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Ruby Marsh Coaching

Small Business

Three Simple Tools to Take the Right Action in Your Small Business

February 14, 2021

When it comes to your small business vision, don’t worry if you don’t have it nailed on January 1st.

Be it February, March or July – you’re never too late to be organised & goal focussed.

Whatever month you’re starting in, we’re going to be:

✔️Intentional and set goals that will move the needle

✔️Be brave over perfect. Your vision isn’t too big, but we need to get started

✔️Decide to be the owner of your success. Grab it. Create boundaries and structures to thrive

Seriously, let’s not have that vision stay as pictures on your vision board above your desk, be pinning furiously at midnight while the kids sleep, or leave them as goals scribbled in a diary ready to action when the Jupiter and Saturn align (might be waiting another 400 years?)

How about we shake it up and make this your best year in business by…

📌 turning that vision into a reality by ensuring you have the “right” goals on the board

📌 arming yourself with a clear structure to successfully go after your goals – let’s make success a given!

📌 learning mindset strategies to reduce fear and enjoy the journey as you achieve the impossible (because let’s face it, business is a rollercoaster sometimes)

Tune in to this 90min power-packed masterclass and download your workbook to play along at home by clicking the button below.

Everything in your small business starts with a clear vision.

Not sure what your business vision looks like yet?

Maybe this is the year you pivot your services and attract more dream clients?

Or you could feel like you have a bunch of inspirational images but nothing concrete yet?

Start with a crystal clear vision and everything will flow from there.

Design Your Business Vision is a simple quick-start guide for creatives to help you use your genius and get paid well doing what you love. In the guide you’ll:

✅ Discover your why

✅ Money clarity

✅ Your zone of genius

✅ 3 strategies to choosing the best idea

✅ Refine your idea

✅ Two page quick start plan

Careers

How to recognise imposter complex and the beliefs that hold us back from greatness

August 13, 2020

Seth Godin has this wonderful taken on Imposter Syndrome (which I prefer to call complex, because it’s not a medical condition) that might enlighten you a little.

“Imposter Syndrome. It’s rampant. The big reason is that we’re all impostors. You’re not imagining that you’re an impostor, it’s likely that you are one. Everyone who is doing important work is working on something that might not work. And it’s extremely likely that they’re also not the very best qualified person on the planet to be doing that work”

If Seth is correct, and we’re all going to feel it, then why are we unable to let it go?

First, a little story.

2014, the year I was married and moved to Melbourne, was also the year Tara Mohr released her incredible book Playing Big. 

As a coach, much of what I support women with, draws parallels with my own journey of leaping out of the world of Architecture and landing in coaching several years later.

Trust me, being able to learn from both your mistakes and successes allows me to help women fast track their business building journey. 

As I devoured Playing Big, I immediately saw correlations between my personal experience and what she taught. 

The part of Tara’s book that was so pivotal for me, was when she spoke about the key reasons women hold themselves back from Playing Big – one of which being Imposter Complex.

In my work, I’ve come across this and two other core beliefs that hold women back from taking that next leap in their business.

Whether it be simply starting, deciding to double down on the clients that really matter, build an audience or credibility – these beliefs have the potential to stop us in our tracks. 

The first is a fear of being exposed – you could call this imposter complex if you’re familiar with that term…you feel afraid, not good enough, or tell yourself “what if they find out?/I don’t know what to say?/I’m not qualified for this”

 

These thoughts and feelings often lead to polishing and perfecting something, rather than putting it out to get feedback then learning from the feedback.

This stops us from showing up imperfectly on social media and sharing our message, or connecting with our dream customers and understanding their struggles.

So we hide. We choose to invest time and money into the things that we believe help our confidence – a flash website, a photoshoot or to somehow be magically confident on video in order to do our first IGTV. 

My belief is, Imposter Complex shows up most powerfully for us when we’re about to do something we’ve never done before – because it feels like a leap into the unknown. 

Unfortunately, this nasty little voice is just trying to keep us hiding because evolutionarily speaking, it thinks it’s protecting us – because once upon a time (and not that long ago might I add) we needed to fit in, be liked and protect our place in our community and have security. 

