Episode #37 – Lisa Bean – Honest, Straight Talking Advice That WILL Make You A Better…

Podcast Introduction and Purpose 0:00

Welcome to the Startup Support Surgery podcast, where we light the entrepreneurial spark in medics and healthcare professionals. Join me, Dr. Jo Watkins, GP, business coach and co-founder of The How People, on a journey to discover where your medical know-how meets the business world. This will help you find some clarity on how to balance work, passions and family so that you can gain more freedom and control over your life but also continue to help people, which is actually why most of us went into medicine to start with.

Embarking on this entrepreneurial adventure is not easy. It is a roller coaster of emotions, but it's hugely rewarding and exciting in the process. Drawing in on my 20 years of blending medicine and business as a GP, I am here to share experiences, insights and lessons. Expect lively chats, expert interviews and real life stories from medics who have taken their own path. Let's break free from traditional healthcare norms and explore more innovative ways of making a real difference to people's health and wellbeing, along with paving the way for a brighter future for us as healthcare professionals.

Oh, don't miss my free PDF called From Stethoscope to Startup, which is an 11-page guide in the show notes full of practical help and advice. This is your roadmap to kick-starting your journey with us. Enjoy the Show. I have been very excited about this week's podcast. Lisa Bean is a UK based business coach, motivational speaker and bestselling author. Through her courses, video content and live events, she shows entrepreneurs the truth about what it takes to make sales in your business,

Lisa Bean's Background and Unique Edge 1:44

especially when you're purpose driven. We go into this at great length in this podcast. It is a really honest discussion. There's gonna be stuff in there you don't wanna hear, but if you are in the entrepreneurship game or you thinking about starting, please listen to this episode. Lisa is now running her third six-figure business. But it's not been an easy ride, as you will hear in podcast, she's generated over seven figures in personal sales, and she's coached hundreds of founders and teams across the UK.

As you will hear, Lisa is known for her bold honesty, talking truthfully about how hard business really is and what's required to succeed. Lisa, is the author of The First Shit Version, which is her first book, and as you'll hear she is currently busy completing her second book which she'll tell us about at the end of the podcast. I cannot wait to have this conversation. And Lisa gave me three facts for today, and I would like to pull all three of those out in our interview. You've been at five different schools before the age of 11. That had impact on people and what they do.

Military kid. birth, possibly shoulder dystocia or something. It sounds like you were shanked out. Oh, my goodness, Jo, I forgot. Of course, you're a doctor. You know, that's exactly what I've got. But I didn't know. I had to Google that in my 20s. That's what's I got, shoulder dysplasia or dyslogia. Yep. When you send me that message to say you are basically pulled out of birth. I've just basically told you mum you were pretty much paralysed you might never want to talk. Yes. That is the ultimate obstetric emergency situation so that is and that's left you with a disability with that right arm.

So yeah amazing you're an amazing human and obviously I don't suppose your parents for one minute thought that you'd be doing what you doing now. That's the miracle of it all, that's why it's so funny. But when I was younger, I thought, why did I have to deal with this? Like, this is such a difficult thing, you know, when you're a teenager and you growing up. And I went to military boarding school, we marched on parade, it just put such as spotlight on it. but without that, i don't think I'd have the humility and empathy that I've got for other people and how hard it is for them to stand on stage or do a different thing.

I'm like, yeah, no, they're like no you don t know you re really good. No, like I know I m only here because I walked through what you are walking through now. what a miracle it is. It is a complete miracle and we are going to talk a lot about that. I think visibility is the big thing. But I can't go without mentioning the fact that you are an unplanned tortoise mother, is that correct? It was an unplanned pregnancy. Yep, I am a tortoise mother. But the thing is, it's like having a prehistoric little dinosaur upstairs.

Lucy, who's my other half, said her daughter really wanted a pet tortoises. I said, oh, that's amazing. Of course we'll get a Tortoise. And it transpired over a couple of years. Bella didn't want a tortoise, never crossed her mind. Lucie wanted to tortooise and so through her daughters, she has a And I'll get in trouble for saying this. I was gonna say Lucy doesn't even look after the tortoise. She does and she would. But because I work from home. Yeah, I'm now responsible caregiver. Which is no mean feat, you know, they need these stuff these tortoises.

So I love All three of you are fun. It's absolutely awesome. But let's just guess. I mean, I know that we could talk for hours because we do sometimes and we've worked together over the last year or so. And I and I love everything you do. Literally hanging on your every word. So let's start with what does it take to run an online business and what you're doing? You're out there talking about online Business. I want to talk about networking and all the stuff you've done recently But what is it? Take like how did you get into this and?

What does take and and you know, let start without and see where we go. Yeah Great question. So what it takes is sacrifice. That's the first word I'm going to use. Nobody likes it, but it a lot of sacrifice, it take a commitment and you've got to your personal edge. The first one, sacrifice there's so much on social media that says or makes you believe that if you start posting and it's dead easy, do a YouTube, export it making audio, use Canva, that you can be an entrepreneur and that can run a business but you cant for so many reasons because It's so important that you build an audience, you add value with that audience and you built a brand.

If you think it's going to take you three months or even a year to get off the ground, You've been misinformed and it is not your fault. Social media advertising have used those messages to Get you into their courses and programs. But I always say to people, two to four years to start making a living, doing what you love if you commit. So the sacrifice is, are you willing to either let it take longer or work twice as hard as you're already working? And I think this is especially hard if you're a doctor or you are in a medical profession because, you know, and even if, I, think, if your mom, a parent life is so full, there's not enough space as it is.

So if go into this and say, i'm going to build a business, You have to honestly make the decision. I'm willing to sacrifice a chunk of my life towards this. so you've got to want this, it's is not going happen by accident. You're going make it happen. The sacrifice bit is, can you do this for two to four years? and risk not being paid in that time. If you're that committed, you'll probably make it and you probably get paid sooner as well. The second thing is you've got to be so committed. You can't get to the end of the day and say, Oh, I've done enough today.

