Are you taking enough time to ask yourself who you need to be in order to scale that business? And then what is that role you want to play once it does scale? This is your Bad Astronie Podcast. I am Terrine Walsh, serial entrepreneur, growth strategist, executive leadership coach, and best-selling author.
Each week, I will bring you a guest or thought that will help you align what you love with what you do in order to build that badass life and business you dream of. Welcome everybody to another episode of your Bad Astronie Podcast. Today is an episode direct to you. I love these segments that I've been doing on taking a coaching moment either with a guest that's been on the show or from my coaching practice or even just one of my talks that I do with other entrepreneurial groups or leadership groups, whatever that looks like.
But it's been so much fun to take moments from that and elaborate them on them for you because I'm finding the feedback from that. You're getting a lot of value out of it, which I am all about that value exchange. And one of the ways that I love to see that value is impacting you. And when I get a message back from you that you've had impact from one of these episodes, that is what fills my heart and makes me feel that you are returning that value to me by applying it in your world and sharing it with me.
So thank you for listening and subscribing and sharing your feedback with me. I would love to jump into today's episode because it is all about what do you need to do to authentically scale your business? What does scaling even mean? How do we dive into it?
And the reason why it's today's topic is that Lindsey Schwartz in our last episode had that question. She's on the cusp of massive scaling because she has been building amazing brand and community and products and services that really speak to her ideal clients that she's looking at different ways to scale and make sure that she's serving every single one of them in the best way possible. So in case you didn't hear that episode yet, let me just recap it for you. I'm going to share a small segment of it here today where she asks her questions and you'll hear some of my response.
And then I will elaborate on it after you listen to the next few minutes. So here we go. Look, I know you are the queen when it comes to scaling and like creating a vision and architecting it to become as big as it's meant to be. And I think for me, this vision was never even something that I had in my wildest imagination.
So I'm truly just letting it intuitively unfold. And I get the sense that it's really meant to be something big. I don't know what big means, but I what I also know to be true is that I would probably be the only thing to get in the way of that, but not truly understanding how to I know how to grow something organically, but then to really add fuel to the fire and scale in a way that's going to take more than just me. I am always open to any tips when it comes to that part of the journey, because I think we're about to head into some serious momentum and just making sure that I'm ready as the leader of this mission to do what it takes to support that kind of growth.
Together there. Yeah, when you define scaling, like what are the words you use? What a scaling means to you? Yeah, I think that part is still unclear about how it's supposed to look exactly.
But I think it means offerings that can scale. So meaning I've got a couple of offerings right now where people can work with me one on one. That doesn't scale, obviously. We've got a few surprises in the works that I told about you about offline that are programs that are more scalable.
So I think it's in offerings and then just also audience growth, kind of our footprint out there in the world, having people know and be a part of what it is that we're doing, whether it's podcast, social media, etc. Is everything you offer though it does require your time to show up in it? Currently, yes. But like I said, things in the works.
Yeah, the scaling model is which is awesome. I think it's a great question only because where I always lean to as a coach advisor to startups as well as people who are even just designing what the ultimate vision is. That's what I always talk about. What's the ultimate?
And the ultimate is really a capture of right now what you believe the end point could look like. And because you have grown organically, which is beautiful and it has its own model to it. What I would suggest is always self-evaluating where do you want to be spending your time in your business and where are you growing to next? So we can always get caught up in the how we do things and more offerings, create something new, put this out there, test it, see what the response is.
But are you checking in to say, I want to be known for X and I want to be standing in X doing these things. So if I show up in my day and all I'm doing every day is talking to potential new business owners that are going to come into our community and get served like and just constantly build that funnel and do the attraction of the brand and the business, etc. Then it's a question of well, who else do you need to stand alongside you to actually scale that to give you that time to go do it? But then also know that way you said you're like a mama bear.
So you know your operations better be tight and everybody better come correct if they are going to be managing your business on your behalf and servicing your clients on your behalf that it is defined by your corporate culture. They know what they're stepping into. They align to that culture and they are the ones that actually help you scale. Scaling does not happen alone.
