Why It’s Gonna Take Courage for Your Business to Survive
Elon Musk, who’s been in the news a lot lately, sure doesn’t lack for bravado. But he said something recently that has me thinking. I’ve worked with clients for five years, and some of them had something in common with him that might put them and their business in a world of hurt soon. Are you going to be one of them? In this episode, I talk about Musk’s ironic statement and why you’ll need to be courageous for your business to survive.
1:07 - What Elon Musk wants to see happen (and why I see where he’s coming from)
5:23 - A mistake I made in 2008 that people are bound to repeat
8:20 - How to attract sophisticated buyers
11:19 - How I mix mindset work with the radical truth
14:08 - My fear for small business owners
Find me on Instagram or LinkedIn or email me at hello@lesliedlyons.com.
Need to go after sophisticated buyers but lack the emotional vocabulary to do it? Book a Soulful Values Session with me for $444.
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Transcript for Why It’s Gonna Take Courage for Your Business to Survive
Hey, boss. It's Leslie, your six-figure sales coach. This podcast is created for central movement studio owners who are looking to scale their studios to multiple six figures, or maybe even seven figures. I'm going to share the good, bad, and the ugly of running a six-figure studio because we all know this business isn't all about booty shorts and stilettos. Let's get to today's episode.
Hey, party people. It's Leslie, your embodied sales and leadership coach. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thank you for asking. I just got back from Austin going out to see one of my VIP clients. One of my higher-level clients, just going out to actually see her operations in person, have some one-on-one time with her, hang out in the pool, all of those fun things.
I think coming from Austin, Elon Musk is at the top of mind for me because Austin is the home of Tesla. I think he calls it the Giga quarters. As opposed to headquarters, he calls it the Giga quarters. That man is not at a loss for bravado, can we say that? It was interesting, because a few months ago, he made a statement about him welcoming the recession, of course in a tweet. To quote him specifically because I actually went and looked up the quote, he was like, "I welcome a recession. Because it's a good thing. It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen."
Now the irony of his conversation is not lost on me. We know that Elon got tons of money from the government, just like many large companies did, back in 2020 when the government came to the aid of businesses that were struggling due to COVID. The irony of that is not lost on me. But hear me out and don't send me hate mail because all I'm going to put it in the garbage, y’all.
But in all seriousness, I kind of understand what he's saying. Because as a coach, I've been coaching now for over five years. I can tell you one of the most frustrating things in the world is to try to convince someone who has poor business practices, lack of leadership skills, that they need to do better or make different changes when they're making money. It is hard to convince someone that they need to do something differently when their bank account shows otherwise.
It kind of gives you this false sense of security, or better yet, it gives you what Elon has, bravado, it makes you start thinking that you're smarter than you are, that you're more strategic than you are. It really is going to jack you up when hard times hit. As one of the things that I say is that when businesses are pushed up against the wall and economic wall, you can see the wheat from the chaff, it separates the strong from the weak.
I hate to be mean and sound mean but it's just the truth. Some of us are not cut out for entrepreneurship, but it's really hard to see that when the economy is going well and people are making money in all kinds of ways. You see who's worth their salt when sh*t gets hard. His point is not lost on me in that regard.
What I really have been trying to do as a coach for my current clients, because my current clients get it, they understand that, yes, we've had a good few years, yes, that is because of their brilliance, but they also are not negating the fact that we've had one of the best economies that we've had in a long time in small business.
One of the things that I've felt led to do though as a leader is start to talk about some mindset work that is going to keep them resilient during this recession, [inaudible] and say, “We’re going to be resilient during this recession.” A lot of it has to do with your mind. Because, truly, truly, when you've been doing well for so long and then you're hit a downturn in your business, it can f*ck with you. It can mess with your thinking and you start thinking very unhelpful thoughts. You now start feeling like “Maybe I'm not as smart as I think I am. Or maybe my product isn't as transformational as I thought it was. Maybe I'm not cut out for this.”