In just the last 100 years, women are holding their own, running companies, running countries even, and earning enough to support ourselves.

While this Imposter Complex is likely to be the leftover of thousands of years of being reliant on external opinions of us, today, it means we stop betting on ourselves, and looking to everyone else to determine whether we’re enough.  

 

One of the most powerful things that helps us move through this feeling, is getting really clear on what our greatest strengths and skills are, and capitalising on them.

This is evidence you’re freakin’ fantastic already. You don’t need to wait till you’re Beyonce or Jacinda Ardern to get started – because that train might be a long time coming. 

Even when you are in the early days of your business, communicate in the way you know best – if that’s writing then write, if that’s speaking then speak, if it’s drawing then draw.

You can’t just do something once. You need to double down to move through the Imposter Complex.   

Ready for the next thought that stops us?

I need to get more qualifications first

 

As a forever student myself, study and learning is an important part of who I am and allows me to double down on things I want to teach my clients.

However, as my husband likes to remind me, “I think Tony Robbins dropped out of his NLP class and look where that got him?”. Whether you’re a TR fan or not, the point is, he got out there and started connecting and practicing his craft. 

You need not worry, I’m not suggesting you do negligent things, I’m simply questioning whether you can start something now?

What skills could you acquire through on the job experience?

Are you forgetting that you’ve been “designing” or drawing your whole life as a form of therapy or a hobby?

Shouldn’t 20 years of that count for something? 

In her book, Tara Mohr shares that she noticed this pattern in very intelligent, capable women, because study was “comfortable” and they believed that clutching that piece of paper would transform their thoughts from fear to certainty. On the other side of the coin, playing bigger right now was extremely uncomfortable.

 

This one, like our first hiding tactic, is not entirely our fault.

Our schooling model, rote learning (think memorising your times tables) and this expectation that most of us will jump into university or college straight out of high school has us believe that a linear path is the only option.

As you’ll hear from many of the women interviewed on this podcast, many of them have not taken a linear path – but what’s important is questioning what you think you “should” do then choosing from there what is True to You.

This final one is probably the most common one I hear in my work.

I’ve got so many ideas I keep starting and stopping, changing my mind, which makes me doubt I’ve got what it takes…

 

I’m a big fan of experimentation, projects and testing your ideas.

I think being in creation mode is super healthy for us.

Creating gets us out of that endless cycle of consumption we can get unknowingly trapped in.

But at a certain point, we need to ask ourselves is this creating clarity or having me end up more confused? If you feel like you fall into this trap of stopping and starting or inconsistency often, perhaps it’s time to ask yourself, what am I not clear on? 

Am I not clear on who my ideal clients are?

Where my greatest value lies? 

Do I need to offer several services or could I offer only a couple of powerful ones?

If you jump back into episode 34, you’ll hear me chat to Kendall Dodson owner of These Golden Daze about how we refined her business, streamlined her focus and amalgamated two businesses into one direction that lit her up the most. 

The other clarity question I would ask myself if I was feeling overwhelmed is:  Do I have a vision, a plan or some goals in place that I can return to when I feel like I’m drifting off the path? Our brain naturally likes stability and safety, and whatever you can do to create that will help ease this feeling of confusion.

 

A lack of clarity or direction can be exhausting, as shiny objects and attention stealers send us off in a million different directions. When we choose “a” path, if even for a short time, a sense of purpose is actually energy-giving and we all know energy is needed to grow ideas and dreams.

I would love to know in the comments below, which of these three beliefs do you hold onto the most? And, what’s one action you could take to begin to let go of that belief?

 

Careers

The most effective journaling practice for getting unstuck and taking action today

October 24, 2019

I thought I’d tried just about everything.

There was plenty of evidence – a bookshelf full of self-help gurus, a yoga mat in the corner of my bedroom, vision boards, a gold-embossed goal planner, thousands spent on workshops, gratitude journals only half done…

But NOTHING seemed to help create the change I really wanted, the change I desired deep down in my career, in my business.   

I was done with setting goals and failing to achieve them, or worse yet, feeling bad that I wasn’t some kind of Wonder Woman. Why was I always starting strong, yet couldn’t keep the momentum going? 

I love and believe in living a full life, and — just like my skincare routine — my daily practices need to be simple AND effective.

