In this episode of The You World Order Showcase Podcast, host Jill Hart sits down with Ral West, a seasoned business coach and entrepreneur. With over 40 years of experience, Ral shares how she’s built a life of freedom and success through intentional systems and strategies. This discussion provides valuable insights for entrepreneurs seeking to create a smooth-running business that supports their dream lifestyle without constant hands-on management.
From Entrepreneurial Beginnings to Business Success
Ral’s journey began over 40 years ago when she launched her entrepreneurial career with a small business in Anchorage, Alaska. Working primarily in marketing and consulting for the tourism industry, she quickly adapted to the demands of owning a business and fell in love with the freedom it provided. Her family’s background in Alaska tourism also played a role in inspiring her path. Although she grew up in Seattle, she eventually settled in Alaska, where she met her husband and expanded her business endeavors. Over the years, she and her family have owned and sold multiple businesses, each time refining their approach to achieve greater success with less stress.
Creating a Lifestyle-Driven Business
One defining moment for Ral was when her adult daughters encouraged her to share her success strategies with others. They pointed out that many people admired Ral’s ability to balance successful businesses with a life of travel, freedom, and quality time with her family. Recognizing the value of her experience, Ral launched a new business called Ral West – Live the Dream, with a focus on coaching entrepreneurs to build businesses that align with their desired lifestyle. This concept of “having your cake and eating it too” lies at the heart of her coaching philosophy, where she empowers others to craft a business that supports the life they genuinely want.
Adapting to the Online World and Technology
While Ral’s business principles remain timeless, she acknowledges that technology and the digital landscape have drastically changed over the years. Transitioning to an online coaching business presented a learning curve, but Ral embraced the challenge. Despite the overwhelming array of digital tools and AI solutions available today, she remains committed to the core principles she developed over decades. For Ral, it’s less about the specific tools and more about understanding and implementing fundamental business principles that can withstand technological shifts.
The Importance of Systems and Delegation
A major turning point in Ral’s career was the realization that running a business “day-to-day” wasn’t sustainable. Early on, she and her husband found themselves exhausted, handling every aspect of their business as mom-and-pop operators. Over time, they realized that duplicating and delegating their roles was essential for business growth and eventual exit opportunities. Ral emphasizes that a business reliant on its owners for daily operations has limited value for potential buyers or for long-term sustainability. To scale effectively, they hired a COO and CFO to manage day-to-day operations, allowing them to oversee the business from a higher level and enjoy more personal freedom.
Starting with the End in Mind
Ral believes that when starting a business, it’s essential to envision what you want your life to look like. Although some people experience “analysis paralysis” and never take the first step, it’s important to start with a general plan. She advises entrepreneurs to consider whether they want to eventually exit their business, pass it on to family, or continue growing it indefinitely. While specific exit plans may evolve, having a clear vision of what success means to you can guide the direction and decisions you make in your business.
The Role of Authenticity and Finding Your Unique Voice
During the discussion, Ral addresses the concern many new entrepreneurs have about entering a crowded market. She encourages them not to be intimidated by the number of people already offering similar services. Instead, she emphasizes the importance of authenticity and sharing one’s unique voice. Ral believes that each individual has a unique message shaped by their experiences, and there are always people who will resonate with your particular style and approach. She compares it to writing a book—despite the abundance of books, each one adds something new and personal to the world.
Balancing Online and Offline Business Operations
Ral explains that working online often requires different systems from traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. In a physical office, it’s easy to monitor team members and delegate tasks. However, in an online environment, it’s essential to establish accountability systems and clear communication channels. Ral highlights the importance of tracking performance and ensuring transparency with remote team members, which helps maintain a strong sense of connection and productivity even at a distance.
The Freedom That Comes with a Well-Run Business
Ral’s ultimate goal in coaching is to help business owners achieve true freedom. For her, freedom is more than financial independence; it includes the flexibility to take a long, relaxing bath, enjoy time with family, or explore nature. This freedom requires intentional systems and boundaries that prevent the business from consuming every moment of one’s life. Ral advocates for giving yourself permission to step back and gain a 10,000-foot view of the business. She believes that taking time away from the daily grind allows entrepreneurs to gain fresh insights, explore new ideas, and foster growth.
