224. Behind the Scenes: Coaching Conversation - The Kristen Boss Podcast

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Kristen Boss Podcast - Episode 224: Behind the Scenes: Coaching Conversation

Introduction

In Episode 224 of The Kristen Boss Podcast, released on August 19, 2024, host Kristen Boss delves into a candid coaching conversation with her elite six and seven-figure earning students. This episode provides an in-depth exploration of the underlying challenges entrepreneurs face in maintaining consistency within their businesses, especially outside of crisis moments. Kristen leverages her expertise as a top business coach to unpack crucial topics related to business sustainability, mindset, and the compounding effects of daily habits.

Key Discussion Points

The Crisis-Driven Work Ethic

Kristen opens the conversation by addressing a prevalent issue among entrepreneurs: the tendency to operate primarily during times of crisis. She observes that many business owners only ramp up their efforts when financial pressures mount, likening them to "crisis social sellers" who respond primarily to emergencies rather than maintaining consistent activity.

“[...] people in this business don't know how to work when they are not in a crisis, a financial crisis. They only know how to work in a crisis,” — Kristen Boss [02:12]
Inaction During Stability Leads to Decline

The discussion highlights how entrepreneurs often become complacent during stable periods, leading to a gradual decline in their business performance. Kristen emphasizes the importance of recognizing that inactivity leads to compounded negative effects over time, much like skipping workouts can undermine fitness goals.

“Every day you don't make a post, you don't show up in your business compounds into a declining paycheck.” — Kristen Boss [04:15]
Understanding Success and Stress Habits

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around distinguishing between "success habits" and "stress habits." Kristen explains that maintaining success habits even during non-crisis times is essential for sustainable growth, while stress habits often emerge as counterproductive behaviors during challenging times.

“Your top line behaviors are what you do in your success moments, and your bottom line behaviors are your stress habits.” — Kristen Boss [19:50]
The Law of Compounding Effect in Business

Kristen draws parallels between business activities and personal habits, illustrating how consistent positive actions lead to growth, while neglect leads to decline. She underscores that the delayed nature of business results requires patience and sustained effort beyond immediate gratification.

“The law of compounding effect goes both ways. Every day you show up, it compounds. Every day you don't, it compounds.” — Kristen Boss [05:30]

Personal Anecdotes and Insights

Kristen shares personal experiences to illustrate her points, including her journey with weight loss and how it mirrors business sustainability. She recounts her initial success during an ideal period of focus and the subsequent challenges when returning to a less controlled environment.

“When I was in my idealistic environment, I was averaging a pound and a half to two pounds a week weight loss. When I went into reality, it went down to half a pound to one pound a week.” — Kristen Boss [12:45]

This analogy serves to highlight the necessity of adapting strategies to varying circumstances and maintaining consistency regardless of external conditions.

Actionable Strategies for Consistency

Kristen offers practical advice on how entrepreneurs can maintain consistency in their business activities:

Adjusting Goals to Fit Current Seasons

She advises redefining success based on the current business environment, much like adjusting fitness goals based on personal circumstances.

“Maybe we need to evaluate what are your success habits that you can sustain even when life is in upheaval.” — Kristen Boss [15:30]
Identifying and Managing Stress Habits

Kristen introduces the concept of "check engine lights" to recognize when stress habits are taking over. She encourages creating a personal checklist to reset the nervous system and shift back to success habits.

“When you're in stress, think about what you can do to reset your nervous system and move back into your success habits.” — Kristen Boss [24:10]
Setting Clear, Actionable Tasks

For individuals with ADHD or similar challenges, Kristen emphasizes the importance of specificity in task setting to reduce overwhelm and increase focus.

“Sit down and write two emails. My brain can focus, but if it's too vague, there's ambiguity, it feeds chaos.” — A Guest Speaker [23:27]

Conclusion

Episode 224 of The Kristen Boss Podcast offers invaluable insights into the psychology of consistency in business. Kristen Boss skillfully navigates the complexities of maintaining steady growth by addressing the tendency to react only during crises and providing actionable strategies to foster sustainable habits. By sharing personal anecdotes and engaging in meaningful dialogue with her students, Kristen empowers entrepreneurs to shift from a crisis-driven mindset to one of consistent, volume-based activity that ensures long-term success.

Notable Quotes

“People only wake up when their paycheck starts to inevitably decline.” — Kristen Boss [04:50]
“What you’re doing is your nervous system is just in a flight state. It resets your nervous system.” — Kristen Boss [25:20]
“We have to educate your teams to understand when it’s time to crank up the volume.” — Kristen Boss [14:54]

Final Thoughts

This episode is a must-listen for entrepreneurs striving to build resilient businesses. Kristen Boss not only identifies the pitfalls of inconsistency but also provides a roadmap for overcoming them through self-awareness, strategic planning, and the cultivation of sustainable habits. Whether you're navigating through personal challenges or seeking to elevate your business practices, the insights shared in this coaching conversation are both practical and transformative.

Transcript

Unknown Speaker (0:03)

I see you with brand new eyes no, I've never been so sure Take my head let's run into the unknown this is the beginning.

Kristen Boss (0:19)

You're listening to the Kristen Boss podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Boss. As a best selling author and performance coach, I'm on a mission to share about sustainable and purposeful approaches to both business and life. Each week I bring relevant topics that I believe are necessary to create a life of purpose, significance and meaning. Entrepreneurship is about so much more than growing your bottom line. It's about who you are becoming in the process and building a life that is truly extraordinary. Entrepreneurship is really just the beginning.

Unknown Speaker (0:56)

Hey bosses. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. This week is a little bit different. I was meeting with my six and seven figure ear students that I mentor that went through leadership school. And this is a snippet from a coaching I did with them this week where we talked about trends I was seeing with how people work this business and how we tend to show up when we feel a crisis and what gets in the way of consistency. And as I was talking to them, I felt like, you know what, this is a really valuable conversation that I think more people need to hear. So what you're going to hear in this episode is you're going to hear how I talk about, uh, why people aren't working consistently and why I believe social sellers only know how to work in a crisis and how to fix that and then how to actually understand your success, your success habits. And you also have something called stress habits. And when you move out of your success habits, we often find ourselves in our stress habits. So I know this conversation is gonna be enlightening for many of you. Maybe it's gonna give you a couple aha moments. So I hope you enjoy listening to this candid conversation I have. As I' my six and seven figure earners, I hope you enjoy if your business.

Unknown Speaker (2:12)

If this was a matter of keeping your lights on, what would you do? And the responses were fascinating to me. Overwhelmingly in the first five minutes, everyone was like, or first like. However many seconds of people responding were like, I'd hustle my tail feathers off, I'd work harder, I'd stop making excuses, I'd go big. And all I heard was BS rhetoric. All I heard. Not one person gave me an action item. Not one person said, I'd be out there talking to as many people as possible. I would be doing three reels a day. I would be reaching out to 50 people a day. I was shocked. I was like, I'm like, if your lights had to stay on, what would you do? And they were like, work harder. Hustle. And I'm like, what? No. And I like, I had to tell him. I was like, no, no, no, no. Behavior wise, activity wise. What would you do if you had to keep the lights on and you had rent to pay? With this business, that's when all of the behaviors and the actions popped up. And then I said, okay, so why aren't you doing them? Why aren't you doing those things when you know that it would explode your paycheck, completely change your circumstances? Why? You know, you see, you just wrote down all your answers. So why aren't you? And it's because. I think it's because in their mind, I think people in this business don't know how to work when they are not in a crisis, a financial crisis. It's like, people only know. And I think it's because we market to financial crisis. Does that make sense? Like, are you hurting? Are you struggling? Are you broke? And then people get out of hurt. Broke and struggling, and then they get complacent, and then they stop working. And then they get comfortable until the paycheck starts to decline, and then it starts to hurt. And then they're in financial pain. They're like, oh, no, no, I need to work again. Instead of like, hold on. But if you were a 9 to 5, you would just keep working. But in this business model, it's like the, the activity matches. I find the feelings of crisis. It's like if I feel I'm in crisis, my activity goes up. If I'm not in crisis, I don't act. I don't work at all. And I cool. So you're a crisis social seller. You're an emergency only business owner. You only open when things are tight for you. It's like, oh, my favorite donut shop. It's closed. Yeah, they're, they're, they don't need, they're good. They're sitting in, you know, all kinds of cash right now. They don't need us. And then like, oh, no, the donut shop. They need to make rent. They opened up again. It's like, it's, it's, it's irresponsible business ownership. We have to have this conversation. It's like people only wake up when their paycheck starts to inevitably decline. For that, that, that gal that is like, oh, I need the money. And she had, like, had a very lively plush business. She doesn't understand the compounding effects of inactivity everything compounds. What people don't understand is that the law of. The law of compounding effect goes both ways. Every day you don't make a post, you don't show up in your business compounds into a declining paycheck. Every day you show up, it compounds. The problem is that we have delayed results on both sides in this business so that, like, I don't make a post today, I don't show up for my business today, there's not an immediate negative impact on my paycheck. Right. So there's not. Because there's not immediate pain. They don't associate the inactivity with pain. They're not like, oh, this is bad. They're just like, it's okay. Same way that they don't associate activity with results because they're like, well, my activity today, it's no different. It's no different than fitness. I'm like, are you gonna go run on the treadmill for an hour and then get on the scale and expect to drop 5 pounds? No. And if you're like me, you'll probably gain 2 pounds of water weight from doing it. Right. And so it's like, why do we have that? We have, like, we're aware of that in. In the gym. Being like, that's silly for me to.