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Episode 117: Two Types of Business Person

This episode is for you if you are starting out in your business and you really want to make it work, and you are getting ready for success but you are not sure how to make it happen.

In this episode I will give you a couple of idea on how to get it right from the get-go so you don’t compare yourself with others or beat yourself up, or feel frustrated by your blocks. There are reasons you feel like this and have these blocks. What I cover today will help you get really clear on this.

In my experience, there are two main types of business people, and therefore two types of ways to run a business.

When you know which type of person you are you are more easily going to find your best way of doing business, and follow a straight line to getting there.

Imagine yourself realising that you are a certain type of person, and a certain way of doing business is going to work best  for you and you can just follow that path instead of wishing you were like somebody else. Imagine what that would be like.

The Concept Of Knowing Yourself

As a coach, you need to develop and consistently work on self awareness. You need to know yourself. This is really important in the context of running a business – what you offer your clients you need to be doing for yourself.

Two Types of Business People

As I discuss these, you might start to identify traits and decide that you are more one than the other, or you might be a blend of the two. You might start to get some clues about what you need to do to succeed in your business.

If you’re interested in learning more, take my free quiz on business personality types.https://melaniejwhite.com/business-personality-quiz/

Or, Gretchin Rubin’s Four Tendencies Quiz:  https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/four-tendencies-quiz/ 

Type 1: Influencer, Self Starter, Entrepreneur, and a Questioner

This type of person is self motivated, and intrinsically motivated. Their motivation to do do business comes from within themselves.

These people are often extroverted, well networked, and often leaders. They love being in contact will lots of people and being the driving force for groups and movements, even if they are on the introverted side.

These types of personality traits tend to be very successful in their own right, and rarely rely on others to get things done. They do get help – they are the type to build a team around them. Importantly, they have that internal drive, they are driven to bring their idea to the world.

Understanding who you are is the first step to understanding what you need to do to succeed in your business.

The main challenges that these people face might be a lack of structure, or booking keeping, or being bogged down in over-analytical thinking. But they know they need to hire or involve people to do things for them. They may actively seek out a coach as a vehicle to overcoming the obstacles to their success.

If this sounds like you, you probably have a good chance of succeeding, assuming you have a valid business idea.  You may need to get some people to support you, but know that you are master of positioning promoting and being seen.

The great thing about you is that and your personality type and traits is you have a captive audience, and it’s easy for you get to know people you want to work with.

Type 2: Supporter, Manager, Obligor

The manager type may be a little more introverted and is typically quite organised. They don’t like being in the limelight or being seen in a leadership role. The may feel exhausted about networking or connecting with people/

If you are this type of person you may not be intrinsically motivated, you may not be as much of a strategic thinker, which means that you may struggle with a business vision that excites you.

If you are an Obligor type, your ability to make change or pick up habits, probably hinges on being able to do things for the benefit of others. If you are this type, you may need accountability to get ahead and succeed in your business.

This type is often not willing to ask for help or feel as though they should be able to do it on your own.

If you aren’t intrinsically motivated or can’t create a strategic vision for your business, then your success might be more difficult or might take you longer to achieve. But don’t worry – you might just need to learn to ask for help – especially when it comes to marketing.

I’ve seen this time and time again, and the ones who do succeed have often done well in a collaborative environment.

 

What does this look like in the real world?

I know someone who is a Type 1 person, and once she understands the process of how to do specific tasks or functions, she simply schedules these things and gets on with it.

Sure she has a bit of fear in the beginning, but she just gets on to get over those initial uncomfortable first steps.

She promotes herself, she challenges herself to get uncomfortable, she puts herself out there in person and online, she meets people.

She’s such a self starter, and she’s super determined to do what it takes to succeed.

She’ll ask for help for specific things along the way but is generally very self motivated and self accountable.

Now compare that to a Type 2 person, which is probably a bit more like me. I’ve been able to build my own program and run a successful business. I do all of my own research on my target market  and get very clear on how to meet the needs of my clients while working on my pilot program.

But I will say that my success in all areas of business over the years  has happened because I’ve been in partnerships and collaborations.

I’m not always a self starter. I do have a lot of internal drive, but its not as strong as a Type 1 sort of person.

And I’m ok with that.

The great thing is that because I know myself and I know my strengths, I play to those strengths. One of my greatest strengths is my ability to find partners to leverage my strengths. I may have been able to succeed on my own, but it might have taken twice as long.

I don’t need a team, but I do like bouncing ideas off people. I like reality checking my ideas, I like peer review, and I prefer to work with someone than delegating. I prefer to work alongside with someone to make sure the work suits my needs.

