Building From Your Design: The Offers, People, and Visibility That Actually Align [Episode 4 of 4]

Intro/Outro: [00:00:00] After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host Kathryn Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you are ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a Sought after Entrepreneur in your industry without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you are in the right place.

Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter one size fits all approach to marketing, and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life.

Welcome to Be The Sought After Entrepreneur Podcast, and here's your host, Kathryn Thompson. 

Kathryn Thompson: Hey. Hey, super stoked that you're tuning in this week's episode, and I cannot wait to dive into today's [00:01:00] topic because we are building off of the last three episodes where I'm walking you through the process that I would take in my business or in my life.

If I was pivoting or evolving my business, meaning I was potentially changing my offer suite, or I was expanding my services, or I was changing the type of people I work with, whatever it might be, I'm evolving or expanding or pivoting in the work that I'm doing and or I'm starting from scratch. And on the very first episode I said, I don't believe any of us start from scratch.

I believe we're always continually building on our life experiences, on our knowledge and our wisdom, but for some people it might feel like you're starting from scratch, specifically if you're leaving corporate and wanting to start your own business or your practice or whatever it might be. And you're feeling like the pivot away from corporate is starting fresh, starting new.

Or you're taking an offline practice and [00:02:00] bringing it online, then that might constitute feeling like you're starting from scratch. Then I wanna walk you through, and I have been walking you through this process that I would do differently compared to what I did. So I'm not just speaking from some arbitrary theory or me just thinking this is what I would do.

I've gone through this process enough times in my own journey where I didn't always get it right, obviously, and I would've done things very differently. So if you've been in my world for a while, you know my story of leaving corporate after 15 years, transitioning into a brick and mortar business where I produced and sold wine.

To then selling that business and stepping full-time online as a marketing mentor and conversion copywriter, which I've now done for the last seven or eight years. And I'm in another sort of evolution, pivot point and how to integrate a lot of this work around alignment, astrology, human design, [00:03:00] gene keys into the business that I offer.

And supporting business owners in really tapping deeper into that own alignment and creating from a foundation that is going to create the success that they actually want and desire. Because like I said, I'm somebody who has taken misaligned steps here and there, and it's wrecked havoc either in my business, wrecked havoc within myself, what you name it, right?

And there's nothing worse in my opinion than creating success. From a place that is out of alignment and then sitting in that success going, I have to make some really hard decisions about stopping something that is actually successful on paper, but isn't true to who I am. That's a really hard place to be, but it's also a non-negotiable.

Eventually, that will catch up to you, so. If you haven't listened to those last three episodes, I highly suggest that you do because this [00:04:00] episode is not going to make sense to you. And if you're somebody who is looking for me to just give you the answers and tell you exactly what to do, I'm not the person for you.

And this process won't be for you because this process isn't about me laying out a blueprint that's going to show you some cookie cutter way to achieve what you want. This process is really introspective and contemplative, and it requires you to take time with it. It requires you to sit with it. It requires you to get really honest with what you want and really honest with why you feel like you can't create that.

So, on day one, we talked about your success clues, right? The success that you've created to date, how you've created it, why you were successful. And then we talked about the limiting beliefs around why you think that that success isn't transferable to this new venture that you're pursuing. On day two, we got really sort of clear around what you want [00:05:00] to be in this world, the expression that you want to put out there, um, how you want to be the, where you wanna spend your time, what matters to you most when it comes to time, and how you wanna receive payment in order to fulfill.

What matters to you and that expression that you're putting out into the world. And then on episode three, we got really clear with what's getting in the way of you honoring that. So now you should have these pieces all sort of put together, right? You should have this evidence because every day I asked you to do something.

So you ha you should have this evidence by now. What you want to do, like how you want to be, where you wanna spend your time, what matters to you, how you wanna receive pavement, why you wanna receive that payment. In that way. In order to honor what you value, you should also have awareness around how you're wired and designed to create success and why, and what [00:06:00] is stopping you from doing that?

And now. We're gonna pull all of this together, and if you were courageous from the last episode and you actually reached out to people that were living proof of why what you are limiting yourself on is not actually true, and you talk to people. Then you likely have expanded your worldview and your belief system just in those sort of conversations.

But now what often happens when I share this process with people, they say, but I still don't know how to go and create this business. I still don't know how to bring this to fruition, and I'm not gonna sit here and tell you how to do it, but I'm gonna show you how to again, get really clear contemplative with yourself and honest with yourself.

