Episode #2: Three Big Takeaways You Can Expect 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 (00:28): I am so excited to be talking to you today on episode two and if you can believe it, it's only episode two, but I'm going to dive into some serious stuff when it comes to running your business. I want to share with you the three things that you have to have in order to have a business that makes you extremely proud, that is so important to me that you have not just a business that makes you money or a business that you feel makes you impact, but something that really is a combination of both because you can have a business that makes impact in other's lives. Wow. Making money doing it and without working so hard, right? I think oftentimes as women, we tend to expect that it has to be really hard in order to appreciate any of that greatness. And the money and the all the great things that come with running a business and all those things that we've dreamed about, especially if you left the corporate world, right?

Terra (01:28): You want to have something that gives you your freedom back and sometimes we make up stuff in our head around why this has to be so complicated and it really doesn't, it just doesn't. So I'm going to share with you today something I have taught for many years and also share with my own private clients on a regular basis. It's called my three C formula and the three C's in order stand for number one, clarity, number two, cash. And then the third step is confidence, right? And I'm going to share with you what this means and really going deep around how you can build on each one of these steps to get what you truly, truly want in your business. Here's the reality. Most women entrepreneurs stay stuck in the clarity mode and they waste too much time and money trying to figure it out. So that's remember step one, if you think of this like three steps, the bottom step being clarity.

Terra (02:32): And once you have crystal clarity in your business, everything else builds so easily on it. And oftentimes we just start our business and you know, we do the the little bit of things that we think needs to be done in order to do it. And then we get into our business and we realize there are so many gaps and then we're trying to then fill those gaps and we're doing things like taking online courses or we're paying people who we think are supposed to be able to fix the gaps, but not quite doing the job right? And we're spending a lot of money out or we're just spending a lot of time spinning our wheels, right? That's what happens when you don't have clarity in your business model. As women, I really believe, and I'm raising my hand here while I'm talking in this microphone, hands up here.

Terra (03:22): This was me for years. As women, we get obsessed with learning, learning the why. Why do we need to do something in our business? And then we get obsessed with learning the how. How do we do it? I want to learn from the expert, right? I, not only want to learn, but you know, I want to be the person that does it. So let's be honest, when we're as business owners, we all have a little bit of control issues, right? And again, my hands are waving in the air with this as well. This is why a lot of us went into business in the first place. We have the need to want to control a lot of things, and that also means with everything that needs to be done in our business, we don't think anyone can do it as good as us. And we don't trust that other people are going to even do it better than us.

Terra (04:12): But what I'm saying is when you let go of that thought, you'll be surprised at how many other people, or it doesn't even have to be people. Sometimes it's an automation tool that can do it better, faster, cheaper, right? So we get obsessed our first, you know, a couple, even sometimes for me, it was a few years, my first few years in business, I was obsessed with mastering things like Google ads, online marketing, how to build my own website and all these kinds of things and all it was doing was putting me down rabbit holes and causing me to stay stuck. Right? When I knew what I really wanted to do, I wanted to serve women entrepreneurs. I knew I wanted to do it from a business perspective. I come from a business consulting corporate background. I just wanted to transfer those skills and help women entrepreneurs, but instead of serving clients, I was spending time updating my website and learning Facebook ads and you know, mastering all these crazy skills that, yeah, it's nice that I know that, but I don't have to be the person that actually does it.

Terra (05:17): Right? I think we need to learn in order to understand how the strategy fits in with our overall business, but we don't have to be the person that actually does it because we don't have enough time in our business. Right. That's like number one thing I hear whenever I'm speaking or you know, and talking to women, you know, I have, I have three boys, a marriage, I've got the rescue dog and cat, I love to travel. They're like, how do you do it all? And I've just gotten really comfortable with saying I don't have to do everything right. I've got a great team, I have tools and I don't try to be everything to everyone cause you just can't, right at the end of the day or one person. And then even worse, right? Sometimes we will continuously self sabotage ourselves because we want to be distracted from doing something that feels uncomfortable.

Terra (06:07): So let me give you an example. So when I was first getting started and I had always done sales, like in the, in the consulting world and whatnot. But what I found out was really doing is I was, I was doing upsells. Like I would get into a corporate client from my consulting companies and then I would be able to find opportunities and, and help pitch those and you know, be able to get commission based on the upsells that I was doing once I was in at the client. Right. Instead of going and actually getting new leads, like that's a whole new ball game that I didn't understand how to go get leads. Right. I knew how to, like once I was in, I made great relationships, I would find opportunities like, Oh Hey, we could do that. And you know, if you did a good job, then of course they're gonna be like, yeah, I went, Terra, I want Terra working on that, you know.

