Revisiting and Realigning Your Goals with Josephine Owusu

If this hasn’t been your year, it’s time to change things up! But how? And in what part of your business?

That’s where having some clarity and business strategy comes in. Going through the motions may have worked a few years ago, but these days being really intentional about where you spend your time is the key to success.

This week on the podcast, we’re talking strategy, setting and reaching your goals, finding ways to diversify your offerings, and leveraging a community that you build through networking. All of these are exactly what you need at this point in the year, especially if you’ve been struggling.

And this week’s guest, Josephine Owusu, even walks me through how to look at one of my own goals for later this year. I love the way she talks through each step of achieving it.

Mentioned in This Episode Podcast

About Josephine Owusu

Josephine is the Founder of The Owusu Collective and is a business strategist for female purpose-driven coaches, content creators & creative entrepreneurs with a team. She has over a decade of experience working with award-winning corporate media companies and thriving startups including Cartoon Network, HBO, Magnify, and Cheerfully Given and has managed creative teams and large multi-6 figure production budgets.

Through her high-level strategic thinking, she helps her clients to get unstuck and her framework gives them the clarity, strategy and leadership skills they need for growth, connection and achieved goals. Her unique ability to combine strategy with operations gives her clients the clarity and structure they need to scale.

Transcript

Abby Herman 0:08
Hey there, and welcome to episode 235 of The Content Experiment Podcast, a podcast for service driven business owners who know that content is important. But there’s also so much more to marketing and business growth. Here we talk about showing up for your audience in a way that they want to hear and in a way that’s sustainable for you. This might mean publishing a weekly podcast or blog. But it also means paying attention to your email list, leveraging other people’s audiences, building relationships, and getting over the limiting mindsets that often hit when we’re reaching for the next level in our business. I’m Abby Herman, content strategist and podcast manager for business owners who want to make their marketing feel easier and more streamlined, so they can get back to serving their clients and making those sales. I will show you how, or I’ll do it for you while you do business in a way that works for you. I can help by supporting you through building a content and marketing strategy, taking care of the podcast management for you, or giving you the tools and resources to take this on yourself.

Abby Herman 1:13
So question for you. How are things going for you this year? Are you still feeling the 2022 crunch that so many of us experienced? I’m recording this in early March. And things are good so far this year, because I’ve made intentional changes to how I’m showing up. And I’ve been putting myself out there a lot more than I did last year. At the same time, I always know that things could be better, or I would I always want them to be better, more strategic, more aligned with my goals more streamlined. From the conversations that I’ve been having, I think that you are in the same place. And that’s why I invited Josephine Owusu to the podcast this week. She’s a business strategist who has worked with some amazing companies, and has a no nonsense approach to growing an online business. Josephine and I talk about coming back from a contraction in the online space, strategically planning to meet your goals. Imagine that creating some diversity in your revenue stream without scaling or building a course, thinking outside the box and to building a community through networking. It is such a great conversation, and I honestly could have stayed on with her for much longer. In fact, we kind of did. We talked for 15 minutes before we hit record, and then continued our conversation for at least 20 minutes after I stopped recording. It was so much fun. Before we get into the conversation here is a little more about Josephine.

Abby Herman 2:49
Josephine is the founder of the Owusu collective and is a business strategist for female purpose driven coaches, content creators and creative entrepreneurs with a team. She has over a decade of experience working with award winning corporate media companies and thriving startups, including Cartoon Network, HBO magnify and cheerfully given and has managed creative teams and large multi six figure production budgets. Through her high level strategic thinking she helps her clients to get unstuck and her framework gives them clarity, strategy and leadership skills that they need for growth, connection and achieved goals. Her unique ability to combine strategy with operations gives her clients the clarity and structure they need to scale. So listen into this super fun conversation. Hi, Josephine. I am so excited to chat with you today. Thanks so much for being here.

Josephine Owusu 3:48
Hi, Abby, thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited. Yeah.

Abby Herman 3:53
So before we get started, can you share with listeners what you do and who you do it for?

Josephine Owusu 4:00
Okay. Hi, everyone. I’m Jason bean resume. And I’m the founder of the Lucy collective, and a business strategist who works with purpose driven coaches, content creators and creative business owners to give them clarity, strategy and leadership skills to bring growth connection and allow them to achieve their business goals.

Abby Herman 4:21
I love it. And can you share a little bit about how you work with clients like what what that might look like? And how does the way that you’ve structured your client work and the way you run your business? How does that help you to live the lifestyle that you want to live?

Josephine Owusu 4:38
Oh, I love this question. So I work one to one with my clients, either with strategic planning intensives where they usually like six hour intensives and we do a deep dive into your business based on what the client needs are. So their bespoke super spoke service, and it’s an opportunity for my clients to to step away from their business, and for us to really look at the business from a holistic perspective. And another way is also through project work as well, because I have a background in the media industry where I worked in production. And so I used to do a lot of project management. And so I have some contractors who I work with. And we can do some projects where it’s like strategy operations, looking at your systems and your processes. And, yeah, it’s really exciting how I work with my clients. And I, the way I’ve built my business in a way that aligns with the life that I want to live, is I’ve built it in a way where I can work one on one with clients, I can kind of create my schedule. So for example, when I’m doing my core client work, it’s usually between Tuesdays and Thursdays that the core client work would happen. So that if I want to have some time, some CEO time, definitely on a Monday, and then Fridays as well. Sometimes you might want to take half a day off to go and do something with your family. And so yeah, I built it up in that way. But then if I do need to do some client work on that Friday, I can do it if I want to kind of thing. So I’ve kind of built it up that way.

Abby Herman 6:19
I love that I’ve kind of done that, too, this year, and Friday has kind of become my buffer slash ketchup day. So the things that I don’t get done, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are the things that I try to finish up on Fridays, which, yes, kind of prevents me from doing that taking that Friday off, but that’s okay.

Josephine Owusu 6:39
Yeah, no, I think it’s the best thing to be honest. And one thing that I learnt at the, you know, early on in my businesses before, I thought that I’d have to be full capacity, full to capacity with client work, because you’re just focusing on your client work. That’s what’s bringing in the revenue. And then I realized, hang on, if I’m full to capacity with client work, then how do I have time to kind of work on the strategy on my own business and do forward planning and you been intentional? I can’t do that. Yeah, all my marketing and stuff.

Abby Herman 7:11
So yeah, I made that mistake as well. And then ended up having to spend the weekend playing catch up. And that is no fun at all. In fact, this past weekend, I told myself, I was going to play catch up on, I was going to do whatever I wanted on Saturday and then play catch up on Sundays. So I could sit down Monday morning, and prepare. And this is my first call on on that Monday morning. I did zero work all weekend. And it felt so good. There was a tiny bit of anxiety coming into this morning, but I knew that like Friday afternoon, I had prepared for what I was going to do this coming week. And and it felt really good to just not not even really think about work, look, think about work in the turn in terms of I really feel like I should sit down at my desk for a few minutes. And then I just didn’t. And it was I guess what, everything’s fine.

Josephine Owusu 8:01
Yes. And I’m glad that you did that. Because I think as business owners, we forget that sometimes we’re like, no, I need to, you know, I need to take this time off on the weekend and actually do this extra work. But one thing I did, which I’m proud of myself in 2022 is I decided and it was a non negotiable that I’m literally taking the full weekend off. Because in 2021, there were a lot of working on the weekends, like sometimes Saturday and Sunday, sometimes just on a like Sunday afternoon or something. And so in 2022, I really was intentional about it. And I saw that it really helped me with my mental well being. It just was like, No, it’s okay. It’s okay to have that rest. Because when you come back on a Monday, you just got you just feel refreshed. And I’m so you feel refreshed now.

Abby Herman 8:52
And yeah, you can be more productive and do more, be more focused. I feel like when you actually take the time to do the things that you want to do on the weekend. So exactly, yes, see, well, I want to talk about like the last couple of years, and what business and strategy and growth and all of that have looked like. So I think that from my perspective, what I saw a lot in 2020 and 2021 was huge, huge growth in the online business space. I know for me, 2021 was by far the best year I’ve ever had in my business. And there was just so much growth and I saw that in clients as well. And then 2022 happened and there was a lot of stagnation. There was some contraction, you know, business slowed down business slowed down for me it slowed down for a lot of clients. To Can you is that something that you can talk on a little bit like why you think that happened? And now that we’re midway through by the time this goes to air will be almost midway through 2023 We, what are we to expect from this year? Have things gotten better? That, you know, what are some things that we can do to to, you know, make our own businesses better?

Josephine Owusu 10:11
Yeah, no, I completely agree with you. 2020 was an amazing year for me. It’s 2021 was also amazing. And actually 2022 was a great year for me as well, it started to kind of I saw that shift, like you towards q4 of 2022. And I definitely think it has an impact, it has a direct correlation to do with what’s been going on in the economy, to be honest, I think that it has been a direct impact. And so obviously, a lot of people have kind of kind of reeled back in terms of how much they’re spending. I personally think that for everyone, what everyone needs to start looking at thinking about is building in multiple streams of revenue in their businesses, I think they need to start thinking about, okay, what are different ways that I can bring revenue into my business so that if something like a revenue stream slows down, it doesn’t impact me hugely, like it might impact me, but I still got other revenue streams that I can lean on. I think that this year as well, that we really need to work going back to that place of kind of focusing on content. And I am a strong believer that video content is still where it’s at. And there’s still time to really focus on that as well. And creating video content and creating that connection with your audience. It’s something that I’ve put in my strategy for this year, I’m going to be launching a YouTube channel, I’m going to be creating more short form video content as well. It’s really about connecting with your audience and finding the finding the platform that works for you. So for some people, video content, they don’t enjoy it. And that’s, that’s okay. Some people love podcasts. Like I love podcasts. And so that’s why being on podcasts is one of my strategies as well. So I would recommend kind of thinking about what is the type of content that you like creating, and that shows you shows your personality of best, and then really developing a strategy with that, like, because if you enjoy that content, it’s most likely you’re going to be consistent, you’re going to stick with it. And people will see that you’re enjoying it, people can tell when people don’t enjoy something. And so if you figure out the type of content that you like, creating, and use that as your form of connecting with your audience growing with your audience, I think that’s one of the things to definitely focus on. And I still think there’s opportunity, I know that things have slowed down. But that’s why I’m even encouraging. I’m having diverse, different revenue streams, and thinking about, okay, these, this this area, maybe there’s not as much funding, but there’s funding in other areas. The pandemic is an example. There were a lot of business businesses that were affected, and a lot of businesses became bankrupt. Even in the in the case, a lot of businesses which have been around for like hundreds of yours. They were you know, they closed down yet we had online businesses like zoom that had their the most amazing year yet, so there’s always opportunity. So it’s, it’s about looking at where’s the opportunity?

Abby Herman 13:52
Yes, I totally agree. Okay, so I want to talk about that and the the revenue streams, but I want to go back to what you said about video for a second first, and I 100% am on board with finding what works for you and what you’re comfortable with. And I want to challenge people because sometimes where your audience is showing up is not necessarily where you are where you are the most comfortable and it’s okay to try out new things and to get outside your comfort zone. In fact, that’s like a growth out personal and professional growth opportunity for you to get outside your comfort comfort zone and to try out different things as well. So like video, for example, I know a lot of people are averse. They don’t they don’t want to put themselves out there. They don’t want to be on camera. I don’t necessarily I don’t do a lot of video, but I am not like I don’t have an aversion to it. I just want maybe I do because I feel like it has to be perfect. attend, I want to do it in a certain place, I want to do it in my home office. And I’m not always here and all of that. But when I first started recording some video, I did it on Instagram stories because I could record and delete record and delete record into late and even when I did put the video out there was only out there for 24 hours, and then it would just go away. And so it just felt more comfortable for me. So I would, you know, challenge people to find ways to, to make it work for you and to you know, like get outside your comfort zone. And I have there’s a few I have a few episodes talking specifically about video. And so I would I’ll include links to those in the show notes, I would encourage people to, to look at that.

Josephine Owusu 15:41
Yeah, I agree with you when it comes to stepping outside of your comfort zone. Because it’s something that I’ve challenged myself to this year in 2023. So my challenge for this year is to be more visible, because I have been that person who’s like, just hiding just kind of doing their thing. But I’ve been like, No, we’re going to be more visible. So if it means showing up on stories, you know, for a long while, even on Instagram, I would show up on stories and literally show people you know, behind the scenes on my walks and all that kind of stuff, and people loved it. And then one time I just you know, did a video and showed my face and the amount of comments where people were like, Oh, it’s so nice to see your face. And you realize that what was I worried about? And so it’s the same thing, even with my YouTube channel, I’ve wanted to start this for years, but I think I just got in my head for about, you know, you don’t just be an on camera. And now it’s like, no, I’m doing this, I know, I’m good at this. And I’m just gonna do it. And I’m going to enjoy it. And even with LinkedIn as well, that’s another thing that I’ve put as a challenge for this year where I’m going to show up. So I’m going to show up on LinkedIn, and whether it’s with some video content and written content and just engaging with everyone there. But I hear you on that I completely agree we need to let’s all challenge each other to take one thing this year in 2023. When it comes to content, creation, whether it’s video, whether it’s going on a podcast, like the side one thing where it’s like, oh, that’s scary. And just do it.

Abby Herman 17:20
Yes, I agree. God, it’s such a Yeah, I, I I’m I’m there. I’m doing it. I’m gonna do you talk too about like, having some diverse revenue streams? Can you talk a little bit about what that looks like? Because, you know, in my head, I have some ideas of what what you mean by a diverse revenue streams. But as someone who provides, and you do this to you provide a one to one service, I provide a one to one service? How do you diversify that? What does that look like? If you maybe are not interested in creating a course or a program or something like that?

Josephine Owusu 17:59
Yeah. Oh, really? Great question. So, again, it’s really about looking and thinking about, okay, what are the things that are in my genius zone? What are the things that I can offer? What what are the things where, you know, people always come and ask me about or they’re like, Oh, this is really good, kind of looking at the value that you can provide. So for example, as a service provider, not also, as you said, not all service providers do want to provide a course. But a stream, like an example is yes, you can create a course, excuse me, or a some kind of digital product. So for example, you might have some digital resources that you create for your one to one clients that you use all the time, you see that they get lots of results, you can actually package that as a digital product, where and then maybe you might create some like to short videos or something or a guide to of how to use that, that resource. And then it could become a passive income, you can set that up, it can become a passive income, you know, that you’ve got resource I’ve got, I’ve got literally a library of resources that clients have been like, literally, that is amazing. You need to create that as a product for people who maybe not, can’t, they can’t like work with you once one, but then it’s an opportunity for them to see the value that you can provide. So something like that you could do if you wanted. It could be like a little ebook, for example. Another example is a lot of business owners don’t think about this. But sometimes we look at for example, social media. And we think that only influencers can work with brands, but you as a business owner can also work with brands and so you can have like affiliate links. For example, there might be a lot of things that you recommend from Amazon for example, you can set up an Amazon shop, it may be you know, little dollar amount What’s coming in here and there. But I always say that little drops make a mighty ocean. And so you can set up an Amazon store fun. And now whenever you recommend stuff of Amazon, and people click on your affiliate link, which you’ve made sure that you’ve communicated it, clearly, that is an affiliate link, you are making money from it. You can have affiliate links with other people’s programs, you can there’s just so many different ways you could if there’s any brands that you use, or any tools. So for example, if there’s a project management tool like dubsado, for example, you could, you can literally, I’m sure that dubsado even have an affiliate program. And so make a list of all the different tools that you use for your business, the things that you use, and literally just make a list and then you can actually kind of think about okay, strategically, can I can something work here? Can I approach them for something for some kind of partnership or collaboration?

Abby Herman 21:04
Yes, I love that. I love the idea of the Amazon shop, too, because I think that that’s such a, an easy thing to do. And you can add to it. And yeah, I’ve thought about that, before I follow. I follow a number of like, I’m, like the least fashion East person ever. But I follow like, I follow people to look at their outfits, and how can I, you know, do something different? And that’s what they do, like that’s their living is by sharing Amazon links. And literally, it’s nuts.

Josephine Owusu 21:36
Yeah, yes, yeah, I realized this. Because there’s an author, she wrote a book, and I literally recommended it to so many people. And I was like, if my Amazon links it up. Yeah. You know, that’s a way to build in revenue streams. So it’s just really about being intentional and thinking about, okay, what are the resources? Is there an accounting software that I use? Do they have an affiliate program? Is there a program that I’ve gone through? Do they have an affiliate program? There’s so many different ways. So it’s really about getting, I think, this year, everyone needs to be creative. Yeah, it’s about, it’s about thinking outside the box. I know that there’s a lot of companies that have tighten their belt. But there’s a lot of companies that still have money to spend. And so it’s really about being creative, and thinking outside the box. And just really kind of looking at all of your resources and looking at, like holistically What do you use? And yeah, who do you interact with?

Abby Herman 22:37
Yes. So if we’re thinking about making some shifts and doing things differently, this share, what are things that we need to consider, like as far as strategy within our business, as we’re getting ready to do that, or as we’re planning to do that?

Josephine Owusu 22:52
Okay, so one thing that I love to say is start with the end in mind. So, before you even come up with a strategy for your business, you need to think about what is the end goal? What’s the end goal? What do I want to achieve? And how do I want to achieve it as well? And then you kind of choose your strategy based on that. So for example, is there a goal that you have in mind for this year, and we can use that as a live example, like, give me any kind of goal or anything, and then

Abby Herman 23:25
take two full weeks off without touching my computer in September?

Josephine Owusu 23:30
Okay, I love that. This is a great example. Okay. So it’s having time off and making sure that you actually enjoy that time off, and you’re not sitting there stress, doing client work. So the first thing that I would do so obviously, you know, when you’re taking off your time in September, but what I would do is, if anyone was like, Okay, I want to take some time off this year, I would look at your calendar. And I would schedule it in scheduling the exact time off in September that you want to schedule. Because I am a firm believer that if it’s not in the calendar, it’s not happening.

Abby Herman 24:11
Totally. I’m the same way.

Josephine Owusu 24:14
I always say that I’m literally like Sunday is not in the calendar. So the first thing I would say is actually penciling in that time in your diary. So someone else’s goal might be they want to take four weeks off, or five weeks off. What does that look like? Is it you’re taking some time off in July? taking some time off in September taking a week off for Christmas? What does it look like in terms of with your family and everything and your friends kind of thing. So you want to make be intentional and make sure that you put it in the calendar. The next thing now is thinking okay, in order for me to take that time off, what does that look like in my business? So In terms of you, how do you work with your clients? Abby?

Abby Herman 25:05
It’s all one to one.

Josephine Owusu 25:06
Okay, and do you have to work with them? Like every week? Or is it that you just is it just that you have deliverables by certain time? Or is it that okay, I work with them on a Tuesday, Wednesday? How does it work?

Abby Herman 25:19
Um, so right now I work with clients on a month to month basis. So most of my clients, I meet with once once a month and have regular deliverables, that depends on them doing the front end work. So if I’m, if it’s a podcast that I’m working with, they have, obviously they have to record the episodes in order for my team and I to do the work. I have one client who I meet with weekly, but that’s easily work around double.

Josephine Owusu 25:49
Okay, and how long? How long is the session that you have with them? Weekly? 30 minutes. Okay. All right. So that’s fine. Yeah. So what I would say, I’m for you, for example, is then you have to look at okay, during those two weeks, when I’m away, what would I usually be doing during that two weeks? What would the workload usually be? So you kind of have to have an idea of that. So it’s almost like auditing that. And then you need to kind of, it’s almost like you’re planning ahead. So you’re thinking, okay, how can we put that two weeks of work and put it into maybe August is August workload. And we communicate this ahead of time to our clients so that they are aware. So what always start communicating to your client from probably the beginning of August, so it’s like in their head, or you know, in the beginning or the middle or end of September,

Abby Herman 26:48
it’s the middle, like the middle two weeks is when I’m in?

Josephine Owusu 26:52
Okay, so what I would say is you would start communicating as early as possible to your clients. So maybe from the beginning of August, and just communicating to them when you are going to be off. And basically managing expectations that this is this month, we’re going to be like, everything’s going to be business as usual. But we’re, we’re literally working on this pipeline in the next six weeks, basically. And we need to make sure your deadlines, make sure you communicate clear deadlines for when you need them to send you stuff. So why would probably say is usually for September, you would probably have a deadline of okay, my clients needs when would you when would your clients usually need to deliver stuff to you by

Abby Herman 27:38
about two weeks ahead of time, usually two to three weeks, depending on the client and depending on like the workload for that client.

Josephine Owusu 27:44
Okay, so what I would do is to really ensure that you’ve got everything is I would actually shift that deadline to maybe three weeks, or maybe three or four weeks, but then that’s for everything. And just to obviously, it’s a rarity, it’s not going to be something that you’re doing all the time, it’s only for this time, but I would actually communicate to them. And I would say to them, okay, for this, this season, we’re going to need things earlier. And so you will brief them earlier, so that they have enough time to be able to do whatever they need to do and deliver to you on time. So it’s actually going to start with you, you’re going to be briefing them earlier, you’re going to be providing what they need earlier, so that they can deliver when you need them to deliver. And then in addition to that, make sure that you’re putting your out of office on. That’s very important. Make sure you put your out of office on make sure you’ve communicated clearly to every single client that you are off, you are outside the country, you have no access to emails, and and communicate that in your out of office and communicate when you’re going to be back as well. And then if you’ve got emails on your phone, delete the app. If you know that you’re you don’t have that self control to need the app.

Abby Herman 29:08
That is a great point. I actually years ago, I have the app on my phone. And years ago, I turned notifications off because I get like 150 emails every stinking day, a lot of spam because I communicate with my clients through Voxer and through slack instead of email, but I still, you know, have this habit of going into my email. So that’s a great idea and maybe even having my assistant do the daily purge of my email to make sure that so I don’t feel compelled because she’ll be able to reach me, you know, but I don’t want anybody else to be able to.

Josephine Owusu 29:47
Exactly I think if you the key thing is preparing your system as well. Like really putting things in place so that she’s got everything that she needs, and she doesn’t need to contact you. And then also her creating unnecessary emergencies. And then also creating a system. As you said, when she’s checking through your email, she’s urgent, she’s moving the software, it’s like, okay, when you get back, you need to look at this, that kind of stuff. And even if you want as well, if there’s something that it might be like, Oh, this might be urgent, maybe that for certain instances, your system can reply on your behalf. And just be like, Okay, you are away. But you will be back on this time. But it’s yeah, like, it’s just figuring out what the best system is to make sure that we are protecting your your holiday.

Abby Herman 30:42
Yes, I love that. I love that. So starting with knowing when I’m going to be out starting what with what the end goal is, and then creating that strategy and the systems. Yes, which I’m not great at following, but I can create the systems but not by following them, but actually committing to following those systems so that I can reach that goal of taking that time off. And actually the way that you walked through it feels really good. And makes me wonder if I can extend that to three weeks maybe yeah.

Josephine Owusu 31:16
I like this. And the thing is, one thing I want you to remind yourself of Abby is when you’re working with your clients, and you create a system with them. You always implement it because it’s your client. So what’s the difference with doing it with yourself? Right? Yeah, sometimes we need to we need to see ourselves sometimes as clients. Because sometimes we’re just like, oh, yeah, it’s just me. Oh, you know, we create this system, we don’t stick to it. How many times have we, for example, put your time blocks some time in your calendar to do something for your business? And then you push up, okay, I’m gonna push it back, because this client thing has come up this morning. No, everything’s awesome

Abby Herman 31:56
Every freaking week. every week,

Josephine Owusu 31:59
against done because we’re not strict with ourselves. Because we see our client work is more important than our own stuff. But it’s actually also important that the things that you have put aside for your business, for your business growth, for you, your your health and well being, that’s also important, it needs to become a priority, because that’s what’s going to allow you to build an even better business that’s going to allow you have a clearer mind and to grow your business.

Abby Herman 32:27
Yeah, yeah. Because I cannot do the work that I do for clients, if I’m stressed out about where the next client is going to come from, or if I’m feeling, you know, because it happened, literally, me pushing aside, my own stuff for client work happens every single week. And then I feel crappy about it. I feel crappy about myself, and about how I’m running my business, because I do that. And I end up spending, you know, I mentioned before Fridays, I ended up spending Friday playing catch up and doing the things that I didn’t get done. That’s where the thoughts around, well, I need to work on Sunday, I need to finish the stuff up and no, you know, I agree that we need to, we need to treat ourselves as clients, our own business needs to be a client, and they need to have a special spot in, you know, probably the primary spot in our schedule. Because just like, you know, we talked about, like, we can’t take care of other people. Unless we take care of our own health and well being like we need to exercise we need to eat right, we need time for yourself. Otherwise, we can’t help our loved ones, the people in our families and the people we care about, you know, and I’m saying all of this, like mostly to myself, as a reminder, I’m really good about the personal care stuff and exercise and taking time downtime for myself. I’m good with that. But it’s the business side that, you know, I don’t think that we prioritize the things that don’t bring us immediate cash revenue, you know, exactly,

Josephine Owusu 34:04
exactly. It’s unfortunate. Exactly. And I think what really changed my mind about this was I heard at Milan, he was talking about it on a podcast. And he said, he said someone was asking him about impostor syndrome. And he said, the reason why a lot of people have impostor syndrome is because they don’t trust themselves, because they break their promises to themselves. And that blew my mind. And it was like, Oh my gosh, wow, that is insane. And it’s, it’s true. And if we kind of reframe it, where it’s like, I’m not going to break that promise to myself, just like I wouldn’t do it to a client to a friend to my family. I’m not going to break that promise to myself. If I’ve said I’m going to do this. I’m going to do it.

Abby Herman 34:54
That is so good. I’m going to get one more done here. I’m going to make sure that I get from you A link to that podcast, including show notes because I want to listen to it too. Yes. So shifting gears a little bit, one of the things that you talk about a lot is connecting, you know, networking, getting to know others, which I think is a huge part of business growth. And it’s something that I’ve talked about here on the podcast before, you talked about it a little bit at the beginning, where you were talking about, like being active on LinkedIn and connecting with people there, you and I connected through a networking, I guess it’s a networking group like that we’re in. So what are some, let’s talk a little bit about that, and what that looks like. And I would love for you to share where you think people are stumbling a little bit on that, and why maybe, you know, somebody says that they’ve been networking, and they’re not making the right connections, you know, where are we going wrong?

Josephine Owusu 35:54
Okay, so networking, I just loved this topic. And a fun fact, I used to be that person who said, they hated networking. I used to be that person. But I realized over the years that I’m actually a natural networker, and that is where I think that’s the biggest stumbling block. A lot of people kind of, we kind of set networking up to just be this scary thing. That it’s like, Oh, I’ve got to go in speak to people. But networking is actually about building relationships. And we do that on a day to day basis. And so when it comes to networking, it’s really about finding what your personality is like. And then going with how you network how you build relationships. So for example, I’m a one on one person, I love one on one. That’s just me. And so there’s so many different ways you can network in person, you can network virtually, I think people forget that. In the pandemic, I built my business network, with a lot of people through Instagram. I have got a lot of great friends who we met through Instagram, there’s some who I who are based in New York, California, and like all over the world, and I haven’t met them yet. But we’re literally like, great friends. Because we have built relationships online. So for example, if we’re going to start with the online, it’s all about just engaging with people’s content, first of all, so whether it’s on LinkedIn, you could work on LinkedIn, on Instagram, you can just start engaging, you know, people can tell when people are being fake, and when they want things, right. But if you are genuinely trying to create connection, and you see something that someone’s posted, and you’re like, oh my gosh, I so connected with that comment, once you start doing that a few times, there might be something that they post, and then you can just slide into their DMS, their direct messages, you can just slide in and then start building a conversation there. Another thing like, for example, for Instagram, I’m not sure about LinkedIn, because I’m still working on that. But you know, I’m still kind of developing on that side. But I know of Instagram, you can send voice notes, a lot of people forget that you can send voice notes. And it’s it makes you stand out. So for example, if someone if you’re engaging with someone in the DMS on Instagram, and then you can actually be like, what I’m going to voice note them, it’s happened so many times where we’ve ended up voice noting, and then building a relationship. And then we’re like, Oh, do you want to go on a zoom call, we should catch up. And like get to know each other better. It’s literally just about finding that one thing, where it’s like, oh, we’ve got that thing in common. And then building upon it. That’s what that’s all it is. It’s about building blocks, building that relationship. If you want to go to in person events, I also think in person events are great, being intentional about it, looking at looking at local events in your area, where there might be people who you would like to connect with. And then also kind of being prepared. So seeing what kind of people are going to be there, the speakers, that kind of stuff, looking at what they’re talking about all that kind of stuff. And then when it kind of setting a goal. So for someone who struggles with when it comes to networking, I would say set yourself a goal. It’s not. I always say this is not about quantity, it’s about quality. And so if you go to a networking event, and you just come out with one quality contacts, you’ve won. It’s not about coming out with 10. You know, okay, contacts, you know, if you’ve come out, and you’ve really connected with that one person, because remember that when it comes to networking, it’s not just about the people in your network, but it’s also the people in their network. So you don’t realize that you’re opening up your network to so many people because I, I’ve got, I’ll give you an example, my sister, I’ve, I’ve mapped out like my, the people in my network. But I didn’t realize that my sister is actually a big Uber connector for me. She’s also got her own business, she bought me a bunch of clients that I love that I never would have thought that oh, yeah, she you know that she’s my, someone who’s strong in my network. But it’s only you, I always laugh at him. And I tell her, Look, you’re my Uber Connect. She’s connected me with so many people. And so it’s not just looking at people from a business standpoint, but also looking at your friends. Looking at your family. It’s so it might not be the immediate connection, but it might be the people that they know as well.

Abby Herman 40:52
Hmm, that’s so good. I love that. Yeah, I have to admit, I love the one on one connection. Also, I have a really hard time with in person networking, just because either I don’t know anybody there at all. And so I hide, or I know somebody there and I’m like, attached at the hip too. Because I don’t want to have to make the connections. I don’t want to have to put myself out there. It’s just like so much anxiety, I have so much anxiety around that. I’m going to two events in June. Okay, well, no to in person events, I will no no one at the first one at all, no one that I’ve met in person before people I’ve connected with online. And I will know one person for sure at the second event. And so yeah, it will be a challenge, both of them will be a challenge for different reasons. And I think I need to do like what you were talking about, like, do the research ahead of time and know, you know, figure out who I want to connect with and all of that ahead of time, so that I can do that the first one will be a much smaller group. But there’s still probably will be 100 people there. The second one will be you know, maybe up to 1000. So that just gives me like heart palpitations just thinking about that.

