Episode #3: Bring Massive Clarity to Your Business with Terra Bohlmann

Intro (00:02): Welcome to The Fast-Track Entrepreneur Podcast with your host, Terra Bohlmann. You are about to get filled with business strategies, advice, and motivation to get you prepared to fast-track your five year plan in less than one year. So buckle up and let's create your first class business with clarity and confidence.

Terra (00:27): Hi there, I'm Terra Bohlmann, business coach for women entrepreneurs. I'm so excited to have you here today and I just want to tell you thank you. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to really learn how to upgrade your business. I am all about that and today's episode is going to be all about clarity in your business model. There is nothing greater than having crystal clarity in everything you do, and I know this because I've been in business for about seven years now with the coaching side of things, and it wasn't until I got super clear on the foundation of the business I was building that I didn't have any aha moments I didn't have. I don't know. I just really continued to struggle and I always second guessed myself. If I can be a hundred percent honest, I was always second guessing myself and trying to find a new way to do things as opposed to just being really clear up front and then taking action on what needs to happen.

Terra (01:35): So I'm going to share with you four things that you need to have clarity in your business. The first thing is having the right offer. You want to have the right offer that I call your signature offer, and I'll do another episode on signature offers later on. But you want to have that right offer that just feels really, really good to you, so much so that you're like, yes, this is it. If I could just sell one thing over and over again, what does that look like? So you are a hundred percent clear when you have the right offer. The second thing is you have the right pricing model, right? So think about the right offer and you feel really good about the price. Pricing is a whole other element when it comes to your business and and whatnot. And one thing I always say is, you know, if you ever want to know all your insecurities, go open a business, right?

Terra (02:34): Oftentimes, and I'm like many, many other women entrepreneurs that have had great careers in the corporate world. I was a corporate consultant and I knew my value and the corporate world, no problem. I knew, you know, salary wise, I knew what my billable hour was, you know, and I wanted to always be achieving more and more and more. Right? I'm like a classic overachiever, probably like you and I knew my pricing and I could stand by value and if I found out someone else who was performing less than me was making more, I mean, it was no problem for me to go in and talk to my boss and you know, ask for a raise. That was me. I was one of those type of employees, right, where I knew my worth. Then fast forward deciding to open my own business and all of a sudden from a pricing perspective, it was like, Oh yeah, how much do you charge?

Terra (03:24): Just buy me a cup of coffee. Let's just go to the coffee shop and I'm good and I'll spill everything I know. Like it just was this weird transition that is so normal that happens when you transition from, you know, a corporate environment into kind of doing your own thing, right? Cause you don't want to have anyone think that you're taking advantage of them and all kinds of weird things. Umbra money mindset comes up, which is going to be another episode, I promise you. But once you have that offer, right, and then you got to have the right price that feels like you're delivering massive value. I always, my calculation that I do whenever I price something is I want to really give 10 times the value of what I'm asking for in my price. I know it sounds crazy, but I don't price it based on how much time it takes me or this and that.

Terra (04:17): I price based on value, right? If I can have a one hour conversation with a woman business owner that gets her out of confusion and into action, that's going to make her $50,000 if she goes and does it. I mean, what's that price really worth? Right? So that's how you know, people can have high end offer cause where you're just like, huh? Like they charge that much to talk to them for an hour, right? So I think about, there's this story, right? You know, a plumber comes to somebody's house and, and they ask, you know, Hey you know, how much is it for you to fix this? And he'll go in and say, well, let me take a look at it. And then, you know, he'll, he'll spend like a minute fixing something and then he'll go, okay, that'll be $5,000 $5,000. Are you crazy? It took you a minute to do it. He's like, well, it's all knowing which lever to turn right? And it solved your problem and maybe saved you a hundred thousand dollars and destroying your home.

Terra (05:22): Are you liking what you're hearing so far? I invite you to join our exclusive community where we can share all kinds of great tips and connections with other likeminded women entrepreneurs. Visit www.businessupgradeclub.com to apply for your free access today.

