Do Work, Not Too Much, Mostly Profitable

As an eternal entrepreneur who is also addicted to food documentaries, I came across a quote by Michael Pollan which read; Eat food, not too much, mostly plants, and it stuck in my head.

In amongst the constant noise of the media and diet industry, this refreshingly simple message cut straight to the heart of the issue, and I thought, wouldn't it be great to apply this to businesses!

Let me share something with you. For months now, I've been planning to launch a membership for our platform. I have researched, asked around, gained opinions and planned out specific topics, events and schedules that I thought would bring massive value to our audience, I had it nailed. NAILED! But then I watched a particular documentary with Michael-bloody-Pollan, and it turned my thinking on its head.

What if it's too much.

I see you, don't think I don't. Homeschooling, cooking, breaking up fights at 10 am over biscuits and staying sane when held to living and working from the same space every day. We have been living in this unprecedented way for almost twelve months, and in lots of cases, the pressure is starting to show. Our freedom which we took for granted for so long is no longer ours to enjoy, and the overwhelm is real. Media coverage is coming at us from every angle, STAY HOME, DO THIS, DON'T DO THAT, YOU NEED THIS! and quite frankly it's too exhausting even to think about.

I scaled my ideas back, stripped it down and tried again. I took it to my Editorial team, what did they think? They still thought it was too much (you should have seen it before! Holy crap!) and I went back to the drawing board again. This time taking everything off the table and back to what do we actually need?

Do work, not too much, mostly profitable.

Do work - any business owner knows we have to work.

Not too much - Making time without apology or judgment for our family and mental health

Mostly profitable - Prioritise paid work. Do the things that bring in the money and then work on the stuff we may need, but don't directly pay the bills.

Rather than being back at square one, I was suddenly enlightened. I could bring my members just the things they need, not too much and mostly profitable. It's what we've always done at The Female CEO. We've always focused on you as a priority (The Retreat), ensuring you have a solid foundation for building and working on the business itself (The Workroom).

So here we are, about to open our doors to 20 founding members. And when we do it won't be full of stuff. It will be just enough to give massive value without being another to-do on our members already overflowing lists. They won't ever need to catch up or fall behind because it will all be recorded and held until they're ready to access it. There will be pep talks, accountability, a workshop or two, opportunities to get visible, group coaching and massive product discounts but only if our members want it.

Take what you need and leave the rest.

I feel it only fair to thank Michael Pollan (and apologise for the Michael-bloody-Pollan thing, no one likes to be wrong Michael). I'm sure that when he said the now infamous words, he didn't expect (or want) them to interpreted in such a way but they make perfect sense to so many areas of life.

So, as its Friday evening here in the UK, I'm taking the 'not too much' part to heart and signing off until my Sunday planning session so that I can make next week 'mostly profitable' how about you?

Sending lots of weekend love,

This blog was taken from our regular She-Mail series. If you want to receive updates. You can subscribe here.