Consider the Wildflowers
Consider the Wildflowers
113. Living & Earning: The Dolly Parton Way
Most small business owners I work with would say they started a business for freedom : freedom of time, creative freedom, financial freedom… yet somewhere along the journey we build business that have us chained to our desk instead of out in the sunshine, stressing over unanswered emails instead of playing with our kiddos, and pinching pennies instead of paying ourselves on autopilot.
Not to mention, 81% of us are doing it all ourselves. We are the marketing department, the accounting department, the visionary and the workerbee.
Why does this happen? How did we get here? Why do so many influencers, youtube stars and 8 figure earners burn out despite the “success”.
Today, I’m unpacking those very questions and sharing my 6-part plan to building a business that’s not only life-giving, but also boosts your bottom line.
WILDFLOWER SHOWNOTES
📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
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This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.
Hey, it's Shanna, and this is consider the wildflowers. The podcast. For the past 15 plus years, I've had the honor to hear 1000s of stories from entrepreneurs around the world. As a former fortune 100 financial advisor turned business consultant, I have a unique opportunity to see the real behind the highlight reel. I'm talking profit and loss statements, unpaid taxes, moments of burnout and those of utter victory, or, as my husband says, the content everyone is wondering, but not many are talking about. And now I'm bringing these private conversations to you hear the untold stories of how industry leaders, founders and up and coming entrepreneurs got their start, the experiences that shaped them, and the journey to building the brands they have today, stories that will inspire and reignite, encourage to redefine success and build a life and business on your own terms. Welcome, Wildflower. I'm so glad you're here. You are listening to consider the wildflowers the podcast episode 113 Dolly Parton put it perfectly when she said, Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. That quote has become a bit of a mantra around here, most business owners I work with would say they started a business for freedom, freedom of time, creative freedom, financial freedom. Yet somewhere along the journey, we built businesses that have us chained to our desk instead of out in the sunshine, stressing over unanswered emails, instead of playing with our kiddos and pinching pennies instead of paying ourselves on autopilot, not to mention 81% of us are doing it all ourselves. We are the marketing department, the accounting department, the visionary and the worker bee. Why does this happen? How did we get here? Why do so many influencers, YouTube stars and eight figure earners burn out despite their quote, unquote success. Today I'm unpacking those very questions and sharing my six part plan to building a business that's not only life giving but also boosts your bottom line, whether you're dreaming of starting your own business or already in the thick of growing one. Take this episode in like a mini workshop. Dig into the questions, take notes, and let's get you back to building a business that actually works for you. Let's dive in. This past week, I taught a live class with 1651 small business owners looking for a financial fresh start every year around this time when we open enrollment to my signature course, the blueprint model, I'm on a high getting to sit in front of small business owners just like you and share my message, though most of us did not get into business for the money, it's easy for the message of success to seep in. That's why I consider myself a reset specialist to get you back to building the life giving business of your dreams, numbers, but with heart, with so many messages rolling in from attendees from this past week that sounded something like this. After watching this class, I feel like I'm able to grab back the steering wheel after spinning out of control all my life. I really can't wait to get started. Or this one who said, Thank you for being making me feel less frustrated and scared about my finances. Or thank you so much for standing out in a world of chaos and hustle until you drop. Maybe my favorite, I asked our podcast producers if we could rearrange the schedule a bit so I could share a snippet of the content with you, living and earning the Dolly Parton way my six part blueprint to growing a business you like that supports a life you love, all while boosting the bottom line. Now, if you're listening today, you may be feeling one of these four ways. First, you may be feeling overworked and underpaid, find by the seat of your pants, pulling numbers out of thin air, unsure how to hire the help you need at home or in business, or how to pay yourself a regular weekly paycheck. Or maybe you feel like you're just like chasing the carrot, paralyzed by all the great business advice, hitting your feed daily, unsure of what will actually move the needle forward. Or maybe you're feeling lost in that red ocean like little cute all the like Shark emojis, unsure of how to stand out or book clients in a saturated and very loud market. Or maybe you're just like mama, tired trying to make a full time income in part time hours, not so easy, right? As a small business owner, wife and mom of two, I don't have time to experiment on business strategies that may or may not pay off, so I want to share these six strategies, this six part blueprint that I have implemented in my business I have now worked almost two decades in finance, paying my own paycheck, and 11 years of owning my own business. And these same strategies that I'm going to share with you today, I have used for service based offers, physical products and digital products. I've, in some way or another, had each of these in my business over the last 11 years. And I hope, if you're listening today, you take this kind of workshop style. So dig into each of these six points. Really think about your own business and how business is really going for you. Okay, let's dive in now. They tell us this. I know you've heard this. They tell us this all the time. Small business survival isn't pretty with most not making it past five years, let alone 10 years. And when you dig into the stats, it's actually pretty clear. Why 65 Percent of small business owners do not pay themselves a consistent paycheck. 