What is Essential for Thanksgiving and Moving Forward? Gratitude and Assessment

Thanksgiving is the time of year to reflect on what we are grateful for. Even though life as a small business owner has many challenges, the contribution your offerings make to your clients’ lives is enormous. I am thankful for you and for allowing me to be a part of your journey.

 It is indeed a crazy time, and there is a lot to navigate. I feel like the essential skills necessary are to live in gratitude, manage our emotions and behaviors, and take a real hard assessment of where we are, where we want to go, and what it will take to get there. 

In March, when we all got word, we knew the world was no longer the world it was. I was sitting in my office reassessing my own next steps when I received a call from a woman who was booked solid for delivering training and talks. In the past ten years, she has spoken in 14 countries and is committed to providing her audience with the knowledge they need, more now than ever. She was literally put out of business or, better said, stopped in her tracks. She went to a networking meeting and put out the word about who she was looking for, and guess what? Someone said you need to talk to Shelly Berman-Rubera. I am proud and grateful to say that Bonnie Low-Kramen chose to work with me to bring her company virtual. This began a fantastic business development journey of successfully pivoting.

Bonnie said she was looking for marketing and a sales funnel for her online executive assistant training course. I looked at the scope of the work and had to be honest with her about what I saw was the difference between what she WANTED and what saw she NEEDED.

On May 26th Bonnie hired me with a strong initiative.  She wanted to launch her online course on July 16th!  I said, “Bonnie, can we reassess the time frame? This is way too big a project for July 16th.” She said, “No way. The assistants need me, and I need to be there for them. We have to launch.”

I went to work, assessing where we were, where we were headed, and what we need to do to get there.  Most business owners are way too busy working on their business and delivering products or services. They don’t have the time, energy, and often the resources to take care of the business’s foundational and operational needs. It is essential to understand how the brand/persona shows up, what the website is doing and saying, and very importantly, what’s the buyers’ journey, and does it lead to sales? 

I pulled together a big picture strategy and called Bonnie. Bonnie, “What you have going on and what you are planning is way bigger than you, and this is way bigger than me. Do I have your permission to get the right people in the right place and build our team to make this happen? Are you ready to run down nine roads at the same time?”

What were the roads?

1. Foundational signature and LinkedIn
2. New branding and brand images
3. Totally new website
4. Course sales page, affiliate page, production, etc.
5. Email strategy
6. Two virtual 2-day event
7. Pre-sales
8. Sales and Marketing
9. A lot of content writing

Bonnie said yes to the investment of work, the time, and the money. Off we went to strategically execute and give birth to a whole new way of doing business. It started with basic things like her email signature (Wisestamp). We were going to be doing a lot of outreach, so the email signature had to be contemporary and spiffy, say what it is, and offer a place for potential students and clients to schedule (Acuity). We must make it easy to engage. While this may seem foundational and elementary, we often do not think about the seemingly little things when we are so busy working.

Next, we looked at her LinkedIn profile. I gave her a customized formula, and we revamped the LinkedIn profile. Your LinkedIn profile will likely come before your website in a google search, so the power of LinkedIn is incredible, and the ability to network within LinkedIn is even better.

We revamped an email outreach campaign, launched the sales page and course, and yes, all on deadline.  Her website was then launched on schedule later that summer.

It was a small business miracle…

We sold 46 courses in pre-sale and SOLD OUT her two-day virtual event.

14 weeks. We did it. Send stretchers!

This virtual pivot success story can happen to all business owners, speakers, and thought leaders. 

If you can resonate with Bonnie’s problem, you might find this assessment helpful. This is the assessment I took Bonnie through, and now it’s your turn.

We’ll go through some questions like, “What do I want vs. What do I need?” “What does my client need right now?” “What’s my 30 day strategy?”. We’ll find you help and trusted resources. I can help you find the team you need to get the job done on time and efficiently.

Do not be frightened by the amount of work involved to make your dreams come true. That’s why we need a team. The value of working with a strategist is to be able to get beyond the wanting and move to how we can get there. It is hard work, but the effort we put into business strategy and tactically building our offerings is what makes running a business effectively the exact vehicle for delivering you!

I wish you a safe, healthy, and peaceful Thanksgiving.

With Warm Regards,

Shelly