491: Business By Design

As a business owner, you are often presented with the challenge of making decisions around attracting new leads, converting those leads to sales, and delivering to your clients. Yet it can be difficult to determine which strategies should be implemented to reach these goals. 

In this episode of Influence by Design, we discuss the concept of “business by design” and how following certain steps can help ensure that you not only win, but also grow your business in a way that feels good to you. We delve deeper into the strategies and principles that can guide business owners in making decisions that align with their goals, resonate with their customers and support their lifestyle goals.

“Business by design” refers to creating a business that is designed for the way you enjoy to work and supports your ideal lifestyle. It involves deliberately planning and aligning various elements within a business to drive success and competitive advantage.

From defining your ideal lifestyle to outsourcing and leveraging technology, this episode will explore various facets of intentional business growth – all with one goal: meaningful and achievable growth. 

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:

• Why is Sam so passionate about business by design? (01:39)
• The importance of hitting your sweet spot in business (04:06)
• How to define your ideal lifestyle (05:58)
• Knowing your financial goals and how your mindset plays to that (08:14)
• Crating your flexible business model (11:03)
• Leveraging technology to improve your business (13:56)
• The benefits of outsourcing and delegating (17:30)
• The power of a good support network (20:08)
• Aligning your values with your business (21:58)

QUOTES

• “Your business needs to be aligned with your values; you need to feel good to be able to create your business.” -Samantha Riley
• “Creating your life by design really can be a very lonely journey if you don’t have a support network.” -Samantha Riley
• “It doesn’t matter what business you are trying to build, you are going to need help to scale.” -Samantha Riley

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CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY

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TRANSCRIPTION

Samantha Riley Snippet (00:00):

Really at the end of the day, your business needs to be aligned with your personal values. You need to feel good to be able to create your business. And this is what this whole thing is about. To create your business by design, your life needs to come first so that your business can be aligned with it. 

Samantha Riley Intro (00:37):

Welcome to the Influence By Design Podcast. I’m Samantha Riley, authority positioning strategist for coaches and experts. If you’re ready to build a business that gives you more than just a caffeine addiction, and you dream of making more money, having more time, and having the freedom to be living your best life, then you’re in the right place, it’s time to level up. 

Welcome to today’s episode of Influence By Design, I’m your Thursday co host Samantha Riley and I’m really looking forward to deep diving into today’s topic with you because this is my all time favorite topic to talk about. 

Samantha Riley  00:57

I ran some interviews for new coach last week. And this was a huge part of the interview process was asking people questions around this topic and what it meant for them, and how they’re living this. And that topic is business by design. Because I feel that so many people get caught up so easily in business models or in businesses that they don’t love. And maybe they do go into business loving what they’re doing, and they fall out of love with their business. And the reason I’m so passionate about this is because this is how I started my business journey. 

Samantha Riley  01:39

Back in the very early 90s. I was in a corporate position. And I knew that it wasn’t fulfilling me. And I was working really hard. And I didn’t feel I was being compensated adequately or appropriately for the work that I was doing at that time. And I was in an office where I looked around one day, and there was I think there was about 500 people in our office. And it was all open plan. And I remember looking around and thinking, oh my gosh, out of all of these hundreds of people in the office today, not one person is smiling. And if you know me, I have do have a crazy sense of humor, I love to laugh, I love to have fun. And it was just so against who I am as a person. And it was like I was looking into my future. And thinking, oh my goodness, I’m only very young. And I don’t want this to be the rest of my life. And it was at that moment. You know, people say to you, you know, do change your course, over a while or over time? Or do you have the sliding doors moment. And that for me was a sliding doors moment where I just went, I don’t want to be in this position. I want to be in business for myself. So the very first question I asked myself is what business could I do? And I had danced ever since I was very young. I was five years old when I started dancing. And I’d done a lot of teaching as I went into my teenage years. But when I’d had my first child, I’d quit dancing. And I just sort of gone back after I had my second child. And I thought you know what I could teach, I could open a dance studio. Because that’s what I knew. 

Samantha Riley  03:24

Now, one of the reasons I wanted to own a business, obviously, is I’d looked around the office, and I’d seen lots of unhappy people. But another reason was that I wanted to have a business or a life where I could spend more time with my children. So I asked myself, What could I do? I came up with the idea of dancing. Now I don’t know if any of you have ever been involved with children’s or child’s sport or extracurricular activities. They all happen after school hours. So what I would do was drop the kids at school, I wouldn’t see them all day. And as soon as it was pickup time, I would be going to work. So wasn’t the right question at all to be asking. No, I’ve learned this over time. 