Where those non-negotiable are non-negotiables are and [00:07:00] how you want to create things and do it from a very sort of practical, logical way. 'cause this is where people get hung up, right? It's taking this map, this sort of your own unique blueprint and then getting lost in the weeds of translation because you're still tangled up in the limiting beliefs around it and that are running kind of the show behind the scenes.

So let's just start with the business, right? Let's start with the offer suite. What is it that you want to offer? And I want you to answer that question with the first thing sort of that comes to mind and or the first few things, right? What is it that you wanna offer? Maybe you wanna offer a really intimate experience for women.

Maybe you wanna offer a membership, maybe you want to create a product. Whatever it is, I want you to get clear on what that is, right? Because now you've got the vision. You understand why you're blocking your vision, or you should know why you're blocking it now based on the exercises. And now it's like, how do we practically turn that into something?

Well, [00:08:00] it's gonna be through your offers, who it is that you serve, right? So who's buying these offers? Why are they buying it? And then how do you get these offers in the hands of more people? And that's about putting the right message in front of the right people at the right time. And that can look drastically different for everybody.

That might not be building a funnel on social, like through social media or meta ads that might not be word of mouth, that might not be being on social media at all. That might be physical location, somewhere. That might be through partnership. It's going to depend on you and how you're wired and where you feel in alignment.

So what does that offer? Then I want you to get clear on why that offer. Does this offer align with that, that expression, who I'm here to be? Does it align with the amount of time [00:09:00] I am gonna be spending on it, and does it compromise the other areas of my life where things matter, my relationships, my kids, my own learning and development, whatever, though that time is.

Does it compromise that? Yes. Okay. Then we have to revamp this. Then it's not going to be in alignment. For example, if you want to spend, I don't know, let's just say 20 hours a week. In personal development. I dunno, I'm just riffing here. But your day and how you wanna spend your time is gonna look unique to you if you wanna spend your time on that.

But you now have a one-to-one practice and you're charging $200 for your one-to-one time, and it's an hour of time and you need to make a certain amount of money in order to have the time to spend on the personal development. And that all doesn't sink. [00:10:00] It is gonna be out of alignment. So then it might be like, well, I'm not actually designed for one-to-one.

Or you're like, I don't really want to do surface level stuff. I just, I wanna go deep with people. I hate surface level. So I wanna work with people at a minimum of six to 12 months. 'cause that's where real transformation happens. This is where you need to get inquisitive and truthful and honest. This isn't about looking at.

Me and what I offer. This isn't about looking at anybody else out there. This isn't about buying into how to create a group program to scale to million, so you have all the freedom in the world. You will not have freedom in your life or your business if you're not living in alignment with your expression.

If you're not spending the time on the things that you actually value most, and if you're not receiving payment as a result of that. In order to live out your life the way that you're designed to live it out, you will not experience any form of freedom. It's why a lot of business owners build success [00:11:00] on the wrong foundation and then get to a point of that success and go, I don't have the freedom.

I don't have the life. I don't have any of it. I have the money. Maybe I have the quote unquote success on paper, but I don't actually have the freedom that I'm craving or the freedom that I desired. So you have to get ruthless. This isn't about adding more. This isn't about doing more. It's about getting ruthless and cutting out anything that does not fit and it's non-negotiables.

When it comes to offer, then it's saying, who do I actually wanna work with? Who on an energetic level, but also on a deep transformational level or just on a service level, who can I help the best? And this isn't about high achieving women who are on burnout 'cause there's lots of high achieving women that are on burnout that might not be in alignment with you.

For example, I'm somebody who is designed and wired in a lot of ways [00:12:00] to work with people who. Crave excellence, crave precision, practicality, and they see in me. Organization to some degree, right? That I'm able to practically organize things in this way the same way I've been doing with this process. I'm able to take this and put it into a process and then make it very practical for people, but I'm also able to guide them in a very practical way that isn't overwhelming, that isn't, um, 10 steps ahead, those sorts of things.

But I'm also really wired to work with ambitious. Women, men like the, you've got that sort of go-getter energy and you likely struggle with perfectionism. You likely struggle with this exceptionally high standard that you hold for yourself and potentially everything else. So you might be a little judgmental, you might be a little jaded.

You might be a little s like cynical, right? [00:13:00] There might be that that comes out because you have this extreme high standard that you're holding yourself, and obviously everybody else too. Those are the types of people that typically sort of come into my world, and then people that have a hard time practically communicating and articulating this depth work, this selling the invisible work.

I have a natural way of organizing your ramblings, your thoughts, and I have a natural way of being able to like follow all of that. Lots of times people will say to me, are you following me? I so sorry. I'm kind of rambling. Are you following me? And I'm like, yes, it all makes sense. I'm all seeing all how it all connects and connecting all the dots.