27% of small business owners are funded with income from another job. 40% of small business owners consider themselves to be financially illiterate. 85% of small businesses shouldn't fail, but they do why? Because they focus on everything except the bottom line and I absolutely chance came over here, refused to believe these stats to be status quo. That's why I traded in my three inch high heels and Black Power Suit, said goodbye to the finance Bros and decided to go to bat for small business owners after watching talented, kind and ridiculously smart people struggle to make ends meet, I had my like, enough is enough moment, and sure I'm not. I may not be wearing a cape, but hand me my glasses. Let's fire up a spreadsheet and get to work, because no one should have to hustle this hard to survive. I truly feel like I have this unique privilege, and I say this often to see the real behind the highlight reel. And I love digging into that data with you, because I just see the hard stuff behind the scenes. I get to see when somebody says, Oh, I have a seven figure business that that actually means they're selling seven figures. They have eight people on their team, and so they're walking away with hardly anything like the data tells the story. And I just really hope that today, truly, my goal, as I go through this six part process, is to ruin you. I want you to think differently about business and money. I want you to think differently every time you hear somebody say, like, I ran a six figure, multi, six figure, seven figure, eight figure business that you're equipped to ask the right questions. Well, what does that mean? Is that, after all of your expenses. How big of a team do you have? Because I want, after all of this, to for you to be able to stop comparing your business to someone else's business, because we want to live and earn the Dolly Parton way, which means that you're building a business for the life that you want. So let me quickly go over these six, the six part process, and what I'm going to share with you today some strategies I use to keep the dream feeling dreamy and avoid burnout. We're going to talk about your success qualifier. From there, I want to I want to share with you how I structure my time as a busy mom of two without a big team or a stay at home husband. I call this your time bank. From there, I want to show you how I create a financial plan for our home and business and the number, the one number I obsess over, I call it your freedom figure. From there, we're gonna goop your business. So we're gonna Gwyneth Paltrow tailor fit your business model to fit your financial goals, your season of life and your success currency. So we're going to look at the right offers at the right price. We're going to look at the right audience and the right megaphones, so the right marketing strategies to get in front of the idle clients without spending big money on ads making dance videos that make you feel ridiculous or having to shout to be heard. Last but not least, I want to show you some simple money systems that would make even Marie Kondo proud to keep you calling the shots with your money. Six things is going to be a lot to dig into in one podcast episode. I'm just going to barely scratch the surface in each of these. I want you to think of it in two parts. We want to first talk about the heart living and earning the Dolly Parton way how to build a business you like, so you have a life you love. So that's the first three parts, and honestly, the most life changing part of the blueprint, model and my strategy and what I teach your success, currency, your time, bank and your freedom figure. From there, we're going to move into what I call Gwyneth Paltrow gooping your business, how to create the right business model. We're going to touch on that really quickly, but I want you to have this six part process, and again, put your own business through the lens of this as you listen. So number one, we want to talk about your success currency. What do you really want if you're going to climb the ladder, make sure it's the right one. As I was sharing last week on my workshop, I had attendees send in, you know, what they wanted out of their business, what success means to them, what they're currently struggling with. And somebody said they wanted to set up their business to earn what I need, while prioritizing being a homeschool mom like we all created our business for different reasons, right? And that's what I want to ask you today, why did you start your business? When I used to work, when I first started my consulting company and worked one on one with clients, I had an intake form where I would ask clients, why did you start your business? And some of the common answers I got were my job wasn't creative enough. I wanted to be home with my kids more, to be my own boss, flexible hours, to stop climbing the latter. And what I realized is, we all say we started our business for different things, but it all comes back to this idea of freedom, freedom to spend your days the way that you choose. But what I realized is freedom and therefore success looked different to each person. And that's what I came up with. What I teach in the book. Upper model. I call my core motivators framework. So I'm going to quickly give you all four of these core motivators. It's a framework for defining success. And the important part of this, and I'll share in a little bit, is so that you are building a business that actually lights you up, that you're not building a business based on someone else's idea of success, but yours. And so I came up with these four core motivators. I'm going to give you all four of them. I know you're going to want to dig in more. You're going to be like, Shannon, I really want to hear more, because it's so amazing and it's so helpful. And this lens is, I think, one of the biggest things my students take away from the blue promotto That really is just life giving. So what I want to encourage you is, as you listen to this, just go with your gut. What sticks out is like, Yes, this is my core motivator. And