spend with us in a single transaction by adding on a backend upsell. Well, when we build out that backend upsell, as we are creating it, and we're basing it on proven frameworks and stuff that we know that works, this is where we are creating reusable assets in the business that we can leverage over time. And it was really interesting because it was recently working with one of my consulting clients and we were building out their backend offer.
(10:40):
She's a very, very successful nutrition expert has worked with celebrities, has hundreds of people in her membership that she wants to scale two thousands of people in her membership and where we're talking about a backend upsell for people in the membership. And one of recommendations was to segment out those who have different types of interests within her membership. So maybe she has like an endurance group. That's like an eight week accelerator for people that are running triathlons or marathons or doing any type of competitive sport. And then maybe she sections out people who are pregnant and they pregnancy nutrition help for a eight week accelerator. And these would be just kind of boosts within her membership where people could get a quicker result by investing more money and working with a coach. And she said, oh my gosh, that sounds so fun. I would actually love to be the one to deliver it.
(11:35):
And I stopped her cause I said, I love that you love this, but actually what I want you to do is create assets. What I want you to do is instead of you being the one who's, you know, muzzling through the delivery of this backend offer, what I want you to do instead is create a, you know, a series of trainings doesn't even have to be eight weeks of trainings. It could be, you know, four modules of trainings that people get access to that they unlock when they, when they become part of the endurance accelerator and then maybe they get like lifetime access to it. And they become part of this eight week health coaching program of which you could hire health coaches to implement your assets where you are not the one who again, is going to get exhausted by having to deliver this upsell.
(12:23):
We are creating assets through this committed action. So that a is both stands for both action as well as assets. And that asset again is the recorded material, the coursework, the part of the accelerator that she can have on file. That's part of the rinse and repeat every single time that somebody joins one of those upgrades moving forward. And then on the P as process review and process review is where we review and repeat to optimize the customer journey. So maybe we have a backend upsell that we will put into place when we are taking committed action and creating assets. And then process review is optimizing those assets and creating leaps along the way by maybe putting new points of entry into those assets, but in creating a fully engaged user experience by always tracking the data and continually improving the processes. And that's when we go back to after 90 days, what is our next limited focus?
(13:36):
And every single time that we do this focus, reset, it could be something else. So for the back end upsell example that I shared with you, it could very much be that we're just looking to increase a, you know, order average order volume of our members. And that is a 90 day focus and that's super effective. Cause we're not paying for new customers. We don't need new. We can take the existing programs that we have put something into place that, that the, the owner is excited about and energized by, but she doesn't
necessarily have to be the one to deliver on. And it is relatively simple revenue to put into place. And then maybe for the next limited focus, we are, we're seeing that a funnel is working really, really well. And we might want to create a down, sell for that funnel, or maybe we want a new traffic source for how people come into that.
(14:24):
But whenever we can circle back to that limited focus, every 90 days create the plan, get into committed action by creating assets in the business and then process review you so that we can continually make progress on the growth of the company. If you just think about what that does for a company over a year, you know, four, four times we sit down and we say, what's the big number we want to move. And we only do those things for the next 90 days. And then again, we say, what's the number we want to move. And we only do those things for the next 90 days. And it always comes down to what's the best focus. What's the best customer? Who is it that really we're serving here? Who is, is it that buys from us the most who stays around longest? What is it that makes the most money what's the most profitable and continually reassessing this so that we can make next level leaps in our business is the single best way to grow with simplicity so you have joy.
(15:30):
And when I looked at this, when I took a step back and I really looked at this and I looked at the effectiveness that it had with the advance, when we, we just, I said, we're not doing that. You know, that that employee turned over, but that position wasn't necessarily super effective. So we're not replacing the position. Or we had this going, but it wasn't doing what we wanted to do. So we're going to just stop doing it. And with the advance, we, we whittled it down to two front end, focuses the podcast for organic growth and a paid traffic webinar funnel for paid traffic growth. That is it. That's all we're doing. And the, that was a result of looking at the analysis of our launches, looking at the analysis of other types of activities that we had put into place and nothing worked as well as those two focuses.
(16:23):
It's the only two things that we're doing. And this quarter was the webinar focus, which is working great. And then next quarter is the podcast focus in order to continue to nurture organic growth. And so when we again have those single focuses, that's where we can make these next level leaps. And a lot of times we underestimate the power of actually doing less better and how much that can grow our company, but also create more space, more joy, more freedom, more, less brain drains, less clutter by having that process in place. So that is why I changed the name of this podcast to Next Level Leap. That is the process that I bring all of my clients through. And it is the process that I train consultants on when they really want to go all in on creating massive transformation for their clients, creating amazing leaps for their clients, businesses and become in demand consultants and fractional chief marketing officers.
(17:33):
I'm so glad that you are here through this journey and you can watch my own iteration. I'm always so transparent with numbers and my process and thinking behind creating new messages, new programs, new iterations, so that I can serve you better serve my clients better and create more of a positive impact on the world with what it is that God has given me as talents to share. And I want to encourage you to be thinking about that in the same way. What is it that you're really good at? How can you systemize create processes, create assets for that in your business so that you can change the lives of as many people as possible. Really appreciate you being here. If you love what you heard today, I would love to hear from you, go ahead and message me on one of the socials, whatever one is your favorite. And I'll see you soon.
(18:26):
Make sure to visit our website, yournextleveleap.com, where you can subscribe to the show in apple podcasts, Stitcher, or RSS so you never miss a show. And while you're at it, if you found value in what you heard today, we would love a rating on apple podcast. Or if you simply tell a friend about the show that would help us out too. Thank you so much for listening.
The Scale with Joy podcast dives into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts and leaders - sharing behind the scenes stories of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned-all while building their multi-million dollar empires.