The Power of Tracking and Data in Business
Ral emphasizes the importance of tracking data, whether it’s financial numbers, customer feedback, or productivity metrics. Understanding key performance indicators helps business owners make informed decisions and identify opportunities for improvement. She encourages entrepreneurs to implement quality control and customer satisfaction measures to ensure their products and services consistently meet market needs. Without tracking, Ral warns, it’s easy to miss valuable insights that could improve both business operations and customer experiences.
Overcoming the Fear of Delegation
A common challenge Ral encounters with her clients is the reluctance to delegate. Many entrepreneurs feel that only they can complete a task to their satisfaction. However, Ral emphasizes that holding onto every responsibility only leads to burnout and limits business growth. She advises entrepreneurs to train their team members, document processes, and establish clear procedures so they can confidently delegate tasks. This approach allows business owners to focus on strategic growth rather than being bogged down in daily operations.
Establishing Systems for Accountability and Efficiency
Ral explains that systems don’t always have to be complex or tech-heavy. Simple systems like tracking sales on a spreadsheet or using productivity apps can go a long way in improving efficiency. The key is to establish foundational processes that suit your work style and then grow from there. These systems enable business owners to maintain accountability, track progress, and adapt to changes without being overwhelmed by day-to-day tasks.
Ral’s Ideal Client and Approach to Coaching
Ral’s ideal client is a female entrepreneur between the ages of 35 and 55 who manages a successful business but feels overwhelmed by the daily demands. She works with business owners generating at least half a million in revenue who are ready to implement systems that allow them to scale without sacrificing their personal lives. Ral helps them identify pain points, streamline operations, and delegate effectively, guiding them toward a business that supports their goals instead of consuming their time.
Free Resources for Entrepreneurs
Ral offers two valuable resources on her website: the “6 Essential Secrets to Business Success” guide and a quiz titled “What’s Holding Your Business Back?” These resources provide entrepreneurs with insights into improving their business operations and identifying areas for growth. By sharing these tools, Ral aims to help more business owners experience the freedom and success they desire.
Empowering Entrepreneurs to Live the Life They Want
https://ralwest.com
6 Secrets to Business Success: https://www.ralwest.com/secretsor
Quiz: https://www.ralwest.com/quiz
Ral West’s message is clear: with the right systems, support, and mindset, entrepreneurs can build a business that allows them to live the life they’ve always wanted. Her experience and insights are a powerful reminder that success doesn’t have to come at the cost of personal freedom. By investing in the right processes and embracing delegation, business owners can create a sustainable, fulfilling business that truly serves their vision. For those looking to transform their business into a source of freedom, Ral’s approach offers both inspiration and actionable guidance.
Transcript
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Hi and welcome to the You world order showcase. Podcast I'm your host, Jill Hart. And with us today is Raul West. She is a business coach who helps business owners create a smooth running business so that they can overcome, overwhelm, accomplish more success with less stress, and live the life they deserve. Welcome to the show.
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Ral West: Thank you, Jill. It's a pleasure to be here.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: So tell us your story. How did you get started and
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: coaching business.
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Ral West: Well, the story begins over 40 years ago, which is when I began my entrepreneurial career, and that was with a very small business in anchorage, Alaska. I was doing marketing, consulting, and advertising, and specializing in tourism. My family had been involved in Alaska tourism since before I was born.
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Ral West: I grew up in Seattle, but I migrated to Alaska in my twenties, and that's where I started my business and met my husband, and I've been here ever since.
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Ral West: So we've we've grown, and, you know, owned and sold businesses throughout that 40 years, and it's just in the last, like little over a year ago that my adult daughters prompted me and encouraged me to start teaching people how it is that we've been able to run. All these businesses.
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Ral West: travel. The world have our 2 homes, our yacht, and basically live the life of our dreams. People envy us, and they say, I want to be like you. And so our daughter said, Well, Mom, why don't you just teach them?
