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We’re speeding things up by doubling up the next two steps of the Business Minded Framework today! On this episode, I’m introducing you to the concept of B- output and showing you what investing either money or time looks like in your business.
For all of you high-achievers out there, you might cringe at the thought of producing B- level work when working that extra bit harder to get A-level work is available to you. But I’ve always approached my life and business with B- level output, and it’s one of the biggest things that has contributed to my success.
Join me today as I urge you to always approach creation, whether it’s content, guides, or a service you have to offer with a B- level attitude. This step can be the best teacher on your entrepreneurial journey, which will set you up to take on the next step of investing either your money or time in the most effective way.
You don’t miss out on any of the exciting things I have coming that will help you achieve your business goals, so sign up for my Business Minded waitlist here!
What You’ll Learn on this Episode:
- The best way to find the answers to your questions and doubts.
- Why I invite you to create B- level work over A-level work.
- How I’ve always approached my life with B- level output.
- Why trying to produce A-level work slows you down.
- What investing either money or time in your business looks like.
Mentioned on the Show:
- When you’re ready to take what you’re learning on the podcast to the 10X level, then come check out Be Bold.
- If you’re a coach who is already certified through The Life Coach School, I want to help you take your coaching to the next level. Interested? Get on the waitlist here.
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- Grab the Podcast Roadmap!
- Business Minded Bonus 1: Set a Goal
I’m Jody Moore and this is a Business Minded Bonus podcast episode number 4.
This is Business Minded, a series of bonus podcast episodes designed to help you achieve your business goals, whether you’re a photographer, you participate in a network marketing business, a coach, or any other kind of entrepreneur. Join me where I will be sharing my best tips and practices to achieve what you want to in your business. Let’s go.
What’s up everybody? I’m glad you’re loving the Business Minded Bonus series. I’m getting lots of comments from you all saying how much you’re enjoying it. A lot of you are interested in being entrepreneurs and a lot of you who aren’t even, are saying that you’re finding it fascinating. So, I’m so happy to hear that because I love talking about it.
And last week I gave you the first part of the Business Minded framework. And today I’m going to give you the next two parts. You know why? Because I was looking at my list of all the things I want to teach you. And I just can’t fit it all in and so I thought, well, let’s just double up a little bit. We can go through the framework a little bit faster. So, if you’re just tuning in then after you listen to this one you’re probably going to want to go back and listen to last week’s which was the first step of the Business Minded framework, which is to set a goal.
Now, you’re probably thinking, I already know how to set a goal. But there’s some specific things in that episode that are sort of unique to the way I teach goal setting in terms of the Business Minded framework that you’re going to want to go listen to. But today like I said, we’re going to talk about the second and third parts. Are you ready?
Part number two is to create at B minus level, to put B minus level work out into the world, to create something. I don’t care what it is, just create something, something that you can share with people, something that you can give to people, or sell to people, or publish, or post somewhere, or give away. Just create something. Now, this sounds obvious I think, I’m just running a business. Of course, we’re going to need to be creating things.
But I’ll tell you what, if you’re anything like me your brain will tell you, we’re just not ready yet. We just don’t know what we’re doing, or we just can’t make a decision about what to create. Or we don’t know the right approach. How long should it be? How big should it be? How much should it cost? What should it be exactly? What will people like? What will they respond to? What is the best thing? Guess what, folks, the best way to answer all of those questions is to create something and put it out there.
You’re going to want to ask everybody. You’re going to want to go to other people who have done what you’re trying to do and say, “Do you think this is the right thing to do? How long should it be? How much should I charge? How should it work? How should I introduce it?” You’re going to want to ask people that, I do all the time still. I’m like, “Who can just tell me the way to do it? Tell me what I should create. Tell me what I should call it. Tell me if people are going to like it. Tell me if this is good.”
And you can, you can ask people but you know what? The best way to find the answers to those questions is to put it out there to your people, to your market, to get it in front of the right eyes and let them tell you whether or not it’s what they want. Let them tell you if they think it’s good or not. Let them tell you if it’s the right price or the right amount of time. You know how they’ll tell you? They’ll take whatever action you’re wanting them to take.
Some of the things you’ll create will be things that you just want people to read. Some of them you’ll want them to share, or to comment on, or to subscribe to, or to give your name and email address for, or to buy. Some of them are things you’ll want them to give you money for. And if they do those things, if they take the action, if they sign up, if they share, if they like, if they pay, then you know you’re onto something. And if they don’t then you’ve got to go back and figure it out again.
