Episode 2: What 20 years in business taught me

Dawn McGruer:

Welcome to Dawn Of A New Era, the podcast, the chronicles of a serial entrepreneur. Now in episode one, I shared with you my journey of starting my first ever business at the age of 21. And at the age of 41, now I want to look back on those past 20 years and reflect on some of the challenges and insights that I’ve seen, because stepping out of corporate into setting up my own business, I could never have anticipated what a change it would have. Not only on me as a person, but also the impact that it had on my life.

Dawn McGruer:

Now, when I think about it, some of me feels quite positive. Some of me feels quite happy about those experiences. But honestly, there were some really, really kind of dark times because stepping out and actually showing up as a business owner, where you’ve had the backing of a brand before in corporate and a team, it’s very isolating and very lonely. But also I think showing up and being visible, being visible and standing for your own brand mission and vision is quite a change.

Dawn McGruer:

And showing up on social media was something that I found quite difficult because yes, I was comfortable with social media. Yes, I was comfortable with video. But the irony was, is that I’ve been doing all of this under this whole sort of corporate shield and safety net.

Dawn McGruer:

And then it felt really quite strange to take that step out. Because as much as I was confident in what I did, and I was confident in what I could do to serve my clients, I felt this sort of overwhelming desire to get myself in front of my audience and to reach a larger network and to serve and show up on social media.

Dawn McGruer:

But thinking about it, what was holding me back, it’s often we have this imposter syndrome. And I think what happens is, is as much as we believe in ourselves, we have this kind of thought process where we think people are going to criticize and judge what we do. And then we also, on the other foot, I used to go online and look at what other people were doing and I’d have this whole sort of FOMO feeling, this fear of missing out, that everyone else was doing more than I was doing.

Dawn McGruer:

And I had to really reign it back and kind of put my blinkers on and go in my own lane and stay in that lane. Because I could always be looking at other ideas and I think the thing for me, if I can give any advice to business owners, is that we all go on to social media, we all worry about what people’s perception is of us. But a lot of people will just look at a video that you’ve done or a live and just kind of give you that whole sort of congratulations for doing it because so many fear going live.

Dawn McGruer:

I now go live and love it, but I don’t follow a script or anything, but my first time, it’s difficult, and anyone who says that stepping out of corporate, showing up online, being uber-visible is not something that you fear, there always is this kind of back feeling. And imposter syndrome, I mean, even when I released my book, I wrote it, I was confident in it, but it’s always that kind of fear that when it goes live, when it’s launched, that people will criticize or they’ll find something wrong with it.

Dawn McGruer:

Now, I don’t think it’s a bad thing having imposter syndrome because it keeps us sharp, it keeps us focused on improving and bettering ourselves. I think for me, I had to really much kind of focus on what my goals were and not get distracted and actually just implementing and not worrying too much. I always say about practice rather than practicing, I’d rather just get something done than just keep testing because you can learn from your mistakes. If you do nothing, you’re not learning all of the time.

Dawn McGruer:

So in terms of being a business owner, stepping out corporate was difficult, showing up online and also remembering that where I was in my journey and also what I was trying to achieve. But I think one of the things that has made me successful and that I really feel has pushed me along as an entrepreneur is trust. Because I have always, if I’ve said I was going to show up, I was going to commit to do something, I’ve always, always honored that. And there’s a temptation sometimes to move things in your diary, to change things around. If I made a commitment, it was almost I could do or die. But that served me so well because if you ask any of my clients, probably the number one thing that they would say is that they have this automatic confidence in me. And I think this whole sort of consistency, showing up, doing what I said, regardless whether it worked as well as I thought, people got that feeling that I was going to be there and I was going to be there to help forever.

Dawn McGruer:

And what happened then is it builds this trust and reputation that has been invaluable for me because nothing is better than word of mouth. And the most sort of client recommendations that I get are because not necessarily people have worked with me, but people know about me and my reputation. So I’ve almost got this whole way where I always think about, over-delivering in terms of exceeding customer expectations. So I’m very clear and transparent about the specifics. I am a detailed person, but I do like to kind of just get things action quite quickly.

Dawn McGruer:

The way that I work is that I like to build a system, a success path, that my clients can see in terms of tangible results and outcomes. So if everyone is on that same kind of pathway, we all know what’s going to happen. Because one of the biggest challenges that I’ve had is taking on clients whereby I don’t get a good vibe.

Dawn McGruer:

Now building a success path, so for instance, I have our model, our signature model trademarked to the Dynamic Digital Marketing Model. And the reason that, that was born, it actually formed the basis of my entire book, but it forms the basis of my entire business too, because within the academy, I wanted to build something that not only showed my clients what they were going to actually achieve, but it was the clear steps, the process, so that people could see exactly what they would be doing or we’d be doing for them, and what the expected outcome was. So that every time we showed up, whether it was on the agency, or the academy side of things. People came on a training course, learnt a system, and they knew the exact steps, the priorities, to do with a checklist etc. to get those results.