Now, there are some people who do need to be saying that and making some different choices. But a lot of the women who I work with, I know that that's not the case for them. I want to just kind of thwart that thinking before it gets started by really grounding us in the fact that it is going to be rough. It is going to be tough. But let me tell you, I am a witness to surviving the 2008 recession. I opened a very controversial business in a terrible location and have the recession going on and now here I sit, being extremely financially secure, because I was able to ride that wave.
If I can ride the wave, you can ride the wave, but I can tell you, you're going to have to buckle up, buttercup, you're going to have to ground yourself in knowing that this won't last forever, and more importantly, get your nervous system under control. One of the things that I have been saying, and now I want to let you in on my private conversations with my clients, is that it's going to take courage to survive this recession. It's not going to be about your expertise. It's not going to be about what you know, what it's going to take is courage to implement, and stick to what you know works when the world is falling down around you.
What does that look like? I'm so glad you asked. For example, one of the things that I saw during the recession that I opened up in, I made this mistake—so I'm being in full transparency, so people won't think I'm just throwing rocks from a glass house—I made this mistake. I thought that the answer to my problems would be to lower my prices, because if I lowered my prices, I would become more accessible, y’all love that word accessibility, especially in these feminist streets, but I won't get carried away today, it make it more accessible to more buyers.
You know what I found? I found that I didn't get any more customers. The customers I did get were not the types of customers that I appreciated serving. It put me in this loop of I'm dissatisfied, I'm starting to dislike my customers, and what good would come out of that? So that's what the world is going to do.
That's what you're going to start to see, you're going to start to see people dropping their prices like Walmart roll back prices up in this mug, you're going to see that, and if you're a brick and mortar business owner, like 90% of my clients are, you start looking around and saying, “Well, if the gym down the street is lowering their prices, I need to do the same or no one's going to come to me.” No. What you need to do is get better at articulating your value. Getting better with explaining how what you do is worth the money you charge because of the results that you get clients who work with you.
Sophisticated buyers are who we are looking for in a recession. We are not looking for budget-conscious, really don't have it, not the clients that I'm working with. That's not who we're looking for. We are looking for people who can pay money and are willing to pay money for great service. However, in a sea full of racing to the bottom, people dropping their prices, doing whatever they can to get business, it does kind of murky the water.
As a smart business owner, you got to get better at raising the level of the conversation. Sophisticated buyers want sophisticated conversation. I'm not talking about using your ACT words. I'm not talking million-dollar words but I am talking about having a sales strategy that speaks to the emotion of the transformation.
Here's an example: maybe you're a weight loss center and you sell weight loss, you’re in a great economy. You were just like, “Come, get your summer body in the middle of winter. Beach bodies here,” all of that sort of thing so you can really lean heavy into people just wanting to look attractive. However, in a recession, people are going to start looking at $9 apps and saying, “I can do this workout at home. You know what, I can pay weightwatchers $24 and get some type of nutritional plan or I can use Noom or something else.” Those budget-conscious consumers are going to start to look for other ways to get their needs met.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you're going to have to start speaking the language of why weight loss matters, why they need to make better choices for their health, what kind of quality of life are they going to have, and why they need to guide them through that process. Because if I can get the same thing at your gym, or weight loss center that I can get on an app, I'd be foolish to pay you more money. But what I found is that a lot of us lack the vocabulary to speak the language of emotion. We lack the vocabulary and structure to tell stories that matter to our customers.
If you want to thrive in a recession, you’re going to have to nail this sh*t down, guys, because if not, you are going to lose all your edges. You're going to be so stressed out. You're going to be serving people for less money who you don't want to serve. Quite frankly, going back to Elon, a bankruptcy might be sitting there waiting for you. Now look, I'm not doing this just to rattle your cage or to make you feel some kind of way, I'm speaking from experience and I'm the type of person who holds containers for truth.
Radical truth is one of my values and I'm so sick of hearing people tell people lies. “Yeah, you just need to think abundant thoughts.” Yeah, I do believe in mindset work. But it's mindset work that is rooted in reality. It's mindset work that says the type of affirmation, I'm not in the mirror saying “I'm wealthy, I'm that b*tch, hit me. I'm so rich.” No, I'm saying to myself, “Leslie, you have the skill set. You have the stamina and you have proven results. You will be okay. You need to just continue to give your clients the type of service and support that they deserve. You will be okay.”
