#301 Align Your Business and Get Your Time Back
A few years ago, I ran into Jennifer Dawes, founder, and creator behind Dawes Design, at an event for the Chi Resp Jewelry Conference.
We were chatting about the direction of her company and she seemed EXHAUSTED.
Her profit margins were shrinking, she was overwhelmed all of the time, and she was kinda ready to throw in the towel.
I mean, the girl is talented beyond belief – and she knows that – so I was talking with her about how I could support her growth.
She joined our Momentum coaching program to get our support streamlining her business.
After using the system I’m going to talk about today, she ended up getting hours of her time back, increasing her monthly profit margins by $18k, and aligning her biz with her life goals.
Hearing her success story, and watching the success of our many other students, I knew it was time to share this system on the podcast.
What Jennifer was experiencing – and what many struggling designers are experiencing – is a business out of alignment with her goals.
Regardless of the size of your company, if you’re in a place where you are stressed out, overwhelmed by your business, and burned out – let’s discuss what to do next.
It’s a 5-step system that I’ll be covering at a higher level in our workshop on May 18.
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Click here to download the show notes
Step 1: Clarify What Success Looks Like
Without a clear sense of where you’re going, you’re going to plateau. That’s just a fact.
It takes mindful effort to push your business to the pinnacle of success you’re striving for. So ask yourself, what does success really look like for you?
It can’t just be a financial goal. Money is a worthy pursuit, but money without intention or purpose ends up feeling pretty hollow, especially for creatives.
Dig deep into the why behind what you do, the impact you want to create and paint a vivid picture for yourself.
Step 2: Ideate
Once you have a vibrant image of success in mind, you have to figure out how you’re going to get there, what kind of support you need, and what has to happen to achieve your vision.
There’s an exercise I love to recommend for this step.
Block out at least 30-45 uninterrupted minutes to give yourself your undivided attention.
Put on some nice focus music, and start freewriting. Map out all your ideas for how to reach your goals. Make a list of what’s not serving you.
And most importantly, be honest about where you’re not showing up for yourself.
Step 3: Filter
Once you’ve finished this exercise, it’s time to filter through all the information and narrow down the most crucial elements of your plan.
Use filtering questions to do this, like…
- Is this bringing me closer to my goals?
- Is this something that will help me reach my targets for the next 90 days or year?
- Is this something that is bringing me joy?
- Is this something that will support where I am going?
Once you’ve done this, you can move on to the final two steps… which I cover in-depth in the full episode above.
And if you want to really dive into this system at a higher level, consider attending our 4-hour Align to Ignite Virtual Workshop. It’s one day only on May 18, so sign up now before it’s full!
xo, Tracy
Links:
May 18 – Align to Ignite Workshop
Episode #255: From Burnout to Business Bliss with Jennifer Dawes
Episode #140: PR for Jewelry Designers with Sabina Hitchen
Episode #290: How to Overcome Creative Blocks and Get Into Flow State with Dan Clark
