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Emma McQueen

Emma being Emma

Switching off – the ultimate challenge

| Action Station, Emma being Emma

Recently, as you may know, I was in Perth. I was testing my new white paper out to see if it resonated with the women around the table, and we were talking about my three-week vacation that is coming up. I was asked if I would be working and I told the table that I was currently negotiating with my husband as to how many hours I could work, being in small business, it doesn’t stop. Do you know what I love about the women I work alongside? If I say something that doesn’t make sense, they challenge me, and one of the women at the table asked me why I couldn’t switch off totally, this is a woman who has her own multi-million dollar business, has a number of staff, and as she told me, she thought she couldn’t have a holiday either, until really recently which she just needed to switch off.

Truth bomb: no one is going to miss me, and I can switch off.

The story I was telling myself is that I couldn’t take a break, the wheels needed to keep turning, but it was bollocks! I have two competent women who work with me and can hold down the fort, and I went into my own biz to design the life I want, why can’t I take some time off? What’s the point if you can’t do this kind of stuff!

Here’s what’s going to happen if I don’t do this:

I won’t be allowing myself a proper break, which I will then feel resentful about, even though I would have done it to myself.

I wouldn’t be walking the talk of women taking care of themselves and switching off, and finally but really should be first, my family are going to be very grumpy with me!!!

So, here’s my plan:

  1. Work out what needs to continue
  2. Put the out of office on
  3. Talk to the team about what they need
  4. Have a re-entry plan

Here it is in a little more thought and detail:

  1. Work out what needs to continue and ask for help, for instance, the weekly treat I send out to my subscribers, we mapped out who could contribute from a guest perspective, and this also means further amplification of other voices, which I love! It also means the lovely Jess will be taking over and giving us a look at life at Team McQueen.
  2. I would love to write a creative out of office that sends the message that I am on holidays without guilt and having a bluddy ace time! Watch this space…
  3. Talk to the team about how and if they can contact me. Shiz can go wrong, right? I know that either Serena or Jess can manage anything that gets thrown at them, I also know that they have each other’s backs, so we will dial up their meetings together (they live in different states) to ensure they feel fully supported. 
  4. Have a re-entry plan. We all know how much it sucks when you come back from holidays, and there are a ton of things that need to be sorted through. Mentally preparing for this will be necessary and being gentle on myself as I do this will be essential. 

So, here’s to switching off, with permission from myself, asking and receiving help from others and having some awesome guest contributors along the way. What about you? Do you get to switch off? How do you manage it?

I’m Emma, and I’m a business and executive coach who believes wholeheartedly in the potential of women. My coaching philosophy is simple- taking action leads to results- and I love working with women in business and in corporate roles to take their passion and drive and transform their professional and personal lives.

Be enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic, every day.

Em x

Are you worth it?

| Challenges for Women, Emma being Emma, Passion and Purpose

I don’t think I have been called arrogant, well not out loud at least! One thing is for sure- I know my worth. When I first stepped foot into my business full time, I knew I was not the cheapest. I knew that I might be seen as expensive. And I knew that the right people would find me, or I would find them. 

A potential client named Anne called me. She had been highly recommended to have a conversation with me about some career coaching. We talked about what an engagement would look like, what she wanted out of it, and what we thought we could do together. I didn’t dilly dally on price. I just put it out there, and if she thought it was valuable and that I could help, we would do business. If she didn’t, we wouldn’t, no hard feelings.

I had been talking to Anne about the type of women I had helped get paid what they were worth, doing jobs they loved. She was very excited. Towards the end of our conversation, she asked me if I would discount my price because she felt I was too expensive. Boy – this was a challenging and ironic conversation to be having. I had a choice to make- to play above the line or below the line.  

Not one to shrink from a challenge and an opportunity to use my courage in a subject I am very passionate about, it will be no surprise to you that I chose above the line. I told her that it didn’t feel right for me to be discounting my price based on her perception, and that I talk about getting paid your worth and she had asked me to discount that. The irony was a little lost on Anne. You see, if you don’t value yourself, no one else will. 

Time and again I see women accepting positions, career changes, and salary that I know are lower than what they are worth. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, even though the percentage of women in leadership roles has increased, pay equity still requires work with the gender pay gap sitting at around 15%.

The thing is that we, as women, ARE DOING IT TO OURSELVES. Not all the time, not in every situation, but when we talk about “women supporting women”, I don’t think we mean “my friend has a new business, so I will ask her for a discount”. Rather, it means “my friend has a new business, so I will pay full price, AND I will tell everyone I know about her new business, AND I will do whatever I can to support her”. Am I right?