That'll do. And this is dangerous territory. I'm going to get into here, but we'll get. At the end of the day, if you said you were going to send that email, If you knew you could just edit that video and get it up, the people who do that make it and the People who don't don t make It because it's not about the action, it s about The energy of The person. It's a behavior trait. That's what it is. And the I said it's dangerous territory because we then get into the territory of I don't deserve a break, I didn't work hard enough, the Territory of Burnout, and we can come back and talk about all of that.

I actually have a view that burnout is quite often something that happens when you're working so hard on the wrong things, so you are not being rewarded for it, you don t have the money to then afford a brake or treat yourself to something and make it worthwhile, it just doesn't feel worthwhile.

Sacrifice, Commitment, and Entrepreneurial Mindset 8:12

And then the third thing you need, if you really want to make it in an online business is you have got to dig really deep and ask what is unique about me? What is special about? Me, what does a gift I was born with? And you've got a milk it for all it's worth. So there is something you. Have everybody listening. You've. Got a unique edge, a. Unique skill. something because of your background. You might not even recognize it as being a unique thing, but other people talk about it to you mention it in passing and you say, Oh, you know, it's just something this is the thing that will separate you from other People online.

This is The thing That people will connect with. It's the Thing that it so much deeper than that. it is hard to even explain. So you mentioned in the beginning in one of those facts I grew up in a military family, so we traveled all over the world. And it's not unusual, actually, for people who end up medical professions to have some kind of connection to police, military, and have a lot of travel in their life. Because I traveled so much, this is a skill I didn't realize I had. Every two years, me and my brother went to a different school.

So whilst everyone else had the same group of friends growing up, we had to make new friends, fit in, understand a new culture, new languages sometimes. We lived in Germany. all before the age of 11. And then when I was old and I really started looking back, people said, how are you so good with people? How are so you good on stage? how were you So good in these situations? I thought, yeah, How am I? Oh, I know. I Was trained from birth. This is this is a unique edge. So I'll use it. Yes, i'll go networking.

yes I go onstage and talk.Yes,I'll let my energy be in rooms of lots of people. It's an edge and not to use It is to take so much longer on the journey. So all of you have got to ask, what is different about me? What's unique about? You might even think of it as being a weakness or something that happened to you in your childhood that wasn't fair. It actually could contribute to something about you that's giving you a skill that other people don't have. Find it, use it. it will help you. I love that.

We're going to go from that backwards. I think that unique edge that reflecting on yourself and your experiences, obviously some obvious things like your professional experience, but digging for underlying, you know, under that is these, these personal experiences and you're attributes. And I Often a lot of that has been squeezed out of us. We're very much from GCSEs, A levels, we make these choices. I'm seeing it now in my, in our own children and our friends' children, you know, how young they are when they're making these choice.

So often medics say to me, and I say this, what is your secret source? What's the thing about you that makes you different? And people really struggle to see it, right? They think, well, I haven't done anything. better than anyone else anything or nothing I've done is particularly important and sometimes half an hour into the conversation they'll drop it and you're like that's it so struggle to do that what do you think it's a because you were in the corporate world before and I think It's the same when you've been in a world isn't it find it everyone struggles to Do it of course yeah and i think you know by the half Lucy she's A primary school teacher and II see how hard it is for her to manage behavior she would say it s the biggest part of her job manage Behaviour if you can't manage behaviour you Can't teach What does she mean by managed behavior?

She means sit in this chair, be quiet, do what I've asked you to do. It's the opposite of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the loneliest journey you'll go on because you constantly wake up and there's no boss, no manager, What's my vision? What are the projects I'm working on? what do I need to do today? And it is the opposite of sit down, be quiet, fill in the sheet. What sheet? There is no sheet, and I think true entrepreneurs are real pioneers. They're the ones that make up stuff that we didn't even know was a thing.

And so it's really hard. It's Really hard, I Think with medics, from what I know about the meds I've come across, One of the things they have that a lot of people don't have is they are grafters. They know how to put a shift in. You can put us shifting, but I think sometimes you can, put it shifting and it'd be robotic and you do the job. And there's two types of shifts you have to. Put in as an entrepreneur. One type of shift is innovation, creativity, vision. Where am I going? What's on my vision board?

Well, I want to be known for, what am i doing in the world? It's really fun. It really creative. it feels really expensive and exciting. And then the other shift you've got to put in is to. All of that aside, forget it, let go of it and do the fricking work. This is boring. But not to this, it is non reward. Its non fun and I think there's a lot of people who get, tell me if you see this joke or if it's just me. There's a lot of people who want to talk about their vision and where they're going, what's possible and what they could become.

And I've had this new idea, Lisa, and I'm going to start a podcast. I just started YouTube, but I let that go now. Wow. If you just did the work, if you put a nine to five shift in on outputs, outputs outputs. I'll make such a big point on this. Outputs, what have you produced this week, this month, This year? So I think when it comes to what is your edge, medics have the edge of they'll work hard. Clearly you're very clever and you can assimilate lots of information. But the real skill is can I simulate that information and then put it into a container and share it and get it done and Get it out in the world.

And I Think when It comes To edge one of the things all of us should do is look at what comes easy to us. When someone goes, oh, it's amazing that you can just speak on camera. Wow. That's probably a gift. Use it. Or if someone says, Oh my God, you're so organized and so diligent. Well, that's a gif. Not everyone has that. use it and pay attention to what people comment about you. What people comment about you or what friends come to you for can often reveal your edge. And one of the exercises you can do is actually go to three or four people who really know you and say, what do you think is my best quality?

What do come me for that you don't go other people for? So someone might say I come you Lisa because you're always happy, energised. Well, that's a packageable product that I can sell, you know, happy energy, lifting people. Oh, What can I do with that? And your friends and family will see it in you, even if you Don't see in yourself. Yeah, love that. Absolutely love it. And this is touched on something I wanted to bring up, which is about this whole, like you said, about the shift about sitting there, working out your vision and your values and what you want to, you know, got to have a plan and you've got a path.

