Through The Marketing Lens

Creating Helpful Boundaries and Process That Support Them In Your Business

November 17, 2020 Katrina Aronson Episode 10
Through The Marketing Lens
Creating Helpful Boundaries and Process That Support Them In Your Business
Show Notes Transcript

Boundaries and clarity are good for your business, and your mental wellbeing. With the holidays coming, we all have a lot on our plates and it is a good thing to have helpful processes in place that help you with your boundaries. As much as it is for you, this is very much for your clients and potential clients. Clarity is really kind.


You will learn: 

  • Several tactical tools to help you with your boundaries in your business 
  • REAL processes you can put into place right now to create trust and boundaries in your business
  • How boundaries actually really helps your business 
  • When you check yourself when it comes to boundaries 
  • And more! 


The mindset work around boundaries is really powerful and truthfully, mindset is pretty woven into all boundaries. Learning how to do this better for yourself and your business is insanely impactful. 


www.katrinaaronson.com

www.instagram.com/katrinaaronson_consulting 

https://acuityscheduling.com/

https://calendly.com/


Links:

Welcome to Through The Marketing Lens, because the holidays are right around the corner, I cannot believe that I'm even saying that I have no idea where 2020 went. But here comes Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, whatever it is that we celebrate right around the corner. As much as I love this time of year. I do struggle with balancing the business part of my life, and the personal part of my life which I bet you can relate to. For me, it's between my kid's schools wanting me to send things in and volunteer, totally different in 2020 and gift planning and meal planning and all that jazz. To really having a good relationship with my clients and prioritizing that as well. So I want to share some things that have really helped me to be a better person in my business, all year round. And this will be a really excellent opportunity for you to put some of these tools into place. So I promise you, fluff-free episodes, I'm gonna dive right in. So we're living in a time in business, that we're expected to be open 24/7, because, thank you, internet, but we are people, and frankly that's just bull and it's impossible. However, I know that feeling of oh my gosh, if I don't answer this email right away, I might lose the sale.

So we're living in this place of 1000 miles an hour and fearing not making a sale. This is not why we're entrepreneurs, you guys, we are not in this place of being in control of our lives. If you don't want to be in the driver's seat, so getting to that place that feels way less fearful, and there's a lot of trust, and you're playing offense, rather than defense is really a goal of mine for you. It's always been a goal of mine as well. There is a way to run at a reasonable pace, and knowing that you will make sales, I'm going to, to be honest, it takes discipline, and upfront work, but it's worth it. And in the end, you will be better at what you do, and people will respect your boundaries, and in turn, you're going to be happier, and you're going to be coming from a place of knowing things are coming for you, rather than fear. This is a recipe for success. So, my business is a lot about communication, as a business coach. I talk all the time to my one on one clients, some of them weekly, which is how we have our calls set up. Some of them daily. We're talking through a walkie-talkie app depending on the person and their needs. Sometimes a client or a prospect will get my phone number, somehow, and they will text me. I will always respond nicely and move that conversation over to email if it's a prospect or Voxer if It's a client, which is that mode of transportation. And I've met a few people that will continue to text me even when I ask them not to. And I just stopped responding to it. The message is clear and it eventually stops. I also know when this does happen and they don't respect my boundaries, I probably shouldn't be working with that person because they're not respecting the boundary and it's probably indicative of how our working relationship would feel.

No one is upset or doesn't feel heard when I move them over to email or Voxer, but I don't talk on text, because that's how I often communicate in my personal life, and I have to separate that because I don't want to work 24/7. And it's really easy to fall into that because I'm working mostly online, So if you're working mostly online you probably can relate to that as well. Additionally, I only answer Voxer with my clients Monday through Friday 9 am to 5 pm, and I try to be pretty religious about this for my own self-care, and frankly because when I'm doing the research and stuff for them when we're on Voxer I want to be able to give them all of me, and those are the hours I can guarantee that it would be the best version of me.

And the reason that my clients understand, and they know this is because I tell them this before we even start working together, so they know exactly what to expect. They know how much of me they're going to be getting and, honestly, this is what people want and need expectations and clarity. As Bernie Brown says clarity is kind. And my point here is, there are things you can do in your business to create processes and boundaries so that you're better at what you do and create clarity for your clients and prospects, so they know what to expect. So I'm going to give you some concrete examples right now, a few things that you can put into practice in your business to help you with your boundary setting.

So, number one, do you have an auto-response on your emails. So if you're not able to respond to emails quickly this is a really good option for you. You can put an autoresponder on with those expectations, for example, Thank you so much for your email, you will hear from Katrina and her team within 24 hours. So, this is really easy, and it's totally free, and it makes it really clear about what that person should expect so that they're not all panicky and you're not all panicky. This creates trust and confidence in your business and you because you have a process, you really can do this, probably on every email provider.

Number two, where do you post your hours of business, this is really important, because all of us people pleasers Raise your hands.

We all go above and beyond our hours, and you have to check yourself with this for lots of reasons, this is a step that's for you as much as it is for your clients help posting your hours on your website, in your email signature on your social media is all really helpful in creating boundaries, you have to then stick with those hours. Now, if you have those hours posted and someone writes an email, and they get an auto-response. Wallah, now they feel heard, And you know exactly what to expect, and what comes next. Okay, so number three.

What about big-ticket clients that need something right away? So, I have a really good answer for you here because we've all been in that place of, oh my gosh. Someone emailed me and I didn't get back to them in a timely manner and he found someone else. So, I'm most website platforms there are contact forms that allow you to create an email series that will literally respond to your client, with the answers to the questions that they probably had. So you can look at my website right now and there's a contact form that you can fill out and has a dropdown. That refers to individual inquiries buckets. So if they're looking to work with me with coaching versus immediate inquiry, versus a podcast inquiry I believe those are my three buckets. You can make yours, whatever you want. So, from there. After you pick the drop-down, you will receive an email specific to your inquiry buckets, if it's a podcast question, you'll get an email with a link to my podcast, and how to become a guest on my podcast 99% of the questions that I get about my podcast from my website are people who want to be on the podcast. So rather than responding to an individual or being an automated email for me, that will answer their question. If someone has a coaching inquiry, I get the emails directly into my inbox, and I can respond to them in a timely manner. This takes work off my plate, it creates a priority system. So, I can be on top of my business, and everyone is getting what they want to need for me. This takes a framework which I mentioned, but it's worth it and it's a mental relief and most websites have this capability in there.

I use Wix, which is super user-friendly. So whatever your website platform is dig into your contact forms and set that up. Alright, number four, an appointment setting app is your bestie. So, if you do not have a business that needs appointments, do not zone out on me right now. Stay here. Appointment setting is really time-consuming, and if you're going back and forth with anybody ever for your business. This is something that can be resolved. I send links for appointments to anyone who wants to be interviewed for the podcast, I send these appointment links to anyone who just wants to pick my brain because it just allows them to get access to my calendar to see when we would be able to do that and that way, I'm not dealing with this back and forth, emailing, which is really just taking away too much time. So if you have one of these apps, then you will then link it to your calendar and set your availability, and you can create availability for different things that you're doing so for example, the hours that I do free intro calls weekly are not the same as when I do my coaching calls from my current clients. So, everyone would only get access to the part of my calendar that I allow them to access to so it's a great way for you just saying, I'm really going to be doing this, I'm going to do this Monday through Friday, so you're setting yourself up for success and boundary setting. I personally love and use Acuity and Calendly Those are both appointment setting apps. If you're new to the idea of these apps, these are both great options for you to dig into.

Alright, number five, write down exactly what you want before entering into any conversation. So if you're having a business conversation about partnering, or working together in some capacity. There are always boundaries around that. And what you want from this partnership where you're willing to be flexible. Those are all things that you really have to be upfront about. Yeah, it's a conversation, it's going to flow but you need to know what are your goals, And what are the things that you just cannot budge on. If you lay those things out and treat the conversation as a real open space. It either works or it doesn't. And it just doesn't have to be more complicated than that. I find that there's usually a way to make things happen if both parties are real and open and honest about what they want and where their boundaries are. And then, they are more receptive because they said something. 

Something I've noticed is that when we're clear about our boundaries and we lay them right out of the gate those relationships thrive. And a lot of people choose not to be clear, not to give those boundaries out because they think it's awkward or they think they're being nice, by not setting up their boundaries. It's exactly very very much the opposite.

And I see business relationships have tension or get weird when someone doesn't lay out their boundaries and frankly it's mostly avoidable. The talking behind someone's back because they went outside your boundaries but they didn't even know what they were. That is the thing that's not nice. But being real and upfront about those boundaries, and what you want from a relationship is actually really needed.

So as we enter what is a super busy season, set yourself up in your business for those better boundaries. Listen, I'm constantly working on this I'm not perfect, but it's something that I know is the difference between someone being, you know, good at what they do and then really, really successful. Work on being real, and when you feel yourself not being honest with someone for whatever reason, take a step back and ask yourself why. This is the harder work, the harder inner work that takes serious pushing and then growing, and that's where the success in business, and personally comes in.

I wanted to share with you that my one on one waitlist for 2021 is open, you can jump onto my website and get in on there. There's just a quick form to fill out. And, and then we have a chat on the phone and we just see if it's a good fit, I would love to meet you and get to know about you and your business. There are so many good things coming up in this new year. Coaching won't start right away, but we will start planning, and that's such a great way to kick off the new year. So guys thank you so much for joining me today. I'm always honored you save space in your day. I will see you here next Tuesday, which is an awesome interview episode that taught me so much about Facebook ads. I can't wait to share it with you.