So, how does one start to make an impact? Here’s what I do:

  1. I choose to play above the line.
  • I choose to see it as my issue.
  • I give some alternatives.

I choose to play above the line because I refuse to play any other way. I was clear with Anne about what she was asking for and told her how I felt about the ask that she was making.

I choose to see it as my issue. I had not demonstrated enough value to make it worthwhile for Anne, and in no way did I excuse myself from the conversation.

I gave her some alternatives in the form of some online courses, reading and some other coaches to contact.

My point is, if you do not value yourself, no one else will. Why should they? Why should someone else value you if you do not value yourself? And if you do not value yourself – why not? What can you do to help lift your self-esteem, to push away those loud voices in your head telling you that you are not worth it? 

Here is where the rubber hits the road (I don’t even know why that expression has been coined that way really), but there is only one person who can fix this, yes, it is you. it’s getting some help to come up with some strategies to park that voice. I work with many women who struggle with this as well. If you would like some help with this, reach out, I would love to have a chat. 

90 Day Sprints

| All Posts, Emma being Emma

I work in 90 day sprints. What is a 90 day sprint I hear you ask? Put simply, each quarter I take 3 days out of my business to work on my business. The time is used to review what I have been doing and assess what is working and what isn’t working. It is also used to plan what it is I want to do next. I then I apply all I have reviewed and worked on over the 3 days to the next 90 days and repeat this process quarterly.

While fast paced, this model of working has been an absolute game changer for me. It is so easy as a small business owner to get caught up in the day to day working in your business when there is a very big need to work on your business in order to be able to grow it.

I find that physically removing myself from my business is the best way to tackle the 3 days away from my business. Unfortunately, being physically around and available will often distract you from the “working on” the business and pull you back to “working in”. If you don’t have the capacity to physically remove yourself, perhaps try to block time in advance and advise staff and family of your intentions to help minimise distractions.

Where you place these 3 days (or however many days you can manage) within in the year is up to you. I know some people like the idea of aligning these sprints with business quarters as it allows them to also take time to do the behind the scene administration that is required to keep your business afloat (i.e. BAS, tax etc), therefore holistically approaching their overall business planning. I deliberately steer clear of these times, as that’s when I find client work is at its heaviest. It will vary for each business.

The 90 days will generally allow you sufficient time to test your offering and how you have packaged it to your client.

If it is successful (and you will need to have your own pre-determined measures for success in place), great! You have a new offering for clients.

If it fails it is usually for one of three reasons:

1. You didn’t provide enough value for people to think it was worth it
2. You didn’t sell it very well or
3. It wasn’t the right time for the market.

To me failure is no big deal, you ditch what doesn’t work and you move on. There may be time again in the future to test again at a more appropriate time when you have had time to review and reconsider. Sometimes we have an idea that we think is great but for whatever reason the market doesn’t agree, and it is a flop. The beauty of taking time out to review and asses is that you are able to kill off these ideas and take time to recreate something that the market will want/need instead.

However, in saying the above, there is no hard and fast rule about the 90 days. In some cases, the 90 days may need to be extended. For example, I launched Thriving Women Perth. As Perth is a completely new market to me and I am not based there, I have allowed some extra time to enable me to develop the connections and audience I need to trial it in a fuller capacity. Realistically I will most likely allow a full year before I make a decision on this particular program. But for most of my Melbourne-based programs and packages, as this is where I am located and I already have an existing audience, 90 days is generally sufficient for me to test the waters and have an idea if it will be successful or not and be able to make a call accordingly.

I encourage all small business owners to take time out of their business to work on their business. For me the benefits of doing so have been absolutely vital;

  • It has kept my business fresh
  • It has allowed me to try new ideas (and quickly cull them if they weren’t working)
  • It has allowed me to pivot when ideas are not working or when a need in the market changes

If you would like to know more about how this works; you would like some clarity in your business; or if you would like to meet me, see below links on ways to work meet/work with me:

Lunch with the Queen

Clarity session

Be enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic every day.

Em x

Why the Eyeroll? Busting Myths about Coaches

| All Posts, Emma being Emma

I was at a networking function a few months ago and I had been chatting to a woman who was telling me all about her job, and her current set of circumstances. When she asked me what I did I explained that I helped women thrive through business coaching. Her response? She rolled her eyes at me.

