What’s Your Business Personality, And What Does It Have To Do With Running And Managing Your Business?

In today’s blog, I share about my belief that in order to be successful, and save time, you need to consider that your business is an extension of yourself.

Ask most entrepreneurs about their list of “day job” complaints and most of them will talk about fulfilment, making a difference, flexibility so that they can spend more time with their kids and maybe money. What they won’t say—even though they definitely feel it—is that working for someone else means they have to abide by that person’s rules. And not just when it comes to vacation planning and clock punching.

When you work for someone else, you are required to abide by their rules in all things.

… Staff writers work the stories they are assigned—whether they’re interested in the subject or not.

… Sales persons represent the product lines the company offers, regardless of other, better options.

… Teachers follow an approved curriculum—never mind that students have been shown to learn better with a more updated system.

Not only that, but when you have a day job, you must conform to the company culture as well. Christmas parties may not be optional, even for a true introvert. Open doors may be policy, even if you work best in absolute quiet. And that when earplugs become your best friends… 😉

So, you leave the corporate world behind.

Finally, you’re going to run your business your way!

But then, doubts begin to creep in…  

… You see that super successful coach and she’s always dressed beautifully and perfectly made up, so you begin to think you have to look like that, too.

… Or you follow another well-known business owner who is continually encouraging you to outsource everything, so you can work just a handful of hours each week.

… Or maybe you stumble across a coach who insists that they only way to grow your following is through live, on camera webinars.

… Or you follow another well-known entrepreneur who swears that the way to grow your business is through public speaking.

Suddenly, all that freedom you envisioned starts to feel pretty restrictive.

Your business is no longer your own—or so you think.

Here’s what you need to remember:

This is your business,
and you get to run it your way.

Yep! It’s that important that I’m bolding it out and making this stand out! 🙂

But First You Have To Know What That Means.

For so many of us, we’ve spent so much time trying to conform to what we think is expected of us, that it’s nearly impossible to know what we really want. And not only do we not know what we want, but we don’t know what makes us…

• Work most efficiently and effectively
• Happiest and most fulfilled
• Most comfortable when it comes to working with others

Figure those things out, and you’ll love your business as much as you thought you would when you sat down in your home office for the very first time. Even better, you’ll be more successful because of it.

Case Study: Natalie R.

Natalie and I got to know each other through meeting each other online a couple of years back. We have two different businesses, but similar values and a similar story. She worked in the corporate world for over 20 years before deciding that she was fed up with the way how companies were treating their employees. One of her best colleagues/friends died of a heart attack before her 45th birthday, leaving behind a 14-year daughter and a husband. Natalie got thinking about where her life was heading and she decided that she didn’t want that to happen to her. She wanted more time with her husband and more time with her two sons and daughter! She thought she was working far too much for her own good too.

So she left her corporate job and decided to take some time to think about what she wanted to do. Of course, her friend’s death stayed on her mind, and she decided that she wanted to become a health coach. That’s when we met each other. We didn’t study together, but we met through a group that we both loved at the time. She got her certification, started sharing her work with her family, friends and ex-colleagues, and very fast grew her business. Soon she hired a team to help her out. Which was great, because her husband wasn’t that supportive with her new career choice, so her team kind of filled that void.

Though she was delighted with how fast her business had grown, she was feeling that she was losing herself while growing her business, and not having the relationship she wanted with both her kids, and her husband. In fact she was telling me some time ago that as she grew her business, they kind of grew apart. She was committed to making her work impactful, and to growing a successful business. But her kids wanted more time with her; they thought that now that she had her own business (and was working from home most of the time), they should have more time with her. And her husband was expecting her to do more since she was home, and he didn’t understand why she was committing so much time to her work…

Of course, she started that business to spend more time with her family AND she didn’t want to reach the point where divorce would be an option, so she had to make sure she was creating the space for her relationships. That’s when we started discussing what she could do, and when we started working together at more than a friend’s level.

First thing we did: we looked into her business personality! How it was expressing itself in her work but also through the management of her team, and the work she did with her clients. That’s why I’m sharing this with you today. Even though this in itself didn’t account fully to the results we got, it did contribute to them.

Want To Get Inspired About What You Too Can Accomplish?

Read this beautiful review that Natalie sent me about the results she got from us working together.