Terra (05:41): So it's really a value pricing, right? And once you get into that sweet spot of having the right offer at the right price, the clarity just opens up for you. And one thing I often tell a lot of my private clients is to get comfortable with selling at a price that maybe makes them a little uncomfortable. Like, you know, when I create their business maps for my Concorde clients, I create their signature offer, their upsells and their downsells. And they're always, when I create the signature offer, I price it at value pricing. And a lot of the times, most times than not, they're like, that's all. I can't ask for that. That's crazy. And I'm like, well, let's talk about that. So how about if you go sell two of them at X price? Say at my signature offer created was $3,000 I'll say, you know what?

Terra (06:33): Go sell two of them at a thousand dollars and then come back and we'll talk about that. Then you can raise it to 2000 do a couple more at that and then do you know then you're comfortable raising to 3000 once you've gotten paid, gotten paid on those first couple of things. So sometimes you got to build to that right price, but then once you hit a certain level, you're kind of at that supply and demand, right? Like you know, I'm like drawing in my, I'm waving in the air and you can't see me. But like that whole supply and demand chart of there becomes a certain point that the market can bear, that your marketing and whatnot will just level off when it comes to having the right price. If you start going above, then all of a sudden your sales starts slipping. But if you don't raise your price, then you're working really hard and not making as much profit as you can.

Terra (07:29): So clarity comes, right offer at the right price. The third thing is having the right client profile, I call them the perfect client because people I work with were, we all tend to be a perfectionist. I struggle with that still all the time. And I have to always check myself and say, okay, what am I doing right? Is my hundred percent effort. You know, is it a little crazy here or sometimes you know I have to often tell my clients is Hey your 50% effort is most people's a hundred percent, so because we have this desire to overdeliver and something I continuously work on but I will always over deliver. And I think that just comes from having bad coaching experiences in the past that I feel like I want to help eradicate like what people think of business coaches. So I'm always trying to go above and beyond, but I've got to like always keep that in check.

Terra (08:24): It's something that's part of my brand. I've always got to make sure that I'm not being crazy and spending, you know, a hundred percent more time than I'm supposed to be on something. So you know when you have the right client profile I call it, you know, again I think I call it the perfect client cause the reality is there's never a perfect client. And if you have your perfect client in mind, and my name mine, I have two of them, one for my Concord coaching program, her name's Jillian. And then I have another one named Jessica who is more of my now boarding clients. You know, so I've got my two perfect client profiles who I call my, my imaginary business best friends. And, but I know every woman I ever worked with has some elements of Jillian and Jessica. They may not be exactly right personality wise or business niche and stuff like that, but it gets you really close.

Terra (09:17): And that also helps reduce the cost of your marketing because we can't market to everybody no matter what people say. You know, when I asked, a lot of the times when I'm doing a consultation, I'll say, who's your perfect client? And they'll say, well, anybody, anyone who breeds anyway. And it's like, and that's a wide net and let's be a hundred percent truthful here that as small business owners, we don't have the budget, we don't have a Coca Cola or a Pepsi or McDonald's budget to market to everybody. So we've gotta be really clear. And then what happens once you're really clear on that perfect client profile, you're like, yeah, I mean if I could work with this person all day and when I work with my clients to come up with it, it really becomes like a Frankenstein version of all their favorite clients.

Terra (10:06): And if you're newer into business and you don't have clients yet, you really can think through the type of people that you want to work with and you come up with, you know, you borrow a little bit from your favorite person you've ever worked with Mary. And then a little bit of it is Susan, you know, a little bit is Kristen, you know, this is kind of like you can build your own perfect client and that's what's really cool. And when you do that, you always know, like you're always on the lookout looking for your person. So that brings a massive clarity to know who you want to work with, right? Like what's their story? Of course you have all the demographics behind it, but you also want to have the other elements of things. Like, how many is she married or is he married or do they have children?