I always tell people, all my students, that you will have all four of these inside of us, but there's going to be one of them that is really the driver, and that's what we want to find. So let's go through all four of them. Creative expression, time, challenge and impact. So if you're creative expression motivated, that means that the work that you do is the most important. Above all else, you have to be doing work that you truly enjoy. You want to take on clients that you really enjoy. You want to create art that you really enjoy. If it's ugly, you don't like it. If it's a client you don't jive with, you don't like it. Creative expression, above all else, above money, above freedom of time, like you want to do work that you enjoy, you might be creative expression motivated. Second is time. So if you're time motivated, you want freedom of time above all else. You want to have flexibility in your days. You want to do what you want when you want to do it like time is your ultimate success qualifier. Now time is also a need. So if you're just feeling burnout overworked, you might just say, like, I just need some time. We want to differentiate the need for time versus like, the the motivation of time. Like, for me, I'm 100% time motivated. If I, like, have something on my calendar in a week from now, like, I'm already stressing about it, I just want to have freedom and flexibility to choose and do what I want in that day time. And sounds selfish, but that's what I'm motivated by. That's why I started my business. If we're not going to build a business we like, then why do it right? The third is challenge, compete, until your haters brag they know you. Somebody who's challenged motivated is always looking to do the next thing, set the next goal, produce the next offer, like we are motivated by the challenge of achieving the next thing. Someone who's challenge motivated is often like, moving on to the next goal before they've even finished the last one. Like, it's not even about necessarily achieving the goal. It's about setting it, running towards it, moving on, challenge motivated. The last is impact. Again. I think God created all of us to want to have impact in our lives, but someone who's impact motivated puts this above all else. I worked with someone one time who was feeling pretty burnout in their business. They had a quote like print shop, art shop, where they sold prints online, and she was just feeling kind of burnout in her business, unmotivated, and her husband came to her and was like, what if we gave a portion of proceeds away from every sale from this shop? And that instantly, like, flipped the switch for her. She got so excited about giving more that she was motivated to sell more and work harder and and hit higher sales goals. She was impact motivated. So if you're impact motivated, you might feel the same like impact motivated people are often discounting their work. They have a hard time charging for what they do because they love it so much. They want to serve. They want to give someone who's impact motivated is all about how their work is impacting others. So those are the four core motivators. Now why does this matter? When you know what success looks like for you, whether it's time creative expression, challenge, impact. You can align your life values with your business goals, it becomes a North Star for Strategic Growth decisions. Now I think it's really helpful to see this as an example, right? So I'm gonna give you the idea of two different business owners, what their motivator is, and how they're building a business model aligned with that. Okay, y'all ready? So first would be the time motivated mama. Hi, it's me. This is Shanna. Wants to make money for our family, do something creative or work that she enjoys, while prioritizing being a mom like time motivated mama. So how would I build my business model through this lens? Right? So I'm really probably going to work hard on building scalable offers. That means I could make more potentially make more revenue without more work. I will likely delegate a time, and even Mama is going to delegate more to a team, whether it's at home or in the in the business you know might have a house cleaner, babysitters, a virtual assistant, executive assistant team members that they're delegating more work too. So it's not that they're slowing down the business necessarily, or the revenue it's making. It's just probably spending more on the team. And you're okay with that because you're time motivated. You want to keep your time or maybe sending that freedom figure looks like. I just want to make enough to take my kids to Disney this year. You know, like you're very specific on your freedom figure, your enough number, and not someone else's. So that would be maybe an example of a time motivated moment. Now I want to give you kind of an example of a challenge motivated go giver, go getter. So someone who's challenge motivated maybe ready to be the next New York Times best selling author. This might look like setting even bigger revenue goals, or starting a YouTube channel or creating another offer. Like, the challenge motivated go getter is excited to do bigger better, even if that doesn't mean necessarily more money. But let's just take on a new thing. Like, I want to start a podcast. Let's do it. I want to get this person on the show like they're excited about the next big thing, they're willing to put the time into work. Now, can you see how if the time motivated mama, who's like, I'm being strategic, I'm hiring help so I can get more time back, I'm setting a very specific revenue goal so that I'm not overworking. Like, can you see how if the time motivated Mama is comparing herself or trying to build a business like the challenge, motivated go getter, she's gonna feel burnout, stress creating a business that she doesn't even like because it doesn't support a life that she loves. I truly believe there's no one size fits all in business. There are infinite number of ways to succeed in business. That means you can do it your way and still succeed. That's why identifying your success currency, but is the first thing I teach all of my students when we're creating a financial plan, a business plan, working on a business model, trying to boost your bottom line, it actually