We’re going to talk more about that in the future steps. But for today I want you to know that if you’re going to be a business owner you’re going to have to create things. I can’t think of a single type of small business that you would start out that would not require for you to create something. You might be creating content. You might be creating blog posts or podcasts. You might be creating images. You might be creating coupons. You might be creating guides or videos. You might be creating samples.
I don’t know. There’s so much that we get to create as entrepreneurs which is, by the way, one of the things I love about it because you know what I am? Creative. I’m not super good at the analytical, logistical, number crunching side of things. I’m good at creative things, at least I like to create. I like to experiment with it. It doesn’t always look how I wanted it to look, actually it doesn’t usually look how I wanted it to look. I can always find lots of flaws in it. But it’s fun to try to create things, it really is. It’s fun to get to take an idea and see what I can do with it.
So, output at B minus level. So, once you create something then you put it out there. You don’t just hold it on your computer until it’s good enough. Guess what? Just put it out there. It’s not going to be good at first. This is why we’re going to create it B minus level. You know what? A lot of you are going to struggle with this in the beginning. It’s okay. If you cringe when you hear me say that stay with me. Why would we create at B minus level, Jody, when we could do A level work? Well, because you’ve got a lot to do. And we don’t even know if it’s good yet.
We don’t even know if people like it. This is one of the huge traps I see entrepreneurs fall into. They want to create something and they want it to be really good. And so (a) they never put it out in the world because it’s never good enough, or they certainly aren’t putting enough out fast enough. Or (b) they spend tons of time creating it to get it to A level and then it’s not what people want anyway. And so, then they have to go back and adjust it. And so, it’s lots of wasted hours when we don’t even know if we’ve got it right yet.
So, you’re just going to create at B minus level. Listen, B minus gets it done. Whatever the thing is that you’re creating, I promise you that to your target market it looks better than B minus. It sounds better than B minus. Do you know when I record podcasts for you guys, I do not try to do A level podcast episodes. I don’t. If I were going to do A level work I would spend a lot more time planning and researching.
Some people do that, podcasting is their business model, that’s how they’re making their money. They spend lots of time editing, there’s really cool sound effects and music that comes and goes, and maybe voiceovers from people that they’re interviewing. I think of NPR podcasts like this, some of them. Those are fun. I love those podcasts. Podcasting is their business model. That’s how they make their money, off their podcast.
Podcasting for me is just a portion of my business. My business model is coaching. Podcasting just supports it, it’s just free help that helps people better understand what I do and get a little sample taste of what it’s like to work with me. So, I don’t try to make it A level, I really don’t. I make it B minus. And you know what? People tell me all the time how much they love my podcast and how much it helped them. They tell me how it changed their life, how they’ve fixed their marriage, and they’re more confident, and they’re more empowered all the time.
I can’t even tell you how often people write to me or pull me aside and tell me how it’s helped them, or their sister, or somebody they know. Awesome, I love that. It’s B minus work, it really is, I promise you. I could make it so much better. But if I did that I wouldn’t be able to produce one every week. And I wouldn’t be able to do all the other things I’m trying to do in my business. I wouldn’t be able to support my clients the way I want to support my clients. You know what? B minus gets it done. You guys don’t need this to be A level.
You don’t need special music and sound effects to get the message. When you come into my program and pay me money then we start up-leveling the quality. But even then it’s only after we’ve tested things and made sure that we’re pretty sure that we know what we want it to look like in the end. Because most of the time B minus gets it done. Listen, it does not need to be A.
Now, I’ve kind of always thought this way. Again, this whole Business Minded framework is a lot of what came naturally to me. And that is why I was able to build, I think partly why anyway, I was able to build this business. And so, I stopped and went, “Wait a second. What is it about what I do that is different from what some other people do who don’t achieve the level of success that they want to or they haven’t gotten there yet?” And that is one of the things. I’ve always kind of been a person that’s like if B minus is going to get it done then that’s good enough, let’s go.
And let’s spend our time, and resources, and energy on other things. We can do a lot more if we don’t try to do everything at A level. So, when I was in college and they would give you a syllabus, remember the syllabus? It was printed back then because I’m sure nowadays it gets emailed to you, or it’s on their website or something. But back in the day they would give you a packet and it was stapled together. And it had all the information about grades and policies and the tenants and tests.
And it often had all the assignments listed too, if there were assignments. How much each one would impact your grade. And I remember figuring out, so it looks like according to this syllabus that if I’m getting a good enough grade then I could just not even turn in that assignment, still get the grade I want. And I used to do that. I used to do math to figure out, okay, this is the grade I have now, I don’t really want to do this assignment. If I don’t do it at all or if I don’t do a very good job will I still get the grade I need in this class? And if so, great.
