How to grow when others are floundering

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

 I’m sure you have heard that there are uncertain economic times right now. The Trump tariffs have rocked our global markets, and the markets are wobbling, and there’s a lot of nervousness that our recession might be coming. But here’s the thing: during tough economic times, some businesses will thrive.

So regardless of what is going on in the economy, how can you set your business up for success? In today’s episode, I’ll share some strategies that will support you through the toughest of times to set your business up to thrive.

 Now, I’m sure you remember Covid. The pandemic hit and everyone went into panic mode. And the current uncertainty feels similar, but different. And I certainly don’t wanna play Pollyanna and pretend that if you just think positive, everything will be okay. The truth is, if we did head into a recession, it won’t be okay for all businesses.

Put simply, some businesses are gonna collapse. But at this point in time we don’t know that a recession is definitely going to happen. In fact, some people believe that with all of this being shaken up, we might actually be coming into the strongest economic state we’ve ever been in. The thing is no one actually knows, but here is the thing.

We can’t control what’s going on at a global scale. Unless you’re a global world leader and you actually do have the power to make some of these decisions, if you’re a president or the Prime Minister and you are listening to my podcast, I just wanna say, welcome it’s so nice to have you listening to the podcast, but I’m gonna assume that most of you listening aren’t in that boat.

So anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that we can’t control what’s going on. But there are some things that we can control and the first thing is how we are perceiving what’s going on. And I think it’s really important for us to not catastrophise. If you have a tendency to overthink things and spiral, like I know that I do, what I want you to do is take a moment and reflect back on life.

And I want you to think about some things that in hindsight, you are really worried about in the past that simply didn’t unfold. You might’ve gone into a total stress cycle, you might’ve been overthinking it, worry about it, panicking about it, and it just didn’t end up happening. But in that point in time, it felt very real in that moment in your body. It felt like your panic, your overthinking was really justified. But when you look back, you think that didn’t actually end up going as bad as I thought that it would. So the first thing that you do have control over is your mindset. And one of the things that I really want you to start to do is notice where your thoughts are.

Because your thoughts affect your actions and your actions create your outcomes. And let me share what this means for you in a business sense. So let’s just say that I was stuck in a story or a thought pattern that everyone is freaking out right now and no one is signing up for coaching. No one’s making any money.

No one’s committing to coaching. So if that is my thought, that’s my belief system, what are the actions that I’m gonna take? Am I going to be out promoting coaching, joining my mastermind? No, because I’m gonna have this story that there’s no point talking about it. No one’s got any money. There’s absolutely no point.

And so therefore, I’m not promoting it. And therefore, what’s gonna happen? No one’s going to buy. If I am like, “Oh, I’ve got to create something new at the moment because no one is buying things at a premium price point.” Again, that is going to be the reality that I’m creating. If you intellectually understand that, and yet you’re finding yourself slipping into unhelpful thought patterns, how can you control your spiraling thoughts?

One of the things that I would say, particularly when there is a lot of economic uncertainty, is to limit your media, to actually start to remove yourself from all of the noise and stay very real in what is your current present reality. One of the things that I’ve actually done, I blocked the new sites from my phone.

I don’t wanna be ignorant. I think that it’s firstly unhelpful to be ignorant, but also it’s a real, I guess, privilege. And I think that we all need to be aware of what is going on in the world. But I know for me, that reading article after article is really unhelpful for my mindset.

So I stay across the headlines without spending, minutes or hours reading all of the nitty-gritty details. And connected to that, be aware of who you are surrounding yourself with, and the noise, the voices that you were letting in. I’m sure when you reflect back on Covid, you might’ve experienced a whole range of how people in your world responded.

Some people who are like, “There’s nothing going on. It’s all made up.” Some people who are completely panicking, staying in their houses, catastrophising, doomsday prepping. And so I want you to be really mindful who you are around, whose voices you are allowing into your world. And it doesn’t mean that you cut off contact with your mum for three months if she’s one of those people, but it does mean that you limit the extent of the conversations, or you redirect or you simply just go, “Hey, let’s not talk about this.”

And those are the external noises and voices. I also want you to be super aware of your own internal ones. Be aware of what your thought patterns are, and start to be really conscious about reprogramming those thoughts. So some of the things that I know for me, when I see the news, I start to get a little bit, “Oh my gosh,” going to contraction mode, and I remind myself of a few things.

One of them is, hey, not every business struggles, even if a recession is coming, which we have no proof that it is. And I remind myself that actually, during Covid when I know that, unfortunately, a lot of business owners were doing it tough, my business thrived. My business doubled in profitability during that period of time.

And I also remind myself, hey, no matter what happens, even if the unthinkable did happen, you’ll be fine. I remind myself, hey, you’ve navigated through so many challenging times in business before, and you have always come out of it, and you’ve always come out stronger. And when I come back to those truths, I remember my power.

I remind myself, hey, whatever unfolds, it’s all gonna be okay. Also in the second part of this episode, gonna talk about some really practical things that you can do to support your business at the moment, some strategies that you can start to employ. But before I do, I just wanted to briefly share how we can work together if you are wanting some of this energy in your world right now.