starts with understanding what do you want. We need to rediscover your dreams. That would be homework. Number one, for anyone listening, what do you want? Why did you start a business? Is it supporting the business you have, supporting the life that you want, if not change it? We have to start here. Number two, which is your time bank? We need to name your season of life and understand what gives you oxygen, what gives you life? This actually starts with your ideal day. So with all my students that go through, what is your dream day, dream job? What does that look like? And I know this can feel a little like pie in the sky, everybody talks about your ideal day, blah, blah, blah. We've heard this all before, but it's actually an essential practice to designing a business that is life giving. So your ideal with day would look like, what hours are you working? What time do you start your day, end your day? How many days a week are you working? Now that I'm a mom, I set my hourly goal to be 20 hours a week, and I work in pockets. It's different. It can be different from week to week, but when I first started my business, it was more like nine to six, Monday through Thursday. I did not want to work Fridays. I don't want to work weekends. I don't want to work at night. Like, name these things, because, again, if you don't name them, if you're not clear on what your ideal day looks like, then nobody else is going to make it for you. No one else is going to build the business for you. In fact, we're going to hear the messages of hustle work, make more money, earn more success, have more influence. It's going to seep in as much as we think that? No, that's not me. That's not how that's not my that's not what success looks like for me. It will seep in. So we have to actively fight back against the culture of overwork and design your day the way you want it. How many hours are you working? When do you start your day? What does your week look like? Do you want Fridays off like? Name your ideal week from there, I do what we call our time deposit. So we want to look at how much time you actually have to give to work. How many hours a week are you wearing? Like I mentioned for me right now, it's 20 hours a week. That's my time deposit. That's how much time I've deposited into my work. From there, we want to brain dump all of your tasks. So what are you doing every single day in typical week at home, and we're at grocery shopping, lunch packing, taking your kids to school, dropping them off, going all the sports things, oh, and answering emails and working with clients, and doing your actual job, and schlepping the flower buckets, preparing the arrangements, designing the website. Like, what is everything that we're doing? We want to put it all on paper, and then I want you to go through the exercise of your time withdrawals. How much time does it take you to do the work that you have in front of you? So when I did this practice years and years ago, when I was working 32 hours a week at that point, nine to six, Monday through Thursday, taking Fridays off, I had 32 hours of time deposits for my business. And I sat down, and I was feeling particularly overwhelmed, just like overworked in this, in that season of life, is my very first year in business. And I said, I was like, Okay, where's all my time? Going emails an hour and a half a day. That's seven and a half hours a week. Social media, one hour a day, five hours a week, just like admin work, paying bills, those type things, was two and a half hours a week, speaking and traveling. I did that one time a month. So that was eight hours. And then what did I have left for my projects? Right? Six hours a day. I was trying to cram in 53 hours of work into 32 hours, almost double 32 hours of my time. I was feeling overdrawn. I was feeling I was getting the NSF fees. Yes, you might be feeling like you're getting the NSF fees right now. And I see this all the time where people feel overworked, but they don't know why. I feel prey to this as well. Like, just work harder, just be more efficient. Just get this system in place. Just get through this launch. Just get through this weekend. Like, that's how we always feel. But until we fix the problem, until we align our time deposits with our time withdrawals, we're going to continue to feel overworked. 81% of small businesses have no employees. That means we are doing it all. We're the marketing department. We're the social media influencers. We are the visionary and the worker bee. You're the bookkeeper and the CFO. Look, you are doing it all. So what we have to do is sit down and say, it is my responsibility and my gift and my privilege as a business owner to design the life and business that I want. What is your ideal day? We need to find your time bank. How much time do you have to give in this season of life to run your business? We need to know that very clearly. And this changes, right? It can change every three months. It can change every three years. But in this season of life, I like to look at, in the next 12 months, in the next three years, how much time do you have to give to your business? And then something we talk about in the blueprint model is finding your oxygen. What gives you life? How can you do more of that? How can you structure your day, your week, your month, your work schedule, to give you life. Because, again, if it's not life giving, why are we doing it? One quick little you've probably heard this before, the Peridot principle. 80% of outcomes come from 20% of your inputs. I like to do this with your time in relationship to your revenue. So what are your income producing and life giving activities? That's a difference in my approach. The Dolly Parton way, okay, the Shannon skimmer way, the blueprint model. Way, we want to not look at just income producing, but I believe life giving as well. And so we 8020 of those tasks. We brain dump all of those things, and we find the ones that are first and foremost, income producing, life giving. Those are the ones we want to concentrate on first and foremost, concentrate. I think it was Tim Ferriss who said, Make before you manage. I love that. So we need to concentrate on the most important aspects of your job. Block out time. Concentrate on those. From there, we want to eliminate, eliminate the things that are not boosting your bottom line or making your life and business more fun. We went to eliminate those, and I say like, You got to give me the receipts. This is why, in 2017 I ended up quitting social media, because I realized I was putting five hours a week, very strategized, very planned. Everything was planned out. I was still giving five hours a week, one hour a day, to social media, and I could not prove with receipts that it was giving me the return on investment, and I just didn't like it. So eliminate the things if you cannot prove with receipts that is boosting the bottom line. We then want to automate and delegate. I know you're like, I'm gonna hear so much more about that step into the blueprint model we talk all about how to arrange your time bank, maximize your time deposits and put your time in the most income producing and life giving way. So that is step number two, your time bank number three, your freedom figure. What is enough for you? If you stick around here any amount of time, you're going to hear me talk about this. You're going to hear my students and clients talk about this, because it is the most life changing metric idea strategy that I this is the number one number I obsess over. Literally obsessed. That is not strong enough language is I look at it all the time. I plan for it. I'm just I'm tracking towards it. My Freedom figure. I know exactly what I need to pay, myself, pay my bills and go home and rest. And it's life changing in the summer. It's amazing and shocking to me how many business owners are running their business. Maybe this is you. You don't know this number Exactly. You know kind of what it costs to pay your team. You have a good idea of what maybe your software costs are. You have a good idea of, like, Okay, I did 10 clients last year. I want to do 12 this year at 5000 you know, like, we have ideas, but getting it on paper is life changing. Now imagine back to 2007 sweet, 22 year old Shanna, straight off the college campus, with her first J Crew Black Power Suit. I felt like a million bucks. I started in the world of finance, and I had some quick success. Early on, I was hitting some milestones that were getting me on stage, and I was winning some awards, and so I was deemed the new special snowflake in the firm, and I was, I was granted, I guess, I don't know, paired with a business coach. It was a mentor few years ahead of me in the business, and we started meeting once a week for breakfast a Cracker Barrel. Nothing says business like breakfast at Cracker Barrel. And I will never forget, um, one morning we're having breakfast, and he looked at me and said, Shanna, if you don't want to make more money, you are just lying to yourself. And. For somebody who's a terrible memory that sticks out so much, and you know, I would like to save I just pushed back against that and threw my maple syrup covered pancakes in his face. I didn't I lived that way for a long time. I wanted to walk across the stage, I wanted to win the awards. I wanted to be the special snowflake and and so I lived that way, and I felt like a failure when I stopped hitting the goals they set for me. I stopped walking across the stage. I started to just be, oh my goodness, normal, and I didn't realize that whole time I was leaving at four to go to the gym, I was paying my bills, I was serving in a ministry that I cared about. I was living my version of success, but I for years, felt like a failure because I wasn't living up to theirs. So I want to ask you, listener, some quick math. How much income would you be happy to make in the next 12 months? So how much money would you income would you be happy to make, happy to put in your personal bank account in the next 12 months? This is after taxes, and this is happy to make. So this isn't necessarily your goal. It's just, what would you be happy to make? What is that number for you get in your brain? I asked this question for about five years straight, when I was speaking pretty regularly from stages internationally, and the most common answer I got this was pre 2020. Let's keep that in mind. The most common answer I got was $40,000 $40,000 dollars. $40,000 was what people on average in the audience, after asking 1000s of small business owners this question, 40,000 summer I got time and time again, on average, now again. Keep in mind, like I live in Tennessee, it's one of the lowest cost of living states in the United States, 40,000 pre 2020. Would have, you know, been maybe middle class, maybe fine. If you're in California, you're like, Shane, I can't even breathe that 40,000 I totally get it. So please know like 40,000 was the number again, pre 2020, and then I think all of these messages started. Roadmap to six figure. Six Figure authors, grow a six figure business, a bookkeeping business. Six Figure growth systems ready to scale to$10,000 months, like the messaging of six figures, six figures, six figures. Now, I think it's seven figures. Now. It's multi seven figures now, honestly, I think now in 20 when, as the time of this recording 2025, it's like eight figures. How To Grow Your eight figure business? And so in 2019 after again, five years of asking the same question, pre 2020 I was at a speaking event with hundreds of small business owners. I was about to get on stage, and I was like, You know what? I don't think it's the same. I don't think it's gonna be 40,000 anymore. And so I changed the slide on my presentation last minute, and I put $100,000 and so I got up on stage. Was doing the presentation. I had everyone submit in their numbers. We did a quick calculation. And I kid you not. I mean, I literally got chills. I get chills. Now the number was 102,000 it shifted. The message, we didn't change. The economy had not changed at that time that much, from 2018 to 2019 now, of course, the economy has changed a lot. Inflation has risen, costs. I mean, eggs cost more, you know. So I get it. But like back then, it had not changed that much. So what changed the messaging. The messaging we changed the we don't believe. Well, money was not the reason you started your business. If we don't define our enough number, our freedom figure, the messaging of the world will seep in. The world whisper, more more more. More money, more success, more fame. The truth is, more isn't the enemy, until it distracts us from what you really want. So I go back to, you know, all the audience submitted. What does success mean to me? What do I want out of my business? And here are some of the common answers I got again before this presentation last week, a path to making the money I want so I don't have to go back to corporate, making enough money to cover all my bills, save and help others, while living a balanced life that doesn't lead to burnout, enough money to not stress out, even enough work to keep me creative and inspired, enjoying the work and having plenty of time and mental space for the for the rest of life too, not counting pennies and being able to do the good I Want, being able to pay myself and pay off debt without fear that next month it might all fall apart. The goal is simple, right? The dream isn't complicated. We want to do work we enjoy at a pace that feels good and get paid for it, but it is hard to live in a success obsessed world and hold tight to our own values, and that's what I come back to time and time again. And if you hear nothing else from this message, what is enough for you? It's this place where ambition the runner that you know. We're jogging, we're going, we're we're reaching for the stars. Ambition meets contentment, this season of life. What do I need right now? And ambition and contentment, there's freedom and knowing what you have to sell to cover your personal and business needs. What is your freedom figure? The internet is always going to tell you you don't make enough money. Quit listening to it. So homework number three, I want you to calculate your freedom figure. How much do you need to fund the life. And business of your dreams. And if you're like, Shanna, I have nowhere to start. Like, I don't even know where to start with this. I have no data. I have no numbers. My bank accounts a mess. Like, I'm so confused. It actually comes down to a few very simple numbers, what do you need to pay yourself to fund your home life needs? Like, what does your salary need to be? What do you need to pay yourself from your business? Then we're going to add in taxes on top of that. From there, we need to understand, what does it cost to run your business? How much does your team cost, your software costs like, what are you purchase? How much are for the materials to produce the goods? That calculates that we reverse engineer up to your enough number, your freedom figure, and if you're still I want help with this. Shannon, dig in more with me. That's why I do the work I do every day, because, again, numbers, but with heart, I truly believe that numbers tell us a story, and they unlock the life and business that we want. And so I really hope today I have ruined you a to think, wow, I can build a life giving business based on my definition of success. And maybe, maybe, just maybe, I'm ready to dig into the numbers with Shannon, whether working with me one on one, or going through my program, the blueprint model, where I lay all out this entire six part blueprint process. I hope today you walk away knowing that there is a way to build a business and a life that you love, and it doesn't have to come down to the biggest email list, the best website, the prettiest Instagram feed, Tiktok is probably out. Who knows? Like it comes back to this six part process, and knowing your freedom figure as Dolly Parton says, Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. So once we have the living and earning the Dolly Parton way that's kind of the heart side of it, right? So we get your success, currency, your time, bank, your freedom. Figure how much money do you need to make and the time that you have to grow a business that fuels your values, what success looks like to do you? Then we went to Gwyneth, Palmer, goop, your business. That means we went to tailor fit your business model to you, this is where I see most business owners go wrong. They say, I'm going to build a business. I'm going to be a photographer, okay? And I'm going to be a wedding photographer, because that makes sense, right? And I love two new weddings, and I want to, so I want to be a wedding photographer. And I think I'm going to go around and price shop my competitors and look at what other people charging, and I'm going to charge close enough, but just a little bit under. And I think that's going to feel good. And then they start shooting weddings. And a year to end, they're really tired. They're wondering why they're working every single weekend, not making any money, not making enough money to pay themselves, barely breaking even. Like we build the business model, first we dive in, doing the work before we make the plan. And that's why so many people come to me about year two to three, for sure, because they're burned out. They're tired, not making enough money. I do have the special snowflakes that come early in their business. Probably about 15% of small business owners come and work through the blueprint model before they've even started a business. So that, and I love that, because they design it right, and they make money from year number one. And then we also have business owners who are 10 years in business, and they're just like, I thought I would have had this figured out by now, like, and so I just love like, we're gonna, we're gonna rebuild it. We're gonna set the building blocks in place. At first, figure out the business in life you want, then we build the business model to align with that. So how do we goop your business model? First, we want to know the right offers at the right price. What are you selling? How much do you sell it for to be profitable, then we need to have the right audience and the right megaphone. So that's your marketing approach. Who are we selling to? How are we going to sell to them? In the blueprint model teach all my students, we want to focus on one. Focus on one, maybe two marketing platforms that align with you and your audience, and put all of our efforts there. From there, we want to put some simple systems in place. I would say you want to create the plan and then work the plan. So we don't want to, like, stick this plan in a drawer and then forget about it. So while I know you want to dig into how to goop your business model. I'm going to give