002 Processes Are A Business Owners Best Friend + BFM + MVP = A Mantra for Life and Business
This episode provides a comprehensive look at how structured processes and effective marketing strategies are indispensable tools for any business owner. The focus is on the practical application of these processes to enhance operational efficiency and marketing effectiveness. Listeners can learn how to implement these strategies to avoid common pitfalls like overwhelm and burnout, particularly through the use of minimal viable products (MVPs) and streamlined business operations.
Moreover, the episode underscores the importance of adapting business models to include digital transformations, such as integrating online courses and utilizing live streams for broader engagement. The discussed strategies are particularly relevant in today's fast-paced business environment where digital presence and agility are paramount.
If you're aiming to refine your business operations or enhance your marketing strategies, consider integrating the discussed processes into your routine. Don't hesitate to reach out for personalized advice or to explore further resources on our website, ensuring you stay ahead in your entrepreneurial journey. Engage with us in our next live session to dive deeper into these topics and expand your business acumen!
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0:00-5:00 - Introduction to the livestream, updates on business training, and academic challenges.
5:01-10:00 - Discussion on the release of new podcast episodes and networking strategies in Geelong.
10:01-15:00 - Overview of podcast repurposing and community-focused podcasting initiatives.
15:01-20:00 - Acknowledgement to country and preparations for business events.
20:01-25:00 - Transition into podcast recording and a focus on business processes as crucial tools.
25:01-30:00 - The importance of website updates and how they integrate with business operations.
30:01-35:00 - Detailed planning for the Geelong Small Business Festival and website content strategies.
35:01-40:00 - Exploring the concept of minimal viable products and their role in business testing.
40:01-45:00 - The benefits of structured business processes and their impact on marketing and operations.
45:01-50:00 - Concluding thoughts on business processes and a shift towards preparing for a business event.
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0:20
Zo.
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G'day, everyone, it's zo the video confidence coach here with your weekly video confidence Connect. G'day everyone, hello to everyone who's watching us live or who's watching us in the replay. Make sure you comment below. I always do my best to respond to all comments we get.
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So A lot's happened over the past week, as per usual. So I want to do a little bit of an intro as to what I'm doing in my business, just for future reference for myself. But also, if you're interested in the work that I do here, might as well check it out.
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So essentially, there's been a lot happening. So I'm currently in a training program and a online course for business and to get my some accreditations for my business, and I completed an exam this week.
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I realized how much I hate academia and realized how much I hate exams. So that's fun for me to find out during the exam. So for any of those who are currently still in academia of any kind.
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Hats off to you. Best of luck. Don't want to be in your shoes again. Luckily, I'm able to see the end of this tunnel. Obviously, there's still assessments and a couple more to go, but I can see there's an end to it. Compared to a lot of people, where it's just just keeps going, it's going to keep going.
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I also released a couple of podcast episodes this week. We released, especially today, the first episode that I've done in a very long time for the video coach. Video confidence coach cast is my weekly podcast that I pull from this live stream available for people to both watch and listen to, and I honestly, it was
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a bit nerve wracking, because it's the first time in a long time that I don't like I looked at my previous episodes and that were back in 2021 when I had energy and stamina. And I look back then I just think, Oh, you sweet summer child. You didn't know what was coming. But hopefully now we'll have the opportunity to release a weekly podcast that will be a lot more tailored to people's needs. And as I've pivoted my business and I'm able to collect the people who are interested in the work that I can do for them, that's what the podcast is for. And I've also completed a live stream for how to network effectively in Geelong and other small towns. So for those who do not know, I'm based in Geelong of Victoria, Australia. So we're down the down the bottom of the main island of Australia, and I, and it's I live in a fairly regional town. It's a very large regional town, but there is a lot of mental there is a very a lot of small town mentalities when it comes to business networking in somewhere where I've been networking for the past 15 years of my life. So I had a lot of things, a lot of useful tips to give, and I had an outline all sorted out, and then I just kept answering people's questions, and the hour was up. So you will definitely see snippets of that on my social media and on my website, and as those come out, because I like to be able to repurpose the effort and live streams that I do, like I do here,
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but yes, I mentioned lightly just before about my podcast releases. So essentially, what I'm doing is I'm also doing my individual podcast where I'm repurposing conversations from this live stream, as well as a project that I run called Geelong podcasters, where essentially it's a five minute episode once a week that helps people get started in podcasting, because it's one of the things that I do, as you can imagine, in one of the skills and tool sets that I provide to my clients, and we're starting out, there are plenty of options out there online, but nothing that is very community focused and based. So I run a group where we meet up once a month and we have a chat about podcasting. We get together and at a local cafe, and then I also run a podcast once a week, giving you tips and tricks on how to start your own podcast from someone who has, I think I did the math this week, I've launched about 35 different podcasts over my career, obviously, for clients, and then there's my own, and there's a couple of other projects that I've done in the meantime. So there's a lot of stuff in the background, essentially, as you can.
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Probably imagine there's going to be a lot there. But before we get on to today, one thing that I would like to do, and I realized I neglected two last time, and this is entirely my fault, I'd like to do an acknowledgement to country before I begin the rest of today's live streaming session. I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians and owners on the land on which I conduct my business. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and I stand with the traditional custodians on the land of on the lands in working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand with them and their fight against injustice always was, always will be Aboriginal land,
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and I thank you for that. So once we get started with the day, I have developed a couple of little mini
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transitions between our slides today, so we're not just going to constantly be going back to the main slide today. And as I've mentioned before, if you are watching on the replay, feel free to comment. I do my best to respond to all comments, even the ones where they may be a little bit confused, but that is okay. I'm here to help out,
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and now we're going to go to recording of our podcast episode, which, as I look at my notes, the first one we've got today,
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I close my notes. That's why, is processes are a business owner's best friend. So that's going to be the first episode we are going to be going through today. Though, I do want to showcase to people who are here on the live and who are special with us at the moment in time I have I'm currently working on my website, so it's essentially something that's been taking months in the background, and mainly, as most people can attest to when you are starting a small business, or you have a tendency of focusing on your clients more than your own. So of course, this website's been sitting here. I've been paying for it, and I've been working on it and trying to get it up and running ready to go so we can service and work with people. And I've been leaking, not leaking, but I've been providing parts of it for people to be able to access, for say, the Geelong podcasters see the web page here as it stands, with information there. And of course, that is just at Vcc dot training, slash Geelong dash podcasters, if you're interested in checking that out. But the most all this website up here, for example, like, if I go to my main web page of my website. It's still default. It's still default. I have not touched any of this,
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and I'm a bit worried, but that is for future me to worry about. I just wanted to showcase to myself and to you, the viewer here, that even though things are going to take time, you can just keep going regardless, and you don't have to be entirely ready to get started. Speaking of which we're preparing for our big event for the Geelong Small Business Festival, the podcast Power Hour. So if you are watching this in real time or listening to this in real time, feel free to check it out. We will have this available at the actual live event, which is going to be Monday, the 19th of August. But if you are unable, or this is past that date, we will have this available to consume in a lead magnet type format on my website. As soon as I figure out how to do that,
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you will be surprised how often I just say, Oh, I can do that. And then just research how to do it, usually with my clients. Most of the time I do a lot more research ahead of time. When it's with myself, I can be like, Nah, just, just do it anyway and see how we go, because I'm
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willing to make myself the guinea pig compared to my clients.
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But ready, and we'll get started with this episode. You Good day, everyone. It's Zo the video, confidence coach here on video, confidence Connect.
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Thank you for those who are listening or joining us, either in video format or audio format, and those who are listening to the podcast being recorded live on our weekly live stream, video confidence connect. You can find all these things on my website, BCC, dot training. So today, we are going to talk about how processes are a business owner's best friend, diamond zo Rico, best friend.
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And the reason that I want to bring this up is, as per usual, like a lot of things that come with the podcast episodes that we record here,
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I have a tendency of just letting them.
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Be whatever I find interesting in the moment as a conversation topic to talk about and with my clients. I
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do my best to outline processes either ahead of time, or I do my best to have a systemized approach on how to do something, just so we can get started, just as an absolute starting point. And this is something that I realized I've done for most of my life. When I'm set a task for whatever reason, I immediately go into brainstorm and write down the tasks that I need to do. They may not even be in order, but just writing down like, okay, what are the possible things that I have to do? Cool. And I remember very much. In primary school, I would then cut out all those things and then put them in a list of like, okay, what can be done? What has to be done first, okay, for this, you know, for,
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you know, me to put the poster together. I need to collect all the things. For me to collect all the things. I need to know what I need to collect. So I need to do research, like I was able to move those things around. And, of course, I was made fun of a lot because people would just get up and do it. They would just start running, and they would just start running at the problem head on. And of course, most of the time they wouldn't get it right, or they would be messy or take more time or induce more anxiety or stress, but they got it done. And my mentality was, plan what I want to do so that I can reduce the amount of overwhelm and stress and anxiety for myself, but also I can get the thing done properly, properly being the operative word there. And then I can, if I need to do this again in the future, I can just look at my notes and follow them. There were so many times where we had a project in school that was similar to a previous project that we had done, so all I would do would just go in and get my notes for that previous project, follow the steps of what I had already done, and get it done so much quicker and so much more efficiently than all of the other students that were in my class,
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to the point where I would have, like, you would have this big assignment, this big project,
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that would take, like, you know, two months of class time, for example, on and off, and I would get it done within the first week or two, because I had the time and energy and the focus, because I just wanted to get the thing done, and I had the steps and a checklist that I had done previously to get it done,
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and then, of course,
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it's not what the teacher wants, because I'm not at the same pace as the other students when I just ultimately to say with that story that I've just shared with you right now, that's Why I found myself starting a business because I had so much downtime that I had to spend in school,
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that I had between all my different classes,
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and I would just get the work done quicker, not because I'm smart, mind you, I don't want to stress of that. It's not because I was smart and I got everything done quickly. It was because I just did the things
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consistently, like, I put in the energy to get the things done so they could be done and then ship off. And then I could relax. I could, you know, you know, not read a book because I'm dyslexic, but, like, I could spend time doing what I wanted to do, and that thing was usually working on my business. Was researching things that would be helpful for me and the work that I wanted to do because I wanted to support myself.