Now, again, I know some of you are dying right now, like my dad and mom maybe. I don’t know. I’m not saying not to do it all if you want to do it all. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be awesome for me to decide that I want the learning that would take place from doing that assignment. And so even if I could get the good grade it might be a good idea for me to do the assignment. Again, I’m not negating any of that.
I’m just saying what is your goal. If the end goal as it is in most cases in your business is to help a client. And by helping that client to get them to take a step forward in some way and ultimately that they go through whatever is your paid offer, they purchase your product, or your service, or whatever it is that you do, then you don’t need everything to be A level. Do you see what I’m saying? You just need for it to be good enough to move people through the way you’re trying to and to help people the way you’re trying to.
So do not sit around learning any longer than necessary. Do not take classes and read books any more than necessary to be able to create some work and move forward at B minus level. Output is where you will learn the most, putting work out into the world. It’s a much better teacher than any course or book you could take or read. That’s your best teacher. Your clients will tell you the answer, B minus output. Alright, let’s go on to the third part after B minus output.
The third part of the Business Minded framework is to invest time and/or money. This is again one of the biggest traps I see people fall into. They’re like, “Hey Jody, I’m publishing on Instagram. I put content out every day and I think it’s pretty good. People tell me it’s good but I’m not getting any clients.” “Hey Jody, I’ve created this coupon code, it’s a pretty great offer and I’m not getting any sales.” “Hey Jody, I created this photography package.”
“Hey Jody, I’m offering for people to come and take advantage of joining my direct sales business etc. I’m doing that, I’m putting it out there and people aren’t taking me up on it. Does that mean what I’m offering is not good?” And I say, “Maybe, but have you invested money or time?” If you have some money to invest this is the best place to invest it. You can invest money to get eyeballs on whatever it is that you’re offering. And I’m not even talking about your paid offer in most cases.
I would recommend that you invest money in getting eyeballs on your free stuff, your content, or your photos, or your social media posts, or your coupon code type offer. You have to pay money to get that in front of people.
Do you know what’s true about social media, about Instagram, and Facebook, and Twitter, and Pinterest, and YouTube and all the places where we share stuff? Those platforms are free for us to get onto and consume information. They’re even free for us to post things to but they are not free to put in front of as many people as you want. They are all pay to play. And they don’t try to hide that. They don’t owe us anything.
Some people get mad, “Their algorithm, and you just can’t, it doesn’t matter how many followers you see, they don’t see your stuff.” And I say, “Yeah, it’s fine. Pay some money to get it in front of people.” It’s an amazing way to get your stuff in front of people. You don’t have to run an ad on TV, you can if you want, but you don’t have to run an ad on TV and just hope that your people are watching. You don’t have to put it in a magazine that you hope that some of your people will read.
You can say to social media, “Put this in front of this type of person.” And that complicated algorithm is very smart at figuring out who is the type of person that has this problem, that fits this niche, that is likely to click, or likely to subscribe, or likely to buy, whatever it is we ask the ad to do. It’s super smart that’s why it’s so complicated. We don’t want it to be less complicated. We want it to be really, really good at its job, which is finding the right people. And it’s pretty inexpensive to do relative to all the other forms of marketing that we’ve known up until the last 10 years or so.
So, if you pay money you can get eyeballs on your stuff. In the Business Minded program that we’ll be launching next month I am going to walk you through how to do that. There’s lots of people that are teaching that. It does require you learning a little bit but it’s well worth it.
Now, if you don’t have money to invest or you have maybe limited funds, which is how I was in the beginning. I’m like, “I have a little bit of money to put into this but not very much.” Then you need to be willing to invest time. Time can mean a lot of things. It might mean your time to actually create the product.
So, for example, if I have the money to pay a graphic designer to design my PDF guide I’m going to give away then I can do that and it will save me time. Or I can invest time in designing it myself and it will probably take me longer because I’m not a graphic designer. And so, figuring out the software, and making it look good just might take me just a little bit longer than it would take a designer. So, I can either invest time or I can invest money.
Another way that investing time comes in is if I only have a little bit of money to put in it or no money to put in and getting eyeballs on it. Then it’s going to take longer for it to get in front of people. There are what we call organic ways to get eyeballs in front of it, meaning take advantage of get some engagement on your posts. Try to guest post or guest blog for other people on their social media, or their blog, or go onto their podcasts or whatever. All of that helps, it just takes a lot longer than paying money to get it in front of people.