You're always killing with a team of experts in their field in the areas that you could care less about you just need to know about. Right? So when you think about scaling, so it's going to be like an exercise you do for yourself is like truly define what the scaling mean. Because if you're not clear on that end destination of now this business is at scale, then you're still just throwing things out there to say does this work, does this not work, and this fits, this doesn't fit, and not necessarily able to charter a plan to scale and grow.
So if you're clear on that, if you do the work to get clear on like what the scaling mean, is that like four events a year, five different masterminds, six groups, ultimate vision, what kind of impact? If you're impacting a million women in the next five years, and that's at scale, what does that look like? And then you ask the question like, who do I need to be and what role do I want to play in that structure? Because then action, again, we can always figure out the how.
You have the resources of the how at your fingertips with your community. You got like powerhouse women ready to bounce. So it's really getting that clarity on the vision of what scaling means to you. I love it.
So so so good. Well, I'm grateful to have women like you as part of my life and my girl gang as I call it, because that that truly is how I know we're going to get there. So you see how I jumped into first defining what scaling means to you? It is so important when you are figuring out what's next for yourself and your business is to not only ask the question of where do you want the business to go, which always should 100% relate to what are your clients asking for in order to then figure out the additional lines of business or complimentary services to provide or however you do what's next for them, or you're just garnering that same market over and over again and continuing that service.
But number one is really trying to cast that vision of what a scaled business model looks like. But the secondary question that I always work with my clients on, which is the one that generally gets missed, because you can figure out business models on how to scale and elaborate your growth and make sure that your clients are coming back to you over and over and over again for multiple versions of service or different complimentary services, whatever that looks like. You can always add new business channels. But the number one question that a lot of people forget to ask is who do you need to be in order to scale that business?
And what is the role you want to play in that size of company? When we look to scale or have that as a focus, and some people use monetary value as a methods of scale, number of clients as another measurement of scale, markets that you're entering as another measurement of scale, what gets forgotten, because that's all about the doing, right? Like if you do certain things, you'll attract that number, you'll hit that measurement. But what you forget to do is really ask yourself, who do I need to be in order to scale this business?
And what is the role that I want to play once I actually hit that? So that you are getting out of your own way in order to achieve that scalable model, in order to achieve those goals, and not feel so bogged down with all the doing or jumping into tasks that really aren't who you are anymore. And that in itself will hinder the growth of your business. How many times have you gone through a part of running something in your business, or even in your career where it starts to feel stale, or even too much overwhelmed, or you even lost the identity of who you are in that work?
That is the number one way to fail at scaling is to hit that wall and not do anything about it, not do the assessment on self to say, this is where I should be spending my time. Yeah, maybe I wanted to scale, but I really didn't want to have to do these activities of operations or accounting or even the sales process. That's not me. That's not who I want to be.
I just want to reach more people and get my service out there and attract more clients. But I want to play this role. This is my zone of genius. This is where I want to stand in it.
This is what I want to be known for. Are you taking enough time to ask yourself who you need to be in order to scale that business? And then what is that role you want to play once it does scale? It's critical if you're going to scale in an authentic, sustainable way to ask yourself that question as a leader of your business and be honest.
Because maybe your business at scale is not where you want to be spending your time. For example, I had the privilege of meeting Drew Connell, who's the CEO of Organifi. If you know that product line is an amazing one. We're at the start.
He was in the grind of his business to get his product line out there. And then quickly, he would do the work to focus on himself, to become the greatest version of himself, and consistently question is where he's spending time in his business aligned with who he wants to be as a leader of this business. Or is he missing out on giving someone else that opportunity in order for them to shine in that role so that he can go shine in the role he wants to play as a leader of his business? There's a great conversation I had with him.
This was a few months back. And it was beautiful because it was awesome to see an actual leader who has scaled his business tremendously in the natural and organic food and supplement space to really stand in his scalability in an authentic way because he was checking in with himself often. He was consistently growing in his role to make room for other people to step into what he no longer needed to do in his business, but still needed to get done and become the version of a leader and owner of a business that he wanted to be in order to scale it way past anything he ever imagined because he got out of his own way. So I bring this topic to you because if you are in that mode of looking at ways to scale your business, yes, of course, I have strategies on how you scale your business.
