Conquering Business Growth Fears and Leading with Confidence

In the virtual Lemonade Stand, Emily is flying solo to talk about conquering common fears found in a business, addressing committee decisions, and grasping the importance of articulating the 'why' behind shifts in your strategy to your crew.

0:07 - Overcoming Fear in Business Growth
8:02 - Branding and Adaptation in Business
13:41 - Embracing Change and Leading With Confidence

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• Episode Transcript

  What's up lemon heads? I'm Emily and I'm here to chat with you this week about fear Fear in operating a business and making a decision, and how it can be so paralyzing. We are coming up on the new year and I know everyone is saying you know, new year, new me, or you have all these big goals and new year's resolutions or like this is the year when we make some things happen, but a lot of times our own fear can get in the way from us doing something incredible, and so this episode might step on a few toes, it might make you do a little deep dive and a little evaluation of yourself, but I hope it can give you some inspiration and some practical takeaways of how you might change some things up and not let fear overcome or stifle your growth for 2024. So, without further ado, let's set some lemonade, all right. So we work in a marketing agency and what do marketers do? They want you to spend money all the time, right, and they say these things like it's, you got to just trust the process. And oh, you're not going to see a direct ROI on that because that's branding and you can't directly correlate that. And dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Okay. So, like we see fear happen all the time, and how sometimes it can be paralysis by analysis, Like you're going to analyze things so much that you can't even move, you can't make a decision, you can't move forward with this, you can't execute any of these new processes, this new brand. You're just stuck. Okay, because you're analyzing all the risks that could be associated and everything that could possibly go wrong, and that's just going to keep you stuck here. And I want to kind of challenge that, that space right there, because I know it's a common fear the fear of change. Is it a fear of rejection? Is it a fear of investing in uncharted territories or into a new service? It's just not safe. And so, unless you're just like naturally born with like a risky personality, it is just not comfortable to kind of make some of these decisions. You know, I think fear of change is a big one for everyone, just in life and the way that the world is turning nowadays and the technology that we have and things like that. Like it's a comfortable space to know what you know, but to have to embrace something different, to learn something new, it can be scary, it can be fearful for some guys. The fear of rejection. I see this all the time in branding, like we are encouraging them to do something drastically different, to stand out, to be disruptive, and they're like but like what if so, and so like says it's like unprofessional or like what if they think that, like, we're like hokey or corny now, or like what if? Like, everyone hates it, and it's like that fear of rejection again can keep them from moving forward. And what I want to say with them is like what's the worst that could happen? Like Joe blow, who's not even your customer or who's your competitor, or who even gives a crap of him. He doesn't like it. And Like like again, what else and what you know? But like what if it does work? You know what is the, the tremendous successes that could be happening from that, and then just like investigating, like moving into a new market, to a new territory, adding a new vertical, adding plumbing, adding HVAC, adding electrical pest control, roofing, whatever that might be. Maybe it's like you've been on your own for so long and you're going to finally invest in that. New technicians, you know someone else to get in the office, you know, whatever that might be, it's just not a safe thing, and so I want to challenge you because sometimes, when you can overcome those fears, a lot can happen and a lot can change for the good of your company. When you get stuck in the same old, the same old way, we've done things, the same old way we look, the same old type of service and stuff, really what happens is you get left behind. Okay, um, the way the industry trends are happening, the way customer expectations are happening, if you aren't adapting and changing, you will get left behind. Someone else is going to come and do it better and you immediately become irrelevant because you haven't updated with the change. The way the world navigates is just so different. Like I was thinking of a Black Friday, you know. So we're coming up here on the new year, so Black Friday wasn't that long ago and I remember as a college kid, so this was probably, like you know, 10, 12 years ago. Black Friday is like the thing. You know, like me and my friends, we'd all, after Thanksgiving dinner, we'd get it together at each other's house and like we'd go, stand in line and we'd have our plan of attack of like where we're going to be and like, okay, this store opens at this time, this store opens at this time. So we're going to go here first and then you go get in the line over there because they're going to have a longer line, like it was a whole strategy but like there was a ton of fun to it and stuff. And like every year we'd go eat at IHOP. You know the 24 hour access, um full menu, all you know, till all hours of the night. So when it was, you know you've been shopping since 2am, 3am, 4am and then you done on your shopping. So by you know, 6am you're ready to go eat. Ihop. That was, that was a thing. That was the tradition for many years. Nowadays, not so much Okay, because of how internet shopping has become so much more accessible and um, the deals are happening at different times and um, there's just a level of convenience like stand in line, excuse me, like I can click, click, click and it's, you know, going to be on my doorstep in 3.2 minutes, you know, or the next day, for sure, um. But so, like the way the world navigates is just so differently. Customer expectations have changed Um. Energy efficiency, the way we navigate has changed Um. I was talking with, you know, one of my former