Samantha Riley  04:09

And that’s why I want to have this conversation with you today. Because what I’m seeing right now, and what I’m hearing from the people that are around me, is they’re not quite hitting their sweet spot in business. And what I mean by this is, they’re just not feeling it. They’re not loving what they’re doing. They’re not absolutely wretched, or, you know, overjoyed with the people that they’re working with. They’re not hating what they’re doing. But they’re just, I just don’t know what it is. I just can’t quite get this sweet spot. And with a bit of conversation with them, it always comes back to one thing. Their business isn’t aligned with how they want their life to be because as soon as we hit that the business pieces just fall all into place. 

Samantha Riley  05:01

So let’s have this conversation today because I know that we are all here to have this amazing life, we’ve got one go at this one go of this lifetime. And if we’re going to do it like let’s, why don’t we just like absolutely do with passion and finesse and exuberance, and adventure and all of the things that we want to have in our life. And what I love about business, is that it is the vehicle to help us to create that ideal lifestyle. So when we know what it is that we want in our life, we’re able to create a business by design to support our life, they’re in a symbiotic relationship, they work in tandem with each other. When we know what we want in our life, we can create a business that supports that life, that means we have this amazing business and it just kind of keeps going around and around in this beautiful dance. 

Samantha Riley  05:58

So the very first thing you need to do before you even think about your business, and where you want to pivot your business and what you want to be doing and your ideal clients and your message. Before any of that is you need to define what your ideal lifestyle means to you. What is your life by design look like? What is that lifestyle that you absolutely want to be living look like? And you need to visualize and define what this is, what do you desire to have? What do you aspire to be? Or who do you aspire to be? So think about things like a family, you know, you might have children or that are still at school. So your ideal lifestyle may revolve around some sort of business, or it was some sort of life where you’re creating your adventures out of school hours, or you may be wanting to homeschool your children. You may have grandchildren, whatever it is, you know, what is it that you want that family life to look like? How do you want that to feel throughout the days and the weeks? Think about things? Like,

Samantha Riley  07:08

I’m going to say it work life balance, although I don’t really believe in work life balance, we don’t have this part of work and part of life. And they they’re sort of balanced out. But how do you want to have your work and life in tandem with each other? 

Samantha Riley  07:28

What’s really important to you in health and wellness? Do you want to be you know, making sure that you’re going and eating really good organic food? Do you want to make sure that you’re going to the gym, you know, is going to a dance class or a Pilates class, what you’re looking for in your life, because you need to be able to create your calendar to be able to know how your diary or your calendar needs to look. What hobbies do you want to be doing? What experiences you know, travel? Is travel big on your list, do you want to be traveling, you know, and taking little road trips? Or do you want to actually like hit the road and be a digital nomad for the next five years. 

Samantha Riley  08:14

The reason that you need to know all of this is not just so you can create your business model. But it’s also so you know what your financial goals or your wealth goals need to be, because you do need to have money to create all of these experiences or ways of living. So a lot of people don’t consider those financial goals or what the business needs to be providing in the financial realm for you to be able to achieve these, you know, work or lifestyle goals. So it’s really, really important that you know what that needs to be because if your ideal lifestyle means that you need to be having a profit of $350,000 a year. And you’re trying to build a business that has an hourly rate model, or you’re trying to build a business that has a very low price point offer. And you’re trying to build that from scratch, like it is possible to build a low priced offer. But it takes a long time to get it to that point because you need a lot of people, then you need to know that right up front to know the best way to build out your business to achieve those lifestyle goals for you. 

Samantha Riley  09:31

Now, once you’ve got these lifestyle goals down on paper, and I thoroughly recommend doing this, even if you’ve done it before these things change. You know, this is something that Leon and I will sit down and do regularly and by regularly I mean probably every six weeks we’re sitting down because our ideas of what we’re doing will change. So sit down and do these regularly. Now the very next point that you’re going to come up against After you’ve come up with your goals, is having this mindset that may or could prevent you, or support you to create this business that supports your lifestyle. So, you know, personal growth. And a growth oriented mindset is really crucial. So that you can move through challenges, you know, be resilient in the face of challenges, make sure that you can adapt and learn as you’re going through these challenges. And also having belief in yourself or your own value as a coach or a business owner.

Samantha Riley  10:41

It’s also really important to have a fluid and growth mindset to help you at times where you feel like you’re maybe putting the brakes on or thinking I can’t do that. So there’s going to be a lot of mindset as you’re moving through and creating something new, or trying to create something that feels foreign to you. Now, flexible business model, let’s talk about flexible business models. Because this is really, really important, obviously be able to support the lifestyle you want. 