You’ve identified which type you are, what next?

If you are one of these kinds of people, I want you to think carefully about what your business is going to need from here.  

Who would be on your support team?

What might you need to outsource?

Which areas are you good at, and where do you need help?

If you are a Type 1 you’re more likely to be intrinsically motivated and the way you work with people and run your business is probably going to be different to if you are a Type 2.

Importantly, you need to stop comparing yourself to others.

I invite you to settle on who you are as a person, and make peace with that. Love your unique self.

 I invite you to settle on who you are as a person, and make peace with that. Love your unique self.

Identify your strengths, work on those things. Figure out what you are good at and how you can amplify those strengths and build your business in line with that.

Find the right people to support you along the way.

All you need to do is start.

Ready to get clarity on your pathway to success?

Understanding who you are and what you need will allow your business to thrive! If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

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Episode 66: 5 Simple Ways to Increase Positivity

If you want a more enriching and fulfilling life, keep listening to learn what positivity really is and 5 ways to get more of it in your life.

What is positivity?

Before we can talk about how to increase positivity, we’d better define it. After all, some things will feel positive for me, while other things will feel positive for you.

And that being said, based on the landmark work of PhD Barbara Fredrickson, I’d like to define positivity like this:

“Positivity comes in many shapes and sizes; it is the cousin of the more hedonistic ‘pleasure’, it is based in love, and it is expressed in ten main forms”.

Positivity underpins success in any area of life and what I love about it is that it makes the journey to get there easier and sweeter.

Yes, negativity exists and has a purpose. In the Taoist sense, we could not know and appreciate positivity without its opposite, negativity.

And life was never meant to be 100% positive – but we have the capacity to improve and develop positive habits so that we can enjoy a more enriched experience of life.

Barbara Fredrickson defines ten forms or aspects of positivity:

  • Joy – relishing the bright, light feelings that come up when things feel right
  • Gratitude – the acknowledgement of all that you have
  • Serenity – the sense of peace that everything is as it should be
  • Interest – a sense of feeling engaged, fascinated and compelled to explore
  • Hope – a sense of optimism and belief that things can change
  • Pride – a sense of accomplishment of what you have said or done
  • Amusement – the freedom of laughter, sharing and connection 
  • Inspiration – the ability to transcend the ordinary and rivet attention
  • Awe – noticing goodness on a grand scale, and
  • Love – the glue that binds it all together. Love raises your levels of oxytocin, the feel good hormone, and progesterone, both of which create biological responses linked with lifelong bonds, trust and intimacy.

Researchers have created something called the Positivity Ratio, which quantifies your positive and negative emotions and gives you a tool to increase positivity in your own life.

I’ll talk about the ratio in another episode but for now, let’s explore positivity in more depth so you understand what it is and why it’s important, and some ways of building it.

Why does positivity matter?

There are lots of reasons why, but here are five great reasons I can think of. 

  • Positivity is attractive 

We love to be around people who create a positive energy and atmosphere. It helps us to relax, let our guard down and feel more engaged and connected.

  • Positivity in tribes can empower member persistence

Tribes have greater capacity to achieve more in a positive way than any individual could on their own. 

This is important when it comes to personal goals too; often people lack confidence in themselves, motivation to persist and lack the support they need to gain momentum and achieve. 

Purposeful, positive tribes can help us to stretch and grow beyond what we thought was possible because we are invested in the bigger vision. 

In a supportive tribe, we may be more likely to persist with something until we achieve it.

  • Positivity kills stress 

Without harping on the kajillions of studies out there, stress is clearly one of modern society’s biggest killers and disablers.

Yes, lower stress and more positivity can slow down aging and reduce the risk of many diseases and the bad habits that cause them.

But more immediately, being positive fosters an open, creative brain state that is essential for solving problems, making decisions, building businesses and persisting toward our desired success. 

  • Positivity improves our experience of life 

How does feeling positive impact your day to day life?

I spoke with someone recently who noticed a dozen shifts in their behaviour and experience of life as a result of being more positive.

The first shift this person mentioned was more collaborative relationships. They were able to better connect with their partner and family, with greater forgiveness, openness and without any judgement.

They felt better equipped to uphold personal boundaries and make better decisions, which in turn fostered a sense of self confidence.

They were able to be more proactive with their health and wellbeing habits.

They felt more able to take action with some of the tasks in their business that they perceived as being ‘difficult’, and which they might struggle with on a less resilient day.

  • Positivity builds resilience and an upward spiral, via the ‘broaden and build’ concept

In a nutshell, the more positivity you experience, the more positivity you will create in your life and the more resilience you’ll build.

And for anyone embarking on change – losing weight, building a business, starting a new relationship or job – resilience is about your capacity to cope and thrive.

The more positivity you experience, the more positivity you will create in your life and the more resilience you’ll build.

What Can Positivity Do For Your Business?

Positivity is vital for any business owner.

Working on your own, coping with the good and bad, juggling many roles and handling suppliers and staff, there’s a lot that can create stress, sap your energy or knock your confidence. 

Building positivity can counteract these things.

Positivity attracts people who are forward looking, who wish to change and who want to be part of something. It’s a great recipe for attracting the right clients.

Business is also a creative pursuit – and stress is the opposite of creativity. As I mentioned before, by bringing more positivity into your life, you can roll with the punches of life more easily.

5 Simple Ways to Increase Positivity

If you’re in my Habitology membership then you know we are looking at many options for increasing positivity and you are working through those this month.

I am really interested to know how this is impacting your business and your life and excited about doing this work with you.

For this podcast though, I want to share my favourite ways of increasing positivity. 

I like these because they are simple, take very little time, and they’re very effective.

1. Dispute negative thinking

This one is a no-brainer. Most of us have faulty thinking patterns that we repeat, and it is our work to notice these and turn them from emotive statements into factual statements. 

This can help us to unlearn those patterns and create healthier thinking without any drama involved. There are several ways you can do this.

2. Connect with others

Often people these days feel isolated and lonely, yet connection with others is said to be a key part in the longevity of our oldest living people across the world. 

Even if you are struggling, reaching out via a text message, phone conversation or visiting a friend can bring a sense of wellbeing and positivity.

3. Connect with nature

There is much to be said about connecting with nature; we experience awe, gratitude, serenity, inspiration and love. It facilitates mindfulness.

It is easy to do and requires no tools. This is simple and powerful.

4. Assess your media diet

Media catastrophizes everything and divides and conquers people based on opinion pieces and bias. Being selective with what you read and watch, and who you listen to, can make a massive difference to your state of mind.

5. Reconstruct your day

This is a bigger exercise but can be transformational. You write down how you spend the major chunks of time in your typical day – for example, waking, breakfast, driving to work, eating lunch, etc, and you rate your level of positivity for each of these events.

This gives you so many clues about where circumstances might conjure up negative emotions, so you can then take steps to do something about these, and to build and increase the positives that you experience.

Here are two examples.

Let’s say that you notice that you feel anxious at your weekly staff meeting because there is a difficult person who always creates tension.  You could decide to change your thinking about this person to decrease the negative emotions – for example – wondering what positives might be coming out of this, or perhaps feeling compassion for them that they are behaving like this.

On the flipside, you might also notice that you enjoy your lunch breaks outside. You could build on this positive experience by practicing mindfulness during this time, by walking and exploring the area after you’ve eaten, or perhaps to invite a friend to join you for part or all of the lunch break to increase your sense of connectedness.

In both cases you are proactively changing your attitude and experience of that time in your day to build more positivity into your life.

Summary

Ok, let’s recap what we’ve covered today.

Positivity is a recognised science that is defined by feeling a suite of 10 positive emotions. Positivity has been quantified into a measure, which I’ll talk about in another episode.

There are so many benefits that come out of increasing your positivity; but to sum it up, positivity creates more positivity in your life and a better experience of work, life, relationships and yourself.

Positivity underpins success in any area of life and it makes the journey to get there easier and sweeter.

Five simple ways to build positivity could include disputing your negative thoughts, connecting with others, connecting with nature, assessing your media diet and reconstructing your day. 

These are just a few – others like gratitude journalling and acts of kindness are things that create positivity too.

I invite you to reflect on this for yourself and ask what your life might be like if you were more positive.

If you need help to get on top of this, visit melaniejwhite.com/habitology on how you can get the help you need to become a more positive, fulfilled person.

Ready to increase positivity?

What might your life be like if you were more positive? If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here:

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Episode 45: Why Value Creates Money

If you want to know how to make money in your business you might have to think about things in a slightly different way.

This is especially the case if you come from an employment arrangement where you have been previously trading your time for an hourly wage. 

It is also the case if you think that discounting is the best way to sell your services. 

Both of these are unhelpful ways of thinking about time and money and I’m going to invite you to consider a different perspective that will help you to create more money in your business. 

Busting Two Money-Making Myths

The first myth that I want to bust is that people are paying you for your time. This is 100% false. 

