91: Business Breakthroughs: How Do You Know You’re Ready?

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Transcript:

Bonnie Christine [00:00:00]:

We could all use more time, but I like to think about this one because sometimes I like to think about what am I doing that's really just a waste of time. For me, the one that I struggle with is TV. Now I don't watch TV a lot, but I typically watch 1 episode of 1 TV show a night. And it's it's okay. I'm not saying I'm gonna give it up because I really love the shows that I watch. But I did catch myself thinking the other day, if I watch 1 hour of TV like once a day, right, That's 3 65 hours that I could either be I'm probably not gonna be working that late at night, but I could be sleeping. I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things Creativity, design, business, and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life.

Bonnie Christine [00:01:07]:

But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today, I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but Also, teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that Lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, Gives you all of the freedom you want and is wildly profitable. Welcome to The Professional Creative Podcast. Today, I wanna talk about how do you know you're ready for the next Big move in your business. You know, a lot of times we hold ourselves back or we think we might be ready for something big, and it's Hard to identify really when the time is now, but I can absolutely tell you that when I look back over my career, every huge success was due to a series of knowing that I was ready for the next move. And this came with some fear involved, like doing it scared, but doing it anyways, and really trying to think about what I needed in order to make it to the next level.

Bonnie Christine [00:02:36]:

So I wanna kinda unpack that today, mini episode for you. And the question that I really wanna ask you is to think about the future more successful version of yourself. When you think about who you want to become or who you want to be in 5 years or 10 years, or what level of success you want to be at, I want you to think about how that person would be acting on a day to day basis. And so for instance, If you want to be a full time licensing artist, well, you could imagine what a full time licensing artist might do. Right. They would be creating a lot of artwork. They would be taking themselves seriously. They would be, you know, working on a portfolio and pitching their work.

Bonnie Christine [00:03:25]:

And it's a great exercise to see whether what you're doing today matches because the only way that you become that Future, more successful version of yourself is to start acting like her today. Now a great Example that's just really easy to understand is always about health and fitness. And so if you envision yourself being an athlete, being really strong. And then you think about how that really strong athlete shows up in their life every day. They're probably getting up early. They're probably working out every day. They're watching what they eat. They're careful about what they put in their body.

Bonnie Christine [00:04:07]:

They're full of energy. Well, if that's what you wanna become, does your action today match what that person would be doing? And so you can see where oftentimes there's a disconnect. I love doing this exercise because you really have to start acting like that person before you become them in order to become them. So if you want to make 6 figures in your business or you wanna make 7 figures in your business, or you wanna make 8 figures in your business, how does that 7 figure business owner show up to work every day. Right? So as you think about that, one thing that is always a really good indicator to me that it's Time to change something, it's time to do something different, is when I identify a bottleneck. So I wanna talk to you about 5 different types of bottlenecks. Now a bottleneck is when you've essentially identified a limiting factor in your business, And that awareness is the 1st step in making decisions around it. And so a bottleneck is typically when things are moving more slowly or they're getting snagged on a particular point in your business.

Bonnie Christine [00:05:20]:

So the 5 different types I wanna talk about are resources, tasks, knowledge, people, and time. The first one is a resources bottleneck. Basically, are there some things that you just to need in order to make your work easier, and you just haven't been able to, like, bite the bullet and do it already. So for instance, when I was getting started, I didn't have any money, but I knew that I really, really needed a drawing tablet and Adobe Illustrator. And so I did whatever I had to do in order to get I got a Wacom back in 2012. Actually, 2010, I got a Wacom tablet, And I purchased, CS 6, which was $600 for Adobe Illustrator. And it was really difficult, but I had identified that I had this huge bottleneck without the software that I needed. So there might be a tool, or like a new software.

Bonnie Christine [00:06:19]:

Another one that people get tripped up about is paying for a service. Like perhaps it's Kajabi. If you want to host a membership or Classes, or maybe it's ConvertKit if you want to have a solid email service provider. What resource do you really need in order to release That resources bottleneck. Now number 2 is a tasks bottleneck. What are you doing in your business that is Creating a bottleneck that you need to either stop doing or outsource. There are so many of these And at every new level that you get, there are still going to be task bottlenecks that you need to consider either not doing anymore or transitioning to someone else. There's a book called Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz that really talks you through working through all your tasks and deciding what you wanna give away and what you wanna get rid of, I highly suggest it.