Samantha Riley  11:13

Now, the benefits of having an online coaching is the most flexible business model that you have, you have an ability to work from anywhere, and you’ve got this amazing opportunity to be able to set your own working hours that you don’t when you’re in a face to face situation. So being able to work from anywhere and in your own working hours, really directly supports that lifestyle you want to live no matter what it is. So a lot of people think about this, or as soon as they think about this, they’re like, oh, I want to create an online course. But this isn’t the only sort of flexible business model that you can create. Yes, there is online courses, there are memberships, you may create VIP days or retreats, you may want to have speaking in your business, you may not what you need to get really, really clear on is your unique zone of genius. And what it is that you love to do and how it is that you’d like to achieve that outcome. What I really love for you to consider right now is that whatever feels good to you is what you go with, there is no cookie cutter system for creating your business model. But there is a system that works best for you. 

Samantha Riley  12:36

So I’m personally not a fan of evergreen online courses. But if that’s really what you want to be doing, then sure it’s a business model, and it’s going to work for you then go with that. I love the hybrid model of having an online course where people are able to go and do self paced learning, but also have some sort of transformative coaching experience. So my clients get the best of both worlds. I really love this business model, I teach this business model a lot. But remember, your business needs to suit you your unique zone of genius and how you want to be showing up in the world. So have a think about you know, what is it that meets your unique zone of genius? How do you work best, what do you enjoy to do, because the things that you enjoy to do will energetically be better to attract clients. Now having or working in the online coaching space gives you flexibility of time, which I’ve just talked about. But it also gives you flexibility in pricing. All right, no matter what business model you choose, you know, will you be doing retreats or speaking or whatever it is to have the flexibility of time and location, you will need to leverage technology. And there’s a lot of technology available. There’s two sides of this coin one, it’s amazing, it gives us so much freedom. 

Samantha Riley  14:04

On the other end of the spectrum, it can be really overwhelming if you don’t know what it is that you’re looking for, or understanding what it is that you need. But you do need to leverage technology to create and have business operations. So things like systems and processes running smoothly. And it also frees up your time to do other things. So I know that the business model that I enjoy to use is a business model where I’m working in the morning, and I take the afternoons off. This is the way that I personally like to work. Obviously I can’t just switch my business off at lunchtime when I finish up. I do need to have things happening. So when you’re thinking about I want to have a business that I can work anytime and anywhere. That doesn’t mean that you’re doing work and then walking and away from it, it means you’re doing work. And things are happening in the background while you’re not working. And there is a difference. Okay. 

Samantha Riley  15:10

One of my clients just recently had to put her business on hold for a month, because she had some family things that she needed to attend to, she needed to be there for some family members who were, you know, going through a bit of a rough patch in their life. And she needed to walk away from her business for a month. However, she didn’t just drop everything and go, she had systems in place, and operations that were already set up, which meant she walked away from her business for a month, but her business kept running. So that’s a really important question to ask yourself, right now. Could I walk away from my business tomorrow? And have it still running and generating income? Or would it stop? Because that’s the freedom based business, it doesn’t mean, you can just walk away. So you will need to leverage technology to be able to do that. 

Samantha Riley  16:01

So you know, can you collect your emails on the fly? When you’ve got anywhere where you’ve got an internet connection, think about scheduling for your social media for your emails. So thinking about your CRM, so your email providers, having your emails scheduled in so that they’re going out regularly, still, you’ll need some sort of project management software, so that you’re able to capture projects so that other people can see what’s coming up. We use Airtable in our business. Another tool that we did use for a really long time and worked well for us until we outgrew it was Trello I really love Trello. But there is a gazillion of project management software out there. You know, there’s Clickup. And like Asana, there’s a lot out there to choose from, don’t take anyone’s word for which one’s better, try them out and see which feels best for you. Because it needs to work for you, first and foremost. And how are you going to communicate with your team. There’s apps like Voxer, which is like a little electronic walkie talkie. In our business, we use Slack, I like Slack, because we’re able to keep conversations in channels with different teams. So you know, we’ve got a podcast team and a design team, we’ve got our project managers, and by being able to capture our conversation and follower in a channel makes it really easy, not as overwhelming for the team members that it doesn’t apply to. So I really, really love Slack. 

Samantha Riley  17:29

Now, what I’m alluding to here also is that to have some sort of freedom based business, you will need to outsource and delegate. Now, whether you’re outsourcing small tasks on a project basis, for example, hiring someone to create a website for you. So a project and then that project is done and you walk away, or whether you’re outsourcing to a VA that is your you no personal assistant and they’re working with you. It doesn’t matter which way it is, you will need to have systems in your business to be able to do this. I once had a mentor say to me, if you can climb a mountain on your own, it’s not a very big mountain. And this has always been top of mind. 

