Behind the Scenes Look at How We're Upleveling Lean Out Method

Are you settling in your business? We often think of settling as accepting something "bad", but the reality is that settling is anything less than 100%.

You don't want things to only be "good" in your business, you don't even want them to only be "great"... you deserve for them to be "exceptional" and 100% in alignment and fulfilling while you are generating the level of impact and profit you want to make.

There is no price that you have to pay for success in your business, no bad that you have to take with the good, even though it can feel like there is.

So what do you do when you realize your business isn't at 100%? You reimagine.

We've been talking a lot about what it looks like to reimagine your business lately because everyone reimagines their business all the time.

Sometimes it's a small change - reimagining how you package or price your offers, other times it's a big change - reimagining your entire business model or offer suite.

The degree to which you reimagine typically aligns with how far from 100% and "exceptional" your business is today when you look at the next level you want to take yourself and your business to.

When I was reflecting on my business, I realized that I was at about an 85%. Sounds pretty good, right?

But if 85% of my business was in alignment with my next level vision, that meant that 15% wasn't... and why settle for 15% of things not being in alignment? Why settle for anything less than exceptional?

In our last post we shared how to know when it's the right time is to reimagine your business and important questions to ask yourself to get started - check it out here. 

Today, let's go behind the scenes of what we're doing at Lean Out Method to go from 85% to 100% and sharing my biggest lessons learned and insights to date that you can apply in your own business the next time you are ready to reimagine things to take your business to the next level.

In episode 69, I dive into:

• How to choose what to focus on when you have so many ideas
• Why 85% isn’t good enough
• How to remain grateful while also not settling
• The #1 thing I did to reimagine the business
• The practical changes we're making in Lean Out Method
• My biggest aha moment
• Biggest lessons learned while reimagining Lean Out Method
• Why reimagining your business is hard but necessary work
• Learning to listen to yourself and silence outside voices
• Debunking the myth that you need to pay a price for success

Tune into Episode 69 of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast or keep reading below.

In the last post, I shared how to know if it's time to reimagine your business for its next major uplevel and a series of questions to ask yourself to get started including the primary question I ask all of my private clients when they want to reimagine their business and that is:

If you were starting a business from scratch tomorrow and you could bring with you all of the experiences, skills, and knowledge you have accumulated in your business to date but nothing else... what would you do and how would you do it?

When I asked myself this question, there was a lot that came up.  Being someone who is multi-passionate and multi-faceted, there are so many different directions I could go and things I could pursue that I enjoy and that align to my zone of genius.  Like most visionary leaders, I have no shortage of ideas and each ideas feels as important as the last.  I am sure you can relate to that.

But in the spirit of running a lean business, you can't do all the things all the time.  No matter how great an idea is, you have to make decisions on what is most important right now and what you realistically can do based on the capacity that you have.

So that is what I did and I found I relied heavily on the lean out method throughout the entire process. I used the lean out method framework to lean out the Lean Out Method. ;) 

First getting clear on my next level vision and goals, then reimagining my business model to be take things from 85% to 100% aligned, then creating the strategic plan to implement and transition which I am in the middle of executing. 

To sort through all my ideas, I used my million dollar idea evaluator to decide where to start - it's one of the tools inside our Simplify to Scale Business Accelerator.

I worked through several different iterations of business model and offers, all close to but different variations of what I have today.

As I shared in the last post in this series when I looked at my business, if I were rating it on a scale of 0 - 100% in alignment with my vision and next level, I felt I was around 85% so an 8.5 out of 10.  I had felt like that was pretty good, and better than most of the other businesses around me, but at the end of the day, even 8.5 is still settling for less than 10.

So often I think we settle in our business, sometimes in big ways and sometimes in little ways that add up.  When I went through my first period of reimagining my business, I took things from good to great, this time I wanted to take things from great to exceptional.  

Here is what that looked like:

I said no - a LOT. 