you just a couple examples of that. Before we go, I'm going to recap the blueprint step process, all of these six steps how to live and earn. The Dolly Parton way goop your business model to make it align with your life, values, your income, needs, your season of life. And then I'm going to give you kind of a send off. Okay, so I'm going to do two photographers. I'm going to show you how this plays out like in real life, in a business. So if I had a photographer, and I'm going to assume both of these photographers want to make$100,000 and they have 20 hours to give per month. So the first photographer is going to be a wedding photographer. And so if we were to say this wedding photographer needed to make$100,000 and I'm gonna assume that they can do in 20 hours a week. So I'm gonna assume that they can photograph two weddings per month. So that would be 52 that's 26 weddings. So I'm gonna do 100 $1,000 divided by 26 weddings, that means that they would need to charge, on average, $3,846 to make $100,000 of revenue photographing two weddings per month. Now you might say two weddings a month is easy. I could totally do that. I could do four. Or you might want to just do one wedding a month like so if you're like, I want to make 100,000 and I want to only want to photograph one wedding a month. So that's 12 weddings a year. That means you would have to charge $8,333 and you're like, Okay, right? Sim, it's very simple math. You're like, how do I charge $8,000 how do we do that? Okay, so that comes back to your track record, consistency of photographs, great client testimonials, word of mouth referrals, getting connections with the wed, the top wedding venues and the top wedding planners, because those are who people are going to go to first, maybe before booking a photographer like then we get the strategy of the marketing plan, once we outline the offers and the price, does that make sense? And I, I really think it comes back to, yes, simple math and then having a great strategy on the back end to hit those numbers. But what I see again is people like kind of Hodge podging it together, and they're trying all the things. And maybe I need an email list, and it's like, you need 12 you need 12 clients at $8,000 so you need great relationships with the top planners and the top venues. 12 is not hard to get. We just need to have enough people sharing your message and consistency in your photographs. So again, I know this is very simple. We break this down in detail. In the blue model, we will go through each person's business model, lay out the right offers, the right price, the right audience, the right megaphone, so that you can then run with your plan, make the plan, and then work the plan. Let's go with another photographer, because, like, I don't want to be away from my family even just 12 weekends of the year. So they've decided to do family photography. They're going to shoot photograph families from their home or from a studio, so they're not running around all over the city photographing people. Gonna have people come to them? Okay? So let's say the same scenario. Need to make$100,000 in revenue 20 hours a week. So we're gonna say$100,000 and I'm just gonna go through this divided by if we have 52 weeks in a year, that means this photographer needs to make $1,923 per week, and let's say if they are working 20 hours a week, 25% of that time. So five hours is just going to admin work, so that leaves 15 hours to actually. And let's say five hours to editing, so that leaves only 10 hours a week to actually photograph families and 10 hours a week. Let's say that's five families, right? Two hours each, which is I know, above and beyond. Okay, so two hours. So$1,923 what they need to make per week. Everybody tracking with me, and they can photograph five families a week. We divide by five. That means the fee to photograph each wedding needs to be $384 I think that's very doable. $385 is our photography fee that doesn't include albums, that doesn't include prints, that doesn't it's just, let me photograph you and digital files 385 and again, you might say, Shayna, I don't I don't want to give digital files. I wanted you build your business model. Can't passion over here the way you want. I just want to give you the numbers and the data to pack up the why behind it. And what I see is influencers out there, and they're amazing, and educators out there sharing their process. I do my family photography this way. Do it like me, and I think on one hand, that's great. We love to see the behind the scenes of how someone else is running their business, like how how the wheels turn, how the toggles are working. Like, I think that's great, right? But that doesn't mean it's going to work for you. So I don't like teaching cookie cutter strategies and formulas. What I teach are concepts or how to goop your business, right offer, right price, right audience, right megaphone, and then the data to align it in the way that you want, because you can build a business 1000 ways. No business should be built the same way, because no business owner is the same. That's why I get so passionate about walking business owners through the blueprint model, which walks through my six part process of building a business that you like, so that you can have a life that you love, all while boosting the bottom line. Because I think my approach, I don't think I know my approach, is so different than anything I've ever taught, than anything I was ever taught with my background in finance and accounting and psychology and art, like nobody ever taught me this, I learned it myself, and now I'm so passionate about teaching others, because I realize how counter cultural it is. If you go back to my 22 year old self and my business, quote, unquote mentor, my wise mentor, who told me, just making money was more that's what the world tells us, success is more money, more achievement, more fame, more influence. But I think most of us would say that it's not so. I hope that going through. This six part process, how to live and earn, earn the dolly part and slasher. Shanna Skidmore, the blueprint. Mono web, your success. Currency, your time. Bank, your freedom figure paired with how to goop your business on. Gwyneth Paltrow, tailor fit your business towards your life values, your financial goals and your season of life, your success, the right offers of the right price, the right audience with the right megaphones. Now I want to teach you those simple systems to stay on track month to month. I call it your money plan. It's one spreadsheet that I create every single year. It outlines all of these things, your offers, your pricing, your bills, how much you're paying yourself. Like it truly becomes so simple, and I teach all of this inside of the blueprint model. I would be honored, honored to get to work with you. So to wrap up today, I just want to know how's business going. Like, how's business really going on a scale of one to 10? One being just barely holding your head above water. 