In one month I saved 15 hours and earned 1,000 USD in passive income! – Natalie R. (United States)

I met Audrey a couple of years ago through a course we did together. I knew her then as a health coach helping women with their health, and was admiring her commitment to her clients and her work. We shared similar values, and kept on discussing over the years how our businesses were doing. When she mentioned she was soon sharing productivity tips to save time in our business, I wanted in on it already. I knew of her background in finance, and I couldn’t wait to see what she would bring me. Every time I was looking at a course, or hiring a mentor or coach, they would keep on giving me more stuff to do, and I kept growing my business to a point where Yes, I was seeing clients, but I no longer had the freedom I thought I’d get when working on my own business. With Audrey’s help, in less than one month, we focused on how I worked with my clients, from when I meet them locally or online, to the discovery session, down to the sessions I have with them. Looking at how I was doing things until then, and cutting activities I was doing that had no value added, I was able to save over 15 hours during our first month of work together. And because Audrey got deep into what I do, she gave me some ideas about how I can leverage the work I did with my 1:1 clients to create courses, workbooks, and workshops, in such an easy way that I was able to launch a couple of new online products as well, and already make 1,000 USD in passive income. No need to say, I’m a fan and will keep working with her on my strategy for the coming year!

A Penny For Your Thoughts.

How do you personally consider that your business is an extension of yourself?
What are some of the values and personality that you want to shine through? 
How are you going to ensure that they are indeed a part of your business?

I can’t wait to read you in the comments! 🙂

7-Steps To Growing Your Business With Ease Using Your Business Personality!

There’s of course a lot more to using your business personality to successfully grow your business. That’s why I’ve put together a workbook that walks you through 7 steps.

Step 1: Know Your Personality Type

Step 2: Discover Your Core Values

Step 3: Are You a Lion or a Wolf?

Step 4: Communication Styles Matter

Step 5: Micromanage Isn’t a Dirty Word

Step 6: No-Sweat Networking

Step 7: Know Your Love Language

If you’d like to take the assessment, get access now to the workbook for only 47 USD.

What's Next?

Step 1: Revise Your Expectations And Expect Resistance

If you’re familiar with the principles for successfully growing an online business, then you know that Step 1 of successfully pulling out a strategy to optimise and grow your business is to shift your mindset. I share through this blog and social media channels some tips and tools to help you with that. Yet, we all know that it takes more than just knowing what to do to actually do it.

That’s why I want to invite you to revise your expectations. Know that there will be resistance along the way. You might say to yourself “I’ll have a look tomorrow again”, “that’s not so urgent”, “I’m not sure that’s for me”, “I don’t think this will work for me”, or many other things. Often when we’re stepping out of our comfort zone (a.k.a. what we’ve been doing until now) we’re finding excuses to keep on doing what we’ve always done. The first step in success is acknowledging that. So… acknowledge where you’re at. Then…

Revise your expectations bearing in mind your goals AND your life. Not everything that I’m sharing will resonate with you. Not everything will be applicable to you either. And that’s alright! But you’ve got to start somewhere.

So, as long as you’re clear on your goals and on your vision, take a conscious decision of what you want to apply starting from today. And if you are not clear on your vision, here are a few resources you might find helpful:

• Customer Journey Review Pack,
• Plan Your Funnels And Tripwires For Profits,
• Optimised Business Academy, or
• Schedule a call with me to discuss where you're at in your business and what you should focus on.

Step 2: Carve Out Time, And Make A Plan

That’s where carving out time, and making a plan comes in. You know yourself at that stage better than I do. Use that knowledge to implement a plan of action that will help you start making positive changes into your life, that will soon bring positive changes in your business and in your life.

If you're stuck wondering what to do next, I invite you to join the FREE Optimised Business Membership.

Step 3: Just start

There’s no tomorrow in success. Any successful path starts today, with a small change that you keep on building onto. Commit to starting today with ONE small thing, and share with me in the comments what it is. This commitment will help you start – and keep – taking action!

Step 4: Get Support!

We tend to want to do things on our own. I’m not stranger to that either. But I’ve learnt over time, and I’ve seen both with my personal coaching clients and professional mentoring clients, as well as with myself, that getting support helps to really create the change we’re after. So, if you’re stuck wondering what’s next, and you know you need help, I invite you to check out the many online resources I have created to help you save time and achieve faster growth in your business: Free articles, online membership, online books and courses. If you’d like private mentoring for your business strategy, you can also book a call with me to discuss the different mentoring options that are available for your special needs.

Step 5: Please Share!

If you like what I'm sharing, please do me a favour and share it with friends or colleagues you know would benefit from it! The more we are on this journey, the greater the collaborations, co-creation and achievements!