181 | Go from Confusion to Clarity and Courage and Build a BOLD Brand with Suz Chadwick
Suz's insights emphasize the significance of aligning your passion with profitability, staying adaptable in business, and embracing both successes and failures as part of the entrepreneurial journey.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE:
Today on the Podcast, we feature one of our exclusive Speaker sessions from our Passion to Profit Challenge - Suz Chadwick. In this episode, we talk about the balance between passion and profit, Honesty and transparency in the online business world and so much more!
Suz is a BOLD Business & Mindset Coach and Speaker. With over 15 years as a brand consultant working with global brands and entrepreneurs, leaders and teams, Suz knows what works when it comes to creating a business, brand & mindset that helps you stand out.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Finding Focus and Profitability:
Suz's journey highlights the importance of aligning your passion with profitability.
To make her business profitable, she had to streamline her services and focus on what she loved while addressing her clients' needs.
She encourages others to assess what they genuinely enjoy and what is financially sustainable to find their "profit flow."
Balancing Passion and Profit:
Suz emphasizes the need to balance passion and profit in your business.
It's essential to evaluate whether your passionate endeavors can be made profitable or if they serve other valuable purposes, like community-building and marketing.
Scaling Challenges:
Scaling your business involves a mindset shift and adaptation.
Suz advises businesses to remain agile, adapt to market changes, and invest in the necessary skills, systems, and team members to grow sustainably.
Transparency and Persistence:
Suz highlights the importance of transparency in sharing both successes and failures.
Building a profitable business takes time, persistence, and continuous adaptation to changing market dynamics.
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transcript
[00:00:00] Danielle Wiebe: Hi, suze. Welcome to the Passion to Profit Challenge. I'm so excited to be interviewing you. I cannot wait. We actually had you on the podcast quite a while back and I absolutely loved our conversation. It was so much fun. So for people who don't know you though, can you give us a little intro into who you are, what you do and how you serve the world?
[00:00:24] Suz Chadwick: Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited to be back. It's been a while. I was just saying to you, I think the last time was you were about to have your first baby and now you've got two under two. So you've been busy. Yeah. Hey there. I'm Sue Chadwick. I am a business and mindset coach. I come from about. 20 odd years of sales marketing.
[00:00:43] Suz Chadwick: And I used to run a brand strategy agency and I just knew I wanted to do something for myself. I actually loved my corporate experience. I can't complain about it. They sent me around the world. They treated me very well, but I just knew that I wanted more. I wanted something that was mine. [00:01:00] And. Yeah. Once I discovered the entrepreneurial space, it was pretty much a go from there.
[00:01:06] Suz Chadwick: So I was working in my corporate job and I was building the business on the side. I had moved from London to Melbourne. I'm originally a Melbourne girl, but had been working in London and had moved back home with my new hubby. And I just started to explore the entrepreneurial space here. And as somebody who had come from like a business sales branding background, I just discovered that when I got into the entrepreneurial space, yeah, there were a lot of women that just really struggled with that part.
[00:01:34] Suz Chadwick: So they had a passion, but they didn't know how to make it profitable, which is perfect for what we're talking about. Yeah. And I started running events and started to attract an audience that way, and then started to do sort of one on one coaching, just hourly here and there while I was figuring out what I wanted to really create.
[00:01:54] Suz Chadwick: And also, even though I was really excited about different things, I... Was had been a speaker for years. [00:02:00] I started debating when I was 16 years old. It came really naturally to me to do that. So workshops and events were just right up my alleyway. But even during that, I was building a lot of things.
[00:02:10] Suz Chadwick: I had workshops and events and one on one coaching, and then I started building courses. And so I kind of ended up with a lot of stuff. And I think that. Just talking about being a very multi passionate entrepreneur where you're like, Oh, I can do all of these things. How amazing and exciting. I really did have to get to a point where I was like, but Suze, what is actually making money?
[00:02:33] Suz Chadwick: And so that was something I really needed to go through myself to start to look at. What does my profitable business look like and where do I need to focus my energy? And so now I work with women in online courses, coaching masterminds, et cetera. And I speak as well.
[00:02:51] Danielle Wiebe: Amazing. I love that. I love it so much because I can resonate with everything that you're saying, because as we are in the event space as [00:03:00] well.
[00:03:00] Danielle Wiebe: And when we first got started, it's like, let's do this workshop and that workshop, and let's do this up here and that over there. And again, as like you said, as multi passionate entrepreneurs, which a lot of our community would define themselves as multi passionate people and entrepreneurs. It is difficult to figure out, okay, what do I actually focus on?
[00:03:21] Danielle Wiebe: And so can you talk a little bit about that? When it comes to actually You know, balancing the passion and the profit. What does that look like? And how can we actually figure out, okay, I'm really passionate about this, right? But does that, is that something that I'm actually going to pursue in a business sense to be able to build this profitable business?
[00:03:46] Danielle Wiebe: And is there space, do you believe, I think, everyone can have a different perspective on this, but do you believe that there's a little bit of wiggle room of, okay, maybe this isn't? Necessarily that profitable, but I'm going to do it anyways, cause I'm passionate about it and I love it.
[00:03:59] Danielle Wiebe: [00:04:00] So let's talk a little bit about that.
[00:04:02] Suz Chadwick: Yeah. So one of the things that I've discovered for myself to now that I think is a good state of mind to be in as well is something that I call the profit being in profit flow. And what that means is I asked myself, so when I started my business and I had a million and one things, number one, I had really put my.
[00:04:21] Suz Chadwick: Potential clients into offer indecision because they were like, Oh I want to work with you. What do I do? And I'm like you could join the workshop where you could join the course. So we could coach one on one or like all of these things. And they were just like, Oh, I don't know what to pick. And so what I actually did probably two years into my business or three years was I looked at all of my products and services and I asked myself, what do I love?
[00:04:47] Suz Chadwick: What are my clients love and what is profitable. And so I literally went through all of my like revenue streams. And I was like, do I really love that? Like how much do I love that? And is [00:05:00] it profitable? And if I loved it, but it wasn't profitable, it went. The other thing I did have to ask myself was. If was it not profitable because it's not in demand or did I not market it enough?
[00:05:11] Suz Chadwick: So I went, it wasn't just a quick review and decision. I really went through if I really love this, do I want to keep it, but I just need a better marketing strategy for it, or was I just really not getting any traction with it at all, and it just wasn't really in demand, even though I really loved it.
[00:05:28] Suz Chadwick: And so that's basically what I did is that I went through everything and in the end, I only ended up. Up with about three different products and services at the time I went on coaching my signature program and then like an annual conference or an event sort of thing. And when I did that, I saw my revenue like triple and the reason for that is because I took away the indecision.
[00:05:56] Suz Chadwick: That my potential clients had, because now they really either [00:06:00] had to decide to join the group program or coaches me one on one. And so then they just all funneled into one of those two. One of those two services, and it just made my life a lot easier. It helped me to market it really well. And I took a lot of the content that I'd created in other things and I put it into either the program or the coaching, et cetera.
[00:06:22] Suz Chadwick: So for me, I think if you want to really know what's working, look at that kind of. Profit flow, like where are you in flow? What are your clients want and what is profitable? And if you're taking like all three of those things, I love it. They love it. It's profitable. Then let's take a look at how we really go big with that as well.
[00:06:42] Suz Chadwick: So that's how I sorted my business out. To make sure that I was doing the things that I love. And just to come back to what you said before about doing something that isn't profitable, but that you love is that I do things like supper club. So I have a quarterly dinner with my community where they're really just [00:07:00] paying for the three course meal and a drink.
[00:07:02] Suz Chadwick: And we all come together. Now there's really, that's not profitable for me, but I love it. I love my community. I love going out with them. I just, it's a very chilled, like we'll normally have like maybe 20 to 30 people that come to it. So I, for me, that's just I love to have.
[00:07:21] Danielle Wiebe: So good. And it feeds your soul and it's something that also almost like builds that community aspect of what you do as well.
[00:07:29] Danielle Wiebe: It's almost like a marketing piece as well, but you just love it. So that's awesome. I love that you shared that because I think that, yeah, we can I think also when we, a lot of us, and I see this a lot in our community too, when people start their businesses and they're. Doing all these things and a lot of people will come to me and say Oh, I feel like I have an expensive hobby because, they're doing something that they love.
