552: How 7 & 8 Figure CEOs View Their Business
Do you manage your business from a proactive state? Every business contends with threats and liabilities, and it’s crucial to acknowledge and address them proactively rather than fearfully. Drawing from my own experiences, I’m sharing two key lessons I’ve learned from having this perspective.
No one, regardless of their business stage, has everything entirely figured out. As businesses evolve, new issues emerge, and adaptation becomes crucial. Instead of pursuing an unattainable perfection, the focus should be on building the capacity to navigate challenges as they arise. Listen in to learn how to embrace the inevitability of challenges, viewing them as growth opportunities rather than sources of fear.
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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Emily Hirsh
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Oh, man. I am recording this on the day that we are headed home from our long and amazing and incredible summer adventures. Part of me is definitely excited to get home to my garden and my chickens and my house, but it is still very hot in Texas. So I could wait another couple of weeks. But I’m actually only gonna be home for, I think like three weeks, maybe even 2.5. And I’m going to Costa Rica. I don’t know if I’ve told you guys this yet. I’m going to Costa Rica to do Iowa and I’m going to a seven day, all women’s retreat. And I’ve always said if and when it’s the right time for me to do Iowa, it’s going to be in Costa Rica in their, they are setting, I think there’s a temple and I think it’s called a but I could be saying that wrong, with someone who’s native there and administers it and like, really, truly experience it and respect the medicine in that way. And so, I did sign up a couple of months ago for a retreat that I found that through somebody I know. I think I did share this on here anyways, I am very nervous for it. Excited, uncomfortable. Somebody asked me the other day, how do you choose the different things that you pursue, like breathwork or the therapies or micro dosing, whatever it is, coaches. And one of my parts of my answer back was I will find something will come across like into my life. For whatever reason I’ll hear about somebody who did it or I’ll talk to somebody who, you know, administers it or has experience with it. And it comes across at a time that I think is the right time and then there’s a part of it that’s intuition and it feels like it is the right time. So for example, I’ve known about Iowa for eight years. I’ve known about it because I used to be a nanny like eight years ago, nine years ago and the family that I Nanni for the parents would do it. And so at that time, I was like, no way, like I’m never doing that. You throw up. It sounds terrible like I don’t wanna do that. And so at that time, it wasn’t the right time, you know, fast forward nine years and the different changes and things I’ve done and, and things I’ve been introduced to in the micro dosing and people that I really respect to have done it and it felt like OK, this is the year, it’s the right time. And so I think that’s an element to it. And whenever I tell people about micro dosing or whatever, I’m always like, you have to do your own research and then if it feels right, pursue it but don’t do it because other people are doing it or because I say it’s amazing because none of these things are like magic pills, right? It’s not like, oh if you do this, like you will be happy or you will be healed or whatever, like you utilize these as tools and then you integrate them in your life, but you have to choose the tools that are right for you. So anyways, I will of course, keep you guys updated. I’ve planned my month so that I have the week that I’m in Costa Rica, of course, completely, probably completely unplugged. And then I have a week after that’s going to be very light so I can integrate come home and take it easy and not just dive back into regular life. That’s what I’ve been kind of advised to do by people who have done it as well.
So, all right, today we are talking about something that was inspired by a conversation I had yesterday so quick turnaround from the podcast and she actually might listen to this because we talked about how I should do an episode on this. And so I was having a conversation with somebody who’s potentially going to do a VIP day, with me and is in one of our programs right now and we were talking about a situation that she’s in because it’s a threat to her business. Basically, it is something that she can’t fully control. It is a result of her industry and a response that basically is, is really negatively impacting her business. It’s something that somebody else is, is negatively impacting her business because it’s in her industry. And so my response to her was that every business has threats and liabilities and you just have to be aware of them so that you can respond to them. And she was like, that’s so good. That’s such a good way to think about it is that it’s just like a normal part of business and understanding, like you can look at it from the perspective of it’s there, not out of fear, but the fact that it’s there. And so that kind of inspired this podcast for me about trying to be as proactive as possible with your business. And so let me explain what I mean because this ties into it, but it also I’m gonna expand on it. So one of the things that I have learned probably the hard way over the last few years is to not number one strive for perfection in business. And I think I knew this, but I didn’t really know this for a while. Whereas I knew, like, of course, my business isn’t going to be perfect, but I was trying to strive for a place where there were very few problems, there was no team members leaving or very few. There was not big process issues. There wasn’t either, you know, too little or too, too much clients coming on at one time. And the reality of what I learned is that doesn’t exist if your business is growing and let alone, we’re all in industries that change at rapid paces. So if those two things are present, you will have problems that you have to respond to. And one of the takeaways I had from this conversation was I felt like she saw me as if I had, I had it all figured out. And one of the things I’ve learned is it doesn’t matter what level somebody’s at, they haven’t figured it all out yet. Like there’s no such thing because you grow your business, you make some shifts and changes and you’re going to face new problems and you’re gonna have new things come up or you’re gonna have a team member who’s been here for two years, leave, or you’re going to lose a big client or you’re gonna have a threat to your business kind of come into play. And so, instead of striving for that level of perfection, which is one of the things I learned. The second thing I learned is to very objectively look at everything in your business from a proactive place and ask yourself all the time, what am I not thinking about? What am I not paying attention to? What are the potential things that could happen that I need to be aware of? And not necessarily even take full action on them yet, but be aware of them and not get too comfortable, to be honest with you in business. And I know like when we have a really rocking week, which they happen or let’s say we have a rocky month or an entire rocking quarter where like everything is amazing and there’s very few problems they’re there, but they’re not that bad. I know now because I’ve learned the hard way not to get too comfortable because the next level of growth is going to require discomfort to go through that in order to get to that next level. So over the years in business, for me, those two things of not striving for the perfection and not thinking that again, like I knew there was no such thing as a perfect business for, for a long time, but I was still striving for like an almost perfect business where there’s very few problems and things are running really smoothly and, and when you’re growing and when you’re in a fast paced industry, which pretty much everybody is today that that doesn’t exist. So let go of that expectation that’s gonna constantly set you up for feeling like you’re failing. And then the second thing is not getting too comfortable and staying very proactive in your business. Because what this does is it allows you to not be reactive. It allows you to, when something does happen, that team member does quit or you do lose that big client or something big happens in your industry, you had an awareness of it. And I think a lot of times I would catch myself ignoring a threat or a liability because I didn’t want it to be true and then it would still happen and then it would cause a massive issue for me where I would then have to react and I’d be stressed and I’d be overwhelmed. Whereas if you look at it from the perspective of proactiveness and awareness and not fear, just awareness so that you can be intentional so that you can take action if you need or so that you can be prepared if you need. And when you look at it from that place, you don’t go into that overwhelmed reactive state. So an exercise that we actually do as a team is every quarter, we do what’s called a SWAT analysis, which is probably, it’s funny, my team member was like, this is the only thing from college that I’m actually using and I didn’t go to college for business. So I don’t know if they teach this in college. But it’s actually very great. It’s very effective. And so we do this on a deep level. And so what it is, if you don’t know, you actually sit down and go through the exercise and you list out your strengths as a business, your weaknesses, as a business, your opportunities, as a business and your threats as a business. And we spend probably an hour to two hours on this and I do know people who do like really in depth like daylong analysis on this. But we do this every quarter and we sit there and we list it out and we think we’re done. We’re like, what else? What