Why You're At The Heart Of Your Business Path

[00:00:00] Jen: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Women Conquer Business. I'm your host, Jen McFarland. On this week's show, we're going to wrap up our goals series and talk about why who you are is the heart of your business path. All that and more here on Women Conquer Business.

Welcome to Women Conquer Business. My name is Jen McFarland. This podcast is for smart, serious business owners. Tired of the senseless chatter about growing a business. If you don't want to hear anymore, get rich quick, too good to be true. Nonsense. You've come to the right place. You'll learn why mindset is everything, as well as strategies for sustainable business growth and how to implement it.

Along with the secrets I learned, leading large scale business projects that also apply to five and six-figure businesses. Are you ready? Let's go forth and conquer. [00:01:00]

I wanted to dedicate this episode to my dear uncle Vernon, who passed away a couple of days ago. I think within every family, there's someone who's just really special to you. You don't have to talk to them every day or see them every day, but they're like a kindred spirit. Somebody who gets you at a deep level, they love you, and they like you, and that's who uncle Vernon was for me.

I'm sharing this because, at the heart of our business path, it's who we are. And it's about the people who care about us and the people who resonate with us. And for me, uncle Vernon in my family, was one of those people. And so for you, uncle Vernon, we'll get a little bit of sass and a few smarts, and I know you're listening somewhere.

I love you.

Before we get started, I'd like to thank Carrie Saum for her lovely review of the Women Conquer Business Podcast, "Best in biz! Great [00:02:00] advice. Women-centered, fun to listen to and the content is always spot on." Thank you, Carrie. That means a lot. If you would like to leave a review of the Women Conquer Business podcast, you can do that within the Apple Podcasts app.

Thank you so much. Let's get started.

Who you are is the heart of your business path. After, I admit that when I wrote this title a couple of months ago, I have no idea what I meant by that exactly, but I can tell you that at the deepest levels, this is entirely true. So what does that mean? Well, this podcast is for small business owners and solopreneurs.

So who you are is the core of your business. And your business path. When you started your business, it was likely because you were good at one thing. So good, that you thought, I'm going to strike out, and I'm going to start a business, and I'm going to show people how good I am at this [00:03:00] thing.

That either you were working under someone and decided you could do it better, or you're straight out of college, and you had this fantastic idea, or straight out of high school, or you're a teenager, anything. You just had this fantastic idea, and you decided I'm going to do this thing. And that's why you started your business in the E myth series of books.

They talk a lot about that being like an entrepreneurial seizure, meaning you just. Decided and then go after it, and then you have to catch up with it later. Right. And I think that that's kind of true, and I catch up with it later. It's about setting up systems and processes to support this vision. So you're working on your business and not just in it, and you can reduce the number of hours.

I highly recommend E-Myth and E-Myth Revisited if you haven't read them. Great books for anybody starting a business. And it speaks to who you are is the heart of your business [00:04:00] path. However, the one drawback I think to the myth with books is that they do make it seem like it doesn't matter who you are as the heart of your business path.

You can almost have to say goodbye to that part so that you can set up the systems and processes and. I think that you can have both. I believe that to be a successful business owner or entrepreneur; you have to honor that part of yourself. And throughout the last month, we've talked about goals, how to take those ideas, and translate them into.

You know, a series of tangible goals that you can follow through on how to prioritize them, how to rethink them so that they can help you launch into the next level. I recently gave a talk for a Starr Sheppard Decker's group. You might remember her. She was the spirituality and sass episode a [00:05:00] few weeks ago, maybe a couple of months ago.

And I talked a lot about taking aligned action and about how goals are the linchpin between the internal world and the external world. Meaning you can have all of these elements of yourself. Your vision, your mission, all of these things that you are dreaming about, and what are goals. Once you set a deadline for them.

Cause that's the difference between a dream and a goal is a deadline. But you can have all of these emotions, all of these feelings, all of these ideas that are the core of your being. But until you make them into tangible, achievable goals. They can remain internal. See, goals are where the rubber meets the road.

It's that outer part where you're turning on the engine, and every task, every project, every program, every service is or should be in [00:06:00] response to a goal. That's how you know if you're on the right track and everything that you're doing during the day is you ask yourself, is this task supporting me toward my higher goals.

And unfortunately, that means things like Facebook may not be serving you unless, of course, you work for Facebook or your business is directly related to Facebook. Still, many people scroll and engage on a platform where people are just there to scroll and engage and not necessarily there to buy.

Um, the same is true for many of the social media platforms. That's what you have to ask yourself, is all of this time that I'm spending doing other things, is it supporting my top-level goals? And you're the only person who can answer that. Sometimes we spend a lot of time on social media, looking for support for our ideas because we have fear.