[00:07:53] Danielle Wiebe: They have it as a business, but it's also costing them money because they're pouring all these. [00:08:00] all of this time and energy and money into it. And they're not getting that profit back. So what do you feel like was a turning point for you? Because you had these events that you were hosting.
[00:08:13] Danielle Wiebe: And I know we talked about this way back when you were on the podcast, but what was that turning point for you where you realized, okay, something needs to change. I need to figure out either how to maybe charge more for what I'm offering, or I need to figure out how to decrease my costs. So that I can make sure that I'm actually making a profit.
[00:08:33] Danielle Wiebe: So when it comes, obviously something like coaching or masterminds, obviously you can raise that price. There's not a ton of overhead, but when it comes to something like, your events and things like that, where was that turning point where you realized, okay, something needs to change here because there's a lot of work and time and effort being put in and maybe not
[00:08:54] Suz Chadwick: profit there.
[00:08:55] Suz Chadwick: Yeah, and I think there's a couple of things is the first thing is [00:09:00] that I can't to a point decrease costs because one of the biggest issues that I have, Danielle, is that I like really nice events. I like things that are fancy. Yeah. And I think for me, when I think about the brand experience that I want clients to have when they come to an event, I'm like, I want it to be in an incredible space.
[00:09:24] Suz Chadwick: And I want to have a feasting menu for lunch. And I want to do a champagne cocktail event afterwards. Like I've got a very set like thing in my own mind about what I would love. And I really had to take a look at, yes, number one, increasing the price for the ticket and really learning how to sell that really well and really communicating my vision for what the opportunity was for people who came along.
[00:09:49] Suz Chadwick: The second thing that I did is that whilst I may not make a lot of profit on the actual event on the day, it was then about what the lead generation strategy was. After the [00:10:00] event to then capture the people who had been there and take a look at what we were going to potentially be selling to them for them to then move to that next stage as well.
[00:10:11] Suz Chadwick: So I don't run obviously after the big C, I haven't been running a lot of events. And so I did run one last October and it was pretty tight. Like it was hard to sell tickets. I feel like people are very comfortable at home these days and to actually get them out can be a little bit of a push, but it was an amazing event and I really loved it.
[00:10:33] Suz Chadwick: And then it was really about. Following up with a lot of those people to see what they needed more help with and how maybe either the mastermind or the bold business academy or coaching could support them in that. So I think you've just got to have that post event strategy.
[00:10:49] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah, that's so good.
[00:10:50] Danielle Wiebe: And it's I love that you said that as well as. You're clear on what your vision is and what you want that experience to be. And then from there, it's figuring out, [00:11:00] okay, how can we, even if the event itself isn't profitable, how can we still make this a profitable experience where maybe it leads into something else?
[00:11:08] Danielle Wiebe: I think that's awesome. I love that. What challenges have you faced in scaling your business? When it comes to whether it be having people like supporting you maybe on your team or what challenges have you faced in scaling and also continuing to run a profitable business that, that you love?
[00:11:29] Danielle Wiebe: Because I think sometimes it's as we grow and as we scale, we always think okay, the more we grow, the more money we're going to make, but it always, it doesn't always. Happen that way, right? And so whether it be from your specific example, or maybe some people that you work with, what do you find is that balance of scaling their business while still being able to.
[00:11:52] Danielle Wiebe: To be really
[00:11:52] Suz Chadwick: profitable. Yeah, I think that because some of the clients that I work with have come from done for you backgrounds[00:12:00] where they're delivering, so they could be web designers, brand designers, copywriters, whatever that might be. And it's really about taking what they're doing now and.
[00:12:10] Suz Chadwick: Starting to reduce it as they build their scalable model. And I think sometimes people think that, Oh, like I'll just jump in. Like I'll just create a program or I'll just do this thing. And it'll just of course it'll only take a month, won't it? For me to be successful and give up like the, the work that I've been doing for the last five years.
[00:12:28] Suz Chadwick: And so I think that there's an expectation management. And then I also think it's about, there is a mindset shift as well when you're looking to scale, because you do need to take a look at how you're going to be more visible, how you're going to start seeing as a leader so that you're attracting the people that you want, how you have the systems in your business where you've got the funnels and things like that.