I turned down and walked away from huge multi-6-figure contracts.  I said no to private clients.  I said no to team members.  I said no to people who applied to my mastermind and group programs.  I said no to many of my ideas, even ones that were great.  I said no to everything that felt heavy or not 100% in alignment. 

I knew that I needed to create the space both physically and mentally for my next uplevel and it has been a combination of freeing and terrifying.  

It felt freeing to have a much more open schedule and to feel like there is endless possibility ahead of me.

It felt terrifying to cut off major revenue streams and to feel like I was disappointing or upsetting people by not accepting them into my programs or telling them I was not going to be working with them, even though I knew without a doubt that it was the right decision. 

I chose to not settle, even if it was terrifying at times.

And I am grateful for having the financial ability to make these decisions.  It is so important to have cash reserves and good financial practices in your business.  Otherwise, you can feel trapped saying yes to things that are not in alignment simply for financial reasons.

What does that mean for the business:

I put 2 of my 3 businesses basically on hold so I could be even more laser focused on Lean Out Method. 

I reimagined my entire business model - from my offers, to my pricing, to my team, to my investments. 

I leaned out my offers, cutting some, combining others, and upleveling others.  I reimagined my systems for sales and marketing to focus more on organic marketing efforts and referrals. 

I had some things I was waiting to release until I published my book but I decided that I am integrating them into what I am doing now instead of waiting.  

 I am upleveling my brand and embracing my lean and agile expertise and background.

My biggest realization is that I want to serve a more targeted market.  I can and have worked with businesses at many levels but my sweet spot is the established business that is making multi-6 to multi-7 figures and helping them put the strategy, planning, systems, and team in place that will help them scale sustainably so they can stop working so damn much and get to actually enjoy the success they worked so hard to achieve.

I love working with self-driven action takers who are brilliant and exceptional at what they do and just need someone with an outside-in perspective to help them dramatically amplify their results and get rid of all the unnecessary complexity and waste in their business.  

This is the kind of work that really fuels me. And to do it really well, I need to dig deep into someone's business. 

As I took the time to get crystal clear on what I want and what I do best which is deep transformational work, I decided that I will be working with less people but on a deeper level, and along with that, at a higher rate. 

And at the same time, I am creating experiences and options for people not yet ready to make that kind of investment in themselves from a financial, time, or mindset perspective and not ready to step into next level of themselves.

So stay tuned for more on what's coming.  And if you have been wanting to work with me privately, be sure to book a call soon if you want to lock in my current rates.

My biggest lessons learned to date:

Reimagining isn't easy but it is necessary.  You may call it something different but every time we uplevel we need to let go of our current identity and parts of our business model in order to grow.

It takes a commitment to make the change because your mindset will challenge you to go back to what you were doing. 

It took some hard decisions and wild leaps, making me feel like Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade taking the leap of faith and stepping out onto the invisible bridge. I had to trust that everything was going to work out and that these are the right decisions to make, even in the midst of cutting off revenue streams and saying no to big opportunities. 

You need to trust in yourself and not listen to other people or outside influences, as challenging as that can be to do sometimes.  As I shared, I felt like my business was at about 85% out of 100% and I know a lot of people could not understand why I was making changes in the business.  

There is no price that you have to pay for success in your business, no bad that you have to take with the good, you can and should have a business that is 100% aligned.  It took not listening to others who felt that 85% was more than good enough and that I should just leave well enough alone.

Part of the lean out philosophy is doubling down on and amplifying what's working and letting go of and leaning out what isn't. So if you think about it in that context, why would you keep around 15% of things that aren't working or that you don't enjoy?  

And finally, you can choose to reimagine and change things in your business at any time and for any reason.  Although it took some major life events for me to question things and make changes, you don't need to wait for a challenging experience to be the catalyst for that change.  You can choose to change now and refuse to settle for anything less than 100%.  You can choose exceptional.

How about you?  How are you choosing exceptional and reimagining your business?

Ready to reimagine your business? 

Schedule a complimentary scaling strategy call to see how we can best support you.