You've gotta know where you're going to. We talked about sacrifice when you come back from it, back to that. But you've got to really want something. You've gotta put the hard yards in. And you did a post recently about working on your business rather than in your businesses. A lot of people, when they come to me in those early stages, have seen all those Instagram posts. They're at the beginning, so they're spending a lot time working the theory before getting their hands dirty. How important is it to just get in there and do the grind?

Joe, do you know what, I think it's 90% of the job. Honestly, in my 20s I tried to cheat, through manifestation, quick wins, right photograph, being in the right room, but none of that's it. What's it is, can you build an infrastructure? Can you building infrastructure, an ecosystem, a community? can output things into the world? Just for the record, I do believe in manifestation. I believe that you'll ask for things, think of things and two years later it will appear before you. But my view on it, is be the person who does the thing, then work on holding the results.

So this is an interesting one, okay? I've been really successful in the past and then broken it. Have you had this with people? Not yet, no. What other people you mean? Other people coming, they've had a big month and then they crashed and up and down, up, and out. Okay, so I've been really successful in the past and broken it. And what I realized is, you've got to be the person who does the thing. So what are the tasks, what the projects and what other tasks that link to the vision? If you take the Vision and say, I want to earning seven figures a year, or I wanna be earning six figures, a or making an extra 3k a month.

Just ask what are the behaviors of a person who brings in an extra three K a month. Those people are building brand and building community fact, they have offers and they're telling people about those offers fact. They're working harder than most people fact and the setting up systems and processes, but there's another thing that people don't realize those people. Tune in next week and we'll tell you all of it. The other thing those are doing is they are working on their blocks and this sounds really like a funny thing to say work on your blocks work through your subconscious blocks because people want one magic word or a magic NLP session or magic phrase or quote to fix it for them and even in fact medicine sometimes this will fix the problem for me.

What people don't appreciate is that actually walking through the pain of the discomfort is what will turn you into the person you need to be. So you can have a vision of yourself as being a writer or being on stage or running this big course or learning this retreat or this group program. It's easy when you hold it as a vision. You think you know how that's going to feel and you think who you need to be, but it's not until you walk out on stage and deal with people's reaction to you onstage that you start to really feel the true vulnerability of that moment.

And people will pull away from that vulnerability. I don't want to feel it. It doesn't feel safe. If I have imposter syndrome, Lisa, I feel like I've gone beyond my boundaries. They'll say things like this. And I think this is great. When you're in that space, that's when we can do the work. Even if it feels a little too far sometimes, until you are in the space you can't do that work, so instead of trying to make it feel better, this the big thing. Instead of making it better you've actually got to learn to self-soothe in pain.

So making it feel better would be I'm tired, I am going to go to bed. Making it better, this is really hard. I will treat myself to a full packet of Reveals, just speaking from experience. That would so low down on my list. Oh my God, it's so high on the list, full bag, Revels, give me the full family bag.

Money Blocks, Debt, and Self-Sabotage 18:18

It's really bad. Or, you know, this is hard, I'm going to go watch an episode of Netflix like I am working so hard. But actually, when the pain hits of I feel vulnerable, i've just made that post. I've done a launch that didn't sell. You're going want to move away from that pain because it's biological to do that. It's biological, and I think it's human and designed to want to do that. But I, think the entrepreneurs who make it sit in the pain and go, well, this sucks. Oh my God, I'm mortified. And they sit and they feel the, pain, they let it go through their body, then they make a story up about that pain that's different.

So if lots of people go, Oh my God, I'm in so much pain. This is awful. I never going to do that again. Not ready. not good enough. Your brain doesn't know the difference between the positive and the negative. It just goes, oh yeah, cool. Whatever you're telling me, believe you. Whereas, you know, whenever I had my falls of my knockbacks, and by God there's been a few, like I've had some big issues in my journey, which I'll share because I think it's important. When I'd had those moments, yes, Yes, I Googled, what does it take to be an entrepreneur?

Have I really got it? Yes. I went on the job boards to see if I should go back to work back, to corporate, but through it all, just had this feeling inside of me. Bankruptcy, I can't think that that's it. It's different now a little bit. I've got a family. A little different bit now. But I just say to myself, you can do this. You're going to figure it out. Just don't quit. And your only options are to keep trying until you make it because you will or you quit, they're the only option. This is not an option, but I'm going try it once and see how it goes.

If it works, and if it doesn't, then I'll tell you right now you've lost. Yeah, absolutely. So tell us dig into that a little bit more like you've had some big lows. I want to talk about what's going to lead up to where you are now. But tell me about some of those things. Castle's answer to Mel Robbins. Like, tell us the shit stuff. Do you know, Jo, that what you've just said there is really powerful for me to hear your Newcastle's Answer to Mal Robins, because it's a it a really good reflection for m to be associated with the people that I look up to.

So that for my feels like really goo energy. Thank you for that. I'll take that and I will repeat that sentence. That is an example of I've heard that and some people will say, oh, no, that's not me. I'm like, yeah, thank you. Take that. That's me, whether it's. Me or not. that is me now, I will take that, and I'll put it in my little. So thank. You I have this clip on repeat, please. OK, so I'm 39 now, I accept that I am very young still. I think 39 is still very, very I started in business when I was 23 and I left corporate.

So I walked away from London from all my friends and their grad jobs and that grad boyfriends and they're invested this and invested that. And I was like, I'm going to be an entrepreneur and I've gone up a new castle. Right. So, so I quit that job and went up and. I started trying to build my first company. so, i'm 39 now, and i first started, trying, to, build a company, a coaching business, speaking business or writing business when i was 23. And I would honestly say it has taken me my whole life to figure it out.