[00:12:49] Suz Chadwick: And even today as we're recording this is a revenue generation and lead generation day for me. And what that means is that I have set aside the day to take [00:13:00] a look at all my funnels, all of my numbers, where we are with it. Do I need to update email sequences is everything. And I just found a broken link in one of my funnels like today, that's so annoying.
[00:13:12] Suz Chadwick: But I think that. It's a, it requires a different skill set, which is easy to learn, but I think that sometimes people don't realize that where it's actually a different business model. It requires a different mindset. It requires, people who can help you to do things so that you can hopefully stay in your zone of genius more than being doing all the admin, et cetera.
[00:13:35] Suz Chadwick: So I think that those are some things that when you're looking to scale. Those are the conversations that I have a lot with clients and really just supporting them to make the shift, because I think that a lot of people underestimate what it takes to build a scalable business where you are a lot of times in what we're talking about, you are the product.
[00:13:57] Suz Chadwick: Like people are buying, working with [00:14:00] you, they're buying like your information, your thought leadership, what you're bringing, the specific things you're helping them with. And I think that it's not you delivering, say a brand strategy or a website, it's you delivering an outcome and transformation for them.
[00:14:17] Suz Chadwick: And being.
[00:14:21] Danielle Wiebe: Yes. I, okay. That couple things that you said there that I want to make sure people don't miss. So one, I love that you have a day for that. Cause I'm like that. I need to put something like that on my calendar because you're right. Like broken links or things like those type of things happen.
[00:14:38] Danielle Wiebe: And if. Yeah, usually how I find out about that kind of stuff is because someone who's like on my emails will be like, Hey, just want to let you know, I'm like, Oh my goodness. Thank you so I love that you have a day for that. That is so brilliant. So thank you. And then also, I love that you said that, the expectation, I [00:15:00] think this is very common in the business world is this expectation that Okay.
[00:15:06] Danielle Wiebe: You want to do a pivot or you want to scale in this specific way to give yourself maybe a little bit more time freedom or whatever that looks like, but that expectation that it's going to happen within a month. So I'm going to, I'm going to launch this new group program and I'm going to, I'm going to get rid of all my one on one clients and it's going to happen like this.
[00:15:24] Danielle Wiebe: And I love that you said, that's not necessarily how. How it always happens. And so it's really being in it. And this is something that I'm really passionate about too is and the reason I think it's so important for you to be passionate about what you're doing is because you need to be in it for the long haul.
[00:15:44] Danielle Wiebe: It can't just be this like, Oh, I'm going to make all this money from. This thing and it's going to take me a couple months to do it right. You have to be actually like passionate about what you are creating, how you are serving people, what value you're bringing to the marketplace. So thank you for sharing that [00:16:00] because I think that's a really important thing that maybe isn't talked about enough in the online space is how much time it actually takes to build something sustainable and scalable.
[00:16:11] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:16:12] Suz Chadwick: And the other thing I just want to mention with this Danielle, cause I am like one of my. One of my business values is transparency and honesty. And I think that there isn't, I think that we talk a lot about the big revenue months and the successes. And I shared something on Instagram the other day where it's I have actually learned more from the people who have shared their failures and the people who have shared their successes.
[00:16:37] Suz Chadwick: And so I think it's really important for us to talk about these and give a real like overview of it, because I can tell you now, I have had months where I've had the 100, 000 launches and all the rest of it. But even after that, I have had months where I went back down to 10, 15 K. Yeah. And then I came and then I sorted it out and I came back up.
[00:16:57] Suz Chadwick: So I also think that, it's not [00:17:00] like you, you get, you, you're successful and then it's a given that you continue to be successful to have that. I think that. Yeah, like I think it's really important to understand that it it's, there's a whole thing of you build it and then, Oh amazing done.
[00:17:17] Suz Chadwick: And now forevermore, I shall have 100, 000 a month. Is this not how it works? Yeah. And I think the market changes. Things go up and down. I think a lot of people were spending money during COVID. I think that right now people are a little bit tighter, but there's still people spending money, but the way in which we market, the way in which we communicate the value of what we do, you've got to always be shifting and changing that.
[00:17:39] Suz Chadwick: And so it's not a one and done. Yes, there is always work to be done and I think that when you decide to work in the online space now with AI coming and lots of other things happening, you've got to be really agile and you've got to be on top of what's happening and how that impacts your business [00:18:00] and what you're going to do differently.
