when you're in something and let's say it's not operating the way you want to, or you've outgrown it, like it no longer fulfills you or serves you, etc. How do you gracefully exit? How do you put the strategy together for the exit? This is your Badass Journey podcast.
I am Kereen 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 bad ass life and business you dream of. Hey there listeners, welcome to another episode of your Badass Journey podcast. I decided that most episodes here in December are going to be about preparing you for 2021.
The reason why is that it's how I actually operate this time of year. I am constantly thinking about how do I want to close out 2020? What do I want to leave in 2020? What do I want to take with me for 2021?
And then what do I want to focus on in 2021 that will make things easier for me, more fulfilling, make me excited about waking up every day and doing it? How can I leave better? How can I expand my reach? All the questions of the what's next?
And it's what I do in my business growth mastery program and coaching for other entrepreneurs. I figured I'll give you some tidbits through the podcast so that you can leverage them in your business or as you're managing your professional life, your career, as well as integrating what you love with what you do every single day. So the topic for today is something that when I bring it up with my clients, especially this happened in my business growth mastery workshop, I asked the question of how do you plan to exit your business? Do you ever focus on starting something and then thinking how you're going to exit it?
Most people focus on the start and the doing and don't really have a lens on, well, how do I actually get out of this thing? What happens if I grow it, go past it, really want to step into something next? What do I do with this that I have created? And in certain circumstances, especially working with entrepreneurs who are just now launching their startup or trying to think about the impact they want to have or scale their business, asking the question, well, what does exiting it look like helps you actually define why you're in it in the first place, but also what you need to do to really create the container of your business, as well as your stance in it to leave it where it needs to be once you've outgrown it.
So I know there's a lot of words. What the hell is Kari talking about? Let's break it down. So I am a thinker, I'm an operational thinker.
I've always been someone who has a very expansive view, but I'm also looking at how things operate around me so that I can navigate and maneuver with ease in any environment that I go into. The number one thing I look at, so if you put me in an environment like a restaurant, let's say, I always look to see where all the exits are. I always make sure I have a navigation path out of there if I need to get out and I understand where the bathrooms are, which to me is support. It's like if I need the bathroom, I need to know where it is.
And then I'm observing everybody and how they operate in that environment. But the exit piece, the looking for exits as soon as you enter is something I realize that is a bit unique in thinking. It's a unique approach to constantly think about how the hell do I get out of this? Once I'm in it.
So I don't know if that's me and my survival skills, probably growing up on the East Coast, making sure I always had my guard up when I walked around, making sure that if I needed to get out of a confined situation or there was a threat in the air that I could exit operationally, I think that's where it started from a natural approach. But then if I look back at my history, I had exposure to building systems and frameworks to assist a business in staying up and running. If there had a threat to the system came or shut down of a certain, let's say, data center, we called it business resumption planning. And I think that is where the conditioning of thinking about how you respond, how you exit, how you move forward came from such a young part of my career because I was exposed to thinking that way.
And it actually fed into the side of me that was thinking that way naturally for my own personal care, I learned how to then apply it to businesses. But what's I got to do with you, right? What I'm trying to show you is the perspective of when you're in something and let's say it's not operating the way you want to, or you've outgrown it, like it no longer fulfills you or serves you, et cetera. How do you gracefully exit?
How do you put the strategy together for the exit? Now, why does that matter? If you focus on an exit strategy as you're starting something new, so we're in the work we do together and throw all my workshops, et cetera, and my coaching framework, we talk about your vision. The first thing is dreaming big and you and I have talked to this before and you know, I'm going to kick that off in January as you guys are planning for 2021 to get super clear on what you want out of 2021.
Well, we dream big and you have this vision and you get that down on paper, you put together your vision boards, you're really clear on what you want it to be. Then I asked the question, what's the ideal exit strategy for this business? Do you want to sell it? Are you looking to have it die with you?
Do you want it to be acquired and create a residual income from it? Because you created that project, that business, that product, whatever that look like, are you just going to shut it down? Like there's so many different ways to think about exit, but it gives you a reality on that vision that this is something tangible that you will accomplish. Now, how do you want to leave it?
Is it a legacy business? Is it something that you want your family members to take on and continue to have well through what you've created? It helps create the strategies of how you construct the business because that you will always have that exit in mind. So as you are designing what you plan for 2021 and get your vision together, I just challenge you to also ask how do you want to exit it?
And if you are sitting in something that you built and created or sustained in 2020 that does not fill you up anymore, these are the questions to ask. It's how would I like to exit this? I just worked on this with a client of mine that has a thriving medical practice in California. And they have created an amazing way of servicing their client base and they kind of outgrown that model.
Like they just built it to the point where it's successful. They themselves don't want to be the practitioners in it anymore. So we just started focusing on their exit strategy. What does that look like?
What's the ideal? Do they want to shut it down? We go, we talk through it all. Do you want to shut it down and close it out?
Do you want to sell it for someone else to benefit from and you get a little bit of a kickback for all your hard work? Would you like it to be acquired? But there's so many different ways to move forward and they got to dialogue, decide upon as partners and business to determine their next steps. What's great about this exercise that they've done now is that as they're doing this, they're trying to make room for a whole new business structure.
They're looking to launch. Now they have the mindset of, yes, I want to do this next best thing and it's going to be awesome for a period of time. How do I want to exit that so that they're going into it, creating the framework to make the exit in the future so much easier to manage? So this is the topic I wanted to bring to you today because I think it is something that we overlook and that if you were to just sit with it and say, how do I want to exit this?
See what comes up. Is, are you building what you're building because of just the dire need right now? And then what happens when you hit your ultimate vision? How are you going to move into that next stage?
Because I know some of you listening had a very successful year. You had the businesses that were in high demand and that might have stretched you because you felt necessary to show up in that way, but it might not be what fills you up anymore and maybe you're outgrowing it. So don't hesitate to start thinking about your exit strategy and making that part of your goals for the year to come to put it in action. And exit does not have to mean abandon.
It is a strategy for you to grow into the next level of yourself. So if you've outgrown what you've been doing and exit means closing out this chapter, starting the next one, embrace it, lean into it, design it and step into it. You deserve it. This is your life to lead.
And I'm sure whatever you plan on next is what you are meant to be doing because those silent whispers telling you, what about this? What about this? Let's go do this. Are the messages for you to grow into the next version of yourself.
I hope you found today's episode helpful. And as you have questions, you know, I love to hear from you. So feel free to reach out and continue to ask your questions so I can answer them through the show and bring on new guests in the new year to assist you in achieving that bad ass life and business that I know you are capable of. I'll see you in the next episode.
Wasn't that such a great episode? I know you got amazing takeaways from that. But I would love for you to do for me. If you can help me extend my reach, 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 this show, go ahead and email hello at karaonwalsh.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.