Ep 35 Transcript: Aligning Your Business with Your Why: Empowering Female Entrepreneurs

This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.

Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast with myself, your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today we're diving into a topic that is absolutely fundamental to your journey as an entrepreneur. And that is all about understanding your why. So my professional why is really rooted in my desire to help others to succeed. And I do that without all the hype, without that, get rich quick schemes that I see

all over the internet, all over social media. I want to empower female entrepreneurs to build something that they can truly be proud of and make a meaningful impact in the world. And of course, the side effect of that ideally is that you are going to make a whole ton of money doing it. And we're going to talk about how your why aligns with your personal life, your professional life.

and your financial goals as well, because we want to ensure that we're not just being simply just altruistic here, as fantastic as it is, we of course need to make money as well. So, I said, this is my professional why. My professional why is to help passion-driven female entrepreneurs like yourself to succeed with real sustainable success without those get rich quick schemes and ensure that you are creating that meaningful impact. And this fits really well with my personal why.

of providing care and support to my family and enjoying life to the best of my ability, to the absolute max, spending time with friends and family, not taking anything for granted, not putting things off until tomorrow and I'll be better when I can do that when. I do try to live life with a drive for ensuring that every day matters in some way.

And that gives me the freedom to live life on my terms. There was a time in my life, and I've spoken about this previously on this podcast where, you know, I thought that I needed to fit in. I thought that I needed to appease others. I thought that I needed to, you know, make a little less noise, take up a little less space. And I've realized over the years that that just doesn't fit well with me. And so I want to ensure that I'm enjoying life on my terms. And the best way that I do that, of course, is

is in how I serve other people. So by the end of today's episode, you're going to have actionable insights that will help you to both uncover and apply both your personal and your professional why in your business and help you to create that legacy that aligns with your values. So let's start by first understanding your why. Your why encompasses your personal motivations like financial freedom, flexibility, living life on your own terms, you know, not

punch in a clock to somebody else, not helping to make somebody else rich. That could be a big part of your personal why. Maybe it's about supporting your family in a meaningful way. Maybe it's about being able to have more time for your family, for your friends, for social outings, for charity work, whatever that looks like. And then there's the professional motivations as well that drive your business decisions. So as a passion-driven individual,

Grasping your why, is gonna help you to make decisions that resonate with your core beliefs and helps you to connect with your audience. Like I said, I'm passionate about helping others in their journey. I see so many people that are just chasing these quick fixes instead of pursuing meaningful success. And I wanna help you to create that sustainable business that reflects your values, that reflects your aspirations, that reflects your true vision, your authenticity, your true self.

So how do you identify your why and ensure that it aligns with your business? So understanding who you're serving is going to be crucial for this. If you're not clear on exactly who you're serving, and don't tell me, I'll work with anyone. I want you to be super crystal clear on exactly who you are serving, because the better you know the person you're serving, the better you can ensure that your why is going to resonate with them.

and that will help to inform how you approach your business. Okay, so here are some questions I want you to ask yourself as you're determining your why. What motivated you to start your business in the first place? Reflect on the moments that sparked that passion in the first place. And then who is your ideal client? What are their needs? What do they value? How do they play into

this mission that you're on. What sort of problems are you solving for your ideal client? What is the core issue? What's the biggest thing? If you solve just one problem of theirs, where they're like, that just made my life so much easier. What is that core issue that they are facing that you have the ultimate solution for? And then how does your why influence what it is that you're offering them? The services that you're providing

should reflect your purpose. And I say services mainly because most of the clients that I work with are service providers. But if you are someone who is selling physical products, these same questions are going to apply. Why did you create that physical product? Whatever it is, what need is it solving? Whether it's a new makeup line or perhaps it's, you know, cat toys or a cat jungle gym type things for your catio, which obviously helps to solve a lot of problems for crazy cat ladies like myself.

Maybe you are like Sara Blakely and solving the Spanx issue for everyone. We just need to kind of tighten some things up a little bit sometimes when we're wearing certain outfits. So what is it that you are offering and how does your why influence what you're offering to your clients? Okay, so let's go back to what I was saying about my why. So my commitment to avoiding that hype.

helps to enable me to be able to create programs that genuinely help others to build lasting success. So I prioritize transparency and integrity in everything that I do, almost to a fault, to be perfectly honest, because here's the thing. Yes, my plan has always been to make money and yours should be too. You shouldn't be an entrepreneur if you don't plan to make money. Even a nonprofit organization needs to make money.

They're not necessarily making money for you personally, although you should be taking home a paycheck for it. But the idea is that even a not-for-profit, it's a charity, but doesn't mean it's not trying to make money. The whole goal is actually to raise money. whatever you are in business for, whatever it is that you are doing, whatever is motivating you, you still want to ensure that you are making money. But again, for myself, I will say that my passion, my drive, my why, my desire to help others sometimes even clouds my desire to make money.

So I often find myself just giving a ton of time, value and resources away. And that's why the last question that I want you to ask yourself is, how does my why make me money? Because like I said, I love it if you're altruistic, if you're just a natural born philanthropist. And trust me when I say that if it was possible for me to just give away all my money and live a comfortable means,

and be able to support others, I would do it. But the reality is that no, I've got bills to pay as well. I've got cat mouths to feed. I've got things that I need to do with that money. I've got a lifestyle that I want to support. And therefore, I need to ensure that I am profitable and I am making money. And so when you are asking yourself why or how does my why make me money, that will help you to ensure that you are on the right path and that your why is a passion-driven

profitable business. It forces you to evaluate what you're doing and ensure that you're aligned in your goals personally, professionally, and financially. So then now that you've got your why identified, I'm hoping you've gone through this exercise. You're pretty clear on here's why I'm doing the things that I'm doing again. I want you to be focusing on both personal and professional. Why did you decide to become an entrepreneur in the first place? What was it that you were hoping to gain in your life that was missing previously?

Who is it that you're trying to serve? How are you trying to help them? This is all a part of your why. And then I want you to ensure that you're staying aligned with that why. So set aside some time for regular and consistent reflection, whether it's weekly, perhaps it's monthly, even daily, and reflect on both your personal and your professional why. Now, journaling can be super helpful for articulating your thoughts on this, you know, asking yourself, how did I serve my

why today. And of course, as you know, I'm a big fan of journaling. So this is a great journal prompt to add to your journaling if this is something that you're already doing. Another way that you can ensure that your why is aligning with your business and your business strategies is to create a mission statement. Write down your why and use this as a bit of a guiding light for your business decisions. And it's not about having something pretty that you can put on your website or on your brochure or business card.

but it's to help you to remember why you're doing what it is that you do. So if you've taken the time already to craft your brand promise, this may already encompass your why. A brand promise doesn't always necessarily encompass your why. It's more about what it is that you do, not necessarily why you do it, but you may have chosen to incorporate your why into your brand promise. So if so, congratulations, you're done this part of it.

But if not, you might want to consider creating a mission statement because that really does identify what your why is, what is it you're trying to do, why you're trying to do it. And then I want you to ensure that you are celebrating the small wins. So acknowledge your progress, no matter how small it is, celebrate the milestones that keeps your passion alive and reinforces your purpose. So I want you to also think about, can you incorporate your why into your marketing materials, whether it's social media posts or client interactions?

or any sort of printed materials, your website that you have. Again, I'm not saying I need you to print a nice pretty mission statement all plastered all over the place, but adding your why as more of a personal journey story is going to be incredibly valuable in your marketing materials. Not only because it helps to advise your clients or prospective clients as to what is it you're doing and why you're doing it, but it also helps to keep yourself in check, right? There's a little bit of accountability there.

You know, so you can let that, that why just shine through in everything that you're doing and then share your why with others. So again, like if you're putting on social media, if you're putting it onto your, your marketing materials, great. If you're not, then share it with the people that are closest to you. Share it with the public, share it with whomever, because there's nothing like a little bit of accountability, right? To help you to stay aligned with your why and ensure that the business strategies in the business decisions that you are making are taking you

closer to the goals that you have identified as being aligned with your why. And then identify other ways to ensure that you're protecting your why. So what else can you be doing to ensure that you're protecting your why and ensure that you are operating at all times in a manner that focuses on your why and prioritizes it? I've given you a few tips here, but perhaps there's something else that you feel that you can be doing to help to ensure that you stay on track with your business goals and that your business goals and strategies align with your why.

This is going to help to guide you on the tough days, on the days where you feel like a failure, on the days where you feel like an imposter, on the days where you just want to give up. Go back to your why, remind yourself why you started this in the first place, and then hold strong. Because some days we just need to remind ourselves of this, especially on the bad days. Now, if you're having more bad days than good, then perhaps it is time to reflect on whether or not you are heading in the right direction.

Maybe you have found that you are out of alignment with your why, and that could be helping to cause some of those bad days. So use that as your guideline to reflect on. But if you're just having a couple of bad days here and there, then that's where you go back to your why, because it'll remind you of all the good that you're doing as well. So today we explored the significance of understanding both your personal and your professional why and how it applies

to you and your business. And remember that your why should help you to guide your decisions and help to connect you with your ideal client, your audience, your avatar, whatever it is that you want to call them. But your why should really connect with them. And if you feel there's a misalignment there, then you start over. Maybe it's about needing a new avatar. Maybe it's about adjusting your why. Most

businesses, most entrepreneurs will maintain their why throughout the duration of their business. However, it's not the end of the world if you decide that you want to take a look at your original why and adjust it, tweak it, update it, adapt it based on how the world has evolved. Maybe you have found new passions or new directions to go in. So you want to be true to that. You want to be authentic to that. So I'm going to challenge you to take some time this week to really think about

your why, how does it shape your business and impact you, the impact that it, how does it shape your business and the impact that you want to create? And I want you to share your why with me, share it on social media, connect with me. You know, let's continue the conversation. I'll help to hold you accountable to your why. And so going back to my why, just one more time here, as I mentioned, I want to help others to succeed, others just like you without all the hype or the get rich quick schemes.

But instead, I want you to help you build something that you can truly be proud of and create an impact on the world. And I've helped many clients to achieve this and I can help you too. So speaking of giving things away for free, let's talk. We can discuss your biggest challenges, we'll outline a roadmap to your success. And if it feels like a good fit, we can review some ways that perhaps we can work together to help you to achieve your goals. Does this sound good? If so, simply go to aboutshaunalynn.com/plan

okay? aboutshaunalynn.com/plan. We'll create a roadmap to your success. And like I said, we can explore different ways that I can work with you to help you to achieve that success. All right, so listen, if what I'm saying here today resonates with you, then I hope you will continue to tune in next week. And of course, don't forget that the best way that you can show your support for us is not only leaving a review and subscribing to us on your favorite podcast platform,

but share us with another fellow entrepreneur that you know really needs to hear this message today. And that is the best way that you can not only support us, but also help to support your fellow female entrepreneurs. So do me a favor and share this episode with someone that you know can really connect with it. And until next time, keep thriving.