If you’re a regular listener of the podcast, even if this is your first time, if you wanna work with me as your coach to get my eyes on your brand, to share some of my signature tough love, yet practical strategies to help you grow a profit-focused business, there are a few ways that we can work together.

There’s the one-on-one options, or there is a group container, a really fabulous group of business owners who I’m working with at the moment. So send me a DM over on Instagram. My Instagram is Clare, clare_wood_coach . Share a little with me about where you are at and what sort of support you’d like, and I will come back to you and share how we could work together.

So coming back to how to be growing when everyone else is struggling. The second thing I want you to do in the current climate is to create your game plan. Now, this is what’s right for me and my business. This isn’t necessarily the right thing for you to be doing, but I’m just gonna share what’s right for me at this point in time.

The first thing that I’m doubling down on is cost cutting. Now, if you’re a regular listener, you will know that I’m always talking about the power of being across your finances, of making sure that you are right across all of those expenses and keeping them minimised. But at the moment, I’m doing it with a whole new level of scrutiny.

I’m really checking in on my expenses across business and our household. And even though I regularly do this work, I’m doing it with a lot more scrutiny. Some of the things that we’ve maybe, allowed to grow out a little bit. I’m really tightening those in at the moment saying, “Hey, do you know what? Now’s really not the time for us to be needing three or four different subscriptions for Pay TV.” We’ve narrowed down to two, so really checking in on expenses. Same with my business. I am tightening the reins in a big way right now, not because I’m panicking, but just because I’m like, “Hey, let’s just be prepared for what might be coming.”

The second thing that I’m doing is that I’m actually leaning into sales more than ever. Rather than saying, “No one’s buying right now,” I’m like, I’m actually having the opposite experience. I am putting offers out. People are excited to be working with me. I am coming up with more ways that I can be serving my audience, and more ways that I can be saying, “Hey, here’s the ways that we can work together.”

As part of that, I am also doubling down on the level of service I provide to my existing clients. I’m thinking of extra ways that I can support them, of new offers that I can share with them. “Hey, if you are loving this, I’ve got something else you might really like as well.” So now is a time to be selling.

And let me talk about some of the tweaks that you might need to make this work right now. One of the things you might need to do is revisit your price points. You might find that actually now’s the time. If you are feeling like you are smashed with work, now might be a time to say, “Hey, I’m ready to put my prices up,” or perhaps now is a time to create a lower ticket offer.

To play around with what your pricing looks like, and part of that might be creating some new offers. What’s a way that I can serve people right now? What am I hearing? What is my audience telling me? What are my clients telling me? How can I create a way to help them right now? An example of this during Covid, let’s just, I know that I’m using that example at the moment and I don’t wanna pretend that the two are similar, but it’s just the most recent economic challenging time that I can think of.

One of the examples of this was when all the gyms got shut down and some people just went in to complete, “Oh my gosh, our business is completely dire. What are we gonna do?” There were some gyms, mine included that went, “Hey, we are now running online training.” And they got their trainers into a studio where they were actually allowed to film and they were still running classes that you could do from your lounge room, and they kept charging through that period of time.

It’s a great example of something that traditionally they haven’t done, and they’re like, “How can we adapt? What are our audience needing right now? How can we continue to serve our clients?” So what are some new offers that you can create that will really support people in these shaky, uncertain times?

And part of this is also checking in on your messaging. You might need to tweak your messaging right now. You don’t wanna be being tone-deaf to what is going on. And equally, you don’t wanna be super negative and woe-is-me. I’m certainly not going out in my marketing and saying, “It’s coming. The big crash is coming.”

I really think that you need to be aware of the energy that you are putting out, the kind of people that you wanna be calling into your world, and really focus on service. Focus on how you can help without manipulating your audience. You don’t wanna be like, “The only way to get through this is to hire me as your bookkeeper.”

I really think that preying on people’s fears and insecurity is not really an ethical way to be growing your business. Focus on your service. Focus on how you help and talk about how your products and services support people. Now, to sum up today’s episode of the podcast. Maybe you’re feeling nervous at the moment, maybe you’re not.

But regardless, now is a great time to double down on your mindset work, to really be a master of your mind. Where’s my head at? What am I thinking? What can I control? And to be creating your growth plan for growth, because you can sit in the uncertainty of what’s going on, or you can say, “Hey, regardless of what’s going on, I’m gonna adapt. I’m gonna evolve. I’m gonna have some fun, and I am going to grow my business regardless of what is going on in the economic climate.” Don’t forget to reach out with me if you want some support with creating a growth strategy for your business. This is exactly my jam. I love to have a look at people’s businesses and really say, “Hey, here’s your blind spots. Here’s what you’re missing right now, and here is a thing that you can capitalise on to serve and to help support growth in your business right now.” Alrighty. Thanks so much for tuning into another episode of The Clare Wood Podcast, and I will chat to you again next week.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio