Business Challenge Of The Week – Rebellion

Each week, Nicola and Judith tackle one Business Challenge of the Week in their Own It!! podcast.

This week, they’re discussing Rebellion:

Nicola:

What’s our client challenge of the week this week then Judith?

Judith:

It’s rebellion. Rebellion specifically about structure. You know I get my clients to do these weekly check-ins and the core of it is, what 2 things will you do this week over and above your normal workload that will move your business goals forward? On Monday, there was an outright rebellion where… Actually, to be honest with you, this is after my own heart because I’m a rebel, as you know, through and through. The consensus this week, except for the people who like process, who are quite few in my world, was that “I’m not going to do that this week Judith. I’m sick of it, it’s not working, I’m going to steer by something altogether more natural and instinctive.”

“I’m going to focus on inspiration, self-care, doing more of what I love, reaching out to those I only feel good about, allowing things to come to me, leaving room for possibility and focusing in the moment.” And there was a kind of… You know The Zeitgeist? Everybody feels the same thing at approximately the same time. There was this rash of rebellion – “oh sod it, I’m not going to send in my 2 things this week. It doesn’t work and when I do that, I rebel. I’m just going to do what’s working for me”, which led, I think, to my writing a post about following your inner compass. I suppose I’ve brought it upon myself. My strap line is money making magic for enlightened entrepreneurs. We’re talking about magic and enlightenment.

No surprise then that, sooner or later, they would catch onto the fact that whilst structure and hard work works for some, there’s room in my world for a lot of magic, and woo-woo, allowing and all that sort of thing. I don’t know whether it was the weather or what it was, but there was an out rash of rebellion. My clients are revolting.

Nicola:

So, it’s not one of your clients having a challenge of the week, it’s you having challenges with your clients this week.

Judith:

Oh actually no, I’m not challenged by this at all. I think it’s quite interesting that, very interesting, that they all felt it at the same time. I was coming at it from their perspective. I know that you’re a believer even more than I am, much more than I am, in hard work, focus, systems and all of that. It’s not the only way that it works, there are other ways that it works as well. I think that they were feeling rebellious, they are feeling rebellious, but what they’re doing actually, and this goes back a little bit to Bear Grylls, is they’re learning there’s not only one way to light the fire. They’re learning to trust themselves a bit, and whilst my structure was there in the early days, quite supportive, and they don’t know what they’re doing, so they might as well submit to it.

Now that they’re getting a little bit more confident of their own way of doing things, they’re going, “Mm right, okay. I’m going to do it my way now.” So that is a client challenge actually moving from slavishly following gurus at the expense of your own instincts. I’m quite pleased that they’re being rebellious, because I think it’s them becoming more grown up about running their own business and making their own choices.

Nicola:

Yeah. I sort of feel a bit uneasy about this. In that…

Judith:  

I knew you would, that’s why I brought it actually yes. I knew it would be a talking point for us.

Nicola:

It’s because, I suppose, it’s very… It’s the law of attraction thing, isn’t it? I’ve always felt the most important part of the law of attraction was the actual word action. I find myself meditating every morning now.

Judith:

I know, I know.

Nicola:

I’m coming around to…

Judith:  

They’re not talking about not doing actions, they’re talking about doing things that feel natural and instinctive to them, rather than slavishly following best practice. They’re talking about inspiration and doing what they love. I have to say the results that they’re getting are really good. They’re talking about reaching out to people they feel good about – that’s an action.

Nicola:

Yeah.

Judith:  

Leaving room for possibility, allowing good things to come to you. I can see that might seem passive rather than active. Focusing in the moment – never a bad thing. We talked last week about how your teenagers have a lovely joyous life because they do that. I think it’s a good sign actually. I mean obviously I love rebels, but I think it’s a good sign that they’re maturing.

Nicola:

Yes, yes, I agree. As someone who realised a week or so ago that I like having an empty diary, one could argue that I’m not doing anything because I have an empty diary. Actually what I’m doing is I’m choosing to do whatever I want to do in that time rather than…

Judith:  

It’s the same thing then, isn’t it?

Nicola:

Yeah, interesting isn’t it?

Judith:  

Yes, it is.

Nicola:

They’re getting results, are they?

Judith:

I think… Yes, I think they are getting results.

Nicola:

You would notice wouldn’t you? If it went on too long without any results.