The difference between sin and a mere sin, “I'm wealthy and I’m not b*tch” and saying “I am an expert. I am talented, I know what I'm doing. I have a heart of service. I will be okay,” and for me because I'm a god girl and Jesus got me. Above all that. Don't make me start preaching out here. But truthfully, this is the types of mindset work that I'm talking about, something that's grounded in truth, not grounded in f*cking wishful thinking.
It's going to take courage for you to stand on your prices when everybody else is lowering theirs. It's going to take courage for you to speak up and ask for what your services are worth. It's going to take courage when someone tells you no, for you to not just take that no as their final answer and to do some follow up with them. It's going to take some courage to reach out to people who maybe intimidate you, or you aren't sure because business has been coming to you. It's going to take some courage for you to do some outbound sales efforts. Trust me, I'm right there with you.
One of the things that I am looking into, because I need some stabilization in my income, is going back into corporate spaces to sell, and I'm going to be sharing the ups and downs of my mindset around that and what I'm doing to prepare myself to go back into those spaces. But for this podcast, I just want you to know that I'm human too, that I feel the nerves and the fear of having to go back into those spaces and do cold calling and all of those things. But what I am standing on is, I am a courageous person, and I do what needs to be done.
I have a fear that these last few years of economic prosperity for small businesses have created entitled business owners, people who feel as though you don't need to work hard to make money. I am a person who believes in rest. We're going on a retreat in Tulum. It’s sold out so you don't even need to ask me about this one. That's all about resetting, recharging, and resting.
But I'm a person who believes in seasons. There's a season for rest, and there's a season for work. If you don't believe me, just go talk to a local farmer. There's a season for planting, then there's a season for reaping. When you have to plant, you have to toil with that ground. You have to tangle with the earth so that you can reap a harvest later.
It's my fear that so many women aren't equipped to get dirty. I want to help with that. It's no shame in this. Trust me. I got lax too, y'all. I'm speaking to you, I'm speaking with you. But now's the time for the wheat to be separated from the chaff. Now is the time for us to stand on what we know.
This was the question that I had for my coaching clients last week. Do you really believe in the transformation that your business provides? Are you willing to fight for your customers' destiny? Are you willing to fight for the thing that you've birthed? If not, go ahead and hang the gloves up because you ain't going to make it through this.
But I know if you follow me that you've already got the wheel there. I'm just here to give you some tools, some support, and some accountability around being courageous above all. I've got two ways to do that. If you are lacking vocabulary, if you know you need to go after a sophisticated buyer but you lack emotional vocabulary, you lack the vocabulary to really convey what you do from a place of who you are, you need to go ahead and book a Soulful Values Session with me. It’s $444. It’s 90 minutes. It's on my website. It's really a no brainer.
I don't understand why any business owner, especially a small or micro-business owner, wouldn't understand the importance of creating a business that is built from your strengths. I don't understand why you would and why you wouldn't want to have the vocabulary to convey that. That's what we do on Soulful Values.
The second is, you may have already taken Soulful Values. You may have gone through a process or maybe you already feel very strongly about communicating your value. But you seem to be having a tough time putting yourself out there. You seem to be having a tough time showing up on lives, doing YouTube videos, and cold calling, meeting with clients one-on-one and asking for the sale, asking for people to pay you.
That's my 12-month container, which is my CEO Sales Confidence Program that I'm going to be launching in about another month. But I am talking to people individually about it now because some people are like, “I can't wait another month. I need help now.” If that's you, you can always reach out to me. Now is the time to be courageous, ladies. Now's the time to have some brass ovaries. Now's the time to stand sure footed.
We can do this. You will survive. But you gotta start thinking the right way and you gotta start taking the right actions. If you need help, hit me up at hello@lesliedlyons.com, or you can find me on IG @lesliedlyons, or you can find me on LinkedIn, Leslie D. Lyons, everwhere. Until next time, y’all. Be great, but most of all, be courageous. I’m rooting for you. Grace and peace.