Josephine Owusu 42:14
So I’m going to challenge you, I’m going to challenge you for these two networking events. So first of all, as you said, I want you to do your research and researcher, speakers receipt research, if they’ve got a list of the people who are going to attend research and just kind of look and see who you’d want to connect with based on that. And then second of all, I want to remind yourself that when you’re there, you’re not the only one who’s also probably thinking, right, yeah, so there’s, I think there’s there’s going to be a lot of people’s not everyone who is comfortable with that. And so there’s going to be a lot of people who are in the same boat as you. And so I want you to kind of remind yourself that it’s not just you. And number two, number three, make sure that you are not on your phone. Because sometimes we can use our phone as a, okay, we’re just texting and we’re so busy and vague. What it’s, it’s a defense mechanism, it’s to protect ourselves, it’s Jonathan, make sure that you are not on your phone, I want you to look around the room and try and see the first first familiar face. And another thing to remember as well sometimes what gets people anxious, as well as then when you start speaking to someone and the conversation is kind of going, you’re seeing that, okay, there’s not really a connection, it’s okay to be like, Oh, it’s so good to meet you. I’m just gonna go and get and drink. No need to kind of painfully stay. Just to understand you could you can you can you can move on. And then I want you to set yourself a challenge of how many people do you want to connect with for the first one, as I said, even if it’s one, you’re a winner. And then also, even for the second one as well, I want you to set yourself some challenges of I want to leave with quality contacts with someone where it’s like it could potentially develop even into a really good friendship. Yeah. And I want you to kind of have that mindset that you could be potentially meeting and have a great friend.

Abby Herman 44:23
I love that. Yeah. You know, something I like to do is because I never want to be the person sitting all by myself, you know, and feeling it which I tend to do like I’ll go and hide someplace by myself. So I like to find those people if I’m walking into a room and they see somebody who’s sitting at a table by themselves. I like to go and sit next to them because I didn’t I just had this automatic person who I can connect with and hopefully make them feel a little bit better too and not so isolated and alone. So it’s really hard to do that. But I think that it It’s, you know, it’s just my way of like not inserting myself into a conversation with a bunch of people who were already sitting together. It’s my way of like, maybe starting that little group of people who are, you know, sitting and having a conversation. So I like to I like to do that.

Josephine Owusu 45:16
I think that’s great. I think that’s such a brilliant tip.

Abby Herman 45:19
Yeah. Well, Josephine, we are coming up on time here. And I have so enjoyed this, one of the one of the great things about being a podcast host is that I get to connect with so many new people. So I will be definitely wanting to continue this conversation on all the social media places. But before we go, I want to ask if listeners because you gave so much great information. So if you can remember back to our conversation, if listeners were only able to take two actionable things away from our conversation about strategy and goals, and making changes and networking and all of that, what do you hope that they would take action on?

Josephine Owusu 45:59
Okay? It would be start with the end in mind and figure out, get clarity on what you need to be able to achieve your goals. So that and then then you can kind of create a strategy for that. And also just think about, how do you want to achieve your goals? What does it look like, so that it works in a way that is stressful for you. And then the second thing would be when it comes to networking, that everyone is in the same boat, and it’s all about the keys in the planning. So just kind of doing your research, and then pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, or Okay, three, push yourself out of your comfort zone, because we did speak about sorry. We did speak about the video content as well and pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone when it comes to content creation and connecting with our audience. So I would say push yourself out of your comfort zone. Because I’m sure all of you can think of times where you’ve pushed yourself out of your comfort zone. And it’s been the best experience on the other side. So yeah, that’s why that’s a good guess.

Abby Herman 47:17
No, but it’s okay to not follow rules here. If people want to find out more about you or connect with you, can you share with us? You said you were on Instagram? What are your Where are you online? Yes.

Josephine Owusu 47:33
So I’m on Instagram. I am Josephine Owusu. So O W U S U. I’m also on LinkedIn. So I’m, as I told you, LinkedIn, I’m working on my visibility there. So LinkedIn is Josephine Owusu. Again, and I’m also going to be launching a YouTube channel. So it should be out by the time that this episode is out. So I’ll share the links with you Abby as well. And, and also, I’d love to connect with you or if you have any kind of challenges that you want to discuss. I’ve got a link for connection call as well.

Abby Herman 48:16
Awesome. And all those links and everything will be in the show notes. So Josephine, thank you so much for being here. This was such a such a fun conversation.

Josephine Owusu 48:24
Thank you so much for having me, Abby, I didn’t want it to end.

Abby Herman 48:31
I don’t know about you. But after this conversation, I’m feeling really motivated to show up more on video, and also create some products from the resources that I use with clients. How about you? Now if there’s something that you would love to see me create an offer? Let me know I have a few resources that I sell already, but I rarely market them. Maybe I should start doing that. Hmm. All the resources that Josephine mentioned, including a link to book a call with her are in the show notes.

Abby Herman 49:02
If you found value in what you learned here today, be sure to share it on social media. Take a screenshot of the episode on your phone and share it on Instagram Stories. Then tag me add to the content experiment and tag Josephine @JosephineOwusu. A link is in the show notes. Or you can go over to LinkedIn and connect with me and Josephine be sure to let us know that you found us on the podcast when you send the connection invite. The more you share this podcast with others the more we can get it into the hands of earbuds of more business owners just like you who need to hear the message that they are not alone. Until next time, take care.