What if I told you there was a way to get started? A no -BS practice that can change your life in just 5 minutes a day?

My journaling practice uses four simple questions, and is based on years of self help study. Most importantly, it WORKS.

Creating change doesn’t have to feel like conquering Mt Everest. Just one action a day and you’ll be crushing your goals in no time.

Introducing...

Why this practice works:

  • You get to write your own script – a mental “dress-rehearsal” of the change you want to create. 
  • It’s a tool that you can pick up any time, before you yell “help me Ruby I’m stuck”  
  • And with every small action you complete, your confidence grows tenfold.
  • You attract new opportunities and the support you need.
  • You gain a sense of clarity and support yourself to move through that feeling of “stuck”. 

What you get:

The journaling practice is divided into two parts, part one is an intention setting practice for each new goal or change you want to make. You only need to do part one once, and then part two becomes your daily practice. 

Part one is all about “getting clear on the change you desire” – here we are setting the scene. 

After completing part one, this clarity gives you an intention to begin your daily practice. You will use it as your guidepost for the next 10 days as we journal and journey together. 

Want my secret to getting unstuck?

The POP Journal is a simple tool to make sh*t happen in your life and career. Take the 10 day challenge and see for yourself.

interview

Going all in on their business, gave her the creative freedom she dreamed of – a client story with Rachel Karalus

April 11, 2019
Today’s switch interview is a little bit special. Rachel Karalus is both a former coaching client and someone I am also blessed to call a very dear friend.

A couple of years ago I worked with Rachel to support her through her transition out of a traditional physiotherapy role to into savvy businesswoman of Kinematics Health + Performance which she co-owns with her husband Pep.

It’s been a joy to watch this woman take bold leaps, bring her creativity to the health sector, as well as bravely leading their team (and the many things you learn on the job!). I can’t wait for you to read her story.

Careers

Two things that changed my “I don’t have time” excuse

March 21, 2019

The productivity gurus love a “three secrets to…” or “hack your way to…” approach to life. Constant measuring and refining and adjusting. Never let time be an excuse again right? 

Sure.

If your reality is anything like mine, most days you’re trying to keep up with everything life throws your way.  

So in lieu of the hacking approach of squeezing and maximising time, I simply turn to this one question.

Usually it’s pretty obvious where I could do better:

“how am I actually using my time?”

Say you wrote down every little thing you did in a day and how long it took, what would it reveal? We only need to check our Instagram usage (now an inbuilt feature) to have our socks blown off.

This question becomes very necessary when I’m ready to make a big change in my life that’s going to require a little extra work.

If I don’t ask myself, all too quickly “not enough time” is the main reason I never start.

In many a coaching call I often hear things like:

“I need to make time to make a plan” 

“My time is limited and I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to get done” 

“I want to make a change but I don’t have time to get started”

100%! time can be a real constraint for many of us. We’re navigating a change around prior commitments to ourselves and our families. 

As I hear these things come up often, rather than reel off a bunch of “hacks”, I decided to share two really simple things. These two things have helped me enormously when my default is “not enough time” yet I’ve wanted to pursue any change in my career. 

The first thing I ask – “This year, what are my three core priorities and/or values?”

Once we get clear on these, we can use them as way to make decisions on what we say yes or no to in our lives. Some might call this being in alignment.

In practising this style of decision-making, we’ll make a conscious effort to make space for those things that are really important. If the career change is make or break, you will find time. 

Second thing, is breaking the big change into small steps. 

When we first think of making a change, it is daunting. Just as you would break down the training for a marathon into months, weeks and days, you can do the same for a big change. 

Or to get really simple, we set aside time for one small thing every week that will move you closer. 

Again, we’re not looking to break any productivity hacking records here.

Simply get started.   

LIVE MASTERCLASSES IN APRIL 2019

Join us for four distinct masterclasses that will support you to make changes in your career in 2019. Here’s a sneak peak at what we’ll be sharing:

+ How to get started on a change when you have minimal time to spend

+ Become besties with money – make powerful decisions, own your value and move into the career you want

+ How to feel effortless and confident when networking

+ Simple tools to be brave, be visible and share your passion project with the world