How do you make important business decisions?
How do you know what to launch next?
When it’s time to hire your next employee?
Or when to STOP offering something so you can offer something much, much better?
There is a quote from Danielle LaPorte’s book, The Fire Starter Sessions, that sums up the exact feeling I need to feel in order to make an important business decision.
“It’s the Holy wow, I’m standing at the beginning of something that is so insanely ripe with potential that I wanna get naked and roll all over it right now, while singing rock opera…”
That is it. That is how I make business decisions.
I remember first reading that quote in a Barnes & Noble Cafe late at night, by myself, when my daughter was only a few months old. I was breastfeeding her so I could only be away for short periods of time. In the evenings she would sleep for a longer stretch, so as soon as she fell asleep some nights, I would go to Barnes & Noble to plan out my future. Mine, my husband’s and my baby girl’s futures.
I’d spend that time writing about my business plans while sipping a hot mug of something (probably Chai). But when I read that quote, it was so familiar. It’s as if Danielle had reached inside of me and pulled out (and put into words) the exact feeling some of my business plans gave me. I knew I had to get rid of anything that didn’t.
Do you have that rolling-around-naked-while-singing-rock-opera feeling?
If not, then don’t do it.
You may think this sounds like a flakey way to run a business but I assure you it isn’t. It’s the strategic, practical way to run a business, woo woo as it may sound.
Here’s the practical reality of basing your business decisions off of your feelings: how you feel is directly tied to how you sell. When you are in business, you have to sell something to someone. That’s how it works: selling ideas to your employees, selling services to customers, selling a strategic partner on working with you, etc.
As CEO of your business, unless you have a sales team (and even then), you have got to sell.
There are those few folks out there that are natural born liars (or they’ve been doing it so long they no longer have any idea what they truly believe). They can sell anything to anyone at anytime, whether they believe in it or not. I’d venture to guess that that isn’t you.
You, like most people, have to believe in a thing before you can sell it. Do you believe that your services will actually improve the lives of your customers? Do you reeeaaaalllly? I should hope so, because if you don’t you are probably suffering from not having enough clients, not charging enough for your services and overall not running a thriving business.
You can’t have a thriving business if you’re selling something you don’t believe in.
You’ve gotta believe.
Trying to make yourself believe in a product or service you don’t give a shit about, is a waste of your valuable time and money. Cause that business will not thrive with you at the helm. Your competitors will kick your ass in the marketplace if they believe in what they are selling and you don’t.
Instead, you need that rolling-around-naked-while-singing-rock-opera feeling. When you get that feeling that what you are creating is so insanely ripe with potential, that it will change lives, make the world a better place AND be a shit ton of fun to make, THAT is when you will make the right call.
I just used this exact method to make the right call on the best location for our first retreat. I had to host a survey on Facebook, dig deep into research on Iceland and investigate multiple resorts throughout the U.S, before I came upon a lovely chateau in France that immediately made me want to jump out of my skin with joy and excitement. Yep, totally naked rock opera.
Given my obsession with France, it should have been obvious at first but it wasn’t. Not until I tried on multiple different choices, including France, did I get that joy-filled feeling.
So here is my advice to you: before you make your next big business decision, try on that decision, visualize it, take it for a whirl and see how it makes you feeeeeeeeeeel.
Does it make you nauseous and want to throw up? Or does it make you want to roll around naked while listening to rock opera?
Sometimes it will be far more subtle. It may make your heart flutter. Or it may give you that “meh” feeling. I never go with “meh.” Nobody wants to buy meh, no one will be moved by your meh marketing. People don't open their wallets for meh (that's a tweetable!).
And in exactly 48 hours you will be second guessing the fuck out of that “meh.”
Go with the decisions that make you feel alive. Create the things that give you goosebumps, the things that make you feel like you are soaring through the sky like an eagle. Yes, like you're a motherfucking eagle. That's where the magic is. That's where the money is. For more on how I do this, check out this week’s video:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/GKAVY5bdm2o[/youtube]
What business decision are you currently weighing? How does trying it on it make you feel? And if you want to know more about the epic retreat we’ll be hosting in a stunning French Chateau this September, sign up here to get all the info when we’re ready to share it.