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No one was hiring, you know, 14 year old, Zoie,
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so I had to make my own work.
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And of course, that's
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not what school is meant for. School is designed for you to be a good worker.
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Well, I was, but not to the type that they wanted.
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So when I what I mean to say, but that entire story, Zo, and the reason that it spurred on was because I was talking to a client this week, and they were just so I was mentoring this client, and when I do my mentoring work, it is less coaching, because I'm not actively giving you tools to achieve what you need to achieve. I'm more just like here with you, with the process and guiding your general direction into things, maybe letting you know of some opportunities that maybe you can't see because you're too far into something that as someone who is a little bit further back but wants to the best for you, as a mentor, I'm able to guide you in that direction that may be beneficial to you, but again, keeping in mind that I'm guiding you and you can always fight back, I want to stress that to some of my clients, but essentially, I was working with
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this woman who had started her business a couple of years ago, and it was doing well, it was doing gangbusters, and now it's kind of plateaued,
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and she has felt that she's kind of lost the energy and momentum. And when talking with her, it was clear that she was avoiding a few things now.
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Of course, I am a marketing mentor. I am not a business mentor, an executive coach, or any of those things. I am mainly focusing on your marketing, which is usually why people come to me for coaching and mentoring, because it's a part of the oeuvre of running a business that they lack, not necessarily the creativity, but the processes and motivations and just all over energy to actually do marketing on that front. So that's why I'm here to support people again, plug over.
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But essentially, it was getting to clear that it was clear, after talking with her, that she was avoiding doing really important things for her business that were really important to marketing, because she just felt so overwhelmed that she just didn't know where to start. She didn't even know where to begin, and she would constantly find herself coming up with excuses. So we spent time during our session outlining, okay, what are the steps, what do you need to do? Okay, what are the what are the big, big, big steps, what are the big, humongous things that you need to do to achieve what you want to achieve? Okay, so for example, like she needed to update the new prices on her website. So she needed to get into the website. She needed to know what the new prices and news descriptions are. She needed to write those descriptions so that they're ready for the public, and then input them, update them, and then test and make sure that they worked. So ultimately, that's six steps. And for some of you that may sound like Zo, that's really easy, that's not a lot of work. But with everything else that you've got to do as a business owner that you are already juggling, not to even mention the work that you're doing for your customers and clients, it can feel like great, I gotta do another thing on top of everything else that I'm doing.
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But what we did was we discussed, we wrote down those steps, and then we chunked those steps down even further to the point where it was like, not minutia, but like, almost like choreographing a dance.
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When you choreograph a dance, you're not just saying, you know, Step Two steps to the right, fling your arm in one fluid motion as just a vibe. You just, just do this thing like me.
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No, you give people steps. You go, okay, one step to your right, turn your left leg in, knee down, flick, hold your arm like a limp
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tree trunk, and then flick it up in the air.
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I've now broken down this choreographed scene, for example, but that's how you go about tackling tasks or processes in your business. And when you break these down into such small minute tasks that you could easily do them in 30 seconds with very little energy, with very little motivation, and you're able to complete these large tasks, because once you start to get going, the process just moves quicker.
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I have so many processes. Like I said, business processes are a girl's best friend, essentially a system of tasks that I need to do to complete what I need to complete. I have so many of these where it becomes almost second nature. I don't even need to look at the process or the list that I have learned out of my tasks, because it just becomes habit.