teachers and he was just talking about how had anyone told him back in the day to invest in bottled water. It had been, like, are you crazy? Like who in the world would pay for that? Who would buy bottled water? Um, you know, he's like we grew up in the country and, like you know, drinking out of the creek, that wasn't even all that bad. Or drinking out of the water faucet, or you know the water hose, and um, water just coming straight from the faucet, like that was just very normal. But things have drastically changed. Okay, it is. It's not, um, hard like on this day or when this president was elected. That's when everything turned. It's a gradual change to where you have to be willing to make those small little steps to where you aren't drastically left behind. And then you're like, oh, and it's too little, too late, okay, and then it's just such bigger hurdle to all of a sudden have to change everything versus if you can be adaptable and change a few things as you go and as um times and things change. Um, a lot of industry trends happened and I see this happen a lot with, especially in marketing contractors like, oh, word of mouth, you know, and you know I'm just, you know, everyone knows me and like, sir, does everyone really know you? Or, like you think everyone knows you because of your circle of friends and who you talk to? Yes, and they know your air conditioning company. But, like, you still have so much more marketplace that you could own. Um, you still have so much more territory, and so you got to do things a little bit differently than just word of mouth or than just, um, you know, supporting this one organization. Um, it's crazy how much resistance I'll see the contractors doing um, to doing social media is like, yeah, you know, I just I just don't believe in that stuff. And, yeah, and there's just so much bad stuff that happens on there. And you're like, yeah, there is, but if you let the bad overweigh the good, if you let the bad overweigh, what could become of you engaging um people on social media and with you building their relationships, with you becoming memorable by doing something that's that's human, as that you're not. You're not selling to them, you're not telling them all about your product, but you're like relating to them in a way of being social. Um, that's a very small but subtle change that like even today, in 2023, 2024, whenever you're listening to this to some contractor social media like, oh, yeah, we're totally doing that, that's nothing new to us, but there's still a good chunk of contracts. You're like I might do that Facebook, but don't, don't talk to me about that Instagram. Or that Tik Tok. Okay, even like sending out, like texting or emails, like it just doesn't work. How do you know? How have you tried it? How have you adapted? Or you did try it one time and maybe it really did flop. Okay, have you changed some things? Here again, okay, we're talking about change. Have you adapted, changed up the list that you're sending it to? Have you changed the wording? Have you changed the graphics? Is there no graphic? Is it designed to look like that? You know it's. You've got to be pivotal and multiple. So when you embrace change, it can make a big impact. And a lot of times, like I just said, starting from zero to 100 is super scary and it's super hard to do. But when you can make small changes, it'll. You'll get that flywheel going. Okay, it's so much harder to get it going, but once it gets going, you have that momentum. It just spends on its own a lot easier. And in regards to branding, I know a lot of contractors have that fear of like I've got to have to rewrap every single truck and I just got all new, brand new uniforms and things like that. You can make small refreshes to it to where you still seem relevant, to where you still seem like you're a company of today's world, not stuck back in the 80s. You can just modify the font, take out some of those terrible graphic elements of all the drop shadows and all the glows and the fades and everything, and like we're going to combine a snowflake and a sun and a gradient and we'll have an icicle hanging off of it. And sometimes it's like simplifying some things can drastically make an improvement to streamline your font choice, to not have a super trendy or like a scripty font. You know, sometimes those subtle refreshes of keeping your same name, maybe your same brand colors, maybe if you do have a character or mascot, maybe you want to leave those alone for a little bit, but like, hey, we're going to update the font here and then in a year or two maybe we might give that character literally like a facelift. You know, again, it just shows that relevancy. And then so many contrasts are afraid to be different, they're afraid to stand out from the norm. And a lot of times when we're doing these branding aspects, you know they'll come in and we'll do a competitive analysis and they'll say, well, so and so does it like this. So I think we should do it like that. And we see, with digital agencies, happen all the time they'll tell the digital agency well, see, so and so did it like this. Like we got to do it like that. I'm like no, like they probably said the exact same thing about someone else. So it's like somebody who was the trendsetter, somebody who is willing to be different, and then you got a whole bunch of other followers and so how can you be the one that stands out? You are in a time of need service. Like if they don't need a plumber right now, they just don't need a plumber. Like nobody's calling, like let me just see who I could call and have them do for me. It's not like a clothing boutique or a restaurant where you can make them impulse buy or something that's more fun. That's a lifestyle thing. No one wants to call a plumber or HVAC contractor. So we have got to stand out whenever they do have that that problem, whenever they do have that time of need that we can facilitate and serve them. We have got to be memorable. We have got to have something that we have done that has made them stand out in the sea of all the other competitors that's out there. We have got to have something that's differentiating. So how can you be telling a compelling brand story? Okay, because a brand isn't just your logo. It is your overall core values. What is your company like, what is the personality and the essence of your company? And