Christine Schlonski [0:02]
Hi Gorgeous. This is episode number 209. You’re listening to Heart Sells! Podcast. I’m your host, Christine Schlonski. Today is the variety Friday. So welcome, welcome, welcome. And I have to make a remark on this because we are going through pretty, crazy times where people have to stay at home right now. Where they have to really think about their life and where they want to take it and how they want to take it and if their life concept is still valid or if they need to rethink how to live life under new circumstances.

Christine Schlonski [0:41]
I really thought, “Well, what can I do to deliver value to you, to really help you to think about what options are out there if it’s not a regular job or sales job, or if you are an entrepreneur who might be still struggling a little bit in building a business, especially with a selling piece?” I have a wonderful resource today that I want to share with you. It’s a book I read a while ago, that really helped me see how I can put my business to the next level. I decided that I wanted to share this with you and that I want to talk about it. What my takeaways are. Why I think it’s so valuable for you to read it right now.

Christine Schlonski [1:25]
It’s a book that has been on the market for quite a while, called, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber. Michael Gerber is actually the world’s number one small business guru, if you want to go by the word guru, and the book already came out a while ago, and I just happened to read it not that long ago and I really loved how Michael Gerber puts this together because he says that most entrepreneurs struggle, because they go into business with something they love.

Christine Schlonski [2:12]
I’m quite sure you have been there. Maybe you are there right now. That you have been at a corporate job and you just love what you did or you were so good at it, that you thought, “Well, why do I need to work for them, why don’t I go into business for myself?” This is what happens to a lot of entrepreneurs. I mean, my own story is a little bit similar. I was so good at what I did. I was so unhappy with not having the flexibility and the freedom that I craved more and more of us every year in the corporate world.

Christine Schlonski [2:51]
I was wondering why I would be making millions for someone else if I could just be in business for myself. Working the hours I wanted to work, do the travel I wanted to do, and just enjoy life much more than being at a job, nine to five and having all these requests to handle, to be at a certain time at a certain place to do like, oh, that was required. I was just fed up and thought, “Well, I can go into business for myself.” What I haven’t thought about and I’m quite sure that you might not have thought about this either, is that we go out with our skills and then all of a sudden, the whole game changes because selling for someone and selling your own services and products is something completely different.

Christine Schlonski [3:49]
I like really how Michael Gerber explains in his book, The E-Myth Revisited, what actually happens. He says, when you come from a job, you are more than a technician, you are the one that executes You are the one that does. You are really the one who works it because the technician is actually the doer. In his book, it says, “If you want it done right, do it yourself. That is a technician’s cradle. The technician loves to tinker things that are to be taken apart and put back together. Things aren’t supposed to be dreamed about, they’re supposed to be done.” That’s so interesting because if you are really, really good at your job at your craft, that’s what you do, you do things. In my job, I did sales calls, I did negotiations, I did the hiring, I did team building, I did the closing, all of that. When you look back into your life, where your journey has taken you, I’m quite sure you find out that you were really good at something. You were good at it because you were actually the doer which is the technician.

Christine Schlonski [5:03]
Then it happens, that you, when you go into business for yourself, you need to be also the entrepreneur. Because the entrepreneur is the visionary in us. It’s a dreamer. I remember how often I said, “All my desk at work, thinking and dreaming about having my business, having the freedom, having amazing clients and making that impact.” That’s the entrepreneur part that’s a visionary, we see opportunity and we really want that visionary activity or that visionary energy behind our human activity.

Christine Schlonski [5:50]
But then also we need the part of us that is the manager. The manager is the one that’s pragmatic. Without the manager, there would not be any planning or any order or its things wouldn’t be predictable. Once we start working IN our business instead of ON our business, we’ve reduced ourselves to being the technician.

Christine Schlonski [6:19]
Oftentimes, it happens that we totally lose control, we lose that overview, we get really stuck. What we do is we create a job for ourselves, instead of creating a business, because when you want to create a business and maybe a business that you can sell at a later time, or that you can scale or that actually can function without you. You need to create more systems, you need to be more strategic, and you need to have all these three, the entrepreneurial part in you, the manager, part in you and the technician part in you to go hand in hand, to communicate. You need to balance those three pieces because otherwise, you can’t really scale.

Christine Schlonski [7:09]
You can’t really build the dream that you have dreamed of. And you need to understand that your business is not your life, which I think for all of us who are really, really passionate, that this is quite difficult because we love so much what we do that we want to give that gift to everybody. Especially when you are a coach or a healer, you probably think you can also support everybody, you can help everybody and you should be in everybody’s face, so to speak.

Christine Schlonski [7:48]
Another thing that is mentioned in the book, which I like is that “Great businesses are not built by extraordinary people, but by ordinary people who do extraordinary things.” I think that this really plays into understanding how valuable you are with your services because, at the end of the day, it’s your market who gives you an understanding of your value. You can have a brilliant idea, you can put it out, but maybe nobody comes, maybe nobody will buy from you.