I can connect those dots very quickly. That's a natural gift and tendency to me, so lost people that come into my world come in for that. So it's getting clear. On who you jive with, like who your people are, and knowing that. And if you [00:14:00] don't know that and you're sitting there going, I don't know, then I highly recommend that you go back to relationships in your life, whether that be in corporate, whether that be personally, and just getting clear on who you vibe with and who don't you vibe with.

Again, not from a like, oh man, they're not good people, or there's something wrong with them. It's just. We will naturally vibe with different people for different reasons. So getting clear and non-negotiable on the offer, getting clear and non-negotiable on the people that you want in and who you don't wanna work with and why you don't wanna work with them.

You will know. And then we wanna look at your marketing and visibility strategy. Like how are you actually getting your work seen and known? And most people will naturally gravitate to social media like I gotta be on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, you name it. And I want you to get really clear and honest with yourself.

And this is a process that I've gone through in the last year where. I [00:15:00] have been disenchanted with Instagram and disenchanted with Facebook and social media because I feel like. A lot of the stuff that I see, and I know it's the algorithm and I can follow other things and whatever, and I've done that, right?

I've followed other accounts and different creators and artists, but I feel like it's this echo chamber of advice and protocol giving and guru, like, I know best, this is what I would do if I wanted to make X dollars. This is what I would do if I want to attract X amount of clients and. I am not saying there's anything wrong with that messaging, but I just, I feel like I've become sort of numb to it and I'm not really that interested in it anymore, and so I'm disenchanted with it.

Well, the more I dug deep into my own sort of makeup, I'm really not desired to or designed to create content in that way. The idea of constantly creating content for social media, this short form, attention grabbing sort of stuff. It doesn't really [00:16:00] interest me. What interests me is like going deep with somebody and like doing these podcasts where I can share more expansive, depth filled content rather than coming up with some hook and like anger point to get people in.

Like none of that resonates with me, so. I'm sharing that with you because these are feelings that I had before I ever even dove into astrology, human design, jenky on this, or even tried to understand it through that lens. It was like, I just had a feeling, I was just like, I don't really feel aligned with it.

I don't understand how people can talk about the same thing over and over and over again and create a brand around that. Like, I, I just don't, and then people are like, well, you just have to do it. And I, I don't buy into that. I really don't. I don't buy into that. The whole idea of you've gotta get known for one thing, I don't buy into that.

However, my limiting beliefs would tell me that I need to do that. Right? And that will be all mapped out in all of the things that we've done. So you wanna get really clear [00:17:00] on the offer, who you wanna really call into your world, and how you plan to call them in, how you plan to attract them. What does that look like?

Do you have any resistance around maybe what you're currently doing and or do you have resistance around any of it even though you haven't done it? Because your resistance are portals. Most people will say there're limiting beliefs and there're a block that you need to overcome. And I actually call BS on that because for me there, there are portal portals, the whole resistance around social media and churning out content, absolute portal.

I'm not wired for that. I'm not wired for that type of communication. Really heavy overstructured businesses don't feel good for me. Why? Because I like to pivot and change course often. I want to be nimble and fluid. So if I'm relying on a funnel that's driving all these leads into my business via Facebook ads, [00:18:00] and the ads are expensive, and the funnel's built, and the offer's there, and there's sales calls and there's this whole machine.

That feels heavy to me 'cause I can't move, right? If I decide if the energy is no longer there to teach on the thing that I built the thing on, then I have to restructure everything. And that's what I'm navigating right now because I'm going, I didn't want to always have my foot on the gas with the ads and the money going out every month and having to sell a certain amount every single month.

That felt like my brick and mortar business that I, that I sold. Right, so the overhead to run that business was high. Then I repeated that in the online business. I created an overhead high business, and the pressure of it was not something I wanted to sustain or carry. And I'm not wired to, I'm wired to be nimble.

I'm wired to move and have variety. I'm wired for that variety in so [00:19:00] many ways, and so the business has to reflect that, and that to me is part of my freedom to you. You might think, I want a grounded, practical business that has the machine. I want that. I need that structure, and you very well would be wired for it.

So this is how you do it in order to create an offer. That you truly are aligned with, that's gonna naturally attract people that you're aligned with in some way. If you get clear about that. And then simultaneously the visibility around it. If word of mouth is the way you want to go, build it that way.

If you wanna sell high ticket, build it that way. If you wanna sell a membership, build it that way. But just know that if you're selling a $50 membership and you have a base of five KA month that you wanna earn. A hundred people is gonna give you that 5K, but then you have to equate taxes. You've gotta equate what it costs to actually [00:20:00] run the business, like the platform that you're hosting this on, what all of those things have to be put into that, and looking at the monthly expenses of that and then going, okay, we actually need 150 to 200 people in order to fulfill on what I need to receive in order to live out my values and my expression.