And. That's not the topic of the show. Still, I want you [00:07:00] to lean into that fear and rather than seeking approval, look at your heart and think about if that thing that you are fearful of if that thing that would make you sing and make your business actually what you want it to be if you need to seek the approval of others.

Or if it's better just to leap in and start doing it because who you are as the heart of your business path. So many times, myself included, we leave a job or leave a situation and start our company, and we don't necessarily. Think about that thing that we're better than everybody else.

If you're like me, I was getting out of a situation that didn't fit me. It didn't suit me, and then I threw the baby out with the bathwater and started doing something else when really. The [00:08:00] heart of who I am as a person is around helping people shine and helping people find their goals and then do everything that we can to help them be achieved.

Enable that, open up that path, open up that vision so that it's something achievable that feels good and is exactly what you want to do. But that's not what I did at first. I didn't consider that who I am is the heart of my business path, but you can learn from me, and you can make some different choices.

So how do you figure out who you are? I mean, I can't tell you that that's not something that is anything that somebody else can tell you. I will say it does require some deep work. It requires sitting quietly, and you know, journaling or meditating or [00:09:00] whatever it is that allows your mind to be quiet enough that you can hear what your heart is telling you.

Because we spent so much time in this logical brain of ours and not enough time listening to our heart and what it is telling us about who we are as a person and what will allow us. To shine because you deserve to shine. You deserve to be whoever you want to be B, and sometimes it just means taking that first step into acknowledging who you are as a person and leaning into that and deciding that that is what the world needs.

Because I can tell you, that's what the world needs. The world needs people like you and me who are willing and able to tune in to the heart of the [00:10:00] matter, to tune in to who we are and what we do and how we are in service to others. The world needs more of that. See, the world doesn't need more people trying to sell cheap stuff to make a book.

We've got plenty of that out there. I'm being sold all the time, and I don't like it when I meet somebody who is sharing their passion and is brave enough to step into that and build goals around that and chase that thing like there's no tomorrow. Those are the people that I want to talk to.

Those are the people that I want to engage with. Those are the people that I want to buy from, and I think those are the people that you want to buy from too. There's a book called marketing rebellion that I've been slowly chipping away at. Uh, I have a speaking engagement in Klamath falls. It's a Southern Oregon [00:11:00] town in a couple of weeks.

And my contact down there said, you should read marketing rebellion. And it speaks to this idea of, you know, small business being about artisans who are putting things together and selling them on a very personal. Level, and that's the key. Like everybody's putting together cheap stuff to like sell to you, but there are a few people that resonate who are putting together something, crafting something and putting it out into the market because it's the heart of who they are.

It's the heart of what they are creating is the heart of what they believe in. It's the heart of small business, are you build the systems 100% and you build the product, and you make it the best product based on, you know, customer feedback and marketing and you know, market analysis. And yes, you still do all of those things, but at [00:12:00] the heart of it, the way that you present it, the way that you created it, everything else is about you.

It's about you. Especially for small businesses and solopreneurs, it's about you. People are going to buy it from you. They can buy soap or coaching or whatever it is that you're selling from thousands of people. Why should they buy it from you?

And if you're in touch with your heart. And you're in touch with why this is your path and why this is aligned for you with why you are the one to buy from, and you know that you can help people. The fear starts to [00:13:00] dissolve, and the goals become clear.

For the last three weeks, we've talked about all of the logical ways that you can process through your ideas and create tangible goals. But you see, your intuition is also involved in this process. You can call it, you know, your gut, or a feeling or an inkling. I call it intuition. And your intuition is telling you, guiding you, urging you to share.

You. To be a part of this process, and it's because if you're not in alignment if you are not feeling this path, if you do not feel like you are on the right path, best path so that you can present your products and share your best foot forward. If you're not there, people will be able to feel it. And over time, you may drift [00:14:00] away further and further from your actual goals and doing what you think people think you should be doing.

See, that's the heady approach, but in business, we need the head and the heart. It's both the head and the heart. And when you begin to feel like you were entirely in your head too much, that's a good indication that it's time to. Slow down, check-in, and consider other possibilities. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for listening to the Women Conquer Business Podcast. If you're wondering what's next, here are a few suggestions. If you love the show, be sure to subscribe. If you want to follow me on social media, you can find Women Conquer Business on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. And finally, if episode today brought something up for you and you need to talk, [00:15:00] email me at hello@jenmcfarland.com.

The Women Conquer Business podcast is written and produced by Jen McFarland and Foster Growth LLC in beautiful Southeast Portland, Oregon. Thanks again for listening.