[00:18:01] Suz Chadwick: Like in the next three, six, 12 months, like you've just got to have a mindset of adaptability.
[00:18:08] Danielle Wiebe: So good. Okay. Brilliant. I feel like we just need to like, just take a pause and just just take it all in. Cause what you just said is so important. And I hope people honestly just watch this again, because I think it's really important to.
[00:18:27] Danielle Wiebe: To know that first and foremost, what we see online too is not the whole story. It never is because you're only seeing a very small glimpse of what's actually happening behind the scenes. And so that comparison can start to come in and we can start to feel discouraged of oh, why isn't this happening for me?
[00:18:44] Danielle Wiebe: Or why isn't this happening? quick enough, or this person had, yeah, a hundred, a thousand dollar month and she's only been in business for three months. Let's be real. Is that really happening here? But there's always a backstory to it. And so I [00:19:00] think, thank you for sharing that because I'm the same way.
[00:19:02] Danielle Wiebe: Like I learned so much from Failures and people sharing that transparent journey of, and I find to people resonate with that and hopefully that's encouraging for people. People resonate with people's failures. Like when I talk about 2020 of how all of our revenue is coming from events and then.
[00:19:20] Danielle Wiebe: And then 2020 happened and then we were like, Oh my gosh, what do we do? That's what resonates with people. And so I think thank you for sharing that. That's so key. Okay, can you tell everyone where people can find you? Where they can connect with you? Because people are probably like, I need more of Suze in my life.
[00:19:37] Danielle Wiebe: So tell people all the places.
[00:19:40] Suz Chadwick: Yeah. So you can find me at Suze Chadwick. com I'm sure the link will be around. Otherwise I've got the Brand Builders Lab podcast where there's at least one episode a week. Otherwise I get really excited and I drop a couple and then I'm Suze Chadwick on all platforms, but I mainly hang out on Instagram.
[00:19:57] Danielle Wiebe: So good. And you have a free gift for us. Can you [00:20:00] share a little bit more about your free resource that you're sharing with us today?
[00:20:04] Suz Chadwick: Yeah. So it's called the simple business buckets method, and it's really just helping business owners to get out of confusion and overwhelm. When it comes to what they focus on in their business.
[00:20:16] Suz Chadwick: And so there's five buckets that you need to be making sure you are working on every single week in order to keep your business profitable and moving in the right direction. And I think posting on Instagram is not really one of the buckets. So I think it's really important to understand like what is going to help my business grow and am I focusing on the right things?
[00:20:39] Suz Chadwick: So I try and keep it as we say simple. I really love clean and simple businesses that are not, hectic and make you feel overwhelmed.
[00:20:49] Danielle Wiebe: Oh, 100%. So good. That's amazing. So definitely download that because it's free. And then for people who are VIPs, our VIP [00:21:00] ladies can you tell us a little bit about what they're going to get as a gift from you?
[00:21:06] Suz Chadwick: Yeah. So this is a course that I built this year. I actually did a live simple sales coaching week at the beginning of the year. And that kind of really got my juices flowing around all of the selling training that I wanted to create. So the sell more mini course takes you through three key things, which is first the simple sales equation, which is all about.
[00:21:29] Suz Chadwick: Like understanding your customers, setting sales goals, tracking your success. The second part takes you through how to sell more around lead generation, traffic, sales strategy. My favorite seven sales concepts to master, which is super fun ways to sell. And then the third section is the simple sales mindset coaching, which was a whole week of coaching that I did.
[00:21:53] Suz Chadwick: 17 lessons in there. That I know that if you go through them, [00:22:00] it will get you into a really positive and proactive sales mindset.
[00:22:06] Danielle Wiebe: Ooh, I am excited for that. That's odd. That sounds amazing. So thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you for joining us. I absolutely loved this conversation. It was so incredibly valuable.
[00:22:19] Danielle Wiebe: So everyone tuning in, definitely connect with Suze. Send her a message on Instagram. Let her know what resonated with you, what your takeaways were. Thank you for being here, Suze, and we'll talk to you very soon.
[00:22:31] Suz Chadwick: Thank you so much.