Streamlined CEO

The Why Behind the Pivot

• Karalee Gault • Season 2 • Episode 1

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Ever felt like your business is running you instead of the other way around? Buckle up as I take you on a personal journey of transformation, sharing the game-changing strategies I've used to help six-figure business owners, like you, eliminate operational bottlenecks. This episode pulls back the curtain on my business evolution, from a lightning-strike epiphany in November to the growth spurt that led me to bring on a duo of virtual assistants and welcome a wave of new clients. As the captain of your business, you'll get an insider's view of how to steer clear of becoming the dreaded bottleneck, and I'll walk you through a comprehensive operations audit designed to pinpoint and alleviate those pressure points. Plus, discover the power of delegation, authenticity, and other vital practices that have been the cornerstone of my business's growth over the past year.

Prepare to have your preconceptions of success flipped upside down, as I reveal how it's possible to achieve more with less—far less struggle than you might think. I discuss the unexpected ease with which success can arrive when you're armed with the right community support and a hefty dose of self-validation. The insights don’t stop there, as I reflect on the pivotal decisions that have tripled both my income and workload, making the expansion of my team an essential next step. I also share action steps that invite you to reflect on the past year, urging you to shed what no longer serves you and focus on relationships and business elements ripe for improvement. So join me, and let's pave the path to streamlining your success—and don't forget to tune in next week after our rebrand for even more juicy insights!

Grab your DIY Operations Audit: theproductivityimpact.com/landing/operations-audit

Details on the giveaway:
1. Share your biggest takeaway from the podcast via your stories and tag @theproductivityimpact in it
2. Leave a review on your platform of choice.
3. Be entered to win a 30 minute Pick My Brain Session via Zoom

Winner will be announced on April 9, 2024

Have a question, want to chat with Karalee?
Send a text to (419) 721-6037 and let's chat!

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Karalee:

Hello, hello, welcome back. And as you're listening to this, you may have noticed a few changes, like a completely new name for this podcast. I'm still bringing you the operational goodness, but we're going to be talking more about how to be a streamlined CEO. That means having your operations team and you efficient and productive in a way that feels good for everyone. Oh, and there's a giveaway too. You can enter head to the show notes for more details and I'll give you more a little bit later too. So for this specific episode, it's going to be a behind the scenes look at why this pivot happened in my business and so, naturally, in this podcast being rebranded.

Karalee:

So let's start back in November of 2023, when my mentor and I had an epiphany about my true strengths and how I could maximize those. After that one refinement, we came up with a help statement of this I help six plus bigger business owners create more capacity and streamline operations so that they're no longer the bottleneck and can spend more time serving clients. That was just the beginning. A fresh, new perspective on all the things I could support business owners with came after. Usually, six figure business owners already have a team or at least a virtual assistant Working behind the scenes in different businesses. As a VA, which is a virtual assistant, I saw all the team dynamics already. So if you haven't opted in for the DIY operations on it, it walks you through the five most common bottlenecks I've seen in businesses when it comes to operations and you can grab that in the show notes too. It's free. This directly came from that epiphany. So by the end of December I had hired a virtual assistant to support me with this podcast and a few other things because, in case you didn't know, there's a whole lot of steps in a podcast production and by the end of February I hired another VA to support me even more. So hiring two VA's in two months means a lot of growth, but also a lot of patience, trust and understanding what to delegate that they love to do.

Karalee:

So within the first two months of 2024, all these things were happening behind the scenes I had hired three, or I had brought on three new clients and there was four total projects. I had hired two VA's. I started in a new mastermind, I had two trips out of state one was for personal and one was a business retreat and personally I was on a freaking energy roller coaster. So if you've heard my story about how the bottom fell out of my business in year one, you'll see the exact same things were happening here. My body is remembering the trauma, even though things are very, very different this time. So I've had to give myself grace and lean on my biz bestie to support me through this, as they've heard the story and they get it. If you'd like to hear about the whole story about how my business fell out for the bottom fell out of my business in year one I'll totally share that later on. But just know that the same things were happening right now and my body was like what in the world is going on? This doesn't feel good. But it feels good because, right, it's not the same thing, but my body was remembering it as the same thing. But anyway, we'll dig into more of that later.

