Welcome to the Get Your Act Together podcast. I'm your host, Kelly Reynolds, ops strategist and agency coach at the Reynolds OBM agency. This podcast is all about building well-run and profitable businesses so that we can create the lives dream of. 

Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 81. Okay, so I think we can all agree that the last few years have been crazy, like out of control. Crazy, right? I'm recording this in February 2022. And in February 2020, we had no idea what we were about to deal with, right? My son's last day of school is March 13. It's like burned into my memory because I sent him home with some homework. And that was it. And he never went back. And all of this crazy has made me kind of have this toss-up. Because I am craving normal, safe, going out to restaurants and not wondering if everybody there is going to give me COVID. Like all the things, right, this utter lockdown mentality of I just want to stay home, stay in my corner and be safe. But on the other hand, I have this enormous, enormous, like, pressure in my head to move forward with the business pressure of my own making, to be clear. So I have these two conflicting things in my head that I want to stay safe. But I don't want to stay safe at all. I think what's happening to a lot of people is that they want to do things in their life, but they're scared to do them. And this isn't just with COVID, or business, it's just everything, everything right? On top of the fact that so many of us do not like change. I have heard a lot lately, I just want to stay in my corner and do what I want. Like I want to do the work that I like in my corner, I don't want to have to do all the other things, I want to stay in my cozy corner and be safe. But that is not how you grow. It's not doing the same thing over and over again that gives you the same results, it doesn't give you a different result where you're going to make a million dollars by sitting home and not changing a thing, right? Of course, we don't want to hear this because we just want to, we want to make a million dollars without actually having to do anything differently. And you hear all these memes. I've seen them all posted on Facebook and all the socials like things about getting out of your comfort zone. And the magic happens when you're not in your comfort zone, all that kind of stuff. And as cheesy as a lot of them are. It's true, right? We got to, we have to get out of our you have to get out of our comfort zone. Not only do we have to get out of our comfort zones, but I really think that we need to put a little skin in the game, we need to be vulnerable. And we need to accept and embrace change in order to get the things we want in life. Now, of course, you can hedge your bets. Because you know, kids need to be fed. Right? Like you need to have a business that's going and kids like to be fed a lot. They always want to leave. And you have bills to pay and all those kinds of things. And I'm not saying to burn things down. I hear people talking in different groups that I'm in about burning everything to the ground, firing all their clients for doing everything, and starting over. And while that may be a lovely kind of dream, when you're having a bad day, like just firing everyone and burning it to the ground. And I get it, I do because I've had those days as well. It's really hard to start over. And when you have a business that's been chugging along for a while, I think sometimes we forget what started was like how hard it is to start from zero. So I want to be clear that what I'm saying here is that we need to grow, accept change, put a little skin in the game, be vulnerable, and get older, but we do not have to burn down what we're doing now. Keep doing some of those things, and then try new things because we need to test things out. We got to find what works. We have to fail a little. And that's scary, too. Right? I saw a lot of scary things today. We have been working on offers and Get Your Agency Together, the group program I have and we were walking through someone who had services, they were on retainers OBM VA services, and they really weren't loving it. They thought their talents were really best suited for other things. And as we worked through those, they were like okay, we figured out what they wanted to offer. But then it was like well, how do I get there? And I don't recommend burning it all down and starting a new thing. It's exhausting, and you have no money coming in at the same time. And what we had worked out with there was a balanced approach to accepting change, embrace the change and build out those new offers, and then go sell them and have money coming in from them before you get rid of the other clients that are paying your bills and feeding your children. There's a balance there, right, we can embrace change, while still keeping some safety. We can test things while keeping the bills paid. The next question that comes up is, how the hell am I going to do that when I am already working all these crazy hours. There are two things: one, you can get help, a VA can come in and help you with some of the lower level stuff that you don't need to do yourself. And that can free you up. So if you hire someone for, let's say, five hours a week, that might give you five hours back. So if you get that five hours back, then you have to turn around and dedicate that five hours to growth, either building those offers or working on your marketing, something like that. And the second thing is, when you're really excited about those offers, it's not drudgery. Like when you get really excited about going to do something else and building something else. You may get really excited at 10 o'clock at night and want to build something out. Or on a Sunday afternoon when everyone else is kind of doing other stuff. That's what happened to me this weekend, I redid my entire website. Well, my entire homepage, because I was so excited about what we're putting together, and a new round of Get Your Agency Together that I wanted to fix some of the things that weren't working on my website. And that is exciting. You want to fit that in. Right. So either getting help to give you more time, or just the pure joy of wanting to get it done is sometimes how I get these things done. 

Today's podcast is being sponsored by the Get your agency together group coaching program. This is a program I built for online service providers who either want to start an agency or to grow the agency they have so that it's organized, sustainable and profitable. Over five months, you'll be working with me and the rest of your cohort to break down and rebuild different parts of your business so that they align with the life you really want to build. The modules includes systems you'll need, offers you'll make, the team you'll need to build and the journey your clients will take. Most importantly, you'll have to look at all of these things through the lens of the goals and the values you bring to the table. For more details, go to Reynolds opm.com and join the waitlist, you'll be the first to know when the program opens. See you there. I still have long-term legacy clients that support different parts of my business. I don't offer those services anymore, because I don't want 15 of those services. But they're fine right now. Right? Like they're their long-term clients. We're chugging along, right? Like they support my team and my business. And then I have other things that I have grown over the years. There are things that I have tried that I love doing, but no one wants to pay me for. 

Another thing I've really worked well, that kind of trying things out, is how you grow bracing that change. And it's totally scary. It's totally scary to put yourself out there. Like what if everyone thinks I'm a failure? Right? Or what if everyone's like, Who the hell is she to teach this, all of that like imposter syndrome, all that yuck all the trash talk in your head, it totally comes out when you're trying to do these things. And all you can do is push through. The important thing here is to trust yourself so that you can make decisions. Remember, you're the boss. And sometimes I have to remind myself of that I get in this very employee mindset, where I don't know what I'm doing. And I have to ask everyone else to tell me what I'm doing. This is where people get into places where they buy course after course, after the course, because they're waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Or they get a coach. And they ask them what they should do all the time. Instead of having that coach do what they're supposed to do. And ask you questions, drill down into what you really want, right? That thing about needing someone to tell you what to do. That's a very employee mindset. And here, you're not an employee, you are the boss, you are the CEO, whatever you want to call yourself. So trust yourself to make those decisions, even when it's scary. You don't need everyone else to tell you what to do. You can go and learn different things, but you have to make the decisions. This is your business. We need to try things, and see if they work even if we feel like a failure. It is uncomfortable and scary to try new things and I will give you an example of my own business. Okay. I hated hearing my own voice not that long ago, and I never wanted to be on podcasts. I didn't want to be on videos. God forbid my face was on a video like that all of that is terrifying to me. And then I started my own podcast. It sounded like a great idea. Because I had, I had been on a couple of other people's podcasts, and like, I kind of got the lay of the land. I can talk forever. So it was just getting over the nerves. So when I started my own podcast, I knew I could edit out things, right? Brian could edit out all the times that I totally messed up. And that was a little bit of a safety measure. It was some change and scary, but I could deal with it. Did I want to throw up every single time? Yes. Do I want to throw up sometimes now? Yes. Did I keep going anyway? Yeah. And now, I want to expand the podcasts, to have more guests. I want to be on other people's podcasts. I now do live videos in my Facebook group all the time. And it's amazing, right? Like, I just recorded all these videos for a program that I'm making all this crazy stuff. Now I'm on podcasts, and I'm a video and it doesn't even occur to me anymore. But all of this is to say that I have now broadened my reach. I have started new programs that require more of me, right? I'm on video, I'm on podcasts, I'm on lives, all of these things, they have broadened my reach to help more people grow agencies, which is what I love to do. And I can't help those people. Unless I get over my shit. If I didn't get over how scared I was to put together a group coaching program, and then put my neck out there and say, Look, everyone, I'm going to sell this thing and then market it. God forbid, like what if no one bought any of it? Right? Like all of that was terrifying. But if I hadn't gotten over my shit, I would not have been able to help the people that are in the program now. And that is what got me going to do another round. After I did the first launch, I was like, I'm never doing this again, this is crazy. And it was my first launch. And I was so excited. And then I got in there. And I was coaching and I love the coaching. I love the work. But all the other scary stuff around it. I don't really love it as much right? Like, I think that's what a lot of us think we don't love marketing. We don't love the live video. We don't love the podcast, but I love the coaching and to get to the coaching, I've got to do the other things. I've got to do the scary things. I've got to embrace that change in order to get to the things I love doing and that I can help other people with. And if I didn't get over it, then they wouldn't get the help they need. And that is a great motivator for me. There are people out there who either want to start needing to see, or they have an agency that's a mess, right? Like, their systems are bad. They are not making any money, all the things right. I can help those people. But I can't help them if they don't know about it. So I do the scary stuff. I know change is hard. And I know it's scary. But if you want to grow and scale, I need you to be brave. I need you to embrace change and say okay, I can do this. I don't need to write it all down. I can do this though. I can grow. I can do scary things. I can say yes to the opportunities that are out there. Because Holy crap, what could my business be like? Who are the people out there that I could help? That's what I need to do.. Alright, get out there, and embrace the change. And I'll see you next week. 

Thank you so much for joining me this week. If you have an agency or want to create one can join my Facebook community. Get your agency together, where we talk all the things growing and scaling your agency for show notes and more info and all the things head over to Reynoldsobm.com Follow me on Instagram and Facebook at Reynolds OBM. And finally, if you enjoy this podcast, I would love for you to give us a review on iTunes.