The Keys to Mindset and Leadership to Thrive in Your Business and Life
Today, you are going to discover how you can thrive in your business by adopting the keys to mindset and leadership without feeling like you’re managing a chaotic tornado. I know in my life there’s been times that I felt my business was a complete mess, but with clarity, confidence, and consistency, it’s so much better.
But enough about me. You’re about to meet a Global business strategist and speaker who helps small to medium size businesses run their biz smoothly, without the chaos and stress, while making positive changes. She helps them shift their mindset and leadership skills!
In this episode, Kerry-Ann Powell and I chat about:
- Why it’s important to have small to medium size businesses in our economy?
- The “big idea” framework: keys to mindset
- What strong working systems we need as business owners?
- The free eBook that’s going to help us scale and grow without the drama: https://www.nobusinesschaos.com/
- How we run our business without chaos and stress?
Connect with Kerry-Ann:
https://www.nobusinesschaos.com/
Prefer video? Watch here:
Full interview if you love to read:
Allison: Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today you are going to discover how you can thrive in your business without feeling like you are managing a chaotic tornado. I know in my life there has been times that I felt my business was a complete hot mess, but with clarity and confidence and consistency, it’s so much better.
Allison: But enough about me. You are about to meet a global business strategist and speaker who helps small to medium-sized businesses run their biz smoothly without chaos and stress. While making positive changes. So without further ado, welcome to the show Kerry-Ann.
Kerry-Ann: Allison, I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Allison: I’m excited Anytime I get to talk to someone who really. Kind of wants to help and boost the small to medium sized business. I get really excited about that because I feel like all we see online is people who want to work with six or seven figure businesses and it’s like, well, wait a minute, what about the entrepreneur who is not only juggling her family and her kids and all the chaos, but they want to grow a business?
Allison: Where is the person supporting them? So I’m excited that you’re here. I want to dive in because you have an interesting background. 20 years in DC as an attorney. Mm-hmm. Lobbyist and fundraiser. So how did you get from that? To helping businesses find their way in this chaotic economy.
Listen to the full interview here:
Helping businesses find their way in a chaotic economy
Kerry-Ann: I’ve been asked quite a bit and I, I often, you know, when I first started answering that question, Allison, I used to say, well, you know, I, it’s all about strategy because that is really what I believe. I think everything’s about strategy, whether you’re. You know, you know, creating a, a good case for, or you’re trying to get a particular legislation, um, passed or whether not you’re building a memorial.
Kerry-Ann: It’s all about developing a strong strategy and an execution plan that works. So usually that’s kind of where I say, here’s the jump off point. But the reality is I realized that very early on in my life, you know, when I was very, very young and I started thinking about, and I started seeing what was happening in my space, right?
Kerry-Ann: The, the friends of my fathers, the people that were, you know, the community leaders at my church, the folks that were, you know, supporting Little League, the folks that were doing all the things that were visible to me were small business owners. And so I started, I really had an affinity for the idea of what it means to be a leader in business.
Kerry-Ann: Your community. And you know, as a matter of fact, when I was in junior high school, I was like the president of the Future Business Leaders of America. But that’s kind of funny when I think about it. But I think I start, I started from very young, this idea of what does it mean to be a business leader? And I thought that was, you know, really a, a sacred calling.
Kerry-Ann: So anyway, you know, I went on to be a lawyer and the whole thing and after I. Build the Martin Luther King Memorial. You know, folks were asking me to come and do strategic planning for them, whether there were large NGOs and large companies. And I started doing that and I realized, you know, I really, really love helping owners of companies who are still working in their businesses.
Kerry-Ann: I. Um, to be able to not only create strong strategic plans, be able to execute well, but to do it in a way that they’re not going crazy. Yeah. So, right. That’s really the transition that I took from, you know, being a Washington DC attorney, Lobbyist and fundraiser, to now being a full on champion of small businesses and obviously a business strategist.
Allison: And that is really refreshing to hear, especially as I said earlier, this massive push for these six to seven figure earners and you know, scale, scale, scale. So I like that you work with small to medium sized businesses, but why do you think it’s important to have small to medium-sized businesses in our economy?
Kerry-Ann: Well, you know, I mean, I say this all the time and um, you know, my team always says, Kerry-Ann, you always say this, but it’s the truth. Two thirds of people work for a small and medium sized company. That’s just our fact here in the us. I mean, when you start looking at, um, Asia, Africa, you know, uh, Europe, those numbers are higher.