Dawn McGruer:

Now that’s been a big difference for me because very rarely do I have a situation where a client comes to me and says, “We signed up for this and we didn’t get that.” There’s always a time where a customer will come back to you and maybe sort of ask for clarity, but they’re never looking for anything above and beyond because I always feel that we exceed the expectations. So if I work with a client and I know that I can improve X, Y and Z, I’ll always go in with a very sort of baseline, “This is what we can get. And this is sort of the short, the medium, the long term.” So it’s about being specific in what you do and thinking about, could you create a success path and how would you showcase what you did to really give these tangible outcomes for your client?

Dawn McGruer:

Because that has served me, not only in presenting and converting clients, but also delivering content. But having a system that everyone in my team knows and believes in and that other people can deliver. Because for me at 21, one of the biggest struggles I had was serving one-on-one and then I moved to this kind of business model where it was one-to-many, and started the academy and training multiple people, and they’re moving online.

Dawn McGruer:

Now there’s lots of people who will have a view about your business. And there are so many coaches and consultants out there. And I often find that we want to put our trust in someone. We want to have a figurehead and a leader. And for me, it was about having multiple people and taking little bits from each person, these golden nuggets, and sort of making them my own because it’s very easy to get caught up in someone else’s opinion and view of where you’re business should be. Because people talk about scaling and growing, but what is scaling and growing? Scaling, and growing, it could just be you getting a model where you earn X, Y and Z, but it’s your own mission. Don’t let people push you into being something you don’t want to be.

Dawn McGruer:

Now stepping out, being visible, coming out of corporate, making sure that I kind of overcame any imposter syndrome and also stayed in my own lane was one thing. Building the trust and having this success path was absolutely the best thing I could have done in my business. I have a success path for pretty much every product or service I do, because when you present someone a clear step by step process, they can clearly see how you’re going to serve them. And you have to be quite authentic and when you step out of corporate it’s about really kind of peeling off those layers of the onion and showing your authentic personality.

Dawn McGruer:

And this is kind of why I decided to do this podcast because lots of people know me and they could look online and they could just be thinking, “Goodness, she’s got a huge following. She’s doing this, this and this.” And that really could put some people off because it’s not about being perfect. And it’s not about having this amazing online presence and positioning. It’s about being authentic and actually looking at who your ideal client is and being able to relate to those people, but as much that they can relate back to you.

Dawn McGruer:

And when I started working with corporate businesses, when I set my own business up, that was one thing. But then I started working with entrepreneurs and business owners, people who had this massive passion like I did. And one of the things that came out of conversations is that, I wasn’t how I looked. And you never think about these things. You never think that people are judging you on how you look or they think you’re going to be a certain way, but they do. And I didn’t want to change. I still wanted to be me and I still wanted to show up online in the manner I wanted to be. But I had to give a way of people understanding my true personality and who I really was. Because it’s easy to judge online, and you will experience this yourself as a business owner, but it’s about getting people into a way that you build a relationship where they feel like they’re really genuinely getting to know you.

Dawn McGruer:

Now, my biggest, I suppose, way of looking at things now is that, what I wanted when I was 21 is not obviously what I want at 41. But those 20 years have taken the toll on me in terms of a person and an impact on my life. I’ve spent loads of hours and time away from friends and family. But I look at my business as my hobby. And some people might find that crazy who’ve never started their own business, but it kind of is, it’s your passion. And I was lucky enough to turn my passion into actually earning money for me.

Dawn McGruer:

But I want my business to be how I want it to be. And it is so easy, even when I look over the past couple of years, I’ve had to press stop on how my days were, because as my team grew it was almost like my tasks grew and the commitment to people grew. And I looked at my diary and on a Sunday I’d feel physically sick because I would be traveling four or five different places, I wasn’t coming home, I was away for maybe three or five days a week. I was staying in hotels like 150 nights. I mean, it’s just unreal. And I’d fallen into this because it was almost like every slot in my diary was something to be filled.

Dawn McGruer:

Whereas now at 41, and I look at things quite differently. I use a tool that you can download called My Day, My Way. And this is exactly what it should be because I was stressed out, I don’t think I realized just how stressed out I was until I stopped traveling. And I think one of the scariest things was, is that I felt this huge anxiety because I wasn’t on the go constantly. And that was really worrying because the toll that, that’s probably taken on my health is huge. And it’s taken probably a good few months until I was waking up and feeling kind of calm and relaxed because I was running on adrenaline the whole time. Yeah. I was showing up, I was serving people. I was good at what I did. And I was just, I thought I was absolutely rocking it. I probably was. But then I was probably absolutely just knackered. I was probably just kind of operating in the moment.

Dawn McGruer:

Where since I’ve not done that, and since I’ve changed my life, and since I’m now doing My Day, My Way, I think differently, I’m more creative, I’m kinder, and I’m more in the moment in terms of present. And I look back and I was thinking about my business, 24/7. Even when I was in conversations with people, I didn’t realize just how wrapped up I was in my own business and taking that step back and just saying no to people. I literally, people say, “Oh, can I have a meeting?” No, it’s not that I’m not, I don’t want to have a meeting with them. It’s maybe we can do it a different way. Maybe we plan things out. So it’s making subtle changes.

