Are you in the right room…the one where the business opportunities are booming? If they aren’t you might be in the wrong room. It may not have been a wrong room at the start, but transitioning from one room to the next is now becoming a necessity. It’s time to transition to further the mission!
Getting out of the wrong rooms
I started out as an art director, won some awards and found success sat behind a desk. Being an art director and coming up with creative ideas was great, but I needed to grow my business. The desk was no longer the right room! I left the office, trusting my team to make decisions without me and I embraced networking. Maybe you need to stop doing what you are doing too and start sharing about it instead… After all, as a great man once said, your network determines your net worth.
I had always found it easy to draw a crowd and get them to buy into something, whether it was a birthday celebration, the start of a football team or a trip away. I wasn’t reluctant about selling because I saw it as serving really, and I actually enjoyed solving other people’s problems for them. So, off I went. To grow I had to go… OUT!
The right room (the agency office) had became the wrong room, and I needed to make the transition. I had to stay focussed as there was a lot of temptation to go back into the old room. I had to resist it! I realised that others wanted me back in the old room because it was more comfortable with me around than not.
The next step was enrolling on an entrepreneurial programme to gain the necessary education to take the brand marketing agency to the next level. To flourish, I had to change rooms again. I was given free office space which eventually became our new base and was ushered into a new network of business people (a new room). Was it uncomfortable? Yes. Did everyone wish me well? Not everyone. It didn’t matter because the transition from one room to another was what made all the difference. One thing I learnt was that when you enter a new room, serve that room as if you are building there forever. You’ll leave well and you’ll get to keep the keys when the door closes!
Getting into the right rooms
The right rooms don’t always have a signpost that says ‘This is the room’, and you might have to visit many different ones. When I left my desk I entered many rooms on my own which meant pressing the brave button! The amazing thing was that as I said yes to every uncomfortable situation I was propelled forward into new places where the fruit was ripe.
Nowadays, the right rooms are virtual, more often than not. It’s much easier to create your own rooms and transform options into opportunities. Let’s have a look at some of the various rooms you need to move in:
Your room
You need to have your own room, a space for you. It’s not necessarily a door with a sign on but a place where you are alone with your thoughts, whether it’s your office at home or in the forest. What the room looks like is up to you, but you need to avoid notifications! I’ve found that getting outside into nature helps me with problem solving and allows me to be more creative.
The peer room – those on a similar journey to you
Have peers around you. Being around entrepreneurs has always been one of my saving graces. It keeps me going and dreaming of the future. So, where can you get involved with others of like mind? Enrolling on an entrepreneurial programme is something I wholeheartedly recommend. It’s that rare situation where all the people in the room are looking to create something from nothing. You compare scars and share about the day to day things that you are all going through (the challenging client or the dream employee). All the people in this room are actually doing the journey!
The collaboration room – it’s like a kitchen!
This is where you are surrounded by people who help you get the very best out of your business. These can be key team members, trustworthy and passionate about the direction of the business. No-one will be more passionate than you (naturally) BUT when your key people see the progress of the business affecting their life positively they’ll definitely be on side. They might even catch the entrepreneurial bug and become your business partners for tomorrow.
The accountability room ( restaurant maybe or coffee shop)
This is where you sit face to face with the person who helps you to make the right choices. Your accountability room is the place where you meet a planner, a partner, or even a mentor. It’s where they help you to focus on becoming the best and challenge you to fulfill your dreams.
The board room – can be a bit scary!
Your boardroom should be full of trusted people, it shouldn’t be a place of insecurity. Building a board will allow you to share your load and the weight of everyone else’s expectations. Boards need to be recruited for slowly. I’ve heard of companies of five start a boardroom and regret it. You’ll know when it’s needed.
The networked room – work through the room not in the room.
Networking is the surest way to get to the top. It’s about what you know and who you know. Attend where you can, prioritise on giving back and choose the best field to sow in. The networked room can also be online, rather than a physical destination. Introbiz has been our go to online networking room since lockdown began, they do an amazing job connecting people. I’ve made some of the best connections through Clubhouse (voice only social media network) for example. We run our own ‘Purpose People’ Clubhouse room every Thursday at 4pm.
Create you own room – Create a tribe to thrive
Social media has given us the great gift of groups. Facebook Groups allow you to build a platform of likeminded people, and by creating a community you gain an amazing, direct insight into your customer persona. It’s so much easier to share added value. When I hear people say ‘What if I give everything away?’, I think, ‘That means that you don’t know enough yet’. You probably know a lot more than you give yourself credit for because the things you take for granted are a revelation to some people. When you have built a crowd you have opportunities to create Facebook Challenges and give educational value. Towards the end of the Challenge week you can offer paid services or products at a discount to your new tribe. This approach has helped brands establish themselves as thought leaders and it’s a profit path that has created numerous referrals for others.
We recently helped to run a Facebook Challenge for a group of crafters (people that make stuff with their hands). With over 500 people in one room we helped our client ‘Craft Insurance’ to inspire the crafters to take their businesses online. The feedback from Craft Insurance was that this was easily the best marketing spend they had ever invested!
Why not get in a (Zoom) room with us?
Getting in the right rooms can transform your business and its potential. We’d love to help and support you to run a Facebook Challenge week.
Make a decision today to get out of doing ‘the doing’ (it might require some planning towards your first hire or enable you to delegate some of your responsibilities). If you have a team and been running for a while, then it’s time to trust your team. Real trust leads to traction, and real traction creates action at every level. You become more influential and impact becomes your focus.