So, when people say to me, “I’m doing this thing, I’m putting it out there, no one seems to be taking me up on it.” I’m like, “Well, how much money have you put into it to getting eyeballs on it?” It’s what we call driving traffic, “And/or how much time have you given it?” And if you haven’t given it a pretty significant amount of both, then I don’t really know if it’s viable or not. We’ve technically put it out into the world, we haven’t really because people don’t just trip and fall onto your free content. People don’t just accidentally stumble upon you in most cases. A little bit of that.
Again, algorithm will help a little bit with that on social media, or Google might help with that in a Google search, or their friend might tell them about you. That’s just the slow road, referrals, all of that kind of organic traffic just takes longer, which is fine. We don’t need to be in a rush. You just have to know this is going to take longer, I need to get it in front of enough of a sample size that I feel like I have enough information to make decisions about whether this is good or needs to be adjusted.
So again, back when I started my business you guys, I didn’t have money to pay, or I chose not to spend money I should say to pay somebody to design a website for me. I could have come up with the money, it would have had to come out of my family budget, would been a sacrifice for us. I chose not to do that. I chose to build my own website. It was not pretty. There’s actually a photo of it, you’ll see a screenshot of it in the Business Minded course that’s coming out next month if you choose to join me, you’ll see, my first website, I built it myself.
I used a drag and drop website builder. And it was fine. It was maybe C level work, maybe even C minus, but you know what? It was fine. It communicated to people what they needed to know. It was good enough. Like I said, the little bit of money I did have, I think I invested about a couple hundred dollars a month into Facebook Ads, Facebook/Instagram. Back then it was just Facebook. That’s where I put my money.
I created free content. It was very B minus level for sure because I wasn’t good at making videos yet. I was editing my own videos. I was recording my own videos. I still do a lot of it on my own but back then I was doing way more of it on my own. And I was new at it. So, in the beginning when you’re new at things, some of you aren’t new in your businesses, but if you are, or if you’re trying something new, expect that you’re not going to be great at it. It’s okay, the only way to get better is just to do it.
So, I was creating videos. What else did I give away? It was mostly I was doing videos, they’re just kind of the easiest thing for me to create that I feel can add value to people really quickly. And I built my own website. And I ran a Facebook Ad. I figured out how to do it. And I put a couple hundred dollars in a month. And then I was willing for it to take some time. And it did but not that long because here is the thing. If you put a couple hundred dollars in then again, depending on what you sell, you might only need one or two paying clients to come along to make up the cost of that.
And everything that I made, not everything, but a lot of what I made, majority of what I made I reinvested back into the business. So, if I got a client come in and pay me then I used that money to run more Facebook Ads, to get more eyes in front of the free things I was offering that got people into what we call a funnel. We’ll get all into that in Business Minded. But that’s it, that’s all I did. You guys, I promise you, what I was doing was not great.
In fact, I watched the first freebie video that I gave away, I went back and watched it the other day, I was like, “Oh my goodness, this is pretty bad.” I mean it is compared to where I am now. I’ve gotten a lot better. But do you know what? It didn’t matter because people would see it.
And some people would ignore it but some people would go, “Gosh, what you said there really resonated for me. I could really relate to that. It was really powerful.” They didn’t care that I looked awkward and felt insecure. They didn’t care that it wasn’t edited super well. They were like, “Your message is powerful.” And whatever your product, or your service is, or your message is, I promise you, if it’s powerful it doesn’t matter. If you’re just starting out and you don’t have the resources to make everything A level, you don’t need to. Please don’t do that.
I see people sometimes who do have those resources, who create beautiful websites, and beautiful opt-ins, and beautiful things and they spend lots of time and lots of money and then nobody wants it sometimes, or not enough people want it. It’s not quite right. People aren’t moving forward and then we have to go redo it all. It’s terribly heartbreaking because we start to fall in love with our stuff when we put that much time into it. And then it’s a shame when we have to ditch it. But also, it’s just not a good use of your time. Do you see what I’m saying?
B minus work, invest money where you can, but be willing to invest time as well. Alright you guys, so there you go, we’ve got three parts of the Business Minded framework. There are three more to come. So again, make sure you’re following the podcast so you don’t miss them, but they’re coming out on Tuesdays through the summer. I’m going to keep talking business and we’re going to open up Business Minded which is my business coaching program that I am so excited about.
We’ll be opening in August, so best way to make sure you don’t miss it is to get onto jodymoore.com/business, sign up for the interest list and I will see you then. Take care. Have a great week everyone.
Thanks for joining me today. Don’t forget to sign up at jodymoore.com/business so you don’t miss out on any of the exciting things I have coming to help you achieve your business goals.
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