Judith:  

I would, yes. I would. Actually, I’m not surrounded by people – they didn’t start like this this is a step along the way; maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s with having the rush of spring to the head or something like that. I don’t know. I think once they stop slavishly following gurus and doing it their own way, saying, “Look that doesn’t work for me” what I notice is… For instance they will often report in, in their check-ins, these are the 2 things I’m going to do this week. They don’t do those because they don’t want to. They felt sensible. They do something else and they get a result from that. Doesn’t matter to me how they get a result as long as they get a result. I think it’s a good sign.

Nicola:

We’ll see, won’t we? I agree with you, yeah. I agree and I think it’s very funny that they’re all rebelling.

Judith:  

It is funny that they’re all rebelling, yes. They were sort of apologetic, “Oh so sorry Judith. I’m not going to report in this week.” Somebody even sent a report in last week that said, “I’m not going to do anything this week.”

Nah-nah-ni-nah-nah. What it does is it leaves room for you doing precisely the things you want to do. Doing precisely the things you want to do is an action.

Nicola:

Perhaps it gives things time to catch up. We often say that it takes a while for everyone to realise what you’re up to once you change tack a bit. Perhaps there are natural pauses in things where it gives time to… A bit like the bulb. Here we go, we’re all springy now. Gardening is beckoning, I’ve got to say B&Q is calling. It’s a bit like the bulbs under the ground. Oh no hang on, there’s a good story about bamboo isn’t there? If you were a bamboo… No if you were watching a bamboo farmer, you might think he was completely wasting his time for 4 years, because he tends the fields and he plants the bamboo then nothing happens, nothing happens, nothing happens. Then 4 years later, a lot of bamboo springs up and it grows very, very, very quickly. Perhaps it’s about bulbs, and germinating, and things happening underground that you can’t see and things having time to catch up.

Judith:  

Yeah, I think cycles. Everything goes in a cycle, doesn’t it? That’s interesting. I didn’t know it took 4 years before you saw anything with bamboo. I did know it grew like lightning when it eventually did. I think that’s probably a good example. The natural order of things is what’s coming to my mind when you talk about farmers. Of course we’re quite far removed from that, aren’t we? We sit in an office with a laptop, and we do that kind of I’m going to make things happen. Sometimes that isn’t the best way. I actually really rather like this rebelling because it’s my clients saying, “Well that might be the best way for some. It’s not the best way for me. I feel I get better results when I do x, y and z.” Good on you, do your x, y and z, and let’s see what happens.

Sometimes there’s some flip-flopping which is I went too far in that direction so now I’m coming back towards the middle. I’m always saying to them, “I don’t know. Let’s experiment and see what happens.” I think this is a good sign of a confidence borne of preparedness to experiment, and lay claim to your own power, I suppose. There we go.

Nicola:

Oh, yeah. It’s interesting because one of the things that I’m feeling… Because I’m doing less and achieving more. One of the things that I’m… I keep thinking I should blog more on The Business Success Factory. Then I remember that I have got a blog post in the form of a podcast episode going on that site every single week. I do a business diary most weeks, and then I do a 7-day start-up update occasionally when I feel like it. Which I should do every week but I don’t really… There’s no rule about that. I just think it takes a while sometimes for different habits to feel like you’re doing stuff. When you’ve traditionally, as you said, hard work and focus, over 1000 blog posts on that site.

If there’s any justice in the world, Google will take that into account. And the fact that I’m still adding new stuff and it’s multimedia will stand me in good stead. It still feels like I’m not working hard enough, on that site particularly.

Judith:  

That’s worth examining isn’t it? It’s a belief, it’s a belief connected because I’m not getting the results, I’m not working hard enough. I’m not sure that’s the truth, because I think I work quite hard. Sometimes when I don’t get results in a particular area, I think there must b … It’s not that we’re not working hard, it’s that perhaps there’s a better way to be putting that energy in.

Nicola:

Yeah, and for me, it’s so effortless to do a podcast interview with a guest and then to get it transcribed, and for Sarah to do all the techy work, and then it to appear, as if by magic, on my blog every week regardless of what I’m doing. I just need to get the transcription bit a bit sorted now because the Filipino transcriptionists are a little bit flaky, bless them. I just need to automate that and then it will all be happening automatically.

Judith:  

Let me ask you a question.

Nicola:

Go on.

Judith:   

Given that you are a woman who has written… How many books? 3?

Nicola:

Yeah.

Judith:  

A long newsletter for a number of years, and quite a lot of blog posts historically, do you feel the well is empty? Or why are you not blogging now?