Terra (10:55): What are their ages? What are their names? Where does he or she like to shop? Give them a name. You know, give them a real name and treat them like a person. You can even go as far as finding an image that mentally, you know, a stock photo, that's what he or she looks like. How old are they? I mean, how much do they make? Like what are their big struggles? What would they pay any amount of money for that kind of thing. So you've got your clarity that comes with your right offer at the right price that your right, perfect client can afford, right? So you have to make sure all this is in alignment because if it's not, then all of a sudden you're like, I've got this $3,000 offer, Terra, but I'm targeting a client, you know, a perfect client profile that doesn't like 3000 it's just not going to swing.

Terra (11:45): Like, maybe they only can afford $99 so you want to make sure you put yourself in front of the target that you want. That has the ability to pay what your value is. Makes sense. And then the fourth piece of clarity is when you have your right offer at the right price and the right client profile, it's going to compel you to take action. That's really the fourth final step that so many people don't take into consideration like it, it's, it's one of these things that's like, there is something that will stop us from taking action and we will continue to sabotage everything if we don't feel crystal clear about who we're serving, right? That's that perfect client, what we're selling them. That's that right offer and the right price. Like if we're not okay with the pricing, you know, I mean, as a coach I could say yes, you know, yes Kelly, this is a $10,000 offer that you have no problem all day every day.

Terra (12:49): Of course your person makes millions of dollars. That is going to be nothing, right? But if she's not comfortable with that and doesn't feel comfortable selling that and being in front of the person who makes millions of dollars, there's never going to be any action that is taken by her to move forward. So you have to be comfortable and to be clear with, do you know the offer, the pricing and the client profile that you're going after, which is going to tell you how to go market your offer, right? You need to be compelled to take action and you have to actually take the action or else it's all for nothing, right? I don't know how many clients I've worked with that have done this perfect client avatar exercise or I mean there's ideal customer avatar, there's, you know, target marketing. Like there's all these exercises that you can do to determine your perfect client profile.

Terra (13:44): But that's sometimes that's where it stops, right? It's like they'll do the actions, but they don't understand how that ties that thread of the perfect client ties in through their entire business model, right? So we want to serve the one person and once you know their struggles, your whole job is just to deliver an offer that solves that for them within a price that feels really fair for both of you. It makes sense. Cool. So clarity for me is one of these things. When I use the business map method to create the business maps for my private clients, I make sure that all of those areas are and alignment and that they're all determined so that my clients have clarity. That's really the main thing that a business map gives you is clarity, right? Clarity. And then you want to know how to make the money and then after you make money, then comes confidence for women.

Terra (14:40): I don't care what people say, you can be the most confident person in the world. And I've had plenty of clients who are so competent, but then they come to me in the background and they're like, Oh, I'm scared. I don't want to charge this person this, I don't know. You know? And all these limiting beliefs are happening in our head, but on the outside we're really confident. So we gotta be confident, not just on the outside, but also in the inside. It's the same thing. So for me, clarity becomes, you know, the, the equivalent of if you've ever, if you wear glasses or contacts, right? Or if you, maybe you're blessed to have 20/20 vision. I wish I was, mine came when in sixth grade when my teacher, I couldn't see the chalkboard back then. We didn't have white boards or anything. We actually had chalkboards and visibility transparencies that they would write on and then wipe off and stuff like that.

Terra (15:30): So I couldn't see the Blackboard in sixth grade. And I remember the teacher writing a note to my mom and saying, you know, Hey, Terra can't see the blackboard and this and that. So my mom, gets this note right that says Terra can't see the chalkboard and all kinds of stuff. And she instantly was like, Oh, I need to take you to get your eyes checked, but you just want glasses, right? Like you just want them. And I remember being like, no, I don't really want them. I mean, it was kind of trendy back then to, you know, you had these like big black glasses and everyone had them or whatever, but I would have really preferred to have 20/20 vision. So we remember we went and got my eyes checked and then she felt so bad that, you know, the optometrist was like, Oh yeah, she's like a, you know, whatever.