10 being you're loving it, you're killing it. Like, how does it How's business going? And then I ask you, what does a 10 look like if you were to say, my business is a 10 Shannon, I'm loving it and killing it. Like, what does that look like for you? Is it taking Fridays off? Is it making 100,000 if? Is it making multiple six years? Is it hiring team members that you love working with? Like, what would a 10 look like for you, getting to work 20 hours a week and pick your kids up from school, the school bus every day, like if you don't design it, someone else will define it for you. Now, I know what you're probably thinking, Shannon, I'm just not a numbers person, or I am bad at math. I've heard so many say money is the scariest part of my business. I know I'm on a crash course of closing if I don't get it under control and start pricing for profit. To be honest, I hate the business. Part of the business and managing the finance has truly been a flying by the seat of my pants experience. I know that money was never the treasure, but it is the tool. It's the tool that allows us to hire help and have the money to pay them. It's the tool that allows us to get the education we need to travel, to take the trips that we want, to pay our taxes, to save, to afford the life that you want. Marcus lemona says, If you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business. At some point in your business, I am guessing that you've thought from time to time, I work my butt off. But where's the money? And while money is likely not why you started your business, the truth is there comes a time in every entrepreneur's journey when money is no longer just a nice to have, whether it's that looming business loan payment that keeps you up at night, needing to hire help, but not sure if you can afford it, or wondering if the time you're spending away from your family is actually worth it. It's the juice worth the squeeze. Add in rising costs on everything from software to Team expenses, knowing how to run a business that pays you and the bills without living in constant hustle mode is no longer optional. It is essential. So I have a quick gut check moment. Are you paying yourself a consistent paycheck that covers your financial needs and goals and the babysitter two? Are you cool as a crisp autumn breeze when pricing your offer, sending out proposals or making financial decisions in your business, like zero, second guessing zero. Do you flip on your favorite show after checking your kids in bed without feeling the need to check your email or catch up on DMS if you were to hire help in your business? Do you know how you would afford it if you're no aluminum trying to be crunchy, you could approve deodorant isn't cutting it when it's Monday day and the sweat starts pouring I'd love to invite you to join me inside my signature program, the blueprint model, the course most likely to be called life giving. We've got nine years of testimonials and success stories to prove that building a business that's profitable and sustainable and life giving isn't just about having the best Instagram feed, website presence or even the biggest email list. I would argue it's not about those things at all. It's about knowing your numbers, your success currency. Let's see your season of life, your financial freedom number, and then creating a business model, a strategic data backed so that you know every move that you're making aligns with your life values and your personal needs and goals, building a live giving a profitable business is possible, but it isn't something you leave up to chance or countless hours scouring Google. I hope this six part overview of my blueprint process has gotten your wheels turning about what is and isn't working in your business, and honestly, I hope it's left you salivating to learn more, at some point you are going to have to learn the numbers, either from the finance bros, whose only measure of success is Mo Money, or big name influencers and educators who have great intentions, but they're teaching one way, their way, cookie cutter formulas that may not be right for you. I truly, wholeheartedly believe that the key to unlocking the life giving profitable business you dream about that fuels the passion and your bank account is found in the numbers, specifically, having a plan for your money that aligns with your personal goals, season of life and your unique business owner. That's exactly why I created the blueprint model. That's exactly why I do everything that I do every single day. It's an honor. Thank you for listening. Listening. I hope this has helped, and I would love to work with you when the time is right in the future. Hey, Wildflower, you just finished another episode of consider the wildflowers the podcast. Head over to consider the wildflowers podcast.com. For show notes and resource links and when you're ready to stop flying solo trying to figure this all out on your own, or defaulting finance decisions to your honey do list. I'd love to see you inside the Blueprint model. Learn more at chantmore.com/blueprint one final thought for today from Stephen Covey, if you're going to climb the ladder of success, make sure it's leaning against the right building, as always. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next time. Consider the wildflowers. Podcast is produced and edited in partnership with the team at Palm Tree pod co special thanks to our producers, Anthony Palmer, our audio mixologist of palm tree podco And Lauren from Team Skidmore, without whom this podcast would never reach your ear buds each week.
