Stop Launching New Offers Every Fortnight

I nearly didn’t record this because life has been heavy, but something shifted and I chose to rebuild my confidence through strategy. I share why becoming a certified business strategist matters less than the clarity and direction it gives me as I build again. 
• losing my dad and closing my business to cope 
• taking Lisa Johnson’s strategy course for confidence 
• choosing direction over pure activity and hustle 
• defining strategy as seeing what matters next 
• why most businesses do not need more ideas 
• the confusion caused by launching new offers too often 
• remembering past wins and recognising real strengths 
• why personal brand matters more in an AI world 
• what’s coming next on personal branding 

Transcript

Welcome And A Hard Year

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hi everyone, it's Victoria here and welcome back to another episode of A Business Built with Strategy. So I nearly, very nearly, didn't record this episode because, well, first of all, I didn't know whether whether I'd actually be able to record this ep, this particular ep, because I didn't know if something that I was doing was going to go one way or the other, but it did actually go the way that I wanted it to go. I didn't want this app to sound like one of those announcements, I'm this and I'm that, because that's not what this is, you know, it just isn't. This is actually something a little bit deeper. And if you're building a business, this will definitely, definitely matter to you. Even if you are not building a business and you have your business, you know, you're fully flourished, or you're pivoting, or it doesn't matter where you are in business, to be honest with you. Now, this has come off one of the most hardest and heartbreaking years of my life, losing my dad. Stepping into everything that he left behind, holding things together for everyone else, and at the same time, same time trying to figure out what you know I'm doing next because I had to step away and close my business when my dad died. And there really has been no space to sit and think, no, no clean slate. It's literally been real life every single day. And I've been trying to look after everyone else to make sure that everyone else is okay, but actually nothing featured me. It just didn't. And in the middle of all of that, something shifted. And I I decided that I was gonna take on a course, and it was a course that I'd wanted to do for a few years actually, but I'd umdanard, I don't know why I'd umdanard, I really don't. And I I did, it's ironic really. I did actually think, well, have I got time, you know, and this was a few years ago, and then I decided last year, you know what, I'm gonna do this course, and when I did talk to a few people, you know, around me, I do think that they thought I was absolutely crazy. And a few people did say, Are you sure? Are you gonna have time to do this with all the responsibility that you've got on your shoulders? And I just said, Well, yes, yeah, yeah, I I'm gonna do it because you know what, just pile a bit more on, just pile the course on top, and I'm gonna do my best. And I wasn't doing it for credentials, and it was um it was Lisa Johnson's strategy course that I'd signed up to do. So I wasn't doing it for credentials. I actually said to Lisa herself, I'm doing this for confidence because I felt like my confidence had taken a little bit of a bash, and I'm really proactive. And I looked at the course and I thought, okay, you know what? I know that I can go out there as a strategist, I've got no problem with that. I have such a huge amount of experience in business, but I need to I need to back it up with something, and I need to back it up with something else, and it was the course, and I just knew that if I could pass it, and it wasn't about not knowing how to pass it, it was time. That was my my main thing, it was having the time to do it. And I do remember talking to Lisa and she said, Oh, yeah, it's I can't remember what she said now, but it was a certain amount of hours per week, and I thought, oh no, how am I gonna do that? But I just went with it. Sometimes you just have to just go with it, and you know, I was already looking at business as not so much I stopped looking at business as just doing more and started to really put into practice what actually makes something work, not just activity, not just showing up, but direction. And direction for me at that point was the course. So, yes, I have now become a certified business strategist. But for me, that isn't the headline to this, absolutely no way. It's the backing, it's the structure behind what I already knew and the clarity it's giving me to go forward and the confidence to love that it's given me the confidence, and that was the whole point. Because the thing is, because strategy isn't about doing more, it's it's all about knowing what actually matters, being able to look at a business and see where it's stuck, what it's missing, what's being overcomplicated, and what needs to happen next. Most people don't need more ideas, they honestly just don't. I have seen certain people on Instagram and they come out with a different product or service every week to two weeks. They come out with a different offer. And I mean, looking at it absolutely scrambles my head because I'm like, oh my gosh, that nothing is gonna sell. Because one, no one is gonna know what you are selling, no one's they're not really gonna know what you do either. It's direction that you need. It isn't more products, it's not more services, it's not more ideas, it's it's not even doing more, it's direction, a clear direction. What I see all the time is people working really hard, doing everything that they think that they should be doing, but again, you know, nothing's moving. I've been there, I have done this, and I've been like going around in a circle, and nothing's been moving. And this happened to me in the early years of my business, and it wasn't because I was doing something wrong, and it's not because anyone's doing anything wrong, it's because what happens, you're doing the wrong things at the wrong time. Because again, I circle back, there's no direction. I've built businesses from the ground up. I have had to pivot when everything changed over the night. I've made decisions under a huge amount of pressure, not when everything was calm and perfect, but right in the thick of it, and that's where real strategy comes from, not theory, it comes from experience. And if I'm honest, I think I've been doing this for a while with actually out with actually, you know, without fully owning it. And I think this is what a lot of us do, you know. We don't realise where our strengths are, and we can we can actually be doing the the thing that we're really good at but not realise. And this is what I do. Now I'm gonna touch on this very slightly. Sometimes when you're in the in the absolute thick of it and you're you're working on your business, you're doing this, you're doing that, you forget what you're good at. Now, I am gonna do a full episode on this, but and a full longer episode as well. But we all know that personal brand is now extremely important, and one of the reasons is because of AI, because everyone just sounds the same, writes the same, kind of looks the same as well, you know, in so in some uh circumstances. And I was looking at my brand because obviously I'm coming back with a brand new business, and there was a few things that kind of tripped me up, and then I forgot because of everything that's been going on that I I built an amazing brand with my events business, but I'd forgotten that. I know that I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I did, I forgot it. I I I forgot that I built this amazing brand, and obviously in COVID, I decided I was actually going to shut that brand because I knew that I'd evolved, but I did, I built an amazing brand, and it was so recognised as well, and unbelievably, I kind of did myself a bit of an injustice there because I forgot, and I think sometimes you need to circle back and go, hang on a minute, what have I done? What has been a success? How did I do that? And I would urge everyone to do that because sometimes because you're you're building and you're building, and and sometimes you're not moving forward the way that you want to, you forget what actually you have done that did work. So if you're in a place where you feel like you're doing everything, but it it's not quite clicking, it's probably it's probably not effort that you're lacking, and I really do believe that it's clarity, and that's where strategy it really does just change absolutely everything. So I'm gonna be back next week, and I'm gonna be talking about personal brand, which is going to be featured somewhere, not too sure where, but somewhere in my business when I launch, and I'm gonna have some amazing offers with that. So we're gonna do we're gonna do an ep on personal branding next week. So have a fantastic week, whatever you are doing, and I'll be back next Monday.