Terra (16:17): Like I was nowhere near 20/20 and my mom's like, Oh gosh, now I feel really bad that I like, you know, just said, Oh you just want glasses but you actually needed them. And so I got my glasses and I remember the first time, you know, you, you go and you get fitted and, and whatnot and you know, you go to the, the eye test. I have to, yeah. You know, new exam every year or two, you know, and it's like you go through it and you know, you're reading the K E S T P S, you know, dah, dah, dah. And then you're kind of guessing as you're getting down and they're adjusting, you know, to help you figure out like what your vision is and whatnot. So they can give you your glasses and your context and you're kind of going through that exercise, which is one thing.

Terra (16:59): And then you get that exciting part where you get to go pick out your frames and whatnot, and then you take some maybe two weeks to, you know a week or two to go have them made, and then you go back for your follow up appointment and you go and you get fitted. And so they bring out the glasses and you put them on and you're just, all of a sudden they're like, wow, I had no idea what I was missing out on. You know, the clouds are sharp, the trees, you can see the leaves, you know? It's just that clarity that is just something you didn't even know you had or didn't have actually. And it's the same thing in your business. When you finally get that clarity, you stop second guessing everything. You're not on the eye chart going, Ooh V? They're like, Oh, that was a U, you know, so you're not guessing anymore because you're so clear.

Terra (17:46): And what I found is that most women entrepreneurs actually spend tons of money and tons and tons of time, and you'll often hear me money. To me, spending money is time. Like, you know, so time is really more of an about a valuable asset, right? But they'll spend a lot of money and time to get this clarity that they're so desperately craving. Because as women we want to be able to see the big picture. You want to be able to have that confidence like you think, Oh, in order for me to move forward and actually take action on those things I need to do in my business, I need to understand it all. And the reality is, is most women don't spend the time to get the clarity that they need, but instead they'll go do things like throw money at something. And so it'll, an example was, you know, a lot of my clients, like, they're like, I just need a virtual assistant.

Terra (18:40): A VA. You might've heard of it as a VA, but I need a VA. I'm so overwhelmed with all these little things I need to do. I need help. And so they'll go out and you know, hire a VA and, and then they'll come back and be like, she's not good and she's not helping me at all. It's like really expensive and this and that. And you know, I wanted her to do this and she's, you know, doing her own thing and, and whatnot. And it's because they're not clear on the real objective of what they want her to do. And the reality is, is she may be great and she's trying to figure out, you know, based on what she believes needs to happen in your business, but only you can be clear on your strategy and what you want to do. And if you continue to hire people to you think, solve a problem for you, you can be the only person that determines the strategy and what problems need to be solved.

Terra (19:31): And then you go hire the right people to solve those problems. Instead of expecting that you're going to hire somebody that's going to just know what problems to solve. Like you have to understand that from your own standpoint or else you're going to have a bunch of people around you, that you're paying out a lot of money and they're building a business based on what they think needs to happen instead of you being the CEO of your business and driving that. And so that to me is why clarity is so important. Because if you don't have that, you'll continuously second guess yourself and you'll hire people. And sometimes that a lot of money. You know, I've had clients who've spent $20,000 on building a brand for their company and then they'll come to me and go, but I'm not, I'm not making money. I'm not selling anything.

Terra (20:18): Like I look off some online but I need, I don't have anything to sell. I'm really unclear on that. And so then it's like, okay, we've got to break that down and actually determine, you know, go back to clarity, what they want to sell, what they want to be known for, create those signature offers and then go forward from there. And sometimes the brand matches, but a lot of times it doesn't. And so you know, and then things have to be fixed and whatnot and that just takes more time and more money. So clarity is so huge and so please no matter what, like be your own best client and take a day, book out your calendar and just spend time getting the clarity that you need so that you are comfortable moving forward. And by moving forward, I mean taking action and you have to take consistent action.

