149: From failure to online success with Steve Bridson

In this episode of Online Business Uncovered, I’m sitting down with business mentor and founder of the Business Booster Academy, Steve Bridson, for a really open and honest conversation about what it actually takes to build a successful online business.

Steve shares his entrepreneurial journey so far… from working within family businesses and offering one-to-one consulting, to making the leap into the online space and building a membership community. We talk candidly about the highs, the setbacks, the lessons learned the hard way and why failure often plays a much bigger role in success than we like to admit.

Together, we dive into the realities of launching and evolving an online business like making tough pivots, choosing the right tech (and ditching what doesn’t work), understanding your numbers, letting go of perfection and the power of surrounding yourself with the right support. 

We also talk about the quieter side of entrepreneurship like burnout, self-doubt and those moments where running a business can feel pretty lonely.

If you’re building a business and wondering whether you’re on the right path (or questioning yourself along the way) then this episode is packed with practical insights, mindset shifts and reassurance that you’re not alone in the journey.

Business Boost Academy

Business Boost Academy has been set up to support micro business owners to provide the skills and the tools to run their business effectively.  Members get access to educational content, podcasts, articles and resources.  

As well as these resources, there is a community forum where they can engage, share ideas and support other business owners who are in a similar position on the business journey.  As the community grows there will be the opportunity to take part in live events such as business masterminds, webinar plus planning and accountability sessions.

For more information: www.businessboostacademy.co.uk

Email: steve@businessboostacademy.co.uk

Transcript

Karen [00:00:04]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. I've got a special episode today because today I am going to be speaking to a business mentor, Steve Brideson, who is the creator and the brains behind the Business Booster Academy. 

Now, Steve has a wealth of experience in running businesses and he has ventured into the online business space where he has created his own membership that he is currently growing. So what I thought would be a great idea is to get Steve on the show and to really dive into his experience, his lessons and where he is right now because he's got some brilliant nuggets of information to share. 

So Steve, welcome to the show. I'm really excited you're, you've joined me today. Do you want to start by just introducing yourself to the listeners and, and telling them about what you do?

Steve Bridson [00:01:06]:
Yeah. Thank you for having me, Karen. I appreciate it and I'm excited about this. So, yeah, my background basically out of university into the family business became, worked my way through the family business, became a managing director by the time I was 36 and then started another business at 40, ran that business with my brother for a period of time. And then about eight years ago I decided that I'd had enough of the industry that I was in. I was doing a lot of networking, saw a lot of people who needed business support and I would just sort of help them out as you do in conversation and that kind of thing. And then a friend of mine said, why don't you become a business advisor? And I was like, I never really even considered it. So he knew I was looking for a change.

Steve Brideson [00:01:54]:
And then I went and got myself accredited and started. 2018 was how it all sort of evolved for me. And up to that, up to recently, I was spending all of my time working one to one with people and essentially recognized that there was a need for people to have business support but actually couldn't afford the one to one support. So to give you a rough idea, Karen, business of business advice, mentors, coaches, whatever you want to call them, they will charge anywhere up to 2,000 pound a month. You know, I mean, I'm nowhere near that level. I generally charge people 500 quid a month because I think it's people need to be able to afford it. But even so, £500amonth is still a lump, a chunk of change for a small business that actually can't afford it. So I found myself saying to a lot of the people I was working with, I was not repeating myself.

Steve Brideson [00:02:46]:
You tailor it very much to the individual, but you're sort of saying the same sorts of things over and over again. And I realized that there are certain fundamental problems that people have. And one of those big problems is people go into business for themselves. They have this great idea, they're very good at what they do, but when it comes to actually the business skills, they don't have those. So BBA is all about trying to give people the business skills they need to develop their business. And what I wanted to do, I had three criteria. Firstly, I wanted to give people who were in small business world, micro business world, an affordable solution. Secondly, I wanted to make it as comprehensive as I possibly could and build a community.

Steve Brideson [00:03:28]:
And thirdly, I wanted to really support people and, and actually stop people feeling like they're alone. And, and so that's what I, that's what I've tried to create.

Karen [00:03:40]:
Yeah, I love that. I think you're absolutely right. I think when people start businesses, often they're being led by the, the skills and the passion that they have for the thing that they're offering. And then as soon as they start a business they then got to learn to run a business, then that's a whole different skill set and it's not something you're necessarily born with. So there skills that need to be learned. But if you don't have the right people in your corner or the right training available or accessible to you, how can you be effective in what you're trying to do? And so I love the fact that not only is, you know, your, your academy all about, you know, helping and supporting, you're actually giving them the sort of way forward and that training that they need to be able to do what it is that they're looking to do. So do you focus on a particular niche at all?

Steve Brideson [00:04:41]:
So no, not really. My main skill set is sales. I came out of a sales background so sales and business growth is my, it's probably my bag. But in terms of the way I describe myself is I'm a managing director with a sales, with a sales specialty. So what that, what I mean by that is I understand finance, I understand hr, I understand marketing, I understand operations and those sorts of things, but I don't have an in depth knowledge on those things. I have a superficial knowledge on those things. Sales I have an expertise on. However, to run a business you don't need to have in depth knowledge of those certain things.

Steve Brideson [00:05:21]:
You need to have that superficial knowledge so you know what you're talking about. Um, and then if you need specialism in it, you bring in an accountant or you bring in an HR specialist or you bring in a marketing specialist or whatever it might be, because actually, you can't be all things to all people.

Karen [00:05:37]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:05:38]:
And in my world, there's a. That you have people who are business consultants, who are operations specialists, you have business consultants, who is finance specialists, you have business consultants who are marketing specialists. There's no real such thing as a generalist. But, you know, you can't be an expert everything but you can have that superficial knowledge about the things that you need to know. So that's kind of what I try to encourage people to think about as well. So, you know, for example, I mean, I'm using your knowledge to help me with. With what I'm producing as well, because I don't know about this stuff. I'm learning as I'm going along.

Steve Brideson [00:06:11]:
And it's much better to work with somebody who actually really knows what they're talking about and they can point out the pit bulls and everything else. So that. That's. That's kind of the way I approach it. And again, you know, when I'm. When I'm talking to people, I will always signpost them. You know, I'll say, right, okay, this is what you need to do. You can't do that.

Steve Brideson [00:06:30]:
You have to do it this way. But to make sure it happens this way, this is who you need to speak to. So I will. To an expert as well.

Karen [00:06:38]:
Yeah, definitely. I think with business, it's learning in plain sight, isn't it? In order to get everything where it needs to be and for it to work, there is an aspect of.

Steve Brideson [00:06:50]:
You'Ve.

Karen [00:06:50]:
Got to learn these things. And like you say, it's at a superficial level, but I think that's. I think it's really important that people understand the different things that need to happen before they go and outsource. So, like you say, you know, it's important to bring the right expert in at the right level at the right time, but understanding what needs to happen before that so that, you know that we. When you are outsourcing a particular sort of job, you know what it is that you're expecting from that person. And the one thing I love about the business community that we're in is that we have so much expertise at our fingertips, you know, through the networking that we go to, when the people we meet and then we collaborate and all of this thing. So being able to kind of use each other's skill base to kind of, you know, help each and every one of us move forward, I think is a real benefit of being a business owner or an entrepreneur because you get access to that which is really important. And, and I think anybody that's coming out and starting a business thinking it's all about me and it needs to be just what I can do.