Terra (06:58): And so I was able to do this for years. And the reality was when it came down to when I started my own business and I had to go find my first client was like, huh, we always had an outside sales person that was really getting leads and then I would be able to go in and help support the sales team to close the deal. So I didn't know how to go get leads. So what I found I was doing this I was, and maybe I hope you relate to those, cause I think this is something that many of us women struggle with. I would find any other reason but to sell. So I would then take courses on how to do Facebook ads. I would do everything as close as I could to figuring out how to get leads without actually doing it because I was uncomfortable selling quote unquote selling.

Terra (07:49): And yeah. So I stayed down this path of self sabotage. And what I found when it finally clicked that that's what I was doing. I had to push through that fear in order to make sales in my business in order to send out proposals so that I could get clients. Right. So I, you know, we've all have our own kind of mindset issues when it comes to money and sales and all that kind of stuff. And I was, I'm no different. You know, some people, some clients I work with, they love sales. Like it is no big deal for them to pick up the phone. Do a cold call and do a $25,000 offer to somebody. They don't lose sleep over it. It isn't. They love it. And then on the other spectrum, I've got clients who, the thought asking for a sale, even if it's a $50 product, makes them really uncomfortable and they lose sleep over it.

Terra (08:43): So the first thing that we have to do in order to get clarity is understand where, where we are, right? Meet ourselves where we are. And that commitment to push through because there's nothing that gives you more confidence than doing a good job and then doing a better job. And then all that kind of, you know, goes on and on and that uncomfortable isn't uncomfortable anymore. And I don't want, us women entrepreneurs ever questioning our value and our pricing, right? I mean at first, I mean it was, it was almost laughable what I would charge sometimes I wouldn't even charge. Like I'm trying to think back probably seven, five, seven years ago. Time is flying so fast. But I would, I remember talking to someone who wanted to start a business and I was just, we met and you know, and it was just like, you know what?

Terra (09:34): No, just buy me a cup of coffee. It's all good. Like I was literally coaching for coffee and it was like I loved what I did. I still to this day, I love what I do so much that if I won a billion dollars in the lottery, I would still be doing that. But there becomes a time where you have to get out of your own way. I knew my value in the corporate world and I would fight for that tooth and nail no problem. But when it comes to having our own businesses and wanting to make impact, that's when we start to get a little shaky when it comes to understanding what we're really bringing to the table. So don't question your value. And the best way to push through that I can promise you is to get paid. And then after you get paid, confidence continues to come.

Terra (10:22): I promise. All it takes is that first person paying you and then you want to always say yes. If you're in a service based business and you have your pricing and you're nervous about it, I'm not saying you can have a couple beta clients where you will do it for us, you know, Hey, I'll discount this down. You know, if you want to be part of my pilot, there's no problem with having a pilot offer where you tell somebody, Hey, would you like to do this? I'm going to pilot it out. You're going to get, whether it's half price or some sort of discounted price and all I want for you to do is at the end of it. I'd love your feedback. I want to know how I can make it better because sometimes that information is priceless. I can tell you that.

Terra (11:05): So if you're questioning your value or you're unsure about your pricing, the best thing to do is just do it and price it at that point. What, that makes you a little uncomfortable? Because I promise you when you actually get a yes and someone says add to cart or they say, I'm in, you know, send me an invoice, all that kind of stuff. You're like, man, that's awesome. And then the next time you do it, you can raise your price up a little bit or you know, work with a few people at that price point and then decide to raise it up. But you can work on your own confidence and just continue to build up your pricing. Or if you work with a business coach or what have you, don't go ask your friends about your pricing, work with somebody who's been there before and get advice from that to make sure that you're within the market.

Terra (11:57): You can do your own research or you can have a coach that's been there and done that and they'll give you great sound advice on that. Regardless, you have to spend time developing a business model that you're crystal clear on and then fill in any gaps ahead of time so that you can make the money that you want and have competence in yourself. So that is the part of the clarity and what I do with business maps. So if you're not familiar with what I do with business maps, I actually document, I complete how to guide for my clients on how to run their business from every area down to core values, what you sell, how much you sell for, how you sell it, how you market, who's on your team, like this whole 52 page beautifully branded document that fills in all the gaps in your business.

