Fast Five for Friday: Selling First, Pivoting Fast, and The Importance of Stepping Away

0:01 Welcome to The Coaching Equation brought to you by Empire Partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast.

0:42 I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners. Brooke Bishop, not in studio today. I am going solo, and this is your Fast Five for Friday. All right, number one, take a chance. So one of the things that we've been reflecting on a lot around here lately is the willingness to sacrifice good for great. The willingness to sacrifice good for great. Think about that for a minute. Where the areas of your life, the areas of your business where good has just been good enough and you're holding on to that safety blanket, you're whoopee. You're holding on to that safety blanket. Good has been good enough.

1:24 And you're afraid you've thought about doing something that would be great, that would take things to the next level, that would be extraordinary, that would take you to a new place in your market, that would develop a new service for your clients, serve your clients at a higher level in a new way. And you've been deciding to play it safe instead. Well, I can tell you one of the things that we've done recently is we've gone all in on something. And we decided that good was not good enough. We decided that we would rather be able to go and pursue great and fall flat on our faces, blow the entire thing up. And know in the long run that we gave it a shot.

2:07 Because here's the thing, guys. We don't remember good. We don't remember good. We remember great and we remember extraordinary. And if you're at good and you have a thought about how you could get to great or extraordinary, and you take that shot and you don't make it, guess what? There's going to be another opportunity to get to great or extraordinary. And I want you to reflect on whether or not that's actually your benchmark. Are you playing it safe right now and allowing good to be good enough? Number two, business should be fun. You know, look, this is a hard game that we play.

2:49 You know, Brooke and I say this all the time. This is a Tonyism. Business is for gladiators, right? And it is tough. It's not easy, especially being in business for yourself. Being an entrepreneur, being a leader is not the easy path. And it's one that a lot of people don't take because it's too hard. And I think one of the things that gets lost along the way is that it's somehow like it's not supposed to be fun. That's ridiculous. I would say that if you're not having fun in your business, you're doing something wrong. If you're not able to have a good time and laugh and enjoy the people that are around you and remind yourself of all of the good and the incredible things that you're doing in your business that are making a big impact in other people's lives, if it isn't fun to you, then you're probably doing something wrong.

3:48 And I think that it's okay, by the way, hard and fun Those two can absolutely go together. They absolutely can go together. And I also think that it's important inside of our businesses to remind ourselves that, especially when we're playing with other team members, if everything is just a grind all day long... and we can't laugh, and we can't enjoy ourselves, and we can't celebrate victories and all of those types of things, then it becomes a chore. Then it's not fun. Then it's like, well, why in the hell am I doing this? Why don't I just go get a J-O-B? Because I could go live in the prison of a J-O-B and get the same exact damn thing.

4:30 So don't forget to have fun in your business. Not only is it okay, I would argue that it's the way that you're going to have sustainable success moving on down the road. All right, number three, quote that I love recently. This is one from Peter Thiel. In a world of rapid change, the most dangerous thing is to keep doing what worked in the past. In a world of rapid change, the most dangerous thing is to keep doing what worked in the past. This is something I've fallen into this trap. Many other business owners have fallen into this trap. And it's really, really dangerous.

5:10 We have to be willing to look ahead and look around us and see what's shifting in the marketplace and see what new strategies seem to be working. And also look at What is no longer working? And I also think that when we think about no longer working, this isn't just about like, whoa, you know, this is a total dumpster fire. It could be something that has been working, but no longer works as effectively as it once did. And if we're not looking at that and looking at how we can make it better, then we're going to end up in big, big trouble. And there are a lot of really incredible examples of people and companies that, who haven't been able to look forward.

5:53 Blockbuster, anybody? They just kept doing what worked in the past and look where it landed them. They even had the opportunity to acquire Netflix and they didn't do that. So this is something that's really key. I want you to look at your business, think about what's worked in the past and... Are you hanging on to anything in your business that is no longer working, no longer serving you, or no longer working at a level that's actually going to create sustained success over time? All right. Number four. So one of the things that we get asked all the time is, you know, when should I build my program and when should I start selling my program?

6:37 And should I feel like I've got to have the entire thing built out before I start selling it, etc. That's actually one of the cardinal sins in business in general, and especially in the knowledge space that we all I heard Daniel Priestley, I believe it was, say this recently that amateur entrepreneurs build stuff and then sell it. Professional entrepreneurs sell stuff and then build it. Here's the deal, guys. If you're not testing your market and figuring out what's actually going to sell, building it is insanity. I mean, I can't tell you how many people I've worked with over the years who tell me about how they've been working for six months to build out their program or I've been working on.

7:25 It's been like a year in the works, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's craziness. What if you worked for six months or a year to build something and then you went to market with it? Nobody wanted to buy it. That would be crazy. So don't do that. Be a professional entrepreneur. You want to sell it first and then build it. Do testing in your marketplace. Run quizzes. Run surveys. Figure out what your ideal customer really wants and needs. And then put something together in terms of an idea, sell the shit out of it, and then build it when everybody says yes or when people opt into it. That's the way you want to do it. That's the way that you kind of take imperfect action towards launching something new.

8:12 You do it that way. You don't build it first. And then lastly, number five, be present with your family. You know, as I'm recording this, I am in Florida right now. Brooke and Vanessa and I spent some time in some business meetings, and then I've had the opportunity to spend some time with some family. And one of the things that's been nicest for me is having the opportunity to put work down on. Um, uh, and actually sit and be present with my mom, with my grandmother, who's actually making me dinner tonight, uh, which is why I gotta get this fast five for Friday. And, um, my sister, um, you know, my friends that I haven't connected with, I've had the opportunity to get a lot of work done, but I've also had the opportunity to be present with family and, um, and, um, Just remember that, you know, in your everyday life, don't forget that it's, you know, our businesses can be all consuming to the point where as entrepreneurs, one of our biggest faults is constantly thinking about the business, constantly thinking about what we're building and what needs to be done and ceasing to be present with the people in our lives that really matter to us.

9:21 So don't forget to do that. Make sure that you're present with your family. Make sure that when it's time to cut the cord on business for the day, shut it down. And don't be afraid to shut it down because it's still going to be there. I promise when you get back to it and the people in your life are going to thank you for being present with them, loving on them, giving them your undivided attention. And it's going to feel better for you as well. You're going to come back to whatever project you're working on, whatever you're working on in your business. You're going to come back fulfilled. You're going to come back energized. We need that break. And the people in our lives don't deserve anything less than all of us. So that is your Fast Five for Friday.

10:02 Thank you for listening to this edition of the Coaching Equation Podcast. Until next time, be well. Be well. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform. To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go.

10:43 Thank you.