And it's only what feels like to me in the last 36 months, the three years that I've really figured it and started really feeling the benefit of it. But the weird thing is, is that, I have had success on the journey. I just couldn't hold the success because I had a major issue around money and it took me a long time to see it, so I'm going to tell you something that might shock people. On my journey to where I am now and I run this multiple six-figure online education business, I'm pushing to seven figures, that's my goal.

Over the next few years I want to take it up to 7 figures. I've been in debt three times. The first time I got into debt I go into £100,000 worth of debt and honestly I felt like my world was ending. It was 27, 28, 29 when it happened. felt like the biggest failure on the planet. I got into 100k worth of debt. And when it happened, I honestly I don't know how it happens. It was everyone else's fault, but my own, it was the economy, what I had or hadn't been taught growing up, the people around me, It wasn't my fault.

it took me years to pay off that debt, And when I got out of debt, I actually got myself back into debt. 65 grand was the second time I get into that. Sixty five thousand. But the weird thing about it is I watch myself do it the 2nd time. I watched myself get in to debt and I couldn't stop myself. Isn't that weird? I was actually doing a poor behavior. It's like when you want to get in shape and you end up eating the full pack of revels or you wanna have a better relationship, but you go quiet, you can't communicate how you feel, You're watching yourself do it, But you cant change it.

And in this time over these years, I Was reading books, i was on courses for money mindset, was doing it all and i ended up in therapy. I had one therapy session and I confessed everything about my debt and my issues. It was so cathartic that driving home from being in debt, I think it must have been this, that must've been the third time. Third time I got into debt was 8,000. when I got to take the third time, I watched myself do it. At this time I had to make a decision. I can't do this again, i have to change my behavior.

And I remember going into Aldi, you know, Aldie, the middle aisle. Love that. Yeah, favorite place. i go there for a treat. So I went into aldi and there was like a dog bed and this dog that was 22 pounds and I have the money to buy the dog bad. But I said to myself, You can have that badge you don't need it and when i walked out it honestly felt like heartbreak. It's really hard to explain but Because it was a behavior shift, because it like a change in what felt like my internal DNA, it actually felt heartbreak.

And I'm just raising this point because I think everyone listening is engaging in a self-sabotage behavior. You have a vision. There are projects you have to complete. Get them on a straight line through. This is the straight-line through to my result. These are the five projects I have complete, these are behaviors that will get me there. Whatever those behaviors are, look at them and ask, why aren't I doing those behaviours? And whatever's hidden in that answer is your conditioning and your self-limiting beliefs and yourself sabotage behavior.

And when you change and start being the person you want to be, you know, be the personally does the thing. You can have anything you wand. It won't feel good. it will feel like heartbreak because you're going against everything that you no is right. and I say no in inverted commas. You know it's right to do as you're told. You'd know. It's, right. To have a job, you know, it right, to marry and settle down and have kids because that's what you've been conditioned to believe. So to go against it and now make a video and put it on LinkedIn.

That's not right? That is not, unless you are an entrepreneur, then it is exactly right and that is what your going to have to fight to, do this work. And so for me, I'd never had an issue with videos and social and thats a blessing. I'll take that for whatever reason. But I did have an issue with money, really big issue of money. And that was my heartbreak. I could never be successful until I figured that out. When I talk about the projects, putting them in order, I actually think for a lot of people, the first project on their list is make six figures.

No, it's not. If you say the goal is six figures or replace your doctor's salary or move to another country or whatever, work back and I promise you there'll be four or five projects before there. The projects will be things like build a personal brand, learn to serve a community, and learn how to have an impact. It probably won't make you any money. Then there will a project around learning how put products together and offers together, learning to deliver a result. You probably won't make any money because you should work hard to deliver those results for people when they give you the money.

The third project might be, hmm, let's start making some money off this. Let's learn to put it away and not give it all away. But if we come all the way back to the beginning, before all of those, I always think there's a secret project that you're avoiding and it's costing you everything. That secret for me was, Lisa, you are in debt. You've got to get out of debt, You got figure it out. Because I was thought one big payday and I'll be fine. But it wasn't true, it was an energy. I had to get out of debt first.

And I say this because for some people listening, their project could be, I'm miserable in my job, i'm working too many hours, and I need to cut my hours back or take a different job. I need to move and that might be your next two year project. It could be miserable in your relationship. it could that you're not looking after your health. What is the project right now that is shadowing your life? Deal with that, move through that and the next project becomes, now let me build a brand. But you can't build brand in that shadow.

This is gold dust guys. And this is when we came to these first three things at the beginning, you talked about commitments, he talked to about behavior trait. You talked About blocks. Now I have yet to work with somebody that there hasn't been something and personally, it was probably only two years ago, two and a half years, ago that I began to understand that. I had I had some blocks, but prior to that, I was like, oh, it's fine. I'll just do this, do that. It's all good. And this is the uncomfortable stuff that I think only really comes to the surface when you're on this entrepreneurial journey.

Because when your 9 to 5 or doing your shifts or showing up again and doing the same thing, It doesn't need to show up because you just programmed to just continue. So everybody finds that uncomfortable. But the obvious things that IC people come to, It's come to me when they're in that early stage of business. They want to be at stage five when you've just stages real But it's fear of failure fear with judgment Actionism is a big thing. Not you're not knowing what the next step is Like you say nobody tells you to sit down and gives you the handout But there's also a group I think there

Helping People Through Better Business Skills 28:38

is that there are a lot of people within the NHS that are very frustrated by not being able to help people and we went into to work to do that. I mean, obviously there's been new things and, you know, who knows what's going to happen to the NHS in the future, but we want to help people and there is a lot of very empathic, kind, driven and people that really want do good stuff in world. And I think people are more and more seeing entrepreneurship as a way of helping people. You've talked about it being hard.

I think we could go all sorts of directions from here, but what about that person that wants to do good stuff? How hard is it for that other person out there in this world? Yeah, I love that question because I just wrote down on my piece of paper the harshest two words I'm going to say on this podcast. Are you ready for them? God, she's worse than I am. It's very simple. Get better. If you genuinely care about people, get better at business and get at marketing and stop saying it's hard, full stop.

So I will say business is hard. Business is awful. Honestly, don't do it. Don't do it, avoid it. Stay away from it unless you have a compulsion, unless, you can't help it and unless it's an actual neurological defect in you like it is in me, then hi, welcome to the club. Let's do It together. But if that's what it Is, get better. You can hold these two ideas. you Can't say, I really want to help people. I already want To help. Oh, business is too hard. What honestly, what do you think is going to happen if you hold those two Ideas?

What you need to say is I Really want, to Help people and in fact, i am helping people, and i'm doing it today. What do I need to learn? What I do need move through? Who do i need become to make this happen? And I know this is so harsh, but I think there's so much on social media, like you can do it and manifest, you know, follow this program. I have the answer. Nope, nope. No one coach is going to get you there. no one book, no on program, You need a mix of influences and your unique situation is gonna be so bespoke to you.

You don't even know the help that you need yet. But what I would say is, The only way to get better is by doing it and to start letting failure be your feedback. Oh God, that sounds really cheesy. But when you fail, you honestly, for me, the way I look at failure, The human in me goes, oh, it really hurt. I'm embarrassed. This sucks, I want to quit. Let me get a job. That's the human me. The entrepreneur in my goes useful. Now that was interesting. And I'll give you a phenomenal example that will give your hope.

One year, in fact, last year even, it was just last. I, I was having a low month. That was low on sales. So I did what everyone does. Like I'm going to run a masterclass at this master class is going be called sort your sales out. And it 99 quid Joe, you might've seen this email come out, so I email my whole list. Guys, have got this massive class. It's called, sort, your sails out you're going love it. Everything you need. Sat back and wait for the money to roll in. Nope. It wasn't, I didn't even get a pity sale.

I don't get sympathy sale, nothing, crickets. And this was only last year and I was like, man, i'm really good at this, like aren't I? What has happened here? You've misjudged it. and i sat with it for like a day and thought what happened? Do people not want this? Have I positioned it wrong? Is it the timing? And then I thought, what are you doing, Lisa, selling a 99 pound thing? Used to sell 10 K packages, 10K programs. So I went into this little office, got a coffee and I got word document out and wrote, I put it at the top of the heading and this is a good exercise for all of you.

Don't think what it should this cost. Think what do I want to bill? I wanted to build 10K. So I said, what would a 10k offer look like? And I put this offer together, a year of coaching, I'll build a website, do all the marketing, XYZ, insane. Anything I could put in that would just make it a no brainer. I emailed my list and you're going to like this email guys, you can copy it. On the email I wrote, this isn't going to be for everybody, but I know that for one or two people who have been following me, This is exactly what you're looking for.

Click here to find out more. And the link got 20, 30 clicks. and within seven days I'd sold two packages, 20 thousand in revenue. The weird thing is I left that offer on my website and this offer didn't exist before. I let the offer from my web site and since then another four people have bought it in the last six months. This offer only came about because I lost. It only became about, because i failed. So for me, failure is not permanent. Its data. If you take the data and go, no one wanted my offer.

I must be rubbish. i'm no good at this. Then correct. You are rubbish and you are no. Good at. This because that's what you've told yourself. Let's all believe it. But if you take the data and go, Oh, that really hurt. Oh that sucks. Maybe I'm not, no, I am good at this. Right. What can I do? How can it innovate? how can i do it differently? And I think if can be the person who can do that four or five times in a row, by God, you'll make it. So this idea of, if your a good person, That is such a powerful thing.

I only work with good people. I met a guy networking once and he said, Lisa, to be honest, I can't be bothered with this. I just want you to help me. And I said oh, mate, like, that's not really what I do. Like, you have to relentless. You've got to want to sacrifice your life. He said I don't think you're for me either. Yeah, That's correct. So I only work with good people. But I think the kindest thing I can say to good people is you haven't been taught what you need and the way you behave is not how you're going to behave as a successful entrepreneur.

That's what we're gonna do together. We're to go to the valley of the depths of your biggest despair. Learn some meta ad stuff and come back out. Do you want to do it? All right, let's go. I love that, I loved that. Like you say, it's not about wanting to help. It's about being able to actually deal with all of that stuff that is thrown at you. And I liken it to a journey from South Wales to North Wales, the closed roads and the herd of cows and their diversion and that's what it is like. If you're not prepared to do that then don't do it because I think we have to say that entrepreneurship is not for everybody.

I agree with that I think if it's not for you, what I love with my clarity group, which is my really beginner people that have done the coaching qualification or done BSLM, a British society of lifestyle diploma, or they've started off thinking maybe I want to do my own thing on the side. like come into that container and work out whether it's what you want to do and put it to bed if you don't and yes think about it again and make your life better make, your career better different choices don's stick on this idea that you might one day want, to run a business if, you're not prepared to, do this stuff straight from the off.

Joe, that is so valid. So I'll tell you something I see. It's very similar to that. And again, if I get backlash for this, it's OK. People can disagree with me. But sometimes I think people say, I'm going to quit my job because I want a better work-life balance. I won't freedom. Whatever. Don't think of entrepreneurship like that, because i am yet to meet an entrepreneur who said, oh, yeah, i quit job and now i work less hours and it is easier. That isn't it. You've got to look at it from a perspective of to be an entrepreneur means to make a living doing what you love to, make and living, doing, what, you, love.

So you're still going to work hard, but this time it's for a greater cause. It's a bigger purpose and you get to do it your way. There's things, there's, a lot of things that I've done. And I think this can give people a, lot, of creativity and flex and stretch. If you. Love groups. Don't just think about selling a group. Think about whether you would put the course and curriculum together and what you were charged for that and how you'd offer the group for free.