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Ral West: You know you know how it is that you got there. So that's what I decided to do. So I started this new business called Ral West, live in the dream. And I've developed an online course that will be launching soon and just working with entrepreneurs to help them have the life that they really want, and have their business too, you know. Sort of a have your cake and eat it, too. Concept.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And that's much easier said than done in today's world. I. I come from the offline world and the online world. When you were for starting out. The Internet wasn't a thing it was. You were knocking on doors and having face to face conversations. I used to call it belly to belly
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: with with people. So it's it's interesting how you've been able to like. Translate all of that over to an online sort of enterprise. And
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: how has that worked for you?
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Ral West: Well, it's a huge learning curve for me, because all the technology that's being used these days is way beyond what I'm used to. But I enjoy learning. I'm kind of a junkie about, you know, learning new things. So that part is fun. But where I the approach that I'm taking is that the concepts
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Ral West: that I've used throughout my 40 plus years as an entrepreneur? Those concepts are timeless. They're like generalized principles, and that doesn't change. Now the execution and implementation of those principles. Of course, that changes like almost day to day these days, particularly with AI.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: 15 min.
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Ral West: Yeah, yeah.
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Ral West: yeah, you know how to use AI, and you know which app or technology or software, whatever is the best? I mean, there's gazillions of choices out there, and it's rather overwhelming. So I'm not going to be necessarily pointing people into like this is the exact software that you need, because it's going to be different for everyone. And there's just so many options. And, as you say, there's a new one, you know, dropping every 1015 min.
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Ral West: So it's really about the philosophies and the principles that you need to engage in your business so that you can operate the business in a way that the business can kind of run itself, and you can oversee the business from a 10,000 foot level, instead of being up to your eyeballs in the day to day, and we were there.
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Ral West: We were totally day-to-day, mom and pop operators of our business, and we figured out that for one thing, we couldn't sustain that because it was exhausting. And it's a wonder we ever conceived 2 daughters, because we were so busy, and that's not sustainable. And we also knew that you can't sell a business or transition to any kind of a meaningful exit. If you are the owner operators of the business.
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Ral West: you have to duplicate yourself and extricate yourself from that day to day to give the business more value. So we figured that out
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Ral West: and grew the systems grew. The team and the culture and everything else that goes along with that, and got to a point where we could hire a coo and a Cfo to run the business for us, and we were able to have our second home on Maui and travel the world. And then eventually we sold our business to Alaska airlines, and that was a beautiful exit.
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Ral West: Of course we didn't stop there. We created some more businesses, and you know we've had some more exits, and and we. We've learned to pivot as the economy changes and the world changes.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Would you say? Let me ask it this way, because I've heard from other business coaches that it's a good idea to have the end in mind when you start a business.
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Ral West: Hmm.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Would you say that's valid advice, or would you say
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: to start.
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Ral West: Well, both, you do need to just start. I mean, some people get that analysis paralysis. And they say, Oh, yeah, I want to really want to do that, but then they let fear and everything else stop them. So you really do need to just jump in and take action. I mean the business that I started. I didn't know what the heck I was doing, and I just opened my doors, and then I kind of learned as I went along, but I think it is a good idea to
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Ral West: have a future plan for yourself personally. You know. What do you want for your life?
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Ral West: And then the business needs to fit that plan. So whether you intend to work forever, that's fine. But how do you want that to look like, and how much time do you want to spend working? And what else do you want to have in your life? And how can the business support that?
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Ral West: So it's it's either, you know. Run the business forever. Pass it on to kids
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Ral West: Exit the business with a sale, whatever. You don't need to have the exact exit figured out. But you do need to have a vision for what your life is going to look like, what you want it to be and go from there.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: I think of it as knowing when you become successful for yourself. What does success look like for you?
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Ral West: Right. How do you do, you know.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: How do you know you've arrived? If you don't have a destination in mind.