Samantha Riley  18:16

For me, I’ve always had team members helping me in my business, whether it is just you know, as I was getting off and running, or as I was launching, just having small projects that I would outsource to, or whether it’s having, you know, a part time or full time team, which is what I have. Now, it doesn’t matter which way it is, but you are going to need that help to scale your business. It frees up your time. It allows you to work in your zone of genius. But most importantly, it allows you to focus on the high value activities and tasks in your business, as opposed to wasting time, which means that you’re spending more time in your business than you need. And less time building this lifestyle that we’re talking about it also being able to delegate helps you to create this sustainable life, where you’re able to set boundaries where you’re able to have regular breaks, and where you’re able to dedicate time for self care. self care is really important. It’s something that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized more and more how important that is. I think when I was younger, I had this, you know, superhero persona that was like, Oh, I don’t need any self care. I’m tough. I’m you know, the I Am woman hear me roar and I just I just went for it. As I’ve gotten older, I realize that the more time I take for self care, the more time I can actually step into being that person that is able to provide more value and not necessarily do more, but to be more. And that’s what self care is the ability to not do more All but to be more for the people in your life, your clients, your team, your family, the people around you. 

Samantha Riley  20:08

Now creating this life by design really can be a very lonely journey, if you don’t have a support network. Now, what could this look like? It could look like you being part of a program, where you’re, you know, learning alongside peers, some sort of mastermind, or it could look like or, and we’re gonna say, here not or back end, some sort of accountability buddy are working pods, or squads or whoever you say it. But having people that are on this journey with you that understand the challenges, understand the challenges of team that understand the challenges of lead generation that understand what it’s like to build an online business, to understand the highs, the lows, how we need to work through the resilience, you know, the times that you need, some nurturing and a big hug. But also people that understand that are able today, you actually need a bit of a kick up the butt to get things done. But having the support network is really, really important. And for us, in our business, we incorporate many different parts of this, you know, we do have coaches, and we pay very, very good money to have the best coaches in our business. We’ve also got groups of peers that we jump on calls with and discuss things, I also have accountability buddies that we connect with on a weekly basis, where we share this is, you know, this is what we want. This is what we’re currently working on. This is what we need to get done this week. And we have to report back and say whether we’ve done this thing or not. And let me tell you not all the time it gets done. But having these support network makes it so much easier. Really, at the end of the day, your business needs to be aligned with your personal values, you need to feel good to be able to create your business. And that’s what this happened, you know, we’re looping back, this is what this whole thing is about to create your business by design, your life needs to come first so that your business can be aligned with it. And one of the best ways or one of the ways that this has really dropped in for us in a really big way is for Leon and I to be very aware of our human design at all times. So I don’t know how but if you haven’t heard about human design, I do talk about it on the podcast all the time, then I’ve got a free resource to help you understand how to learn about what your human design is, so that you can create more profit and alignment in your business. And you can get that by going to samanthariley.global/advantage. That’s a copy of the Human Design advantage. 

Samantha Riley  22:57

But essentially, when we are working and living in alignment with our design, everything will flow. That doesn’t mean it’s effortless. But it does mean it happens with more ease. You know, we’re humans having a human experience. So not everything is going to be easy. All of the time, we’re actually designed to have challenges because we learn from them. And it helps us become really understanding of all of these different parts of our lives. So for us to have the best business to be able to provide so that we’ve got the best life, we need to really embrace. Having this holistic experience and understand that everything is happening to us for a reason, you know, so that we can learn and it just makes us better people all around and better coaches. So the reason I felt called to do this episode today is like I said, and speaking to a lot of people feeling not quite Hitting the Bullseye of where they’re at. So I encourage you to take some time out to journal to meditate, find some people or share with a confidant or your partner what it is that you really want in life, get really clear on this. Spend some time exploring what your life by design looks like. So you can create your business by design, because I know that when you’re feeling amazing, whether that’s joyful or at peace or excited, or having fun, whatever that thing is for you that you will attract the right people to work with you and your business will then in turn support your lifestyle. It is a symbiotic relationship. They do work hand in hand and they do feel incredibly amazing when everything is all in alignment.

Samantha Riley  24:53

Thanks so much for listening today. I really appreciate you and the time that you’ve spent. I wish you all the best on this journey. And you’re creating your business by design, and we’ll catch you on the next episode of Influence By Design podcast next week. Ciao for now.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If you want more head over to influencebydesignpodcast.com for the show notes and links to today’s gifts and sponsors. And if you’re looking to connect with other experts who are growing and scaling their business to join us in the coaches, thought leaders, and changemakers community on Facebook, the links are waiting for you over at influencebydesignpodcast.com