Nicola:

I think it’s because I’ve been so focused on the technical side of this move of content. I think once that’s up, automated and running, I think the well might spring again. I do have a bit of a challenge with thinking, “oh I can’t write about the same old stuff all over again.” You seem to have a constant flow of new ideas on how to…

Judith:

I don’t think they are new Nicola, actually. I tell you why… I think this is quite important, because actually there is a finite amount of stuff that we know. Even though both of us love to learn new things, I don’t think we want to be constantly finding new on a blog. People don’t read them sequentially, do they? Both of us have got avid fans who would read every word that we print, but that’s not really why you blog. I think to have, say, the top 10 or the top 20 things cycled, recycled, and expressed in a new way is the best way of blogging. Now did you see a blog post I wrote this week where 4 of my clients had a result from blogging? Did you see that?

Nicola:

I do read your blog posts religiously but I can’t remember the details of that one.

Judith:  

Let me tell you what happened last week. 4 of my clients, who have been blogging very diligently for short, long, and medium terms, had a result that came directly from the fact that they were blogging. One of them was asked by the BBC to be on something.

Nicola:

Oh yes.

Judith:  

One of them got an inquiry from Australia, “could you teach me everything you know? I’d like to be your mentee.” One of them was picked up by a massively prolific blogger, commented, feed backed, and shared. The fourth one got an invitation to do a new piece of perfect, ideal client work. All 4 of those came from the fact that they blog. Sometimes our clients, and indeed ourselves, blog very diligently for a long time and see no results at all. It was blog result week last week in my gang. I thought that was quite fascinating. All I could say was, “You see I told you. I told you there was value in blogging, not just over and above your traffic. You’ve all had business opportunities from it.”

Nicola:

I like your concept of… Because I’m not interested in internet marketing tactics anymore. There are so many better people doing that than me. What I’m always… More and more increasingly fascinated in is the psychological aspects of things. I’ve been through the journey myself, I know that’s what really holds people back. It’s not about the tactics at all, it’s not about the fact that I could have just put a support ticket in. Why didn’t I? That’s what’s interesting to me. I like your idea of having 20 topics that are… Because I’ve done countless surveys – in fact I’ve got surveys running ongoing – anyone who goes through my email-marketing funnel will get surveyed at least twice. So, I do have a great long list of the challenges people face. I could probably go in there, find 10 or 20 topics that are common to all and then just cycle through them with different interests.

Judith:    

That sounds a bit mechanical, you see? Because what I think I’m doing is I’m going to write one today which is about receiving gifts from generous clients. I’ve had a lot of presents recently.

Nicola:

Yes, you have.

Judith:  

That’s not a new topic. It’s about gratitude, giving and receiving. I probably write about that quite a lot. I think that you don’t necessarily need to turn it into a process, you just need to be comfortable with the idea that we’re actually not really creating new every day.

Nicola:

Yes.

Judith:  

We might be finding new ways to express the old through the glasses that we wear in 2015, as you’re saying. It’s the same material but your interested in – it is coming from a different angle now.

Nicola:

That’s a good idea and you naturally talk about your clients. I’m always conscious that perhaps I’ve been blogging in the past but not with much of a marketing spin on it. I’ve just blogged from the heart, and not necessarily had a call to action in the blog post. I think the right clients will read the blog posts, resonate with them, perhaps read a case study and think, oh that’s just like me. Then they’ll know where to click to go further, won’t they?

Judith:    

Darling, I totally see you having made that work over the last decade, and if you don’t pat yourself on the back for that, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You’ve got many followers because you blog from the heart.

Nicola:

That’s a nice thought, isn’t it? That’s a very nice thought.

Judith:  

I can think of a handful of people I could name. I won’t but… People who are undying loyal fans because you do your thing your way.

Nicola:

Yeah, and I’m one of yours because you do your thing your way. That’s why we’re here.

Judith:  

There we go. There’s the lesson of the week, do your thing your way! And that’s what the rebels were saying – I’m going to do my thing my way.

Nicola:

There’s no right or wrong in blogging. It’s just doing it how you want to do it and it will work. Something will happen.

Judith:    

It’s just create content, isn’t it? Get it out there.

Nicola:

You’re creating ripples in a pond, that’s what you’re doing.

What do you think of this week’s Business Challenge of the Week? How do you handle it when your clients/ employees get rebellious? Do you get rebellious in your own business? Let us know in the comments!