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I find myself doing these things just out of sheer will, because it becomes part of my routine to do so, and it feels weird when I don't
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and but when you first start out, it becomes, it is a very much of slog, because you just there's so much writing on it and writing down what you're doing as you're doing it can feel almost counterintuitive, because you're adding extra workload and extra mental load to the work that you're doing. But future you is going to thank you. If you know, with a smidge of knowledge that you are going to have to do this task again, write it down. Just just a good rule of thumb. If you know you're going to have to do this again, write it down. Write down your steps. And even if at the end of it, just like after you finish the task, write down, like the steps that you took to get there, even just really basic things, like, you know, got up,
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stretch to left, stretch to right, done, like really basic steps. The reason I recommend
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writing as you're doing it, though, is because you're in the moment. You're thinking about things. And of course, you can always go back and just cross out and say, Oh, I did. You know, I maybe shouldn't have stretched back as much as I did. I'm going to cross that out as a step in the process that I shouldn't do next time. And next time you do the thing, you're going to be 10 times faster, of course, because you're obviously longer the first time, but anything beyond that third time that you do something, you are going to be so quick and so efficient at it to the point where you can, if you're able to delegate it to other people to do for you, because you've already tested the process, you've already done it, and you've outlined it to a point where people can do it. They can do it for them. And that in corporate speak, is.
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Called an SOP, system
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of priorities, system of process. Sop, I will definitely look that up for you once we finish this podcast episode.
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But making sure that you have these notes in one place is very useful. I have clients who still like pen and paper, so they use a diary. Or I have people who are more like myself, who are a bit more digital, because I'm able to have all my notes in one place and then search up when I actually need to use it. Tools that you can use this with are things like so diaries and whiteboards for people who want to actually physically write things down. You can use tools like Evernote notion or OneNote is essentially digital books that allow you to write things and put things down. This thing can include everything from images, graphs, statistics, videos, PDFs, all those things can be in the one place, and then when you need to search it again in the future, you can just type in the search bar and find what you need to find.
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And of course, all these tools have different minutias to them. Have different things that are not exactly incorrect, but you have to kind of learn how to use these tools, which, again, can make the writing things down process harder. I understand that, but I live by this mantra that once you get the process started, once you start writing it down,
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it takes away that anxiety. It takes away that overwhelm, because no matter to what task you are given,
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you can just
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take it step by step.
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And if you need to search like online how to do this basic thing, and then the basic steps, and then just copy and paste that and just go, follow your best, do your best to follow those things. That's a good thing to start off with, using a tool like, say, for example, chat GPT, to give you the, again, basic it's not obviously, it's a tool that's based on data. So it's not going to give you the correct way of doing things, but it's going to give you something to start with, that you can put your own flare on it, that you can put your own knowledge on and again, keep this in a place where you can search for it later.
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And especially when it comes to both digital and, I argue, physical ways of media, make sure that you back it up when it comes to diaries and whiteboards. I actually have got my clients to just take photos on their phone, so they've got somewhere physical that, just in case someone you know, someone comes in and wipes your whiteboard clean, you've got a backup of whatever you wrote in the whiteboard. If some you know, if the dog ends up eating your homework, then you've got a digital backup to refer to later in later in time, and then digitally, you've got somewhere on a hard drive that is not connected to anything, that is backed up that you can find this information again in the future when you need it, because that's why we do this process. Is for future us. Is for future team members. It's for future people, where I have honestly just said, Hey, Zo, how do you do this thing? And I haven't had the bandwidth to go, oh, this is what you do, step by step. I just say, hey, here is the page that I follow for this process. Take what you want from it gotta go bye.
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And then, of course, they are very thankful. And then they usually give that thanks in return. By doing me a favor later on,
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you're making this thing easier for you, making this whole doing business thing easier for you, so that you can focus on,
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is it getting, you know, getting clients and getting money, or maybe once you're able to process and make that stream, that system, streamlined for you when working with clients, then you've got the time to work on your own business. You've got that time to
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make your business better and make your systems and your own internal priorities even better.
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I am doing a lot of process talk, I must say.
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And I apologize for any of you who are filming a little bit just like Zo, shut the up for a second.
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Maybe I shouldn't have sworn there, but that's okay.
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So as I mentioned through today's
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podcast episode,
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it may be harder the first time you do this, and it may be harder the first time that you find Hey, I gotta check in every half hour to write down what the hell I'm doing,
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but these steps are going to be useful for you for way longer than you think they may be useful for you now. So say, for example, you're doing a process on how to do something again, let's focus marketing based and let's just say, Hey, you want to do more research into what other people are doing the new industry. So you can see what they're doing and then do it differently. So you're doing some research, and you can go about this many different ways, but you find yourself just scrolling through Instagram, through Facebook, through Tiktok, through LinkedIn, just Mindlessly scrolling for hours. So.
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And then you have nothing really to show for it in the end.