Karalee:

So some of the things that actually were supporting me this year. So we're at the end of March, so we've got a good three months here delegating. I brought on those two VA's right. The last summer brought on VA's. It didn't go well. So, as I said, my body was remembering the falling out of my business, right. So, but delegating this time has been a breeze. My VA's are amazing.

Karalee:

All right, I've been asking for support, support in my home life, support in business, everything Joining a mastermind with amazing women right, being able to ask them for support as well. Being myself this one has been incredibly game changer. Just, you know, like if you don't like me for me, then that's okay. Then maybe we aren't right for each other. So, being honest with myself, that has been incredibly game changer for me. It's just really being honest to myself what am I good at, what am I not, what have I learned, and all of those things.

Karalee:

Reading for fun every single night has been incredibly like game changer for me. I wind down. I'm not staring at a screen, so I already stare at screens all day, right. So reading for fun I'm talking fantasy or something. That's not personal development, all right. Coffee dates with friends I'm talking coffee dates with just friends. Maybe has nothing to do with business, but I love coffee, in case you didn't know that, and so coffee and friends awesome, right, that has been supporting me this year as well.

Karalee:

Getting real with finances okay, I've never been a fan of money, but if we're going to have a business and grow, you're going to have to get real with your finances, and that's personal and business. All right, refining my own operations I might be an operation specialist, but tell me, let me tell you that sometimes my operations get a little clunky and I actually have to keep refining them, and so refining operations is an ongoing thing, but it doesn't mean that you can't put the foundational ones in place and then refine them from there, right? And so the last thing I'm going to share with you as something that has been supporting me throughout this year so far is having more fun with absolutely everything. I'm talking with my kids, with my husband, with my friends, everything Just having more fun in general. So now I've learned a few lessons this year, too. It's not all been like this is what's been supporting me, but there's been some lessons learned that aren't so fun as well. So I'm going to share some of these with you so that maybe you can start getting your brain thinking a little bit as to some of the things that you might also want to kind of look at, maybe. All right, so ask questions for clarity, even if you think you should know the answer. This has been a big one for me, because I always seem to want to go find the answer when sometimes it's faster to just literally ask the question for clarity.

Karalee:

Another thing that I learned was it doesn't have to be hard. It does not have to be hard for you to be successful. Period, so I can do less and receive more. This kind of goes hand in hand with it. It doesn't have to be hard. You don't have to have an equal exchange of energy for money or whatever that looks like. You can do less and receive more. Another thing I learned was people genuinely want to support you, like there are genuine people in communities out there that genuinely want to support you. It's community over competition, right, and so that was something that I really learned, that I really feel like I really needed as well, and the last thing I'm going to share as far as the lesson learned is, what I do for clients is huge, and I get to receive that praise or that feedback, or I get to feel good about what I do as a business owner. All right, I don't need outside validation to actually believe that and receive that, though. All right, that was like a huge win for me, because sometimes we feel like we are failing our clients or our customers, and sometimes we just need to hear from someone whether that be a biz bestie, another entrepreneur friend or even your actual clients or customers that you're doing an amazing job and you get to receive that, I get to receive that, everyone gets to receive that. All right.

Karalee:

And now for the staple of this actual podcast. Right, we have to have a bite sized action step to get you moving. I did not take this away. This is like the staple. We get bite sized operational solutions here. Okay, so think back on your year so far. So, depending on when you're actually listening to this, if you're listening to this live, we're at about three months in, right, so think back on your year and I really want you to think about your progress.

Karalee:

Okay, maybe you made a pivot recently. Maybe you're thinking about making a pivot, right, maybe things just aren't flowing right and you're like, do I need to pivot? Right, that's where I was. I was like things are not going how they need to. As soon as I made the pivot, suddenly I have all of these great, amazing things. I tripled my income, like I mean, I also tripled my workload, let's be real. That's why I brought on virtual assistance and we're working on what that really looks like to offload things as the CEO in my own business, as I'm also working with clients to do that in their businesses. So there'll be way more episodes about how to really organize the team and how to really bring it virtual assistant into your business, and so much more.

Karalee:

All right, but here is the bite sized action steps. I have four questions for you. If you're the journaling type, absolutely, journal it out. If you're like the auditory type, right, grab a recording app and start recording yourself answering these questions. Either way, let's get it out of your brain, let's start thinking about it.

Karalee:

So the first question is what have you learned so far this year? Okay, map it out, like literally write it out or say it out, whichever one you want. But what have you learned? Okay? Number two what isn't serving you any longer? Maybe there's some boundaries, maybe there's some clients, maybe there's some offers Okay, maybe it's some people, I don't know.

Karalee:

So number three here is what is in your life that you want to build better relationships with? Okay, I shouldn't say what, who, who is in your life that you want to build better relationships with? It could be friends, it could be other entrepreneurs, it could be family. Who is genuinely there, that is serving you in some capacity that you want to build better relationships with, and what needs refined in your business, not as number four what needs refined in your business?

Karalee:

In my business, so many things need refined, so many things weren't serving me. There were so many people I wanted to build better relationships with, and so I'm leaving you with those four bite size action steps and the only actual action that I'm asking you to do is either journal it out or like talk it out and really start thinking about it, and then you can absolutely hop into the DMs and you can be like, hey, I really want to share with you what I've learned this year, like I want to cheer you on, like I want to be like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. And you know what? Maybe you'll you'll be able to share something that you've learned, and I'll be like, oh my gosh, that is awesome. I'm totally going to take that and realm with that too. Like, as far as, like something that was learned. My best bestie actually shared something with me the other day and I was like, oh my gosh, I'd never thought of it that way. Thank you for sharing.

Karalee:

So those are types of things that you can share in the DMs what isn't serving you any longer. I would love to know what you've identified that isn't serving you any longer. Seriously, this is one of my favorite things because it's like, if it's not serving me or my family or my ultimate goals, like, why does it fit into my priorities In my life, right? So I would love to know what things aren't serving you any longer. I would also love to know who is someone or you know multiple people that you really want to build better relationships with. That may have to do with business, it may not have to do with business, so I would love to know those too. And then, what needs refined in your business, right? Any of these questions you can absolutely share in the DMs If you want to have a conversation. I love just digging deep into your your life, but also your business, and really figuring out what your goals are, where you want to go and all of that fun stuff. So where, like, totally hit me up in the DMs and we can totally chat.

Karalee:

So I am also super excited about the rebrand here and the refined direction of my business and this podcast, and I absolutely hope that you are too and as a loyal listener, all right, I want you to head to the show notes to see the giveaway parameters to be entered in, to be entered to win a pick my brain session.

Karalee:

So if you have ever wanted to ask me all the juicy operational questions and you like, want, like the one on one time with me, and for whatever reason, you haven't, you haven't done it, you haven't gotten that for yourself.

Karalee:

This is a way for you to spread awareness that this podcast exists by sharing the podcast, giving reviews and the parameters are down in the show notes to like, tagging me and all those things, because I want this podcast to really be able to give its listeners bite size action steps, move them forward in their operations and really get them feeling really, really good about their business.

Karalee:

And you, as a little listener, are going to be able to help me with that and that would mean the absolute world to me If you'd be able to do that and, as a little thank you, you can be entered into the giveaway to potentially win a pick my brain session, which, whoever wins it, I'm going to be super excited to dig into whatever they want to dig into and pick my brain and be able to support you. So, without further ado, head to the show notes and go ahead and get to sharing about this podcast and your biggest takeaways and tagging me in it, okay, okay, I kind of gave you all the parameters, but go ahead, it's written down below, just to make sure that you have it in written text. Okay, I will see you next week and I hope you love the reband as much as me. All right, I'll see you next time on the Streamlined CEO. Bye for now.