Terra (12:48): And I found that that document alone and that presentation that I, that I give people are always like my clients always say, I felt like a legit business owner now. And I'm like, I love it. They were always a legit business owner, but it was taking all this information and packaging it and presenting it back to them. That gives them the confidence and the clarity in their business model, right? So confidence in your business model is different than confidence in yourself, right? So all I want you to do is have the confidence in your business model to start. And once you have that, then you can go after the second step which is all about cash.

Speaker 3 (13:29): 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.

Terra (13:56): So cash to me comes when you have clarity in your business model, you know exactly what you're selling, how much you're selling it for so you're not constantly tweaking your pricing and discounting yourself. You put that stake in the ground because you know exactly how much your packages are, what your signature offer is, what your upsell is, what your downsell is how you sell. If you do consultations, you have that whole process for how you have a sales conversation with somebody and then ultimately how you get paid. I will never forget, I was at a speaking engagement once and a woman came up to me and she's like, afterwards I did my talk and she came up to me and she was like, Terra, I'm just not making the money I want in my business. And I was like, well, what's going on? You know, like tell me, tell me more.

Terra (14:48): And she said yeah, I just, no matter what, like ,I just, I'm not making the money. And I said, well, okay. I asked her at that point, cause I think the talk was something around, I can't remember the specifics on the talk, but you always remember, you know the people that you meet and stuff. And so I think I said, well, how do you take money? You know, how do you accept money in your business? Cause I think that was something we had talked about in the talk. And she said, well, I don't know. I said, well, no. Do you take credit card? Well, no, I haven't really. I don't know how to do that. I didn't set that up. That's it. Okay. Well, what about check? Yeah. Well I don't know if I'd want to take checks cause what if they bounce and well do you take cash?

Terra (15:27): Well, yeah, I guess I would. I mean there was no clarity on how she accepted money. And it's something that's so simple, so simple. But I've heard this time and time again. So you want to be really clear about how your customer can pay you, whether it's PayPal or Stripe, or you have whatever tool you use to take credit card or mail a check or do an EFT transfer. Make sure that you have all that documented out so that when you're, if you're customer needs that information, you just send it over, right? Don't stand in the way of getting paid because you don't know how you want to take it. Take money. Right? So that's something like super simple. But it's one of these things that's a really important, when you're getting to the cash. So oftentimes, you know, people will start a business, they start making some money, but then when that happens, you'll find out there's some, Oh, well I don't know.

Terra (16:28): I guess I need to do this or so and so said that I need to do this or whatever. I mean, all these things will always come up for you and it's always going to stand in your way of making more money and more profit in your business if you don't really think from a foundational standpoint about your entire business model first and just stick to the plan, right? I'm a huge person. I believe more than anything in the world that for an idea to become a business, you have to have a plan, and for that business to really become profitable at maximum profit, you got to implement consistently, which means you just got to take consistent action over and over again, not many different ways. There's plenty of things out there to give a shiny object syndrome, but when it comes to your business, you want to be really clear.

Terra (17:19): So that to me is once you've got the clarity in your business model, you know exactly how you're going to make money and you know exactly how you're going to take money. You're going to know how you're going to manage your money, how you're going to manage your pipeline of potential leads and proposals and all that kind of stuff out there. That's step two is all about the cash, right? And then what I found, this is something that I've, you know, some people disagree with, but I stand and stake my, my put my stake in the, on this one then comes confidence. Step one is clarity, but I want you to have confidence in your business model, that it works. Then you go make money and then the third step comes from, and then that third step confidence comes because people are paying you your value.

Terra (18:07): There is no way better way to build your confidence then to be be paid for it and feel that gratitude that you have, that people have transacted with you and that you turn around and give them a fabulous value for their money. That's what instills confidence. And then you do it again and again and again, and your confidence continues to grow because you're going to get really good when you're taking consistent action on the same things, you're going to get really good at doing it. So let's take for an example. Marketing. My marketing strategy is I believe visibility shows up in three different areas. The first one is, I call it traditional. So traditional marketing, this may be your networking, going to conferences, speaking. This is kind of what what we may refer to as old school marketing. And there's a lot of millionaires out there that have visibility simply because of traditional marketing.