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But having a process of, okay, I'm going to do this task, I'm going to do this research. I'm going to give myself 20 minutes on each platform that I want to focus on, for example. And I'm going to use this time whenever I come across something of my competitors. How am I going to do this? I'm going to do this by hashtags, by known competitors that I already have a list of. Okay, so from these competitors, what are they doing? Okay, so it looks like they use a lot of bright colors. Write that down. They it looks like that they have a lot of common faces, so they use the same people in front of the camera every time. Okay, I'll write that down, and it looks like that. They use a very casual, laid back language, cool. I'll write that down. Now, of course, you're going to go through all of the different platforms and see what they do. And then once you look at your notes, being able to actually step back, maybe go get a cup of tea or a cup of coffee, and then come back to your notes fresh after having done something else, and then coming back to it and looking at it and going, Okay, I've seen what all these other people do. What from this, you know, list of things that they do. What can I realistically do differently, and how would I go about that? Okay, so it looks like there's not a lot of trends being used. Okay? I could probably ride the trend waves a bit more. Okay, I can do that. How am I going to do that? By giving myself two weeks to get this done. And again, you start systematizing your thinking to make things easier for you in the future. It's not necessarily something that you're born with, or it's for a lot of people, it's not necessarily a knack. I have developed this type of mentality and thinking when it comes to business over time,
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because that's just what I've had to do to make business easier for myself. I am very much an over thinker. I am very much an Uber stressor. And for very large sections of my life, I was someone who just constantly pushed themself to burn out, died
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mentally and physically for about two days, and then I would bounce back up and then do everything again, full pelt, full everything, to the point where I would, you know, not, I hadn't developed full anxiety disorder, but I was getting there. I was getting there to the point where the doctors were saying, calm down. And also, like, for example, the trainers in my online course that I'm taking are a little bit on that same front of, hey, I'm getting the impression, Zo, that you really care about this. Yes, I do
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chill, and that's what they need to tell me. And of course, I find myself telling that to my clients as well, both mainly in my coaching and mentoring clients. And of course, I'm there to be real with them. I'm there to help and guide them through the process. I'm not going to sugar coat things,
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but sometimes that stress as business owners, especially when you've left a
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career, or you've left a high paying, consistent, paying job, where it, you know, did not work out for you. It is not your vibe as in, like, yes, it gives you money, but that's pretty much it. It's taking everything else from you. Yes, businesses are not easy. They are absolutely hard and diabolical things to do,
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but you find more about yourself as you do it. There's a reason why, in the scamming part of the internet, when it comes to building a business, there was a lot of mindset coaching, mindset, you know, focus when it comes to those things, because it's something that is not something that you can really
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measure
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compared to, say, finances or the amount of reach you're getting, or your email list, or like, all these like metric numbers that you can actively see. Okay, we've gone, you know, up, or we've gone down. When it comes to your mindset, it's something that you have to do as a human and as an individual as you're growing and to be able to have that mindset, mindset of process, writing things down, what did you do? How did you do it? How can you do it better next time that type of process and coming up with that way of thinking to make it a habit for the work that you do
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is going to save you, it's going to make things easier for you, and it's going to be a new, bare fucking minimum for you, your new BFM. Now what I mean that is a mantra that I use a lot with my clients, but I use a lot in just my general marketing. So for those who are
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checking out the live stream, who are checking out the podcast today, in a future episode, I will be going through my two mantras that I use a lot, BFM and MVP, and I'll go through those in future episodes. I.
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But a short little detour of it is essentially, what is your bare effing minimum? What is the thing that is going to be your bare minimum that once you have overcome it, once you have, you know, posted more than twice a week, you can ultimately relax if you post again on social media, awesome, but you've met your bare minimum.
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And when it comes to the people that I work with, their bare minimum is high. Their bare minimum is so super high that people who they work with, people who are even outside of their sphere, think your bare minimum is so high that it's unattainable even for you. So it's not a bare minimum for you. But as an expert, as you grow, your bare minimum seems higher to people who are not experts in your particular field, and that is okay, and I'll get to that in a future episode.
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So what I and then your MVP is essentially a very industry term, but it's called minimum viable product. What is the quickest, easiest, cheapest thing that you can do to prove that a concept or an idea works for you and your business. It doesn't need to be perfect. Straight off the bat, you just need to get it out there, get it seen by people and get their feedback. That is what a minimum of our product does, and it's what all businesses do to get a reading. If people want their service, people want their product, you don't go out there and create a mansion for people who just wanted a one one room flat.
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You work with what you can in the you know, with the resources that you have available, both personal and business wise,
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to be able to test your theories of what could work for future products and services that may, you know, help your business grow, or may explode your business online and make it become viral. I argue that you don't really want to become viral, but I digress.
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So when it comes to your processes, having this habit of writing things down
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is going to be your best friend, and it's going to be a process that you are going to continually develop and consistently develop as you grow yourself and as you grow your business. So I thank you so much for listening to today's Podcast, episode of video, confidence connect,
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looking for those who are watching us right now.
