070: The Magic In Taking Action

Sometimes the results you get in business are not linear, sometimes they come about just by the mere fact that you took action. In this episode I share how this has been true for both me and my clients and how you can blend the woo with the strategy.

By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:

• How perfectly laid out plans and strategies can sometimes get in the way
• The valuable data you get from taking action and building a strategy in hindsight 
• A simple action-taking strategy you can use today

If you’ve ever been side swiped by your results, meaning they didn’t come about from the perfectly curated plan you had but instead came about from some other means altogether, you’re probably going to love this episode and it will spring you into taking action.

Enjoy!

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If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.

Chapters

• 11:50 Action steps

Transcript

Shannon Stone: 0:05

H ey, my friend, welcome to the podcast. Super excited to jump into this episode today.

Shannon Stone: 0:46

This one is probably going to be the most woo you're going to get out of me. We're talking about the magic in taking action. I had a chat with a business friend recently and, as I hope you do as well, have a few really good peers in business, a business bestie or whatever have you and we were chatting about just business as we do and life sometimes as it is as well. And I was just saying to her and I, you know, when you catch yourself in a thought and or like something of like, oh, that's a really good reminder to myself. I remembered saying, or I caught myself in the thought saying, that if I just do X, y, z, I know what I want is going to come from it. Maybe it's not going to be from doing X, y and Z, it's not a linear path, but justa beautiful byproduct of just taking action is we always actually get what we want. And today in this chat, in this episode, I wanted to talk about this idea that if you just move in the direction of what you want, most of the time you're going to get what you want, and if you don't, it's like what you wanted was what was meant for you, what actually you truly deep down wanted, but just by the fact of taking action you kind of got to that result, whatever that result ended up being. So sometimes we and I want to apply this to business, because I do apply this to business a lot this idea another great saying that I love is an object in motion stays in motion slightly similar but little bit different type of concept. But I just know if we keep things rolling, that's the best thing we can do. It's when we stop. When an object stops, it's so hard to get going again. Now, that's slightly different to what I wanted to talk about.

Shannon Stone: 2:35

I wanted to talk about the magic in taking action and just the idea if we if you think about you know, client generation is often a common one I chat to people about we can do the logical things. We can send the emails, we can do the content, we can attend the events, we can put on masterclasses, you can have a podcast. You can do all the things. I always know if you just put your heart into taking action. Say, you had a weekly email or you wanted to have a weekly email to your clients or to your audience, your community, and you just got in there, you started sending those emails on a regular basis and you also started to look at the data as well and maybe you created a lead magnet so you can keep on growing that database. Maybe you created a lead magnet so you can keep on growing that database, and maybe you started to put on a live training as well. So, on top of that weekly masterclass, you kind of funneled them into a place where they can learn even more from you. Now we would love to say and to rely on the fact that by doing that, you've got people on your email list and those people end up buying from you. But what often happens and this is like so important that I think I want people to really remember and you would have seen this like if you don't recognize this already, like after we chat about this, you'll be able to reflect back and say, actually that's so true, because that has happened to me in my business. So you can send that regular email but you will get clients from other ways. But I always see that you would have only got those clients. You would have only got those results from another means, but you would have only got it because you took that regular, consistent, sometimes more intense action.

Shannon Stone: 4:23

It's the fact that you did something rather than not doing anything is often the reason that we get the results that we have in our business. So the common denominator I feel like. So the common denominator I feel like is that you did something, you tried something, you didn't stand still, but you also had faith that you would get what you want. As long as you're willing to give your time, your value and you took action. If you give those things, I guarantee you it does come back. Now we always want the strategy right and sometimes, and actually a lot of times, and sometimes like the better times, the strategy is made in hindsight. So if you took a lot of action and you started to get results from it, it's like in the moment, it's like it can feel really messy and it can feel really dislodged, but keep on taking that action, giving your time, giving your value. But when you look back you can craft the strategy around what actually did work. You can start to document and say, well, yeah, I did actually do my weekly email and I did put on a semi-regular live training that I funneled people in, but I also did X, y and Z, which led to getting results in my business as well. So in hindsight you can look back and build that strategy.

Shannon Stone: 5:45

Sometimes we don't have to build it, moving forward like from the get-go, and it's kind of like a lot of people will sit in this fancy procrastination, as I call it. I call it that now because I've repeated it so many times, but I heard it from someone else I think it was Nikki Elledge-Brown, actually that I first heard about the word fancy procrastination. But it's this idea of just getting ready to get ready. So you can always be planning and preparing and creating a strategy and like getting ready to get going, but you actually never get going and it's like a disguise of like you think you're actually taking action, you're taking a form of action, but like what is hitting the pavement? What is of that strategy, of that planning, what actually touches people? Like that's really the only way you get results. Like, have you picked up the phone? Have you sent an email to someone? Have you like, where have you actually made contact? Where have you hit the pavement where you've reached out to someone? So that fancy procrastination can really slip in. So keep that in mind.

