For the past eight months I’ve been coaching business owners who are navigating the challenges and opportunities that come with COVID.
I take special note of the recurring themes and interesting questions that emerge from these calls, and publish them anonymously here.
You can also find Part One, Two, Three and Four.

“Are you hiring me or are you hiring an outcome?”
This might be peak “weird Isaac”, but on several occasions I’ve been pulling out an old Donald Duck comic during coaching sessions.
It’s from a really old joke and comic book, you can see it below:

Image credit: Walt Disney Donald Duck Comic & Joke Book

As you might imagine, it’s incredibly relevant for setting prices for your services.
It separates the action from the value – is the customer paying for a labourer’s time, or are they paying for an outcome?
If it’s time, they can always go for someone cheaper than you.
If it’s an outcome, then the time it takes you shouldn’t matter.
What matters is that the outcome was worth $200 to Scrooge, and that Ludwig’s knowledge of the situation was worth $199.
If you itemised your invoice the same way, how would you price your knowledge versus your time?

Giving yourself a pay raise
In a previous post, we looked at the question of “how might I give myself a pay raise?”, which has been a recurring theme over the past few months.
Some entrepreneurs have been getting stuck on it, because it feels like they’re issuing a reward without justification.
Here is my suggestion: what if we decided to pay you a fair hourly rate, and a fair number of hours?
Which of those would you have a problem with?
A fair hourly rate is one that’s roughly in line with your industry – what would you pay someone else to do that task?
A fair number of hours is whatever matches the time you’re putting in each week – how many hours would you have to pay someone else to do your tasks?
I’m not pushing for extravagance, I’m pushing for fairness.
Being unfair to yourself is not “hustling”, it’s a bad habit and it restricts your company’s growth.

Technically Stuck Emotionally Drained.png

Am I technically stuck or emotionally drained?
This is such a helpful question, I wish I’d heard it earlier.
There are times when I get technically stuck, and need an external solution (a friend’s advice, Google, a specialist, buy a new item, etc).
There are times when I get emotionally drained, and need to reset my mindset (good sleep, good food, downtime, exercise, catching up with friends and family).
Both of these are easy…once you have the diagnosis.
Both of these are impossible to solve with the wrong type of solution.
If you are stalling on a purchase because you don’t like spending the money, a long walk won’t help all that much – you need to rip the band-aid off.
If you are feeling atrocious, a new tool won’t make you excited about creating a solution – you need to recharge and come back when you’re able to execute.
Try it for yourself – the next time you feel stressed, stuck or deflated, ask yourself which situation am I really in?

What criticism are you scared of?
It’s very normal to be nervous when you start meeting with potential customers.
The power dynamic is almost never in your favour, and it’s hard to win the customer without over promising.
One founder was telling me about their nervousness, and the questions they hope nobody asks.
I instantly recognised who they were talking about, this old guy here:

This guy is hard to sell to.
This guy pokes at our fears about ourselves.
He questions our merit, our worthiness, our track record and our intentions.
And fair enough.
But interestingly most of these questions are easily answered, if we practice in advance.
We can tick them off and come up with brilliant answers, or better yet, show these customer examples and evidence in advance.
By scripting these out, we can identify which bits of potential criticism genuinely scare us, and take these to our advisors.
Is it that our business is too new?
Is it our qualifications?
Are we charging the right prices?
Can we do what we say we will do?
These are the accusations that sting us, because deep down we fear that they’re true.
By digging them out and handling them one at a time, it’s possible to overcome each fear.
But if you’re not convinced about your own business, it’s going to be tough to convince the old guy.

Writing your bio
“Can you send through your bio?” is a surprisingly confronting question.
It should be straightforward, the details of who you are, what you do and what you’ve previously achieved.
Straightforward is not the same as easy.
Defining yourself in a few sentences is difficult – what nouns to use, what qualities to mention, what stereotypes to avoid.
Describing your work and achievements is difficult – what to include, what to take credit for, how to summarise a year of effort in one line.
These are hard enough to process in your head, let alone to say to the broader world.
We worry that someone will try and “fact check” our story, going through it with a red pen discrediting our accomplishments and our value as a person.

Here’s the interesting thing; when you write a bio for someone else, there’s no fear of the red pen.
What if someone else helped you write it?
What if they chose the nouns, highlights and achievements?
What if they could give you the confidence that the world wasn’t out to scrutinise you?
My suggestion is to work with a colleague or mentor to help write or edit your bio.
You don’t cut your own hair, you don’t do your own dentistry, why try and paint your own portrait?

