Welcome to the Masterful Coach Podcast with Molly Claire. If you're a coach who's ready to impact more lives, make more money, and create a life you love, you are in exactly the right place. Get the support you deserve as a female entrepreneur, master your coaching skills, grow your ideal business, and to honor your priorities in your personal life. Are you in? Let's get started with your host, bestselling author, and master life and business coach, Molly Claire.

Hey, coach. I've got another great episode for you as you are laying the foundation of your business, and also strengthening that foundation as you expand and scale. I wanna make sure before we dive into this episode that you know about the free webinar happening tomorrow. If you go to mollyclaire.com and just click on 'Free Webinar', you can sign up there.

I'm gonna be working with you on your next 90 day business plan. Now I'll tell you, if planning or scheduling are curse words in your mind, trust me, this will be different. I love to do this workshop with you in this format because it allows me to really help you in a much more personal way than I can on the podcast. And I really wanna help you look at your next 90 days and set up a plan for yourself that is both effective and also flexible, that doesn't require perfection or rigidity.

And in fact, a plan for you that will take into account where you are in your business, your personal goals, the life you want to create outside of your business, and also to help you identify those simple things that will allow you to make money now and also in the long term. So I hope you'll join me. It's going to be a phenomenal experience and I just can't wait to get to know you better there. Again, go to mollyclaire.com and right there on the top, you will find an option to click on free webinar. So I look forward to seeing you then.

And here we go. Let's dive right into this week's episode.

Hey coach, are you ready to talk more about the strong foundation for your business? I hope you are loving this series. I think the guests are phenomenal, and my hope for you each week in this is really to help you wherever you are in your business, to remember that it is never too late, or too early, to strengthen the foundation in your business.

And I especially want to reiterate as I dive into this week's episode about the skills that you'll want to work on in your business that we don't have to have all the skills or all the things figured out and done perfectly before you can start moving your business forward. And in fact, you have to be moving your business forward while really acquiring and mastering these skills. And so today's episode is one in which I'm sharing with you a process in which you can really audit the current skills you have in your business, the skills you will need to acquire or learn, and how to really prioritize them.

I mean, as I'm talking about this, how many of you can relate to feeling a bit overwhelmed by the list of tasks to do in your business and the list of skills to learn? I'm always mindful that as I'm speaking to you, I kind of talk about it as these two ends of the spectrum - and I recognize there are many variations as well.

But typically, I find with my clients that some clients want to really learn all the skills, master all the skills, do all the things, and they're really afraid to actually move forward with traction in making money in their business until a lot of those things are done. And there's a lot of value in that, and also sometimes it can hold you back. Now, at the other end of the spectrum are people who kind of wanna jump past some of the steps, pass some of the foundations and get things moving, which also is not a bad thing. There are also very positive things about that.

And so as I speak to all of you, you can always think about where you fall on the spectrum or if you relate to something else entirely. And think about how this applies to you specifically, because if you tend to pump the brakes and really wanna make sure everything is in place and perfect, I wanna really push you a little bit to be willing to put yourself out there and get things moving and do things that seem scary, even when you don't feel quite prepared.

And for those of you on the other end of the spectrum, I wanna help you pause a little bit and make sure that you are not working inefficiently and ineffectively. What I mean by that is, if you are the type of entrepreneur who is really just going for it and maybe skipping some steps and not being as thorough in the foundation of your business, and again, as I say this, I know it might sound negative, but I actually don't think that it is.

Yes, there are things about it that are not desirable, but there are also a lot of really desirable things. So if that is you and you are that type of entrepreneur, the great news is that you are not going to be slowing yourself down from fear of perfection. And one of the issues that can arise when I say being ineffective or inefficient is that sometimes if you are taking more scattered action that's not as strategic. You can actually do a lot of work. You would be the type of person that's taking a lot of action, doing a lot of things, but maybe not being quite as effective. Not a problem, not a bad thing, but something to be aware of.

Okay, so in this episode specifically I'm talking with you about how to audit your skills and how to prioritize them, and how to be effective in really mastering one by one the skills that you need for the foundation of your business. And as I'm sharing this skill audit process for you, one of the beautiful things that many of you will notice is that sometimes you can do one thing. Like for example, in my program Foundations where we're working on the 10K accelerator program, we're doing the things and we're moving forward, and some of the skills just naturally start getting built, right?

And so I don't want any of you to think that you have to do this skill audit exactly over everything in your business. However, I do think it's a process worth being mindful of, so you can be the most effective in what you're doing.

Okay, so let's talk about the skills required to start, run, and grow an online business. There is no shortage of them. But what I'll say is you don't have to know every skill, but every piece of your business needs to be covered by you or someone with that skill. So as we think about all the different components, no, you don't have to be the master of all of them, but they have to all be covered.

The other thing I'll say is you don't have to know every skill now either. In fact, to get started and to help people and to make money now, you simply need a couple of basic skills. Isn't that good news? I think that's really good news. Good to hear. So let's dive into the first topic here about how you can learn what the needs are in your business, what the skills are that you need to acquire and how to prioritize them.

So first of all, it's just really writing down what are the things that need to be figured out in my business. What are the skills I need to learn? What is required? And I do know that for many of you, this list may seem overwhelming. And in fact, a lot of people avoid looking at it or making the list because they fear that, and in an effort to avoid being overwhelmed, instead you just start doing things and turn a blind eye to the list.

So what I wanna offer you is this list does not need to be overwhelming, and if you're brave enough to make the list, you can actually eliminate a significant amount of stress. Unanswered questions in your mind cause stress, avoiding. Even noticing unanswered questions, causes the most stress, in my experience.

So really think about this list of all the things as the starting point of every solution for your business. So when you wonder if you'll really do it in this business, how you'll do it, and if this will work, you can know that the solution lies in the awareness of the skills you need to build. I'm gonna say that one more time. You can know that the solutions for your business lie in the awareness of the skills you need to build. Okay, so be willing to make that list. Be willing to be aware of the skills you need to build. Then let's talk about prioritizing.

So you're going to have this list, hopefully this exhaustive list. And by the way, you don't know the entire list right now. That's the other thing. As you get started in your business, you'll start to notice places where you have a skillset set to build, or needs that you didn't even know existed in your business. So most likely, this list will continue to change, but once you have it, let's talk about how to prioritize. I recommend that you prioritize the skills you need to learn and the things you need to do based on three things.

Number one, where you are now personally, meaning, what is your experience? What are your natural abilities? What are the skillsets you've already learned? So where are you now personally is the first one. Second, your current business needs. And third, your long-term desires for your ideal life and business.

I think it's super important to always make sure that you're holding space for your current needs in your business and your long-term desires, and this is why. Sometimes, if we don't pay attention to the current needs that you have in your business, for example, if you are needing your business to bring in income now, that's important to know. And if you're not paying attention to that, and you're just working on long-term belief - which is obviously helpful - but if you're not paying attention to filling that need now, that can lend itself to this big gap where your needs are not met. And it lends itself to a lot of discouragement internally and a lot of quitting.

So make space for both of those because addressing your current business needs and the current personal needs you have, while also holding that long-term vision allows you to have really guided and clear decisions that make sense for what you're creating. Okay, so let's take an example. Let's assume that you want to make money now in your business, and so then reasonably you think, "So I'm going to learn how to do an effective marketing funnel."

Well, here's what I'll say about that. What if the problem that you have, or one of the problems is you don't actually have the skill of easily accepting money for your services? I can't tell you how many times I see this. And I think part of the problem is I don't know that most of us think of it as a skill, right? We think, "Well, I need to learn how to market. I need to learn how to sell. I just need to learn to be confident."

But personally, I think there is a skill or ability to being able to easily accept money for your services. And so imagine going back to this idea of thinking, "Well, I'll learn how to do an effective marketing funnel." if you are uncomfortable with accepting money for your services, all of that effort you're putting into that marketing funnel will not be effective. Not only will it, in ways you don't realize, slow you down and make that marketing funnel less effective, because a part of you is going to know that at the end of this, you need to ask for money, right?

So not only will that be less effective, but even in the ways you bring people into your world, if you are not able to ask a client to pay you and to sign up with you, then you're not gonna get very far. So you focused on the the wrong problem as a starting point.

Okay. I'm gonna give you another example. So let's say again, you want to make money now, so you think, "Well, I'm going to learn how to sell. Because if I wanna make money now, I have to learn how to sell." I agree that learning to sell is helpful. However, let's imagine that one of the problems you have, or one of the lists on your skillset that you need to work on is your coaching ability.

And in fact, let's assume that you're so insecure in your ability to coach that that fear of not being effective will actually get in the way of you selling. No matter how great the sales training is that you take, if you are dreading working with people or you are feeling like a fraud saying, "Hey, well, I can sell people on this, but can I really deliver?" It's not going to be useful.

So I hope you can see in these examples that going back to this idea of prioritizing based on where you are now personally, the first question I would ask all of you is, do you have the skill of easily accepting money for your services? And if not, what is in the way of that? What do you need to do personally, and is it actually related to this confidence in your ability to help people?

And I highlight these two examples because these are the two that I see most often. People feeling insecure because they don't know if they can really deliver. They have that sense of fraud complex. They're not confident in their own coaching skills or program or offer or they're very uncomfortable asking for money, especially when it comes to a helping service. Because there can be a lot of noise in your head about not charging people if you are helping them. So that is a podcast topic for another day.

So as I wrap up this section about prioritizing, take a look at what the basic skills are that you need right now. If your business is thriving, but you want to expand and scale, you probably need to focus on the skill of increasing traffic with your chosen marketing methods. If you're wanting to make that first 10K or 20, you'll want to make sure first, that you're confident as a coach and it's easy for you to accept money.

There are many others as well, right? In Masterful Coach Foundations and the 10K Accelerator we focus on many of these. But I think these two that I mentioned are definitely the most overlooked far too often. And I think that's where I see coaches spending a lot of time doing all the things, paying for all the things, and getting discouraged and not really realizing they don't feel confident in themselves and they won't accept money.

So I think I've talked about those enough. We're like hearing that again and again. Okay coach. So where are you now? What do you need to do now in your business? What do you need long-term? Allow these questions to help you prioritize your skill mastery plan.

All right, next, let's talk about how to really start to move through these prioritized skills. So you have your list of skills, you've prioritized them, and now what's next? Let's talk about setting a plan with a one step at a time approach, and the amazing questions that will help you along the way. So when I say one step at a time, that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be going just in consecutive steps for one skill and then move on to the next.

One step at a time means that you identify the priorities and the steps, and set a plan for them so you can be learning to accept money and your coaching skills, and you're selling all at the same time, one step at a time. Identifying the steps and moving forward in a pragmatic way that won't easily overwhelm your brain is always helpful. So that's what I recommend.

And this is in my program, I talk about this concept all the time, is that these are the steps, right? This is the 1, 2, 3, 4. You can move through this both in sequence and simultaneously. It's not one or the other. And that approach with your skills will be tremendously helpful, especially to get you moving forward in your business now.

All right, coach. Let's talk about some amazing questions you can ask as you take a look at these prioritized skill sets you're building. Question number one, am I being effective in this skill delivery now? How am I, how am I not? So that's question one. And if you're listening to this and you're walking or driving, keep listening. But I highly recommend that you go back as well and take notes on this.

So let's take, for example, if you realize that selling is a skill you need to work on. Am I being effective? How am I, how am I not? You can do the same thing for coaching skills, marketing organization in your business, whatever it is.

Question number two, when it comes to these amazing questions to move through your plan. Am I being efficient? So the first question is effective. This is, am I being efficient? And the follow up to this is, what does that mean in this case? And finally, does efficiency matter? So when we think about effectiveness and efficiency, sometimes we think that these are the same, but actually sometimes the most effective way to do something may not seem to be the most efficient.

And sometimes it doesn't matter. Sometimes it does, right? But sometimes it doesn't matter. And so that's why I really want you to separate these two out, and as you ask yourself, "Okay, when it comes to selling or organization or coaching, am I being efficient? What does efficient actually mean in relation to this skill? And does it even matter?"

Okay, next question, coaches. Looking at the skill that you've prioritized, what is the result I'm trying to create with this specific skill? And how will that best be achieved? Sometimes we can get so caught up on the skill or the list of to-dos that we forget how it actually impacts the business. What is the result you're trying to create? The bottom line in your business, the profitability, the ease, the quality of life for you, whatever it is. So what is the result I'm trying to create with this specific skill and how will that best be achieved?

And the last two questions that will really help you to walk through this are, first, how will I measure my success? And I wanna offer up my opinion that measurable does not require numbers at all. I think when you think about measuring your success, it can be the day that you noticed that you are looking forward to that coaching call coming in because you're so confident in your ability to help. It can be no longer dreading the sales conversation because you are feeling so settled in your own rhythm.

And so I think it's valuable to look at measurable results in terms of measuring success. But I want to point out that many of the skills that you are learning to do, you may struggle to quantify them, and I don't think it matters. I think you can still identify how you will measure the success.

And finally, that last question. How will I know when to expand to a new focus? What is the point at which I will feel like this prioritized skill is maybe no longer a priority. And the reason I say that is that most likely you will continue to build all of these skills because that's what we do, right? You're a coach. You believe in personal betterment, you believe in always learning, always expanding, always mastering.

And so when you have a certain skill you're focused on, most likely you don't necessarily check it off the list, certainly some you may, but most likely they'll just move further down the priority list and you will expand to a new focus, a new skill as a priority.

All right, coach, that's what I've got for you. I hope you have found this to be helpful in terms of really being willing to look at what are the skills I really need to learn, identifying the skills that you need to learn first and foremost to actually start moving your business forward, and I hope this gives you a plan to feel like you can really break this down and be pretty pragmatic and have that confidence that you can and will create this amazing business.

All right, coach. I'll talk with you next week.

Thanks for listening to The Masterful Coach Podcast. Are you ready to build your amazing business with Molly as your coach? Check out www.mollyclaire.com to find out about masterful Coach Foundations and the 10K accelerator method. It's the ultimate support for you as a coach, building your ideal life and business.