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Ral West: Yes, and and that definition of success varies from person to person. Obviously, for some people it's a certain financial achievement that they're looking for like I need to make X amount of money a month or a year, or I need to have a net worth of X amount
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Ral West: before I can feel like I made it, or for other people. It's lifestyle. You know what, how they want to live their lives. And for some people the the material possessions, and the money is not as meaningful as the the quality of life.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Yeah, to all of those things.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Interesting. How
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: I I've been an entrepreneur for 40 years. Also, I
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: we're probably about the same age. And
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: it's interesting how so many things have changed. But the fundamentals always stay the same.
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Ral West: yes, exactly.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And it's really all about relationships and and getting to know people. And
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: ultimately, it's having an offer and an audience that wants your offer.
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Ral West: Yes, that's true. A long time ago we had a mentor. Tell us that you've got to find the pain.
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Ral West: you know, find the pain point, and then figure out how you can take away that pain. And then you know that you've got a product that people want.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Yes, and and and be able to present it to the people that have that pain.
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Ral West: Yeah.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: To present it to everyone, because it's going to be very frustrating
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: and ultimately very expensive for you to just like.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: which is an easy thing to do today because of social media.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: It's because we tend to like, go out there, just plaster our stuff everywhere. And then you're not really talking to your ideal audience
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: for the most part, I mean, there are some people that are really lasered in on it, but most entrepreneurs when they're just starting out, or they're becoming coaches, or they're just
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: they've got. They've got the training to do the thing that they want to do. But they get confused as to where the message needs to go.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And so their message gets really diluted, and it ends up.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: not really reaching anybody.
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Ral West: Well, people try to be that one size fits all. And that's not necessarily needed
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Ral West: and another thing that i've heard many times is that? People say, Oh.
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Ral West: you know, I can't do that because there's already thousands of people offering that.
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Ral West: And and then I've been told you know what! There's only one you.
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Ral West: So there's only one you that's delivering your message in your way, and there's going to be people that will hear it from you better than from someone else. So don't be intimidated by the idea that you know there's there's too many others already doing that. I mean, it's sort of like saying, Oh, why write a book? There's too many books being written. We don't need another book written.
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Ral West: really. Well, no, that's not true. It's always room for another, because there's a different message from each of us. Each of us have a gift, a message, a mission, and we need to follow that and realize that there will be an audience, for that
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Ral West: might not be millions of people. But does it need to be.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Exactly it. I've interviewed so many coaches over the last year and a half that
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: a lot of them do are doing the same things. I mean, ultimately, all coaches do the same starts with your internal work, and
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: and then your messaging and the just, the fundamentals, because the fundamentals are the fundamentals. But
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: everybody brings something unique to the
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: to the program. And and even if their modalities are the same, like, you know.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: 47 people do reiki
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: they don't all do it the same way, and they don't. They don't.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: They don't all have the same extra things that they add to the the equation. And it just it makes
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: it makes it so interesting to find out what they're doing and how they're doing it and who they're sharing it with.
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Ral West: Which is.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: A lot of why I do what I do. Yeah.
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Ral West: I mean, it's it's like, you know, every fingerprint is unique. Well, each one of us is unique because we bring to the table all of our experience and everything that we've learned. It's a it's a multi faceted background that you're bringing into your work. Nobody can duplicate that
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Ral West: Buddy.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: No, they can't, and that's what makes it so special.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: So do you work mainly one on one with people? Or do you do group coaching. How does your program work.
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Ral West: Well, mostly, I'm developing this online course so that I can get to a broader range of people that way. And you know, I have a lifestyle that that I am protective of. We love to travel, and I love to spend time with my family and friends, so I don't want to
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Ral West: be tied to a 1 on one coaching kind of schedule. So I figured that the online coaching would give me the ability to get the message to people that need it.
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Ral West: and do it in a in a cost, effective manner for them, and allow me the freedom to live the lifestyle that I want, and down the road there'll probably be some more group coaching and maybe a mastermind group and so forth. But for right now I'm just focusing on getting the online course out there. And it's going to be an affordable price. And it will make a difference
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Ral West: in people's lives if they take the course and actually implement what I'm suggesting. They'll find that they have freedom.
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Ral West: And that's ultimately what most of us want is freedom.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: I'm freedom.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: financial freedom.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: all the freedoms.