Kerry-Ann: And so, you know, you start thinking about the GDPs of our nations, right? They are really supported by. Small and medium-sized companies. You also got to think about, you know, um, I think in the US about 90% of companies that exist are small and medium-sized. And again, in other parts of the world, it’s getting closer to 99 percent.
Kerry-Ann: So this is not like a, oh, I’ve got a little small business, you know, let’s just sort of do this. No, you have a. Small business, and it is important to your, to the economies of your community. Obviously, when you think about the tax base in all our co um, communities, our cities, our towns, they’re supported by small and medium sized companies.
Kerry-Ann: Who’s doing all the, um, who’s serving on the boards of directors of your local nonprofits? They’re business owners of small and medium-sized companies who’s supporting all the, uh, the, the community efforts, the churches and all those types of things. They’re small and medium-sized companies. I. So it’s not like a, oh, well, you know, I’ve got this little thing on the side, or, you know, it’s not really that important.
Kerry-Ann: It’s very important. And if you took away all the small businesses away and all the small, you know, uh, mom and pop shops and all the, uh, you know, folks who are, you know, raising their children and, and, and building a business at the same time. Our economies would fall. So it really is important for us to sort of recognize that as, as sort of, you know, policy makers as citizens, as, as countries, as nations, and as individuals who do their own businesses.
Kerry-Ann: Because your company, you know, whether it’s, you’re still moving towards the, the, the first. A hundred thousand or you’re start moving towards the first million, or you’ve got multiple millions wherever you are in your business, uh, um, journey. It’s important to own that and don’t think of it as, oh, it’s my small little thing.
Kerry-Ann: No, it’s a big thing because two thirds of people work for small businesses.
Allison: What a great perspective and a great way to think about that. So if you’re listening and you feel that your business is too small or not as big as you want, be proud of where you’re at right now and don’t try to measure yourself against the bigger companies because at one point they were a smaller company.
Allison: Everyone must start somewhere, right?
Kerry-Ann: Don’t just love seeing those pictures on social media where, you know, you’ve got like, you know, I think it was Apple that started in a garage and you’ve got the other companies, like all businesses Start, all the companies that we look at right now as being thriving and, and all that good stuff started small.
Kerry-Ann: And so this is the stage where you are in your business. Own it.
Your Business Size
Allison: And I think too, This is kind of off, well not off topic. I’m going on a little bit of a tangent here. That’s how my show goes. But don’t you feel that it’s okay if you’re a business owner? Like can we just say it’s okay? If you want to keep it small or medium size, go for it.
Kerry-Ann: Yes. I really believe strongly in, you know, people always say, okay, well, you know, when they come to me, they’re like, okay, you know, usually they come to me for a, a couple of, you know, four main reasons. So they come to me. The first thing I really do is, is not first go towards the business vision. I go towards their life plan.
Kerry-Ann: I’m like, tell me what it is that you want in your life, because mm-hmm. Depending upon what you want in your life and how you want your life to be and how you want to exist in the world, that would, that needs to be aligned with the business that you’re building. So if, if what you are trying to do is build something so that you can, you know, keep it small, be able to, you know, have it sustained, um, your family and your, and, you know, a few employees and, you know, keep it going.
Kerry-Ann: And then maybe be able to pass it on to your, to your kids at some point then, The, the, the conversations, how you create structures and systems in the es, how you look at scale, all those types of things, uh, change or, or are more aligned with that. So, you know, you look at the, the, the person’s life plan.
Kerry-Ann: Then you look at the business vision, you don’t tweak the life plan. The life plan comes from the within, the innards. So that’s very core to who you are as a person. So you look at the business vision, is the business visions aligned with your life plan. A lot of times people sort of look and see, oh, you know, so and so scaling at this.
Kerry-Ann: You know, you’ve got like, you know, the entrepreneur bros who are like, oh, you scale 10 x, blah, blah, blah. Which is great, fantastic. I’ve got clients who have done that. Right? You don’t tweak your life plan, you took, you tweak the vision of the company, the purpose, the core values, and the core strategic goal, depending upon what you want your life to be.
Allison: Well, thank you for saying that. I’m glad that somebody else feels that. cause lately I. Just this online push just, you know, just crammed down our throat scale to six to seven and it’s like, well, what if I don’t want to? Yeah. Like that’s not my plan. I’m okay with having that medium-sized business that helps other entrepreneurs, but then I have this life and I want to live it.
Three Business Size Types
Kerry-Ann: Yes. Right. Exactly. And I think, you know, you can look at your company, right? I always think there’s sort of three ways in which you sort of think about the economic process of having a product or a service and selling it, right? There’s the, there’s the side, the side hustle, okay? As we call it, you work for a company, you have a, a full-time income coming in, and you have a thing you’re doing on the side that brings an additional income into your household and that works for you.
Kerry-Ann: Okay? So that’s a side hustle. Then you’ve got the sort of lifestyle business where you’re, you’re, you’re full-time in the business, but you’re building the, you’re building the business in a way to support a lifestyle that you are trying to attain, whatever that is. I mean, for you, it might just simply be being able to support your families, um, um, you know, uh, um, uh, expenses.
Kerry-Ann: Still be able to have some money to save for. College for your kids and maybe you want to homeschool your kids, so you know, whatever that looks like for you. And then there’s sort of the company, sort of a growth company, a company you want to build that you could be able to sell at some point later down the road.
Kerry-Ann: Or a, a company that you want to be able to have some ability to, to have a legacy around. And again, Just because it’s called growth company doesn’t mean that it must be, you know, it must, you know, scale to say an Amazon size. It can scale to, you know, sort of a, you know, a 3 million, $4 million company and that can be the, the, the peak at which you want to be.
Kerry-Ann: The point is though, you sort of think about, you know, do I have a side hustle and that’s working for me? Do I have a. A, a, a lifestyle company, which is sort of your, you know, traditional sort of mom and pop type companies. Or do I have a company that is a growth company that I am, that I want to start and scale and be able to move forward?
Kerry-Ann: Those are three important distinctions for you before you start wondering about, oh my God, you know, what am I trying to do here? But either way, you still need to have a vision and a purpose, core values that you can understand why it is you’re doing what you’re doing and what the business really means.
Allison: I love that. What a great distinction. The side gig, the lifestyle business and the growth business. I love that. That’s the first time I’ve heard that and it, it was kind of like a light bulb moment and I know exactly where I fit in there. Now I want to shift to mindset and leadership, which is like one of my favorite topics to talk about.
Allison: And when I was going through your information, you referenced this big idea framework. Mm-hmm. So can you talk about this framework, mindset and leadership?
The Big Idea Framework: Mindset
Kerry-Ann: Yes, yes, yes. So the, the, the big idea framework is a framework that I created, um, over a, a couple years as I was beginning to, you know, sort of identify what are the things that really make a company a small business, be able to thrive and thrive well without the, the chaos.
Kerry-Ann: Okay? And it includes eight components within that. So there’s eight things that I think, um, a company must have. In place for it to really thrive. One of those things is a strong mindset, a success mindset of not only the owner but the team as well. I’m telling you, I’m all about strategy. I have done strategic planning, my entire life.
Kerry-Ann: And I really believe if you have a strong strategy and a strong execution process and plan that’s supported by systems and processes, you can build anything you really, really can’t. Okay? However, even though that is really the thing that I really, you know, you know, push and encourage folks to do, In the end, 80% of it still is mindset because you can have this great strategy, great execution plan, have all the systems and processes there, have a great team, be a good leader, have optimization and innovation in there, and all the good things that I think are really important.
Kerry-Ann: And if you have a poor mindset within the owner and the team, It’s, it’s just, you’re not even starting, you’re not even away from the dock yet. Then, the ship is still, you know, docked. So I think it’s important. So everyone’s like, talks about mindset quite a bit. It’s kind of a buzzword, you know, now.
Kerry-Ann: Mm-hmm. And it’s kind of like, oh, what’s mindset, whatever. Um, and I often say you can, first, you can either decide, okay, there, there’s a lot of different thought processes around how does mindset impact. Your business, right? There’s one sort of concept or thought process around mindset is this idea of if you can begin to.
Kerry-Ann: See it and the vision and, and really, you know, visualize the company you want and the successes you want, you’re more likely to be able to achieve them because there’s a certain, and, and, and visualization is one of those things that. It’s not, you know, everyone thinks it’s kind of new. It’s not new.
Kerry-Ann: You know, elite athletes have been doing this for, for forever. I mean, folks have been doing this forever. This idea of sort of thinking. I mean, and the people always think, okay, well visualization seems so woo. Yeah. Well, we visualize all the time. That’s what we call, call worry. Right? Yeah. We think about, oh, the worst possible thing that’s going to happen, and we just play it in our minds.
Kerry-Ann: Mm-hmm. Play in our minds.
Allison: Those fake scenarios. Right? The fake scenarios. And we end up hurting our own feelings for nothing.
Discipline and Vision
Kerry-Ann: So how about in terms of worry? We develop the discipline of creating, uh, a visualization process in our, in our businesses around. How, who we are, um, meaning who are you in the business, right.
Kerry-Ann: Um, I have a, a, a great photograph of someone like this. The, a picture of a, of a woman. She’s living this fantastic outfit. Standing by a pool and she’s, you know, very, um, just take charge and she’s having conversations. She’s doing her thing. I found that photograph in one of Oprah’s magazines like 10 years ago, and that still is on my vision board because to me, that’s who I envision as a business leader.
Kerry-Ann: Someone who is, um, woman who’s dressed great and owns herself and owns her space. So a part of it is just knowing who you are. And your business. You know, I was just having a conversation with one of my clients who, I mean, this woman is completely just a, you know, had a successful career in corporate America, was in sales.
Kerry-Ann: And you know, she now owns her own business. She’s doing fantastically. She’s, um, you know, been featured in, you know, one of some of those, you know, great magazines and the whole thing, right. But we were having a conversation. She’s like, I can’t. Grab hold of the idea of me going out and pushing, you know, we were trying to come, um, implement, implement this tactic in her business that would be able to, to generate more leads.
Kerry-Ann: And she’s like, I don’t know why I’m feeling in, you know, intimidated by this idea. And I’m like, well, a part of it is you’re not seeing yourself as the type of woman who would do that. Right. So just even, and you talk about mindset and leadership, it’s simple. If you continue to just continue to tell, tell yourself, I am the woman who build a hundred thousand dollars business.
Kerry-Ann: I am the woman who builds a million dollar company. I am the kind of woman who has a team that’s thriving and flourishing. I am the kind of woman who doesn’t need chaos to feel important. You know, whatever that thing is, you keep telling yourself that you are that woman who can do that. Okay?
Kerry-Ann: Now, So that’s one sort of part of it. The other part is literally around what, how do you see, how do you and your team see the actual activities within the business? Do you believe that first your business does provide value? Because sometimes, you know, People like don’t believe in the product that they’re selling.
Kerry-Ann: Mm-hmm. And I know that sounds weird, Allison, because you probably are like, well, why would someone not believe in the product they’re selling if they’re putting it out there in the marketplace? But. There’s those weird messages that we have in our head of like, well, this product really isn’t that great, or This service isn’t that great, or, you know, it’s okay.
Kerry-Ann: Or maybe, you know, you know, the fact that it helped a hundred people was just a fluke, you know, whatever the thing is. So, within the company, if, if you, but you can’t really convince yourself of such, you must know that if you want to have a good product. It’s a success mindset, then you are going to always be continually optimizing it in a way that everyone in the organization knows, no, for us to feel good about putting this product out there or this, or this service out there, we’re going to perpetually, um, hone it in a way that it is going to be.
Kerry-Ann: So you really do believe that, yes, we have completely made this the best thing that we can put on the market. That requires you to know what else, who your competitors are, what else is out there, who else is doing what you’re doing, what makes what you’re doing be new and different. But it’s not about just saying, okay, I’m going to wait to put the product out there until it’s perfect.
Kerry-Ann: No, no, no. Mm-hmm. You’re putting the product out there, but you’re always honing it, always making it better, so that you can know for a fact, yes, I know that what I’m putting out there is the best product, so that you’re not holding back when you’re having conversations around, you know, this is how much it costs.
Kerry-Ann: Yep. This is how much it costs because we know it’s worth it. Right?
Mindset and Leadership: Good-bye Comparison
Allison: Right. I think too, I just want to go back to the whole mindset piece. I think it’s important to understand for our listeners is when it really comes to having a great, successful mindset is remembering when you are measuring your success, you compare yourself to yourself.
Allison: We can’t compare what we’re doing. Anybody else, and that’s hard these days when it’s Yes. Constantly in your face on social, it’s everywhere. Yes. Ever since the explosion of social media, especially with video in the last few years. Yeah. You can’t help but compare certain aspects of your business or a product or anything.
Allison: Yeah. But we must remember that you are at your point. In your journey for a reason. Yes. And when you’re comparing your own success, or I should say when you’re measuring your success, you must measure it against what you’re doing. Yes. And only what you’re doing. I mean, you can have strategic partners to come in and help you and give you suggestions.
Allison: Yeah, but you must measure only what you are doing, and I think that’s important.
Kerry-Ann: That’s such an important message, Allison. I’m so glad you said it because you know, I, I remember, you know, some of your audience may be younger, but I remember when T-Mobile, you know, I don’t even remember like when T-Mobile was just like first got on the market.
Kerry-Ann: They were kind of the, um, the eco, the, the budget. You know the budget, uh, like the underdogs almost. Yeah. They were the underdog, right? The budget cell phone company. And I remember because I was in law school and my ex-husband and I, that was all we could afford.
Kerry-Ann: because there was one person working and then we had a lot of money either to pay for law school. So we’re like, okay, we’re going to pick up for the budget cell phone company. Right. And so it was so embarrassing because, you know, I, I would be standing, literally standing with a group of my, a group of friends and I would have my phone and literally, I, I could literally not be walking and suddenly I would have no signal.
Kerry-Ann: It would be like I’m talking on the phone and there was no signal. T-Mobile was so bad. Like it was just such a, you know, very little coverage. I remember when I got my first job out of law school, I was like, the first thing we did was just go and buy. Verizon at that time was like, you know, the best plan on the mar on the market.
Kerry-Ann: So I’m like, we’re going with Verizon because. Now T-Mobile is considered one of the better plans because first, they have one of the best international, uh, coverage stuff. Um, I think now they’re, uh, now they’re bought out by, um, well, they’re one of the brands that at and owns, I believe. Oh. And so they’re neck and neck.
Kerry-Ann: So, but because I had a little negative in like, I had my vision of T-Mobile from back in the days when I was, you know, budgeting, well, I’m a budgeter, but like, you know, doing budget, uh, uh, cell phone company. I didn’t realize, I didn’t realize what T-Mobile was doing all these years. They were optimizing, they were changing, they were acquiring smaller companies.
Kerry-Ann: They were increasing their coverage. They were doing three G, four G, five G. And then, you know, looking into how they could be able to expand to the in 19 international market in terms of being able to allow for folks with us. Phones to be able to, you know, use their phones abroad. It’s, it’s one of the better deals.
Kerry-Ann: And I didn’t pay attention to that because, well, you know, I was not using them. Okay. Yeah. So say someone showed up, only knew T-Mobile from the days when they first started, they’d be thinking, well, you know, they’re always going to be like that. They’re always going to be that lower end com company that doesn’t really have a great deal of coverage and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Kerry-Ann: But if you see, see them now today, you’re like, oh, wow. But no one pays attention to all the things they had to do in the middle to get them from where they were before to where they are today. Did they say, oh, no. We’re not as good as Verizon, so we’re just going to close the shop and call it a day. Or woe is us.
Kerry-Ann: Look at us. And they didn’t say, well, we don’t deserve to have any customers, because there were some customers that were willing to pay for it, you know, whatever. So, My point is, think of if you are at the stage where you’re just like, you’re seeing all the Verizons in the world doing some amazing things, okay?
Kerry-Ann: But you are at the stage where you are building up your processes. You are building up your team, you are building up your sales process, your client and customer acquisition process. You’re building up your methodology. Maybe you are a service-based company and you’re still trying to figure out what your methodology really is.
Kerry-Ann: Maybe your product is good, but not great, and so you’re still trying to figure out how to make it better. That’s the whole process of business. Yeah. That’s what we do as entrepreneurs, is we continue to optimize. So this whole idea of, oh, don’t look at, you know, so-and-so over there, who’s doing whatever.
Kerry-Ann: Yeah. You got to know what’s happening in your industry and be very aware. You got to know what’s, what’s working, what’s not working. But you could also be the company that says, you know what? The big dogs over there are doing this, but it’s not serving this pocket of, of, of customers. You know what, I’m going to swoop in over here and just kind of take this group here and service them.
Kerry-Ann: Or maybe there’s a thing in your industry or, um, that is, is missing meaning like, It’s just, it’s, it’s one of the most annoying parts of the industry. People think that’s the only thing they can do, but it’s never going to change. Maybe you are the one to change it. And so the point is business is, is, is a long game.
Kerry-Ann: But don’t compare just because you are at a stage of business that someone else isn’t. Always sort of, you know, be aware of what’s happening in your industry, but also really stay in your lane. Look and see what, that’s one of the reasons you must have a core strategic goal for your business. What’s your b a g, right?
Kerry-Ann: What is the thing you’re trying to get to so that you’re not sort of, um, looking and saying, oh, so-and-so’s doing this. Oh, maybe I should do that. No, this is where you’re going. You know what true north is? Make sure you and your team know it well. Then keep it moving and then at some point when no one is looking, you jump from T-Mobile, the budget cell phone company to, you know, head of the game.
Allison: Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, it goes to understanding the here and there. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of this concept where you’re constantly in your business, always wishing that you were there. You’re not here. Yes. And you need to clearly understand that you need to be here and now in your business and enjoy the process.
Allison: Yes. That’s how you’re going to be happy as an entrepreneur because there’s a lot of research out now out there now showing that entrepreneurs are not happy. Yes. And I think the core reason for that is because they are constantly wishing that they were there. Yes. And they’re always looking out there. But they’re never here now and they’re not present in their business today.
Allison: And I think that is a key piece, a very, to having a successful mindset.
Kerry-Ann: A very, very important piece. And you know, when you start thinking about the here and there, you know, so with, when you think about, okay, so I want to be present in my business now. And so it doesn’t mean that you cannot plan future-wise.
Kerry-Ann: Okay. It just means that you are doing what needs to be happening right now in the moment that will get you to where your goal is. For the next step. And sometimes one of the things that I recommend to people, particularly when companies come to me and they’re like, Hey, things are going, you know, crazy here.
Kerry-Ann: And what we normally do is we do a, as an assessment of the company and then we kind of see where the red flags are and then where the yellow ones are. And the green ones. So we sort of say, okay, fire, fire, fire. Here’s where the areas we really need to focus on right now. cause they’re urgent. Yep. Okay.
Kerry-Ann: So you’re running a business, you can’t be there. And here at the same times using that, the, the lance, um, that you brought in Alison. So, but you do need to fix something for the future. So I often sort of think about, okay, they’re sort of, you know, uh, company 1.0, that’s the one you’re currently in. Then there’s Company 2.0, the one that you’re trying to build to fix the problems that currently exist in Company 1.0.
Kerry-Ann: So you can, you know, you’re thinking about the time that you’re spending in your business, right? There’s the, are you working as an employee in the business? When you’re doing your technical stuff, you’re servicing clients. You all know that, that language, right? Mm-hmm. So you’re working in the business.
Kerry-Ann: Then most of the time it should be working on the business, but if you’re, if you’re trying to practice presence, Within the business, but also being able to be a good leader where you’re leading the organization and looking into the future. You sort of have company to 1.0, you’re working on it, and to company 2.0 you’re working on that and 2.0 must have a very clear.
Kerry-Ann: Again, core strategic plan, which gets you out 10, 15 years out and being able to sort of think about what are the, uh, the important objectives, the important things. So say for instance, it’s okay, I need to build a better way to be able to manufacture my products and get them to my customers in a timely fashion.
Kerry-Ann: Maybe you have a, like I was talking to a client, uh, a client the other day, and. They had, uh, a number of different products for pets. And then, the products were, you know, being manufactured in from different sources, right? So if they wanted to be able to go, so like, say a target was beginning to approach them, they wouldn’t be able to guarantee delivery at the same time because so many different, they would have, you know, a man a, a.
Kerry-Ann: Uh, a factory in China that was doing one of the products was another sort of, uh, um, wholesaler, um, in, in another, uh, three states over. And then one of the other products was being done by a local person. So it was like, you know, it was confusing, and it was not able to predict when the products could arrive.