I'm not saying that's not possible, but if you have a very small audience, then you might need to grow your audience and then you have to look at the visibility and marketing piece of it and go, well, what does that require? Well, this is what it's gonna require. You're gonna have to reach masses or you're gonna have to, it's a volumes game at this point in a lot of ways.

Okay, well I don't wanna play the volumes game. I actually want quality over quantity. I don't, I don't wanna push the volumes game. Well, then you wouldn't build a membership. But most people go, I want the membership 'cause it feels easy, easy to sell. Or I want to create a group program. 'cause then I can scale it to the moon.

But in reality, they don't actually want to deliver a massive group program [00:21:00] offering anyways. They don't want 7,000 people in their world, or 5,000 people or a hundred people. They don't want that. And they're not wired for that. Maybe you're wired for excellence like I am. And that means the impact that you create is, is through quantity, not quality.

It's through mastery. That's what I'm wired for. And so. You have to get very disciplined and non-negotiable with, with what your core expression is that where you wanna spend your time and what matters to you most about that time, the money piece of this. What do you need to receive in order to, to live out those values and to be able to be the expression.

And you have to get really freaking non-negotiable with it. It's not about adding more, it's not about being more, it's not about reaching more, although that might be part of your design. It's about actually taking away and subtraction. In a lot of ways, it's getting ruthless [00:22:00] about not taking on shit that is not in alignment.

So the exercise for you here today is to walk away and map that out for yourself. And get non-negotiable. Again, you can interact with chat GBT, you can interact with code. It's gonna give you really great insight. But what I would recommend when you are, and if you are integrating that into this process here, is that you ask them to either role play a particular person that is not just gonna tell you what you want to hear.

And or you prompt it in that, Hey, I need you to be ruthless and not just tell me what I want to hear. Because AI was designed to be agreeable. It's a perfect people pleaser. And we don't want that when we are getting ruthless with what needs to go and what needs to stay. So you want to prompt it in that way, and then from there it can help [00:23:00] you, Hey, does this offer align with my core expression?

Does this offer align with where I wanna spend my time and financially? What do I need to earn in order to make this work? Please consider taxes, tech, all of those sorts of things and that you might need to do your own research on. I will be honest with you, it's not a financial advisor and please do not use it as a financial advisor, and I am not giving you financial advice in any way, shape, or form in this.

But you need to get really clear. So if you're saying I need to. I wanna do a membership, well then you need to do your research on what that's gonna cost you from an expense perspective. Just on the tech stack alone, you need to do that research, right? And so chat, GBT and quote are not always accurate when it comes to those sorts of things.

So you're better off giving it, Hey, this is what it's gonna cost me for my membership site. This is what it's gonna cost me. You know, for my website and hosting and email, and this is what people are [00:24:00] paying and also your time. Don't forget your time in that because oftentimes we just look at the tech stack as an expense, but it actually took us a shit ton of time to, you know, field client.

Questions, complaints, refund requests, whatever it might be, people wanting to cancel their membership. Where do I find this information? Like all of that. And then any time it's gonna take to maintain the membership, you have to equate into that. And so you've gotta give yourself an hourly rate, right? Is it $50 an hour?

Is it $60 an hour is at a hundred dollars an hour. And you've gotta integrate that in, otherwise it's you're building again on false premise and, and not the right foundation. 'cause you're not equating your time in that. And as entrepreneurs, it's so easy for us to not value our time, and this is one of the biggest reasons I think people build success and get to that mountain of success and then go, this doesn't feel good because I'm working around the clock to make [00:25:00] this work, and I'm paying myself probably a dollar an hour now when I actually like do the breakdown.

So that is how, and then what that looks like for you. I can't tell you what that is. You have to go do that. Tap into your creativity, tap into your imagination. Get creative with that. No expert's gonna tell you what your product's gonna be. And if you're looking to an expert to tell you what that product is, then it's their business, not yours.

'cause they shouldn't be telling you what your offer is. That's you coming up with that. That's your role as an Entrepreneur and. Mapping all of that out. And what that looks like is your role as an Entrepreneur, that's your responsibility. So that is the how to tie all of this together. And of course, if you have any questions, please DM me.

Please reach out and email. I'm always here. Cheers. 

Intro/Outro: Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time. You can also find us on social media at creatively owned and online@creativelyowned.com. Until next time, [00:26:00] keep showing up as your authentic self.