Karen [00:08:08]:
I think very quickly you, you soon learn that as you say, you can't be everything to everyone and you're going to need to pull in other levels of expertise to be able to support your own growth and the growth of your business. And that's essentially what you support with, isn't it?

Steve Brideson [00:08:26]:
Yeah, definitely. And I'll give you a couple of examples. You know, I've got a client I'm working with at the moment and he's adhd and he's quite far down the ADHD spectrum. Organizationally, he's all over the place. He's medicated for the work that he, to keep the ADHD under control a little it. But in terms of organization, he just, it's not something that he can do. He finds it too overwhelming. It's too much of an issue.

Steve Brideson [00:08:52]:
So what we're doing is we're putting into place somebody who's, who is effectively a va, who can actually help him control his diary, control conversations, send out quotes, all of those sorts of things. Because actually in that principle, that's the stuff that he will let go. And actually it needs to be done because if he does let it go, his business will struggle because he needs those, those things in place. But now with, with the lady that I'm helping, helping him get there, actually it's really working. It will, it's working for him and it will work for him in the future. So it is about knowing where your own, it's just about being self reflective as well. It's knowing where your own strengths and your own weaknesses lie. You know, there are certain things that I'm particularly good at and there are certain things I absolutely despise.

Steve Brideson [00:09:38]:
My accountant absolutely loves me because she does all my bookkeeping and she gets all my stuff through and I'm just like, yeah, go and deal with it please. Because I'm, I'm rubbish. And she's like, yeah, I'm gonna deal with that. But I understand, I understand that about myself. So I don't put any pressure on myself and I go. Where I go is I concentrate on the things that I'm good at and I bring people in where I'm not so good. So. And I think that self awareness is quite important as well.

Karen [00:10:04]:
Yeah, under 100, I'm exactly same I, hey, accounts. I'm, I'm not that way minded at all. So getting the right people in to, to take care of the, the stuff that you don't enjoy, I think is really important because that frees up space to focus in on the things that's actually going to drive you forward. Yeah. So I think it's really important having, having that understanding and, and recognizing it's not a limitation because it's just distributing your brilliance where it's going to create the most impact in your business, I think is really important. I know I'm good.

Steve Brideson [00:10:45]:
Are I distributing your brilliance?

Karen [00:10:48]:
I kind every now and again I'll come out with a line and I'm like, oh, that's really good.

Steve Brideson [00:10:54]:
That's the title for this podcast, isn't it? Distributing your brilliance, isn't it?

Karen [00:10:57]:
Yeah, that's it. Nowhere to put it. So obviously you've got a wealth of experience in business. Now. Some things that I myself know to be true is that running a business can be, it can be exhilarating. There's highs, there's lows, there's everything in between. But there's also that reality that if, if you are the person at the helm running your business, burnout is a real thing that can happen. So do you have any experience in, in your years of running a business where, where you've kind of reached the point where, where you're like, this is too much.

Karen [00:11:41]:
I, I don't know if I can continue with this anymore.

Steve Brideson [00:11:45]:
Yeah, it happened in April 2012. So I was running my family business and we'd gone through the whole recession and with the business had historic debt and we went into the recession with historic debt. But we actually managed to sort of like turn things around a little bit and keep the business going and keeping it afloat. But it was a battle. Every day was a battle. Working long hours and I would go from. You talk about the highs and lows I was going from. This is the best challenge I've ever faced.

Steve Brideson [00:12:18]:
This is incredible. This is amazing. To a nanosecond later when I have a call, this is the worst experience I've ever faced. And I feel like I'm going to, I could just sort of throw it all in and, you know, feel I was, I was at rock bottom. And then in April 2012, something happened. I can't even remember what happened, but something happened. And we were going through the whole thing and we had about, by this point, we had about 12 staff. We were working really, really hard.

Steve Brideson [00:12:47]:
Profitable on paper, but like I Say service the profit was servicing historical debt. And, and I was sat on my computer and it was about 10 o' clock in the morning and I literally just burst into tears and that was it. And it wasn't, this wasn't, you know, a little tear down the cheek kind of thing. This was sobs and wailing. You know, it was, it was pretty horrendous. And my brother came in. By this point, my parents are retired. My brother came in and sort of almost marched me out of the office, put me in the car and I wasn't able to drive all the way home.

Steve Brideson [00:13:23]:
I drove and stopped at my parents place, stopped with them for an hour, had a cup of tea, got myself calmed down a little bit and then drove home. The next day I went to the doctors and I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression. And, and this is, this is probably it was such a pivotal moment in my life because I didn't realize that I suffered with depression. And on reflection, throughout the course of my lifetime, I have. And it's, it's part of me. I accept it's part of me. And then the second thing was I, it was just that, that realization that I was, I wasn't this superhuman person that could carry on. And I didn't quite until that moment in time, I didn't realize how lonely I was.

Steve Brideson [00:14:07]:
And I'm not talking about lonely at home. I've got an incredibly supportive wife, I've got a lovely family. It was how lonely I was at work. And even though my brother was brilliant and he was very, very supportive in the business, I was the managing director, I was the one that was dealing with everything. I was the one that was dealing with the staff issues. I was on the, dealing with the money issues. I was the one that was trying to drive sales through the business. I was the one that was, was focusing on lots and lots of things with my brother's support.

Steve Brideson [00:14:33]:
But I all felt like it was weight on my shoulders. And I talk a lot about it's lonely running a business and it is very, very lonely running a business. And particularly if you're a solo and you know, both, and I, you and I, we do that. But if you've got a team of people around you to support you, that's, that's crucial. But if you've got a team of people around to support you, who also know about how lonely that feels, that's very powerful because there's empathy there, there's support there, there's understanding. And, and, and you know, when I, when I have Conversations like this, you reflect back on it. You think that's probably where the seeds of everything that I'm doing now were started at that particular moment in time. And, you know, I recovered, took me.

Steve Brideson [00:15:22]:
I think even now I would say I've had two weeks off work, but I actually had six weeks off work. It was a very bizarre time. And literally two months after that, we actually put the business into liquidation. And the day that happened, it happened because we had a client go down on us and actually it, we just couldn't afford to survive. We couldn't survive it. So that at that particular moment, it was a very double edged sword because on the one hand the relief was just unbelievable. It was literally like someone had lifted a millstone from around my neck. And, and the minute I'd made that phone call to the insolvency practitioner, it was like, oh, thank God for that.

Steve Brideson [00:16:02]:
Then the next realization was my parents are now going to lose their house because I've just made that call. And so it was a pretty, like I say, it was a double edged sword. So you, you have, you go through these emotions running a business and actually it's, it's, it's really, really hard. So that, that was, that was the, the low point at the time. I would have turned around to you and said, this is the most horrendous experience I've ever had. Now what are we sort of 14 years later, I will turn around to you and say, do you know what? That was the best learning experience ever. So, you know, my mindset has shifted quite dramatically to the point where I now really appreciate that time rather than look back on it as a, as a, as a horrendous experience, which it was. But I learned so much in that time that it gives me that, when I'm working with people, it gives me that opportunity to really empathize and understand exactly where they are and, and how you can get out of it.

