19. It Never Hurts To Ask | BONUS episode - Win-Win Storytime Series

In this bonus episode, I’m taking a walk down memory lane and reflecting on the journey of another teacher business owner I’ve had the honor to work with. 

Client A.A.H. bravely asked for the services she needed and advocated for what she needed and I wanted to share her story today because I think it’s an important reminder that it never hurts to ask.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] I know this podcast releases new episodes on Mondays, but I felt called to do a bonus episode. You see, I've been going through some of my students' success stories and I really wanted to share this one with you today. And because this is my business and I make the rules, I decided that you get a bonus episode today. So welcome back to Your Win-Win Teacher Business. In this bonus episode, I'm taking a walk down memory lane and reflecting on the journey of another teacher business owner that I've had the honor to work with. For confidentiality, I will call this Client A.A.H. today. That's how I tag them in my backend system. We don't have to have a whole investigation to who they are. I just want to confidentially share a little bit about their business so you can see yourself in the stories of others that are bravely running their teacher businesses and figuring it out as they go. 

[00:01:27] The reason I love the Client A.A.H. story is because she bravely asked for the services she needed. She advocated for what she needed along the way, and I wanted to share her story because I think it's an important reminder that it never hurts to ask for what you want. When I first met this client, she was juggling her teacher business alongside a full-time teaching role.

[00:01:53] She had so many great building blocks in her pile of diversification options. She had an authority building book. She had speaking gigs. There was a TPT store, a blog, a podcast, a YouTube channel, a Facebook group, a membership, she had a merch line, and she even had coaching clients. She had invested in high ticket courses along the way and hired a small and mighty team. Google Drive and Google Sheets and a communication app were working pretty well now, but she could tell she was maxing out her current systems. They were helping her survive, but she knew she wasn't positioned  for the season of growth that she wanted to step into next. She got a glimpse of the Asana workspace that some of her teacher business friends had invested in and came to work with me in a VIP week to have an Asana workspace built for her own business.

[00:02:55] If you're new to my Asana build process, it starts with a very detailed intake form where I ask a lot of questions about the business and gather as much information as possible. I wanna have as full a picture as I can of where we are now and also where we're trying to go big picture. And as the saying goes, I listen and I don't judge.

[00:03:19] She said that she felt like she was surviving in this season of business. She had so many goals and tasks, but what she lacked was a clear focus in regards to the best order of operations to do the tasks in. She recognized that it was a fast track to burnout, and I was so glad that she reached out for help. While I couldn't add more hours into her day, two weeks later, she reported that she had a clear action plan waiting for her when she opened her computer. She could clearly see what each team member was working on in one space and streamlining communication left more time for her to complete tasks that only she could do. She felt the peace of repeatable systems, saving her time and mental capacity, and really embraced the conversations about what we could eliminate, simplify, and delegate along the way.

[00:04:16] That's a success story if I stopped there, but what really made me smile was that Client A.A.H. came back for strategy meetings quarterly for the whole next year. You see, since I knew her business inside and out, we were able to hit the ground running. I could listen to her dreams for the quarter, get my hands dirty right inside her Asana calendar, and map out the plan as we created it together during the call. We could take those big overwhelming tasks and break them into small bites that matched the time she and her team had to work with. When we left the call, she could see a clear path from where she was to where she wanted to be, and that made it more motivating to sit down each day and execute just today's part of the plan.

[00:05:10] She knew that if she stayed on pace with what had been laid out, she would get where she was trying to go at the end of the quarter. We accomplished a lot together during that year, and she bravely asked if I would support her business in a different way. She asked really kindly because she mentioned that she didn't see the service she wanted formally offered on my website, and I told her that she should always shoot her shot and ask. 

[00:05:38] All the service providers I know have what's called a back pocket offer menu. We have certain offers that might not be a right fit for everyone, but might be a good fit for people at certain stages of their business or people who are graduates of other offers, and you just never know. So it never hurts to ask.

[00:05:58] As it turns out, she wanted a TPT store audit, and she wanted it specifically from me because she knew I understood her brand big picture. We all have lots of resources that we could make, but she wanted to make sure she was pouring time into truly cohesive product lines that really made sense and fit in with what she was building for the brand big picture. I knew she had a great team on hand and they would make and optimize products in whichever way she wanted, but taking that slow down to speed up approach allowed us to work together in a TPT store audit capacity and make sure that everyone's efforts were invested in a strategic way. I really enjoyed collaborating with her on that project, and I'm so glad she bravely asked and didn't just turn herself away, that it wasn't an official formal offering on my website at that time. And then the final task she felt she needed help with was a punch list for her podcast. 

[00:07:04] A punch list is a list of miscellaneous tasks that you just never seem to have a chance to get to. Cleaning up, positioning, repurposing, having a fresh set of eyes on the show in general, this felt like something she really needed in order to confidently continue the show, so she bravely asked for what she needed.

[00:07:28] She knew that she wouldn't need to explain her brand to me or how all of these different pieces of technology work together. She knew that by working with a team member who knew her business well and the world of podcasting, that I would be able to hit the ground running and crush that task list quickly for her.

[00:07:49] Client A.A.H. knew her business was unique and that what she needed might not be exactly the same as what her teacher business friends needed. She followed the breadcrumbs of what was a win for them, and that's how we met. But then she bravely asked for what she needed. I encourage you to do the same.

[00:08:12] Dive into the contact form on my website, cook family resources.com/work-with-me. It's there for you anytime, night or day. Maybe I can help you get unstuck. If I'm not the right person to help, I might just know someone who can. I love to play matchmaker in the teacher business space, so I hope you'll know that my contact form is always a safe space to reach out when something feels sticky inside your business. 

[00:08:42] Sometimes when everything feels messy and unclear, we think we need a big solution like an Asana VIP week. But we can often solve a lot in a one-time strategy call. It's totally normal not to know what you need next, but I hope today's story time episode helps you feel a little bit braver and ready to ask for help.