Terra (19:10): And that's it. They are not on social media, they probably don't even have a website. So traditional marketing, you need to pick a couple of things that you do in the traditional marketing arena and do them well and do them consistent. And then the second thing, the second area of your marketing strategy needs to be how are you showing up online? How are you visible online? How are you attracting leads online? Are you sending out an email newsletter? Are you doing SEO with your website? Search engine optimization for keywords? Are you doing paid Google ads? How are you getting visible online? There's a hundred different ways to be visible online. I just need you to pick a couple. We need to just be consistent at a couple of these in each category. The third category is social media. I separate out social media from online because they really are run differently.

Terra (20:06): I honestly, I have somebody in my business that helps on the online side and then on the social media side and while they're very similar, it's different, right? So, and we don't need to be on every single social media platform we need to be on, and you guessed it, I know you're thinking it right now. We need to be where our perfect customer is hanging out. So he or she may be on LinkedIn, maybe they're on Facebook, maybe he or she is on Instagram. Pinterest. There's a million different social media networks. It feels like there's new ones growing all the time, and there's ones where your perfect client is hanging out. And you also have to think in terms if they're hanging out there, do I enjoy being on this platform myself? Your social media strategy really is a combination of where your clients are hanging out and what you enjoy doing, right?

Terra (20:58): And if you are totally freaked out about being on LinkedIn, you don't know how it works and this and that, you can go learn how to do it. But if you're never going to jump full all into it, it's not going to work for you. So you gotta do what works for you. When you think of clarity, cash and confidence, what comes to mind to me is swim lessons. So hear me out on this. This is no different than clarity, cash and confidence. When you think of swim lessons, if you think about some lessons, why you would ever go to them, it's because you have this like total fear and your fear may be of I'm going to drown. I'm going to sink to the bottom. You know, why do I need to learn to swim? I mean for me, I'm not the greatest swimmer in the world, but very distinctly remember going to my swim lessons.

Terra (21:45): And I remember even with my twins, I wanted to get them into swim lessons. A lot of my neighbors have pools and I knew we would be out for barbecue. So it's just the right thing to do is to get your kids into swim lessons right and cause you have a fear. So if you think back to when you first started swim lessons, you're looking around and you're watching everybody else in the pool and they're swimming, they're doing it, they're paddling, they got the swim cap on and they're not sinking. No one's drowning, right? You're looking around at the possibilities. Wow. If they can swim, I can swim too. I can do this. And then you have your first lesson with their swim instructor and you learn techniques. It may start as simple as blowing bubbles in the water, but you're learning a technique of how can I breathe while I'm swimming?

Terra (22:34): And then you may learn to doggy paddle, right? That's a technique to keep your head above water. And then the, okay, you get that confidence. You see what you're doing. You're starting to build, you're learning a little bit, right? You're learning to float. I remember learning how to float and if I float, I'm not sinking. Right? What does that feel like? Well, that's like when you finally start making the money in your business that you're like, Oh cool. Like I'm not, I'm not sinking in my business. I'm floating, right? I'm making some money. I'm not making all the money that I want to make yet, but I'm floating. And then what ends up happening is you continue to learn techniques and you're practicing and you're swimming the length of the pool and you get the trophy and you do it again. And maybe you join swim team or whatever, but you just are consistent about using your techniques and you're swimming and then you think, you know what? I'm like, I'm ready to learn to just jump in the deep end. And now you can swim without really thinking through the technique because it's muscle memory that's no different than having the confidence in your own business as well. So think about that. Every time something creeps up for you in your business, it's like it's no different than swim lessons. It's all learned technique, putting systems in place and then using them over and over again so that you can go further and faster and make more money in your business.

Terra (24:02): 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 (24:21): So I'm obsessed with confidence. I mean, at the end of the day I have my signature offers called the Concorde coaching program, and it's all about business coaching, community, all that kind of stuff, right? It's, it's a great program, but at the end of the day, I mean, it's packaged the way I package it is, it's a business coaching, right? With builtin mastermind. It's a year long thing, all that kind of stuff. What, for me, the transformation at the end of the program when women graduate from it is what I see the most. Yeah, I'll see that their numbers went up and you know, they're crystal clear they're making more money. Like that kind of stuff to me is the no brainer. But the thing that I didn't expect whenever I first started selling this program was the confidence shift. And that to me is like, yes, I don't package and sell confidence.

Terra (25:12): I just don't. But I, I do see that transformation in every single woman I work with is the confidence. And that's what I love more than anything. There was a study that was done, so it was, I read this article, so it's from the Atlantic and I think it was written in 2014 it feels like a long time ago. It's not that long ago. But yeah, even back then there was this article and you can Google it. It's called The Confidence Gap. The thing I loved about reading this article was it really brought home the point that confidence matters as much as competency. So you can be competent and doing what you do, right and selling and packaging everything that you do in your business. But if you don't have the matching confidence and the mindset to get it right to get it done, there's always going to be this lurking feeling in your business that something's missing, right?