I look at people process tech, but leadership is always in the middle because if as a leader, you don't know what it takes to scale and you're not asking yourself these hard questions around who do I need to be and who do I want to be. Once I achieve that ultimate vision, then you're not chartering a path that's going to feel authentic and aligned to who you are. And you will be the reason why your business does not hit certain goals you map out because you may need to face yourself in the mirror and realize, oh, I actually never really wanted the role at scale and maybe I want to exit and sell it. Let someone else scale this and I'll just reap the benefits for being the founder.
Or I really just like my intimate business that makes me enough income every year. And I am perfectly happy managing my business at this level because I am who I've always wanted to be. I am who I want to be known for, but just be real about it. You don't have to always be push, push, push, push to achieve more.
The goal is to do the things that fill you up the most and then apply that to the models of scale and allow other people to step into it as they need to. You can't scale alone. I'll tell you that right now and I shared it with my segment with Lizzie as well. But you can definitely do the self-reflective work to decide what scaling means to you and then map out not only your business plan for growth, but your personal plan for growth and leadership in order to achieve it.
If you want to achieve it faster and in an authentic way. So what are the steps you can take in order to know that if you're on that cusp of scaling or putting a new product line out there to make sure you're doing it in an authentic way, it's to check in with yourself first. So asking yourself after you've mapped out your ultimate vision, which you guys know I share that exercise in my SLP workbook. So go ahead and grab that if you don't have your copy.
But you do your ultimate vision and you'll see even in that workbook, I ask the questions of who do you need to be in order to stand in that vision and get super clear on that as well so that you can map out who you need for help, who you need to service it for you, how you need to put a team together in order to hit that ultimate vision. If I think about my ultimate vision and my ultimate what I'm trying to achieve for myself, it is the ease of every day showing up into gifting people with whatever dynamic skill they need for me in order for them to achieve their goals, in order for them to feel their best every single day. I can do that at scale and continue to build my seven figure business into eight figures, nine figures and just continue to scale that out. But I'm also right now one person that needs to build it in a way that operationalizes without me having to be involved and where I can be selective of my time involvement in that business.
So I have to map out that plan for me, which I do. I don't share anything with you that I don't do myself in order to get out of my own way and let certain things go and not be so controlling or figure out and ask myself is this really direction I want to go with this particular business? Or is that something that I can apply to one of my other businesses and keep this as is because this is fulfilling enough? That self reflection is so key as you're scaling your business in order to really get to that next level, you have to be growing yourself as well.
So that's how you scale your business in an authentic way is to face yourself in that model. And if you're unclear and unsure about how you go about mapping out your personal growth plans or just reach out, that's my gift thing and I'm happy to help you make that plan. But I just wanted to bring that awareness to you today to ask yourself that simple question of who do I need to be in order to stand in that ultimate vision of my life and my business and journal on that for a while. Share your feedback with me of what you took away from today's episode because I know I got you thinking, especially if you are charting towards those big goals that I know you have and that big vision that you deserve and everything you want in life matters.
So go after it. But no, I'm always here walking alongside you and I hope today's episode added some value into your life and it's just an honor to be a part of your badass journey. I'll see you in the next episode. Wasn't that such a great episode?
I know you got amazing takeaways from that. What I would love for you to do for me if you can help me extend my reach is go ahead and subscribe to the show so you get the latest notification and listen before anyone else. Also, if you could go ahead and post your review, your five star review will help me get other people interested in this conversation and extend my reach of impact. Most of all, I would love for you to share this with your community.
It means so much to me to have you as a listener and I would love to connect with you. So if you have any questions you would like me to answer on the show, go ahead and email hello at karenwalsh.com and my team will make sure that I get your questions so we can get them answered on the show for you. Thank you so much for listening today and I'll see you on the next episode.