Kerry-Ann: At the same time, if they wanted to do, um, some, uh, larger, larger sourcing, say, say, for like a target. So right now the company. Is what it is. It’s working. You know, you have all these different sources that you’re, you know, so you got to work on that and work through that. But then you have company 2.0 where you’re saying, okay, here’s the goal and here are the things I need to be doing to pivot, change shift to make 2.0 a better version of the company.
Kerry-Ann: So you’re working on 1.0 and then you’re looking at your time, how you’re managing your time, you are working in. 1.0 because at some point most business owners are still servicing clients and doing things in the company, and then you’re working on 2.0. Therefore you’re not confused as to where am I?
Kerry-Ann: You just know that this hour that I’m working is working on 2.0 and I’m going to move this forward. And right now I’m working on 1.0 and then right now I’m working in 1.0. That way you’re very clear and you’re not kind of like looking at in the distance on this. Imaginary place where you want to land, but you haven’t gotten there.
Allison: Right. No, I love that. That’s such a great explanation for that. Now, before I jump into my final question, which I know everyone will want to hear the answer, I. Tell us about this free eBook that you have that is going to help us scale and go and grow without the drama, and where can we find it?
No Business Chaos eBook
Kerry-Ann: Yes, absolutely.
Kerry-Ann: So I have an eBook. You can find it at http://www.nobusinesschaos.com. Chaos is the enemy of business. And the good thing about this, this is basically me downloading what are some of the true culprits that are causing chaos in your business? I outline that there’s usually about four co, um, symptoms of chaos that show up in a business.
Kerry-Ann: And people are like, well, that’s the problem, so I need to fix that problem. But I posit that. Um, the reality is if you’re having some symptoms of chaos, it’s very likely that they’re actually really underlying true symptoms that are causing chaos in your business. And if you can address those true culprits and fix them, you would be able to get back to being able to run your business smoothly and thrive.
Kerry-Ann: At the same time. So if you feel like you’re, you feel like there’s some chaos happening in the business and you just, you know, you really are not liking it right now, download the book. It’s a quick read and, you know, just start identifying it, being able to address it and, you know, just really confront it.
Kerry-Ann: because you know, chaos does fester and it creates other problems and it just, it, it spills into your life. You don’t want that. No. Business chaos.com is a place you can find it.
Allison: Awesome. I will make sure that’s in the show notes. And now my final question, which that, this was a good segue into my final question is, how do we run our business without chaos and stress?
Allison: What has worked for you?
Running a business without chaos and stress – shift your mindset
Kerry-Ann: You know, I, I, first it goes back. I know this said this earlier, and I’m going to go back again. First kind of figure out what your life plan is. What do you want? What do you want? A lot of times it’s because we don’t really know what we want and or there’s a, there’s a, like a misalignment between what we want and what business is.
Kerry-Ann: Secondly, be clear what kind of businesses you have. Yeah. Is this a side hustle, a lifestyle business or a business you want to grow and be able to sell at some point or pass on? Okay, so once you have a clarity around that, then. Operate accordingly. Develop a strong strategy that works.
Kerry-Ann: Take if you do not have a strategic plan right now, pause and start working on that. Okay? Now, once you have that going into place, remember 67%. Companies that have a strong strategic plan still fail because of lack of poor execution. So we want to, to get you really organized and less chaotic, have a strong execution plan.
Kerry-Ann: What are the things that you do on a weekly, daily, monthly basis that allow for you to do that? Gets you to where you want to be? So, Every day. You need to be able to be doing things that move into your weekly goals, which move into the monthly objectives, which move into your quarterly goals, which lead up to the annual goals.
Kerry-Ann: And once you sort of know what you’re doing every day, then the chaos really begins to wilt because then you’re like, no, I know what I’m doing. And it makes you know it. It allows you to assess what I am doing today, going to get me to what I want. For this year, for this quarter, for this month.
Kerry-Ann: If it’s not, leave it alone. Just don’t even do it. Don’t even do it.
Allison: Well, Carrie Ann, this was such an amazing conversation and I feel that we could have just kept going and falling down more rabbit holes, right?
Kerry-Ann: I love you and I love the show, so I think we could just chitchat all day.
Allison: I know, I know.
Allison: And who knows? I’m sure there’s going to be more questions. Maybe we’ll have you back to go more into Yeah. Strategic planning and how to map it out for us. Small or medium sized business. So thank you so much again for being on the show. This was a lot of fun.
Kerry-Ann: You are very welcome. What a joy.