Terra (26:07): So confidence matters as much as competence. This is why I see so much in the women I work with in the Concorde. I see this, I mean more than I don't, but it's like they're amazingly competent and they're like the smartest women that I've ever met. And the only thing that's stopping them versus the person who's been doing what they're doing, they've been, say my clients have been at this for 10 years and they're so competent and amazing at it. The main thing that is different between what they're doing and what the person who's something similar but has been doing it for five minutes, maybe not five minutes, but maybe let's just say six months and they're making more money and they're killing it out there online and stuff like that is the confidence side of things, right? So then my job as their business coach, while I'm not a life coach, and I always say I am not a ife coach.

Terra (27:03): My job is to hold their hand and give them the confidence until they're ready to fly on their own. And that's what I do. And then also in the article talks about how there's this natural result of low confidence is an action. So what happens when we don't have the confidence that we need? We don't do anything where we have no action. We're not taking action. That's why a big part of my belief is that if you want to have the most profitable business that you really want, you have to take consistent action because that confidence will creep in on you. That lack of confidence will creep in on you and you won't take action. As women, when we aren't sure about something, we will hold ourselves back. We underestimate our abilities and it's frustrating, right? So when you feel that creeping in, the best thing to do is just push past it and know that's just part of the resistance and you just have to push past it.

Terra (28:05): I'm going to end this podcast episode with a story and it's a personal story. I mean for me, everything I do is about being authentic. And there was so many times in my business that when I first started that, you know, I was used to showing up in a corporate world. I mean it was almost, it was crazy. I remember working at a client site and for like a year, I was their consultant and I mentioned something about my son to one of my clients, and she was like, you have a son? I was like, yeah, I do. Yeah, I guess I'd never mentioned him before. And she's like, I didn't know you had a son. I didn't know you had a kid. And I was like, wow. I mean, there was such a ingrained thought of how I thought I needed to show up as a corporate consultant that I didn't even talk about anything real personal in my life.

Terra (29:02): Like as important as my son was like, that was crazy. So then fast forward, you know, I think authenticity and being comfortable with yourself. Some people get it at age 20 some people it comes at 40. Okay. So, and for me it was, I was starting to, I think at that time maybe I was, maybe I was 23. But it's like, you know, you're growing, as a person will go through college. I worked and went to college full time at the same time and whatnot, you know, so I was, I was building my own confidence. So even back then at 23, you know, I realized, okay, there's something that feels off. Like I can't truly be me. Like I don't know why, what was holding me back, I don't know the psychology of it, I sure in the heck never did that kind of self, what is personal development type of work and whatnot.

Terra (29:51): I always say it's like, Hey, you want to know all your insecurities, start a business and they'll all come out. So this time I was still a corporate employee and whatnot. And then fast forward a few more years and well over a decade when I decided to start out and do my own business, it was, you know, some of that still was coming through, right? I did do more personal development work when I started my business and things would come up about why was either resistant to something or things that would hold me back and whatnot. So I was doing personal development, I was reading books, I was working with people, all that kind of stuff. And I realized now it's like, you know, I'm past my forties and you know, there's something for me personally that came into into play when I, when I started to, you know, as you get older you just, you can feel comfortable being authentic in your business and when you're authentic, then that confidence comes because all the reasons we weren't authentic in the first place is because we thought we had to step into a role or yeah, be a certain way because that was what was normal in the industry.

Terra (30:55): But the more you can be authentic to who you are, the more confidence that you get. So it just continues, you know, to just get better and better and better. And for me, confidence, just it's, it's a continuous growth, right? I don't think confidence is like something that you ever reach. You just continue to work on it and as you're getting better, then you'll see an increase in your revenue as well. So that's what I wanted to share with you in this episode is step one, be really clear and have massive clarity in your business model because then that's going to give you the confidence that you need in your business model so that you know exactly who you are, what you do, what you sell, and how much you sell it for. And then you can go start making more cash, right? Making more money, serving more people, and be comfortable with that. And then once you're doing that, then your confidence, your internal confidence and who you are, who you can show up as authentically that continues to grow. So there it is. That's my three C formula.

Outro (31:59): Until next time, 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.