As female business owners, I see all too often that we struggle with a lack of self-confidence that can help us think like a boss.
IE 179: How to Think Like a Boss with Kate Crocco
Let’s be honest, it’s extremely difficult to build a business and be a mom, all at the same time.
There are so many demands on our time as women. Are there ways to continue to grow a business, while at the same time being the mom you want to be?
The answer is an emphatic yes!
My guest today, Kate Crocco, is sharing some of the lessons she learned when she transitioned from her own brick and mortar psychotherapy practice to Mom to two daughters, business mindset coach, and author.
How to Show Up Confidently in Your Business
There is something tricky in showing up confidently when you’re building an online business.
Typically, we are doing things we’ve never done before and we aren’t at all sure what’s going to work and what’s not. So, how do we show up in full self-confidence when we aren’t exactly sure what we’re doing?
Kate says the trick is to show up as yourself.
I can already hear your objections. “But Jenny, I don’t even know what I’m doing! I can’t show up as my true self or my audience will find me out as a fraud!”
But that’s the beauty of building your own business. You get to show up in whatever way you want to show up.
If you wait until you’re more qualified, or until you deem yourself “ready,” you will never show up.
I can tell you what I’ve learned, not only from growing my own business but also from helping hundreds of women grow theirs; the more you show up, the more your confidence grows.
It’s almost like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets and the more comfortable it is to do hard things.
Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Selling
As I was reading Kate’s book, I came across her thoughts about sales. I know that we as women, in particular, can have some pretty strong feelings about sales. We think it’s icky, or we feel like it pushes people away.
But Kate decided to compare selling a product or service to taking a plate of brownies to a picnic. (Brownies happen to be her favorite, but you can insert whatever your own favorite treat is.)
When you decide to sell a service or a product, you’re going to put out the invitation to people to have some. And just the same as with your plate of brownies, some people will say, “Oh yes! I love brownies! Thank you!”
But some people might say, “I love brownies but I’m on a diet, so no thank you this time.” Or others might say, “Thank you but I actually don’t care for brownies.”
You wouldn’t feel personally offended if those people didn’t accept a brownie; likewise, you shouldn’t feel personally offended if people don’t take you up on your sales offer, whatever it might be.
- Maybe it’s not the right time for them to purchase but they love your offer.
- Maybe they don’t have a need for what you’re offering.
- Or maybe they’re like the brownie lover and they’ve been waiting for someone to offer them a brownie.
Maybe they’ve been waiting for the invitation to buy what you’re selling. But just like no stranger is going to walk up to you and ask for a brownie, nobody is going to ask you to sell them what they need.
You have to put your offer out there and the people who need it or want it will accept your offer.
The Biggest Lie We Tell Ourselves
In her book, Thinking Like a Boss: Uncover and Overcome the Lies Holding You Back from Success, Kate talks about the 9 lies we believe that keep us small and hold us back in our businesses.
There are many lies we tell ourselves but she says the biggest and most-believed is that we don’t have the time to do what we know we want to do.
We say things like, “If I had more time, I would be doing X, Y, and Z.”
The truth is, this is not about time. It’s about priorities. If something is a priority for you, you will find the time to make it happen.
How to Find the Time to Work on Your Business
I completely understand the struggle to find the time to do all the things we want to do.
Before Covid-19 hit, my two girls were in school all day and my husband was a full-time teacher. And then all of a sudden, one day they started being home with me all day, every day.
I had my schedule and my work routine well-established at that point, and it all kinda went out the window there for a bit. We had to establish some new routines as a family that enabled me to get my work done and also enjoy the extra time we now had together.
Finding time to do the things that are important to you is going to require conversations with your spouse and family so that they can see how important your business is and how to work together to make sure you get that time.
Kate says to ask yourself, “How badly do you want this business?”
If you want it badly enough, you will make it happen.
Steps to Meeting Your Goals
I always want to give you practical action steps that you can take to see immediate progress and get those quick wins. Here are a few things you can do to free up some time to work on your business:
- Decide on 3 things you could immediately cut from your calendar/schedule. What are 3 things you do consistently that aren’t serving you? If you spend a couple hours every night watching tv or scrolling on your phone, maybe this isn’t the season for you to do that. Maybe this needs to be a season of hustle for you.
- What can you say “no” to? Make a list of things in your business that aren’t income-producing or that have no immediate ROI. Kate was spending an hour a week writing blog posts that weren’t getting much traffic. So, she made the decision to use that time on efforts that had a greater ROI. Are you doing things out of habit that aren’t giving you any return? Learn to say no.
- Stop trying to be everywhere. If there’s one thing I see over and over again with clients, it’s the feeling that they need to be everywhere, all the time. If you’re trying to be everywhere, your efforts are being wasted. You need to figure out where your audience is and focus your efforts there. Forget the rest.
Writing a Book Isn’t Your Ticket to Success
Because Kate chose to go the “traditional publishing route” for her book, she has had to put a large portion of her business on hold during this time.
She compares having a publisher to having a boss again. She’s once again dealing with deadlines, and someone else making all the decisions on when things happen. Most of what’s happening with her book is out of her control.
If you’re interested in publishing a book, understand that getting a book out there doesn’t mean that your business is going to see some kind of overnight success.
A book is a “long haul” means of getting your message to more people.
Rather than being instant success, having a published book becomes a type of business card that you hand out to people. It gives you a certain level of credibility that you couldn’t get any other way.
A book may also bring you business leads in the future. People may read your book and then months, or even years, later, decide that they’re ready to put it into action and they may contact you for help.
If you’re a blogger, Kate says to keep giving your audience solutions to their problems as she’s had people who downloaded a freebie from her years ago now come back to be her coaching client.
If you’re ready to start achieving your business goals, I hope you’ll take some of the tips Kate shared in this episode and get started today!
You can connect with Kate on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/katecrocco/ or get a look behind the scenes with her at https://www.instagram.com/katecroccoauthor/.
Action Steps:
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