Terra (21:07): What was really my big aha, and I'll talk about aha, what I learned, what an aha was. It was really cool. I use that term all the time. I think Oprah made it famous like, Oh, that's an aha moment. And the reality is, all an aha is, I learned about this from a client of mine who's a psychotherapist. Her name's Jessica Pass. And she's like, Oh, an aha is, is when your brain creates a new pathway. That's an aha. I was like, that was an aha for me. When your brain creates a new pathway, that's an aha. So I was like, okay, awesome. My aha that came about with clarity was when I went through an exercise to create my big belief statement, what I believed more than anything in the world. Because once I knew what I, what I believed in, then I knew I can build a business model that supports that belief and my belief, my big belief goes something like this.

Terra (21:58): I say, you know I believe for an idea to become a business, you have to have a plan. That's how much I believe in planning. And for that business to become profitable, you have to take consistent action. That's it. Like your big belief should be so simple and so tied to who you are that everything else can be built around it. So, of course with my Concorde coaching program, I build the plan, I call them business maps, but I build out the plan cause I believe that you need to have a plan. It doesn't have to be a perfect plan, but it has to get us there. Right. And then my job as a coach would be to hold you accountable to consistently taking action on all those areas and the plan so that you can get further faster. Cause if not like in the past, I sometimes I would just build the business maps and then I'd follow up with people a few months later and I go, how's it going?

Terra (22:51): Like you know, they got a million dollar plan and it's, Oh well, you know, kind of doing something else or yeah. Then they weren't taking action on it because maybe it was too big for them to step into and they didn't have someone holding their hand to say, you can do this, let's go, here's step one kind of thing. Right. And then my first few years in business was just simply one on one coaching. I would do 30 clients a month and I just rinse and repeat. I was on the phone almost all day, every day and you know, and it was fine and I built it. Coaching alone is a great business model, but I would find that without a plan. It was just kind of like, you know, it just wasn't right for me. Like that's how I knew I was. I started to get into this and you know, it's great, but like I don't understand why she's not further along.

Terra (23:41): And my, my need to get clarity was I needed to kind pause that. And then I wrote what was basically the first business map I gave myself. It was more than a day, but I gifted myself my own VIP day and got that clarity and wrote it all out, which was really the first business map I ever did. And it wasn't until recently that, you know, my goal was I wanted to do a hundred business maps in a year and everyone else had a better business map than me. So I had to, and at the end of 2018 I actually spent time to actually create and update my own business maps so that you know that I had it because everyone else had a way cooler one. So that's how much I believe in clarity. And when you're in that zone, you want to ride that momentum and just keep moving forward.

Speaker 3 (24:28): Are you ready to take your business to the next level? I invite you to apply for your 15-minute free priority call with me, Terra Bohlmann, so we can break through and discover the number one thing you need to be working on in your business. All you need to do is go to www.Terrabohlmann.com/prioritycall. Go ahead and apply and I look forward to talking to you over the phone. So that's it. So that's what I have for you today around clarity.

Terra (24:59): So from an action standpoint, I just would love for you to gift yourself some time and even if it's two hours, give yourself some time, get a notebook, you know, sticky notes, whatever works for you and get the clarity that you need in your business model so that you can feel comfortable taking consistent action. Cause that's honestly, that's my big belief and I know it's true. I know it's true. When you take consistent action in your business, that's how you get the results. It's not constantly reinventing the wheel, it's not being Uber creative, but it's taking one, maybe two things and putting that on rinse and repeat so that you get known for that offer at the right price and really target market to the right, perfect client profile and you're so excited about that, but that fuels you to move forward. So have a good one.

Outro (25:49): There you have it. Another episode packed full of strategies and motivation that you can use every day to put your business on the fast track for a podcast recap and more resources. Visit TerraBohlmann.com. Don't forget, subscribe to the podcast and get what you need to help fast-track your five year business plan.