then how can you tell the world that? And how can you make it so it's just not so blah, so it's not. You know, okay, yeah, we're trustworthy, or yeah, we just, we're just good people. Okay, that's not a compelling brand story, that's not something that's differentiating. But when you can be different and when you can tell a story, one it'll increase your customer loyalty. Okay, because they essentially feel like they're a part of it, because they have found some element in your story that they can align to, that they can relate to. They feel like they're a part of it. That's how you can increase customer loyalty and, ultimately, our goal is how can we create customer advocates? Okay, to where they are going to advocate for our company. They are going to be telling and advocating for us. They're going to be our recommendations. So when you build a brand, ultimately what you're doing is is building trust. You're making that connection between branding and trust and customer loyalty. When they see you everywhere, when they remember you and here's the thing, here's the differentiating thing Probably people do see you everywhere. They see your truck driving by, they might see your billboard, they might see your direct mailpiece, but it was so blah they never remembered it. Okay, and that's what a brand can do, versus having all the marketing spend and you literally are everywhere but nothing about it was memorable, so it never stuck, okay. But when they when it can stick, when they do notice you, they do feel like they know you because they see you everywhere, because they remembered it, even if they've never used you before. They feel like they know you, they feel like they know who the company is, because your brand actually reflects that. When you can instill, when you have a strong brand, you instill confidence in the customers. You already seem like your stuff is so much more together. When they see you everywhere, they already assume that you are so much more experienced. They already assume that you have so much more credibility. They already assume that you are in today's world with a modern efficiency and things like that. Your visual perception is how they gauge these inferences, how they make these connections and determine how they're going to call who they're going to call over who. There is something between you and between a competitor that made them choose you or that made them choose the other competitor. So what is that piece we had? We had someone reach out to us, one of our clients reach out to us today, and it was one. It's been a rough day here at the lemon seed. Crystal and I were not together at this moment that's why we're not recording together. But we've been chatting on the phone back and forth and like, just some things come up and it's like, why does everything have to happen at one time? But we got a little positive note, a little little kick in the pants that Rejuvenated us and as a client I was saying she told her account manager. She's like, would you please just tell crystal and Emily Thank you so much? And was like, oh, what we did. Like crystal, I haven't talked to this client, you know, in a few months for anything or whatever, but she's like we have seen a drastic change in our business. We finally hit that five million dollar mark that we had never hit before. It was out of our, it wasn't. Our goal was four million. Okay, and we just hit five. And she you know this was a this was a sibling group that their dad ran the business, but they're taking over. Now the dad has passed away and she said I know my dad would be proud, but you know, what was so encouraging to them is, and why she was telling us thank you, is Because we had them doing things that they'd never done before and it was out there. Okay, it was different. We, we coached them through a rebrand. We have them doing ridiculous things on social media, but they trusted the process and they saw the results. They are seeing the results and, like, this just got them to hear. So, like, what more is going to come to next? Okay, and what I just told our account manager to tell her is like thank you for trusting the process, thank you for Allowing the experts to give their professional opinion, and you kind of stepped aside from your own Predispositions, from your own concepts, and like said hey, I'm a contractor, I work with my hands, I, or I'm really good at filing papers and numbers and the financial aspect of the bill. Like I don't have the creativity, I don't have the marketing push-and-pull pivoting aspect, but they trusted the process and they're seeing the results. They changed they. When they first came on with us, fear was a drastic aspect and it took us a while to kind of get over that. But once they did, it was it's kind of like addicting, like yeah, what can we do next? Like because you've seen the successes of it. And then we had another contractor, text crystal, the other day. He said I just wish I would have done this sooner and I wish I would have listened to you guys sooner. So like he'd been a client for a long time years but everything was like, oh no, we can't do that and oh no, we shouldn't do that. And a lot of this pushback came from, like leading by committee. And so when you lead by committee, when you've got to ask Every single person on your team, in your family, in your community, your best friends and their husbands and and get all of their opinions. Committees are designed for risk mitigation Okay. They are designed to tell you what the safe option is, what the safe solution is to avoid the most risk Okay, you will never see anything drastically happen or change or propel you forward by being led by a committee, because it is always from the safe option. You want to do something great. You've got to do something great. Okay, you've got to do something risky. That's not safe, okay. We have seen more brilliant ideas and brands and marketing campaigns and strategies get shot down and live in a graveyard. The graphic design team literally has a file that says graveyard of all the rejected characters and sad, sad little things that could have been so great. Um, but those are often led by committee and sometimes contractors and owners and leaders in your company. I need you to be exactly that. I need you to be an actual leader. Okay, when you are allowing other people to make these decisions for you or to make your mind for you, it's not leading, it's just being another follower in with the herd, okay, um, so committees can shoot down brilliant ideas. They can leave you in a safe spot. That is ultimately exactly where you are now. So, unless you are only one to be where you are now, you will never. You will never do anything differently because you're stuck in and paralyzed by analysis. Okay, having all these people analyze and give their feedbacks and um cloudy up your mind. Um, it's just not a you'll never get anywhere, or you're going to delay your success. You're going to postpone what could be postponed, all the goodness that could be happening, um, because of this paralysis and being stuck. So when you are being a leader and you are, you've decided like, hey, I'm going to make this change, whether it's um investing in a new team members, maybe, whether it's um investing in a marketing plan or a new marketing strategy, like I've never done direct mail before, but now I'm going to do direct mail. Or I've never done mass media, but now I'm going to start doing radio ads. Um, or when it's a new brand, specifically with a new brand, you've got to get buy in, okay, and it's not asking, but it's. It's telling the team hey, here's what we're going to do, but you got to give the why, okay. So hey, we've seen that our sales have been kind of stagnant, or our goal is to add this new vertical or to move to this new territory, whatever the why is, and here's how we're going to do it. When you can be confident and motivational and saying, hey, here's what we're going to do and get that buy in, explain the why those team members, that committee, if you will, that I'm doing an air quotes here. They will then from your motivation and your why they will overcome the fear. They will then help to embrace the change and take those bold steps forward with you. But you've got to get their buy in. And from a leadership perspective, okay, not as a hey, can we hold hands and do it together, but like hey, here's what we're doing, here's how you can help me. Okay, much more the leader aspect and you are creating the followers, versus you're stuck in the herd. But there's very creative ways that you can get buy in. Sometimes you might identify just who an influential person is in your team. So again, not getting everybody or an entire committee, but like who is that one person? Maybe you get there buy in first that when you do announce it to the whole, the whole team, at the company team meeting with all 60 people or however many people you have on your team, when you're announcing it, the first one that's going to speak up is your influential person's like yes, I love that. Oh, my gosh, that looks so great. Or I can't wait to see all the calls that come in from this new marketing tactic and stuff. Let them be the first one to chime up, and it's so much easier for people to be followers, to be like, oh yeah, yeah, that looks great, that looks great. Then for them to be the different person and to be the naysayer, then, okay, when you can have a few key people to be your advocates for you, they will help influence and change your life. Help influence and change the other people's minds. Okay, the majority of people are followers and they are looking for a leader, and I want to encourage you to be that leader. Do not let fear get in your way. Do not let fear cripple you from making decisions, from projecting your business forward to investing in something that you've never invested in before. Okay, that's when you will start to see some true change in earth-shattering moments happen in your business. That's when you start to see earth-shattering moments happen in your own team. A lot of people. They're just desperate for leadership. They're looking for a place to belong and they don't know where they belong because there's no clear vision of what the company does, who they are, how they're different from the company. They're just there, and so that's what I want to encourage you is, in this new year don't let fear be a crippling aspect to you. Okay, do some deep dives to yourself and do some fear analysis. Okay, like, here is my fear, this is what I'm afraid of, and then say, like, what is the worst that could happen? And little what. What is the worst? Okay, if we lost mail, this campaign, it didn't work. Okay, we invested X number of dollars. Okay, if we lost X number of dollars, that's the worst thing that could happen here. Okay, I'm going to have a plan B for how can we re get that money back. Or if we're going, this brand and it's a fear of rejection and so and so is not going to like it, okay, so and so doesn't like it. And okay, they just don't like it. And they told you they don't like it. Okay, well, shut them up. Yeah, I hear you. So the direction we decided to go to because of this and 99% of everyone else loves it and I love it, and you know, that's kind of all that matters and it resonates with my customers, and so that's what we're doing. Sorry, you don't like it, but like you don't have to live with it, you know. So don't let fear be a hindrance to you. Okay, embrace change, embrace what could be a resistance from your team. Just get them behind, get them with you. But when you do it from a from a positive and from a confident standpoint, those people will follow you. You will, you will help become the leader and you will see great things happen for your business. So I know there was a lot and kind of some deep things and just kind of some theory, so not a lot of like direct takeaways, because that's ultimately for you to do. You've got to decide what is your fear, what is your pain point, where's your comfort zone, and then determine, like, what your actual goals are so that you can accomplish those. Okay, and it's probably going to be overcoming some fears to be able to reach those goals. So thank you for listening, thank you for hearing my thoughts of some things that I've seen and, hopefully, ways of how you can help overcome that. So let me see this Thankful for you listening to another episode of from the yellow chair. We would love for you to leave us a review, give us a follow on all the social media channels. Where they are, you can look for us. We're real cute wearing all the yellow doing fun things. So thank you for listening to that. Thank you for listening to another episode. We'll see you next time. Bye.