E3: What Does Success Actually Look Like to You?

This episode, we're diving into a big one...success. What does it really mean? Who gets to define it? And why is it so easy to chase someone else’s version without stopping to ask what you actually want?

We’re stripping away the noise and helping you get really honest about your own version of success...in business, in life, and everywhere in between.

We talk about:

• Why success doesn’t always look like six figures and Bali retreats
• The unlearning that happens when you leave corporate life behind
• Why dreaming big can feel scary (and how to make it feel doable)
• Tools to help you define success on your terms like vision boards and letters to your future self
• How to reverse engineer your goals so you take action that actually matters
• Building in rewards to stay motivated along the way (yes, the handbag counts)

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “Am I doing this right?”, this one’s for you.

🎯 Your Action Step:

Take 15 minutes this week to write a letter to your future self or create a simple vision board. Ask yourself:
✨ What does success really look like for me?
✨ How do I want my life and business to feel?

Start there. Build from that.

🔗 Links & Resources:

💥 The £99 (or Less) Offer Idea Generator Prompt
Plug this prompt into ChatGPT and get 5 low-ticket offer ideas your audience will actually want to buy.

https://info.simplifybusinesssuccess.com/free-01

Want support building your business without the overwhelm?Check out our Business Builder here:

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☎️ Join our free bi-weekly 'don't ask google, ask us' call where we can help you first hand move the needle in your business.

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🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@SimplifyBusinessSuccess

Final Thought:

Hit Follow now and join us each week for the strategies,...

Transcript

Welcome to the Real Talk and a Slice of Cake Podcast with your favourite business besties, Emma & Leanne

No fluff. No jargon. Just straight-talking advice, smart strategies and a dash of mischief to keep things interesting.

If you’re starting or growing a business and feeling a bit overwhelmed don’t worry, we’ve got you.

Between us, we’ve built four successful businesses - and learned a lot the hard way.  Now we’re sharing what actually works… PLUS the stuff we wish someone had told us sooner.

From hobby to hustle, side gig to full-time business…you’ll get honest conversations, practical tips, and lots of laughs along the way.

So grab a brew, cut yourself a slice of your favourite cake, and let’s dive in!

Hello and welcome to Real Talk and a slice of Cake with me, Emma, and my business bestie Leanne. Now, today we wanna talk to you about a topic that we are both super passionate about. Today, we want to talk to you about success. What is success? What does it really mean? How do you know you're successful?

We wanna dive really deep into that stuff because we believe that knowing what success means is really important. Don't we li Ann? We certainly do, and I think I've been surrounded by people that have had five year plans for their personal life. I always remember one of my friends was going to. The following year, she was gonna get married the year after she was gonna have a baby.

Then they were gonna go to Orlando and, and really mapped, mapped, mapped her life out. And I hands hold my hands up. You know, I had a 30 year global corporate career. I've never been that person that's had a plan. Not to say that I'm not ambitious, but I think success and knowing what success is is completely different when you have your own business.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, I think sometimes the thing that I think, especially, I know we've mentioned this in previous episodes, especially when you're coming from corporate or when you're coming from something that perhaps. You didn't enjoy me AkaMy. Um, then it's actually quite hard to actually be honest with yourself in terms of what that dream, what success, what your vision actually looked like.

'cause I think we have an assumption that, oh, I can't do that, that that's never gonna be me. They're lucky that, you know, they've got that they started off with something. We have so many conversations in our mind, don't we? It. It's success isn't perhaps for you, but it's something that you strive for. And I think for me, one of the things that I've always done with clients and with myself is actually really stripping that back and having a really honest conversation with yourself about, but what does it actually mean?

Because to some people that might be, you know, six figures a year, it might be multi seven figures to other people it might be, you know, a hundred pounds a week, extra money. So they can spend time with the children so they can, you know, go on perhaps one holiday a year. Neither is right or wrong. Neither is more successful than the other.

It's just about how it makes you feel. And I think actually sitting there and doing that exercise to say, what does that look like? Makes a massive difference because then you can build the business around it. And I think there's lots of tools. That you can use. And I know, Leanne, you've done a lot of this work yourself since, and with your clients, there's lots of tools isn't there that you can use to help to get you to that point?

Yeah, there really is. And I, and what I find with some of my clients is they're actually a little bit scared or fearful of, of dreaming and of, of believing that they can achieve these things. And I think that's the first, um, first hurdle. But in terms of, of tools, one of my absolute favorites is to. Write a letter to, to your future self.

And it, it can seem really basic, but actually sitting down and just putting pen to paper of, of, of what does, not only what does that look like, but what does it not look like? What are you gonna let go of as well? But getting really super clear on, on what it looks like, what it feels like, and it putting yourself in your.

Future person's shoes. And then I think when you've, you're, you're, you're clear on that you can, then that's where you can put the different goals in place and making sure and being able to do that, that check-in that every single thing you are doing is moving you one step closer to. To that, that successful dream.

Um, and there's nothing more powerful for me. I mean, I write myself a letter every year, um, at the end of the year opening that letter and, and reading, you know, and, and looking at what it is that I've actually achieved through the year. Yeah. And it's, and it's great to be able to do that, isn't it? And I think, I think that the key thing to remember here is.

You can dream as big as you want to dream. You can. You can have, you know what your future, what your success point looks like, can be absolutely massive. That is okay, but what you've gotta think about then is the, is like. Working that backwards, haven't you? You've gotta do that reverse engineer piece that says, well actually, what are the smaller steps that I can take that are gonna help to move me in that direction?

And I think that's when it starts to take away that overwhelm that this is not for me, I'm never gonna get there. All of that type of stuff. Because dreaming is actually quite scary, isn't it? It really is. It, it really is. And, uh, I think having, having those, you know, another, um, tool is, is a vision board.

But actually having that in front of you every, every day and, you know, and I think it's breaking it down, you know, success in 10 years time might feel so far outta reach, but actually if you then, okay, well what's it like in five years time? What does it look like this time next year? And I think that's where.

People, you know, when I, I talk to some of my clients about, well, what, what is it that you actually want? They can't see that far into the future. So it's, it is about taking, making it personal to you and what, what feels right. And it's okay to change your, your dream as well. Um, but I think success is it, as you said, Emma, it means so many different things to so many different people.

And I think we could get a, a room full of people and, and success would mean. Something different to every single one of those people in the room. Absolutely. And that's okay, isn't it? You know, we don't all have to have the same goals. Life would be pretty boring, wasn't it, if we were all aiming to be the same person to do the same things and all of that type of stuff.

And I think we need to remember that we actually do have choices. We have the opportunity to decide. Who we wanna spend the time with, what we wanna spend that time doing. And I'm not saying it's easy. You know, this may sound like it's, oh, it's super easy. Em lean just in this little cuckoo land where they like dream and it's all perfect.

It isn't. You're gonna have to work hard. You're gonna have to take action. But if you're clear on what success actually looks like to you, then you can start to take the right action rather than just doing anything on the hope that you eventually get to where you want to get to. I talk a lot about a satin nav analogy.Listen to any of my stuff, you'll find it all over the place because you know, you, you can, you can set the sat nav that'll tell you exactly where you need to go, but actually you get to choose the path that you follow. You know, the sat nav will throw you up the fastest route, the slowest route. Avoid motorways, avoid tolls, whatever you want it to do.

You get to choose where you deviate. You wanna stop at the restaurant and make the journey last an extra hour stop at the restaurant. Actually, let's stop at the coffee and have cake because. Why not? It's your journey, isn't it? You know, you get to choose how you get there, and I think that is the importance of knowing what success looks like and making sure that everything you do in your business and your life for that matter, from that point is very much focused on moving you closer to that, that end point, that goal.

And as Leanne said, that goal will keep moving as you grow because you get more confident and and dream bigger, and that's okay. And then we silent because we both, who's talking next? The joy of running a podcast together. We told you we'd get up to mischief and get up to fun. We both just smiled. If you're watching this on YouTube and looked at one, I said, oh, got out there for a.Done is better than perfect. There we go. Um, so yeah, so what we want you to really think about today and what we really want you to take away from today is not only is it okay to dream, it absolutely is okay to dream, but also you need to get clear on what your version of success looks like. You need to get clear on where you want your life and business to be.

You need to do all of that work. You need to be honest. You need to not be just going and looking at all of the fancy things and thinking, oh, that looks good. That looks nice. I'd like to be there. I'd like to be with those people because they're the, they're the gurus, they're the fashionable people. What actually does it mean?

Who would you spend your day with? You know, who would you sur surround yourself with in life and business? What things would you be doing? How would you be working in your business? What products and services are you gonna be offering within your business? What you gonna do with your evenings? Mm-hmm. You know, where are you gonna go on holiday?

Think about all of these things, but what are actually what you want to do, rather than, you know, ticking locks of boxes. And then the final thing we wanna do is we wanna hit you with an action because it's what we like to do, isn't it? We like to give people action. Mm-hmm. Something to actually go away and do.

So what we want you to do, what we want you to really take away from this is. Go and write that letter. Go and do that vision board. Go and dream. Get clear on what success looks like to you. Anything you wanna add, Leanne? Yeah, I think what I'd like to add as well is, you know, thinking of this almost as a, as a project timeline and different milestones, and I think what's a really fun way, um, of rewarding yourself is, is having little treats along the way.

So, for example, if there's that handbag that you really, really want. Being honest with yourself, what do you need to have achieved to be able to treat yourself with that handbag? So it might be how many sales do you need to have made? Um, because I think that gives you that motivator along the way.

There's nothing better than setting yourself a target and you achieving that target, and then you've got that, that physical thing, whether it's a handbag, a holiday, or what have you. But I think that also keeps you motivated along the way. Absolutely. Absolutely. So there you go. Go and work out what success means to you.

That’s it for today’s slice of real talk…we hope you’re walking away with something you can actually use.

If you liked what you heard, hit follow, leave a review, or share it with a fellow business bestie.  

And if you’re craving more cake and conversation, come hang out with us on Instagram @simplifybusinesssuccess

Thanks for tuning in and remember, no fluff, no jargon…just real talk.

 See you next time!