Just to give some context, this happens to me A LOT, so I am used to it (yet I still find it slightly offensive). 

At this point in our conversation, I had two choices;
1. Ignore it and carry on with the conversation or
2. Bring it to the surface and deal with it.
 

The last year has seen me grow personally and professionally and this has challenged me to be true to who I am and speak my mind in a loving way. Have you heard the saying “above the line”? To work out if you are living above the line or below the line, you look at the choices you are making in any given situation and how that choice can have positive or negative outcomes. Above the line responses are direct, hope inspired, positive choices and being accountable whereas below the line responses are making excuses, having a victim mentality, staying stuck and seeing problem after problem. If you would like to read more about this, click here. 

If I had said nothing or been passive, I would have played below the line, but I made a choice to play above the line. Here’s what happened next . . .

When she took a breath, I asked her why she had rolled her eyes at me when I told her my occupation. She said that she didn’t think it was obvious that she had done so. I pushed on and asked her if she had had a bad experience with a coach? Her response was that she thought “life coaching” was a waste of time. I reiterated that I was a business coach AND that there are a many styles of coaching out there and each style brings it’s own experience.

I work with many women who don’t have the confidence to speak up and deal with people like this and it make me angry! What would have happened if I wasn’t confident in my own ability? What would have happened if I had just started my business and having an interaction like that knocked me around a bit, or even worse, if comments like that made me think I was no good at the work I do?

The conversation ended well and I went on to talk to some other people. To my surprise, the next day I received an email of apology from her. Along with her apology she wanted to ask me something. She asked if I would consider coaching her!

I get it, I honestly do, there are many people out there doing coaching. It’s the fad of the moment. There are also many people out there wondering if they got their value for money when they have engaged a coach.

So, Why do I care what people think of my profession? I love what I do, and I truly believe that with the right coach on board people have the opportunity to reach new potential that they may not have otherwise.

What do these constant misconceptions mean for the coaching industry? Unfortunately, when people are uneducated as to what coaching is and the different styles of coaching available, coaching is often generalised as a negative experience. And unfortunately, yes, like in any industry there are some opportunistic people who are not genuinely looking out for their clients, they are not qualified and do not offer true value. But when engaging any type of service, you need to do your homework and ensure that you are working with an industry professional.

And what does the myriad of coaching options available mean for you, when you are looking for a coach? It means that you need to be calculated when engaging a coach. You need to do your due diligence.

Here are questions to ask yourself that gets you a little closer to selecting the right coach for you.

Why do I want a coach and what do I want to achieve?
Asking this question will help determine the type of coach you are searching for. As I mentioned earlier, there are so many styles of coaching available. It is important to determine your why and what before you start so that you engage the right coach for you.

Am I willing to invest in a coach AND do the work necessary?
Unless you are willing to invest and do the work you will not see results. 

Have they come recommended from a credible source? Who else have they worked with?
Results speak for themselves. 

How do their credentials stack up? Do they have any? Do they have experience?
Does the coach you are engaging have credentials to support the work they are doing? What methodology do they use in their work? What experience in their industry and yours do they have? 

And finally.. Do I like them and trust them enough to hire them?
This is a big one, coaching is all about trust. So if you don’t feel like you are aligned, find another coach.

The type of coaching that is best suited to you and your situation will be an individual choice. Asking these questions will ensue that you are on track to find the right coach and get the most out of your coaching experience. 

If you are ready to engage a coach, together with Jenny Boymal from Your Ideal Customer we are launching a new Chaos to Confidence program. 

Chaos to Confidence is a 6 hour strategy coaching program that, like everything we do, is results-focused and action-based. It is exactly as it’s named- we move through what you may see as the chaos of your business to a place of clarity and confidence, where you have a clear strategy to move forward with your business, not only a strategy but an action plan with a step by step guide to implement straight away. We take a deep dive into your business, ask the big W questions. ‘Who’ are you are targeting, ‘What’ you do which drives your bottom line – your services and ‘How’ will you get the services visible to your ideal customers.

What’s included:  

· A questionnaire to complete  

· A 1.5 hour session with Jenny Boymal to work through the “WHO”  

· A 3 hour session with Emma McQueen to work through the “WHAT”  

· A 1. 5 hour session with Jenny Boymal to work through the “HOW”  

· A strategy and action plan to implement straight away  

· Phone and email access to both Jenny and Emma 

For more information on this program check it out here