Ask Jess: Business Q&A series - Scaling, building momentum when things are challenging, how much free info to give away, branding (and more!)
Aug 08, 2023
Welcome to the first ever Ask Jess segment!
This is a new two-way collaborative conversation where you can connect with me on the podcast to give you the most value each month and deep dive nosy insight into my life, my business, but also an opportunity for you to ask the questions that you need (kind of like a hot seat coaching session).
Question 1: How to find the momentum or high vibes when you lose a client, don’t hit income goal or things aren’t going well, how to keep going?
Look at the facts ie. You lose a client it means nothing about you, your abilities, etc. while we can always self-reflect, we don’t have to listen to the BS narratives
Shift into – what is the result I want? And what can I do about it? Then make those big MOVES!
Don’t wait until you feel good to move, often we need to move first, to shift how we feel and get a different result.
The reality is, if you’re an entrepreneur there are going to be slower periods than others so I want to normalise this – the biggest skill you can build is resilience.
Stay focused on the long-term vision and goal because the moves you make today are the results you’ll see in the future.
It’s not always instant results so building that self-trust to know you are making those big bold moves, in the long term will pay off when everyone else has given up.
Question 2: How to scale if you’re capped yourself with 1:1 clients without trading more time for money & recently had a price increase?
I see too many business owners stay stuck in their business & resentment or burnout happens because they’re afraid to make moves they think they’re “not allowed” to make.
Remember it’s your business and you can do whatever is going to serve you best, which ultimately will serve your clients best too.
Decide what your vision for your company is and get honest about the moves you likely KNOW you need to make, whats holding you back and then MOVE anyway.
Question 3: Building your next level brand identity to really scale to step into your next level CEO self.
Brand positioning is KEY – if you want to be seen as a global leader, high end product or offering – then are you positioning yourself that way? Or is it putting out more hobby vibes?
People get 1 first impression so do an audit of your business and ask yourself or other people what is the first impression of your brand.
Choose 3 keywords that you want your brand to embody – quality, connection, relaxing. Then make sure all your imagery, messaging, branding, fonts, colours embody those feelings.
When you step into your future self NOW, your external world gets to catch up.
Question 4: When to invest into branding/website vs DIY?
When making any investment ask yourself what is the main goal behind wanting to invest?
If your goal is to get more bookings - Branding & a fancy website alone is not necessarily going to get more bookings.
When it comes to photography I’d be looking at your photos & portfolio as number 1. Investing your time into building a portfolio that clearly demonstrates the level and style of work you want to be doing. If you rely fully on your portfolio being your paid gigs it may not be the exact vision you had – so sometimes investing into doing a shoot to show exactly the type of style and shoots you want to do will do more than branding. Embodying that future self and future business you want to be.
And then if you want more clients – making sure you are visible would be the 2nd priority. So while branding & websites are great to have they aren’t 100% necessary and I would invest in them once you have more cash to put into it. If you do really want to invest in website or branding you can always find different priced offers or services maybe you start with the most urgent one.
Question 5: How to show up online when life happens in the background & feels heavy?
Shifting your energy (not denying or numbing, feeling and processing at other times) but when showing up, shift your energy into a new realm and perhaps set times aside to do that.
Set 1 goal per day to show up to move the needle forward and then anything extra is a bonus.
How I shift my energy – high vibes dancing leading with your body shifts the mind into a new state – anchor into this energy when you are doing your showing up, then you can ground back after with some deep breathing – regulating your nervous system.
Pre-record things on days you feel good you can record a TONNE of stories etc. in 5mins then you have almost a whole weeks worth of content
Question 6: How to find the time & energy to grow an empire beside your full time job when you have no energy.
It’s a trade off, short term pushing for longer term gains. The thing is if you keep waiting until you have more energy you will be stuck where you are forever so work on moving the needle forward at least 1 step per day. If you really want it, you’ll prioritise it.
I’m the biggest advocate for not burning out but sometimes we do have to make short term sacrifices to achieve what we want longer term.
Put in the work now to reap the rewards faster!
The key is deciding that you’re done with the excuses and are ready to actually go ALL IN – once you decide this, it becomes a no brainer.
Question 7: Fear of starting a new business.
This is a multi-layered one. Often people try and overcome this by just trying harder but that’s like trying to cure cancer with a band aid, it just wont work. We need to dig deeper to the root cause.
When no matter how hard we try we just keep avoiding or not doing the thing we want, no amount of “being more motivated” will help if there is a deeper benefit your subconscious is gaining from keeping you stuck.
This is work I often do with my clients to dig deeper.
Our subconscious is like an overbeating mum wanting to keep you safe – she runs the show, we operate from the subconscious approx. 90% of the time.
Our conscious mind says we dislike not taking action & starting the business but our behaviour says otherwise. That’s because our subconscious is running the show.
From the POV of your subconscious, it actually gains so many benefits from keeping you safe.
You get to avoid embarrassment
You get to avoid seeing your power fully
You get to stay safe from judgement
You get to stay broke – this is a big one our subconscious secretly loves staying broke
Start by listing all the things your subconscious gains ie. Keeping you safe from… and all the things you get to avoid having to see by NOT taking action.
This goes way deeper but uncovering the deeper reasons why your subconscious is keeping you stuck is the first step to uncovering. Then usually awareness alone shifts so much but then we can work to rewire the deeper stories, beliefs or shadows keeping you stuck.
Getting to the root cause is key – once you unlock this, you likely won’t be able to stop working toward those goals.
The DOING is easy when you get out of your own way.
I was so grateful and impressed with the amount and quality of questions that came through for this new segment! Big thanks to everyone that submitted their questions this month!
Every month, I will have a different theme so you can find out next month’s theme on the 1st of every month here. Your questions can be as nosy as you like – the spicier the better!
If you enjoy this new segment or any of the episodes on my podcast, it would mean the world if you share it to your social media, tag me @jess.williamson8 and spread the love.
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