Brand, Reach, and Offer Clarity 36:38

Because if that's the bit you love and that is what your really good at, this sounds a bit crazy, but when I first started running online courses, I really asked what's my edge? What's special about me, what has no one else got? Loads of people could film stuff about business and marketing. So I filmed it, put it together. And I thought not many people could run a two day live event in Manchester or Leeds or Newcastle, bring everyone together on the program and do two days live teaching with them.

So you join the course. This is a past course, you joined the cause, do the Cause weekly lives and then. Halfway through the year, and at the end of the day, we'll do a two day live together. Now I should have charged more for that because it was very expensive to run. It was huge value. But this is why I think I've won. And why, I know so much now is because I always gave more, did more. It was win for them. At least I bought this because I wanted to do the in-person thing. Lisa, I want it to get around other entrepreneurs.

But then every time I went live on a weekly call, every I had to turn up and deliver content on those two days, became so much better as an entrepreneur. I really tightened up my community, built these advocates and it grew and grew. So in the beginning, you can't just say this is about making money. It can't just be to do good and it can just to make money. You're looking for somewhere in the middle and that's the phrase, make a living, do what I love. I think long before you charge, you've got to learn to have an impact.

And that is where I should do free or low class master classes. It's hard because as a doctor you're at the height of your career. Being an entrepreneur, back to level one baby, like you are not a badass. you're now a beginner. And so to be a Beginner as an entrepreneur means to Be humble, to being humble and to go in and say, I need as much practice as I can get. So if I want to get good at piano, and I practice once a week, And you want To get Good at Piano Joe, you practice one hour a day, who's gonna be better?

Yeah, nice. I'm brilliant. No, it would be you. It'd be You because you've just put more hours in. it's the 10,000 hour rule. Yeah. More master classes, more training, You've got to Get the hours. This is another thing that comes up all the time, and again, I think it's the Instagram. And when we were away traveling for that year and I was going through this process of sort of self-coaching and trying to work out exactly these things, what do people come to me for? What do I love? And my question was, you know, What would I get out of bed an hour earlier for every day without being paid for two years?

Because that's only hour of the day I've got because I'm homeschooling. And I didn't think about money once during that process. And, I also did what you did, and I had a product that wasn't working for that particular group of people. I've now evolved that, you know, so much of what he said I love. But, medics often come and they have this impression from Instagram that you don't do things for free, know your value, charge your worth and all of this stuff. Well, how many discovery calls have you got?

And often the answer I get is, well, i've been doing this for ages in the day job. Not the same. You're charging people money for an hour of your time is not the same as sitting in a GP surgery plastering over the problem for five minutes in the surgery. So you do have to do discovery calls. And I mean, some of the, you know, Daniel Priestley talks about 75 times, doesn't he? You know having the conversation 75 charging for it or before, we've got to. I love that. That's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah, so that's okay, isn't it?

Not charging for those, you know, I call it the market research stage or the discovery calls. You've got to do that work to decide whether you want to the job and whether, whether that fits and you've a solution for the problem that that person's having. Joe, I could not agree with this more. And I hope in this conversation that people are taking a lot of, you know, hope from it, that you're not behind you, not failing, just early in the process. The only way to get there faster is it is to either it really is, to do more, and I want to be careful of that burnout angle, but it's to more and it has to humble with it.

I think you've got to good. You really have got get good at your craft and you probably are good as a doctor, obviously, in good that and helping people get a result. But You've got to actually get good at communicating that value, because I think in the NHS, obviously, you've already made a client list. They just keep coming in, keep going in. As an entrepreneur, they've gotta find you. And so there's three things that I would say that, I can give you a really practical framework for this. The first one is you gotta get at reach.

So how will people find you in the first place? You can do it any way you like. It all works. You could do search engine optimization, write loads of content, optimize your site. You could do meta ads. You can do networking events, business development, speak on stages. Don't do it all. That's silly. Pick something and say, I commit to learning meta adds, master classes, whatever. I committed to networking. Whatever you do commit, but you've got to have an answer to the question. How did I reach new people this week?

And posting on social media is very rarely the answer. Unless you're posting every day. You're posting in stories, you're doing trial reels. You, looking at maybe testing different rears. you, making all kinds of different content. If you go live, if, so if you like social media is it well, show me on social, media, look at your analytics. And if your reaching 500 a month or a thousand a months, your goal is can I reach 1500 people a, month, 2000 people, a. So you've got to do the reach bit. First of all, the second thing you got, to, do is you gotta build a brand and that brand has got.

Associated with success. So the brand would be, you're making YouTube videos, your writing long copy posts, doing talks and filming them, going on podcasts. So that if someone comes on your website for the first time, what I see in a lot of people is their websites are very flat and there's nothing there. It's like, click this link, download my freebie, buy this offer. Guys, that worked a few years ago. Now you've got to lead with your personality, got a lead, with value. They've got to watch something and go, oh man, that person's really good.

What else have they got? Let me see what they're doing on Instagram. Let we see, what's on their website. Oh my God, they've go to YouTube. They will read and consume for a few days, a, few weeks before they reach out to you. And then that's the third thing. The sales bit is you have got to have crystal clarity on your offers. I don't want to see 10 different offers, micro course here and three variations of this group thing here, and special offer here. And no, I want you to go on the website and go, that is the signature product.

Here's, the starter product, here's that I'm crazy, i want it all product those three. and they've got to be able to find them and instantly go, whoa, these make sense. So I actually think one sales page with variations on that offer is the answer. But then in that final column of selling, you have actually got be to say, I've this master class coming up. I'm running this event. And people have got a want it. It can't be what you want to sell. They've gotta want buy it and see the value in it, so when you're on this journey, When we talk about getting your hours in, go have fun, get your hour in.

Whatever you want to do. If you love video, Go Crazy. Doesn't need to work straight away. if you Love Network and Go Nuts, it's all expensable. Yeah, love it. Reach, brand and clarity. It's not confusing. Before we wrap this up, I want to just talk about that networking word. Like it's something that you've been a real advocate for recently. And it is another thing that medics really cringe when I start saying, get out there, speak to people. I am painful in my, i've got a note section of my phone.