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On screen, you'll be able to see the live stream. Sorry, the web page for our podcast, the confidence coach can coach
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the video confidence coach cast is our weekly podcast where we have regular insights into everything that we do to grow your personal brand. Here at video confidence coach on the you can definitely check those out in the show notes, which will be attached if you're listening to audio or will be down below if you're watching in audio,
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and
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that will be it for today. We wish you. We me. I have a tendency at the moment to switch between first person and third person terminology. I'm still figuring out which one I like more. Do we like we or do I like me, so we'll see how that goes. But wishing you all the best. Have a beautiful day, see you at the Next episode you
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g'day crew, it's zo the video, confidence coach here and welcoming you to the podcast. Video, confidence
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can coach cast. I forgot the name of my own podcast. Wow. I am very smart. Essentially, welcome to the podcast episode today. And for those who are joining us for the first time, I welcome you to a podcast that I release weekly about all things personal branding and growing with video today, we are going to talk about a two acronyms that I use a lot of, and I'm probably going to be referring people a lot to this podcast episode.
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Regarding my two favorite acronyms, BFM and MVP, I use this a lot extensively in my coaching and mentoring
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work that I do with clients. So if you're interested in growing your business with the power of marketing but not sure how to do it, why not reach out and maybe we'll have a bit of a chin wag and sort things out for you. So these two acronyms I use a lot of, and they are going to be all over my website and my branding in the work that I do, and we're probably going to have to put an explicit warning on today, because as an Australian, I like to use me swear words, and I also just find saying them cathartic. I did have a lot of problems with people thinking I was crass and thinking that I was prudish.
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So not prudish that I thought they were prudish when I would use again, not extensive swear words, but you know, one or two every like five minutes,
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and of course, people would turn their nose up in me and be very upset. So I learned, okay, maybe you're not the right people for me, and if you are sensitive to those swear words, maybe today might not be a good podcast for you. But what I'm going to be talking with you about today, again, are those acronyms. So we're going to start off with BSM,
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bare fucking minimum. What is the minimum amount of effort required to get a product or service to market for yourself? We're talking about the energy that you are providing in this business to be able to see something to fruition. This could be a product or service. This could be a marketing activity that you're doing. This could be doing your taxes, this. This could be anything this. This mentality could apply to any part of your business. I came across this from a client of mine in the past who runs a boxing gym and a training gym. Lena Moxon, Hi, love your work, and I continue to, you know, listen to your podcasts and listen to the work that you do as you continue to grow your business. And it's always awesome to see you grow. And she had a particular podcast that really resonated with me about what is your bare effing minimum? What is your bare minimum that you can do that is going to save you energy in the long run, but ultimately allow you to achieve what you want to achieve without the overwhelm. So the reason I put the effing bit in the middle for myself and also for my clients is that sometimes you just need need to say fuck. Sometimes you just need to say this wayward. And for yourself when it comes to the amount of effort. And now we're not even talking money here. We're talking about energy and effort for you as the business owner, as the one who is generating these resources,
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the one who is organizing everything, the one who is putting in the work in these small businesses. And if you are not personally, the one doing the actual work or labor to get something done, you are still organizing it. You are still overseeing it to get it done and to get out there. And this very much correlates with the other acronym that I like to use, MVP. This is a
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practice that is used very extensively throughout business, and I have come across this a lot in my most recent course that I've been taking online for business. But I first came across this in a entrepreneur
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series of events that I went to it was called getting down to business, and it was run by Linda and Frank. Thank you so much. I very much appreciate their wisdom and their insight and the ability for me as someone who was starting their business at 14, bouncing around just trying new things every single time, and then not really having any clear understanding or direction, because I didn't really have any mentorship of any kind when I first started my business. And then once I was 18, I came across this
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training that was being run up in Melbourne. And I think someone came across it and sent it to me,
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and they just said, Hey, I came across this in my, you know, travels. This seems like something that you would be interested in. Why don't you apply? And so I applied. Didn't hear anything back for a while. And then almost immediately, like, the start of the year, they said, Hey, you're in, you know, we'll see you in like, a week. So I had to, like, Okay, I'll make some changes and make sure that I'm there and available to help out, be able there, to be there and ready to learn. And it was a very opening experience. I was so grateful to have this opportunity as a young person, starting their business and again, keeping in mind that by this point I had already.
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Had my business for four years. I had made so many mistakes, and will continue to make mistakes,
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but to be able to have some sort of support outside of yourself is something that I strive to be able to provide my own clients through my coaching and mentoring services.