else, what else, what are we not thinking of? And this brings awareness and that’s the first like most important piece of this. So then we can look at our strengths, our weaknesses, our opportunities, our threats and we can ask ourselves are our goals coming up are the things that we have coming up going. I think I’m gonna have my team leave that in the podcast. I don’t know if you guys can hear that in the mic, but my three year old came up to the door and he was like, mom mama. I’m trying to record this podcast before we leave. And my kids are like, this is not the schedule, this is not what you’re supposed to be doing. So we’re gonna leave that because that’s so real life as, as a mom, especially with me traveling that has been the way like content creation has been, there was a day that it was like, ok, guys, we’re leaving for Yellowstone camping and I got to go record a podcast before we can go And it was like 8 a.m. Anyways doing that exercise is going to create that level of awareness because then we take all of those answers and we look at our goals for the quarter and we look at what are we gonna work on? What are the projects we’re gonna do? And are they in alignment with these four categories? Are we playing to our strengths? Are we addressing our weaknesses? Are we capitalizing on opportunities that we should capitalize on? And are we paying attention to and taking action on if needed threats? So for this person I was talking to yesterday, for her, I said, well, this situation that you’re in is a threat to your business, it’s probably always going to be a threat to your business. So you don’t have to try to get rid of that threat. You have to have actions and awareness around it so that you can always stay ahead of it. And I said I have threats to my business. A I is a threat to my business to most businesses. Facebook is a threat to my business because if they make a big change, it impacts us, right? The economy is a threat to our business. And so you look at these things and you look at what is a threat to your business and then you just have awareness around it. You don’t go, oh my God, I’m so scared because if you’re an entrepreneur, there’s always a threat to your business. Like nothing is guaranteed in business and entrepreneurship because something could change tomorrow, that completely destroys a business. And the only entrepreneurs who are going to be ok with that are the ones who recognize it for what it is and get back up and take action. And that is what she was doing. I said you’re doing the exact right thing you have awareness to this. You’re not letting it paralyze you or hinder you from taking action and you’re just moving forward and doing what you need to do and doing what differentiates you from this threat, what’s gonna protect you from this threat and not making it so fear based, but you’re letting it motivate you into action. And so my encouragement with this podcast episode is to learn from me number one and check yourself if you are making your goal for your business to be perfect or your, for your business to get to whatever level you’ve defined as. That’s it. That’s the level and realize that that doesn’t exist that if your business is growing, things will be breaking, there will be stress, there will be overwhelm, there will be unforeseen circumstances and situations and in order for you to survive and get to the next level and the next level and the next level, you actually have to increase your capacity for that because the bigger you get, the more money you make, the bigger the problems. And so if you don’t increase your capacity for that, you’re not gonna be able to handle the next level. The second thing is not getting too comfortable if you’re in a good season, if you are experiencing a lot of abundance and things are working well, enjoy it. Don’t, don’t necessarily look at it and be like, well, when is the, you know, ball gonna drop but more so look at it from a place of, I know that the next level of growth is coming or you know, this, this threat or this weakness might become more apparent. And so what are those things so that you can just make sure your actions, your initiatives, your projects, your resources, your time, your energy is all going to the right places. And that’s why I love this exercise because it brings that awareness and then it makes sure that all of your company goals and your projects and everything you work on is in alignment with what you identified. And I can’t say enough, like the more intentional and proactive that you can operate as a CEO and the less reactive that you could be not only the more growth you’ll experience, but the more ease and presence and happiness as a CEO that you will have because I think the one of the worst experiences as a CEO and a business owner is to be reactive to be in a place where you wake up and there’s like 50 things thrown at you and you’ve got fire over here and fire over here and you’re not growing how you want and you’re just reacting, you’re reacting to people to emails, to messages to situations all day. And I see entrepreneurs who are in this place and have been in this place for 10 years and they think it’s normal, it doesn’t have to be that way. It really doesn’t, you can still grow. And in fact, I think you will grow way more if you are in a place where you can be proactive and intentional and grounded and present. And the only way to do that is to have the awareness and the intentional actions behind that awareness, to keep you in that place as well as increase your capacity for when something does happen. It doesn’t completely throw you. So before my kid comes in here again and says, Mama, that is what I have for you guys today. I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode. I will be back next week, back in my office. Yeah, I’m excited to be home. I’m excited to be back in a routine. I appreciate you guys. I am grateful for you guys. Thank you so much for tuning in.