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Ral West: Freedom to just, you know, take a long hot bath. If you want to have the time to do that.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Yeah. It's a thing.
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Ral West: Yes, it's.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: So real thing.
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Ral West: Take that walk in the woods, and you know what whatever it is that that floats your boat. You know.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And taking time for yourself really does actually help your business.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: It's it's in those quiet moments when you're not in the grind
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: that
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: allows your mind to like, wander, and and conjure up new ideas and new paths and new directions, that you can go in and.
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Ral West: Absolutely.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Opportunity right now that it's kind of crazy.
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Ral West: Yeah, I talk about the fact that you need to be able to float up to that 10,000 foot level to look at your business and work on it instead of in it. And if you don't give yourself that time for that perspective.
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Ral West: you know it.
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Ral West: you're gonna end up someplace that maybe you didn't intend to, because you haven't had the opportunity to really think about what direction you want to take things. And you know, probably the 1st 10 or 20 years of my career. I didn't know that, and I didn't practice that. And
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Ral West: you know I suffered because of it. So I learned my lesson, and I am now giving myself that gift of that free time.
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Ral West: Pete.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: You can begin to resent what you're doing as though you're resenting a boss.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: If you've ever worked for someone else, because your your business becomes your boss, and unless you take control of it and set your boundaries with it.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: it could take off a life of its own. And suddenly you're like
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: spending all your time taking care of it when you don't really have to.
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Ral West: Yes, I say that your business owns you instead of you owning the business, and that's not what most people want. They get excited about being an entrepreneur and saying, Oh, I can chart my own course, you know I can do it, whatever I want to do, and then pretty soon no, they're totally engulfed and overwhelmed. And it's like, Oh, you know what happened to my life.
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Ral West: Everything is about the business, and that's not the way most people really want it to be.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: No. And again that I think
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: it goes back to our. My earlier point was that, knowing what success looks like for you, and
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: and charting a little bit. Of a course you you do need to get started. I mean, getting started is like
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: you have to get out there. But you need to pay attention to numbers. You need data. You need the feedback you need to like.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Take the 10,000 foot view from time to time and say.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: what what is good about what's happening? What isn't so good? What do I need to change? And why? Why is this working? And why maybe, isn't that working
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Ral West: Absolutely. That's that's part of my course. I love it.
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Ral West: Yeah.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Just the fundamentals. You know, the fundamentals are the fundamentals. But most people, when they become entrepreneurs, don't understand what the fundamentals are.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And so they just jump in and they start, you know, maybe they spend some money and build a website because they heard they needed to build a website.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: You don't need a website.
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Ral West: It depends on what you're selling and to whom? As to whether you need a website. So yes.
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Ral West: and you know it, it's there's always a and it depends.
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Ral West: but yeah, you're right. I mean, some of these principles have been taught for many, many years. I mean Napoleon Hill, you know, wrote his think and grow rich. What are the 1930 s. Or something? And
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Ral West: there's a total quality management system that Deming did in the
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Ral West: 40 s. And 50 s. And that's that's all about using data to
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Ral West: measure your progress and
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Ral West: put quality control measures into place. And all of that
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Ral West: that hasn't changed. I mean the techniques that you use and the software and so forth. Yeah, that's that's all new stuff.
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Ral West: But it's really the same point.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: it's totally the same point, and it
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: it's it's easy to just
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: say, Oh, those are just numbers.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: I don't like math
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: and and wander off into the Thule's. But you're going to find yourself off in the Toolys if you don't pay attention to it.
