EP 331: Embracing Simplicity With Brigitte Lyons & Sophy Dale
b'In This Episode:\\n\\n\\n\\n* How Sophy Dale decided to let go of 2 of her 3 businesses and just focus on one and why figuring out a novel distribution strategy was a key part of the decision* Why Brigitte Lyons paid attention to what would break if her business grew to figure out how things needed to become simpler* Why Brigitte chose to focus on long-term client engagements* How Sophy is actually able to get more support now that her business is simpler* The tools and software that they use to run their streamlined businesses* And, of course, the incredible results of all of this simplification!\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nSo\\u2026 things have gotten complicated.\\n\\n\\n\\nYour business is a mess of competing priorities. Mismatched marketing messages. Dusty old brand positioning. Stale offers. And the clutter from all the times you\\u2019ve tried to solve problems by doing more.\\n\\n\\n\\nIt\\u2019s easy to think that all of this unproductive complexity is a sign that you screwed up\\u2014that you\\u2019re not very good at this whole building a business thing.\\n\\n\\n\\nBut that ignores the fact that all of us have been programmed from birth to equate more work with good work, checking more things off the list with checking the right things off the list.\\n\\n\\n\\nToday, I\\u2019ve got part 2 of my conversation with Brigitte Lyons & Sophy Dale about simplifying their businesses. But first, I want to explore a key aspect of how we let things get so complicated in the first place.\\n\\n\\n\\nLast month, I read a book that I just can\\u2019t stop quoting or recommending\\u2014and I\\u2019m not gonna start today.\\n\\n\\n\\nThe book is Can\\u2019t Even: How Millennials Because The Burnout Generation. Yes, I\\u2019m a millennial\\u2014an elder millennial to be specific. And I deeply and profoundly relate to everything in this book. But as the author, Anne Helen Petersen, points out the systemic causes of our burnout culture are felt by every generation\\u2014just with slightly different results.\\n\\n\\n\\nPetersen writes:\\n\\n\\n\\nBarring a significant, psychology-altering intervention, once someone equates \\u201cgood\\u201d work with overwork, that conception will stay with them\\u2014and anyone under their power\\u2014for the rest of their lives.\\n\\n\\n\\nShe goes on to say:\\n\\n\\n\\nWe\\u2019ve conditioned ourselves to ignore every signal from the body saying This is too much, and we call that conditioning \\u201cgrit\\u201d or \\u201chustle.\\u201d\\n\\n\\n\\nIf that\\u2019s feeling a little too real to you right now, you\\u2019re certainly not alone.\\n\\n\\n\\nI\\u2019m quite certain that there are many listeners out there releasing a collective OOF.\\n\\n\\n\\nHere\\u2019s the thing, we can say we started our own businesses to gain more flexibility in our lives, more control over our schedules, more time to spend with family or on our art or in our communities\\u2026\\n\\n\\n\\n\\u2026but we haven\\u2019t had the psychology-altering intervention that would allow us to actually make that happen.\\n\\n\\n\\nWe\\u2019ve been taught that unless we pay our dues through overworking and overproducing and overdelivering, we can\\u2019t be successful.\\n\\n\\n\\nAnd the way that plays out in our businesses? Complexity.\\n\\n\\n\\nMore offers. More clients. More emails. More marketing tactics. More social media posts. More lead magnets. More Zoom calls. More deliverables.\\n\\n\\n\\nWhen all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail, right?\\n\\n\\n\\nDoing more and inevitably making things more complex is the main tool we\\u2019ve been trained to use.'