What people are actually paying for is the value that you offer in your services or product that will help them get the result they want which transcends the time that they actually spend with you.

And consider this – if they get a lot of value from their session then they should be able to get the result they want and continue to get that result long after that session is over.

It’s the same for a product. Let’s say that I spent $9 99 on a plunger. The value is not in just the plunger it is in the unblocked sink or toilet that I can get with that plunger. I’m buying long term solutions – not a piece of rubber with a bit of wood attached.

The second myth is that discounting is a good pricing strategy for a service based business. In about 99% of cases it’s not. It’s ok if you’re a big warehouse selling mass-produced products. 

Considering that your aim is to sell value, not time, the quickest way to train your customers to value service is to price appropriately. 

Discounting your services simply serves to diminish the value of what you do, and as a pricing strategy, it trains people to think less of what you do. 

It’s really important that you understand the value of what you do because time is a finite resource and yet money is infinite. 

In other words, if you deliver a lot of value then the money you can make transcends the time that you spend on delivering that value.

What Does Value Look Like?

Considering that it’s value that brings in money, not time, you want to maximise the value of what you offer.

To make this happen, you must believe in what you do and know the results you can create.

Here’s an example of what value looks like in a coaching business. 

Let’s say you do a session with a client, and they have a massive epiphany that could transform some part of their life and or last many years.

I had a coaching client once show up to her second session after working on her vision and her why. The first thing she said was “That vision created lightbulbs for me. I lost 110 kg this week. I realised most of my problems come from a toxic relationship I’ve been in for many years and now I’ve broken up with that person and I’m finally free.”

That conversation happened in 2015, and that client lost 10kg through her coaching program and has maintained that. She is also much happier and making choices that support her in other areas of life.

Do you think she cares about what she paid for the coaching sessions? What she self-discovered is still delivering value to this day.

If a client like that was to refer someone to me, she’d talk about her amazing transformation and the result she got. She would never say, ‘the sessions only cost $80!’

Value has longevity and it is almost immeasurable.

Time is valuable but for a different reason, it’s finite. The only way to make money based on time is to charge a very high hourly rate – or to leverage your time through working with groups or selling memberships or DIY programs.

The message is this – if you think about hours for dollars and being cheap enough, so will your clients. If you think about the value of what you do, so will your clients.

 If you think about hours for dollars and being cheap enough, so will your clients. If you think about the value of what you do, so will your clients.

How to Create Value

Now that we’ve talked about value as the commodity that you’re actually selling in your business, let’s talk about how to create value. 

Just like beauty,value is in the eye of the beholder.

There are four things that you can do to create value in your coaching business.

The first thing you can do is to become a good coach through good old fashioned practice. 

This means being totally present with your client, making space for them to discover their own answers, hearing what they really need and letting them drive the agenda.

The second thing you can do is to surprise and delight your client by drip feeding them useful resources to help them to learn, become more self-aware and facilitate change.

I call this, know content, grow content, and change content.

These could include blogs you’ve written articles you found, recipes, podcasts or any other sort of thing that will help them to learn more, generate hope or solve a micro problem. 

When you unexpectedly send them a useful article (something that boosts self-awareness or helps them problem-solve), or a cheerleader text, or a surprise gift, your client will feel you truly want to help them and will feel a sense of value in what you do. 

The third thing to do is to think of your services in terms of the value you offer, and to ONLY talk to people about it in that sense.

The fourth thing to do is to stop trying to convince people to buy from you. If you can help your clients get a result that they desperately want, they will find the money. 

If they can’t see the value, it could mean one of two things: firstly, maybe you didn’t position the value right. Or secondly, they are not ready to buy right now, or to buy from you. In that case, you can go back to your messaging, or target a different type of client.

Your clients are actually incredibly resourceful. I have had clients say they’re saving up to work with me. This communicates that they see the value in the result they can get, and it is more important to them than either time or money.

A coach I know once tried to sell a $600 coaching program and the client said they didn’t have the money. The very next day, the client bought a musical instrument for….$600. What does that say about their perception of value, or perhaps, their readiness to change?

So to recap, the four things you need to do to create value are: 

  1. Practice your coaching or craft to become good at it, 
  2. surprise and delight your clients, 
  3. talk about the results you create, not the cost, and 
  4. remember that clients are resourceful if they want something badly enough.

Ready to earn money for value?

You can shape the way your work is valued. If you’re truly ready to break old habits and get out of the rut I encourage you to check out the Habitology membership.

Learn more here: