MBA2430 Just Show Up!

0:09Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, helping you build a better business with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. And in today's episode, we're going to talk about just showing up. I've been in entrepreneurship for over 20 years. I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs. I've worked with many, many, many people in business. And the number one reason why people fail, why people struggle in business, is because they just don't show up. Well, in today's episode, I'm going to share with you my three rules, the three tenets of just showing up, doing what you're supposed to be doing.

0:49This is incredibly simple, but it doesn't mean that it's easy because if it was easy, everybody would do it. But it's also not incredibly hard. It's not that difficult. And it blows my mind why more people don't just show up and claim their success in business. It's incredibly frustrating to see people drop the ball on the most simplest things that cause their business to not succeed, that cause their business to go out of business, or at the very best, cause their business not to grow. I'm gonna share with you my three rules, how to implement them, and how to protect yourself from not showing up.

1:24So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. I wanna jump right into rule number one because I can't tell you how bad of an impact this can have on your business when you don't implement rule number one. Rule number one of just showing up is being consistent. What does it mean to be consistent? I'm going to give you an example. I'm going to give you a story. Back when I was a teacher and a teacher trainer in my former life, I used to do workshops for teachers on classroom management, how to control their classroom, how to make sure students behave and do what they're told. And I always ask the teachers, are you consistent or inconsistent with your classroom management?

2:04And the most popular, most common answer I would get is, I'm consistent most of the time. Some people even would say, I'm consistent some of the times. And my answer to them is, there is no such thing. You're either consistent or you're inconsistent. And it's incredibly important in business to be consistent, to do what you say you're going to do. So if you have a YouTube channel and you tell your subscribers, I am going to publish a new video once a week, then do what you say you're going to do. Publish once a week. If you don't publish once a week, it's very hard for people to trust you. It's very hard for people to take you seriously, to find you to be credible.

2:46You see, when you're inconsistent, you instantly lose trust. And in business, trust is the most valuable asset. When people trust you, they do business with you. When they don't trust you, they ignore you. They don't do business with you. And it's very hard to regain somebody's trust once they have lost it. And the fastest way to lose people's trust, you got it, is to be inconsistent. So be consistent with your work. Be consistent with whatever you do. If you have a policy and customer support that you answer within 24 hours, make sure you answer within 24 hours. No matter what, even if you don't have any new information, update them on what you're doing or what you're working on.

3:29Once you break that rule, they don't believe you. and it ruins people's expectations because when you say, hey, I'll get back to you within 24 hours, that's their expectation. Now, when you exceed their expectation, you get back to them within an hour, they're wowed. And the opposite is true. When you don't get back to them within 24 hours, you get back to them maybe in two days, three days, the opposite emotion happens. They're disappointed. They're unhappy. They get disgruntled. And then people complain, businesses complain, Why aren't people hating on me? No, you set this up. You cause this to happen.

4:05Rule number one is be consistent. This means don't set something up for yourself that causes you to be inconsistent. So let's say you're on a podcast like this one. Don't say you're going to publish three episodes a week or four episodes a week or daily. If that's going to be a struggle for you, you've got to make sure that whatever you set up for yourself, whatever you set up expectations for, you could fulfill. So maybe it's better to start with once a week. Make sure you have an easy, consistent cadence. Get used to it. And then if you want to add more to it, be careful because now you're setting a new precedent, a new expectation.

4:42Make sure that you can be consistent. Be consistent with the quality of your work. I'm not even saying keep improving your work. Keep putting out better work every time you put something out there. I'm saying just be consistent at least. And those who are consistent, they reap the benefits. They get all the treasure. A lot of people ask me, how has the$100 MBA show been so successful? How are you able to have such a large audience and rank and be mentioned in all these articles? And the answer is very simple. And people don't want to hear this, but this is the truth. I outlasted my competition.

5:19I was consistent. The other ones died off. The other ones stopped publishing. I have a screenshot of all the podcasts that launched during the week I launched, and 80 % of them do not publish any more episodes. By just being consistent, you will win in business. Rule number two of just showing up, communicate. Communication is so important in business. And many people do not do this or they don't recognize this because they come from a job. They come from an employment mentality. where you only do what you're told, you only do what you have to do. You communicate the minimum. I know this, I was a school teacher and I basically just did what I had to do.

6:04But in business, that's not the case. You have to over communicate. I mentioned in a video on my Instagram that I have been working with different branding experts. I've been emailing all these companies and freelancers and half of them, more than half of them, do not even reply to my emails, to my submissions in their contact forms. I'm getting introductions to people and I'll reply to the introduction and I'm still not getting a reply. This is totally unacceptable. You have to communicate. You have to answer emails. You have to answer your messages. You have to have a system. Even if it's an automated message saying, hey, I got your email.

6:40I'll get back to you shortly within 48 hours. Set up expectations. Communication is so important. If you're working with people, if you're working with an expert, a consultant, somebody on your team, a vendor, a customer, whatever it is, and it's been a few days, there's nothing wrong with sending them a message and say, hey, I haven't forgotten about you. I'm still working on it. I'm still trying to make a decision with my team. Hopefully, I'll get an answer to you by the end of the week. Communicate. You're going to be late for a meeting. Communicate. You're not going to be able to show up to something that you were invited to.

7:14Let's say, for example, somebody invited you to a meetup or somebody invited you to a dinner or conference. Reply to them and say, I can't make it. I am busy. Don't just say, hey, I'll check my calendar and then never get back to them. This again, makes you look unprofessional, makes you look scattered, that you don't have things together. You have to communicate with people. If you wanna be part of the world, if you wanna be part of the business world, if you wanna be somebody that's respected, you can't just ignore people. You have to communicate. This is part of showing up. This is part of you taking your relationships with your customers, with your team, with your vendors, with your consultants, with your colleagues.

7:53Seriously, you're not taking them for granted. This is especially important within your team. To produce this podcast, I have teammates around me. I have to communicate with them if there's a delay in my recording, if there's something that is holding me up. If I have a busy schedule this week, I meet with them once a week and say, hey, I got some things on my plate here that's going to slow me down. So this is what you should expect. When you don't communicate this, they're wondering, is everything okay? What's happening? I haven't heard from Omar. This is not pleasant for the other person. This is disrespectful.

8:26You have to communicate with other people if you want to be professional, if you want to go beyond where you are right now in business. And the best entrepreneurs are the ones that have systems to communicate, whether it's them communicating or they have an assistant that communicates for them or they use automation or whatever it might be. but ghosting people, not an option if you want to be successful. And I've said this too also on Instagram and on Twitter recently, I have a three strike rule. If I reach out to somebody, if I'm trying to do business with somebody, if I'm trying to become their friend, this is applicable in business and in life, by the way, if I'm trying to invite them to something, if I'm trying to introduce them to somebody and I don't get a response, if I get ghosted, if I don't get a response, if they respond to me in an untimely manner, meaning they just totally ignore my message for weeks, I will allow only three times.

9:18Why three times? Because once could be an emergency, things happen in life. Twice, sometimes people have a tough time in life and they're having a rough stretch. Maybe they're trying to catch up and they're behind the eight ball. Three times is just for good measure. After three times, I will no longer pursue a relationship with this person professionally or personally. There's no hard feelings. I'm not upset at them. I'm not angry, but time is too precious. Your time is too precious and for them to ignore you on a consistent basis is unprofessional and is disrespectful to your own time. So you have to protect your time.

9:52It's the most valuable thing you have. You can't make more time. So that's my personal rule because communication is so important. My third rule on just showing up is very simple. It's make it easy for people to do business with you. I cannot tell you how many people I meet at a conference, in a dinner, in my coworking space, and they tell me who they are, they tell me their website, and I head to their website, and there's no way for me to reach out to them. There's no way for me to contact them. I don't know how to continue the relationship. And social media, by the way, is not reliable. You know, some people say, oh, just look me up on LinkedIn.

10:31Everybody's habits of social media are different. For example, I open LinkedIn like three times a year. If you send any message there, I won't see it. So the point of this rule is you've got to make it clear to people how to do business with you, how to reach out to you. Maybe you have a contact form on your website. Or maybe you make it clear that, hey, follow me on Instagram or Twitter, and that's how they can message you. Or maybe you're like Derek Sivers, who says, join my email list and send me an email. I'll reply personally to your emails. This is part of showing up. This is part of being available, making it easy for people to say, hey, I want to work with you.

11:04I want to learn about what you do. I want to maybe build a relationship with you. If you don't make it easy, it's not going to happen. Okay, people are busy. They don't have time to scour your website and scour your social profiles to figure out how to reach you. Make it easy. This also means make it easy for people to buy your thing. If you have a product or service that you sell, this should be front and center on your homepage. Whether they need to set up a call with you to buy your thing, or they need to click a button and check out immediately, or you have a bunch of products like an e-commerce store, a bunch of courses or trainings, make it clear on the website, in the navigation or on the homepage, how they can buy your thing, how they can give you money.

11:44This is front and center in my head right now, because again, we're working on refreshing our brand and doing some branding work for the$100 BA. And I visited a lot of websites of a lot of branding agencies, a lot of freelancers and half of them, I'm like, I don't even know what you do. I don't know what part of branding do you actually work on? Do you work on the words? Do you work on the graphics? Do you work on the imagery? Some people don't have examples of their work or if they do, they're not very detailed. And if I am impressed by their work, I have no way to reach out again to them and say, Hey, I want to work with you.

12:17So whatever you do, whether you're a freelancer, whether you have a product business, a service business, a software business, you write books, have it clear on your website. This is where you buy. Buy here. Buy my book. Work with me. Whatever it is. If people have to struggle to find this information on your website, they're just not going to do it. And you're losing business because of it. This is simple. This is a once and done thing. Just show up. Just be there for people. And you'll find it much easier for you to have a thriving business. Thanks so much for listening to The$100 RBA Show. If you loved today's episode, if you loved any of our episodes, hit subscribe, hit follow.

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13:40We have guides, we have templates. Get on our email list so you can get our latest updates. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs I've met in my time, I'm talking about people that run eight and nine and 10 figure businesses. They're not brilliant. They're not geniuses. They're not particularly smarter than anybody else, but they just consistently show up. They just do what they're supposed to do. And they do it day after day, month after month, year after year. That compounds, that builds, that creates momentum, and that makes them great. Just show up.

14:13Thanks so much for listening. And I'll check you in Monday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

14:20Thank you.