Are you staying small because it’s more acceptable?
That fear of the red pen goes beyond writing your bio, it can seep into every part of your career.
In a lot of cultures, there is a social stigma around loud success – a desire to see the “the high and mighty brought back down to earth”.
I hear a lot of my Indigenous friends refer to this as “the crabs in the bucket”, or the Australian cultural phenomenon known as “tall poppy syndrome”.
The idea is that success presents a risk of jealousy and ostracism, and that bettering yourself is detrimental to your position in your group.
What a stupid policy.
Like a lot of awful beliefs, saying it out loud reveals how ridiculous it is.
“I won’t grow my business because then people won’t like me” is an excuse generated by your brain to keep you safe, rather than being a genuinely sensible business decision.
The aim of your life is not to be liked by everyone – it’s an impossible task and one that is out of your control.
Other people’s opinion of you is not your business.
You do not have to stay small in order to be worthy.

A helpful way of thinking about it might be the use of the word “and”.
I am going to put myself out there…and use my platform to elevate others.
I am going to grow my business…and teach others how to do the same.
I am comfortable with making more money…and I’m going to use it to show kindness to others.
There are plenty of examples of people who have grown themselves and their projects into large forces for good, without being obnoxious or superior.
The fear of judgement is confronting, but unfulfilled potential isn’t exactly a joy factory either.

What stories do you want your staff to hear?
They say that “culture is what happens when the boss leaves the room”.
It’s a pretty telling description of culture – one that is completely separate from what your website might say about your team and their values.
Culture is set by the unspoken – which behaviours are rewarded and which are punished, and by the spoken – the stories that team members tell new recruits when the founder isn’t there.
As a business owner, you have the ability to indirectly influence both of these.
You are the one who sets the rewards and the consequences, in who you hire, promote, discipline and fire.
You are the one who tells stories that become folklore – where you love to compromise, where you won’t compromise, stories of when the team went above and beyond for a customer, stories of when the team screwed over a customer.

I can guarantee you, the stories will emerge.
Your choice is to either design and reinforce the stories you love, or to leave it up to chance.
For example, Amazon used to make all their new hires assemble their own desk out of a door and four legs, what the founders did at the beginning to save on costs.
It sets a mentality of ruthless cost efficiency, which you’ll probably agree is a defining feature of Amazon for better or worse.
Gary Vaynerchuk reiterates the story of driving for two hours in the snow to drop off a box of wine to a customer whose order got lost, or buying a signed NFL jersey as a surprise for a new customer who then became a lifelong fan.
These set the precedent of going above and beyond, without expectation of reward.

When you hire a promising new team member, which of the following do you want them to hear?
·      It’s better to own up to a mistake vs it’s better to cover up your mistakes?
·      Innovation is welcome vs innovation is a risk?
·      Consistency is rewarded vs unique brilliance is rewarded?
·      Work life balance is encouraged vs long hours are encouraged?
·      Customers are like your family vs customers are like cash cows?
·      Quality is everything vs punctuality is everything vs margins are everything?
·      We value diverse opinions vs we value people who are like us?
·      You have job security vs you’d better keep on your toes?

Do I want investors or investment?
Once a business has a decent customer base, investment becomes an increasingly interesting topic.
You’ll find yourself daydreaming about expansion, new product lines, increased production capacity, a bigger team, proper facilities, maybe even the chance to take a holiday.
Sometimes you’ll find yourself thinking about investment as a lifeline, a way of avoiding a painful compromise or chasing a fleeting opportunity.
What’s interesting is to separate out the investors from the investment itself.
Would you rather have two Sharks from Shark Tank join as advisors, or a $500,000 interest free loan?
I’d encourage you to think through both sides in detail; they can each be transformative or underwhelming, depending on how you utilise them.
The two sharks can bring connections, wisdom, credibility, clarity and direction.
The $500,000 can bring economies of scale, new recruits, and a longer cash runway.
I get that ideally you’d want both, but which is more pivotal?
Generally speaking, I see that founders with a validation business model and financial model pick the money.
Founders without the validated models also pick the money, then change their mind and pick the Sharks.

Do I want investment or four All-Stars?
A similar question but with an emphasis on team members:
Would you rather have four All-Stars join your team in some capacity, or a $500,000 interest free loan?
An All-Star is someone who does their particular job to a very high standard, like an incredible product designer or a genius digital marketer.
They don’t need to be celebrities, they just need to be passionate and talented.
As Steve Jobs said “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do”.
You might choose to put one All-Star at each position in your business; e.g. one running your sales campaign, one improving your products and services, one helping you set a vision for the future and one who sets up great systems in your operations.
All-Stars don’t need to be full time employees, they can be part time or contractors, so long as you have someone else who can follow through on their suggestions.
It’s an interesting question, because in a lot of cases the business owner was going to use the $500k to bring in the All-Stars.
You’ve either got the All-Stars already, or you’re looking for them.