Shannon Stone: 6:53

The other thing I wanted to say on this is the data that you get from taking any kind of action is incredibly valuable, and when I first work with clients in the beginning, we can make predictions and forecast and how we think things are going to go, especially when it comes to their marketing. But I always love the first marketing campaign that I'll do with a client or a business because I want to see. It's like, basically, I want to see how responsive their audience is. I want to see how that campaign goes. I want to. We can pull rabbits out of a hat. I do see that extreme results come through. But it's always a test. It's like I want to just see if we do this campaign or this strategy. Let's just kind of see what comes back from it, and I would always want us to reach the incredible results. But even if that doesn't happen, what you get from that is so incredibly valuable. It's the data.

Shannon Stone: 7:56

So say you did a campaign or a strategy or a series of actions and it didn't yield the results you wanted. You didn't get the clients booking in, you didn't get the leads coming through. But what you get from that? Just knowing like, oh okay, well, this email list that whenever I put calls or actions to no one clicks on it. So what can you do with that information? Do you need to continue to grow that list? Do you need to look at your messaging? Is there like another step that people need to take with it? It's like looking at the data. It's like coming back to this idea of it's one part strategy, right, but it's like one part having belief and faith, and like the magic of taking action. It's like all of it.

Shannon Stone: 8:36

One of my clients actually said it really well to me and it's so interesting me having this chat with you here today, because some of these conversations are like the only ones I would have with my clients and sometimes it's like only particular clients as well. But one of my clients said Shannon, you're like the perfect blend of like strategy and woo. So I've had a lot of clients who are very woo inclined. They kind of get the balance of like the laws of the universe, I guess, in a sense. But they know as well that you do have to have strategy, you do have to take action, you do have to look at the data, you do have to delegate, like we're not just putting out wishes to the world and hoping it happens. And so those clients who can be that little bit more, I guess, spiritually inclined, you kind of can tailor the strategies a little bit differently or explain it a little bit differently, differently, or we'll have different conversations.

Shannon Stone: 9:30

And I love all my clients, even the ones who are just completely black and white. They just want the factual stuff, tell me the solid information, like they're not really into the magic of taking action, and that's okay too, because I just adjust how we work that way as well, but it's always interesting. So what I want to say here, if we start to wrap this up is whatever it is that you want in business, and even if you look back at your growth and you know any clients you've brought on, it's always happened Like it doesn't. It's very rare that it just happens out of thin air. When it does amazing, that is so good, but it doesn't always happen that way. But you will know that when you have taken action, even if it's not the. I did a webinar and people booked and then signed up and we worked together and we lived happily ever after. That can happen too, for sure. But at the same time, you can also take all of that action and the leads and clients come through from another mean.

Shannon Stone: 10:31

But what I always know is, if you didn't take the action of, say, delivering that masterclass or doing your weekly emails, like you're getting clients from nowhere, like I think I don't know what it is in us as humans, but it's like I think if we can hold that belief of like if I just do something, something's going to come from it. It's way better than me doing nothing at all and standing still. And yes, I can also build a strategy and I would also like to build a strategy in hindsight. I don't have to have it completely thought out from the get go. Maybe I've got a loose idea. It's like, okay, well, you know, networking groups are really great for me, so I'm going to get back into that. Or the email stuff is really great for me, or social media is really like whatever it is. You've probably got a good idea or a loose idea of what the strategy is. The idea is take some action, see the results start to come and then in hindsight you can systemize that strategy whatever it is that worked and start to create more of that dependable system strategy way of working that will consistently produce your results. But underlining all of that common denominator is at the end of the day, we always still have to take action, and when we do that, positive things will definitely come from that. So that is what I have for you today as far as an action step and how you can apply this into your business, and this is almost like a strategy that I'll share with you very quickly.

Shannon Stone: 11:57

What is it that you want? Number one what is it that you want so you might say, okay, in the next 30, 60, 90 days, I want X number of clients. So that is what we want, number one. Number two what can I do about it? And like first thoughts, like what are the things that come to mind, the people to follow up, the things to attend, the content to create the emails to send, like whatever comes to mind, write all of that down. And then number three is so simple not always easy because we don't always do it, but it is to take the action. So work that list that you just created and start to hit the pavement, send those emails, follow up with the people and just keep going. We can always have better ideas, we can always have better strategies, but nothing is going to replace the fact that you've got to do something, and something is better than doing nothing at all. So action step.

Shannon Stone: 12:49

Number one what is it that you want? Number two just first thoughts, like what comes to mind when you think of what can you do about that? If it is, say, five clients that you want, what are the things that you know to do? What has produced you clients in the past? And write all that down. And number three is to start doing that and I would love for you to circle back and tell me what happens after the fact. Did the clients come through? Where did they come through, based on what you had planned on hoping they would come through. Anyway, that is what I have for you today.

Shannon Stone: 13:21

I hope you found this useful, slightly, a little bit different to our usual conversations, but if you have any questions and if you want to chat about this some more in the DMs, definitely reach out. Linkedin's definitely a big hangout spot for me at the moment, but I'll leave it at that. I hope you have an amazing week and we'll talk again soon. Hey, thanks for listening. If you found this episode useful, I'd love for you to send it to a friend. The best podcasts I have found have all been recommended to me. If you can spread the word by sharing this episode, I can spend more time helping you by creating episodes just like this one. Send it, text it, tell somebody about it. Whatever you need to do, the more you spread the word, the more I can focus on creating needle-moving episodes to help you and your friends.