Steve Brideson [00:16:59]:
So what I would say to everybody, if you're going through a tough time right now, it will get better. You just have to work on it to get better. It doesn't stay like that forever. So. Yeah, and that's something that I do with a lot of people.

Karen [00:17:12]:
Yeah, that, I mean, you know, that I can imagine was a huge learning experience. To kind of go through that and the emotional upheaval as you're dealing with this stuff, you know, is, it is, is like, say that's an incredible experience, a hard one to learn from, but, but incredible nonetheless because it's led you to where you are now. And I'm a really great believer in things don't just happen for no reason. Like, I think we all have a path that we are set to be on, and that's what leads us. So what you're doing now is most likely a result of that experience that you had. And you needed to have that in order to be able to be where you are today and have that experience, that wisdom, the emotional intelligence around running a business as well, because that's required and being able to kind of share the lessons that you've learned from, from that period of time and obviously thereafter. So I, I, I heard somebody say, which I love, that sometimes you have to have a breakdown to have a breakthrough.

Steve Brideson [00:18:33]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:18:33]:
And it doesn't always happen immediately, but when you look back in hindsight, you can start to, it's, it's, you can start to map where, where things started to kind of shift.

Steve Brideson [00:18:46]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Karen [00:18:47]:
Even though at the time it feels horrific and like your world is caving in, I think what it's demonstrated is your strength and resilience and agility as well, to be able to kind of get out of that, but also to be where you are today, having gone through that. Because, because that experience alone is enough to break anybody.

Steve Brideson [00:19:11]:
Yeah, it did. And it, it broke me. It did break me, but, yeah, I got fixed.

Karen [00:19:16]:
You know, there was, exactly, it's how you then bounce back.

Steve Brideson [00:19:19]:
There was a lot of therapy involved as well. There was a lot of, there's an awful lot of stuff that I went through. But one thing I want to stress is business. Anybody who thinks business is like this nice, smooth growth curve is, is actually totally delusional because every business. And I've, I've worked with hundreds of business owners over the years. Right?

Karen [00:19:44]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:19:44]:
And experienced business myself. Every business goes like this. Right. And it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter who you are or what you're doing, but every business has its ups and downs. And if you're fortunate, it's like that. If you're not, it's like that, you know, and it disappears off the page. But, you know, it's, it's that thing. And we all go through this, we go through this emotional roller coaster and we.

Steve Brideson [00:20:10]:
When you invest your time, your energy, your heart into your business, you really, really want it to succeed, but you've got to take the peaks and the troughs. And what I say to people is, instead of it being like that, try and make it more like that so your peaks and troughs aren't as, aren't as big as they potentially could be. And if you've got a focus and if you've got a direction of you where you want to take yourself and what you want to achieve from your business and if you've got an idea of how to get your business there and you stick to that plan, then that will help you get to where you want to get to. And if you stay, you know, resilient in, in the things and you accept the troughs, when the troughs come that you work your way out of those troughs because you know you can, it will get, things do get better and they do improve. It's just about having that, that, that almost like that anchor goal you need to hit.

Karen [00:21:03]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:21:04]:
And if you have that thing in mind and, and you stay focused on trying to hit that anchor goal and achieve that thing that you really want to do, that's where you get to. So I'm a big one for visions and vision boards and all of those.

Karen [00:21:16]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:21:17]:
Because actually that just reminds you of why you're doing what you're doing. So when you're in that low point and you look at something that you're thinking, Jesus, is this, is this worth it? You know, the emotional trauma that I'm going through. But if you look at the anchor point, I'm determined to do that. And something you've said to me in the past, Karen as well is back yourself, you know, and believe in, believe in what you're doing. And I love that because actually you do need to back yourself now. And, and that's what I'm doing with Business Boost Academy. You know, I've put it out there. I've a very wise lady has explained to me that actually what I should probably have done is done it in bite sized chunks first.

Steve Brideson [00:22:01]:
Nod to the nice lady at the other end of the screen right now.

Karen [00:22:04]:
But it's all learning, isn't it? I mean this is. Sometimes we've got to go through these spells of learning to, to figure out how it needs to be or what needs to happen. And it's never failure as long as you are trying, as long as you're giving it a go. And that's what you've done. You. We were talking earlier about how you're on version 2.0 or of the Academy, which is, which is great because. And as I explained to you, so I have a membership called Cell Balloons online. I've decided to.

Karen [00:22:40]:
Because I want it to be better. I'm going through that next round so I'm creating version 2.0 at the moment and that has required me to make some big changes around how the membership is going to be delivered. But it's necessary in order to be able to evolve what it is I'm doing and make it as good as it can be for my members. But that's just part of the journey, isn't it? It's an evolution of our idea and you need that first draft of your idea to be out so that you have something to improve. And I think that's what you're actively doing. Aren't you in the Academy?

Steve Brideson [00:23:21]:
Yeah. So I first. So the lessons I've learned. So really I first went onto the school platform, which some of your listeners may be familiar with, some of them may not. School. When I first came up with the concept of Business Boost Academy and it evolved to the point where I actually wanted to put something online because I felt there was a need for small business and micro business owners to get that support online. I, I was involved in a couple of communities that were functioning on school and they were, they functioned okay and they, they did, they did the job. And I thought, you know what? I'm going to use school.

Steve Brideson [00:24:00]:
First lesson. I didn't do my due diligence right. So I didn't look into, I didn't do. I, I just, I just, I was all in on school because hey, that's the thing that's working. There was a lot of publicity around it. I. Alex Hormoses. Yeah, it's got, it's got the profile and everything else.

Steve Brideson [00:24:17]:
And I thought, you know, I'm gonna go for, I'm gonna go for this. As I was building it, I was, I, the first problem I came across was everything, the videos all had to be stored in YouTube and I've got like 30 odd hours of content I produced on video. And I was thinking, well, okay, that's okay. It could be hosted in YouTube. But then when you watch the video, it goes in, you know, you finish watching the video and the next one that comes up as it's something on your playlist. So you could be watching a video about business planning and the next minute you've got a video of Metallica coming up, you know, so it doesn't really make a lot of sense. So that, that was the first problem with it and then the second problem with it as well as everything was in dollars because it's a US platform, everything is in US dollars. So any of my members who want to join this UK based business platform had to pay in dollars.

Steve Brideson [00:25:05]:
Now obviously I was losing money on the exchange rate and all the other things, but it was a barrier, it was a barrier to people. And then the functionality of it didn't work as much as I wanted it to work. It wasn't as brandable as I wanted it to be. And I became these problem, aware of these problems by the time I was actually about to launch it, you know, and I was thinking, well, I put all of this effort, literally three months solid work putting this whole thing together and I thought, you know, I'm just going to, I'm going to get it out there because I need to get it out there. And that was January 25th that I first launched it. And then I started to reflect it hadn't taken off the way I wanted it to take off. I started asking questions from people that were involved with it. What's, what's the barriers there? So I started doing my market research, obviously after, you know, after I'd launched it wrong way around.

Steve Brideson [00:25:53]:
Just so everybody knows. Yes, even business advices get it wrong every now and then. So I started asking people what, what, what were they thinking of it? What do they think of? And, and I was getting a bit of feedback and it turned out that the dollar thing was a problem. So. Right, okay. So that became one of my things and then the native, the idea of having something that was native, videos that were native in the platform became a thing. So I then started doing a lot of research into the other platforms and I know there's, there's hundreds of, of learning platforms out there, so I decided to ask my good friend Chat GPT part of my due diligence and I, I essentially put together. Now I've been using chat for a little while.

Steve Brideson [00:26:35]:
Chat. My, my chat bot knows exactly about bba, who it's for, what it's trying to achieve and all of those sorts of things. So I then sort of started having a conversation with, with, with the AI about what platforms would you recommend to do this, that I wanted to achieve this. I wanted to achieve that. And it threw out several different platforms, one of which was System IO actually.

Karen [00:26:54]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:26:55]:
And so I started doing a bit of research around them, looking at the pricing points and everything else. And, and that's another thing, the pricing points. You know, school was costing me nearly 100 quid a month, so I was thinking, well, that's a lot of money to be spending. So I started asking Chat about pricing points and membership levels and all of those sorts of things. And I then had a Conversation with James west at only. And yeah, because they only were using Heartbeat as a, as a tool and I started asking him some questions about it and he was incredibly helpful and, and said, you know, he was only scratching the surface, but there were a lot more features available to it. So I then went back to chat GPT and said, what about Heartbeat? You know, do you think Heartbeat would be able to achieve these things? And it came back with a load of feedback and there were certain things that I couldn't do on Heartbeat, but there were lots of things that I could do and actually the majority of it, everything I wanted to do, I could do. So I invested in Heartbeat.

Steve Brideson [00:27:58]:
Now to give you an idea, Chat was costing me, I think it was a hundred dollars a month at the time. And Heartbeat. Sorry, school. Yeah, School was costing me a hundred dollars a month and, and heartbeat cost me 49amonth.

Karen [00:28:12]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:28:12]:
So I'm thinking, right, okay, well that's, that's a 50 saving. It's to start off with, so that's a bonus. And then I started playing around with it that they give you a 14 day trial. So I started playing around with it and realized that actually this is a really, really good platform for me. And so around about September time last year, I started redoing everything, reshooting the videos, putting, putting extra content up there and including different things of ideas that I had that allowed me the versatility Heartbeat allowed me, which scored goal, didn't allow me go.

Karen [00:28:50]:
Didn't.

Steve Brideson [00:28:50]:
Yeah, yeah. So, so it then sort of evolved and grew and I'm very happy with version 2. Version 2 is what I envisaged for version 1 but wasn't able to do. So the lessons for me were due diligence, research, you know, and, and understanding what you're doing and don't get swept along with the hype, if you like. Yeah, it's obviously a lesser known platform than School because of the profile that School has. But don't be swept along with the height because there will be something out there that's, that's better. But also use, use AI. Don't just use it as a copywriting tool or, yeah, an idea for graphics or whatever.

Steve Brideson [00:29:29]:
Use AI because it scours the, it scours the web. It, it will ask the questions and answer the questions that you want to answer, but you have to be very prescriptive about the type of question you're asking. You have to give it the detail because then it will give you the feedback that, that you need. So that was, that was a real sort of pivotal moment for me is sitting down, going right, okay, this is the route that I'm going to go down now.

Karen [00:29:52]:
Yeah, yeah. It's interesting that you mentioned that because many moons ago when I first started out I built my first course on Kajabi. So for about two and a half, three years I was on Kajabi and I was on the mid tier because at that time I was delivering life programs. So so I was, you know, cohort of women that I would be teaching and my on demand training would be on there and all of that. And so I was an affiliate for the platform because it's always made sense to me if I'm in a position where I'm using something and therefore promoting and people are seeing, of course I'm going to be an affiliate for it. But I was paying £160 and then what was happening was that people were signing up for, I think at the time it was something like 110 quid. And when I, when I really sat down and thought about, I thought this is ridiculous, it's so much money and we do not need to be paying this kind of money for, for just to kind of have our content on a platform for people to access. So that kind of, for me that, that sort of really shifted my thinking about the platform because it was like Kunjabi is a really good platform and I was drawn to it because of the hype because that was what all the big gurus in the online space were using and all of that.

Karen [00:31:20]:
But then I discovered a platform called MemberVault and Member Vault was, I forget how much it was but it was something like 14 quid. And what I liked about Membervault is that it made content more binge worthy by the way it was set up. So then I decided to move everything from Punjabi to member fault and then I had to go and find an email marketing system because you need all the email marketing on side it and that was a ton of work but it heavily reduced my costs and then I, and then I felt better about the platform that I was then talking about and then what I found and you talk about due diligence but what I will say is that sometimes you don't know what you don't know until you, until you know it. And I'm so I moved from Punjabi that had everything to Member Vault that had a lot of functionality but not as extensive. And then I was doing something where I needed a checkout car and Member Volt couldn't give me that. And then I was looking on other platforms and I'd have to pay a lot of money and then I came across this stem. So it's really interesting, the journey, because I didn't know what I needed until that point that I needed it. And I think it was like I was running a.

Karen [00:32:36]:
A workshop or something in. In Kabi. I could do ghost offers, which meant that I didn't have to have content to create an offer. So I could create a checkout for something that didn't kind of tie to content, but I couldn't do that in Member Vault. So then I was like, oh, my God, what do I need this solution for a checkout? And then that's where I came across this stem. But even with my membership platform, I'm currently on Mighty Networks. I've been on Mighty Networks for just under two years. My decision around Mighty Networks was that this is brilliant.

Karen [00:33:10]:
I can grow with a platform. I'm not going to pay any more, so I'm paying over £100 at the moment. I'm not going to need to pay anything more because everything that I need is within it. So I. I've just got to focus on growing my membership. But then nearly two years later, they've made a ton of changes, which means that at some point I may lose my API access, which I need to connect to other platforms, and then I've got to upgrade to the 220 pound tier. I don't want to pay 220 pounds. And I made a decision based on, at that moment in time, what the platform was going to give me was what I needed.

Karen [00:33:52]:
And now, nearly two years later, it's like I can see myself getting into quite hot water because if they start taking things away from me, because now I'm on a legacy plan, I'm going to be forced to upgrade because I'm on this platform. So now, the platform I've now chosen, my version 2.0 of my membership is half the cost. But now it gives me all that functionality that I was looking for at the beginning, but two years ago I didn't have. So it's one of these things that not only do our requirements change as we evolve, but also the. The solutions out there are constantly evolving as well. And with Mighty Networks now, they've redone their tiers very differently. So, and if you, if you do want to connect your platform up with your email system and all of that, you are going to have to pay a hefty amount. They've taken that away from the tier that I was originally on that you're going to.

Karen [00:34:50]:
So when it comes to choosing the right platforms for what you're wanting to do. Yeah, doing that due diligence, I think is really important. But also knowing that where you're going to be two years time is going to be in a completely different place. But also the platform that you're on as well, they've evolved and they may be offering different stuff as well. It's a really tricky one because, you know, things are changing all the time and you just don't know what you don't know until you're in a place where you're like, oh, okay, now I know.

Steve Brideson [00:35:25]:
But I think as well, you know, it's so true what you say. So with Heartbeat, I'm on the bottom tier right now. I'm on the basic tier. There are two further tiers that I can go to.

Karen [00:35:35]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:35:35]:
So. So the 49 pound a month is sufficient for what I need right now. 129 pound a month. 129amonth is the next. Is the next tier up. And then they've got a done for you tier, which is probably a thousand twelve hundred dollars a month or something like that. But there is evolution there. There's evolution within the platform.

Steve Brideson [00:35:54]:
The one thing I really loved about, about Heartbeat was the support there. I think I've told you before, Karen, I'm not exactly the most technical individual in the world, so I love the fact that there was really good support within.

Karen [00:36:10]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:36:11]:
In Heartbeat. The other thing as well is that support is they do. They do videos that actually walk you through the whole process. So if you're trying to do something. I was trying to set up an affiliate program the other day and I've watched this video that actually walked me through how to do the affiliate program. And I think a lot of these people and that. That that video is run by the. The person that's founded Heartbeat.

Steve Brideson [00:36:37]:
And the nice thing about that is you actually feel like you're. You're really looked after. And even though it's virtual space, even though I've never spoken to this fella and he's over in the States or wherever it is, you know, I feel like that there's that care there. You can ask a question, you get a response back within 24 hours, you know, so you can, you can respond to that and that. That's really important. The thing for me was I was spending over. I was spending nearly 100amonth on school and then I was doing all of the other stuff on top. And when you're formulating when you're, when you're putting something together like this, you want to try and keep your costs down as much as possible.

Steve Brideson [00:37:15]:
Because I'm bootstrapping it, I'm paying for it through my other, my, my one to one work that I'm doing with people. So I want to try and keep my costs down as much as I possibly can. So what I ended up doing was again looking at it and thinking, okay, be mindful of the, the costs. When I did it to start off with, I didn't really give that a second thought. Yeah, the one thing that I've learned is, you know, it's not just the fact that I've got the Heartbeat platform, it's the fact that I record everything on Zoom, it's the fact that I edit it all in Canva. So really, for me to make business boost Academy work, I've got a tech stack there that I've got to pay for. So actually, whilst it's costing me 49 pound a month, it's not, it's actually costing me near a 79 pound a month, 49amonth. It's actually cost, costing me near, near a 79 quid a month for doing everything that I'm doing.

Steve Brideson [00:37:59]:
So, so you sit there and it's about keeping it, keeping your costs as low as you possibly can to make sure, make sure these things are happening. Now, I use Zoom in Canva all the time. I use it for when I'm working with clients and everything else, but it has become the platform that I'm recording a lot of stuff on. I record my podcasts on there, I record the, the educational videos that I do on there. So Zoom is, is something that I'm constantly in, in and involved with and it does what I need it to do at the moment. Now, should things go very well with bba and I've no reason to believe that they won't, but should things go really well with bba, I might have to redress that further down the line. I might need more functionality, I might need something that does stuff better, but at the moment it's good enough. And that's something else I would say to people who are aspiring to do something, there's no such thing as perfection.

Steve Brideson [00:38:51]:
Perfection doesn't exist. Perfection basically leads to procrastination. So essentially, if you, if you are in a position where you're doing something, if it's good enough, do it because it's good enough.

Karen [00:39:04]:
Absolutely, you know, absolutely 100 agree with that. I just want to you're making such a great point there because it's so easy to get hung up on having everything perfect before you even get anything out into the world. Yeah, and I think you make a really good point because as I think both you and I have demonstrated what where we were two years ago or a year ago to where we are now, we've needed to make changes. So even if at that point we thought what we had was, you know, what it needed to be in order to launch, I think it's very clear that both of us have gone through an evolution and things are, have shifted and where we are right now is different and that is part of the process. So the more you hold yourself back and you wait for everything to be perfect, like say all you're doing is stopping yourself getting what is needed out into the world and you're actually stopping yourself going through that growth because it's never going to be perfect. And I think it's probably safe to say that. And you've touched upon this where you're probably going to be in the future when BBA does, you know, because it work as it will. Like you say, you've got to back yourself.

Karen [00:40:23]:
This is a brilliant idea. There's no reason why you cannot scale it and get it where you want it to get to. When things start to change, that's when you can then start to look at whether or not hobby is right or whether you have to evolve your tech stack further. I don't think that ever stops. I think whatever level you're at, you've got to start where you're at and then you've gotta, you've gotta shift as you shift. So I don't think you're not going to know where you're going to be in a year's time. So how can you, how can you sort of, you know, make those decisions around what you're going to need? The best thing I think anybody can do is if you've got an idea, get it out into the world and let it be messy. Messy is powerful because messy allows you to start learning and to get that knowledge that you need to be able to refine and evolve the thing that you're working on.

Karen [00:41:30]:
So I just wanted to kind of jump in there because you make such a brilliant point about the whole procrastination thing. And I think that is something that we can all be guilty of, but we have to also be mindful of. Are we not taking action because something is stopping us? And if that's, if what Is stopping us, is preventing us growing. Could it be down to ourselves? Not necessarily the tech or the stuff that you think you need to make this happen, because often it does start with us.

Steve Brideson [00:42:04]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:42:05]:
Does that make sense?

Steve Brideson [00:42:06]:
Yeah, totally, totally. And I think as well, there are a couple of things that spin off that as well. So the first thing is, is that when you're putting content together, you are literally putting yourself out there. You know, you're putting your ip, you're putting your thoughts, you're putting your ideas out there into the world. And that's scary because you. We do naturally as human beings, we doubt ourselves and, and everything else. And you, you have a. There's always an element of confidence that, crikey, you know, what are people going to think of this? You know, this is me, this is my knowledge, and I'm putting it out there for the world to see.

Steve Brideson [00:42:46]:
And that's quite. That's quite a scary thing to do. So that was, for me, a barrier that I had to overcome. And. And it was people telling me, steve, you're good. You talk about, you talk so much common sense. You, you've helped me massively within your business. You've done this, you've done that.

Steve Brideson [00:43:04]:
I've got a raft of testimonials. But you still. It doesn't matter how many people tell you you're great. You just have that little devil sat on your shoulder saying, ah, you're not really that great, actually. Don't be. Yeah, someone's going to shoot you.

Karen [00:43:16]:
Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are?

Steve Brideson [00:43:19]:
Yeah, don't get above yourself. Don't get poppy station. So. So you've always got that little negative doubt in your mind. What you have to do is just have to brush that off. Yeah. And actually think, right, do you know what? I'm gonna do this. And I'm.

Steve Brideson [00:43:30]:
I'm going to. And so that was a big thing for me. The second thing as well is people will say to you, well, you failed the first time you put it out there. You know, it didn't, it didn't fly. Well, I don't like the word fail. To me, fail means first attempt in learning. And that's kind of the way that I look at failure. I don't think of it as a thing.

Steve Brideson [00:43:51]:
I think we all make mistakes. As long as we're able to reflect on those mistakes and we're able to learn from those mistakes, then it's not a failure. So failure is a word that I don't really use, and I Think, you know, we're conditioned in life to avoid failure. You know, right from the time when we've talked about this, but right from the time when you're 11 years old and you sit an exam at school to decide whether you go to a grammar school or whether you go to a secondary school or whatever, which is where it was when I was at school, that's how old I am. So. But you have this thing, you fail your driving test, you, you know, you do these, these various different things. A fail has got this real negative Persona around it. But actually what we have to do is in business, we have to take that mindset and go, no, it's actually not failure, it's.

Steve Brideson [00:44:38]:
It's the first attempt in learning what I'm doing. You know, I'm, I'm doing this out here now. I've set businesses up, I've never set an online business up before, so I'm going to make mistakes as long as I learn from those mistakes. Few days. And I made mistakes with school platform, but actually, and I've probably made mistakes with, with the Heartbeat platform, but I will learn as I'm going on. And, you know, take this sort of three, four years down the line, particularly to the point where you are, you're in a much more confident position. You know what you're doing, you know the tech that's available, you know, in your mind's eye how you're going to evolve your business and where you're going to take it. You're a few years ahead of me in this, in, in this space and actually, that's brilliant.

Steve Brideson [00:45:17]:
But it's, again, for me, it's then tapping into people who I like in my network, like yourself, and say to you, right, Karen, I'm going through this at the moment. What do you reckon? And then, and then using, using your knowledge and your help to, to guide me on the path. And I'm not too proud to ask for, I'm not too proud to ask people's opinions on stuff, you know, and that's something else that I think is really, really important. So, yeah, don't worry about failing and don't worry about putting yourself out there, because actually do it.

Karen [00:45:46]:
Yeah. And I think that's the one thing about entrepreneurship. I think if, if you want to have a successful business, you have to. I don't think it's about developing a thick skin because I don't, I don't really believe in that. But what I do feel is that you have to have that inner belief in yourself. And know that you're on a journey of self discovery because. Because it is all about learning. Everything is about learning.

Karen [00:46:17]:
And I don't think you ever get to a place where you think you know it all. I think there's just more learning to be had. And I think being that sort of ever evolving student that is open to learning what is necessary. And I know for myself, you know, when I started five years in the online business space, when I kind of moved over into a space, I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew I had a gut instinct that I needed to talk about the thing that was making me money at the time, which was an online course during COVID And the conversations that I was having very much were about people not making money because they couldn't see their clients in person. And that just opened up an opportunity. But I think they were putting on my path for a reason, to make me see things differently. And so I didn't fail at my branding studio.

Karen [00:47:12]:
The fact that I decided to shift and pivot, if anything, that was a stepping stone to where I'm at now. And I learn the foundations of how to run a business through that time of running my branding studio, which I absolutely loved. So I think we have to be open in business to constantly learn and also recognize the fact that we are not masters in everything and we need to be open to what can happen and what is available to us and opportunities that are sitting right in front of us as well. Because sometimes I think, and I have these conversations with people where they, they can't. They're so focused on their one direction, but they can't see necessarily what is right in front of them. And that's where, you know, people like you and I, we step in and say, oh, have you thought about this could be great for you because it opens up this for you. But I think business is all about sort of learning and being on that sort of journey. And I shared a quote with you last week, didn't I? Where at the moment I'm listening to Marie Forleo's Everything is Figureoutable.

Karen [00:48:18]:
And she's got a brilliant quote where she says, you either win or you learn, but you never fail.

Steve Brideson [00:48:24]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:48:24]:
And that is something that I think is really important for people to understand and recognize you. You're not going to fail all the while that you're kind of, you know, you're doing what you're doing. Because we do worry can be this thing that holds people back because they don't want to fail. But but also one thing I know to be true, and I'm. I'm listening to a lot of so on Instagram the moment, we're getting these trial reels. So we are being fed content that. From people that we are not following because they're obviously trying this stuff out. So I've had a lot of motivate motivational reels land on my feed, which I'm loving because I'm all over that.

Karen [00:49:07]:
But I was listening to Mark Zuckerberg last week and he was talking about Facebook and saying that Facebook was not his first attempt. He had created lots of things before Facebook even came around. He'd created chat rooms and communities and games and tech. It's just that Facebook took off, you know. So when we think we're failing because our first attempt hasn't worked, actually what we're doing is we are just learning what is necessary to move us closer to the, to when it will work. But we have to keep at it. And that's the point.

Steve Brideson [00:49:47]:
You look at every really successful, successful business person.

Karen [00:49:53]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:49:54]:
Right. Depends what you define success. A lot in the Western world, we define success as money. Personally, I don't, but actually that's kind of what's perceived as success. Someone like Richard Branson, for example, has probably had more businesses fail than have succeeded. And Alan Sugar is the same. You know, these guys, these are people who really know business inside out and they've done, they've done very, very well for themselves in that side of things. And yet they have these failures.

Steve Brideson [00:50:20]:
And it doesn't matter which entrepreneur you speak to, which, which highly successful entrepreneur you speak to, they've all kind of been through that sort of, that sort of same, same process where they've had stuff that hasn't worked. But what they've done is they've taken what hasn't worked, they've understood why it hasn't and then they've gone from there. So, you know. Yeah, you got to learn.

Karen [00:50:44]:
Yeah, there's. It's funny, isn't there? There's a million business books out there. But actually the, the best way you're going to learn is by taking action and doing.

Steve Brideson [00:50:55]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:50:55]:
And you can't be that. No business book is going to give you the insights that you're going to get from taking action and giving something a go.

Steve Brideson [00:51:05]:
Yeah.

Karen [00:51:05]:
And for, for those of my listeners, I'm at the start of creating an event that is going to take place later in the year. I've got this vision of a thing, a three day summit that's going to happen online. I've never created a summit before. Don't know what goes into a summit. I'm in the planning stages at the moment, so I'm figuring some stuff out. I'm absolutely terrified because it's going to require so much of me that maybe I've not yet kind of come across. But I'm open to learning, and because I will learn and I'll take action, I can guarantee that event is going to take place. But it's going to be a learning curve and I'm open to that.

Karen [00:51:48]:
And I think it doesn't matter what you do do, whether you're launching an academy, you're creating an online course, you're creating digital products, you're running a group program for the first time. The best way that you can learn and the best way you can achieve success is just by taking action. And, and, and all of those things, all those what you deem as failures, they're not going to be failures. They're going to be lessons that you can then use to, to, to move your stuff forward. And I think that is the point. And we have to be open to that.

Steve Brideson [00:52:19]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We never, we never develop and progress by staying in our comfort zone 100%. So, you know, Stephen Bartlett did a thing on Diary of CEO and talked a little bit about imposter syndrome, which is a concept that we all hear and we hear over and over again. People talk about imposter syndrome and again, it has that very sort of like, negative connotation behind it. But actually to, if you really want to grow, you have to take yourself outside of that comfort zone. And for all those people that are running their own businesses, well, firstly, big shout out to you because you've done that. You've taken yourself out of that comfort zone. You've gone from having maybe a secure job that pays a nice pension, that pays holiday pay and all that sort of stuff that goes with it and a decent salary and security and everything else, to putting yourself to a point where you're actually out there earning your own money, where you don't get holiday payments, you don't get that job security and all of those sorts of things.

Steve Brideson [00:53:14]:
And actually, that is taking yourself outside of the comfort zone. So actually, what you've got to do is you've got to continue that. You've got to continue to drive. And I'm not saying you do it in a ridiculous way. You know, you, you're not something for. For example, you're not somebody who's Like a mindset, a mindset specialist. And then you're going to go and become a plumber. I'm not saying that that's what you do, but what you do is you have to evolve and you have to, to develop and you have to sort of like really grow yourself and put faith in yourself to do that.

Steve Brideson [00:53:42]:
And the only way that you can do that is by taking yourself outside of that comfort zone. And I've done it, you know, I, I did it by putting myself up online. I've done it by, even if it's something, something little like doing something for your social media and actually recording yourself on video for the first time. I remember the first time I did that, I was absolutely bricking myself. I don't know how long it took me to shoot like a two minute video, but it was well over two hours. And then I edited it and I was, I've got to take the ums and the errors out and everything else. And then I sat there and I, I realized that actually, you know, having this completely polished video isn't, isn't right. Because when I talk, I use and, and I swear a lot and I do all these sorts of various different things.

Steve Brideson [00:54:24]:
That's fine. That's me, that's who I am. That's authentic me. And yeah, you, you have to sort of like move yourself outside of that comfort zone to do that. Business boost academy for me is a massive shift in what I'm doing in terms of how I'm presenting myself, but in terms of what I'm delivering, it's not. So the content that's being delivered is content I talk about all the time on a day to day basis with people that I work with. But actually in terms of how it's being delivered is very, very different. And the only thing that's taken me outside of comfort zone instead of my market being this big, my market is this big.

Karen [00:54:57]:
Yeah.

Steve Brideson [00:54:58]:
So, you know, and that's the fundamental difference between the two. But it's that whole thing, you have to do that to evolve.

Karen [00:55:06]:
Absolutely. I think it's really important and I think it doesn't matter what you're doing, whether you're an online business, a service based business, you're a coach or whatever. In order to be able to achieve any level of success, it's going to require so much from you to be able to put that work in. Have you heard of the be do have model where it's, it's who do you need to be to have what you want? Because who you are right now is not going to be that person. So, so what I mean by that is who do you need to be to be able to step into that space of creating that, that life or business that you want? What characteristics do you need to have? How do you need to show up like you like your mindset? All of this. And I think the one thing about being an entrepreneur, it kind of, it's self reflecting. You cannot, you cannot grow personally or in your business if you don't have that self reflection. If you're not aware of, of how you're showing up and how you're being and, and are you a leader? Are you being the leader in your business? Because I think that's a question that equally needs to be asked when you're wanting to grow or get success.

Karen [00:56:27]:
Because we need to be the people that are leading for the, from the front and not the back. And what I mean by that is not allowing things to get in the way where you stay stuck. So are you being that leader that is taking control so that you can actually move your business to where you want to get it to? And I think these are, I think the important questions that we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis. Because if we're not achieving what, what we want to achieve, why is that and having that self reflection? Because often it is us that, that's kind of getting on our own way. It's not the tech, it's not the lack of money, it's not the lack of time we say it is because it's easy to blame something else. More often not in my experience. When I see people holding themselves back, it's none of those things. It's down to the fact that they're in their own head and they're not taking control and being the leader that they need to be to move themselves forward.

Karen [00:57:32]:
And I think when it comes to running a business, I think you need, you need to be in the driving seat. And, and I guess that's what they're going to get from, from your academy, isn't it?

Steve Brideson [00:57:42]:
Yeah, you make so many good points in that, what you've just said there. And, and actually it's when you work again, it's a mindset thing. When you work for yourself by yourself, you don't necessarily see yourself as a leader in your own business. You see yourself as a person that's delivering, you know, you're delivering, you're delivering content, you're delivering service, you're delivering materials or whatever it might be you. That's what you see yourself as. But actually when you're running your own business, what you are is you are your marketing department, you are your sales department, you are your operations department, you are your HR department. In some respects, even though you're a one person business, you are still having to look after your health, which is what I mean by the HR side of things. Then the other thing is you are the managing director of your business, you are the business owner and you have to put that hat on.

Steve Brideson [00:58:36]:
You almost have to allocate time to yourself in your diary to do the things to drive your business forwards, to make your business happen. So you have to lead in your own business. And that's the thing. And it's about, it's true what you say, it's about having an understanding that there are these different areas of the business. Now one of the things that I do with people and it's within Business Boost Academy is I talk to people a lot about planning and people say to me, how do I plan for my business? How do I plan for my growth? The simple way to do it is you break it down. So what you do is you sit there and you look at, think of your business as a series of different departments, think of your weight, what your main target goal is and think about what all of those departments need to do to hit your main target goal. And then you sort of break it down and then you're responsible for making sure that those departments are doing the things they need to do. Now it might be that you're, you know, you're dividing yourself several ways to be able to do that, but actually it works because what you do is you reverse engineer back from that main goal and do it in bite sized chunks.

Steve Brideson [00:59:39]:
And if you're always working, working towards that main goal, what will happen is business will, you'll get business growth, you'll get business growth in the direction that you want it to go. And it might sound really kind of simplistic to do it, but I've seen it succeed so many different times, particularly for people who are the, the, the run. The person that's running and owning their own business, it gives them that ability to sort of compartmentalize their thought process in various different things. Or today I'm working on marketing, today I'm doing sales, today I'm doing delivery, you know, and I'm working towards this sort of, this sort of particular thing that I'm, I'm actually aiming for. So yeah, and that's what Business Boost Academy does is it gives people that Opportunity and those skills to be able to try and run their business in a way that thinks not like a micro business. Working from home, you know, going out, feeding the dog, walking the dog, even feeding the children, putting a roof. All of the things that you know, you, that go through the day to day side of things. It gives you that ability to be able to sit and recognize yourself as a business owner.

Steve Brideson [01:00:43]:
And the number of people I say, oh, I just work for myself, I'm just a freelancer. Now you're a business owner. Okay, so your business is a one person business, but you are a business owner. Yeah, but I'm only turning over maybe 30,000 pound a year. But you're still a business owner, you know, and giving people that belief and that confidence in themselves that that's what they're doing. Doing. But you could be doing £30,000. You doing 30,000, but you could be doing a hundred thousand pounds if you structure it in the right sort of way.

Karen [01:01:08]:
Yeah, yeah. So I think self identity is really important and, and I think, and the way you, you kind of frame like say what you're doing, I think is really important. So yeah, it's, it sounds what you offer. I know so many people that would just benefit by it because we don't know what we don't know until somebody like you steps forward and says, have you thought of. So if somebody is listening to this and they're thinking, Steve, you sound great. You sound exactly what it is that I need right now. How can they get access to the Academy?

Steve Brideson [01:01:47]:
So the first thing really is, you know, if you want to check it out, the website is businessboostacademy.co.uk that's, that's just the website that just explains what business Boost Academy is. The actual platform sits within Heartbeat and, and you know, from the website there's a link but I think Karen, you've got, you've got an affiliate link that you can use as well. So.

Karen [01:02:08]:
And I will also pop the link with the show notes. So I will, I will share that as well. So people can, can obviously join from the show notes.

Steve Brideson [01:02:17]:
Yeah, so you know, if you, if you, if you join from Karen's link then actually you'll get a discount on it as well. So that's, that's something that, that's worth thinking about. But yeah, you know, if you wanted to sort of be part of it, you can contact me through the website. I'm available on LinkedIn. There's not many Steve Brightsons on LinkedIn, particularly with the Faces this, that's this ugly and old. But, you know, it's, I've always said I've got a face for radio. I love these podcasts. So, yeah, so you can find me on LinkedIn and you can find me also on Facebook as well.

Steve Brideson [01:02:51]:
But generally speaking, probably the best way is through the website and that side of things. Or if you want to email me directly, my email is steveusinessboostacademy.co.uk Brilliant.

Karen [01:03:01]:
Yeah. And like I say, I will pop all that in the show notes now before we finish, because I'm. I know we've been sort of chatting for a little while. What's one small but powerful action that somebody could take today that, that will help them to move forward in their business? Do you have a top tip that you can share?

Steve Brideson [01:03:22]:
So, yeah, I do. So for me, the biggest thing that anybody can have within their business is knowing and understanding their numbers. Now what do I mean by knowing your numbers? I'm not talking about your accountancy numbers here. Your accountancy numbers are historic. You know, they come out once a year or whatever it is. I'm talking about knowing how many clients you have, knowing the average order value of a client, knowing how many calls you need to make to conversion to convert to a client, all of those kind of, all of those kind of statistics that you, that you have. And you can put numbers in every aspect of your business. You can put numbers in your operational time, how long it take from a job to the time you're recruited to a job to the time you're delivering a job, or how long does it take for you to get from having initial conversation with somebody to actually delivering a job.

Steve Brideson [01:04:17]:
And the reason why those numbers are important is they allow you to plan and they allow you to measure and they allow you to measure how you're improving. So let's take marketing as an example, right? If you're marketing your business and let's say you're getting, I don't know, 150 hits on your website and then you send out an email newsletter and then you notice that you're getting 175 hits on your newsletter, then obviously your newsletter is working. Now what you don't do is you don't do loads of changes because you don't know what change is going to improve it. But actually if you, if you do one little change and then you see an improvement, then you know that works. Then if you do another little change or something else and you see another improvement, then you know to combine the Two things are working. If you do another change and you see it drop off, then you know that that last thing hasn't worked properly for you. So that's what I mean about knowing your numbers is about understanding what is working for you in your business to help you grow your business. Understanding what your average order value is.

Steve Brideson [01:05:14]:
You know, it might be that your average order value, let's say for ease of numbers, is £500, right. And then you do something and you put your prices up by 10%. And then all of a sudden your average order value is £550. And then you put your prices up and you know how many orders you're getting on a monthly basis. Then you put your prices up a little bit further, your average order value goes up. But actually the number of orders you're getting comes down. You've gone too far, you've gone too far in the price increase. So it's about knowing all those little nuances within your business and the only way you can do that is by measuring it.

Steve Brideson [01:05:47]:
So for me, knowing your numbers is absolutely critical when running a business. And with all of the people I work for, you know, we start putting KPIs together and, and really getting people to drill down and understand exactly what, what's going on within, within their business.

Karen [01:06:01]:
Yeah, I think that's really good advice actually. And I think, you know, I think the numbers across the board, your marketing numbers, your finance numbers, all of that, because you can't grow what you can't measure.

Steve Brideson [01:06:13]:
Yeah.

Karen [01:06:14]:
So I think it's really important to, to be really mindful of that. And, and actually when I first started many moons ago, I wished that I had that advice, to be honest with you. I think because it would have given me such great sort of in depth knowledge now. Do you know what I mean? I think, I think for me I spent the first couple of years trying to figure stuff out, not really knowing if I was doing it right and just giving it go and you know, I was making money. But you know, it could, it could have been so much easier. And I think, I think what you do is so important because, because you're, you're helping people to just figure things out early on so that they can focus on the growth and, and the important stuff earlier than, than maybe somebody that's kind of been running a business for quite a long time but still figuring it out. So you're actually giving this insight and, and guidance when they need it the most. And I, and I think it doesn't matter at what stage of your business you're at.

Karen [01:07:23]:
Having that guidance is always going to help because there's always something to, to figure out or to get better at or to, or maybe something that you're not doing that you need to be doing or whatever. So that's where you come along and really give that guidance to support your audience. So it's so important and highly valued. So, so well done on that and well done for, for launching Business Boost Academy because it's, it's, it sounds absolutely brilliant and I think it's going to serve a lot of people and, and, and have that impact that I know that you want to create. So well done with that.

Steve Brideson [01:08:03]:
Thank you. And the thing is, with Business Boost Academy, it will evolve as time goes on. There's going to be more content that's going to be added onto it as time goes on, as people, people say to me, can we have a, a video about this, please? Or can we have a video about that? The videos will get added in as, as it evolves. And what I want to do is I want it to be a fantastic resource for people to be able to use. And it's not just about having the videos, the educational videos, it's signposting them to podcasts, like your podcast, for example, signposting podcasts, where people, there's, there's useful information that people can take on, signposting them to books, books that they can read, signposting them to, you know, articles or anything. It's all about trying to help and guide people and take them on a journey to actually believe in themselves. And that. The, the one thing I'd like to, the one message I'd like to leave with, with, and this is speaking to those people who are watching this, who are maybe at the beginning of their journey, but then they look at somebody who's running what they perceive to be a really, really successful business.

Steve Brideson [01:09:05]:
You know, they might have 50 staff. You know, they might be running the business and they might on the outside, driving a very nice car, living in a very nice house and everything else. I promise you, that individual that you're looking up to is going through the same things you're going through, right? The big difference is that their problems are just 10 times bigger than your problems, and their challenges are just 10 times bigger than your challenges. And actually they're still going through it because it's everybody who runs business, regardless of where you're at, they're dealing with a different set of problems, but there are still challenges and problems that they're facing. So please don't feel you're alone because actually we all go through this whole thing as part of this wonderful, you know, colorful thing we call life. And I would say that and leave that as a message. So don't, don't put these people on too much of a pedestal and think that they're. They're wonderful and they're achieving because they're doing so much, so much psychologically better than you are.

Steve Brideson [01:10:00]:
They're still, they're still struggling in the same way that you're struggling as well.

Karen [01:10:05]:
Yeah, 100%. We were. Everybody. I think any stage is going to have challenges and stuff, and, and, and also just, you know, because you make a really great point there. And I know this is something that is quite rife in business, is that, you know, we compare, but you can't compare somebody's apples against somebody's pears. You know, you can't. You can't compare somebody's 10 years in business to your two years. Just focus on your own lane and, and like you say, get that goal in place.

Karen [01:10:38]:
Map out your plan, Join business Boost Academy and you'll be flying.

Steve Brideson [01:10:43]:
Yeah, yeah. You. It will change your life.

Karen [01:10:46]:
It'll change your life. Brilliant. Thank you, Steve. I really appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your. Your words of wisdom. This has been absolutely brilliant. As I said, I will share Steve's details in the show notes, so please do go have a look. Check out the Academy.

Karen [01:11:04]:
And thank you, everybody for listening.

Steve Brideson [01:11:07]:
Yeah. Thank you so much, Karen, for having me. I really appreciate it.

Karen [01:11:11]:
Take care. Bye.

Steve Brideson [01:11:12]:
Bye.