Arise2Live Podcast
Transcript for Episode #154 ‘Four Steps to Clarity in Your Business’
Host: Scott Weaver
Date March 9, 2022
Intro: Welcome to Arise2Live Podcast, episode 154. It is important to get clarity in your business. Very important. Don’t miss out on today’s 4 steps to Clarity in your Business. Refuse to settle for the old status quo and step out. Let’s start the journey.
Scott R. Weaver:
Welcome to the Arise2Live Podcast episode 154. I’m your host today, Scott Weaver, founder of Arise2Live business coaching. Thank you so much for listening in today and I hope things are going well for you and your business.
Today’s topic is how to achieve clarity in your business and I think you’ll get a lot of it today. Feel free to take notes or visit the show notes at Arise2Live.com/podcast. And please share this podcast with your friends.
This episode is a continuation of the last episode, that would be number 153, which was on why you need to have a vision story that turns your misty notions or stale vision into a concrete and actionable future destination that is actually achievable for your business.
That was last week. This week addresses the how. Today we will address four areas of gaining clarity for your business.
The first step is just getting to clarity.
It is hard to get away to think and process where you are today so you can make good choices for the future. That is just a hard thing to do.
Clarity is a funny word and is used in a lot of different situations. For today, let’s use the simple example of a car windshield. If your windshield is dirty, has smudges on it, and it’s night time, well, it takes more concentration from you to spot that small, little, tiny sign to turn at to your friend’s house. Concentration that might distract you from, let’s say, other cars, potholes, or animals crossing the road . When the windshield has been washed off, things are much brighter, clearer, and needs less concentration to find the small signs to where you want to go. That is gaining clarity.
For the business owner, clarity of mind is just as important as having a clear windshield. In the same way, when you have clarity of mind you are focused on where you’re going not distracted by the dirty spots or glare of the every day rumble and tumble of what you have to do. Another name for this clarity is called lucid, which is a fancy word to describe someone who can communicate clearly their thinking and reasoning.
But getting to clarity is difficult. You really can’t do it in a high stress environment where you’re dealing with the tyranny of the urgent. Under these conditions, it is just too hard to focus on the future because you have to deal with the now. You have to deal with today and all the people that are asking you questions and you trying to deliver and help them. It can be overwhelming at times,
With that said, there are times when a short term sprint is needed. Using a farming example, during the planting season and the harvest times the farmer needs to focus on the now, the today. The reason is because the season and the weather waits for nobody. There are times you just have to get it done. However, farmers also have slower seasons with time to figure out which crops to plant or figure out if a new piece of equipment is needed or even just how many people to hire for the harvest. They have times when they have to do this.
Unfortunately in today’s modern world, most business owners don’t have a defined season. The danger is that every week of the year becomes like a farmer’s planting season. A high stress environment where it has to be done and it has to be done now. If you are living in this environment, you don’t have time to think about the future.
I guess what I’m saying is that as business owners, we need an off-season like farmers and professional athletes. So the first step in achieving business clarity is to take the time away from the day to day stresses in order to just think and focus on the future.
The part two of this step of getting away is writing down your vision, writing down your thoughts into words. This is done in two phases: the first phase is just for yourself, getting things out of your head and unto the paper. The second phase is to work on communicating your future vision to others. Remember, written words are a big way that you can reclaim clarity on those crazy days that you’re off your game as well as influence others without being in the room.
So recapping, the first step is vital to get clarity by carving out time to get away so that you can reflect and consider a picture of the future, a better future. Take the time to get the vision out of your head and write it down in two phases: one is to write it down for yourself, the second is to write it down for others.
Once you get away from the urgent and write things out, there are three more steps to consider.
The second step is getting clarity of mind, direction, and commitment.
In other words, a lucid mind has three elements: thinking straight, clear direction, and clear communications to your team and others around you so they can help you reach your goals.
These three are core elements to lead yourself to a business win.
The element of clarity of mind – This is the hard work of determining what you want and what your values are. The research is clear that the major indicator of business success is when the owner’s values match the business destination and culture. This takes time and reflection to figure this out, but this is the most fun step. Often many business owners will get away into nature, go hiking, camping, fishing, or relaxing on the beach and enjoying the waves. Pretty much anywhere to get away from the tyranny of the urgent.
The element of clarity of direction comes after the clarity of mind. It’s where you want to be, what your values are, and where you want to take the business. What is the business need to be and where do you want to take it? It’s about thinking of your future as a place of destination, a picture of a place, instead of some vague numbers like 10x this, 37.5% gross margins, or 75 employees. These are numbers on the scoreboard, not solutions to get points on the scoreboard. The clarity of direction is a solution, the future solution of what your business will be and perform, not a number.
The third element is clarity of commitment. It is about having no second thoughts or doubts and this comes from fallout of the effort of the clarity of mind and the clarity of direction. When those two things are firmly in your head, it creates something you truly believe in. This is where your commitment draws its motivation from. It ignites your entrepreneur’s spirit. It is an amazing thing.
Once you get clarity of mind, direction, and commitment; the focus turns away from the business owner to the business itself.
So step three, the business owner’s clarity leads to better management and focused opportunities.
The outcome of these two things lead to increase profits in the business.
Top business owners envision what the company will look like. They have to be crystal clear in many areas of running a business. Of course, there’s future revenue targets, but the clarity is what does it take to reach them? What are the roles of each employee and future hires to reach the destination? Us, the owners, should envision what type of customer products and services that succeed in the marketplace. Communicating a clear image of the future will serve your team and create a company-wide proactive motivation to act towards a common goal, your goal. That’s what clarity brings to the business.
Here’s a short checklist to accomplish clarity in your business:
Clearly define your products and services.
Clearly identify your clients and customers.
Clearly communicate with your team of what the future will be.
Clearly state and enforce what company culture you will have.
And finally, have a pretty good idea on how you’re gonna deliver the goods to the customer.
And this list gets into the last step and perhaps the most challenging one.
Step four, overcoming the challenges to achieve clarity.
The number one challenge is overcoming a lack of focus, or getting distracted. The day-to-day rushing around and wearing every hat in the company are things that prevents you from thinking about the present, let alone the future. So the solution, as I said before, is to carve out time to work on your business.
The second challenge is a more subtle one and it doesn’t show up until time passes. It is not taking account of your family and personal life. I will be first to say that it’s great to have clear boundaries between business and family, but…sooner or later, these two things will be in tension, if not in conflict. Part of the clarity of the business as well as part of having clarity of mind is understanding and being flexible that when the family interrupts the business, you have enough slack and you have a plan to account for that. That is a trick for a smooth running business and smooth running life.
The third challenge is having a lack of an outside viewpoint or perspective. Business owners and founders are just too close to the problem and need outside help to see the big picture. It is sort of like why doctors don’t operate on themselves or family members. I’ve personal experiences and it is frustrating. As a business coach, I know the 1-2-3 things that need to be done. But on certain things, particularly marketing and sales, I know the things that need to be done, but when I sit down to get it done, it just doesn’t turn out the way I want it or I don’t communicate in the right way. I’m too close to the problem, too close to the branding, that it’s hard to be objective. When you add all that up, that makes it hard to communicate clearly to potential customers. That is why I have an on-line presence coach to help me in this area.
Having outside perspective from other people, such as a business coach like me, does two things for business owners and founders, it gets them away from short-sightedness and it prevents them from getting stuck in a cul-de-sac. Now there’s a lot of cul-de-sacs out there, and that’s good and all, a lot are very comfortable, but they are not roads to your destination. It takes an outside person to get out of a comfortable situation to actually grow your business.
So in summary, here are the four steps to achieving clarity.
Step one: carve out the time to get clarity and write out your vision and thoughts of your future destination in two phases. First phase is to write out for yourself. Second phase is to write out to communicate to others.
Step two: use the time you just carved out to get clarity of mind, direction, and commitment as three key elements to hep you win.
Step three, leverage your clarity to be a leader to better management and focused opportunities. The outcome of this is increased profits and a smoother running life.
Step four: overcome the challenges to reach clarity and to continue with clarity. That is watching out for a lack of focus on your part, not taking account of your whole life like family and personal life, and not getting an outsider’s perspective on your situation. These things can distract you from where you want to go.
With these four steps you can gain a lot of clarity on your business, which will save you a lot of time, a lot of money, and probably prevent heartaches as you lead your company to where it needs to be. Reaping a few entrepreneur rewards is a good thing too.
So this week, I challenge you to take the first step to carve out some time, even if it’s only 15 minutes or half an hour over the weekend. Just get started on your long-term vision by reflecting about where you are today and where you want to be. This is because the road to clarity is also the road to arise to live.
Sponsor: This year has brought a lot of changes, but many business owners struggle to find focus time to update their future business destination and so start to drift off course. Your future business, your future company, and your employees are so important, you must have a solid vision to where you are leading your company. Scott has a vision-story coaching package that speeds up the process and provides accountability on your focus time. If you know that you need to update your vision and where you are going, don’t delay any more, please reach out to Scott at arise to live dot com/Vision and get your company on the right path.