Dawn McGruer:

And the way that I operate is that I have my three things every single day. And this is something I would urge you to try, download the planner, just test it out, see how it goes. Because what I was doing is I was trying to do everything and I had this massive to do list. Now what I do is I brain dump everything into Trello, literally anything that goes through my mind, I have lists with a key topic at the top, I brain dump everything so I feel in control. And then each day I have my to do list. So I pull certain things from them and I have three things I absolutely do or die have to do.

Dawn McGruer:

Now that feeling now is just huge in terms of the weight lifted, I feel in control but I also feel this calmness that I feel like I’m a better business owner, but a better leader, and a better manager, and just generally a kind of a better entrepreneur who’s thinking more strategically because I have time. I’m not just rushing from place to place.

Dawn McGruer:

Now I think from a customer service point of view, this is a big thing because I think about sales first. Whenever I go into work, I start thinking about how things work with the business in terms of what is the main reason I’m here, what has to happen in a day? Well, at the end of the day, everyone needs customers. So when I go into the office, the first thing that I will think about is number one, who is in our pipeline at the moment who I can convert? Because that should be the most important thing that you ever think about because those are people who have stepped up and said, “I am interested in what you do. And I want to know how I can work with you.”

Dawn McGruer:

So I look at it from a pipeline first. So convert anyone in your pipeline. Yeah. Just look at ways in your business. Now, if you’ve got teams and things, that’s fine, because you’re thinking strategically what needs to happen to get that person from, “I’m interested,” to a paying customer. And at the end of the day if revenue is coming into the business and money is sorted and the businesses in profit, then you have time to step back. If none of that’s happening, that’s what happens, when I meet people it’s generally sales that’s the problem, it’s the lead generation and the actual conversion of those people. Because if you look at the UK and you look at worldwide global businesses, it doesn’t change. Loads of businesses have the same issue, where about 80% of the leads coming into a business don’t convert because there’s no clear nurture strategy. So focus on each day. Number one, who is in the pipeline? How do you convert them?

Dawn McGruer:

Number two, each and every day you need to be reaching new people. How can you show up and find and reach a new audience? For me, it could be just going onto social media and doing a video, say, on LinkedIn and reaching, 5, 10, 20,000 people, whatever it’s going to be. You have to be reaching a new audience each and every day.

Dawn McGruer:

Now my third thing is all about customer service. How can I retain my customers? How can I make them my biggest advocates? How can I get them referring to me? Creating leads while I sleep. This is where the magic happens. Because if you are looking at how business is converted from a lead and how you get new business in every day and how you look after your current customers, that’s kind of digital marketing nirvana, it’s kind of business nirvana.

Dawn McGruer:

So try and think about how you got into business, what are the things that are holding you back and how is your day structured? For me as a business owner, each and every day, there’ll be something that’s holding us back. Something that’s not working. And when I’ve done my big three. I then look at other tasks that I can achieve. Now, I’ve actually blocked my diary out and I don’t do any calls outside certain hours. Try this, try and get a routine that suits you. Everyone operates in their genius zone at a certain hour, right, so for me, I am between 10:00 and 2:00, that’s my time that I really, really kind of feel like I’m in the game and I’m doing certain things. So anything before 9:00, that’s me just kind of getting sorted, getting organized, some of you might be getting up at 5:00 AM, I don’t know. You’ve got to make your day work, how you want it to work.

Dawn McGruer:

And my day is split up whereby, yes, I do my three things. Yes. I plow through my to do list, but I have my calls, I have breaks, I have a lunch hour. All of this is actually in my diary and those are do or die things because as much as I got bogged down, I used to sit at my desk for six hours and not even move. You have to get up, you have to step away and you have to think about, when do you want to take your calls? When do you want to check emails? When are the key times for you?

Dawn McGruer:

Now think about this. When you are working in your business, you’ve got to think about the tasks that are repetitive. You’ve got to think about the tasks that you don’t want to do. And you’ve got to think about how do you want your business to be?

Dawn McGruer:

So in the next episode, I’m going to share with you some of the core pillars that we’re going to be talking about. Yes, we’re going to be talking about marketing and we’re going to be talking about mindset, and we’re going to be talking about your motivation, but we’re going to drill deeper because this podcast is really about me helping you with the challenges I’ve faced and how I overcame them, and how to fast track you past any of the pitfalls that I’ve experienced.

Dawn McGruer:

So why don’t you go ahead and download a copy of the My Day, My Way, and start getting your day working for you, not the other way round. And come and join me on social media. Come and tell me how your business is working. And come and join the group, the Marketing, Motivation and Mindset group is a group for business owners and like-minded entrepreneurs, where we’re there, we’re a community to help support each other. And I share more tips and trends and insights within the group too. But have a go and let’s see how you can transform your day and get it really, really solidified into driving new business, looking after your customers and converting people in your pipeline.

Dawn McGruer:

I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode and don’t forget I’m going to be with you Each and every week. So download and listen on dawnmcgruer.com or on iTunes and come and join us in our Facebook community too. All the details are on the website and I’ll see you next week.