Bonnie Christine [00:07:18]:

So an example of this would be maybe you are editing all of your videos and maybe you're not that great of an editor. Or you can do it, but it takes you a long time. Listen. It takes you a long time even if you're a great video editor. So maybe you should give that task to someone else and outsource it so that then you can use your time for the things that are not causing a bottleneck in your business. Mark your calendars for this October 19th through 21st because Our annual conference for creative immersion live is coming up. We've gathered a spectacular lineup of industry leaders, artists, And entrepreneurs like Amy Porterfield, Morgan Harper Nichols, Glow Atonmo, and Nicholas Wilton, plus many, many more for an unmatched Virtual conference experience. Immersion live this year is all about the art of business for the professional creative.

Bonnie Christine [00:08:15]:

Over 3 days, you'll unlock strategies to guide your business effectively, refine your designs, and establish a flourishing creative career. And the best Part is that you can experience it all from the comfort of your own home. We do a live virtual conference like nobody else. Sessions will allow for real time interaction, questions answered, and a sense of community that's honestly hard to match. Our event kicks off with open studio night on October 19th where you'll get to peek behind the curtain of some incredibly successful artists and designers. The next 2 days, you'll immerse yourself in keynote sessions and workshops where you'll learn, interact, and have all your questions answered. Come engage with like minded creatives, make meaningful connections, and open the doors to collaboration. We're also recording every session And so you can revisit and absorb this wealth of knowledge at your own pace.

Bonnie Christine [00:09:09]:

Head on over to bonnie christine.comforward/2023 immersion live to join us. Now the next one I love, number 3, is a knowledge bottleneck. When you realize that there is just something that you need to learn that you haven't learned yet. And so this could be something around marketing or how to do a different design technique or a different skill that you need in your business? When can you just really realize that the thing that's actually holding you back is not knowing how to do the next thing? So You might know what the next thing is. Let's say you really need to focus on your email list. You need to grow your email list, you need to nurture your email list, and you need to set up like an opt in and a nurture sequence and you just aren't doing it because you don't really quite know how to do it, That's a knowledge bottleneck. Everything is getting stuck right there. And so it's important to just identify those and get the knowledge that you need in order to break through that bottleneck.

Bonnie Christine [00:10:13]:

Number 4 is a people bottleneck. And so this is about who you surround yourself with. You know, I heard a long time ago that you are the average of your 5 closest friends. And now whether that's really accurate or not, I think it's a really good exercise to think about. So if your 5 closest friends are always complaining, always struggling, always in debt, never healthy. They've got bad habits. It's going to be really, really difficult for you to be accepted by them if you're not doing the same things that they're doing. And so being really intentional about who you place yourself amongst, so your friend group, your mentor group, your peer group, your, like your business group.

Bonnie Christine [00:11:01]:

Right? So is there a program you can join or a mastermind you can join where people are going to really Understand who you are and what you're doing and support you. You know, as opposed to those consider 5 friends who were motivated and energized and healthy and always taking like the next step in their business and reading really Amazing books. Then you get together and your brains are just on fire, right? Those are the types of people that you want to be amongst so that you help each other move along as well. And then number 5 is a time bottleneck. We could all use more time, But I like to think about this one because sometimes I like to think about what am I doing that's really just a waste of time. For me, the one that I struggle with is TV. Now I don't watch TV a lot, but I typically watch 1 episode of 1 TV show a night. And it's it's okay.

Bonnie Christine [00:12:00]:

I'm not saying I'm gonna give it up because I really love the shows that I watch. But I I did catch myself thinking the other day, if I watch 1 hour of TV, like, once a day, right, That's 3 65 hours that I could either be I'm probably not going to be working that late at night, but I could be sleeping. And so I'm losing 365 hours of sleep a year and sleep is really precious and productive. And so I like to just think about how, is is there anything that I'm doing from a time perspective that just isn't serving me well? And so consider that, is there anything there that you could or should give up in order to bring back time in your schedule? And so with this, I would love for you to just think about the bottlenecks that are currently present in your business. What's holding you back? What's slowing you down? What do you need to kind of address, identify, address, and then move forwards with? And then I think that you could make a list and pull out 3 to 5 bottlenecks. Again, they're resource, Task, knowledge, people, and time. Pull out 3 to 5 bottlenecks that you've identified and commit to doing something about them to release that bottleneck. In the next, let's say, let's say 4 weeks, Remove 3 to 5 bottlenecks in your business in the next 4 weeks.

Bonnie Christine [00:13:32]:

I can't wait to hear about it. My friends, Create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world, and remember, there's room for you.