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And the reason that whole diet tribe that I just went to just now is about minimum viable product is it is essentially about what is the quickest thing that takes that is the cheapest, easiest and quickest thing that you can do to get a idea, get a product, get a service out to market that people can see, have their thoughts about it. You can get their feedback and improve and improve and improve and improve and improve and improve. This is how all businesses run. And once they get to a higher level, and once they grow to a large amount of people, they still do MVPs very consistently. They trial things out with test audiences. They have they provide products or services to a select few people to get their feedback and improve the product so it's ready for market. And this mentality, both of these acronyms, I use quite heavily, to be able to not take the pressure that we put on ourselves as small business owners, but to be able to understand that this is a journey that is going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort
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for both yourself and the business as a whole.
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So to have that mentality of Not everything has to be perfect to get out there to the market. I can test things. I can improve things. And say, for example, if you try a if you try something out, you give it a red hot go, but again, you make it as cheap, as quick and as easy as possible to you, for you to do physically, and you do your bare minimum. Again, remember, as an expert in your field and someone who is running a small business, your bare minimum is a lot higher than everyone else's, I want to stress that to you now and the people that come to me and the clients that I work with, your bare minimum is usually quite high, so to be able to even cut it in half a makes it easier for you and less stress for you, but you're still going above and beyond for your clients. You're still going above and beyond for the products and services you provide to your customers,
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but you don't need to burn out to do so.
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You don't need to make everything a really big deal for it to have impact
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for the people that you want to have an impact for.
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So
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going through those both acronyms, bare fucking minimum is for yourself and your energy and your mindset and your focus. Minimum viable product is what the other aspects of the business, the resources that you have to take, the time that you have to take, the money that it will take to get this idea out there into the market in the quickest, easiest possible way, so that you can then
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grow it, that you can adapt it, that you can change it to suit the market needs.
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So again, those two things are what I use a lot in business, and it's something that I have to coach myself with. From time to time I find myself overwhelming and stressing about really small details that no one notices. In all honesty, no one notices. For example, with our weekly live stream the video confidence connect that I am currently recording this podcast episode on so again, making the bare minimum for me is to record my podcast episodes once a week in an open forum live stream, where I have the opportunity to tackle two birds with one stone. I'm able to record a podcast episode. So I always am able to reach out and help people through the podcast, as well as be able to be available to answer people's questions in a live stream format. When people want to get access to me, and I say, Hey, I don't have free time right now, but I am available from 10 to 11 Australians at Santa time every Friday,
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reach out to me. Reach out to me then, and we can have a chat on air, if it you like.
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I must remember to breathe sorry.
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And when it comes to those things, that is my bare minimum. My bare minimum is that I want to make sure that every email is answered. That is my bare minimum, that I am helping people who reach out to me, and if I cannot serve them, being able to send them to someone who can.
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My bare minimum is not to burn myself out on the small things. My bare minimum is to put my clients first and then me second, but a very close second,
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because I honestly have spent the past five years of my mental health journey and covid.
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Covid,
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honestly, just burning myself out consistently
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about my bare minimum, my bare talking minimum being just way too high to be sustainable for my amount of energy that I have at the time in my life and my health, and also just the amount of time that it was taking in my life where I wasn't seeing any returns.
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And if that's you right now, I get it. I understand. I am with you right now.
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And if it's something that the part that is stressing you is marketing, feel free to reach out to me. I'm always happy to have a 15 minute free chat, no obligation, chat with people who may be interested or just want to talk with someone about their woes when it comes to marketing.
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And then to be able to think, Okay, what is the easiest way to get an idea that I have out there? What is my MVP? What is the quickest, easiest, cheapest thing that I can do to get out there in the market? And that's
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something that I have to keep reminding myself. That's something that I have to keep coaching myself. I'm honestly getting mugs, like really big mugs, because I like big mugs of you know, BFM on there. So I can remind myself constantly what is the minimum that is going to make me happy and satiated and still serve my clients?
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And sometimes that's a lot of a harder question than you would care to admit,
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but that's why you got to sit with it. That's why you got to take a breath. That's why you have to stick to habits. And for example, me making Friday my my day, my business day, the day that I spend on myself and my business no if ands or buts, I do my absolute best to avoid any sort of meetings, catch up calls or anything like that. So if you are trying to book a call or a chat with me on a Friday, I'm sorry it's going to be quite hard, because I do do my best to make Friday a day where I don't communicate with people,
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or if I do communicate with people, it's something that I can, you know, relegate to, like the start, you know, 10 minutes of the day, or the internet of the day, of course, except for my live stream, where, if you do need to chat with me, you can just reach out here.
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But when it comes to your minimum
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setting, it at a standard that you feel happy in your core, that you're
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feeling okay with yourself and the decision that you make
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and setting it about half of that.
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Now I stress this for again, the people that I talk to and the clients that I that I bring into the business are very high performing women and also non binary folk who set their own standards incredibly high. Why
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do I attract people like this? Because I do that as well. I personally set my own standards very high
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because I should be able to meet them.
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I have the energy, I have the time I should be able to meet them. I
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understand that's not always the case, and
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having this mentality has burned me so much,
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but I have learned to quell that, and that is also something I help with my coaching and mentor clients. I'm doing a lot of drops today in the podcast. I apologize, but yes, that's why this thing is so relevant to the work that I do.
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And I want you to understand that your BFM
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is going to be a lot naturally, just a lot higher than amateurs or new or newbies or novices to your industry or to your line of work, or even to your business, because, of course, it's your business at the end of the day, your face, your personality, especially if it's a personal brand, business, is on the line.
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And
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if it doesn't work out, then that shows on you. And of course, I can have another podcast topic, which I will definitely link to, about
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not linking your personality or your self worth to your business. That is not a good thing. Do not recommend that. It's something that I had to learn the hard way when I had to close my first business, and
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that was just because I was not listening to my gut. I was consistently, consistently ignoring how I felt about myself, and I was always putting my BFM way too high where I couldn't even meet it because it wasn't a BFM. At the end of the day, I was sitting my bare fucking minimum way.
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You high. So it wasn't a bare fucking minimum.
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That is something that I had to
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have a very hard talk with myself and very hard look at myself to just go, Zoe, you're an idiot. Sit down, shut up. And as you
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can imagine, that's not a great thing to talk to yourself about and not had to have that. Not having to have that feeling and
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when talking with others, or when you're talking with a mentor, or when you're talking with other business owners who are in the same stages as you, it can be quite confronting to have people say, oh, you should do this, or you should do that,
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or, you know,
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stop listening to
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the critic on your shoulder
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who had does not have the best interest for you,
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and do the minimum that is going to serve your clients and yourself.
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Now, of course, your bare minimum every day is going to fluctuate. That's why the fucking part's in there. It's going to fluctuate so much that sometimes it can seem overwhelming.
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But if you're able to keep it at a consistent level over time,
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to a point where, hey, my BFM, when it comes to recording podcasts, is that I record two a week.
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That's a BFM for me.
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I want to make a habit of doing a live stream every week so I can be there publicly to support my crew and my clients, to be able to support them however. They need in a schedule and a time that I can do, that I can support myself, that I have the energy for.
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And how do I do that? Well, I do that with an MVP. I start before I'm slightly ready, and just get the live stream going, get a calendar going, start telling people, Hey, I'm available on a Friday from 10 to 11 if you want to chat online. There I am,
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of course, not making myself available to everyone all of the time,
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but to a level that I'm okay with.
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And, for example, my minimum viable product for a project I started recently, the Geelong podcasters, I restarted it again. Recently, my minimum viable product was an event once a month
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that I promote once a week,
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and I record a five minute podcast, which is relatively easy for me to do, because I've just done it so much to a point where I can record on average, five episodes in under an hour.
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And that's easy for me. That's my bare minimum. That is my BFM. That is my bare fucking minimum, because I've done it before. I've trained before. I can do it before. Your BFM, for things that you know nothing about, is going to take a little bit of getting used to. You're going to have to hold the reins of that bucking horse until you get thrown off,
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and then you let it sit, let it calm down, and then try and get back on the horse again, once you feel ready and once you feel safe to do so.
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So in wrapping up today's podcast session, gonna go over it again for you, for myself and for you, what is your BFM for yourself, and what is your minimum viable product for the thing that you want to put out there in the world, using your business and your personal brand. Thank you so much for spending your time with me today's podcast and my rant about the things that I talk about so often with my clients. So if you were just wanting to understand what that acronym was, thank you for joining us today in today's podcast episode.
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For those who are interested in learning more about the podcast you're listening to right now, you can check us out at Vcc dot training, slash podcast
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or just search. Video, confidence coach, video,
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video, confidence coach, cast in all good podcast players. I am thinking about changing the name, in all honesty, but I don't exactly know what that is going to be yet. So that will be future me to figure out in the future,
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you can definitely check out our podcast episodes as they as we relate to them.
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Thank you again for everyone who has joined us today in our live stream and for everyone who is listening in our podcast. Thank you again for spending your time with me today, I'm going to finish up here because I honestly don't have anything else to say, and we may not be reaching the full hour, but I think we're doing a very good job. So again, thank you again for all of those who are watching us in the live stream, if you're watching us in the replay hashtag, replay squad and feel free to.
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Comment, I'll do my best to respond to all of your comments. Thank you again, so much for your time, and I'll leave you to it today.
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Who is your host?
Zoë Wood, your Video Confidence Coach connects the dots between personal branding and video marketing. Helping women and non-binary folk in small business, find their way in the world of marketing their passion without the energy drain.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
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