Christine Schlonski [8:26]
I’ve seen that quite often that people had a great idea. They build it, they put it out, and then they thought, “Well, you know, I build it. So they will come”, which is not true. Because you really need to sell and you need to sell in an authentic way. Of course, you need to sell something that provides value to your audience, to your tribe, so that they actually pay for the value you have, to that money exchange. Then you can see how many more people you can actually influence in a positive way so that it’s really supporting your business and them.

Christine Schlonski [9:09]
I think when we are in the trenches, so to speak, when we are building, when we are hustling, when we are working way too much, because we are building something and we are happy to sacrifice for a later day in the future, for that bigger impact, for selling more programs or getting more people onto your email list. When we do like all these activities, we sometimes forget why we started everything in the first place.

Christine Schlonski [9:40]
If you are not with your business, where you are right now, where you say why you really have the lifestyle that I dreamed off, and I have created my business around my lifestyle, around my dreams, and the business supporting me, then here are some questions right out of the book that you can actually think about. I would highly recommend you just write them down. I will link the book in the show notes. So when you go to https://christineschlonski.com/podcast and then Episode 209, you can get a link directly to the book and ordered on Kindle or on Amazon or whatever, to read it and it will support you to understand more the strategic part of the business building because you can still build it from your heart, you can still use your passion. And you can still be who you are, but in a better way, in a more strategic way that you do not struggle so much but that you build it so it can be either multiplied or other people at some point later on your journey can actually do what you are doing right now because you were able to teach them.

Christine Schlonski [10:56]
Questions to ask yourself and these are kind of must ask questions to get that clarity are, what do I value most? Like, get really, really clear. What do you value most, especially in those times where everything around you might seem like it’s crashing down, where you have to take leadership, where you have to have clarity. Now is not the time to hide or to get distracted by going to the movies or seeing friends or going on a vacation or staying extra hours at work or whatever it is.

Christine Schlonski [11:32]
Now, you’re probably somehow forced to stay at home to isolate a little bit, to make sure you do not have that much human contact. These are great questions to go deep within where all your power lies and to get really, really clear on what you want, like after the crisis is before the next crisis, and before the crisis is after the one from before. If you are clear on your own desires, on what you want to achieve, everything else around you will be able to contribute to your dreams because you know what your dreams are. What do I value most is one question.

Christine Schlonski [12:14]
What kind of life do I want? What do I want my life to look like? To feel like? Who do I wish to be? I just love this question, who do you wish to be? We are so much more than we are right now. I personally believe we are all on a self-development journey, especially entrepreneurship is self-development. Because you will like to tap into situations that you’ve never thought of. You will have the feeling that you are not safe no matter what. You will have the feeling that you are on top of the world. So it’s like this roller coaster kind of thing. The more strategic you are about it, without losing your heart, without losing your authenticity, but really showing up in a positive way. The more clear you are of how do you want your life to be, the better.

Christine Schlonski [13:16]
Right now I’m sitting here and I’m recording this podcast for you. I’m thinking of you, and I’m feeling I’m rooting for you. I’m thinking, “Well, you know, I’m sitting here, looking outside. Seeing just green beautiful trees in the forest. It’s late afternoon so the sun has this kind of afternoon-ish, gloomy expression, and it’s so beautiful.” Right now, I really want to be here. I cannot even imagine being somewhere else at this moment because I love it so much. I’m so happy that I have that choice, that I have that opportunity, and I choose this place to live in. I have this as my base and that then I can travel the world whenever I feel like it, whenever I want to.

Christine Schlonski [14:07]
What’s important for you? What do you want to have in your life that you are missing right now? Most of the time, the big pieces, who do you need to become to be the person who does certain things and to have that has certain things. It’s really the being first. Out of that being comes the doing, because a person versus a scarcity mindset behaves differently than a person with an abundance mindset. What’s important for you? Really get clear on those questions, and then build your business around this. Build your business around your dreams, and get really, really clear.

Christine Schlonski [14:57]
Once you know with a clear picture in mind how you wish your life to be, then you can actually start to build your business around it. Because then you know how would you know the first step to take? How would you measure your progress? How would you know where you were? How would you know how far you have gone? How would you know how much further you have yet to go. This all relates to that aim. To how you want your life to be.

Christine Schlonski [15:32]
I really hope this was of value to you. I am putting the link to the book in the show notes. So hop on over to https://christineschlonski.com/podcast and check that out. Also, I want to invite you to be part of the Heart Seller! Tribe by signing up for the empowerment notes. That’s empowerment right into your inbox, where I share all the updates on Heart Sells! Podcast. Where you get really, really special content that I’m not really sharing on social media. We also invite you from time to time to amazing trainings, webinars, offers all just created to support you and your sales so you can make a bigger impact. You can really live a life beyond your wildest dreams by redefining sales.

Christine Schlonski [16:22]
Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have a wonderful day. Make sure you check out the episodes of next week, they’re gonna blow you away. I hope that you have had a look into this week’s episode with a wonderful Laura Posey, who talked about strategic planning and how to find your pot of money. Have a wonderful day, wherever you are in this world. Stay healthy, stay safe, and I’m sending you lots of sunshine here from Germany. Bye for now.