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Ral West: Absolutely you. You really do need to track
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Ral West: where you are. And it's not just about the financial numbers, too. I mean, there's numbers in terms of you know what kind of customer satisfaction you have. You know you have to measure. You know what
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Ral West: what your feedback is, and and have a system in place to gather that feedback, and if you don't, then you're missing out. You know you can't craft your product to meet the market's needs unless you know what it is. Your market is liking and not liking about whatever your product is.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And it even gets down to how many people you need to reach out to
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: in terms of advertising, because everybody's got to advertise as much as
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: I. I talk about coaches a lot because I work with coaches, mostly life, health, and transformational coaches. So
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: from my experience, they they tend to be more feeling related rather than
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: data related, and
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: and they wander into trouble
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: with that, because then they find themselves burning out, and they don't understand why, they're burning out, and they don't want to talk about things like marketing, which is just a fancy word for advertising, getting your message out in front of people.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: and
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: and it's a if you don't know what numbers you need to hit.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: or how to use the marketing or advertising effectively. And I'm not even talking about paid advertising it
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: free advertising things like posting on social media, coming on podcasts, doing it succinctly and strategically rather than randomly, which a lot of people do.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: is important, and it's it's all comes back to the numbers. And knowing your numbers and.
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Ral West: You. You have to know where your business is coming from, and there is such a thing as acquisition cost.
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Ral West: What? What does it cost you for each customer or client that you're bringing in. And how do you know that? Well, you're not gonna know that unless you're doing some tracking and some measurements.
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Ral West: And then you can make decisions as to well, do I need to actually place ads on Facebook or Linkedin? Or is it enough to do the organic social media or am I gonna do emails, or is it? Is it just one on one networking that works best?
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Ral West: You're not gonna know that unless you're doing some tracking, you know, maybe just going to Chamber of Commerce Meetings, and you know, doing the old handshake and one on one stuff. Maybe that's what works really well for your business. But you're not gonna know that unless you're tracking it.
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Ral West: Yep.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: For sure. So
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: who are your ideal clients?
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Ral West: Well, my! My ideal customer, avatar, if you will, is
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Ral West: female entrepreneur, aged like 35 to 55 who's running a business. That's that's fairly successful, probably at least half a million in volume. And they've gotten to the point where it's. You know, it's
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Ral West: pretty
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Ral West: good-sized organization, and they're swamped.
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Ral West: and they're totally overwhelmed with that day-to-day operation. And that's where they need the help.
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Ral West: And they need to learn how to create systems. So that's the person that has that pain point that I was talking about earlier. The pain is
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Ral West: you know I want to grow my business, but I don't have time to take on anymore, because I'm so busy just handling what I've got. And yeah, I've got people working for me. But it seems like I spend all my time telling them what to do and answering their questions, and I'm not able to get out and drum up more business, or figure out what my next move is. So they need to be able to step back
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Ral West: to that 10,000 foot level that I was we were talking about, and that's what I can help them with. I can help them see where there might be a a opportunity for a system.
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Ral West: And sometimes systems involve training. Learning how to delegate learning how to develop your team, how to create the the processes and procedures and put them in writing so that other people can do what you do.
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Ral West: and that you don't have to be at their constant beck and call to answer the questions about how am I supposed to do this. And what is this? You know? What do we do when this happens? Well, it takes some time, but you have to document all of that and be able to share it in order for other people to do what you do.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And you'll reach ceilings
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: along the way, and to even to get to the 500,000 level.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: You'll have hit other milestones, and
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: those people will recognize. Okay, I need. I need, I need more systems because the systems that have gotten me.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: you know, from 0 to 100,000. You could pretty much do yourself
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: from 100 to 500. You're starting to put systems in that. They're they're like, you're saying you're you're doing.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: You're wearing all the hats. You're just trying to get people to kind of help you.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: But you're still really doing everything yourself.
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Ral West: Yes, and I find that
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Ral West: there's a lot of resistance to delegate
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Ral West: to let go
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Ral West: like. Well, I want to control this, because I you know. I know how how it's supposed to be done. Nobody else does.
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Ral West: And you you can't get caught in that. In order to have it done right. I need to do it myself. Kind of mentality, because you're just sentencing yourself, you know, being a slate.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Your business.
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Ral West: Yes, yes, you're absolutely a slave to your business. And and I also find that even though there's a lot of talk about systems, I'm not sure that there's really the understanding of systems that goes along with that.
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Ral West: Some people say the word systems. And they're just thinking about, you know, huge technology based systems like, you know, like Amazon has, or Uber or something. But systems can sometimes be very, very simple and overlooked, you know, like.
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Ral West: get a spreadsheet to record. Certain statistics or processes, you know, have some tools, whether it's a calendar, or, you know some kind of productivity app or somehow get yourself organized, and whatever it takes for you to work within a particular process to be comfortable for you. That's what you need to do.
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Ral West: and it starts with that, and and then you can grow into other systems. But I think that we need to kind of get back to the basics of well, what really is a system. And how can we employ the most simple, most elementary systems to begin with.
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Ral West: and then grow from there.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Part of the problem stems from being online when people are trying to run online businesses versus working and
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: the physical world.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: When you went to your office. There were systems already there, and whatever position you were in, whether you were the owner or an employee, you knew what you were supposed to be doing, and the systems, by virtue of the fact that you walked in the door.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And maybe you're bringing people into your business to work for you. You tell them what to do, and you could kind of keep an eye on them. But when it comes to working online.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: you're not really watching them.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: So you it's harder to like, just glance around the office and see who's doing what.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And so there's this feeling of disconnect that
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: maybe they're not really working.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: How do I know.
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Ral West: So. So some of those systems need to be for accountability. Then.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Right.
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Ral West: How do you know? How do you set up an accountability system that works from a distance.
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Ral West: If if a lot of your team members are remote, which nowadays many are, how do you know what they're doing? But there are standard operating procedures that can be put into place, and there can be reporting systems so that you can see the output and track. You know what they're doing
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Ral West: so, whether you're using a virtual assistant.
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Ral West: or what, or whatever. And there's there's ways to keep track of that.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Yeah, there are i i i know that there are. But a lot of people don't, really. It doesn't
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: like when they're they're doing it all themselves. And then the idea
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: that this there are actually ways that you can grow and expand, and you don't have to have a physical office to do it. You can.
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Ral West: Correct.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Like us.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Yeah, amazing with what you're doing.
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Ral West: It nowadays. Well, I say, nowadays it makes me sound like a dinosaur. But
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Ral West: We can be so creative
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Ral West: about how we want to run a business, you know. It doesn't have to be brick and mortar like, you know it did many years ago, and we can establish our own hours
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Ral West: we can establish our own processes. I mean our products. It's wide open. So be creative. But understand, like we've been saying is that you've got to track some data. You've got to know where your customers are. You've got to certainly track the finances so that you know what you're being paid, and and make sure that your costs are in line with what your revenue is. You don't want to be
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Ral West: charging too little to, you know you need to cover what it's gonna cost you to bring in those customers. And and you have some infrastructure. Even if you're working from your home, you know, you have Internet, you have computers, and so on, and so forth. There's things that have to be paid for. So you know, you need to take all of that into account.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: And you need to have some accounting system.
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Ral West: Absolutely, and you don't need to do it yourself.
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Ral West: That's that's 1 of the 1st things that I would outsource is like the bookkeeping.
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Ral West: Get somebody else to do that. And and I've got all kinds of systems for communicating with my bookkeepers who are remote. They're thousands of miles away from me, and yet I can communicate with them from wherever in the world I am.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: It's been very fascinating.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: I know that you offer a quiz and another
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: value
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: offer.
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Ral West: Yes, I have a a, a document called the 6 Essential Secrets to business success.
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Ral West: That's kind of a tongue, Twister. But that's available on my website and for free as well as a quiz that you can answer the question, what's holding your business back?
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Ral West: And we'll give you some feedback when you when you take that quiz, and you just need to go to wwwlwest.com RALW. est.com real simple.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: We'll be sure and put that link in the show notes below this episode.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: So, Val, this has been really a fascinating discussion.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: What's the one thing that you hope the audience takes away from our conversation today.
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Ral West: I believe that there are no limits to what you can do.
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Ral West: and you do have the ability to craft the life that you really want, and you deserve it. So go for it, and just make sure that you have the mentors and the the support system that you need, so that you can get things done and still have the life that you want.
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Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist & Host of the You World Order Showcase Podcast: Awesome. Thank you so much for joining me.
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Ral West: Yeah, thank you. Jill.