Whenever I meet anyone, it, put it in the notes section on my iPhone, what their name is, where I met them, you know, even if it was the, the person serving me in post office or the new waitress in a cafe, whatever it We've got to get out there and we've go to talk to people, haven't we? And that's something that you've taken. You know, you were all online. Obviously, we're in Covid. We both, I think both of us want an online business for longevity of what we are doing. But the value of being in a room full of people is often the easiest first step, isn't it?

Especially for people. 100%. I'm so glad you've said that, because I think it's the easiest marketing thing you can do in terms of making sales and making connections. But when you go networking, you don't want to go to networking to tick a box and start handing out business cards. It's so bad. When you get networking you're like searching for the two most interesting people in the room and you got to take them for coffee, not to sell to them. I Think entrepreneurship, if you could get away from the idea of selling from people and into the ideas of adding so much value that they want buy from you, then you'll really win.

So if you go networking thing, I've got to take two people for coffee or lunch, and I'm doing it and paying. So, if your chat to someone who's really boring, or you've, you know, there's no connection. Well, for lunch or move on. And I always this is awful. But when I go network, can I never fill my coffee cup, just put like three mouthfuls in. because I'm a people pleaser and I find it really hard to leave a conversation and people want to talk to me. So I go, oh, do you know what? I am really enjoying this chat.

I will go fill up my coffee and it just gives me a break. Is that terrible? Well, you've said it here now. If anyone meets you at a network event, they'll wait for you for two seconds and then you go and fill your coffee. then feedback. Yeah, I was gonna go fill up my coffee. I don't even drink coffee, no I do. So yeah, so when you go networking, and I think there's things like that, in the first few networking events you got to, it's gonna be so awkward. And people go, Lisa, have been to loads of events, they're rubbish.

Go to more, go to 10 and you'll find one good one. This journey is not about. I went to the first one and oh my God, and my business exploded. Nope, you're going to go to eight and they're gonna be awful and you gonna wish you never started. And the ninth one, are you going meet one person? Go for coffee, go for lunch. But here's the real opportunity, right? I started networking in September, October last year because I'd been online, been in the house for years. I needed to mix things up. I decided I was going to go for seven figures.

First thing I thought was not run more ads. It was use your edge and my edge is speaking. So I though I'm going go out in the world. Here's a massive tip for you. And went out into the word and I never said, oh, hey, yeah, I am a business coach because that is how you end a conversation. Oh, you're a business coach. Great. I don't want to talk to you. Instead, when people said, so what do you do, Lisa? I said I'm a Business Coach, but I am obsessed with marketing and sales. And I love teaching people the truth.

People don t know what it really takes. At the minute, I m just going to loads of different groups, going on podcast training, doing these talks for free, because I've built these companies, and I just really want teach people how to do it. And then I shut up nine times out of 10. They go, have you met the host? And they walk me to the hosts of the networking event and go this is Lisa. She's X, Y, Z. And I go yeah, I do these talks for free. I cover ABC and they go. We're always looking for guest speakers.

Of course they are. It's a networking. Now, if you say to me, Oh, but Lisa, and I can't say I've built these companies. Whatever. No. But think about what you're selling. Think about who's in that audience. You say, i'm a qualified doctor. Tick. Biggest piece of.

Networking, Events, and Building Momentum 47:48

What's the word I'm looking for? Validation. Biggest validator. I am a qualified doctor. Don't go back negative. Say, I really struggled to help people in the practice I was running, so now I m online. don't say you're selling, don t say, you've got good programs. say I love teaching people the truth about and then whatever it is that you do to them to do XYZ. Level one is go networking. Level two is be the speaker at the next networking event. It's going to be awful. You're going mess it up. Good.

Get into the valley of despair and then do it again. That's fine. Self-soothed through it. The third level is to run your own events. This is where you get really good. And there's a few people I've worked, there are people who've come on and worked with me because you've recommended me. Thank you. They're running events and I remember speaking to someone. He said, Lisa, I'm doing this event, but only 10 people have come. I was like, whoa, you've put an event on and 10 strangers from the internet said I am going to take a punt and spend my night with you.

And she said yeah, that's amazing. She'd made this PDF. We've all got to download. Print it. Go to a proper printers, get it printed. Lisa said won't that cost money? I said yes, it will cost me money. But do you want them making notes on a rubbish piece of paper or do want to them take your workbook away? with your branding, your details, and your QR code. So I started running these Dejgro Live events in Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham. And I turn up in a city, I've got no business being in, no network, No community.

I go networking. Stay in hotels, stay overnight. Meet people. Take them for coffee. Then I put on an event and I use ads to target that geographical region. Do a full day training, sales, marketing mindset. The event's 35 quid. I put lunch on, I print the workbooks, and lose money every time I run an event. And I'm not talking 50 quid. I lose about 1,500 pounds everytime I ran an even. Granted I went too far, but when I come out of the event, always come away with thousands of pounds of new sales because the even gave them the experience of working with me.

It was like an explosion and they want more. They took the Workbook away. they went on my website. There was a YouTube video podcast. That's marketing. that's brand. absolute gold dust. You've touched on it there. The way I see it is that you are the next step for those people that have worked with me. We've gone through all of these stages. we've drawn out the stuff that I think helps with my being a medic.We've kind of matched that to some sort of brand or some purpose, built this business and then it's like Described is a little bit like letting your kids leave the nest for me.

It's like, okay, I've done all I can to get you to this stage. You need Lisa in your life now and I and i have to like I have two like Trumpet or like whatever you do, but you always say to me No, Joe, let me do it. Let me I'll say I was already thinking I'm going to say, I know exactly what you're going say. So Joe says, so Joe's actually sent me a good few clients. And they're all doctors, and they all very clever. They come and if all they were all doing something very, very different. When they show me their website, they showed me the funnel and show their brand.

I am delighted I've never come across a group of people who have understood more about the fundamentals of who's my customer, what's, my offer, how do I position this? And when I work with them, I don't have to do any of the basics, like who is your customer and what you're going to be selling. I get straight into kicking their butt. And I think if you are listening to me and thinking, oh, i'd love to work, with her, but she sounds nuts. You are correct. you should definitely work. With Joe, because, and this, you know, go too far with this.

But Joe you do all the, fundamentals, the truth, that honesty bit. The figuring out who your customer is, phoning in on the offer, the funnel marketing, they set up the tech, everything. When they come to me, it's amazing because we can really then focus on, you know, what's holding them back. The scale bit, taking the big risk and leap in the market. But you don't want to come me without the foundations. I couldn't, I would be disastrous for you. I love that. Perfect. The dream team. I absolutely loved it.

It's absolutely brilliant. We're going to wrap it up. You've got it, I said I was going keep you for half an hour. Now it's 53 minutes with a bit of editing. Quickly, you've given us lots of things. Sacrificed commitments, having your edge, getting your reach, get your brand, clarity. the difficulties, how lonely it is as an entrepreneur. I guess let's go with just three takeaways, three tips, that somebody sitting there at home listening to this thinking, right, okay, am I mad enough? Yes. Do I want to do this?

What are the three top tips for somebody very early on? And I'd just like to, before I hand that over to you to finish, is point out that you said you started this when you were 23 and you're now 39. We've been talking 16 years, three times into debt, lots of mistakes to be doing what you are now, and I know the future for you is rosy. So tell us the, tell the us three things and then I want to find out what Lisa Bean in five years looks like. Amazing. Okay. So the three things would be number one would 100% focus on your brand, not the business brand and the logo, but your personal brand.

Because we are moving into a world now where people don't want to buy from companies. They want a buy for the influencer. I have literally bought products because that person wears that product. That is how influential people are. You've got to get really good at communicating a message. And I think the more you can make videos or write content or do a podcast. You can do it any way you want, but don't see social media as a tick in the box. I've got to do. See it as being integral to you communicating your message.

It's the start of your funnel. And the more you do, the better you get. If you have the privilege of having a small group right now and you've got three or four people who come on a call with you or anything, start offering a weekly call. Do a Sunday live, do a Monday morning, whatever. It can be free. Yeah, it could be. Free. Can be an addition to what you're doing. Anything that puts you in the discomfort of I've gotta show up and offer value to these people. That's the first thing. So build your brand and use content, use that pressure as a way to be good and get better.

The second thing is don't rely on one coach, one trainer, or one book, whatever. I have spent thousands on coaching and I'm not saying this like, oh yeah, join these programs. It's not that, it's just if you meet someone and they inspire you, go to them and don' think they're going to fix everything for you. Take one thing from that person and one from the next and the one the from next. So don be afraid to spend money, I think you will spend a lot of money. I heard this great story about a guy called Les Brown.

He got, he got into a million pounds worth of debt, a $1 million. he lost a billion dollars. I know, like that's, oh God, He lost $ 1 million and his family said to him, obviously, Les, you've lost the million dollars, now you should quit. And he said, why would I do that? My education cost me a 1,000,00 and he made a millions in the next year. So like the education part of this will cost you money. Don't be afraid of that. And if you can't spend on courses, coaching, training days, whatever, then start reading, consuming YouTube, just like when you're a doctor.

Consume, consume, learn. The third thing I would say is don't talk to non-entrepreneurs about what you are doing because they will make you sound like an alien. You are an Alien. You've got to get around other entrepreneurs and not entrepreneurs who are complaining, saying business is hard. I'm really struggling. You have got get into a room of people who were doing things, taking a risk, failing, putting posts out. you've gotta get people around who is successful because what they do and how they think it is just so unacceptable to regular everyday people.

Can I say that? It's so unacceptable. So if you say to family and friends, oh, I'm really struggling. This is really hard. They're going to want to end that hardship for you and say, Oh, it is hard, why didn't you get a job? You've tried. That's not acceptable for an entrepreneur.

Final Takeaways and Lisa's Future Plans 55:48

You need to say it to someone, this is already hard and someone like me or Joe would go, yeah, congrats. Should we get into the session now? Should be think about what we're gonna do. Don't talk about your business with people who aren't in the arena. It is not that they won't help you. don't want to help you, they literally can't. It'd be like talking to a non-medical friend about a deep medical condition and asking for their advice. You wouldn't do that, you'd go to your doctor. So go around other entrepreneurs.

That's a great piece of advice and very relevant, I think, to most of the medics that I work with. Dwight, what's the future for Lisa Bean? Two minutes. Yes. So in the next five years, my thing is I can't wait to release the second book. I'm writing this book called Am I Healing? And it's all about how you heal through the self-limiting beliefs and the conditioning. And I really want to do more talking, more getting on stages, and more running live events. That's hard for me because it feels really personal and it's really tied to a dream.

So I've been going to see loads of comedians and speakers and that's how I'm trying to learn from them. Next five years, come on Lisa, let's see the book, see you on the big stages. Amazing. And I reckon you can get on The Mel Robbins Podcast. Let's have that. I imagine. Look at that, you wrote it here first. Absolutely love this, I could talk to you all day. You've amazing. Thank you Lisa. I hope this episode has sparked some new ideas or challenged your thinking. Transitioning from medicine to business is not easy.

It's about adapting our skills while embracing the unknowns of entrepreneurship. it can be nerve wracking, but remember you are not alone on this journey. Please feel free to reach out to me via direct message on LinkedIn or Instagram or just shoot me an email at joe at bendylegs.com for support. And don't forget to grab the free PDF from the show notes from Slethoscope to Startup, which is your go-to guide and resource for diving into entrepreneurship. Many thanks for tuning in. I will see you next time.

Thanks for spending your precious time with me. This has been a Monkey Pants Productions Podcast.